racism

By: Mitch Perry – Chinese citizens who live and work in Florida have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis restricting any “foreign principal” from China or six other “countries of concern” from purchasing property in the state. The suit contends that the law, set to […]

Democracy

On its 75th birthday, Israel still can’t Agree on What it means to be a Jewish State and a Democracy

The Conversation

By Eran Kaplan, San Francisco State University | – As Israel celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding, and nearly a century and a half after the first Zionists came to Palestine from Europe, the core tension behind the country’s establishment – whether a Jewish state could be a democratic state, whether Zionism could accommodate […]

Donald Trump

DeSantis’ Florida as the Epicenter of the New Culture Wars: The Coming Battle for America’s Political Soul

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The concept of “woke” culture is an existential threat to Republican office holders and party officials. Led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other Donald Trump wannabes, Republicans have embarked on a campaign to bury information, books and literature; illustrating their agenda to promote racism as acceptable, […]

Archaeology

Egypt in uproar over Netflix’s “Black” Cleopatra, but Race is the Wrong Lens Anyway

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor ( Mustafa Amin at the Akhbar al-Yawm [News Today] reviews the controversy in Egypt over Jada Pinkett Smith’s African Queens series of documentaries on Netflix. The first installment focused on Njinga, ruler of an early modern West African kingdom in what is now northern Angola. The second treats Cleopatra, and the trailer insists […]

Donald Trump

Trumpism Triumphant: Tennessee GOP Expulsion of Black Reps. shows Rot of Racism

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Feature; Special to Informed Comment) – The demonstration on the floor of the Tennessee Legislature on March 30 was not an insurrection, such as occurred on January 6. It was a passionate political protest, driven by raw emotions in the wake of another AR-15 massacre at a local school on March 27. The […]

Africa

Tunisia: Racist Violence Targets Black Migrants, Refugees

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Tunis) – President Kais Saied’s recent attempt to mitigate the serious harm that a speech he made on February 21, 2023, caused Black African migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in Tunisia does not go far enough, Human Rights Watch said today. Measures announced on March 5 fall far short of the […]

Africa

Tunisia’s wave of racist attacks: ‘I’m afraid. I can just disappear’

Middle East Monitor

Amelia Smith amyinthedesert ( Middle East Monitor ) – One student in Tunis fears most for his female colleagues; a story is circulating that Tunisian men pretending to be police are approaching sub-Saharan African women, luring them away and then raping them. Another student, Modeste from Benin, says he and his friends recently […]

Anti-intellectualism

KKK without the Robes: DeSantis has gutted Florida Education, Cancelled Black History and Criminalized LGBTQ+ People

Dan Dinello

Informed Comment is introducing guest Feature posts occasionally, as Editor-in-Chief Juan Cole steps back from his unprecedented and grueling routine of writing a blog essay every day for nearly 21 years. Never fear, he will still write features several times a week. But some submissions from IC stalwarts deserve to be featured, and Dan Dinello’s […]

African-Americans

Is the new AP African American Studies course Dangerous? Students don’t think so

Oregon Capital Chronicle

Naseem Rakha Maurice Cowley is teaching college-level African American Studies at McDaniel High School. ( Oregon Capital Chronicle ) – Three days after the nation honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the Civil Rights Movement, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education announced that no Florida public high school would be […]