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The Roundup Top Ten for March 26, 2021

I Don’t Want My Role Models Erased

by Elizabeth Becker

The work of women journalists covering the war in Vietnam has been obscured in remembrance of the war and its place in American history and culture. The author seeks to recover the stories of Frances FitzGerald, Kate Webb and Catherine Leroy.

Can a Grand Bargain Empower Amazon’s Workers and Limit Corporate Power?

by Nelson Lichtenstein

"Unions are weaker today than they were in the 1930s, but the idea that wages have to rise and democracy has to be revitalized, in the workplace and beyond, is returning in an echo of that era."

Letters From an American: March 23, 2021

by Heather Cox Richardson

Beginning in the 1970s, the National Rifle Assocaition evolved into a political lobbying organization increasingly enmeshed with the conservative movement. Two recent mass shootings are a tribute to the organization's success. Congratulations. 

The Battle Against D.C. Statehood is Rooted in Anti-Black Racism

by Kyla Sommers

"The continued power of Congress over the District’s affairs is rooted in this same fear of Black power and racist belief that a majority-non-White populace is incapable of independently governing itself."

The Immovable AMLO

by Humberto Beck, Carlos Bravo Regidor and Patrick Iber

"AMLO continues to decry the faults of neoliberalism, but his government is, for the most part, failing to build an effective alternative to it."

How the U.S. Tax Code Privileges White Families

by Dorothy A. Brown

The history of the married-filing-jointly tax return is one of affluent white families securing advantages through the tax code that working class families, including most Black taxpayers, were unable to realize. After the expansion of income taxation during World War II, this disparity became a significant source of inequality. 

We Need Social Science, Not Just Medical Science, to Beat the Pandemic

by Nicholas Dirks

"In order to ensure that scientific advances work not just to create new medicines but to help lead to a healthier and more just world, we need to ensure that science and social science work hand in hand as well."

The Nazi-Fighting Women of the Jewish Resistance

by Judy Batalion

"I was raised in a community of Holocaust survivors and had earned a doctorate in women’s history. Why had I never heard these stories?"

Medical Racism has Shaped U.S. Policies for Centuries

by Dierdre Cooper Owens

Medical racism is as old as America, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception in terms of unequal vulnerability to disease. 

The Triangle Fire and the Fight for $15

by Christopher C. Gorham

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire inspired workplace safety regulation and advanced the cause of organized labor. It's time to remember the victims with a commitment to a federal living wage law.