*Mega** Reading List #40 (Patreon)

I haven't done a reading list in a while, so here's a  list of non-fiction articles you may find interesting. The non-fiction articles reflect recent research for The 80s, as well as where my head is at for upcoming content. Keep an eye out for a new short-form youtube series on things I read/will be reading. Enjoy!

1. Built to keep Black from white: The story behind Detroit’s 'Wailing Wall' 

2. About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It 

3. If Everything Is ‘Trauma,’ Is Anything? (Jessica Bennett)

4. Evidence of Evil (Timothy W. Ryback) 1993

This is a very difficult yet fascinating read that explores Holocaust denial, the room of hair at Auschwitz, and the preservation of history. 

 "Since then, the human hair has continued to bear witness: on the second floor of Block IV, a former Auschwitz barrack, it lies in heaps inside a row of large display cases. In the dim light, individual braids, tight knots, and occasional elegant waves can be distinguished in the dull, tangled mass. A faint scent of naphthalene—the chemical used in mothballs—permeates the still air. As visitors file into the room and stand before the windows, some shake their heads, some look away, some are moved to mutterings of disbelief. Most stand for a moment or two in silence, then turn and leave the room."

Read Length: Long

5. Black Deaf Culture Through the Lens of History 

This is a cool article on black deaf culture-- which I have very little knowledge and insight on. I originally wanted to learn more about this topic after seeing the mention of black ASL on twitter! 

Read Length: Medium 

6. My Husband Of 45 Years Died. Here's What I've Discovered About Sex And New Love At 72.  

If you're in a sexual drought and feeling hopeless, read this. 

Read Length: Short

7. The Untold Story of Sushi in America 

Food history for fellow sushi-lovers, with a bonus: a cult story with shady dealings! 

Read Length: Long

8. No Way Out but War (Chris Hedges)

This is a brutal and swift article pointing out the economic advantage of neoliberals and conservatives facilitating and waging war. 

The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

This article gave me a lot of food for thought while also making me feel hopeless.

The liberal class has retreated into boutique activism where issues of class, capitalism and militarism are jettisoned for “cancel culture,” multiculturalism and identity politics..

This sentence fascinated me because a lot of internet people who consider themselves leftists fall into this category. The left, at least the one on the internet, has a priority problem, according to this author, but white leftists usually have a low tolerance for multi-culturalism and identity politics when reducing our problems down to economics. Is the answer to de-prioritize the fragile, recently-won rights of the marginalized in favor of class-first praxis? Who becomes disinterested when this becomes the conversation? This made me think of ideas I hope to explore in upcoming content-- like will the left continue cannibalizing itself? 

Read Length: Short

9. Your App Knows You Got Your Period. Guess Who It Told? 

Taking the leftist cannibalization question in mind along with the continued war to end safe and legal abortion access, how will technology play a role in the subjugation of women and people with uteruses? Turns out, t misogyny will continue to be a plague.

10. In Search of Monster (Mark Horowitz)

Monster: The Autobiography of Cody Scott was one of the first autobiographies I ever read in my youth, and it's brutality shocked me. This article addresses things left out of the book and what happened to Sanyika Shakur after the book became a bestseller.

11. How To Make Sense of The New MLK Documents 

12. Dark Times At Glen Ridge High + Everybody Knows 

One of the upcoming topics in episode 4 of Lexual Does The 80s is rape culture and it's influence on the youth-- particularly privileged white boys. I pulled these two articles out from the extensive source list because they were particularly riveting and thought-provoking. The first was written in 1989, the year that 7 members of a New Jersey football team sexually assaulted an intellectually disabled classmate. While both articles are good reading, you'll want to watch episode 4 to get more info on Charles Figoera, the black teen who helped bring the scandal to light.

Read Lengths: Both Long

Extra Reading: Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and The Secret Life of The Perfect Suburb  (Bernard Lefkowitz)

This explosive and long 1997 book is the kind of tome that combines contemporary current events, biography, oral history, and true crime. There's a whole horrifying chapter in which a bunch of rowdy rich white teens destroys a classmate's house over the course of one weekend-long house party. You'll shake with rage.

13. The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power (Richard Behar)

As I've been outlining Lexual Does The 1990s, I've been curating contemporary articles from the period that give me ideas. This 1991 expose on Scientology is a juicy read! It was such hot news at the time that the scientology cult went on a huge PR campaign to fix their reputation including a 48-page booklet in 1.8 million copies of USA Today. The expose has since remained influential and is well cited. 

Read Length: Long

14. The Endless Robbing of Native American Graves (Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson)

15. Notable Sandwiches #22: Broodje Kroket (Talia Lavin)

The title may appear to just be about sandwiches, but it's deeper than that. This is one of a series of articles about sandwiches, history, politics, and injustice. In this one, the colonialist background of a dutch croquette sandwich is explored. I love food and I love history, so I love this series. I wonder if Talia will turn it into a book...

The history of the broodje kroket is intertwined with the brutal history of its homeland. Most of the sandwich’s ingredients are bog-standard European, from the chopped beef to the béchamel to the spicy mustard. Today, the kroket can be filled with almost anything (stir-fried noodles, mashed potato, liver and rice, goulash.) But in the recipe I found, the glaring exception to the European-centric ingredients was the teaspoon or so of kecap manis, sweet soy sauce—the most popular condiment in Indonesia. Kecap manis is popular in the Netherlands because the Dutch East India Company conquered what is now Indonesia four centuries ago, and its parent nation held on to the so-called “Spice Islands” for more than three hundred years.