Greetings again from the Dallas heat dome.
I’m preparing to go back to Tulsa, a town I’ve reported from a few times over the past two years. You might know about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, when White mobs slaughtered Black residents of the Greenwood district. More than 100 years later, the living survivors of that massacre and descendants of victims have been engaged in a legal battle with the city, fighting for reparations. I’ve been writing about the efforts at repair and justice there, taking several trips to Tulsa to document the centennial as well as the search for the remains of massacre victims.
In August 2022, Tulsa County District Court Judge Caroline Wall issued a historic decision to let the reparations lawsuit proceed — a move that gave many people hope that justice could be served not only in Tulsa but also in other places where massacres occurred.
Last week, however, Wall issued a stunning decision in the reverse direction: She tossed out the reparations case altogether, with little explanation. So, I’m Tulsa-bound again, to get the story of where the road to justice goes from here.
Meanwhile? A few words about men …
Pretty accurate stuff
“Of course, a masculinity defined solely in opposition to women — or to the gains of feminism, more specifically — doesn’t provide a true road map to the future. Perhaps most alarmingly, many of the visions of masculinity these figures are pushing are wildly antisocial, untethered to any idea of good. Men are urged to situate themselves in a mythic story in which the world was always meant to be under their control. The fact that it no longer is becomes fuel for defensiveness and a victim complex, one that has corrosive and tragic effects.”
And this one, quoting a doctoral student at an Ivy League university:
“‘Ultimately,’ [Taylor] Reynolds mused, ‘it’s about relationships and finding older men who, you know — they’re not flashy, they’re not “important,” necessarily, but they actually are living virtuous lives as men. And then being able to then learn from them.’
“This cultural shift is one reason why the crisis of masculinity might take time to fix: because fostering positive representations of manhood requires relationships and mentorship on an individual level, in a way that can’t be mandated.”