There are two types of Americans — those who like to tidy up KonMari style, and those who prefer to adorn their living space with wall signs, spring candles, and pillows with tassels. No matter your leaning, you’ll love this week’s lead article, which explains how a hit TV show transformed a town in Texas — with mixed results (and major ramifications).

Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, our schools remain separate and unequal. Prof. Pedro Noguera recognizes that school desegregation is no longer a shared goal among educational leaders. Abandoning integration, however, would worsen socioeconomic and political divisions and would prevent efforts to build a prosperous, multiracial society. Most interesting to me is Prof. Noguera’s reliance on his life story in order to further his argument. He clearly benefited from integration. It’s captivating and poignant — but unfortunately, it seems a little generational now, a bit out of reach.

Highlighter favorite Ijeoma Oluo is back, this time sharing her painful experiences leading anti-racism workshops. Often, conversations on racial equity center white voices, white tears, and white fragility — thereby attacking the dignity of people of color. Ms. Oluo writes, “The white attendees decide for themselves what will be discussed, what they will hear, what they will learn. And it is their space. All spaces are.”

When Akhim Yuseff Cabey was little, growing up in the Bronx, all he wanted to do was ride the subway on his own. The subways were like space rockets, and riding to Queens to see his grandmother meant vanquishing aliens and saving the galaxy. But everything changed when Akhim turned 9 and vigilante Bernhard Goetz shot four Black boys on a subway car.

Youth violence is way down, especially in California. But that doesn’t mean juvenile halls are closing. Find out why in this week’s lead article, and ready yourself for outrage when you find out how much money counties are spending to incarcerate young people. 

This week’s lead article about the roots of white nationalism in the United States came to my attention the day before the horrific act of hate in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 Muslims as they met in mosques to worship and pray. My worry is that after Charleston, after Charlottesville, after Pittsburgh, we’ve become hardened, accustomed to the terrorism carried out by white men. 

The college admissions scandal riveted our attention this week, and several loyal readers reached out for my take. Besides the usual thoughts — yes, the system is rigged — I was reminded of the hard work of teachers and mentors who support young people who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. This is deeply important work. Certainly, it’s hard to compete with rich cheating parents and pricey college counselors. But still, young people persist, and they hold fast to their dreams of higher education, because of the good people who surround them.

“For more than 250 years, the nation’s news media, no matter how politically liberal, conservative, or radical, no matter what class they purported to represent, remained the press of its white population.”

Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, where Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman, before two white men kidnapped and lynched him in 1955, still stands, barely, in Money, Mississippi. The Emmett Till Memorial Commission wants to restore the market. The family of Ray Tribble, who sat on the jury that acquitted the white men, and who currently owns the market, does not.

If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Many people say they’d share the jackpot with friends and family. But what if your financial success did not come suddenly, and in fact emerged as a result of your hard work? Today’s lead article explores how our racial identity impacts how we think about money and the responsibility we feel to share our wealth (or not). Please read it!