The Roundup Top Ten for February 18, 2022
Selling Hopeby Wendy A. WolosonAfter a cancer diagnosis, the author still couldn't escape a world of consumerism that relentlessly commodifies even the worst experiences. |
The Conservatives on the Court Don't Seem too Concerned about SCOTUS's Legitimacyby Mary ZieglerThe belief that Supreme Court justices will moderate their decisions to avoid the image of an unelected group of partisan ideologues usurping the power of the elected branches of the government seems increasingly rooted in outdated norms and institutional arrangements that no longer apply. |
Teaching Slavery to Middle Schoolers Raises Emotions. It's Not a Bad Thingby Mary Niall Mitchell and Kate ShusterA new digital project helps teachers use advertisements seeking the return of enslaved people who escaped as a way of understanding the people whose self-liberation forced those stories into the printed record. |
Baseball Players Can't Live on a "Cup of Coffee"by Kelly Candaele and Peter DreierFraming the baseball lockout as a battle of billionaire owners vs. millionaire players misses the fact that most players who ever reach the big leagues won't make great salaries, garner endorsements, or get a league pension. |
Will Monuments Honoring People of Color Replace Confederate Statues?by Frederick Gooding, Jr."With few new exceptions, public and prominent statues of Blacks people are nonexistent." |
Confronting History Should Make Us Uncomfortableby Kevin M. LevinGood teaching requires leveraging students' emotions to engage the past. |
The Revolt of the Super Employeesby Erik BakerThe business managerial ethos established in the 1980s destroyed the idea of solidarity and replaced it with a fantasy version of meritocracy. Now, upper-middle management is having the rug pulled out from under it, and they're mad. Are they mad enough to recognize the faults of the system? |
Ottawa Truck Protests are an Extension of Canada's Settler Colonial Historyby Taylor DysartToday's Canadian protesters include many of the contemporary far right, but they all draw on a concept of freedom as individual entitlement to rule that has roots in the displacement of the nation's indigenous people. |
Avoiding Racial Justice at Alabamaby Antar TichavakundaThe University of Alabama's initial decision to add desegregation pioneer Autherine Lucy's name to a building already honoring a former governor and Klansman was a PR blunder, but it sheds light on the way that universities typically use symbolic changes to sidestep demands for systemic reform. |
The Enlightenment Precursor of the Social Media "Wife Guy"by Meghan RobertsThe "wife guy" who self-servingly projects an image of domestic bliss and romantic devotion is not just a creation of the social media age. |