Why We Need $50,000 Traffic Tickets

Why We Need $50,000 Traffic Tickets

All of us would like to live in a world where people always do the right thing — without anybody looking over their shoulder. But that world doesn’t exist and never will. So every society on our planet has penalties. You break the rules, you pay a price. But penalties...
Guilty of Being Poor

Guilty of Being Poor

Here’s something you might not know about Ferguson, Missouri: In this city of 21,000 people, 16,000 have outstanding arrest warrants. In fact, in 2013 alone, authorities issued 9,000 warrants for over 32,000 offenses. That’s one-and-a-half offenses for every resident...
Standing Up for Our Neighbors

Standing Up for Our Neighbors

As a teaching assistant in a class on race in the United States, I’ve probably paid more attention to the #BlackLivesMatter movement than a lot of my white peers. The professor who teaches the course here in Madison, Wisconsin — where I’m pursuing a PhD in...