"I am a black Mississippian. I am a black American. I pledge to never be passive, patriotic, or grateful in the face of American abuse. I pledge to always thoughtfully bite the self-righteous American hand that thinks it’s feeding us. I pledge to perpetually reckon with the possibility that there will never be any liberty, peace, and justice for all unless we accept that America, like Mississippi, is not clean. Nor is it great. Nor is it innocent."
The Fader: What I Pledge Allegience To, September 19, 2016
A new branch of historical analysis considers slavery in the United States as an expression of a capitalist state.
A portrait of Ivanka Trump.
Victorian construction workers refuse to tear down this brutalist building - which was used for social housing and is now supposed to be redeveloped in a city that is increasingly becoming unaffordable.
Pop Culture:
A beautiful essay on how Emily Dickinson's poetic "you" creates the space for queer self-identification.
Moonlight sounds very promising .
After the end of AfterEllen, Rise from Autostraddle on future business models for LGBTQIA* online media and how the advertising business stereotypes queer women as non-profitable.
On FKA twigs.
Recent MacArthur fellowship recipient Claudia Rankine on Serena Williams (from 2015) and in TIME Magazine:
I think one of the things that is different at this moment is that we are in a position politically where the rhetoric is insisting on the agenda of white supremacy. And that we have not heard in such a bold way, despite what has been present systemically and structurally, we have not had a public presence of the language of white supremacy in the way that we have now. And so to have the rhetoric overtly mimic the structure is new for us.
TIME: Claudia Rankine: Society Is ‘in a State of Emergency’, September 22, 2016TV critic Emily Nussbaum on Donal Trump and television.
Ruby Tandoh from Bake-Off on recovering from an eating disorder and in Vice, on the duplicity of the wellness trend that is making us sick (And talkig about Bake-Off - here's why the show is so lovely, and why it likely won't be after the departure from BBC and Mel and Sue leaving).
Transparent is back for a third season, Mr. Robot just finished its second (and had a few truly outstanding episodes this year, even though it did not provide many answers in its finale).
Carrie Brownstein made a thing.
And to come full circle, here's Megan Rapinoe explaining why she chose not to stand for the national anthem -
“Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It’s important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this. We don’t need to be the leading voice, of course, but standing in support of them is something that’s really powerful.”
American Soccer Now: Megan Rapinoe Kneels For Anthem at NWSL Match, September 4, 2016