Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes about Black history and politics, social movements, and racial inequality in the United States.
Taylor is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and the author of several books. “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership” was a semifinalist for the 2019 National Book Award and a 2020 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for history. Her earlier book “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” won the Lannan Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book, in 2016. She is also the editor of “How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective,” which won the Lambda Literary Award for L.G.B.T.Q. nonfiction in 2018.
Taylor is a former contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Review, The Paris Review, the Guardian, The Nation, Jacobin, and “Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society,” among others.
In 2021, Taylor received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. The Root has called her one of the top hundred most influential African Americans in the United States, and Essence named her among the top one hundred “change makers” in the country in 2018. Taylor has also been appointed a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She is a co-founder of Hammer and Hope, a magazine of Black politics and culture.
Kamala Harris’s Gamble
Four years ago, the Democrats made big promises to address racial and economic injustice. Will voters remember?
Why Did Progressive Democrats Support Joe Biden?
As Kamala Harris defines her candidacy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others will have few options to change it.
The Kids Are Not All Right. They Want to Be Heard
What explains the student movement against the war in Gaza? Sometimes the correct answer is the one right in front of you.
The Campaign Against D.E.I.
For critics of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay, a larger goal was always in sight.
Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racism
The historian espoused grand ambitions to dismantle American racism, but the crisis at his research center suggests that he always had a more limited view of change.
The Disciplining Power of Disappointment
In a new book, Sara Marcus argues that American politics are defined by unfulfilled desire.
Chicago’s Unlikeliest Mayor, Brandon Johnson
The former union organizer makes the leap from protest to politics.
How Brandon Johnson Broke Through to Chicago’s Mayoral Runoff
After a decade of organizing, the city’s teachers’ union could elect one of its own as mayor.
Hulu’s Fascinating and Incomplete “1619 Project”
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s documentary series offers a damning portrait of American racism, but its emphasis on the past at times obscures the complexity of the present.
The Meaning of African American Studies
The discipline emerged from Black struggle. Now the College Board wants it to be taught with barely any mention of Black Lives Matter.
Larry Krasner and the Limits of “Law and Order”
In Pennsylvania and elsewhere, many candidates who focussed on crime failed to win elections.
The Enduring Power of “Scenes of Subjection”
Saidiya Hartman’s unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom in the United States first appeared in 1997, during the last period of spoiled “race relations” in the twentieth century. Twenty-five years later, it has lost none of its relevance.
Who’s Left Out of the Learning-Loss Debate
Critics of school closures undermine the two groups who could do the most to help students recover—parents and teachers.
The Defeat of Identity Politics
In a new book, the philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò condemns the “elite capture” of radical movements.
Abortion Is About Freedom, Not Just Privacy
The right to abortion is an affirmation that women and girls have the right to control their own destiny.
Hiding Buffalo’s History of Racism Behind a Cloak of Unity
Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.
American Racism and the Buffalo Shooting
The gunman seems motivated by a vision of history, pushed by the right, in which American racism never existed and Black people are undeserving takers.
How Black Feminists Defined Abortion Rights
As liberation movements bloomed, they offered a vision of reproductive justice that was about equality, not just “choice.”
“Wokeness” Is Not the Democrats’ Problem
Some in the Party chastise the left for driving away moderate voters, but they fail to consider why their own base isn’t turning out in larger numbers.
Another Buffalo Is Possible
This summer, India Walton looked likely to become the first Black woman to lead Buffalo, and the first socialist mayor of any major American city in decades. Then the sitting Democratic mayor launched a campaign to defeat her.
Kamala Harris’s Gamble
Four years ago, the Democrats made big promises to address racial and economic injustice. Will voters remember?
Why Did Progressive Democrats Support Joe Biden?
As Kamala Harris defines her candidacy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others will have few options to change it.
The Kids Are Not All Right. They Want to Be Heard
What explains the student movement against the war in Gaza? Sometimes the correct answer is the one right in front of you.
The Campaign Against D.E.I.
For critics of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay, a larger goal was always in sight.
Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racism
The historian espoused grand ambitions to dismantle American racism, but the crisis at his research center suggests that he always had a more limited view of change.
The Disciplining Power of Disappointment
In a new book, Sara Marcus argues that American politics are defined by unfulfilled desire.
Chicago’s Unlikeliest Mayor, Brandon Johnson
The former union organizer makes the leap from protest to politics.
How Brandon Johnson Broke Through to Chicago’s Mayoral Runoff
After a decade of organizing, the city’s teachers’ union could elect one of its own as mayor.
Hulu’s Fascinating and Incomplete “1619 Project”
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s documentary series offers a damning portrait of American racism, but its emphasis on the past at times obscures the complexity of the present.
The Meaning of African American Studies
The discipline emerged from Black struggle. Now the College Board wants it to be taught with barely any mention of Black Lives Matter.
Larry Krasner and the Limits of “Law and Order”
In Pennsylvania and elsewhere, many candidates who focussed on crime failed to win elections.
The Enduring Power of “Scenes of Subjection”
Saidiya Hartman’s unrelenting exploration of slavery and freedom in the United States first appeared in 1997, during the last period of spoiled “race relations” in the twentieth century. Twenty-five years later, it has lost none of its relevance.
Who’s Left Out of the Learning-Loss Debate
Critics of school closures undermine the two groups who could do the most to help students recover—parents and teachers.
The Defeat of Identity Politics
In a new book, the philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò condemns the “elite capture” of radical movements.
Abortion Is About Freedom, Not Just Privacy
The right to abortion is an affirmation that women and girls have the right to control their own destiny.
Hiding Buffalo’s History of Racism Behind a Cloak of Unity
Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.
American Racism and the Buffalo Shooting
The gunman seems motivated by a vision of history, pushed by the right, in which American racism never existed and Black people are undeserving takers.
How Black Feminists Defined Abortion Rights
As liberation movements bloomed, they offered a vision of reproductive justice that was about equality, not just “choice.”
“Wokeness” Is Not the Democrats’ Problem
Some in the Party chastise the left for driving away moderate voters, but they fail to consider why their own base isn’t turning out in larger numbers.
Another Buffalo Is Possible
This summer, India Walton looked likely to become the first Black woman to lead Buffalo, and the first socialist mayor of any major American city in decades. Then the sitting Democratic mayor launched a campaign to defeat her.