“American racial laws would have classified Pushkin variously as mulatto, octoroon, Negro, or white.”

—from Anne Lounsbery's “Soul Man”

 

TRANSITION 84: Table of Contents

 

DISPATCHES____________________

Tomb Raider
Everybody wants a piece of St. Francis Xavier. The Goans have his torso, the Romans have his wrists; one pilgrim even tried to bite off his big toe. And somewhere off the coast of China, there is a shrine to his elbow. Naresh Fernandes goes in search of a one-man diaspora.

The People's Court
It's not easy to prosecute genocide, especially in Rwanda—where most of the judges and lawyers perished in the slaughter. With 125,000 suspects crowded into 160 jails, justice is a logistical nightmare. Now the governmentis asking villages to take the law into their own hands. Farah Stockman looks at justice, Rwandan-style.

POSITIONS____________________

Soul Man
Two hundred years after his birth, Alexander Pushkin still towers over Russian cultureÑpopulist demigod, literary maverick, spiritual aristocrat. But the godfather of Russian literature was also the grandson of an African slave. Anne Lounsbery reflects on the paradoxes of Russia's race man.

Reading César
The legend of César Chávez has been celebrated in murals, commodified by Apple Computer, obliterated by time. So what does the Chicano leader have to say to the era of Elián González, Taco Bell, and Big Pun? Ilan Stavans reconsiders an icon.

The Telltale Heart
Black Muslims think organ donation is a racist plot. Japanese Buddhists think heart transplant surgeons are murderers. And a growing number of critics think Western doctors are medically advanced but ethically retarded. Trevor Corson reports from the frontlines of the free death debate.

UNDER REVIEW____________________

A Gentle Angry People
Once upon a time, the word “lesbian” conjured a world of lavender, liberation, and ladies in the woods. Then came a hip, high-profile cavalcade of sitcom stars and drag kings, pop singers and porn stars. Heather Love considers queer identity politics.

FICTION____________________

A Is For Ancestors
Of rats and men.
By George Makana Clark

Thorns
A solitary ordeal.
By Yvonne Vera

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