Inside from the Inside » Jim Knutsen

Thanks, and farewell

Jim Knutsen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:44:01 +0000

Hey, folks. This is my last post at Inside from the Inside. Thanks for checking in once in a while, for joining the conversation, and for your grace. Thinking out loud is hard on most topics, but this one especially. You’ve been extraordinarily kind in your comments. I was hesitant to sign up for this [...]

“Funny stuff”

Jim Knutsen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:48:23 +0000

This is what now substitutes for substantive criticism on the right. Brilliant. What has happened to the Republican party? Context here. …

They are coming for you

Jim Knutsen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:59:03 +0000

Preach it, Rush: In Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, ‘Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on… I wonder if Obama’s going to come to come to the defense of the assailants the way he did his friend Skip Gates up there at Harvard. If [...]

It’s all black and white

Jim Knutsen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:43:40 +0000

I don’t know how many more posts I’ll write here. For a variety of reasons, this blog on race seems to be dying a slow death. It’s a hard topic… maybe harder than you’d think. Yes, there are easy targets. Rush Limbaugh cooking up a conspiracy that has President Obama sneaking reparations past us all [...]

10 things I’ve learned so far

Jim Knutsen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:00:35 +0000

I was reluctant to sign up for this blog project. Lots of reasons, but three big ones: I’m a middle-aged, middle-class, middle-American white guy. What do I know about race? For a guy like me, talking about race is like running blindfolded and barefoot through a field full of cow poo. You’re probably going to [...]

Constructionist dissent?

Jim Knutsen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:27 +0000

That’s Troy Davis, granted a stay of execution Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a scathing dissent. Scalia is often touted by conservatives as the poster boy for strict constructionism, the philosphy that limits judicial interpretation to the text as it is written. Let’s see if his vote in this case [...]

Hot enough for you?

Jim Knutsen — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:00:39 +0000

The ad is for Luxor Spas, developed by a Belgian ad agency and running only in Europe. Gut reaction when I saw it: Pretty funny and clever. Love the afro, the shades, and the smile on that guy’s face. He is completely chill when he should be anything but. Next thought (as a marketing guy): [...]

How about more of this?

Jim Knutsen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:00:43 +0000

Last week I wrote about Pope Benedict’s call for us to view human relations through the lens of ”man’s transcendent dignity.” One reader’s response: When I consider the infinite variables that make up a person: age, race, personality, region of origin, ancestry, family size, birth order, value systems, stage of life, economic and educational experiences, [...]

Racism at the Gates?

Jim Knutsen — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:05:40 +0000

A collection of opinions from around the web on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates. Ta-Nahesi Coates sees both class and race at play: …for black people, this is the kind of issue that tends to cut across lines of class and politics. I would say that this is the sort of thing that angers [...]

“Man’s transcendent dignity”

Jim Knutsen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:45:05 +0000

… In his new encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict suggests we will get nowhere on human (and by extension, race) relations if the conversation does not include God. It is only by “placing [ourselves] in relation with others and with God,” the pope writes, that we will ever understand ”man’s transcendent dignity,” and thus act with [...]