Category Archives: Off Topic

Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies, Again

In 2012 Arizona passed a bill (HB 2281) targeting the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson Unified School District’s schools. The state dismantled the program and received national attention in the process. Now, years laters, the Arizona head of public education, Superintendent Huppenthal, has declared more classes in Tucson to be illegal. In his last day […]

January 5, 2015 – 4:39 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Free Speech, Off Topic | Comments (0)

A Tale of Two White Rappers and Racial Injustice in America

The story of cultural appropriation in the United States is a long one. The story of racial inequality and of white privilege in the United States is even longer. Many people have called for a “national discussion on race” but where is such a discussion supposed to start. Concepts like racism are difficult to talk […]

January 5, 2015 – 2:23 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Off Topic | Comments (0)

#IceBucketChallenge v. #Ferguson

Since the killing of Mike Brown and the police violence that followed, I’ve struggled to make sense of what it all means and how things could ever change. I thought about the killing of Trayvon Martin, and if the outrage it sparked made any long term impact. I felt numb watching the video of Kajieme […]

August 31, 2014 – 10:03 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Off Topic | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The War On Brown People: Why My Heart Rages and Sorrows

The issue of colonization, segregation and marginalization of brown people in the United States is a vast and expansive problem. However in the last couple of weeks, several factoids and news stories have emerged that give texture and context to the dimensions of this war. Leaked Photos of Detained Minors First were the leaked photos of […]

June 26, 2014 – 5:19 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Off Topic, Other | Comments (0)

OT: Misogyny and Facebook

Last night I attended my local Take Back the Night event as part of April’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For those that are unfamiliar, Take Back the Night is an annual event that takes place in communities across the country and encourages victims of sexual assault and rape to share their stories and empower themselves […]

April 25, 2013 – 5:05 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Off Topic, Social | Tagged , | Comments (1)

OT: New God Flow and Sampling

We interrupt the regular scheduled blogging for a brief off topic hip hop link-fest regarding G.O.O.D. Music’s recent track New God Flow and a recent article/discussion about Hip Hop sampling. Starts with this article The court case that changed hip-hop — from Public Enemy to Kanye — forever from the Washington Post. The article talks about this 1991 […]

July 14, 2012 – 5:36 pm | By Greg Epstein @lwThinking | Posted in Intellectual Property, Off Topic | Tagged | Comments (0)