Race/Related: 7 Powerful Stories About Race from 2018

What does the front porch mean to you? View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Saturday, December 8, 2018 [More Race/Related »]( [From left to right: Lauren Hard, Sara Simon, Adeel Hassan, Veda Shastri, Randy Archibold, Rebecca Halleck, Lisa Godwin, Tammy Tarng, Lauretta Charlton, Adriana Lacy, Isabella Grullón Paz, Pierre-Antoine Louis, Kadin Herring, Adenike Olanrewaju, Hiroko Masuike.] From left to right: Lauren Hard, Sara Simon, Adeel Hassan, Veda Shastri, Randy Archibold, Rebecca Halleck, Lisa Godwin, Tammy Tarng, Lauretta Charlton, Adriana Lacy, Isabella Grullón Paz, Pierre-Antoine Louis, Kadin Herring, Adenike Olanrewaju, Hiroko Masuike. Earl Wilson/The New York Times [Lauretta Charlton] Lauretta Charlton Good morning, Happy holidays from the team, pictured above in all of our winter glory. For this week’s newsletter, I asked several members of the extended Race/Related family at The New York Times to share their thoughts on the most significant stories about race in 2018. Is there anything we’ve missed? If so, email us at racerelated@nytimes.com. Have a wonderful holiday weekend! 7 Powerful Stories About Race from 2018 1. [The Deafening Silence of Colin Kaepernick]( This year, hardly a week passed when Colin Kaepernick’s name did not come up. The kneeling protests against racism and social injustice he ignited at the beginning of the 2016 football season continued to resonate on and [off the field]( even as he says very little himself. It’s easy to conclude he is [being shunned]( but regardless the debate and dialogue over race and sports carries on. — Randy Archibold, Deputy Editor 2. [How ‘Gardening While Black’ Almost Landed This Detroit Man in Jail]( For me, the biggest story this year was the numerous accounts of random 911 calls made on black Americans for doing everyday things, like barbecuing, swimming, sitting at Starbucks, golfing, eating at Subway, gardening, walking into their home, leaving a corner store or cashing a paycheck at a bank. The list goes on. Doing any of these things while black made several Americans feel threatened, so much so that they were willing to dial 911. I hope we don’t bring this habit into the new year. — Pierre-Antoine Louis, News Assistant 3. [Louisiana School Made Headlines for Sending Black Kids to Elite Colleges. Here’s the Reality]( It’s the education beat that I can’t stop thinking about this year. In story after story — from a school desegregation debate forever unfolding in New York City to Charlottesville, Va., where The New York Times and ProPublica reporters found that [zoning policies]( led to clear racial divides; from the shattering investigation into college prep school T.M. Landry to a Harvard lawsuit about affirmative action — I continue to see systemic racism embedded deeply in the architecture of our schools. — Sara Simon, Associate Software Engineer 4. [Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis]( I’m not pregnant, black, a mother or a doctor and went into this story thinking I was a person very much removed from the situation. By the time I finished reading it I was shaking, invested and in mourning because of the meticulous research on the effects of race and class in a for-profit medical system, and how small and irrelevant a person can be made to feel within it. Reproduction is one of the most primal indicators of a species, and you see here how unhealed our nation’s wounds are from deeply systemic racism. — Tammy Tarng, News Assistant 5. [Is Denaturalization the Next Front in the Trump Administration’s War on Immigration?]( There were many important immigration stories this year, all highlighting the difficult journeys immigrants have to endure to get into the United States, but we rarely focus on the policies immigrants face once they’re here. Black and brown naturalized American citizens — those who have an accent, those from impoverished countries — still have to deal with the consequences of racist policy decisions every day, and how these decisions create an unrelenting structure of racial hierarchy. — Isabella Grullón Paz, News Assistant 6. [17 Black Women Sweep to Judgeships in Texas County]( The elections of progressive district attorneys, judges, and sheriffs will reverberate for years, and help reshape our criminal justice system. These progressives — many of whom are people of color — are intent on making the courts more equitable and less damaging to the people who come in contact with them. They have pledged to: focus on reducing incarceration (especially for nonviolent offenses); crack down on police misconduct; revamp a cash bail system that unfairly imprisons poor people; and to use more alternatives to prison. — Adeel Hassan, Senior Staff Editor 7. [For Many American Families, Abolishing Birthright Citizenship Is ‘Unthinkable’]( This year we saw the escalation of restrictive immigration policies and dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants. As an American-born child of immigrants, it was additionally difficult to see this exacerbated by the debate over the right to birthright citizenship. Despite legal scholarship reiterating the meaning of the 14th amendment, it added to the growing anxiety over the potential erosion of civil rights. Race has been at the center of who belongs in America since the nation’s inception, but 2018 reflected how some communities continue to struggle to be considered truly American. — Veda Shastri, Video Journalist ADVERTISEMENT Editor’s Picks We publish many articles that touch on race. Here are a few you shouldn’t miss. [What to Read Before or After You See ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’]( By GAL BECKERMAN If you found yourself wanting to know more about the movie and the time period in which it is set, take a look at this selection of books. [A Black Wrestler Had to Cut His Dreadlocks After a White Referee’s Ruling]( By MICHAEL GOLD Officials are reviewing the incident for possible bias after a video of the incident went viral. [Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Making Lynching a Federal Crime]( By MIHIR ZAVERI Nearly 200 similar bills have been introduced in Congress from 1882 to 1996, but none have successfully passed both chambers. [He Was Sentenced to Life for Selling Crack. Now Congress Wants to Reconsider.]( By ALAN BLINDER AND JENNIFER MEDINA Edward Douglas had never been to prison before he got a life sentence under laws that punished crack cocaine far more harshly than powder. The judge now says “It made me sick.” [Director Quits ‘All My Sons’ Amid Dispute Over Cast’s Racial Makeup]( By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS A Broadway revival of the Arthur Miller play has become entangled in a disagreement over the races of actors in key roles. [As Manhattan’s Chinatown Changes, Food Vendors Keep a Bit of the Old With the New]( By ELAINE CHEN The population of Chinatown, one of Manhattan’s few historic immigrant working class neighborhoods, is shifting. How are the people in the food businesses there adjusting? Invite your friends. Invite someone to subscribe to the [Race/Related]( newsletter. Or email your thoughts and suggestions to racerelated@nytimes.com. Want more Race/Related? Follow us on Instagram, where we continue the conversation about race through visuals. 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