June in the Rift Valley

A few summers ago, my father and I lived briefly at the Rift Valley Children’s Village in Tanzania’s Karatu District. India Howell, an American woman, and Peter Leon Mmassy, a Tanzanian man, founded the Children’s Village in 2004 as a permanent home for orphaned and other marginalized children. Tanzanian law requires non-citizens to live in the … Read more

The Cost of Impeachment

Donald Trump’s impeachment—a liberal fantasy since his inauguration—now appears to be a plausible outcome. In a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, Comey claimed that President Trump privately requested him to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his communications … Read more

Looking Into and Out of America as Black Students

“Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America doesn’t care.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah. *** Accepting Adichie’s words has become more than a choice. It has become a frank requirement to understand the black social fabric of the … Read more

Right-To-Work Is Wronging Workers

“We go to the demonstration, and there’s six workers.” In 2012, UNITE HERE Local 26 chief steward Ed Childs spent a summer organizing workers to protest against the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. When it came time to demonstrate, Childs and another out-of-state organizer were dismayed by the low turnout. “We look at it like, … Read more