The Most Racist Thing I Saw Today Was This Campaign Ad Attacking the Squad and Kaepernick
Since announcing a bid for his old Senate seat, ex–Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a racist without portfolio, has been relatively quiet. Into the void has stepped Rep. Bradley Byrne, one of Sessions’ opponents in Alabama’s March primary. Last week, Byrne unveiled a campaign ad that managed to exploit the legacy of his dead Army veteran…
Memo by Secret Memo, the University of Texas Kept Segregation Alive into the 1960s
Mother Jones illustration; Getty; Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas Sixty-six years ago, Marion Ford, an ambitious Houston teenager who had been set to become one of the first African American undergraduates at the University of Texas, received a terse letter returning his $20 deposit to room in an all-Black…
Chicken, Waffles, and Smashing the Patriarchy
Fried chicken and waffles is a festive dish steeped in the history of the Great Migration, the 20th century fanning out of black people from the former slave-holding states the south into cities in the north and west. The combination delighted palates at nightspots like Wells Supper Club in Harlem during that neighborhood’s famous renaissance.…
Remembering Courtney Everts Mykytyn, Who Urged White Parents to Integrate Schools—With Respect
Roman Mykytyn “Drawing Lessons From Her Own Missteps, Activist Courtney Everts Mykytyn Urged White Parents to Integrate Schools With Respect” was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here: ckbe.at/newsletters The first time I ever spoke with Courtney Everts Mykytyn, she was distracted. I’d called her one…
For Black Americans, It’s Not a Housing Crisis. It’s a Chronic Condition.
Donte Bruce holds the US flag during a 2000 march in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to demand fair housing for low-income communities.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Redlining is widely seen as the source of the vast disparities in housing and homeownership between white and Black Americans. Denied access to government-backed mortgages,…
The Puerto Rican Flag’s Evolving Colors Say a Lot About the Island’s Relationship With Its Colonial Rulers
Casino developer Steve Wynn and his wife Andrea Hissom, make their way to the Senate Policy luncheon.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call There’s a running joke in Latinx circles about Puerto Ricans and their love for their flag. “How did you know I was Puerto Rican?” reads the caption on a popular meme accompanying a photo of…