Simon Waxman
Simon Waxman, a former managing editor of Boston Review, has written for the Washington Post, the Baffler, Los Angeles Review of Books, the Boston Globe, Democracy Journal, and other outlets.
What Rule-Based International Order?
Putin’s war in Ukraine breaks the rules, but powerful states always do.
Whose Fear Counts?
Exonerating cops on the basis of perceived threat is central to the oppression and killing of African Americans at the hands of police.
NATO Has Problems, But Trump Won’t Fix Them
Trump may have just been running off at the mouth, but policy experts agree he’s not entirely wrong about our dysfunctional relationship with NATO.
Trump Voters Are Awakening America from Its Post-Racial Dream
Donald Trump’s backers force the United States to confront its long-submerged id.
GMOs Are Safe—So Let’s Label Them
Genetically engineered foods are safe, but there are still good reasons to label them.
Desegregation Is Not Intolerable Social Engineering
The new HUD desegregation rule is a democratic reform, not a utopian one.
Racism: Dumb and Personal / Smart and Structural
Opponents often associate racism with ignorance. But intelligent people promote oppression through colorblindness.
Police Manipulate Freddie Gray Story Through Leak
One of the many disturbing dimensions of Freddie Gray’s death after riding in a Baltimore Police van is how little the public knows about the circumstances.
The Indiana Backlash
Ever since the Indiana legislature passed its version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, lawmakers there have been on the defensive.
Netanyahu Is Right: U.S.-Israel Relations Are Here to Stay
“Reports of the demise of Israeli-U.S. relations are not only premature, they’re just wrong.” It is hard to disagree.
Americans Love King Because They Don’t Understand Him
Celebrating him as a figure of unity and tolerance erases his actual politics from public memory.
The Contradiction of Nuclear Democracy
To be a nuclear-armed state is to invest the executive with dictatorial powers over immeasurable destructive capacity.
Six Shots in Michael Brown
The judicial process cannot account for what matters most: the policies and biases that enable white men to claim justification in the murder of black men.
Market Basket’s Fair Deal
Market Basket is as indispensable in working-class towns as it is in gentrifying and well-off neighborhoods.
A Hobby Lobby Afterthought
The Supreme Court never agreed that access to contraceptives is a compelling government interest. The consequences may be significant.
Justice Roberts Should Visit an Abortion Clinic
The buffer zone decision is wonderfully logical but also divorced from real experience.
Gangsta Folk
If gangsta rap lyrics are evidence of criminality, what are we to make of gruesome murders depicted in many folk and country songs?
