Great articles on names, Black enrollment, and poverty in America

Happy April, loyal readers. Today I have a shorter-than-usual issue for you, on account of sun, sand, and Spring Break in México. Despite my ability to rest in advanced ways, I nonetheless carved out time to read my usual 100-or-so articles in order to find a few outstanding ones to share with you. And I hope you appreciate them. First up is this week’s lead article, “What Counts As An ‘American Name’ In A Changing Nation,” a collection of six mini-profiles that explore how our names affect our stake in the American Dream. If that doesn’t interest you, scroll down past the pet photo, where you’ll find two more great pieces — the first explaining why Black parents are fleeing urban public school districts, and the second explaining why our rich country has long tolerated a high percentage of poor people.

I hope you find at least one article valuable and thought-provoking. If you do, I’d love to hear from you. All you need to do is hit reply or click here.

💬 ARTICLE CLUB: This month we’re discussing “The Sunset,” by Lisa Bubert. It’s about a young woman who works at a nursing home. We may love our grandparents, Ms. Bubert writes, but we as a society certainly do not love our old people. I invite you to join our conversation on Sunday, April 30, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Ms. Bubert will be joining us! Here’s more information. Hope you sign up.

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1️⃣ American Name

After Asian Americans suffered an increase in hate-inspired violence in 2021, Marian Chia-Ming Liu wrote about her decision to reclaim her Chinese name. Thousands of readers resonated with her story and shared their own experiences of how their names affected their sense of Americanness. A few felt relieved their families had chosen “less foreign” names so they didn’t have to face ignorant and hateful questions like, “Where are you really from?” and “Can I call you something else?” But the majority — like Ekaterina, Ahmed, AikWah, Jaime, Ayako, and Thenedra, featured in this piece — embraced their names “loud and proud” in order to expand what counts as an American name. As Jaime says, “My name should not be what is most convenient for you.” Teachers: You may want to consider using this text next August as you get to know your students at the beginning of the school year.

➡️ Read the article • Washington Post • 12 min

2️⃣ Losing Black Students

Black students are leaving San Francisco. They’re leaving Oakland, too. And Los Angeles, and Chicago, and many other urban districts across the country. The common explanation for the exodus blames the pandemic in the short term and rising housing prices and lowering birth rates in the long term. But what if the real reason is that the schools aren’t very good? That’s the conclusion of this well-written article, which focuses on why Boston schools have lost 15,000 Black students (nearly half) over the past 20 years. Parents are fed up with the district’s lottery system, high turnover, and slow pace of school improvement. For Black families who have lived in Boston for generations, the trauma of busing remains. “We’re leaving because we’re tired,” said LaTasha Sarpy, who chose to send her kids to charter schools. “My mom was fighting this fight 35 years ago, trying to find the best schools. At some point, enough is enough.”

➡️ Read the article • Boston Globe • 15 min

3️⃣ Why Poverty Persists In America

Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve heard of Matthew Desmond before. He’s the sociologist who wrote the “Capitalism” chapter in The 1619 Project and the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Evicted. Now he’s studying why the United States has essentially the same poverty rate now as it did 50 years ago (12.6 percent then, 10.5 percent now). The reason is not a neoliberal decline in government spending. (It’s more than doubled.) Rather, Prof. Desmond argues, the primary reason is exploitation. In housing, labor, and banking, rich people exploit poor people because they can, under the laws we’ve passed and the systems we’ve built.

For the past half-century, we’ve approached the poverty question by pointing to poor people themselves — posing questions about their work ethic, say, or their welfare benefits — when we should have been focusing on the fire. The question that should serve as a looping incantation, the one we should ask every time we drive past a tent encampment, those tarped American slums smelling of asphalt and bodies, or every time we see someone asleep on the bus, slumped over in work clothes, is simply: Who benefits? Not: Why don’t you find a better job? Or: Why don’t you move? Or: Why don’t you stop taking out payday loans? But: Who is feeding off this?

➡️ Read the article • New York Times • 24 minutes

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