Browse Topics
Oppression
Where We Start
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidate — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
September 2018Jewish Enough
The morning after my fourth-grade teacher / taught my class about the Holocaust / (how Christians like Mom were safe, Jews / like Dad were sent to camps in cattle cars)
September 2018Prisoner Of Hope
Cornel West’s Quest For Justice
[Black people have] learned a lot from being invisible, spit on, dishonored, and devalued. One thing we’ve learned is that when you have been terrorized, it is spiritually empty to terrorize others back.
September 2018
July 2018
Featuring Lorenzo Milam, Tram Nguyen, Brian Doyle, and more.
July 2018Sunbeams
June 2018It was the last day of school, and I was walking with my dad. . . . Suddenly, he paused, looked at me intently, and said, “Son, you’re a black male, and that’s two strikes against you.” To the general public, anything that I did would be perceived as malicious and deserving of severe punishment, and I had to govern myself accordingly. I was seven years old.
June 2018
Featuring Michelle Alexander, Reverend Lynice Pinkard, Akhim Yuseff Cabey, and more.
June 2018From Slavery To Freedom
The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition.
June 2018Love And Justice
The Sun presents a selection of poems that speak to the subtle and not-so-subtle injustices going on around us. Featuring Cortney Lamar Charleston, Ashley M. Jones, Eve Williams, Anuradha Bhowmik, Hope Wabuke, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Amy Dryansky, Brionne Janae, Danez Smith, and Brian Gilmore.
June 2018
My Sister Blazed Through Her Life
When she was young, she had a small part in a play, but everyone looked at her. Dull her down, the director said, throw an old coat over her. They did, but everyone still looked at her.
May 2018
Personal, political, provocative writing delivered to your doorstep every month—without a single ad.
Subscribe Today