#434: Behind the Hood

Plus: Melinda and I share our thoughts on “In Flux,“ by Jonathan Escoffery

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. In case you’re a newish subscriber: Hi, I’m Mark, an educator in Oakland, and for nearly nine years, I’ve been sharing with you the very best articles on race, education, and culture. Thank you for being here! ⭐️

This week was a slog, I gotta say. Usually, if you give me 10-or-so hours, I can find you some great articles, no problem. Not this time. Maybe it was my mood, but for some reason, I had some major troubles in the reading department. Thankfully, at the last moment, I lucked out and found two good ones. Hope you like them. They’re about:

• a reflection on the meaning and significance of the hoodie

• a day in the life of a public librarian

I hope you appreciate the articles. If you do, let me know. I’d be delighted to hear from you. Email me, record a voice note, or leave a comment below.

⭐️ Join us for this month’s discussion of “In Flux,” by Jonathan Escoffery. It’s a great article about identity, race, and the unfortunate question, “What are you?” ICYMI, here’s last week’s issue with more info.

We’re meeting on Zoom on Sunday, March 24, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm PT. If you’re interested, I urge you to take the leap.

📚 If you’re already a yes: This week, let’s annotate the article together.

🤔 If you’re a maybe: Listen to fellow Article Clubber Melinda and I chat about the piece in this podcast episode. Don’t worry, there aren’t major spoilers!

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1️⃣ Behind the Hood

Nicholas Russell used to wear a hoodie when he went running in the Las Vegas suburbs. No longer, not after cars started swerving too close. “I know that a potential incident can be, and has been, easily chalked up to unintentional happenstance,” he writes. “They were distracted; they overcorrected the wheel; they didn’t see me. And yet such scenarios occur more often than I care to think about.” This well-written piece, written four years after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and 12 years after the mruder of Trayvon Martin, discusses Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and argues, “No other garment is so charged, or so fraught, in this country as the hoodie.” Mr. Russell writes:

We can start with a list of hoods: Robin, Red Riding, the Unabomber, the KKK, the Grim Reaper, Tom Cruise on the poster of Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, Mr. Robot, Luke Cage, Aragorn, the prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Lisbeth Salander, members of a confraternity of penitents, Emperor Palpatine, tech bros. At a glance, there is no coherent history of the hood as a symbol for anything. It is shared by villains and heroes alike, by the common man and the richest of the rich, an accessory or a ritual prop. In the American idiom, this isn’t true.

By Nicholas Russell • The Point Magazine • 12 min

Loyal reader Veronica let me know the good news: Her Article Club mug got delivered. Even better: Her daughter Harriette approves! Want yours?

2️⃣ Safety Net

Last April, Lisa Bubert joined us to discuss “The Sunset,” a poignant essay about her time working at a nursing home. It was one of my favorite pieces last year, filled with humanity and sadness and grace. When we interviewed her, Ms. Bubert shared that she works as a librarian now in Nashville. This piece tells that story in all its beauty and pain. For Ms. Bubert, being a librarian means fighting for a safe space for everyone, especially our most vulnerable. It means believing in community when most of our society has given up on any idea of a public. It means waking up Carmen when she falls asleep and placing just the right book in just the right child’s hands. This is why Ms. Bubert loves being a librarian:

I love it because every day requires me to meet humanity face to face. It reminds me that I am actually living in an actual society where I am responsible to other people. In one hour on the desk, I can help a child find every single book on frogs that we have and then turn around and give a tissue to a grown man sobbing over his deceased wife. I can give a tampon to a woman hiding in the restroom because she’s been living on the streets. Patrons recognize me everywhere I go in my neighborhood, like a minor celebrity. Library lady, library lady. They know I’m nice, that I try not to judge. They know I can be trusted. They know I’m good in an emergency. And these days, when you work as a librarian in America, there is no lack of emergencies.

By Lisa Bubert • Longreads • 12 min

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🙋🏽 It’s time for a poll!

I have some secret ideas coming down the pike (or pipe, if you prefer). This poll will decide everything! Please vote if you feel inclined.

Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

For the first time in a long time, there were no new subscribers this week. This is sad. But thank you to our long-time subscribers (Yara! Yahuda! Yang!) and loyal readers (Dave) for sharing the newsletter with others.

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