DISSONANCE

As of March 1, 1998

What's DISS?
Find out what's going on here.

UPDATED 3/1: The Amistad: Spielberg, Jews, Blacks, and Latins. Dissonance goes to the movies with African historian Ibrahim K. Sundiata.

AIDS, Africa, and Racism, a
book by Richard and Rosalind
Chirimuuta, exposes the flaws
of the "African origins" theory.

AIDS, Africa, and Racism: Drug scam at the 7th international "AIDS in Africa" conference. Read the background information below and find out more about the conference in DISS/cuss, the Ways forum for Dissonance.
"The scientific literature that claims to prove an African origin is full of inconsistencies and sheer racist nonsense" writes Rosalind J. Harrison-Chirimuuta in "Is AIDS African?" Here is what is at stake: The AIDS research community is set to turn Africa into a drug lab while pharmaceutical companies keep their eyes on the prize. Unfortunately, they can't tell AIDS from the runs when its buried in structurally induced impoverishment. Find out more in Richard Rath's hypertext Horton Hears the W.H.O. and an unpublished letter to the editors of The New York Review of Books from Rath and Charles Geshekter.

Afraid of the Dark? The Switch is on the Right.: Mary Lefkowitz has shined the cool light of reason on Martin Bernal's Black Athena, dispelling the bogeyman of Afrocentrism from European history. Um, hello, Mary — wrong continent. Ibrahim Sundiata explains in Afrocentrism: The Argument We're Really Having.

Where are You From?: It's been said that there is no there there, but what's it like here when you're from there? Monisha Das Gupta locates some Dissonances in postcolonial feminist identities.
The Ethnography of Being Suckered: When Muhammad so kindly introduced me to the realities of Tangier, I was still forgiving and had my whole trip ahead of me. In fact, he tried in vain to catch the true Ibliss, whose name is Tromba — Oh, Puke and Beatings Upon Him. Muhammad was among the first I sought after I was robbed, but there it is, I cannot avoid telling the humiliation any longer. But don't let me get away with making it seem some death-defying ordeal, as I did with that first con-job. . . . Quil Lawrence crosses cultural boundaries in search of The Key to the Highway.
In Theory: . . . occasional tidbits from a place where everything works . . . Richard Rath explains Relations of Power.
Flotsam and Jetsam: . . . some things we found onshore . . . Monisha Das Gupta is mooning over monsoons and Rich Rath (re-?)visits the blighted area.