Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Reviewed in Callaloo



The premier journal of African Diaspora literature and culture, Callaloo, offers a review of Living with Lynching by black feminist scholar Courtney Marshall.  Marshall's work centers on the criminalization of black women and promises to make important contributions as many Americans grapple with the ravages of the prison industrial complex. 

Marshall's review carefully engages the work that each chapter of Living with 
Lynching does.  She concludes with an nod toward the book's investment in not 
replicating the violence achieved by gruesome images of lynching victims. "By 
excluding lynching photographs, Mitchell’s book enacts the scholarly move she 
advocates. Her study includes visual images that support her argument that the 
visual archive of lynching photography has dominated the conversations. 
Reproductions of the playbill from Angelina Weld Grimke’s Rachel and the cover 
of The Crisis are powerful antidotes to photographs of broken corpses hanging from 
trees, light poles, and bridges."
 
Callaloo 36.2 (2013): 490 - 92.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Radio Discussion on Trayvon Martin: Racial Violence & the Law


Late on Saturday, July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was found "not guilty," despite taking the life of innocent teenager Trayvon Martin. That Monday, July 15, I agreed to join a radio discussion on Warren Olney's show To the Point, based in Santa Monica, California.  They titled the show The Zimmerman Verdict Divides a Nation, and the segment begins around 24:27.  For me, it was about how violence against marginalized people is excused in the very letter and spirit of the law. This is made especially clear when Americans feel justified in worrying more about what the supposed "intentions" are rather than caring about what the impact is.