“The demand to abolish the illusion of race is a demand to abolish the conditions that require illusion.”

—from Richard Lewontin's “Weird Science”

 

TRANSITION 69: Table of Contents

 

REMEMBRANCE____________________

Founding editor Rajat Neogy (1938-1995) remembered
Paul Theroux
Ali A. Mazrui
Wole Soyinka

POSITIONS____________________

For Polite Reactionaries
From holidays in the sun to sojourns in the killing fields, from fear at home to travel abroad, The Atlantic Monthly explodes myths and counters received opinion:“Dan Quayle was right!” “The public intellectuals are back — and suddenly, they're black!” “Abraham Lincoln was pro-life!” Charles Sugnet downs the Atlantic.

It's Raining Men
When Louis Farrakhan called the Million Man March “a glimpse of Heaven,” did he mean that there are no women in paradise (except Maya Angelou)? And what did the presence of proud black gay men do to the logic of the event? Robert Reid Pharr considers.

Unmasking Marcos
The Zapatista leader was a McLuhanesque anti-hero in the Mexican jungle, a rakish wordsmith sending communiqués — by fax and email — to media outlets the world over. But when the Mexican government revealed his “true” identity, El Sup fell silent. Ilan Stavans traces the itinerary of Subcomandante Marcos.

Iconophobia
Why do anthropologists get so nervous around the camera? Lucien Taylor talks about words, things, and the moving picture.

UNDER REVIEW____________________

Extreme Prejudice
Dinesh D'Souza started the boom in conservative desk-top publishing by founding the Dartmouth Review. Now, with Charles Murray, he's become the intellectual darling of the New Right. Michael Bérubé details the end of civility.

Wither Marxism?
With world communism on the ropes, the most visible specter of Marx is the profusion of academic books bearing his name. Russell Jacoby wonders what's left.

As You Like It
Boy meets girl: neverending story or heterosexual propaganda? Steven Burt ponders love, labels, and lesbian boys.

African Art in a Suitcase
Is folk art still authentic in a Long Island living room? Sidney L. Kasfir observes how value travels.

Young Adorno
The principal theorist of the Frankfurt school is remembered as an arch-pessimist, scorning the smack and tang of the popular for an austere vision of high-culture redemption. Alex Ross argues for the lighter side of Dr. No.

Weird Science
The Holocaust put a temporary end to the marriage of science and racism. But at some of North America's most respected institutions, the thrill is back, and it's anti black. Richard Lewontin considers the Bell-Curve crowd.

Mongrel America
Will Shaquille O'Neal ever get to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade? Michael Lind charts the prospects for a “post-ethnic” America.

The Pink and the Black
Did Thatcherism put an end to the great postwar consensus, making race-baiting and homo-hating socially acceptable? Or did the old liberal alliance already contain the germ of intolerance? Chris Waters reflects.

The Double Bind
Is black history incidental to the modern world, or the key to it? Stanley Aronowitz contemplates Richard Wright and diaspora dilemmas.

CONVERSATION____________________

Autopsy of Terror
Raoul Peck, Haiti's premier filmmaker, talks with critic Clyde Taylor about being Haitian, thinking German, making movies and living dangerously.

Back To Archive