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Lauren Michele Jackson

  1. fall preview
    19 Books We’re Excited to Read This FallElena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults, Emma Cline’s Daddy, and Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind, and more.
  2. book review
    Caste Offers a New Word for Injustice in America, Not a New Way of ThinkingIn Isabel Wilkerson’s book, caste replaces racism as the most accurate term to describe the inequities of American society.
  3. close reads
    When Black People Appear on SeinfeldThe things you notice when you rewatch, rather than cancel, old sitcoms.
  4. close reads
    What Is an Anti-Racist Reading List For?It is unclear whether each book supplies a portion of the holistic racial puzzle or are intended as revelatory islands in and of themselves.
  5. close reads
    Blackness Is Mythical in Netflix’s BlackAFWhat BlackAF demonstrates above all, in spite of itself, is that there may be nothing internally consistent about blackness in our current era.
  6. the discourse
    When ‘Representation Matters’ Becomes a Meaningless Rallying CryMore than any recent controversy, Penguin’s failed Diverse Editions initiative bluntly exposed how empty the idea has become.
  7. what were the 2010s?
    What Should a Slavery Epic Do?If there’s anything the 2010s taught us, it’s that there is no getting these stories right, no honoring with grace the dead and ghosts.
  8. metacamp
    The Racial Wonderland of Aladdin’s GenieAnxieties about the Disney cast arose immediately after the live-action movie was announced. Interestingly, none of the concern extended to Genie.
  9. deep dives
    To Whom Does Ariana Grande’s ‘7 Rings’ Owe Its Sound?If the question is whether or not “7 Rings” owes its existence to appropriation, then the answer is yes.
  10. close reads
    The Alluring Melancholy of Ambrose Spellman on Chilling AdventuresIn praise of the Netflix show’s mysterious brooding warlock.
  11. close reads
    The Haunting of Hill House and the Madness of FamilyHorror is about the ghouls we know and what goes bump in the night, and especially the place where those two become one.
  12. deep dives
    A Deep Dive Into Ariana Grande’s ‘Breathin’’ VideoThere’s a lot you can learn from a breath.
  13. close reads
    Who Really Owns the ‘Blaccent’?While Awkwafina successfully imitates something in Crazy Rich Asians, it’s not black language.
  14. select all
    My Smart TV Made Entertainment a ChoreOur smart TV seemed to amplify a sense of urgency. The simple, daily question, “What should we watch?” suddenly had stakes.
  15. How Did SpongeBob SquarePants Become the Most Meme-able TV Show?The past year has gifted the internet with no less than five viral SpongeBob memes
  16. select all
    Squidward, SpongeBob, and the Complex Emotions of FOMOGoing out is out, and staying in is, well, in.
  17. National Geographic Replaces Racist Fictions With Post-racial FantasiesNatGeo wants to start a conversation on race, but its opening statement seems more like an end than a beginning.
  18. Black Music Is Still an Essential Part of Justin Timberlake’s Man of the WoodsThe work of the artist is to craft a spectacle and so far he’s succeeded by undercutting his own announcement with a sound that feels very usual.
  19. How Today’s Most Daring, Weird Cartoons Transform the Minstrel AestheticUnlike their minstrel predecessors, these cartoons celebrate oddities rather than ridicule them.