Hello, and Happy Juneteenth!
Today, a number of American companies and organizations are taking the day off in recognition of Juneteenth, the annual holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States. The date — June 19, 1865 — doesn’t mark the end of slavery in the country, but rather the day that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas (then the most remote part of the Confederacy) finally learned of their emancipation, more than two years after it was granted.
Juneteenth isn’t a federal holiday in the U.S., though the campaign to make it one is gaining momentum. As my colleague Vann R. Newkirk II wrote in 2017, “As a national holiday, Juneteenth, immersed as it is in both the canon of old history and the ongoing struggle for civil rights, would be the only one that celebrates liberty in America as it actually is: delayed.”
If you’d like to read more about Juneteenth, I really enjoyed making my way through this stunning project by the New York Times.
What I’ve written
The question of how police forces should protect and serve their communities, and what should become of those that don’t, has become all the more urgent in the United States. Calls for institutional change—from the reforming and reprioritizing of police funding to the disarming and disbanding departments—have grown.
These reforms aren’t as radical as they might seem. In fact, many of them have been tried and tested elsewhere. I wrote this piece about lessons the U.S. could learn from other countries.
Back in 2017, I interviewed foreign correspondents in Washington, D.C. about what it was like covering the Trump White House for their audiences back home. Following the recent surge of violence against journalists covering the protests against police brutality and racism in the country, I decided to reach out to some of them again.
“When I was in Egypt, most of the time I just felt [that] the situation was absurd,” Sonia Dridi, a Washington correspondent for France 24 and other French media outlets, told me of her experience reporting from Cairo during the Arab Spring. “Now in America, I feel that more and more.” Read more from Sonia and others here.
The history of urban development is deeply intertwined with plagues. For this piece, I wrote about what kind of legacy the coronavirus will leave on our cities, and some of the ways the pandemic has already begun reshaping them.
What I’ve read
This chilling essay by Daniel Lombroso about spending four years embedded with the alt-right movement—a heroic effort culminating in his documentary, White Noise, which premieres tomorrow:
“Progressives like to believe that racism is an opiate of the ignorant. But the alt-right’s leaders are educated and wealthy, groomed at some of America’s most prestigious institutions. The more time I spent documenting the movement, the more ubiquitous I realized it was. … Their racism is woven into the fabric of New York, Washington, D.C., and Paris, just as much as Birmingham, Alabama, or Little Rock, Arkansas.”
This piece about the illicit hairdressers of lockdown:
“A Turkish barber has put newspaper over its windows, but ‘there’s always a steady stream of sharp-looking haircuts outside,’ says my spy. On the hookup app Grindr, barbers advertise services with a scissor emoji in their bio.”
This heartbreaking story about the survivors of Romania’s child gulags and what became of one of them as an adult:
“Until the Bucharest project, Zeanah said, he hadn’t realized that seeking comfort for distress is a learned behavior. ‘These children had no idea that an adult could make them feel better,’ he told me. ‘Imagine how that must feel—to be miserable and not even know that another human being could help.’”
What I’m thinking about
Last week, I had my first pub-poured pint in months. It was served in a plastic cup and came with a takeaway lid, but let me tell you: it was glorious. As cities around the world begin to reopen, I can’t help but think about all the other post-lockdown “firsts” we’ll get to experience: the first cup of coffee at a cafe, the first meal in a restaurant, the first gathering with friends that doesn’t involve a park.
Wishing you all many firsts in the weeks ahead.
See you next time,
Yasmeen
P.S. If you enjoy these emails, I’d encourage you to check out Stray Observations, a monthly newsletter by my friend Charles Dunst. You can read the first edition here.