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<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
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<title>08 July, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why Did the Police Shoot Matthew Zadok Williams?</strong> - Outside Atlanta, a mother and five sisters look for answers. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/why-did-the-police-shoot-matthew-zadok-williams">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What’s Next for the Campaign to Break Up Big Tech?</strong> - A judge recently dismissed two antitrust cases against Facebook. But what appeared to be a setback for the effort may actually provide a road map for how it can succeed. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/whats-next-for-the-campaign-to-break-up-big-tech">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What We Need to Learn from the Tragedy in Surfside</strong> - It is possible that South Florida, where climate change is a particularly acute problem, is nearing a point at which even the best-constructed buildings are under threat. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/12/what-we-need-to-learn-from-the-tragedy-in-surfside">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>This July 4th, Can We De-Adapt from the Pandemic and Trump at the Same Time?</strong> - Although 2021 is only half over, it has brought about two major restart moments—one in politics and the other in public health. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/this-july-4th-can-we-de-adapt-from-the-pandemic-and-trump-at-the-same-time">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sifting Silently Through Surfside’s Rubble</strong> - Sinead Imbaro and her Belgian Malinois’s quest for hints of life. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/sifting-silently-through-surfsides-rubble">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>New York City’s mayoral primary is over. The debate over ranked-choice voting is just beginning.</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N1ct7y_Or0hz2GBgmBheS98-lsE=/482x0:6029x4160/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69555418/GettyImages_1327500059.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams on July 7, 2021. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The verdict so far is decidedly mixed.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KDqicA">
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New York City’s grand experiment with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22443775/ranked-choice-voting-explained-new-york-strategy">ranked-choice voting</a> ended in a bit of an anticlimax on Tuesday when a <a href="https://web.enrboenyc.us/rcv/024306_8.html">newly released count</a> showed Eric Adams — the frontrunner on Election Day in the Democratic primary — hanging on for a narrow victory.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jhbiko">
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The new system did not end up propelling an underdog candidate past the first-round leader. But it almost did: In <a href="https://web.enrboenyc.us/rcv/024306_1.html">first-choice votes</a>, Adams <a href="https://web.enrboenyc.us/rcv/024306_1.html">led</a> by 9.5 percentage points over Maya Wiley. Yet by the time the reallocation rounds had worked their magic, Wiley was gone, and Adams led the remaining candidate, Kathryn Garcia, by <a href="https://web.enrboenyc.us/rcv/024306_8.html">just 1 percentage point</a>. Garcia had been in third place in the initial round, but ultimately nearly won.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="12lGcM">
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Ranked-choice voting was the dream system of many progressive election reformers, and New York’s mayoral contest was its biggest spotlight yet in the United States. There were many questions about how voters would adjust to this new system during a pandemic and whether it could live up to its promises.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n9nbJF">
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Ultimately, the results are mixed. It wasn’t the utter disaster some feared, but whether the advantages of ranked choice justify its drawbacks is certainly debatable.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4b8HDH">
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For instance, there are questions about whether some voters were confused by the new system. Fifteen percent of ballots in the mayoral contest ended up ranking neither Adams nor Garcia, so they played no role in the final tally. It’s hard to say whether that’s because those voters preferred other candidates or because they didn’t understand the system, but in any case, the outcome was so close that their ballots could have made a difference.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VfEfM1">
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Questions also remain about whether ranked-choice was better than a traditional runoff between the top two vote-getters might have been. Would a runoff have been helpful and useful for New York City voters in presenting a simplified choice between two candidates, or would it have been a waste of time and money?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yFFczz">
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Finally, the New York count was slow and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/29/22556310/kathryn-garcia-new-york-ranked-choice-mayor">botched</a>. Ranked-choice voting mostly isn’t to blame here — the main culprits for the counting problems this time were other state and city policies (as well as a simple error) — but it’s true that in practice, ranked choice often tends to produce slower results than ordinary elections that get informally “called” by the media.
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</p>
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<h3 id="q42GYJ">
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Did voters understand the system?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7POTNy">
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One major question hanging over this election was whether voters had been sufficiently educated about how ranked-choice voting works. For people who have voted the same way their whole lives, it can be a confusing change. (Rather than just picking one candidate per election, New York City voters got to rank up to five, in order of preference. During the count, lower-performing candidates get eliminated, and ballots for them are reallocated to whichever remaining candidate the voter ranked next.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GRCGZ4">
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One number analysts tend to look to here is the number of “exhausted ballots.” Those are ballots that end up playing no role in the final round because all the candidates they list have been eliminated.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IUrhsu">
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This could occur for several reasons. One is confusion or a lack of understanding of how the system works. Another is running out of ranking slots (New York City had 13 mayoral candidates listed on the ballot, but voters could rank only five). This could also be voters’ personal choice — even with the ranked-choice option, some people simply prefer to just list one candidate, professing indifference between all the others. But often, a high number of exhausted ballots is viewed by critics as a problem for the system.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lG8eyf">
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Overall, about 15 percent of ballots in the Democratic mayoral contest ended up exhausted by the final round, meaning those voters ranked neither Adams nor Garcia. So another way to view the final result is that 43 percent of voters ultimately chose Adams, 42 percent ultimately chose Garcia, and 15 percent ultimately chose neither.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PsKcpJ">
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Exhausted ballots may have been more consequential in the final elimination round, when Maya Wiley was eliminated. Nearly 74,000 of her voters’ ballots ended up exhausted because they ranked neither Adams nor Garcia.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jjj9oJ">
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The remaining Wiley voters broke strongly to Garcia over Adams: Garcia picked up about 129,000 votes from them, while Adams gained about 49,000. This was almost enough for Garcia to pass Adams, but not quite — she fell about 8,400 votes short. So if fewer Wiley voters had exhausted their ballots, it’s entirely plausible that Garcia could have overtaken Adams.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Blilqs">
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It’s also plausible that a significant portion of Wiley’s progressive base truly was indifferent about the choice between Garcia and Adams, both centrists, and as such fully intended to leave them both unranked. (Some of them, as the results show, also preferred Adams to Garcia.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1dAaoW">
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But the strategy of ranked choice can be complicated, and the messages around it often conflicted. Proponents argue it frees people up to vote for their “true” preferences, but in a crowded field with limited ranking slots available, that could be a path to your ballot becoming exhausted. The best strategy to prevent that was to make sure you ranked at least three of the Adams-Garcia-Wiley-Yang quartet who led the polls, but how many voters were aware of that?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2UHEx6">
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If the outcome was ultimately determined by a lack of voter understanding of the system, that wouldn’t be ideal — though, of course, it’s only because of ranked choice that Garcia was in contention at all, as she was in third place in the first round.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ucJsTo">
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Would a runoff have been useful for voters?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SqL4fz">
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The difficulty in comparing a ranked-choice election outcome to how things would have gone under a different system is that it’s not clear the results really would have been so similar. In a more traditional election, campaign strategies would have been different (Garcia and Yang likely would not have campaigned together, for instance), minor candidates may have dropped out before Election Day, and voters may have cast their ballots more strategically in the first round.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tEIwSn">
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Ultimately, Eric Adams had 30.8 percent of first-choice votes. Under the previous system, he would have needed 40 percent to avoid a runoff. So, unless you think he would have performed far better in a world without ranked choice, the real result that was averted by the new system was not an outright Adams win but a runoff with either Wiley or Garcia (they were close to each other in the first round).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fMETSw">
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So is it better that ranked choice settled the primary quickly rather than kicking it to a runoff that would have framed a clear choice between Adams and one alternative?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EPcgOM">
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Ranked-choice activists have various criticisms of the runoff. They say it’s expensive for the city to hold and inconvenient for voters to have to vote again. They point out that turnout usually drops in runoffs, arguing this makes the ultimate outcome less representative of the electorate’s wishes. And they say things tend to get very nasty and negative.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ckFLmU">
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But a runoff has its virtues. It would have framed a clear choice for voters between Adams and one alternative candidate (as opposed to the confusing strategies in the crowded field described above), and it would have ensured both of those candidates got scrutiny from voters. And a turnout drop is hardly a sure thing — as MSNBC’s <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/1412817392791609344">Steve Kornacki pointed out</a>, turnout actually increased in the runoff the last time New York City Democrats had one for the mayoral race, in 2001.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eguBp1">
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Perhaps a runoff would have gotten to the same outcome, an Adams victory, at more expense. Or perhaps his opponent would have been able to distinguish herself better now that she was no longer in a crowded field. Again, we’ll never know for sure.
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</p>
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<h3 id="bkCgBh">
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Were the slow and botched counts ranked choice’s fault?
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ihDkBX">
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Much of the grumbling about ranked choice so far has focused on two things that are (mostly) not its fault: the botched count and the slow count.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W357Ds">
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The botched count last week, in which the New York City Board of Elections <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/29/22556310/kathryn-garcia-new-york-ranked-choice-mayor">accidentally included</a> about 135,000 “test ballots” in its publicly posted tally, is clearly not a ranked-choice problem — it was an error made by a staffer that was missed because of generalized sloppiness and incompetence among board members. The most promising way to avoid such embarrassing errors in the future is to reform the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/nyregion/nyc-voting-election-board.html">long-troubled board</a> itself.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L6ns2f">
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Blame for the slow count, meanwhile, lies mostly with New York City and state policies regarding the counting of absentee ballots. The state had an antiquated practice of refusing to count any absentee ballots at all until seven days after the election (<a href="https://www.vox.com/21417179/election-2020-vote-count-results-when">unlike other states</a> that start counting them as soon as they come in). The pandemic-driven surge in mail voting led to very slow counts in all New York elections (including those that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/nyregion/absentee-ballot-counting.html">didn’t use ranked choice in 2020</a>), and efforts are underway <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/ny-would-count-absentee-ballots-sooner-under-new-bill-after-delay-plagued-2020-election/3099389/">to reform this</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NikXPA">
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Still, it is true that ranked choice does typically mean slower results than Americans are used to. In most US elections, much of the count is reported on election night, and media outlets often unofficially “call” a winner based on that information, even though the actual results often won’t be finalized for weeks. (A close election, or any election where a significant portion of the vote remains uncounted, can take longer to call.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nUtRQw">
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In ranked-choice voting, though, election administrators need to determine the order of candidates so they can eliminate them one by one and reallocate their ballots accordingly. They also have to decide whether to release a preliminary reallocation tally well before every ballot is counted (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/30/22558211/kathryn-garcia-ranked-choice-nyc-board">as New York City did last week</a> and is doing again this week, to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/06/new-york-ranked-choice-voting-498221">some criticism</a>), or wait to reallocate until every ballot is in, which would take a really long time).
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GvSRSW">
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Does this matter? Historically, progressives have tended to argue that slow election counts aren’t a big deal because making sure that every vote counts, and doing the count properly, are more important. Donald Trump’s conduct in 2020 did raise alarms that a slow vote count could be manipulated by demagogues to sow public distrust in election results. But it’s hard to argue those stakes are anywhere near as high in a mayoral primary — the general election is still months off, after all.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>Why everything feels more expensive right now</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V2-wyC07pcVhHk8ao75uXL-oZs0=/258x0:3774x2637/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69555290/IMG_3620__1_edit.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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An aerial view of a kitchen island covered with a variety of consumer goods and food. | Rani Molla/Vox
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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What’s going on in prices, explained in words and charts.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aM2rYy">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="74Xe2j">
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You’re not imagining it — many items are more expensive than they used to be. Some by a little, others by a lot. The United States isn’t in runaway <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22346376/inflation-rate-explained-federal-reserve">inflation</a> territory right now, but we’re definitely seeing some unusually pricey consumer goods.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VBaPcN">
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If you haven’t noticed it in your day-to-day life, you’ve at least seen it in the headlines: From <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/25/business/plane-ticket-airlines-airfare/index.html">flights</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22410713/lumber-prices-shortage">lumber</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22421095/chicken-wings-shortage-delivery-bar">chicken wings</a>, prices are higher for many goods and services across the economy. Some people are pointing to these and other price increases as signs that worrisome inflation is on the horizon, arguing that the situation could soon rival what happened in the United States in the 1970s — a period of “stagflation” when the US saw high inflation coupled with slow economic growth and high unemployment.
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</p>
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But many economists and policymakers, including the chair of the Federal Reserve, think it’s likely transitory and that the economy might just be running a little hot right now. They say it will likely cool down as some of the post-pandemic bottlenecks and imbalances work themselves out. It looks like it’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/opinion/inflation-economy-biden-fed.html">already starting to happen in lumber</a>. It’s also worth noting that <a href="https://rooseveltinstitute.org/2021/04/08/the-illusion-of-inflation-why-this-springs-numbers-will-look-artificially-high/">last year we saw deflation</a> in some areas of the economy, meaning prices went down, and so it makes sense that they would rebound.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RDM6cz">
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Still, the inflation debate isn’t going to resolve itself anytime soon.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FQHRli">
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So what’s happening right now? Consumer prices <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/consumer-prices-increase-5-0-percent-for-the-year-ended-may-2021.htm">were up</a> 5 percent from the previous year in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, which looks at prices for goods across the economy to get an idea of inflation. It’s a level of increase<strong> </strong>we haven’t seen since 2008, and one that we’ve only seen a handful of times since the early 1980s. Typically, the Fed targets a 2 percent inflation rate over the long term, though inflation has actually been running below that in recent years.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Oq4sn7">
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Prices went up <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">by 0.6 percent</a> in May alone. It’s quite a break from recent history: In the years following the Great Recession, the question many economists have been asking themselves is why inflation was so low.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PbMQ44">
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What’s perhaps more interesting than the topline number, though, is what’s underneath it. Sometimes, major price increases or decreases in one specific area can sort of throw the overall picture out of whack. (That’s why you hear people talk about “core” inflation, meaning prices excluding food and energy, which can be volatile because of factors like weather and oil supply.) Recently, one area is causing a stir: <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21507739/coronavirus-car-market-used-expensive">used cars</a>, whose price went up 7.3 percent in May, after going up 10 percent in April. Used car prices are now up nearly 30 percent since last year. If you take them out of the equation, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-17/this-is-what-inflation-would-look-like-without-used-cars-and-trucks?srnd=oddlots&sref=vuYGislZ">the situation can look a little bit different</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3hqpnH">
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To be sure, used cars aren’t the only story. The prices of plenty of items have crept up over the past year. Gas prices are up significantly over the past year <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-face-higher-gas-prices-heading-into-july-4th-weekend-11625218201">due to a variety of factors</a> including higher oil prices, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/30/fuel-delivery-delays-caused-by-truck-driver-shortage-gasbuddy-analyst.html#:~:text=According%20to%20National%20Tank%20Truck,pandemic%2C%20when%20gasoline%20demand%20plummeted.">a shortage of truck drivers</a>, and a big increase in demand as people start driving and flying again. Gas prices fell significantly at the start of the pandemic, too, which is part of what makes the current increase seem so eye-popping.
|
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</p>
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</div></div></li>
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</ul>
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<h3 id="bfoKSR">
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</h3>
|
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<h3 id="M3mCP1">
|
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Your overall life might be a little more expensive right now
|
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</h3>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XJCHNC">
|
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The price of the stuff we buy changes all the time for a variety of factors, from supply chain issues to our changing habits.
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J5cDqa">
|
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The pandemic, of course, meant a disruption in supply chains and habits. All of a sudden, millions of Americans were stuck at home, hoarding toilet paper and clearing grocery store shelves. Items we might have once purchased at restaurants, we tried to recreate at home with ingredients from the supermarket. And it became increasingly important to give our homes, where we spent a disproportionate amount of our time, an update to make them more livable. Our demand led to shortages in everything from <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5456bc24-6dd4-11ea-9bca-bf503995cd6f">pasta</a> to couches. Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the supply side as well, as the virus spread among employees at meat plants and garment factories alike.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8k3rF">
|
|||
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|
To look at what’s happened to prices for a number of goods, we assembled our own little shopping basket. For the most part, prices went up, according to consumer price data from <a href="https://nielseniq.com/">NielsenIQ</a>, which tracks US checkout prices at a wide variety of retailers, as well as supplementary data from the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iHpdj8">
|
|||
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After toilet paper became readily available and people stopped stockpiling it as much, its price only rose about 3 percent from last year. Staples like milk and bread rose just slightly, 1.6 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.
|
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wks4sc">
|
|||
|
|
Meanwhile, some prices rose dramatically. As mentioned, used car prices are up nearly 30 percent, due to <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21507739/coronavirus-car-market-used-expensive">supply chain disruptions in the new car market</a>, including a <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22336388/gm-chip-shortage-ford-semiconductors-biden">global shortage</a> of semiconductor computer chips. Prices for some fruits, like strawberries and blueberries, are up 27 and 16 percent, respectively, as demand for the fruits surged during the pandemic and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/driscolls-desperately-needs-to-know-how-many-strawberries-america-wants-11620225033">outpaced supply</a>. Produce prices are always subject to high volatility since there are so many variables with planting and <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/as-washington-cherry-harvest-builds-toward-summer-peak-challenges-from-covid-remain/">harvesting</a>.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y0gx8f">
|
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|
|
The cost of kitchen and living room furniture, due to a mix of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/08/furniture-sales-pandemic/">supply chain bottlenecks and demand</a> to fix up our personal spaces during the pandemic, is up about 10 percent since last year. Dog treat prices are up 5 percent, perhaps as a result of increased demand from the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/4/24/21231806/coronavirus-pets-covid-19-cats-dogs">large number of pet adoptions during lockdown</a>. Takeout prices were up 6 percent.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jT2jGQ">
|
|||
|
|
While the price changes of cheese varied widely by type (Brie down 6 percent, cheddar up 0.4 percent), overall the average unit price of cheese rose about 4 percent in the past year. That growth reflects the fact that many people bought more premium cheeses at home since they couldn’t get them out, according to NielsenIQ.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dzqA7n">
|
|||
|
|
There were a few notable exceptions where prices actually declined since last year. The average cost per unit of flour and yeast, the ingredients to make last year’s ubiquitous <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/5/19/21221008/how-to-bake-bread-pandemic-yeast-flour-baking-ken-forkish-claire-saffitz">homemade bread</a>, fell 1 percent and 4 percent respectively. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting less expensive, but rather that people are more likely to wait for sales than they were in spring 2020, when, if people could find staples in stock, they’d buy them regardless of price. Similarly, the price of eggs went down 4 percent. Prices for hard seltzer, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/8/20/20812814/white-claw-truly-hard-seltzer-explained">unofficial summer drink of 2019</a>, declined nearly 6 percent, perhaps reflecting the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/business/white-claw-hard-seltzer-sales.html">increased selection available</a>, with everyone from Budweiser to Topo Chico getting in on the action.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="The price of many consumer goods grew substantially in the last year" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yYy5oyFxmdT87frunUKrvdJhVa4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22695898/inflation_3_edits_2_01.png"/> <cite>Rani Molla</cite>
|
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|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="c8ReSb">
|
|||
|
|
Lumber mania: An update
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HdCuyo">
|
|||
|
|
One of the biggest price surge stories of the year thus far has been lumber. (<a href="https://www.vox.com/22410713/lumber-prices-shortage">Vox has a full explainer on it here</a>.) The lumber industry struggled in the years following the Great Recession, and production slowed accordingly. When Covid-19 hit, many in the industry assumed that the situation was only about to get worse, so they dialed back production even more. In the case of many mills and yards, economic shutdowns wouldn’t let them work anyway.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEoLPx">
|
|||
|
|
“They really dialed back, thinking that demand would fall, and the reality is that demand never slowed,” Dustin Jalbert, senior economist and lumber industry specialist at Fastmarkets RISI, told Vox in the spring.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uobtuv">
|
|||
|
|
It turns out lots of people stuck at home had the same idea to undertake home renovation and remodeling projects. They built out decks and garages and offices and found ways to make the houses they were stuck in 24/7 more pleasant. <a href="https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-economy-recession-stock-market/2020/5/29/21273520/housing-market-coronavirus-impact-home-prices-mortgages-crash">Others went looking for new homes</a>, snapping up preexisting ones and starting to build.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G3GJAd">
|
|||
|
|
The supply-demand imbalance threw much of the industry out of whack, and lumber prices soared. In the summer of 2019, 1,000 board feet of lumber (one board foot is 12x12x1 inches) out of a sawmill would have run somewhere in the $300 range, according to data from Fastmarket Random Lengths. In May, the same amount of wood was going for more than $1,500 at some points.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vNCnze">
|
|||
|
|
Now prices have begun to come down, falling back below $1,000. It could be a sign that the supply chain is starting to balance itself out and that the demand side, in the face of high prices, has taken a breath that’s allowed some of the supply side to catch up.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<div id="OweeF7">
|
|||
|
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<div id="datawrapper-NB9i6">
|
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</div>
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dHvdIr">
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="krCvO2">
|
|||
|
|
This is what some economists <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/opinion/inflation-economy-biden-fed.html">say is likely to happen</a> across the economy as some of the post-pandemic kinks get worked out. The supply side will catch up with the demand side as supply chains normalize, and in some cases, pent-up demand will ease, too. “The prices that are driving that higher inflation are from categories that are being directly affected by the recovery from the pandemic and the reopening of the economy,” Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell said at a <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediacenter/files/FOMCpresconf20210616.pdf">press conference</a> in June. He specifically invoked lumber: “The thought is that prices like that have moved up really quickly because of the shortages and bottlenecks and the like. They should stop going up and at some point, in some cases should actually go down. And we did see that in the case of lumber.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="GlQ8uO">
|
|||
|
|
The big question mark right now is how long this will last
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ROgkXj">
|
|||
|
|
There is no denying that some prices are rising at a quicker clip than they have in recent years; the big unknown right now is how long this will go on. The Fed and the White House are betting that the current level of inflation is transitory, meaning this is a temporary bump as the economy rebounds from the pandemic, and soon things will settle back down.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bRUYZR">
|
|||
|
|
In <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/files/powell20210622a.pdf">testimony</a> before Congress in June, Powell laid out the factors contributing to recent inflation increases, including falling prices at the start of the pandemic, supply bottlenecks, the pass-through of oil and energy prices, and increased consumer spending accompanying reopening. “I will say that these effects have been larger than we expected, and they may turn out to be more persistent than we’ve expected, but the incoming data are very much consistent with the view that these are factors that will wane over time and then inflation will then move down toward our goals,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fILCdI">
|
|||
|
|
The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index, which the Fed uses as its main gauge of inflation, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/business/inflation-federal-reserve.html">ticked up slightly less in May than economists expected</a>, which could be a signal that the pace of price increases is slowing. However, it’s too early to tell.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PslQ9C">
|
|||
|
|
The big fear among some economists is that the US will see a repeat of the 1970s, when the country saw a <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-inflation">sustained period of high inflation</a> that was only brought to an end when the Fed took harsh measures and pushed the economy into a recession in the early 1980s. If inflation takes off and jobs and wages don’t go with it, then everyday items can become prohibitively expensive for many people. In the ’70s, for example, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1978/05/09/beef-a-juicy-example-of-runaway-inflation/6381f6f0-8d53-4f25-9e49-0684acfe2ea9/">beef became super pricey</a>. Sustained inflation can also reduce the value of savings.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="73rJyl">
|
|||
|
|
Some more extreme corners even warn that the US could see runaway hyperinflation like what’s happened in places such as Argentina and Venezuela, where the value of their currencies has declined rapidly and it’s nearly impossible for people’s paychecks to keep up with skyrocketing prices.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bDWBPf">
|
|||
|
|
Amid those concerns, it’s important to remember that the Fed is paying attention to inflation. If the economy really doesn’t settle down, the Fed has tools to fight it, such as raising interest rates. Fed officials <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/fed-holds-rates-steady-but-raises-inflation-expectations-sharply-and-makes-no-mention-of-taper.html">have already moved up</a> their expected timeline for increasing interest rates to 2023 from 2024, though forecasts can always change.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yptooa">
|
|||
|
|
It’s understandable to worry about inflation — a scenario where prices go up and paychecks don’t isn’t one the country wants to see. But is it time to start hoarding gold under your mattress? Probably not. That post-pandemic vacation you wanted to take is probably going to run you a little more than you thought it would, at least for now. The good news is, compared to a year ago, it’s much safer in the US to take a vacation at all.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Whitney Houston’s story shows the danger of being America’s sweetheart</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Illustration of Whitney Houston singing with the top half of her face obscured by a waving American flag." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c3aw9KXKkZsjInEs5ctytmLJFVI=/375x0:2626x1688/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69555199/Whitney.0.png"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
<a class="ql-link" href="https://www.helene-baum.com/" target="_blank">Hélène Baum-Owoyele</a> for Vox
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Why America embraced Whitney Houston, and how it destroyed her.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jJbLKx">
|
|||
|
|
When people talked about Whitney Houston at the start of her career, there was a very specific image they returned to over and over again: Whitney Houston, people used to say, was America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGi8lA">
|
|||
|
|
This was in the ’80s, when Houston wanted to dance with somebody who loved her; in the ’90s, when she ran down the steps of an airplane in <em>The Bodyguard</em> to kiss Kevin Costner. Before she told Diane Sawyer that crack is wack; before <em>Being Bobby Brown</em>; before everything that came toward the tragic end of her life in 2012.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LAgUV3">
|
|||
|
|
“There she stands, Miss Black America,” began <a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964980-1,00.html">a Time magazine profile of Whitney Houston in 1987</a>. “With her impeccable face, sleek figure and supernova smile, she looks like a Cosby kid made in heaven. She stirs sentiments not of lust but of protectiveness and awe; everybody around wants to adopt her, escort her or be her. And now this perfect creature picks up a microphone. Oh. You mean she sings too?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VrhRNL">
|
|||
|
|
The 2018 documentary <em>Whitney</em> features a series of man-on-the-street interviews conducted shortly after Houston’s landmark rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1991 Super Bowl.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qI1C7H">
|
|||
|
|
“What do you think of when you hear the name Whitney Houston?” people are asked.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mQagRE">
|
|||
|
|
“America,” says a young white girl. “The national anthem, that’s the first thing I think of.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZTnhkj">
|
|||
|
|
The image stuck. As Houston began to publicly struggle with addiction, the press kept making confused references to those halcyon days when Whitney Houston meant America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/85iNirHvVPgB3aLF28Ciocq3c5w=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22704670/GettyImages_53155511tt.jpg"/> <cite>Michael Zagaris/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston sings the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXV on January 27, 1991 in Tampa, Florida.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XUoXbK">
|
|||
|
|
In 2000, Houston’s planned performance at the Oscars was abruptly canceled amid reports that she was “out of it” during rehearsal, she was caught with pot in her bag at the airport, and she showed up apparently high to an interview with Jane magazine. Such “bad press,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/ent3.htm">the Washington Post noted</a>, was “a relatively new experience for the gospel singer’s daughter, the all-American girl.”
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5aMAu3">
|
|||
|
|
In 2006, after the National Enquirer published photographs of drug paraphernalia in Houston’s bathroom, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2006/04/12/whitney_houston_3/">Salon described her</a>, past tense, as someone who used to be “the first Black America’s sweetheart” and “the Black Princess Di.”
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
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<div id="0Rbxdl">
|
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<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;">
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="t9CuCA">
|
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|
At the peak of her career, from her debut in 1985 to the beginning of her public spiral in 2000, Houston seemed to represent a kind of Americana to which Black women are not usually allowed access. She stood for a white-coded gentility, a properness, a patriotism that is old-fashioned in its sweetness and earnestness. There’s Mom and baseball and apple pie, and there’s the American flag, and there’s Whitney Houston right up there with them, singing the “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a way no one else could come close to matching.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zc8GKK">
|
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|
“I surpassed the so-called rules,” <a href="https://www.out.com/entertainment/music/2012/02/13/whitney-houston-first-gay-interview-out-2000">Houston recalled to Out magazine in 2000</a>, as rumors of her downfall were beginning to swirl around her. “I beat the Beatles and the Elvises.”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7tiVbI">
|
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Then everything changed.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="crBTwV">
|
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|
In 2005, the Seth MacFarlane cartoon <em>American Dad</em> featured a throwaway Whitney Houston joke. Introducing her as “America’s sweetheart, Whitney Houston,” <em>American Dad</em> depicts Whitney as a desperate addict who’s been robbed of all her dignity.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
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<div id="2QEKSM">
|
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<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 75%;">
|
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</div>
|
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</div>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bt6VQo">
|
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|
In the scene, Whitney is being bribed into a private performance of her 1985 smash hit “The Greatest Love of All” for a white married couple. The husband forgot their anniversary, and his attempt to make it up to his wife is to hire Whitney to sing in exchange for a bag of cocaine.
|
|||
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IETEBQ">
|
|||
|
|
“Come on,” the fake Whitney pants as the husband pulls her into the house, “I — I need my fix.”
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qp3zAT">
|
|||
|
|
“Remember the deal, Whitney,” the husband says sternly. “First you sing, then you get your precious cocaine.”
|
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QIsroN">
|
|||
|
|
At first Whitney takes offense, but when the husband shakes the bag of cocaine in front of her face, she gives in and belts out a few off-key bars of her song: “No matter what they take from me, they can’t take away my dignity.” Then she lunges at the cocaine bag and falls flat on her face.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="77oltU">
|
|||
|
|
The unimpressed wife snatches the cocaine away from her husband and tosses it out of the front door. “Come on, Whitney, go get it,” she instructs, and Whitney crawls out of the door after the cocaine like she’s a dog.
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="63Z38M">
|
|||
|
|
The joke of the scene is that Houston has, despite the lyrics of her song, had her dignity taken away because of her issues with drug addiction. The scene assumes this idea is funny. It also assumes the idea becomes all the funnier because Houston was, for so long, America’s sweetheart.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V0NNZb">
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston was America, and she was also Black. She was the Black America’s sweetheart, the Black Miss America, the Black all-American girl. She saw the rules she had to follow to make it big in pop music as a Black woman, and she followed them so well that she beat the Beatles and she beat the Elvises.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IxcpvK_BUZWfWaDHZBEnyhy-zrk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22704766/GettyImages_139039778t.jpg"/> <cite>Craig Sjodin/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston performs on the Walt Disney Television on January 28, 1987.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NJPKFD">
|
|||
|
|
Then Houston began to break the rules. In 1992 she married Bobby Brown, described at the height of his career as “<a href="https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1996-03-30-3071266-story.html">the bad boy of R&B</a>.” She struggled with addiction, at first in private and then in public. Her voice deteriorated. She showed up on Brown’s sleazy reality show, <em>Being Bobby Brown</em>, in 2005. Houston stopped standing for America, and almost at once, the public began to punish her viciously.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="kWw9LV">
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5qZFo7">
|
|||
|
|
The press turned against her. No longer was Houston Miss Black America: Instead, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2006/04/12/whitney_houston_3/">wrote an LA celebrity journalist in 2006</a>, “that woman, Whitney Houston, 42, is just another crack head.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YWViEj">
|
|||
|
|
Her struggles with addiction became a running bit on late-night comedy shows. On <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22350286/2000s-pop-culture-misogyny-britney-spears-janet-jackson-whitney-houston-monica-lewinsky">the long list of women it was okay to mock with outright cruelty in the 2000s</a>, there was a special place for Whitney Houston.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gbMv4j">
|
|||
|
|
Houston’s fate shows that if there were a thousand ways to fail at being a white girl during the 2000s, there were a thousand thousand ways to fail at being a Black girl.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="k9X0DS">
|
|||
|
|
“I don’t know how to sing Black — and I don’t know how to sing white, either”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8DDVFv">
|
|||
|
|
As Houston began her career in the mid-1980s, one thing was very clear, both to her and to Clive Davis, CEO of Arista Records. If Houston wanted to make it big in mainstream America, if she wanted to become a true pop star, then she had to make sure not to sound too Black.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VciYyc">
|
|||
|
|
“Anything that was too Black-sounding was sent back to the studio,” Arista’s former head of promotion Kenneth Reynolds explains in the 2018 documentary <em>Whitney: Can I Be Me</em>. “To say, ‘Black-sounding,’ in case you have a problem with that: it’s to say that it’s too George Clinton. It’s too Funkadelic. It’s too R&B. We want Joni Mitchell. We want Mariah Carey. We want Barbra Streisand. We want to achieve that sound more than we want to achieve other R&B sounds. We don’t want a female James Brown.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="ySLXJo">
|
|||
|
|
<q>Houston wasn’t the “scary” kind of Black woman. She was aspirational. </q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9c5ujB">
|
|||
|
|
That was what it meant for Houston to be both a Black woman and America’s sweetheart: She had to neutralize her Blackness within the public eye. And her embrace of a white-friendly sound paid off both commercially and critically. Houston’s self-titled debut album, released in 1985, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston_(album)">stayed at No. 1 on Billboard for 14 weeks</a> and went platinum 13 times. Houston became the first Black woman embraced by MTV. Her cover of “I Will Always Love You” is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles#15_million_physical_copies_or_more">the bestselling song by a solo female artist of all time</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFrcP9">
|
|||
|
|
But Black critics suggested that Houston had sold out. Al Sharpton called her “Whitey Whitney” and called for a boycott. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2931157">The essayist Trey Ellis argued</a> that Houston’s 1987 single “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” sounded as though the singer had “applied Porcelana fade cream” to her “once extremely soulful throat”; that Houston had become one of a group of “cultural-mulatto, assimilationist nightmares; neutered mutations instead of thriving hybrids.” When Houston’s name was called at the Soul Train Awards in 1989, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/13/986678537/its-been-a-minute-podcast-examines-black-performers-on-american-culture">the crowd booed</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7EDTYWLmFjBuMWtAgXtBYPpq984=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22704811/GettyImages_80594493t.jpg"/> <cite>Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston performs with American gospel singers Bebe Winans (center) and CeCe Winans circa 1989.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k9wDyV">
|
|||
|
|
“I don’t know how to sing Black — and I don’t know how to sing white, either,” <a href="http://www.classicwhitney.com/interview/essence_1990.htm">Houston protested to Essence in 1990</a>. “I know how to sing. Music is not a color to me. It’s an art.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fHYjp2">
|
|||
|
|
She conceded, however, that her voice sounded more polished and proper on her records than it did in her concerts, and that she chose the sound of her albums deliberately. “Longevity — that’s what it’s all about,” she said in the same interview. “If you’re gonna have a long career, there’s a certain way to do it, and I did it that way. I’m not ashamed of it.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nu1GCS">
|
|||
|
|
Houston wasn’t only a white-friendly figure because of her rejection of traditionally Black song choices. Her image was also carefully designed to appeal to white America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5UJPza">
|
|||
|
|
Houston wasn’t the “scary” kind of Black woman. She was aspirational. She had a middle-class family background. She was so thin and so beautiful she could <a href="https://www.whitneyhouston.com/news/whitney-1981-cover-seventeen-magazine/">giggle with an ice cream cone on the cover of Seventeen</a> as a successful teen model before she was even a famous singer.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H1stOj">
|
|||
|
|
“To her admirers, Houston’s success represents an overdue vindication of that neglected American institution, the black middle class,” <a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964980-1,00.html">said Time magazine in 1987</a>. “Here is a morality play with a happy ending: two strong, affectionate parents nurturing their talented daughter toward the show-biz dream of fame without pain.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ohXA7k">
|
|||
|
|
But surely there were naysayers? Well, yes, Time conceded: those who thought that maybe Houston was too skinny and too pretty to be real. “To scoffers in the rock critical Establishment,” the profile continues, “the 5-ft. 8-in., 115-lb. beauty is a black Barbie doll.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ho1nCI">
|
|||
|
|
The idea of a Black Barbie doll is so far from the worst thing a magazine could compare a Black woman to in 1987 that Time’s most damning portrait of Houston almost seemed to be just another compliment. It was in fact, pointedly, the reverse of the worst thing a magazine could compare a Black woman to in 1987. That would be a welfare queen.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="YW9DDh">
|
|||
|
|
“I am not always in a sequined gown. I can get down and dirty.”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m7ea52">
|
|||
|
|
In the 1980s, white America was terrified of the idea of a Black woman using money that belonged to the taxpayers. And as part of that ideology, white America had developed a whole racist boogeyman of a stereotyped Black woman. People were terrified of the idea of a curvy Black woman who came from a broken home. Her curviness was understood to mean that she was sexually voracious. Her background was understood to mean that she was poor and hence<strong> </strong>probably criminal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bOMTbO">
|
|||
|
|
Both Houston’s loving middle-class parents and her thinness seemed to neutralize that racist stereotype. (<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-houston-36250.html">Houston’s parents were actually divorced</a>, a fact the press would not learn until well into Houston’s career.) The parts of Houston’s image that might threaten to bring that stereotype back into focus — for instance, the fact that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/16/friendship-intimate-on-all-levels-whitney-houston-robyn-crawford-addiction-fame-secrecy">she had once been in a romantic relationship with her best friend Robyn Crawford</a> — were carefully excised.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HPOaJJ">
|
|||
|
|
America’s Black sweetheart could not be bisexual. In 1987, bisexuality would still seem deviant. It would bring Houston too close for comfort to that idea of the sexually voracious Black woman.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qffYQr">
|
|||
|
|
Houston ended her romance with Crawford as her career began to take off. They remained friends publicly, but both of them stringently denied all rumors that there had ever been anything more to their friendship. Houston’s bisexuality became invisible, and her Blackness heavily veiled.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J0HUHB">
|
|||
|
|
In this way, Houston was presented to the world as the opposite of <em>that</em> sort of Black woman. The bad kind of Black woman, the kind <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fslate-articles%2Fronald-reagan-campaign-speech&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F22533388%2Fwhitney-houston-american-girl-voice-legacy" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the president makes scary speeches about</a>. And white people seemed to have decided it was safe for them to love her.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TRVznqISE0R0MqZJfis2OoLt2is=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22705059/GettyImages_50475707t.jpg"/> <cite>Dirck Halstead/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
The Houston family sits together in their childhood home on January 01, 1987.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6_DJiMJJRQfzf8nzUBFFYnJ2cLI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22705042/GettyImages_50423563t.jpg"/> <cite>Diana Walker/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston talks with President George H.W. Bush on May 02, 1990.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oRYevb">
|
|||
|
|
So at the beginning of her career, when white people said that Houston represented America, what they meant was that Houston allowed white people to think of America as a land that had transcended race, without having to think about whether there were other Black people out there who they hated and feared. Here was this perfect, beautiful, untouchable pop princess with the voice of an angel — and she was Black. Where else in the world could you find that?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sr5AcG">
|
|||
|
|
Houston herself appeared increasingly frustrated with her public image as a sweet and pure white-friendly virgin queen. “I am not always in a sequined gown,” she told <a href="http://www.classicwhitney.com/interview/rollingstone_1993.htm">Rolling Stone in 1993</a>. “I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jqgLJq">
|
|||
|
|
She began playing with adding more R&B to her sound. She released a gospel album. In 1992, she married Bobby Brown.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="4dHMgW">
|
|||
|
|
<q>Even as she rebelled, Houston remained hyperaware that there were certain class and beauty standards she was expected to uphold</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhDwjw">
|
|||
|
|
In 1996, <a href="http://www.classicwhitney.com/interview/dailytelegraph_1996.htm">a reporter for the UK paper the Telegraph profiled Houston</a> and kept noting with a faint hint of surprise that she really was Black. “A lilting hint of a black American accent” comes into her voice when she gets excited, he wrote, and her new movie <em>The Preacher’s Wife</em> “has become a very black film,” in which “all the characters are authentically black.” As for her private life: “She nurtures a ‘black’ marriage.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mvZLXw">
|
|||
|
|
The culture critic Soraya Nadia MacDonald described Houston’s dilemma in 2018 as <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/whitney-houston-documentary-review/">a classic case of double consciousness</a>: “the automatic, instinctual adjustments of everyday black Americans that turn us into perpetual politicians, always reading a room, internal blackness meter at the ready.” Houston, MacDonald writes, had to pay “the toll of continuously reconciling dual identities on a grand scale.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BK8Ly0">
|
|||
|
|
Houston was apparently stifled by the work of reconciliation she constantly had to do. She was also traumatized by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/17/documentary-alleges-whitney-houston-was-sexually-abused-as-a-child">childhood sexual abuse</a>, and by the marriage to Brown she would later describe as <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/whitney-houston-discusses-bobby-brown-oprah-winfrey/story?id=8568203">emotionally abusive</a>. She had been a casual drug user since her teens, but she seems to have begun dealing with addiction in earnest by 1992, around the same time that she also began exploring ways to integrate her Blackness into her public image. She was rebelling on a lot of levels at that time, in ways both constructive and deeply self-destructive.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TuXYgQ">
|
|||
|
|
Yet even as she rebelled, Houston remained hyperaware that there were certain class and beauty standards she was expected to uphold to maintain her status as America’s sweetheart. Even when her public image reached its nadir, as it arguably did in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kovGM1ZrCck">her infamous 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer</a>, she knew what standards she had to meet.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZRLPAQ">
|
|||
|
|
That interview would be the first time Houston publicly admitted to using drugs. But even as she made that admission, she insisted that two things were still true about herself.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j3KSWk">
|
|||
|
|
“Let’s get that straight. Whitney is not going to be fat, ever. Okay?” Houston told Sawyer, snapping her fingers at the camera for emphasis. And: “Let’s get one thing straight. Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. Okay? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is wack.”
|
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|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="szy1vs">
|
|||
|
|
In other words: She wasn’t fat, and she wasn’t poor. Even in a downward spiral, Houston was warding off the specter of the poor fat Black woman with both hands.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="3iww1r">
|
|||
|
|
“We like this because it’s a ghetto story”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9oyyIw">
|
|||
|
|
Houston’s struggles with addiction and with her marriage became more and more public throughout the 2000s. A sense began to develop, <a href="http://www.classicwhitney.com/interview/theface_1000.htm">as Face magazine summarized in 2000</a>, that it was “possible that she’s been behaving badly in a whole host of delicious ways.” The gossip press became increasingly, salaciously vicious to her.
|
|||
|
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</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tKw2bx">
|
|||
|
|
Most infamously, in 2006, <a href="https://www.nationalenquirer.com/photos/whitney-houston-drugs-bathroom-photos-story/">the National Enquirer published photos</a> of drug paraphernalia scattered around Houston’s bathroom. “Inside Whitney’s Drug Den!” screamed the cover line, while lurid captions panted over the idea of “the secretly-bisexual beauty spending days amid piles of garbage smoking crack, using sex toys to satisfy herself and ignoring her personal hygiene.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aOuVxh">
|
|||
|
|
Even friendly gossip outlets were becoming harsh with Houston. “Beautiful Whitney Houston, whose voice is a national treasure, is now a skank junkie with no teeth, no money, no home (new reports today suggest she’s been evicted) no career…and worst of all, no friggin’ housekeeper!” <a href="https://www.laineygossip.com/Whitney-Houston-Whitney-Houston-Crack-aint-wack/3616">said Lainey Gossip</a> after those National Enquirer pictures came out. “Come on, y’all. How do you win that many Grammys and sell that many records and find yourself in a position where you can’t afford to find someone to clean up after your degenerate ass? Maybe this is the wake up call she needs, gossips. I mean, when you get to the point when you can’t pay your maid – I’d say it’s time to check back in to rehab, don’t you think???”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LrxsBy">
|
|||
|
|
The gossip press was especially pointed about the dirtiness of those National Enquirer photos. It was part of what made them so scandalous. Plenty of celebrities do drugs in their gleaming marble homes and play it off as glamorous, but to do drugs somewhere dirty? <em>While using sex toys</em>? That’s sordid. It’s déclassé. It’s <em>poor</em>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hVt6Ty">
|
|||
|
|
The horrible threat that Houston had avoided so carefully for so long, the image of the welfare queen, the racist stereotype of the poor Black woman from a broken home whose body is dirty and driven by lust: It all began to loom over Houston.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="N9yBo1">
|
|||
|
|
<q>They were angry with her for ruining her voice — which, it was clear, few believed belonged to Houston herself</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OH3Qnx">
|
|||
|
|
Which is part of why shows like <em>American Dad</em> found it funny to recall that, just a few short years prior, Houston had been considered America’s sweetheart. “Imagine a Black woman who uses drugs in a filthy room, symbolizing America! That would never be allowed.” That’s the joke.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="chrvGA">
|
|||
|
|
The nascent digital media was savvy enough to know that simply writing off Houston for her drug use was<strong> </strong>problematic, and it was happy to provide a counternarrative, of sorts, to that part of her story. “The media particularly likes this kind of story because it plays into stereotypes of black degradation,” <a href="https://www.salon.com/2006/04/12/whitney_houston_3/">the scholar Craig Werner said in a Salon article in 2006</a>. “The specific squalor of the Whitney Houston crack story, that part of it is racialized. There’s the idea that crack is a black drug. Which is horseshit. … We like this because it’s a ghetto story. And it shows no matter how high they rise, this is how they all fall.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0lBqNP">
|
|||
|
|
Still, highbrow left-wing publications were unhappy with Houston, too, just like the gossip press. But their issue wasn’t necessarily that her drug use was ruining her pop princess image. They were angry with her for ruining her voice — which, it was clear, few believed belonged to Houston herself.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kxSvMNfnBo68AncQUBmBE3MD5bg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22705165/GettyImages_106216668t.jpg"/> <cite>Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston performs on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on September 1, 2009, in New York City.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bdSn2v">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://www.salon.com/2006/04/12/whitney_houston_3/">Writing in Salon in 2006</a>, the feminist critic Rebecca Traister described arguing with a friend who felt strongly that Houston’s public downfall had little to do with her race. “If distant engagement with celebrity life can be compared to friendship, she said, then Houston is the friend on whom we have finally been forced to give up,” Traister wrote. “Moreover, mentioning Robert Downey Jr. by way of comparison, my friend said that if Houston had been able to smoke crack and still produce compelling product — hit songs — we would have forgiven her anything, regardless of color.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QZYV0j">
|
|||
|
|
“The pain and, frankly, disgust that so many pop fans felt during Houston’s decline,” <a href="https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/08/album-review-whitney-houstons-i-look-to-you.html">wrote the celebrated music critic Ann Powers for the LA Times in 2009</a>, “was caused not so much by her personal distress as by her seemingly careless treatment of the national treasure that happened to reside within her.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IST429">
|
|||
|
|
Houston’s voice was not her own: It belonged to America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="dmJ9Js">
|
|||
|
|
“My life became the world’s. That’s not fair.”
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5PUsEx">
|
|||
|
|
The idea from the peak of her career, the idea that Whitney Houston was America, had come back to life. But it wasn’t Whitney Houston the person, who was America now, as Houston’s career plummeted. It wasn’t even Whitney Houston the pop star, or Whitney Houston the symbol.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hhhI7m">
|
|||
|
|
It came to seem, instead, that Houston’s <em>voice</em> was America. Or, rather, that her voice belonged <em>to</em> America. It was one of America’s most prized possessions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="046xwu">
|
|||
|
|
This trope of Houston’s voice as America’s possession plays into the white fetishization of the Black body <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550614553642">that leads white people to believe that Black people are physically superior and intellectually inferior</a>, a fetishization that was sharply parodied in Jordan Peele’s Oscar-nominated 2017 film <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/7/14759756/get-out-benevolent-racism-white-feminism"><em>Get Out</em></a>. What is valuable about Houston is not her personhood, to this way of thinking, but the athletic force of her vocal cords. It’s her body. It does not truly belong to her, so when she chooses to abuse it, she is stealing from the rest of us.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z2vgtN">
|
|||
|
|
How Houston herself might feel about America laying claim to her voice seemed of no particular concern to anyone. But she gave no evidence of appreciating the idea.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="SnwLpk">
|
|||
|
|
<q>America might have forgiven Houston anything, any misbehavior, as long as she kept making the incredible physical force of her body available to the public</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VhwIWz">
|
|||
|
|
In 2009, Houston sat down for a comeback interview with Oprah. The narrative of the interview was that Houston, having successfully completed rehab and divorced Brown, was now past her struggles with addiction. With her new album, she was ready to apologize to the country, explain her past sins, and begin the work of reclaiming her old title as America’s sweetheart.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qSg4wG">
|
|||
|
|
To prep Houston for her apology, Oprah read her that LA Times quote. “Your voice is a <em>national treasure</em>,” Oprah repeated glowingly. Houston flinched.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cUf6vi">
|
|||
|
|
“When I became Whitney Houston and all this other stuff happened, my life became the world’s,” she said. “My privacy, my business. Who I was with. Who I married. And I was like, ‘That’s not fair.’”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L50B5L">
|
|||
|
|
Part of what Houston was articulating in that moment was the trap in which she’d been caught for her entire career. Houston was allowed to be America’s Black sweetheart, but only if she followed the rules laid out by white America. Be Black, but just enough. Be virginal, but also sexy, and also straight. Be thin. Be sweet. Be rich. Don’t ever do anything with your body that we don’t want you to do.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fkrtDm">
|
|||
|
|
When Houston began to break those rules, in ways both good and bad, the brutal logic underpinning them became clear.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FjbQBB">
|
|||
|
|
America might have forgiven Houston anything, any misbehavior, as long as she kept making the incredible physical force of her body available to the public. When she stopped, when her body began to break down, America revealed the truth: It never believed that Houston’s body belonged to her. It believed her body belonged to the country. Whitney was allowed to stand for America, to be Miss Black America, to be America’s sweetheart, because her body was America’s property.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TwdDoY">
|
|||
|
|
In 2012, Houston was found dead in a hotel bathtub with drugs in her system. Amid the outpouring of grief and fond memories that ensued, one of the immediate reactions from the press was fury and outrage. Houston had finally succeeded in stealing her voice from the country, forever.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xpTPZs">
|
|||
|
|
“Few pop singers have been gifted with a voice as glorious as Whitney Houston’s,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/12/whitney-houston-obituary">begins the Guardian’s obituary</a>, “and even fewer have treated their talent with the frustrating indifference she did toward the end of her life.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Om6HQj">
|
|||
|
|
In the years since Houston’s death, critics have begun to work to reclaim her legacy for her astonishing voice rather than her series of tabloid scandals. But despite this attempt to reframe the Whitney Houston story, we never seem to have quite moved past the idea that her body belongs to America.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1v89OE">
|
|||
|
|
In 2019, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/business/media/whitney-houston-hologram-album.html">Houston’s estate announced a deal with Primary Wave Music Publishing</a>, a boutique music and marketing company in New York, to rebuild Whitney Houston’s business. The plan includes a jukebox musical, an album of unreleased tracks, and a Whitney Houston hologram that goes on tour, serenading the public. Her body, back out there again, performing for the world, with Houston herself long gone from it.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a3duCe">
|
|||
|
|
“Whitney was America’s sweetheart,” explained Primary Wave founder Larry Mestel. “The idea now is to remind people that that is what her legacy is.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ap_-sPk6qmpQ8sZ45t6w2luAtns=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22705191/GettyImages_139208879t.jpg"/> <cite>Paul Bergen/Redferns via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Whitney Houston onstage at the MECC Maastricht on October 23, 1993 in Maastricht, Netherlands.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kJJBqV">
|
|||
|
|
<em>In the Purity Chronicles, Vox looks back at the sexual and gendered mores of the late ’90s and 2000s, one pop culture phenomenon at a time. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22452846/purity-chronicles"><em>Read more here</em></a><em>. </em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ex-Madrid captain Sergio Ramos signs 2-year deal with PSG</strong> - The 35-year-old was with the Spanish powerhouse since arriving from Sevilla in 2005 when he was 19.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two-year jail sentence for golfer Cabrera over assault charges</strong> - The Argentine golfer was convicted for assaulting, threatening and harassing his partner between 2016 and 2018.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Father, son take football rivalry to next level with splashes of colours</strong> - The colour is the message in this family, quite literally.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>8-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer unsure if he’ll be back</strong> - He bowed out 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 against 14th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Argentine F1 great Carlos Reutemann dies aged 79</strong> - Reutemann had undergone surgery in New York for a hepatic tumor in 2017 and struggled to regain full health.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ayurveda may get a Drugs Controller soon</strong> - Govt. to consider demand following directive from Centre</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A huge challenge for me: new Law Minister Kiren Rijiju</strong> - PM’s vision of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ requires a robust legal system, he says on assuming office.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Resolve Kashmir issue to end cycle of killing: Mirwaiz</strong> - Hurriyat leader flags geo-political changes in the region to call for early solution</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kitex to hold talks with Telangana govt.</strong> - Team to leave for Hyderabad today to discuss investment plan</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Former CM Siddaramaiah opposes implementation of NEP 2020</strong> - Must be preceded by extensive debate on its merits and demerits in colleges, universities, and student organisations, he says</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>EU increases pressure on Hungary over LGBT law</strong> - Hungary’s new law bans the depiction or promotion of homosexuality and gender change to under-18s.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Euro 2020: England charged by Uefa after ‘laser’ penalty incident</strong> - Uefa charges England after a laser pointer is directed at Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel during Wednesday’s Euro 2020 semi-final.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peter R de Vries: Shooting of investigative reporter stuns Dutch</strong> - Peter R de Vries’s family and politicians condemn the attack, as he fights for his life in hospital.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Da Vinci bear drawing expected to fetch up to £12m at auction</strong> - Head of a Bear is more than 500 years old and could set a new record for a da Vinci sketch.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cairn Energy gets right to seize Indian assets in tax row</strong> - Oil and gas firm Cairn Energy gets backing from a French court in a tax row with the Indian government.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reconstructing Roman industrial engineering</strong> - How a special design increased the efficiency of an ancient watermill. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778671">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>mRNA vaccine technology moves to flu: Moderna says trial has begun</strong> - Moderna aims for one seasonal shot for flu, COVID-19, respiratory viruses RSV and HMPV. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778684">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>OnePlus admits to throttling 300 popular apps with recent update</strong> - Chrome performance tanks 85-75 percent in some tests. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778751">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Microsoft’s emergency patch fails to fix critical “PrintNightmare” vulnerability</strong> - Game-over code-execution attacks are still possible even after fix is installed. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778734">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pacific Northwest heatwave “virtually impossible” without climate change</strong> - Rapid analysis shows it would be hard to do this in a cooler world. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1778700">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Construction worker on the 5th floor of a building needed a handsaw.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So he spots another worker on the ground floor and yells down to him, but he can’t hear him. So the worker on the 5th floor tries sign language.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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He pointed to his eye meaning “I”, pointed to his knee meaning “need”, then moved his hand back and forth in a hand saw motion. The man on the ground floor nods his head, pulls down his pants, whips out his chop and starts masturbating.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The worker on 5th floor gets so pissed off he runs down to the ground floor and says, “What the fuck is your problem!!! I said I needed a hand saw!”.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The other guy says, “I knew that! I was just trying to tell you - I’m coming!”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/og0nla/construction_worker_on_the_5th_floor_of_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/og0nla/construction_worker_on_the_5th_floor_of_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A mother comes home from work to find that her kids are hiding behind the couch. She asks what’s wrong, and the kids reply that Aunt Sally was in the house naked.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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So she goes to her bedroom to investigate, and she finds her husband lying on the bed naked and sweaty. She asks, “What’s going on?” He replies, “I’m having a heart attack.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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She says “I’m going to call 911” and runs to the bathroom to get an aspirin. In the bathroom closet however, she discovers the Aunt in the nude, and gives her a tight slap, “How dare you! My husband is having a heart attack and you’re running around naked scaring the kids!”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/littleboy_xxxx"> /u/littleboy_xxxx </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofssyj/a_mother_comes_home_from_work_to_find_that_her/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofssyj/a_mother_comes_home_from_work_to_find_that_her/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>One weekend, a husband is in the bathroom shaving when the local kid Bubba he hired to mow his lawn, comes in to pee.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The husband slyly looks over and is shocked at how immensely endowed Bubba is. He can’t help himself, and asks Bubba what his secret is. “Well,” says Bubba, “every night before I climb into bed with a girl, I whack my penis on the bedpost three times. It works, and it sure impresses the girls!” The husband was excited at this easy suggestion and decided to try it that very night. So before climbing into bed with his wife, he took out his penis and whacked it three times on the bedpost. His wife, half-asleep, said, “Bubba? Is that you?”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bad-dawg4004"> /u/bad-dawg4004 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofwm6n/one_weekend_a_husband_is_in_the_bathroom_shaving/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofwm6n/one_weekend_a_husband_is_in_the_bathroom_shaving/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A guy and his date are parked out in the country away from town, when they start kissing and fondling each other.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Just then, the girl stops and sits up. “What’s the matter?” asks the guy. She replies, “I really should have mentioned this earlier, but I’m actually a prostitute, and I charge $100 for sex.” The man thinks about it for a few seconds, but then reluctantly gets out a $100 bill, pays her, and they have sex. After a cigarette, he just sits in the driver’s seat looking out the window. “Why aren’t we going anywhere?” asks the girl. “Well, I should have mentioned this before,” replies the man, “but I’m actually a taxi driver, and the fare back to town is $50.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bad-dawg4004"> /u/bad-dawg4004 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofwpdh/a_guy_and_his_date_are_parked_out_in_the_country/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/ofwpdh/a_guy_and_his_date_are_parked_out_in_the_country/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>A man walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender gives the man his drink and the man asks “If I show you something crazy, would let me have free drinks for the rest of the night?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The bartender thinks for a minute and then says “it would to be something spectacular to take that offer.” The man leans down and picks up a box and sets it on the bar. He opens the box and inside is a small piano man, whom is only 1 foot tall, and beside him a little plano. The piano man starts playing classical music like Beethoven and Chopin.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Once he finishes, the bartender is in utter disbelief. He tells the man “You can have free drinks for the rest of the night, but only if you tell where you got this.” The man says “In the alley way behind your bar, there is a Genie who is granting free wishes to everyone who wants them.” Elated, the bartender heads behind his bar to see if it was true.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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A few minutes passed and out of the alleyway erupts a cacophony of quacking. The bartender rushes back into the bar and shuts his door against a wave of thousands of ducks. He manages to secure the door and says to the man “I think that the Genie is hard of hearing, because after I asked for a million bucks, these ducks appeared by the thousands.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The man chuckles and says “Did you really think I wished for a 12 inch pianist?”
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- SC_ON -->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/joshuaerick"> /u/joshuaerick </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oflyqj/a_man_walks_into_a_bar_and_orders_a_drink_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/oflyqj/a_man_walks_into_a_bar_and_orders_a_drink_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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