The late, great Congressman John R. Lewis, who marched with Dr. King and served in Congress for 33 years.
I'm proud to say the late Congressman John R. Lewis appears in the pages of BROWN BOY: A MEMOIR.
Out April 4.
Hi, my name is Omer Aziz. Today, my first book, BROWN BOY: A MEMOIR is out!
It's an honest story about race, class, and family—and the realities of the world from the eyes of a kid who grew up in the shadows of 9/11 and then fell in love with books. But the questions remained.
"I think this Administration has been worse for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims than the Trump Administration," Rashid Khalidi tells me, in the latest episode of the Minority Views Podcast, dropping tomorrow. Says he will not vote for Joe Biden.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen thinks you should read this book.
It won't solve our economic crises, but will make for an interesting and thought-provoking read.
You can pre-order BROWN BOY: A MEMOIR below, or at your local
If any white man in the world says 'Give me liberty or give me death,' the entire white world applauds. When a Palestinian says *exactly* the same thing, he is judged a criminal, and treated like one, & everything possible is done to make an example of this bad Terrorist.
#Gaza
Over 42,000 Canadians died in the Second World War.
Some of the worst casualties sustained were in fighting Nazi Germany.
Honoring a Nazi veteran in Canada's Parliament is unconscionable. An insult to Jews, and to Canada. Does no one ask questions in government anymore?
Sad to see the normalization of hatred towards Palestinians. Racist stereotypes. Genocidal threats. Calls for extermination. All in the open.
We're being primed to quietly accept the mass slaughter of Brown people.
It's racist and it's wrong—and we'll one day be ashamed of it.
1. There's a temptation to be provocative and write headlines that will grab attention even if they are misleading or reinforce negative stereotypes about a minority group. This one (since changed) was patently Islamophobic, framing the problem of Muslim children as time-bombs.
The Best Response Ever to my
@nytimes
piece comes from
@SamHarrisOrg
, who tells his listeners I've been "lying extravagantly."
Sam: I brought you up because one of your fans sent me a death threat. If you ever want to have a real conversation about Islam, I am right here.
I wrote about how Pakistan is on the brink of failure and possible civil war—and spoke to Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, about the unfolding chaos.
"We are headed for the abyss,"
@ImranKhanPTI
told me.
Read here:
The passage below is *morally obscene* by any measure. The fact that Harris has wormed his way into the mainstream while writing garbage like this is telling of our public discourse. And no, fanboys, the below is not "nuance." It's ahistorical nonsense disguised as analysis.2/
The youngest US soldier killed in Jordan, Breonna Moffett, had just celebrated her 23rd birthday.
She was 9 months old when 9/11 happened. Yet she paid for this war with her life.
And to think there are still neocons in both parties who want even more war and more death.
American voters don’t necessarily care about the specifics of foreign policy. What’s important — and what voters do care about — is what the nation represents. Here, Biden has both a narrative problem and potentially a substantive one.
Trying to stay off Twitter to write, but want to say that
@JustinTrudeau
’s embarrassing trip to India is further evidence that the Liberal government should hire & empower more staffers of color who understand the complexities of the world. Literally all this was avoidable. /1
I don't know if
@SamHarrisOrg
is a bigot or bad person. I do know--because his writings and opinions tell me--that he holds extremist and bigoted views, especially on Muslims. He's been able to get away with this mainstream pose because he doesn't have a name like "Illan Omar."4/
Over 2.5 million colonized Indians also fought for Britain in WWII.
My great uncle was one of them. Served under the British Indian banner in the Battle for Rome against the Nazis.
Honoring an SS soldier in Parliament is an insult to so many people. An apology should be given.
The ceasefire ends hostilities, but the occupation goes on. The chances of establishing a Palestinian state are just as grim as they were before the violence. And what lay ahead for both Israel and Palestine is a terrifying reality.
My latest:
Dear
@SamHarrisOrg
, you seem to think it's weird that I suggested you're anti-Semitic - but how else to describe someone who suggested the "truth" is that "Jews might have brought their troubles upon themselves," as you did in The End of Faith?
7/
Today, I heard an American commentator named
@benshapiro
say on the
@BBC
that Jews who aren't religious are somehow less Jewish. "Jews who voted for Obama cared about Judaism less than they did about other priorities." Really? 78% of Jews voted for Barack Obama in 2008.
I'm sad that this piece by
@mehdirhasan
even needed to be written, but I am glad he wrote it. Christians and Muslims are brothers--regardless of what the jihadists, the clerics, and the fascists think.
This Thursday. Exclusively on the Minority Views Podcast.
@realBobWoodward
and I talk about journalism—and everything else.
BROWN BOY: A MEMOIR out April 4.
If you're a hardliner in the Iranian regime who hates the United States, wants Iran to have multiple nuclear bombs, seeks war with Israel, desires to colonize the Middle East, opposes President Rouhani and FM Zarif, well, today is your lucky day.
#JCPOA
#IranDeal
This is Harris's whole game. Take an ideologically extreme (and ill-informed) position so courageously, and then immediately retreat to the moderate position when attacked. He is literally parroting the fascist position here. And yes, this is anti-Semitic. 3/
11. This is the reality that all Muslim kids raised in the West have to confront as they come of age. Collective guilt and responsibility. They are time-bombs, invaders, potential criminals. Conservatives want them banned; liberals are okay to just question their mental state.
Five years ago, I began writing a book on identity and belonging, unsure where it would take me.
That book became a memoir about race, class, family, religion, and the West.
I'm so excited to announce that BROWN BOY: A Memoir is almost here.
04/2023
7. Here's another NYT headline, this from a
@NickKristof
column. "Is Islam The Problem?" I don't know, is it? This taps right into the prejudices of people who *already think* Islam-as-a-faith is a problem. Framing the religion as the problem blames all Muslims for...being Muslim
The most important piece I've ever written.
On the diverse, beautiful community that raised me. In the
@globeandmail
.
Scarborough, this one's for you. Thank you for all the love —and the memories. I'll never forget.
The full piece on the Canadian dream being on life support—and the systemic political, economic, and social crises Canada is facing—is available to read here:
I wrote about neoliberalism, the elite, the new emerging economic order, and this party I went to in NYC—all in the
@globeandmail
.
The bills for neoliberalism's excesses have come due.
Thomas Paine was America's greatest Founding Father.
He wrote the words that convinced Americans to take up independence, and was way ahead of his time on every major issue.
I make the case in the
@BostonGlobe
:
My letter to
@TheAtlantic
on Graeme Wood's piece about failing to make distinctions between genuine anti-Muslim bigots and their ideological enablers, like
@SamHarrisOrg
:
9. Here's another example of an old-time elite journalist projecting mental pathologies on Muslims. David Brooks was given column space to state that Egyptians "lack the mental ingredients" for democracy. Again: there is the framing of a whole population as mentally deranged.
On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, for
@NYMag
.
The war on terror, we were told, wasn’t a counterterrorism operation or a law-enforcement matter, but a battle of good versus evil.
Twenty years later, it feels like evil won.
10. I could go on. There are thousands of examples of this kind of casual Islamophobia just creeping into ordinary use of language by people who ought to know better. Once a narrative frame is established, it is very difficult to break out of it. Muslims are bounded by it too.
Stephen Miller: The most powerful and xenophobic White House official in many years.
Here he is in a meeting. What kind of twisted mindset do you need to have to think America isn't punishing migrant children enough? A fascist mindset.
.
@benshapiro
then said: "I believe if you're somebody who takes Judaism seriously that comes with certain ideological commitments." He means, right-wing political commitments. That is: religion fixes one's politics on the right. Chilling. He sounds like a Salafist here.
And you wonder why I was so pissed last year about the India trip, after what I saw from the inside.
I've been silent about it, but this picture is shameful. It's the first real slip of the mask. Many people are going to be hurt and angry--and they have every right to be.
Frankly, the Canadian left is terrible at talking about ethnic and racial diversity--genuine diversity, not tokenism--in a way the American left is not. We seem to be so self-righteous in our dealing with minorities that we forget that they aren’t just ethnic vote banks. /5
The first review of Brown Boy is in! Honored to receive this starred review from
@PublishersWkly
, who called the book "a sterling portrait of personal revelation." Coming to you soon.
Read below:
I won't even get into what
@benshapiro
says about Muslims and Arabs because, frankly, it's sickening racism. Here are all the searches that the Quebec City shooter did in 2017 before killing 6 Muslims and injuring 19 others. Notice something?
5. For years, anti-Muslim sentiment has gone unanswered in the mainstream press. Go back and look at the initial reactions to the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995. After the bombing, columnists at elite publications were already talking about bombing Muslims:
America is going to be be majority brown soon, too. By 2045, whites will comprise 49.7% of the population. There's no need to worry though: this just means better food, better literature, and a greater symphony of languages, art, and beauty.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood up in the House of Commons on Monday and made the unprecedented allegation that “agents of the government of India” assassinated a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, I cannot say I was surprised.
In 2017, I was the Policy Advisor in the
Frankly, the Canadian left is terrible at talking about ethnic and racial diversity--genuine diversity, not tokenism--in a way the American left is not. We seem to be so self-righteous in our dealing with minorities that we forget that they aren’t just ethnic vote banks. /5
To mark the start of Ramadan, I wrote about the history of coffee and the Eurocentrism that distorts how that story is told and written.
From Ethiopia to the Sufis in Yemen, here is the Islamic history of coffee.
Thank you to the
@TorontoStar
for including BROWN BOY on their 2023 most anticipated books list! Hometown pride.
31 books to put on your list for this winter and spring:
This identity-policing happens on the right. It's right-wingers who'll say something like "X is self-hating." You'll never hear Noam Chomsky talking about how a conservative Jew is not really a Jew. Same deal with Muslims: the religious/political right want identitarianism.
Had a great time talking with the Mayor of Cambridge, MA about the art of local government—and how cities can help working families.
Thank you
@MayorSiddiqui
for the conversation!
Episode 7 of the Minority Views Podcast live everywhere now.
My piece in the
@nytimes
on the
@Raptors
and the meaning of this Championship for the future of this country and the minority's place within it.
#WeTheNorth
was as much about the "We" as it was about the "North." An underdog moment.
@zackbeauchamp
Biden kept all of Trump's Israel policies until last week—and took some even further.
And Rashid Khalidi already addressed this weak argument that amounts to "But Trump is worse."
"I think this Administration has been worse for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims than the Trump Administration," Rashid Khalidi tells me, in the latest episode of the Minority Views Podcast, dropping tomorrow. Says he will not vote for Joe Biden.
Paraphrase of James Baldwin. Applies equally to Palestinians asking for freedom for 70 years and being shot, killed, and tear-gassed every time they protest their own subjugation. Violence only breeds more terror.
This book took some 6 years to write. I wrote about Scarborough and the immigrant community that raised me. I wrote about Paris and Yale Law School. I wrote about America.
At each juncture, the book grapples with ideas of meritocracy, race, religion, and history.
69% of Jews supported Obama in 2012. In all the other years, they've been consistently Democratic as well: 71% for Hillary Clinton in 2016, 76% for Kerry in 2004, 80% in favor of Bill Clinton in '92. So who's Judaism is
@benshapiro
policing, and why?
I grew up working-class. I grew up brown. I grew up Muslim. Neither of my parents had professional degrees. I was supposed to be a lost cause. And yet I'm here.
I wanted to write the book that I needed when I was younger. BROWN BOY: A MEMOIR is that book.
This is not an argument of "diversity for diversity sake." It's that folks of color, and (in)visible minorities, offer a life perspective and policy insight and political awareness that is sorely needed. I know that minorities talk about all this in private. Never public./7
Daily, I saw white staffers being promoted and given standing in a way that staffers/advisers of color were not. We are rightly talking about empowering women; what about minorities? The subtle racism at the top levels of the government is endemic, systemic, and unacknowledged./6
Multiple storms, cities, and interruptions couldn't stop me.
Got
@mehdirhasan
's new book. It's a brilliant work on the art (and science and history) of argument, rhetoric, and public speaking. From one of the best journalists in the world.
Highly recommend!
Right-wing Muslims. Right-Wing Hindus (Hindutva). Right-wing Christians, too. Policing their co-religionists' identity, viewing them as less pure, and willing to "take their badge" when it's suits their political interests. It's straight-up authoritarian.
Shapiro was asked about past comments he had made saying Jews who supported Obama "should turn their badge in" as Jews. Again: that would mean over two-thirds of the American Jewish population would have to "turn their badge in. Who else dislikes his metaphor?
@DrJacobsRad
Two wrongs don't make a right. Hatred is never the answer. Collective punishment is always wrong. So are genocidal threats.
My values stay the same regardless of the ethnicity or color of the victims. How about yours?
Shapiro is Jewish and that fact alone somehow inoculates him from the charge of anti-Semitism. But how is it acceptable for him to be asking Jews to turn their badges in? In-group discourse is unique, I get it, but this language is still dangerous and echoes extremist manifestos.