Playing Sports and “Playing Indian”
The use of Native American stereotypes for team mascots and nicknames is related to efforts to erase Indian identity and culture.
How Residential Segregation Looked in the South
A longstanding idea about southern segregation is that it was more "intimate" than its northern counterpart. What's the truth?
The Kerner Commission Report on White Racism, 50 Years On
In 1968, the Kerner Commission “explicitly identified white racism as the principal cause of the civil disorder evidenced across hundreds of U.S. cities."
Is Hiring More Black Officers the Key to Reducing Police Violence?
Diversity among officers lags behind the general population. But is police culture a greater problem when it comes to combating excessive force?
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
How can we help students understand George Floyd's death in the context of institutionalized racism?
COVID-19 Is Hitting Black and Poor Communities the Hardest
The viral pandemic is underscoring fault lines in access to care for those on margins.
The Latent Racism of the Better Homes in America Program
How Better Homes in America—a collaboration between Herbert Hoover and the editor of a conservative women’s magazine—promoted idealized whiteness.
White Hollywood’s Romance with the N-Word
It would have been easy for censors to just ban the racist epithet during the classical era of film. Here's why it didn't happen.
Why Were There Still Stories of Blackface in 2019?
One of the minor themes of 2019 was the revelation that various prominent white politicians had once worn blackface. The question is: why?
How Oscar Micheaux Challenged the Racism of Early Hollywood
The black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux was one of the first to make films for a black audience, a rebuke to racist movies like The Birth of a Nation.