Texts

So, I think I'm going to assign a sizable chunk of Mark Kurlansky's Nonviolence: History of a Dangerous Idea.

Even though if you were to read it straight through you'd get the impression that the "history" of nonviolence is largely the history of white, western people. Which it is not.

BUT, my class does have a United States focus. And Kurlansky is readable, readable, readable.

If I were a better Peace Studies teacher I'd have A Force More Powerful, under my belt by now.

Oh well.

Mummers 2009

The Mummers make me think every year - this time from the warmth of my living room - as much as I love the phalanxes of banjoes and string bands. 

Performing as fish, pirates, aliens and cowboys is one thing - but American Indians and Arabs, pantomimed by largely white performers to a largely white audience, in a city that is majority people of color, in a nation that is becoming so? Gah. 

How come the ethnically Polish, Italian and Irish groups - or for that matter, all the WASPS - don't ever spoof themselves? Jazz leprechauns, anyone? Italian cobblers, comic carabinieri, confused greenhorns? 

Philadelphia, I love you. But when are we going to have this conversation? Or, when are white people going to listen to the critiques that have been raised by people of color for years? 

This isn't us. Or maybe it is. And that's the problem.