Current Events

Rethinking Columbus banned in Arizona: Katz essays included

January 31, 2012

The following is a response to news that Rethinking Columbus, a textbook aimed at critically engaging the legacy of Christopher Columbus in American and Indigenous history, is no longer approved for use in Tuscon public schools. The banning is a result of new laws that have shut down Mexican [American] Studies programs in the area. [...]

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Gingrich Confronts History in South Carolina

January 24, 2012

“It’s not that I’m a good debater. It’s that I articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people,” announced the victorious Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. Republican voters [only 2% were African Americans] saw his tough, angry, racial language as straight talking. He eagerly strummed racial themes—Black urban pupils serve as assistant janitors to learn [...]

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November is Native American History Month

November 25, 2011

This October as many Americans celebrated “Columbus Day” men and women from more than half a dozen Native American nations marched to Zuccotti Square to voice support for “Occupy Wall Street.”  Invited to address the famous General Assembly, they linked their original experience with “colonialism and corporate greed” to OWS demands and current struggles of [...]

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A Saturday at “Occupy Wall Street”

October 31, 2011

On Saturday October 22nd, my wife and I visited Occupy Wall Street to see history in the making—and to donate two of my relevant books to the OWS library. The entrance point on Broadway of Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza, stops one cold. You face a dozen or so men and women of various [...]

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Dr. King: The Monument, The Legacy and Today’s Wars

September 9, 2011

It has taken a hurricane to postpone the dedication of the long-awaited monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington — the first on the Mall for an individual who is not a president, not a white man and not a war leader. King repeatedly proved he was not frightened by hurricanes, and calmly [...]

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Are Cruel Years Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

November 5, 2010

In 2010, with the blessing of a five to four Supreme Court vote, unlimited money from anonymous corporate sources was allowed to select candidates and call the political tune. It is hardly surprising the party best able to tap these funds scored major gains. While suspicious of repentant witches, and candidate that advocate a “Second [...]

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