Some of the things I’ve learned in four decades of academic and activist work, and the books that were important to me at the beginning of that education.

Cornelia Gipson is trying to understand the hold that whiteness has on white people.

In this interview, Jensen reflects on tensions in contemporary intellectual and political life in the United States.

A realistic assessment of race, sex/gender, and ecological crises are not attractive campaign positions.

This essay is adapted from It’s Debatable: Talking Authentically about Tricky Topics, published by Olive Branch Press. https://robertwjensen.org/books/its-debatable/

The controversy over the public display of Confederate symbols seems to be a permanent part of American politics and culture. As we come to know more about the morally repulsive aspects of our national history—and, more importantly, face those realities—removing symbols of our collective failure in the past is not an attempt to deny our history. Rather, it is a sign of growth, a willingness to face our history. Such work is not mere political correctness or wokeness but a sign of maturity, intellectual and moral. It is nothing more than common decency.

An analysis of the controversy over Drag Story Hour, from a radical feminist perspective.

In this essay I want to present a case for a practical radical politics—holding onto radical analyses while making decisions based on our best reading of the threats and opportunities in the moment. This requires consistency in analysis (which is always a good thing) while being wary of dogmatism in strategy (which is almost always a bad thing).

My plan is to articulate the values on which my worldview is based; identify the hierarchical systems within the human family that undermine those values; and describe the history of the ecological break between the human family and the larger living world. From the analytical, I will offer thoughts on coping with the specific political moment of 2022 in the United States and with long-term global ecological realities. I have no grand strategy to propose, but instead will try to face my fears about the tenuous nature of life today politically and the even more tenuous nature of what lies ahead ecologically.

Working for what is possible requires commitment. Recognizing what is not possible requires humility. All of it requires us to embrace the anguish that is inevitable if we face the future without illusions.

The expanded public space for conversation about racial justice in recent years has not always led to greater precision in how we use words. More clarity in definitions of systemic, structural, and institutional racism would help sharpen analysis and guide policy choices. This essay offers one way to make sense of individual versus institutional forms of white supremacy while distinguishing between systemic and structural factors. In addition to critiquing the dominant culture, I also point to failures of analysis on the left. My goal is to go beyond jargon and dogma that fosters in-group solidarity, in the hopes of contributing to a truly intersectional analysis.

A version of this essay was presented to an online Diversity & Inclusion gathering on August 12, 2021.

This essay is an expanded version of my review of Ijeoma Oluo’s book _Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America_ that appeared in the magazine’s print edition.

A review of Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo

When a European graduate student emailed to ask if I would participate in an assignment to “do an interview with one of my favourite authors,” I said yes. My books have not exactly been best-sellers, and so I was an easy target for anyone describing me as a “favourite author.”