Why Anthropology?

Obama rewind needed

December 12, 2012

President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney

I’m not sure who is coaching President Obama, but I hope they just got fired. As someone who has worked in media, given hundreds of speeches, taught university courses, and given many poetry readings, one thing I’ve learned is that people like a performance! And that’s what was missing from President Obama’s presentation in the first debate.

I think the Obama media people are young and old white men who have experience doing political campaigns. But as Bob Dylan says “the times they are achangin’.” We are a country of people who thrive on reality TV like “The Biggest Losers,” “Jersey Shores,” “The Housewives of Atlanta,” and “Survivors.”

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Original Posting: 4 Oct 2012, Insight News

Posted In : Policy Analysis

WANTED: A caring and compassionate presidential candidate for the 47%

December 12, 2012

I confess. I am now, and probably always will be, a member of the 47% about whom Presidential Candidate Romney has voiced his disrespect and disdain. I am African-American. I was a single mom after my divorce. I was a college student who received a government subsidized student loan.

When I was a child, my divorced mom received benefits from Aid to Dependent Children (ADC). I am a working woman. And yes, I voted for President Barack Obama four years ago, and damn proud of it. I am in the ranks of the 47%.
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Original Posting: Insight News 28 Sept 2012

Posted In : Policy Analysis

Artspeak: The Nuding of Michelle Obama—Art or Insult?

December 6, 2012

Karine Percheron-Daniels’ seemingly photo-shopped painting of First Lady Michelle Obama is embroiled in controversy (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/first-lady-karine-percheron-daniels.html ). With the exception of the face and the insertion of the American flag, Percheron-Daniels’ portrait is an exact replica of Portrait d’une négresse painted by Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist and exhibited in Paris in 1800 at the Salon. Read More
Original Posting: 12 Sept 2012

Posted In : Black Beauty & Health

Travelin' the world ....lookin' for somethin

December 6, 2012

Pictured: Malik of African & Caribbean Culture Centre, McClaurin, Centre visitor
Sweet Dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas.
Everybody's lookin' for somethin'.
Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams are Made of This

People often ask me why I travel. And it's only after I return home that I can truthfully answer that question. Perhaps, like the Eurythmics' lyrics suggest, I am looking for something. And that is true, then what?

Travel, for me, is an adventure. It is like tumbling down Lewis Carroll's famous rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. Read More

Original Posting: 20 Aug 2012

Posted by Irma McClaurin. Posted In : Public Engagement

Black Feminist auto/ethnography that makes you want to cry

December 6, 2012

Left to right: Maritza Quinones, Cynthia B. Dillard, Irma McClaurin, Mary E. Weems, Aisha Durham and Robin Boylorn. Photo courtesy of Robin Bylorn .

When Ruth Behar wrote her seminal collection, The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart (1996), she spoke about what it meant to write “vulnerable” scholarship—the kind that “breaks your heart” and makes you want to cry. Read More
Original Posting: 27 June 2012

Posted In : Feminist Funny Bone

Artspeak: The “Despair” of College Reunions

December 6, 2012

Author, circa 1972. Having recently returned from my 40th college reunion, I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities —“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…;” A fair enough description of my college reunion. Read More
Original Posting: 25 June 2012

Posted In : A Moment in Time

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