Articles by Robert Jensen
Diversity Dead-End: Inclusiveness Without Accountability
Common Dreams ·
After a recent talk on racism and other illegitimate hierarchies at a diversity conference in Dallas, I received a letter from one of the people who had attended that asked “why you feel it necessary to perpetuate and even exacerbate the divisiveness of language when addressing a group of people assembled to learn how to live better together and be more accepting of differences?” He suggested that by being so sharply critical, I was part of the problem not the solution.
The Collapse of Journalism/The Journalism of Collapse: New Storytelling and a New Story
Resilience.org ·
There is considerable attention paid in the United States to the collapse of journalism — both in terms of the demise of the business model for corporate commercial news media, and the evermore superficial, shallow, and senseless content that is inadequate for citizens concerned with self-governance. This collapse is part of larger crises in the political and economic spheres, crises rooted in the incompatibility of democracy and capitalism. New journalistic vehicles for storytelling are desperately needed.
There has been far less discussion of the need for a journalism of collapse — the challenge to tell the story of a world facing multiple crises in the realms of social justice and sustainability. This collapse of the basic political and economic systems of the modern world, with dramatic consequences on the human and ecological fronts, demands not only new storytelling vehicles but a new story.
What White People Fear
YES! magazine ·
In the struggle for racial justice, it’s time to pay more attention to the fears of white people.
In a white-dominated world, that may seem counterintuitive. In the racial arena, what do we white people have to be afraid of?
’Getting rid of hope and faith’: Abe Osheroff on the struggle for a better world
Counterpunch ·
After a recent talk about the struggle for social justice and the threats to the ecosystem, a student lingered, waiting to talk to me alone, as if he had something to confess.
“I feel so overwhelmed,” he finally said, wondering aloud if political organizing could really make a difference. The young man said he often felt depressed, not about the circumstances of his own life but about the possibilities for change. Finally, he looked at me and asked, “Once you see what’s happening — I mean really see it — how are you supposed to act like everything is going to be OK?”
NY Times: No conflict of interest – with the conventional wisdom
Counterpunch ·
The New York Times’ public editor wrestled this week with conflict-of-interest charges sparked by the revelation that Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner’s son had joined the Israeli army. The executive editor of the paper responded with a defense of the paper’s decision to keep Bronner in that position.
Interview: A progressive path to the prophetic voice
New Left Project; Progressive Christianity ·
Great television/bad journalism: Media failures in Haiti coverage
Counterpunch ·
CNN’s star anchor Anderson Cooper narrates a chaotic street scene in Port-au-Prince. A boy is struck in the head by a rock thrown by a looter from a roof. Cooper helps him to the side of the road, and then realizes the boy is disoriented and unable to get away. Laying down his digital camera (but still being filmed by another CNN camera), Cooper picks up the boy and lifts him over a barricade to safety, we hope.
War, ecological crises, and the quest for justice: An interview with Robert Jensen
The Rag Blog ·
If you feel overwhelmed, it’s because we face an overwhelming situation.
Is Obama a Socialist?
Counterpunch ·
For months, leftists have been pointing out the absurdity of the claim that Barack Obama is a socialist. But no matter how laughable, the claim keeps popping up, most recently in the form of the Republican Party chairman’s warning of “a socialist power grab” by Democrats.
Teachable Moments Require Willing Learners
Countercurrents ·
Honoring President Obama’s request that the controversy involving a black Harvard University professor and a white Cambridge police officer become “a teachable moment,” here’s my contribution to an old lesson that we white people tend to be slow to learn.
Getting Radicalized, Slow and Painful
The Rag Blog ·
Becoming a radical: The grief and the joy
Becoming radicalized politically allowed me to see that I was suffering because I didn’t want to fit into a world shaped by unjust systems; the problem wasn’t my values and desires but the pathology of those systems.
South Africa Isn’t Post-Racial Either
Colorlines ·
Conversations about race in places like Cape Town sound eerily similar to those happening in the United States.
Feminism’s Challenge: Articulating Alternatives to Unsustainable Hierarchies
Common Dreams ·
“What is the most important challenge facing women in the 21st century, and why?”
That one isn’t easy for anyone to answer, especially in 300 words or less. But that was the assignment from editors of the University of Texas’ web site for faculty members contributing to the “Many Voices of Feminism” collection
Beyond Grief and Rage: Palestine and the Politics of Resistance
Dissident Voice; Austin American-Statesman ·
All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice
·
My book All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice (Soft Skull Press, 2009) offers a radical approach to Christian theology. Because the book is currently not in stock, the publisher has given me permission to make available a free PDF of the book.
Real Hope: Facing Difficult Truths About an Uncertain Future
Dissident Voice ·
Expressions of hope are only as truly hopeful as the honesty of the assessment of reality from which they emerge. Conjuring up hope rooted in a denial of reality can only deepen despair in the long run.
Still riding the Second Wave: Reflections on feminist struggles
ZNet ·
Interview with Ruth Anne Koenick.
I met Ruth Anne Koenick at a dinner before my talk on the feminist critique of pornography at Rutgers University in 1997. I had been doing public presentations on that issue for several years, but that was the first time an institution had paid my plane fare to give a lecture. As a young professor, I was a bit nervous but also was feeling pretty self-important.
Arrogance, Ignorance, and Cowardice: Lessons from 9/11
Monthly Review Zine ·
Given the disastrous decisions made by U.S. officials in the seven long years since September 11, 2001, it would be easy tonight simply to catalog those many mistakes and condemn the bipartisan depravity of the Republican and Democratic politicians who — starting almost immediately after the towers fell — manipulated people’s anger and fear to build support for illegal and immoral wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Universal Patterns within Cultural Diversity: Patriarchy Makes Men Crazy and Stupid
Monthly Review Zine ·
Islamabad, Pakistan — Some lessons learned while spending time in a different culture come from paying attention to the wide diversity in how we humans arrange ourselves socially. Equally crucial lessons come from seeing patterns in how people behave similarly in similar situations, even in very different cultural contexts.
Masculine, Feminine or Human?
Counterpunch ·
In a guest lecture about masculinity to a college class, I ask the students to generate two lists that might help clarify the concept.
For the first, I tell them to imagine themselves as parents whose 12-year-old son asks, “Mommy/daddy, what does is mean to be a man?” The list I write on the board as they respond is not hard to predict: To be a man is to be strong, responsible, loving. Men provide for those around them and care for others. A man weathers tough times and doesn’t give up.
The Selling and Shaping of Our Souls
Counterpunch ·
This is an edited version of a sermon delivered May 4, 2008, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.
The last time I was in this pulpit to deliver a guest sermon, I spoke of the need for each of us to take up the role of prophet, to not be afraid of speaking in the prophetic voice, even when doing so involves risk.
Today I want to talk about the other kind of profit, the allure of which can so often quiet the prophetic voice within us.
The sorrows of race and gender in the 2008 presidential election
Counterpunch ·
It may seem odd to talk of sorrows around race and gender in politics when we are a few months away from being able to vote for a white woman or a black man for president of the United States. When I was born in 1958, any suggestion that such an election was on the horizon would have been laughed off as crazy. In the first presidential campaign I paid attention to as an eighth-grader in 1972, Shirley Chisholm — who four years earlier had become the first black woman to win a seat in Congress — was to most Americans a curiosity not a serious contender. Today, things are different.
The End of Osheroff’s Dance: Lessons from a Life of Resistance and Love
Monthly Review Zine ·
As Abe Osheroff’s body slowly began to betray him in his 80s and 90s, one of his favorite lines was, “I have one foot in the grave but the other keeps dancing.”
That dance ended on Sunday, April 6, when the 92-year-old Osheroff died of a heart attack at his Seattle home.
Osheroff is remembered most for his rich life of political activism. From the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War to streets all across the United States, he was a master strategist, energetic organizer, and courageous fighter.
Beyond Peace
Dissident Voice ·
It has long been a staple of the antiwar movement that there can be no meaningful peace without justice on a global scale. Those of us living in the First World, especially in the United States, cannot pretend to be working for peace unless we also are working for a more just and equitable distribution of the world’s resources.