Gender, Race and Identity

On the evening of May 12, 2008, armed with machetes and clubs, neighbor turned against neighbor in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. Gangs of young men raped and murdered black foreigners. Their belongings were looted and scattered in the streets. During these pogroms, local disdain for the makwerekwere, the foreigners, was clear. What began in Alexandra township […]

BY CHRISTIAN ASANTE The first time I spoke to Sandra, we were both studying in the library. President Trump had assumed office five days earlier, and his string of executive orders consumed student conversations. Sandra asked me to watch her things for a few minutes, and when she returned, I struck up a conversation. “What […]

Every election season, it seems there’s another article about AAPIs “making their voices heard.” It’s a term I’ve grown to dislike, not only because I have seen it before, but because the idea of AAPIs “making their voice heard” reinforces the stereotype that AAPIs would otherwise be silent, docile, or meek were it not for […]

Iraqi Kurds’ desire for an independent state may finally meet with US support now that Donald Trump is president.

BY BRYNNA QUILLIN “Flight attendants, please prepare for landing.” As the ground got closer and closer, I start hoping that perhaps the flight would last just a little longer. I am flying into Washington, DC on President Trump’s Inauguration Day for the Women’s March on Washington. The Inauguration began when I was in the air, […]

BY ELORM AVAKAME, PANGYRUS One day last fall, at a small campus in the heart of New England, I stood on an arena floor no more than 20 feet from the front of the stage on which Barack Obama would speak. Hundreds of people stood on the floor around me. Hundreds more were packed into […]

BY MARYROSE MAZZOLA It’s now been over a month since Election Day. If you’re a progressive voter like me, you’ve probably cried (potentially on public transportation), read at least a dozen think pieces about how this happened, and rage donated your heart out. All of that is cathartic – and necessary, given the role that […]

BY HAMADA ZAHAWI It was 9:45pm on election night. Still avoiding the news, I boarded my flight back to Boston, after several days of canvassing and protecting the vote with a team of lawyers in a coveted area of a key battleground state – Broward County, Florida. By the time I landed in Boston, Donald […]

Members of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team made headlines when they doubled down on a proposal to reinstate a registry of immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries. While history has shown that blanket discrimination of Americans by race, national origin, or religion is both wrongheaded and ineffective, Trump’s team inadequately cited internment of Japanese Americans during […]

An unfortunate characteristic of the discourse on Islamism is the muddling of definitions, terminology, historical references, and political positions. It is not uncommon to find criticisms of contemporary Islamist parties rooted in criticisms of premodern Islamic ideas. Even the basic definition of political Islam and “Islamism” is unclear, with no consensus as to what the […]

The following article contains excerpts from an interview that was conducted on October 30, 2016 by APJ staff member, Abdul Carrupt. Abdul: Could you tell us a bit about yourself and where you grew up? Ahlijah: I’m from Ghana but I was born in Nairobi, Kenya where I spent the first few years of my […]

The phrase “times have changed,” has become commonly used in conversations concerning race in America. It’s employed by both those who endorse the status quo, and by those who helped to usher in progress. As a student of history, my tendency is to concede that times have obviously changed for the better. But, as a […]