Cancel Culture takes aim at Trader Joe's and REI. BreakLines investigates. 

"There is a fragility at play, a complex that has developed around cancel culture's relationship with race and identity. And we would learn to treat race in a more functional way if we learned to be more relaxed about it. Indeed a healthy nation does not operate by rigid standards of discourse on topics of national interest."

Part II of this episode looks at how Americans can unite to beat back the new illiberalism. 

Two months after George Floyd's death an unexpected twist has occurred. Support for social justice is giving way to increased scrutiny of cancel culture. In this episode, I describe that shift and steps one can take to help grow the resistance - with a word on Black Canyon Highway to kick things off. 

News entities are following one another to capitalize the word black. How strong is the justification? 

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, it's become fashionable to urge anyone who's not black to "just listen," the belief being that this will promote racial healing. In fact, at a time when freedom of thought and expression are under assault and the marketplace of ideas is suffering, we urgently need to hear more perspectives to fight ignorance and division, and skin color should never be a disqualifier.

Media in the internet age have been instrumental in highlighting cases of police brutality, but they’re also responsible for an incredible amount of reactionary propagandizing and misunderstanding, leaving us ill-prepared to properly heal and grow as a nation.

My podcast, BreakLines, launches today, earlier than expected, and so it feels like opening a restaurant before the silverware's been delivered. But with all that's going on, it seemed the "grand opening" could no longer wait.

In Episode 1, attached, I build on my experiences reporting on race in the US, Asia, and Africa, to try to make greater sense of the current moment:
"Yes we need to acknowledge the sins of our institutions and support reform that promotes true equality under the law. But we also need to hear from [a greater diversity of perspectives]. Without you and your honest opinions, there is no conversation" and meaningful progress between the races will be limited.

Rise up, stay safe, and thanks for listening.