We interview Steven Salaita, the author of The Uncultured Wars, Arabs, Muslims and the Poverty of Liberal Thought. Through witty humour and incisive essays, his book critiques the American liberal-left’s complicity in perpetuating anti-Arab, Islamophobic, and imperial modes of thought. In doing so, he raises important questions about the nature of race relations and the manifest Orientalism in American political discourse today. His target is not the neoconservative right who are blatant and easily identified in in their dogmatic doctrine of the war on terror and in their racist caricatures of Arabs and Muslims. Rather, he sounds the alarm on the misrepresentative ideas of the liberal left, passively justifying the sensationalized excesses of the right.

Report after report and survey after survey repeatedly indicate that Islamophobia in America and Europe is on the rise, not on the decline. America can elect a Black president and delude itself into believing a post-racial society has suddenly replaced one erected on racist legacy. America does have a history of tolerance and acceptance, but an accepted discourse of Islamophobia relinquishes any hopes conjuring up “post-race” America.

Is ethno-techno the new turn in appropriated world music? The sounds are widening in their scope and popularity but usually thousands of miles away from the subterraneans producers who unleash the source of these mixes. So, asks the Guardian, is the ethno-techno trend just another form of neo-colonialism?

This one comes via MTV Iggy. Hollywood with an international tilt usually comes with a butchered foreign accent, Chinese takeout and a hand full of ignorant claims about countries they can’t even pronounce correctly. The Whilred Interactive team put together an amusing project called “Let Hollywood Teach You Geography” poking fun at Hollywood’s ignorant social and cultural geography through mashing up over 40 clips from sunny Hollywood productions that mention countries the producers probably couldn’t even place on a map.

Lately, Japan’s reinterpreted the Dancehall music craze that’s swept the country in the footsteps of an already popular reggae fanbase. According to the Guardian, there’s less than a sizeable Jamaican population in the country, but Jamaican dancehall is very popular - obscure club nights and all - around the country. But it’s not the Jamaican artists that have helped spread the dancehall bug - there’s an authentic Japanese form of dancehall that’s growing in popularity, where it’s not unheard of some Japanese dancehall artists selling out stadiums.

As a child, I was drawn to Cookie Monster’s manic love for baked goods, but my most vivid recollection of Sesame Street is Gordon. I can’t remember when I first saw him, whether he was having one of his chats with Oscar about O’s grouchy outlook on life or whether he joined in a song urging us to do something good for ourselves, but I do recall his presence: warm, joyful, thoughtful and firm. Not a caricature or stereotype of a Black man, Gordon represents Sesame Street’s greatest value for me as a father—a world where people of color are celebrated without being tokenized, satirized or exaggerated.

Originally spotted via Racewire, Chang-hyo Bae is a South Korean born, London-based artist playing on Empire and the ambiguity of embracing “Britishness” as the “Other”.

I don’t get to do a lot of theatre in London, although I’m not sure I’ve ever been drawn to big production musicals and don’t quite see myself frequenting one of the West End halls anytime soon. But what I hear, is that I’m missing out on some fantastic smaller productions in the fringe of London’s theatre scene. Currently, a few productions deal with themes of identity, race, integration and immigration - all very Worldtown friendly topics. Here’s a few that I hope to check out:

Rich Mix features a production of Ice&Fire’s The Illegals, a community produced play that tells the story of the individuals behind the stereotype of illegal immigration. Ice&Fire have a whole host of productions

This is a regrettable act, but by emphasizing details - some from dodgy sources - such as the perpetrator yelling “Allahu Akhbar” and a repeated association of his motives to his Palestinian and Muslim roots, deeper analysis on the psychological effects of war and the poor attempts at integration by the US army is completely left off the radar.

Yet another creative project coming out of the experimental classes of Beirut. Yallah Undergound, a documentary that captures the underground music scene in the Middle East, drawing parallels between musicians and styles in urban centres like Amman, Cairo and Beirut of course. This trailer shows the interviews and soundbytes from Rayess Bek, I-Voice, Scrambled Eggs, and The New Government and plays like a visual mixtape.