Tag: African Americans
The Black Box of Race
My daughter Maggie gave birth to Ellie, my granddaughter, by C‑section on a Saturday afternoon in November of 2014. That evening, my son‑in‑law, Aaron, came over for a warm hug and a celebratory shot of bourbon. I listened to Aaron’s play‑by‑play of the events, and after a decent pause, I asked the question that I had wanted to ask all along:
“Did you check the box?”
Without missing a beat, my good son‑in‑law responded, “Yes, sir. I did.”
“Very
Arlington’s Civil War Legacy Is Finally Laid to Rest
The wind washed over the rows of white tombstones and carried the last leaves of autumn on its breath. I held the map of Arlington National Cemetery up to my face, clinging to its edges as its corners fluttered. I looked up, and saw the statue I was searching for in the distance, encircled by tall steel fencing that caught and held the light from the afternoon sun. Inside the fence, concentric circles of tombstones surrounded the memorial—gravestones of
Finding My Family in the Freedmen’s Bureau Archives
In all my years doing research at the National Archives, I had never cried. That day in fall 2012, I had simply planned to examine documentary material that might help determine how the yet-to-be-built National Museum of African American History and Culture would explore and present the complicated history of American slavery and freedom.
As I read through the papers of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands—the Freedmen’s Bureau, as it’s usually called—I decided to see if
Harriet Tubman, Outdoorswoman – The Atlantic
When I was a child, my father took me to the river—the mighty Ohio—so I could walk on water. It was January 1977, the second-coldest winter on record in Cincinnati. Twenty-eight days below zero led to a river freeze 12 inches thick. The river became a bridge between regions we have named Ohio and Kentucky, the North and the South. The Ohio froze more commonly in the 19th century than in the 20th, and the last time was more than
A History of the Crack Epidemic From Below
A Progressive City Debates Crime
Plus: One moment that could have weakened Donald Trump’s influence
Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Question of the Week
Donald Trump is guilty of deplorable actions, under indictment for multiple crimes, and yet remains the most popular
Reader Views on Press Coverage of Race
“Most of the time, I don’t think that negative reactions to observational, non-prescriptive pieces about race are the fault of the author,” one reader argues.
Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
In a previous newsletter
Searching for a Fortress Built by People Who Escaped Slavery
On a rainy morning in March, George Dawes Green, a seventy-year-old novelist and the founder of the storytelling nonprofit the Moth, arrived at Millstone Landing, about twenty miles north of Savannah, Georgia, on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. He and thirteen others were preparing to look for remnants of a secret fortress built in the seventeen-eighties by Maroons—people who’d escaped slavery to live in the wilderness. (The term derives from the Spanish word “cimarrón,” which
11 Reader Views on Affirmative Action
“Affirmative action was always destined to be a Pyrrhic victory at best,” one reader argues.
Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
This is the second batch of reader responses to the Supreme Court’s affirmative-action decision. Batch one is here.
Replies have
The Strange Legacy of “Francisco,” a Novel of Black Bohemianism
Alison Mills Newman’s 1974 novel Francisco begins and ends in a bed. In its opening scene, the unnamed narrator, a Black actress and poet, is with her eccentric lover Francisco, a filmmaker. They spend the morning “layin round, rollin round…huggin round,” acts they gleefully go on to repeat atop numerous mattresses and couches throughout the story. The narrator says that she and Francisco are just friends, but as the pair drift through parties,