Reading List #5 (Patreon)

1) How Movie Theaters, TV Networks, and Classrooms Are Changing the Way They Show Gone With the Wind (Aisha Harris) 10/29/17

It's insane how I was LITERALLY just discussing with some friends how common it is to hear a white person list Gone With The Wind among their favorite movies. I personally never saw it until taking a course on romanticization of the Civil War in college. In this seriously detailed essay, Ms. Harris explores how Gone With The Wind has gone from a staple to somewhat of a [taboo] guilty pleasure. 

Reading Length: Long

2) Herbs and Verbs: How To Do Witchcraft For Real (Hillary Waterman) 10/25/17

If you like linguistic and/or magic history, you'll love this. I especially liked the bit about the word abracadabra. 

Reading Length: Medium

3) Surviving R. Kelly (Jason Newman) 10/23/17

There are receipts (not that most of us needed any more). Buckle in for this one. 

Reading Length: Long

4) A new Gilded Age? Wealth is more concentrated than ever before (Charlie May) 10/27/17 

Apparently the super wealthy are shaking in their boots. 

Reading Length: Short

5) The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins 4/11/15 (Mary Pilon)

When I was done reading #4 I stumbled across this gem in the comments. I learned about the history behind one of my favorite board games as a child. (Though to be honest I played alone a lot because I was an only child lol)

Reading Length: Long

6) Strippers, surveillance and assassination plots: The wildest JFK Files 10/2/17 (Michael E. Miller)

If you want a post on all the juiciest bits, this is the one for you.

Reading Length: Medium

7) A Night At The Garden is The Most Terrifying Movie You Can Watch This Halloween (Jon Schwartz) 10/29/17 

While it isn't the scariest movie I've ever seen (doesn't even crack the top 10), the article beneath the film is very enlightening for those who want to know about the German American Bund, a Nazi association founded to promote a romanticized view of the Nazis. 

Reading Length: Long

8) Why Can’t Christians Get Along, 500 Years After the Reformation? (Emma Green) 10/29/17

Everybody thinks their version of Christianity is right. Let's start there. 

Reading Length: Medium

9) Tudor, English and black – and not a slave in sight (Bidisha) 10/29/17

There is a new book coming out about black people in 16th century England. British history has always held fascination for me because of it's connection to America (my concentration). This article gives a pretty good preview if you're interested in expanding your horizons to international black history (you should be).

Reading Length: Medium

10) The quiet crisis among African Americans: Pregnancy and childbirth are killing women at inexplicable rates 

A sad article that did little to ease my fear about childbirth and fertility, but a necessary one. How do we get more people to truly become pro-life in this country? How do we get more in our own community to see this problem?

Reading Length: Long

Book Im Reading: 

A lot of the the things we learned in grade school about indigenous people was wrong. This book is looking at their history using a scientific and investigative lens. My favorite chapter thus far is Frequently Asked Questions. I grabbed this book at the thrift store and have been reading it slowly for the past few months.