
Fascinating interview with Jennifer Makumbi:
The reality is, as I keep saying, that we all read differently. Remember for a long time, African writers have complained or have been surprised by the way their books are perceived in Europe. For example, in many parts of sub Saharan Africa, Arrow of God is seen as Achebe’s best novel but for some reason the rest of the world claims it is Things Fall Apart. And then again in Things Fall Apart, Achebe’s attention to the idea of fear as a human condition which drives us to great achievement and then destroy us just as quickly is crucial in many parts of Africa. This is ignored in Europe; to them all that Things Fall Apart does is focus on European action in Africa.
The Ivy League and how to deal with the legacy of slavery:
In 2003, Brown University president Ruth Simmons opened an investigation into the school’s role in the slave trade. The findings exhumed unsettling accounts of the many ways in which important founders of the institution participated in and benefited from slavery, including the use of slave labor to construct the oldest and most iconic building on campus, University Hall. Rather than burying these revelations, university president Christina Paxon dedicated a slavery memorial sculpture that now sits on the campus main green during the school’s 250th anniversary celebrations this September, and, in October, a new Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice was opened. Each of these initiatives stemmed from university officials’ desire to acknowledge and make amends.
Our very own Jaya on An Untamed State and The Hunger Games.
A conversation about rape and wanting for words.
HOW watermelons became a racist trope:
Newspapers amplified this association between the watermelon and the free black person. In 1869, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper published perhaps the first caricature of blacks reveling in watermelon. The adjoining article explained, “The Southern negro in no particular more palpably exhibits his epicurean tastes than in his excessive fondness for watermelons. The juvenile freedman is especially intense in his partiality for that refreshing fruit.”
Scripps College is now admitting trans women.
I was relieved to see, upon actually watching the footage, that this person trying to back out of the parking spot is actually a fool, because I myself have made some really embarrassing 345 point turns in my day, and still think about this guy in a white van who witnessed me taking like five full minutes to remove myself from the hospital parking garage last month.
Deaths in The Illiad: A Classics Infographic!
Nicole is an Editor of The Toast.
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allanaaa 94p · 538 weeks ago
longlostlullaby 122p · 538 weeks ago
safvn 121p · 538 weeks ago
SilentTrystera 117p · 538 weeks ago
citizenchristy 120p · 538 weeks ago
One year on my birthday, my husband was an hour late to pick me up from my office. When he got there, my only solace was that he brought me a stuffed Appa as penance/a pre-planned gift.
What I'm saying is, DUDES AM I RIGHT
kjschapira 108p · 538 weeks ago
allanaaa 94p · 538 weeks ago
I don't have Facebook, so the only messages I get are from my mother, my dentist, and some websites I don't remember signing up for. It's pretty great.
smeesmeesmee 117p · 538 weeks ago
Ethylbenzene 119p · 538 weeks ago
thescelosaurus 117p · 538 weeks ago
Language is hard, and talking about violence is harder, and reaching across borders and boundaries and working for change is the hardest. It seems like so many separate conversations, sometimes.
katekari 132p · 538 weeks ago
RosemarysFav 121p · 538 weeks ago
winterbymorning 133p · 538 weeks ago
eastcoastanne 103p · 538 weeks ago
raqueue 115p · 538 weeks ago
kilks401 119p · 538 weeks ago
jessicalhdoyle 88p · 538 weeks ago
(I am better now. Meeting with one of my dissertation advisers at 1:30. Apprehensive.)
katekari 132p · 538 weeks ago
This article just accomplished the formidable task of making me feel happy and calm despite: Tuesday morning, winter, insomnia due to panic attacks, stack of marking due in five days, impending menstruation, #NorthernRacism of both USian and Canadian varieties (and all other countries that have a northern part), basically everything that is not toast or The Toast.
bckcntry 108p · 538 weeks ago
projectbeks 119p · 538 weeks ago
mmejoy 121p · 538 weeks ago
I do social media for the academic library where I work. Last night, A Man tweeted "So when is Rolling Stone being moved to the fiction section, library?"
I have stared at/thought about this damn tweet for nearly 12 hours. We could ignore it, as it's just one guy who makes anti-affirmative action jokes (yes, really). On the other hand, this is an educational institution and I would take to school any student who said something like this to my face.
So I'm thinking links. Something higher-ed appropriate that pushes back against the nonsense that RS has pulled in the past several days. Anyone got something good?
bird_internet 123p · 538 weeks ago
hearyoume 113p · 538 weeks ago
(using DoNotLink because Slate doesn't deserve the clicks)
literarysara 119p · 538 weeks ago
ETA: reply to bird_internet, above. (Normally I delete my comment and re-post when it becomes disengaged from the thread, but The Toast as viewed through Firefox is particularly slow and choppy today.)
perianwen 105p · 538 weeks ago
TW for this first one - http://www.sascwr.org/files/www/resources_pdfs/po... http://www.angelfire.com/ca/iloveDave/mysg.html (sorry for the dodgy webpage but it's the most complete one I could find)
danny · 538 weeks ago
A brief excerpt:
ECHEPOLUS a perfect fighter
Always ahead of his men
Known for his cold seed-like concentration
Moving out and out among the spears
Died at the hands of Antilochus
You can see the hole in the helmet just under the ridge
Where the point of the blade passed through
And stuck in his forehead
Letting the darkness leak down over his eyes
Part of it is here: http://www.thepoetrytrust.org/podcast_poem/memori... & there are some YouTubes of her reading it.
alicia 114p · 538 weeks ago
J_M · 538 weeks ago
hearyoume 113p · 538 weeks ago
jlper 125p · 538 weeks ago
mkpatter 114p · 538 weeks ago
thedaela 124p · 538 weeks ago
All I've read so far is this: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/09/...
My stomach is churning.
gravity_is 102p · 538 weeks ago
vmartinipie 113p · 538 weeks ago
ugggggghhhhhh
AmazingSandwich 109p · 538 weeks ago
E. · 538 weeks ago
Every time the driver backs up or goes forward, one of those proximity alarms goes off. You can see it happening in the timing. Reverse. Alarm sounds as it senses car/curb/snowbank. The driver panics. Better go in the other direction! Too close! Alarm sounds as it senses car/curb/snowbank. And then the driver realizes the proximity alarm is bullshit. No toddlers are chasing bouncing balls behind the vehicle, no, it is only a car/curb/snowbank. So the driver feels justified, becomes desperate to leave, and goes all in and demonstrates how not to drive, anywhere, ever and the ear-breaking, insistent proximity alarm sounds continually inside the car, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, further stressing and distracting the driver and making more bad judgement calls more likely. I am guessing also that this driver has not been driving that car long, because most people disable that sucker if they can. And I'd guess the driver is unaccustomed to parking other than in the wide spacious lots of suburbia, but inexperience with the vehicle could do the same thing. Note the driver's unawareness of what the turning radius of the SUV is. Wide sloppy curves again and again.
I fucking hate those proximity alarms. If visibility from the driver's seat is that bad, the car should be redesigned.
emlorark · 538 weeks ago
raqueue 115p · 538 weeks ago
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/...
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