Dear WordPress.com and Google Ads, It has come to my attention that GAB readers have alerted us to the advertisements for mail-order brides showing up on this site. I saw this when I traveled to Nigeria for work and was appalled. One reader in particular, who I will call “SW,” sent us this email: As [...]
A week prior to its July 13th release, M.I.A.’s new album, /\/\/\Y/\ (or Maya), was made available streaming on the artist’s MySpace page. The agitprop-meets-cyberpunk video for “Born Free” is the most inspiring thing I’ve seen all year (a clear indication that M.I.A.’s message is as much visual as it is aural), and my guess [...]
Harald Fassanelli’s defensive biting was not the only controversial incident at last week’s Christopher Street Day in Berlin. Notable gender theorist and philosopher, Judith Butler, also attended — she was to be honored with the event’s Civil Courage Prize. Butler instead rejected the award, citing her opposition to racism in Berlin’s LGBT community: We all [...]
While recent events in Arizona have raised the profile of discussions about immigration in the U.S., other Western nations have their own problematic policies and implementations thereof. The UK is a prime example. Even while small steps to improve the situation are taken, such as ending the practice of detaining children in centres such as [...]
Hi GAB readers! I’m very excited to announce our first giveaway! Try to Remember is the debut novel from award-winning poet and expert in US immigration and asylum law Iris Gomez. The novel tells the story of Gabriela, a Latina daughter who attempts to sustain her family as her father battles with mental illness after [...]
“Born Free” was released on April 23rd to promote M.I.A.’s latest album, which will be released on June 29, 2010. Recently, the L.A. Times reported that the video had been banned by YouTube. Although this was untrue, the production did incite strong reactions-so strong, that YouTube ultimately obscured the video in order to appease angry [...]
Welcome to the Gender Across Borders series Singing for Survival. This series is about speech, singing and noise; it is about using voices, musical instruments, and other forms of auditory expression to make an impact. The posts included in this series stretch the boundaries of the term “singing,” and range from a description of noises [...]
On June 1st, we’ll begin discussing Infidel, a memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali is one of the most well-known Islamic dissidents of the 20th century. Born in Somalia, Hirsi Ali grew up in Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan before fleeing to Holland as a refugee in the early 90′s. She provides a [...]
Erin recently wrote about Arizona’s horrifyingly racist immigration law that was passed last week. Although that particular law has only been enacted in one state, it is symptomatic of a larger trend in immigration policy — a hardline crackdown on immigration that ultimately harms people who seek U.S. citizenship but may not have the resources [...]
Thanks to a new state law passed Friday that has rapidly earned national attention and a rebuke from President Obama, Arizona will soon require its police officers to detain anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant and demand immigration papers. It is unclear exactly what the police are supposed to base their suspicions on, [...]
