Behind the Essay: “Are We Going to Have a Float Somewhere to Talk About Slavery? Probably Not.”

I spoke to the Boston Globe about Greenidge.

We cannot distinguish sloppiness, recklessness, or intent without seeing the evidence,” says Alexis Coe, who writes a column on American history for The New York Times Book Review and is the author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington.” “Instead, the punishment is being used to prove the offense.

ICYMI, my original post hits some points he missed.

Joe Marx, Karl Marx’s great-great-grandson, is an English parkour athlete. When asked about his ancestor’s communist teachings, Joe, who goes by “Exclamation Marx,” has said “Sounds great, doesn’t work”

Before I spoke to Reginald Browne, one of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s appointees to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, my feature on America’s 250th felt like Waiting for Guffman. It never stopped feeling that way, but Browne seemed to be the only member aware there was a script, giving the article what I was desperate for: clarity, seriousness, and a reason to keep reading.

This excerpt has been trimmed for length and clarity. I have omitted passages he explicitly designated off the record.

“Let’s avoid being recognized by the White House in a negative way.”

“Are we going to have a float somewhere to talk about slavery? Probably not.”

“I question: is anti-woke anti-inclusionary? Is that what we’re talking about?”

“Those vendors were purposely passed with going to draw in different segments of America: the Native Americans, the people of color, the Hispanic community. And so that was terminated.”

Alexis Coe: Can you describe it for people who weren’t there? What the room felt like, who shaped the conversation, how this unlikely group functioned?