Opinion & Analysis

  • [Opinion] The Black Plague

    Wednesday, Apr 22, 2020
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker
    Illustration by Jamiel Law, The New Yorker
    Thousands of white Americans have also died from the virus, but the pace at which African-Americans are dying has transformed this public-health crisis into an object lesson in racial and class inequality. According to a Reuters report, African-Americans are more likely to die of COVID-19 than any other group in the U.S. It is still early in the course of the pandemic, and the demographic data is incomplete, but the partial view is enough to prompt a sober reflection on this bitter harvest of American racism.

  • The pandemic will pass. Our grief will endure.

    Friday, Apr 10, 2020
    Eddie S. Glaude Jr., The Washington Post
    (Michael Woloschinow for The Washington Post)

    Americans have been told to brace themselves for difficult days ahead. The numbers are uncertain, but mass death is at our doorstep. If we do everything right and shelter in place, we may still see between 100,000 and 240,000 dead. These are staggering numbers, but more importantly they are real people. Mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, daughters and sons, friends — people whose deaths will disrupt the lives of families and rend the fabric of communities across this nation.

  • [Opinion] The Hypocrisy of the NCAA's Amateurism Model

    Wednesday, Mar 4, 2020
    Julia Chaffers
    Photo credit: AP Images
    This was but the most recent example of the injustice of the NCAA’s insistence on amateurism, which claims the purity of having no money in the game while at the same time constructing a multibillion-dollar industry around college athletics. This massive business is built on the backs of athletes, the majority of whom are black, and the profits go to mostly white power brokers.

  • [Opinion] We Really Still Need Howard Zinn

    Monday, Jan 13, 2020
    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Literary Hub
    howard zinn
    Howard Zinn wrote one of the most popular books on American history ever. A People’s History of the United States has sold an astonishing two million copies since its first publication in 1980. The success of the book can also be measured by the way that it spawned a new genre of “people-centered” renditions of history. Zinn’s approach to history essentially inverted the traditional approach that placed the rich and powerful, along with the institutions they governed, as the central motors in the development of society. It was history told from above. Alternatively, Zinn championed an approach to history from the bottom up or from the perspective of “the people.”

  • [Opinion] With Wilson installation, Princeton misses the mark

    Thursday, Oct 24, 2019
    Julia Chaffers
    Protestors gather at the unveiling of the Wilson marker.

    For the past few years, Princeton has been embroiled in debate about iconography and the representation of history on campus. Chief among these concerns is the presence of Woodrow Wilson in prominent spaces: a residential college and the School of Public and International Affairs. Out of the Black Justice League’s 2015 protests came a committee, and out of the committee came a “marker” called “Double Sights.” 

  • [AAS Podcast] Episode #17: Legacy and Racialized Politics

    Friday, Sep 6, 2019
    by Department of African American Studies
    Aftican American Studies Podcast Artwork
    We sit down with Eddie Glaude Jr. and Julian E. Zelizer, Author, and Professor at Princeton University, to discuss the challenges of balancing and teaching within the academic and public media arena. They then explore the historical cycle of racialized politics displayed by President Donald Trump and its impact within America as we approach the 2020 Elections

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