April 2020 - Steve Salaita

A Postmortem on Bernie Sanders and Palestine

Now that the Sanders campaign has ended, Palestinian Americans should reflect on why our organizations so readily abandoned anti-imperialism.

Let me start with a story about the Democratic primary. Now, I’m no operative, so this story has nothing to do with voting choices or electability. It’s about how Palestine disappears in US electoral discourses, even when people who identify as Palestinian purport to make it visible.

An Unadulterated Sense of Wonder

A child finds love amid pandemic.

A few weeks ago, my son’s eighth birthday passed and he didn’t get to have a party. He spent the day watching TV and eating junk food. Although he seemed content, his mother and I were crushed. Like most seven-and-a-half-year-olds, he had spoken excitedly about the kind of party he wanted. None of his ideas involved social distancing.