“Sloth was literal death for us, while for them, it was the whole ambition of their lives.”
Hiram is born into slavery in Virginia. Although he’s far more educated and capable than his bumbling white half-brother Maynard, Hiram is tasked with being his brother’s servant. When the book begins, both of them are about to be drowned in a river before we go into a flashback. Continue reading
Written in 1903, just 40 years after the end of slavery, The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois discusses the problem of race in America during the Jim Crow era. Du Bois details his own experience of having double consciousness. How his identity as a black person and his identity as an American are often at odds with each other. Continue reading
One guy in Russia suddenly goes crazy. He first attacks his friend, then he kills himself. A few more people engage in similar behavior. By the time there’s about 300 unexplained suicides worldwide, society shuts down. This didn’t ring true to me. As I write this, over half a million people have died from Covid-19, yet there’s still a sizable chunk of the population who refuse to wear masks. Why would everybody panic after just 300 deaths worldwide? We humans generally don’t take things seriously until it’s too late. Continue reading
The new Netflix documentary Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics interviews celebrities about their personal experiences with psychedelics and provides reenactments of their experiences. Some of the reenactments are animated while some are live action. There’s also a funny skit poking fun at 1980s after-school specials. Continue reading
White people are uncomfortable talking about race because it challenges our identity as unique and objective people. We get defensive and might insist that we’re the ones who are really being oppressed. We want to believe that we aren’t racist and any suggestion that we benefit from racist systems makes us angry or makes us not want to talk about it. However, not talking about it preserves the system that gives us privilege.
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“If they could bring back paperwork, Mark Spitz thought, they could certainly reanimate prejudice, parking tickets, and reruns. There were plenty of things in the world that deserved to stay dead, yet they walked.”
Zone One is a literary novel and as such is more focused on poetic language than action. The prose is filled with metaphors, similes, foreshadowing, personification, thesaurus words, and pages of description. So even though it’s a zombie book, it’s one your English teacher will be proud of you for reading. Continue reading
“Denial is the heartbeat of racism.”
Donald Trump calls himself the least racist person you’ll ever meet, however he’s referred to latinx people as criminals and rapists, called for a ban on Muslims entering the country, calls his black critics stupid, and praises white supremacists for being very fine people. How can he say he’s not racist? Continue reading
Dark Corners is a collection of horror short stories published by Amazon, which I’d say is worth your time overall.
“There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed” by Edgar Cantero takes place in a world in which anything you say becomes reality. It’s both fun and funny and also has a couple scary moments. Four children who are all Harry Potter fans (and who each belong to a different Harry Potter house) are having a sleepover when the ability to summon monsters like giant trapdoor spiders into existence becomes a problem. Continue reading
This collection of speculative fiction was published in order to support the refugee and immigrant center RAICES. In the introduction, the editor compares the treatment of present-day South American refugees to the way Jews were treated during World War II, which is an apt comparison. After all, FDR turned away thousands of Jewish refugees and sent them back to Germany due to fear that they would threaten national security. Many of them ended up dying in the Holocaust. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself due to the anti-immigrant sentiment of Americans today. Organizations like RAICES need all the help they can get. Continue reading
