“MATTER IS THE MINIMUM”: Reading Washington, DC’s BLM Memorial Fence
In the early evening of Monday, 1 June 2020, following a weekend of national protests against the extra-judicial killings of Black people by the police, US federal troops aggressively moved on demonstrators outside the White House in Washington, DC.[1] Using flashbangs and chemical weapons, the US military forced demonstrators from the grounds of Lafayette Square Park, clearing the way for President Donald J. Trump to walk through the park and cross the street, so that he could have his photograph taken in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church whilst holding a Bible upside-down. Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead (c) 2020 The following day, temporary non-scalable chain-link fencing was installed around the perimeter of the park—both physically and symbolically separating the populace from the President’s residence. The original fencing and concrete barricades were removed within weeks, only to be re-installed later that month, following protesters’ failed attempt to […]
Continue ReadingDecomposing and Reconstructing the Marginal: Walker Evans’ Portrait Photography in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
The pictures are for the most part mild, but in spite of this, though always exquisitely clear in reasoning and in visual quality, they pack a wicked punch. There’s nothing oppressively ‘photographic’ here, it isn’t a long nose poking into dirty corners for propaganda and for scandal, there are no trick shots, the composition isn’t a particular feature – but the pictures talk to us. And they say plenty. – William Carlos Williams, “Sermon with a Camera” In the year of 1936 in Hale County, Alabama, American writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans spent the summer of their collaborative verbal-visual book project collecting both photographs and written testimony of Americas rural populace. During the Great Depression, after the 1932 Presidential Election during which Franklin D. Roosevelt came into power with his “New Deal” instead of Hoover’s “Laissez Faire Policies”, a prioritized concern about the national agriculture became apparent. Under […]
Continue ReadingAmerican Multiculturalism as Cultural Imperialism
In contemporary American society, being against “multiculturalism” is a lot like being against “baseball, apple pie, hot dogs, and Chevrolet.” It is as much of a part of American ideology as the rugged individualism of the American Cowboy or the self-sacrifice of the American citizen soldier. American institutions routinely celebrate America’s diversity and those who are brazen enough to challenge the merits of these celebrations are seen as being crude anachronisms from an America that no longer is.
Continue ReadingAs American as Apple Pie: U.S. Female Converts to Islam
As U.S. citizens who understand American cultural and societal norms, American female converts to Islam are in a good position to serve as advocates and agents for change, not only for themselves, but also on behalf of their fellow Muslim Americans. These American voices are offering a challenge to both the greater non-Muslim American community and the Muslim American community in clearly articulated, individual voices saying: I am a ‘real American’, I am a ‘real Muslim’, I am ready to have the conversation. You bring the vanilla ice cream – I’ll bring the apple pie.
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