#443: Are White Women Better Now?
Articles on anti-racism workshops, the TV show Cheer, and failed relationships
Hi Loyal Readers. We had another surge of new subscribers this week, which makes me very happy. Welcome, and I hope you feel home here at Article Club.
In personal news, I returned home this afternoon after a four-day school visit in which I served for the first time on an accreditation team. My two main takeaways: (1) Young people are great everywhere, (2) Teachers are fundamentally good people. Which reminds me: It’s Teacher Appreciation Week. If you’re a teacher, I appreciate you. And if you’re not, I encourage you to appreciate someone who is.
This week’s issue is a bit different. The lead article, “Are White Women Better Now?” might be a surprise to long-time readers of Article Club. In short, the piece challenges the effectiveness of anti-racism workshops and mocks white women who attend them. I’m not including it because I believe or disbelieve the author’s argument. Rather, I selected the article because it’s a well-written and thought-provoking satire. Depending on your politics, it might make you uncomfortable, but I hope you appreciate the author’s approach to writing the piece.
Not interested in reading a potentially controversial article? Here are a couple more to check out (still serious, though, this week). They’re about:
📚 All right, it’s time to get to the articles. If an article moved you, or elicited a strong reaction, I encourage you to share your perspective. Hit reply or leave a comment.
1️⃣ Are White Women Better Now?
Progressive white women who fight for social justice are familiar with the criticism that after the assassination of George Floyd in 2020, they found themselves performing absolution in a proliferation of book clubs and Robin DiAngelo anti-racism workshops. But it’s one thing when a Black writer calls you out for this behavior; it’s entirely different when the admonishment comes from an anti-woke ex-liberal who married Bari Weiss, the publisher of The Free Press.
In this provocative piece, Nellie Bowles questions the value of anti-racism workshops and wonders if white women have become less racist having attended them. But her criticism does not land squarely on white women themselves. Ms. Bowles also does not trust the motives of the workshops’ facilitators. Most importantly, she derides our society’s expectaton that women apologize for structural inequities. She writes:
Where another generation of white women worked to hate their bodies, my generation hates its “whiteness” (and I don’t mean skin color, necessarily, as this can also be your internalized whiteness). People are always demanding that women apologize for something and women seem to love doing it. Women will pay for the opportunity. We’ll thank you for it.
I’d like to thank loyal reader and 22-time Article Clubber Jennifer for recommending this article to me.
By Nellie Bowles • The Atlantic • 12 min • Gift Link
2️⃣ What ‘Cheer’ Led To
“Audiences love an underdog story,” writes Sarah Hepola in this captivating profile of the Netflix television show Cheer and its star no-nonsense coach, Monica Aldama. But if there’s anything that American audiences like even better, Ms. Hepola continues, “it’s what you might call an overdog story.” In other words, when a juggernaut comes back down to earth — especially when there’s scandal involved — that’s what‘s particularly gripping.
You don’t need to have watched Cheer to appreciate this article, but it helps. Ms. Hepola humanizes Coach Aldama and follows the rise and fall of the Navarro College cheerleading squad. There is certainly no shying away from the team’s many disturbing scandals, several involving sexual assault. But Ms. Hepola writes, “I was torn between thinking Aldama had the worst luck in the world and wondering, on the other hand, whether there was indeed something rotten in Corsicana. But from where I was standing, she looked like a convenient, high-profile scapegoat.”
By Sarah Hepola • Texas Monthly • 38 mins • Gift Link
3️⃣ Best Of Article Club: The Crane Wife
Ten days after calling off her wedding, author CJ Hauser travels to the gulf coast of Texas to study whooping cranes for an upcoming novel. On the trip, Ms. Hauser reflects on her failed relationship, realizes painful personal truths, and begins the healing process. Ms. Hauser writes, “It’s easy to say that I left my fiancé because he cheated on me. It’s harder to explain the truth.” This is a beautiful, raw, heart-wrenching essay.
This is a Best Of Article Club selection. Originally featured in Issue #203 in August 2019, “The Crane Wife” was selected as one of the best articles of that year. Ms. Hauser participated in AC in March 2020, when our reading community began to take shape and when the world began to close down. She generously joined our discussion and recorded a podcast interview.
4️⃣ It’s time for a poll! 🙋🏽
Last week’s poll revealed that 59 percent of you haven’t participated in our monthly discussions for one of these three reasons:
Zoom isn’t ideal
It’s scary to talk to strangers
Sunday afternoons aren’t the best time
I hear that. This gets me thinking: What about a live chat thread where we discuss the week’s lead article? I’d be there Mondays 5-6 pm PT if you’d like to join live, but the thread would remain open through Wednesday night.
Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀
To our 16 new subscribers — including Nasha, Julia, Adam, Devorah, Jacob, Caylin, Eric, Wrenn, Ariel, Noble, My Sister, Emil, Red, and Tara — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club! Make yourself at home.
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I appreciate you, Mark! (I think you're a teacher?)
Not sure what to make of the first one. It seemed obvious.
The Crane Wife is a gem!
That first one was pretty shocking. I also read the washington post review of her book, which is a scathing review. Interesting to put them into conversation!
"Bodies of culture" was a particularly dystopian phrase. . .