Ethnicity in the Conflict; Also Some Useful Background

I have a post coming up on Racialicious, the very awesome blog* that covers the intersection of race and pop culture, most likely tomorrow. It's my take for a non-specialist audience on how problematic the US media discourse surrounding the violence often is, and you should check it out if so inclined. I'll post a link when it goes up.

In the meantime, here's a much fancier and smarter-sounding analysis by Madeleine Reeves, an anthropologist who knows a whole lot about ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan (thanks, E., for the link!). And here's an article that I think does a pretty good job of outlining events leading up to the initial violence on June 10 for those who would like more of an idea of the very complicated factors involved in goings on (Hint: it's not as simple as saying "ethnic hatred" or "class conflict," etc.).

*I've long thought Racialicious an awesome blog, as it covers topics dear to my heart in an interesting way. But I'll admit that I have a new appreciation for it based on how my post came about: I noted that they had brought up the conflict on their site, but linked to the truly awful Slate Explainer article. I left a comment to this effect (never having commented before) and very shortly thereafter heard from the editor asking if I would like to write something for their audience. I was pretty impressed that they both took my feedback seriously AND are willing to present something a little outside of their normal fare (though race/ethnicity in international contexts is an area of interest) to their readers, most of whom are likely not super familiar with Central Asia.