Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Link to a review by Angelia R. Wilson of the book Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs (2015), by Lauren A. Rivera:
“Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs, by Lauren A. Rivera”
Bonus links: “Social Class in the 21st Century” and “Class Position and Musical Tastes”
Link to an article by Laura Durkay:
Link to an article by Christopher Ketcham:
“Above the Law: On the Prospects of Prosecutorial Reform”
Bonus link: “Corrupted Evidence: How the Department of Justice is Blocking Forensic Evidence Reform” (it should be noted that this bonus link article largely gives judges a free pass, for reasons not explained)
Link to an article by Matt Kennard & Claire Provost:
“Inside the Corporate Utopias Where Capitalism Rules and Labor Laws Don’t Apply”
Link to an interview with Judith Stein:
Link to an article by Herbert Deyer, Jr.:
“The First Demand for Slave Reparations”
Bonus Link: “Statement to the Media by the United Nations’ Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, on the Conclusion of Its Official Visit to USA, 19-29 January 2016” (“The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism, and racial inequality in the US remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent.“)
The death penalty should apply only to those who claim power in the name of others, like world leaders, military and police commanders, and even (sometimes) business executives. Serial killers and minor criminals are usually pressed by mental health concerns and poverty in a way that makes prison or commitment more appropriate.
Link to the group Mapping Police Violence‘s report:
Bonus links: Interview with Sam Sinyangwe, Campaign Zero (mostly good ideas, with some flaws: the persistently proposed requirement that “community organizations” nominate civil servants/overseers is flawed [would the KKK qualify as a “community organization”? If not, then which groups? And who decides which groups?], and the “fair union contracts” aspect includes important points but then goes too far [banning contacts that allow officers to “receive paid leave or remain on desk-duty during an investigation following a police shooting or other use of deadly force” is anti-due process and anti-worker]; lastly, “unconscious bias” research is still in its infancy and relies on many troubling ideological assumptions [the research has its own bias of the cognitivist and/or liberal variety: “PC anti-racism is sustained by the surplus-enjoyment which emerges when the PC-subject triumphantly reveals the hidden racist bias on an apparently neutral statement or gesture“] making it difficult and premature to implement as a mandatory process).
Link to an article by Danielle Paquette:
“Why You Should Always Buy the Men’s Version of Almost Anything”
Link to an interview with Arundhati Roy by John Cusack:
“Things That Can and Cannot Be Said”
Another part of the interview: “What Shall We Love”
Bonus links: Non-Violence: A History Beyond the Myth and How Nonviolence Protects the State and “If Governments Believe So Much in Nonviolence, They Should Try It” and Socialism and War (“Socialists have always condemned war between nations as barbarous and brutal. But our attitude towards war is fundamentally different from that of the bourgeois pacifists (supporters and advocates of peace) and of the Anarchists. We differ froth the former in that we understand the inevitable connection between wars and the class struggle within the country; we understand that war cannot be abolished unless classes are abolished and Socialism is created; and we also differ in that we fully regard civil wars, i.e., wars waged by the oppressed class against the oppressing class, slaves against slave-owners, serfs against land-owners, and wage-workers against the bourgeoisie, as legitimate, progressive and necessary.”)