Category Archives: Uncategorized

Saint Patrick’s day approaches, and I’ve got my usual mixed feelings – or at least I did this morning. In the intervening hours, I’ve had some positive ruminations that have left me feeling better about the Saint and his holiday than I usually do. Read on, if you’d like to hear them. To begin, however,Continue reading “Meòmhrachadh air Pàdruig (Pondering Patrick)”

(A commendation of B. H. Pitner’s thesis on the cultural vacuousness of whiteness, a critique of the same author’s treatment of Southernness and whiteness as equivalent, and an open letter inviting that author to collaborate.) I recently read a book that made me at once thoughtful, and profoundly sad: The Crime Without a Name, byContinue reading “Ethnocide and Ethnogenesis”

(An exploration of, among other things, the notion that Falls City – founded on occupied Shawnee lands – ought to acknowledge its colonial history by adopting a Shawnee name) As a Louisville native – even one who has spent much of my adult life abroad – I can’t help but feel a certain emotional attachmentContinue reading “Why Should Louisville Be Called Louisville?”

(Why statist nationalism, whether ‘blood and soil’ or ‘civic’, is destroying cultural diversity, and why self-determination and the stewardship of cultural identity should be the right of peoples at least as much as individuals or states) Part 1:  Fighting to Wrest Nationalism from the Jaws of ‘Blood and Soil’ Some believers in the paranormal holdContinue reading “Exorcising Herder’s Ghost”

(An article explaining that as long as people conflate Confederate nostalgia and legitimate pride in Southern identity, the insidious myth of the Lost Cause will go unchecked) I recently read ‘Why Confederate Lies Live On’, an article in the Atlantic periodical by writer Clint Smith. It recounts the story of the author’s unsettling visit toContinue reading “Why the Antidote to Confederate Pride is Southern Pride”

(An article urging urban Kentuckians, especially those in Louisville, to resist the bourgeois, neo-colonial impulse to further the cultural and linguistic divides between themselves and rural Kentuckians) Not long ago, the news broke that a TV show – available for viewing nationwide, and slated for release in perhaps as little as one year’s time –Continue reading “A Case for the Southernness of Louisville, Kentucky”

(Or, why the status of Confederate flags as symbols of Southern-ness must be challenged) The South needs a new flag. The emblems most commonly associated with the region at present are also emblems of the Confederacy – and therefore, by extension, of white supremacy – but the geographical and cultural area thought of as theContinue reading “The Case for a New Southern Flag”

Clarification of Terms Recently, a friend in the Scottish Society of Louisville (a local Scottish heritage organization that helped fund my doctoral studies, and which I recommend to any interested Louisvillians) requested that I clarify what I mean by the terms ‘anarchism’, ‘anti-racism’, and ‘anti-capitalism’; and that I explain how they were connected to theContinue reading “How Anarchism, Anti-Racism, and Anti-Capitalism Relate to the Kentucky Gaelic Revival”

(An explanation of the purposes and goals of the Kentucky Gaelic Revival) A Case for Gaelic in Kentucky Sin sibh, a chàirdean! (Greetings, friends!) After the better part of a decade abroad, I’m coming home to Kentucky. As is true of most people who undertake journeys of comparable length, my travels have changed me quiteContinue reading “A Case For Reviving Gaelic in Kentucky”