The recent rumblings over Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio’s choice for City Council Speaker, District 8 Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, have unearthed some of the gnarly underbelly of East Harlem political strife, and raised difficult questions about progressive politics. De Blasio’s involvement in “pushing” Mark-Viverito’s candidacy is being questioned because it apparently doesn’t have a recent precedent. […]
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Bill de Blasio’s Mixed-Race Strategy
You’ve seen this Bill de Blasio campaign ad now about a million times now, and it still resonates. Even with the sound off, muting the tight mix of progressive sloganeering (tax the rich, create affordable housing, stop stop and frisk), the message comes through. Here is a family living a happy middle class life, acting […]
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My Name Is Carlos
The farcical furor over Anthony Weiner’s candidacy for the mayor of New York has opened up another Pandora’s box containing the tortured narrative of American sexuality, as well as the problematic world of machismo and Latino masculinity, my tenuous relation to them, and the way sexism and racism keep vying to remain at the top […]
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