What We're Reading This Week
Antoney Bell, McGill University
Benjamin Wallace-Wells, “The Marxist Who Antagonizes Liberals and the Left,” The New Yorker.
An article about Adolph Reed, a social critic, and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania who has been outspoken in his opposition to Black democratic politicians including former President Barack Obama, Bell Hooks, and other liberal anti-racists that use race as a construct to rationalize predatory capitalist processes.
Aljazeera Team, “Haunting Canada boarding school shot wins World Press Photo,” Aljazeera.
Canadian photographer Amber Bracken won the prestigious World Press Photo Award on Thursday for her image of red dresses hanging on crosses alongside a road. The image was taken to commemorate children that died at the Kamloops Residential School, an institution sanctioned by the Canadian Government and Catholic Church to “civilize” Indigenous children through sexual, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse. This image was published a few months after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves near Kamloops, British Colombia, bearing the remains of Indigenous children. Other instances of Indigenous exploitation are depicted throughout the article including the environmental degradation of Indigenous communities in the Amazon, further demonstrating how the colonial legacies of Western governments have consistently contributed to the largest genocide in human history.
Aljazeera Team, “Jamaicans call for reparations as British royal couple arrives,” Aljazeera.
Jamaican leaders have demanded reparations for nearly 400 years of slavery and colonialism under the British monarchy. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently embarked on a royal tour of the Caribbean celebrating the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II. However, Jamaican leaders “saw no reason’ to celebrate the Queen’s coronation ‘because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind.” Other Caribbean countries should follow suit and demand reparations from European governments that have kept formerly colonized countries impoverished by exploiting its lands and peoples, and in some cases forcing nations to compensate former slave owners in exchange for independence.
Daniel LoPreto, Columbia International Affairs Online
Mobashra Tazamal, "20 Years of Guantanamo: A Symbol of Injustice, Abuse, and Disregard for the Rule of Law," The Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University.
Looks at Guantánamo as a feature of the war on terror: a legal anomaly, designed to function outside the rule of law, that has been able to exist in large part due to Islamophobia that has resulted in the dehumanization of Muslims.
Simon Waxman, “What Rule-Based International Order?” Boston Review.
The war playing out in Ukraine is a nationalist one, but it is cloaked in appeals to the terms of the global order. The author argues that it is essential that world publics take note of this—that citizens recognize the role rule-based internationalism plays in propaganda, whether American, Russian, European, or otherwise. People everywhere, he contends, are gaslighted and manipulated by political leaders and media figures, who joust over rule-breaking rather than admit that following the rules has always been optional for those with sufficient bombs and guns.
Adela Cedillo, "Operation Condor, The War on Drugs, and Counterinsurgency in the Golden Triangle (1977-1983)," Kellogg Institute For International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
Analyses the role of the US government in the militarization of Mexico’s anti-drug policy and argues that Operation Condor functioned as a counterinsurgency campaign oriented to thwart both social and armed movements, eliminate competitors in the narcotics market, and reorganize the drug industry to protect successful drug lords.