When your name is Osama and you’re living in post-9/11 America, you always know The Question is coming.
Discrimination
Black and Brown Tech Workers Share Their Experiences of Racism on the Job
Former employees of Pinterest, Google, Snap, and other companies share their stories of discrimination.
American Tests
In her quest to become truly American, Jakki Kerubo discovers what it means to belong in a place.
The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020
As Coronavirus leads to a rise in racism, Cathy Park Hong, author of the essay collection, “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,” reviews the history of slurs and hate crimes against Asians in America, and catalogues the growing number of them here and around the world — including her own experience of being called a […]
In Defense of Boris the Russki
Ayşegül Savaş calls into question a kind of racism in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, and laments the liberal reluctance to rebuke discrimination outright, regardless of its targets.
In Jo’s Image
Jeanna Kadlec considers the impact of Little Women’s matriarchy — and its heroine — on the formation of her own queer identity.
Where are the Gay Ladies of Cambodia?
Honeymooning in Cambodia, Lindsey Danis and her wife seek refuge in queer spaces, but struggle to find the acceptance granted to male travelers.
Party Girl
An essay in which Longreads contributor Monica Drake recounts learning that a young, white, male intern at a literary magazine she’d submitted to had publicly humiliated her by taking her story to a party to read aloud and mock a sex scene she had included — a scene in which gender dynamics are upended.
The Link Between Hurricane Katrina, Emmett Till, Racism, and Climate Change
“I wondered if Katrina was really a 14-year old boy named Emmett.”
You Talk Real Good
Alison Stine confronts the ways in which being hard of hearing has made her job search more difficult.