Whose Side Is the Supreme Court On? Whose Side Is the Supreme Court On?
Many people who came of age in the 1950s and 60s view the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. But the court has often been the most anti-progressive branch of ...
Aug 9, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Randall Kennedy
Democrats Must Control the Crime Narrative Before It Controls Them Democrats Must Control the Crime Narrative Before It Controls Them
Democrats should offer their own 21st-century vision for reducing crime.
Jul 28, 2021 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Barry Jenkins’s American Saga Barry Jenkins’s American Saga
In The Underground Railroad, Jenkins focuses how people survived slavery rather than on its brutality.
Jul 27, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse
Letters From the August 9/16, 2021, Issue Letters From the August 9/16, 2021, Issue
Calling Arizona… Black Main Street… Privileged information… The bronze ceiling (web only)…
Jul 27, 2021 / Letters / Our Readers and Erin L. Thompson
Our ‘Racial Reckoning’ Is Turning Out to Be a White Lie Our ‘Racial Reckoning’ Is Turning Out to Be a White Lie
Black demands for full citizenship are being treated as entitlement and calls for racial accountability redefined as white persecution.
Jul 19, 2021 / 2021 Year in Review / Kali Holloway
In the Image of Jonestown In the Image of Jonestown
In our flattened historical imagination, pictures of atrocity and those of progress can coincide in unsettling ways.
Jul 15, 2021 / Feature / Jay Caspian Kang
How a Harlem Skyrise Got Hijacked—and Forgotten How a Harlem Skyrise Got Hijacked—and Forgotten
The fate of June Jordan’s visionary reimagining of Harlem, like the “progressive” design for IS 201, shows that when it comes to Utopias, the key question is always: “Whose?”
Jul 14, 2021 / Feature / Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
The War on Drugs Is 50 Years Old The War on Drugs Is 50 Years Old
It’s a war we were destined—and that we deserved—to lose.
Jul 7, 2021 / Blog / Alfred W. McCoy
Maybe We Shouldn’t Go Back to Normal Maybe We Shouldn’t Go Back to Normal
“Normal has always been a perilous reality.”
Jun 30, 2021 / Something Is Happening Here / Bri M.
Annette Gordon-Reed’s Personal History of Juneteenth Annette Gordon-Reed’s Personal History of Juneteenth
In her new book, Gordon-Reed reminds us that besides offering us origin stories the past can also provides us with a way to think about the present and future.
Jun 28, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Robert Greene II