When Blackness Is a Preexisting Condition
Ethel Freeman became famous in death, even though no one knew her name. For months, she was one of the many nameless people who lost their lives in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s deadly intersection...
View ArticleDonald Trump’s Death March
After a beautiful weekend in the nation’s capital, where hundreds flocked to the National Mall to watch big planes go zoom, it is hard not to wonder if too many people in power have concluded that it’s...
View ArticleWhy Conservatives Dismiss the Dangers of the Coronavirus
The conservative media’s coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has mutated faster than the virus itself. One day, Covid-19 is an insidious Chinese weapon, the next a hoax ginned up by the...
View ArticleCan the European Union Survive a Pandemic?
There are two things a quarantined European will reliably find when he goes online for news in this age of the coronavirus: first, the clucking of local pundits at how the Trump administration has...
View ArticleI’m Teaching From Home and Don’t Know How Long We Can Keep This Up
Teachers are constantly left out of education policy and of making decisions about the things that we know best. We definitely weren’t interviewed about how we thought remote learning should go. But...
View ArticleWhy do Democrats Keep Embracing George W. Bush?
Nostalgia for George W. Bush is at an all-time high. It has been rising ever since Donald Trump launched his presidential run in the summer of 2015, and affection for one of the worst presidents in...
View ArticleThe All-Consuming White Pandemic Protester
The images are striking: A young white man in the Michigan state capitol staring blankly ahead, his bare scalp split by a mohawk, the butt of his scoped rifle resting against his carrier vest. Across...
View ArticleThe Backlash Appeal of Mrs. America
“But aren’t women really worse male chauvinists than men, I mean, most of them?” Warren Beatty asks the poet and director Sandra Hochman, a few minutes into her brilliant, anarchic docu-fantasia about...
View ArticleWhy Is the Pentagon Still Paying $10 a Gallon for Gas?
As any American who’s passed a gas station in the past two months knows, global oil markets are melting down. Even before coronavirus lockdowns led billions of people to halt their daily commutes,...
View ArticleThe Important Debate Planet of the Humans Misses
Planet of the Humans—the Michael Moore–backed documentary about the alleged folly of green energy—is a mess. Since its April 21 release, numerous expert critics have detailed the film’s use of outdated...
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Thomas Piketty’s Plan to Fix the Economy
You might say that, in 1788, the weather conspired against France’s feudal system of property ownership. Drought in the spring, hail in the summer, and a cruel winter crushed the agrarian economy. By...
View ArticleBipartisanship Won’t Save Us
In a rare public statement on Saturday, former President George W. Bush urged Americans to come together in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the...
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At Long Last, the “Queen of Folk” Gets Her Biography
On the night of May 30, 1964, the Alabama-born singer Odetta watched a thunderstorm explode over Brussels from her room at the Amigo hotel. She was on her first European tour, promoting her twelfth...
View ArticleThe Placekicker With the Far-Right Tattoo
Justin Rohrwasser, a placekicker who played at Marshall University and the University of Rhode Island, was such an obscure prospect by the standards of the National Football League that ESPN didn’t...
View ArticleThe Jared Kushner of the Federal Judiciary
The Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on Wednesday since March, and the coronavirus pandemic made it a surreal affair. Senators in the chamber spaced themselves far apart from one...
View ArticleBillionaires Are Eating the Economy
Earlier this week, public health researchers projected that one in four Americans would experience hunger and food insecurity in the coming months as a result of the economic crash and mass...
View ArticleThe Rise of the All-Seeing Boss
I’m working from home while writing this. Maybe you’re working from home while reading this. For the workers in this country lucky enough to have jobs that don’t require a commute or in-person contact...
View ArticleReimagining the Post-Covid Economy
The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the usual functioning of the national economy with shocking speed and violence. Now, as states around the country move to “reopen”—in most cases far earlier and faster...
View ArticleThe Fraught Realities of Financial Relief During a Pandemic
Just before the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed into law, Republican Senators Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and Ben Sasse issued a press release demanding an “immediate fix” to...
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The Pandemic Is a Family Emergency
No one anticipated that when the fabric of society finally unraveled, in March 2020, everyone would turn into June Cleaver. People made all their meals from scratch, gloated over their sourdough...
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