race

A focus on internal relations without reference to dialectics. Hubris on the role of norm entrepreneurs without recourse to organic intellectuals. Theorising on the state without encountering capitalist state debate. This is how mainstream theorising in political science and International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE), especially, operates in silencing its more radical Marxist counterparts. This practice of silencing has a long history. My argument in a new article in International Affairs is that such silencing goes to the very origin story of the disciplines of IR and IPE, which my argument reveals in relation to the themes of class and race.

The post Mainstreaming Marxism appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

How the criminal legal system slammed two Black men for standing up to white supremacist guards in an Indiana prison.

The post These Men Fought White Supremacists and Got Sentenced to Over 200 Years appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Wonder what the baby will look like with our genes!

Politicians fire teachers and ban books, but more and more Americans are standing up against this effort to erase our history.

The post Teach Black History — Don’t Ban It appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Influential Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, well-known for his work on philosophical questions related to ethics, the future, and technology (existential risk, artificial intelligence, simulation), posted an apology for a blatantly racist email he sent to a listserv 26 years ago. You can read his apology, which includes the text of the original message, here. In the original message, which appeared in a thread concerning offensiveness, Bostrom complains that the statement “Blacks are more stupid than whites” (about which he says in the message “I like that sentence and think it is true”) would be mistakenly interpreted as racist. He then, in the same message, conveys that the reason he thinks that it would be interpreted as racist is that it would be seen as “synonynous” with using a racial slur to declare one’s hate for black people. To put things in an understated way, one thing to conclude about this is that in 1997, Nick Bostrom did not have a good understanding of racism. Nor of good communication norms. What about the Nick Bostrom of today? In his apology, he writes: I completely repudiate this disgusting email from 26 years ago.

These issues are yet again the problem of our age. Their seeming trajectory towards resolution post WWII, with widespread prosperity and a rising middle class, has been undone. What undid them points to the underlying problem: Immediate causes include the spectacular increase in financialization and unearned rents, the lack of and lack of enforcement of progressive taxes, both in turn largely due to a shift in the public's understanding of these issues. What caused this shift in public understanding is the age old problem—power and the lack thereof.