Another way the rich keep getting richer? Marriage. This NPR podcast from February 24, 2020 explains the phenomenon of “assortative mating,” which occurs when people of similar education levels and socioeconomic status marry each other. Hosts Cardiff Garcia and Stacey Vanek Smith interview economist Branko Milanovic, who argues that this trend furthers income inequality in …
Category: How Can We Bridge The Differences That Divide Us?
Calling in sick: Amanda Mull on protecting everyone with paid sick leave
Wash your hands. Stop touching your face. Avoid large crowds. This past week, we’ve been inundated with advice for stopping the spread of COVID-19. In her February 28, 2020 essay, Amanda Mull argues that pandemics like this one could be contained more easily if we addressed an underlying structural issue inherent in the American workplace: …
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Keeping kids safe: Jaclyn Schildkraut on school lockdown drills
Active shooter lockdown drills are now common in U.S. schools, in response to recent deadly school shootings. In 2019, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers worked with the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund to issue a report calling for the end of these drills. Jaclyn Schildkraut, a researcher …
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On the ballot: Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy on representation in elected office
Quick! Which state leads the country in electing women of color to executive office? The answer? New Mexico. It’s not a “fluke,” Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy contend in their FiveThirtyEight essay published on January 31, 2020. Rather, they argue, the work that has been done in New Mexico to put women in office can …
Protecting our past: Elizabeth Silkes on the places that connect us all
There are some places around the world that carry significant meaning, not just for the local community, but for all humankind. These places are the stuff of bucket lists, the wonders of the world, marked for preservation and protection because they stand for our common humanity. Elizabeth Silkes, the Executive Director of the International Coalition …
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Beyond Black Panther: Scott Woods on the promise of Afrofuturism
“What’s this Afrofuturism I keep hearing about?” Scott Woods responds to this question in his December 27, 2019 essay, “The Decade Afrofuturism Reshaped Science Fiction and the World,” published in LEVEL. Scott Woods argues that Afrofuturism—an artistic, cultural, and political movement—has moved from fringe to mainstream culture in the 2010s, and he imagines what Afrofuturism …
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The right direction: Coleman Hughes and the case for black optimism
How do we measure progress? Coleman Hughes, a 23-year-old Columbia University student, looks at this question in his essay, “The Case for Black Optimism,” published in September 2019 in Quillette, an international online journal. Hughes makes the claim that black Americans are better off today than they have ever been, and he argues that this …
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Trusting the foxes: Rob Eshman on the challenge of opening our hearts
What if your very life depended on trusting people that you had learned explicitly to hate, feat, and distrust? Yikes! What a terrible question, right? You may not be able to answer it easily, but most likely you will never find yourself in such a dramatic situation, so no worries. Writer and former publisher of …
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Skin deep: Linda Villarosa on race-based myths in medicine
In everyday English, to say that someone is thin-skinned means that they’re easily insulted or offended, and it’s usually not a compliment. The opposite, thick-skinned, is said about someone who is not deterred or troubled by criticism, a favorable characteristic. But these metaphoric phrases have been—and continue to be—applied literally and with opposite values in …
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Privilege: Kyle Korver on racism and unawareness
Utah Jazz player Kyle Korver has had a stellar basketball career. He was named NBA All-Star in 2015 and has led the NBA in in 3-point shooting percentage four times; fans in all the cities where he’s played proudly sport his jersey. As a popular NBA star, he enjoys a tremendously privileged life. In this …
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