Tips on how to avoid basic racist flubs shouldn't need to be spelled out so plainly. But if the last few weeks of Linsanity swirling around the Knicks' breakout star are any indication, everyone, and journalists in particular, could use a basic brush up on how to talk about that rarest of species: heterosexual Asian-American male star athletes. Ent […]
In a carefully worded interview with Allhiphop.com's Tim Sanchez, Oakland rap veteran Todd "Too $hort" Shaw, 45, responds to the ongoing controversy he sparked with a disastrous XXLmag.com video in which he instructs middle school boys to skip "trying to get kisses from girls" in favor of "turning them" by pushing them agai […]
Day laborers won a key victory this week when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the California city of Redondo Beach over the city's anti-day-laborer ordinance. In so doing, the Supreme Court let stand a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ruled that prohibiting day laborers from seeking work in the way that Redondo Beach's or […]
At least 18 students at the University of Virginia have staged a hunger strike to bring attention to campus employees' fight for a living wage. This week, the school's governing body, the Board of Visitors, is meeting and the students are using the opportunity to bring more attention to the issue. The campaign is demanding $13 base wage per hour, b […]
President Obama took to the airwaves yesterday to let Latinos know he did his best to hold up his end of his promise to reform the country's immigration system, reports Univision. When asked whether or not he broke his campaign promise to bring comprehensive immigration reform to the country upon his election, Obama told the popular and influential Los […]
by Alexandros Stavrakas from: The Guardian If by “hope” we mean a feeling of yearning and expectation for something to happen, and by “change” we mean an improvement of our present condition, then this is Greece’s moment of hope and change – and it is an overdue moment indeed. But, before this moment is lost [...]
Listen here to the debate at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, held on May 5th. Speakers: • Stathis Kouvelakis, Kings College, London • Kevin Featherstone, Director, Hellenic Observatory, LSE • Costas Lapavitsas, Economics, SOAS • Peter Bratsis, Politics, Salford University • Costas Douzinas (Chair) Birkbeck Introduction by speakers: Open debate: […]
by Alexandros Stavrakas The commentary on the Greek crisis has predictably descended into a spectacle of cheap moralisation. Over the past months, we have been bombarded with accusatory tirades aimed against corrupt politicians, greedy bankers, depraved technocrats and more or less anyone who’s had a chance to use and abuse the system in order to [...]
A debate to be held at the Birkbeck Institute of Humanities on May 5th, Wednesday 5th May 6.30pm – Room B04, 43 Gordon Sq. Speakers: Constantinos Tsoukalas, Emeritus Professor, University of Athens Kevin Featherstone, Director – Hellenic Observatory, LSE Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics, SOAS Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck Peter Bratsis, Sal […]
Jacqueline Rose’s talk at the Asia Society on April 21 – organised by the London Review of Books on their 30th anniversary. Rose discusses parallels of the Affair with today’s political predicaments, including the role of the public intellectual. If the player doesn’t work, click the link below: Dreyfus Affair – Jacqueline Rose( […]
A talk by Tariq Ali in New York on Monday April 19th – organised by the London Review of Books If the player doesn’t work, click below: Obama’s War – Tariq Ali
by Costas Douzinas How different does Europe look today from ten years ago. In 2000, influential commentators hailed the dawn of the ‘new European century’ to replace the atrocious ‘American’ 20th century. Europe was on the way to becoming the model polity for the new world. The re-unification of Germany, the successful introduction of the [...]
In this month of the ‘Greek passion’ one thing is certain. The country will never be the same again. But while the commentators, academics and ‘experts’ discuss endlessly the economic crisis, the deep political malaise has gone unnoticed. The three ‘waves’ of ‘stability’ measures have befallen Greece like an evil tsunami which will turn the current recession […]
by John Gray from the London Review of Books There wasn’t anything inevitable about David Cameron’s rise. If Kenneth Clarke had stirred himself into running something like a campaign when competing for the leadership with Iain Duncan Smith and been ready to appear more tractable on Europe; if David Davis had moved decisively in the [...]
by Alexandros Stavrakas from The Guardian Google decided two weeks ago to shut down its hitherto self-censoring search service in China. This allegedly costly gesture, intended as a bold statement rather than a formal articulation of corporate “foreign policy”, is congruous with the company’s liberal philosophy and juxtaposed to the aged co […]