Not a lot, yes, but there were black people in 18th century Scotland. Slavery in Britain (including Scotland) is not a little related to the overrepresentation of Scottish slaveholders in the United States - something the novels do eventually address, albeit poorly overall.

Was and IS ‘diverse.’ We come in every human color, and we all call ourselves Egyptian (my dad has great stories about learning he was “black” when he moved to Britain, and then the U.S.).

Because you don’t need your metro card to get out of the station in NYC. It’s that simple. Lot of other cities have the same mechanism. And as a long-time Londoner (we must tap to exit the station and our distance determines the cost), I’m glad for it - having to pay the maximum fare though four zones because my…

Yes! Always use that unlimited card to swipe folks when you’re leaving a station you won’t be passing through again within 15 minutes. It’s a good deed and it’s typically folks who really need the ride home (and who cares if it isn’t, it’s just a nice thing to do) - $2.75 a ride is a lot of money. Just had to echo…

“...in many European countries, currently, people of African and Caucasian ancestry are united against Muslims and Arabs.”

I’m glad you didn’t have a bad experience in France but it is widely felt to be the most racist country in Western Europe, and this is very much tied to its very profound imperial presence and history in the global south. As a former Parisian, you could not pay me enough to move back to that awful city.

I just left the same comment- glad you beat me to it (and are not condemned to the grey). Pants are not trousers!

You couldn’t know, but please don’t say “pants” in regard to a British airline policy. That's the word we use for knickers, not trousers!

This is exactly the amount of respect I (a woman) have for Madeleine Albright. The embedded link is a video of her saying these exact, inhuman words. What is worth respecting about Albright’s accomplishments and roadbuilding as a woman when it is, like Clinton’s policies, used to perpetuate so much violence in the…

FORTITUDE! It’s phenom. But scary.

I remove my shoes, but I’m constantly on 13-16 hour long haul flights. So I pack a compact pair of slippers in my carry on (should the airline I am flying with be monstrous enough not to provide them for their passengers).

If Trump is looking for love in Scotland, he’s looking in the wrong place. The overwhelming SNP victories in the recent elections have set a clear standard for what Scots (among many others in the UK) expect from the United Kingdom - absolutely none of those standards align with even Trump’s mildest beliefs.

Yup. REAGAN changed California gun laws largely in response to the Black Panther Party’s open carry of firearms (in accordance with their belief that black people had a right to self-defense against white supremacists - including the police). The Mulford Act was even supported by the NRA.

This is a very responsible review, thank you Madeleine. I think for me the film was difficult to watch because I was laid bare by Fassbender’s Macbeth and how the character portrayal aligns so discomfitingly with (alleged, yes, alleged I know) rumours of his real life. But it was beautiful, if bleak.

No, Egyptians and “Middle Easterners” are legally “white” due to a series of court cases in the early twentieth century led by Syrian Christians (it was impossible to become a naturalized U.S. citizen if not white, and their Christianity was the link to whiteness). Egyptians in particular have sued the U.S. federal…

*Jemaine Clement. And that is perfect casting.

Yes, and the way one investigates a bomb is by keeping it on the principal’s desk, berating a child while waiting for the police to come, and never once thinking about evacuating the school where the alleged bomb is held. You’re cute. Try again.

Relevant

Yes. And if Obama is going to caution American Muslims to “confront without excuse” orgs like ISIS/Daesh (because we don’t already know they want us dead most of all?), then he might want to listen to us when we are like K BUT WHAT ABOUT SAUDI ARABIA YOUR BFF etc. No one listens to us anyway.

No sex occurred, but: