United States
The Limits of Dialogue
In the wake of the conflict in Gaza, an original member of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, a controversial program aimed at connecting American Muslims with Jewish Americans and Israelis, reflects on its shortcomings and his own efforts to shift U.S. foreign policy.
If You Have To Say It, It's Probably False
If something has to be said, and said in public, there’s a decent chance that it’s a lie. Think of history’s favorite shibboleths: separate but equal; the war to end all wars; we value your privacy. Yet when these pronouncements are made, they also offer a shortcut to the truth.
Through the Psychedelic Looking Glass
The psychedelic renaissance often fixates on the real power of the drugs to heal, while dismissing their equally real propensity to harm. One reason: Big psychedelics means big profits, and there are already huge sums of cash flowing into the industry.
The Long Debate Over Black Artistry Behind ‘American Fiction’
Can’t Black writers write what they want to write in the 21st century? In the world of Percival Everett’s 2001 “Erasure,” the answer was no. In 2023, with the novel’s adaptation into the movie “American Fiction,” the answer is still no.
The Lasting Legacy of Bayard Rustin
From the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, until Martin Luther King’s assassination 12 years later, Bayard Rustin was a central — and controversial — figure in the civil rights movement, always pushing the movement in general, and King in particular, to take stances as bold and transformative as possible.
In Georgia, a Standoff Between Leftists and Authorities
A solemn crowd gathered as daylight faded — a mix of anarchists, prison abolitionists, anti-fascists and environmentalists. They had been trying to stop construction of a police training facility known as Cop City, but the bloodshed seemed to be changing the movement into something broader and more unpredictable.
The Mass Psychology of Trumpism
In the eyes of his supporters, Trump possesses extraordinary powers that are wielded for good and against evil. Who cares if he is flawed? So what if he lacks certain distinctively human qualities? What does it matter that he is rude, authoritarian or even a criminal?