#439: Rest Is Not Resistance

One thing I love about doing this newsletter every week is seeing which articles rise to the top. Most of the time, the best pieces do not relate to one another at all. But other times, they do — almost like they’re having a conversation.

Today’s issue includes two article pairs. The first pair is about rest as a form of resistance against capitalism. The second pair is about education — specifically, who deserves to be educated. Let’s get a conversation going in the comments!

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🥳 Speaking of conversation: See you tonight at Room 389 in Oakland beginning at 5:30 pm to celebrate HHH! I’m looking forward to it.

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This week, I re-read and annotated our article of the month, “The Colorblindness Trap,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It was even more powerful the second time around. I encourage you to read it and come discuss it with other Article Clubbers on Sunday, April 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. Everyone is welcome — especially if this will be your first time. I’m always impressed with the kindness and thoughtfulness that we have cultivated here at Article Club.

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📚 All right, it’s time to get to the articles. Hope you enjoy them!

1️⃣ Rest Is Not Resistance, And That Is OK

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Nap Ministry. For the past eight years, Tricia Hersey has promoted rest as a form of resistance against white supremacy. She writes, “My rest as a Black woman suffering from generational exhaustion and racial trauma is a political refusal and social justice uprising within my body.” Ms. Hersey’s refusal to engage in the requirements of capitalism has influenced me to rethink my ways and to embrace rest as a beneficial practice.

That’s why I found Trey Washington’s well-written essay on the limitations of the “rest as resistance” movement particularly thought-provoking. When Trey’s grandmother died, their friends and co-workers asked them, “Why don’t you take some time off?” in order to mourn their loss. Trey wanted to rest, sure, but they found it elusive, nearly impossible, given the demands of capitalism. “I did not choose not to rest. I was robbed of the possibility of even making that choice by a system that necessitates the maintenance of two things: my (return to) labor, and my perpetual exhaustion. Therein lies the problem.”

I deeply appreciated this piece for a number of reasons, including how Trey explores individual vs. collective notions of choice. In our society, rest and self-care are seen as individual choices, which “shifts the burden away from the very institutions that steal our time, energy, and resources in the first place, and onto the backs of the global majority.”

By Trey Washington • Scalawag • 10 min • Public Link

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2️⃣ Get A “Fake Email Job” And Live “The Soft Life”

Maybe it’s impossible to break free of the shackles of capitalism, but ever since the pandemic, more and more (young) people are eschewing the age-old mindset that our vocation is central to our identity and worth. Those old days when we were supposed to care about our jobs? They’re over, at least for many of us.

If you land in that camp, I have good news for you: If you missed “the great resignation” and “quiet quitting” and “lying flat” and “bed rotting” and “lazy girl jobs,” here are a couple more ways you can escape the ills of capitalism, once and for all. You can strive to get yourself a “fake email job” in order to bask in “the soft life.” Typical day: Log onto Slack, reply to a few emails, browse the Internet for fun, take a long lunch and do a few errands, and play some video games. What do you think?

“Fake Email Job” • by Rebecca Fishbein • Bustle • 9 mins • Public Link
”The Soft Life” • by Leila Latif • The Guardian • 8 mins • Public Link

Both Gus and Gilly, who belong to loyal reader Rebecca, covet the territory of the ottoman. In this photo, Gus is refusing to give up his territory despite Gilly's encroachment on his personal space. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ The Meltdown At A Middle School In A Liberal Town

Amherst, Massachusetts, is a little like Berkeley, California. It’s a college town where 90 percent of its 40,000 people voted for Biden, and where you can find Black Lives Matter signs in front of most homes. It’s a town where liberal white people seemingly try to out-do one another on how progressive, inclusive, and unracist they are.

That is to say — until you start talking about what’s best for their children at the town’s public middle school, Amherst Regional. In this well-reported article, Jessica Winter explains how multiple forces — racial tension, the treatment of trans kids, and the role of religion in schools — converged to cause the school to unravel.

This is not a pretty story. There is real harm (along with some pettiness). What was most striking to me was taking in yet another example of how deeply we’re struggling to be in community with our neighbors and to hold one another accountable, for the sake of our kids. This piece reminded me in some ways of “The Instagram Account That Shattered a High School,” last October’s article of the month, by Dashka Slater (which you should read if you haven’t already).

By Jessica Winter • The New Yorker • 20 mins • Public Link • Annotated

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4️⃣ Welcome to Northwestern University at Stateville

Stateville is a maximum security state prison about 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The serial killer John Wayne Gacy was put to death here in 1994 by lethal injection. Now the prison incarcerates 1,500 men, most for life.

But this article is a heartwarming one of hope and the power of education. Writer Bryan Smith follows William Peeples and 15 other men as they graduate from the Northwestern Prison Education Program. They’re the first students in history to earn a college degree from a Top 10 American university, while being locked up.

While most of the credit should go to the graduates, I also appreciated reading about the dedication and resolve of Prof. Jennifer Lackey, the founding director of the program. She reminded me a little of Bryan Stevenson.

By Bryan Smith • Chicago Magazine • 22 mins • Public Link

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Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our four new subscribers — including Aaron, Nicole, Pat, and Jeff — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Make yourself at home.

⭐️ You may have noticed a new feature this week: public links. I want to make sure that you don’t hit a paywall when reading articles in my newsletter. If the “Read the article” button leaves you stranded, click the public link instead. You’ll be sent to a clean reading experience that includes the entire article, as a gift to you.

Dear readers, if you appreciate Article Club, please feel free to leave me a voicemail, recommend the newsletter to a friend, or buy me a coffee. ☕️

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#438: The Colorblindness Trap

Happy April, Loyal Readers. Thank you for being here.

Before revealing this week’s selections (including our article of the month), let’s first make sure you know about two important things:

1️⃣ You’re warmly invited to our quarterly in-person gathering (affectionately called HHH #22) next Thursday, April 11. It’d be wonderful to see you! We’ll meet up at Room 389 in Oakland beginning at 5:30 pm (prizes at 7:00). It’s a great way to connect with other kind, thoughtful readers. Get your free ticket here.

2️⃣ Thank you to everyone who said hi last week in the comments. It was great to meet Fiona and Ryn and Rachel and to hear from other kind folks. Let’s try something new this week: Say hi by messaging me directly. (This is for all you introverts out there.) (Hopefully the button below works.) I’d love to hear how you found Article Club and what you’ve been reading (article, book, something else) lately.

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All right, it’s time to get to the articles. Hope you enjoy them!

1️⃣ Article of the Month: The Colorblindness Trap

If you’re a longtime subscriber (like Ben or Erin, who signed up Week 1 in 2015), you know that Nikole Hannah-Jones basically ran this newsletter back in the day. I was fascinated by her reporting on school resegregation. Her “What Is Owed” was selected the best article of 2020. And many of you participated in our epic 7-month study of The 1619 Project. You can see, I deeply admire her and her writing.

I’m happy to announce that Prof. Hannah-Jones’s latest piece will be April’s article of the month. We’ll discuss it on April 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. I urge you to join us!

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At first glance, “The Colorblindness Trap” is an essay about colorblindness and how the concept has been used to maintain racial inequality in the United States. But because it’s by Prof. Hannah-Jones, it’s so much more. You’ll gain a clearer understanding of affirmative action, its purpose, its origin, its history, and its demise. You’ll appreciate affirmative action as a form of reparations that worked for decades to promote racial justice, before a backlash that led to its dismantling. And you’ll be persuaded to consider affirmative action as a remedy not for all marginalized people but instead as a specific redress for descendants of slavery.

Prof. Hannah-Jones says it much more clearly:

What we are witnessing, once again, is the alignment of white power against racial justice and redress. As history has shown, maintaining racial inequality requires constant repression and is therefore antithetical to democracy. And so we must be clear about the stakes: Our nation teeters at the brink of a particularly dangerous moment, not just for Black Americans, but for democracy itself.

To meet the moment, our society must forcefully recommit to racial justice by taking lessons from the past. Diversity matters in a diverse society, and American democracy by definition must push for the inclusion of all marginalized people.

Those who believe in American democracy, who want equality, must no longer allow those who have undermined the idea of colorblindness to define the terms. Working toward racial justice is not just the moral thing to do, but it may also be the only means of preserving our democracy.

By no means is this a quick, easy article to read. It’s dense. There’s a ton of history. You won’t be experiencing joy. But you’ll learn. And your thinking will be provoked. And you’ll want to talk about the ideas in the piece, hopefully at our discussion on April 28. I look forward to hearing your perspective.

By Nikole Hannah-Jones • The New York Times Magazine • 41 min

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Delia, who belongs to loyal reader Allison, is resting up for a wedding in Baltimore next week. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

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2️⃣ When Your Kid Is The Classroom Problem Child

Alex is a third grader who loves to read. He’s also academically gifted. But Alex’s ADHD and auditory-processing difficulties lead to aggressive behaviors that challenge his teachers and paraprofessionals. He hides; he climbs on closets; he trashes classrooms. His mother, a self-described “free spirit,” acknowledges that Alex isn’t the easiest kid. But she won’t back down from making sure that her son has access to a high-quality education, just like any other kid. Alex isn’t the problem, she argues. His New York City public school is just not set up to offer appropriate responses to behaviors that challenge traditional norms.

“There’s been no return to normal” since the pandemic, says clinical psychologist Dave Anderson. Behavioral disorders are up, and so are their severity. In particular, children with special needs benefited little from remote learning, and their levels of stress and anxiety have not subsided.

This balanced, well-written article certainly does not include any simple solutions. It might spur some feelings. But I appreciate its honesty in explaining the challenges that public schools and parents face in trying to educate all of our nation’s children.

By Anya Kamenetz • The Cut • 20 mins • Public link

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3️⃣ Are You The Right Kind of White Parent?

The headline, of course, is a trick question. The point of this thoughtful interview with Garrett Bucks, author of the new book, The Right Kind of White, is that white people spend too much time trying to be seen as “good” (for example: self-flagellating, having Black friends). Rather than saying the “right” thing, and then feeling self- righteous about it (“I’m better than other white people!”), Mr. Bucks emphasizes the importance of reflection and community contribution. “My wife and I are trying,” he says, “to teach our kids to understand that the challenge of a lifetime isn’t about individual righteousness, but collective care and transformation of a broken world.” One crucial step is for white people to work with other white people in white communities, with a spirit of collaboration instead of competition.

By Sarah Wheeler and Garrett Bucks • Romper • 12 mins

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Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 7 new subscribers — including Thomas, Mel, Sandeep, Hadley — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Make yourself at home.

Longtime readers, if you appreciate Article Club, please share it with a friend.

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#437: Three Ways To Love Black

Happy Thursday, Loyal Readers. Thank you for being here.

Part of why I do this newsletter is to find articles for us to read from a wide range of publications. Don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing bad about The Atlantic or The Washington Post. But we already read those. What you’ve told me over the years is that you appreciate the articles I select from lesser-known sources.

So here goes: Today’s issue includes pieces from Black Life Everywhere, The Ringer, Boston Magazine, and Aeon. Choose from articles exploring:

  • three ways to look at Black love

  • the fight to save Harlem from the “maw of gentrification”

  • what happens when you offer a class on conservative thought at a liberal school

  • a new way (at least for me) to think about emotional labor

For all you completionists (I know you’re out there!), you get extra points if you carve out a whole hour and read all four articles. Tell me if you do!

🙋🏾‍♀️ 🙋🏽 🙋🏽‍♀️ It is time to say hi! (Please do.)

You know what? We’ve been doing this newsletter a bazillion years (aka 9), and we’ve never once had a roll call where everyone quickly says hi.

Can we do that now? I’d like it.

✏️ Say hi and share anything. But if you’re shy, here are 3 ideas:

  • What’s your name? Where are you located?

  • Why did you subscribe to Article Club in the first place?

  • What are topics you love to read about? writers you love?

I look forward to hearing from you. All you need to do is click the button below.

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⭐️ Thank you for saying hi! Now let’s get to this week’s selections.

1️⃣ Three Ways To Love Black

Benji Hart is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator whose work centers Black radicalism, queer liberation, and prison abolition. In this piece, they offer three everyday vignettes, along with commentary, that explore and illuminate the category of Black love. They write:

What does it mean to commit to loving Black people when no one else will — sometimes not even other Black people? What does it mean to insist on being loved, when the world has done its best to render you unloveable? What does it mean to love Black people enough to count yourself among them, to take on the responsibility for healing yourself as an act of protection for those in your care? What are the ways in which that depth of healing can only be found in the love of other Black people?

By Benji Hart • Black Life Everywhere • 8 min

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2️⃣ ‘The Sin Is Greed’

I don’t know New York at all. But I understand what Lex Pryor is saying when he writes that there’s now a Whole Foods at the corner of West 125th Street and Lenox Avenue. There’s also a CVS under a Marshalls, and a Starbucks; a Chipotle and a Wingstop and a Wells Fargo — right where Billie Holliday used to sing.

How much of gentrification, Mr. Pryor asks, is about race in America, versus how we accumulate capital? “There is no dividing line,” says Claudette Brady, executive director of Save Harlem Now! “Everybody says America’s greatest sin is slavery. Slavery is not a sin. The sin is greed.”

This well-written article delves into the complex history and transformation of Harlem, from its roots as Muscoota, Lenape land, to its evolution into a Black American mecca. I appreciate how Mr. Pryor profiles Harlem through historical accounts, personal reflections, and the current battle to preserve its grandeur.

By Lex Pryor • The Ringer • 24 mins

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Ayka and Tuba are ALL EARS awaiting the next Article Club discussion on April 28. Big thanks to loyal reader Sele for this wonderful photo.

3️⃣ A Conservative Thought Experiment At A Liberal School

Eitan Hersh teaches political science at Tufts University in Massachusetts. A few years back, he had an idea: What if he challenged his mostly liberal students to a course on American conservative thought? A right-of-center scholar himself, Prof. Hersh fretted that liberal professors in New England outnumber their conservative counterparts 28 to 1. He worried about groupthink and the coddling of young people from the potential positive impact of free speech and divergent thought. This is the story of Prof. Hersh’s class this past semester. For the most part, students appreciated the opportunity to test out ideas without fear of incendiary backlash. And then came October 7.

By Rachel Slade • Boston Magazine • 20 mins

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4️⃣ Emotional Labor: It’s Dirty Work

I used to think the term “emotional labor” referred to the work that people (mostly women) perform to support the emotional needs of others (mostly men). But in this informative piece, clinical arts therapist Susanna Crossman goes to the origin of the term, citing sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild’s 1979 definition. Emotional labor is “the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display.” In other words, it’s the work we do to process the gap between what we’re presenting to the world and what we’re feeling inside. In hospitals, where Ms. Crossman works, emotional labor is gendered. And like schools, hospitals do not afford workers the time and space to regulate their emotions. Yes, we’re told to “take a break” and “practice self-care.” But do so, of course, on our own, on our own time.

By Susanna Crossman • Aeon • 15 min

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Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 10 new subscribers — including Kimberly, Arlo, Melissa, Cristina, John, Annie, Lucia, Ismail, and Jack — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Please make yourself at home.

Lately I’ve been asking subscribers what they like most about Article Club. Loyal reader Nicki said, “It’s the community.” I agree: You all are a kind, thoughtful group of people. But Nicki got me thinking that we might just getting started. (Hence the roll call request above.) Yes, we have the monthly discussions, and yes, we have the quarterly HHHs. But what’s next? For all of you Article Club Enneagram 5s, 6s, and 7s out there, this is your time to share your thoughts on how we can deepen our reading community. I’d love to hear your ideas.

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If you appreciate the kind and thoughtful reading community we are building, it’d make me very happy if you supported Article Club with a paid subscription.

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#436: Peddling Public School

Happy Spring, loyal readers! My hope is that you’re enjoying the extra daylight and finding some time to read out in the sun.

Sound like you? If so, I have some great articles for your consideration. Unlike two weeks ago, when the pickings were slim, this time I had no trouble finding plenty of outstanding pieces. (And there’s more to come. Hint: Nikole Hannah-Jones.)

This week’s issue is a classic version of Article Club: four great selections from a variety of publications, exploring issues of race, education, and culture. Choose from:

  • what public schools have to do to fend off declining enrollment

  • what a man with OCD has to do to process what he reads

  • what a 32-year-old man has to do to learn how to ride a bike and drive a car

  • what people have to do to stay sane when asked loaded questions

If you’re a diehard subscriber, I challenge you to carve out two hours so you can take in all four selections (then tell me if you do).

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🙋🏽 It’s time for you to tell me things!

If you’ve been following the newsletter over the last month, you’ve been sharing your thoughts and ideas about the future direction of Article Club. Thank you for doing so! (The polls have been popular.) Here’s this week’s question:

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Would receiving a hand-picked article in the mail once a month interest you?

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⭐️ Thank you for voting! Now let’s get to this week’s selections.

1️⃣ Peddling Public School

Traditional public schools are in a bit of trouble. Between the pandemic, private schools, charter schools, virtual schools, homeschooling, unschooling, and school refusal, does your neighborhood school stand a chance?

Of course, says Lauren Koehler, the executive director of San Francisco Unified School District’s Enrollment Center. Public schools face a bad rap, and it’s her job to convince leery families that their child will get an excellent education in SFUSD.

This is a task easier said than done. There’s plenty standing in the way, like:

  • Decades of racism, white flight, and failed attempts to desegregate

  • A bewildering lottery system that determines where students go to school

  • We love reading stories about failed schools, so the press keeps publishing them

  • White parents want diversity but don’t want their kid learning next to a Black kid

I found this article illuminating because it combines an historical look at enrollment issues in San Francisco, while also featuring Ms. Koehler and what her office is doing right now, on a daily basis, to keep the school system solvent.

By Gail Cornwall • The Hechinger Report • 22 min

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2️⃣ Illiterati

For as wonderful reading can be, for many of us, it’s a slog. After all, as Prof. Maryanne Wolf reminds us, reading is not a natural act. Over my many years as an English teacher and literacy coach, I’ve come to understand the complexities of decoding and comprehending text. But this well-written essay humbled me and introduced me to a new perspective. You see, Luke Reiter deeply struggles with reading. But it’s not because of the typical reasons. It’s because the letterforms trigger his obsessive-compulsive disorder. In particular, Ks — with their acute angles, serifs, and sharp chevrons — are difficult for Mr. Reiter to “clear.” If he doesn’t clear a K, Mr. Reiter has to perform a “ritual,” which must be completed perfectly, or else done again (and again). It sounds horrible. But for Mr. Reiter, it’s not. No matter the struggle, no matter how long it takes to get through a text, the act of reading is beautiful. He writes:

In literature, I found the strictures of my mind could be outmatched by the boundless possibilities in words. It was arduous but essential — a slippery lifeline. At times—not always, but on occasion—the prickly shapes on the page would melt down, alchemize into something transcendent, and I was delivered from myself.

I highly recommend this article, especially if you’re an educator, parent, or someone (like me sometimes) who has their taken reading life for granted.

By Luke Reiter • Hippocampus Magazine • 10 mins

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Thank you for the kind words, Tsoniki! — and for the paid subscription. Article Club is free, but if you’d like to support me and the newsletter, I’d be delighted.

3️⃣ Stumbling Can Be Lovely

When’s the last time you learned something new? Where you were a total beginner? Devin Kelly explores these questions in this fantastic essay, in which he reflects on learning to ride a bike and drive a car — at age 32.

As adults, Mr. Kelly writes, “we pretend at certainty all of the time, even in the stumbling that life almost always is.” Learning as an adult is fraught with fear and shame. But childhood learning is different. Mr. Kelly wishes he could summon the permission of childhood to frolic in his failures. He writes:

[There is] the strangely wide and luminous space allotted to children, that whimsical and imaginative place where scrapes can be kissed away and where the letter A resembles aardvarks and where what is broken can be fixed, even forgotten. As a child, you fly down the hill that once sent you crashing. The number for poison control is on the fridge. You don’t grow up until you have to.

This is Mr. Kelly’s third essay featured in this newsletter. His last, “Children in the Garden,” was selected Article of the Month in April 2022.

By Devin Kelly • Longreads • 21 mins

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4️⃣ The Question Trap

One thing I don’t like in life is when people ask me a question they already think they know the answer to. Even worse is when the questions are filled with criticism and judgment, awkwardly disguised as innocuous. (“Have you thought about approaching this in a different way?” is one of my least favorites.) This episode of This American Life features five loaded questions that are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” They are:

  • “Which one of you is handy?” (to a gay male couple)

  • “What do you think of Beyoncé?” (on a first date)

  • “How old are your kids?” (when one has died)

  • “How’s your mom?” (when she has dementia)

  • “Can I help you?” (as a tutor)

It’s rare that I love every single “act” of a This American Life episode. This is one such episode. I hope you’ll take a listen to the whole thing (and share what you thought).

This American Life • 58 mins • Apple Podcasts • Transcript

Listen to the podcast

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our new subscribers Mindy and Jimmy, I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Please make yourself at home.

Lately I’ve been asking subscribers what they like most about Article Club. Loyal reader Jenny said, “Hands down, it’s the quality of the articles.” I was happy to hear that, especially because the whole point of this newsletter is to bring you the best on race, education, and culture. This means reading a ton of articles and rejecting many well-written pieces that don’t quite make the cut. (For example: this one on classical education and this one on the black box of race.) My hope is that Article Club saves you time scouring the Internet searching for good things to read. And my hope is that at least one article from time to time helps you pause for a bit, nudge you to reflect, and urge you to think about the bigger things in life.

If you appreciate the articles I choose and the blurbs I write, it’d make me very happy if you shared Article Club with a friend or bought a paid subscription.

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#435: “There’s this splitting of the self.”

Welcome, new subscribers, and welcome back, loyal readers! I’m happy you’re here.

Today’s issue is dedicated to an interview with Jonathan Escoffery, the author of “In Flux,” March’s article of the month.

First published in Passages North, “In Flux” is a short story about race, identity, and the dreaded question, “What are you?” It’s about Blackness, belonging, and the main character Trelawny’s struggle to figure out where he fits in.

Mr. Escoffery writes:

I was interested in what complications an American-born boy of Jamaican parentage, and of African and European descent, presenting, to some degree, as racially ambiguous, might find in claiming a neat, pre-packaged identity, and how the competing attitudes—the contradictory denials and affirmations—held by those within his various communities might further complicate this, and how shifting geographic and class locations would complicate this even further.

🎙️ I warmly invite you to join our discussion of “In Flux” on Sunday, March 24, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. We’ll meet on Zoom. It’d be wonderful to have you there.

Join our discussion

Alongside fellow Article Clubber Sarai Bordeaux, I got a chance to interview Mr. Escoffery last week. It was an honor. We discussed a number of topics, including:

  • the shame the main character feels as a result of having his identity questioned

  • the use of the second person point of view and its impact on the reader

  • the messiness of identity and our society’s disdain for nuance and complexity

Most of all, I appreciated Mr. Escoffery’s thoughtfulness and introspection. It was clear that he does not settle for simple answers, especially when it comes to issues of race. Listening to Mr. Escoffery got me to want to re-read his piece. It encouraged me to share his piece with my colleagues at school. (Our students would appreciate it, I’m certain.) And it made me excited to discuss his piece with you.

Jonathan Escoffery; illustration by Vivienne Flesher for New York Review of Books

🙋🏽 Before you go: It’s time for a poll!

I’m thinking about making some changes to this newsletter, based on what you’re appreciating and finding valuable. I’d love to hear from you.

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Do you listen to these author interviews?

All the time, I never miss one

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POLL CLOSED

Thank you for reading and listening to this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 6 new subscribers — including Jiaway, Amit, Ryan, Teghan, and Maria — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Zaretta! Zachary! Zaden!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Gregg, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Vanessa (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

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📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

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#434: Behind the Hood

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. In case you’re a newish subscriber: Hi, I’m Mark, an educator in Oakland, and for nearly nine years, I’ve been sharing with you the very best articles on race, education, and culture. Thank you for being here! ⭐️

This week was a slog, I gotta say. Usually, if you give me 10-or-so hours, I can find you some great articles, no problem. Not this time. Maybe it was my mood, but for some reason, I had some major troubles in the reading department. Thankfully, at the last moment, I lucked out and found two good ones. Hope you like them. They’re about:

I hope you appreciate the articles. If you do, let me know. I’d be delighted to hear from you. Email me, record a voice note, or leave a comment below.

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⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of “In Flux,” by Jonathan Escoffery. It’s a great article about identity, race, and the unfortunate question, “What are you?” ICYMI, here’s last week’s issue with more info.

We’re meeting on Zoom on Sunday, March 24, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT. If you’re interested, I urge you to take the leap.

Sign up for the discussion

📚 If you’re already a yes: This week, let’s annotate the article together.

🤔 If you’re a maybe: Listen to fellow Article Clubber Melinda and I chat about the piece in this podcast episode. Don’t worry, there aren’t major spoilers!

1️⃣ Behind the Hood

Nicholas Russell used to wear a hoodie when he went running in the Las Vegas suburbs. No longer, not after cars started swerving too close. “I know that a potential incident can be, and has been, easily chalked up to unintentional happenstance,” he writes. “They were distracted; they overcorrected the wheel; they didn’t see me. And yet such scenarios occur more often than I care to think about.” This well-written piece, written four years after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and 12 years after the mruder of Trayvon Martin, discusses Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and argues, “No other garment is so charged, or so fraught, in this country as the hoodie.” Mr. Russell writes:

We can start with a list of hoods: Robin, Red Riding, the Unabomber, the KKK, the Grim Reaper, Tom Cruise on the poster of Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, Mr. Robot, Luke Cage, Aragorn, the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Lisbeth Salander, members of a confraternity of penitents, Emperor Palpatine, tech bros. At a glance, there is no coherent history of the hood as a symbol for anything. It is shared by villains and heroes alike, by the common man and the richest of the rich, an accessory or a ritual prop. In the American idiom, this isn’t true.

By Nicholas Russell • The Point Magazine • 12 min

Read the article

Loyal reader Veronica let me know the good news: Her Article Club mug got delivered. Even better: Her daughter Harriette approves! Want yours?

2️⃣ Safety Net

Last April, Lisa Bubert joined us to discuss “The Sunset,” a poignant essay about her time working at a nursing home. It was one of my favorite pieces last year, filled with humanity and sadness and grace. When we interviewed her, Ms. Bubert shared that she works as a librarian now in Nashville. This piece tells that story in all its beauty and pain. For Ms. Bubert, being a librarian means fighting for a safe space for everyone, especially our most vulnerable. It means believing in community when most of our society has given up on any idea of a public. It means waking up Carmen when she falls asleep and placing just the right book in just the right child’s hands. This is why Ms. Bubert loves being a librarian:

I love it because every day requires me to meet humanity face to face. It reminds me that I am actually living in an actual society where I am responsible to other people. In one hour on the desk, I can help a child find every single book on frogs that we have and then turn around and give a tissue to a grown man sobbing over his deceased wife. I can give a tampon to a woman hiding in the restroom because she’s been living on the streets. Patrons recognize me everywhere I go in my neighborhood, like a minor celebrity. Library lady, library lady. They know I’m nice, that I try not to judge. They know I can be trusted. They know I’m good in an emergency. And these days, when you work as a librarian in America, there is no lack of emergencies.

By Lisa Bubert • Longreads • 12 min

Read the article

🙋🏽 It’s time for a poll!

I have some secret ideas coming down the pike (or pipe, if you prefer). This poll will decide everything! Please vote if you feel inclined.

POLL

How do you read Article Club?

On my computer

47%

On my phone

41%

On my tablet

12%

I print out all the articles!

0%

POLL CLOSED

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

For the first time in a long time, there were no new subscribers this week. This is sad. But thank you to our long-time subscribers (Yara! Yahuda! Yang!) and loyal readers (Dave) for sharing the newsletter with others.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Kara (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.

#433: In Flux

Happy Leap Day, loyal readers! Thank you for being here.

As you know, this newsletter focuses on the best articles on race, education, and culture. The past year or two, however, finding pieces on race has become more challenging. (It’s certainly harder than it was in 2020.) I could speculate as to why this is. I could comment on the state of journalism. I could share my gut feelings about what’s happening at publications and the decisions their editorial boards are making. But really, I just have to extend my reach and look for lesser-known journals — journals like Passages North, the annual literary journal sponsored by Northern Michigan University, “an accomplice to LGBTQIA+ communities, Black Lives Matter, and abolitionist movements wherever they may be found.”

I’m excited to announce that this month’s article comes from Passages North. We’ll be reading and discussing “In Flux” by Jonathan Escoffery.

Read the article

“In Flux” is an exquisitely written piece about race, growing up, and belonging. Here’s what I wrote when I first featured the article a couple weeks ago:

“It begins with ‘What are you?’ hollered from the perimeter of your front yard when you’re nine, younger probably. You’ll be asked again throughout junior high and high school, then out in the world. The askers are expectant. They demand immediate gratification. You immediately resent this question.”

This is how Jonathan Escoffery begins “In Flux,” a phenomenal coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and what it means to be Black. It’s technically a work of fiction, an excerpt from If I Survive You, nominated for the National Book Award. Though not strictly autobiographical, the piece feels true to Mr. Escoffery’s views of his lived experience. Written in second person, it tells the story of an American boy, the son of Jamaican parents, who struggles to affirm his racial identity.

Depending on his context, the main character feels shame because he never fits in. Neighborhood kids want to know why his mom talks funny. When he asks his parents, “Am I Black?” they equivocate. At school his teachers wonder how he learned to speak so well. The Black kids on the playground find him befuddling.

“Somehow you keep falling short,” Mr. Escoffery writes. “How can your Blackness be so tenuous?”

As you may be able to tell from my blurb, “In Flux” contains many layers and nuances. It is not a piece that is easily taken in and summarized. And it will no doubt promote deep discussion. I highly encourage you to read it.

Read the article

In addition to encouraging you to read the article, I would like to invite you to join Article Club this month to discuss “In Flux” on March 24.

If you’re interested, this is how things will go:

  • This week, we’ll read the article

  • Next week, we’ll annotate the article as a group and share our first impressions

  • The following week, we’ll listen to a podcast interview with Mr. Escoffery

  • On Sunday, March 24, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT, we’ll discuss the article on Zoom.

If this will be your first time participating in Article Club, I’m 100% sure you’ll find that you’ll feel welcome. We’re a kind, thoughtful reading community. Feel free to reach out with all of your questions.

So what do you think? Interested in reading the article and joining our discussion? All you need to do is sign up below. Hope to see you there.

Sign up for our discussion on March 24

Chewy, who belongs to loyal reader Eric, enjoys eating large amounts of baked goods, especially apfelkuchen, directly from the kitchen counter. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 5 new subscribers — including Joseph, Jana, and Elliot — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Wanda! Winter! Willow!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Clay, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Jeremiah (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.

#432: Moments of Decision

Hi there, loyal readers. Happy Thursday. Thank you for being here.

If you’re newish to Article Club, you’re in the right place if you’re kind and thoughtful and like to read the best articles on race, education, and culture.

On that note, I think you’ll appreciate this week’s issue. The articles I’ve chosen don’t all share the same theme. But they’re similar in that they’re all about regular men who face a moment of decision. It’d be easy to say that the first man responds with cowardice, the next man with shame, and the last man with agency. But as with most things in life, there are layers. I invite you to explore them, in considering:

✏️ If you’re moved by any of these articles, please share your perspective. Feel free to email me. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

1️⃣ American Cowardice

At first I wasn’t going to select this article. It’s about guns and school shootings, after all, and nobody wants to read articles about guns and school shootings, especially not in this newsletter. But this one — a profile of Scot Peterson, the armed officer who stood by as the Parkland shooting unfolded — is sensitive and nuanced. In addition to telling the story of Mr. Peterson’s trial, the article explores what it means to be a coward, and how we expect heroism from regular people, as long as those regular people are not ourselves. We expect law enforcement to protect us without offering them proper training. We want our schools to be safe without giving them proper funding. And as a society, ever since Columbine and Sandy Hook, no matter how many shootings there have been, we still have done nothing about all the guns. “As a society, as citizens and legislators,” author Jamie Thompson writes, “we are those officers: equipped, well meaning—and paralyzed. Standing around, doing nothing, while children are slaughtered.”

By Jamie Thompson • The Atlantic • 47 min

Read the article

2️⃣ Shooting A Dog

You don’t need to have read George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” to appreciate this thought-provoking essay. While on deployment in Iraq, Hugh Martin and his fellow soldiers come across an injured stray dog and decide to put it out of its misery. A simple decision, right? Not when Iraqi soldiers are standing nearby, eyeing them, ready to laugh at them. In the moment, all at once, Mr. Martin questions his legitimacy, his confidence, his manhood. “People join the military for a multitude of reasons,” he writes, “but I can’t help but think that I, like so many other boys, joined in order to be taken more seriously.” He adds:

Today, we might call this “fragile masculinity.” But I think that’s too pat. Reductive. The phrase fails to account for the ways in which the very human feelings of loneliness, fear, self-doubt, and isolation account for enlistment. Most people don’t want to be laughed at. So many of our actions in Iraq—I naturally say our since one always, in any military unit, moves and thinks as a squad, a platoon, a company, a unit—were driven not by necessity but by wanting to control how both Iraqis and other soldiers perceived us.

By Hugh Martin • The American Scholar • 17 mins

Read the article

Neko, who belongs to loyal readers Dave and Kibos, likes snuggling, playing the piano, and napping. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ We Are Changed By What We Witness

I’ve read hundreds of essays that tell us to get off our phones and pay attention to life. But most are not written as well as this one by

Christian Simamora

, a dad who wants the best for his son Pax. After noticing that YouTube for Kids was diverting Pax’s attention, Mr. Simamora asks, “What is my responsibility as a father to cultivate the attentional skills of my children?” His answer is deep. Mr. Simamora argues that attention is one of our remaining acts of choice and agency. He asserts that we must teach our children the art of beholding what is beautiful and important. He writes:



Life has beauty and joy to offer, but it requires contact with our attention for us to notice, perceive, and experience them. A poem only blossoms in the light of repeated contemplation. A sunset fading from orange to red to purple to midnight blue only provokes awe if we can take it in and not be dominated by the urge to capture it for later viewing. Reconciliation only happens when you can endure the discomfort of the difficult conversation and keep your attention steady despite strong emotions. A song, a dear friendship, a lover’s touch, a sublime bite of food, a riveting novel, the scents encountered walking through your grandmother’s kitchen — all of life’s treasures require us to pay attention. And when we do, we are enriched.

By Chris Simamora • The Practice of Fatherhood • 7 mins

Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 13 new subscribers — including Claudia, Loris, Mila, Kaila, Louisa, Betty, Ana, Clark, and Nancy — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Vera! Vira! Violet!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Benson, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Nick (thank you). If you like what’s going on here, and if you appreciate the articles and author interviews, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.

#431: What Are You?

Last week’s issue on tradwife life caused a stir. One loyal reader wrote, “This is patriarchy and nothing’s changed.” Another wrote, “I'm pretty sure I'm a raging feminist, but as I read the articles this week, I wonder if there is something to explore here.” Still another argued that capitalism is the real problem. “The toxic relationship is not inherent to marriage itself or to seeing specific roles in the marital arrangement. Rather, one could argue that the true toxicity is found in the pursuit of self and monetary gain.” As always, thank you for reading and contributing your perspectives.

This week’s issue includes four personal pieces about race and ethnicity. I think you’ll find all of the essays worth your attention. But if you don’t have too much time, the lead article, “In Flux,” is a must-read, in my humble opinion. It’s so good, in fact, I might have to choose it for our article of the month coming up in March.

In addition to “In Flux,” I encourage you to read about:

✏️ If you’re moved by any of these articles, please share your perspective. Feel free to email me. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

🎙️ There’s still time to sign up for our discussion this month of “Wider than the Sky,” by Phyllis Beckman. We’re meeting up on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2 pm PT. There are a few spots left. Ms. Beckman’s essay is poignant and thought provoking — and extremely worthy of deep conversation with other kind, thoughtful people. Interested? All you need to do is sign up below. I’ll send you more details once you do.

Sign up for the discussion on Feb. 25

1️⃣ In Flux

It begins with “What are you?” hollered from the perimeter of your front yard when you’re nine, younger probably. You’ll be asked again throughout junior high and high school, then out in the world. The askers are expectant. They demand immediate gratification. You immediately resent this question.

This is how Jonathan Escoffery begins “In Flux,” a phenomenal coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and what it means to be Black. It’s technically a work of fiction, an excerpt from If I Survive You, nominated for the National Book Award. Though not strictly autobiographical, the piece feels true to Mr. Escoffery’s lived experience. Written in second person, it tells the story of an American boy, the son of Jamaican parents, who struggles to affirm his racial identity.

Depending on his context, the main character feels shame because he never fits in. Neighborhood kids want to know why his mom talks funny. When he asks his parents, “Am I Black?” they equivocate. At school his teachers wonder how he learned to speak so well. The Black kids on the playground find him befuddling.

“Somehow you keep falling short,” Mr. Escoffery writes. “How can your Blackness be so tenuous?”

By Jonathan Escoffery • Passages North • 38 min

Read the article

2️⃣ Black Enough

After laughing off a microaggression from a white person, Christine Pride regrets her reaction. In this essay, Ms. Pride reflects on the shame she felt, wondering why she still experiences “racial impostor syndrom” and questions “the right way to be Black.” She recounts growing up in suburban Maryland, spending time with mostly white friends, and listening to Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls. Ms. Pride also shares “course correcting” in college: making a conscious decision to have only Black friends and wanting to prove she belonged. Despite coming from a long line of strong Black ancestors, “straight outta Alabama,” Ms. Pride says the struggle continues. She commits to living fully as herself, a Black woman.

I’m just gonna fully, wholly be myself and enjoy life, enjoy my rest, enjoy what I like, and not have to defend or prove it. I can’t let people limit me, white or Black. Instead of putting limitations and definitions on Blackness, which is playing into the hand of white supremacy in creating schisms between us for no real reason, we can all just be who we want and need to be.

By Christine Pride • Cup of Jo • 6 mins

Read the article

Jadzia, who belongs to loyal reader Katie, is an avid fan of the National Parks and copilots on cross-country trips (and in life) because she is skeptical of human sense of direction in both a literal and figurative sense. Want your pet to be featured? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ My Grandfather’s Songs

Alondra Aguilar Rangel visits her grandfather, Papá José, every year over Christmas Break. He lives on the outskirts of Morelia, the capital of Michoacán, Mexico. He is a “reserved man,” she writes, with hair “now covered in white and his face in lines.” A working man of the countryside, Papá José prefers to share his feelings in song. He tells the story of the indignities he suffered when he immigrated to California as part of the Bracero program. He regrets leaving his family. He is sad his family has now left him. But Ms. Aguilar Rangel reminds us that in his songs, Papá José uses the verb “aguantar,” to endure. “We are constantly moving,” she writes, “living between different worlds, losing identities and creating new ones.”

By Alondra Aguilar Rangel • The Common • 10 mins • in English & Spanish

Read the article

4️⃣ How Do I Recover From Being Whitewashed?

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Filipina American

Stephanie Jucar Cooley

wanted to be white. She watched The Brady Bunch, Full House, 90210, and Friends. All the magazines she read had white women on every page. Except forThe Joy Luck Club(not even Filipino) and the “2-second part with the one Asian friend in Clueless,” there were very few depictions of Asian characters in pop culture. In this well-written essay, Ms. Jucar Cooley, now a mother of two, reckons with her own internalized racism, including her family’s fascination with being light-skinned.




I was whitewashed. Maybe I still am. But, unlike the skin whitening creams I was so offended by, I’ve decided there’s nothing to be fixed. Not my skin color, not my former self-loathing as a child, not my former feelings of my racial background, not even the lack of diversity in the books, art and pop culture of my childhood. I’m here today, a proud first-generation Filipino American and this pride is a culmination of everything I experienced and consumed until now.

By Stephanie Jucar Cooley • Unpacking • 9 mins

Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 11 new subscribers — including Lili, Ashley, Linda, Mari, Katina, Ridaa, Karina, Lelly, Durga, Ramesh, and Oz — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Unique! Una! Uma!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Aaron, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Molly (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.

#430: Tradwife Life

Modern life is exhausting. Who has the energy? Two weeks ago, we read articles on the theme of “walking away.” Today’s issue is dedicated to exploring another response to the ills of late-stage capitalism. It’s called tradlife.

Do you know about it? Maybe because of my age and gender and TikTok algorithm, I didn’t. And certainly my first impressions involved some feelings. But part of Article Club’s mission — and why we’ve built this reading community over nine years — is to learn, have empathy, and keep an open mind. After watching too-many-videos and reading what seems like the entire Internet, I’m fascinated by tradlife and the tradwives who promulgate the movement.

No matter if you’re an expert or a beginner, I hope you enjoy this week’s articles on tradwives and their interest in tradlife. You can choose from:

If any of the articles gets you to think something new, share your perspective by leaving a comment. I’d be delighted. (If you’re shy, email me.)

Leave a comment

🎙️ I warmly invite you to join our discussion this month of “Wider than the Sky,” by Phyllis Beckman. It’s a beautifully written essay about love and loss. Loyal reader Barry calls it “an absolutely brilliant and shocking and deeply human story.” Loyal reader Knitwish reminds us that “the heart doesn’t harden but must heal.” Please read the article and come talk about it on Feb. 25 with other kind, thoughtful people. All you need to do is sign up below. I’ll send you more details once you do.

Sign up for the discussion on Feb. 25

1️⃣ Cooking, Cleaning, and Controversy

Estee Williams doesn’t leave the house without asking her husband first. “I put my husband’s wants ahead of my own, and this has done nothing but benefit myself and my marriage,” she says. Ms. Williams is part of the #tradwife movement, a trend among mostly white, Christian, conservative millennial and Gen Z women who believe in traditional gender roles and re-creating the 1950s housewife ideal.

After all, feminism didn’t work, tradwives argue. Plus, capitalism has made things impossible for women. There’s no way you can have a job and a family. Why fight and suffer? This article is a great primer of the tradwife life and includes perspectives from Black women who advocate for traditional homemaking, albeit for different reasons.

By Elise Solé • Today • 12 min

Read the article

2️⃣ What The Trad Wives Taught Me About My Own Marriage

Jo Piazza and her husband were having an argument. “What do you want?” he asked in exasperation. “I want a wife,” she replied. Ms. Piazza reflects on the incident, wishing she had someone who would cook and clean and take care of the children while she focused on work. She sought out simplicity. She wanted less negotation with her husband about every little detail. She longed for order and calm.

In this personal essay, Ms. Piazza — certainliy not a tradwife — explores why the movement is popular right now. She writes, “If I could concentrate on my home and kids instead of on the six jobs I’m doing right now — in addition to running our household — would that make me happier?”

By Jo Piazza • Bustle • 8 mins

Read the article

Malice, who belongs to VIP Abby, is quietly judgmental, brings home the occasional dead rodent, and gets hilarious zoomies in the evening. Want your pet to appear here? hltr.co/pets

3️⃣ Black Tradwives Say Marriage Is Key To Escaping Burnout

It’s not only white women who are tradwives. A growing number of Black women are embracing traditional marriage as well. This clearly written article explores the reasons for the trend. One is a backlash to white feminism, which did not center the lived experiences of Black women. Another is as an exhaustion to capitalism, which has left Black women economically unstable, no matter their efforts. Despite the desires of some Black women to achieve a lifestyle away from the white gaze, writer Nylah Burton cautions against tradlife. “This feels like another means to control us,” she writes. “Our inclusion is also a tool of control, as traditional marriages are also dependent on capitalism and are institutions that can harm Black women. Whenever someone is selling you aspiration, I think alarms should be going off saying ‘I should be consuming this with a critical eye.’ ”

By Nylah Burton • Refinery29 • 12 mins

Read the article

4️⃣ The Agoraphobic Fantasy of Tradlife

Now that we’ve read a little bit about the phenomena of tradwives and tradlife, let’s spend some time breaking things down. Writer Zoe Hu explains the allure of tradlife (or, at least, the messaging of this allure) as an endeavor to save and protect the endangered state of love. She writes:

Love is the ultimate value, and love is under threat. That is the rumor we good, secular citizens are hearing, at a time when capitalism’s fatal drag on human affections has become harder than ever to ignore. Love is being lost to modern promiscuity, to social alienation, to the degraded hours of work and separation that spread, like static, between the members of your average American family. If only there was a way to save love—and them! Well, respond the reactionaries: the way to rediscover true feeling and value lies in tradition—in, more specifically, tradlife.

Appreciation goes to Article Club facilitator and podcast co-host Melinda, who shared this article with me.

By Zoe Hu • Dissent • 9 mins

Read the article

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

To our 9 new subscribers — including Mila, Emil, Adeeti, Branson, Iris, Homayoun, and Iroda — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Tina! Teena! Tinah!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Zolinda, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like Article Club, please help it grow. I really appreciate your support. Here are two ways you can help out:

❤️ Become a paid subscriber, like Noah (thank you). If you’ve subscribed for free for a long time, and you appreciate the articles and author interviews, or if you’ve joined one or more discussions, I encourage you to take the leap. You’ll join an esteemed group of readers who value the mission of Article Club. Plus you’ll receive surprise perks and prizes. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.

Subscribed

📬 Invite your friends to subscribe. Know someone who’s kind, thoughtful, and loves to read? I’d love it if you encouraged them to subscribe. Word of mouth is by far the best way to strengthen our reading community. Thank you for spreading the word.

Share Article Club

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.