In the opening of his influential book Orientalism, Edward Saïd exposed the dominance and hegemony of Western authors and artists in shaping and formulating the fundamental narratives about the ‘Orient’, emphasizing the binary and self-consolidating character of colonial discourse: A very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and…
Category: Race and Ethnicity
Tropical Insects and the Colonial Entomopoiesis of Pestilence
In the era of human-induced climate change, insects have become the preeminent emissaries of Death, morphing the proverbial scythe into tiny tentacles of destruction. The invasion of tropical insects into the Global North has emerged as a key narrative template of the climate apocalypse: articles in scientific and journalistic outlets register the harrowing threat of…
Preventing Language Death in the Guatemalan Highlands
“Richin man nkäm ta qach’ab’äl: So that our language doesn’t die” What does it mean to say that a language is dead? Or that a language is dying? According to linguist David Crystal, “to say that a language is dead is like saying that a person is dead. It could be no other way—for languages…
Instrumentalized Images: The Trouble with Representation, Truth, and Affective Power in Histories of American Gynecology
Thanks to crucial scholarship and committed activism, recent years have witnessed increased reporting and public-facing writing about the histories of racialized violence at the crux of gynecology’s emergence in the United States. Much of this writing centers the figure of J. Marion Sims. In a media landscape that seems to demand visual accompaniment, authors and…
Is this ‘For Us’? Doulas, Medical Racism and De-Potentializing Newborn Screening
It’s the second week of my rotation with a reproductive health advocacy organization. On my desktop, a grid of squares, icons of faces interspersed with actual faces, populate the screen. They are from the east and west coast, and some United States territories. More than half of them are Black or Latinx. Each of them…
Black and Beautiful, Smoke and Mirrors: The Freed One’s Granddaughter Wears a Crown
Black and Beautiful, Smoke and Mirrors: The Freed One’s Granddaughter Wears a Crown “The Past is never dead. It’s not even past.” -William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun. In the 1960s, researchers came up with “the grandmother hypothesis” to theorize on the evolutionary “purpose” of menopause. NPR ran a story on the benefits of living…
Humanizing Black Patients
Misconceptions and Fallacies on Race and Medical Treatment The Health Humanities is the study of the intersection of health and humanistic disciplines (such as philosophy, religion, literature) fine arts, as well as social science research that gives insight to the human condition (such as history, anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies.)* The Health Humanities use methods…
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part III)
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part III) For Part I: I become inscrutable to myself For Part II: No sacrifice is excessive III. Finding a relational home In the previous section, I argued that the war metaphor engenders a derealizing self and other relation that precludes the realization of…
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part II)
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part II) For Part I: I become inscrutable to myself For Part III: Finding a relational home II. No sacrifice is excessive If we are to demand that grief be made into a resource for politics, we must demand to be allowed to feel…
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part I)
Grief, Denial, and Racial Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Part I) This article in three parts is adapted from a critical theory essay that I wrote in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. It is clear to me now that in many ways this essay was an attempt to grieve….