There was little that was surprising in the Supreme Court’srecent decision banning race-conscious collegeadmissions. The court’s ultra-conservative majority hadbeen expected to make a ruling implicitly stating that thelingering effects of generations of overt racism don’t mattervery much. But it was the court’s ruling in another case — strikingdown President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan—…
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Since the 1980s and the rise of the so-called Moral Majority — a politically influentialgroup who married conservative Christians to the Republican Party — I’ve searched forsigns of Christian charity and empathy in conservative politics. Despite their very publicpiety, I’ve seen little evidence of New Testament values in the policies and principlessupported by conservative Christians and…
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Aware of one climate disaster after another, I’ve beenthinking a lot about the late, great Octavia Butler, whoforesaw the effects of climate change — and our failure toforestall it — sooner than most of us. Parable of theSower, her first installment of what she had intended as atrilogy, was published in 1993, long before the…
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Before June ends, an ultra-conservative U.S. SupremeCourt is likely to strike down affirmative action in collegeadmissions, a practice that has stood for decades. Whileequal justice advocates will be upset by the court’s action,the demise of official affirmative action policies won’t hurtblack or brown students as much as advocates fear.That’s because the far bigger problem facing…
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Since the mid-19 th century, American public schools havebecome an increasingly important part of the commons —the cultural and natural resources that are ownedcollectively by all members of society. As compulsorypublic education spread to all the states by the start of the20 th century, most Americans came to support their publicschools as essential not only…
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While Newt Gingrich deserves much of the blame for themodern Republican Party — an assemblage of anti-democratic, obstructionist, belligerent contrarians andkooks — Grover Norquist ought to get his due. He is therightwing anti-tax activist who famously stated, “I don’twant to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it tothe size where I can drag it…
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If you are poor, you must be lazy, right? Here in the United States of America, the land of milk and honey and gold-gilded streets, the only people struggling to make ends meet are those too shiftless to work, too irresponsible to save, too dumb to make good decisions, right? If you don’t believe that,…
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