#450: Article Club Is 9 Years Old 🎂
Plus: You’re invited to a 3-part discussion of Southlake next month
Today is Article Club’s ninth birthday. Thank you for celebrating with me. 🎉
I started this newsletter in the summer of 2015 when I was living in the Bay Area and working as an instructional coach. The point of it was to share with you the best articles on race, education, and culture — with the hope that doing so might help us expand our empathy, build our connections, and think of ways we might make ourselves a better world.
On the surface, not much has changed since then. I still live in the Bay Area. I still work in education, now as an assistant principal in Oakland. And I’m still reading a ton and sending you articles week after week (after week).
But there’s one thing that has significantly shifted. It’s the reading community we’ve built over the years. There used to be four of you; now there are 1,400. Thanks to you, we’ve made this a kind and thoughtful place. I’m grateful that I get to share and discuss what I read with you. I’m looking forward to seeing where Year 10 takes us.
I’m pleased with what I have for you this week. Hope you check these out:
An invite to discuss Southlake with fellow Article Clubbers (see below)
An article about the anger a woman experiences from not having a father
An investigation into the broken promise of “40 acres and a mule”
A look at how artificial intelligence will revolutionize reading
🎁 Next month, I warmly invite you to a series of gatherings to discuss Southlake, the six-part podcast about how a mostly-white community in a Texas suburb failed to respond to the harm that white students caused when they chanted the N-word in a video after a homecoming dance in 2018. It’s very well done.
If you’re an educator, a parent, or if you care about issues of race and gender identity in schools, I encourage you to participate.
We’ll meet on Zoom three Sundays in July, discussing two episodes each, like this:
Sunday, July 14, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 1-2
Sunday, July 21, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 3-4
Sunday, July 28, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT: Episodes 5-6
In addition to talking about the podcast, we’ll also build relationships and support one another to make a difference on an issue in our own school communities. After all, what happened in Southlake is happening all over our country, in various ways.
I’m very excited to bring this to you alongside fellow educators and long-time Article Clubbers Telannia Norfar and Abby Benedetto. They’re wonderful.
And one last perk: Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh will be doing an interview.
⭐️ Are you interested, or at least intrigued? Here are two things to do:
Type “I’m in!” in the comments below (even if you’re a maybe).
I’ll email you with more details.Come to an optional info session on Sunday, July 7, 2:00 - 2:45 pm PT.
You’ll meet me, Telannia, and Abby, plus get a sense of what we’re hoping to do. That way, you can decide whether you want to do this.
1️⃣ There Was A Father
Ijeoma Oluo’s has only one childhood memory of her father. She’s 2 years old, crawling in between her father’s legs underneath chairs at the airport. She’s laughing and giggling amongst ankles and calves.
Soon after, her father left her and his family. Except for a phone call or two, his absence during her childhood was near total. Ms. Oluo writes:
As I grew older, my father became less of a person in my life and more of the annoying ghost of a person. His memory existed only to make things more difficult. His whole being in our lives revolved around what wasn't. He wasn't there to help our mom with bills. He wasn't there to cheer on our sports games. He wasn't there to help mom.
I appreciate this piece for the reason I appreciate Ms. Oluo’s writing in general: It’s direct, raw, and unflinching. For example, there are moments when her mother and her siblings want Ms. Oluo to forgive her dad. She wants nothing to do with it. “I never thought, ‘I wish I had a dad.’ What I remember thinking was, ‘I wish my mom wasn't so heartbroken all the time, and crying all the time. And I wish that she was happy.‘ ”
But just when you’ve settled on agreeing with Ms. Oluo wholeheartedly, or perhaps reserving some compassion for her father, the piece opens up and becomes bigger in scope. I won’t spoil the ending for you, except to hope that you read it.
By Ijeoma Oluo • Behind the Book • 27 min • Gift Link
✚ Ms. Oluo has appeared in Article Club many times. Here’s “The Heart of Whiteness,” her classic takedown of Rachel Dolezal, way back in Issue #89.
2️⃣ 40 Acres And A Lie
Even though (white) Americans are fond of forgetting, and even though we may not have learned much about Reconstruction back in high school, most of us are familiar that General William T. Sherman famously promised “40 acres and mule” to thousands of Black people as reparations for slavery.
The prevailing story is that Gen. Sherman reneged on that promise. But the reality is that at least 1,250 formerly enslaved men and women received land titles in Georgia and South Carolina after the Civil War. In fact, the law founding the Freedmen’s Bureau also included a provision that Black families had the option to purchase the land after a three-year lease. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The backlash came.
This investigation by Mother Jones does an outstanding job connecting the dots among millions of documents. It also identifies 41 living descendants of those who were given land. One is Mila Rios. She says she doesn’t expect compensation for the land taken away from her great-great-grandfather, Pompey Jackson. “I’ve had a fabulous life. I’m proud of what my ancestors did, or else I wouldn’t be who I am today or where I am today.”
By Alexia Fernández Campbell • Mother Jones • 14 mins • Gift Link
3️⃣ Making Reading Sexy Again (With AI)
Pretty soon, you won’t need Article Club. Or book clubs, for that matter. (Or friends, or reading buddies, or teachers.) That’s because you’ll be able to read with the company of an AI version of your favorite author. How about The Age of Innocence with Roxane Gay’s AI? Or A Room With a View with Lena Dunham’s AI? With Rebind Publishing, you’ll “bring pages to life” and “experience a whole new way to read.”
In this essay, author Laura Kipnis reports from the inside, after Rebind asks for her commentary on Romeo and Juliet. Her job was to provide 12 hours of conversation on the play’s themes and essential questions, like “Is love at first sight trustworthy?” Ms. Kipnis writes: “The content was entirely up to me: My job wasn’t to be a Shakespeare expert, it was to be interesting.” In short, her job was to make her AI happy.
What sets Rebind apart, its founders say, is that readers will feel the support of having a guide as they engage in meaningful texts. “It comes back to authenticity,” one owner said. “If you just had the bot, you’d lose that connection.”
By Laura Kipnis • Wired • 14 mins • Gift Link
Thank you for reading this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀
To our 6 new subscribers — incuding Quinn, Lisa, Trudy, Robin, and Elaine — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Please make yourself at home.
If you appreciate the articles, like the gift links, value our discussions, and in general have come to trust that Article Club will have better things for you to read than your current habit of incessantly scrolling the Internet for hours on end, please consider a paid subscription. It’s $5 a month or $36 a year.
If subscribing is not your thing, don’t despair: There are other ways you can support this newsletter. My favorite two ways are sharing Article Club with a friend and sending me an email. I’d love hearing from you.
On the other hand, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, please feel free to unsubscribe below. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT.
It’s a useful resource, even if used episodically. I’m enlightened each time by insightful discussions on often divisive events.
I am sorry that I will not be with you today, but next time: for sure