Thinking In a Pandemic | Boston Review
Become a Member | Boston Review

A Political and Literary Forum

Menu Search
Donate Shop Join

Race

Identity Politics and Elite Capture

The black feminist Combahee River Collective manifesto and E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie share the diagnosis that the wealthy and powerful will take every opportunity to hijack activist energies for their own ends.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Read More

Race

Race

The Revolutionary and the Historian

Harvard professor Walter Johnson and rapper Tef Poe reflect on their shared activism, and the place they see for allies—accomplices, even—in the long struggle for racial justice.

Walter Johnson, Tef Poe, Mordecai Lyon

Race

The Conservative Black Nationalism of Clarence Thomas

Joshua Cohen and Corey Robin discuss the black nationalism at the heart of Thomas’s conservative jurisprudence—and what it means for those on the left who often dismiss the justice’s use of race. 

Joshua Cohen, Corey Robin

Race

Before America Burned

A new book explores how William F. Buckley, Jr., and James Baldwin came to share a stage in 1965 and what their debate over black inequality reveals about the modern conservative movement. 

Robert L. Tsai

Race

What White Kids Learn About Race in School

Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, U.S. schools remain largely segregated. This matters not only because white and black students experience very different educational outcomes, but also because school is where children form many of their ideas about race and privilege.

Erik Loomis

Forum

How Race Made the Opioid Crisis

The success of OxyContin hinged on racially bifurcated understandings of addiction. The fundamental division between “dope” and medicine, after all, has always been the race and class of users.

Donna Murch

Race, Reading Lists

1619 Syllabus

Because when we remember better, we do better. 

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Politics, Race

The Fragile Patriotism of the American Conservative

The New York Times’s new 1619 Project argues fiercely for a new understanding of what it means to believe in America—and it is cracking the very foundations of conservatism.

David Walsh

Politics, Race

The Armed and Anxious White Psyche

Contemporary gun violence is not so much terrorism as tradition. It is deeply intertwined with the white supremacist foundations of the United States.

Mark Tseng-Putterman

Politics, Race

Solid Trumpism

Donald Trump has the most stable approval rating of any president since Harry Truman. As we gear up for the 2020 election, the challenge we now face is the remarkable stability of his support.

Ronald Aronson

Race

Black Masculinity Under Racial Capitalism

A truly radical counterhegemony can only be realized by disassociating both blackness and manhood from capitalist registers of worth. 

Jordanna Matlon

Race

Dying of Whiteness

State policies shaped by white supremacy increase mortality rates in much the same way as other manmade health risks, such as pollution.

Jonathan M. Metzl

Race

How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean

The expansion of banks such as Citigroup into Cuba, Haiti, and beyond reveal a story of capitalism built on blood, labor, and racial lines.

Peter James Hudson

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox

Love Boston Review?

Then you’ll love our new membership program! Join us to support engaged discussion on critical issues. You’ll also enjoy exclusive membership benefits.
Get Started

Copyright © 1993-2020 Boston Review and its authors.

Support Boston Review

Become a Member

Make a tax-deductible donation today

Boston Review Printing Note: For best printing results try turning on any options your web browser's print dialog makes available for printing backgrounds and background graphics.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

Get Our Weekly Emails

Confronting the challenges of this moment demands all the moral and deliberative clarity we can muster. While much remains uncertain, Boston Review’s responsibility to public reason is sure. Sign up for our newsletter and don’t miss a thing. 

THINKING IN A PANDEMIC

Donate Today