Insights
Our team and guest writers share perspectives on everything from reparations and justice to joy and resilience. We reflect on harm and healing, culture and community, offering readers a deeper look into the hearts and minds behind our work.
THOUGHTS
How SCOTUS Turned America’s 250th Birthday Into a Burial
This is what the Court has often done when our freedom got out ahead of the country’s appetite for it. It reaches back. It calls our undoing a vindication of principle.
In Da Club, We’re All Fam!: The Importance Of Belonging and Third Space
Sociologist Ray Oldenburg popularized the term “third place” in his 1989 book The Great Good Place, arguing that informal gathering spaces are essential to civic life and healthy communities. A third space is what exists beyond home and work: the places where people gather, build trust, exchange ideas, and create culture in real time. It is where community stops being abstract and becomes something lived.
How a Minneapolis man became “Dissent Dad” in the face of ICE’s blitz
For Twin Cities residents, the upheaval is just the latest trauma to hit Minneapolis and St. Paul, which also witnessed and protested the murders of Philando Castile and George Floyd in the last 10 years.
That’s why one, a father of two, refuses to be silent—both in calling out injustice and creating the community he wants for himself and his family—not matter what it costs.
Taking Back The Power
Marcus Board Jr., Ph.D. grew up knowing there was something deeply wrong with the country he lived in, but also that speaking out only got him into more trouble. So, he “embraced the trouble.”
Who Gets Protected? The Oscars, BAFTA and the Limits of Belonging
With the Oscars behind us, it’s clear: awards season isn’t just about who wins, it’s about who gets protected, whose dignity is safeguarded, and whose presence is taken seriously. For BAFTA, this year’s ceremony offered a stark contrast, one that, if someone were deliberately scripting how not to build a sense of belonging, couldn’t have been better executed
Grief in a zero-sum America
There are seasons when a nation mistakes speed for clarity. When information multiplies but wisdom thins. And when outrage travels faster than understanding. This feels like one of those seasons. We are awash in data. We can measure almost anything. We can predict markets, track storms, map genomes, and automate memory.