Kristin E.
An economics professor lays out the devastating facts about inequality in America: people of color are disadvantaged from the very beginning of their lives. No, make that from well before they are born. Surely, even the hardest-core advocate of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mindset could not in good faith argue that fetuses are to blame for their fate, and if they had just worked harder in the womb they could be President, just like anyone else.
Scientific American on Diversity: Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working.
Vox has a great 5 minute video about how to make debates informative for voters: no live audience, moderators who aren’t trying to sell news, and candidates get the same amount of time to talk, regulated by chess clocks.
Tim Urban took a break from writing tomes about Elon Musk and the future of energy to writing a summary of the second presidential debate. It appears to be spot on.
538 has a new toy: change the turnout and preference of different demographic groups to see what would swing the election!
Serena
For those in the Seattle area, I highly recommend checking out the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s staging of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” I had the good fortune to see it this past weekend, and the even better fortune of stumbling on a post-performance conversation between former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, Urban League President Pamela Banks, and City HALA staffer Michelle Chen. They shared what the play meant to them personally (Mayor Rice having himself performed in it twice as a young man, including a run during the time when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated); how its themes of family striving are timeless, universal ones that all Americans can appreciate; and how the impacts of racism past and present continue to shape the city Seattle is and could become.
John
Democracy Now! recently hosted Bill McKibben on the “new math” of climate change. He covers a recent report from Oil Change International in New York City:
“What this new study indicates—and it’s important to kind of get this—is that the coal mines and oil and gas fields that we already have in production have enough carbon in them to take us past the 2-degree mark that the UN has said is the line for catastrophe.”
John Abbotts is a former Sightline research consultant who occasionally submits material for Weekend Reading and other posts.
