Culture Wars

In The War Over Gender, Jon tackled the problem with the gender binary — and it turns out there’s a lot of nonbinary stuff happening in between the binaries. It’s become a popular wedge issue for politicians, but that’s had devastating real-world consequences for trans people. We took a look at the controversy surrounding gender-affirming care, specifically, and learned what it actually is and why having access to it is so critical for trans kids. 

If you want to learn more about how you can support the trans community, visit our Take Action page.

The Problem with Mass Incarceration

We have a cancel culture in this country — it’s our criminal justice system. In “America’s Incarceration Epidemic,” we explored our obsession with locking up poor people and people of color. It turns out that serving prison time is pretty much a life sentence to poverty. Having a criminal record is a major barrier to finding work, and people who’ve been incarcerated earn roughly 40 percent less than someone without a record.

As we learned from our panelists, a conviction also brings with it other collateral consequences – restricting what industries you can work in, where you can live, and much more. In short, this all combines to trap people in post-conviction poverty. This has a massive impact when you consider that right now America has about 2 million people incarcerated, and up to 1 in 3 people in this country have a criminal record. In fact, a Villanova University study concluded that mass incarceration has increased the U.S. poverty rate by an estimated 20 percent.

To learn more about how we can reform our criminal justice system and break the prison-poverty cycle, visit our Take Action page.

America prides itself on being a place of equality for all, but that’s never been true for Black people. This country needs a real racial reckoning, but it’s white people that need to confront their role in perpetuating white supremacy and figure out how they’re going to make things right. 

It can, of course, feel very unpleasant to be told you’re upholding a racist system, but the fact is that white supremacy does exist, and every white American needs to actively confront what it means to be racist if we want to have a real racial reckoning.

When it comes to actually fixing this, many white people resent the idea of closing these racial gaps — they think of helping Black Americans as giving handouts. This is often connected to a feeling that it’ll mean that white people will have to give something up in return. Here’s the thing, though: this isn’t a zero-sum game! Improving the lives of Black people, giving them equality and equity, will benefit everyone.

To learn more about how we can dismantle our current system and make it more fair for everyone, visit our Take Action page.