Saturday, December 5, 2015

7 Essays To Read: Going To Gun Shows, Who We Humanize, And Netflix As Survival

This week, Kashana Cauley went to a gun show, where she stared down a sea of Confederate flags, and wrote about that experience for BuzzFeed Ideas. Read that and other essays from The Cut, Flavorwire, Brooklyn Magazine, and more.

"A Black Woman Walks Into a Gun Show" — BuzzFeed Ideas

"A Black Woman Walks Into a Gun Show" — BuzzFeed Ideas

The gun show loophole allows shoppers to buy guns from private dealers without a background check. For BuzzFeed Ideas, Kashana Cauley attended a gun show in Indiana, staring down a sea of Confederate flags, to find out what they're like. Her experience was hair-raising, and her conclusions are more relevant than ever. "Black people aren't part of the big tent of gun ownership. We're never assumed to be law abiding, reasonable gun owners. That kind of gun ownership is seen as an upstanding white person act," she writes. Read it at BuzzFeed Ideas.

Kashana Cauley

"Why Do We Humanize White Guys Who Kill People?" — The Cut

"Why Do We Humanize White Guys Who Kill People?" — The Cut

In an all-too-timely piece for The Cut, Rebecca Traister asks why the media and society continue to humanize white killers but show no sympathy for poor, black Americans who have died at the hands of the police. "To be sure, white men may be charged, tried and convicted; they may be regarded as brutish criminals," she writes. "But they can be simultaneously understood as human beings, driven by conflicting emotions, able — even in their criminality — to have experienced loss and confusion and anger and love, emotions we do not imaginatively afford America's poor and black." Read it at The Cut.

Getty Images; Corbis / Via nymag.com

"My Life as an Abortion Provider in an Age of Terror" — Broadly

"My Life as an Abortion Provider in an Age of Terror" — Broadly

Dr. Natalie Whaley used to think violence against abortion providers was an anomaly. But after the attacks on Planned Parenthood, for the first time in her professional, she fears for her own safety. In a Broadly essay, she denounces those who demonize her profession and explains why her work is important. Read it at Broadly.

broadly.vice.com

"Binge-Watching Television Got Me Through the Hardest Summer of My Life" — Flavorwire

"Binge-Watching Television Got Me Through the Hardest Summer of My Life" — Flavorwire

In the year of "Netflix and Chill," there've been many reports linking binge-watching television to depression. But it was precisely this mass consumption of TV that helped Pilot Viruet get through the hardest summer of her life. "Television allowed me to have people around on a screen when people weren't around in real life —or when I didn't want people around in real life," she writes in a piece for Flavorwire. "Most importantly, though, they demanded no response from me. Instead, they allowed me to be as passive and introspective as I needed to be at that point." Read it at Flavorwire.

Netflix / Via flavorwire.com


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