Iserotope

It’s time for The Highlighter #116! Hope you’ve had a good week. For the most part, today’s pieces are haunting and disturbing. The lead article focuses on the lasting effects of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011. The second article details Wisconsin’s tactics to suppress the vote. Then comes a needed photo break — Indie’s second appearance (see #29). Below the fold, it’s a 1-2-3 combination of Boko Haram, urban education, and narcolepsy. Please enjoy!

The Highlighter IRL: Get your tickets now for the second Highlighter Happy Hour at Room 389 in Oakland next Thursday, Nov. 2, 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Come meet the other great folks who make up this community of caring close readers. Better yet: Take the whole day off, read all the articles, and be truly prepared. Your boss won’t mind!

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The Ghosts of the Tsunami — longreads.com

Shortly after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that killed 16,000 people, Takeshi Ono began acting like a beast. He crawled on all fours and rolled around in the mud. In the night, Mr. Ono waved a knife at his wife and threatened to kill her. A priest at the local Zen temple told him: “Something got hold of you, perhaps the dead who cannot accept yet that they are dead. They have been trying to express their regret and their resentment through you.” In the tsunami’s aftermath, the relationship among the living and the dead in Japan got out of balance, and thousands of gaki, or “hungry ghosts,” threatened to possess those who survived. ⏳⏳

Voter Suppression in Wisconsin — www.motherjones.com

Ari Berman (#63) is back with another article about voter suppression — this time, on Wisconsin. Skip the clickbait headline and read about how the state’s voting requirements — a current driver’s license, passport, or state or military identification — excludes 9 percent of the electorate. Poor and African American voters are affected most. Since Shelby County v. Holder (2013) ransacked the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 22 states have passed restrictive voting laws. That trend will not reverse anytime soon. ⏳⏳

The Girls Who Survived Boko Haram — www.nytimes.com

Prepare to be horrified. Sometimes, our world is a very bad place. So far this year, Boko Haram has used 110 girls in suicide attacks in northwestern Nigeria. The choice is be raped or blow yourself up. Here are the stories of 18 girls who resisted, chose a different path, and are alive today. (For more on Boko Haram, see Issue #100.) ⏳

“They Can’t Just Be Average,” Lifting Students Up Without Lowering The Bar — pca.st

NPR’s Code Switch Podcast is doing a three-part series on Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, a new school for African American boys in Washington D.C. This second episode focuses on the limitations of restorative justice and the challenges of supporting students with low skills. Also, listen carefully: There’s definitely deficit-based, savior-mentality thinking going on here. ⏳⏳⏳

Why We Still Don’t Understand Sleep — mosaicscience.com

In high school, loyal subscriber Barbara and I wrote an article for our school newspaper about the effects of sleep deprivation. Since then, I’ve been fascinated with sleep and its many disorders. This article is about narcolepsy, which affects 1 in 2,500 people. Get ready for some science about sleep, including a primer on neuropeptides, orexin, and how Doberman Pinschers helped a Stanford researcher unlock the cause of narcolepsy. ⏳⏳

This Week’s Podcast: If my metrics are correct, it seems like everyone is listening to this week’s episode, which features my good friend Sejal Patel. A mother of three boys, Sejal talks about how she advocates for her children in school while understanding the demands that teachers face. Then, out of nowhere, we chat about white supremacists. Let me know your thoughts about the show, and if you like it, please subscribe!

Thank you for reading this week’s issue of The Highlighter. As always, let me know what you thought (thumbs are below). Also, please welcome new subscribers Caitlin, Bela, Felsha, Maria, and Thea! It makes me happy that this community is growing. Have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you again next Thursday at 9:10 am.

Hello loyal subscribers! This week’s issue of The Highlighter begins all doom and gloom but gets more hopeful as you progress through the articles. The first two pieces continue the conversation from last week about our divided, tribalist country. The first chronicles the transformation of a white man from Basic Neighborhood Contrarian to Crazy White Supremacist. The second explains the power of attributing evil to “them” while assigning good to “us.” After the photo break (an invite to the second Highlighter Happy Hour), you’re in for a double dose of goodness. You just can’t go wrong with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Nora the Polar Bear. Please enjoy! 

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Birth of a White Supremacist — www.newyorker.com

Not all disaffected white men end up becoming racist white supremacists. But this profile of Mike Enoch explains how quickly some people can latch on to hateful ideologies. Author Andrew Marantz presents many layers in this piece, but what’s clear is how Mr. Enoch needed something to soothe his feelings of inadequacy. Believing that white people are superior did the trick. If you’re interested in learning more, listen to This American Life’s “White Haze” (59 mins). Bonus: Want to read a version of the article that includes my highlights and annotations? It’s your lucky day! ⏳⏳

The Power of Negative Thinking — newrepublic.com

This is a thoughtful analysis of Donald Trump’s success and allure. The secret: Aggrandize yourself and vilify your opponents. This strategy works because it is in line with Protestant tradition, all the way from early America to The Power of Positive Thinking, whose author was Mr. Trump’s pastor. Author Jeet Heer suggests that Democrats do something similar (though kinder) in 2018. ⏳

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Beyoncé of Journalism (and My Favorite Reporter) — www.kappanonline.org

Nikole Hannah-Jones (#18, #22, #46, #47, #65, #82) is my favorite education reporter. Now she’s a MacArthur Genius! Good job, Nikole: You’ve made The Highlighter proud. This profile provides a solid history of Ms. Hannah-Jones’s career — how she got into journalism and why she cares about school segregation. Like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ms. Hannah-Jones doesn’t believe it’s her responsibility to give white people hope. Want more? Here’s her interview with the New York Times. ⏳

The Loneliest Polar Bear — projects.oregonlive.com

Unless you are immune to all feelings, this series (5 parts in all, plus a 30-min video!) will tug at your heartstrings. Follow Nora the Polar Bear and read about all the challenges she’s faced since her birth at the Columbus Zoo. To balance out the cuteness, learn more about how humans may cause the bears’ extinction sooner rather than later. ⏳⏳⏳

This Week’s Podcast: My friend and former colleague Laura Hawkins is on this week’s episode of The Highlighter Podcast. A Math teacher in San Francisco, Laura believes in putting statistics and data sets in front of her students that will challenge their bias. On the show, we talked about Andrew Sullivan’s article from #114 and grappled with what we can do to combat our increasingly tribalist country. Please take a listen, and if you’re impressed, go ahead and subscribe!

You’ve reached the end of The Highlighter #115. Thank you for being a loyal subscriber. Let me know what you thought (thumbs are below). Also, please welcome new subscribers Maria, Nick, Karen, and Tarik! If you are moved, forward this newsletter right now to a friend and write a heartfelt message encouraging them to subscribe. You’ll be happy; they’ll be happy; I’ll be happy. Have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you again next Thursday at 9:10 am.