January 2015 – Philip Nel

Notes on Selma (the film)

As you’ve likely heard already, SelmaÂ is a powerful film. See it. I cried a fair bit. The violence is palpable. Gunshots, people being gassed, theÂ soggy crunch asÂ truncheon strikes human beings, the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson. The visceral brutality of the whites in power. Watching the film, I kept thinking Ferguson,Â Ferguson,Â FERGUSON! And all Ferguson has

The Archive of Childhood, Part 2: The Golliwog

January 13, 2015Philip NelAutobiography, Childhood, Christopher Myers, Dolls, Ezra Jack Keats, Memory, Mom, Race, Racism, Robin Bernstein, Toys, WhitenessAutobiography, Childhood, Christopher Myers, Dolls, Ezra Jack Keats, Memory, Mom, Race, Racism, Robin Bernstein, Toys, Whiteness7 Comments

The second in my “Archive of Childhood” series. Trigger warning: images of a racist doll appear below. I’ve included it because this post is about racism, and I didn’t feel I could talk about the racism without displaying the doll in question. NOTE. A revised and expanded inquiry into this subject forms the Introduction (“Race,