A photograph of the author's brother, Steve, playing pool.

Imperfecta

Her brother’s disease leads a writer to challenge how we conceive of human abnormality in the emerging era of gene editing.
Silhouette of baseball player swinging bat.

Negro-League Players Don’t Belong in the MLB Record Books

And neither do white players from the segregation era.
Children protesting before the Supreme Court with a sign that reads "We Love School Choice."

The Post-Brown Realignment and the Structure of Partitioned Publics

Public schools are crucial infrastructures of the reproduction of social inequality and the US carceral state.
A gavel smashing a wooden house.

The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning

America is suffering from a severe housing shortage. A crucial tool may lie in the Constitution.
Zdeněk Koubek running.

Human Velocity

“The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports” upends long-held assumptions about trans people’s participation in sports.
Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter surrounded by African American artists' records.

The Song of the Summer Is Actually the Song of 1982

Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” is one of several recent hits bringing back the genre that never got a name.
A team photograph of the Homestead Grays.

The Negro Leagues Are Officially Part of MLB History — With the Records to Prove It

The MLB incorporated the statistics of 2,300 Black athletes who played in the segregated Negro Leagues, making the Josh Gibson its new all-time batting leader.
A rider from the 9th US Cavalry, one of several segregated units called the Buffalo Soldiers.

Meet The Black Cowboys Who Shaped Colorado History

The gunslingers, innovators, and explorers who carved their destinies from the sprawling promise of the West.
1882 newspaper headline following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The 100-Year-Old Racist Law that Broke America’s Immigration System

The legacy of the Immigration Act of 1924 and the launching of the Border Patrol, which inaugurated the most restrictive era of US immigration until our own.
Trump at a rally and newspaper headlines about immigration.

How America Tried and Failed to Stay White

100 years ago the U.S. tried to limit immigration to White Europeans. Instead, diversity triumphed.
Hand throwing crumpled dollar bills into pile

Extravagances of Neoliberalism

On how the fringe ideas of a set of American neoliberals became a new and pervasive way of life.
A photograph of four children standing, one is slouching.

Are You Sitting Up Straight? America’s Obsession with Improving Posture

In Beth Linker’s new book, she applies a disability studies lens to the history of posture.
Solidarity book cover and photos of authors Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor.

Talking “Solidarity” With Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix

A conversation with the activists and writers about their wide-ranging history of the politics of the common good and togetherness.
partner

No Place to Make a Vote of Thanks

On the long tradition of Black third-party activism.
Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History by Laura E. Helton.

Black Archives, Not Archives of Blackness

On Laura Helton’s “Scattered and Fugitive Things.”
Rows of shelves in a historical archive.

Archival Shouting

Silence and volume in collections and institutions.
A pile of hand-written zines in colorful designs.

Queer Teenage Feminists on the Printed Page, 1973 to 2023

How lesbian teenagers forged community bonds and found connection through magazines.
Black women gathered in discussion for an episode of "Black Journal."

“The Black Woman”

Black women activism within documentary films in the 1960s United States.
"Temple of Liberty" immigration policy cartoon

How the Federal Government Came to Control Immigration Policy and Why it Matters

The newly empowered federal state created during Reconstruction could restrict immigration much more comprehensively than any state—as Chinese laborers soon discovered.
A celebration of Linda Martell on the stage of the Country Music Awards.

Who is Linda Martell, the Black Country Musician Beyoncé Spotlights?

The first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry and hit Billboard’s country music charts.