The Power of a Neighborhood’s Name By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight When Google Maps’ data renamed an African American neighborhood, it opened up residents to the looming forces of gentrification.
Our Words Will Save Us and Set Us Free By Jackson Bliss Feature In the wake of having his writing career belittled, Jackson Bliss becomes an interpreter for a refugee and comes to see words, translations, and storytelling as important acts of resistance.
“White” Isn’t Even Neutral When You’re Talking About Paint Colors By Michelle Weber Highlight Your systems will not protect you.
Even the Dogs By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her memoir, T Kira Madden recalls a harrowing adventure with her parents.
The Real Danger on the Promenade By Steffan Triplett Feature After coming out, Steffan Triplett considers rekindling a broken friendship, dancing with danger and mystery in a secluded area on the edge of town.
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me By Kimberly Mack Feature Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
‘I Believe That Silence Is Ineffective’: Devi S. Laskar on Invisibility and American Terror By Ruth LeFaive Feature Laskar’s debut novel imagines an alternate ending to an incident from her real life: When law enforcement agents raided her home, and confiscated her unfinished novel, what if she had refused to comply?
Did Your Walls Keep Them Out, or Lock You In? By Michelle Weber Highlight Gabriela Garcia’s short story about a women fighting a cold war with her new neighbor is deeply political without explicitly being about politics at all.
Traveling While Black Across the Atlantic Ocean By Ethelene Whitmire Feature Following in the footsteps of African Americans traveling to Denmark in the early 20th century, Ethelene Whitmire experiences a 21st century transatlantic crossing.
When Black Male Singers Were Sex Symbols By Ericka Blount Danois Feature Teddy Pendergrass was the R&B singer women wanted and who men wanted to be. And the one whose life-sized cardboard cutout stood in one family’s living room.
There Was Nothing We Could Have Done, Because We’re Racist and You’re Black By Michelle Weber Highlight “The prevalent perception of black women as unruly bodies and incompetent caretakers overrules even the most dominant stereotype about us—namely, that we are superhuman.”
Of Blackness and ‘Beauty’ By Morgan Jerkins Feature At an art exhibit exploring black models through Western art, Morgan Jerkins finds historical evidence of the white supremacist definitions of beauty Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom identifies in ‘Thick: and Other Essays.’
At Risk, at Home and Abroad By Joy Notoma Feature As Joy Notoma grapples with uterine fibroids, harmful biases in the medical establishment, and a move from Brooklyn to West Africa she wonders where, as a black woman, she can find safety.
Swipe White By Jennifer Chong Schneider Feature Jennifer Chong Schneider considers what it is to be Asian, maligned, and fetishized in dating — and questions her own desire when she dates someone of her own ethnicity for the first time.
Reckoning With Georgia’s Increasing Suppression of Asian American Voters By Anjali Enjeti Feature As AAPI’s become a more powerful, Democrat-leaning voting bloc, efforts to keep them from the polls intensify.
How One Alabama Sherriff Worked Openly to Oppress People of Color By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Here’s what voter suppression looked like in Alabama in the middle of the 20th century.
Writing to Avoid Erasure By Aram Mrjoian Feature After finding a note left by his grandfather, Aram Mrjoian considers how writing about the Armenian diaspora could help prevent history from being forgotten.
The Rising Tide of Wrongful Convictions By Longreads Feature Wrongful convictions are not isolated events. They happen in every state. They happen multiple times a week. Here’s a breakdown of how and why the innocent are locked up in America.
‘Emerging’ as a Writer — After 40 By Jenny Bhatt Feature Jenny Bhatt recalls the rites of passage that led to her shift in identity from corporate executive to woman writer of color.
Eating to America By Naz Riahi Feature When Naz Riahi was 9, she escaped tragedy in Iran only to be confronted by a cruel new world in America. Food became her solace and her tool for assimilating.
The Wrong Pair By Lisa W. Rosenberg Feature After decades of shame, discrimination in the ballet world, and some serious back pain, Lisa W. Rosenberg concludes it’s time to down-size her double-E knockers.
A Mysterious Crack Appears: Past Trauma and Future Doom Meet in “Friday Black” By Alana Mohamed Feature In Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s fantastical short story collection, the strangest fantasy of all is that people try to act morally in a corrupt world.
A Confederacy of (Dangerous) Dunces By Sari Botton Highlight Rebecca Solnit argues that the American Confederacy lives on, with Donald Trump at the helm.
Theater of Forgiveness By Hafizah Geter Feature Hafizah Geter contemplates the personal and cultural legacy of violence against Black bodies.
Living with Dolly Parton By Jessica Wilkerson Feature Asking difficult questions often comes at a cost.
When It’s Time to Say Goodbye to the Old House By Siddhartha Mahanta Feature Siddhartha Mahanta looks back at the small suburban starter house in Texas that helped his immigrant father redefine “home.”
‘I Didn’t Have the Language to Call It Racism’: An Interview with Nicole Chung By Victoria Namkung Feature Nicole Chung wants white parents of transracial adoptees to grapple more candidly with the reality of racism in America.
‘Just Assimilate Her Into Your Family and Everything Will Be Fine…’ By Nicole Chung Feature In an excerpt from her new memoir, ‘All You Can Ever Know,’ transracial adoptee Nicole Chung recounts how her parents came to adopt her.
Eli Saslow on the Slow-Motion Toppling of Derek Black’s White Supremacism By Jonny Auping Feature Eli Saslow says the push and pull of resistance (from angry classmates) and civil discourse (with others willing to be kind to him) is what changed Derek Black.
Florida, White Privilege, and Racism By Krista Stevens Highlight My origin story—as a son, and later a father and a husband; as a citizen, a racist— has always begun in a crumpled car at the side of the highway. May 30, 1982.
