Understanding racism through Jack Johnson's boxing victory

+ sad legacy of China's one-child policy; critical race theory explained US Edition - Today's top story: When a Black boxing champion beat the 'Great White Hope,' all hell broke loose [View in browser]( US Edition | 1 July 2021 [The Conversation]( Academic rigor, journalistic flair Sometimes the best way to tell a story is to tell a story. You’ll note that I’m not using the very current word “narrative,” which is a fancy word that I believe obscures meaning. No child ever went to bed asking their parents to “Tell me a narrative.” (I also detest the words “problematic,” “impactful” and “contextualize,” but that’s another story.) In any event, we deal with some complicated ideas here at The Conversation. As a writer as well as an editor, I’ve long felt that even the most complex political concepts can often best be communicated through the stories of people whose lives illustrate those concepts. This week’s offerings from the politics desk include a number of those kinds of articles. Scholar Chris Lamb’s “When a Black boxing champion beat the ‘Great White Hope,’ all hell broke loose” [highlights America’s struggle for racial equality]( through the story of Black boxer Jack Johnson. I asked editor Jeff Inglis to describe what he wanted the story to accomplish: History often appears to me to flow through a series of cycles, where issues some think are long in the past resurface, still unresolved and demanding new reckonings. The details of the Johnson-Jeffries fight crystallized for me a series of interlocking dynamics in American race relations: - A Black man claiming both his physical and cultural power was being challenged by an out-of-shape, retired white guy. - The event was literally seen by people at the time as a battle between the races. - The establishment made clear, in newspaper editorials and other public statements, that if the white man won, it would be evidence of white supremacy – but if the Black man won, it would not be evidence even of Black equality. - When the Black man did win, whites felt threatened and engaged in widespread brutal violence to reassert their dominance. All this happened in 1910, but these themes strike powerful chords with today’s state of race relations in the U.S. – and highlight exactly how important it is to recognize the age and depths of these wounds in our society. Similarly, editor Catesby Holmes commissioned a story from scholar Lihong Shi about China’s one-child policy. This wasn’t written from the analytical perspective of policymaking. Instead, the story is told via the experiences of parents who have [lost their only child long after they could ever conceive another one](. Here’s what Catesby said about the story: China’s ‘one-child policy’ left at least 1 million bereaved parents childless and alone in old age, with no one to take care of them. This story was both deeply human and exhaustively researched. It’s rare to get both of those features in one article. The author interviewed hundreds of elderly Chinese parents who’d lost the only child their government would allow them to have. In her story, she captures not only their grief but also the government’s responsibility for these couples’ financial precariousness in a country that depends on adult children for its old-age care. I hope you have some time this holiday weekend to read these stories and the others highlighted in this newsletter. But I hope you also spend lots of time outside with family and friends, under blue skies and a not-too-hot Sun. My job after work today is to thumb through my late mother’s many cookbooks to figure out what to cook for July 4th. One nonnegotiable: Strawberry shortcake. Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Society Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, right, beat James Jeffries in 1910, sparking racial violence. George Haley, San Francisco Call, via University of California, Riverside, via Library of Congress [When a Black boxing champion beat the ‘Great White Hope,’ all hell broke loose]( Chris Lamb, IUPUI Johnson’s victory, in the manliest of sports, contradicted claims of racial supremacy by whites and demonstrated that Blacks were no longer willing to acquiesce to white dominance. For four decades, the Chinese government has restricted family size. Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images [China’s ‘one-child policy’ left at least 1 million bereaved parents childless and alone in old age, with no one to take care of them]( Lihong Shi, Case Western Reserve University China limited families to one child from 1980 to 2015 to curb population growth. The policy paid off economically for the country, but it left couples whose only child died grieving and impoverished. President Lyndon Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which aimed to do away with racial discrimination in the law. But discrimination persisted. AP file photo [Critical race theory: What it is and what it isn’t]( David Miguel Gray, University of Memphis A scholar of race and racism explains what critical race theory is – and how many people get it wrong. - [Trump Organization indictment hints at downsides of having no independent oversight – unlike companies traded on Wall Street]( Bert Spector, Northeastern University Publicly traded companies must have independent oversight and make regular financial and other disclosures. The Trump Organization has none of these safeguards. - [The Declaration of Independence wasn’t really complaining about King George, and 5 other surprising facts for July Fourth]( Woody Holton, University of South Carolina A scholar of early US history celebrates the country's 245th birthday with six under-appreciated ideas about the founding document. - [Trustees’ handling of Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure application shows how university boards often fail the accountability test]( Felecia Commodore, Old Dominion University; Demetri L. Morgan, Loyola University Chicago University trustees are among the least-studied groups in higher education. Increasingly, they're making news – as the focus of a crisis. That raises the question: To whom are they accountable? - [What today’s GOP demonstrates about the dangers of partisan conformity]( Robert B. Talisse, Vanderbilt University To be politically successful, coalitions need to be unified. But that pressure to unify can spell trouble for groups – as today's GOP demonstrates. - [Infrastructure spending has always involved social engineering]( Erika M Bsumek, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts; James Sidbury, Rice University Government investment in roads, railroads and other public services has always involved social programming, both for good and for ill. You’re receiving this newsletter from [The Conversation](. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe](. 303 Wyman Street, Suite 300 Waltham, MA 02451