The Roundup Top Ten for November 5, 2021
Another Buffalo Was Possibleby Keeanga-Yamahtta TaylorIndia 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 Bombby Alex WellersteinRead 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 Totalitarianby Silke-Maria WeineckEven 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 Victimsby 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 TuckerThe 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 Accomplishmentby Molly MichelmoreAn 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 Justiceby Keisha N. BlainThe 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 Seriouslyby Lily Geismer and Eitan D. HershLocal 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 Yearby 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 Redliningby Todd Michney and LaDale WinlingRichard 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. |