Pas de Deux With Cancel Culture
Traditionally set amidst an exoticized conception of India, La Bayadère’s recent staging argues for stripping away stereotypes in the creative reimagination of old ballets.
The Uneven Costs of Cross-Country Connectivity
Promoted as a social and economic savior, the US federal interstate highway system acted as a tool to promote racial injustices.
Making Implicit Racism
In the first few years of life, children learn much from the observation of the adults around them—including their biases.
Sheet Music: the Original Problematic Pop?
A Johns Hopkins University curator of sheet music and pop culture discusses a “Middle East-inspired” sheet-music collection that’s anything but.
Christy’s Minstrels Go to Great Britain
Minstrel shows were an American invention, but they also found success in the United Kingdom, where audiences were negotiating their relationships with empire.
Black Women Were Also Lynched
A case study of the 1912 lynching of Mary Jackson in Harrison County, Texas, provides insight into the contradictory culture of racial violence.
What Skulls Told Us
The pseudoscience phrenology swept the popular imagination, and its practitioners made a mint preying on prejudices, gullibility, and misinformation.
Sneaky Racism in a Ghost Story
Guy de Maupassant’s spooky story "The Horla" captured French anxieties about race, foreigners, and contagious diseases.
Racist Humor: Exploratory Readings
An introduction to the history and theory of racist humor and the social role it plays in Western societies.
Toward Environmental Justice: Key Concepts
Environmental justice results from the equitable distribution of environmental benefits and harms through the restructuring of systems of oppression.