What Does It Mean to Protect Children?
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The Campbell County Public Library is a handsome, low-slung building in the center of the small city of Gillette, Wyoming. Steps lead up to two sturdy stone columns that support an overhang, where patrons can sit on benches protected…
How the Right Retired “Negrophile”—and Substituted “Woke”
Mother Jones illustration Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On June 14, 1862, the New York Times published an editorial titled “The Mystery of Negrophilism.” The essay questioned the origins of white Americans’ “extraordinary interest in the negro” and called the “passion for the American…
Authors Like Me Are Fighting the Book-Ban Zealots. We Need Help.
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Not long ago, I was one of 22 authors honored at a fundraising dinner for my local library. It was a swanky affair, with a multicourse meal, a pair of emcees, and a photographer to capture the rare sight…
The Creators of Florida’s Black History Standards Get an F on Their Homework
James Forten (1766-1842), cited by Florida policymakers as a Black man who acquired shoemaking skills under slavery, was neither a shoemaker nor a slave, historians say.Historical Society of Pennsylvania via Wikipedia Commons/Public Domain Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Florida education officials and the state’s…
Christopher Rufo Launched the Critical Race Theory Panic. He Isn’t Done.
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On a rainy day in late March, a group of American and European public intellectuals gathered in a stone-clad villa in Budapest’s Castle District. They’d been invited by the Danube Institute, a conservative think tank backed by the Hungarian…
Utah Is “Protecting” LGBTQ+ Kids by Letting Their Parents Read All Their Messages
Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In March, Utah lawmakers passed a bill requiring parental consent for minors to join social media platforms—and enabling parents to read their children’s messages and posts. While this isn’t ideal for any teen, granting homophobic or…