Mash-Up Round-Up: When Did We Stop Marrying Our Cousins?
The week of March 3, 2018 was buying a super dumb phone; scraping our jaws off the floor while reading about the world’s worst roommate; and learning from this incredible essay by Monica Lewinsky.
When Did Americans Stop Marrying Their Cousins?
According to a study of 5 million family trees, it was right around 1875. Um. We have questions.
via New York Times
Ta-Nehisi Coates Tackles “Captain America”
Marvel’s hero, Captain America, is the defrosted time capsule of our country’s imagined past. Who better to tackle the ironies and complexities of Cap than Ta-Nehisi Coates — the acclaimed journalist who nailed his comic writing debut for “Black Panther.” White writers continuously screwed up Cap’s story, so it’s about time he was given justice by a writer who really understands him.
via Atlantic
The Racist History Of The “Crisis Actor”
For as long as people have stood up to change the world, others have sat on the sidelines trying to keep it the same (and yelling “fake news”). From the testimonies of slaves, to the Black teens who braved mobs to integrate schools, there’s a racist precedent that led to the “propaganda actors” conspiracy theories that are thrown at the teen heroes from Parkland.
via Washington Post
Say It With Noodles: The Language Of Food
What language does your food speak? Do your onions say “I love you”? Does your eggs say “Ugh”? In this comic, the artist Shing shows us how cooking helped her communicate with her grandmother, and illustrates the many things our food can say.
via Catapult
“We really want to capture the breadth and the complexity of who our communities are and we plan to use that information to influence decisions that are made about us.”
The first step to being counted is being counted — literally. Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza has created a new “Black Census” initiative aimed at helping Black communities achieve greater political power, taking steps to represent the full breadth of the Black experience in America.
via Huffington Post
How Eating Disorders Became A White Woman’s Problem
1990s radical thinness and the “waif wave” brought eating disorders to new prominence, but just like the models and actresses that inspired the skin-and-bones trend, the girls who suffered from eating disorders were also seen as thin, young, affluent, and white — ignoring the fact that eating disorders don’t discriminate.
via Huffington Post
The Woman Who Saved My Immigrant Family From Homelessness
“The Search for the Elderly White Landlady” is the heartwarming quest of generosity and acceptance you need to hear today. In 1984, said elderly white lady let a homeless Pakistani woman and three children into her home, rent-free — and years later, those kids (now adults) embark to find their samaritan and learn what separated her from the hoards that turned them away.
via Narratively
Dolly Parton Delivers 100 Millionth Book
Dolly Parton is America’s real-life fairy godmother and champion of child literacy with her Imagination Library— a nonprofit that personally mails a free book each month to over a million children. She celebrated the 100 Millionth Book delivered by the program as the “Book Lady” at the Library of Congress, and is looking toward a goal of one billion within her lifetime.
via NPR
