"Whiteness—that form of life that is also a way of seeing life—emerged not as a fixed identity but as a striving, a goal to be accomplished, and for many an achievement to be celebrated."

"I have gone to church my whole life. I have never wondered if someone might enter the church and kill me."

"I am one of the world’s biggest fools. I am also a fat black boy raised by a village of fat black women practiced in surviving, forgetting and forgiving the raced and gendered violence of holy American rooms."

"Demons are not a metaphor for militarized drones. Drones are demons."

"It’s unfortunate that the opinion that does this great thing is so painful to read."

"Like every other Gen Xer, I learned to smoke because a neighborhood girl named Tammy had a grandmother who was dying of cancer and therefore didn’t have time to notice that Tammy was stealing her Benson & Hedges 100s."

"We shouldn't be asking individual eaters to outsmart a complex global market with every purchase."

"After reading criticism of the name today on social media, 5 Rabbits partner Milagros Rivera said they're switching the name to '(Expletive) Tue Pelo' instead."

"All he had to do was make an album that tightened up and refined his sound a bit, name it Missouri, maybe write a tearjerker based around a St. Louis riverboat casino, and he would know the glory of a Coachella headliner’s vegetable tray in perpetuity."

"American money was once quite a bit more freewheeling, and also less male."

"Apple News doesn’t need to make any money, ever. It just needs to make the experience of using an iPhone slightly better, so that people keep buying iPhones."

"Hold on. The author that finally put words to the lie I heard from evangelicalism–the lie that there is no magic fix–is advertising a magic fix?"

"The flag, I cannot stress this enough, was clearly covered with images of dildos and butt plugs."

"I wouldn't mind not being human."

"Too many films decide, 'Your child is almost ready to handle this violence.'"

"I wish my employees worked half as hard as that metaphor."

"The bees wanted the placenta, she said with a chuckle."

"I found a very small thing in an archive, but I can relate it to a big thing."

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

All articles »