5SR - November 6, 2023

Today’s #5SmartReads guest contributor is Dr. Kate. Dr Kate is a professor at the University of New Hampshire and the National Director of Post-Secondary Pathways at BUILD.org. She researches critical race theory, white identity formation, critical whiteness studies, and institutional white supremacy. She is currently running for school board in her hometown of Amesbury, MA, and you can follow along here! She’s the mother to two absurd ginger girls, a very begrudging Barre class participant, and she self-identifies as a Hufflepuff sun / Ravenclaw moon / Gryffindor rising.

Sohla El-Waylly Fights Her Self-Doubt in the Kitchen (Elle)

Straight up, I would follow Sohla El-Waylly anywhere. In the early days of the pandemic (and before the Bon Appetit reckoning) I would watch hours of Sohla videos as she filmed from the comfort of her kitchen.

She recommended killer cocktails, whipped up effortless pantry-staple dishes,, and overall, she made cooking feel easy and also silly and also brave, which were three emotions I was definitely not feeling in 2020. Sohla was one of the first chefs to speak up about systemic racism in the Bon Appetit test kitchen, and she left that job behind to launch a whole number of incredible project, including her BRAND NEW COOKBOOK which my god, is just a gift to us all.

This interview reinforced just how awesome, approachable, and brilliant El-Waylly is (and that she likes a good curse word just as much as I do). Mostly, she reminds us all to trust the process!

The Brash Group of Young Conservatives Getting Ready for the Next Trump Administration (Politico)

The GOP has always, always been playing the long game - from the proposed propaganda listed in the 1971 Powell Memo to stacking the courts with conservative judges, there is an undeniable commitment to a self-sustaining, multi-generational pipeline for young GOP members to become the Jim Jordans of the world.

This profile centers on American Movement, a DC group that’s on “a mission to recruit and train the next generation of conservative political elites by beginning at the lowest levels of the Washington hierarchy”. The co-founders of American Movement know that in politics, junior staffers become senior staffers, and senior staffers become the policy bigwigs - so by their logic, if they can train young conservative staffers in the political arena, they’ll ensure a steady stream of “the foot soldiers in the GOP’s war on the federal bureaucracy”.

Saurabh Sharma, the cofounder of American Movement, states that his goal is to “nurture a new class of Beltway elites who are steeped in an explicitly reactionary worldview — and who have the institutional knowledge and political acumen to translate that philosophy into policy… [he states that]

This is, quite frankly, a chilling read that speaks to the increasing political-ideological divide among members of GenZ.

I Love What Dr. Kate Slater is doing (I Love What You’re Doing)

Okay, yes, this is a little bit self-serving. Okay, it’s a LOT self-serving. But when Kate Schatz, one of my favorite rad authors and activists, reached out for an interview, I lost my gourd because I think she’s so cool.

This interview touches a lot on my fears and feelings about running for public office, and it also connects to the larger question that guides my work - what is the responsibility of white people like myself in stepping into the ring to dismantle oppressive systems that we benefit from?

Anyway, if you read this interview, I hope this is your takeaway - you, yes, you can run for public office. Yes, I’m talking to you. Yes, I promise you’re qualified. Yes, I promise you can handle it. Yes, I promise that local public office is one of the most impactful spaces where you can make change.

So if you’ve been noodling on city council or regional planning board or heck yes, school board as a future possibility, consider this your sign to throw your hat into the ring! And VOTE next Tuesday, November 7th!

Louisiana was open to Cancer Alley concessions. Then EPA dropped its investigation (The Associated Press) 

A 2015 Medical News Today article defined “environmental racism” as “a type of inequality where people in Communities of Color and other low income communities face a disproportionate risk of exposure to pollution and related health conditions”.

“Cancer Alley” or a stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge with an extremely high number of industrial plants, is one of the most egregious examples of environmental racism in the United States.

For decades, the Black residents in Cancer Alley have been decimated by disproportionately high rates of cancer and other diseases as a result of the constant pollution. And recently, changes in the local and federal government resulted in the EPA abruptly ending its investigation without any recourse for the communities most affected.

Grammar Tips from a Thirty-Eight-Year-Old with an English Degree (The New Yorker)

I’m 37. I have a B.A. in English. I will die on the hill of the Oxford comma. Yes, this made me feel seen in a way that I didn’t know I needed. XXX