Jelani Cobb
Jelani Cobb has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2012, and became a staff writer in 2015. He writes frequently about race, politics, history, and culture. His most recent book is “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress.” He won the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, for his columns on race, the police, and injustice. He is the dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
Why Are Republicans Still Debating Slavery and Insurrection?
The radical Republican leaders who lived through the Civil War understood a principle that has been lost on their successors.
Donald Trump and the Pardon Debate
The senseless sloganeering that produced the phrase “too big to fail” during the Great Recession has a contemporary corollary: too big to convict.
The End of Affirmative Action
The scale of what has been lost is difficult to assess in the moment. But not entirely impossible.
Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes
Following the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, the former President was arraigned on felony charges stemming from hush-money payments.
Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy
A generation is still dying younger than it should—this time, of “natural causes.”
The Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race
The case dispatches several assumptions associated with police reform.
Ron DeSantis Battles the African American A.P. Course—and History
The state’s intent seems to be to provide white Floridians, from a young age, with a version of history that they can be comfortable with, regardless of whether it’s true.
Brittney Griner and the Role of Race in Diplomacy
Griner’s release recalls the lessons of the effort to free Robert Goodman, an African American Navy navigator, from Syria.
Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter
A platform that once represented the new frontier of digital democracy is being used by the world’s richest man to troll us all.
The Enduring Power of Trumpism
No matter what becomes of Donald Trump, the forces of intolerance, racism, and belligerence he harnessed in American politics will persist.
When Migrants Become Political Pawns
Governor DeSantis appeared to be attempting to troll people whose magnanimity, he seemed to believe, is inversely proportional to the extent to which a given problem has an impact on their own lives.
What It Took for Biden to Give His “Soul of the Nation” Speech
The President’s shift in tone isn’t just about getting out the Democratic vote in November.
Herschel Walker’s Deficits Are Not the Only Cause for Concern
His Senate candidacy is a clear example of the warping effect that Donald Trump has had on the Republican Party nationally.
Would Showing Graphic Images of Mass Shootings Spur Action to Stop Them?
Returning to an old debate after the horrific killings in Uvalde, Texas.
The Atrocity of American Gun Culture
After mass shootings like those in Uvalde and Buffalo, pro-gun officials say they don’t want to politicize tragedy. But the circumstances that allow for the mass murder of children are inherently political.
Ron DeSantis and the Unlearned Lessons of the G.O.P.’s Culture War
Previous clashes between Republican lawmakers and prominent businesses in the states they control have not always worked out as planned.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,’s History Lessons
King understood the nation’s challenges as part of a continuous narrative. Today, a narrow view of America’s past could imperil its future.
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
Were it not for a graphic video and intense pressure from activists, the killers of an unarmed Black man in Georgia might have been acquitted.
The Power of Dave Chappelle’s Comedy
He has always understood the risk, in riffing on the racial absurdities of American culture, of reinforcing rather than undermining them. The absence of concern of this kind about the impact of “The Closer” is striking.
Why Republicans Are Still Recounting Votes
The point of the so-called audits is not so much to delegitimize the past election as it is to normalize unnecessary reviews of future ones—including, perhaps, a 2024 race in which Trump’s name may be on the ballot.
Why Are Republicans Still Debating Slavery and Insurrection?
The radical Republican leaders who lived through the Civil War understood a principle that has been lost on their successors.
Donald Trump and the Pardon Debate
The senseless sloganeering that produced the phrase “too big to fail” during the Great Recession has a contemporary corollary: too big to convict.
The End of Affirmative Action
The scale of what has been lost is difficult to assess in the moment. But not entirely impossible.
Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes
Following the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, the former President was arraigned on felony charges stemming from hush-money payments.
Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy
A generation is still dying younger than it should—this time, of “natural causes.”
The Killing of Tyre Nichols and the Issue of Race
The case dispatches several assumptions associated with police reform.
Ron DeSantis Battles the African American A.P. Course—and History
The state’s intent seems to be to provide white Floridians, from a young age, with a version of history that they can be comfortable with, regardless of whether it’s true.
Brittney Griner and the Role of Race in Diplomacy
Griner’s release recalls the lessons of the effort to free Robert Goodman, an African American Navy navigator, from Syria.
Why I Quit Elon Musk’s Twitter
A platform that once represented the new frontier of digital democracy is being used by the world’s richest man to troll us all.
The Enduring Power of Trumpism
No matter what becomes of Donald Trump, the forces of intolerance, racism, and belligerence he harnessed in American politics will persist.
When Migrants Become Political Pawns
Governor DeSantis appeared to be attempting to troll people whose magnanimity, he seemed to believe, is inversely proportional to the extent to which a given problem has an impact on their own lives.
What It Took for Biden to Give His “Soul of the Nation” Speech
The President’s shift in tone isn’t just about getting out the Democratic vote in November.
Herschel Walker’s Deficits Are Not the Only Cause for Concern
His Senate candidacy is a clear example of the warping effect that Donald Trump has had on the Republican Party nationally.
Would Showing Graphic Images of Mass Shootings Spur Action to Stop Them?
Returning to an old debate after the horrific killings in Uvalde, Texas.
The Atrocity of American Gun Culture
After mass shootings like those in Uvalde and Buffalo, pro-gun officials say they don’t want to politicize tragedy. But the circumstances that allow for the mass murder of children are inherently political.
Ron DeSantis and the Unlearned Lessons of the G.O.P.’s Culture War
Previous clashes between Republican lawmakers and prominent businesses in the states they control have not always worked out as planned.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,’s History Lessons
King understood the nation’s challenges as part of a continuous narrative. Today, a narrow view of America’s past could imperil its future.
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
Were it not for a graphic video and intense pressure from activists, the killers of an unarmed Black man in Georgia might have been acquitted.
The Power of Dave Chappelle’s Comedy
He has always understood the risk, in riffing on the racial absurdities of American culture, of reinforcing rather than undermining them. The absence of concern of this kind about the impact of “The Closer” is striking.
Why Republicans Are Still Recounting Votes
The point of the so-called audits is not so much to delegitimize the past election as it is to normalize unnecessary reviews of future ones—including, perhaps, a 2024 race in which Trump’s name may be on the ballot.