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Obama's Parting Gift: The Power Not To Fear White Racism
Carvell Wallace, The New Yorker
We have plenty to fear right now, especially as we wave our tearful goodbye to the POTUS with the mostest, Barack Obama. But it also seems like a good time to reflect on what we learned during the Obama years. "I no longer hope to avoid arousing the demons of racism," wrote Wallace. "I know that such an awakening is an unavoidable result of affirming my own humanity. And there is no longer a scenario, under any President, or any Administration, in which I would refuse to do that." Thank you, Obama. Truly.
Billy Eichner Is Trying To Talk To You
E. Alex Jung, Vulture
Billy Eichner — who you may know more familiarly as "Billy On The Street" — is incredibly smart, fiercely honest, and hilarious. For this piece, Eichner and Jung talked about, among other things, comedy under Trump.
The Great Exception: California vs. Trump. Part One.
Andy Kroll, California Sunday Magazine
The good people of California have vowed to fight Trump on, well, pretty much everything. This piece on Kevin de León, the president pro tempore of the California State Senate, is the first in a series that will follow that confrontation.
How To Successfully Fight For Change, According To 6 People Who Actually Know
The FADER
In the weeks preceding the inauguration, FADER staffers reached out to activists who've fought some of the most important fights for social justice and equal rights in the U.S. and lived to tell the tale. They had some crucial advice for how to stay strong in the face of the Trump administration.
Stop Making Sense, Or How To Write In The Age Of Trump
Aleksander Hemon, Village Voice
"There is a certain kind of abdominal pain felt only when a catastrophe appears at the door of the world you know and proceeds to bang on it," wrote Hemon, the Bosnian author of The Lazarus Project. "The sensation could be likened to a steel ball grinding your intestines. There is nothing like it." Hemon goes on to explain, from his own experience in Bosnia, why many Americans are walking around with anchors of fear hanging from their hearts, but simultaneously cannot fathom the reality of our present and near future. If you're scared of Trump and feeling crazy or helpless, read this.