Poverty
Finding the Future in Radical Rural America
Rural places weren’t always red, and many are turning increasingly blue.
Overdosing in Appalachia
Harm reduction strategies have their roots in 1980s HIV activism, but they are starting to spread in rural America in response to the opioid crisis.
“Every Crucifixion Needs a Witness”
Rev. William J. Barber II on civil disobedience, the failures of electoral campaigns, and why the South is key to a political transformation of the country.
How Race Made the Opioid Crisis
The fundamental division between “dope” and medicine has always turned on racial and economic difference.
Puerto Rico’s War on Its Poor
In the 1990s, Puerto Rico showed Washington how militarized policing and privatization can extract profits from poor people of color.
Aging into Feminism
Taking better care of homeless retirees is part of feminism’s next big challenge.
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.
In the Name of Public Safety
The Mass Bail Out at Rikers Island shows that freedom is a critical part of public safety.
The Almost Inevitable Failure of Justice
The persistence of black poverty has become a permanent feature of U.S. democracy. We need an expanded political imagination to dismantle it.
Immigrants Welcome*
Trump’s Muslim ban was not just an aberration. U.S. citizenship has long been predicated on whiteness as it was understood in 1790.
Who Gets the Right to Stay?
The moral right of states to apprehend and deport irregular migrants erodes with the passage of time.
The Mythical Whiteness of Trump Country
J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy has been held up as a guidebook for understanding the 2016 election, but it’s rooted in a dangerous myth.
What the Minimum Wage Debate Gets Wrong
Critics of raising the minimum wage claim that it decreases employment, but they are missing the larger point.
Open for Business, Not Human Rights: Trump’s Priorities in Central America
A recent conference made it clear: military and corporate interests will prevail.
Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder?
Capital in the Twenty-First Century raised important questions about inequality that the Ivory Tower would rather ignore.
Basic Income Is a Dead End
Basic income is a seductive poison that would benefit the margins of society at the expense of the middle class and immigrants.
Basic Income in a Just Society
Cash grants have a role to play in building a decent future for work—alongside much else.
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