Race Inquiry Digest ( March 31) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Not enough time, too many news sources. The following are compelling stories on race that have been selected to inform our readers.

FeaturedWhite America’s death crisis: The pain is real, but our perception is warped by the “white racial frame.” Deaths of despair soar among whites and it’s a national crisis yet there’s silence when black and brown folks die. Read more here

“Invest in education instead of incarceration. I was 16 years old when I first went into solitary confinement in New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison. I was held in that isolated cell, which was no larger than a small New York City apartment bathroom, for 60 days after getting into a fight with another inmate.”  Read more here

When veterans become cops, some bring war home. The debate over the militarization of America’s police has focused on the accumulation of war-grade vehicles and artillery and the spread of paramilitary SWAT teams. What has gone largely unstudied, however, is the impact of military veterans migrating into law enforcement. Read more here

White Flight Followed Factory Jobs out of Gary, Indiana—Black People Didn’t Have a Choice. Residents who know the ugliness of racial politics all too well blame automation, not immigrants, for the despair that Trump promised to fix. Read more here

Dave Chappelle Reckons With Himself. The comedian’s two Netflix specials are loaded with brilliant storytelling, but suffer when they lose hold of his unique point of view. Read more here

Civil Rights Icon, Historian Roger Wilkins Dead at 85. The passion for justice and equal rights seemingly ran in the family, as Wilkins’ uncle, Roy Wilkins, led the NAACP from 1955 until 1977. He was also mentored by Thurgood Marshall, the celebrated civil rights attorney who became the first African-American associate justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Read more here

New report details costs of segregation in Chicago. Fifty years after passage of laws meant to break down barriers to racial integration, segregation in the American city persists. Read more here

“I’m an American, first and foremost.” The first time it happened, Tanya Russ was at Walmart. She was talking to a friend in Spanish when a man approached her and began calling her racist names. The second time Ms. Russ experienced racist harassment after the election of President Trump, it came in the form of a note left on her car while it was parked outside her home in Phoenix. Read more here

The Movie ‘Get Out’ Is a Strong Antidote to the Myth of ‘Postracial’ America. The touchstone scene in the new horror film “Get Out” depicts a 20-something white woman named Rose appraising the sculpted torsos of black athletes on a laptop as she sits in her bedroom.  Read more here

Watch – New Netflix Film Shows A ‘Real Representation’ Of America’s Housing projects. Starring John Boyega, Rotimi, Glenn Plummer, and Keke Palmer, the Netflix original film chronicles a reformed gang member’s journey to care for his son and pursue his dreams of becoming a writer after serving a prison sentence. Upon his return to his old neighborhood of South Central, Los Angeles, the young father’s hopes are threatened by the neighborhood’s history of crime and poverty. Read more here

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