Public Affairs

A Kidnapping in Minnesota

A Kidnapping in Minnesota

At 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday November 25th, my husband Peter gets an alert that ICE is attempting a house raid nearby. We jump in the car. Several blocks from the address, we encounter Saint Paul police, flashers on, barring all roads. Saint Paul officially has a separation ordinance that prohibits police from . . .

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Between Ceasefires: Who, In Gaza, Can Ever Truly Return Home?

When the first ceasefire of the year was first announced, on January 19th, 2025, at around 10:00 a.m., celebrations broke out all over Gaza. For those who had remained steadfast in the north, the truce meant the killing had finally stopped, and those who had been displaced to the south were celebrating . . .

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“Television must assist in the socialist transformation of Ghana”

“Television must assist in the socialist transformation of Ghana”

This piece is excerpted from Media, Culture, and Decolonization: Re-righting the Subaltern Histories of Ghana, to be published on 9th December 2025 by Rutgers University Press. Even though Ghana Television (GTV) began transmission in 1965, it wasn’t until 1985 that Ghanaians had access to color television. And it was not until 1989 . . .

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Armistice Day vs. Veterans Day

Armistice Day vs. Veterans Day

l. to r. Frank Corcoran, US Marine Corps, Purple Heart in Vietnam; Mike Felker, US Navy Corpsman assigned to Marine Corps infantry in Vietnam; Art Sharon, US Air Force, Vietnam-era; Bill Ehrhart, US Marine Corps, Purple Heart in Vietnam; Gene Cleaver, US Marine Corps, Purple Heart in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Mike Felker. . . .

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Scattered Graves

Scattered Graves

My name is Sarah Mahmoud. I was born twenty-eight years ago in Jabalia, northern Gaza. My father was a teacher, and my mother a devoted homemaker, who held our family together with love and patience. I was the youngest of five sisters—Dalal, Hazar, Ghada, and two others. In those days, our home . . .

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Afrikan Feminism is Not Neutral

Afrikan Feminism is Not Neutral

This piece first appeared on African Feminism. As people living at the intersection of multiple oppressions, legacies of slavery and colonialism, and neocolonial capture of our nations, we must remain extremely vigilant for erasure and appropriation of our voice and agency. African feminisms cannot exist in spaces where struggles of other colonized . . .

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“In Gaza, we are born to die”: a day in the life of an aid seeker

July 26th was a day like many others in Gaza. I woke up at 8:00 a.m. to fetch four gallons of potable water from the truck that would come every day to the school where my family and I had been displaced. After completing that daily mission, I was already exhausted. I . . .

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Famine Turned Me Into a Farmer in Gaza

Famine Turned Me Into a Farmer in Gaza

It’s 5:50 in the morning, just ten minutes before the university bus is supposed to arrive. I should be rushing to catch it and head to my classes in Gaza, just like I used to every day. But today, I’m trapped in a nightmare from which I can’t awake. The alarm ringing . . .

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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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