Haiti is not an abstraction. Haiti is a nation whose pain has too often been treated as policy collateral, a people whose labor is welcomed when needed and whose lives are discounted when convenient. Now, with the Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians, more than 350,000 Haitians who have lived and worked legally in the United States face the possibility of deportation to a country the world knows is in

I have never been much for flag-waving patriotism. I respect the rituals, and I understand why some people are moved by them. But my own relationship with patriotism has always been complicated, even chilly. It is difficult to be sentimental about a nation that enslaved my ancestors, exploited their labor, denied them citizenship, terrorized them for seeking freedom, and then asked their descendants to celebrate as if history were a parade instead of a wound. I do not even pl

They are calling it a budget cut. But let’s be clear: when Congress cuts WIC, it is taking food from pregnant women, babies, toddlers, and young children. WIC is not cash welfare. It is not a giveaway. It is one of the most efficient and humane nutrition programs this country has ever created. It provides targeted food support, breastfeeding support, nutrition counseling, and health referrals to pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age five. It helps fam

Imagine having electricity for only four hours a day. Now imagine not knowing which four hours. Can you make coffee? Refrigerate medicine? Charge your phone? Will your child have school? Will the bus come? Will the internet work? Will your food spoil? For the remaining twenty hours, you wait. Americans are so dependent on electricity that the thought itself feels jarring. Unless you live in Cuba. I recently returned from Cuba as part of an all-African American delegation orga