mdawkins's blog

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and the Soundtrack of Desire

...full text also available at Sounding Out! and Cultural Weekly

 


Victoria's secret show 2008    
As a consumer, you’ve experienced desire: that longing for someone, that appetite for something more, that expectation of pleasure and satisfaction that comes from getting what you want. Whether what you want ranges from an ideal body type, to a cool technological gadget, to fashionable clothes or new cars, someone beautiful is out there selling it to you—beautifully.


Mentioned in The Times Herald

...full text available at The Times Herald

Prof. Walter Greason of Ursinus College mentions Dr. Dawkins's research on hip hop and popular culture and how it contributes to our understanding of contemporary democracy and protest.


Interviewed on KPFK's Truthdig Radio: Reassessing the #Cainwreck

...full audio available at Truthdig Radio

Dr. Dawkins appears on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK to talk about the end of Herman Cain’s campaign.


Mixed Marriage Ban: Only In Appalachia?‏

...full text also available at Trans/Missions

Since the 1980s, news media have portrayed interracial romantic relationships as a persistently volatile fault line in America's racial divide. Other reports, in contrast, have suggested that the significance of race is declining, that religious practitioners are growing increasingly colorblind and that we've entered an era in which issues of racism are yesterday's news. Still, while national news media now report that attitudes toward interracial dating and marriage are becoming more liberal, the increasing likelihood of interracial romantic relationships continues to challenge the beliefs of some who are empowered at the local level to impose group sanctions in secular and religious circles alike.


Reassessing the #Cainwreck

...full text also available at Truthdig


    

It’s official: “The American people won't be raising Cain in 2012!” With these words, Herman Cain has pledged to suspend his candidacy in the race for the Republican nomination. Cain’s train was derailed Monday by Ginger White, who claims to have had a 13-year “inappropriate relationship” with the candidate. Cain denies the affair but can’t deny the impact this news had on this campaign.


"Invisible Forces" by Rafael Matos, Sr.

...full text also available at Cultural Weekly

 
Rafael joven    
Grandpa, your work reminds me that there is so much for which to be thankful even if we can’t see it. For the world around us and the beauty that thrives in the face of ugliness. For the fact that we are empowered even though so much that happens to us really is out of our control. For both the gentle breeze that ushers in peace and the violent gale that takes it away. For the way it feels to know that you remain one of my “invisible forces” even though you are no longer here.


The GOP’s Outsider Within

...full text also available at Truthdig


    

Has the GOP done much for African-Americans since it ended slavery in 1863? The answer is a resounding yes if you talk to presidential candidate Herman Cain, its latest “not hyphenated ABC” (American black conservative). Cain casts himself as an outsider, a black Main Street CEO who is ready to unleash true innovation and change upon Washington. But he’s really more like an outsider within, as it was revealed recently that the candidate is proud to be on the Koch brothers’ bankroll—aka, Americans for Prosperity. For that reason and others, Cain says he poses a credible threat to President Obama. And, as he tells it, liberals of all backgrounds should be cowering because he is something the president is not: a “real black man.”


Dances With Aliens?: A Look At Multiracialism in "Avatar"

Dr. Dawkins shares her thoughts on multiracial identities, interracial romantic relationships, media and James Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar at the 2011 American Studies Association Conference.




Featured on WFRG's Just Peace: The Meanings of Mixed Race

...full audio available at WFRG Radio

Dr. Dawkins discusses racial passing, mixed race identities, media and culture with Dr. Nadia Ali on two episodes of WFRG's "Just Peace".


Interviewed on KPFK's Truthdig Radio: The Spiritual Side of Identity

...full audio available at Truthdig Radio

Dr. Dawkins talks with Truthdig's Kasia Anderson about her recent trip to the Holy Land and what she learned about the spiritual side of mixed race identities there and in the States.