I published my first piece with Al Jazeera America this Friday on the Cult of Compliance and #Ferguson. I also published a blog post about the phrase, “cult of compliance,” why I use it, what effect I hope it has, and most of all some stories I couldn’t fit into the AJAM piece. I did a radio piece on the article as well, which you can listen to here.
Thank you so much to everyone who read and shared my work, as I think this is a vital lens going forward.
In the wake of Ferguson, it’s been hard to follow other stories, although I wrote various essays that mostly didn’t get published or picked up thanks to the dominance of this one, crucial, story (and its thousands of related stories). I’ll hope to bring some back up soon.
Today I read the language version of #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, in which the Huffington Post compared the headlines for black vs white killers. Then I read, of all people, Ross Douthat being smart about SWAT in the suburbs. And, from Grantland, an extraordinary piece of writing, 48 Hours in Ferguson. And then from the Washington Post, perhaps the best account of the shooting and its context, “three minutes in Ferguson.”
And that’s just in the past 20 minutes.
Keep reading, keep tweeting, keep sharing, keep the conversation going.
And folks in Ferguson, not that you’re reading my blog, I wish you strength and safety.
My other posts:
An important fundraising effort to provide babysitting for the daughter of a single-mom who has just had brain surgery (on Friday). Her daughter, Maybelle, has Down syndrome. Please give if you can.
How many slaves work for you? An app/survey you can take and see how your life is shaped by global slavery. Grim stuff.
Women and science – how they get harassed and ignored into dropping out.
Finally, some resources on the firing of Steven Salaita from Illinois. This is the one story from the week that I want to elevate into a national conversation about academic freedom and blacklisting. I’ll try again next week. It’s not about the content of his tweets, is that no one should be fired for tweeting like this, especially not without due process. The university matters and we have to protect its freedoms.