9/11 and Its Aftermath in Hip-hop Culture: The Hip-hop Critique of 9/11 and the Bush Administration

They wasn't aimin' at us not at my house They hit The World Trade, The Pentagon And almost got the White House. - Dead Prez The people that's most affected by this war are the so-called hip-hop generation. - Paris September 11, 2001 is a day that will forever live in infamy. Representing the largest attack on American soil in United States history, images of the towers falling reverberated around the world, imbedding themselves in the memories of millions. As Americans searched for answers, their government took bold and decisive action. President George W. Bush declared a war on terror, and began a worldwide manhunt for the perpetrators. The Patriot Act, sanctioned torture and two …

Hearting Hamas So Hard Right Now

It says something about where we are that a play called I Heart Hamas can be staged in America without the actors, writers, and producers being run out of town on a rail.  Ten years ago it did not seem like someone could even say “I Heart Palestine” without being hooted down with howls of derision.  I recall the sorry spectacle of a UNCC anthropology professor who wrote to the Charlotte Observer to rebut a virulently racist op-ed piece in the early 2000s; to claim that Palestinians are not, in fact, innately bloodthirsty and fixated on nothing but revenge made Gregory Starrett a lonely voice indeed. Academics such as Edward Said, Joseph Massad, and Nadia Abu el Haj have been hounded …

Narratives of Collapse: Melancholia, Take Shelter, and Children of Men

It is not uncommon for people who grew up in unstable homes or circumstances of economic insecurity to feel a pervasive sense of dread.  Remote yet ever-present, the feeling that disaster is never a long way off can be hard to shake.  It may take the form of paranoia, depression, or simply a diffuse pessimism—a conviction that events, whether on a scale as small as romantic relationships or as large as the future of the world economy and the environment are not likely to turn out well.  Such leanings may be found among various ideological cults, as among millenarian Christians or certain subgroups of the environmentalist faith, like the anarcho-primitivists and peak oil enthusiasts who …

Video, Terror, and the Politics of Reality TV

This is the true story... of one terrorist mastermind and his wives and couriers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real... Remember when US soldiers found Saddam Hussein in a “hidey hole” in Iraq? He was dirty, bearded, and disheveled after eight months of evading capture by coalition forces, yet US authorities saw fit to release footage of the deposed tyrant being examined by American doctors upon his arrest. The effect and the intent of the videos were impossible to miss. The all-powerful dictator was being handled like a heifer at the state fair, his hair picked …

Mending Mindanao: Diminishing Insurgent Violence in the Philippines

When President Obama decided to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan many people who supported this decision argued that the military had learned lessons from its difficult war in Iraq and would use its troops in Afghanistan more effectively. The Commander of the military in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, was a fervent proponent of a counterinsurgent strategy and believed that using this strategy in Afghanistan would give the U.S. a better chance of achieving its objectives in Afghanistan. Now McChrystal has been fired and the war is still not going well. The counterinsurgent effort in Afghanistan has been hampered by factors such as massive government corruption, flawed democracy, and …