Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
On September 11, 2001, a week and a half after school started, I learned I was as far from home as I could be and still be within the United States. On September 12, I watched my Pakistani neighbors plaster their Corollas with I LOVE THE U.S.A. bumper stickers and dress their newborn in a red, white, and blue outfit I’d seen at Marshalls. I didn’t
... See moreKiese Laymon • Heavy: An American Memoir
The Generic City,”
Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
of racial inequities.
Ibram X. Kendi • How to Be an Antiracist
The rest of the time, I hung in purgatory, playing talent shows and showcases here and there, living like a normal teenager in Philadelphia. Or maybe I should say living like a normal black teenager, which meant that aimlessness was accompanied by a certain unique set of risks. One night, I was out driving with a few friends of mine when the police
... See moreAhmir "Questlove" Thompson • Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove
The Birth of a Nation became the country’s most popular film. The Klan, which by 1915 had become defunct, was relaunched. Its recruiters used the film to draw in millions of members. Five months later, Wilson virtually reenacted the plot of The Birth of a Nation by sending the marines to the black republic of Haiti to wrest control from the “unstab
... See moreDaniel Immerwahr • How to Hide an Empire
The failure of the protest novel lies in its rejection of life, the human being, the denial of his beauty, dread, power, in its insistence that it is his categorization alone which is real and which cannot be transcended.
James Baldwin • Notes of a Native Son
were best suited to play, given their talents, interests, and personal responsibilities.For most of our history, the ideal of "community" drove the black model for leadership and group participation. Blacks were enslaved as a community, we were disenfranchised as a community, we had been terrorized as a community. We responded to all thes
... See moreVernon Jordan Jr • Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir
The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs.