RIGHT 2 THE CITY Blog

Selected Media

Is Capitalism a Threat to Democracy?

By Caleb Crain

Read the full article from The New Yorker here.

“In Vienna, Polanyi had heard socialism dismissed as utopian, on the ground that no central authority could efficiently manage millions of different wishes, resources, and capabilities. In “The Great Transformation,” he swivelled this popgun around. What was utopian, he declared, was “the concept of a self-regulating market.” Human life wasn’t as orderly as mathematics, and only a goggle-eyed idealist would think it wise to lash people to a mechanism like the gold standard and then turn the crank. For most of human history, he observed, money and the exchange of goods had been embedded within culture, religion, and politics.”

Selected Media

Please Don’t Wear A Sombrero: What Cinco De Mayo Really Means, From A Mexican

By Maria Garcia

Read the full article from WBUR here.

“My biggest gripe with Cinco de Mayo is not the cultural appropriation, as off-putting as I find it. The real tragedy for me is that a day that once represented Black and brown solidarity — and resistance against colonialism — has been mired by a commercial whitewashing. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when a rag-tag army of mostly indigenous Mexicans defeated French forces who attempted to conquer the independent country…At the time, Mexican-Americans in California opposed to slavery felt that the success of the Union could hinge on the Battle of Puebla and upon hearing that Mexican forces had prevailed, they celebrated with fireworks and drinks. Cinco de Mayo was born…In the ’60s, Chicano activists in the U.S. revived the holiday, using it as a call to solidarity for Civil Rights.”

Selected Media

The Fight for Diverse, Inclusive, Antiracist and Just Democracies

By KerryAnn O’Meara, Ahmed Bawa, Hugo Garcia, Ira Harkavy, Rita Hodges and Hilligje Van’t Land

Read the full article from Inside Higher Ed here.

“At the 2020 Association for the Study of Higher Education conference, we shared research and practice from universities in South Africa, the United States and the International Association of Universities. We concluded that postsecondary institutions — notable contributions during the pandemic notwithstanding — have too often been complicit in systems that create or reproduce savage health and economic inequities, public disregard of science, and individuals who feel alienated and forgotten. Examples include the scarcity of locally situated university clinics and the lack of educational opportunities that perpetuates the exclusion of marginalized groups and working-class students.”

Selected Media

‘Justice Will Prevail,’ But Why Must We Die For Us To Come Out Ahead?

By Kevin L. Clark

Read the full article from Ebony here.

“As a rabble-rouser and fellow member of the Black community, it’s soundbites like this that make people like Nancy Pelosi believe that these police-sanctioned murders are “sacrifices” meant as steps to progress that will eventually liberate us from the oppressive and murderous intentions of the state and federal government.”

COVID-19 / Selected Media

As Global Pandemic Worsens, U.S. Keeps Blocking Vaccine Patent Waivers Amid Big Pharma Lobbying

Listen to the full story from Democracy Now! here.

“Dozens of countries from the Global South, led by India and South Africa, are demanding a temporary waiver on vaccine patents, but rich countries, including the U.S. under both the Trump and Biden administrations, have opposed the move. Lee Fang, investigative journalist at The Intercept, says there is a “glut” of vaccines going to wealthy countries while much of the rest of the world is left waiting.”

Selected Media

On Immigration, Biden’s First 100 Days and Trump’s Last 100 Days Are Hard to Tell Apart

By Branko Marcetic

Read the full article from Jacobin here.

“On immigration and the border, Biden has continued a number of the most shocking Trump-era policies, policies that were widely labeled racist, irrational, and even fascistic when Trump pursued them — right down to continuing to build Trump’s border wall. It’s fitting, given that Trump’s own immigration policies were an escalation relative to the Democratic administration that preceded him, in which Biden served. And it suggests a more long-term bipartisan consensus on the matter that should put anyone appalled by Trump’s policies at unease.”

Selected Media

On Immigration, Biden’s First 100 Days and Trump’s Last 100 Days Are Hard to Tell Apart

By Branko Marcetic

Read the full article from Jacobin here.

“On immigration and the border, Biden has continued a number of the most shocking Trump-era policies, policies that were widely labeled racist, irrational, and even fascistic when Trump pursued them — right down to continuing to build Trump’s border wall. It’s fitting, given that Trump’s own immigration policies were an escalation relative to the Democratic administration that preceded him, in which Biden served. And it suggests a more long-term bipartisan consensus on the matter that should put anyone appalled by Trump’s policies at unease.”

Selected Media

White Supremacy Never Takes a Day Off

By Elie Mystal

Read the full article from The Nation here.

“The police, the people empowered to turn systemic racism into state-sponsored terrorism, remain totally unbowed by the conviction of a single cop. At the very moment the verdict against Chauvin was being read in Minneapolis, police in Columbus, Ohio, shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant to death. Cops couldn’t wait until the close of business on the day George Floyd’s family found some measure of justice before killing another Black person.”

Selected Media

White Supremacy Never Takes a Day Off

By Elie Mystal

Read the full article from The Nation here.

“The police, the people empowered to turn systemic racism into state-sponsored terrorism, remain totally unbowed by the conviction of a single cop. At the very moment the verdict against Chauvin was being read in Minneapolis, police in Columbus, Ohio, shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant to death. Cops couldn’t wait until the close of business on the day George Floyd’s family found some measure of justice before killing another Black person.”

Selected Media

We Still Don’t Know Who the Coronavirus’s Victims Were

By Ibram X. Kendi

Read the full article from The Atlantic here.

“More than a year into a pandemic that has killed at least 574,978 Americans and infected 32.3 million as of Thursday, we still have only partial visibility into precisely who coronavirus patients really are. Data inequality, and all its shadows, is the norm. No one knows how many Black Americans died from COVID-19. No one knows exactly how many Native Americans were hospitalized. No one knows precisely how many white Americans were tested for the coronavirus. No one knows precisely how many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were terrorized by other Americans.”

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