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Race

The Racist Politics of the English Language

How we went from “racist” to “racially tinged.”

Lawrence B. Glickman

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Race

Arts in Society, Race

Aretha Franklin’s Soul

‘Amazing Grace,’ the long-lost film of Franklin’s gospel album, offers a lesson in the deep connections between gospel and soul music.

Ed Pavlić

Race, Reading Lists

How To Talk About Anti-Semitism

A reading list. 

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Race

Succeeding While Black

Michelle Obama’s new book reduces racial inequality to a matter of psychological impairment that can be overcome through grit and grin. This is a dangerous proposition.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Race

When Jamaica Led the Postcolonial Fight Against Exploitation

In the 1970s, a bloc of Third World states forced the United Nations to take seriously the unequal distribution of global wealth. Could their example inspire a new generation?

Adom Getachew

Race

Confronting the Relics of the Old South

Two attractions in Alabama—the new national lynching memorial and the First Confederate White House—show a nation struggling to contend with its legacy of racial violence.

Liza Oliver

Race

What Happened to Kanye West?

Kanye represents what happens when the liberties of artistic genius are confused for political insight.

Christopher Lebron

Race

The Missing Malcolm X

Our understanding of Malcolm X is inextricably linked to his autobiography, but newly discovered materials force us to reexamine his legacy. 

Garrett Felber

Race

What White Supremacists Know

The violent theft of land and capital is at the core of the U.S. experiment: the U.S. military got its start in the wars against Native Americans.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Race

The Origins of Birthright Citizenship

The Fourteenth Amendment was shaped by freed blacks’ insistence that everyone born in the United States deserved full citizenship.

Robert L. Tsai

Race

Racism and the Wisconsin Idea

Scott Walker and Paul Ryan broke from Wisconsin’s long progressive history. But as liberals search for what went wrong, they must not ignore the state’s legacy of systemic racism and inequity. 

S. Ani Mukherji

Race

When the Klan Came to Town

History reminds us that firm and sometimes violent opposition to racists is a time-honored American tradition.

Michael McCanne

Arts in Society, Race

Sorry, Not Sorry

Boots Riley's new film roasts racial capitalism and issues an unapologetic call for revolution.

Robin D. G. Kelley

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