Talking Politics

(By Jeremy A. Rud, guest author) What do Donald Trump, George Santos, and every migrant applying for asylum in the United States have in common? They’ve all recently been charged with fraud. Rather than defaming abuse victims , defrauding campaign donors, or lying to Congress , asylum seekers face much subtler accusations: that their stories are untrue and their experiences insufficient to deserve life in the United States as refugees. Our global system of rigid national borders does more than divide territories. It also restricts access to resources and human rights by categorizing people. In many ways, our political and social institutions make this unavoidable. An immigration system that legally distinguishes refugees from other migrants requires categorization. Categorization requires a comparison between an individual’s claim and a legal definition, which results in an asylum adjudication—an official decision about whether that individual does or does not belong to the category of...

(By Yookyeong Im, guest author) Rainbow and BLM Banners Hung on the U.S. Embassy in South Korea…and Removed Content advisory: mentions of anti-Black violence and police brutality, quotations of anti-queer slogans On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea hung a large rainbow flag on its building to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. The flag was supposed to stay throughout June. However, it was removed after only two weeks.  The rainbow flag was not the only flag removed from the façade of the embassy building that day. Embassy staff also removed a large Black Lives Matter banner which had been displayed since June 13. According to media reports, the U.S. State Department might have requested the removals because of restrictions that prohibited local U.S. embassies to fly a rainbow flag on their flagpoles in Germany, Israel, Belarus, and many other countries. The State Department explained the reason for its request to remove the BLM banner by asserting that “Black Lives Ma...

  (By Joshua Babcock) In this roundtable, four scholars— Taras Fedirko , Jessica Greenberg , Sarah Muir , and Yukun Zeng —explored the divergent meanings and historical transformations in the categories of “left” and “right” across global contexts. Panelists did not approach “left” and “right” as a unitary, universal opposition that can be used to categorize all political phenomena, past and present. Instead, they explored how these categories act as a shortcut for accomplishing political ends—even in situations where the binary isn’t regularly or consistently invoked. Overall, the panelists considered how binary logics work to simplify a range of voices, interests, and projects. They connected these considerations to questions of pedagogy, organizing, and the imperative of developing both nonbinary analytics and political metalanguage. The panelists didn’t try to conclusively answer what “left/right” does or should mean, nor did they try to explain why self-styled “leftist” politi...

(By Anita Zandstra, guest author) |  Lea la entrada de blog en español “I am rubber and you are glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” – American playground chant Despite the glib tone of the mantra above, words can be extremely harmful. This is true not only on the schoolyard and playground, but also in politics. However, the very act of using this saying reveals a kernel of truth: there are ways to respond to an attack, insult, or slur—often using humor—that can deflect criticism from oneself while making the attacker look bad. This political strategy has been used countless times worldwide, but I focus my discussion here on a recent example from Bolivian right/left politics: the “Croaceños” memes, which circulated among Bolivian social media users in November 2022. Above: Screenshot of a TikTok. The text reads, “You are Bolivian but were born in Santa Cruz, so you have double nationality. Let’s go Croatia, dammit!” Above: In a photo posted to Facebo...