PBS recently republished a column by Rusul Airubail titled 'Why educators still need to talk about 9/11 — and Islamophobia'. I think this applies equally to adults and is actually very closely related to current experiences of racism and violence. It is still critical to provide safe spaces for children and adults to discuss the wave of Islamophobia that swept the US, with … [Read more...] about Connecting the Dots (2)
Islamophobia
10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War
by Medea Benjamin & Zoltan Grossman Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat our cities as occupied war zones. In … [Read more...] about 10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War
Boston & ‘the Muslim exception’ to the Bill of Rights
A lot has been written about the Boston bombings, the Tsarnaev brothers, and the way the case was handled. I don't want to add to that, but here are links to some of the more insightful articles, along with a brief excerpt from each: Lockdown, USA: Lessons From the Boston Marathon Manhunt, by Henry Giroux The collective expressions of relief, compassion, and adulation were … [Read more...] about Boston & ‘the Muslim exception’ to the Bill of Rights
The Road Not Taken
(With apologies to Robert Frost and his poem by the same title) When I saw the headline 'Attitudes on Arabs, terrorism shifting' in today's Morning Call, I expected to read that people here in the Lehigh Valley were finally getting over their prejudices and stereotypes about Arabs & Muslims. Instead, I learned that even as other fears have decreased, ‘wariness of … [Read more...] about The Road Not Taken