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White Lies

Ijeoma Oluo On Privilege, Power, And Race

White supremacy is not just Nazis marching in the street. In the U.S. it’s always been a part of the economic and social system.

V.I.P. Tutoring

For a term paper I demanded a Louis Vuitton purse. For a take-home midterm, a Tiffany bracelet.

Mischief

A teenage vandal, a burning secret, a sexual awakening

September 2017

Last month, in a section titled “One Nation, Indivisible,” we devoted more than half our pages to excerpts from The Sun’s archives. Our goal was to address the current political moment by giving readers perspective on the past and courage to face the present. Because the problems in our nation seem unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, we are making this an ongoing part of the magazine.

Stop Hitting Yourself

I was twenty-six, working full time at the Bagelry in suburban Chicago, avoiding the future. The future did not seem like anything you could count on. Even in suburban Chicago, where Public Works employees smiled while scraping up roadkill, people were unhappy, desperate to convince themselves of something good. Desperate.

Sunbeams

I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.

Alfred Hitchcock

Life On The Outside

Photographer Joseph Rodríguez grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and as a boy he watched the men in his family go in and out of prison. There were very few support programs for ex-felons at the time, and Rodríguez witnessed the difficulty his relatives had adjusting to life on the outside.

The Whole Truth

Richard A. Leo On Why Innocent People Confess To Crimes

Once the police come to the conclusion that someone committed the crime, they are trained to interrogate. At that point their goal isn’t to gather information; it’s to build a case against the person they’ve already decided is guilty. They want to get a confession.

Breaking The Law

An illegal abortion, a brother’s drug habit, Cold War secrets

Girls Like Her

I got the call in the middle of the night. I dressed fast, expecting Parker to wake up any minute and make me come back, but he didn’t. It was summer, and the air felt warm even at 2 AM. I made a cup of coffee and walked down the long driveway to the road. Julie was giving me a ride, but she’d never been to my house before. Nobody ever came there to see me.