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Roundup Top Ten for May 8, 2020

The Policy Mistakes from the 1990s that have Made Covid-19 Worse

by Heather Ann Thompson

Politicians should have learned that the walls they imagine separating those serving time from those outside are, in fact, completely porous.

Meatpacking Work has Become Less Safe. Now it Threatens Our Meat Supply

by Chris Deutsch

The modern food system rests on a thin reed of worker abuse and poor sanitation that covid-19 has finally broken.

Ida B. Wells Won the Pulitzer. Here’s Why that Matters.

by Sarah L. Silkey

President Trump continues the long history of trying to delegitimize black women journalists.

Ask Who Paid for America’s Universities

by Tristan Ahtone and Robert Lee

The Morrill Act created endowment funds from land that the U.S. Government took from Native Americans with little or no compensation. Addressing the problems of public universities must not exclude addressing the problems of Native communities.

COVID-19 and the Color Line

by Colin Gordon, Walter Johnson, Jason Q. Purnell, and Jamala Rogers

The disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken on black Americans is a product of conscious choices by actors at every level of government and private industries like banking, insurance and real estate. 

Female Husbands

by Jen Manion

Far from being a recent or 21st-century phenomenon, people have chosen, courageously, to trans gender throughout history.

Cities and States Need Aid – But Also Oversight

by Daniel Wortel-London and Brent Cebul

The history of New Deal-era federal aid to local governments suggests that cities need both funds and strict oversight; programs that worked through local business elites often created unsupportable demands on local finances. 

Coronavirus Is Making The Case For Black Reparations Clearer Than Ever

by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

America has failed to seize previous chances to eliminate racial inequality and grant black Americans access to the same opportunities as whites.

The Coronavirus Could Rewrite the Rules for Silicon Valley

by Margaret Pugh O'Mara

The blue-collar workers who power the digital economy — including fulfillment center workers and app-based couriers — are pushing for higher pay and better protection, just as Detroit autoworkers did 90 years ago.

Preserving Postal Service and Mail Voting is Essential

by Andrew W. Kahrl

If you are shocked that Republicans would use this crisis to end the postal service as we know it, then you haven’t been paying attention.