Public Affairs

A History of Anti-Asian Violence in the United States

A History of Anti-Asian Violence in the United States

The Inaugural Kay Johnson Lecture in Asian American Studies at Hampshire College “The Chinese Must Go: A History of Anti-Asian Violence in the United States” Beth Lew-Williams, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University Wednesday 7 April 2021, 4:30 pm The American West erupted in anti-Chinese violence in 1885  Following the massacre of . . .

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This is #rainbow

This is #rainbow

Photo: Kancelaria Sejmu/Łukasz Błasikiewicz / CC BY At a time when unidentifiable government-paid thugs are abducting people into unmarked vans off the streets of Portland, it might take extra effort to notice and recognize the brutality of police states outside the U.S. Especially when the news comes from a country whose government has . . .

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Port-au-Prince, my love no longer

Port-au-Prince, my love no longer

Original article, pubished 02/07/2020: I’ve always loved this country, just as I’ve learned to love the somber colors and the soft scents that waft off the pages of books. I don’t really know why. In spite of the weather, in spite of life’s own inclement seasons, I learned to love it. Sometimes . . .

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To Nicoletta, from Erri

To Nicoletta, from Erri

(Photo: Nicoletta Dosio, ANSA) Editor’s note: Shortly after New Year’s Day, Erri De Luca published a poem dedicated to Nicoletta Dosio. On December 30, 2019, Nicoletta Dosio, the seventy-three year-old ex-schoolteacher and activist from Bussoleno in Italy’s Susa Valley, was sent to prison by the Italian state. Dosio is a leading figure . . .

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Peaceful Hunger Striker on the Bridge, Violent Radical Underneath

Peaceful Hunger Striker on the Bridge, Violent Radical Underneath

Translated from Chinese by Walter Chan Chun Hay June 13, 2019 It was some minutes past five in the morning. The sky was turning bright and birds were relentlessly tweeting. Sparrows pecked around us. The bridge to the Central Government Complex has been blockaded by police and barriers, making it an island . . .

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On Rage

On Rage

It’s been over a week since I first failed to sleep normally. My sleep has been shallow. I’ve tossed and turned in bed, awake and asleep. Or, at other times, I was simply an insomniac, almost never missing the first soft beam of sunlight shining through the curtain cracks. My insomnia suggested . . .

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Shame on the Pier in Lampedusa

The insults hurled at Carola Rackete, captain of the Sea Watch 3, from the wharf in Lampedusa glanced off her untroubled expression. No dent was made in her self-composure: it was grounded in knowing that, out of a sense of her own responsibility, she had put her body on the line—not something . . .

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Oleg Sentsov’s Poetics of Conscience

Oleg Sentsov’s Poetics of Conscience

Oleg Sentsov © Sergei Venyavsky/Getty Images In a letter smuggled out of Labytnangi Penal Colony in September 2016, Crimean-born, Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov writes, “If we’re supposed to become nails in the coffin of a tyrant, I’d like to become one of those nails. Just know that this particular nail will not bend.” On . . .

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Certifiable

Certifiable

Editor’s note: The rapid rise of arrogant, authoritarian power across the globe today is evident for all to see. In his recent blog post, Erri De Luca reflects on the criminal behavior of European leaders who promote policies on immigration which condemn thousands of innocents to die each year in the Mediterranean . . .

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The Rule of Law in Spain (and its Contradictions)

I am a Catalan writer, and have lived in the United Kingdom for the last three years. I was born in Barcelona, where I spent most of my previous life. When Franco died, I was thirteen. When I was a child, they used to tell us at school that Franco had led . . .

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