Roundup

The Battle Against D.C. Statehood is Rooted in Anti-Black Racism

by Kyla Sommers

"The continued power of Congress over the District’s affairs is rooted in this same fear of Black power and racist belief that a majority-non-White populace is incapable of independently governing itself."

We Can’t Address Systemic Racism if We Can’t Discuss it Without Backlash

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Is an adjunct law professor caught on tape bemoaning the academic performance of her Black students taking the symbolic fall for a failure to reckon with a systemic problem of racism in legal education? 

The Nazi-Fighting Women of the Jewish Resistance

by Judy Batalion

"I was raised in a community of Holocaust survivors and had earned a doctorate in women’s history. Why had I never heard these stories?"

The Triangle Fire and the Fight for $15

by Christopher C. Gorham

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire inspired workplace safety regulation and advanced the cause of organized labor. It's time to remember the victims with a commitment to a federal living wage law.

When Academic Bullies Claim the Mantle of Free Speech

by Jennifer Ruth

It's past time to look at controversies over "woke" campus culture by considering the frequency with which faculty harassment follows from the exposure of alleged left-wing excess in the outrage-driven news media. 

Your Home’s Value Is Based on Racism

by Dorothy A. Brown

The real estate market isn't "free" – it is shaped by the preferences of white buyers who prefer much less racial integration than black buyers do. Consequently, the market is a machine for expanding racial inequality through home equity. 

Does Biden Really Want to End the Forever Wars?

by Jack Goldsmith and Samuel Moyn

Recent presidents, including Joe Biden, have relied on an expansive view of presidential powers under Article II of the Constitution to conduct military action outside of the framework of declared war. 

Medical Racism has Shaped U.S. Policies for Centuries

by Dierdre Cooper Owens

Medical racism is as old as America, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception in terms of unequal vulnerability to disease. 

The Roundup Top Ten for March 19, 2021

The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week. 

Heterophobia? Straightwashing on the Academic Job Market

by Rebecca L. Davis

"Heterophobia is a pernicious idea, one that suggests that to question sexuality’s normative history is to hate people who sexually desire people of a different sex."

The U.S. Government Should Promote the General Welfare

by Lawrence Wittner

The preamble of the Constitution states that the federal government was established "to promote the general welfare." The Democratic Party, for its own good and that of the nation, must aggressively seize that mantle now. 

Why We Should Cancel The Phrase ‘Cancel Culture’

by Max Boot

There are legitimate and important arguments about how much society should tolerate offensive or controversial speech, and how much the markets or public opinion should sanction individuals for what they say. The current "cancel culture" outrage on the right has nothing to do with these arguments. 

The Filibuster’s Ugly History and Why It Must Be Scrapped

by Sean Wilentz

Democrats fear what a Republican Senate might do without the filibuster; they should fear what Republican state legislatures will do unless they take away the tool of obstruction standing in the way of legislation to protect voting rights. 

Manufacturing Isn’t Coming Back. Let’s Improve These Jobs Instead

by Gabriel Winant

Instead of focusing on infrastructure projects, the federal government should act to improve the pay and working conditions of medical and care workers, who have been a growing share of the American working class for decades. This would make poorer and older Americans healthier as well. 

The Sports Pages of Death

by Tom Engelhardt

The developing effort to control and contain the COVID pandemic raise the question of why governments and industry are not doing more to avoid the worst case scenarios of climate change. 

#FreeSenegal Youth Protesters are Checking Power — and Not for the First Time

by Burleigh Hendrickson

Student-led protests in 1968 in Senegal led to democratizing reform and the diminishment of French influence over the former colony. Will youth-led activists today be able to influence a government viewed as prioritizing the needs of foreign businesses over its own population? 

The Forgotten Film That Paved The Way For This Year’s Oscars Contenders

by Rebecca Prime

For the 1968 film "Uptight!," white director Jules Dassin enlisted Ruby Dee and Julian Mayfield to remake the 1935 film "The Informer" around the Black Panther Party, a move which drew on all three principals' experiences with surveillance over political activism and provoked a sabotage effort by the FBI.

History Reveals that Getting Rid of the Filibuster is the Only Option

by Nancy Beck Young

There's no evidence that the founders intended for anything like the filibuster, a way for a minority faction to obstruct legislation. 

2021 Could Finally be the Moment for the Equal Rights Amendment

by Rebecca deWolf

Previous waves of support for the Equal Rights Amendment capitalized on significant social disruptions that underscored the economic and social significance of women's paid and unpaid work. Will the COVID pandemic be the moment that brings a renewed ERA to passage?

H.R. 1 Can’t Pass the Senate. But here are Some Voting Reforms that Could.

by Richard L. Hasen

An election law expert says that Democrats in Congress face a huge risk by pushing a large, comprehensive bill lumping voting rights protections with campaign finance and candidate disclosure provisions, instead of strategically exercising the powers already guaranteed under the Constituiton.