Joel Wendland-Liu

Joel Wendland-Liu teaches courses on diversity, intercultural competence, migration, and civil rights at Grand Valley State University in West Michigan. He is the author of "Mythologies: A Political Economy of U.S. Literature, Settler Colonialism, and Racial Capitalism in the Long Nineteenth Century" (International Publishers) and "The Collectivity of Life" (Lexington Books).

LATEST ARTICLES BY Joel Wendland-Liu

Politics

Trump’s anti-Chinese racist campaign strategy mobilizes right-wing extremists
April 20, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Because capitalism cannot operate without the labor-power of workers, the profits of the capitalist class are in danger. Therefore, the message is: Back to work.
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Politics

W.E.B. Du Bois exposed capitalist and colonialist roots of white supremacy
February 21, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
He offered a narrative of humanity that rejects Eurocentric notions of narrow universalism and inevitability that justified the status quo.
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Opinion

Trump sinks to racist panic as China mobilizes against disease
February 7, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
If we sink to racist xenophobia in the face of winnable battles against disease, we do not deserve to call ourselves the working class.
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Opinion

U.S. opioid crisis response reveals Trump racism
February 4, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
A GOP-mandated emphasis on pain management opened the door to over-prescription of highly potent and addictive opioids.
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Politics

Predictive analytics: How capitalism’s “knowledge economy” profiles us all
January 29, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Into the fiscal crisis step for-profit education companies offering a mixture of devious dispossession, futuristic technology, and high-pressure sales pitches.
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Opinion

Capitalism needs racism: A response to the NYT 1619 Project
January 9, 2020 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Without linking capitalist development to the material force of white supremacy and imperialism, much of the historical development and contemporary process slips into an ideological and nationalist discourse.
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Opinion

Bernie Sanders is right, billionaires shouldn’t exist
December 18, 2019 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Since its founding, most U.S. ruling class elites have despised democracy. That's still the case today.
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Politics

Keep me in your heart: Race and class politics in the Trump era
October 15, 2019 By Joel Wendland-Liu
Many white people have constructed a working-class identity resting primarily on their whiteness. Instead of a democratic alliance of all people in the face of corporate dominance, many seem to want control over the advantages of...
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