How a Bill to Ban Caste Discrimination Morphed Into a Fight About Wokism
California state Sen. Aisha Wahab’s (left) bill banning caste discrimination has ignited a firestorm of controversy.Mother Jones illustration; José Luis Villegas/AP; Sonia Paul Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The sun was ablaze and the energy was charged. Outside the California State Capitol in early…
Debunking Florida’s Argument That Slavery Could Benefit the Enslaved, in 120 Seconds
Mother Jones illustration Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In my latest video, I tackle the controversy surrounding Florida’s teaching standards. These new guidelines, approved last month, sparked an avalanche of criticism by suggesting that enslaved Americans “developed skills which, in some instances, could be…
Ron DeSantis Defends Florida’s New Guidelines Suggesting Slavery Benefited Black People
Charlie Neibergall/ AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In a Sunday interview with NBC News, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stood by a new provision in the state’s education guidelines that implied freed African-Americans benefited from chattel slavery, claiming it would teach students that enslaved…
Henrietta Lacks’ Family Reaches Settlement With Company Profiting Off Her Stolen Cells
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The HPV vaccine. Genetic mapping. The polio vaccine. All of these medical miracles were made possible by Henrietta Lacks, a Virginia woman whose cells were taken without her permission in the early 1950s and used for…
When White People Became “White People”
Mother Jones illustration Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.How exactly did white people become “white” people? It seems like most white people have no idea about how they came to identify as “white”. That’s a problem. Overlooking this part of our history, I think,…
Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Law to Criminalize Librarians for Providing “Harmful” Books to Minors
Nate Coulter, executive director of the Central Arkansas Library System, looks at a book in the main branch of the public library in downtown Little Rock.Katie Adkins/AP Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.On Saturday, a federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a new law…