The Deplorable Basket

“…  it certainly should give Democrats pause when they piously condemn the Republican Party’s anti-blackness as “not America” or “out of the mainstream.” It is also illustrative of how racism functions in the political sphere.”

Read it at MTV News

The Unbound Man

“From older Ali, I learned a deeper version of this lesson. I learned how to fight the battles that you know you will lose.”

Read it at MTV News

Is Everything Fine?

“Precedent says a candidate in Donald Trump’s position can’t win. But there has never been a candidate like Donald Trump.”

Read it at MTV News

Obama’s Mistake

“Politics is often defined by irreconcilable differences and inevitable conflict rather than shared values and common interest. This means that the practice of policy and governance is about the pursuit and exercise of power.”

Read it at MTV News

Old Future New York

“If, like Donald Trump, you were 44 in 1990, crime had risen in every decade of your life… If you really want to get an idea of what this era felt like, watch a bunch of ’80s and ’90s science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies. No, really.”

Read it at MTV News

Superpredators and Scapegoats

“It is fair to be angry at the Clintons for their actions, but if we attempt to make them our sacrificial scapegoats, we run the risk of underplaying how deeply the roots of mass incarceration run, and how hard we will have to work to rip them out.”

Read it at MTV News

Life During Wartime

“This is why the cross is such a powerful mystery in Christianity, because for Christians it is the only time an execution was transformed into a symbol of life. It is not for us to do.”

Read it at MTV News

The Meme of the Year

“The image of Clinton as someone who always knew what she was doing is part of what made the idea that she was exceptionally shady or corrupt so difficult to shake.”

Read it at MTV News

Liberal Fan Fiction

“The problem comes, as with any other metaphor, when you return to it so often that you start projecting the characteristics of the metaphor back onto reality.” 

Read it at MTV News

Black Flag

“Kendrick is able to write himself into the American flag for the same reason Kaepernick can write himself out of it — the American flag is a political object and its meaning is malleable and contestable.”

Read it at MTV News