vox--2020-05-08--Jenny Odell on nature, art, and burnout in quarantine

One of my favorite episodes of The Ezra Klein Show was my conversation with Jenny Odell , just under a year ago .
Odell , a visual artist , writer , and Stanford lecturer , had just released her book How to Do Nothing : Resisting the Attention Economy , and we had a fascinating conversation about the importance of maintenance work , the problem with ceaseless productivity , the forces vying for our attention , the comforts of nature , and so much more .
A lot has changed since then .
Odell ’ s book became a sensation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made it onto Barack Obama ’ s favorite books of 2019 list , and became , for many , a touchstone .
And then , a global pandemic hit , radically altering the world in ways that made the core themes of Odell ’ s work more prescient and more difficult .
What happens when , instead of choosing to “ do nothing , ” doing nothing is forced upon you ?
What happens when all you have access to is nature ?
What happens when the work of maintenance becomes not just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked Odell back for a very different conversation in a very different time .
This isn ’ t a conversation , really , about fixing the world right now .
It ’ s about living in it and what that feels like .
It ’ s about the role of art in this moment , why we undervalue the most important work in our society , how to have collective sympathy in a moment of fractured suffering , where to find beauty right now , the tensions of productivity , the melting of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and much more .
A lightly edited excerpt from our conversation follows .
The full conversation can be heard on The Ezra Klein Show .
In our previous podcast , we talked about the work of another artist in residence at the New York Department of Sanitation whose project was to try and put focus on the art of maintenance : the work of simply keeping people alive that we so often overlook .
There ’ s this way in which this crisis has forced our attention to go to what is really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is care work and maintenance work .
I ’ m glad you mentioned that .
The artist ’ s name is Mierle Laderman Ukeles , and in this specific piece of hers she shook hands with hundreds of sanitation workers and told each one of them , “ thank you for keeping New York City alive.
” That hits differently right now , when people are suddenly very aware of the mailman and the people picking up your trash .
I shop at a grocery co-op that seems to be doing fairly well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employees have been very chipper in a way that really surprises me .
When I commented on that to my boyfriend , he was like , “ you know , it might just be because people are treating them with respect for the first time.
” I have been thinking about that redirecting of attention .
Our grocery store has the usual spaced-out lines with markings on the ground , and as you stand in line you just find yourself standing near this weird part of the building that you would never stand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this time to contemplate this wall .
That seemed like a visual metaphor for everything else .
The thing has always been here ; now you ’ re like standing in a very weird relation to it and you ’ re looking at it , and you have lots of time to look at it .
Obviously , this is all in the context of something really horrific .
But it does align with some of the stuff that I talk about in the book in terms of redirecting your attention from something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the lines of the book that feels resonant right now is this one : “ Much socially necessary work is ignored or devalued as caregiving , a gendered afterthought to the real dynamics of the economy when in reality no shared life could do without it.
” And it is striking that when we had to sit down and classify essential workers , it was caregiving .
It wasn ’ t the heads of high-frequency trading firms .
Now we have all these essential workers and we call them heroes , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them like shit .
They ’ re often not being given proper protective gear .
So we ’ re praising these people as essential and treating them as disposable .
There ’ s just such an unbelievable disconnect between our revealed reality here and our economic system .
We are so far from the end of this that it ’ s almost weird to have this part of the conversation , but I don ’ t want to see this go by without us learning any lessons about the secondary things that were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t ready for a pandemic , but what was really here all along .
I feel like we ’ ve been seeing things that you just can ’ t unsee .
When I go for walks , I naturally walk up the hill and end up in a neighborhood where there are houses that have their own tennis courts .
And I just remember the first week that I was walking around , it was so eerie to see no one out except for UPS trucks and Amazon delivery .
You can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a metaphor .
Just think about how many inputs go into this house to maintain that level of existence : landscaping , child care , delivery , you name it .
Now I feel hyperaware of that layer supporting this other layer , which I normally take for granted .
It just feels gross to see that day after day .
There were already so many different levels of privilege , but now if you were above a certain level , you ’ re fine .
And if you were below it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cliff .
If there ’ s anything that I think is worth spending time doing right now , if you have time , it ’ s just thinking about that .
Is there art you ’ re thinking about in particular right now or that you ’ re finding something in particularly right now ?
I actually just interviewed Miranda July very recently .
So I ’ ve been thinking a lot about her work .
She has a project called “ Learning to Love You More ” from the early 2000s where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like small art assignments that were just given to the public and then they would submit their documentation .
It ’ d be like “ repair something.
” And then you ’ d get all these photos back from people of chairs that had been repaired or things like that .
And a lot of the assignments are kind in that spirit .
It ’ s like , look around you and see what you have and do something weird with it that you ’ ve never done before .
And then feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who have done the same thing .
Something that Miranda July said in an interview was that this moment is like the ultimate creative prompt .
And there ’ s been this whole interesting conversation — which my colleague Constance Grady wrote a great piece on — about the tension between feeling that we ’ re trapped inside so we should be unbelievably creative and finding this to be the ultimate nervous , anxious distraction .
I wonder where you ’ re falling on that spectrum and to what degree you think that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It doesn ’ t feel like a choice to me .
I think it ’ s hard for me to answer that because my sort of “ mode ” of creativity is so different from the traditional way of thinking about creativity .
I have always had this view that there ’ s like dark matter of creativity , and I don ’ t presume to know when I ’ m being creative and when I ’ m not .
I always think about the bureau of suspended objects , which is still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever made and really set the stage for the book .
There was a year before that that was just doldrums .
I didn ’ t make anything .
I remember being really frustrated and confused .
I didn ’ t really have a direction .
In retrospect , it ’ s so clear to me that that ’ s actually when everything was happening .
By the time I got to the dump , that was the fruition of something that had been happening for a really long time .
And now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entries , and there are things in my journals that are almost verbatim sentences that ended up in the book that I just didn ’ t realize I had written .
I think because that ’ s my model of making things — where the part that doesn ’ t look like making is maybe even more important than the part that reads as making — I ’ m not feeling too anxious to make anything right now .
It ’ s not an either-or for me between that and being creative .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

One of my favorite episodes of The Ezra Klein Show was my conversation with Jenny Odell, just under a year ago. Odell, a visual artist, writer, and Stanford lecturer, had just released her book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, and we had a fascinating conversation about the importance of maintenance work, the problem with ceaseless productivity, the forces vying for our attention, the comforts of nature, and so much more.
A lot has changed since then. Odell’s book became a sensation: It captured a cultural moment, made it onto Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2019 list, and became, for many, a touchstone. And then, a global pandemic hit, radically altering the world in ways that made the core themes of Odell’s work more prescient and more difficult. What happens when, instead of choosing to “do nothing,” doing nothing is forced upon you? What happens when all you have access to is nature? What happens when the work of maintenance becomes not just essential but also dangerous?
So I asked Odell back for a very different conversation in a very different time. This isn’t a conversation, really, about fixing the world right now. It’s about living in it and what that feels like. It’s about the role of art in this moment, why we undervalue the most important work in our society, how to have collective sympathy in a moment of fractured suffering, where to find beauty right now, the tensions of productivity, the melting of time, our reckoning with interdependence, and much more.
A lightly edited excerpt from our conversation follows. The full conversation can be heard on The Ezra Klein Show.
Ezra Klein
In our previous podcast, we talked about the work of another artist in residence at the New York Department of Sanitation whose project was to try and put focus on the art of maintenance: the work of simply keeping people alive that we so often overlook.
There’s this way in which this crisis has forced our attention to go to what is really essential, and a lot of it is care work and maintenance work.
Jenny Odell
I’m glad you mentioned that. The artist’s name is Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and in this specific piece of hers she shook hands with hundreds of sanitation workers and told each one of them, “thank you for keeping New York City alive.” That hits differently right now, when people are suddenly very aware of the mailman and the people picking up your trash.
I shop at a grocery co-op that seems to be doing fairly well right now. And some of the employees have been very chipper in a way that really surprises me. When I commented on that to my boyfriend, he was like, “you know, it might just be because people are treating them with respect for the first time.”
I have been thinking about that redirecting of attention. Our grocery store has the usual spaced-out lines with markings on the ground, and as you stand in line you just find yourself standing near this weird part of the building that you would never stand near. So now you have all this time to contemplate this wall. That seemed like a visual metaphor for everything else. The thing has always been here; now you’re like standing in a very weird relation to it and you’re looking at it, and you have lots of time to look at it.
Obviously, this is all in the context of something really horrific. But it does align with some of the stuff that I talk about in the book in terms of redirecting your attention from something that was habitual before this.
Ezra Klein
One of the lines of the book that feels resonant right now is this one: “Much socially necessary work is ignored or devalued as caregiving, a gendered afterthought to the real dynamics of the economy when in reality no shared life could do without it.”
And it is striking that when we had to sit down and classify essential workers, it was caregiving. It wasn’t the heads of high-frequency trading firms. Now we have all these essential workers and we call them heroes, but, in most cases, we pay them like shit. They’re often not being given proper protective gear. So we’re praising these people as essential and treating them as disposable. There’s just such an unbelievable disconnect between our revealed reality here and our economic system.
We are so far from the end of this that it’s almost weird to have this part of the conversation, but I don’t want to see this go by without us learning any lessons about the secondary things that were revealed. Not just that we weren’t ready for a pandemic, but what was really here all along.
Jenny Odell
I feel like we’ve been seeing things that you just can’t unsee. When I go for walks, I naturally walk up the hill and end up in a neighborhood where there are houses that have their own tennis courts. And I just remember the first week that I was walking around, it was so eerie to see no one out except for UPS trucks and Amazon delivery.
You can almost think about one of these houses as a metaphor. Just think about how many inputs go into this house to maintain that level of existence: landscaping, child care, delivery, you name it. Now I feel hyperaware of that layer supporting this other layer, which I normally take for granted.
It just feels gross to see that day after day. There were already so many different levels of privilege, but now if you were above a certain level, you’re fine. And if you were below it, you’re falling off the cliff. If there’s anything that I think is worth spending time doing right now, if you have time, it’s just thinking about that.
Ezra Klein
Is there art you’re thinking about in particular right now or that you’re finding something in particularly right now?
Jenny Odell
I actually just interviewed Miranda July very recently. So I’ve been thinking a lot about her work. She has a project called “Learning to Love You More” from the early 2000s where it had prompts for these kind of like small art assignments that were just given to the public and then they would submit their documentation. It’d be like “repair something.” And then you’d get all these photos back from people of chairs that had been repaired or things like that. And a lot of the assignments are kind in that spirit. It’s like, look around you and see what you have and do something weird with it that you’ve never done before. And then feel connected to all of these other people who have done the same thing.
Ezra Klein
Something that Miranda July said in an interview was that this moment is like the ultimate creative prompt. And there’s been this whole interesting conversation — which my colleague Constance Grady wrote a great piece on — about the tension between feeling that we’re trapped inside so we should be unbelievably creative and finding this to be the ultimate nervous, anxious distraction. I wonder where you’re falling on that spectrum and to what degree you think that is even a choice we have?
Jenny Odell
It doesn’t feel like a choice to me. I think it’s hard for me to answer that because my sort of “mode” of creativity is so different from the traditional way of thinking about creativity. I have always had this view that there’s like dark matter of creativity, and I don’t presume to know when I’m being creative and when I’m not.
I always think about the bureau of suspended objects, which is still my favorite project that I’ve ever made and really set the stage for the book. There was a year before that that was just doldrums. I didn’t make anything. I remember being really frustrated and confused. I didn’t really have a direction. In retrospect, it’s so clear to me that that’s actually when everything was happening. By the time I got to the dump, that was the fruition of something that had been happening for a really long time. And now I go back and I read those entries, and there are things in my journals that are almost verbatim sentences that ended up in the book that I just didn’t realize I had written.
I think because that’s my model of making things — where the part that doesn’t look like making is maybe even more important than the part that reads as making — I’m not feeling too anxious to make anything right now. It’s not an either-or for me between that and being creative.


vox--2020-05-08--Bill Barr’s revealing defense of the Flynn decision

When the Justice Department announced it would drop charges against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn , legal experts reacted with a combination of shock and horror .
Flynn not only lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government , which is a crime , but admitted that he had lied in open court .
At best , dropping his case is highly unusual ; at worst , it ’ s President Trump corruptly protecting a political ally who broke the law on his behalf .
After the decision was announced , CBS News released an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Flynn case .
The clearly incredulous reporter , Catherine Herridge , asks Barr how he thinks history will remember his actions in this case .
“ Well , history is written by the winners , ” the attorney general responds .
” So it largely depends on who ’ s writing the history.
” It ’ s a remarkable answer — perhaps the pithiest expression of the Trump-Barr governing philosophy that we ’ ve seen yet .
Throughout his term in office , Barr has acted more as Trump ’ s personal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ top law enforcement official — repeatedly deceiving the public about the Mueller report ’ s findings , interfering in the sentencing of Trump ally Roger Stone , and helping Trump ’ s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani funnel bogus intel on Biden and Ukraine to the president .
He and Trump seem to believe that governing is an exercise in power , where the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must .
This attitude is anathema to democratic politics .
In democracies , the justice system is supposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforcer of the rules of the game , referees that ensure all political players abide by democratic practices .
Under Barr and Trump , the Justice Department is being used as an extension of the White House ’ s interests — a tool that allows their allies to break the laws the Justice Department is , in theory , supposed to enforce .
The force of Herridge ’ s question is the idea that , down the road , future Americans who believe in basic ideas about democracy and the rule of law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unacceptable and will judge him harshly .
Barr ’ s response suggests he just doesn ’ t care : As long as his side wins the struggle for political power today , his allies will be in a position to tell people who was in the right .
The very act of winning power makes its exercise legitimate .
The scariest thing about Barr ’ s response is that he actually has a point .
Liberals and other critics of Trump ’ s more authoritarian tendencies like to imagine that history will automatically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I imagine many Union partisans thought much the same after the Civil War , yet the successful insurgency against Reconstruction — and rise of neo-Confederate apartheid regimes in Southern states — constituted a more insidious kind of Confederate victory .
The now-notorious Dunning School of historians convinced millions of Americans that the racist Southerners were the real victims during Reconstruction .
Monuments to the Confederacy cropped up across the South .
Even today , mainstream politicians and media figures defend flying the rebel flag as a matter of “ heritage , not hate.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ morally righteous .
Through political struggle , the people who seem like clear villains — even racist authoritarians — can end up wielding enough power to change the way they ’ re remembered in the eyes of many .
Trump and Barr are counting on Trump apologists in the Republican Party having enough power to do the same for many years to come .
The key question , perhaps in all of American politics , is whether they ’ re making a wise bet .
Every day at Vox , we aim to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

When the Justice Department announced it would drop charges against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, legal experts reacted with a combination of shock and horror.
Flynn not only lied to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government, which is a crime, but admitted that he had lied in open court. At best, dropping his case is highly unusual; at worst, it’s President Trump corruptly protecting a political ally who broke the law on his behalf.
After the decision was announced, CBS News released an interview with Attorney General William Barr on the Flynn case. The clearly incredulous reporter, Catherine Herridge, asks Barr how he thinks history will remember his actions in this case.
“Well, history is written by the winners,” the attorney general responds. ”So it largely depends on who’s writing the history.”
It’s a remarkable answer — perhaps the pithiest expression of the Trump-Barr governing philosophy that we’ve seen yet.
Throughout his term in office, Barr has acted more as Trump’s personal attorney than as the nation’s top law enforcement official — repeatedly deceiving the public about the Mueller report’s findings, interfering in the sentencing of Trump ally Roger Stone, and helping Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani funnel bogus intel on Biden and Ukraine to the president. He and Trump seem to believe that governing is an exercise in power, where the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
This attitude is anathema to democratic politics. In democracies, the justice system is supposed to be neutral in political disputes: an enforcer of the rules of the game, referees that ensure all political players abide by democratic practices. Under Barr and Trump, the Justice Department is being used as an extension of the White House’s interests — a tool that allows their allies to break the laws the Justice Department is, in theory, supposed to enforce.
The force of Herridge’s question is the idea that, down the road, future Americans who believe in basic ideas about democracy and the rule of law will see Barr’s behavior as unacceptable and will judge him harshly.
Barr’s response suggests he just doesn’t care: As long as his side wins the struggle for political power today, his allies will be in a position to tell people who was in the right. The very act of winning power makes its exercise legitimate.
The scariest thing about Barr’s response is that he actually has a point.
Liberals and other critics of Trump’s more authoritarian tendencies like to imagine that history will automatically vindicate them after Trump leaves office. I imagine many Union partisans thought much the same after the Civil War, yet the successful insurgency against Reconstruction — and rise of neo-Confederate apartheid regimes in Southern states — constituted a more insidious kind of Confederate victory.
The now-notorious Dunning School of historians convinced millions of Americans that the racist Southerners were the real victims during Reconstruction. Monuments to the Confederacy cropped up across the South. Even today, mainstream politicians and media figures defend flying the rebel flag as a matter of “heritage, not hate.”
History does not automatically reward the morally righteous. Through political struggle, the people who seem like clear villains — even racist authoritarians — can end up wielding enough power to change the way they’re remembered in the eyes of many. Trump and Barr are counting on Trump apologists in the Republican Party having enough power to do the same for many years to come.
The key question, perhaps in all of American politics, is whether they’re making a wise bet.


vox--2020-05-08--Republicans plan to spend at least $20 million to combat voting rights lawsuits in 2020

The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump ’ s reelection campaign have doubled their litigation budget to $ 20 million , Politico reported Thursday .
RNC chief of staff Richard Walters told Politico that the GOP is prepared to sue Democrats “ into oblivion ” by spending “ whatever is necessary ” to prevail in legal fights against its rivals leading up to the November election .
As the Politico report made clear , Republicans expect to devote much of this legal war chest to litigation over whether Americans should be able to vote from home during a pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to cast in-person ballots at the polls this November .
High-level Republicans have resisted efforts to expand voters ’ ability to submit mail-in ballots , likely because higher voter turnout is widely believed to benefit Democrats .
Last month , the country got a preview of what these legal battles over voting rights during a pandemic could look like .
On April 7 , Wisconsin held a primary election that included a hotly contested race for a seat on the state Supreme Court .
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic , Wisconsin was inundated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approximately 1.2 million requests when it typically sees fewer than 250,000 in a spring election .
That left election officials scrambling to send ballots to voters fast enough so they could submit them in time .
To help ensure that no voter would be disenfranchised because of a paperwork crisis sparked by an even greater public health crisis , a lower court judge ordered the state to accept any ballot it received before 4 pm on April 13 .
But the RNC disagreed with the order and successfully convinced the Supreme Court ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it back .
Under the Court ’ s party-line decision in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee , any ballots not postmarked by April 7 were tossed out .
Because of the decision , it is likely that thousands of voters were disenfranchised .
Meanwhile , dozens of people tested positive for coronavirus after casting in-person ballots in Wisconsin or working at the polls , though it should be noted that there is no way to know how many of them contracted the disease because they were forced to vote in person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which the GOP fought all the way to the high court in order to preserve them — the liberal challenger for the state Supreme Court seat wound up defeating the conservative incumbent by a wide margin .
Wisconsin ’ s election laws are admittedly friendlier when it comes to absentee ballots compared with many other states .
In Texas , for example , voters over the age of 65 may obtain an absentee ballot simply by asking for one , but younger voters may obtain a ballot only for a limited list of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear that the coronavirus pandemic is a sufficient reason to vote absentee under Texas law .
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton , a Republican , is fighting hard in court to prevent younger voters from qualifying for an absentee ballot .
Historically , older voters are more likely to favor Republican candidates over Democrats .
If Paxton succeeds in his efforts , millions of Texans could potentially be disenfranchised .
In other words , it ’ s likely that the question of whether millions of voters can cast a ballot this November will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican Party plans to spend lavishly to shape those decisions .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign have doubled their litigation budget to $20 million, Politico reported Thursday. RNC chief of staff Richard Walters told Politico that the GOP is prepared to sue Democrats “into oblivion” by spending “whatever is necessary” to prevail in legal fights against its rivals leading up to the November election.
As the Politico report made clear, Republicans expect to devote much of this legal war chest to litigation over whether Americans should be able to vote from home during a pandemic that could make it unsafe for them to cast in-person ballots at the polls this November. High-level Republicans have resisted efforts to expand voters’ ability to submit mail-in ballots, likely because higher voter turnout is widely believed to benefit Democrats.
Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
Last month, the country got a preview of what these legal battles over voting rights during a pandemic could look like.
On April 7, Wisconsin held a primary election that included a hotly contested race for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Wisconsin was inundated with requests for absentee ballots, receiving approximately 1.2 million requests when it typically sees fewer than 250,000 in a spring election. That left election officials scrambling to send ballots to voters fast enough so they could submit them in time.
To help ensure that no voter would be disenfranchised because of a paperwork crisis sparked by an even greater public health crisis, a lower court judge ordered the state to accept any ballot it received before 4 pm on April 13. But the RNC disagreed with the order and successfully convinced the Supreme Court’s Republican majority to roll most of it back. Under the Court’s party-line decision in Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, any ballots not postmarked by April 7 were tossed out.
Because of the decision, it is likely that thousands of voters were disenfranchised. Meanwhile, dozens of people tested positive for coronavirus after casting in-person ballots in Wisconsin or working at the polls, though it should be noted that there is no way to know how many of them contracted the disease because they were forced to vote in person.
Despite those obstacles for voters — which the GOP fought all the way to the high court in order to preserve them — the liberal challenger for the state Supreme Court seat wound up defeating the conservative incumbent by a wide margin.
Wisconsin’s election laws are admittedly friendlier when it comes to absentee ballots compared with many other states. In Texas, for example, voters over the age of 65 may obtain an absentee ballot simply by asking for one, but younger voters may obtain a ballot only for a limited list of reasons — and it is far from clear that the coronavirus pandemic is a sufficient reason to vote absentee under Texas law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, is fighting hard in court to prevent younger voters from qualifying for an absentee ballot. Historically, older voters are more likely to favor Republican candidates over Democrats. If Paxton succeeds in his efforts, millions of Texans could potentially be disenfranchised.
In other words, it’s likely that the question of whether millions of voters can cast a ballot this November will be decided by courts. And the Republican Party plans to spend lavishly to shape those decisions.


vox--2020-05-08--It’s Secret History month at the Vox Book Club. Question #1: Did Bunny have it coming?

Welcome to the first Vox Book Club discussion for May !
This month , we ’ re reading Donna Tartt ’ s The Secret History , a tale of deeply pretentious yet lovable college students , murder , and the mysteries of Bacchus .
In this first conversation , we ’ re covering everything from the prologue up to the end of Book I. I ’ ve read up through the end of the book , but there won ’ t be any spoilers in the main post .
( If you would like to discuss spoilers in the comments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clearly . )
The first half of The Secret History stands nearly on its own as a neat and gripping horror story , a kind of inverted murder mystery .
The prologue immediately reveals who will die ( Bunny ) , who will kill him ( all of his best friends , including the narrator , Richard ) , and where it will happen ( a ravine in the woods near campus ) .
We spend the next 250-ish pages trying to work out the why .
And yet when we finally come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s still not entirely clear why he has to die .
Sure , Bunny knows too much and he ’ s an unstable liability , but Richard and Co. jump to killing him as the only solution awfully quickly .
Richard takes pains to assure us that when he finally participates in the murder , he is not thinking about how Bunny ’ s death will save his friends .
He ’ s thinking about how much Bunny annoys him .
In the end , it seems as though Bunny dies not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone can avoid life in prison , but because Bunny ’ s reaction to the first murder ( only a farmer !
who cares ! )
is really a little bit gauche .
His sin is less moral than it is aesthetic .
But I ’ m getting ahead of myself .
Let ’ s talk about what leads up to the moment when Bunny ’ s best friends push him over a cliff .
These kids are pretentious as hell , but also I would really enjoy their lifestyle For The Secret @ @ @ @ @ @ @ buy into the glamour of the classics majors , at least a little bit .
And as ridiculous and pretentious a crew as they are , I absolutely do , every time .
I know : These kids wander around in suits and ties to attend their college classes in the late ’ 80s/early ’ 90s !
Henry refused to take the SATs because he objects to the aesthetics of them and he ’ s also translating Paradise Lost into Latin for fun .
Richard appears genuinely impressed by all of the above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also I would enjoy living their lives , or parts of them , at least for just a little bit .
Much of their glamour comes from the idyll of weekends at Francis ’ s country house , with its “ dizzy little turret rooms , the high-beamed attic , an old sleigh in the cellar , ” and the classics kids quoting The Waste-Land to each other as they row around a birch-lined lake before lunching on ham sandwiches and champagne they ’ ve smuggled past the groundskeeper in a teapot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the emotional core of everything that follows : the lost Eden of perfect accord to which all of the classics kids find themselves struggling to return .
And in my head , it ’ s grown to take up the entire first half of the book until the murder , even though in reality it ’ s only a few pages long .
It ’ s what I immediately think of when I think of The Secret History .
The inverse of the country house interlude follows shortly after , when everyone goes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all alone in Hampden , freezing to death in his little unheated attic sublet with the hole in the roof .
That section is harrowing in a far more visceral way than Henry ’ s account of killing the farmer , and after Henry arrives to save Richard ’ s life , it helps set up the deep and unquestioning loyalty to the group that Richard assumes throughout the rest of the novel .
Richard knows what it means to be in with the classics kid in-crowd : It means warmth , comfort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much endless wealth , thrown about so casually .
Every last one of those classics majors is wealthy , because Julian will take on no pupils who are not — except for Bunny , whose family used to be old-money wealthy and who now gets by through faking it and sponging off his friends , and Richard , whose family was never wealthy and who now gets by just through faking it .
( Bunny grasps that Richard is faking his background very early on , before anyone else .
Richard attributes that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of how to make other people uncomfortable , but perhaps it ’ s just that it takes a fake to spot a fake . )
After that desperate , frozen December , Richard knows what it means when the classics kids leave him behind .
It means poverty and squalor and isolation and loneliness and perhaps his own death .
So when Richard learns that Henry and the others killed a man , of course , he throws in his lot with them immediately .
There was never any possibility that he wouldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the fight between different ideas about beauty The first murder , the murder of the farmer , is oddly casual : No one particularly cares about him or his death .
We never even learn his name .
Henry concludes rapidly that he is absolutely not worth going to jail over , and that ’ s more or less that .
This murder is impersonal , academic , and in that it ’ s an accident that occurs in the middle of a Dionysian rite , it is committed purely for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes from the first lecture we see Julian lead , on the idea of escaping the prison of our rational selves and experiencing life as our primitive and animal selves .
Julian ’ s argument in favor of this idea is both moral and aesthetic : Morally , he says , it is a civilized person ’ s duty to find a release valve for themselves so that they don ’ t allow violent repressed urges to well up inside them uncontrollably .
And aesthetically , he says , once we leave the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we experience true beauty , which Julian argues is necessarily terrifying .
The moral argument is demonstrated to be false .
When Henry creates a release valve for himself , he just ends up killing someone with his bare hands .
But the aesthetic argument seems to hold .
Henry describes the bacchanal as an overwhelmingly ecstatic experience , “ Heart-shaking .
Glorious .
Torches , dizziness , singing.
” The idea of beauty as terror is roughly speaking the aesthetic of the sublime : beauty that is overwhelming and awe-inducing and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a mountain or a desert .
( It perhaps will not shock you to learn , The Secret History being the book that it is , that the first known study of the sublime came from a Latin philosopher in the first century AD . )
But that ’ s not the kind of aesthetic Richard is interested in .
He tells us in chapter one that his tragic flaw is “ a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs , ” and the picturesque , like the novel as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 18th century and came into its own in the 19th century .
It ’ s what lies between the sublime and the serenely , harmoniously beautiful : the beauty of lovely , unspoiled nature , beauty that delights without effort or fear .
If the sublime is a craggy mountaintop , the picturesque is a meadow full of wildflowers .
Richard only wants the picturesque .
That ’ s why he guiltily prefers the easy delights of English literature over the alien world of classical literature .
He wants to spend his whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drinking champagne out of teacups , and listening to his friends play the piano , but unfortunately the leader of his friend group is only interested in the sublime .
Henry wants to live in the austere splendor of his books and in the inhuman glory of the bacchanal .
And so Richard is a man caught between aesthetics .
But at least he has an aesthetic .
Poor Bunny is too hopelessly middlebrow to develop a decent sense of beauty at all .
That ’ s why he has to go .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ collected stray thoughts and questions I have about Book I of The Secret History .
You can use them as a guide for your own conversation below in our comments section , or in your own community .
Or start off with your own questions !
Whatever brings you joy .
Just mark your spoilers and be nice to each other .
• The title of The Secret History comes from Procopius ’ s 6th-century history of the Byzantine emperor Justinian .
I do not know anywhere near enough about Byzantine history to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I will leave that to wiser heads than mine to discuss in the comments .
• Donna Tartt wrote The Secret History while she was a student at Bennington , at the same time that both Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem were attending .
For background , I highly recommend Esquire ’ s oral history of that era of Bennington ’ s history , which appears to have been … quite something .
Here is what the unfortunate young man who apparently inspired Bunny has to say : “ I called my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been caricatured in a book , and my character gets killed.
’ And she said , ‘ No , no .
No one would ever kill you , not even in print , no.
’ Then she read the book and said , ‘ That ’ s you all right.
’ ” • In general , The Secret History ’ s backstory is truly the gift that keeps on giving .
• Richard keeps comparing Henry to Sherlock Holmes , and there are a few subtextual parallels as well ( e.g .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ walked on the moon is pretty close to Sherlock not knowing that the Earth orbits the sun ) .
Is Henry an inverted Sherlock Holmes for this inverted detective novel ?
How does that work ?
• Is this the least sexy orgy ever written ?
• How do we feel about Henry ’ s argument that there ’ s no point in going to the cops about killing the farmer because they ’ d never get a fair trial and would just end up going to jail ?
Seems like … they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Like , they did kill a guy !
And sure , it was unintentional , but they killed him because they were practicing dark religious rites that historically tended to end in death .
We ’ ve got to assign them some responsibility here , no ?
• The Secret History is the most prominent example of a weird subgenre best described by what I believe kids these days are calling dark academia .
You know the subgenre I ’ m talking about , right ?
A group of friends is all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they have a beautiful old house and they form this tight insular group and talk about art and literature together all the time , and it ’ s all incredibly enticing and utopian and dark and intense until someone dies .
( Other entries include Pamela Dean ’ s Tam Lin and Tana French ’ s The Likeness . )
How do you feel about this genre , and what are your favorite examples ?
• People have been trying to turn The Secret History into a movie since it was first published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bit of a cursed history .
Joan Didion was signed on to do the screenplay at one point , and at another point , Gwyneth Paltrow was going to produce the movie and play Camilla .
All of these plans fell through , however , and Tartt seems reluctant to try for another movie deal .
But while it ’ s unlikely a Secret History movie will ever see the light of day , we can still dream .
Who would be part of your ideal cast and producing team ?
The cast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however old they are now and however old they were in 1991 , a rule I have added to this game solely because I think late ’ 90s Michael Pitt would have been a really good Bunny .
Sound off in the comments below , or wherever you ’ d like to talk , and meet us back here next week to discuss chapters 6 and 7 .
To make sure you don ’ t miss anything , sign up for our newsletter !

Welcome to the first Vox Book Club discussion for May! This month, we’re reading Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, a tale of deeply pretentious yet lovable college students, murder, and the mysteries of Bacchus. In this first conversation, we’re covering everything from the prologue up to the end of Book I. I’ve read up through the end of the book, but there won’t be any spoilers in the main post. (If you would like to discuss spoilers in the comments, please make sure to label them clearly.)
The first half of The Secret History stands nearly on its own as a neat and gripping horror story, a kind of inverted murder mystery. The prologue immediately reveals who will die (Bunny), who will kill him (all of his best friends, including the narrator, Richard), and where it will happen (a ravine in the woods near campus). We spend the next 250-ish pages trying to work out the why.
And yet when we finally come to Bunny’s murder, it’s still not entirely clear why he has to die. Sure, Bunny knows too much and he’s an unstable liability, but Richard and Co. jump to killing him as the only solution awfully quickly. Richard takes pains to assure us that when he finally participates in the murder, he is not thinking about how Bunny’s death will save his friends. He’s thinking about how much Bunny annoys him.
In the end, it seems as though Bunny dies not because it’s the only way everyone can avoid life in prison, but because Bunny’s reaction to the first murder (only a farmer! who cares!) is really a little bit gauche. His sin is less moral than it is aesthetic.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about what leads up to the moment when Bunny’s best friends push him over a cliff.
These kids are pretentious as hell, but also I would really enjoy their lifestyle
For The Secret History to work, you have to buy into the glamour of the classics majors, at least a little bit. And as ridiculous and pretentious a crew as they are, I absolutely do, every time.
I know: These kids wander around in suits and ties to attend their college classes in the late ’80s/early ’90s! Henry refused to take the SATs because he objects to the aesthetics of them and he’s also translating Paradise Lost into Latin for fun. Richard appears genuinely impressed by all of the above. They are the worst. But also I would enjoy living their lives, or parts of them, at least for just a little bit.
Much of their glamour comes from the idyll of weekends at Francis’s country house, with its “dizzy little turret rooms, the high-beamed attic, an old sleigh in the cellar,” and the classics kids quoting The Waste-Land to each other as they row around a birch-lined lake before lunching on ham sandwiches and champagne they’ve smuggled past the groundskeeper in a teapot. In certain ways, this section is the emotional core of everything that follows: the lost Eden of perfect accord to which all of the classics kids find themselves struggling to return. And in my head, it’s grown to take up the entire first half of the book until the murder, even though in reality it’s only a few pages long. It’s what I immediately think of when I think of The Secret History.
The inverse of the country house interlude follows shortly after, when everyone goes home for Christmas and Richard finds himself all alone in Hampden, freezing to death in his little unheated attic sublet with the hole in the roof. That section is harrowing in a far more visceral way than Henry’s account of killing the farmer, and after Henry arrives to save Richard’s life, it helps set up the deep and unquestioning loyalty to the group that Richard assumes throughout the rest of the novel.
Richard knows what it means to be in with the classics kid in-crowd: It means warmth, comfort, beauty, and wealth, so much endless wealth, thrown about so casually. Every last one of those classics majors is wealthy, because Julian will take on no pupils who are not — except for Bunny, whose family used to be old-money wealthy and who now gets by through faking it and sponging off his friends, and Richard, whose family was never wealthy and who now gets by just through faking it. (Bunny grasps that Richard is faking his background very early on, before anyone else. Richard attributes that intuition to Bunny’s unerring sense of how to make other people uncomfortable, but perhaps it’s just that it takes a fake to spot a fake.)
After that desperate, frozen December, Richard knows what it means when the classics kids leave him behind. It means poverty and squalor and isolation and loneliness and perhaps his own death.
So when Richard learns that Henry and the others killed a man, of course, he throws in his lot with them immediately. There was never any possibility that he wouldn’t.
The big conflict here is the fight between different ideas about beauty
The first murder, the murder of the farmer, is oddly casual: No one particularly cares about him or his death. We never even learn his name. Henry concludes rapidly that he is absolutely not worth going to jail over, and that’s more or less that. This murder is impersonal, academic, and in that it’s an accident that occurs in the middle of a Dionysian rite, it is committed purely for the aesthetic.
The impetus for the bacchanal comes from the first lecture we see Julian lead, on the idea of escaping the prison of our rational selves and experiencing life as our primitive and animal selves. Julian’s argument in favor of this idea is both moral and aesthetic: Morally, he says, it is a civilized person’s duty to find a release valve for themselves so that they don’t allow violent repressed urges to well up inside them uncontrollably. And aesthetically, he says, once we leave the prison of ourselves to become completely free, we experience true beauty, which Julian argues is necessarily terrifying.
The moral argument is demonstrated to be false. When Henry creates a release valve for himself, he just ends up killing someone with his bare hands. But the aesthetic argument seems to hold. Henry describes the bacchanal as an overwhelmingly ecstatic experience, “Heart-shaking. Glorious. Torches, dizziness, singing.”
The idea of beauty as terror is roughly speaking the aesthetic of the sublime: beauty that is overwhelming and awe-inducing and maybe a little sad or scary, like a mountain or a desert. (It perhaps will not shock you to learn, The Secret History being the book that it is, that the first known study of the sublime came from a Latin philosopher in the first century AD.)
But that’s not the kind of aesthetic Richard is interested in. He tells us in chapter one that his tragic flaw is “a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs,” and the picturesque, like the novel as an art form, was developed in the 18th century and came into its own in the 19th century. It’s what lies between the sublime and the serenely, harmoniously beautiful: the beauty of lovely, unspoiled nature, beauty that delights without effort or fear. If the sublime is a craggy mountaintop, the picturesque is a meadow full of wildflowers.
Richard only wants the picturesque. That’s why he guiltily prefers the easy delights of English literature over the alien world of classical literature. He wants to spend his whole life lolling around in that rowboat, drinking champagne out of teacups, and listening to his friends play the piano, but unfortunately the leader of his friend group is only interested in the sublime. Henry wants to live in the austere splendor of his books and in the inhuman glory of the bacchanal. And so Richard is a man caught between aesthetics.
But at least he has an aesthetic. Poor Bunny is too hopelessly middlebrow to develop a decent sense of beauty at all. That’s why he has to go.
Let’s talk: stray observations and questions for discussion
In this section, I’ve collected stray thoughts and questions I have about Book I of The Secret History. You can use them as a guide for your own conversation below in our comments section, or in your own community. Or start off with your own questions! Whatever brings you joy. Just mark your spoilers and be nice to each other.
The title of The Secret History comes from Procopius’s 6th-century history of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. I do not know anywhere near enough about Byzantine history to make anything of this allusion, so I will leave that to wiser heads than mine to discuss in the comments.
Donna Tartt wrote The Secret History while she was a student at Bennington, at the same time that both Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem were attending. For background, I highly recommend Esquire’s oral history of that era of Bennington’s history, which appears to have been … quite something. Here is what the unfortunate young man who apparently inspired Bunny has to say: “I called my mother and said, ‘I’ve been caricatured in a book, and my character gets killed.’ And she said, ‘No, no. No one would ever kill you, not even in print, no.’ Then she read the book and said, ‘That’s you all right.’”
In general, The Secret History’s backstory is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
Mary Robison pic.twitter.com/AY9YjU1bay — Lit Twit Gossip decoded (@LitGossip) April 30, 2020
Richard keeps comparing Henry to Sherlock Holmes, and there are a few subtextual parallels as well (e.g. Henry’s shock that a man walked on the moon is pretty close to Sherlock not knowing that the Earth orbits the sun). Is Henry an inverted Sherlock Holmes for this inverted detective novel? How does that work?
Is this the least sexy orgy ever written?
“But these are fundamentally sex rituals, aren’t they?” It came out not as a question but as a statement. He didn’t blink, but sat waiting for me to continue. “Well? Aren’t they?” He leaned over to rest his cigarette in the ashtray. “Of course,” he said agreeably, cool as a priest in his dark suit and ascetic spectacles. “You know that as well as I do.” We sat looking at each other for a moment. “What exactly did you do?” I said. “Well, really, I think we needn’t get into that now,” he said smoothly. “There was a certain carnal element to the proceedings but the phenomenon was basically spiritual in nature.”
Discuss!
How do we feel about Henry’s argument that there’s no point in going to the cops about killing the farmer because they’d never get a fair trial and would just end up going to jail? Seems like … they maybe should have just gone to jail? Like, they did kill a guy! And sure, it was unintentional, but they killed him because they were practicing dark religious rites that historically tended to end in death. We’ve got to assign them some responsibility here, no?
The Secret History is the most prominent example of a weird subgenre best described by what I believe kids these days are calling dark academia. You know the subgenre I’m talking about, right? A group of friends is all in college or grad school together and they have a beautiful old house and they form this tight insular group and talk about art and literature together all the time, and it’s all incredibly enticing and utopian and dark and intense until someone dies. (Other entries include Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and Tana French’s The Likeness.) How do you feel about this genre, and what are your favorite examples?
People have been trying to turn The Secret History into a movie since it was first published, but that endeavor has had a bit of a cursed history. Joan Didion was signed on to do the screenplay at one point, and at another point, Gwyneth Paltrow was going to produce the movie and play Camilla. All of these plans fell through, however, and Tartt seems reluctant to try for another movie deal. But while it’s unlikely a Secret History movie will ever see the light of day, we can still dream. Who would be part of your ideal cast and producing team? The cast can include actors at any age between however old they are now and however old they were in 1991, a rule I have added to this game solely because I think late ’90s Michael Pitt would have been a really good Bunny.
Sound off in the comments below, or wherever you’d like to talk, and meet us back here next week to discuss chapters 6 and 7. To make sure you don’t miss anything, sign up for our newsletter!


vox--2020-05-08--Ahmaud Arbery and the dangers of running while black

The video is as stark as you can imagine .
A 25-year-old black man , Ahmaud Arbery , jogs down a leafy street in Satilla Shores , a neighborhood in Georgia .
He ’ s moving toward a white pickup truck parked in the middle of the street ; two armed white men , former police detective Gregory McMichael and his son Travis , are near it .
Reportedly , they had been following him .
Arbery tries to runs past the truck ; the McMichaels yell .
A shot rings out .
Arbery struggles with one of the McMichaels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shots .
Arbery takes a few jagged steps — the last of his too-short life — and then collapses to the pavement .
This footage , filmed in late February , somehow was not enough for several Georgia prosecutors to indict the McMichaels — who claimed they were attempting a legally authorized citizens ’ arrest of a burglar .
It was only after the footage hit the internet in the past week , stunning the nation and kicking off protests in Georgia , that the local authorities got it together to arrest the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s death is the worst fear of many black men , who experience a level of baseline fear and persecution during routine activities like jogging in majority-white neighborhoods that few others in America can understand .
Hoping to understand more , I called Rashawn Ray , a sociologist at the University of Maryland and the Brookings Institution who studies the experience of African Americans in public spaces .
In 2017 , Ray published a paper ( titled “ Black people don ’ t exercise in my neighborhood ” ) documenting a striking pattern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much lower rates in majority-white neighborhoods than they do in majority-black or racially mixed ones .
According to Ray , this reflects routine and commonplace experiences of harassment and mistreatment in white spaces — which they believe could lead to any one of them ending up like Ahmaud Arbery .
“ Black men who I ’ ve spoken to , who have seen the horrific killing of Ahmaud , state that , wow , I ’ ve had similar sort of experiences where people have followed me : where cars have ran me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chased me .
Where people have called the police .
Where people have crossed streets while I ’ m running .
Where neighbors have shut their doors .
Where they ’ ve given me negative looks , ” Ray told me .
“ I mean , these are the common experiences.
” Our conversation used this stark finding as a jumping off point to discuss the broader research on the black male experience — what it ’ s like to live in a society where police and civilians alike treat you as presumptively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ profoundly shapes the way black men exist in a majority-white society , and what kinds of policy changes might enacted to make the world a safer place for men like Ahmaud Arbery .
What follows is a transcript of that conversation , edited for length and clarity .
Your research found that black men exercise for pleasure and leisure at higher rates than other groups — when they ’ re in majority-black communities and in racially mixed neighborhoods .
Yet there ’ s a massive decline in exercise rate for black men living @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
The causal phenomenon primarily [ relates to ] criminalization — being perceived as a criminal .
Black men in particular felt more likely to be perceived as threats , and as potential predators .
Blackness becomes weaponized ; a black man doesn ’ t necessarily have to have a weapon on him , but instead his physical body becomes perceived as a weapon that could do bodily harm onto others .
This is primarily linked to stereotypes that people have about black men as being more aggressive , having a higher propensity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unstable .
You put these together and it leads to black men being threatened by others .
And it leads to others , like in the case of Ahmaud , enacting physical violence onto black men when they ’ re simply doing something like going for a jog .
The Ahmaud Arbery case seems like the fears that you were describing in your paper literally coming to life .
The men that you ’ ve been researching , and a lot of black men , they worry this could happen to them .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a doubt .
I ’ ve done a lot of this research quantitatively and qualitatively : in addition to the quantitative work , I have conducted interviews and done focus groups with people across the country , in neighborhoods with varying racial and class compositions , to figure out what factors really determine physical activity .
I found how linked race and place are to one another .
The other thing I found was just how common the stories were , particularly from black men , about negative experiences while engaging in physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who I ’ ve [ recently ] spoken to , who have seen the horrific killing of Ahmaud , state that , wow , I ’ ve had similar sort of experiences where people have followed me — where cars have ran me off the road .
Where dogs have chased me .
Where people have called the police .
Where people have crossed streets while I ’ m running .
Where neighbors have shut their doors .
Where they ’ ve given me negative looks .
I mean , these are common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men , and also black women who live with black men and who have black boys , one of their worst nightmares is what happened to Ahmaud .
When black men go for a run , it isn ’ t just in the back of their minds .
Oftentimes , it ’ s very much in the front of their minds .
These experiences you ’ re describing — of harassment , violence , intimidation , and outright murder — how does the specter of those sorts of things , which obviously exist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that black men engage in and move around the world ?
I ’ m asking not only in the context of jogging and outdoor physical exercise , but in terms of just being a person living in a society where you invariably need to go through majority-white neighborhoods .
In sociology , there ’ s what we call a signaling process , where black men aim to signal to others that they are not threatening .
So they engage in certain acts that other people don ’ t .
The research that I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blacks and whites , so these were people who were college educated , professional jobs , oftentimes make a lot of money , with multiple degrees , living in very nice neighborhoods .
They talk about doing things that [ other ] people don ’ t do when they run .
Like wearing an alumni T-shirt , carrying their ID with them , running on well-lit , densely populated roads , waving and smiling at neighbors .
Going for a run , and then someone else is coming down the sidewalk , stopping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ avoid that person .
This spills over to other public spaces as well — like work , restaurants , coffee shops , and grocery stores .
Black men aim to be perceived as less threatening ; they do things like think consciously about their attire ; when they ’ re at work they think about the tone and pitch of their voice .
They think about how their physical mannerisms , their behavior mannerisms might be perceived .
Unfortunately , it ’ s not simply about just trying to make other people comfortable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to reduce the likelihood of the negative experience that could forever change that black man ’ s life .
Like being shot by some men in Georgia who have decided all of a sudden that you ’ re a criminal .
Exactly .
And there are , of course , several examples .
Now Ahmaud is going to be , unfortunately , another name that we hang up as a martyr , similar to Trayvon Martin , Jonathan Ferrell , Tamir Rice , Theresa McBride .
I mean , and you put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leads to a very high likelihood of this happening to black men .
It ’ s important to note that the older McMichael , the father — his law enforcement background , that ’ s not just coincidental .
A lot of the work that I do is on policing .
One of the big things that I know , and I ’ ve published this work with Dr. Keon Gilbert at St. Louis University , is that blacks are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by the police when they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a weapon .
Who says that ?
Police officers themselves .
These are the types of actions that play out , where the very people who should defend you , who should protect you , law enforcement , neighbors , are some of the same people who expose black men to a higher likelihood of death .
That was something that really struck me about this case , too .
It ’ s not exactly an officer-involved shooting , in the way that we ordinarily conceive of it .
But it does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used to be on the force .
This speaks to a broader question : To what extent do black men , when thinking about risks , worry about police relative to ordinary citizens ?
Is there a kind of threat matrix here in the minds of a lot of black men ?
That ’ s a really good question .
I think one of the first aspects of the threat matrix — I really like how you put that — I think it deals with the racial composition of neighborhoods .
As an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somewhere for work , they oftentimes look up the racial composition of the places where they ’ re going to .
They look up the routes where they might pass through neighborhoods or cities that have a higher percentage of black residents .
And then they make decisions on how to make those stops .
I think the second thing is the actual physical setting : whether or not people are isolated and feel actually that they can get away with what they did .
If you think about that road [ in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cellphone footage that was captured , it looks suburban , slightly rural .
A place where , if you were going for a run or a bike ride , seems like a great place to go — unless you ’ re a black man .
The McMichaels felt that they had some anonymity .
There ’ s a feeling that black men get , because of previous encounters they ’ ve had , where there ’ s something that literally happens internally .
Their heart rates increases , their stress level rises .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ has the potential to turn negative , and potentially deadly , extremely quickly .
They oftentimes aim to get out of those situations .
But they occur in places where they shouldn ’ t , like running in your neighborhood , stopping at a gas station to get something for your kid .
Going to a gas station to get Skittles at halftime of an NBA All-Star game .
Stopping to ask for help when your car has run down .
Things that normal people do , normal activities , become deadly for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the incident has the potential to be [ shapes their concerns about this happening ] .
I think the third thing is trying to get a feeling of how emboldened the person they ’ re interacting with actually feels .
Do they feel like they are above the law ?
Do they feel like if they can make a citizen ’ s arrest , do they feel like they are potentially standing their ground ?
Because that ’ s something extremely important for people to realize .
Most stand-your-ground laws simply state that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It doesn ’ t state that you have to be attacked , it doesn ’ t state that something had to happen to you , that the other person had to have had a weapon .
That you simply had to fear for your life .
And that fear is oftentimes contingent on the black skin of the person they ’ re interacting with , and that blackness oftentimes becomes weaponized , and justification for acting out violence on somebody .
This case has gotten so much attention , because first of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and so we can all see the evidence and how shocking it is .
I don ’ t know how common this kind of killing is — maybe you do .
But even if it ’ s not that common , it seems that there ’ s this spectrum of fear and intimidation that causes people to be afraid , black men specifically , when they ’ re out in public .
And even lower-level harassment leads to the pervasive effects on black male behavior we ’ ve been talking about .
People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these incidents don ’ t occur that often — well , that depends on how you look at it .
Even if we ’ re not talking about someone being killed , we are talking about someone potentially being beaten up .
We ’ re talking about someone being followed and accosted .
We ’ re talking about a racial slur being yelled at someone .
We ’ re talking about incidents that alter how people move through space , that all of a sudden , black men start saying , well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on that route , something happened , so I ’ m going to go on this route .
These negative encounters , these racial discriminatory incidents , also have spillover effects .
Where someone had a negative encounter in the neighborhood , they ’ re less likely to engage in the community .
Less likely to frequent public places .
Less likely to frequent restaurants .
If you ’ ve been to a restaurant chain and some food that you ate made you sick , you ’ re probably not going to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in another part of the country .
You ’ re going to say , “ Oh , last time I went to that restaurant , I got sick .
I actually don ’ t like eating there.
” That is literally what happens to black people .
And the impact that it has on their mental and emotional and physical health also matters .
There ’ s a line in your paper on black male exercise patterns that really stuck with me .
You write that : “ Unfortunately , research shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cues are unable to substitute for the intersection of their black skin and maleness.
” Tell me about how that ’ s been established in the literature .
How do we know that , say , a black Harvard grad putting on a Harvard sweater doesn ’ t do much to decrease the threat to him ?
I think there are two main comparisons .
First : Are black men who , say , wear Harvard sweaters treated better than a black man who doesn ’ t ?
Potentially .
But the main @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t necessarily one black man to the next black man .
It should be a black man to other men , to white men .
I think that is the comparison , oftentimes , that we don ’ t actually make .
I think there are a couple more studies to note here .
First , there was some research that looked at what is the likelihood of getting called back for a job based on the place you got your degree from .
It had two categories of blacks , two categories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race came from Ivy League schools , and the other group came from state schools .
The research found that not only were whites who attended Ivy League schools way more likely to be called back and hired , but whites who attended state universities had a similar likelihood of being called back for jobs as blacks who went to Ivy League schools .
Research also shows what happens when blacks are perceived as being militant .
Blacks who have been involved in certain civil rights organizations or other organizations that are perceived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change have been less likely to be admitted to college relative to those that didn ’ t do that .
So on the one hand , there ’ s an expectation that black men need to alter their behavior to fit norms that make them nonthreatening to whites .
And then on the other hand , meeting that expectation still isn ’ t enough : No matter how hard they try to fit whatever normative expectations of a nonthreatening , safe person are , they ’ re still at significantly higher risk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yes , without a doubt .
That ’ s part of the psychological , social psychological process , that black men go through to essentially aim to juggle and balance these potentially deadly interactions .
One of the best examples that I can provide is there is a city councilman in Tennessee .
In a previous job , he had to travel around a lot , he was doing nonprofit work — raising money for cancer research , of all things .
He had on a suit and a tie , and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rental car ; one of the headlights or one of the taillights was out .
The police officer ’ s talking to him , and starts scolding him about the lights , and he said , well , you know , this is a rental car .
He said I ’ m here doing work .
And he starts telling him what he was doing there .
That conversation then pivoted , and he said telling him where he graduated from , and the job he was doing , and why he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would help him .
But it actually made the encounter worse .
I have spoken to many black men who say it is a balancing act to appear as if you are not a criminal , but you also don ’ t want to appear as if you ’ re too smart , or that you ’ re too successful , because then that also has implications , depending on who you ’ re interacting with .
Even though the percentage of police officers who have a college degree is increasing , most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to talk proper , trying to speak as if you were more educated , if you will , can also have negative consequences — depending on where you ’ re at and who you ’ re interacting with .
Last thing .
You talked a little bit earlier about policy change , but it seems like there aren ’ t obvious policy fixes to a lot of the problems that you document .
What do you do about the fact that in majority-white neighborhoods , a lot of white people feel entitled to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they see running ?
How do you change the underlying social norms and expectations ?
Does there have to be some sort of massive societal transformation ?
It ’ s easy to come away from talking to you and reading your research and to feel pretty down on the prospects for dismantling this particular element of racial hierarchy .
It can definitely be depressing .
But there are a few things , though , that I think are important .
On the policy side , I do think that stand-your-ground laws and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be reevaluated and probably removed .
And part of it is because research continuously shows the inequitable distribution of how those policies are applied .
If you are a white assailant , like the McMichaels , or you are a white victim , you are much more likely , if you ’ re on the assailant end , to be able to use the citizen ’ s arrest law [ as a defense ] .
To be able to use the stand-your-ground law .
I think the second thing is when people are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call , on black people moving through space — when nothing is found out , the “ crime ” is simply walking or jogging while black , there needs to be a fine associated with that .
Those fines will start to set a precedent that this type of behavior will not be tolerated .
The third thing : Racism , particularly white racism enacted on black bodies , is really a white people issue .
What we need are for white people to speak up and speak out when they see these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In black communities , people talk about the stop snitching campaign , the fact that black people don ’ t talk to police .
They don ’ t talk to police because they don ’ t trust them .
But you know , in predominantly white neighborhoods , white neighbors don ’ t tell on their neighbors either when these kind of things happen .
That ’ s something that we need to call out , we just don ’ t frame it that way .
My grandfather would always tell me my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I oftentimes see , similar to predominantly male settings , is that it also happens in predominantly white settings .
That there are white people who hear something racist , see something racist , they don ’ t agree with it , but they don ’ t say anything either .
And that is where we really get into the difference between being an ally , and being an advocate .
An ally is someone who can wear some kind of white ribbon , or some kind of ribbon saying , yeah , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equality .
But when it hits the fan , you don ’ t speak up for people who are being discriminated against .
An advocate , on the other hand , speaks up for people when the people from that group are not around .
There are conversations that happen at tables all across America , tables that are oftentimes predominantly white , where race comes up , and there are people at those tables who don ’ t agree with what was said , but just don ’ t feel like getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to move past race , we need those people to get into the fight .
Because black people don ’ t have the luxury of not being involved .
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The video is as stark as you can imagine.
A 25-year-old black man, Ahmaud Arbery, jogs down a leafy street in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood in Georgia. He’s moving toward a white pickup truck parked in the middle of the street; two armed white men, former police detective Gregory McMichael and his son Travis, are near it. Reportedly, they had been following him.
Arbery tries to runs past the truck; the McMichaels yell. A shot rings out.
Arbery struggles with one of the McMichaels, seemingly trying to escape. More shots. Arbery takes a few jagged steps — the last of his too-short life — and then collapses to the pavement.
This footage, filmed in late February, somehow was not enough for several Georgia prosecutors to indict the McMichaels — who claimed they were attempting a legally authorized citizens’ arrest of a burglar. It was only after the footage hit the internet in the past week, stunning the nation and kicking off protests in Georgia, that the local authorities got it together to arrest the McMichaels on Thursday.
Ahmaud Arbery’s death is the worst fear of many black men, who experience a level of baseline fear and persecution during routine activities like jogging in majority-white neighborhoods that few others in America can understand. Hoping to understand more, I called Rashawn Ray, a sociologist at the University of Maryland and the Brookings Institution who studies the experience of African Americans in public spaces.
In 2017, Ray published a paper (titled “Black people don’t exercise in my neighborhood”) documenting a striking pattern in which middle-class black men exercise at much lower rates in majority-white neighborhoods than they do in majority-black or racially mixed ones. According to Ray, this reflects routine and commonplace experiences of harassment and mistreatment in white spaces — which they believe could lead to any one of them ending up like Ahmaud Arbery.
“Black men who I’ve spoken to, who have seen the horrific killing of Ahmaud, state that, wow, I’ve had similar sort of experiences where people have followed me: where cars have ran me off the road. Where dogs have chased me. Where people have called the police. Where people have crossed streets while I’m running. Where neighbors have shut their doors. Where they’ve given me negative looks,” Ray told me.
“I mean, these are the common experiences.”
Our conversation used this stark finding as a jumping off point to discuss the broader research on the black male experience — what it’s like to live in a society where police and civilians alike treat you as presumptively criminal, how that sense of threat profoundly shapes the way black men exist in a majority-white society, and what kinds of policy changes might be enacted to make the world a safer place for men like Ahmaud Arbery. What follows is a transcript of that conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Zack Beauchamp
Your research found that black men exercise for pleasure and leisure at higher rates than other groups — when they’re in majority-black communities and in racially mixed neighborhoods. Yet there’s a massive decline in exercise rate for black men living in majority-white neighborhoods. Tell me why?
Rashawn Ray
The causal phenomenon primarily [relates to] criminalization — being perceived as a criminal. Black men in particular felt more likely to be perceived as threats, and as potential predators. Blackness becomes weaponized; a black man doesn’t necessarily have to have a weapon on him, but instead his physical body becomes perceived as a weapon that could do bodily harm onto others.
This is primarily linked to stereotypes that people have about black men as being more aggressive, having a higher propensity to commit crimes, or being emotionally unstable. You put these together and it leads to black men being threatened by others. And it leads to others, like in the case of Ahmaud, enacting physical violence onto black men when they’re simply doing something like going for a jog.
Zack Beauchamp
The Ahmaud Arbery case seems like the fears that you were describing in your paper literally coming to life. The men that you’ve been researching, and a lot of black men, they worry this could happen to them. That this could be anybody.
Rashawn Ray
Without a doubt. I’ve done a lot of this research quantitatively and qualitatively: in addition to the quantitative work, I have conducted interviews and done focus groups with people across the country, in neighborhoods with varying racial and class compositions, to figure out what factors really determine physical activity.
I found how linked race and place are to one another. The other thing I found was just how common the stories were, particularly from black men, about negative experiences while engaging in physical activity in public space.
Black men who I’ve [recently] spoken to, who have seen the horrific killing of Ahmaud, state that, wow, I’ve had similar sort of experiences where people have followed me — where cars have ran me off the road. Where dogs have chased me. Where people have called the police. Where people have crossed streets while I’m running. Where neighbors have shut their doors. Where they’ve given me negative looks. I mean, these are common experiences.
For a lot of black men, and also black women who live with black men and who have black boys, one of their worst nightmares is what happened to Ahmaud. When black men go for a run, it isn’t just in the back of their minds. Oftentimes, it’s very much in the front of their minds.
Zack Beauchamp
These experiences you’re describing — of harassment, violence, intimidation, and outright murder — how does the specter of those sorts of things, which obviously exist on a spectrum, affect the way that black men engage in and move around the world? I’m asking not only in the context of jogging and outdoor physical exercise, but in terms of just being a person living in a society where you invariably need to go through majority-white neighborhoods.
Rashawn Ray
In sociology, there’s what we call a signaling process, where black men aim to signal to others that they are not threatening. So they engage in certain acts that other people don’t.
The research that I’ve done has been on middle-class blacks and whites, so these were people who were college educated, professional jobs, oftentimes make a lot of money, with multiple degrees, living in very nice neighborhoods. They talk about doing things that [other] people don’t do when they run. Like wearing an alumni T-shirt, carrying their ID with them, running on well-lit, densely populated roads, waving and smiling at neighbors. Going for a run, and then someone else is coming down the sidewalk, stopping, actually running in the street to avoid that person.
This spills over to other public spaces as well — like work, restaurants, coffee shops, and grocery stores. Black men aim to be perceived as less threatening; they do things like think consciously about their attire; when they’re at work they think about the tone and pitch of their voice. They think about how their physical mannerisms, their behavior mannerisms might be perceived.
Unfortunately, it’s not simply about just trying to make other people comfortable with them. It’s also trying to reduce the likelihood of the negative experience that could forever change that black man’s life.
Zack Beauchamp
Like being shot by some men in Georgia who have decided all of a sudden that you’re a criminal.
Rashawn Ray
Exactly. And there are, of course, several examples.
Now Ahmaud is going to be, unfortunately, another name that we hang up as a martyr, similar to Trayvon Martin, Jonathan Ferrell, Tamir Rice, Renisha McBride. I mean, and you put all these incidents together, and it leads to a very high likelihood of this happening to black men.
It’s important to note that the older McMichael, the father — his law enforcement background, that’s not just coincidental. A lot of the work that I do is on policing. One of the big things that I know, and I’ve published this work with Dr. Keon Gilbert at St. Louis University, is that blacks are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by the police when they’re not attacking, nor when they have a weapon.
Who says that? Police officers themselves. These are the types of actions that play out, where the very people who should defend you, who should protect you, law enforcement, neighbors, are some of the same people who expose black men to a higher likelihood of death.
Zack Beauchamp
That was something that really struck me about this case, too. It’s not exactly an officer-involved shooting, in the way that we ordinarily conceive of it. But it does seem relevant that one of the assailants used to be on the force.
This speaks to a broader question: To what extent do black men, when thinking about risks, worry about police relative to ordinary citizens? Is there a kind of threat matrix here in the minds of a lot of black men?
Rashawn Ray
That’s a really good question. I think one of the first aspects of the threat matrix — I really like how you put that — I think it deals with the racial composition of neighborhoods.
As an example: When black men are traveling somewhere for work, they oftentimes look up the racial composition of the places where they’re going to. They look up the routes where they might pass through neighborhoods or cities that have a higher percentage of black residents. And then they make decisions on how to make those stops.
I think the second thing is the actual physical setting: whether or not people are isolated and feel actually that they can get away with what they did. If you think about that road [in the Arbery video], and the cellphone footage that was captured, it looks suburban, slightly rural. A place where, if you were going for a run or a bike ride, seems like a great place to go — unless you’re a black man. The McMichaels felt that they had some anonymity.
There’s a feeling that black men get, because of previous encounters they’ve had, where there’s something that literally happens internally. Their heart rate increases, their stress level rises. That lets them know that this situation has the potential to turn negative, and potentially deadly, extremely quickly.
They oftentimes aim to get out of those situations. But they occur in places where they shouldn’t, like running in your neighborhood, stopping at a gas station to get something for your kid. Going to a gas station to get Skittles at halftime of an NBA All-Star game. Stopping to ask for help when your car has run down. Things that normal people do, normal activities, become deadly for black men. Thinking about how isolated the incident has the potential to be [shapes their concerns about this happening].
I think the third thing is trying to get a feeling of how emboldened the person they’re interacting with actually feels. Do they feel like they are above the law? Do they feel like if they can make a citizen’s arrest, do they feel like they are potentially standing their ground?
Because that’s something extremely important for people to realize. Most stand-your-ground laws simply state that people have to fear for their lives. It doesn’t state that you have to be attacked, it doesn’t state that something had to happen to you, that the other person had to have had a weapon. That you simply had to fear for your life. And that fear is oftentimes contingent on the black skin of the person they’re interacting with, and that blackness oftentimes becomes weaponized, and justification for acting out violence on somebody.
Zack Beauchamp
This case has gotten so much attention, because first of all, it’s filmed, and so we can all see the evidence and how shocking it is. I don’t know how common this kind of killing is — maybe you do. But even if it’s not that common, it seems that there’s this spectrum of fear and intimidation that causes people to be afraid, black men specifically, when they’re out in public. And even lower-level harassment leads to the pervasive effects on black male behavior we’ve been talking about.
Rashawn Ray
People who say, oh, well, these incidents don’t occur that often — well, that depends on how you look at it.
Even if we’re not talking about someone being killed, we are talking about someone potentially being beaten up. We’re talking about someone being followed and accosted. We’re talking about a racial slur being yelled at someone. We’re talking about incidents that alter how people move through space, that all of a sudden, black men start saying, well, you know, last time I went on that route, something happened, so I’m going to go on this route.
These negative encounters, these racial discriminatory incidents, also have spillover effects. Where someone had a negative encounter in the neighborhood, they’re less likely to engage in the community. Less likely to frequent public places. Less likely to frequent restaurants.
If you’ve been to a restaurant chain and some food that you ate made you sick, you’re probably not going to go back, even if that same restaurant is in another part of the country. You’re going to say, “Oh, last time I went to that restaurant, I got sick. I actually don’t like eating there.”
That is literally what happens to black people. And the impact that it has on their mental and emotional and physical health also matters.
Zack Beauchamp
There’s a line in your paper on black male exercise patterns that really stuck with me. You write that: “Unfortunately, research shows that black men’s social class cues are unable to substitute for the intersection of their black skin and maleness.”
Tell me about how that’s been established in the literature. How do we know that, say, a black Harvard grad putting on a Harvard sweater doesn’t do much to decrease the threat to him?
Rashawn Ray
I think there are two main comparisons.
First: Are black men who, say, wear Harvard sweaters treated better than a black man who doesn’t? Potentially. But the main comparison that should be made isn’t necessarily one black man to the next black man. It should be a black man to other men, to white men. I think that is the comparison, oftentimes, that we don’t actually make.
I think there are a couple more studies to note here. First, there was some research that looked at what is the likelihood of getting called back for a job based on the place you got your degree from. It had two categories of blacks, two categories of whites: one group in each race came from Ivy League schools, and the other group came from state schools.
The research found that not only were whites who attended Ivy League schools way more likely to be called back and hired, but whites who attended state universities had a similar likelihood of being called back for jobs as blacks who went to Ivy League schools.
Research also shows what happens when blacks are perceived as being militant. Blacks who have been involved in certain civil rights organizations or other organizations that are perceived to be about racial justice and social change have been less likely to be admitted to college relative to those that didn’t do that.
Zack Beauchamp
So on the one hand, there’s an expectation that black men need to alter their behavior to fit norms that make them nonthreatening to whites. And then on the other hand, meeting that expectation still isn’t enough: No matter how hard they try to fit whatever normative expectations of a nonthreatening, safe person are, they’re still at significantly higher risk of these kinds of hostile social encounters.
It’s like a rigged game.
Rashawn Ray
Yes, without a doubt. That’s part of the psychological, social-psychological process, that black men go through to essentially aim to juggle and balance these potentially deadly interactions.
One of the best examples that I can provide is there is a city councilman in Tennessee. In a previous job, he had to travel around a lot, he was doing nonprofit work — raising money for cancer research, of all things. He had on a suit and a tie, and he got pulled over, he had a rental car; one of the headlights or one of the taillights was out.
The police officer’s talking to him, and starts scolding him about the lights, and he said, well, you know, this is a rental car. He said I’m here doing work. And he starts telling him what he was doing there.
That conversation then pivoted, and he said telling him where he graduated from, and the job he was doing, and why he was dressed that way, he thought that would help him. But it actually made the encounter worse.
I have spoken to many black men who say it is a balancing act to appear as if you are not a criminal, but you also don’t want to appear as if you’re too smart, or that you’re too successful, because then that also has implications, depending on who you’re interacting with.
Even though the percentage of police officers who have a college degree is increasing, most police officers don’t. Trying to talk proper, trying to speak as if you were more educated, if you will, can also have negative consequences — depending on where you’re at and who you’re interacting with.
Zack Beauchamp
Last thing. You talked a little bit earlier about policy change, but it seems like there aren’t obvious policy fixes to a lot of the problems that you document. What do you do about the fact that in majority-white neighborhoods, a lot of white people feel entitled to call the police on a black man that they see running?
How do you change the underlying social norms and expectations? Does there have to be some sort of massive societal transformation? It’s easy to come away from talking to you and reading your research and to feel pretty down on the prospects for dismantling this particular element of racial hierarchy.
Rashawn Ray
It can definitely be depressing. But there are a few things, though, that I think are important.
On the policy side, I do think that stand-your-ground laws and citizen’s arrest laws need to be reevaluated and probably removed. And part of it is because research continuously shows the inequitable distribution of how those policies are applied. If you are a white assailant, like the McMichaels, or you are a white victim, you are much more likely, if you’re on the assailant end, to be able to use the citizen’s arrest law [as a defense]. To be able to use the stand-your-ground law.
I think the second thing is when people are calling the police, or whomever they call, on black people moving through space — when nothing is found out, the “crime” is simply walking or jogging while black, there needs to be a fine associated with that. Those fines will start to set a precedent that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.
The third thing: Racism, particularly white racism enacted on black bodies, is really a white people issue. What we need are for white people to speak up and speak out when they see these incidents that aren’t right.
In black communities, people talk about the stop snitching campaign, the fact that black people don’t talk to police. They don’t talk to police because they don’t trust them.
But you know, in predominantly white neighborhoods, white neighbors don’t tell on their neighbors either when these kind of things happen. That’s something that we need to call out, we just don’t frame it that way.
My grandfather would always tell me my silence is my acceptance. And what I oftentimes see, similar to predominantly male settings, is that it also happens in predominantly white settings. That there are white people who hear something racist, see something racist, they don’t agree with it, but they don’t say anything either. And that is where we really get into the difference between being an ally, and being an advocate.
An ally is someone who can wear some kind of white ribbon, or some kind of ribbon saying, yeah, support this cause, I support racial equality. But when it hits the fan, you don’t speak up for people who are being discriminated against. An advocate, on the other hand, speaks up for people when the people from that group are not around.
There are conversations that happen at tables all across America, tables that are oftentimes predominantly white, where race comes up, and there are people at those tables who don’t agree with what was said, but just don’t feel like getting into it. If we’re going to move past race, we need those people to get into the fight.
Because black people don’t have the luxury of not being involved.