Am I an American?
I live in envy. I envy the people who know their nationality. All the people whose nationality has never been a question in their mind.I can imagine the woman staring at her reflection in the Volta...
View ArticleTrump Is in an Abusive Relationship With America
She mistreated me. I mistreated her. But we loved each other, we’d proclaim time and again.I’d listened for “I love you,” as if listening for a sign of life, like a doctor listening for a beating...
View ArticleA Lynch Mob of One
Everyone seemed to be fleeing the brutality of the Chicago sun. There was no haven that compared to the cooling waters of Lake Michigan. Thousands of blacks and whites flocked to its beaches. That is...
View ArticleThe Hopefulness and Hopelessness of 1619
Her name was Angela, one of the first known Africans in British North America.His name was John, the first known antiblack racist in colonial America.In 1619, this black woman and white man—what they...
View ArticleThe Greatest White Privilege Is Life Itself
I had a 30-minute ride to the train station. I nestled into my seat, opened my phone, and saw that Representative Elijah Cummings had passed away.I gasped and covered my mouth. The driver peeked at me...
View ArticleTwenty-One Books to Read After Becoming
Last fall, Shonda Rhimes received an unexpected phone call, with a top-secret invitation. She was given the chance to read an advanced copy of the book; fly to Washington, D.C.; and share her thoughts...
View ArticleHow to Talk About the Truth and Trump at Thanksgiving
Between bites of ham, he is always liable to say it.“The New York Knicks will never ever win the NBA championship!” my uncle jabs seemingly every year, mouth full, at the Thanksgiving table. The last...
View ArticleThe Other Swing Voter
We needed some air. The room’s high ceilings had been stuffed with roping hugs and raining tears, with eyes and smiles wider than the television announcing the impossible, with raised arms and shouts...
View ArticleWhy I Fear a Moderate Democratic Nominee
Posts kept coming from Black Matters US, from its accounts stationed at seemingly every corner of the internet in 2016. Twitter. Instagram. YouTube. Facebook. Tumblr. Google+. A news site. Google Ads....
View ArticleWhen Will Moderates Learn Their Lesson?
The two major policy pitches of the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 1972 were clear: an immediate end to the Vietnam War, and an immediate guarantee of a minimum income for all...
View ArticleStop Blaming Young Voters for Not Turning Out for Sanders
It is not over. But the end appears near.Senator Bernie Sanders needs an unconventional swing to become the new comeback kid. He needs more “other swing voters” to swing his way during the Democratic...
View ArticleWhy Don’t We Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are?
The nation’s most popular blues singer was not immune. Beginning in the final weeks of 1926, rainfall was as heavy and unrelenting in middle American states as today’s coronavirus has been in all...
View ArticleWhat the Racial Data Show
I dread every time my partner leaves our home. I dread every time Sadiqa marches to the front lines of the war against COVID-19—the emergency department. I dread every time she comes home and removes...
View ArticleStop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus
Editor’s Note: We’ve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. Find the collection here. I grew up in the Christian Church, the second son of two...
View ArticleWe’re Still Living and Dying in the Slaveholders’ Republic
Editor’s Note: We’ve gathered dozens of the most important pieces from our archives on race and racism in America. Find the collection here. He became a founding father. He coveted his freedom. But for...
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Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?
Oakmont beckoned outdoor runners—even novices like me.We were the second family to move into Oakmont, a new housing development seven miles west of the University of Florida, when I joined the faculty...
View ArticleThe American Nightmare
Ibram X. Kendi and Yoni Appelbaum will discuss policing, protests, and this moment in history, live at 2 p.m. ET on June 4. Register for The Big Story EventCast here.It happened three months before the...
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Patience Is a Dirty Word
(Danny Lyon / Magnum)On August 27, 1963, John Lewis returned to his room at the Hilton on 16th and K Streets in downtown Washington, D.C. Just 23 years old, but already a veteran activist, Lewis was...
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Is This the Beginning of the End of American Racism?
I.Marine One waited for the president of the United States on the South Lawn of the White House. It was July 30, 2019, not long past 9 a.m.To hear more feature stories, get the Audm iPhone app.Donald...
View ArticleThe Violent Defense of White Male Supremacy
What Americans did and defended this summer will be inscribed into history forever. The summer began before the summer officially began. The summer ended before the summer officially ended.The summer...
View ArticleA Campaign of Voter Subtraction
The people who were attracted to Donald Trump in 2016 have become alienated from President Trump in 2020. White women, seniors, and suburbanites are abandoning him in droves. The other swing voters—who...
View ArticleA Battle Between the Two Souls of America
A blue-suited Joe Biden knelt. As a parent who had tragically lost a child, he wanted to get close to a child who had tragically lost a parent. Biden put his arm on her black chair. Six-year-old Gianna...
View ArticleStop Scapegoating Progressives
Updated at 11:01 a.m. ET on December 3, 2020.For weeks, President Donald Trump has spread misinformation by playing up the significance of voter fraud during the election without evidence, while...
View ArticleDenial Is the Heartbeat of America
“Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America. Do not represent who we are,” President-elect Joe Biden said during Wednesday’s siege.“The behavior we witnessed...
View ArticleThe 10 Best Political Books of 2020 by Black Women
In the early 1830s, it was all but unheard of for women to organize politically. The Seneca Falls Convention lay more than a decade in the future. Women voters and elected officials were practically...
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