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About the Author
John L. Jackson Jr. is an associate professor of communication and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness (2008), Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (2005), and Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (2001). He will be writing about racial politics, religion, and contemporary popular culture.
About Brainstorm
Mark Bauerlein
Marc Bousquet
Laurie Fendrich
Dan Greenberg
John L. Jackson Jr.
Stan Katz
Michael Nelson, guest blogger
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
Brainstorm Alumni
Marty Nemko, guest bloggerBob Zemsky
Recent Posts
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Featured Articles By the Author
An Inspirational Conference ...
I am on the road, conducting some research abroad and unable to get myself to a proper computer. So, I just figured that I’d see if I could use my Blackberry to link-up and check-in. So far, so good.
As part of my road trip, I just finished giving a 30-minute presentation on my African Hebrews project for the 2008 ACS Crossroads conference (“Of Sacred Crossroads”) at the University of the West Indies (Mona campus) in Kingston, Jamaica.
The organizers put on a truly fabulous intellectual gathering, and I got a chance to reconnect with old colleagues over some Jamaican staples — ackee and saltfish in the mornings and Red Stripe beer at night.
There were many highlights during the event, but a series of sessions on Rastafari stood out as exceptionally compelling to me, especially since Rastafarianism’s Hebrew/Jewish iconography (including their purposeful deployment of the Star of David) and investment in Ital cuisine demonstrate obvious links/overlaps with the African Hebrews of Jerusalem.
Since I am on my Blackberry, I won’t waste time trying to figure out how to link to a piece on the African Hebrews that I co-wrote with Ahmadiel Ben Yehuda earlier this year for myjewishlearning.com, but if you want to find out more about the African Americans who left Chicago for Israel in the 1960s (including what they are doing now), you can find the piece online.
(Brainstorm editor’s note: The myjewishlearning.com piece is here. And an ackee and saltfish picture is here!)
Posted at 07:10:47 AM on July 8, 2008 | All postings by John L. Jackson Jr.
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hey john,
here is part two of the village voice’s article on madonna constantine released today…
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-02/news/columbia-s-knotty-noose-problem
as a forrmer graduate student and alum of columbia, it truly pains me to see how these events have unfolded…i can only wonder about the negative implications this will undoubtedly have on future black scholars seeking academic tenured posts nationwide…whether the accusations of plagarism are true or not, this will inevitably perpetuate a resistance among many institutions in their recruitment of black scholars for full-time faculty posts. And if not all out resistance, then you can sure bet your bottom dollar that the vetting process will be fierce!
— thinkingoutloud · Jul 9, 08:25 AM · #