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Author Archives: Janice Jayes
The Age of Disconnect: US Policy and the War Beyond Gaza
The hypocrisy gap between US diplomatic pronouncements and US actions is no surprise to world audiences, but the disconnect on display since October 7 has put the nail in the coffin of the American Century. American officials have been invoking … Continue reading
989 total views, 2 views today
Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Section, War
Tagged China, Gaza, imperialism, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, US foreign policy, war
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The $1,686,170 Slap: The Shamar Betts Case Continues
It is hard to understand the magnitude of the restitution fine imposed on Urbana resident Shamar Betts as anything other than the persecution of one young black man. Despite a recent stay on collection of the debt pending a response … Continue reading
802 total views, 3 views today
Posted in African American, BLM, incarceration, Justice
Tagged African Americans, BLM, George Floyd protests, unequal justice
Comments Off on The $1,686,170 Slap: The Shamar Betts Case Continues
Frozen Conflicts, Flashmob Militants, and the End of the Gunpowder State
Syria, Libya, Yemen . . . and now Sudan. Sudan has the unhappy potential to become the next of the intractable conflicts that have unfolded over the past decade. These multisided struggles involving a cocktail of militaries, militias, and mercenaries … Continue reading
467 total views, 1 views today
Posted in Africa, Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Section, Violence, War
Tagged foreign policy, Middle East, Sudan, the state, violence, war, warlords
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Silence and the Continuing Legacy of the US Invasion of Iraq
The twentieth anniversary of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq slid by with an encore performance of the arrogance that characterized the invasion itself. In 2003 that arrogance disregarded inconvenient international norms as easily as it disregarded the Iraqi victims … Continue reading
1,140 total views, 1 views today
Posted in Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Middle East, Remembering, Section, World-wide death and suffering
Tagged imperialism, Iraq invasion, Memory, US foreign policy
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Labor Abuse as Product Placement at the World Cup
The 2022 soccer World Cup began its takeover of global sports channels on November 20, transmitting endless images of cosmopolitan crowds enjoying the sparkling new stadiums of Qatar to audiences around the world. The country that hosts the World Cup … Continue reading
472 total views
Posted in International, International, labor, Labor/Economics, Middle East, Section, Sports
Tagged ballwashing, exploitation, human rights, migrant labor, Qatar, World Cup
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In Guatemala, Ethnic Cleansing Moves from the Village to the Courtroom
If you want to see what ethnic cleansing looks like in the 21st century, take a trip to Guatemala. Don’t just stay at the charming eco-lodge by the lake under the volcanoes, however, because you might fly home with a … Continue reading
618 total views
Posted in Farmworkers, Indigenous, International, International, Land, Latin America
Tagged genocide, Guatemala, human rights, peasant evictions, violence
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The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine
The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it … Continue reading
756 total views
Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Politics, Racism, Ukraine, War
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Shamar Betts Case Moves to Federal Appeals Court
On April 8, the case of Urbana resident Shamar Betts moved to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Betts was arrested in June, 2020 in the midst of a national crackdown on protests against the murder … Continue reading
1,072 total views
Posted in African Americans, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Racism
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The Border We Build Every Day: Guatemala in Champaign-Urbana
The border mechanisms that capture headlines—the roundups, the cages, and the deportations—deserve attention, but this human sorting isn’t confined to the moment or space of the frontier crossing. It is part of the food we buy, the clothes we wear, … Continue reading
970 total views
Posted in Foreign Policy, Immigrants, Immigration, Indigenous, Refugees, Violence
Comments Off on The Border We Build Every Day: Guatemala in Champaign-Urbana
Debt Peonage in the 21st Century: The Shamar Betts Case Continues
On August 19, Shamar Betts was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison (minus 12 for time served) for authoring a Facebook post. The sentencing also made Betts personally responsible for repaying $1.5 million for damage committed by others at … Continue reading
1,363 total views, 1 views today
Posted in African American, Justice, Police
Comments Off on Debt Peonage in the 21st Century: The Shamar Betts Case Continues
Scapegoating and the 2020 Marketplace Mall Riots
I watched the legal machinery eat further into the life of a young man this past month. On June 14, I joined others at the sentencing hearing for Shamar Betts at the federal courthouse in Urbana. Betts is accused of … Continue reading
2,516 total views, 1 views today
Posted in African Americans, Justice, Police
Comments Off on Scapegoating and the 2020 Marketplace Mall Riots
Going Dark in Afghanistan
In April President Biden announced he was “ending America’s longest war” by bringing US troops home from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. If only this war were that simple. Biden isn’t really ending the war in Afghanistan, of course: he … Continue reading
Posted in International, International, military, War
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Shamar Betts: Caught in a Legal Drama that Started Before He was Born
No one wants to be the poster child for a Supreme Court challenge. However, finding his case before the Supreme Court could not only help Urbana resident Shamar Betts resolve his own situation, but it could redraw the legal lines … Continue reading
Posted in African American, BLM, Champaign County, civil rights, Court System, Justice, News, Racism, Women
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White Nationalism in our Own Front Yards
This past summer residents of West Champaign awoke to find their neighborhoods had been leafletted with an insulting anti-immigrant flyer bearing the imprint of the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA), a group designated as a white nationalist hate group … Continue reading
Posted in Alt-Right, Racism, White Nationalism, Women, Xenophobia
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Black Lives Matter in the Middle East
George Floyd’s murder horrified people of the Middle East just as it did many in the US and, just as in America, the outrage that followed exposed cultural fault lines, forced uncomfortable introspection, and was sometimes exploited for political purposes. … Continue reading
Posted in African American, BLM, International, Middle East
Tagged Police Violence
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Mateo’s Story: Connecting with the Twice-Marginalized
If you are a Q’anjob’al speaker in CU, you are probably familiar with the young face of Mateo Sebastian. In videos shared through social media he has helped the local community keep up with information on the virus, school closures, … Continue reading
Posted in COVID-19, Immigrants
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Visibility and Vulnerability in the Age of COVID-19
While diseases don’t discriminate, social responses to pandemics do. The disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on African Americans in Chicago, the Navajo in the Southwest and the incarcerated across the country highlights the way marginalization contributes to tragically different outcomes … Continue reading
1,102 total views
Posted in COVID-19, Food Insecurity, Immigrants
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The Scramble for Libya: The New Normal in 21st Century War
In 2011, then-Vice President Joe Biden gloated to the press that US/NATO actions in Libya had modeled the new normal in warfare: an overpowering air and sea operation that accomplished the overthrow of an enemy government (Muammar Gaddafi’s) without sustaining … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Homewrecker: Trump, the Kurds, and the Grand Strategy We Have Been Waiting For
Donald Trump’s October decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria took his own advisors by surprise, not to mention the Kurdish military units that were U.S. partners in the war on ISIS during the past five years. Perhaps the only … Continue reading
Posted in International, International, Middle East, Syria
Comments Off on Homewrecker: Trump, the Kurds, and the Grand Strategy We Have Been Waiting For
Opposition to the Proposed ICE Dwight Detention Center Continues.
Efforts to halt the construction of a 1200-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Dwight, Illinois continue at both the state and local level. The proposed facility would be built and operated by the Virginia-based, for-profit prison company … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Human Rights, incarceration, Refugees
Comments Off on Opposition to the Proposed ICE Dwight Detention Center Continues.