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1. For New York, Jill Abramson presented a case for impeaching Clarence Thomas (“Do You Believe Her Now?,” February 19–March 4). Caroline Heldman, a politics professor at Occidental College and the co-author of Women, Power, and Politics, responded: “Abramson lays out overwhelming evidence that Thomas repeatedly lied to the Senate. Will we finally care about the experiences of black women now that a white woman has come forward to report the same? And now that we believe survivors in the era of #MeToo, will we hold a Supreme Court justice to a lower standard than Bill O’Reilly or Al Franken? Impeach Clarence Thomas.” Angela Wright-Shannon, whose harassment allegations against Thomas were detailed in the story, wrote in the HuffPost, “We can hope that the congressional balance of power shifts this election year, and that predators like Thomas, and even Trump, will be removed from power. Maybe it’s not just a pipe dream that two of the most powerful men in the country � would have to answer for the many ways they have mistreated women.” But reader Larry Sherman cautioned, “Be careful what you wish for. If Clarence Thomas was impeached and removed from the bench, he would be replaced. With this president and Senate, could it be a younger Clarence?”
2. “America, having pioneered the modern way of life, is now in the midst of trying to escape it,” Andrew Sullivan wrote in his meditation on the opioid epidemic (“The Poison We Pick,” February 19–March 4). The Week’s Damon Linker wrote, “In its brilliance and depth, an essay that only Andrew Sullivan could write.” But even some of those praising Sullivan wished he’d grappled more with the pharmaceutical industry’s culpability; as the Intercept’s Lee Fang wrote, ”This incredibly obscures the way drug companies orchestrated the rise in opioid prescribing over the last 20 years, but it’s a fascinating read worth your time.” William Brewer, whom Sullivan cites as “America’s poet laureate of the opioid crisis,” replied, “I am grateful that New York chose to run a thoughtful and probing piece on the opioid epidemic, which needs all the attention it can get. And while I have issues with elements of Mr. Sullivan’s essay, I am by and large in agreement with the article’s larger argument, namely that no amount of policy or reform or money will completely solve the epidemic until we seriously examine what has happened to life in postindustrial America, and ask ourselves how we make it worth living again. Moreover, I am especially grateful that Mr. Sullivan believes literature, and poetry specifically, can be a valuable force in helping Americans to understand the personal, psychological, and spiritual realities of this epidemic; until we do, we likely don’t stand a chance against these ‘agents of an eternal and enveloping darkness’ masquerading as a force of divine escape.”
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3. Jada Yuan and Hunter Harris charted the path of Jordan Peele’s Get Out from low-budget horror film to box-office juggernaut (“The First Great Movie of the Trump Era,” February 19–March 4). Ytasha L. Womack, author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi & Fantasy Culture, responded, “Jordan Peele crafted a heartfelt story that masterfully conveys the psychological horror of questioning one’s sanity and faith in humanity when gentility is the mask for body snatching.” Maryann Erigha, a University of Georgia professor who studies race and genre, added, “Beyond blood, guts, and gore, the horror in Jordan Peele’s social thriller is society itself and the traumas it permits as part of the everyday black experience.” But the Harvard sociologist Lawrence D. Bobo questioned if Get Out is truly “great”: “They all go white on you in the end, a friend once cautioned me. As the first commercially successful film to really run full force with this debatable bit of Black Folk Wisdom, Get Out will go down as a historic film. But is it a great film? I left the theater feeling puzzled but engaged. Three concerns nagged at me. First, I have always found Peele’s race humor to have a blunter, more ham-handed quality than the mutually humanizing comedy of Dave Chappelle or even Chris Rock. I was struck, second, that there were no, absolutely zero, redeeming white characters. Would we not all rise up in critique of a white written and directed race film that had no redeeming black characters? Third, the film took the ‘white she-devil’ trope to a macabre extreme. Yet, white liberals love the film as do thinking black audiences. That’s an accomplishment.”
4. “This is 18,000 different kinds of �crazy,” “wildest story I have ever read,” “holy shit,” and “completely fucking bonkers” were just a handful of the responses to William Brennan’s account of Jamison Bachman, the “Worst Roommate Ever” (February 19–March 4).