Social Justice
A Local Experiment in Scandinavian Justice
An ongoing research study at the state prison in Chester is looking at how Scandinavian-style changes could make prison safer, more productive and more effective — for inmates, workers and the community.
By Christina Griffith
When Affirmative Action Was a Philly Thing
Revisiting The Philadelphia Plan — the nation’s first federal affirmative action program and the brainchild of Republicans who argued that it was good for business
By Larry Platt
The Unfairness of Students for ‘Fair’ Admissions
The Students for Fair Admissions’ Supreme Court case that struck down affirmative action was not about fairness in college admissions. It was about race.
By Jemille Q. Duncan
What’s Causing Mass Inequality?
In The Paradox of Debt, out next week, Philadelphia author and public intellectual Richard Vague makes the connection conventional economists avoid: It’s the debt, stupid!
By Richard Vague
The Fourth of July Voices We Need to Read Now
July 4th means different things to different Americans. Here, a host of Independence Day perspectives — from Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Ronald Reagan and more — that remind us what it means to be free
By Roxanne Patel Shepelavy
The End of Affirmative Action and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur
The co-founder of AND 1 and the B Corp Movement on what the Supreme Court majority doesn’t seem to get: There’s such a thing as racism without racists
By Jay Coen Gilbert
The Supreme Court Struck Down Affirmative Action. Now What?
A long-time university president urges Philadelphia-area colleges and universities to maintain commitment to diversity within the constraints of the new ruling
By Elaine Maimon
The Black Liberationist
Arielle Julia Brown, founder and director of Black Spatial Relics, supports performance artists whose art contends with slavery, freedom and justice. The next in a series with Forman Arts Initiative
By Logan Cryer
Unequal School Funding Shows Why We Still Need Affirmative Action
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the legality of race-conscious admissions in higher education. Pennsylvania’s school funding case, an education advisor argues, reflects both the problem and solution
By David M. Stone
Why I Support a Reparations Task Force
A local entrepreneur/anti-racist organizer on why he favors City Council’s proposal to study what reparations might look like for Black Philadelphians
By Jay Coen Gilbert