2018

“I’m a black woman in America. I have been owed plenty of apologies. I just never believed I deserved to demand one.”

Adolph Reed considers how pop culture narratives of Black “inspiration and uplift” featuring a singular (usually male) hero reflect the real-world leadership of Black gatekeepers and talking heads granted legitimacy by “elite opinion-shaping institutions and individuals.” Both, Reed claims, stifle the possibility of political change.

Historian Jackson Lears revisits the breadth, underpinnings, and outcomes of the radical movements of the late 1960s.

“For the past two centuries, degrading visual caricatures of black figures — particularly women of African descent — have played a powerful role in shaping debates about slavery, race and citizenship.”

With roots in apartheid-era conflict, waves of violence among municipal officials in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s second largest province, threaten the nation’s democracy.

The daughter of Indian immigrants looks at race, class and climate change in the giant heat sink known as Phoenix, Arizona, a city where money equips residents with the shade trees and air conditioning necessary to survive the heat.