Recently Published in Harvard’s Du Bois Review

Date September 25, 2009

I recently co-authored an article with Professor Jennifer Crocker of the University of Michigan on Barack Obama’s campaign for Presidency. It was published in Harvard’s Du Bois Review. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=5884360

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Alcohol, Apartheid & Anesthesia

Date September 15, 2009

Fault Lines: Journeys into the New South Africa is a disturbing chronicle of the world of apartheid South Africa. Author David Goodman profiles eight people who engaged in and against the repressive regime. Barely part way through the second profile, I was deeply struck by how alcohol and addiction help us suppress our humanity. We […]

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White Guilt and Honoring Mistakes

Date May 5, 2009

I was privileged to spend a weekend last month in a conference with a small group of folks from all over the US exploring our dilemmas around race and gender relations. The seminar loosely followed the Nag’s Heart framework and participant backgrounds included African-American, Latino, bi-racial, foreign national, and a few caucasians (like myself, for example). […]

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America Needs Intelligent Television

Date May 15, 2008

I dislike television. I invariably have a profound feeling of squandering my time when I watch it, so for more than a decade I used mine only to watch movies. I’m embarrassed to admit that I actually paid for cable for years as part of my high-speed internet connection, but couldn’t be bothered to hook […]

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Outraged at the Media, not Jeremiah Wright

Date March 21, 2008

I watched Obama’s speech Tuesday in Philadelphia on race. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords I was very moved by it and was in awe of his ability to name these racial and economic elephants so simply and truthfully. His ability to rise above the petty accusations and stay connected to his goal of leading our country to face our […]

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The ONLY Absolutely Correct Piece of Intelligence on Iran

Date January 1, 2008

The recent announcement by the National Intelligence Estimate re: the Iranian’s plans (or lack thereof) to build nuclear weapons became, well, predictably partisan and laughable. The left called Bush a liar (or at best incompetent) and demanded his impeachment — again. The right backed Bush’s insistence that Iran might someday build a nuclear bomb, since […]

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“The Corporation”: Discover a Key Root Cause of our Current Woes

Date October 16, 2007

After having viewed the film “The Corporation” when it was in the theaters, I recently decided to read the book of the same name. Although much of the information was similar, I found the tone of the book different than the film (or my memory of it, in any case) and I felt profoundly moved […]

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Dick Cheney 1994-2003: A curious and incomprehensible tale

Date September 25, 2007

This Dick Cheney video has had a ton of press of late. If you haven’t viewed it, you need to. It’s astounding: Cheney’s analysis is simple, accurate, thoughtful. And it is exactly what happened, except that it has turned out even worse thanks to the dramatic incompetence of the Bush Administration. (Even Cheney couldn’t predict […]

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Movie: “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and a Reflection on Change in our Society

Date July 13, 2007

If you haven’t seen this movie, it is a must. I consider myself relatively well-informed, and I had no idea that electric vehicles had been so effectively and broadly produced. When I sat down to watch the movie, I expected to hear about a prototype that had been muzzled before it hit the street, not […]

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Would Someone Please Think When They Propose an Iraq Strategy?

Date May 11, 2007

It has been disheartening to watch the Congressional attempts to rein in the Bush Administration on the Iraq war. As promised, Bush vetoed the Democrats’ bill calling for an imposed troop withdrawl, and he did well to do so. The only thing worse than American troops fighting indefinitely in Iraq (Bush’s current strategy) would be […]

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