#102: Las Matadoras

It’s 9:10 am, and you know what that means: The Highlighter #102 is here! Today’s issue is robust and chock full of goodies: 4 articles, 2 photos, 1 photo essay, 1 podcast episode, 1 giveaway, and 1 exciting update on the new podcast. Let’s dig in!

The first two pieces this week are about young people doing the opposite of what’s expected of them. In “Las Matadoras,” female bullfighters find they’re gaining popularity at the same time they’re facing longstanding exclusion. In “The Teenage Whaler’s Tale,” a boy from Alaska kills a bowhead whale, bringing him fame in his village and scorn everywhere else.

Be sure to check out the second pair of articles, too. They focus on Latinx youth fighting for a high-quality, inclusive education. “Youth From Every Corner” tells the story of a swanky private school that prides itself on diversity but doesn’t meet its promises. “Arizona Banned Mexican American Studies” tells the story of a conservative state that destroyed a popular elective program and how students are now in court, fighting back.

Today’s issue ends with a scintillating podcast interview between Reveal host Al Letson (#67) and Roger Stone — who live in the same country, worlds apart — and with an excellent piece by a writer from Florida who brings the eccentric state to life. Please enjoy today’s issue and let me know what you think!

Las Matadoras

Don’t worry: No bulls were killed in this beautiful photo essay featuring matadoras in South Texas. In the United States, killing bulls is illegal, so bullfighters grab a flower from the bull’s back to symbolize a clean kill. For Lupita Lopez and Karla Santoyo, bullfighting is the “ballet of life.” Despite gains that women have made in the sport, “it’s still a world of men,” Ms. Santoyo says. Take a look at the captions as well as the photos, where you’ll learn how a novillera earns her traje de luces. (This is the first photo essay in The Highlighter since Issue #21.)

The Teenage Whaler’s Tale

In April, 16-year-old Chris Apassingok, who lives with his family in the Siberian Yupik village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island on the northwest edge of Alaska, caught a 57-foot, 50-ton bowhead whale and instantly became a hero in his community. Whale meat is prized, especially given that Alaskan Natives have hunted bowheads for more than 2,000 years, and given that most people in Gambell live below the poverty level and pay $11 for a bag of Doritos. But not everyone is happy. Facebook has made our world smaller, and after word got out about Chris’s kill, death threats followed. Now Chris doesn’t know how to feel.

Loyal subscriber Erin (here with her students) has won The Highligher’s first giveaway! Congratulations, Erin, on beating out the other 12 contestants (via a random number generator). You’ll be receiving your copy of Blood at the Root in the mail today. Loyal subscribers, look out for the next giveaway in next Thursday’s issue!

Youth From Every Quarter

A fancy private boarding school on the East Coast wants to diversify its student body, so it admits Ana, a bright young Latina woman, who is low-income and from rural Oregon, to its summer program. Ana has trouble fitting in socially with all the rich white kids and struggles in her Pre-Calculus class. When a teacher advocates for Ana, there is no flexibility, no plan. Even though the elite school has recruited “youth from every quarter” in order to pursue equity, it does not follow through, choosing to let Ana fail rather than offering her the support that her more privileged classmates receive.

Arizona Banned Mexican American Studies. Now the Case Is Back in Court.

Back in 2010, Arizona banned ethnic studies classes that focused on the experiences of Latinx people in the United States. The reason? They were encouraging revolution and teaching the core value of community over individualism. The ban also prevented students from reading more than 90 books, including Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Now attorneys are in court trying to reinstate the curriculum, arguing that the law violates students’ 1st and 14th amendment rights.

Bacon, who belongs to loyal subscriber Nick, gets his second appearance (see #80) in The Highlighter. If you feel jealous that your pet has not yet been included, please send me a photo!

Al Letson Interviews Roger Stone

A few issues ago, I told myself that I would no longer highlight podcasts because, well, this digest focuses on words over sounds. But then I listened to this brilliant 21-minute interview of Roger Stone by Al Letson on Reveal, and I’ve changed my mind, at least for the moment. There are fireworks in this interview, as Mr. Stone and Mr. Letson go back and forth about racism and whether there is objective truth. Mr. Stone says that racism is a thing of the past. He also says that truth is in the “eye of the beholder.” Usually overly magnanimous, Mr. Letson makes sure not to let his guest off the hook.

The Problem With Writing About Florida

Kristen Arnett has lived in Orlando all her life, which means she writes about frogs and lizards and Disney World and spiders and strip clubs and sinkholes. It also means that she can disparage her home, but you’d better not. Ms. Arnett writes:

Orlando is wet, sticky, violent. It’s the place where you learn the contours of your body through sweaty shorts and tank tops. It’s a damp, cold bathing suit pulled down around your ankles while you pee in a friend’s bathroom at a pool party.

This is a brilliant essay about a place where life and death get packed on top of each other, where boys dare you to open your mouth wide so they can throw a frog inside.

Big Podcast Update: The Highlighter Podcast is performing better than expected, with 82 listeners last week and 79 in its first episode. This past Monday, I really enjoyed chatting with loyal subscriber, artist, and art teacher Heidi, the podcast’s first-ever guest. Heidi asked me great questions about how I select articles and put the digest together. You can listen to the episode here! Thank you, Heidi! For now, the podcast will come out weekly on Mondays. We’ll focus on getting to know our digest community and talking about articles we like. If you’d like to be on an upcoming show, let me know. Also, subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave a review!

Wow, that was a lot! Thank you for reading this week’s edition of The Highlighter — hope you liked it. As always, please let me know what you thought. Also, let’s please welcome new subscribers Brian and Jonathan. Loyal subscribers, keep getting the word out about the digest, so that our community can grow, and see you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

#101: Our Uninhabitable Earth

Welcome everyone to The Highlighter #101! We are well into the middle of summer, and I’m back from a mini-vacation that helped me escape my foggy and chilly city. Last week was a huge one for the digest — 12 people became new subscribers! Let’s welcome Pam, Greg, Danielle, Kate, Gail, Nicole, Sandy, Michele, Nancy, Katherine, Carah, and B.R. I hope you like what you read!

This week, there’s a little bit for everyone: mass extinctions, therapy animals, rugged individualism, and orange harvests. All four articles push our thinking on topics we think we know about. The first piece, which focuses on climate change, makes the case that our end of days may occur earlier than we’ve imagined. The second piece, which centers on the ascendancy of therapy animals, raises questions about their impact. Then comes the photo break (a beautiful vista!), after which please enjoy an article that will challenge what you thought you knew about American history. Coming up last is another article about oranges, because there’s no way you can read too many articles about oranges. Please enjoy The Highlighter and have a great week!

When Will Climate Change Make the Earth Too Hot For Humans?

Al Gore warned us more than ten years ago in An Inconvenient Truth. We weren’t listening. Record heat last month (129 degrees in Pakistan!) didn’t faze us. Even yesterday’s news — that a 1 trillion ton iceberg broke off Antarctica — didn’t stop us in our tracks. Maybe the reason for our indifference is that we like our gadgets too much, our air travel, our cheeseburgers, our air conditioning. Either that or we feel powerless. That kind of mentality, writes David Wallace-Wells in this very scary article, will only hasten our doom. If we do not get serious, climate change will cause a mass extinction before the end of this century that will kill off more than 95 percent of life on our planet. (Happy Summer!)

Therapy animals are everywhere. Proof that they help is not.

OK, Animal Lovers, promise not to unsubscribe because I’ve highlighted this article, which suggests that it’s possible that therapy animals are not, in fact, providing therapy. The jury is still out about whether interacting with animals results in lower stress and anxiety. Some studies suggest a moderate positive effect, but there’s nothing yet that concludes causation over correlation. But even if science says no to comfort animals, what’s the problem of letting them inside grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, concert halls, museums, airplanes? (For all you naysayers out there, you’ll love this article from 2014.)

Though hiking is not my strength (because it involves walking uphill, which is strenuous), almost always you get a beautiful view. Here’s one from Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, Kenwood, California.

Now it’s time to announce the first-ever giveaway at The Highlighter! Be very excited. As many of you know, this digest began two years ago, with its first issue reaching exactly two people. Since then, I’ve highlighted more than 400 articles, and the digest’s readership has grown, thanks to the recommendations of loyal subscribers like you. To celebrate you, I’m giving away one of my favorite books to one lucky subscriber. The winner gets their choice of Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson; Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, or Blood at the Root, by Patrick Phillips. To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is to offer your feedback on today’s issue by clicking on the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon on the bottom of today’s issue. (There’s no penalty for choosing thumbs-down.) The last day you can enter is next Tuesday, and I’ll announce the winner in next Thursday’s issue. Good luck!

At Walden, Thoreau Wasn’t Alone With Nature

We learned in high school that Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond to get away from the bustle of city life, to live deliberately in nature. Perhaps he was the 19th-century version of Marie Kondo? “Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,” he wrote. “Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.” This image of Thoreau — spartan and austere — has driven for 200 years our American construct of gritty, rugged individualism. Except this image is not true. Thoreau wasn’t alone at Walden. There was his neighbor Brister Freeman, a former slave who fought in the Revolutionary War. There was his neighbor Hugh Coyle, a poor Irish ditchdigger, new to the country, and as a result, an outcast. And of course, before Thoreau arrived, hundreds Native Americans lived at Walden Pond before they were killed or pushed away. When we believe that Thoreau lived alone in the woods, we cling to a myth that discredits the more nuanced reality of the American story.

Inside the Dangerous Life of an Orange

Last week I unveiled my fascination with oranges. This article — about the orange harvest in California — is less gloomy but not exactly hopeful. We learn that each tree holds 1,100 oranges, that they’re picked by hand 16 at a time by men climbing up and down ladders, earning not by the hour but by the bin, that they’re processed by women earning minimum wage, that they’re classified “choice” or “premium,” the former sold in American stores and ones without blemishes shipped to Asia, that rising labor costs are encouraging orange growers to invest in technology that will eliminate jobs, all to make sure that the oranges we buy remain as cheap as they are sweet and juicy. (Also noteworthy: This piece is written in the first-person plural — as in, from the point of view of the oranges themselves.)

You’ve done it! Thank you for making your way through another issue of The Highlighter. Before you go, I need to tell you more about The Highlighter Podcast. You can listen to this week’s episode here (please do!), where I talk a little about my favorite article this week. Starting in a few days, the podcast will move to being broadcast on Mondays, and I’ll begin interviewing loyal subscribers about your favorite articles. Let me know (by replying to this message) if you want to be on the show! Also, feel free to subscribe to the podcast so it becomes enormous.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

#100: White America Is Happy With Segregated Schools

Hello and welcome to The Highlighter #100! This is a major milestone. For most of my life, I’ve been the slow-and-steady type. Instead of meeting goals quickly, they’ve developed over time. Run a marathon? Yes, it’s happened, but only after a year of running around the lake. Play the piano? Did that for 10 years, and then played my first full-length recital. The Kindle Classroom Project? It’s almost six years old and just getting started. The Highlighter is very similar: I haven’t missed a week in more than a year, and it’s building, and though I still don’t quite know where it’s going, it’s a good thing regardless. Thank you for being loyal subscribers, for opening up and reading the digest week after week, and for following this endeavor on its way to becoming absolutely gigantic.

This week’s articles are eclectic — even more than usual. The first piece is an essay by an accomplished teacher, who argues that our country’s educational system will not improve until white people stop segregating themselves from public schools. The second piece is an alarming and unsettling account of Boko Haram’s kidnapping and brainwashing of four boys in Nigeria. Then there’s the photo break, after which please enjoy two engrossing pieces about things you likely know nothing about: the impending extinction of Florida oranges and the hurtful impact of Empty Nose Syndrome.

One last thing: The Highlighter is expanding and becoming a (very short, very listenable) podcast! Every week (or month, or however often it comes out), I’ll interview a loyal subscriber, and we’ll chat about their favorite article from that week’s edition. Please check out my 1-minute trailer. (Yes, it’s just me talking.) Let me know what you think and if you’d like to be on the show (which will be on iTunes soon).

Much of White America Is Perfectly Happy With Segregated Schools

Social studies teacher Nate Bowling, a 2016 national Teacher of the Year finalist, writes that too much attention in education reform goes to spats about charter schools and the Common Core. What we should be talking about, Mr. Bowling argues, is how white people segregate themselves from public schools. Where white people go, money goes, and good teachers go, and until that system changes, there will be no lasting improvement to the life chances of poor African American and Latino kids. Related: Check out Malcolm Gladwell’s 31-minute podcast about what you didn’t know about Brown v. Board of Education. It’s outstanding.

Trained to Kill: How Four Boy Soldiers Survived Boko Haram

Boko Haram means, “Western education is sinful.” Before reading this harrowing article by Sarah A. Topol, I didn’t even know this basic fact. Ms. Topol tells the story of the abduction of Kolomi, Fannami, Mustapha, and Zanna — four boys from Baga, a fishing village in Nigeria. The boys get transferred to a Boko Haram training center, where they learn how to shoot guns, ingest drugs, hurl bombs, and go on operations. The only way to survive is to obey orders and to forget who you are. The details are graphic and disturbing.

Preparing Kindles for students is no joke. Here’s Joel hard at work at the Summer Kindle Party a couple Saturdays ago.

After Oranges

There’s a bit of a fruit theme at The Highlighter (see #86 as an example). One of my money-making schemes is to open up an orange store — that is to say, a store that sells only oranges, preferably for high prices. (My plan is to harvest the oranges from the tree outside the house my mom grew up in.) This article gives me hope that I will succeed. Author Wyatt Williams is convincing in his suggestion that the worldwide supply of oranges will plummet after the Florida crop all dies off from disease. Even if you’re not interested in the orange business, you’ll like all the orange-related tidbits in this piece, including the fact that oranges are green.

Is Empty Nose Syndrome Real? And If Not, Why Are People Killing Themselves Over It?

Brett Helling had sinus surgery to improve his breathing, and instead of feeling better, he felt like he was drowning all the time. Like many people with Empty Nose Syndrome, Brett begged his doctor for help, to no avail. After all, his airway was clear, so what was the problem? It turns out that a small number of people who have turbinate reduction surgery end up with ENS, but most doctors associate the condition with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or other mental health issues.

And that’s that! One hundred issues of The Highlighter are in the books. Here’s to one hundred more! While we’re cheering, let’s please welcome new subscriber Carol. Loyal subscribers, keep getting the word out there and encouraging curious readers to give this digest a try. Stay tuned for next week, when I reveal The Highlighter’s first contest and prize. (You’ll like it.) Until then, have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Thursday at 9:10 am.

#99: A Presumption of Guilt

Hello there! I hope you’ve had a strong week. Mine was solid, thank you for asking. A highlight was that the Summer Kindle Party was last Saturday, and it was a huge success. (If you’re interested, here’s more about the Kindle Classroom Project.)

Anyway, enough about me. Today’s edition of The Highlighter focuses on race and is organized in two parts. First up is an essay by my hero Bryan Stevenson that offers historical context to our current horror of police killings. The second piece is the digest’s first contribution from a conservative publication, and it makes a key point: that white liberals need to do more than just talk a good game about social justice.

After the photo break, I’ve included two profiles / book reviews. The first piece highlights Roxane Gay and her latest, Hunger, and the second piece highlights Sherman Alexie and his latest, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. Please enjoy all four articles and let me know what you think!

A Presumption of Guilt: How Centuries of Racism Have Led to Police Killings

When white police officers kill Black people, they are not acting on their own. Hundreds of years of American racism, from slavery to Jim Crow to lynching to the death penalty, have contributed to the perception that African American people are dangerous and guilty. Police shootings are the new lynchings, according to Bryan Stevenson (#9, #28, #32, #54, #93). In this essay, Mr. Stevenson argues that our country’s inability to acknowledge our history of lynching prevents us from progressing toward any shared goal of justice. Highlighted below is one of my favorite excerpts from the piece. (You see? — I’m highlighting!)

White Liberals Denounce Inequity While Keeping It For Themselves

Loyal subscribers have asked me why I don’t include articles from conservative news sources. It’s not from a lack of trying. Not to be snooty, but the primary reason is that the conservative articles I find are too short, poorly written, and festooned with advertisements. (If you have recommendations, please send them my way.) This piece — about how white liberals claim to advocate for social justice without making any sacrifices themselves — is different. For the most part, author William Voegeli makes solid points: Anyone can denounce inequity, he writes, but it’s much harder actually to renounce it. Checking your privilege doesn’t do anything to make our society more free and fair. (Rebuttal: Neither does denying that inequity exists.)

22 friends and family prepared 400 Kindles last Saturday for middle school students in Oakland. Here is Kindle captain and loyal subscriber Angelina with Kindle #400. Rejoice!

Roxane Gay’s New Memoir, Hunger, Is Her Most Feminist Act Yet

This is a profile of author Roxane Gay (#4, #82) and a review of her new book, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. Ms. Gay writes about her weight, what it feels like to be fat, how our society can’t talk about fatness, and about how being a fat person of color negates gender. In addition to decrying the weight-loss industry, and self-help books, Ms. Gay writes about her shame, and whether there is a bottom of it, and how the shame and weight gain emerged from being raped when she was 12.

Sherman Alexie: My mother was a dictionary. She always said to me, English will be your best weapon. She was right, she was right, she was right.

For some crazy reason, Sherman Alexie has not yet appeared in The Highlighter, but that silliness ends right here and now. This well-written profile previews Mr. Alexie’s new memoir, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, which focuses on the complicated relationship he had with his mother. Mr. Alexie writes, “For all the damage my mother did to me, the thing she gave me, and that has saved me, is the arrogant belief that I deserve to live.” This article also explains why Mr. Alexie did not protest at Standing Rock, why straight white women are his most devoted readers, and how genocide does not have to involve mass death.

Another issue of The Highlighter is officially in the books! Thank you for reading it. Also, please welcome new subscribers John and Julie. The movement is picking up steam. This week, let me know (either by responding to this email or by giving me a thumbs-up or thumbs-down below) what you thought about the big yellow highlighted excerpt above. (It’s a new feature I’m testing out.) Did you like it? hate it? not care either way? Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I’ll see you next Thursday at 9:10 am for The Highlighter #100!

#98: Hoarding the American Dream

Happy Thursday, Loyal Subscribers, and welcome to The Highlighter #98! This week centers on two big questions: (1) What does it mean to be American? and (2) Isn’t history, particularly when it’s about quirky things, sometimes great?

Most young people no longer believe in the American Dream, and their sentiments are pretty much right on. Maybe the problem is that too many Americans are sucking up all the possible wealth and not giving the young ones a chance. Or perhaps the issue is with segregation and how our public schools get to dictate who has access to the American Dream. The effects are both systemic and personal, both out in the world as well as inside our homes.

The study of history is boring for some people, and for others, it is extremely painful. For me, reading historical pieces helps me build background knowledge so that I can avoid sounding foolish when talking to people. That’s precisely why I’ve included histories of the U.S. Postal Service and pink doughnut boxes in today’s digest. Go out there and educate the unsuspecting masses!

Hoarding the American Dream

I live in the Bay Area (as do some of you!), where the cost of living is high, where houses are hard to buy, and where people earning $100,000 a year complain that they’re living month to month. Brookings scholar Richard Reeves, author of the new book Dream Hoarders, argues that our country spends too much time admonishing the top 1 percent, when really it’s the top 20 percent — households earning more than $112,000 a year — that are “hoarding the American Dream” and keeping lower-income people from ascending the economic ladder. The hoarding comes in many forms, including owning a home, sending your children to private school, and saving for college. The problem, of course, is that people in the top quintile don’t see themselves as upper-middle class, and attribute their success to hard work, rather than privilege or luck.

Welcome to Refugee High

At first glance, this is a feel-good story about how a high school in Chicago welcomed refugees from around the world with open arms and built a warm, inclusive community. Nearly half the students at Sullivan High School are first-generation immigrant students, coming from 38 countries and speaking 35 languages. What this article fails to mention, however, is how the school used to serve large numbers of African American students. After earning poor marks from the district, and after being perceived as unsafe, administrators at Sullivan High decided on a strategy to alter the school’s demographics by pushing out students with spotty attendance records. Unfortunately, Sullivan is not unique. Many public schools find success by rearranging their notion of public.

Mother Tongue

Yoojin Grace Wuertz is a new mom and Korean American and married to a white man. She is deciding whether or not to speak to her kid in Korean. It seems like the right thing to do: being bilingual is great; all her smart friends are doing it; she wants to do the right thing. But something doesn’t feel right, so Ms. Grace Wuertz outsources the language study to her parents, who later balk at the assignment. She then has to make a decision, but as you’ll find out, by then, it’s a little too late.

My colleague Shannon knows how to get young people to love reading. Here are two of her ninth graders in San Francisco. Check out her story: j.mp/ssrworks

The Lost Genius of the Post Office

I like history and I like the U.S. Postal Service, and this article has both all in one! If you’re dubious, please consider this: The Post Office was once the bastion of innovation, research, and development. One example: In 1959, it tested out delivering mail from New York to San Francisco via a 30-foot missile. (Landing was the tough part.) Did that catch your attention? How about this one — that during World War II, letters to soldiers were first scanned to microfilm, then shipped overseas, then printed out for delivery? Given that exciting history, too bad the U.S. Postal Service has recently fallen on hard times, with its $15 billion debt and 25 percent decrease in parcels since 2008. Still, it’s a wonder that we can send a letter clear across this nation, to some random house on the side of a country road, for 49 cents.

Why Doughnut Boxes Are Pink

More delightful history in this article. If you’re from California, you know that a pink box has delicious doughnuts inside. Apparently this isn’t the case in other parts of the country. The pink box originated in Los Angeles in the late-1970s after several Cambodian-owned mom-and-pop doughnut shops opted for pink over white. What began as a business decision (the square 9-inch boxes were a few cents cheaper, plus the perfect size for a dozen doughnuts) became iconic and famous and saliva-inducing.

Thank you for reading this issue of The Highlighter! Hope you liked it. Let’s please welcome new subscriber Anne! Also, this is the week where I’d like you to read the digest extremely conspicuously, maybe on public transportation, and when a stranger asks you what you’re reading, stretch out your arms and loudly proclaim, “The Highlighter!” Then kindly let me know how they respond. Have a great week, and see you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

#97: Faces of Healing

Hello and welcome to The Highlighter #97. Monday was the anniversary of the massacre at Pulse in Orlando. The first two pieces this week — one a photo essay, the other a first-hand perspective — are dedicated to the 49 people who lost their lives last June.

After a photo break, I’ve included two additional personal essays. Ijeoma Oluo (#89) is back reminding white people yet again not to make everything about themselves. Then John Nova Lomax, a father, thanks the military for helping his wayward son, prompting me to keep an open mind.

Loyal subscribers, we’re well into June, which means summer, naps in hammocks, beach vacations, meandering breakfast mornings, and plenty of time to get caught up on your favorite digest. Thank you for reading The Highlighter!

Faces of Healing: After the Pulse Massacre

More people were killed at Pulse in Orlando, Florida, than in any other mass shooting in American history. Photographer Cassi Alexandra uses her camera to capture the faces of families, friends, and community members as they heal. A year later, it is still very difficult for me to imagine the horror of that evening.

Pulse Nightclub Was My Home

This is a story of coming out, about a young man and his relationship with his older brother, and about what it means to be brown and gay. It is also an ode to Pulse. For Edgar Gomez, Pulse was a safe space. He writes, “It’s where I spent my 18th birthday, my 21st birthday. It was where I lied about my age to older men, telling them I was 21 when I was 18.” He continues: “I claim[ed] Pulse as my home, its inhabitants as my family. I could rely on them as surely as if we shared blood. I knew Pulse’s doors would be open on Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas.” Mr. Gomez does not stop there. He suggests that Pulse was a safe haven also for the shooter who killed 49 people.

I like lakes. This one is in Guatemala.

White People Will Always Let You Down

A few issues ago, Ijeoma Oluo excoriated Rachel Dolezal (aka Nkechi Amare Diallo), and now, she reflects on how liberal white people tend not to be helpful, despite their best intentions. Instead of giving up, though, Ms. Oluo — who lives in Seattle — digs in, demands more, doesn’t let go. This essay explains why, and is a reminder to white people to figure things out, fast.

Welcome to the Green Machine

The last few years I was a teacher, more of my students chose to join the military. At first I was surprised: Why were my top-notch students shunning four-year colleges? One main reason was financial, of course, but there was more there. My students craved purpose and discipline; they wanted to be part of something bigger. When they made their decision, my students — focused, resolute — were not similar to obstinate, meandering John Henry Lomax, the focus of this article. “The military,” John Henry’s father writes, “is one of the last great leveling forces in America today.” I’m still not sure I agree with this claim, but I can keep reading, try to relate, try to listen.

The Highlighter #97 is in the books! Thank you very much for being a loyal subscriber. Let’s please welcome new subscriber Mea! If you have someone in mind who might like The Highlighter, do not hesitate to invite them to subscribe. They will be happy, you will be happy, and I will be happy! Have a great week, and see you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

#96: Losing Your Mom to Deportation

Hello and welcome to The Highlighter #96! This issue is coming out in the middle of the James Comey testimony. It’s OK: Go ahead and keep watching that — I understand — but be sure to get back to reading today’s edition as soon as you can, because it is a blockbuster of emotion!

If you can spare the time (60 to 90 minutes) to read the first three articles in order, you will come away changed. I thought I knew a thing or two about the impact of deportation, the ills of the opioid epidemic, and the effects of HIV on African Americans. These three pieces quickly showed me that I have a lot more to learn — and to do. If you choose to read them, take them in slowly.

Then, after your gut is punched, you’ll get a photo break, though it might spur even more emotion, and then, finally, a reprieve. Articles about reading and baseball will follow, and you can relax and take a breath. Please enjoy!

Losing Your Mom to Deportation

Imagine walking home from school and finding out that your mother is in jail, arrested by the police, likely to face deportation. This is what happened to 10-year-old Angel Marin and his three sisters, Evelyn, Yesi, and Briza. The day after their mother’s arrest, the children agreed not to tell anyone, choosing to live on their own. Better to fend for themselves than to alert the authorities. The number of children who have lost their parents as a result of deportation is staggering — about 500,000 between 2009 and 2013. (That statistic does not take into consideration the policies of our current president.) With the foster care system and child protective services overwhelmed, many children go unnoticed for long periods of time. Even when Arizona began to offer support for Angel and his sisters, their lives did not improve. With their mother in Mexico, they faced an excruciating decision: Go live with their mother in Mexico or stay in the United States?

The Addicts Next Door

This is the article I needed to read to understand the scope and severity of the opioid epidemic in our country. It focuses on Berkeley County, West Virginia, which has the highest rate of overdose in the United States. Margaret Talbot writes, “At this stage of the American opioid epidemic, many addicts are collapsing in public—in gas stations, in restaurant bathrooms, in the aisles of big-box stores.” It is assumed that if your car is parked on the side of the road and you’re inside it, you are experiencing an overdose. Paramedics sometimes visit the same house more than once a day to administer Narcan, the opiate antidote. When you think you’ve had enough, Ms. Talbot gives you more, featuring a group of mothers who drive addicts hundreds of miles to detox centers, introducing us to a young woman who has lost 13 friends to overdose, explaining how thousands of children lose their parents and enter the foster care system. It’s a lot.

America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic

Now that HIV is no longer a death sentence, and AIDS no longer an epidemic among gay white men in cities, we seem not to care that one out of every two gay and bisexual African Americans will be infected with the HIV virus in their lifetimes, the highest rate in the world. The problem is the worst in the South, where stigma is strong and resources are weak. As you read this outstanding article, allow your stereotypes (e.g, of the down low) to fade away. Consider why our country has spent billions of dollars to decrease HIV in Africa but has snubbed the American South. Learn why PrEP isn’t available to everyone. And wonder why gay white men are absent, not allied with African Americans to fight the virus.

It has been 28 years since the protests at Tienanmen Square. This image should be in every social studies teacher’s classroom.

Save Reading, Save the Country

English teacher Julia Franks believes we can improve our classrooms and save the country if we encourage young people and adults to read more. Reading more means understanding other people, building empathy, “practicing a different vantage point.” I agree with Ms. Franks in theory—so long as teachers get involved in their students’ reading journeys, learn their interests, encourage books to try out, ask real questions, and help their students to construct what reading guru Teri Lesesne calls “reading ladders.”

How to Be a Better Hitter

You don’t have to be a baseball fan (as I am) to appreciate this article. Almost all Little League coaches urge batters to swing level or down at the ball, causing line drives or ground balls. It turns out that this advice is wrong. After taking a look at the data, more and more professional baseball players are aiming for fly balls. Though fly balls do not result in more hits (a .241 batting average vs. .239 for ground balls), they lead to a big increase in the possibility of extra-base hits, like home runs (a .715 slugging percentage vs. .258 for ground balls). Besides, there’s more space in the outfield that doesn’t have a fielder nearby. (Go Giants!)

Hope you enjoyed today’s issue! Do you agree that there was a ton of emotion in the first half? Please let me know what you thought by voting thumbs-up or -down below, plus leave a comment, too, if you like. Also, let’s welcome new subscribers David and Hagikah! The Highlighter is strong because of its subscribers. Keep getting the word out about the digest, and see you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

#95: The Battle Over Charter Schools

And just like that, it’s June! Welcome to The Highlighter #95. For this week’s edition, I decided to feature articles from publications that most of us may not read regularly. The first, an explanatory piece about charter schools, comes from Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education’s alumni magazine. The second, a stark warning about our current political climate, comes from the Los Angeles Review of Books. After the photo break, which honors cherry season, the third article, a memoir / how-to manual, is from Catapult, which features emerging writers. The last article, an account of last year’s wildfire in the Smoky Mountains, is from Garden & Gun Magazine, which celebrates “the modern South.” I hope you enjoy reading a few of these pieces, and please let me know what you think!

The Battle Over Charter Schools

Though it highlights Massachusetts, this article includes a solid general history of charter schools in the United States, plus explains why they’ve become even more controversial recently. One tension that emerges: Are charter schools “public?” This piece thinks so, as do I (mainly), but then points out that 80 percent of Michigan’s charter schools are run by for-profit organizations. That bothers me. What also bothers me is the argument that charter schools somehow have destroyed public education, or have promoted resegregation, or have decimated teacher unions. Nope, nope, nope. On the other hand, charter schools are by no means the solution, either. In my mind, the challenge of public education is whether we believe in a public in the first place.

Why Hannah Arendt Matters: How Totalitarian Mass Movements Develop

Speaking of the public, picking up where Masha Gessen left off (#67, #75), Roger Berkowitz discusses how an isolated, lonely populace can lead to an autocratic leader and a totalitarian mass movement. Reviewing The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt, Mr. Berkowitz argues that manipulative tyrannical leaders offer a fictional stability to people who seek meaning in their lives. He quotes Ms. Arendt: “What prepares men for totalitarian domination in the non-totalitarian world is the fact that loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses of our century.” Scary stuff. Check out parts I, II, and VI of this long review.

Cherry season is my second favorite time of year. My favorite time of year? Peach season (coming soon). Thank you to loyal subscriber Irene (also my mom!) for this year’s harvest.

How to Write Iranian-America

Please tell me if I should like this essay. Written by Porochista Khakpour, this memoir is delivered machine gun style, all in second person — or more accurately, in the imperative form, if my interpretation is correct. (The ending got me thinking.) Ms. Khakpour makes you feel ill at ease, alienated, as she did growing up Iranian-American in Los Angeles and trying to make it as a writer in New York. But she also offers a how-to manual of sorts for marginalized writers to make it despite the odds and the struggle to write about (or not write about) “what you know.”

Fire on the Mountain

Six months ago in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a small fire, likely started by teenagers playing with matches while on a hike, burst out of control, killing 14 people and destroying thousands of homes. It was the worst wildfire the Smoky Mountains had suffered in more than one hundred years. Justin Heckert, who knows how to write, features the people who narrowly escaped the fire and honors those who perished in the blaze.

Hope you enjoyed today’s issue! Thank you very much for subscribing to The Highlighter and for spreading the word about the digest. We’re coming up on the 100th edition pretty soon, which is pretty great, and which means maybe we should start thinking of a major celebration, don’t you think? Please let me know if you have ideas. Should there be prizes for serious subscribers? In the meantime, have a great week, and I’ll see you next Thursday at 9:10 am, the last day of school around here!

#94: We Cannot Be Afraid of Our Truth

It’s The Highlighter #94, everybody! Welcome. Today’s issue centers on the difficulty of sharing space and building empathy across difference. The first two articles explore how two different cities have decided to live in community. New Orleans is toppling its Confederate statues (in the middle of the night, with bulletproof vests, guarded by snipers) to remove its reverence of racism. On the flip side, the suburb of Troy, New York is calling the police on its African American residents as the town becomes more diverse.

After the photo break, the digest considers how listening and storytelling can promote empathy. However, the third piece—a negative review of S-Town—warns us that listening without an interrogative ear can lead us to complicity. Have empathy but remain leery? That seems complex. Good thing there’s a classic This American Life episode about acting’s transformative effects to round out today’s issue. Please enjoy!

Mayor Mitch Landrieu: Why We Should Remove Confederate Monuments

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu was successful this week in his pledge to remove four monuments commemorating the Confederacy. In this remarkable speech, Mr. Landrieu reminds us that “we cannot be afraid of our truth” as a country. He also wonders why New Orleans has “no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame.” It’s as if Mr. Landrieu has been talking to Bryan Stevenson. (Here’s Mr. Stevenson on PBS NewsHour.)

Police’s Message to Black Suburbans: You’re Not Wanted. Please Go Away.

White people in Troy, New York — and in many suburbs across the country — tolerate African Americans as long as they don’t live nearby. Then, they say things like, “Things have changed,” and “People shouldn’t play their music so loud.” Over the past 35 years, the percentage of white people living in Troy has declined from 92 percent to 66 percent. With the number of African American residents increasing, more white people have called on the police — 95 percent white, similar to Ferguson, Missouri — to “clear things up.”

Tenth graders in loyal subscriber Samantha’s class debate whether voting should be compulsory. Photo by loyal subscriber Laura. Envision Academy, Oakland.

Airbrushing Shittown

In #87, I recommended S-Town, the podcast from Serial that profiles a Southern man from a Southern town. Since its release in March, S-Town has received very strong (and mixed) reviews. This review by Aaron Bady is the best negative one that I’ve read so far. Mr. Bady writes that producer Brian Reed tries too hard being a neutral New Yorker. In order to build rapport and establish his empathy, Mr. Reed does not question the rampant racism in the town. As a result, even though the stated facts might be right, the omissions are glaring, making S-Town a work of fiction friendly to white people. Note: Spoilers.

Hamlet in Prison

What happens when people in prison put on a performance of Hamlet? The answer: Very good things. This podcast, an oldie-but-goodie from This American Life, reminds me of the power of drama. When we act, when we bring a work of literature to life, when we inhabit a character and make them real, in front of a real audience, we rewrite our own narratives—and therefore, ourselves. For another example of this transformation, check out Last Chance in Texas (reviewed in #9).

That’s it for today! Thank you very much for reading this week’s issue. If you liked it (or if you hated it), please leave a thumbs-up (or down) below. (Last week’s score: 8-0.) Also, let’s welcome new subscribers Kristin and S.M. I appreciate everyone’s eagerness to get the word out about The Highlighter. Maybe there should be prizes! What do you think? See you next Thursday at 9:10 am.

#93: My Family’s Slave

Welcome to the 93rd edition of The Highlighter! This week, I found myself amid a flurry of excellent reporting in the political world (the current scoop score: Washington Post 1 ½, New York Times 1 ½) and excellent writing everywhere else. There was indeed no shortage of high-quality pieces, and I’m proud to say that I’ve selected five of my favorites.

The first three articles — about slavery, a foiled terrorist attack, and the history of racism in the United States — surface the various ways we come to acknowledge the pain we have caused others in our family and community. How do we say we’re sorry and take steps to heal? What’s the best way to make amends — is it through a public eulogy, or punishment, or remorse and repentance, or truth and reconciliation?

After the photo break, the tone shifts, and I include two personal pieces — the first about parenting (and reading), the second about dating (and getting a job). If you’re not in the mood for heavy-heavy, stick with these two. Whatever you choose, please try a few, and thank you for reading The Highlighter!

A Story of Slavery in Modern America

Pulitzer Prize winner Alex Tizon was born in the Philippines and moved to the United States with his mom, dad, and Lola, the family’s slave. This article is gut wrenching, layered, and complicated. The author, who died recently, seems to have written it to give Eudocia Tomas Pulido a voice, to criticize his parents, and perhaps most important, to absolve himself of his complicity. Along the way, we’re reminded of our ability to rationalize, to explain away the horrors of what we’re capable of doing. We also come to get to know Lola, a woman whose life was entirely limited, whose world was kept so small. (A number of you — in particular, loyal subscribers Angelina and Thuy — suggested this story. Thank you! If you feel moved, let’s extend the conversation. Click on the thought bubble and share.)

“The Only Good Muslim Is a Dead Muslim”

This is the story of how the FBI thwarted a Timothy McVeigh-like bombing that targeted the Somali community in Garden City, Kansas. A major meatpacking center, Garden City was once a beacon for refugees — that is, until the white population became a minority. The economic downturn, coupled with presidential candidate Donald Trump’s racist, vitriolic attacks against immigrants, pushed three white men to join the militant group III% (warning: scary blog) and seek revenge. After feeling disgusted, if you read all the way through, there will be a glimmer of hope.

Bryan Stevenson: “The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. It’s justice.”

Bryan Stevenson (#9, #28, #32, #54) makes his fifth appearance in The Highlighter, which should tell you something. Here’s my advice: Please listen to this 93-minute podcast from the beginning, preferably without distraction, and when you reach the end, make sure to listen again in its entirety. (I’m only mildly joking.) If you care about our country, if you’re interested in seeking justice, if you’re looking for a role model, or if you’re considering your purpose in life, Mr. Stevenson does not disappoint, in this interview with Ezra Klein.

Kelly has been doing a lot of reading in Ms. Michele’s advisory! Each star has a book title on it. Tracking and celebrating reading are two key ingredients in a successful independent reading program.

My Bad Parenting Advice Addiction

Emily Gould writes this funny, well-written reflection on the challenges of being a mom of a newborn child, particularly if you start reading a book or two (or 25 over two months) that includes parenting advice. In particular, Ms. Gould’s discussion of sleep training (the “family bed” approach vs. the close-the-door-from-7-pm-to-7-am approach) is simultaneously hilarious and harrowing. And I don’t even have kids! (Maybe it’s hilarious because I don’t have kids.)

Getting a Job Is Like Online Dating

Andrew Kay is a graduate student who can’t decide which is harder to gain: a professorship or a girlfriend. He takes on both challenges at once in this sometimes brilliant, sometimes off-putting 10,000-word essay. It turns out, he writes, that both processes are pretty much the same. I found noteworthy Mr. Kay’s analysis of the organizational similarities between the academic cover letter and the dating profile on OKCupid. (He had more luck on Tinder.) Also, ghosting isn’t reserved to those who spark your romantic interest; university deans do it, too. (The writing is excellent, even when the author is annoying. Give it a try.)

Thank you for reading today’s issue! Twelve thumbs up last week, and zero thumbs down! Go ahead and vote again if you like. For extra credit, try to bring up The Highlighter naturally in a conversation with friends or family. Say it all casually, as if everyone knows about it. If they don’t react, follow up with, “You do know about The Highlighter, don’t you?” Please let me know how it goes! See you next Thursday at 9:10 am.