It has come to this. Don’t focus too much on the ‘your scholarship’ line. An email from an American lawyer in my inbox:

I am writing to request your help in a matter based on your scholarship on South Africa. My immigration law firm is currently representing a family of white Afrikaner farmers who are seeking asylum and withholding of removal based on allegations that they are the victims of discrimination based on their race and political affiliation. We are seeking an expert witness who could testify to the current situation in South Africa and confirm that this family would indeed suffer similar persecution if they were to return … If you or anyone you know would be able to give us an expert opinion, please let me know. Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Further Reading

And do not hinder them

We hardly think of children as agents of change. At the height of 1980s apartheid repression in South Africa, a group of activists did and gave them the tool of print.

The new antisemitism?

Stripped of its veneer of nuance, Noah Feldman’s essay in ‘Time’ is another attempt to silence opponents of the Israeli state by smearing them as anti-Jewish racists.