Month: August 2015

I am flying to DC today for the annual NARPA – National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy – Conference. I’ll be speaking about police violence and disability, along with two people from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. They will focus on policy and law. I’m going to tell stories about deaths, discuss … Continue ReadingNARPA Conference: Beyond CIT Training

Thesis: If you genuinely want to increase coverage of an issue, start with your own community and work outward. Anything else is just an attempt to play one group off another. This will be a little rambling, as I’m working through my ideas. That’s why this is on my blog and not formalized and submitted … Continue ReadingPolice Violence and Media Coverage – How Not To Advocate

This is just news from yesterday. SFPD were filmed abusing a man with a prosthetic leg and crutches. Initially, the claim was that he was “waving sticks around like weapons” outside Twitter’s hq. Since that claim has been debunked (notice a lack of sticks in the video), they are now claiming they were “helping” him … Continue ReadingDisability Is Not A Crime – Beating in SF, Trial in NM, Murder in Prison

John Williams was deaf and never heard the policeman who was ordering him to stop. He was shot in the back four times. Ethan Saylor had Down syndrome and didn’t obey orders to get out of a movie seat he hadn’t paid for. He died on the floor, asphyxiated. Kajieme Powell was standing alone in … Continue ReadingI am writing a book: Disability Is Not A Crime

This is an absolute must-read. It’s a powerful description of the complexities of being a caregiver for an adult with developmental disability. It also demonstrates the cruelty of the austerian (who probably think of themselves as pro-life, for that matter). I wrote an op-ed in Thursday’s Chicago’s Sun Times about the impact of Illinois’s budget crisis … Continue ReadingThe Cruelty of “Fiscal Conservatism” in Illinois

More on trigger warnings. Here’s a good piece from The New Republic. If you take away the media hysteria surrounding trigger warnings, you’re left with a mode of conversational priming that we all use: “You might want to sit down for this”; “I’m not sure how to say this, but…” It’s hardly anti-intellectual or emotionally … Continue ReadingTrigger Warnings: The Real Threat

So the right-wing blog The Daily Caller has published a list of America’s worst professors (here is a donotlink cached version). I’m naturally friends with many of the folks it singles out, but I’m not going to engage with that right now. What’s fascinating about the list is that it’s generated by, basically, twitter and email … Continue ReadingDaily Caller – America’s Worst Professors (on Twitter)

Continue my series on I am continuing to work through the postmedieval forum about the public Middle Ages. Previous installments here, here and here. Today, Matt Gabriele on “There is no public Middle Ages.” In this piece, Gabriele argues provocatively that context matters less than we think. He writes: As academics, as specialists, we perhaps … Continue Readingpostmedieval reactions: Does Format Matter?

There has been a lot of movement in the Steven Salaita story in the past few weeks, timed perfectly for the anniversary of the un-hiring. I want to talk about Phyllis Wise’s parachute and the future of the UIUC boycott. The news: First – the emails that Phyllis Wise tried to hide on a private … Continue ReadingThe UIUC Boycott – What’s Next?