Allies (Fall 2019) | Boston Review

A Political and Literary Forum

Menu Search
Donate Shop Join

Race

Podcast

A People’s Anthology

From Claudia Jones to the Combahee River Collective, our new podcast explores key texts from the urban rebellions of the 1960s and ‘70s.

Boston Review

Race

Against Black Homeownership

The real estate market is so structured by race that black families will never come out ahead.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Arts in Society

Rap on Trial

Prosecutors use defendants’ rap lyrics to win cases despite the flimsiest evidence. Behind this rests a unique paranoia around hip hop and a long history of criminalizing black art. 

Erik Nielson, Andrea L. Dennis

Politics

Fascism in Translation

Far-right leaders often call for one nation united under one language. At the same time, they have always been good at using translation to spread their politics.

Yuliya Komska

Race

The Greensboro Massacre at 40

On November 3, 1979, members of the KKK and American Nazi Party murdered five labor organizers in broad daylight. Forty years later, massacre survivor Rosalyn Pelles talks about that day, and why organized workers are such a threat to the powerful.

Rosalyn Pelles, Jordan T. Camp

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

Philosophy & Religion

The Critical Bite of Cultural Relativism

The pioneers of cultural anthropology taught not just how to study other cultures, but how to criticize their own.

Gili Kliger

War & Security

The Making of the American Gulag

During the Cold War, the “police apparatus” was held up as a prime example of Soviet repression. Yet in its efforts to fight subversives, the United States ended up with its own carceral state. 

Stuart Schrader

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

A judge has ruled in favor of Harvard in a high-profile case about affirmative action. But recent admissions scandals all point to a deeper problem—the presumption that elitism could ever be democratized.

Richard Ford

Arts in Society

The Origins of Sexual Healing

Grammy winner David Ritz, who cowrote Marvin Gaye’s legendary “Sexual Healing,” recalls how the song emerged from Gaye’s struggles with faith, drug addiction, and childhood abuse.

David Ritz

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

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 © 1993-2019 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.