#332: Great Articles Come From Great Writers

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. Thank you for being here. If you’re a new(ish) subscriber, welcome. I hope you come to like The Highlighter.

This week I’m trying something different: celebrating the writers who bring us these outstanding articles. Over the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to interview talented authors, who generously participate in Article Club, our thoughtful reading community that discusses one great article every month. It’s been an honor to speak with every single writer. This week, I want to share some of my favorite interviews with you.

You’ll hear from Brian Broome, Paul Tough, Stephanie McCrummen, Hafizah Geter, and Kathryn Schulz. They’re among the best writers out there – and they’re pretty great people, too. I encourage you to scan the blurbs, see which ones interest you, and take a listen to at least one of the interviews. My hope is that the conversations will inspire you to read the articles. They’re all outstanding.

+ If Article Club interests you, please sign up. We’d be very happy to have you. It’s a month-to-month commitment. If you like the month’s article, you’re in for the discussion! If not, that’s OK, too.

+ Highlighter Happy Hour is nearly sold out! HHH is a joyful gathering of our kind, thoughtful reading community. We’re meeting at Room 389 in Oakland on Thursday, March 3, beginning at 5:30 pm. There are four tickets left. Get yours here!

So far at Article Club, we’ve read 24 great articles by 24 great authors, who have generously participated in our reading community by recording a podcast interview or by joining our online discussion. More information is at highlighter.cc/articleclub and at articleclub.org.

Brian Broome, “79”

When I featured “79” as one of 2018’s best articles, naturally I wanted to speak to author Brian Broome. In this interview, Mr. Broome talks about how he became a writer in rehab, how the first piece he ever submitted got published, and how “79” began as a rant against white supremacy. We also explore the effects of capitalism and white supremacy on Black people and the perils of respectability politics. (34 min)

+ Since “79,” Mr. Broome has published Punch Me Up to the Gods, which won the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction. He also joined us at Article Club last October to discuss “The Key,” a chapter from his award-winning memoir.

Paul Tough, “Getting an A”

I’ve loved Paul Tough’s writing on education since Whatever It Takes, so when The Inequality Machine came out in 2020, I knew I wanted to read the book and invite him to Article Club. In this interview, Mr. Tough and I discuss “Getting An A,” a heartwarming chapter about an introductory calculus class at the University of Texas featuring a first-generation college student named Ivonne and a talented math professor named Uri. Despite all the challenges in higher education, Mr. Tough still believes that college can be a path toward social mobility in the United States. (31 min)

Stephanie McCrummen, “Miranda’s Rebellion”

In this interview – about “Miranda’s Rebellion,” her outstanding article following the political transformation of a white suburban woman in Georgia during the run-up to the 2020 election – Stephanie McCrummen shares her philosophy of reporting and her high expectations of journalism. I especially enjoyed hearing how Ms. McCrummen joined Miranda and her friend Liz on long weekend hikes through the woods, trailing a few steps behind, remaining within earshot to diligently take notes along the way. (20 min)

+ Ms. McCrummen won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for her investigative reporting on a Senate candidate’s sexual harassment of teenage girls in Alabama.

Hafizah Geter, “Theater of Forgiveness”

“Theater of Forgiveness“ explores the intergenerational rage that emerges from our society’s expectation that Black people forgive the atrocities that white people commit. It was one of the best articles of 2018. In this interview, author Hafizah Geter speaks to me and Sarai Bordeaux about her writing process and about the power of Black joy (and its danger to white people). Ms. Geter also reflects on the importance of reading. She says, “Reading is the most important thing. People always say, Reading is a solitary activity, which I don’t understand. The first time you experience a book, someone is reading to you, so you can never ever be alone again.” (57 min)

+ Since “Theater,” Ms. Geter has gone on to write Un-American: Poems and The Black Period: On Personhood, Race & Origin, a memoir coming out in September.

Kathryn Schulz, “When Things Go Missing”

One of my favorite essays of the past five years, “When Things Go Missing” is this month’s selection at Article Club. It’s about losing (and finding) things, and it’s beautifully written. Author Kathryn Schulz is one of my favorite writers, and in this interview, she talks about how she organized the piece, how she thinks about a concept she calls “and-ness,” what her dad meant to her, why she included certain details and not others, and why she ended an article on loss with the phenomenon of finding. (28 min)

+ Ms. Schulz won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for “The Really Big One,” about the imminent catastrophic earthquake that will hit the Pacific Northwest.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy the change of pace with the inclusion of author interviews? Or do you prefer all articles, all the time? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our five new subscribers – David, Denise, Jonathan, Fabrice, and Brandon – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Alison! Allison! Allyson!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Brittany, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#331: Black History Is Your History

Happy Thursday, Loyal Readers. According to viral post yesterday on Twitter, a counselor in Indiana is letting parents opt their children out of lessons related to “Black History Month and Valentine’s Day.” Making his case to families, the counselor argues that “a greater understanding of diversity in the classroom and the outside world” will lead to “better grades” and “greater career success.” I wonder what Ijeoma Oluo, author of today’s lead article, “Black History Is Your History,” would say about this unfortunate ridiculousness and the state of white supremacy in our public schools.

In addition to Ms. Oluo’s piece, I encourage you to check out this week’s other articles, which cover a variety of topics, in typical Highlighter fashion – from the backlash against trans rights, to the challenges of in vitro fertilization, to the glories of whole grain flour. Please enjoy!

+ You’re warmly invited to Highlighter Happy Hour #16 on Thursday, March 3, beginning at 5:30 pm at Room 389 in Oakland. HHH is a joyful way to connect with other thoughtful readers. Space is limited to 24 people. The grand prize will be a particularly joyous one. Get your free ticket here!

Black History Is Your History

Ijeoma Oluo: “For white America, a true study of Black history will indict. A true study of Black history will remove the cover of claims to individuality and reveal the strategic and collective action of whiteness beneath it. A true study of Black history will reveal whiteness as not only a set of skintones and hair textures, but a social and political power structure willingly entered into, upheld, and defined by every individual white person in the collective. A true study of Black history will reveal the ways in which white America has never been able to survive without Blackness, and never will. A true study of Black history is one that, even at its most triumphant, is one that white America cannot celebrate no matter how often it tries to claim only the best and brightest of it.” (8 min)

+ Ms. Oluo’s writing has appeared several times in the newsletter. My favorite continues to be her vicious takedown of Rachel Dolezal, highlighted in Issue #89 in 2017.

Kris Wilka Just Wants To Play Football

Kris Wilka lives in Sioux Falls and loves playing video games, talking with his friends on Discord, writing Lana Del Rey fanfic, and most of all, playing football. Except his neighborhood junior high school told him he couldn’t play because Kris is trans. Ever since he was 2, Kris has wanted to be “just a normal dude,” but meanwhile, South Dakota legislators are passing laws prohibiting trans kids from playing sports and doctors from performing gender-affirming surgeries. Kris says, “All I want to do is be a kid and play what I love, which is football and sports.” (17 min)

A Passage To Parenthood

Akhil Sharma never wanted kids. Maybe that was because he felt guilty being healthy alongside a brain-damaged brother and a mentally-ill mother. Or maybe because he felt he had nothing to offer. But at 49 years old, Mr. Sharma realized he “was overflowing with love” for his wife Christine, 50, and “wanted a place to put that love.” You’ll either love or loathe this well-written, unfiltered account of one couple’s pregnancy journey, filled with the author’s off-center reflections and hopes that his daughter will grow up to be like Janet Yellen. (22 min)

The Differences Between Processed White Flour And Whole Grain Flour

The pandemic made bakers of many of us, at least for a few months. But during the Great Baking Boom, we unfortunately mostly relied on white flour (King Arthur if we were fancy), whose industrialized consistency lacks nutrition, freshness, and character. In this well-reported article, Dayna Evans asks why we’re grinding our own beans at home but not milling our own grain, and why our demands of buy-local-and-fresh have not yet made their way to bran, endosperm, and germ. (30 min)

+ Ms. Evans emphasizes that the few people who are buying wheat (for $1.90 a pound) from local stone mills are almost exclusively white and wealthy.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our five new subscribers – Nic, Holly, Alan, Toronzo, Lisa – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Zaneta! Zaire! Zennifer!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal reader Phil, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#330: 10 Years Since Trayvon

As always, thank you for being here. And welcome, new subscribers!

This week’s issue is dedicated to the memory of Trayvon Martin, who was murdered 10 years ago, and to the contributions of Black Lives Matter, which was founded after George Zimmerman’s acquittal.

Usually, this newsletter features articles from a variety of publications. All four pieces in today’s issue, however, come from one source, a recent special edition of New York Magazine. It’s excellent. I read (and recommend) all 20 articles, but I’m highlighting my favorite four: a comprehensive timeline of the past ten years, a profile of Trayvon’s mother, a profile of Trayvon’s friend, and an essay pondering the definition of racial progress. My hope is that you find at least one piece significant, and if you do, I’d love to hear from you.

+ If you hit a paywall, I suggest trying incognito mode or another browser. Another option is to support the magazine and purchase a subscription.

10 Years Since Trayvon

Lindsay Peoples-Wagner and Morgan Jerkins: “On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, because as a Black boy walking in a gated community, he was deemed ‘suspicious.’ Zimmerman’s acquittal appalled a nation often willfully blind to the vulnerability of living while Black. Ten years later, Black Lives Matter has grown from a hashtag to a protester’s cry to a cultural force that has reshaped American politics, society, and daily life.”

+ In addition to serving as a table of contents to this powerful collection, this resource offers an outstanding timeline of events over the past ten years, focusing on the police killings of unarmed Black people, the rise of Black Lives Matter, the white backlash to racial progress, and the uprising after the murder of George Floyd. (30 min)

Sybrina Fulton Found Her Painful Place In American History

Derecka Purnell, quoting Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin: “ ‘What makes me angry is the fact that you have so many people that want to do something, but they don’t. You got so many people who comment and who post and who are talking heads on the news, and what are they doing? Nothing.’ Fulton’s eyebrows arch inward, and she raises her pitch and pace. ‘You have to be active. You have to participate. You have to get involved. Those are the types of things that make me angry. You can’t just share a story on social media and figure, Okay, I did my part, you know?’ ” (14 min)

Ashley Burch Remembers Her Friend Trayvon Martin

Bridget Read: “When Ashley Burch remembers her friend Trayvon Martin, she thinks of him walking around Carol City, the neighborhood north of Miami where they were teenagers together. They weren’t old enough to drive, so Trayvon walked nearly everywhere when he couldn’t catch the bus, sometimes so far that he would call Ashley to come and pick him up. ‘With what?’ she would ask. He would joke his Cadillac was in the shop — the nickname he had for his bicycle.

“Burch rarely talks openly about Trayvon. She has tried to move on and into her adult life. But she has never changed the background of her Facebook profile: a now-infamous black-and-white photo of Trayvon in his hoodie, looking straight on, taken by his computer camera. ‘I don’t want anybody to forget about him,’ she says.” (5 min)

The Fallacy Of Representation

Camonghne Felix: “President Obama was president for eight years. I’m 30 now and staring down the greatest threat to African American voting rights in generations. A climate crisis threatens the livelihoods of the Black and poor, of the Black and coastal, of the Black and immigrant. We face a wealth gap that has only worsened in the last decade, leaving Black communities even more vulnerable to the failures of late-stage capitalism than they already were before the First Black Presidency. As the killings of Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray, the loop of uprisings that followed, and the anti-capitalist, socialist movement of Occupy Wall Street shaped our perspectives, young people of the Black Lives Matter generation learned quickly, and with much devastation, that representation had a hole in it where our ideas of justice rooted in policy dematerialized.” (8 min)

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our nine new subscribers – Alicia, Sandra, Estephanie, Rachel, Kelley, Ebony, Riever, Tim, and Miami – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Yolanda! Yan! Yudy!), you’re pretty great, too. Loyal readers Jenn and David, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#329: Now We Know Their Names

Happy Thursday, loyal readers, and thank you for being here.

Over the past almost-seven years, I’ve liked finding the best-written articles for you to read, no matter their source. Today’s issue includes pieces from well-resourced mainstream publications that everyone knows about (i.e., The Atlantic and The Washington Post) and from newish bootstrap magazines with small circulations that maybe you’ve never heard of before (i.e., The Drift and Pipe Wrench). My hope is that you appreciate the range of publications.

In my humble opinion, everyone should read this week’s lead article, “Now We Know Their Names,” in which author Clint Smith writes poignantly about a memorial in Maryland dedicated to two lynching victims. The other pieces – exploring platform capitalism and movie theater concessions and hospice vigil volunteers – are worth your time as well. Please enjoy!

+ Several of you reached out last week to share with me which article resonated with you the most (thank you!), but sadly, no one left me a voice message. (It’s fun, I promise.)

+ This month at Article Club, we’re reading and discussing “When Things Go Missing,” my favorite article of 2017. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kathryn Schulz has generously agreed to participate. So you should, too! More info is here, and you can sign up for our Feb. 27 discussion here.

How Should America Confront Its History Of Lynchings?

Clint Smith, on lynching and campaigns that seek reconciliation: “One of the most unsettling yet ubiquitous aspects of lynchings across the country is that the people who committed these crimes, who took these artifacts home as souvenirs to share with their families, were rarely two-dimensional caricatures of evil; they were everyday people in the community: the grocer, the postman, the teacher, the doctor.

“This history is never distant; it follows us everywhere we go. It lives under the soil of the playgrounds where we bring our children to play, under the concrete we drive on in our neighborhoods, and under the land upon which we live. It rests beneath our feet in ways that we are — that I am — still discovering.” (19 min)

+ Mr. Smith acknowledges the power and promise of soil-collection ceremonies, the work of community members in partnership with Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative.

Vibe, Mood, Energy: Or, Bust-Time Reenchantment

Back in the day, the terms vibe, mood, and energy belonged to the counterculture and the occult. But now with platform capitalism, centered on harvesting our personal data for profit, companies have co-opted the sensibilities of youth culture and sold them back to the mass public. After all, businesses don’t sell actual goods anymore, and commodities in late capitalism are experiences, each with their own energy and mood. If you get the vibe right, you’ll get rich. (26 min)

+ There’s a ton more in this hard-to-blurb article by Mitch Therieau, who also writes about lofi music and pre-distressed jeans.

Making Concessions: A Tale of Capitalism, Control, And Snacks

Before the pandemic, when people went to the movie theater, did you smuggle in popcorn (or a full burrito) to save money on concessions? Be honest! This article chronicles the history of concessions, charting how theater owners convinced their captive audience to associate seeing a feature film with chomping on Jujyfruits and Junior Mints, thereby protecting profits and staying in business – that is to say, until recently. (26 min)

+ AMC now sells its popcorn outside its theaters. Want it delivered to your couch? Sure. The money is in the concessions, after all, not the ticket sales.

On The Obligation To Prevent People From Dying Alone

Ken Budd used to call his mother every night to check in. Then she died while he was out of the country. Since then, Mr. Budd has served as a vigil volunteer for a hospice organization, doing what he can to make sure nobody dies alone. This article discusses what people need in their final moments, and reminded me, as all pieces on death do, that what’s important is to be present, to listen, and to connect with those I love. (20 min)

+ A national organization with 1,500 local programs, No One Should Die Alone believes that small acts of compassion can have a profound impact on the lives of hospice patients.

+ Reader Annotations: Loyal reader Kati appreciated last week’s lead article, “Free Country,” and shared: “I am always dismayed when guns are considered a partisan issue, and even more dismayed about ‘laws’ that wipe away all common-sense regulations on gun ownership.” I always ask myself, Do these same people who hoard guns and ammo ‘for the apocalypse’ also keep fresh stocks of food, water, medicine, fuel?” Kati, thank you very much for reaching out and sharing your perspective.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our four new subscribers – Andrea, Alex, Matthew, and Neeta – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Xiomara! Xavier! Xuan-Vu!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Jessica, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#328: Free Country

One of my favorite things about putting this newsletter together is hearing from loyal readers who have taken a break for a while and then come back. Last week’s issue, one of the most popular in Highlighter history, elicited many kind words and well wishes – for which I am very grateful. I don’t thank you often enough for being part of this reading community. Nearly seven years in, I’m appreciative every day.

This week’s issue includes four outstanding articles focusing on the expansion of gun rights, the long-term effects of school shootings, the importance of accepting death, and the reminder that beauty is right in front of us. If you have time to read just one article, I recommend “Children In The Garden.” What begins as a piece on endurance running develops into a meditation on joy and play and wonder and being a kid.

+ Say hi! I’d love to hear from you. Hit reply or send me a voice message.

+ I encourage you to check out Article Club! Everyone is welcome. We dive deep and discuss one great article every month. Bonus: The author participates, too! Article Clubber Kati says, “Article Club is about the power of reading in community. It’s amazing how quickly strangers from across the country can build trust and go deep.” Let me know if you want to give Article Club a try.

Free Country

Michael Cargill lives in Texas and believes in the Second Amendment. He’s a military veteran, a firearms instructor, and a gun shop owner. He’s also Black and gay. While he fights for the right to bear arms, and appreciates that more Americans are becoming first-time gun owners, Mr. Cargill does not endorse the latest trend among gun proponents: unrestricted permitless carry, now legal in 21 states.

In this well-researched article, Rachel Monroe charts how open carry, mostly nonexistent until the 1980s, has gained popularity as a result of racist fears of urban crime, the Obama presidency, and the pandemic. She also explains why state lawmakers in conservative states feel emboldened (and sometimes compelled) to pass lenient gun laws, when their constituents would prefer stricter regulations. (25 min)

+ If you hit a paywall, try incognito mode or another browser.

+ Ms. Monroe also wrote this great piece on van life back in 2017.

The Survivors: The School Shooting Generation Grows Up

In the 1980s and 1990s, decades before school shootings became commonplace (there have been 96 since 2018), young survivors received little mental health treatment. Most suppressed their feelings, soothed with drugs, formed informal therapy groups, and felt guilty to seek therapy, because they suffered less than their friends. Now in their 30s and 40s, they’re coming to terms with their PTSD and deciding what to tell their own children about their experiences, if anything at all. (22 min)

On Death And Love

Our problem as humans, Melanie Challenger argues in this thoughtful essay, is that we deperately want to avoid death. She reminds us, “Everything that we have cherished, each hope or triumph, however small or glorious, will be gone. And so, too, will the unique form of our bodies. Our smiles and the cut of our buttocks, our hips and the hue of our eyes—all will one day be swallowed back into the immensity of the cosmos.” If we accept death and spend less time convincing ourselves that we are exceptional, somehow superior to animals, then we’ll love ourselves and each other more, offering us a better chance to construct a healthier world for future generations. (16 min)

Children In The Garden: On Life At A 3,100-Mile Race

Even if you’re not a distance runner, you’ll appreciate this profile of the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race, in which participants run around a half-mile block in Jamaica, Queens, over and over, for 52 days. In this beautifully written piece, Devin Kelly starts with running and extrapolates to the philosophical and existential: What is beauty and what is joy in our pandemic world? He writes, “I think we often chase epiphany, despite the fact that, at all times, the possibility of epiphany is right here, exactly where we are. The word itself has nothing to do with how it is commonly portrayed, which is that epiphany occurs out of nowhere, as if what is surprising someone didn’t exist before the moment of their surprise. In reality, the idea of epiphany has to do with seeing things exactly as they are.” (33 min)

+ Reader Annotations: Last week’s lead article, “My Penis, Myself” was immensely popular and resonated with many of you. And several of you shared your reactions upon seeing the subject line in your inboxes. Loyal reader Eunice, who was substituting for a third grade teacher at a small school in rural Michigan, needed to email a writing assignment to the secretary to print. She wrote, “I had the computer up for a previous impromptu addition to the class conversation and didn’t realize my email headers would be so titillating. Thanks for the excitement and forcing a quick browser close.” I’m pleased that you still have your job, Eunice!

In addition, I’d like to thank loyal reader Albina, who sent this delightful and heartwarming comment my way:

I am a recent subscriber and my inbox definitely did not need another newsletter subscription, so I have been unsubscribing from a ton of newsletters that I find are just “noise.” Yours however is one I really enjoy! I’ll admit I don’t always have the time to read all of the articles you recommend, but reading your summaries alone feels like a kind point in the right direction :-) Thank you a lot!

Thank you for being wonderful, Albina – and don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even though I highly encourage everyone to read every single article (because they’re so good!), many loyal readers tell me they’re most passionate about the blurbs.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our two new subscribers Jeanie and Cory, I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Wenner! Wendy! Wes!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Caitlin, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#327: My Penis, Myself

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. Thank you very much for opening today’s issue of The Highlighter. I’m a big fan of all four of this week’s articles. Although they focus on a range of topics (phalloplasty, anti-Asian violence, voter suppression, gentrification), the pieces all explore a common theme: the power of people authentically living their full identities in the face of a society that wants to marginalize them. You’ll meet Gabriel Mac, Marian Chia-Ming Liu, Crystal Mason, and Lucía Obregón Matzer, each of whom, I think, will bring you connection and expand your empathy.

+ Don’t have enough time to read all four? Hit reply and I’ll recommend the one article that I think you’ll appreciate the most.

+ This month at Article Club (one of my three reading-related hobbies!), we’re reading and discussing “Good Mother: Custody and Care in the Shadow of Colonization,” by Sierra Crane Murdoch, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. It was one of my favorite articles last year. Article Club is a thoughtful reading community made up of kind people from across the country who love to discuss great longform nonfiction on race, education, and culture. We’d love to have you. Here’s more information about this month’s discussion on Sunday, January 30. Let me know if you have any questions.

I Didn’t Need A Penis To Be A Man. But I Needed One To Be Me

Gabriel Mac, who identifies as a transmasculine person, has wanted a penis for a long time. Nearly everybody he’s met – including most doctors and other transmasculine people – find the idea “disgusting” and “insane.” Only a few surgeons perform phalloplasty, and only a few states mandate health coverage for trans people.

In this illuminating article, beautifully and evocatively written, Mr. Mac shares his journey, alternating between emotional epiphanies and dispassionate descriptions. Once you start this piece, you’ll want to read it the whole way through.

Mr. Mac writes, “I’ve never seen or heard of a book or show character or even another person who is an asexual gay man with a penis and a vagina. But after I got out of the hospital, standing in the bathroom washing my hands, with most of my body, much less my genitalia, well outside the mirror’s frame, I looked up and suddenly, for the first time in my life, recognized my own face.” (27 min)

+ Thank you to loyal reader Tess for sending this outstanding article my way. Also, if you hit a paywall, I suggest trying another browser.

The Power Of Reclaiming My Asian Name

Journalist Marian Chia-Ming Liu, who reports on anti-Asian hate crimes, was used to wearing sunglasses in public to avoid potential violence. Besides, she thought, it was better to blend in. As a kid, she was taught, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” But an incident at a Vietnamese restaurant in Florida causes Ms. Liu to change her approach, calling out racism and requiring people to use and pronounce her full name correctly. “Racism against Asians is not going to stop with everyone changing their names to Jason and Mary,” she writes. “What will make a difference is for Asians to have a seat at the table, be in positions of power.” (17 min)

When The Myth Of Voter Fraud Comes For You

You have a better chance of being struck by lightning twice than you do of committing voter fraud. Don’t tell that to Crystal Mason, sentenced for five years in prison for inadvertently casting an ineligible provisional ballot in Texas. Ms. Mason’s prosecution is part of a campaign led by purveyors of the Big Lie, who seek to disenfranchise Black and Latinx people using overt and subtle tactics of fear and intimidation. Author Vann R. Newkirk II writes, “Jim Crow was not imposed by a single stroke. It was built community by community, year by year, ruined life by ruined life, law by law, and lie by lie.” (20 min)

+ Mr. Newkirk knew what he was talking about a long time ago. Here he is in Issue #67, after the 2016 election. I’m hoping he’ll join us at Article Club soon.

The Gentrification Of Consciousness

Born in the Mission District of San Francisco to Salvadoran parents, author Robert Lovato knows about gentrification. Now that physical displacement has transformed his community, Mr. Lovato turns his attention to a new, spiritual phase of gentrification brought on by the coming psychedlic-industrial complex. When white Silicon Valley entrepreneurs see profit, Mr. Lovato writes, they perform extractivism, separating hallucinogenic drugs of their Indigenous historical and religious significance. The practice disrupts the psychological fabric of the community and leads to a trauma of psychic placelessness. (24 min)

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our five new subscribers – including Lucy, Mahesh, Fawn, and Thomas – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Violet! Vince! Virginia!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Jamie, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#326: The Black Vanguard In White Utopias

Loyal readers, I hope you are doing well. Let me make a promise to you right here and now that today’s issue will not be about Omicron (or Omarion), or about how schools and teachers and educators and parents are freaking out. My sense is that most of you would prefer to read great articles on a different topic relating to race, education, and culture.

If you’re in agreement, this week’s issue is for you. All four articles focus on the experiences of Black people navigating predominately white spaces. (Note: This is not the first time we’ve explored this theme.) Those spaces include the country music industry, public schools, public libraries, transracial adoptive families, and the health care system. Usually I suggest one piece for those of you who have limited reading time, but sorry, this week, I can’t choose my favorite. They’re all good. But I’d love to hear from you about which piece resonated with you the most. Please enjoy!

+ New Subscriber Contest: I’d love for The Highlighter to grow. Have someone in mind who’d appreciate the newsletter? Refer them and win a prize! If they subscribe and include your name, you’ll be entered into a raffle. This week’s prize: A three-month digital subscription to the New York Times (for you, or for a friend).

+ The 1619 Project Book Club. I’m happy to report big interest and enthusiasm (32 of you!) for our six-month book club beginning in February. At this point, sign-ups are closed. But if you have an idea to build our reading community this year, please hit reply and let me know!

The Black Vanguard In White Utopias

I don’t know anything about country music, but whatever sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom writes, I read. In this well-reported, well-written piece, Prof. Cottom explains why Black artists make up less than 4 percent of the market, despite their past and current contributions to country music’s landscape.

The brief answer: Sonic segregation. Since the 1970s, as part of President Nixon’s Southern strategy, Republican leaders have linked country music with whiteness, conservative nostalgia, and notions of a white utopia. President Reagan followed up on that thinking, calling country music the “purest American musical form,” connecting it with guns and God.

Prof. Cottom writes, “Country music issues a promissory note to its white listeners. The promise is that no matter how much the world around them may be changing, a country radio station or concert will be a safe space for white sentimentality.” (28 min)

Talking While Black

George Floyd’s murder in 2020 led to widespread protests and calls for racial justice. But the following year’s backlash sought to expunge whatever progress was made. In this outstanding episode of This American Life, Emanuele Berry and Chana Joffe-Walt tell the stories of a Black principal, Black student, and Black author and how they have personally navigated the retaliation, coded as criticisms of critical race theory in public schools and libraries. (53 min)

+ If you don’t have an hour: Skip to Nevaeh’s story, about 12 minutes in. With adults bickering and complaining, it’s good to hear from a young person.

Transracial Adoptees Struggle To Talk To Their White Parents About Race

Angela Tucker is a 36-year-old Black woman whose white parents adopted and raised her in lily white Bellingham, Washington. They realized their community left Angela disconnected from her racial identity but reasoned that access to well-resourced schools and health care would provide a healthy foundation. Looking back at her childhood, Ms. Tucker reflected, “I know my parents love me, but they don’t love my people.” As the rate of transracial adoption has increased, more BIPOC adoptees are challenging their parents, sharing the confusion (and sometimes trauma) they experienced growing up in mixed-race and colorblind families. (25 min)

+ Thank you to loyal reader Jennifer for sending this article my way. Got a good article? Nominate it!

A Litany for Survival: Giving Birth As A Black Woman In America

Well before Naomi Jackson became pregnant when she was 38, she realized that “having a Black child in America has always been an act of faith.” In this direct, clear-eyed essay, Ms. Jackson tells the story of her pregnancy, including her search for a Black female ob-gyn, her wish for an unmedicated childbirth, and her delivery without a doctor present. Ms. Jackson writes, “There is still a very prominent belief that there is something wrong with Black women’s bodies, and every poor outcome is because of us.” (19 min)

+ Reader Annotations: A number of you reached out to share your gratitude for last week’s issue honoring bell hooks. VIP Sara especially appreciated “Love As The Practice Of Freedom.” She wrote, “The article by bell hooks is so powerful! I truly believe if we could start some sort of community with love as its anchor, maybe we could move forward as a positive culture. Of course it will be hard work, but we have to start somewhere. Thank you for the article!” No, Sara – thank YOU for sharing your thoughts with our reading community. I’m happy that you’re such an integral part of The Highlighter.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our two new subscribers – Ashley and Albert – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Umar! Uriel! Ulises!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Greg, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

#325: The Courage Of bell hooks

Happy New Year, loyal readers, and thank you for being here.

This week we’re honoring bell hooks, who passed away last month. A visionary thinker and outstanding writer, Ms. hooks taught me that education is a practice of freedom, that literacy is a means of critical consciousness, and that classrooms should be places of inquiry and love. She wrote, “The moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

Today’s issue includes three tributes to ms. Hooks, all of which I recommend. But if you have time to read just one piece, make it the last one, an essay on love, in her own words.

+ New Subscriber Contest: Let’s start the year strong by encouraging 100 smart, caring, and curious people to join The Highlighter. Want to help? Please tell your friends and family to check out the newsletter and subscribe. If they include your name, you’ll be entered into a raffle. This week’s prize: The coveted 2022 Pets of The Highlighter Calendar.

+ The 1619 Project Book Study: The best books deserve close reading and deep discussion. Join Article Club’s study of The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, starting in February. We’ll read 1 essay a week and meet once a month for six months. The cost is $18 (free for VIPs), and 100% of proceeds will go to The 1619 Freedom School in Waterloo, Iowa.

The Courage Of bell hooks

Shamira Ibrahim: “It is near impossible to calculate the level of courage it took for hooks to serve as an early architect of concepts that now feel self-evident. A walking embodiment of the term cultural worker, fearlessly cutting through every medium, viewing her work as one of the purest expressions of love for Black people there is — a belief in our ability to strive for greater and demand more.” (7 min)

We Will Always Rage On With You

George Yancy: “As I reflect on bell, I was not only touched by how I came to know her personally, but her work has also had a profound influence on my pedagogy. In Teaching to Transgress, bell writes, ‘The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress.’ ” (13 min)

The Pedagogical Legacy Of bell hooks

Danica Savonick: “In our contemporary moment, many professors want to know (in Ibram X. Kendi’s words) ‘how to be an antiracist’ and (in Bettina Love’s words) how to prepare students to ‘do more than survive.’ Here, hooks’s work offers guidance. She describes how well-intentioned efforts to teach ‘diverse’ literature can reinscribe racism and sexism. She explains the different forms resistance to transgressive teaching might take. She acknowledges how difficult, messy, and slow it can be to introduce students to new paradigms. And she affirms the importance of compassion and respect for students’ pain, especially as they engage in the process of detaching from a previously held worldview and begin reaching toward a new one.” (9 min)

+ This article is free but requires you to register with your email address.

Love As The Practice Of Freedom

bell hooks: “Whenever those of us who are members of exploited and oppressed groups dare to critically interrogate our locations, the identities and allegiances that inform how we live our lives, we begin the process of decolonization. If we discover in ourselves self-hatred, low self-esteem, or internalized white supremacist thinking and we face it, we can begin to heal. Acknowledging the truth of our reality, both individual and collective, is a necessary stage for personal and political growth. This is usually the most painful stage in the process of learning to love – the one many of us seek to avoid. Again, once we choose love, we instinctively possess the inner resources to confront that pain. Moving through the pain to the other side we find the joy, the freedom of spirit that a love ethic brings.” (17 min)

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below. I like hearing from you.

To our eight new subscribers – Stacey, Nimai, Lee, Brian, Lashell, Bobby, Reba, and Dan – I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Tyler! Telannia! Tina!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Anna and loyal reader Caitlin, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you like The Highlighter, please help it grow. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!

The Most Popular Articles of 2021

The Highlighter features four great articles every week. But which are most popular among loyal readers? Here were the five most popular articles of 2021. Please enjoy!

#1: The Zoom Gaze

by autumm caines, real life magazine

The reason we’re tired of Zoom is not just because we’re looking at screens all day. According to technologist Autumm Caines, the software has transformed the norms by which we interact with each other and the way we perceive ourselves.

Toni Morrison rejected the white gaze in literature that presumes the white reader’s perspective as neutral. Scholar Laura Mulvey criticized the male gaze in film that centers straight men and objectifies women. In this article, Ms. Caines explores the power dynamics of the Zoom gaze and asks, “Whose perspective does it seek to naturalize? What does it condition us to see?”

By encouraging us to see ourselves being seen, by offering 68 video settings that we can manipulate, by skewing eye contact, by making us work harder to express and receive emotion, Zoom promotes self-surveillance and magnifies performance culture, “opening a gap between how we wish to be perceived and how we know ourselves to actually be.” (12 min) (Issue #278)

#2: I’m Failing My Students

by tom rademacher, medium

Tom Rademacher teaches Language Arts to eighth graders in Minnesota. Before the pandemic, he was on top of the world, being named the state’s teacher of the year, writing books, feeling confident and effective. But this year, as young people return from nearly two years of virtual school, “teaching is just harder.” Mr. Rademacher has run out of energy and patience. “I have less of me to give. I hate being bad at this.”

He writes: “All of us are tired. All of us are doing too much. It’s absurd to me that this year, after last year and after the year before it, we are doing anything other than healing. This should be a year of simple. This should be a year when every non-essential thing is stripped away and every arm we can manage is wrapped around our students to welcome them back into something that feels solid, feels stable, feels human.” (5 min) (Issue #320)

#3: The Anxiety of Influencers

by barrett swanson, harper’s magazine

Last year during the pandemic, English professor Barrett Swanson needed a vacation. His teaching had become less about analyzing James Baldwin and more about tending to his students’ anxieties and their comfort animals. Prof. Swanson wondered, Was there another way to support young people as they headed into adulthood? Indeed there was — at the Clubhouse for the Boys mansion, a collab house in Los Angeles where TikTok stars “hone their voice.” One of the owners says, “We really see ourselves as an influencer university.” Tons of layers here. (38 min) (Issue #294)

#4: Denial Is The Heartbeat Of America

by ibram X. kendi, the atlantic

Ibram X. Kendi: “We must stop the heartbeat of denial and revive America to the thumping beat of truth. The carnage has no chance of stopping until the denial stops. This is not who we are must become, in the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol: This is precisely who we are. And we are ashamed. And we are aggrieved at what we’ve done, at how we let this happen. But we will change. We will hold the perpetrators accountable. We will change policy and practices. We will radically root out this problem. It will be painful. But without pain there is no healing.

“And in the end, what will make America true is the willingness of the American people to stare at their national face for the first time, to open the book of their history for the first time, and see themselves for themselves — all the political viciousness, all the political beauty — and finally right the wrongs, or spend the rest of the life of America trying. This can be who we are.” (12 min) (Issue #276)

#5: The Lost Year: What The Pandemic Cost Teenagers

by alec macgillis, propublica

Up until this year, Kooper Davis charmed his teachers, got straight A’s, and played quarterback for the Hobbs High School football team in New Mexico. He had his sights set on Stanford. But the state’s protracted shutdown canceled the football season, which led Kooper’s mental health to decline. In this heartbreaking article, Alec MacGillis argues that closed schools have led not only to losses in learning. They’ve also caused soaring rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. That’s not the case, though, in Texas, just a 10-minute drive away, where schools have remained open all year. (42 min)) (Issue #284)

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#323: The Abortion I Didn’t Have

Long ago, when I taught U.S. Government, I believed in the soundness and durability of American institutions, in particular the Supreme Court. My students learned about the rule of law and the power of precedent. But last week’s oral argument in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson reminded me that abortion, more than any other issue, stirs up our visceral moral beliefs, leaving legal doctrines like stare decisis invalid.

Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life (or both – as several of you told me after Issue #311), you’ll appreciate this week’s lead article, “The Abortion I Didn’t Have.” The piece is measured and nuanced and full of feeling.

The rest of today’s selections are also well written. Devin Kelly explores the true meaning of community, Bill Adair asks if it’s ever OK to lie, and Lex Pryor cherishes an American tuber. I hope you’ll find at least one article that resonates with you.

+ Tonight’s HHH is sold out, but if you’re feeling festive and competitive, the 2nd Annual Highlighter Game Show is next Thursday at 5:30 pm. There are still two spots left. Sign up here!

+ Next week, I’ll share my favorite articles of the year. Can you predict which ones I’ll choose? Let me know which pieces deserve top praise.

The Abortion I Didn’t Have

When Merritt Tierce got pregnant at 19, she felt “a physical splitting.” A Christian and a student of the Bible, she didn’t want to get an abortion, which she considered “a holocaust.” But adoption also didn’t feel right. Instead of pursuing a master’s degree at Yale, she gave birth and got married. “I believed I should be punished for having premarital sex,” she writes, “so I felt I deserved to lose control over my life.”

Now, 20 years later, Ms. Tierce reflects on becoming a mother. She loves her son; she regrets becoming a mother. She wants to go back in time but knows she cannot. She understands the word “incontrovertible.” She realizes she never made a decision because she never had a choice.

Ms. Tierce writes: “Our reductive and linear frameworks around abortion, and our very understanding of what it is, force a zero-sum choice between the idea that it’s hard to become a parent if you don’t want to and the idea that a child is an absolute good. We insist that if a child is an absolute good, then becoming a parent must also be, by retroactive inference, always and only an absolute good. I want to report from the other side of a decision many people make and say: Yes, it can be true that you will love the child if you don’t have the abortion. It’s also true that whatever you thought would be so hard about having that child, whatever made you consider not having a child at that point in your life, may be exactly as hard as you thought it would be. As undesirable, as challenging, as painful as you feared.” (33 min)

I Miss It All: Against The Commodification Of Community

A year into the pandemic, and eight months after injuring his knee, Devin Kelly can’t run. He feels isolated and wants real-life connection. Except he can’t find it. Late capitalism has made us lonely by commodifying community and convincing us we’re not living unless we’re optimizing. But Mr. Kelly seeks the ordinary, with real people. “Living can simply mean time spent among. I find value in this. In the time spent among one another. Not just with, or next to, but among.” (22 min)

+ Do you like Peloton? (Mr. Kelly doesn’t.) I haven’t tried it. Who’s your favorite instructor?

Loving Lies

Ever since my high school journalism teacher Nick Ferentinos taught us the rights and responsibilities of the press (first responsiblity: tell the truth), I’ve been fascinated by reporters who make stuff up. My favorite fabulist of all time is Stephen Glass (played by Hayden Christensen in “Shattered Glass”), who has spent the last 20 years vowing to make amends by never telling a lie. But this touching story by Bill Adair explores when lying is more loving than living with the bitter truth. Sometimes, Mr. Glass says, “The only compassionate thing to do is not to tell the truth.” (29 min)

+ This piece is free but requires your email address to read it.

The Deep And Twisted Roots Of The American Yam

Lex Pryor, on the American yam: “What was once regarded as unsophisticated and inherently deficient became not only a necessity but an outright custom. The thing to remember about the growth of both the sweet potato economy and minstrelsy is that inevitably the co-opters came to embrace the very thing they long professed a commitment to ridiculing. Racial theft is often perceived as a matter of robbery alone, but at its most basic form it is equally an act of exacerbation. Perpetrators venture up the same roads they once burned and compliment the scenery. It is not the eating of this thing that is wrong. It is the commitment to forget all that came before it.” (23 min)

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. Did you enjoy it? Let me know by clicking on “Yes” or ”No” below.

To our new four subscribers Leah, Soraya, Lourdes, and Taylor, I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. To our long-time subscribers (Rachel! Richard! Ray’Von!), you’re pretty great, too. VIP Abby and loyal readers Erin and Brittany, thank you for sharing the newsletter and getting the word out.

If you appreciate and value The Highlighter, please help it grow. The best thing you can do is forward today’s issue to a friend and urge them to subscribe up at the top. Your word of mouth is very appreciated.

The second best thing you can do is become a paid subscriber, also known as a VIP member. It’s $3 a month. By doing so you’re saying, “Mark, thank you for finding these articles and sharing them with me. It certainly beats all the hours I’d otherwise be scrolling aimlessly on my phone.” Thank you to new VIPs Allie and Nicole for taking the plunge.

On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT for the last issue of the year!