I don’t disagree with you, exactly, but I’m a little puzzled about what point you’re trying to make. Yes, Lincoln (much like LBJ) was paradoxically a racist and a key figure in America’s long, ongoing slog towards something resembling racial equity. But “Lincoln was the first woke president” isn’t a canard I’m…

Well said. A huge factor that enables this form of manipulation is the skewed relationship between journalists and social media. Their profession requires them to have an active presence on Twitter, for some reason, and it’s clear that most of them end up conflating the popular sentiments on that platform with the…

While I do enjoy this show’s extreme attention to detail, it’s had the strange effect of making me unusually aware - and critical - of missteps in the writing that I normally wouldn’t think twice about. Like, it’s genuinely bewildering to me that these writers take such care with running themes/gags/bits, yet they…

It’s astounding how often this show uses rape as a plot device, and how much it seems to relish depicting it. I consume a lot of pop culture, and I have literally never seen a series so ghoulishly fixated on rape, the threat of rape, assault verging on rape, attempted rape, gray area lack of consent situations that…

I think we are for the most part, but we seem to differ in the amount of importance we place on that asterisk. I’m not coming at it from any kind of #NotAllTrumpVoters angle – personally agree with the sentiment that not taking racism seriously is a kind of racism unto itself – but I feel like those of us on this…

That’s an interesting point. I can see how in that sense, it could be subverting a different kind of trope, and shining a light on the fact this kind of darkness is just as likely to be in the minds of women whose appearance and/or outward demeanor are culturally coded as “wholesome,” or “sweet-natured,” or…

Good news for me, great news for the people who will finally be spared my relentless attempts to drum up a game of Trivial Pursuit.

It was bold of me to assume any amount of hyperbole about this topic is self-evident as such, but yes, I was being sarcastic. I don’t think she’s trying to do that, either – but when people on the left cite that statistic and talk about it as though it really is interchangeable with a statistic about racism, the…

Aw, man. When I read this piece, I assumed the character was at least the hot version of the white trash lady stereotype. Your comment prompted me to go read some other pieces about the film, and according to Variety, the men are “semiliterate rednecks” who are “so inept” at organizing their hate group, it’s comedic.

It’s a fascinating way to begin a piece about white ladies needing to realize they don’t get any wiggle room when it comes to race issues. I guess you can free up enough space to wiggle your heart out, so long as you move those pesky goal posts first! God bless the 48% of white women who nobly cast their votes for…

This seems like it could easily be a case “subconscious plagiarism,” like George Harrison’s infamous “My Sweet Lord”/”He’s So Fine” fiasco. There’s no discernible reason for a good songwriter to knowingly rip off a famous work, but there is a certain theft-via-osmosis phenomenon that can get the better of any artist.…

If you give that song another spin and actually listen to the words, rather than straining to read between the lines, it does a pretty good job of explaining her silence. She announced via her first single that she’s done defending herself in the the court of public opinion. And let’s be really honest here — there…