0 What You Could Read and Watch in 2016

Many New Year's resolutions reflect a desire to read more, to see more, to be more connected to thought and culture. I'm fortunate to have friends -- and even some enemies -- who are brilliant, thoughtful, and engaged. Their recommendations are priceless and much of my own education has been the result of conversations with them.

I asked my network for the one "thing" that they are most thankful they experienced this past year. By "thing," I meant something like a book, movie, piece of art, etc.. Here is the list.

BOOKS & READING

Just Kids - Patti Smith
Bo Ray

Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960 - Arnold R. Hirsch
Casey Anthony

Harvard Business Review - Subscribe
Noel Gordon

Work Rules - Laszlo Bock
Noel Gordon

Last Evenings on Earth - Roberto Bolano
Jaime Sanchez

White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Lev Novak

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
Logan Cotton

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Alexis Hoffman

Killing the Black Body - Dorothy E. Roberts

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier - Edward Glaeser

We The Animals - Justin Torres
Julius Mitchell

Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What it Means for Modern Relationships - Christopher Ryan
Sam Cohen

One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society - Herbert Marcuse
Neil Whittredge

I'll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson
Bianca Davila

Workshops of Empire - Eric Bennett

Shanameh - Abolqasem Ferdowsi

Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal - Aviva Chomsky
Alex Ocampo

Business Etiquette for Dummies - Sue Fox
Derrick Stinson

Dragonfish - Vu Tran
Mickey Desruisseaux

A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story - Elaine Brown
Ariel Stevenson

The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States - Ida B. Wells
Jameelah Morris

This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz
Ariel Stevenson

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban - Malala Yousafzai
Lia Winograd

Ghostly Matters: Haunting and Sociological Imagination - Avery Gordon
Jameelah Morris

Racial Formation in the United States - Michael Omi and Howard Winant
Suyu Zhang

Dog Whistle Politics - Ian Haney Lopez
Suyu Zhang

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route - Sadiya Hartman
Jameelah Morris

Why Jihadists Write Poetry - Bernard Haykel
Munir Atalla

Shantaram: A Novel - Gregory David Roberts
Alden Sampson

Quantified: Redefining Conservation for the Next Economy - Joe Whitworth
Alden Sampson

At Home: A Short History of Private Life - Bill Bryson
Sam Schuster

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East - Riad Sattouf

The Sellout: A Novel - Paul Beatty

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hala Abdulkarim

NPR's list of the best books of 2015

WATCH & LISTEN

The Epic - Kamasi Washington
Harold Moore

High Maintenance
Jaime Sanchez

Victoria
Evan Tarantino

The Less I Know the Better - Tame Impala
Jaime Sanchez

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger

Punishment Park and the Limits of Gramsican Logic - Frank B. Wilderson III
Jorge Cotte

The Summit
Alexa Petersen

Undefeated
Alexa Petersen

Antarctica: A Year on Ice
Alexa Petersen

The Man in the High Castle
Neil Whittredge

Unslut: A Documentary
Vera Papisova

Joywave - Tongues feat. KOPPS
Evan Tarantino

Dareka no Manazashi - Makoto Shinkai
Kyle Wolken

Creed
Mickey Desruisseaux & Jameelah Morris

The Wolfpack
Evan Tarantino

Gotham
Jameelah Morris

Survivor's Remorse
Mickey Desruisseaux

Beasts of No Nation
Ariel Stevenson

Virunga
Lia Winograd

Blackfish
Lia Winograd

Motorcycle Diaries
Suyu Zhang

Fargo (Season 2)
Evan Tarantino

Making a Murderer
Evan Tarantino

Mad Max: Fury Road

Inside Out

FITNESS

Strong Lifts

3 What We're Reading Today (10-5-15)

The Populist Prophet - The New Yorker
Margaret Talbot

Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Mayor  - The Atlantic
Russell Banks

The Breakdown of the Black Family  - The Atlantic
Kay Hymowitz

First, Let's Get Rid of All the Bosses  - The New Republic
Roger D. Hodge

Obama, Guns, and the Politics of Hopelessness - The New Yorker
John Cassidy

Many Former Foster Youths Don't Know They Have Health Care - NPR
Ray Glier

Our George Wallace - Slate
Jamelle Bouie

Jeb Bush, 'Free Stuff' and Black Folks - NY Times
Charles Blow

The Death of Evan Murray - Grantland
Charles Pierce

The Slave-State Origins of Modern Gun Rights - The Atlantic
Saul Cornell and Eric M. Ruben

The Data Are Damning: How Race Influences School Funding - The Atlantic
Gillian B. White

New York Police Will Document Virtually All Instances of Force - NY Times
Al Baker and J. David Goodman

Black patients fare better than whites when both get same healthcare, study finds - Los Angeles Times
Alan Zarembo

Arne Duncan's Wars - Politico
Michael Grunwald

Jorge Ramos' Long Game - NY Times
Marcela Valdes

The American Dream Shatters in Prince George's County - Washington Post
Michael Fletcher

Senate Strikes Compromise on Criminal Justice Reform - Politico
Rachael Bade, Daniel Lippman, and Sarah Wheaton

Henry Dumas Wrote About Black People Killed By Cops. Then He Was Killed By A Cop. - NPR
Beenish Ahmed

Inside the ISIS Blueprint for Winning - The Daily Beast
William McCants

0 What We're Reading Today (9-24-15)

The Washington Region Needs Bold Commitments to End the Housing Crisis - Greater Greater Washington
David Bowers  (read the comments, as well)

White Out: Why integrating America's neighborhoods and cities is harder than we think - Slate
Jamelle Bouie

Eyes all sticking like honey on bees - Matt's Newsletter
Matthew Yglesias

Black patients fare better than whites when both get same healthcare, study finds - LA Times
 Alan Zarembo

What Rugby Can Teach America About Honoring Indigenous Culture - The Atlantic
 Jake Flanagin

Political scientists think "the party" will stop Trump. They shouldn't be so sure. - Vox
Andrew Prokop

What Does Success Look Like for Pope Francis? - Five Thirty Eight
Five Thirty Eight

What Congress Really Thinks of the Pope - Politico
Katelyn Fossett

As Others Flee to West, Most Syrian Refugees Remain in Region - NY Times
Jodi Rudoren

A Modest Proposal - The New Yorker
David Sedaris

How Conservatives Explain Away Republican Islamophobia - New York Magazine
Jonathan Chait

Why I Still Think Fiorina Was a Terrible CEO - Politico
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

The Importance of Donald Trump  - New York Magazine
Frank Rich

Bait and Switch - Harpers
Clare Malone

Here's What the White House's Behavioral Sciences Team Discovered in Its First Year - New York Magazine
Jesse Singal

The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War?  - The Atlantic
Graham Allison

The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Power of Public Housing - The Atlantic
Alana Semuels

Moynihan, Mass Incarceration, and Responsibility - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

0 What We're Reading Today (9-14-15)

The Anti-Redskin - The Atlantic
Ariel Sabar

The Intersection of Faith and Politics - The Atlantic
Erin Kotlan

The vengeful god of Kim Davis: The powerful forces we ignore when we fixate on one Kentucky clerk - Salon
Brittney Cooper

A Brief Visual History of Weapons - The Atlantic

Mark Zuckerberg and the End of Language - The Atlantic
William Davies

Scare Headlines Exaggerated The US Crime Wave - Five Thirty Eight
Carl Bialik 

Why I Put My Wife's Career First - The Atlantic
Andrew Moravcsik

Think Out Loud - The New Repulic
Michael Eric Dyson

Paid Leave's Champions This Week: Obama, Hilton Hotels, and Saudi Arabia - The New Republic
Esther Breger

Parenting Shouldn't Be About Self-Sacrifice, Whatever Your Income - The New Republic
Stacia L. Brown

The First New Subway Stop Since 1989 - New York Times
Emma Cott and Colin Archdeacon

America's Teaching Force, by the Numbers - The Atlantic
Laura McKenna

The Staggering Scale of Germany's Refugee Project - The Atlantic
Heather Horn

Enter the 'Smarmonym' - The Atlantic
Megan Garber

How to Evaluate the Economic Records of Governors Who Want to Be President - Five Thirty Eight
Ben Casselman

Boston Then and Now: 1888-2015 - The Atlantic
Alan Taylor

By: John Cueno

0 What We're Reading Today (9-7-15)

What Schools Will Do to Keep Students on Track - The Atlantic
Kate Grossman

Why the Plan to Shrink New Orleans Failed - Five Thirty Eight
Gary Rivlin

Katrina Washed Away New Orleans's Black Middle Class - Five Thirty Eight
Ben Casselman

Tracking Police Violence A Year After Ferguson - Five Thirty Eight
Donovan X. Ramsey

Chelsea Clinton's Letter to "Dad, Mom" about Haiti - US Department of State
Chelsea Clinton

From rustbelt to bluebelt - The Economist

Watts: How racist housing policy helped light the flame - KCRW
Jolie Myers

Inside the GOP Clown Car - Rolling Stone
Matt Taibbi

The Passion of Kanye West - Rolling Stone
Lola Ogunnaike

Hillary Clinton's Inevitable Problems - Five Thirty Eight
Nate Silver

Police Abuse Is a Form of Terror - NY Times
Charles Blow

A Historic Fight Over Public Housing Makes For Fine Drama on HBO - NPR
Linda Holmes

The Late, Great Stephen Colbert - GQ
Joel Lovell

Struggle and Progress - Jacobin
Eric Foner

Predicting Police Misconduct Before it Happens - WBEZ
Chris Hagan

One family's journey from Aleppo to Austria - Washington Post
Anthony Faiola

The Political Consequences of Spatial Policies: How Interstate Highways Facilitated Geographic Polarization - Stanford University
Clayton Nall

Highways gutted American cities. So why did they build them? - Vox
Joseph Stromberg

Chicago: Cabrini Green 1942-2011 - Blvck Vrchives

Study finds trauma effects may linger in body chemistry of next generation - PBS

How Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby Became My Hero - The New Republic
Stacia L. Brown

What a Decade Has Done for New Orleans's Schools - The Atlantic
Emmanuel Felton

Why Boosting Poor Children's Vocabulary Is Important for Public Health - The Atlantic
Emily Deruy

Beyoncé Returns - The Atlantic
Spencer Kornhaber

Why New Orleans' Black Residents are Still Underwater After Katrina - NY Times
Gary Rivlin

What does it mean to be privileged? - Jamelle Bouie
Jamelle Bouie

Tinder and the Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse - Vanity Fair
Nancy Jo Sales

What About Pain? A Sermon - Soundcloud
Sam Dyson

Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many US Cities - NY Times
Monica Davey and Mitch Smith

The Worst of the Worst - New Yorker
Patrick Radden Keefe

The Most Important Legacy of the Black Panthers - New Yorker
Brandon Harris

An Exile in the Corn Belt - New Yorker
Ruth Margalit

The Yellow House - New Yorker
Sarah M. Broom

Leave Michael Vick Alone: The Racism and Misogyny of Football Fans - New Black Man in Exile
Lawrence Ware

Pullman Porters: Ordinary Men, Extraordinary History - New Black Man in Exile
Mark Anthony Neal

Selling Off Apache Holy Land - NY Times
Lydia Millet

Chance the Rapper's Pitchfork Set Was a Perfect Tribute to the Strife and Growth of the City of Chicago - Pitchfork
Britt Julious

Our Racial Moment of Truth - NY Times
Isabel Wilkerson

0 What We've Been Reading Recently - Mike Brown, Eric Garner, #BlackLivesMatter, and more (UPDATE: 12/16/14)

A compilation of what I've been scouring on the InterWeb. It's by no means comprehensive or the most wonderful collection of links, posts, etc., but it's something to reference that shouldn't drive up your data charges like fracking through someone's Facebook Timeline.

UPDATED: 12-16-14 (11:05 PM Central)

Off Target on Toy-Gun Regulation - New York Times
Jay Caspian Kang

Cleveland police shot and killed 12 year-old Tamir Rice as he carried toy gun - Vox
German Lopez

How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion - Model View Culture
Kyra

Another March on Washington? After Ferguson, 'That's not change. That's just church.' - The Guardian
Steven W. Thrasher

From Ferguson and New York, the Most Impactful Protest Art in America - Voice Project

The Hidden Trauma Plaguing American Kids - Think Progress
Sam P.K. Collins

Schools' Discipline for Girls Differs by Race and Hue - New York Times
Tanzina Vega

Latina reproductive justice advocates condemn police violence against Black communities, endorse national march - Latina Institute
Loretta Kane

Unequal Treatment of 2 Protesters in Eric Garner Case, One White and One Black - New York Times
Jim Dwyer

The Fierce Urgency of Now: Why Young Protesters Bum-Rushed the Mic - The Root
Kirsten West Savali

Video shows John Crawford's girlfriend aggressively questioned after Ohio police shot him dead in Walmart - The Guardian
Jon Swaine

Chicago gave hundreds of high-risk kids a summer job. Violent crime arrests plummeted. - The Washington Post
Emily Badger

Why I chose not to march in DC - The Grio
Jessica Pierce

At Nets' Game, a Plan for a Simple Statement Is Carried Out t a T - New York Times
Scott Cacciola

In N.C., death of black teen raises question: Was it suicide or a lynching? - Washington Post
Todd C. Frankel

The Wealth Gap Between Whites and Minorities Is Growing - Five Thirty Eight
Ben Casselman

Data Shows Racial Profiling Increasing In Searches During Motor Vehicle Stops - Rhode Island ACLU

Rumain Brisbon Is Just the Latest to Be Shot Dead by a Cop Over a Phantom Gun - Mother Jones
Jaeah Lee

When Police 'Reforms' Only Legitimize Police Abuses - In These Times
Michael Collins

Sharpton Responds to Criticism That His Movement Excludes Younger Activists - The Root
Jamal Watson

UPDATED: 12-10-14 (1:59 AM Central)

Lessons from Camden - The Economist

Black Life is More - Tufts Observer
Kris Manjapra

St. Louis Police Pursue Assault Charge Against Youngest Member of Ferguson Commission - Huffington Post
Ryan J. Reilly

Feature: 'To My Unborn Son' - Afropunk

Viewpoint: Why Eric Garner was Blamed for Dying - BBC
Stacey Patton

Illinois General Assembly Revives Recording Ban - Illinois Policy
Jacob Huebert

Police Kill Black Women All the Time, Too -- We Just Don't Hear About It - Bustle
Evette Dionne

Eric Garner's widow Esaw on protesters: 'Keep fighting for what's right, to get justice.' - NY Daily News
Erik Badia, Richard Shapiro

Tips for Being an Unarmed Black Teen - The Onion

25 Activities Black People Should Avoid Around Cops - New York Magazine
Katie Zavadski

On the Cheapness of Life - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

An Open Letter of Love to Black Students: #BlackLivesMatter - Black Space Blog
Editorial

Turning rage to action: Indict Tufts seeks to shatter silence, fight anti-blackness - Tufts Daily
Lily Sieradzki

Ripping Apart the Chicago Gun Violence Myths, Part 1: Racism - Forward Progressives
Jasdye

Prosecutors and police: The inherent conflict in our courts - MSNBC
Letitia James

#CrimingWhileWhite, #AliveWhileBlack ignite conversation about white privilege - CBC
Anna Maria Tremonti

Ghostface Killah is Sick and Tired of Police Brutality in America - Vice
Zach Schwartz

At Eric Garner Protests, Some White Activists Are Being Called Out for Their Behavior - Village Voice
Katie Toth

A police officer's open letter to black protesters - The Grio
Officer Sanders

Applying 'Broken Windows' to the Police - The Atlantic
Conor Friedersdorf

Faculty whiteness complicates the classroom - Brown Daily Herald
Emma Harris and Joseph Zappa


UPDATED: 12-7-14 (7:39 PM Central)

A Cambridge March on 12/5/14 Organized by Tufts Students. Black Lives Matter. - YouTube
Nadeem Mazen

Black Brunch - Black Lives Matter: Oakland

Reporter questions Derrick Rose over 'I Can't Breathe' shirt. Thinks player is inarticulate. - The Grio
Jamilah Lemieux

Do #BlackLivesMatter to White Athletes? Let's Ask Them. - The Nation
Dave Zirin

In California, a Champion for Police Cameras - New York Times
Ian Lovett

Even When Police Do Wear Cameras, Don't Count on Seeing the Footage - City Lab
Sara Libby

The Problem with Police Cameras - Jacobin
Shaun Ossei-Owusu

Not Every Flash Mob has the Guts to Do What They Did. Whoa. - Upworthy
Erica Williams-Simon

Reggie Bush, Johnson Bademosi, wear 'I Can't Breathe' Slogan - Washington Times
Jessica Chasmar

Black Hollywood Speaks Out about Police Violence - Color Lines
Jamilah King

I Can't Afford Despair (VIDEO) - Color Lines
James Baldwin

Black Trans Woman Killed while Pounding on Door for Help - Color Lines
Jamilah King

UC Berkeley's Black Student Union Stages 4.5-hour Campus Sit-In - Color Lines
Jamilah King

Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and how my US Passport makes everything ok. - (Im)migrating With a Purpose

Women of Color and the Hidden Trauma of Police Brutality - The Nation
Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Looking for the Effects of the Black Friday Boycott - NY Times
Jeff Sommer

How Municipalities in St. Louis Co., MO, Profit from Poverty - Washington Post
Radley Balko

Get Out of Jail, Inc. - New Yorker
Sarah Stillman

The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism - NY Times
Thomas B. Edsall

12-6-14

What President Obama told me about Ferguson's movement: think big, but go gradual - The Guardian
Philip Agnew

Barack Obama, Ferguson, and the Evidence of Things Unsaid - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

No One Wanted to Talk About Bill Cosby's Alleged Crimes Because He Made White America Feel Good About Race - The New Republic
Rebecca Traister

My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything Ok - Gawker
Kiese Laymon

White America's Scary Delusion: why its sense of black humanity is so skewed - Salon
Brittney Cooper

The Old Jim Crow - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

On Ferguson Protests, the Destruction of Things, what Violence Really Is (And Isn't) - Black Girl Dangerous
Mia McKenzie

In Defense of Looting - The New Inquiry
Willie Osterweil

The Cosby Show - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Cutthroat World of Elite Public Schools - The Atlantic
Alia Wong

The Worst of White Folks - Gawker
Kiese Laymon

Driving with Blindspots: A Reflection on Ferguson - Wright and Left
Greg Wright

Cellphone Rights Guide for Protesters - Slate
Lily Hay Newman

Grand Jury to hear stairwell shooting case - Al Jazeera

MHP: A decade of black bodies felled by police bullets - MSNBC
Melissa Harris-Perry

@PrisonCulture comments on #CrimingWhileWhite - Twitter
Prison Culture

Clair Huxtable is Dead - Crunk Feminist Collective
Brittney Cooper

Michael Brown spent his last day with his friend Dorian Johnson. Here's what Johnson saw. - Vox
Ezra Klein

Officer Darren Wilson's story is unbelievable. Literally. - Vox
Ezra Klein

Mike Brown, Darren Wilson, Ferguson Transcripts - NY Times

Who Really Burns: Quitting a Deans Job in the Age of Mike Brown - Jezebel
Eve Dunbar

Fatal Police Encounters in New York City - NY Times
Eba Hamid & Benjamin Mueller

It Is Time We Treat Police Brutality as a National Crisis - Gawker
Jason Parham

A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza - The Feminist Wire
Alicia Garza

In Unpredictable New York Protests, Organized Criticism of Police - NY Times
Marc Santora & Al Baker

To My People - The Talking Drum
Assata Shakur

Charles Barkley and the Plague of 'Unintelligent Blacks' - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Assata Shakur: Prisoner in the United States (Interview Part I) - Prison Culture
Prison Culture

Justice Department Uncovers Absurd Levels of Police Brutality in Cleveland Police Force - Think Progress
Ian Millhiser

10 Years of President Obama talking About Race - CNN

The Dysfunctional and the Disappearing: Democracy, Race ,and Imprisonment - Brown University
Joy James

Hope and Anger at the Garner Protests - NY Times
Brent Staples

Questlove Urges Artists to Write More Protest Songs - Color Lines
Jamilah King

Black Lives Matter / Black Life Matters: An Conversation with Patrisse Cullors and Darnell L. Moore - The Feminist Wire
Monica J. Caspter

On Toni Cade Bambara and the Darren Wilson Jury Decision - The Feminist Wire
Aisha Shahidah Simmons & Heidi R. Lewis

#CrimingWhileWhite is Exactly What's Wrong with White Privilege - The Guardian
Jessica Valenti

Killing Rage: Ending Racism - bell hooks

The Condemnation of Blackness - Khalil Gibran Muhammad

The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson

Warfare in the American Homeland - Joy James

Rise of the Warrior Cop - Radley Balko

Black Skin, White Masks - Frantz Fanon

Black Power - Stokely Carmichael

Black Jacobins - CLR James

Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality - Karen E. Fields & Barbara J. Fields

0 What We're Reading Today (7-30-2014)

Here's Proof That the Anti-Abortion Movement Is Winning - The New Republic
Lane Florsheim

The New Yorker Stories You Should Read Before the Paywall Goes Up - Slate
Eliza Berman and Slate Staff

The Girls Obama Forgot - NY Times
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Time for an Equal Rights Amendment - Politico
Alexandra Brodsky and Elizabeth Deutsch

Moms Winning the Common Core War - Politico
Stephanie Simon

Get Out of Jail, Inc. - The New Yorker
Sarah Stillman

Sympathy for the Overdog - Slate
Luke O'Neil

RAND Helps to Develop From Coverage to Care, a New CMS Initiative - RAND
Laurie T. Martin and David M. Adamson

Transit of Tomorrow - Chicago Magazine
Adam Doster

Whiteness Is Still a Proxy for Being American - The Atlantic
Peter Beinart

The Unforgotten - Boston Globe
Maria Sacchetti

Syria's War Poets - The Atlantic
Elliot Ackerman

Israel Creates 'No Man's Land' in Gaza, Shrinking Strip by 40 Percent - The Daily Beast
Jesse Rosenfeld

40 Charts that explain money in politics - Vox
Andrew Prokop

The American Idea at War - The Atlantic
James Bennet

Satanists Troll Hobby Lobby - The Atlantic
Emma Green

The New York Times Is a Great Company in a Terrible Business - The Atlantic
Derek Thompson

The Port Authority Thinks It Owns the New York City Skyline - CityLab
Polly Mosendz

Psychologists Find a Surprising Thing Happens to Kids Who Read Harry Potter - Arts Mic
Tom McKay

0 What We're Reading Today (7-23-14)

Women Penalized for Promoting Women, Study Finds - Wall Street Journal
Rachel Feintzeig

How Questlove Is Bringing Music Back to Television - The Daily Beast
Kevin Fallon

A pause in global warming? Studies try to better explain what's happened - CS Monitor
Pete Spotts

We Can Code It! Why computer literacy is key to winning the 21st century - Mother Jones
Tasneem Raja

How America Finances the Destruction in Gaza -- and the Clean-Up - Mother Jones
David Corn

Jordan's Quiet Emergency - The Atlantic
Alice Su

I Hate Ayn Rand but here's Why My Fellow Conservatives Love Her - The Week
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Why Black People Must Stand with Palestine - Ebony
Kristian Davis Bailey

The Terrifying Madness of Waking Up in Gaza - Slate
Atef Abu Saif

Black Female Survival and the Myth of the White Gay Cultural Savior, or, Dear Anthony -- Stop It! - Huffington Post
Darnell L. Moore and Hashim Khalil Pipkin

"The more dead, the better:" Israel's Crumbling Media War - Salon
Deepa Kumar

Obama Goes There on "Acting White" - Washington Post
Jonathan Capehart

How LGBT Students Are Changing Christian Colleges - The Atlantic
Philip Francis and Mark Longhurst

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantazine - KickStarter
Fariha, Haley, Sara

Suburban sprawl and bad transit can crush opportunity for the poor - Vox
Danielle Kurtzleben

0 What We're Reading Today (7-21-14)

Austin's Black Population Leaving City, Report Says - NY Times
Corrie Maclaggan

West Philadelphia, Reborn and Razed - Politico
John Marchese

What We Learned from Liberals at Netroots Nation - Politico
Katie Glueck

White Gay Man Publishes Epically Stupid Response To "Stop Stealing Black Female Culture" - Autostraddle
Yvonne

NYC Can't Afford to Build the Second Avenue Subway, and It Can't Afford Not To - City Lab
Benjamin Kabak

Your summer reading list: Rashida Jones, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bill and Melinda Gates and many more share their book recommendations - TED
Katie Torgovnick May

Why the Voting Rights Act Still Matters: The Case of Jasper, Texas - The Atlantic
Norm Ornstein

The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker - The New Republic
Alec MacGillis

New Starts: New Orleans Transit Wish List, Loop Relief on the Cheap, Trams Return to Luxembourg - Next City
Sandy Smith

When You're Poor, Money Is Expensive - The Atlantic
Derek Thompson

MSNBC Contributor Slams Network For Pro-Israel Coverage: 'We Are Ridiculous!' - Talking Points Memo
Tom Kludt

Eric Garner and the Plague of Police Brutality Against Black Men - Vice
Wilbert L. Cooper

Kanye West on the Meaning of Life - The Atlantic
Spencer Kornhaber

Kanye West: A Brand-New Ye - GQ
Zach Baron

Black Palestinians shrug-off racism - Al-Monitor
Almaa Al-Ghoul

12 New Yorker education articles to read while the archives are free - Vox
Libby Nelson

The Middle East Friendship Chart - Slate
Joshua Keating and Chris Kirk

0 What We're Reading Today (7-17-14)

Jameelah has been harassing me everyday to give her articles to read. Jameelah, here is the dump. This should be like 20+ articles for  you and the rest of The Horde to consume. Happy reading and happier summers to everyone.

With Friends Like These... On the Military Occupation of Chicago - Prison Culture

What We Talk About When We Talk About Violence in Chicago - NPR
Gene Demby

Kafka's Joke Book - McSweeney's
John McNamee

Which Supreme Court Justices Vote Together Most and Least Often - NY Times
Jeremy Bowers, Adam Liptak, Derek Willis

The Democrats Are Finally Turning Away from Israel - Foreign Policy
Michael A. Cohen

Democracy, Freedom, and Apple Pie Aren't a Foreign Policy - Foreign Policy
Stephen M. Walt

Newspapers That Aren't Dying - The Atlantic
Devjyot Ghoshal

The Survivor: How Eric Holder outlasted his (many) critics - Politico
Glenn Thrush

Why Poor Schools Can't Win at Standardized Testing - The Atlantic
Meredith Broussard

Lionel Messi Is Impossible - FiveThirtyEight
Benjamin Morris

Behind Harry Reid's war against the Koch Brothers - Politico
Kenneth P. Vogel

The World Cup of Dirty Dreams: Inside Brazil's Most Infamous Brothel - Rolling Stone
Amos Barshad

Brazil's 'Quilombo' Movement May Be The World's Largest Slavery Reparations Program - Huffington Post
Roque Planas

Deadly Embrace - London Review of Books
Jacqueline Rose

Florida Deja Voodoo - Slate
Ron Klain

Talking Openly About Obama and Race - New Yorker
Jelani Cobb

Thanks to Urbanization, Tomorrow's Megalopolises Will Be in Africa and Asia - Foreign Policy
Reid Standish

Black Chicago Divided - In These Times
Salim Muwakkil

Blood in the Streets: A Conversation About Gun Violence in Chicago - Gawker
Jason Parham

Love in the Time of Racism - Ada New Media
Darnell Moore and Monica J. Casper

Always on the Side of the Egg - Haaretz
Haruki Murakami

Why One of the Biggest LGBT Orgs Has Stopped Supporting ENDA - Advocate
Rea Carey

Five Young Palestinians on What It's Like to Live and Die in Gaza - The Daily Beast
Dean Obeidallah

The Hip-Hop Fellow Outtakes: Young Guru on the Rise of Kanye West - NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Mark Anthony Neal

Appeals Court upholds affirmative action in Fisher v. Texas - Politico
Allie Grasgreen

Pirates, the Printing Press, and Global Democracy - Huffington Post
Don Kraus and Logan Cotton

UN to Confront United States on Persistent Racial Discrimination - ACLU
Chandra Bhatnagar

Twitterball - Tech Crunch
Matthew Panzarino

Visualizing a Day in the Life of a New York City Cab - FiveThirtyEight
Chadwick Matlin

Also, this World Cup video is here to give  you all the nostalgia.

0 Dear Black Gays: Don't Get Comfortable

            To Ms. Sierra Mannie, who’s ***flawless piece implicating gay white men in misogynoir:  I stand with your rhetoric, your diction, and your argument. You have, in the canon of Black women, carved out a space demanding your visibility and affirmation in the face of erasure. In the space you have carved out, some queer Black men have had questions. I have had questions and I hope to offer my interaction to your work. The conversation you created is needed and urgent and my desire is to stand with you in the ways that I can.

            I have previously written on the violences against women that only queer men canproduce. The assumed access to women’s bodies, the slut shaming, and the patriarchal dichotomy of “top” and “bottoms.” Queer, and specifically Gay, men have our own set of privileges that allow us systemic, cultural and interpersonal powers. For the women we interact with, our relationships are different and nuanced but we are still accountable as men to offer solidarity. As I’ve said before, and will reiterate here: homophobia is misogyny in a feathered boa. Women’s resistance and survival are central to ours. With this understanding, we cannot speak about identity in isolations; even intersections can fall short. The erasure of cultural appropriation can manifest itself in racist and sexist tropes, yet as queer Black men we have seen similar violences.

            From Scissor Sisters’ “Let’s Have a Kiki,” to the “original” appropriator Madonna’s “Vogue,” culturally gay experiences that code as Black/Latino have been stripped and reproduced through mainstream queer productions. These safer spaced colloquialisms are losing their resistance and power through Top 40 hits and pretty white girls. We have seen many aspects of Black Queer Male culture stolen from us. The violence is different. Many gay Black men are still trying to reconcile their sexual performances outside of white sexuality standards. And with that we have some of the access that white gay men have, especially if we perform as masculine.

            There is a difference, however, when Black men perform Black femininity. When not using garish mammie drag personas, many gay Black men have found a comfort and strength in modeling the Black femininity of which they have access. To cite Ms. Mannie’s argument, we have tasted the sour of racism and can find strength in the sweetness of Black womanhood. That is not to say we are not implicated in appropriations. When performing Black femininity at the request of white or non-Black spaces, we are continuing the violence. Without reconciling the privilege of masculinity, we are continuing the violence. Letting our white gay counterparts parade Black femininity only reproduces the problems of the original article. Giving them a pass, sets yourself in the line of fire of racist statements and interactions. 

            In the ways queer men of all races should be invested in women’s equity, Black men (queer and otherwise), need to be invested in Black women’s. Not simply because they are our sisters, and friends, and aunties, and mommas but because our survivals are inextricably linked. I personally owe a wealth of my well-being and self-awareness the words, conversation, and gifts from Black women and we as Black men need to be ready to stand with them and complicate our violence against them. While Ms. Mannie may have not been speaking to Black Gays directly, we have our own implications in appropriation and need to do some work.