A personal essay by Iranian-born novelist Porochista Khakpour about her apprehension and lack of excitement about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at a time when it feels unsafe to be of Muslim heritage in America.
racism
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Unapologetic Women
‘You Can Help in Ways That I Cannot’: Ijeoma Oluo on Putting Your White Privilege to Work Against Racism
A manifesto of the anti-racist movement for white people and others who are just joining.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement — Here’s What You’ve Missed
Writer Ijeoma Oluo schools well-meaning white people–who are late to the party–in the hard, thankless work of relinquishing their unearned privilege and fighting racism.
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
Conspiracy to Cover-up: Why We’ll Never Learn the Truth About the Attica Prison Riot
On how the state covered up the truth of the Attica Prison riot: a grisly state-initiated mass murder in the name of justice and order. Of the 43 dead, 29 were inmates — many of them shot in the back or executed at close range as the state attempted to regain control of the prison.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Below Deck: A Dickensian Horror Story
Lizzie Presser reports on the Dickensian treatment of Filipino workers aboard Carnival Cruise Line ships — where the routine involves 12 and 14-hour days, seven days a week for paltry pay and zero overtime — just to be able to provide better lives for families they rarely get to see.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
(Don’t) Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em
June Thunderstorm, writing in The Baffler with the support of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, digs into the race and class issues that underlie efforts to quell smoking. Is “public health” really the name of the game?
Posted inEditor's Pick
Off Our Butts: How Smoking Bans Extinguish Solidarity
An impassioned essay on ways anti-smoking legislation is, and always has been, about social control — bans that target and dehumanize the poor in the name of public health.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Typecast as a Terrorist
The Night Of and Rogue One star Riz Ahmed describes what life, work, and passing through airports is like as a British Pakistani.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Drinking Chai to Savannah: Reflections on Identity, Inclusion and Power in the South
On a girls’ road trip to Savannah with six of her immigrant friends, Anjali Enjeti recalls a traumatic racist incident she experienced as a teen—an interaction that framed her understanding of her otherness, in Georgia, and America.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Whitefish, Montana Will Not be Intimidated
Andrew Romano tells how the small town of Whitefish, Montana, stood up to the anti-Semitic threats of resident neo-Nazi Richard Spencer and his band of white supremacists, sending a strong, clear message: hate is not welcome here; we will not back down.