racism

By Jim Hightower | ( Otherwords.org) – As Scottish literary giant Robert Burns wrote, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry.” His 1785 poem, titled “To A Mouse,” could be directed today at the right-wing sloganeers who’ve been scheming so furiously to turn their hokey “woke” snobbery into a winning political […]

Egypt

Jada Pinkett Smith’s Black Cleopatra Stirred Controversy, but What about the Forgotten Queens of Ancient Nubia?

The Conversation

By Yasmin Moll, University of Michigan | – Jada Pinkett Smith’s new Netflix documentary series on Cleopatra aims to spotlight powerful African queens. “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be […]

African-Americans

Top 3 Crimes Trump should have been Indicted for besides Mishandling Documents

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the saga of Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, as revealed in the 38-count indictment, is shocking to anyone who has ever been involved in government work, it is also darkly comic and trivial. Trump seems to have held on to the top secret documents the way a collector hangs […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: what to expect from Erdoğan, his ultranationalist Alliance and their ‘Family Values’ Pledges

The Conversation

Balki Begumhan Bayhan, Coventry University | – (The Conversation) – After a bitter and hard-fought campaign that went to a second run-off vote, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has retained the Turkish presidency in an election that some deemed as “free but not fair”. Having first won power in 2003, Erdoğan has been able to extend his […]

Asian-Americans

Chinese Immigrants sue over New DeSantis Law in Florida Barring them from Buying Homes or Land

Florida Phoenix

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 […]