#256: The Unraveling Of America

Happy Thursday, loyal readers! Are you as busy this week as I am? This year’s start of school has reminded me of my beginning-teacher days, when all was new and not easy. But I’m happy to report that the weekend is in sight, which means more time to read and relax.

This week’s lead article — about how the coronavirus marks the end of the American era — certainly won’t buoy your spirits or make you feel better about the state of our country. But I highly recommend the piece, most notably in how it builds on Ibram X. Kendi’s brilliant essay from last week about the power of American denial.

If reading about our nation’s demise doesn’t sound appealing to you, skip the lead article and head straight to an interview with Stacey Abrams, a photo of an adorable puppy, a criticism of white allies, and a podcast on the state of reading instruction. Enjoy!

+ Join us at Article Club this month as we read and discuss “Going The Distance (And Beyond) To Catch Marathon Cheaters.” Author Gordy Megroz will be answering our questions in a podcast episode, and we’ll gather on August 30 to share our thoughts. If you like connecting with other thoughtful readers, Article Club is your place.

The Unraveling Of America

Wade Davis: “In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country.

The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children.” (19 min)

+ Thank you to Article Clubber Kati for sending this article my way.

“You Can’t Give Up The Power You Have Trying To Get The Power You Want.”

Stacey Abrams: “This is a nation built on voter suppression. When we started, white men who owned land could vote. If you were Black, you were a slave. If you were a woman, you were supposed to be silent. If you were Native American, you were invisible. Then in 1790 we decided to shut the gates and say no one else can come in. So we’ve spent 230 years trying to reclaim the promise that was in our Declaration of Independence, this promise of equality. But we can only reclaim it if we have the power of the vote.” (22 min)

The Black Lives Matter Movement Hits A Different Kind Wall: White Allies

Robin Givhan: “An ally? This modest, bland word feels inadequate to the breadth and complexity of what it means. An ally isn’t more capable or experienced or exceptional. An ally simply recognizes that we’re like Venn diagrams with overlapping commonalities. An ally is just another human being muddling through life, trying to be decent. Giving them a title is a bit like awarding them a gold sticker just for seeing the humanity in their neighbor.” (8 min)

What The Words Say

On average, young people who read well tend to do better in school, get in less trouble, make more money, and live longer. That’s why, every August, education reporter Emily Hanford writes another documentary about the state of reading instruction, reminding us that we’re horrible at it, and letting us know that phonics is the only way to go. (51 min)

+ Two years ago, Ms. Hanford shared her thoughts on The Highlighter Podcast. Please take a listen!

Thank you very much for reading yet another issue of The Highlighter. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below. I appreciate your feedback.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 10 new members: Robert, Mat, Laura, Ted, and 6 others whose first names I couldn’t decipher from their emails. (Feel free to say hi!) I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe. Big thanks to Lynn for sharing last week’s issue.

• Keep my reading energy nice and high by buying me a cookie. Big thanks to Charlie, Beth, and Jennifer — your eight cookies last week were very delicious.

• Support the newsletter’s growth by becoming a VIP member. Big thanks to Ariel and Jamie for joining the esteemed club.

On the other hand, if you’ve given this newsletter a chance, but it’s just not a part of your weekly reading routine, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#255: American Denial

Happy Thursday, loyal readers! Especially when work is busy (definitely true this week), I look forward to carving out time to read, reflect, and share thought-provoking articles with you. I’m appreciative of this reading community — whether you joined this month, or five years ago, or anywhere in between.

I couldn’t decide which article should lead this week’s issue, so if you have time, I recommend that you read both. “The Power of American Denial” and “America’s Untouchables” talk to each other, exploring our country’s choice not to reckon with the systemic white supremacy and anti-Blackness right in front of our faces.

Also, don’t forget about the two articles (focusing on TikTok and policing) after the adorable puppy photo (thanks, Erin). They’re worth your time, too. As always, I hope at least one article resonates with you, and if it does, please hit reply and tell me what you think. Have a great week!

The Power Of American Denial

Ibram X. Kendi: “On racial matters, the United States could just as accurately be described as a land in denial. It has been a massacring nation that said it cherished life, a slaveholding nation that claimed it valued liberty, a hierarchal nation that declared it valued equality, a disenfranchising nation that branded itself a democracy, a segregated nation that styled itself separate but equal, an excluding nation that boasted of opportunity for all. A nation is what it does, not what it originally claimed it would be. Often, a nation is precisely what it denies itself to be. Donald Trump has revealed the depths of the country’s prejudice—and has inadvertently forced a reckoning.

The abolition of slavery seemed as impossible in the 1850s as equality seems today. But just as the abolitionists of the 1850s demanded the immediate eradication of slavery, immediate equality must be the demand today. Abolish police violence. Abolish mass incarceration. Abolish the racial wealth gap and the gap in school funding. Abolish barriers to citizenship. Abolish voter suppression. Abolish health disparities. Not in 20 years. Not in 10 years. Now.” (20 min)

America’s Untouchables

Isabel Wilkerson: “As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theatre, the flashlight cast down the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power: which groups have it and which do not. It is about resources: which caste is seen as worthy of them, and which are not; who gets to acquire and control them, and who does not. It is about respect, authority and assumptions of competence: who is accorded these, and who is not. In the American caste system, the signal of rank is what we call race, the division of humans on the basis of their appearance. In the United States, race is the primary tool and the visible decoy for caste.” (16 min)

TikTok And The Evolution Of Digital Blackface

Jason Parham: “As a Black man, my relationship to images is fraught. Fraught in the sense that, if images speak our humanness into being, if they tell us how we are made visible to ourselves and to others, it is also a language that is often used against us: as surveillance, as documentation, through grainy smartphone cameras as figures of unwant. This is America, after all, where Black humanity has barely been recognized.” (27 min)

A Police Officer’s Worst-Case Scenario

As appeals to defund the police have grown stronger, a question remains about how best to support people experiencing mental illness. In this nuanced article by Hannah Dreier, certainly the answer is not more police de-escalation training. But what should happen in the time before social workers replace police officers? In other words, what should happen now, when Thomas Parker, an officer in Huntsville, Alabama, receives his next call? (20 min)

+ This is Ms. Dreier’s third article featured in The Highlighter. Want more? Check out #138 and #163.

Thank you very much for reading yet another issue of The Highlighter. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 3 new members: Evan, Robert, and Kelly. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Keep my reading energy high by buying me a cookie

• Support the newsletter’s growth by becoming a VIP member

On the other hand, if you’ve given this newsletter a chance, but it’s just not a part of your weekly reading routine, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#254: Nice White Parents

We’re almost in August, loyal readers, which means that school’s around the corner again. How did that happen? I don’t know about you, but for me, this year’s version of summer was the shortest in recorded history. For all you educators out there, I wish you every morsel of rest (and reading!) before heading back.

Leading this week’s issue is the first episode of “Nice White Parents,” the much-hyped podcast by Serial Productions that dropped this morning. I got up early to take a listen and recommend the piece to white parents and white educators.

If listening isn’t your thing, the other three pieces in today’s issue are also worth your attention. They explore the common theme of community — who’s in vs. who’s out, and in the case of John Lewis, how to make our community a better one. Please enjoy them and let me know your thoughts!

+ Tonight at 5 pm PT, loyal reader Telannia (please see her photo and bio below) and I are facilitating a discussion on “What Is Owed,” the brilliant article on reparations by Nikole Hannah-Jones. If you’ve read the piece and want to talk about it, hit reply, and I’ll send you the Zoom link. We’re both looking forward to a thoughtful conversation. Hope you’ll make it!

Nice White Parents

I still remember a Back to School Night in San Francisco, early in my teaching career, when I thought it would be a good idea, after concluding my presentation, to open the floor for questions. In a room of 40 parents, all but two Black or Brown, a white woman in the back of the room raised her hand, looked around and then at me, and asked, “What are you going to do to help my child in this classroom?”

Hosted by the outstanding Chana Joffe-Walt, “Nice White Parents” explores how liberal white parents may mean well but ultimately wield their power toward selfish ends, taking over schools, hoarding resources for their children, and exacerbating inequities.

“When we look for what’s broken, for how our schools are failing, we focus on who they’re failing — poor kids, Black kids, and Brown kids. We ask, ‘Why aren’t they performing better? Why aren’t they achieving more?’ Those are not the right questions. There’s a powerful force that is shaping our public schools — arguably, the most powerful force. It’s there even when we pretend not to notice it. If you want to understand why our schools aren’t better, that’s where you have to look. You have to look at white parents.” (62 min)

+ Also by Ms. Joffe-Walt: “LaDonna” and “The Problem We All Live With.”

Together, You Can Redeem The Soul Of Our Nation

John Lewis: “Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.” (4 min)

After The Reading

After a poetry reading, Gary Jackson sips wine and tries to make small talk with two women eager to tell him that racial relations have improved and how “it doesn’t matter what color anyone is as long as you’re willing to listen.” Sensing awkwardness in the conversation, a third woman saves the day, steering the conversation back to the art and reminding Mr. Jackson that “everything’s always been this awful, but it’s getting better.” (2 min)

Disney World During The Pandemic Is Extremely Weird

“I should admit,” Graeme Wood writes, “that a Disney vacation, even in pre-coronavirus conditions, sounds to me like the most elaborate way to have a miserable time yet invented by humankind.” But in this hilarious, well-written article, Mr. Wood discovers that the Magic Kingdom, despite its problems, serves as a benevolent authoritarian regime, satisfying its obedient subjects, who don’t mind the constant surveillance and the $11 corn dogs. Maybe this is better governance than what’s outside Disney’s walls? (26 min)

+ Reader Annotations: Several of you listened to last week’s outstanding podcast with Bryan Stevenson. (Thank you.) Here’s what loyal reader Lisa had to say:

Stevenson’s interview was profound. I’ve had a Post-It on my monitor all summer that says “liberation.” It is the filter through which I move my decisions and thoughts. They are either liberating me and others or they are not. Period. But the most moving idea in the podcast was the imperative of truth telling. There is no beauty, no liberation, no healing without it.

Thank you very much, Lisa, for your thoughtful contribution. Loyal readers, if an article in this newsletter moves you, by all means, hit reply and let me know.

Thank you very much for reading yet another issue of The Highlighter. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 4 new members: David, Janna, Galiullina, and Feroze. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Keep those cookies coming. (Thank you Jessica, Tony, and the Anonymous Cookie Provider for your 9! cookies last week.)

• Support the newsletter’s vision by becoming a VIP member (and try to be as great as new members Gail and Marna)

On the other hand, if you’ve given this newsletter a chance, but it’s just not a part of your weekly reading routine, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#253: An American Founder

John Lewis died this week. He’s an inspiration to me not only because of his courage but also because of his clarity of purpose. “Freedom is not a state; it is an act,” he said. “It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take.” Most of all, I’m moved by his unwavering hopefulness and his pride in young Black Lives Matter protesters, who he said “are going to help redeem the soul of America.” This week’s lead article is a tribute to Mr. Lewis. Please read it if you can.

The other three pieces in today’s issue — about how America can heal from its racism, whether antiracism trainings are effective, and whether the left’s cancel culture prevents open discourse — are also thought provoking and worth your time. Go ahead: Read (or listen to!) one or more of them, and then share with me your thoughts.

+ Loyal reader Telannia and I want to invite you to a discussion of “What Is Owed,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones, next Thursday, July 30, 5-6 pm PT. If you’re interested, hit reply, let me know you’re in, and I’ll give you more details, including the Zoom link and how to prepare. Telannia and I are looking forward to seeing you there for a thoughtful discussion of American history and the role of reparations to achieve true justice and equality.

John Lewis Was An American Founder

Many of us think of John Lewis and C. T. Vivian and other civil rights leaders as champions for justice and equality for oppressed and marginalized Americans. But writer Adam Serwer makes things plain: Without Mr. Lewis and his peers, the United States would still be a white republic, designed by law and violence to disenfranchise and subjugate Black people.

In this way, Mr. Serwer writes, we should consider Mr. Lewis and Mr. Vivian as founders of the Third American Republic, the first true attempt to apply the promises of the Declaration of Independence in order to build an interracial democracy.

Mr. Lewis’s words at the March on Washington ring true now as they did back in 1963. “We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now! We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again. And then you holler, ‘Be patient.’ How long can we be patient? We want our freedom and we want it now.” (8 min)

How American Can Heal: Bryan Stevenson on The Ezra Klein Show

In case you’re a new subscriber, yes, I’m a huge fan of Bryan Stevenson, and yes, Just Mercy should be required reading (and viewing) for all Americans. In this interview, Mr. Stevenson argues that the only way we as Americans can cleanse ourselves of the legacy of slavery is to tell the complete truth and to engage in deep reconciliation. Part of that process, he says, is to dismantle dishonorable monuments and to defund the police. (81 min)

+ If you listen to the whole piece, please reply and let me know which part you found most inspiring.

Does Antiracism Training Work?

Now that every white person has read Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility and attended Glenn Singleton’s Courageous Conversation training, racism is on a precipitous decline, right? Not according to Harvard sociologist Frank Dobbin, who argues that antiracist workshops can backfire, activating stereotypes, re-traumatizing people of color, and doing little to advance equity. One reason for their failure, according to Mr. Singleton: They’re not aggressive enough. (38 min)

+ For a nuanced critique of Ms. DiAngelo’s work, read “The Limits Of White Fragility,” by Lauren Michele Jackson, featured in Issue #209.

Cancel Culture And The Willful Blindness of Reactionary Liberalism

I grew up believing in free speech, the marketplace of ideas, and the promise of liberalism. But the recent complaints about cancel culture do not adequately acknowledge that current notions of open debate do not allow all voices to participate equally. In this well-written article, Osita Nwanevu makes the case that conservatives who call progressives illiberal may not appreciate the associative freedom of groups to unite to promote individual rights. Or maybe it’s just that they don’t want to face the consequences of their speech. (23 min)

I am very grateful that you’ve completed yet another issue of The Highlighter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 7 new members: Eric, Charles, Nikki, Marcella, Heidi, Tom, and one other great person. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Keep my reading energy high by buying me a cookie

• Support the newsletter’s vision by becoming a VIP member

On the other hand, if you’ve given this newsletter a chance, but it’s just not a part of your weekly reading routine, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#252: The Test of Their Lives

Hi loyal readers, and thank you for opening today’s issue of The Highlighter. Unless you live off the grid, which lately has become more appealing to me, you couldn’t escape news stories this week debating whether teachers should return to school next month. It’s a fair and important question. But I noticed fewer stories in my feed that included the experiences of students. This week’s lead article, “The Test Of Their Lives,” tells the story of four San Francisco high school students and how they navigated distance learning in the Spring. No, the piece won’t magically give us the answers to our current questions. But it might offer perspective and help to keep young people at the center as we make key decisions.

Also in this week’s issue, you’ll find articles on the dangers of facial recognition technology and the benefits of having authentic conversations with voters. And if you happen to be in the mood for listening over reading, give the “This Land” podcast a chance. I think you’ll appreciate it.

+ I’d love to hear from you — especially if we’ve never met or you’ve never shared your thoughts before. If an article or podcast resonated with you, please let me know. All you need to do is hit reply!

The Test Of Their Lives

As Los Angeles, Houston, and other major districts have decided to begin the school year in distance learning, this touching profile of four students at Burton High School in San Francisco and their quest last Spring to pass the AP World History examination reminded me of the resilience of young people and the massive challenges that they face. On what motivates him to persist, student Jonathan Tran says, “I want my baby sister to grow up without any stress, without having to move because we’re pretty close to being homeless — anything like that, I want to shield her from.”

Without treading too far down the saviorism path, education reporter Laura Meckler credits teacher Eirik Nielsen’s resolve as well. He presents rigorous lessons, maintains high expectations, and doesn’t let distance learning get in the way of his commitment to students. (23 min)

Defund Facial Recognition Now

Malkia Devich-Cyril: “Black faces have long been considered a threat by American law enforcement. It’s discomforting, even dystopian, to think that when I step out of my home to exercise my constitutional right to protest, I will encounter a system that seems hell-bent on ending my life. My Black face can be identified, verified, and tracked without my consent or knowledge. My mother survived the surveillance of the FBI’s counterintelligence program as a civil-rights activist in the 1960s. As a second-generation Black activist, I’m tired of being spied on by the police.” (17 min)

This Land

For more than a year, this podcast series had languished in my queue, beckoning me to listen. But last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision, McGirt v. Oklahoma, finally got me unstuck, and I immediately binge-listened its eight episodes. What seems at first glance a simple story of a murder case becomes an inquiry into the long-standing treaty rights of five Native American tribes — and nearly half of Oklahoma. Host Rebecca Nagle, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, does a great job telling the story. (~240 min)

The Only Way To Change A Voter’s Mind

Most political scientists agree that the way to win elections is by mobilizing your base. There’s no point in trying to woo swing voters, because for the most part, nobody actually switches sides. But Aaron Vasquez and other advocates of “deep canvassing” believe that listening to people (without judgment) and telling personal and vulnerable stories (skip the facts, please) can make a difference, especially in local elections, and particularly in rural environments. (16 min)

+ What do you think? Is this method better than registering new voters and urging them to the polls?

+ Reader Annotations: VIP member Phoebe was pleased that Viet Thanh Nguyen’s essay led last week’s newsletter and shared these thoughts:

Asian Americans usually don’t figure into the greater discussion of race in America. As an Asian American, I always struggle with finding my place in the race discussion, and it has been particularly difficult this year. First came the increasingly overt anti-Asian sentiment that was especially unleashed by Covid, and then the complicated jumble of feelings about where I fit into the discussion of racism in America after George Floyd was killed. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s article was the best articulation that I’ve read about those complicated feelings. Thanks for highlighting it!

Thank you for sharing your reflection, Phoebe. Loyal readers, if an article this week resonated with you, go ahead, please tell me about it. All you need to do is hit reply!

I am appreciative that you have read yet another issue of The Highlighter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 10 new members: Holly, Kumara, Kevin, Elizabeth, Miranda, Mikell, Tom, Tyler, and two other great people. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Be like the amazing Lopez and buy me a coffee (or five)

• Be like the outstanding Shawnim and become a VIP member

On the other hand, if you’ve given this newsletter a chance, but it’s just not a part of your weekly reading routine, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#251: The Model Minority Myth Hurts Us All

For the third week in a row, last week’s issue was the most popular in The Highlighter’s history, thanks to your strong readership. Thank you for opening the newsletter every week and trusting me to suggest thought-provoking articles to read.

Today’s selections are definitely worth your time and attention. In this week’s lead article, author Viet Thanh Nguyen argues that the model minority myth hurts not only Asian Americans but everyone. The next two pieces — about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery and a protest in Bethel, Ohio — offer opposing perspectives of the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, a feature on dollar stores reminds us what happens when capitalism intersects with race and poverty. My hope is that you’ll read at least one article this week and then share with me your thoughts.

+ This month’s Article Club selection is “Jerry and Marge Go Large,” one of the best articles of 2018. Writer Jason Fagone captures the joy and spirit of two savvy retirees as they game the lottery to win millions. You can find out more info and sign up here.

The Model Minority Myth Hurts Us All

In this nuanced, thought-provoking essay, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen reflects on being Asian American in the time of coronavirus and nationwide protests against police brutality. The model minority myth traps Asian Americans into pursuing the American Dream, and thereby aligning with white supremacy culture, while remaining inextricably foreign and vulnerable to xenophobia. “Throughout Asian-American history,” Mr. Nguyen writes, Asian immigrants and their descendants have been offered the opportunity by both Black people and white people to choose sides in the Black-white racial divide, and we have far too often chosen the white side.”

Still, Mr. Nguyen acknowledges the racism and violence against Asian Americans, how capitalism pits Asian Americans of different ethnicities against each other, how immigration policies targeted and discriminated against Asians, and how the wars of American imperialism resulted in devastation. If seeking the American Dream means being seen as the other, and reaching it means seeing fellow Americans as the other, then maybe it’s not a dream worth chasing in the first place. (25 min)

+ Thank you to VIP member Phoebe for suggesting this article. Do you have a great article for our reading community? Send it my way!

Ahmaud Arbery Will Not Be Erased

David Dennis Jr.: “Black people disappear in America. This fact is woven into the fabric of our country. Parents are separated from their children at slave auctions, never to be seen by them again. A loved one is here one day and turns up in the Jim Crow woods the next, dangling from trees under the cover of nightfall and inhumanity. Ahmaud Arbery left his house on February 23 to go for a run, as the 25-year-old former high school football star was known to do. In the middle of that run, he became one of those bodies. Ahmaud was in the middle-class Satilla Shores neighborhood, on a winding road under the cover of Spanish moss that hung from trees like history. It’s the type of road Black bodies disappear into.” (19 min)

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s Frederick Douglass’s famous speech, “What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” read by his descendants. It’s powerful. (7 min)

You Can’t Bring This Into Our Town: How A BLM Protest In Ohio Turned Ugly

Everyone in the village of Bethel, Ohio, loves second grade teacher Lois Dennis. That is, they loved her — until she participated in a Black Lives Matter demonstration with her daughter last month. The town of 2,800 mostly white residents turned on her, claiming that Bethel isn’t racist and doesn’t need to examine its values. For this working-class, Trump-voting community, white privilege doesn’t exist and BLM amounts to reverse racism. (26 min)

+ Read more by Anne Helen Petersen on millennial burnout, college debt, and farmhouse-chic.

The True Cost Of Dollar Stores

Discount stores are thriving, particularly in poor areas, which Walmart and Target won’t serve. But this outstanding piece by Alec MacGillis explains how dollar stores contribute to economic distress rather than mitigating it, especially in working-class Black communities. Keeping prices down means poor working conditions, low wages, and worst of all, high rates of robbery and murder. When you go to work, Jolanda Woods says, you shouldn’t have to risk your life. (28 min)

Congratulations, you’ve done it again! You’ve reached the end of this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 22 new members: Beth, Emily, Matt, Grace, Heather, Frank, Jordan, Tali, Gwyn, Sari Jane, Kara, and 11 other great people. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Buy me a coffee to keep me sufficiently caffeinated

• Be like Robert and Elise and become a VIP member

On the other hand, if this newsletter is reminding you that you don’t really read much anymore, and you don’t like that feeling, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#250: My Body Is A Confederate Monument

Just like that, we’ve reached the 250th issue of The Highlighter. Loyal readers, thank you for your support and your thoughtful contributions to our reading community. Together we’ve built something meaningful, don’t you think?

Last week’s issue broke another reading record. The lead article, “What Is Owed,” got shared hundreds of times and led many of you to reach out to brainstorm possible action steps.

This week’s issue is another strong one. All four articles are worthy of your attention and reflection, but the first two are phenomenal. Today’s lead essay, “My Body Is A Confederate Monument,” by Caroline Randall Williams, is a masterpiece. The second, “America’s Enduring Caste System,” by Isabel Wilkerson, is also beautifully written, offering a powerful and possibly different way for people to understand anti-Blackness and systemic racism.

Please get into these and the other two articles and let me know what you think. Onward to another 250 issues!

My Body Is A Confederate Monument

Caroline Randall Williams: “I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South. If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument.” (5 min)

America’s Enduring Caste System

Isabel Wilkerson: “Caste is the granting or withholding of respect, status, honor, attention, privileges, resources, benefit of the doubt and human kindness to someone on the basis of their perceived rank or standing in the hierarchy. Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred; it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things. Caste, along with its faithful servant race, is an X-factor in most any American equation, and any answer one might ever come up with to address our current challenges is flawed without it.” (52 min)

+ Ms. Wilkerson is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and author of one of my favorite books, The Warmth of Other Suns.

The Long Walk

When the Hillsboro City School District in Ohio refused to integrate after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Gertrude Clemons, Imogene Curtis, and other Black mothers walked their children every morning to the city’s better-resourced elementary schools. Day after day, school officials turned them away. But eighteen months and several court cases later, the group of mothers triumphed, when the district relented to the pressure. “They taught their children to keep going,” Sarah Stankorb writes. “They taught them to know when the walk is not yet done.” (51 min)

When Black People Are In Pain, White People Just Join Book Clubs

Tre Johnson: “When things get real — really murderous, really tragic, really violent or aggressive — my white, liberal, educated friends already know what to do. What they do is read. And talk about their reading. What they do is listen. And talk about how they listened. What they do is never enough. This isn’t the time to circle up with other white people and discuss black pain in the abstract; it’s the time to acknowledge and examine the pain they’ve personally caused.” (7 min)

+ Reader Annotations: I’m really grateful for our strong and thoughtful reading community. I hope you are, too. But what’s the point of all this reading in the first place? Several of you have reached out the past two weeks and shared your thoughts. Here is loyal reader Lynn and her contribution:

We read so we can act in an effective way. Reading gets a bad rap because people end there, if they even got there in the first place. But it doesn’t end there. Reading is not just an exercise for the brain. It should hit our hearts and bodies, if we let reading do so.

Thank you, Lynn, and may the reading we choose to do this week “hit our hearts and bodies” so that we may act and be better.

Look at you! You’ve reached the end of this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 15 new members: Anastasia, Morgan, Crystal, Veronica, Joyce, Blake, Molly, Alicia, Jessica, Carolyn, Terri, Carrie, Gary, Emily, and one other person. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox. (Also, thank you, loyal readers Maker and Caitlin, for starting off a chain reaction of subscribing and referring!)

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Buy me a coffee to share your gratitude (thank you, Claire!)

• Become a VIP member and bask in a bounty of beauty

On the other hand, if you consider this newsletter only OK, rather than great, or if you read it only sporadically, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#249: What Is Owed

In a 1967 speech, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It didn’t cost the nation anything to integrate lunch counters. It didn’t cost the nation anything to integrate hotels and motels. It didn’t cost the nation a penny to guarantee the right to vote. Now we are in a period where it will cost the nation billions of dollars to get rid of poverty, to get rid of slums, to make quality integrated education a reality. This is where we are now. The fact is that there has never been any single, solid, determined commitment on the part of the vast majority of white Americans to genuine equality for Negroes.”

In this week’s outstanding lead article, “What Is Owed,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, a self-identified pessimist, acknowledges that this current moment, 50-plus years later, offers a genuine opportunity for change. Employing extensive evidence from American history, Ms. Hannah-Jones convincingly makes the case that the United States barred Black Americans from opportunities to acquire the wealth necessary to achieve economic justice, while simultaneously advantaging white Americans. The logical next step, she argues, is for the federal government to pay reparations to Black Americans.

Loyal readers, if you can, please make time to read this important essay. I highly recommend it. If it moves you, or if you want to talk about it, hit reply and share your thoughts with me.

As always, thank you for your readership, and I hope that you find value in all four pieces in this week’s issue. Please enjoy!

What Is Owed: Without Economic Justice, There Can Be No True Equality

Nikole Hannah-Jones: “If Black lives are to truly matter in America, this nation must move beyond slogans and symbolism. Citizens don’t inherit just the glory of their nation, but its wrongs too. A truly great country does not ignore or excuse its sins. It confronts them and then works to make them right. If we are to be redeemed, if we are to live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded, we must do what is just. It is time for this country to pay its debt. It is time for reparations.” (39 min)

+ Listen to Ms. Hannah-Jones talk about her essay on Fresh Air. (47 min)

The Trayvon Generation

Elizabeth Alexander: “My sons love to dance. I have raised them to young adulthood. They are beautiful. They are funny. They are strong. They are fascinating. They are kind. They are joyful in friendship and community. They are righteous and smart in their politics. They are learning. They are loving. They are mighty and alive. Yes, I am saying I measure my success as a mother of Black boys in part by the fact that I have sons who love to dance, who dance in community, who dance till their powerful bodies sweat, who dance and laugh, who dance and shout.” (13 min)

+ Thank you to loyal reader Phillip for suggesting this article.

Unbecoming American

Growing up in the Bay Area in the 1980s, Johann Neem felt like there was space for him as an American without giving up his Indian background. “I imagined that I could become anybody. The American Dream was alive,” he writes. But in the past 30 years, Prof. Neem argues, the United States has seen a transformation in which the riches of the country have been afforded not to all Americans but rather to its white members only. This change led Prof. Neem to feel like he was “unbecoming American” and “losing his country.” (30 min)

Going Varsity In Mariachi

In South Texas, students at Edinburg North High School don’t aspire to play underneath the Friday night lights. Instead, they desire a spot on Mariachi Oro, reigning champions at the Texas State Mariachi Festival. Follow Nathan Fernandez and his bandmates in this delightful Pop-Up Magazine film, produced and directed by Alejandra Vasquez. The music is joyful, the young people are heartwarming, and the expectations are high. Like me, you’ll want to join mariachi, too. (13 min)

Unfortunately, you’ve reached the end of this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 12 new subscribers: Jeanie, Greg, Cassandra, Alicia, Annette, Kathy, Alexsandra, and 5 others. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Join loyal reader Cricket in keeping me wide awake and caffeinated by buying me a coffee

• Become a VIP member and bask in large amounts of glory

On the other hand, if you consider this newsletter “only OK,” rather than great, or if you read it only once in a while, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#248: Trying To Parent My Black Teenagers Through Protest And Pandemic

Last week’s issue was The Highlighter’s most-read-yet. I appreciate your interest in reading well-written articles on important topics, and I am grateful that you make the time and space, week after week, to read, reflect, and have conversations with others. I am hopeful that today’s issue will continue to build the momentum of this thoughtful reading community.

This week’s pieces center the ideas and lived experiences of Carvell Wallace, Sarah Bellamy, Pirette McKamey, Bryan Stevenson, Saeed Jones, and Kadir Nelson. All of them are great, but my personal favorite is the lead article, “Trying To Parent My Black Teenagers Through Protest and Pandemic,” which might bring you to tears (of anger, of sadness, of other emotions), even if you’re not a parent. If you’re an educator (in particular, a U.S. History teacher), I also highly recommend “Reconstruction In America.”

+ If you’re a relatively new member of our reading community, or you’ve missed an issue here and there, you might want to check out The Most Popular Articles Of 2020 So Far. The list includes a wide range of outstanding pieces on a variety of topics. Enjoy!

Trying to Parent My Black Teenagers Through Protest and Pandemic

Carvell Wallace: “It is terribly painful that my son thinks I have ruined his life. He’s not entirely wrong. I am a wildly imperfect parent. I have made tremendous mistakes. Perhaps the biggest mistake was bringing him into a world where we all have to wear masks, where riot squads assemble in front of our minivan, where the climate is on a collision course with the destruction of the human race, where the encampments of houseless people grow larger and wilder every day, where he can watch himself be murdered over and over again just by clicking a link.

This is the world I let be created. Under my watch. They know this. They blame me for it. They are right. It hurts my heart. Also, would you like dinner? What movie should we watch? Tell me about your day. Parenting, like life, is heartbreak followed by reality, followed by love, followed by loneliness, followed by despair, followed by jokes, followed by exhaustion. If this is what you are experiencing, you are doing it right. If you are returning over and over again to watch the simple miracle of growth, you are doing it right.” (30 min)

Performing Whiteness

Sarah Bellamy: “White folks, you must dig into your embodied racism, even — especially — if you think it’s not there. And this is not just to shift what you say and how you shape your arguments, questions, Facebook posts, tweets. It’s not about performing your wokeness. This isn’t about what you say — it’s about how you act; how your body might be predisposed to rely on a racial inheritance that endangers the lives of others. What’s in your guts, in your muscles, in your blood? What are you carrying dormant in your body that springs up when confronted with Black joy, Black power, Black brilliance, Black Blackness in the world? How can you train your bodies to respond differently when you are triggered, when you’re in fight-or-flight mode?” (11 min)

How To Be An Anti-Racist Teacher

Pirette McKamey: “Ask Black students who their favorite teacher is, and they will joyfully tell you. Ask them what it is about their favorite teacher, and most will say some version of this: They know how to work with me. So much is in that statement. It means that these students want to work, that they see their teachers as partners in the learning process, and that they know the teacher-student relationship is one in which they both have power. In other words, Black students know that they bring intellect to the classroom, and they know when they are seen — and not seen.” (5 min)

Reconstruction In America

Bryan Stevenson: “Reconstruction offered great promise and could have radically changed the history of this country. However, it quickly became clear that emancipation in the United States did not mean equality for Black people. The commitment to abolish chattel slavery was not accompanied by a commitment to equal rights or equal protection for African Americans and the hope of Reconstruction quickly became a nightmare of unparalleled violence and oppression. We believe our nation has failed to adequately address or acknowledge our history of racial injustice and that we must commit to a new era of truth-telling followed by meaningful efforts to repair and remedy the continuing legacy of racial oppression.” (75 min)

+ If the link doesn’t load, copy and paste this URL into your browser: eji.org/report/reconstruction-in-america

Whose Grief? Our Grief

Saeed Jones: “Before coroners learned George Floyd’s body tested positive for the coronavirus, before every building in my neighborhood boarded up its windows, before the curfews, before some white men who live in my building opened their windows and spat on the protesters marching on the street under them and yelled ‘Fuck George Floyd,’ George Floyd called out for his dead mother just as desperately as he was calling out for air. My own mother, the woman who used to end the notes she sent to me with ‘I love you more than the air I breathe,’ died almost a decade ago and I can promise you that when this country finally gets its hands on me, I will be calling out for her too. Sometimes, I can’t help but feel that our grief is all this country will let us own. And though I’d very much like to pass onto you something other than this ghostly pain, America, it’s all you deserve.” (5 min)

Say Their Names

Kadir Nelson: A closeup examination of the artist’s latest cover in The New Yorker, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon Black people in America. (10 min)

Your luck has run out. Unfortunately, you’ve reached the end of this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading it. Let me know what you thought by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 11 new subscribers: Vickie, Janine, Rebecca, Jennie, Chrissy, Semechka, Clare, and 4 others. I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox. (Thank you for the referrals, Minnie and Clare.)

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

• Forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe

• Keep me wide awake and caffeinated by buying me a coffee

• Become a VIP member and bask in large amounts of glory

On the other hand, if this newsletter isn’t something you look forward to every week, or if you read it only once in a while, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

The Most Popular Articles of 2020

The Highlighter features four great articles every week. But which are most popular among loyal readers? Here were the five most popular articles of 2020. Please enjoy!

#1: On Witness And Respair

Jesmyn Ward: “My Beloved died in January. He was a foot taller than me and had large, beautiful dark eyes and dexterous, kind hands. He fixed me breakfast and pots of loose-leaf tea every morning. He cried at both of our children’s births, silently, tears glazing his face. Before I drove our children to school in the pale dawn light, he would put both hands on the top of his head and dance in the driveway to make the kids laugh. He was funny, quick-witted, and could inspire the kind of laughter that cramped my whole torso. He traveled with me often on business trips, carried our children in the back of lecture halls, watchful and quietly proud as I spoke to audiences, as I met readers and shook hands and signed books. He indulged my penchant for Christmas movies, for meandering trips through museums, even though he would have much preferred to be in a stadium somewhere, watching football. One of my favorite places in the world was beside him, under his warm arm, the color of deep, dark river water.” (10 min) (Issue #259)

#2: What Is Owed

Nikole Hannah-Jones: “If Black lives are to truly matter in America, this nation must move beyond slogans and symbolism. Citizens don’t inherit just the glory of their nation, but its wrongs too. A truly great country does not ignore or excuse its sins. It confronts them and then works to make them right. If we are to be redeemed, if we are to live up to the magnificent ideals upon which we were founded, we must do what is just. It is time for this country to pay its debt. It is time for reparations.” (39 min) (Issue #249)

#3: What Happened In Room 10?

At the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington, where the first American outbreak of the coronavirus killed 46 people, 85-year-old Twilla and 98-year-old Helen shared Room 10. This big, well-written article poignantly tells their story, revealing not only our lack of preparation for the pandemic but also our lack of care for the elderly, who account for more than a quarter of total COVID-related deaths. You’ll root for Helen, rage against the nursing home industry, and wonder why we’re so callous toward our country’s most vulnerable. (71 min) (Issue #259)

#4: Is Freedom White?

Americans love freedom. But we don’t agree on a common definition. There are three types of freedom, according to sociologist Orlando Patterson: personal freedom (to do as we please), civic freedom (to participate in public life), and sovereign freedom (to exercise power over others). According to Jefferson Cowie, this third type of freedom — “the unrestrained capacity to dominate” — is the most dangerous, given our country’s racism.

Prof. Cowie writes, “Freedom was used to steal land from Native Americans, defend slavery, defeat Reconstruction, justify lynching, fight the New Deal, oppose civil rights, elect Trump, and label Black Lives Matter as seditious.”

The only way for all Americans to achieve equality, Prof. Cowie argues, is for white people to stop presuming that freedom means the right to dominate everyone else. (14 min) (Issue #263)

#5: The Unraveling of America

Wade Davis: “In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country.

The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children.” (19 min) (Issue #256)