His research and writing interests focus on race relations and restorative justice. He is a regular contributor to edited volumes on popular culture, including Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, published by BenBella and recently co-authored a book on the Russian-Jewish diaspora: Building a diaspora: Russian Jews in Israel, Germany, and the United States. An autobiographical essay of his interests in race relations and basketball is available here. His Psychology Today blog about race is called Between the Lines.
All material on this site published under his byline remains the property of Mikhail Lyubansky, copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. Permission is granted to repost and distribute, with proper attribution.
Monday, February 6, 2012 How Super is Superhero Justice? (6 comments)
Like speculative fiction in general, superhero stories are ultimately about ourselves. The fictional universes allow the writers to manipulate the circumstances to better examine the most complex aspects of the human experience, none more so than the issues of morality and justice
Thursday, December 22, 2011 The Cost of Vengeance: The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Part 2 (13 comments)
Nietzsche observed (about those who fight monsters), "If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Is Lisbeth Salander really safer as a result of taking vengeance? Are the rest of us?
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 The Cost of Justice: The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Part 1 (7 comments)
Lisbeth Salander's anger is righteous. Her violence apparently justified. After all, we neither mourn for the monsters that heroes kill, nor question their choice to kill them. But is there anything she might have done that might have served both her and society better?
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Are stereotypes unfairly stereotyped? (2 comments)
Think you know what stereotypes are? If you're relying on definitions from mainstream dictionaries, you're probably, well...guilty of stereotyping. But don't worry. That might not be a bad thing
Thursday, September 22, 2011 The Racial Scoop on NYPD Officers' Dirty Dancing (24 comments)
White men "keeping order and control" over Black women's bodies, while at the same time using those same bodies for their own sexual gratification has a long and painful history in this country. Are the women and police officers in this video aware that they are playing out the slavery script?
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Twenty Tweets About Troy Davis and the Death Penalty (3 comments)
With Davis's execution just hours away, it is time to not only take immediate action to save his life (see last tweet) but to examine the system of capital punishment more broadly, a system that is racially biased beyond a reasonable doubt.
Thursday, June 9, 2011 Kids On Color: New Site Helps Parents and Kids Talk About Race (1 comments)
Sometimes the conversations we shy away from having with our kids are exactly the ones we most need to have. Professor of media, culture, and communication, Charlton McIlwain, hopes his new website, Kids on Color, helps families do just that.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 Study Finds Smiling Men are Less Attractive to Women (5 comments)
A new study suggests that smiling is seen as sexually attractive on women but not on men. The findings explain some enduring widely-believed phenomena and raise interesting questions about inter-racial attraction.
Monday, June 6, 2011 The Racial Politics of X-Men (1 comments)
The X-Men franchise draws deliberate parallels between the oppression of mutants and that of other marginalized groups. What does it have to teach us about our own culture's racial history and prejudices?
Sunday, June 5, 2011 Ethical Lessons from Kanazawa: Recommendations for Writers and Editors (5 comments)
Professional degrees give Psychologists and other scientists presumed trust and an assumption of competence, but as uncle Ben told Peter Parker when he first became Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility"
Saturday, June 4, 2011 Want to know what "race" is or isn't? Don't ask the dictionary! (4 comments)
Dictionaries do a lousy job defining race. A new study suggests that the social cost of this may be higher than we thought, but there is also reason for optimism.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Beauty May Be In Eye of Beholder But Eyes See What Culture Socializes (6 comments)
Kanazawa's claims aside, there is no single "objective" standard of beauty. The adage that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is incomplete. Sure, there are individual differences. The point is that there are also group differences, not in attractiveness (as Kanazawa claims), but in cultural messages about what is and is not attractive.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 About Those Whites-Only Scholarships
Do race-based scholarships (and race-based affirmative action in admissions) ultimately do more harm than good for both students of color and for our society? Two race-bloggers discuss the "whites-only" scholarships and their implications for scholarships targeting students of color.
Sunday, March 6, 2011 When it comes to non-white characters in fiction, is it better to be stereotyped, tokenized, or erased? (10 comments)
Sure, we all want non-white and non-straight characters that are as complex and realistic as those that are white and straight, but what if writing such characters is simply not part of that particular writer's repertoire? Do we still want those writers to take their best shot (knowing they won't come up to snuff), or would we rather they just leave those "minority" groups out altogether?
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 The Tiger Mom in (Scientific) Perspective (20 comments)
Amy Chua's arguments seem scientifically plausible. The three laws of behavior genetics suggest otherwise.
Saturday, January 8, 2011 Did Kanye Create a Monster? (6 comments)
One of the defining characteristics of monsters is that they don't have redeeming qualities. The moment we begin to like or sympathize with any part of the monster, it is no longer a monster but a flawed being. What, then, are we to make of Kanye West's new video?
Friday, December 10, 2010 Introducing OEN's First Special Issue: Restorative Justice (12 comments)
Usually, like most news/opinion sites, we focus our attention on the problems. Today, we want to focus on some creative ways of working through them. As befitting an alternative news site, we want to highlight an alternative way of "doing justice".
Friday, December 10, 2010 The U.S. (in)Justice System Doesn't Work. The Alternative Just Might (28 comments)
To the uninitiated, restorative processes may appear idealistic and naive. After all, they reject the two core aspects of the traditional justice system: the assignment of blame and the administration of punishment. Instead, the goal of the Circle is for the parties involved in the conflict to first gain mutual understanding of the others' experiences and needs and then to restore or build a mutually satisfying relationship.
Saturday, September 4, 2010 Should Black People Stop Using the N-Word? (13 comments)
Which word from the headline would you like to see eliminated from the English language? One (Black) person's answer just might surprise you.
Thursday, August 19, 2010 A Few Words in Favor of Compassion for the Cruel (9 comments)
If we are kind to those to whom we should be cruel, will we ultimately be cruel to those to whom we should be kind?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Our Justice System Requires Us To Punish Wrongdoers. What if There Were a Better Way? (22 comments)
What if conflict was seen as something to engage rather than to avoid? What if there was a way of "doing justice" that involved neither fault-finding nor punishment? Restorative Justice systems are challenging all of our sacred cows concerning justice. For those that are open to what they offer, they may deliver far more than anything we dare to hope for.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Going Where Glenn Beck Wouldn't: Defining White Culture (28 comments)
Glenn Beck refused to define white culture, but it can, in fact, be defined. There are three tenets of white culture. Avoidance of self-racialization is one of them.
Sunday, May 16, 2010 Race is Sexy. Sex is Racy. Now "Get Lost" (14 comments)
The photos are edgy. They're sexually charged, literally (and symbolically) hot and wet. They're also undeniably racially provocative. The white model (Daria Werbowy) is apparently "Lost", at least that's what the title of the spread implies.
But lost in what?
Thursday, April 29, 2010 Ladies and Gentlemen: The U.S. (in)Justice System (8 comments)
Incarceration rates are skyrocketing, particularly for men of color. The racial bias in law enforcement and incarceration rates is well-documented. Are we at the dawn of a new civil rights movement?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Is This Obama/Blagojevich Video Racist? (1 comments)
Is this video funny? Is it racist? The answers are not always clear and may say more about you than the video
Thursday, February 11, 2010 John Mayer's Longing for Blackness is a "Very" Wide-Open Window Into U.S. Race Relations (1 comments)
Mayer took a lot of heat for the N-word, and rightly so. But let's place his words in context: He wasn't insulting anyone but rather lamenting that, even as an honorary member of the Black community, he still didn't have full access to all its privileges.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Erica Kennedy's Feminista is Funny, Charming, and Just Possibly Too Close To Home
Can an assertive, feminist, biracial woman find true love? And, if so, what will this love look like? A journey into (and out of) the shadow of materialism, feminism, and self-absorption and a search for true love. [A Book Review]
Thursday, January 28, 2010 "I Forgot Obama was Black": Reflections On Chris Matthews's Comment (3 comments)
For many, Chris Matthews's post-speech comments took the luster off President Obama's first State of the Union address. I offer a few brief thoughts about Matthews's comments, what he probably meant to say, and why many didn't hear it that way.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 The Racial Politics of Avatar (Part 2) (1 comments)
Avatar's racial politics are more complex than its critics claim. But the film has some noteworthy sociopolitical flaws, and these flaws also deserve some attention.
Monday, December 28, 2009 The Racial Politics of Avatar (3 comments)
Avatar is so heavily loaded with racial allegory that it's impossible, even for a casual viewer, to ignore its sociopolitical currents. On the surface, Avatar is an obvious, at times even heavy-handed, pro-environmental and anti-war missive. But that's just the top layer. Underneath it is a bevy of subtle story lines and images that both arise from and comment on contemporary racial politics.
Thursday, November 26, 2009 Thanksgiving's Many and Complicated Needs (2 comments)
The early relationship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag in many ways continues to be controverial, but two peoples came together in peace and mutual assistance that first year and the resulting Thanksgiving, in turn, paved the way for a half century of peace. Is this event worth celebrating, or is it yet another example of white insensitivity toward its indigenous peoples?
Saturday, August 8, 2009 The Trouble With Elves: Racial Dynamics in Harry Potter (Part 3) (8 comments)
The Harry Potter books and films have deliberate and unmistakable messages about race and racism. But what are they really saying and are these really the lessons we want our children to learn? This is the 3rd of a 3-part series examining racial dynamics in the Harry Potter universe.
Thursday, August 6, 2009 The Color of Blood: Racial Dynamics in Harry Potter (Part 2) (9 comments)
The Harry Potter books and films have deliberate and unmistakable messages about race and racism. But what are they really saying and are these really the lessons we want our children to learn? This is the 2nd of a 3-part series examining racial dynamics in the Harry Potter universe.
Thursday, July 30, 2009 A Black Boy Even Taller Than Ron: Racial Dynamics in Harry Potter (Part 1) (13 comments)
The Harry Potter books and films have deliberate and unmistakable messages about race and racism. But what are they really saying and are these really the lessons we want our children to learn?
Saturday, July 25, 2009 Gates and Crowley: It May Not Be Racist, But It Is Most Certainly Racial (20 comments)
Reasonable people may disagree on who was right and wrong, but there is an undeniable racial element to this incident that is reminiscent of the climactic scene in the film Crash.
Monday, June 29, 2009 Michael Jackson, Not Too Many Words (3 comments)
Michael Jackson changed with the times and, despite his flaws. evolved into precisely the kind of progressive force we wish all artists would be.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Is This Joke Racist? (18 comments)
A racial joke, an analysis of said joke, and a question for OEN readers.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Five Mistakes Filmmakers Make in Depicting Racial Dynamics (1 comments)
Every so often, Hollywood produces a film about racial issues that is so honest, so truthful, so powerful that I wish every person could see it. Do The Right Thing (1989) and Crash (2005) are two good examples. These aren't perfect films. They just know how to deal with the racial themes they take on. Unfortunately, these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Here are five common mistakes filmmakers make in depicting race.
Monday, March 9, 2009 Zen and the Art of Watchmen (7 comments)
This is an article about the way we perceive and judge the world. It is not intended as a movie review, but because it'll probably function as such for some readers, I tried not to give away anything of import. Nevertheless, readers who haven't read or seen Watchmen and don't want to know anything about it may not want to read any further.
Monday, February 16, 2009 Negotiation Genius (A Book Review and Upcoming OEN Feature) (4 comments)
Stephen Covey, the author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" described it as the most comprehensive, wise, practical book on the subject I've ever seen." Here's a more in-depth review, and an introduction to a series of excerpts from the book that will be posted in the coming week.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 The "real" Thanksgiving (14 comments)
Question: What do Puritans, buckles, teepees, and turkeys have in common?
Answer: They all have nothing to do with the original Thanksgiving
Thursday, September 25, 2008 The Racial Implications of a Barack Obama Presidency (4 comments)
This article describes the benefits of a Black Presidential candidate for different U.S. racial groups and society at large.
Thursday, September 11, 2008 On 9-11, patriotism, and the U.S. flag (9 comments)
I was already married and in my 30s in 2001 and already a member of the faculty at a small liberal arts college. I'd been politically conscious for years already, and, as an immigrant, had been reflecting on what it means to be "American" since early childhood. By all accounts, you'd think that I would have grasped the notion of patriotism long before 2001. Maybe I had, but 9-11 changed everything.
Sunday, September 7, 2008 Out of the ashes: A new German Jewry? (9 comments)
At the end of WWII, the roughly 750,000 German Jews were reduced to a mere 10,000. In the early 1990s, the newly unified Germany decided to rebuild its Jewish population -- by targeting Russian-speaking Jews from the former Soviet Union. Remarkably, about 200,000 Russian Jews have since emigrated to Germany. This group now comprises 90% of the nation's Jewish population. This is the story of the new Germany Jewry.
Saturday, September 6, 2008 Obama for Skeptics (21 comments)
A response to the most frequent "reasons" independents and moderates offer for not supporting Barack Obama, or for professing equal love for both candidates.
Friday, July 18, 2008 Tuning into the election's racial frequency (3 comments)
"When it comes to African-American audiences, some have called Sen. Barack Obama's presidential bid a 'dual-track' candidacy, one that seeks to prove he is in tune with the needs of the black community while also not alienating whites."
The purpose of this article is to examine what he needs to do in order to appeal to both of these groups and whether simultaneously appealing to both groups is even possible.
