How Demands for Affordable Housing Are Defining Pittsburgh’s Mayoral Race A disproportionate number of Black residents have left the city, and advocates say the next mayor needs to ensure greater access to housing. Joshua Vaughn
The U.S. Economy Won’t Recover Until Black Workers Do Biden’s American Rescue Plan is a start, but more public investment is needed to address racial inequality in the labor market. Ashley Mitchell
Confront and Remedy the Black Community’s COVID-19 Vaccine Skepticism Decades of exploitation, abuse, and racism in medicine have cost many Black Americans their lives during the pandemic. Now the government can act to prevent further harm. Ruqaiijah Yearby
Social Workers Are Rejecting Calls For Them to Replace Police Some say their roles are already too close to those of law enforcement and are organizing for a radical rethinking of the profession. Mia Sato
New York City Laundry Workers Struggle in the Face of COVID-19 Workers report facing a difficult choice between earning a living and feeling safe and healthy at their job. Amir Khafagy
Philadelphia Police Make Hundreds of Looting Arrests, Leave Many More Violent Crime Cases Unsolved The city’s clearance rate for murder, whose victims are disproportionately Black, has hovered around 40 percent for the last several years. Joshua Vaughn
New York City Must Take Action to Ensure the Most Vulnerable Survive the Pandemic The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents. TS Candii, Darializa Avila Chevalier
Voting Rights Advocates Sound the Alarm About Disenfranchisement of Black Voters in Wisconsin’s Primary 'We literally held an election during a pandemic.' Kira Lerner
My Vote Was Taken Away From My Community and Given To a District Where I Was Incarcerated Prison-based gerrymandering takes political power away from Black and Latinx communities—power that could be used to push for more funding for schools, social services, infrastructure, and other important reforms. Robert Saleem Holbrook
What Kim Ogg Gets Wrong About Work, Poverty, and Crime The attitude behind the Harris County district attorney’s message to ‘put down your gun and pick up an employment application’ is outdated. Jessica Pishko
A Black California Man Says a White Ex-Employee Assaulted Him. He Was the One Detained. Erick Wallace’s federal civil rights lawsuit joins a long line of litigation and misconduct allegations against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Jerry Iannelli
Harris County D.A.’s Office Dropped Theft Case After Defense Attorney Alleged Race-Based Jury Selection A Texas judge approved a Batson motion, then overruled it. But a transcript shows that a Black man was struck unfairly, the attorney said. Aaron Morrison
The Media’s Misguided Backlash Against Criminal Justice Reforms in D.C. and New York Many liberals support reform in theory. But when unpopular decisions need to be made, it’s back to the 1990s “Tough on Crime” playbook. Adam H. Johnson
Media Frame: Chicago ‘Bean’ Graffiti Outrage Prioritizes Property Over People Outlets ran over 200 articles covering the vandalism. The outsize attention will likely damage young lives. Adam H. Johnson
Media Frame: Stoking Panic Over ‘Flood’ of ‘Juveniles’ in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor The sensationalist coverage of a handful of fights highlights local media’s misplaced priorities. Adam H. Johnson
Injustice Roundup: My Weekly Roundup of Stories on Abusive Police Officers, Prison Guards, and Prosecutors Shaun King
Keith Tharpe’s Scheduled Execution Tests Our Tolerance for Racial Bias in Executions There are two types of Black people, the juror said, and Tharpe wasn’t a “good” one. Cassandra Stubbs
