The fact that the burden of proof is on us who oppose the whitewashing of Moses speaks volumes about the conditions of our seeing today. That is, whiteness is seen as neutral. I sense this in the very need to dig into these sources and linguistics to prove that Moses was not white when such a notion should be obvious. And the shady discourse of racism makes us ask: Just how Black was he? Is “ādam” Black enough?
Read MoreThe 7th-century Najdi Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mullawah or more popularly known as Majnun (مجنون) crossed the Arabian desert, travelled through Persian literature, Hindi cinema and ended up on the door of my childhood home.
Read MoreDiscovering new music is always very exciting, but discovering emo music as a little brown girl over a cup of chai and a bowl of Maggi noodles is truly something else.
Read MoreThe monstrous Nazi experimentation on Romani children was not the work of ‘mad scientists’ but something even more frightening: scientists who were quite sane.
Read MoreThe truth of the matter is this – we don’t need you to give us access to our own heritage (that is our right) and we certainly don’t need you to give us voices – we have our own!
Read MoreFor a people whose culture was systematically discriminated, stolen, assimilated and erased, speaking matters. Speaking matters as it functions as a means of not forgetting what happened and is happening. It’s exciting to see these artists walking surely through the thick cloud of prejudices against Kurds and insisting on speaking their stories in Kurdish and hopefully this is just the beginning.
Read MoreI'm an 18-year-old Pakistani […] I grew up with random people making me feel like I am a burden to my dad. I grew up with my dearest ones telling me that I must not dream too big, as one day I'll have to give up on those dream for a man’s fragile ego. I was taunted by my relatives for not knowing how to cook. I was instructed to bow down to my husband’s will. I was taunted in the middle of traffic when people beside me whispered: "How shameless for a female to drive."
Read MoreJadi Rana sent the Zoroastrians a full glass of milk, to indicate that his kingdom was filled to the brim. In response, the Zoroastrians poured sugar into the milk and gave it back, without spilling a single drop.
Read MoreI could relate to Devi a lot. Maybe it is because Devi wears striped shirts and mom jeans — things I wear every day, like a cartoon character -- maybe it’s her way of dealing with trauma, maybe it’s that the only emotion she expresses in public is anger and that she is constantly fixated on doing things that would look good on her university applications, or maybe it’s simply her relationship with her mother.
Read MoreAesthetics like Kaling’s seem unaware that you can be attached to your culture, informed by it, but also break it down, question it, tear it apart to create holes in it so more voices can come through. It is uncomfortable work, but it is possible –— I know many Indians and South-Asians across the world that do it every day.
Read MoreIlker Hepkaner and Sezgin Inceel are co-hosts of Yine Yeni Yeniden 90’lar, a podcast which analyzes 90s Turkish pop music from feminist and queer lenses. They wrote about the first pop songs they remember, and how it relates to issues of nostalgia and belonging.
Read MoreHollywood celebrates representation politics and white saviourism as it did in Green Book, The Help or Driving Miss Daisy. It tries to be something new when in fact, it stays very loyal to Hollywood’s legacy.
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