Politics & Prose at Busboys and Poets 5th & K welcomes Sarah Schulman to present their new book "Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair."
Schulman is currently Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. Among many other awards, she’s been nominated for ten Lambda Literary awards for her screenplays, journalism, novels, and works of nonfiction. In her new study, the long-time ACT-UP activist examines the culture of scapegoating, starting with the parallels between supremacist and traumatized behavior in both political and personal situations. The assumption of victimhood and the propensity to blame, she argues, is based in an inability to change or accept difference. Her examination of groups shows how negative group behavior leads to lashing out—essentially playing on a fear of the other—when what is required for resolution is self-criticism and accountability.
