Did Civil Rights Not Happen? Sure, the gap in education and income between blacks and whites may have narrowed, but the wealth gap has nearly tripled since 1985. Standard University law professor Richard Thompson Ford explores the role of race in the wealth gap but also finds much to blame in the winner-take-all economy that we live in.
How Cuba Dies. Multimedia artist and writer Vanessa Garcia has never been to Cuba, but she visits it through the memories of her grandfather, who calls Cuba his true home. Now that his memory that is fading fast with age, Garcia writes, “it’s as if all of a sudden, all of us, our family, is unmoored.”
Samsung, Hyundai … Ryu. “A game in Korea is a far cry from your average ballgame in North America,” writes Maxwell Coll, former sports and culture editor at the Korea JoongAng Daily. In Korea, fans respond to every pitch with intense enthusiasm, chant after a single with two outs in the third inning, and bang inflatable “thunder” sticks together in a deafening fervor as K-pop cheerleaders perform choreographed dances in the middle of prominent stadium sections. Will starting Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu be able to adapt to the more mellow Major League Baseball and the United States?
Do We Need 150 More Years of Getting California Wrong? In the debut of Joe Mathews’ new column, “Connecting California.” Mathews argues that the only thing more volatile than the state of California is our perceptions of California. It’s time we start seeing the place for it what it is.
Pinkos in Red Tights. Time travel back to 14th century Europe this weekend at the Renaissance Faire in Irwindale. Author Rachel Rubin pays tribute to the modern-day Renaissance faire, an unlikely product of the Red Scare and Laurel Canyon.
Lost Video Games, Found Cats, and Mysterious Proteins. Ever wonder where your cat goes when you’re not around? Well, somewhere, there’s a guy working out of a garage making a GPS system especially designed for cats. Find out where you can purchase one for your feline friend, and more, in this week’s Six-Point Inspection.
Writer David H. Freedman in the Green Room. Before moderating a discussion on propaganda and public health, The Atlantic’s David H. Freedman dished about his obsession with condiments, the messiest corner of his house, and the first thing he ever bought with his own money.
Next week …
Happy birthday to us! Zócalo turns 10.
On Monday, former Foreign Policy editor-in-chief and World Bank executive director Moisés Naím visits Zócalo to discuss the decay of power—and what to do about it.
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