Journalist – Historian – Speaker
We don’t know how many people the police kill every year and the government, writ largely, doesn’t care. Over half of all police killings in 2015 were wrongly classified as not having been the result of interactions with officers, a new Harvard study based on Guardian data has found.The finding is just the latest to …
Historians are receiving a weird email asking for their views on objectivity. Is this a right-wing trawl or a desperate student? I don’t know, but as I said last November: It has never been more important for academics to speak, to write, to engage, and to push. I actually don’t think it was less important a …
I spoke to Canadian Broadcasting about Nazis and medievalism. There’s a text article. And the actual interview segment.
New! A conversation with Helen Young about medieval studies, colonialism, fantasy, and white supremacy. ME: Was Tolkien explicitly a racist, or more just a “man of his time?” HY: Tolkien is often quoted as having condemned “that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler” in a 1941 letter to his son Michael. But the reason he gives …
There is no de-escalation training that can build better policing. There is no video monitoring that can hold police accountable. So long as cops can say, “I was afraid,” even when video evidence shows that they are lying, they are legally entitled to commit murder. Patrick Harmon, a black man with, according to his sister, …
The GOP plan is to blame mental illness instead of guns for gun violence … while doing everything to end access to mental healthcare. I wrote for CNN. On Tuesday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan made his first remarks about the mass shooting in Las Vegas. He said nothing about guns, but traded easily in …
#StephenGayle had nerve pain. Caused his legs to kick. So they put him in shackles. #CultOfCompliance /7 — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) September 30, 2017 This story, amidst so much horror, has not gotten widespread coverage outside the disability rights world. Temple officers responded to a disturbance complaint around 7:30 p.m. Thursday near an apartment complex. …
I talked to Jacob Remes about Critical Disaster Studies, Hurricane Maria, Imperialism, Trump, and more. New at Pacific Standard: “At the heart [of the field] is a saying that became common in the 1970s: There’s no such thing as a natural disaster. There are hazards, some of which are natural (earthquakes, tornadoes, river floods) and …
NEW AT PACIFIC STANDARD: Ohio uses Down syndrome to attack reproductive rights. Ohio Republicans are the latest group to seize on Down syndrome as a wedge issue in the fight against reproductive choice. Senate Bill 164 would make it a felony for doctors to knowingly perform an abortion after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. …
Vikingar mot nazism är nog mina favoritantinazister pic.twitter.com/EGFaJL92FG — Glenn Bördig (@Felippenegro) September 30, 2017 “Vikingar mot nazism är nog mina favoritantinazister” = Vikings against Nazism are probably my favorite anti-Nazis Image Description: A man in a Viking costume (chainmail, shield, helmet) with Swedish on his shield, translating to “Vikings against inappropriate use of runic …