The Undoing of Affirmative Action by Emily Bazelon

Writing for The New York Times Magazine, Emily Bazelon reports on the 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke as a precursor to the anticipation continuance of right-wing wet dream of rolling back progress. being perpetrated by the current Supreme Court of the United States. The article is filled with the sort of backroom jockeying details that I find irresistible, but it’s the resonance with the here and now that truly gives the piece its heavy, almost wearying weight.

America’s Long Tradition of Rewriting Black History by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In response to the efforts at eradicating history currently underway by the despicable current governor of Florida and his hatemongering ilk, Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes about the recurring efforts to marginalize Black citizens any time they enjoy even the slightest amount of progress in asserting their worthiness for inclusion in the story of the United States. Current examples are new, nor are the even close to the worst offences that have been perpetrated. They are dismaying because we as a society should be well past such brazenly bigoted policy making. Gates associates the current bad actors properly with the villains of the past. This article is published by The New York Times.