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The Roundup Top Ten for November 5, 2021

Another Buffalo Was Possible

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

India Walton seemed on track to become the first Black woman mayor in Buffalo, and the first socialist to lead a major city in decades. The sitting mayor rallied to defeat her, but we should still consider the possibility of more liberatory politics. 

The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Nuclear Bomb

by Alex Wellerstein

Read a detailed account of the moment in the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union contemplated, then developed and tested, nuclear weapons of horrifying power. 

The Attack on University of Florida Professors is Totalitarian

by Silke-Maria Weineck

Even beyond academic freedom, events in Florida signal the effort to tie the interests of the state's universities to the agenda of the state's ruling party. 

Right-Wing Ideologues Turn Aggressors Into Victims

by Waitman Wade Beorn

"Allowing the right to weave pernicious counternarratives and to create saints from sinners will only embolden future Ashli Babbitts and spawn more violence. "

Why are Medieval Weapons at the Center of a Supreme Court Case?

by Jennifer Tucker

The history and traditions of English law inform American judicial interpetation today, including efforts to discern the functional meaning of the Second Amendment. A group of historians has briefed the Court that restricting dangerous weapons in public is long-established. 

Work Requirements Would Undo A Signature Biden Accomplishment

by Molly Michelmore

An expanded Child Tax Credit would potentially reduce child poverty by 40%. Placing work requirements on the credit would harm children for the sake of the historic pattern of policing the line between the deserving and undeserving poor. 

Fannie Lou Hamer's Leadership Shows We Can't Separate Civil Rights and Economic Justice

by Keisha N. Blain

The author of a new biography of the Mississippi Freedom Democrat argues that Hamer's legacy shows that inequality erodes both civil rights and democracy. 

Laugh at Parodies of School Board Meetings, but Take Local Politics Seriously

by Lily Geismer and Eitan D. Hersh

Local politics – if it involves a wide spectrum of community opinion – can help override partisan polarization, create new coalitions, and empower citizens to make meaningful change.

It's not Just the Missionaries: Haiti had 782 Kidnappings This Year

by Cécile Accilien

"The kidnapping business is in fact supported by the convergence of interests of the political and business elite and the international community, while the interests of the vast majority of Haitians are obviously not taken into account."

How Academia Laid the Groundwork for Redlining

by Todd Michney and LaDale Winling

Richard T. Ely and his student Ernest McKinley Fisher pushed the National Association of Real Estate Boards to adopt "the unsupported hypothesis that Black people's very presence inexorably lowered property values," tying the private real estate industry to racial segregation.