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Text of the page (random words):
d with the immutable characteristic of white skin but such a fact would mean that we are then less responsible for racist behavior if we re born with it we can t in a philosophical sense be absolutely responsible for it children s books about becoming anti racist don t help no matter how trendy they are there are so many beautiful stories about and written by important black figures that do more to fight racism in my opinion but i m mostly concerned about the question of ethical responsibility here if you ve followed my scholarly work you know that emmanuel levinas is central to how i see things i don t always do the right or best thing and i certainly don t always get it right i am after all continuously learning but i try to always keep levinas s ideas about responsibility at the forefront of my thinking and writing and hopefully my own behavior for levinas we aren t simply responsible for all of our own actions but also for the responsibility of the other it s a tremendous burden in some ways i suppose at any rate it seems to me that arguing that humans are born racist makes people less responsible for racist behavior racism is not imprinted on our dna it is learned and cultivated in racist environments we must be responsible for our actions rather than our biology if we want to build a more inclusive and equal society from the piece it should be obvious that taking away the culpability we bear for racist behavior just like insisting that babies and children should notice people s race before anything else is dangerously close if not downright identical to the justifications and processes that enabled the overt racism of darker times posted by monica at 5 45 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday march 04 2021 critical race theory should not have the only seat at the table outrage is vital but if not carefully calibrated moral outrage can quickly descend into something less moral and increasingly unethical discussions of critical race theory are all over social media the past few months some see it as the greatest of all evils while others think it s the only way to analyze every societal problem in both cases polarizing perspectives are shaped more by outrage than critical thought what if crt is a good thing as long as it s not occupying all seats at the table my piece at the jewish journal of los angeles posted by monica at 2 27 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels abar anti bias antibias criticalracetheory crt racism saturday february 27 2021 diversity equity inclusion let s do it the right way efforts to support diversity and inclusion are some of the most important work we can undertake but it has to be done right or it will backfire and cause immeasurable harm to all communities especially those it claims to help especially when social justice has a political agenda the outcome is often division and resentment rather than community and meaningful dialogue in schools the issue is especially fraught as many institutions that should be educating children have put academics on the back burner and are instead teaching them to analyze their peers based on race and on whom is oppressing whom we need to get beyond seeing everyone as part of the oppressor oppressed dichotomy we need to stop making judgments about people based on the color of their skin we need to see people as individuals rather than inseparable from racial groups my piece on this topic is featured as half the debate of the week in newsweek read it here and also check out the other side as well from pamela denise long also a great essay with important points posted by monica at 12 54 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday january 02 2021 the bias of anti bias training over the past six months we ve seen an exponential increase in people calling themselves experts in anti bias and anti racism training schools and businesses have rushed to bring in these facilitators not necessarily to fix something that is wrong in the culture of the school or business but to signal that they are anti racist the buzzy phrase made popular by the work of ibram x kendi and rejected by a growing number of black and other intellectuals as in many cases it s more important to create a show of solidarity with trendy causes than it is to actually address the very real issues of racism antisemitism and bigotry of all kinds two months ago my son s la school hosted one of these so called anti bias training sessions for parents and the result was disastrous the big takeaway antisemitism always gets a pass so i wrote a piece about what happened and the ongoing fallout read it over at the forward it s the first of three pieces that will be published in different venues buckle up posted by monica at 2 41 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels abar anti bias anti racist antibias antiracist antisemitism racism teachingtolerance woke tuesday november 24 2020 material things matter the pandemic has taught us a variety of things while many people claim that it has taught them what really matters and the value of spending time with family i actually think it has shown us just how important material things are here s my piece on why they matter in general and why they are especially important in this collective moment posted by monica at 12 22 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday august 24 2020 the end of moral certainty for the past few months i ve been agonizing about what i see as a doubling down from people on both sides of the political spectrum people s certainty when it comes to everything has increased which is troubling to me given that our current social and political climate is anything but conducive to that kind of mindset if anything now is the time to question everything to think outside of our own circles and ideologies the novelist e l doctorow once wrote that doubt is the greatest stabilizer and he s right maybe we need a little more doubt and a little less certainty with all this in mind i wrote a piece on the end of moral certainty and how studying midrash gave me that understanding for the jewish journal you can read it here posted by monica at 2 12 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday may 14 2020 is laughter the key to surviving a pandemic i can tell you that no laughter probably isn t the key to surviving a pandemic but it s certainly one of the things that will help us get through it without completely and utterly dying inside i wrote the cover story for a recent issue of the jewish journal about why laughter is so important right now really don t stop laughing except when it s time to cry posted by monica at 11 14 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels comedy coronavirus covid covid 19 humor laughter thursday november 14 2019 the great lie my father died a little over a month ago on yom kippur they say to write what you know and what i know now at least for the time being is grief so i wrote a piece about grieving and loss and all the things they never tell you about it you can read it here at the jewish journal above is a photo of my husband and i and some of our friends and family laughing and toasting as my dad gives a speech ending with a request for a grandchild he got one ten months later his first grandson posted by monica at 11 40 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday august 12 2019 intersectionality and anti semitism so i wrote this thing about intersectionality bds and anti semitism over at the jewish journal of los angeles it s actually the cover story of the issue this week it was probably the most difficult thing i ve ever written even more difficult than my dissertation or my book on trauma and by the way i mean check out that price what a steal i have a lot of opinions about the topic and honestly i talk about it all the time but i almost never write about it but when i was asked to review cary nelson s outstanding new book israel denial there was no way i could say no and so it morphed into this whole calling out of intersectionality and the ways in which it has devolved into something to be used against jews there s a reason i almost never write about israel i wrote one piece for the chronicle of higher education and i think that s it it s challenging to avoid saying what s already been said repeating the same lines over and over preaching to the choir i have no interest in that what s the purpose but i think i did something a little different here i ve gotten some amazing feedback for the most part i ve also gotten two nasty comments messages from people in my field and a few people on twitter accusing me of saying things i never said but that s the thing people want to be outraged don t they all i know is that i m trying not to be i m trying to see both sides of every issue and i m always trying to do the right thing it s never easy posted by monica at 12 54 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels academia anti semitism anti zionism cary nelson intersectionality israel descent into trauma madness and meaning i wrote a review of ruby namdar s brilliant novel the ruined house over at the jewish journal read it here posted by monica at 12 43 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday march 13 2019 the power of community people always say that having kids teaches you things i think it would be more accurate to say that having a child forces you to learn or realize things it s a subtle but important difference and honestly i m forced to learn things all the time in this regard here s my piece on one lesson i learned from my son on the importance of community at the jewish journal posted by monica at 12 13 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday february 08 2019 little more than pariah s on david shrayer petrov s doctor levitin i was recently asked to review david shrayer petrov s novel doctor levitin for the los angeles review of books the novel was written secretly in russia during shrayer petrov s time as a refusenik and has only now been translated into english read the review here posted by monica at 4 23 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday september 23 2018 power in academia i wrote a piece on power in academia for the jewish journal as a response to the avital ronell scandal and the equally offensive defense of her actions by celebrity scholars like judith butler and others the original piece was 800 words over the length limit and i still was not finished saying what needed to be said but brevity rules in the world of soundbite journalism at any rate you can read my piece here coincidentally my original draft contained personal anecdotes including a story from 2008 about a film professor named lance duerfahrd just days after i published my piece at the jewish journal i happened to read this story about a student from purdue university who is suing him and accusing him of sexual assault there were multiple complaints of this nature against this man who was also i should add a very poor scholar with a heavily padded cv as early as 2008 but the english department chose not to treat them seriously i wonder what they think of those complaints now i hope those who were complicit in burying them will have to answer for what they have done posted by monica at 9 36 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels academia avital ronell jewish journal lance duerfahrd power purdue university thursday august 23 2018 making absence visible remembering claude lanzmann upon hearing about his death i wrote a piece about claude lanzmann i didn t realize it was going to be called an obituary but here it is his film shoah was one of the most important works with regard to my own thinking about what it means to talk about trauma in the most ethical and authentic way i once taught a college freshman writing class in which i had the students watch all of the more than 8 hour film for the first two weeks of class and then when we had finished i said okay now write about something traumatic you experienced in your own lives or about something you witnessed i know it sounds crazy i had done so at the suggestion of my former dissertation advisor sandor goodhart whom i had called to complain about having to teach a freshman writing course he suggested i turn it into something that fit my expertise he said it would work and he was right it was one of the best and most real teaching experiences i ever had posted by monica at 11 37 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest philip roth literary king of the jews my tribute to philip roth literary king over at the jewish journal posted by monica at 11 33 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom about me monica studio city california united states i am a writer storyteller and former professor ucla pepperdine lmu purdue with expertise in representations of trauma multi ethnic literatures christianity and judaism immigrant narratives and critical theory i m a graduate of the cornell school of criticism and theory i love to create stories i adore books wine traveling and shoes i wrote a book called the midrashic impulse and the contemporary literary response to trauma and have published pieces in newsweek the new republic the jewish journal the los angeles review of books the chronicle of higher education the forward and other places view my complete profile blog archive 2022 1 february 1 the progressive left s cruelty toward the unvaccin 2021 4 april 1 march 1 february 1 january 1 2020 3 november 1 august 1 may 1 2019 5 november 1 august 2 march 1 february 1 2018 4 september 1 august 2 march 1 2017 8 december 1 november 1 october 3 may 1 march 1 january 1 2016 4 december 1 april 1 february 1 january 1 2015 2 july 1 april 1 2014 2 march 1 january 1 2013 3 may 1 april 1 march 1 2012 12 december 1 november 1 september 2 august 1 june 2 may 1 april 2 march 1 january 1 2011 12 november 1 october 1 september 1 august 1 july 1 june 1 may 1 march 1 february 1 january 3 2010 20 december 1 october 1 september 1 august 2 july 3 june 2 may 1 april 2 march 1 february 3 january 3 2009 36 december 1 november 2 october 2 september 2 august 4 july 2 june 8 may 3 april 3 march 3 february 3 january 3 2008 38 december 2 november 7 october 4 september 2 august 2 july 3 june 2 may 3 april 2 march 4 february 4 january 3 2007 45 december 2 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