Reading List #20: Double Feature (Patreon)

Here's 18 articles that will make you think, laugh, or cringe in despair. There's even one recipe for a cake that I absolutely need to try. 

1) Deana Lawson's Kingdom of Restored Glory (Zadie Smith)

5/7/2018 Reading Length: Long

Someone tweeted that her work reminded them of Beyonce's latest video (and wondered if that's where Bey got the inspiration from), and offered this article. 

2) Why 100,000,000 Americans Read Comics (William Moulton Marston)

Winter 1943 Read Length: Medium

A primary source on the mid-twentieth century craze of comic books.

3) Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (Olga Khazan)

July/August 2018 Read Length: Long

Was this ever truly in doubt by anyone with a brain?

4) How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story (Donna Minkowitz)

June 20 2018 Read Length: Long

At the time, I was extremely ignorant about trans people. Like many other cis queer people at the time, I didn’t know that there were gay trans men, trans lesbians, bisexual trans folks, that being trans had nothing to do with whether you were straight or gay, and that trans activism was not, as some of us feared, an effort to stave off queerness and lead “easier,” more conventional heterosexual lives.

5) How "Desus and Mero" Conquered Late Night (Jazmine Hughes)

June 18 2018 Read Length: Long

“The Kardashians,” Martinez said, “got the reverse Erykah Badu effect: You become unwoke once you [expletive] a Kardashian.” (“Their vaginas are the actual sunken place,” Baker ruled.) Baker began impersonating slaves refusing to pick cotton, disputing work conditions: “I was told I was supposed to be in the house, and I’m in the field, so is there an H.R. rep?” Mero reached to the floor, pretending to pick up an object: “Let me get this paper bag.” He held it up to Baker’s face. “No, you’re in the field.” What they were able to do that night, better than anybody else on the air, was capture how black people really felt about West’s comments. 

6) The End of Civil Rights (Vann R. Newkirk)

June 18, 2018 Read Length: Long

How exactly is Jeff Sessions dismantling the civil rights of minorities? 

7)  The Real Story of South Florida Rapper XXXTentacion (Tarpley Hitt)

June 5, 2018 Read Length: Long

If you haven't read this, then you may be one of the people crying about this man's death on twitter like it was completely out of nowhere. 

8) From Atomic Shelters to Arms Control: Libraries, Civil Defense, and American Militarism during the Cold War (Brett Spencer)

2014 Read Length: Long

Who knew libraries were so badass during the mid-twentieth century? 

9) A Journey Into the Righteous, Risk-Averse World of Faith-Based Films (Joanna Rothkopf) 

June 4th 2018 Read Length: Medium

In case you needed to be anymore concerned about what religious fanatics are teaching their children, read this. 

10) How Antebellum Christians Justified Slavery (Matthew Wills)

June 27, 2018 Read Length: Short

11) The Truck Stop Killer (Vanessa Veselka) 

October 24, 2012 Read Length: Long

One woman's harrowing research to connect a serial killer to a man who once attacked her when she was a teenage hitchhiker. One of those terrifying stories that made me wonder if I have ever came into contact with a serial killer. 

12) The ‘Sex Cult’ That Preached Empowerment (Vanessa Grigoriadis)

May 30, 2018 Read Length: Long

Raniere presented himself as a great philosopher, an ethical man and a scientist pushing the bounds of human capability...He also seemed to have a unique, pulsating idea that resonated with women, particularly wealthy ones. This was an intersection of theories about femininity, victimhood, money and ethics, much of it influenced by Ayn Rand, one of Raniere’s favorite authors.

13) When Salad Was Manly AF  (Manisha Claire)

June 6th, 2018 Read Length: Short

“American women go berserk when it comes to salads,” the 1949 Esquire Handbook for Hosts proclaims. “They try so hard to be unique that in their zeal they really confuse things.” This approach was typical of cooking literature for men during this time; women’s cooking was denigrated as outdated and overwrought, while men’s cooking (even if men couldn’t cook) was celebrated at every turn. “Overall, the emphasis on male competence assured men that kitchen duties were simple tasks, not ‘real’ work at all, privileging the world of the workplace outside the home and trivializing the domestic realm of the kitchen,” the author Sherrie Inness writes in Dinner Roles, her examination of gendered cookbooks.

14) How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People (Jessica Pressler)

May 28, 2018 Read Length: Long

This article debuted while I was taking a break from social media but I read it and watched in horror as people cheered on this scammer and her gullible black token, Neff. Did we read the same article?

15) Suicides Have Increased. Is This an Existential Crisis? (Clay Routledge)

June 23, 2018 Read Length: Short

As for religion, which has long provided the institutional and social scaffolding for a life of meaning, it, too, is in steep decline. Americans these days, especially young adults, are less likely to identify with a religious faith, attend church or engage in other religious practices. But as my research has shown, the sense of meaningfulness provided by religion is not so easily replicated in nonreligious settings: When Americans abandon traditional houses of worship, they increasingly search for alternative religious-like experiences (including those involving ideas about ghosts or space aliens) in order to feel as if they are part of something larger and more meaningful than their brief mortal lives.

16) Walking While Black (Topher Sanders and Kate Rabinowitz, ProPublica, and Benjamin Conarck, Florida Times-Union)

November 16, 2017 Read Length: Long

In the haze of all of these stories about what black people can't do without having the cops called on them, here's an article about how black people (namely black men) are subjected to discriminatory practices for WALKING (ahem, Trayvon Martin) by cops. One thing the article tackles is how inconvenient public transportation impacts this, a key problem in other American cities. 

17) Minority Neighborhoods Pay Higher Car Insurance Premiums Than White Areas With the Same Risk (Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Lauren Kirchner and Surya Mattu, ProPublica)

April 15, 2017 Read Length: Long

To go along with the above article where bad public transportation plays a role in black peoples likelihood to walk places, read about how car insurance is higher for negroes in a lot of areas. 

18) Coffee-Chocolate Layer Cake with Mocha-Mascarpone Frosting 

I WANT THIS CAKE SO BADLY. Soon, I will make it.