Race

SNCC’s Unruly Internationalism

Though the organization’s legacy has been domesticated, its grassroots leadership embraced the global fight for freedom.

The Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

A recording of our virtual literary event with three generations of Black women writers.

Politics and Prevention

New York State Rifle & Pistol v. Bruen may give the right—and its politics of racial resentment—a major win, at the cost of gun control laws known to prevent shootings.

Guantánamo’s Other History

For decades Haitian migrants have been subjected to brutal mistreatment by the U.S. government, much of it at Cuban detention facilities.

The Lost Promise of Black Study

Even as they carve out space for Black scholarship, established universities remain deeply complicit in racial capitalism. We must think beyond them.

The Captive Photograph

Images seized from enslaved people are not private property to be owned, but ancestors to be cared for.

The Classroom in Crisis

Education is not inherently liberatory: it has always been an arena for broader struggles over who has access to knowledge and to what ends learning is put.

What Justice Looks Like

The reparative work of Toni Morrison’s novels.

To Say Goodbye

A veteran AIDS activist looks back on the 1990s.

Gender Is Queer for Everyone

Gender rarely lives up to our expectations, and a lot of what we think of as gender actually has more to do with race and money.

The United States Is Not “a Nation of Immigrants”

Celebrations of multiculturalism obscure the country’s settler colonial history.

Abolition Isn’t Only About Police

We also need to abolish prisons—as well as put an end to counterterrorism. An abolitionist reading list. 

The Sounds of Struggle

The pathbreaking jazz album from Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Oscar Brown, Jr., that fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation.

Archival Essays for Juneteenth

“It is a commonplace to say that slavery ‘dehumanized’ enslaved people, but to do so is misleading, harmful, and worth resisting.”

Bringing Abolition to the Museum

Artist-activist Shellyne Rodriguez speaks with Billy Anania about museum labor practices and how Strike MoMA imagines a future of art for the people.

The War on Critical Race Theory

The highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.

“Progress for People of Color Doesn’t Come at White Folks’ Expense”

A conversation with Heather C. McGhee about the zero-sum thinking that has long dominated American attitudes to race and wealth—and how to organize to secure public goods for everyone.

Women Who Fly: Nona Hendryx and Afrofuturist Histories

A Sun Ra tribute concert by a member of the pathbreaking pop group Labelle leads to reflections on how Black women artists and scientists have often been at the vanguard of their disciplines—though most are still awaiting due recognition.

An Antiracist Agenda for Medicine

Colorblind solutions have failed to achieve racial equity in health care. We need both federal reparations and real institutional accountability.

Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters

I wrote letters for West’s hire and renewal at Harvard. The school’s administrators completely miss the point of tenure.

A People’s Anthology: Episode Six

On “Women in Prison: How It Is With Us” by Assata Shakur.

A People’s Anthology: Episode Five

The Combahee River Collective Statement.

A People’s Anthology: Episode Three

“The Black Revolution: A Struggle for Political Power” by Jesse Gray. 

A People’s Anthology: Episode Four

“Power Anywhere There’s People” by Fred Hampton.

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