We Have Moved

"Acting White" and What It Means for Everyone

The racial desegregation of schools in America prompted immediate action—a story of protests and violence, white flight, and painful new beginnings—as the forging of our contemporary educational system began. More than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, questions about how students of all races can excel in desegregated environments remain a concern for parents and teachers alike.

For black children in particular, the term “acting white” has been used since to refer to classmates who mind their schoolwork. The removal of black schools managed by black communities and the colorblind recognition of the value of education left a strange legacy, and the term is a peculiar reminder of how separation becomes a comforting recourse even when the goal is integration.

Stuart Buck’s Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation addresses these unintended consequences of desegregating schools. Writing for The New Republic, John McWhorter said: “Stuart Buck at last brings together all of the relevant evidence and puts paid to two myths. The first is that the ‘acting white’ charge is a fiction or just pointless marginal static. The other slain myth, equally important, is that black kids reject school as alien out of some sort of ingrained stupidity; the fear of this conclusion lies at the root of the studious dismissal of the issue by so many black thinkers concerned about black children.” McWhorter went on to further discuss the book and the problems it raises with Richard Thompson Ford for Bloggingheads.tv. Check out their discussion and read Buck’s book for his conclusive take on how we can improve our educational system with knowledge and awareness of the cultural impact that desegregation left.

Michael Takiff on Clinton with MSNBC's Hardball

Michael Takiff sat down with Chris Matthews last week for MSNBC's Hardball to discuss the impact of Clinton's legacy in the US and beyond. He talks at length about the Clintons' marriage, the "Clinton-Obama Alliance" and the political future ahead, notably Hillary's propsects for 2016.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

 

Tarek Osman Talks to CNN about What's Happening in Egypt

In light of the recent bombing in Alexandria, Egyptian banker and writer, Tarek Osman, has been interviewed by the London Times and CNN for his take on the current political situation. Today we have published Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak, in which Osman describes the huge changes that have taken place in his home country since the 1950s. 

Writing for the Financial Times, Joyce Tyldesley opines that Osman's and two others, Egypt: A Short History (Princeton U Press) and The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (Bloomsbury) together give a picture of Egypt's history from ancient times to the present, brought into "sharp focus."  For Osman's book in particular, addressing the last sixty years, she says: "Osman writes with a focused and uncluttered style, and there are enough political twists and high-action events – including a president assassinated live on television – to retain the interest of even the most general reader."

To learn more about the political forces at play in Egypt (regime, political Islam, and the liberal movement, as defined by Osman), check out the interview with CNN.

 

 

To London, with Love: The UN Today

Ivan Lett

It is now 65 years to the day that the United Nations held its first General Assembly in London. In the aftermath of World War II, the Allies met repeatedly to establish the goals of the organization, notably its commitment to international peace and cooperation. Fifty-one nations were represented at the first Assembly; all member nations vote on General Assembly Resolutions, unlike the Security Council that held its first meeting a week later on January 17, 1946.

Now that the UN has moved to its permanent home in Manhattan, with 192 member states, its place in world affairs has seen several changes and growth since its founding purpose to avoid a Third World War. In fact, the bustle of activity is quite difficult to keep track of. Fortunately, we have published Linda Fasulo’s Insider’s Guide to the UN, now in its Second Edition, that serves as an accessible and invaluable guide to the inner workings of the UN. There is even an appendix dedicated to Model UN simulations. (Frankly, I could have used this once upon a time when trying unsuccessfully to pass a new resolution as a delegate from South Africa for a modified version of Amnesty International.) Fasulo, who has corresponded extensively on the UN for NPR and NBC, writes on the many agencies and programs directed by the UN that address so many global issues such as international terrorism, human rights, and nuclear proliferation. She says:

In the face of rapid and wrenching change, we have to wonder how an international organization created nearly sixty-five years ago, in a very different world, can maintain its relevance and effectiveness today, let alone in the future.

On the other hand, the 65^th anniversary lends itself all too easily to the idea of retirement. In response to her own consideration, Fasulo claims the relevancy of the organization today lies with its “people [who] really do matter at the UN, and they act in a context full of illusion, opinion, perception, and emotion.” Surely, an organization does not retire like a person, but it does give reason for hindsight, and a closer look into how we have arrived at its present configuration and philosophy.

On the history of the UN, Mark Mazower shows how the UN has grown from its postwar origins to sustain its purpose in No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations, published by Princeton University Press. In a recent issue of Harper’s, John Gray highlighted Mazower’s attention to the UN’s “ideological prehistory,” interestingly arguing that the American and Wilsonian ideas were not alone in the formation of the UN, but that a lingering “imperial internationalism” from the languishing British Empire gave significant shape to the ideologies at play. For an organization that totes itself as an international peacekeeper, it’s important for us to know both what is going on now and how we got there.

 

Ivan Lett is Online Marketing Coordinator for Yale University Press.

For Tomorrow's Leadership Still Growing Today

For twenty years, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity has been awarding its Ethics Prize to college students writing on particularly difficult ethical challenges and dilemmas in our society, and advocating the actions necessary for our society to undertake. These have now been published in a new volume, An Ethical Compass: Coming of Age in the 21st Century.

In his Foreword, Thomas L. Friedman writes that we should “look at this book and its essays as if it were a twenty-first-century survival manual, inspiration manual, and recruiting manual. Yes, ‘Help Wanted’—here and abroad: people who can inspire sustainable values. Fortunately, the applications seem to be flooding in. An America, a world, led by a generation of ethical leaders?—now that’s an innovation I’d like to invest in. But then, Elie Wiesel has been doing that kind of investing his whole life—and the rewards are on the pages that follow.”

The essays are grouped into sections on conflict, memory, conscience, education, illness, and God, and the subjects range from Andrea Useem’s “History, Memory, and the Enola Gay,” covering the controversy surrounding the 1995 Smithsonian exhibition; to Rachel Maddow’s “Identifiable Lives: AIDS and the Response to Dehumanization,” poignantly observing that “In order to account both for the reasons why acts of bigotry take place and why we should hope to end them, we must assume that people do not believe it is just to treat others inhumanely. This is fundamentally a psychological claim, not a moral claim.”

Maddow’s is a position that still resonates today with members of our society, old and young. Last week the New York Times, reporting for World AIDS Day, ran a story on the “confrontational tactics” of Ivy-League students, vying for President Obama’s attention on addressing spending for global AIDS. Unlike the typical college activism protests, these collaborators have heckled and loudly raised their points at speeches, panels, even quiet breakfasts. These recent demonstrations have caught the attention of their audiences, but bad feelings remain on all sides, even from would-be supporters, who object to the tactics used. How do we temper this into a productive conversation to move forward? An Ethical Compass will tell.

Infinite Use

Saleem Ali, author of Treasures of the Earth, appeared today on WBUR/NPR’s Here and Now to talk about his timely book, now available in paper. You can listen Here and Now.

More on the Marriage and Discrimination Debate

In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, a decision that had a considerable impact on the same-sex marriage debate. Though the proposition had passed with 52% of the vote, its constitutionality was challenged in a 2009 case brought by two gay couples.The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, argued that Proposition 8 was a violation of the constitutional rights due process and equal protection. On August 4, a San Francisco federal judge, agreed with the plaintiff and struck down this ban by ruling it unconstitutional.

Other states still have laws similar to Proposition 8 that ban same-sex marriage, however – and there are no provisions in federal law that recognize these unions. So what happens when a couple moves from a state that accepts their marriage to one that does not?

Same Sex Different States: When Same Sex Marriages Cross State Lines, written by Andrew Koppelman, addresses this issue by drawing upon historical precedents from when states held differing views on marriage (between very young couples, kin and interracial couples) as well as seeking workable legal solutions.

In his introduction, Koppelman takes the stance that both extremes of non-recognition and “full faith and credit” are wrong. Rather, established legal rules exist that can be applied to this situation. Each chapter discusses a law and its connection to recognizing marriages, opening with a directly relevant case. Toward the end, Koppelman talks about when to recognize same-sex marriages, defining a multitude of examples—evasive marriage, when the couple deliberately moves to another state just to be married and returns to their home state; migratory marriage, when the couple is married and then moved to a state where their marriage is prohibited, and so on. With each example, he summarizes the approach the law should take by applying a rule, an exception, and an exception to the exception. He concludes by explaining the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and how both sides of the debate may need to take compromises.

For a different facet of the same issue, Koppelman’s more recent book, A Right to Discriminate?, asks whether noncommercial associations have a right to discriminate against their potential members. This work speaks in more general terms about the history of discrimination, integrating legal history, constitutional theory, and political philosophy. 

 

Ahmed Rashid on ABC News This Week

This Sunday, August 1, the internationally acclaimed journalist and author Ahmed Rashid appeared as a featured guest on ABC News This Week. In a roundtable discussion with George Will, Donna Brazile and Paul Krugman, Rashid discussed the significance and concerns behind the recent exposure of information on the Afghanistan war by WikiLeaks. Christine Amanpour, the new host of ABC's Sunday news program, acknowledged Rashid as "the world's leading authority on the Taliban." The second edition of Taliban, Rashid's seminal work on the infamous terrorist organization from the Middle East, is currently available for purchase.

Bloggingheads: McWhorter and Thompson discuss Buck's Acting White

Last Monday the video blog discussion site bloggingheads.tv posted a dialogue on Stuart Buck's most recent book, "Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation". Featured in the discussion are Richard Thompson Ford of Slate and John McWhorter of The New Republic, both of whom wrote extensive reviews on "Acting White" when the book was published this past spring. In this video dialogue, Thompson and McWhorter discuss the the relationship between racial identity, public school desegregation, and the legacies of the Civil Rights movement.

The True Cost of Sustainability

Saleem H. Ali, author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, asks this simple question in his preface: “Would the world be a better place if human societies were somehow able to curb their desires for material goods?” and proceeds to offer his own perspective.

He argues that lowering consumption will probably not have a prominent effect in conservation of resources, but rather a new approach is needed. The text is divided into three sections: first, the origins, varieties and development of wealth; second, dependency and ecological damage as a consequence of this wealth; and finally, a solution that reconciles the need for consumption with a conservation effort.

What about the applicability of conservation here in the United States? Most people would say that their participation in various “green living” and “sustainability” movements are motivated by good intentions. But with a changing global society, are these good intentions good enough? Are they effecting the kind of good we want?

Robert Paarlberg’s piece “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers,” which appeared in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy, would argue no. With the subtitle, “Stop obsessing about arugula. Your ‘sustainable’ mantra -- organic, local, and slow -- is no recipe for saving the world's hungry millions,” he also questions whether or not the current sustainability system is working. And though Paarlberg centers more on food consumption, whereas Ali focuses more on natural resources, both Paarlberg and Ali raise the same main issue – how do we balance the current needs of humans with the future needs of the earth?