What does "solidarity" really mean?
Palestinian hip-hop, the new philanthropy, and human dignity
This week at Public Seminar, our authors discuss expressions of solidarity that foreground the basic principle of human dignity: from international law to a giving wage to activist rap.
“For an activity that literally means ‘love of humanity,’” Amy Schiller observes in a conversation with Rachel Sherman, “philanthropy today is actually fairly dehumanizing.”
Zenzelé Soa-Clarke finds solace in the music and message of Palestinian hip-hop artists: “There is hope, a spark like a flame in the darkness of a cave.”
And an open letter by leading scholars reminds us that the principle of solidarity requires us to hold all participants in conflict accountable to the international legal standards that prohibit crimes against humanity.
A Pioneering Palestinian Film Offers a Quantum of Solace
Zenzelé Soa-Clarke
One rapper’s father, a former musician who was imprisoned for his songs about Palestinian suffering, shows us that even nonviolent protest can increase one’s proximity to state violence—despite excessive Israeli firepower, music is still considered a threat.
Can Philanthropy Be Revolutionary?
Amy Schiller in conversation with Rachel Sherman
In focusing on objectification, abstraction, and quantification, philanthropy loses sight of the recreational, non-utilitarian things practices that keep us uniquely human. It more closely resembles the methods of wealth accumulation that contemporary philanthropists totalize into a complete worldview—in the same way finance and tech are very removed from the actual reality of people who are their consumers or beneficiaries. They’ve all just become numbers on a screen.
A Response to “Principles of Solidarity. A Statement”
Public Seminar
We the undersigned are deeply concerned by the statement “Principles of solidarity” published on the website of the Normative Orders research center at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt on 13th November 2023, signed by Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Klaus Günther and Jürgen Habermas.