Explain - The Emancipator

explain

Explainer | Nomi Sofer
Work requirements won’t affect the debt ceiling — but they will stir up racist narratives
Washington’s debt ceiling deal pushes the “lazy welfare recipient” trope. It’s time to disrupt this destructive stereotype and stop trapping workers in a cycle of low-wage jobs with no path to real economic mobility.

Health | Khary Rigg, Ph.D.
The Black opioid crisis reveals that barriers to treatment must come down
Urban Black communities are now ground zero for overdose deaths, yet Black people don’t get the same access to life saving medication. Systemic racism in healthcare is making this epidemic deadlier.

The Big Picture | Arionne Nettles
Saving Black homes lost to tax inequity
For decades, the sale of tax debt and unfair property assessments have disproportionately caused Black Americans to lose their homes across the United States.

The Big Picture | Gaurav J. Pathania
Caste should not be part of the ‘American Dream’
Caste could become the newest protected class in Seattle’s anti-discrimination law. More lawmakers need to follow suit to prevent this system of rigid hierarchy from taking root in the U.S. and protect the rights of lower-caste South Asian immigrants.

The Big Picture | Nicholas Turner
Long prison sentences are cruel and ineffective: here’s the proof
The United States incarcerates nearly 2 million people. More than half are serving sentences of 10 or more years. Long sentences were promoted with weak evidence, and the evidence of the harm they do is clear — so how did we end up here?

Education | Jaclyn Friedman
‘Parents’ rights’ as a red herring
The common thread through grievances around masking, vaccines, CRT, and trans kids in sports is clear: this astroturf movement wants to “defund government education.”

Culture | Phillipe Copeland
The art of the denial
Racism denial is a political strategy and a coping tool, used by those who benefit from racism and those unwilling to confront the dire contradictions in our society. Phillipe Copeland walks us through its different forms so we can recognize and counter them.

The Big Picture | Neda Khoshkhoo and Jasmine Gonzales Rose
Yes, filling out race on forms is tiresome. Here’s why it matters.
Completing a race questionnaire can be tiring, intrusive, or even inaccurate, but the data they collect are necessary for understanding how racism operates, how resources are distributed, and how different racial and ethnic groups experience benefits or harms.

Health | V. Jo Hsu
We might be over the pandemic, but it’s not over us
We cannot abandon millions plagued by long COVID, whose symptoms can include difficulty breathing, cognitive dysfunction, and fatigue that interferes with everyday activity — disproportionately hurting marginalized people.

Throughline | Jemar Tisby
Faith on the ballot: White Christian nationalism vs. Black Christian tradition
Two races in Arkansas and Georgia embody two American political traditions: One which uses faith to uphold White nationalism, and one that dismantles it.

The Big Picture | Lina Saleh and Adaeze Okorie
Enter the Other Swing Voter: the mighty 8%
Two young Black voters at Boston University share their message for the “Other Swing Voter” – those who swing between voting Democratic or not at all, most likely to be young and Black or young and Latino.

The Big Picture | Jeff Inglis
Who is representing you?
In the U.S., a diverse population is led by people who are disproportionately White and male, according to an analysis by The Emancipator.