stillness is a lie, my dear
According to the myth of American exceptionalism, citizens of the newly independent country had a clear mission: To settle the entire continent of North America, bringing European order and civilisation with them, at all costs. This was a driving force of domestic policy well into the 20th century, playing a key role not just in […]
The Second World War’s internment camps for Japanese-Americans were an extremely shameful period in US history, made more so by the nation’s attempt to cover it up as quickly as possible. The camps were located in extremely remote regions, cut off from society, and when the war was over, they were for the most part […]
Immigration was a pressing issue in the 2012 election, and it is clearly an equally serious one for 2016, because everyone has an opinion, especially Republicans, who seem to feel especially strongly on the subject. Republicans are advocating an isolationist and nationalist version of the United States, a model that could have dangerous foreign policy […]
Today, little remains of the 10 internment camps used to hold over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during the Second World War under Executive Order 9066, one of President Roosevelt’s most terrible acts. Their history has been scrubbed away, and many schools say little to nothing about them — depending on where people went to school and when, […]
The death of Cecil the lion in what may have been a poaching in Zimbabwe was still filling headlines worldwide Thursday — and spurring Internet vigilantes everywhere, who are descending upon the life of Dr. Walter Palmer, his killer, in droves. On July 1, Palmer shot the lion in circumstances that suggest he and his guides […]
If you haven’t seen Frontline’s Rape in the Fields, I highly recommend it — the documentary is a detailed and unforgiving look at labour abuses across the US. As the title implies, the primary subject is sexual assault of farmworkers, specifically women, and it does contain some graphic and disturbing content including discussions of rape and […]
My interest in Asian-American history is primarily focused on California — the state where I grew up and live, and one with a really fascinating history of Asian cultural involvement. But, of course, California isn’t the only state with a high concentration of people of Asian descent as well as recent immigrants, or the only […]
100 million adults in the United States have chronic pain conditions. Women are overrepresented in their number. Women of colour, even more so. There’s a tangled thread of circumstances that creates these imbalances, and it loops around to another problem: Intersectional oppression in the treatment of chronic pain, both medically and socially. Deep-seated social attitudes about […]
The 20th century — and into the 21st — was one of continual exodus and diaspora thanks to wars, border changes, and political shifts. Jewish people fled Europe in the Second World War, desperately seeking refuge from the Nazis. Survivors of the Vietnam war scattered after the fall of Saigon. Residents of the Balkans were […]
Last year was a horrific year for young men of colour — as indeed is every year in the United States — as numerous cases of terrible police shootings made the headlines and confronted white people in the US with the reality of what it’s like to be Black in this country. Images of pain […]