Racism
In GEN. More on Medium.
A race-informed response to Ezra Klein’s engagement with David Shor
What Shor gets right
Shor is correct that most Democratic messaging makes it harder to win elections because it either fails to persuade or perversely actually alienates many conflicted (rather than “moderate”) voters. The former is true for messages that primarily stress policy issues; the latter comes into play with messages…
Getting to racial justice is a long journey. Some folks are misreading the map
You can sense it in some quarters of the burgeoning racial justice community — a feeling of dread that the movement has stalled a little over a year since the murder of George Floyd.
For most who express this concern, the evidence they point to is the fall-off of public…
Though I’m not usually in the habit of giving advice to my political enemies, here’s a tip for Texas Republicans: When your opponents say that your ginned-up nonsense about Critical Race Theory is just cover for attacking anti-racism education in schools, don’t do the exact thing you’re being accused of…
The GOP continues to mimic the former president’s racist rhetoric
Even now, three months after Donald Trump’s White House exit, the former president’s presence continues to loom over the GOP. In a radio appearance with right-wing radio host Joe Pags last week, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson claimed he didn’t feel threatened by the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol…
American history is filled with politicians, journalists, organizers, and citizens claiming they don’t have a racist bone in their body
Humans are notoriously terrible at accurately assessing themselves. That’s why medical researchers question the validity of self-reported data and pollsters rely on more subtle questioning to tease out people’s attitudes than a straightforward ask. …
The mass shooter in Atlanta embodied the flawed logic that racial stereotypes reflect fact-based truths
Racism introduces absurdism into the human condition. Not only does racism express the absurdity of the racists, it generates absurdity in the victims.
— Chester Himes
Our nation is mourning the recent attacks on the Asian American community. On Tuesday, a man murdered eight people at three Atlanta-area massage parlors…
The Atlanta shootings were a culmination of centuries of hypersexualization of Asian women
On Wednesday, I learned that the white man who murdered six Asian women in Atlanta denied that his actions were racially motivated. Like many Asian American women, I was overwhelmed with disgust.
Typical. How many times have white men tried to excuse their actions toward me by saying, “I’m not…
An anti-Semitic slur used during a Twitch livestream embodies the casual toxicity found in gaming culture
My very first experience using live voice chat while gaming was at a friend’s house playing Halo. At the time, it felt novel to talk with strangers while playing a simulated war game online. I had a mix of apprehension and curiosity. And though I enjoyed Halo a lot, I…
The Conversation
Alexander Chee and Cathy Park Hong on how the pandemic has cracked open discrimination against Asian American communities
In the fall of 2019 I received an email from the poet and critic Cathy Park Hong telling me she had written an essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. She asked me to read it and consider it for a blurb. I receive roughly three or four requests…
The opposition to the nominations of Deb Haaland and Xavier Becerra follows a familiar trend on the right
This week, as the U.S. Senate began the nomination hearings for President Biden’s Cabinet nominees, I saw a familiar pattern develop. …
GEN
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