#imfromlakeview?

February 25th, 2010 by Geoffrey Hing | 1 Comment

#imfromlakeview?

I live in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago.  When I tell people where I live, I’m often  asked “why Lakeview?” or given a glum, “oh.  That’s cool.”  My friends in Chicago don’t live in the neighborhood.  People think of it for the college town style bars in Wrigleyville, or going to The Alley when they [...]


Graffiti Panic

April 21st, 2009 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

Graffiti Panic

This is a letter to the editor that I just submitted in response to an editorial in today’s H-T, Graffiti not art; it is vandalism:
I was disappointed by today’s editorial condemning graffiti.  Rather than fostering a nuanced and frank dialog about complicated issues like the state of public and private spaces in Bloomington, the [...]


Struggling Toward Diversity

March 13th, 2009 by Geoffrey Hing | 1 Comment

Struggling Toward Diversity

Next week is spring break for IU and public school students in Bloomington.  I have heard that many students’ spring break trips to Mexico have been cancelled because of parental fears related to reports of drug-trade related violence in Mexico.  Bz came over last night for dinner and brought some mole sauce she got on [...]


Sundown Towns past and present

February 12th, 2009 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

Sundown Towns past and present

I’m in the process of reading the book Sundown Towns and I just started the chapter about “triggers”, or events that Whites used to rationalize running all the Black residents out of town.
I was just watching PBS’ Independent Lens when I saw this documentary about Tulia, Texas.  The story sounded all too familiar …


If you say it enough times …

November 13th, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

If you say it enough times …

From my pretty removed perspective, I know that there is homophobia in some Black communities.  This dynamic has been getting a lot of attention lately due to reports, which I wrote about earlier, that Black voters in California were instrumental in the state’s electorate passing Proposition 8.  While I believe that homophobia is a complicated [...]


radical votes

October 30th, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

radical votes

Two days ago, I voted early in Bloomington, Indiana. It took me around forty minutes and was a pretty great experience. I want to encourage everyone who is registered to vote, to do so, but even if you aren’t registered to vote, can’t vote, or choose not to, please go to a polling [...]


Black masculinity, white patriarchy, 50, and Barack

October 16th, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

Black masculinity, white patriarchy, 50, and Barack

Via racewire, I can’t believe how much thoughtful analysis Byron Hurt was able to cram into 10 minutes.  It’s a great example of criticism without over-simplified condemnation.   Damn.


reason #4 to vote: the myth of America vs. the reality

September 12th, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

reason #4 to vote: the myth of America vs. the reality

I’ve been posting on the Defiance, Ohio website about why I’m voting for Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election and why I think that people who connect with the content of Defiance, Ohio songs should vote, and vote for Obama.  I think there are limits to the power of voting, but I think punk [...]


race and the election

September 12th, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | No Comments

race and the election

I heard this awesome piece, Does Race Matter In ‘08? The View From York, Pa., on NPR yesterday afternoon and I want to write more about it, but don’ have time right now.  Still, I wanted to through it out there because I think the people profiled say some very awesome and very scary things, [...]


Election

September 2nd, 2008 by Geoffrey Hing | 2 Comments

Election

Reported from the Defiance, Ohio site:
Two nights ago, at our show in Bloomington, I talked about why I’m voting in this election and why I’m frustrated that many of my punk and activist friends feel like not voting somehow changes all the things that are wrong in our world and all the things that are [...]