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Paul Beaty / AP The Paranoid Style of American Policing
When officers take the lives of those they are sworn to protect and serve, they undermine their own legitimacy.
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Star Wars and the Critical Benefit of Low Expectations
My old colleague Ross Douthat is mystified that Star Wars: The Forces Awakens has wowed nearly every single critic its…
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Wakanda and the Black Imagination
It’s obviously not the case, but T’Challa—the Black Panther and mythical ruler of Wakanda—has always struck as the product of…
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Wikimedia Hope and the Historian
Writers who commit themselves to only writing hopeful things are committing themselves to the ahistorical and the mythical.
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Now Would Be a Good Time to Discuss the Ferguson Effect
From Chicago the news, once again, is ugly: Amid a growing crisis over the Chicago Police Department…
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Conceptualizing the Black Panther
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to be contracted to work on Marvel’s Black Panther. I didn’t…
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A Corruption Beyond Chicago's Top Cop
As David notes, Garry McCarthy, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department is out. The bungled investigation of the killing of…
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Chiraq and the 'Sex-Strike' Myth
Spike Lee went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last Tuesday to discuss his movie Chiraq. In the course…
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Woodrow Wilson and the Problem of Civic Plunder
Last week MSNBC host, and former Congressman, Joe Scarborough seemed shocked that Princeton students would object to having numerous buildings…
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Jeff Kubina / Flickr Hope and the Artist
The virtues of enlightenment over feel-goodism
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Charles Rex Arbogast / AP The Creationist Style of Crime Control
When the director of the FBI questions public scrutiny of policing, he sends a profoundly anti-democratic message.
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The Legal Murder Of Tamir Rice
It should be increasingly clear that the police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice will not be tried; and should…
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Reuters Moynihan, Mass Incarceration, and Responsibility
Good intentions and deep sympathies cannot counter corrosive doctrines and destructive policy.
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Ben Carson, Bigot
Yesterday presidential candidate Ben Carson was asked if he could ever support a Muslim president. Carson, channeling a significant portion…
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Brad.K / Flickr A Critique That Misses the Point
Mass incarceration is a complicated problem—and deserves to be treated as such.
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The Case for Decarceration
It’s interesting. People often ask me if I think reparations will happen and my answer is, “Not in my lifetime…
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The Work of Generations
Hey, Jeff. Yeah that was a fun convo. I respect Mayor Landrieu too, though my differences with him were, I…
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Mass Incarceration and the Problem of Language
I think what we name things has meaning. I also think that much of the vocabulary employed in the world…
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A Note on the Moynihan Report, Black Women and 'Urbanology'
My piece on mass incarceration is long. I wish it wasn’t but it is. Believe it or not it was…
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A Family Weathers a Life Sentence
Odell Newton was 16 when he killed a cab driver. Four decades later, his family is still hoping for his release.