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63Racial vs. Racist
"Racial" is not (necessarily) "racist" The word "racial" is used to describe things pertaining to the social category of "race". As such, surveys that track race-group representation in employment and higher...
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62What if Avatar's Jake Was Played By Will Smith?
Jake Sully is played by Sam Worthington. Would the film's racial message be different if Will Smith had the role? James Cameron's Avatar has done what blockbusters are supposed to do: Fill the seats and earn...
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71The Obama Apperception Test: What your vote (and the reasons behind it) says about your unconscious needs
by Mikhail Lyubansky It seems to be good sport these days to play “armchair psychologist” – to offer psychological explanations for Barack Obama’s appeal, for why he was able to successfully...
0 comments77When the teacher is racist, what's a student to do?
by Mikhail Lyubansky About five years ago, the student newspaper of my undergraduate alma mater ran a story documenting the online activities of a teaching assistant that could be reasonably categorized as hate speech. At the time, the specific...
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73On 9-11, Patriotism, and the U.S. Flag
by Mikhail Lyubansky It's September 11th as I write this paragraph, September 11th, 2008 -- seven years since the September 11th. As I pedaled to work this morning, I recalled that day seven years ago and...
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78“A Black Boy Even Taller than Ron”: Racial dynamics in Harry Potter
by Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D. Note: An earlier version of this paper was published by BenBella Books in The Psychology of Harry Potter, under the title "Harry Potter and the Word that Shall Not Be Named." At first glance, the Harry Potter...
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72Ordinary wizards: The psychology of evil in the Harry Potter universe
By Mikhail Lyubansky That the Harry Potter stories are primarily about good and evil is undeniable, and no fictional character since Darth Vader has embodied the latter quality as thoroughly as Lord Voldemort. The rapidly growing psychological...
1 comment70Pretty Little Girls
by Mikhail Lyubansky The current national debate on immigration reminds me of a story Alex Haley tells in the epilogue to The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In the story, Haley is standing with Malcolm at the...
0 comments66The racial implications of a Barack Obama Presidency
Author's Note: An earlier version of this article has been cross-posted to several political websites (see links below), but, as is my usual practice, it was posted first on hubpages. I am including the links...
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71The (racial) truth in popular fiction's lie
Recent films such as X-Men and Harry Potter have explicitly taken on racial issues and race relations. As a result, important issues such as blood purity, group prejudice, and even eugenics have become part of the dialogue – both online and at the kitchen table. With several more Harry Potter and X-Men films currently in production, these themes are likely to remain in our cultural dialogue for the foreseeable future. But what exactly does a popular franchise like the X-Men teach about race and
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