DOUBLE ISSUE SE P T. 21 / SE P T.

28, 20 20

AN AMERICAN
FAILURE
by
ALEX FITZPATRICK
AND ELIJAH WOLFSON

time.com
 VOL. 196, NOS. 11–12 | 2020
6 | From the Editor
8 | Conversation
10 | For the Record

The Brief
News from the U.S.
and around the world

13 | Unpaid bills
could trigger
widespread
power cuts

18 | California’s
fire season sets a
record

21 | Wuhan,
desperate to banish
bad memories,
attempts normality

24 | Entre-
preneurs of
color adapt to the
pandemic

28 | TIME with ...

author and poet △
Claudia Rankine
Features Time Off The Ismael
What to watch, read,
32 | Colleges
 The COVID Collapse Keeping It Down see and do siblings in
How the U.S. went from first Trump’s false claims about Troy, Mich.,
reopen but 105 | Women lost both
without the social to worst By Alex Fitzpatrick voting are having an effect filmmakers nail parents to
bustle and Elijah Wolfson 42 By Vera Bergengruen and the horror of 2020 COVID-19
Plus: The race for a vaccine Lissandra Villa 78 within weeks of
108 | Movies:
The View By Alice Park 48
Power Player Antebellum is
each other
Ideas, opinion, Janelle Monáe’s Photograph
innovations Permanent Record As Energy Secretary,
nightmare; Cuties by Salwan
A protest arrest can Rick Perry helped friends captures an impa- Georges—The
37 | David French
alter a life and donors tient awakening Washington
on division and Post/Getty
unity in America By Melissa Chan 56 By Simon Shuster and
110 | Television: Images
Ilya Marritz 86
39 | Ian Bremmer Reparations Paid Back to Italy in We
on a world without Freedom of Are Who We Are; a
Is Florida’s compensation comic Woke; a case
Shinzo Abe for the Rosewood massacre Expression that never gets old
leading Japan Why I let my child create
a model for the nation? in A Wilderness of
40 | Sean Gregory By Victor Luckerson 62 their own gender identity Error
on a new paradigm By Kyl Myers 94
112 | Books: Sigrid
for sports Alternate Reality Nunez’s new novel,
activism Conspiracy theories In Vogue September fiction
Editor Edward Enninful is ON THE COVER:
are changing the fabric of and Quick Talk Illustration by
U.S. democracy the face of inclusive fashion with Jane Fonda John Mavroudis
By Charlotte Alter 74 By Diana Evans 98 for TIME.
116 | 10 Questions Data: Johns
for Netflix co-CEO Hopkins
Reed Hastings University

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published weekly, except for one week in February, April, May and November; two weeks in January, March, June, July, August, October and December; and three weeks in September, due to combined
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4 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

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From the Editor

A devastating
milestone
IN MARCH, AS THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC HIT NEW YORK, MY
colleague Kat Moon decided—wisely, it turned out, given
what was ahead for the U.S.—to decamp to her childhood
home, Taipei. Despite its proximity to mainland China,
where the outbreak originated, Taiwan has seen only 495
cases and seven deaths among its more than 23 million
people, making its response to the coronavirus one of the
most successful in the world. So successful, in fact, that last
month it was able to host one of the largest public gatherings
reported since social distancing began: a 10,000-person
live arena concert, which Moon and photographer An Rong
Xu attended and covered for TIME. As one U.S. reader put
it on Twitter, “An arena concert taking place with corona
restrictions honestly seems like it’s happening on another
planet considering what’s going on here in the U.S.”
While a great many mysteries remain around COVID-
19, the most effective ways to curb its spread are not among
them. That is the theme of this week’s cover story by Alex
Fitzpatrick and Elijah Wolfson, echoing what scientists
around the world have made clear now for many months.
“Not testing alone. Not physical distancing alone. Not con-
tact tracing alone. Not masks alone. Do it all,” says World
Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghe- △ coming grim milestone of 200,000.
breyesus. “Countries that have adopted this comprehensive Audience Creative director D.W. Pine then placed
approach have suppressed transmission and saved lives.” members at the illustration within a black border—
And then there is the U.S., which will soon cross a devas- an Eric Chou only the second time in our history we
tating marker: 200,000 deaths caused by COVID-19. That concert on Aug. 8 have done so, the first being after 9/11.
death toll—equivalent to U.S. deaths in more than three in Taipei “I really hope this cover is a wake-up
Vietnams, or the entire population of Salt Lake City—is the call for those who are numbed to this
world’s largest by far and more deaths per capita than in all catastrophe,” says Mavroudis. “Science
but 12 other countries. and common sense are the answers to
I spoke this week to Tom Ridge, the former Republi- this crisis.”
can governor of Pennsylvania who later served as the first
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—a role THERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS. The
created after Sept. 11, 2001, out of the recognition that the data suggest that we are reducing the
threat of terrorist attacks on American soil would forever death rate in America among people
be part of the nation’s reality. There are clear parallels not who contract the virus. And as TIME’s
only with the continuing threat of COVID-19 but also with Alice Park notes elsewhere in this issue,
the likelihood of future pandemics that virologists predict it’s possible that at least one vaccine
may well be worse. “We see in a painful and dramatic way may be available by the time 2020
the globalization of disease, and it’s incumbent on comes to an end, although distribution
us to make some rather substantive changes,” Ridge will create many new questions and
says. “If we don’t, then shame on us and shame on challenges. In the meantime, it is not
our leadership.” too late to do better.

FOR THIS WEEK’S U.S. COVER, we turned to

artist John Mavroudis, who—using data from the
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center—
handwrote the death counts in America on
AN RONG XU FOR TIME

every one of the 193 days between Feb. 29, the Edward Felsenthal,
first confirmation of a COVID-related death in EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO
the U.S., and Sept. 8, as it neared time to go to @EFELSENTHAL
press. Out of that data, the illustration reveals the
6 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
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Conversation

TIME 100
This year, TIME will unveil its
WHAT YOU annual list of the world’s 100
most influential people in an
SAID ABOUT ... hourlong prime-time broadcast
on ABC, airing Sept. 22,
THE NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION After at 10 p.m. E.T. Tune in for
reading the essays and conversations about exclusive interviews, profiles,
musical performances and
creating a better future for Black Ameri- more. The conversations will
cans that Pharrell Williams curated for the continue online through a three-
Aug. 31/Sept. 7 issue, readers agreed that the part series of TIME 100 Talks,
U.S. has a lot of work airing Sept. 23–25 on TIME
to do to live up to its .com, and in the issue hitting
newsstands Sept. 25. Editors
founding promise of ‘The visions decide, but you can still vote for
equality. Ron Armil- collected who you think should be on the
lei of Orlando said it’s by Pharrell 2020 TIME 100 at time.com/
time to accept that are ones time-100-reader-poll-2020
America has a caste we can and
system. As a way to should look
help, Burton Gar- toward.’ KUDOS The project “In El Salvador, Violence
rett of Watkinsville, H. STEVEN MOFFIC, Is Driving Girls to Kill Themselves,” from TIME
Ga., endorsed rapper Milwaukee and Univision, has been nominated for a News
21 Savage’s idea to and Documentary Emmy in the category of
bonus
teach financial liter- Outstanding New Approaches: Current News. TIME
acy in schools. Watch on univision.com and at time.com/ health
gender-violence
Readers also had ideas for future
dialogues: Ceil Lucas of Elkridge, Md., Subscribe to
suggested extending conversations to TIME’s free health
include deaf Black people, while Ronald newsletter and
get a daily email
Burke of Albuquerque, N.M., called for more full of news and
conservative Black voices, such as Utah advice to help
congressional candidate Burgess Owens. keep you well.
For more, visit
WHAT DOES KINDNESS LOOK LIKE? In the time.com/email
same issue, Rebekah Taussig, who uses a
wheelchair, sparked a range of reactions with
her essay on unhelpful attempts to help dis-
abled people. Kenneth Wayne Thomas in
Austin, who is autistic, agreed that certain at- PROGRAMMING NOTE ▶ This is a special double issue that will be
on sale for two weeks. The next issue of TIME will be published on
tempts to be helpful can be “insulting,” while
P H O N E : G E T T Y I M A G E S; E L S A LVA D O R : A L M U D E N A T O R A L— P U L I T Z E R C E N T E R

Sept. 24 and available on newsstands on Sept. 25.

Darryl G. Andrews, a
quadriplegic person in
TALK TO US
‘Being kind Livingston, La., said it
was “petty” to reject
▽ ▽
means SEND AN EMAIL: FOLLOW US:
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8 TIME Month XX, 2020

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For the Record

‘People say,

‘CHANGE YOUR “Teachers

aren’t
working.”

LIVES OUT THERE.’ JACOB BLAKE,

who was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wis.,
speaking to the public from his hospital bed in a Sept. 5 video statement
We’re working
harder
than ever.’
JESSYCA MATHEWS,
an English teacher at
Carman-Ainsworth High
School in Flint, Mich.;
the school is set to
conduct classes remotely
through September

‘Health 93% ‘He

care Proportion of U.S. racial-
justice protests from wasn’t a
workers May 24 to Aug. 22 that
went forward peacefully,
according to a Sept. 3
sucker.’
in India report from the nonprofit
Armed Conflict Location
JOE BIDEN,
Democratic Party
are and Event Data Project presidential nominee,
speaking on Sept. 4 of

already his late son Beau—an

Army officer who died
of cancer in 2015—
exhausted.’ ‘Yes, this does break
after the Atlantic
reported that President
Donald Trump had
HARJIT SINGH BHATTI,
a physician in the COVID-19 international law, in a very referred to fallen
ward of Delhi’s Manipal
hospital, speaking to the
specific and limited way.’ American soldiers as
“losers” and “suckers”
Guardian as India on Sept. 7 BRANDON LEWIS,
passed Brazil as the country U.K. Northern Ireland Secretary, responding to a question
with the second-highest in Parliament on Sept. 8 about a proposal to make
number of COVID-19 cases cross-border trade-rule changes that would override the
Brexit agreement between the E.U. and the U.K.

5
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y B R O W N B I R D D E S I G N F O R T I M E

GOOD NEWS
Number of mountain lion dens, of the week
home to a total of 13 kittens,
found by researchers this A young girl, her father
summer in the Santa Monica and a family dog were
Mountains and Simi Hills near rescued Sept. 3 after
Los Angeles—a record for such spending more than two
a short period, the National days trapped in a ravine
Park Service reported Sept. 2 in Oregon’s Mount Hood
National Forest

10 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020 SOURCES: REUTERS, CNBC, THE GUARDIA N, A P
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 OFF THE GRID
Power lines in
Lancaster, Calif.,
earlier this year;
utility customers
across the U.S.
now face the risk
of shutoffs

INSIDE

POISONING OF A PUTIN IN CALIFORNIA, A VISIT TO

CRITIC PUTS PRESSURE A FIRE SEASON POST-CORONAVIRUS
ON A PIPELINE LIKE NO OTHER WUHAN

PHOTOGR APH BY KYLE GRILLOT

The Brief is reported by Alejandro de la Garza, Mélissa Godin, Amy Gunia, Suyin Haynes, Ciara Nugent, Madeline Roache and Olivia B. Waxman
TheBrief Opener
NATION The threat of shutoffs is another sign of how measures
After job losses, power to help Americans during the pandemic have fallen short.
There were still 29 million Americans receiving unem-
cuts loom for millions ployment benefits the week ending Aug. 15, according to
Commerce Department data. State unemployment offices,
By Alana Semuels slammed with a surge in applications and running on out-
dated systems, are still trying to catch up. One in 3 families

A
FTER COVID-19 HIT, BRANDY WILCOXSON, A struggles to pay utility bills in normal times; more are fall-
single mother in Atlanta, saw her weekly ing behind because of the sudden loss of income.
hours cut from 40 to around 13. Now, because By Oct. 1, only 14 states will still prohibit power shut-
she has to be home to supervise her two kids’ offs, according to the Carbon Switch report. Utility com-
virtual learning, she can’t pick up more shifts at her job as panies defend their decisions to resume shutoffs, saying
a security guard, so she struggles to cover rent and food— customers who know their power won’t be cut stop try-
and she also owes about $1,000 in electric bills. When ing to make payments. They’ve already lost billions of
she contacted her power company about entering into a dollars from nonresidential customers as a result of busi-
payment plan, she says she was told she would ness closures; the American Public Power As-
need to pay $192 a month just to catch up, on top sociation, which represents 2,000 public power
of whatever she will owe going forward. That’s utilities serving 49 million people, estimates that
money Wilcoxson, 42, does not have. “It would member revenues are down $5 billion in 2020.
be robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she says.
The stakes for people in Wilcoxson’s situation
300,000 “At some point, you do have to return to normal
billing operations for business reasons,” says Neil
are about to get even higher. In September, after Number of utility Nissan, a spokesman for Duke Energy. (In Au-
a pandemic-prompted pause, power companies customers in gust, Duke reported $1.1 billion in income for the
Massachusetts who
serving tens of millions of Americans will resume were 60 or more days three months ending June 30.)
service shutoffs to customers who are behind on behind on their gas
their bills. In some states, moratoriums are end- or electric bills as of WITH REVENUES DOWN, many utility compa-
ing; in others, utility companies’ pledges to keep Aug. 27 nies may try to raise rates on everyone. Citing
customers connected are winding down. “We’re “the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic”
facing a tidal wave of terminations,” says Charlie and volatility in capital markets, Appalachian
Harak, senior attorney for energy and utilities is- Power in Virginia has asked regulators to let it
sues at the National Consumer Law Center.
There’s no national account of how many cus-
$117.65 raise rates 6.5%. (The request has not yet been
approved; the Virginia attorney general’s office
tomers could lose power, but there are certainly Average monthly said in a filing it would be “unconscionable” to
residential electric bill
millions who risk disconnection at a time when in the U.S. in 2018 approve.) Indiana’s utility regulatory agency ap-
people need their utilities the most. Stuck at proved Duke Energy’s request for a rate increase
home, families are depending on their utilities to in June. Rate hikes would be especially hard on
power the Internet and lights for virtual school low-income families, who devote three times as
and to keep on the air-conditioning in areas fac- much of their income to energy costs as higher-
ing sweltering heat. Carbon Switch, an energy ef- 22% income households.
ficiency startup, estimates that 34.5 million peo- Share of low-income While some states are continuing to prevent
ple will lose shutoff protections in 14 states in the Americans who have shutoffs—regulators in Wisconsin, Maryland and
next month. On the basis of data from Massachu- had to forgo basic Massachusetts extended their moratoriums, for P R E V I O U S PA G E : B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S; G R E E C E : E L I A S M A R C O U — R E U T E R S

setts, Harak estimates that as many as 10% of U.S. household needs like example—consumer advocates have urged Con-
food and medicine
households are so far behind on bills they are at to pay an energy bill gress to impose a national moratorium on utility
risk of termination when moratoriums end. during the pandemic shutoffs. They’ve cited health concerns if people
Duke Energy, which serves 7.8 million cus- affected by cutoffs move in with friends or family
tomers across seven states in the Southeast and members, increasing the risk of transmitting the
Midwest, tells TIME that as of Aug. 30, roughly coronavirus.
300,000 of its customers were 60 days or more behind But the mounting shutoffs have already forced
on their gas or electric bills. In early August, Florida Americans struggling to pay bills to consider something
Power & Light Company said 258,000 customers were that seemed unthinkable a year ago: life without basic
behind on payments; Tampa Electric Company said services like electricity or water. Tanya Barie, 36, who
92,000 of its customers were late. A public-interest lives near Philadelphia, experienced this when her water
group said in June that 800,000 Pennsylvanians were was shut off in August after she fell behind on payments
at risk of service termination. Data filed with Minne- following a pandemic-related job loss. She couldn’t mix
sota’s Public Utilities Commission shows that more than formula for her baby or give her children baths. “You
300,000 households in Minnesota were past due by the don’t realize how much you need it,” she says, “until you
end of July. don’t have it.” 
14 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020 S TAT I S T I C S S O U R C E S: N AT I O N A L C O N S U M E R L A W C E N T E R ; U. S . E N E R GY I N F O R M AT I O N A D M I N I S T R AT I O N ; I N D I A N A U N I V E R S I T Y
 NEWS
TICKER

COVID-19
spike linked to
biker rally
A San Diego State
University study linked
August’s 10-day
Sturgis Motorcycle
Rally in South Dakota
to more than a quarter-
million COVID-19
cases and about
$12.2 billion in public-
health costs. The
event attracted nearly
500,000 people, many
of whom packed into
bars and restaurants
without face coverings.

NO PLACE TO GO A migrant woman surveys the wreckage after a fire destroyed the Moria refugee
camp on the Greek island of Lesbos—the largest such facility in Europe—on Sept. 9. Aid workers Duterte
have long condemned the poor conditions in the camp, which was built for 3,000 people but housed pardons U.S.
more than 12,000, who have now been left homeless. Greek authorities allege that the blaze was Marine
started by residents angry over a COVID-19 quarantine imposed on the camp earlier in the week.
Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte
THE BULLETIN pardoned a U.S.
Marine on Sept. 7,
After poisoning, Germany threatens in a surprise move
$11.2 billion pipeline with Russia swiftly condemned by
human-rights groups.
THE FUTURE OF A 765-MILE PIPELINE POISON Since Berlin detected Novichok, an Lance Cpl. Joseph
being built to carry gas directly to Germany internationally banned nerve agent, in Naval- Scott Pemberton was
convicted of homicide
from Russia is now in question, as Berlin ny’s body on Sept. 2, pressure has mounted in the 2014 killing of
ramps up pressure on Moscow to investigate on the Chancellor to scrap the pipeline. (Na- transgender Filipina
the poisoning of Russian opposition leader valny emerged from his medically induced woman Jennifer Laude
Alexei Navalny. The Nord Stream 2 project coma on Sept. 7 and has shown signs of recov- in a motel northwest of
would help Europe ensure a constant sup- ery.) Norbert Röttgen, a lawmaker in Merkel’s the capital, Manila.
ply of natural gas as domestic production is CDU party, said, “We must respond with
expected to drop, but German Foreign Min- the only language [Russian President Vladi-
ister Heiko Maas warned Sept. 6 that the mir] Putin understands—that is gas sales.” Judge halts
country might “change [its] stance” on the Merkel’s chief spokesperson said on Sept. 7 Census
$11.2 billion pipeline if Russia fails to co- that it’s “too early” to determine how Ger- rollbacks
operate in looking into an attack for which many will respond.
Moscow has denied responsibility. In a Sept. 5 restraining
order, a federal
MESSAGE TO MOSCOW The interna- judge in California
PIPE DREAMS Owned by Russian state- tional response to previous Russian trans- instructed the Census
controlled energy giant Gazprom, Nord gressions has not made much of an impact, Bureau to temporarily
Stream 2 is 94% complete and due to open analysts say. But halting Nord Stream 2 stop winding down
in early 2021. Some European countries would be a “huge setback for Russia,” says in-person counting for
the 2020 population
and the U.S. oppose it, fearing it could be- Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the tally. Plaintiffs are
come a tool of political leverage for the U.K.-based International Institute for Stra- suing to stop the
Kremlin. But German Chancellor Angela tegic Studies. Doing nothing, on the other bureau’s plan to cut the
Merkel has been adamant that the pipeline hand, “will show a lack of resolve and will count short by a month,
go ahead, saying political considerations likely encourage Russia to probe and test its from its original Oct. 31
end date.
should be separate from business decisions. limits in the future.” —MADELINE ROACHE
15
TheBrief News
GOOD QUESTION school longer and put off milestones like get-
How many young ting married. However, this year’s increase is
notably sharp and tracks with the pandemic’s
NEWS
TICKER adults moved home timing. While 46% or 47% of Americans in

DOJ seeks to
amid the pandemic? that age group lived with a parent through
2019, the number jumped to 49% in March
defend Trump THIS YEAR, MILLIONS OF YOUNG ADULTS and then to 52% from May through July. In
in Carroll suit have retreated to familiar territory: living at 88% of those situations, the young adult lives
The Justice Department
home with Mom and Dad. About 2.6 million in the parent’s house.
asked on Sept. 8 to 18- to 29-year-old Americans started living Young adults were also the age group most
take over President with at least one of their parents since Feb- likely to move as a result of the outbreak—
Trump’s defense in ruary, bringing the total to 26.6 million in with 9% moving because of COVID-19, com-
a defamation suit by July—or about 52% of all young adults in the pared with 3% for the overall population,
writer E. Jean Carroll,
who has claimed
country, according to a Pew Research Center according to Pew polling in June—though
he raped her in the analysis, released Sept. 4, of Census Bureau people of all ages hit the road for virus-related
1990s. The DOJ data. This number shattered the previous re- reasons. Among all adults who moved be-
argues it should be cord of 48%, set during the Great Depression. cause of the pandemic, 28% said they did so
involved because Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trend is inex- to avoid its spread, 23% because their college
Trump was acting as
tricably linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, campus closed and 20% to be closer to family.
President when denying
Carroll’s charge. but that’s not the whole story. Money also seems to have played a big
Among that wave of Americans mov- part in young people’s decisions, as young
ing back home was Mieka Van Scoyoc, a Americans have shouldered some of the
27-year-old ad copywriter. While she loved worst financial impacts of the pandemic. In
Tensions rise living in New York City, she also had credit- April and May, 40% of workers ages 18 to 29
at China-India card debt and limited savings and, once the reported that they’d lost their jobs or taken
border pandemic closed offices, she didn’t want to pay cuts. According to the June poll, about
China and India work from home with a roommate in a small 18% of all adults who moved because of
accused each other’s apartment. Now living with her parents in COVID-19 said the biggest reason was related
troops of firing shots the suburbs of North Carolina, she feels lucky to money or losing their jobs.
on Sept. 7 at their to be close to family, and to have fresh air and Van Scoyoc has been able to keep work-
disputed Himalayan
border. Indo-Chinese
open space. “[My] room is comparable to my ing, but given the unpredictability of the pan-
relations have entire apartment in New York,” she says. demic, she’s still not sure when she’ll move
deteriorated in recent But Van Scoyoc is also following a trend out of her parents’ house. “It does seem like
months; the alleged that began well before the novel coronavirus it’s not really worthwhile to try to make plans
violations of a bilateral struck. The number of young adults living in the face of this, just because there’s so
agreement (which both
sides deny) would mark
with their parents rose from a low of 29% in much that’s so uncertain,” she says. “I’m just
the first confirmed 1960 to 44% in 2010, as Americans stayed in kind of taking it as it comes.” —TARA LAW
shots fired at the
border since 1975.

DESIGN

Police chief in More-than-one-hit wonders

Rochester out Most spacecraft are made for onetime use, but on Sept. 6, China successfully recovered a
after protests reusable one after it spent two days in orbit. Here, more multiuse innovations. —Mélissa Godin

The Rochester, N.Y.,

police chief and
MASK CRUSADE HAVING A BLAST WASH AND GO
other top department
Amid COVID-19 Fireworks are Yes, reusable cloth
officials stepped down
supply shortages, fun, but they also toilet paper exists,
on Sept. 8, following
researchers at MIT produce trash and and has for years.
protests over the
and Brigham and emit pollutants. An Its proponents see
treatment of Daniel
Women’s Hospital alternative called it as eco-friendly and
Prude, who died in
in Boston designed Rammaxx uses cost-effective; health
March after police
a sterilizable mask LED lights and experts, however,
covered Prude’s head
ADAM WENT WORTH — MIT

for health workers, reusable rockets to caution that using it

and held him down. The
made of silicone create sustainable safely requires taking
chief, La’Ron Singletary,
rubber that can light shows more special precautions
accused outside groups
stop viral particles. than 300 ft. high. with your laundry.
of trying to “destroy my
character.”

16 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

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Milestones
DROPPED DIED
Charges against
Curtis Flowers,
Lou Brock
50, a Black man Base-stealing star
accused of a 1996
quadruple homicide By Tim Raines
in Mississippi, on I WAS ALWAYS A SPORTS FAN,
Sept. 4, after six
trials and 23 years
and when it came to baseball,
behind bars. guys like Lou Brock, who for
years held the league record
HALTED for career stolen bases, were
Press-credential my favorite players. Not be-
renewals for foreign
journalists with U.S. cause my game was like theirs
media outlets, by the but, being the player I was,
Chinese government. I was more similar to them.
The Foreign Ministry And Lou, who died Sept. 6
said the action was at 81, was one of those play-
a response to the
Trump Administra- ers people could not stop.
tion’s visa restrictions When I first got called up
on Chinese media to the big leagues in 1979,
workers in the U.S. I was in Montreal with the
KILLED
Expos, and Lou, who would
Michael Reinoehl, retire at the end of that sea-
48, a suspect in the son, was on a trip with the
Aug. 29 death of a St. Louis Cardinals. We
far-right activist in ended up taking a picture to-
Portland, Ore., by The Creek Fire—one of several blazing across California in early
police on Sept. 3.
gether. Lou was a guy who
September—burns near Huntington Lake, Calif., on Sept. 5 no one really knew at first,
Officials allege he
threatened them as and he became one of the
SET
they attempted to best players in the game.
arrest him. A record for California’s fire season But what made Lou spe-
SUNK 2.2 million acres burned—and counting cial was how great a guy he
Five boats in a boat was; he was someone any-
parade in support FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, FALL IN CALIFORNIA HAS GIVEN one could approach. He

C A L I F O R N I A : E R I C PA U L Z A M O R A — T H E F R E S N O B E E /A P ; B R O C K : F I L E P H O T O/ H U LT O N A R C H I V E S/ M L B P H O T O S/G E T T Y I M A G E S
of President Trump residents a glimpse of the apocalypse. Fires burn around us, the air seemed like he always had a
on Lake Travis smells like a campfire, and the sharp edges of landmarks like Alca- smile on his face, and he just
near Austin on
Sept. 5. The local traz and the Golden Gate Bridge blur in the hazy air. We close our enjoyed playing the game.
sheriff blamed the windows to avoid breathing smoke, stop going outside and wear —As told to ANNA PURNA
combined wakes of N95 masks even without a pandemic. But if the past few years have KAMBHAMPATY
hundreds of vessels been alarming, 2020 has felt impossible. More than 2.2 million
circling the lake. acres have burned so far this season, a record announced by Cal Raines was inducted into the Baseball
Fire on Sept. 8—and fire season often lasts into November. Hall of Fame in 2017
ORDERED
An end to racial- Before the pandemic, San Francisco was one of the most pros-
sensitivity training perous cities in the world, but this year’s fire season has made
by federal agencies, one thing clear: no amount of prosperity can save us from climate
on topics such as
critical race theory
change that is sending temperatures soaring and fueling fires.
and white privilege, Hardware stores across the region are sold out of AC units, and
by the Trump the smoke has spread so far that driving to cleaner air is no solu-
Administration tion. People without means, like San Francisco’s homeless, can’t
on Sept. 4. heed warnings to limit outdoor activities, and air quality in more
WON affordable inland areas was so hazardous on Sept. 8 that one me-
The 2020 Kentucky teorologist labeled it the worst he’d ever seen in the U.S.
Derby—which was I love California. From the first year I lived in the state, in
run Sept. 5 after 2006, I could not believe that there was a place of such natural
being postponed
beauty, where people grew lemons in their backyards and I could
from May—by
Authentic and jockey jump in the ocean in December. But this year, the worst in a string
John Velazquez, of catastrophic years, the smoke is projected to hover for months,
beating out favorite and it’s hard to imagine an optimistic future for a state that once Brock was inducted into the
Tiz the Law. looked like paradise. —ALANA SEMUELS/SAN FRANCISCO Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985
18 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
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 TheBrief Postcard
Wuhan strives to
return to normal,
but coronavirus
scars run deep
By Charlie Campbell/
Wuhan, China

EVERY YEAR, ON AUG. 25, CHINA CELE-

brates the Qixi Festival, the nation’s
equivalent of Valentine’s Day. Rooted in
a mythical romance between an oxherd
and a weaver girl, it’s when romance
blooms and gooey-eyed sweethearts
exchange overpriced trinkets.
In the central city of Wuhan, where
the COVID-19 pandemic first emerged
in December, couples relished this
year’s festivities more than most. Ding
Hui, 33, contracted the virus in mid-
January and only survived after being
intubated in an intensive-care unit.
Now fully recovered, Ding threw a △ the “Wuhan virus,” Chinese officials
party to celebrate Qixi with friends in a After school on Sept. 2 in Wuhan, where have seized on the city’s resurgence as
penthouse overlooking the Han River. life’s normal rhythms have resumed vindication of the country’s autocratic
Hearts were painted on the windows; political system. When photographs of
black, white and gold balloons added a shells, crimson grease dripping from thousands of young people crammed
touch of glamour, plus entertainment gloved hands onto plastic tablecloths. into a pool-party rave in Wuhan went
for her son Niu Niu, 7. Her sickness Outside, young lovers crammed into viral in mid-August, many in the U.S.
lent perspective to her own romantic karaoke booths and browsed jewelry at criticized their revelry as insensitive,
situation. “In the past, I wanted to teeming night markets, grateful to plan given the spiraling death toll elsewhere.
divorce my husband every time we for the future once again. But China’s jingoistic state
quarreled,” says Ding. “But after I was media were unrepentant,
discharged from the hospital, I told my
husband that .. . I would never mention
divorce again.”
The coronavirus pandemic continues
YET WUHAN REMAINS a nervy,
contradictory place, desperate
to banish bad memories that it
cannot afford to forget. At her
76
Consecutive
brushing off objections as
“sour grapes.”
Only time will tell whether
there will be more trouble
to rage across every continent, with party, between joshing with days Wuhan was ahead. The source of the out-
more than 25 million cases reported friends from behind comical locked down, from break still has not been estab-
Jan. 23
globally. On Sept. 7, India set a world pink sunglasses, Ding makes lished, though the working
record for daily infections with 90,802 sure to spray the takeaway food hypothesis is that it leaped
new cases. Yet China reported just 12 containers with sterilizing ethanol. In from an unknown animal to a human
that same day, all imported. Here, the the building’s lobby, a vending machine connected to Wuhan’s Huanan sea-
pandemic feels like old news. sponsored by U.S. conglomerate 3M food market, which was known to stock
When this reporter was last in sells masks, hand sanitizer and other various exotic species. That market re-
Wuhan in January, it was just hours plague sundries. The economy is still mains closed today, but throughout the
before authorities enforced a draconian suffering; the latest data, from May, city TIME saw street-side stalls selling
76-day lockdown and the streets were suggests factory output, retail sales, and butchered meat alongside live cray-
already desolate. When I returned in exports in Wuhan are a long way from fish, eels and huge pulsing bullfrogs.
August, my cabdriver didn’t even wear a returning to normal, while many shops The fear is that confidence bleeds into
face mask. Traffic was either snarled or and businesses have closed for good. complacency.
terrifyingly fast. “Wuhan is a badly injured child, still “China is very strong,” Ding says. “I
And love was in the air. At Fatty slowly recovering,” says Ding. am grateful that I have been in China
GE T T Y IMAGES

Fatty Crawfish Restaurant, couples Wuhan’s recovery has become a [during the pandemic]. Had I caught
gazed into each other’s eyes over steam- propaganda tussle. While President the virus in a different country, I
ing piles of desecrated crustacean Trump has described the pandemic as probably would not be alive today.” 
21
Helping local
businesses
adapt to a new
way of working

August 9, 10:00 AM

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Join us for an author-led reading!

Dea and Marc Lavoie of Second Star
to the Right Bookstore in Denver have
always been passionate about reading.
They love hosting weekly in-store
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TheBrief Business
Entrepreneurs of
color are making
the pandemic pivot
By Cady Lang

WHEN SHE OPENED A COFFEE SHOP AND BOOKSTORE IN

2016, Zenat Begum created more than just a place to pick
up a snack and something to read. Playground, which occu-
pies the space where her father operated a hardware store for
two decades, also became a hub for the Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighborhood of Brooklyn, and a safe space for people in mar-
ginalized communities to meet—the kind of place where cus-
tomers and friends might crowd into a writing workshop or
an art fair or an open mic.
But when COVID-19 hit, all of that came to an end. Begum
closed the bookstore, scaled down her staff, stopped the radio △
program she hosted at the shop and cut down on food offer- Playground Coffee
ings. Indoor seating was out of the question. Shop owner Zenat
Like many other small-business owners who are BIPOC Begum, bottom
(Black, Indigenous and people of color), Begum applied for center, and her staff
federal aid and was rejected; the Center for Responsible have prioritized aid
for their community
Lending has found that structural problems with the Pay- during the pandemic
check Protection Program discouraged loans to the very
smallest businesses, which comprise a disproportionate num- ▷
ber of Black- and Latino-owned companies. She’s had bet- Brother Vellies
ter luck with crowdfunding, but is still struggling to keep the founder Aurora
business alive until the crisis ends. And yet, to Begum, it’s not James created the
enough to save Playground. The community helped make her 15% Pledge to level
store what it was—and even as she works to ensure its future, the playing field
she wants to do so in a way that returns the favor. for Black-owned
“As New Yorkers, we are the children of immigrants, peo- businesses
ple who had to struggle, who work the service jobs,” she says.
“We’ve always been in panic mode and emergency situations ▷
Diaspora Co. founder Sana Javeri Kadri,
in which we had to provide, and if we can’t do that now, more
in orange, with farmworkers who harvest
than ever, then we’ve fallen short.” spices for her company in India
So, in June, Playground installed a fleet of outdoor com-
munity fridges that hold fresh, free produce for anyone who
needs it; later that month, the shop distributed safety kits disadvantaged populations. “Their
during protests about racial violence. In July, a free outdoor communities have been hardest hit by
library of books by BIPOC and queer authors was established this, so they’re watching the fallout of
as a proxy of sorts for the now closed bookstore. this crisis happen in a way that’s more
Begum’s not alone in her commitment to supporting her extreme than in other communities and
community even during a tough time for many BIPOC small- their businesses are more affected. The
business owners. These entrepreneurs shoulder an extra layer stakes are so much higher both from a
of economic uncertainty, an increased risk of dying from personal and a community standpoint.”
COVID-19 and a personal stake in conversations about sys-
temic racial inequity that have rocked the country. Yet despite IN NEW YORK CITY’S CHINATOWN,
those challenges, or perhaps because of them, many are find- a donor-funded, volunteer-operated
ing that community aid can be a key part of a pivot to survive food-relief program called Heart of
the pandemic—a move that’s both sincere and strategic. Dinner is proving that point. Developed
“About 80% of our businesses are POC, and I think the by restaurateur Moonlynn Tsai and
larger trend that we are seeing is that they are incorporating actor-writer Yin Chang, the initiative
this [giving back] into their pivot,” says Jenny DaSilva, the provides meals for elders in the city’s
founder and director of Start Small Think Big, a nonprofit Asian immigrant community, while also
in New York City focused on helping entrepreneurs from providing work for small restaurants.
24 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 ◁ James notes that while her sales went
Heart of Dinner down drastically at the start of the pan-
co-founder Yin Chang demic, recent months have been the
prepares care packages best she’s had in years. “I knew that
for delivery to the elderly my artisan community was going to be
taken care of and my staff was going to
Tsai and Chang’s original aim was to be taken care of because of Something
serve 20,000 meals, a goal they passed in Special,” she says. “Then that gave me
August. They’re now committed to tak- the freedom to go out and try to force
ing Heart of Dinner long term and have my own retailers as well as other retail-
filed to make it a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. ers to support Black-owned businesses.”
“We’re in it for the long haul,” says Tsai. James sees her push for equity
For Oakland, Calif.–based spice for other Black small-business own-
business Diaspora Co., the pandemic ers as parallel to how communities
meant switching to a presale model. of color—and the businesses in those
Founder Sana Javeri Kadri lost her sup- communities—have historically shown
ply chain after India went into lock- up for one another. Donations from
down in late March. But by preselling local businesses fueled the Black Pan-
about 10,000 orders, Kadri was able to ther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children
pay farmers in advance for the year’s program, for example, and relation-
harvest, sustaining them until they ships that transcend customer-vendor
could fulfill the orders, though Kadri have been not only beneficial but also
herself had to take a pay cut. necessary. Structural rac-
The company also supported ism has meant that entre-
its workers with a health care ‘Small preneurs of color face extra
program. “Diaspora was cre- businesses obstacles from the start, such
ated in service of these farm- owned as being denied traditional
ers,” says Kadri. “We have by POC ... bank loans or financing. The
their back no matter what.” provide in a support systems that have
And in some cases, way that the sprung up to close the gap,
choices that combine eq- government however, have created their
uity and business survival doesn’t.’ own power.
have had impacts far beyond “Traditionally, people
one company. Take Aurora YIN CHANG, of color have had to sort of
co-founder of
James, founder and creative rely on themselves and their
Heart of Dinner
director of the fashion label communities and their fami-
Brother Vellies. James has lies and networks in order to
used her pandemic pivot as a way not support them,” James says. “I think it’s
only to try a new model but also to ad- kind of natural for us to want to have an
vocate for other Black entrepreneurs. In opportunity to extend [help] to some-
Especially with the COVID-19 April, she introduced Something Spe- one else in our community and a true
pandemic linked to a widespread spike cial, a monthly subscription service for belief that all ships rise with the tide
in anti-Asian xenophobic and racist fashion and home goods. While offer- when it comes to POC communities.”
incidents, Chang says, many restaurant ing a new way for customers to engage Begum, whose experience at Play-
owners in the area were both looking with her business, it allowed James to ground illustrates the symbiotic re-
for new revenue streams and eager to keep employing the artisans, many of lationship between BIPOC entrepre-
help others. Switching from feeding whom are women living in Mexico and neurs and their communities, is well
customers to feeding those in need Kenya, with whom she’d been working aware of that dynamic. And when it
made sense. on Brother Vellies products. works, she says, it means the survival
“POC have been so neglected by this Its success enabled James to launch of such businesses is a matter of more
entire system; the fact that we even have the 15% Pledge, a call for major retailers than economics. “Are you going to be
to think about providing food, as the to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to there to make somebody’s life better
most basic way to survive, is an issue Black-owned businesses, to match the through your programming and your
first and foremost,” Chang says. “That’s percentage of the U.S. population that work? Are you going to change the
why there are so many small businesses is Black. Since it debuted in June, the world?” she asks. “The ways we have
owned by POC who understand this and pledge has garnered commitments from shown up for our community, the way
have jumped in to provide that in a way retailers like Sephora and West Elm and we support each other—we need to be
that the government doesn’t.” outlets like Vogue and Yelp. here in the future.” 
B EG U M : C O U R T E SY P L AYG R O U N D C O F F E E S H O P ; C H A N G : C O U R T E SY H E A R T O F D I N N E R; J A M E S: J A C O P O R AU L E — G E T T Y I M AG E S F O R VO G U E A N D T H E D U B A I M A L L ; K A D R I: G E N T L A N D H Y E R S 25
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think you are pregnant during treatment. You or your healthcare 1-800-FDA-1088.
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7356US2002302-01-01 08/20
TheBrief TIME with ...
As America approaches people we live among?” she says.
I first met her on a frigid day back in February,
raw truths about race, when the world was buzzing about as usual, and
Claudia Rankine is she was preparing for the premiere of her play Help
at the Shed in Manhattan, which portrays fraught
ready to guide us encounters with white men around the world.
By Andrew R. Chow While I had many lofty questions prepared for her,
Rankine initially just wanted to talk about my hair.
I had recently dyed it bleach blond, inspired by
THE AUTHOR AND POET CLAUDIA RANKINE Frank Ocean, BTS’s RM, and an unholy mixture of
witnessed the collective muted response after curiosity and boredom. Rankine, smirking slightly,
James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death along an as- took pictures of my desiccated strands, saying she
phalt road in Texas in 1998. She watched wide- had written an essay about “whether people con-
spread resistance rise against the nascent Black sider blondness in terms of whiteness.”
Lives Matter movement in 2013 and 2014 follow- RANKINE I was startled by the sentence and, frankly, a
ing the murder of Trayvon Martin. Whenever she QUICK little defensive. What did my dyeing my hair, on
wrote books or essays about white privilege or rac- FACTS a whim and inspired by artists of color, have to do
ism, she expected to receive waves of denial or per- with whiteness or reinforcing racist systems?
sonal attacks, because she knew how white people I didn’t press the issue, and any chance for a
Formative
deny white privilege and Black death. voices follow-up conversation evaporated when COVID-19
So she was surprised when in late May, white Early in quickly began spreading across the U.S. Help closed
people stormed the streets alongside people of Rankine’s after two previews; Rankine went back home to
color across the world to protest racial violence career as a New Haven, Conn., where she is a professor of
and injustice following the murder of George young writer poetry at Yale. She was staying at home—a previous
and poet, her
Floyd. “That was the most hope I’ve felt in a long influences bout with cancer made her a higher risk for severe
time,” Rankine says in a phone interview. “I think included illness from COVID-19—when in May, new videos
we are suddenly seeing the same reality.” Fyodor showing threats or violence against Black people
Rankine’s life’s work has been driven by Dostoyevsky, began to spread across the Internet. These videos
getting people to understand these grim realities. César Vallejo, were grief-inducing to Rankine. “For all of these
Toni Morrison,
In searing works like Don’t Let Me Be Lonely bell hooks and deaths, you feel the same depth of devastation,”
and Citizen—which was a National Book Award W.B. Yeats. she says.
finalist—she has explored how anti-Black racism But she also recognized that they revealed, to a
has manifested in ways both mundane and tragic. 30,000 captive world, the array of indignities and dangers
For many years, it seemed as if Rankine was Number that Black people can face on a daily basis. “The
of copies
screaming into the void, laying bare a version of shipped this Amy Cooper video was, to me, a real gift to society,
America that many people refused to accept. But summer of with her performance of fear, her uses of civility,”
Just Us, her new work of poetry, personal essays Citizen, her she says. “I hope it gets taught in classes. This kind
and historical documents, arrives into a changed book of poetry of white woman who weaponizes her fear in an at-
climate, in which many people are finally coming tempt to have Black people murdered: we’ve seen
Thoughts on
to grips with uncomfortable truths. Hamilton it again and again.”
Still, Rankine argues in the book that Ameri- “It’s really, Over the next few months, Rankine watched in
cans have a long way to go toward understanding really good. amazement as rhetoric about whiteness and racism
how deeply anti-Black racism is embedded into It just doesn’t that might have previously been perceived as radi-
nearly every aspect of our society, from corporate do anything to cal now began to receive support in mainstream
problematize
culture to classrooms to even hair color. “It’s really the real discourse. She celebrated as books about racism
a moment for us to slow down and understand that problems of and antiracism, from Robin DiAngelo’s White
a white-supremacist orientation has determined the period Fragility to Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Anti-
almost everything in this country,” Rankine says. that it racist, surged to the top of the best-seller lists.
“For us to reroute, we have to ask more questions represents.” “White men and women are beginning to have
and really be uncomfortable.” a shared understanding and a shared vocabulary
for what’s going on,” she says. “I don’t feel like I’m
RANKINE WAS BORN in Kingston, Jamaica, and starting at the beginning in these conversations.”
immigrated at the age of 7 with her parents to Despite this progress, however, Rankine knows
the Bronx, where she says racism was palpable that the country still has miles to go in terms of
but mostly latent. While Rankine was an fully confronting its racist past, especially with a
acclaimed poet in the early ’90s, her work took current leadership that often defends white su-
on increased urgency and focus after she learned premacists. “For some people, it is a PR moment,”
of Byrd’s lynching: “I just thought, Who are these she says. “We’ll see whether people will follow up
28 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 this initial response with more sustained inquiries blondes, from Marilyn Monroe to Princess Diana,
and modes of shifting within their own organiza- weren’t actually natural blondes but were just fol-
tions, corporations and institutions.” lowing beauty standards.
Rankine hopes that Just Us will encourage read- “If white supremacy and anti-Black racism re-
ers to have these deeper and more difficult con- ‘That was main fundamental structural modes of violence
versations. While she finished the book before the the most by which countries continue to govern,” Rankine
current moment of unrest, its themes have made it writes, “blondness might be one of our most pas-
prescient. “I feel as if the book is addressing every-
hope I’ve sive and fluid modes of complicity. It points to
thing that lives below that,” she says of the pan- felt in a white power and its values as desirable, whether
demic and the protests. “The circumstances that long time.’ the thought enters one’s head or not.”
Just Us addresses haven’t changed.” CLAUDIA RANKINE, Reading the chapter, my pitch-black roots hav-
The book includes uncomfortable vignettes on watching the ing once again assumed control of my scalp, I felt a
from dinner parties, racist writings from Thomas global protests gut punch. So many seemingly trivial matters are
following the
Jefferson, and data elucidating the wealth gap be- murder of
tied to centuries of oppression—and all of us as in-
tween Black and white families. It shows how anti- George Floyd dividuals are complicit in many of those systems.
Black racism haunts preschools, college campuses, But for Rankine, the point isn’t so-called cancel-
police precincts and everywhere in between. lation, but interrogation and growth. When I men-
But the part of the book that struck me most tion my shame to her, she laughs it off and then wid-
N AT H A N B A J A R F O R T I M E

was the essay on blondness that Rankine had men- ens the scope of the conversation. “Do whatever you
tioned months back. In it, she traces the preference want,” she says. “But one of the things I’m trying to
for blondness, from Italian Renaissance writers say in Just Us is there is a history behind all of our
through Nazi Germany through to the Trump fam- decisions—and we should make them with the full
ily. She points out that many of the most famous consciousness of what that history is.” 
29
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C L O C KW I S E F ROM TO P LE F T:

COLE MCNAIR, 18, Freshman

“It’s just hard to go out and do
things with the virus, but you
gotta do what you gotta do till
the virus is done. You just have
to respect the guidelines.”
KLAUDIA BAK, 18, Sophomore
“What really is the most
frustrating part is the
administration is not doing
much to break up gatherings.
I would prefer to stay on
campus, but I feel like the
measures are not strong
enough.”
MICHELLE VU, 19, Sophomore
“There are a lot of people
here on the weekends doing
their part quarantining, but
there are other people going
downtown to parties. It’s
kind of crazy. Coronavirus,
when it doesn’t affect you, feels
like it’s not really here. When
you know someone who has it,
suddenly it becomes real.”
INAYAH JOHNSON, 19,
Sophomore
“I’m more of a hands-on
learner, so learning through a
screen isn’t really that helpful,
and I don’t like talking over
Zoom, so I don’t ask questions.
Most of my interactions with
professors are over email,
so I’m not really building a
relationship.”

▶ For more of our best

photography, visit time.com/
lightbox
PHOTOGR APHS BY EVA O’LEARY
FOR TIME
LightBox
EDUCATION

College is open, but

life is shut down
THE TYPICALLY BUSTLING MAIN CAMPUS OF
Pennsylvania State University is quieter than nor-
mal. Many students are tuning in to classes online
from their dorm rooms. A town ban on gatherings
of more than 10 people limits social life off cam-
pus. Mask requirements make recognizing faces
and making friends more challenging.
“I can tell that the university is trying their
best to give returning and new students the full
experience that Penn State has the potential to
bring,” says Sophia Melocchi, 20, a junior. “It’s just
not the same.”
Across the country, colleges have taken a range
of approaches to the fall semester. A Chronicle of
Higher Education tracker of nearly 3,000 colleges
found that of those with firm plans, 19% are open-
ing primarily in person; 27% are primarily online;
and 16% are, like Penn State, a mix.
But all are facing a semester unlike any other.
Schools that brought students back to campus
quickly have run into problems controlling their
behavior. Some have criticized universities for
shifting blame for coronavirus outbreaks onto the
returning students. Penn State recently suspended
a fraternity that threw a party with about 70 peo-
ple, and it reprimanded other students for gath-
ering, without masks and close together, in large
crowds outside a residence hall. “I ask students
flouting the university’s health and safety expecta-
tions a simple question: Do you want to be the per-
son responsible for sending everyone home?” Penn
State president Eric Barron said in a statement.
As of Sept. 4, more than 200 students at Penn
State’s University Park campus had tested positive
for COVID-19 since Aug. 21, and Barron said that
trend could force a shift to fully online classes.
That’s already happened at other colleges. Sev-
eral clusters of coronavirus cases in dorms at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led the
school to cancel in-person classes and move to a
fully remote model on Aug. 19, a week after classes
began. At the University of Alabama’s Tuscaloosa
campus, more than 1,800 students have tested
positive for COVID-19 since returning to school.
The 40,000 undergraduates at Penn State’s Uni-
versity Park campus are hoping their institution
does better. “I originally thought that we would be
sent home or moved completely online within the
first two weeks of school, but we’ll see how it goes,
because it seems like the school has it under con-
trol,” says CJ Scoffone, 20, a junior. “I hope it gets
better and goes back to normal.” —KATIE REILLY,
with reporting by PAUL MOAKLEY/NEW YORK
33
TO P ROW, F ROM L E F T :

PARKER GOULD, 18, Freshman

“In high school, I liked being
able to ask teachers questions
and talk to them at the end of
class and get to know them,
and that’s really hard to
do now.”
SOPHIA MELOCCHI, 20, Junior
“I’m thankful that I get to
experience Penn State, even
if it’s only a percentage of the
Penn State that I knew in the
years previous.”
MICHELLE MARIETTE, 21, Senior
LIZA VECCHIARELLO, 21, Senior
JORDAN KALFON, 22, Senior
“I’m personally kind of worried
for my future and everyone
else’s,” Vecchiarello says. “I’m a
microbiology major, and I want
to go into the medical research
side of things. COVID is
preventing me from attending
a lot of these hands-on
courses.”
NICHOLE JIANG, 19, Junior
“Honestly, I’m expecting to do
worse this year, grades-wise,
because it’s kind of different
with everything being online.”

BOTTO M ROW, F ROM L E F T :

AIDAN BRANDT, 18, Freshman

“There is kind of a general fear
of going home because people
choose not to wear the masks,
and there have been block
parties and stuff.”
KALEIGH QUINNAN, 21, Senior
“I’m staying an extra semester
because the economy just
crashed, so I’m going to take
some business classes. I’m
hoping by the time I graduate,
the dust will have settled a
little, but mostly it’s a lot of
anxiety.”
TAJAH GREEN, 19, Sophomore
“I have a dry-erase board with
a calendar built into it. I got
index cards to put reminders
on, and I put everything in
my phone so you don’t get
sidetracked when you’re doing
remote learning and you can
focus.”
GRANT DAVIS, 21, Junior
“You honestly don’t feel as if
you’re in school. You simply
feel like you’re watching
videos and you’re not part of
the class.”
35
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NATION

IS AMERICA
COMING APART?
By David French

For the first time in my

adult life, it’s easy for me
to foresee the possibility of a
genuine constitutional crisis
in the United States of America.
The scenario is simple. Imagine
that either Joe Biden or Donald
Trump wins the 2020 election
in a close race. There is a surge
in voter-suppression claims
and mail-in ballot controversies. ▶
INSIDE

WHAT THE JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER’S SUDDEN SPORTS FIGURES ARE STEPPING
DEPARTURE MEANS FOR GLOBAL STABILITY UP TO STAND AGAINST RACIAL INJUSTICE

The View is reported by Mélissa Godin and Anna Purna Kambhampaty 37

TheView Opener
Partisans refuse to concede, and they under unified, one-party rule. A total Over the past decade, I’ve heard com-
declare the election illegitimate. Presi- of 36 states—15 Democratic and 21 mitted partisans say out loud that they
dent Trump himself has indicated he Republican—have “trifecta” govern- would be “happy” to be rid of states like
may not accept the outcome. ments where one party controls the California. I’ve heard (and read) men
What happens then? Well, accord- upper house, the lower house and the fantasizing and theorizing about a sec-
ing to a scenario planning exercise at the governor’s mansion. Minnesota is the ond Civil War. Right-wing insurrection-
Transition Integrity Project, a bipartisan only divided legislature in the entire U.S. ist groups have even formed for the
coalition of former officials concerned Moreover, states where red and blue purpose of fomenting civil strife. Look at
about the disruptions to the 2020 elec- dominate are not scattered randomly the smoke drifting from U.S. cities from
tion, the result in every scenario except across the map. The West Coast and New coast to coast. Watch far-right and far-
a Biden landslide would be “street-level England are bastions of blue rule. The left protesters square off in street battles.
violence and political crisis.” But what South and large sections of the upper There is a crackling tension in the air.
kind of political crisis? Could we ever Midwest represent the red heartland.
again reach the point where American Now, let’s throw in another MY PROPOSITION IS SIMPLE: In an at-
polarization could trigger “massive resis- ingredient—enmity. It is clear that mosphere of increasing negative polar-
tance” to federal authority or even out- partisan Americans dislike each other a ization and geographic separation, we
right national division? can no longer take our nation for
For the past several years, granted. We must intentionally
I’ve been watching the increase care for the state of our union.
in partisan enmity in the U.S. In “Federalist No. 10,” James
with growing alarm. Multiple Madison wrestled with the chal-
social, cultural and religious fac- lenge of “the violence of fac-
tors are converging to create a tion.” How does a nation deal
particularly toxic political stew. with competing factions? Not
America is being pulled apart. through oppression and not
This phenomenon is geographic, through uniformity but rather
ideological and spiritual. through pluralism—by letting
Thanks to the decades-long many different political flowers
“big sort”—a phenomenon out- bloom. A broad diversity of in-
lined by Bill Bishop in his excel- terests and groups helps prevent
lent 2009 book—Americans are any interest or group from at-
increasingly clustering in like- Far-right protesters clash with left-wing counterprotesters taining dangerous dominance.
minded communities, and sur- at the Justice Center in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 22 In his words, “the increased
rounding yourself with people variety of parties comprised
who think like you think has a profound great deal. We live separately, snarling within the Union, increase
effect. As Cass Sunstein articulated, at each other across a growing divide. this security.”
when like-minded people gather, they The result is a politics of fear and rage, Why do we rightly worry that a con-
tend to grow more extreme. where policy differences often take tested election would result in far more
His “law of group polarization” holds a back seat to the list of grievances tension and even violence than 2000’s
that people who agree with each other that red possesses against blue and battle between George W. Bush and Al
grow more enthusiastic in their beliefs blue against red. Gore? In part because our competing
and agreement. If like-minded Second Nothing I’m outlining here is new. sides do not trust that if they lose they
Amendment advocates gather, they grow Commentators have called our dysfunc- will still be free and secure in the land
more opposed to gun control. If like- tional politics a form of “cold civil war,” that they love. They fear domination.
minded environmental activists gather, and the assumption is that one side or They do not trust the possibility
they grow more committed to fighting the other will win, dominate the opposi- of accommodation.
climate change. As geographic separa- tion and rule a united country. I’ve been writing and speaking about
tion increases, ideological divisions That’s certainly a possibility, but national polarization and division since
are magnified. it’s not a certainty. When immense geo- before the Trump election. Two years
America is becoming extremely ef- graphic regions share a common cul- ago, I began writing a book describing
B R O O K E H E R B E R T — T H E O R EG O N I A N /A P

ficient at creating superclusters of like- ture, believe their most fundamental our challenge, outlining how we could
minded citizens. White evangelicals values are under attack and lose confi- divide and how we can heal. The pre-
famously delivered 81% of their 2016 dence that the Democratic process will scription isn’t easy. We have to flip the
votes to Donald Trump. Manhattan gave protect their interests, unity is not al- script on the present political narrative.
87% of its vote to Hillary Clinton. She ways the result. Just ask the colonists We have to prioritize accommodation.
won 91% of the vote in Washington, D.C., who sought to secure liberty in 1776. That means revitalizing the Bill of
and 84% of the vote in San Francisco. Just ask the Confederates who sought Rights. America’s worst sins have al-
Almost 80% of Americans live to secure slavery in the 1860s. ways included denying fundamental
38 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
constitutional rights to America’s most THE RISK REPORT
vulnerable citizens, those without elec- The world will miss Abe’s
toral power. While progress has been defense of the global order
made, doctrines like qualified immunity
leave countless citizens without recourse
By Ian Bremmer
when they face state abuse. It alienates
citizens from the state and drains confi- A SURPRISE AN- Japan’s constitution. He resolved none
dence in the American republic. nouncement of his inherited long-standing terri-
That means diminishing presidential that poor health torial disputes with other countries.
power. A principal reason presidential was forcing his Japan’s relations with South Korea re-
politics is so toxic is that the diminishing resignation has main deeply troubled, and China rep-
power of states and Congress means that brought the resents as great a threat as ever.
every four years we elect the most pow- Shinzo Abe era
erful peacetime ruler in the history of the of Japanese politics to a close. The IF ABE WAS NOT a transformative
U.S. No one person should have so much race to succeed the country’s longest- leader, he has been far from a failed
authority over an increasingly diverse serving Prime Minister is on. A one. On his watch, Japan’s economy
and divided nation. front runner has emerged as the dom- continued to grow modestly from the
The increasing stakes of each presi- inant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) depths of the global financial crisis a
dential election increase political tension chooses a new leader. Chief Cabinet decade ago, until the COVID-19 pan-
and heighten public anxiety. Americans Secretary Yoshihide Suga looks demic hit. His policy of “Abenomics”
should not see their individual liberty or like the man who will get the job. helped pull the country out of a de-
the autonomy of their churches and com- If so, he’ll hold it until Abe’s elected flationary funk, even if public debt
munities as so dependent on the identity term ends in September 2021 or he remains at an eye-popping 251.91%
of the President. calls early elections and earns a fresh of GDP (2020 projections). Abe also
But beyond the political changes— mandate. Suga is not the made real progress to-
more local control, less centralization— most dynamic candidate, It’s in his role ward opening up Japan’s
Americans need a change of heart. but he’s a longtime Abe as Japan’s economy to foreign
Defending the Bill of Rights requires ally and broadly popular international investment and drawing
commitment and effort, and it requires within the party. more women into
citizens to think of others beyond their Inheriting a ship dur-
strategist in the workforce.
partisan tribe. Defending the Bill of ing a storm, Suga in- chief that the It’s in his role as Japan’s
Rights means that you must fight for oth- sists he’ll maintain Abe’s world will international strategist in
ers to have the rights that you would like course on both foreign and miss Abe most chief that the world will
to exercise yourself. The goal is simple domestic policy. Job one is miss Abe most. Abe man-
yet elusive. Every American—regardless to steady Japan’s economy and stimu- aged to make Japan a more influential
of race, ethnicity, sex, religion or sexual late growth. He’ll work to draw more international player by engaging in
orientation—can and should have foreign investment, and he’ll promote frequent, face-to-face interaction with
a home in this land. policies designed to buoy stock prices foreign leaders. His relationship with
Yes, many of our founders had pro- and investor confidence. Donald Trump helped Japan avoid
found flaws. But their aspirations can Suga is an accomplished bureau- much of the fire that the U.S. President
still be our aspirations. In the musical cratic infighter who appears more directed toward other allies. His out-
Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda referred committed than Abe to some degree reach to Indian Prime Minister
to a biblical verse that George Washing- of economic reform, and he has a track Narendra Modi bolstered prospects
ton used almost 50 times in his personal record of taking on deeply entrenched for an Indo-Pacific security frame-
and political correspondence. It comes domestic interest groups. Most nota- work. Abe even managed to build
from the Book of Micah, it’s a promise of bly, he outmuscled Japan’s powerful pragmatic baseline relations with
both autonomy and peace that Washing- agricultural lobby to secure passage China’s Xi Jinping.
ton used, for example, to include Jewish of the Comprehensive and Progressive Among G-7 leaders, only Angela
Americans within the American prom- Agreement of Trans-Pacific Partner- Merkel has more experience. It has
ise, and its words echo today—“Every ship, a massive trade deal abandoned been Merkel, making her exit soon,
one shall sit in safety under his own vine by the Trump Administration but and Abe who have fought in their dif-
and fig tree, and there shall be none to completed with Japanese leadership. ferent ways to defend a multilateral
make him afraid.” But the biggest change created by international system under assault
this transition will be in relations with from populists. At a time when the
French, a TIME columnist, is the author other governments. For all his grand world’s leading democracies are look-
of the new book Divided We Fall: Ameri- ambitions, Abe was never able to ing to coordinate economic recovery
ca’s Secession Threat and How to Restore boost Japan’s place in the international efforts and longer-term strategy to
Our Nation order. He failed in his bid to rewrite China, experience is a vital asset. □
39
TheView Sports
PROTESTS deny systemic racism, though many—
The games force change including the President—still do. And
it’s not just a few players taking a stand.
By Sean Gregory After Floyd’s death, the NBA painted
BLACK LIVES MATTER on its courts at
ON AUG. 23, POLICE SHOT JACOB BLAKE SEVEN TIMES IN Walt Disney World.
the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Three Jacob Blake’s shooting shook An-
days later, the Milwaukee Bucks declined to take the court thony Lynn, coach of the Los Angeles
against the Orlando Magic, and the NBA playoffs came to Chargers, one of only three Black head
a halt. Games in the WNBA, Major League Baseball, Major coaches in the NFL (around 60% of the
League Soccer and the National Hockey League were post- league’s players are Black). The Char-
poned. Tennis star Naomi Osaka announced she would not gers, whose season starts Sept. 13, can-
play her semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open; celed practice after other sports teams
soon, the tournament went on temporary hiatus. declined to play. And while Lynn has
The message was clear: sports are no longer some pleasur- previously tried to keep political discus-
able distraction in tough times. It’s no longer acceptable to sions out of his locker room lest they be-
use Black Americans as entertainment but do little to demon- come a distraction—“We can talk about
strate that their lives matter. that sh-t in February, in late
Though the strikes were February, hopefully,” he says
short-lived—the NBA playoffs of his usual philosophy—it’s not
resumed a few days later—they so this year. “If I was to suppress
showed what athletes can accom- this, I think it would hurt their
plish through collective action. passion and I don’t think they
The basketball players returned would play the game that they
only after their bosses pledged to love well.”
work with officials to turn arenas Lynn hopes the recent action
into voting locations for the gen- taken by sports figures will help
eral election. spark change, in NFL hiring
“I respect the hell out of them practices and beyond. “I played
for doing that,” says John Carlos, in this league for eight years,
the American sprinter who fa- and a player knows a head coach
mously raised his fist along with when he sees one. There were
Tommie Smith on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics. ‘I’m going to African-American coaches that could
“Because you have to squeeze the toothpaste tube to get stand up for have been head coaches but just never
people to respond.” what’s right. got the opportunity,” he says. He also
I’m going believes he’ll have less time to prove
THE SPORTS STRIKES marked the latest leap in modern- himself than his white counterparts.
day athlete activism, which can be traced to the 2012 death
to speak “I know I’ve got to turn this damn
of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Black teen from Florida out when thing around, soon. But at the same
gunned down by a neighborhood watchman. In response, I have to.’ time, I’m going to stand up for what’s
LeBron James posted a picture of himself and his Miami ANTHONY LYNN, right. I’m going to speak out when
coach of the
Heat teammates in hooded sweatshirts; Martin was wearing I have to. I’m not going to let that scare
Los Angeles Chargers
a hoodie when he was killed. me from doing that as a human being.”
As the decade progressed and violent incidents against What happens next remains in ques-
Black people were captured on video, the demonstrations tion: If players walked out for Blake,
grew more pronounced. Players wore I CAN’T BREATHE warm- will they do so after future horrific
up shirts; in 2016, James and fellow NBA stars opened the episodes of police violence? And what
ESPYs, typically a feel-good awards show, by denouncing po- will it take to bring them back the next
lice violence. Then a few weeks later, Colin Kaepernick began time? A new bar for athlete activism
sitting, then kneeling, during the national anthem. As the has been set. Players have shown the le-
country’s divisions, stoked by President Trump, grew starker, verage they have and their willingness
athletes in NFL stadiums and on Pop Warner fields across the to use it. Kaepernick and others who
nation began following Kaepernick’s lead and taking a knee. joined him in protest couldn’t effect
AL SEIB — SHUT TERSTOCK

Such gestures were powerful conversation starters, but they change on their own. But together ath-
were largely symbolic. Kaepernick was effectively banished letes have the opportunity to demand
from the NFL. Owners tried to shut down protests during the meaningful action.
anthem. George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer. Taking a knee was once a bold move.
This year, however, it has become harder than ever to Now it’s not enough. □
40 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 RECOGNIZING THE WORLD’S
MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

WATC H J O I N TH E
THE REVEAL CO NVERSATI O N
TUE SDAY, SEPT. 22 WE DNE S DAY, S E P T. 2 3 - F RIDAY, S E P T. 2 5
1 0 P M E T O N ABC 1 P M E T ON T IME .COM

For the first time ever, TIME will unveil the Following the reveal, TIME will convene
TIME100 list during a special broadcast event TIME100 leaders from every field for a series
featuring candid interviews, unforgettable of dynamic conversations, focused on
musical performances and exclusive moments spotlighting solutions and encouraging
with the people who move our world. action toward a better, more equal world.

BROADCAST PARTNERS
Health
An overflow morgue
for deceased COVID-
19 patients at Wyckoff
Heights Medical
Center in Brooklyn
on April 7

PHOTOGR APH BY
MERIDITH KOHUT
FOR TIME

THE AMERICA
 HOW THE U.S. SUCCUMBED TO COMPLACENCY
AND LET 200,000 PEOPLE DIE OF COVID-19
By Alex Fitzpatrick and Elijah Wolfson

N NIGHTMARE
 F
FORTY-FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF
the first suspected case of what would become known
as COVID-19, the Global Health Security Index was pub-
lished. The project—led by the Nuclear Threat Initia-
tive and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security—
assessed 195 countries on their perceived ability to
handle a major disease outbreak. The U.S. ranked first.
It’s clear the report was wildly overconfident in the
U.S., failing to account for social ills that had accumu-
lated in the country over the past few years, rendering
it unprepared for what was about to hit. At some point
in mid-September—perhaps by the time you are read-
ing this—the number of confirmed coronavirus-related
deaths in the U.S. will have passed 200,000, more than
in any other country by far.
If, early in the spring, the U.S. had mobilized its ample
resources and expertise in a coherent national effort to
prepare for the virus, things might have turned out dif-
ferently. If, in midsummer, the country had doubled
down on the measures (masks, social-distancing rules,
restricted indoor activities and public gatherings) that Friends and family mourn the death
seemed to be working, instead of prematurely declar- of Conrad Coleman Jr. on July 3 in
ing victory, things might have turned out differently. New Rochelle, N.Y. Coleman, 39,
The tragedy is that if science and common sense solu- died of COVID-19 on June 20, just
over two months after his father
tions were united in a national, coordinated response, also died of the disease
the U.S. could have avoided many thousands of more
deaths this summer.
Indeed, many other countries in similar situations
were able to face this challenge where the U.S. ap- for the lives of one or two children—
parently could not. Italy, for example, had a similar Americans will continue to have to make
per capita case rate as the U.S. in April. By emerging nearly impossible decisions, despite the
slowly from lockdowns, limiting domestic and foreign fact that after months of watching their
travel, and allowing its government response to be country fail, many are now profoundly
largely guided by scientists, Italy has kept COVID-19 distrustful, uneasy and confused.
almost entirely at bay. In that same time period, U.S. 200,000
daily cases doubled, before they started to fall in late AT THIS POINT, we can start to see why EXPECTED U.S.
summer. the U.S. foundered: a failure of leader- COVID-19 DEATH TOLL
Among the world’s wealthy nations, only the U.S. ship at many levels and across parties; a BY MID-SEPTEMBER
has an outbreak that continues to spin out of control. distrust of scientists, the media and ex-
Of the 10 worst-hit countries, the U.S. has the seventh- pertise in general; and deeply ingrained
highest number of deaths per 100,000 population;
the other nine countries in the top 10 have an average
cultural attitudes about individuality and
how we value human lives have all com- 261,000
per capita GDP of $10,195, compared to $65,281 bined to result in a horrifically inadequate AMERICANS WHO
for the U.S. Some countries, like New Zealand, have pandemic response. COVID-19 has weak- DIED IN WORLD WAR I,
even come close to eradicating COVID-19 entirely. ened the U.S. and exposed the systemic THE VIETNAM WAR
Vietnam, where officials implemented particularly fractures in the country, and the gulf be- AND THE KOREAN
intense lockdown measures, didn’t record a single tween what this nation promises its citi- WAR, COMBINED
virus-related death until July 31. zens and what it actually delivers.
There is nothing auspicious about watching the sum- Although America’s problems were
mer turn to autumn; all the new season brings are more widespread, they start at the top. A
hard choices. At every level—from elected officials re- complete catalog of President Donald
sponsible for the lives of millions to parents responsible Trump’s failures to address the pandemic
44 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 suggesting he was being sarcastic. But
less testing only means fewer cases are
detected, not that they don’t exist. In the
U.S. the percentage of tests coming back
positive increased from about 4.5% in
mid-June to about 5.7% as of early Sep-
tember, evidence the virus was spread-
ing regardless of whether we tested for
it. (By comparison, Germany’s overall
daily positivity rate is under 3% and in
Italy it’s about 2%.)
Testing in the U.S. peaked in July, at
about 820,000 new tests administered
per day, according to the COVID Track-
ing Project, but as of this writing has fallen
to about 740,000. Some Americans now
say they are waiting more than two weeks
for their test results, a delay that makes
the outcome all but worthless, as people
can be infected in the window between
when they get tested and when they re-
ceive their results.
Most experts believe that early on,
we did not understand the full scale of
the spread of the virus because we were
testing only those who got sick. But now
we know 30% to 45% of infected people
who contract the virus show no symp-
toms whatsoever and can pass it on. When
there’s a robust and accessible testing sys-
tem, even asymptomatic cases can be dis-
covered and isolated. But as soon as test-
ing becomes inaccessible again, we’re
back to where we were before: probably
will be fodder for history books. There U.S., Trump did not wear a mask in pub- missing many cases.
were weeks wasted early on stubbornly lic until July 11, more than three months
clinging to a fantastical belief that the after the CDC recommended facial cov- SEVEN MONTHS AFTER the coronavirus
virus would simply “disappear”; testing erings, transforming what ought to have was found on American soil, we’re still
and contact tracing programs were in- been a scientific issue into a partisan one. suffering hundreds, sometimes more than
adequate; states were encouraged to re- A Pew Research Center survey published a thousand, deaths every day. An Ameri-
open ahead of his own Administration’s on June 25 found that 63% of Democrats can Nurses Association survey from late
guidelines; and statistics were repeatedly and Democratic-leaning independents July and early August found that of 21,000
cherry-picked to make the U.S. situation said masks should always be worn in pub- U.S. nurses polled, 42% reported either
look far better than it was, while under- lic, compared with 29% of Republicans widespread or intermittent shortages in
mining scientists who said otherwise. “I and Republican-leaning independents. personal protective equipment (PPE) like
wanted to always play it down,” Trump By far the government’s most glaring masks, gloves and medical gowns. Schools
told the journalist Bob Woodward on failure was a lack of adequate testing in- and colleges are attempting to open for in-
March 19 in a newly revealed conversa- frastructure from the beginning. Test- person learning only to suffer major out-
tion. “I still like playing it down, because ing is key to a pandemic response—the breaks and send students home; some of
I don’t want to create a panic.” more data officials have about an out- them will likely spread the virus in their
Common-sense solutions like face break, the better equipped they are to communities. More than 13 million Amer-
masks were undercut or ignored. Re- respond. Rather than call for more test- icans remain unemployed as of August,
JOHN MOORE— GE T T Y IMAGES

search shows that wearing a facial cov- ing, Trump has instead suggested that according to Bureau of Labor Statistics
ering significantly reduces the spread of maybe the U.S. should be testing less. He data published Sept. 4.
COVID-19, and a pre-existing culture of has repeatedly, and incorrectly, blamed U.S. leaders have largely eschewed
mask wearing in East Asia is often cited as increases in new cases on more testing. short- and medium-term unflashy solu-
one reason countries in that region were “If we didn’t do testing, we’d have no tions in favor of perceived silver bullets,
able to control their outbreaks. In the cases,” the President said in June, later like a vaccine—hence the Administra-
S O U R C E S : C D C ; D E PA R T M E N T O F V E T E R A N S A F F A I R S 45
tion’s “Operation Warp Speed,” an effort tino communities, according to CDC data. a mixed bag, and even those who’ve been
to accelerate vaccine development. The COVID-19, like any virus, is mindless; praised, like New York’s Andrew Cuomo,
logic of focusing so heavily on magic- it doesn’t discriminate based on the color could likely have taken more aggressive
wand solutions fails to account for the of a person’s skin or the figure in their action to protect public health.
many people who will suffer and die in checking account. But precisely because Absent adequate leadership, it’s been
the meantime even while effective strate- it attacks blindly, the virus has given fur- up to everyday Americans to band to-
gies to fight COVID-19 already exist. ther evidence for the truth that was made gether in the fight against COVID-19. To
We’re also struggling because of the clear this summer in response to another some extent, that’s been happening—
U.S. health care system. The country of the country’s epidemics, racially moti- doctors, nurses, bus drivers and other es-
spends nearly 17% of annual GDP on vated police violence: the U.S. has not ad- sential workers have been rightfully cel-
health care—far more than any other na- equately addressed its legacy of racism. ebrated as heroes, and many have paid
tion in the Organisation for Economic a price for their bravery. But at least some
Co-operation and Development. Yet it AMERICANS TODAY TEND TO VALUE the Americans still refuse to take such a sim-
has one of the lowest life expectancies, individual over the collective. A 2011 Pew ple step as wearing a mask.
at 78.6 years, comparable to those in survey found that 58% of Americans said Why? Because we’re also in the midst
countries like Estonia and Turkey, which “freedom to pursue life’s goals without in- of an epistemic crisis. Republicans and
spend only 6.4% and 4.2% of their GDP terference from the state” is more impor- Democrats today don’t just disagree on is-

N E VA D A : T O D S E E L I E —T H E G U A R D I A N ; M I C H I G A N : N E I L B L A K E — T H E G R A N D R A P I D S P R E S S/A P ; C A L I F O R N I A : J A E C . H O N G — A P
on health care, respectively. Even the gov- tant than the state guaranteeing “nobody sues; they disagree on the basic truths that
ernment’s decision to cover coronavirus- is in need.” It’s easy to view that trait as a structure their respective realities. Half
related treatment costs has ended up in root cause of the country’s struggles with the country gets its news from places that
confusion and fear among lower income COVID-19; a pandemic requires people to parrot whatever the Administration says,
patients thanks to our dysfunctional med- make temporary sacrifices for the benefit true or not; half does not. This politici-
ical billing system. of the group, whether it’s wearing a mask zation manifests in myriad ways, but the
The coronavirus has laid bare the in- or skipping a visit to their local bar. most vital is this: in early June (at which
equalities of American public health. Americans have banded together in point more than 100,000 Americans had
Black Americans are nearly three times times of crisis before, but we need to be already died of COVID-19), fewer than half
as likely as white Americans to get led there. “We take our cues from lead- of Republican voters polled said the out-
COVID-19, nearly five times as likely to ers,” says Dr. David Rosner, a professor break was a major threat to the health of
be hospitalized and twice as likely to die. at Columbia University. Trump and other the U.S. population as a whole. Through-
As the Centers for Disease Control and leaders on the right, including Gov. Ron out July and August, the White House’s
Prevention (CDC) notes, being Black in DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Tate Reeves Coronavirus Task Force was sending pri-
the U.S. is a marker of risk for underly- of Mississippi, respectively, have dispar- vate messages to states about the severity
ing conditions that make COVID-19 more aged public-health officials, criticizing of the outbreak, while President Trump
dangerous, “including socioeconomic sta- their calls for shutting down businesses and Vice President Mike Pence publicly
tus, access to health care and increased ex- and other drastic but necessary measures. stated that everything was under control.
posure to the virus due to occupation (e.g., Many public-health experts, meanwhile, Some incredulity about the virus and
frontline, essential and critical infrastruc- are concerned that the White House is public-health recommendations is un-
ture workers).” In other words, COVID-19 pressuring agencies like the Food and derstandable given the reality that scien-
is more dangerous for Black Americans Drug Administration to approve treat- tific understanding of the newly emer-
because of generations of systemic racism ments such as convalescent plasma de- gent virus is evolving in real time. The
and discrimination. The same is true to a spite a lack of supportive data. Gover- ever shifting advice from health officials
lesser extent for Native American and La- nors, left largely on their own, have been doesn’t instill public confidence, espe-
46 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 From left: people sleeping in a parking lot in
Las Vegas after a homeless shelter shut down
because of COVID-19; the line for a drive-
through food pantry in Grand Rapids, Mich.;
cardboard cutout “fans” at an L.A. Angels
baseball game

cially in those already primed to be skep- what else could explain that nearly half a food service and other high-risk fields.
tical of experts. “Because this is a new in- year in, we still haven’t figured out how to We need a major investment in testing
fectious disease, a new virus, we don’t have equip the frontline workers who, in try- and tracing, as other countries have done.
all the answers scientifically,” says Colleen ing to save the lives of others, are putting Our leaders need to listen to experts and
Barry, chair of the department of health their own lives at risk? What else could let policy be driven by science. And for
policy and management at Johns Hop- explain why 66% of Americans—roughly the time being, all of us need to accept
kins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 217.5 million people—still aren’t always that there are certain things we cannot,
“I think that creates an environment that wearing masks in public? or should not, do, like go to the movies
could potentially erode trust even further Despite all that, it seems the U.S. is or host an indoor wedding.
over time.” But the trust fractures on par- finally beginning to make some progress “Americans [may] start to say, ‘If every-
tisan lines. While 43% of Democrats told again: daily cases have fallen from a high one’s not wearing masks, if everyone’s not
Pew in 2019 that they had a “great deal” of 20.5 per capita in July to around 12 in social distancing, if people are having fam-
of trust in scientists, only early September. But we’re ily parties inside with lots of people to-
27% of Republicans said still well above the spring- gether, if we’re flouting the public-health
the same. time numbers—the curve recommendations, we’re going to keep
Truly worrying are the 99 may be flattening, but it’s seeing transmission,’ ” says Ann Keller,
numbers of Americans who DAYS BEFORE leveling out at a point that’s an associate professor at the UC Berke-
already say they are hesi- PRESIDENT TRUMP pretty frightening. Fur- ley School of Public Health.
tant to receive an eventual PUBLICLY WORE A MASK thermore, experts worry The U.S. is no longer the epicen-
COVID-19 vaccination. PER CDC GUIDANCE that yet another wave ter of the global pandemic; that unfor-
Mass vaccination will work could come this winter, tunate torch has been passed to coun-
only with enough buy-in exacerbated by the annual tries like India, Argentina and Brazil.
from the public; the dam-
age the President and oth-
66% flu season. And in the coming months there might
yet be a vaccine, or more likely a cadre
AMERICANS WHO DO
ers are doing to Americans’ THERE ARE REASONS for of vaccines, that finally halts the march
trust in science could have
NOT ALWAYS WEAR optimism. Efforts to create of COVID-19 through the country. But
significant consequences A MASK OUTSIDE a vaccine continue at break- even so, some 200,000 Americans have
for the country’s ability to THEIR HOMES neck speed; it’s possible at already died, and many more may do so
get past this pandemic. least one will be available before a vaccine emerges unless Amer-
There’s another disturb- by the end of the year. Doc- ica starts to implement and invest in the
ing undercurrent to Americans’ attitude tors are getting better at treating severe science-based solutions already avail-
toward the pandemic thus far: a seem- cases, in part because of new research on able to us. Each one of those lives lost
ing willingness to accept mass death. As treatments like steroids (although some represents an entire world, not only of
a nation we may have become dull to hor- patients are suffering far longer than ex- those individuals but also of their fam-
rors that come our way as news, from gun pected, a phenomenon known as “long- ily, friends, colleagues and loved ones.
violence to the seemingly never-ending haul COVID”). As the virus rages, perhaps This is humbling—and it should be. The
incidents of police brutality to the water more Americans will follow public-health only path forward is one of humility, of
crises in Flint, Mich., and elsewhere. measures. recognition that if America is excep-
Americans seem to have already been in- But there is plenty of room for im- tional with regard to COVID-19, it’s in
ured to the idea that other Americans will provement. At the very least, every Ameri- a way most people would not celebrate.
die regularly, when they do not need to. can should have access to adequate PPE— —With reporting by EMILY BARONE and
It is difficult to quantify apathy. But especially those in health care, education, JULIA ZORTHIAN/NEW YORK 
SOURCES: NE WS REP ORTS; G ALLU P 47
Science
 INSIDE THE RACE TO DEVELOP AND DISTRIBUTE
THE DRUGS THAT WILL END THE CORONAVIRUS EPIDEMIC
By Alice Park

WHEN WILL
WE GET
A VACCINE?
HE CLEVEREST OF ENEMIES THRIVE ON SURPRISE effective shots, if manufacturers can distribute them to

T attacks. Viruses—and coronaviruses in particular—

know this well. Remaining hidden in animal hosts
for decades, they mutate steadily, sometimes seren-
dipitously morphing into more effective and efficient in-
enough people and if enough of those people actually
get immunized.
Vaccines rely on the idea of herd immunity, a type of
biological fortress in which the vast majority of the popu-
fectious agents. When a strain with just the right combi- lation is protected against infection. One way to get there
nation of genetic codes that spell trouble for people makes is via natural infection, which involves enough people
the leap from animal to human, the ambush begins. getting infected and recovering without serious conse-
Such was the case with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus quences. But many public-health experts say pushing to
behind COVID-19, and the attack was mostly silent and open businesses and schools, so healthy people who might
insidious at first. Many people infected with SARS-CoV-2 not get seriously ill if infected can develop this immunity,
remained oblivious as they served as the virus’s new home is a dangerous strategy that leaves too much to chance;
and allowed it to establish a foothold in the global human there is no way to predict how much time it will take, and
population. These hosts were the perfect base camp for along the way the virus will keep harming and killing peo-
launching the attack that has upended social norms, econ- ple until enough people become immune.
omies, political systems and more all across the world. Vaccines have been the scientific detour around natural
The best hope for confronting this onslaught is a immunity—offering the benefits of protection without the
vaccine—if the furious research efforts under way yield suffering and unpredictability—since Edward Jenner, in

ILLUSTR ATION BY PETER GREENWOOD FOR TIME

Science
the 1790s, discovered that exposing peo- pledged in an unusual show of solidarity Another challenge: just one vaccine
ple to small amounts of the smallpox virus to conduct full safety studies on their vac- likely won’t be enough. From a manu-
could give them immunity to the disease. cines before submitting them for regula- facturing and distribution perspective,
Today, pharmaceutical and biotech com- tory review, AstraZeneca put its trial on immunizing the world’s population will
panies are developing or testing more than hold so researchers could investigate an take several different vaccines and prob-
100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates and unexplained illness in one of the study ably contributions from all of the compa-
governments are pumping billions of dol- participants. nies currently pushing to produce a prod-
lars into a massive global effort the likes These actions serve as reminders that uct. “This is a global problem, and no one
of which we haven’t seen since the polio the development and testing period for company is going to have the solution,”
epidemic of the 1950s. Everything about these vaccines is already strained to the says John Shiver, senior vice president
this vaccine endeavor could be history- stretching point. Massachusetts-based for global vaccine research and develop-
making, from the speed with which shots Moderna Therapeutics, along with sci- ment at Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical
are developed, to the way they are tested entists from the government’s National company. “Because we don’t know what
and authorized, to how they are doled out Institute of Allergy and Infectious Dis- will work, what will work best or what
to people around the world. Months after eases (NIAID), already set records by de- will best serve the need in really, really
scientists first identified the new corona- veloping and readying one candidate for stopping the pandemic, more shots on
virus, Chinese teams are already testing human testing in 42 days—a process that goal are important.”
nearly 10 potential vaccines. Fueled by in the past has taken years. Even with multiple vaccines, it won’t
President Donald Trump’s Operation And that’s why the accelerated sched- be easy to ensure they get to the right peo-
Warp Speed, which will provide at least ule must come with a dose of humility. ple at the right time. Nearly all of the can-
$10 billion in federal funding for research The quest to develop a vaccine for a new didates require two shots, spaced up to a
and testing of promising COVID-19 vac- infectious disease is a gamble at best; month or so apart. Some vaccines need
cine candidates, the U.S. is conducting nearly four decades after HIV was dis- to be maintained at below-freezing tem-
three late-stage trials in healthy volun- covered, there is still no effective vac- peratures from the manufacturing plant
teers. Other countries—including Italy, cine against that virus. SARS-CoV-2 is so until close to when they’re injected into
Russia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, new to the scientific community that it’s a person’s arm. And once the vaccines are
Australia and India—have all launched not even clear yet what the human body shipped to hospitals and medical clinics,
human tests of their own vaccines. needs to prevent infection—or if such a who should get immunized first? The most
Operation Warp Speed promises to thing is even possible. The urgency of aggressive manufacturing schedules still
deliver an ambitious 300 million doses the pandemic means doctors will have won’t produce enough vaccines to inoc-
by January 2021; to do so, manufactur- only about a month’s worth of informa- ulate everyone, especially in the first few
ers including Moderna, AstraZeneca, tion from studies on how long the immu- months. Health experts will have to make
Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson nity from the shots might last. Given that, tough decisions about how to distribute
have already begun to produce their vac- some experts, including those developing those first precious doses, and are turning
cine candidates, before ongoing studies the vaccine candidates, say we should at to ethical principles such as risk and social
show they are effective. And the U.S. Cen- best expect a vaccine that can minimize utility. These put health care workers, peo-
ters for Disease Control and Prevention the effects of the disease, rather than ple with existing health conditions and the
(CDC) alerted governors in early Sep- provide the “sterilizing immunity” that elderly in group living facilities toward the
tember of the government’s plan for how would protect people from infection en- top of the list, as well as first responders
initial doses can be ordered and shipped tirely. “For many respiratory pathogens, and others working in essential occupa-
when they are available. it’s a challenge to achieve a sterilizing im- tions such as teachers, law-enforcement
These are all calculated risks, made mune response,” says Dr. Evan Anderson, officers and those in waste management.
more fraught by growing tensions be- associate professor of medicine at Emory But, notes Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, vice
tween the political need to restart econ- University School of Medicine and the provost for global initiatives at the Uni-
omies and educational institutions, and lead researcher on one of the Moderna versity of Pennsylvania, such discussions
the requirements of the rigorous scien- trials. “We don’t know whether that will haven’t addressed the practicalities. Up
tific and regulatory process that man- be the case with SARS-CoV-2.” to 40% of the U.S. population have exist-
dates a threshold of data proving that a ing health conditions that would qual-
new vaccine is safe and effective before ify them for priority vaccination—far
it can be released to the public. Russia’s
announcement in August that its Ministry ‘THIS IS A GLOBAL more than the number of doses that will
likely be available in the first manufac-
of Health had approved a vaccine devel- turing runs. “We haven’t really thought it
oped by scientists in Moscow that was still
being tested was widely criticized by the
PROBLEM, AND NO ONE through because it’s a hard problem and
therefore we’ve avoided it,” he says. As
scientific community as premature and
potentially dangerous to the high-risk COMPANY IS GOING TO several of the most promising vaccines
barrel toward the final stages of testing,
groups that would receive it first. In Sep- however, avoidance won’t be possible,
tember, soon after major vaccine makers HAVE THE SOLUTION.’ and decisions will have to be made about
50 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 ‘PEOPLE WANT TO BE Dozens of nations are investing in or de- of the world’s population. International
veloping their own vaccines, and there experts have proposed two broad strate-
are nationalist arguments for funneling gies for deciding how much vaccine coun-
ETHICAL BUT DON’T the end products of these investments tries should receive—one that relies on a
back to those who financed them, which country’s population and another that
KNOW WHAT [IT] MEANS would lock out countries with fewer uses the proportion of health care work-
health resources from the doses they ers as a guide—both of which Emanuel
need. Even in industrialized nations believes will fall short of equitable alloca-
IN THIS CONTEXT.’ that may produce enough vaccines, up- tion. “People want to be ethical but don’t
take could be difficult, given antivaccine know what ethical means in this context,”
sentiment in general (stemming largely he says. In his view, it involves principles
the global lottery for this prized resource, from unsubstantiated links between cer- such as reducing harm, premature death
choices that could mean the difference tain vaccines and autism) and concerns and economic hardship, as well as limiting
between allowing the pandemic to con- about the safety of any COVID-19 vac- community spread of disease that would
tinue its deadly and tragic assault on cines in particular. In a recent Ipsos poll put more people in harm’s way.
human life, and finally slowing it down. commissioned by the World Economic Even once countries receive their
Forum, one-third of Amer- allotted doses, deciding
AT THE BROADEST LEVEL, the distribu- icans said they would not which people should be
tion question starts with how much vac- get vaccinated if a COVID- immunized first raises ad-
cine each country should receive. Any 19 shot became available. ditional ethical and practi-
hope of benefiting from herd immunity
conferred by vaccines dissolves if not
While some degree of
nationalism is reasonable
$10 cal challenges. In the U.S.,
the National Academies of
enough of the world’s population—the from a social-justice per- BILLION Sciences, Engineering and
“herd”—is immunized and protected spective, says Emanuel, in OPERATION Medicine released a draft
against infection. Researchers at CUNY a global health crisis, allow- WARP SPEED’S of prioritization guidelines
Graduate School of Public Health and ing the virus to percolate INITIAL INVESTMENT in September, proposing
Health Policy used a computer simula- anywhere poses a threat four tiers of vaccination
tion to calculate that if 75% of the world’s to people everywhere. To groups. The first wave of
population were immunized, the vaccines
would need to be 70% effective in protect-
stress the need for inter-
national unity, the World
6 vaccinations would be for
high-risk populations in-
NUMBER OF VACCINE
ing against infection in order to control Health Organization part- cluding health care work-
the ongoing pandemic. If only 60% were nered with the vaccine-
CANDIDATES ers, people with existing
vaccinated, then that efficacy threshold focused public-private alli- THAT HAVE RECEIVED health conditions such as
would jump to 80%. ance Gavi and the Coalition FUNDING obesity, asthma and heart
And manufacturing a safe and effective for Epidemic Preparedness disease, and the elderly in
batch of vaccines, even by deeply expe- Innovations, a group of group living conditions.
rienced pharmaceutical companies with
a track record of producing millions of
philanthropists and gov-
ernments focused on pro-
300 Next come “critical risk”
workers, teachers, older
doses of other vaccines, isn’t a slam dunk. viding resources needed MILLION adults, people in group
“In making vaccines, there is research, de- to respond to infectious- NUMBER OF DOSES homes, and the incarcer-
velopment, then implementation,” says disease threats, to form the PROJECTED ated; then young adults
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the vaccine- COVAX Facility, a mecha- TO BE AVAILABLE and children; and finally,
education center at Children’s Hospital nism that would allow na- BY JANUARY 2021 the rest of the nation. A
of Philadelphia, who serves on the U.S. tions to purchase vaccines final draft reflecting pub-
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at reduced prices by pool- lic comments on these pro-
committee that will advise the agency’s ing their buying power. posals will be given to the
director on COVID-19 vaccine approv- The initiative is helping to CDC committee responsi-
als. “The hardest of those three is imple- fund nine vaccine candidates, and coun- ble for making immunization recommen-
mentation. Mass production is not trivial; tries can sign up to make commitments to dations for COVID-19 vaccines.
mistakes get made, and you learn as you buy the shots that end up being effective In anticipation, Dr. Nancy Messon-
go.” During the U.S. polio-immunization at volume discounts. nier, director of the National Center for
campaign in the 1950s, he notes, one man- So far, 172 countries have expressed in- Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
ufacturer failed to properly inactivate terest in joining, including 80 developed at the CDC, in early August informed the
the polio virus used in the vaccines and nations and 92 lower- and middle-income health departments of four states (North
40,000 children became infected. countries. The Trump Administration has Dakota, Florida, California and Minne-
The challenges to achieving such declined to join COVAX, citing ongoing sota) and one city (Philadelphia) that they
widespread immunization aren’t just tensions with the WHO, but even with- would be part of a pilot program for roll-
about reaching manufacturing targets. out the U.S., COVAX now represents 70% ing out vaccines. The CDC and Operation
SOURCES: WHITE HOUSE; HHS 51
Science
BUILDING COVID-19 VACCINES
Vaccines prime the ESTABLISHED
Warp Speed would collect data from the immune system to
pilot sites to refine plans for allocating recognize and combat SARS-COV-2

vaccines to the rest of the country. “Our viruses or bacteria.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines do SPIKE
goal,” said CDC director Dr. Robert Red- PROTEINS
this by making it easier for
field in August, “is to ensure no delay in the body to seek out the
the handoff between FDA authorizing a spike proteins that make FULL
vaccine and implementation of vaccina- up the virus’s shell.
GENOME

tion programs nationwide.” That all de- SARS-COV-2

pends, of course, on whether the tens of VIRAL GENOME
DISABLED VIRUS PROTEIN-BASED
thousands of volunteers receiving COVID- SPIKE
PROTEINS 18 IN DEVELOPMENT 77 IN DEVELOPMENT
19 vaccine candidates in current studies
develop strong immune responses to This method produced the These vaccines contain
Salk polio, MMR and rabies parts of the virus that can
SARS-CoV-2 without serious side effects.
vaccines and relies on a stimulate the immune
SPIKE weakened or inactive form of system. In the case of SARS-
WHEN CAROL KELLY, an associate nutri- PROTEIN the virus that can rev up the CoV-2, these are the spike-
CODE
tion director at Emory University Student immune system just enough protein structures. Vaccines
Health, saw a request on her NextDoor to fight off infection but not for shingles and HPV, among
Lead company’s cause disease. others, are made this way.
app in April seeking volunteers to partic-
ipate in a nearby study for a COVID-19 progress
0 PRECLINICAL TESTING 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
vaccine candidate, she was immediately 1 SAFETY TRIALS
intrigued. She called up and found out 2 EXPANDED TRIALS SINOVAC is building on its SANOFI and GLAXO-
3 EFFECTIVENESS TRIALS
that this particular study would test a 4 APPROVAL SARS research from 2002, SMITHKLINE partnered to
vaccine based on a new genetic technol- 5 PRODUCTION speeding up the process combine their expertise
ogy. No vaccine using this technology has
been approved, although a handful, for
diseases like respiratory syncytial virus
and influenza, are in trials. “They said that Once injected, vaccines instruct cells to make pieces of the virus ...
it contains the genetic code of the virus.
HU
That kind of gave me pause,” Kelly says. 1 Disabled virus, viral
MA
NC 2 Protein-based
But she signed up anyway. “I felt helpless ELL
vector, DNA and RNA vaccines don’t
seeing the health care providers working vaccines use healthy enter cells but
so hard . . . I thought, If there is one little cells to make viral directly release
proteins viral proteins
thing I can do to hurry and help the ad-
vancement of a solution, why not?”
The Emory study is testing a vaccine
NU
co-developed by scientists from NIAID CL
EU
S
and Moderna. If successful, it could pio-
neer a new way of churning out vaccines
that would be the fastest in history. Some PROTEIN
existing vaccines, including shots for in- SPIKES
fluenza, require manufacturers to grow,
over a period of weeks, massive amounts
of virus or bacteria, then disable them in
the lab so they can’t cause disease but are
still foreign enough to alert and activate
DISABLED
human immune systems to mount de- VIRUS
fenses against them.
A major reason Moderna has been able
to move so fast is that it bypasses this pro-
cess and relies instead on mRNA, the ge-
netic material that codes for proteins. protein that defines SARS-CoV-2. Encir- and replicating. The way Dr. Stephen Hoge,
On Jan. 10, Chinese scientists posted the cling the virus’s outer shell like a crown, president of Moderna, sees it, “mRNA is
first complete genome sequence of SARS- the spike protein also serves as the lock- really like a software molecule in biology.
CoV-2; just 42 days later, the Moderna picker for breaking into healthy human So our vaccine is like the software pro-
and NIAID teams had used that code to cells. Once inside, SARS-CoV-2 hijacks gram to the body, which then goes and
identify which parts of the viral genome those cells’ machinery to pump out more makes the [viral] proteins that can gener-
would make good targets for building a copies of itself to spread throughout the ate an immune response.” Moderna pro-
vaccine—specifically, the code for the spike body and continue its mission of infecting duced and shipped its first vial of vaccine
52 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 INNOVATIVE
she says. “I was just wiped out, had a little
NONCOVID LIPID bit of vertigo and had a headache, and I
VIRUS SHELL PLASMID CAPSULE
never have headaches. I also had a little
fever. But the next day I was fine.”
SPIKE
SPIKE GENE Kelly takes her symptoms as a sign
mRNA
GENE
WITH that the vaccine did its job and that her
SPIKE immune system is now primed to de-
SEQUENCE
fend against SARS-CoV-2. Data from a
VIRAL VECTOR DNA PLASMID RNA subset of volunteers in the first phase
of the studies seem to support that: the
44 IN DEVELOPMENT 16 IN DEVELOPMENT 23 IN DEVELOPMENT
new antibodies they formed after getting
A weakened form of the Snippets of coronavirus This approach is similar to vaccinated appeared to neutralize lab-
common cold virus, loaded DNA that code for the spike the DNA method but uses a
based versions of SARS-CoV-2. Buoyed
with the genes for the SARS- protein are formed into a different form of the virus’s
CoV-2 spike protein, infects circular structure called a genetic code, called mRNA. by these early studies, Moderna began
cells that then churn out the plasmid. Once inside human Once the delivery system a study in June to identify the ideal dos-
protein, alerting the immune cells, plasmids can make gets it into human cells, it age, and at the end of July it launched the
system, which activates to copies of the spike protein to starts to make copies of the final stage of testing, which will include
fight the infection. alert immune cells. spike protein.
30,000 volunteers who will receive ei-
ther that dose or a placebo.
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
The speed with which Moderna was
ASTRAZENECA halted its INOVIO has worked on DNA MODERNA was the first to able to develop and start testing was a
Phase 3 study after a report of vaccines for a decade, but start human testing, but its tantalizing lesson in possibility for other
an illness on Sept. 9 none have gone to market yet vaccine must be stored frozen vaccine developers. Major players in the
pharmaceutical industry began prioritiz-
ing mRNA programs they had been de-
veloping with smaller biotech firms with
... and the body’s defenses do the rest expertise in the technology. For exam-
ple, Pfizer, the New York–based pharma
4 B cells and T cells 5 Antibodies quickly giant, took advantage of a two-year col-
work together to bind to any spike laboration with German immunotherapy
release antibodies proteins, preventing company BioNTech and, in April, poured
that recognize the the virus from $185 million into a joint effort to explore
unique spike shape infecting more cells
four potential mRNA-based vaccines.
The two companies had been working
ANTIGEN- on using mRNA to create a flu vaccine,
PRESENTING ANTIBODIES
CELL and when COVID-19 struck, says Philip
Dormitzer, vice president and chief sci-
entific officer for viral vaccines at Pfizer,
B CELL “it was relatively straightforward to swap
T CELL
MATCH out the influenza-coding antigens in the
vaccine candidate and put in COVID-19
antigens instead.”
3 Antigen-presenting cells 6 If a live SARS-CoV-2 Such substitutions are one of the
SARS-COV-2
engulf spike proteins and virus enters the body,
process them for immune immune cells recognize mRNA technology’s strongest features;
T cells and B cells to the spike and work to rather than requiring copious amounts
recognize easily neutralize the virus of live virus, all researchers need is the
virus’s genetic sequence, which they can
N O T E : B L E N D E D A R R O W S I N D I C AT E C O M B I N E D T R I A L S TA G E S . D I S A B L E D - V I R U S VA C C I N E S I N C L U D E K I L L E D A N D L I V E AT T E N U AT E D V I R U S E S .
then edit to find the right code for anti-
S O U R C E S: W H O, C L I N I C A LT R I A L S .G O V, C D C, N I H , S A N O F I , A S T R A Z E N EC A , I N O V I O, M O D E R N A . T I M E G R A P H I C B Y E M I LY B A R O N E A N D L O N T W E E T E N
gens to alert the immune system of the
virus’s intrusion. Pfizer and BioNTech
for human testing at the end of February. from COVID-19. Kelly kept a diary of her scientists exploited this and quickly de-
Three months later, it had its first batch temperature and any unusual symptoms veloped four promising candidates for
of data from a few dozen healthy volun- for seven days after the first shot, which testing; early studies identified one,
teers in a small, early-stage trial. The vac- she says didn’t affect her much, and the containing the entire genetic sequence
cine appeared safe and seemed to prompt research team took weekly blood samples of the virus’s spike protein, as produc-
the immune system to generate antibodies until her second shot around three weeks ing the fewest side effects with the most
against SARS-CoV-2 in amounts similar to later. That injection hit her harder; “Oh robust immune response. At the end of
those found in people who had recovered my golly, the next day I was exhausted,” July, the companies started a combined
53
Science
Phase 2 and Phase 3 trial of this candi-
date with 30,000 people.
Pfizer isn’t the only company to fast-
PUBLIC-HEALTH monitoring done by independent review
boards that are part of each major vaccine
trial to ensure that the new vaccines don’t
track stakes in the mRNA technology. In
June, Sanofi increased its investment in
SYSTEMS NEEDED cause more harm than good.

Translate Bio, which could total up to

$1.9 billion and give Sanofi access to the GUIDANCE ‘YESTERDAY’ IN SOME WAYS, the pause in the trial may
also serve as a testament to the value in
technology and manufacturing know-how sticking with more proven strategies that
to develop mRNA-based vaccines against
infectious diseases—with COVID-19 the
ON VACCINE PLANNING have a legacy of success. Researchers also
know from experience that another gene-
obvious priority. The companies are work- based approach, one that relies on DNA,
ing on starting clinical trials in people normally infects chimpanzees. The cold can generate not only antibodies against
sometime this year. virus transports the viral genetic material a virus like SARS-CoV-2 but also T cells
But while the mRNA platform may to human cells and “infects” them in the and B cells, which help the body establish
give vaccine makers a jump-start in de- same way SARS-CoV-2 would, and there- a longer-lasting memory of previous in-
velopment, more familiar vaccine ap- fore prepares the immune system to at- fections and better prepare it to recognize
proaches have well-established manufac- tack it in much the same way a natural and target viruses and bacteria should they
turing and storage methods behind them. infection does. In early human studies, invade again. While antibodies generated
For one thing, mRNA is notoriously unsta- the vaccine produced good immune re- against SARS-CoV-2 proteins are likely to
ble and sensitive to temperature, so vac- sponses against SARS-CoV-2. be an important ingredient in the ultimate
cines made with this technology need to The Oxford-AstraZeneca team be- alchemy of immunity, there are hints from
be stored and shipped at anywhere from lieves its manufacturing process for this recovered COVID-19 patients that those
–94°F (–70°C) to –4°F (–20°C), far below sort of shot will make it easy to scale up antibodies may not always be enough.
temperatures required for most exist- production. “Hopefully, if it’s successful, Recent analysis of convalescent plasma
ing vaccines. That’s why companies like this vaccine will be relatively inexpensive from recovered COVID-19 patients in New
Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson and Astra- to make in terms of dollars per dose, and York, for example, shows that their levels
Zeneca are relying on their experience it’ll be relatively easy to do at scale,” says of antibodies vary widely and that most of
with another innovative but promising Mene Pangalos, executive vice president these antibodies have only moderate pow-
vaccine-making method to solve that of biopharmaceutical research and devel- ers to neutralize SARS-CoV-2, at least in
problem—one that involves another virus. opment at AstraZeneca. the lab. In addition, some studies suggest
Because viruses are adept at infecting There may be a price for that manufac- that the level of antibodies can wane as
cells, they can be a useful vehicle for trans- turing ease, though: relying on vectors like quickly as three months after infection.
porting other viruses to prime the body’s the one for the common cold can cause For a more durable and lasting pro-
immune cells, as long as they are disabled problems down the road. First, the expo- tection against future infections, the
first. Drug companies are building and sure to two viruses, even if one is weak- body needs to enlist the help of its cell-
testing vaccines against Ebola, influenza ened, could trigger an excessive immune mediated immune response, includ-
and RSV, among others, by Trojan-horsing response that ends up causing more in- ing T and B cells, which have the ability
genetic material from one virus inside the flammation that could be harmful rather to remember, recognize and reactivate
shell of another that isn’t able to cause dis- than helpful. Second, while cold viruses against previous foes. While Moderna
ease, but questions remain about how safe are, at first, adept at infecting cells, human has reported that its mRNA vaccine gen-
such double-virus vaccines might be. immune systems are also adept at learn- erated good T-cell responses, DNA-based
At Johnson & Johnson, based in New ing to rebuff them. So while a cold-virus- vaccines against other diseases have al-
Brunswick, N.J., scientists are counting on based vaccine may be effective at initially ready proven adept at this job.
a weakened form of adenovirus, which is generating an immune response against In part, that’s what attracted Sanofi to
responsible for the common cold, to de- SARS-CoV-2, if someone is exposed again, partner with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for
liver COVID-19 material. Its team hopes that immune response might not be as ro- another potential COVID-19 shot called a
that its shot, unlike many of the other bust the second time. This is a real public- recombinant protein-based vaccine. The
COVID-19 vaccine candidates, will re- health concern, since most officials are approach involves taking the genetic code
quire just one dose. The company plans bracing for a wave of new cases in the for parts of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein
to test both single and double doses of its fall and winter when flu cases also peak. and, in Sanofi’s and GSK’s case, inserting
vaccine in beginning in September. The trial, which AstraZeneca was ex- them into insect cells that then serve as
In the U.K., scientists at the Univer- panding to include 50,000 people in the the factory for producing the viral protein.
sity of Oxford are using a similar approach U.S., U.K., Brazil and South Africa, is cur- Researchers then extract and purify this
for their vaccine, which will be devel- rently suspended as researchers investi- protein and combine it with a GSK com-
oped, manufactured and distributed by gate whether an illness experienced by pound that, when injected, prompts the
AstraZeneca. They inserted the genetic one of the study volunteers is related human immune system to generate de-
code for SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein to the vaccine. The unexplained illness fenses, specifically antibodies, against it.
into a weakened cold-virus vector that was reported as part of routine safety It’s a reliable technique, and responsible
54 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
for the HPV and hepatitis-B vaccines that begin, scientists won’t have the statistical happen, the local and state public-health
were approved in 2006 and 1986, respec- power they need to compare, among those infrastructure has got to be very strong,
tively. It’s also the technology that Sanofi exposed to the virus, the people who were and right now it’s not.” The situation is
uses to make Flublok, its influenza vac- vaccinated with those receiving a placebo, similarly dire in lower-resource countries
cine, which means that if its COVID-19 and quickly see if the vaccine is working. like India, where a lack of hospital beds
vaccine made with this method is safe Such was the fate of the SARS and and medical equipment amplifies the bur-
and effective, the company could ramp MERS vaccine programs governments den and toll of the disease.
up production quickly. The companies and pharmaceutical companies launched No matter which vaccines are suc-
began human testing in September and in 2003 and 2012, respectively. As soon as cessful in trials, coverage will be key to
anticipate providing up to 1 billion doses cases waned, the urgency for vaccines did achieving herd immunity. A linchpin of
annually if their vaccine is effective. Aus- as well, along with investments in research coverage is access, and access hinges on
tralian scientists at Novavax are also using and testing. Some public-health experts price. Moderna has said its vaccine will
an insect-cell-based system to deliver the believe that if that work had continued, be priced depending on the volume of
genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 spike what researchers would have learned about doses ordered, with smaller volumes cost-
protein in its vaccine, and reported en- coronaviruses and how to protect against ing at most around $32 to $37 per dose,
couraging results in September. them might have given scientists a jump while AstraZeneca says its collaborative
Meanwhile, at Inovio, based in Penn- start on a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. vaccine with Oxford will be developed
sylvania, researchers have conducted To avoid losing that momentum and distributed at cost to meet the needs
studies on primates using an experi- again, some epidemiologists have floated in lower-resource countries. Ahead of
mental DNA-based vaccine for MERS, the idea of intentionally infecting vol- final results from its trials, AstraZeneca
and the results suggest that animals with unteers for COVID-19 vaccine trials. signed agreements with companies in
strong T-cell responses were better able Known as “human-challenge” research, South Korea, Japan and Brazil to manu-
to neutralize the MERS virus. “I believe it’s a controversial strategy and has been facture and provide up to 3 billion doses
that the level of T-cell response is going done only with diseases like flu and ma- of its vaccine. “This isn’t about us win-
to be very important in providing pro- laria for which there are good safety-net ning and somebody else losing. It’s about
tection [against SARS-CoV-2],” says treatments that people can us making a difference on
Dr. J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO of take if they get severely ill this disease,” says Pangalos
Inovio. The company vaccinated the first after getting intentionally from AstraZeneca.
of 40 volunteers in a Phase 1 trial for its
COVID-19 vaccine in April and reported
exposed to the disease.
For now, the ethical ques-
179 Even if the COVID-19
vaccines don’t provide
in June, without providing deeper details, tions such an approach
NUMBER OF 100% protection against in-
that 94% of participants generated an im- raises aren’t urgent, as VACCINES IN fection, they could provide
mune response. Inovio plans to continue new hot spots continue to DEVELOPMENT a huge boost toward that re-
testing its vaccine into the fall. emerge around the world. GLOBALLY turn to normality. But how
The bigger and more quickly that happens will
EVEN IF VACCINE MANUFACTURERS
are able to find just the right viral sparks
immediate problem, if
vaccines are authorized, 144 depend as much on the sci-
ence behind them as on the
to catalyze an immune response against is how they will make it to NUMBER IN humanity that determines
SARS-CoV-2, they face another, equally the people who need them PRECLINICAL where those vaccines go.
daunting task: manufacturing enough of most. In the U.S., public- EVALUATION What’s being tested is more
these vaccines in a short amount of time health systems are already than the new technologies
to throw the brakes on the runaway pan- overwhelmed with test- and the latest virus-fighting
demic. AstraZeneca’s CEO has pledged ing for cases and tracking 35 strategies encased in each
to produce 2 billion doses of the vaccine the pandemic, and desper- NUMBER IN injection. It’s also our will-
by year’s end—an ambitious timeline. ately need guidance “yes- CLINICAL PHASES ingness to be blind to the
But even typically circumspect experts terday,” according to one THAT INVOLVE physical as well as social
note that there is a chance, however re- state health official, on HUMAN TESTING and economic borders that
mote, that ongoing tests of the vaccines how to plan for a massive divide us to combat a virus
could show dramatic effectiveness and immunization campaign, that holds no such biases.
be stopped early, by the end of the year. how many doses they can “With COVID-19, there is
Whether that’s possible will depend in expect and how they should decide who a chronic fear,” says Kelly. “To be relieved
large part on how widespread COVID-19 gets those first doses. “Our public-health of that is so important. It’s so important
is as more of the vaccines reach the last system is highly fragmented, under- to trust that the vaccine is going to help
stages of testing. Such studies are focused resourced, overlooked and underappre- us have a healthier society that’s not fear-
more on efficacy than on safety and re- ciated,” says Dr. Howard Koh, a profes- based, so we can enjoy our lives again.”
quire tens of thousands of participants. If sor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public —With reporting by CIARA NUGENT/
there aren’t enough cases of COVID-19 still Health and former assistant secretary for LONDON, LESLIE DICKSTEIN, MARIAH
circulating by the time these final trials health and human services. “To make this ESPADA and SIMMONE SHAH 
SOURCE: WHO 55
 Nation

The
PRIC E
of
PRO T ES T
For demonstrators arrested
at Black Lives Matter marches, the
consequences can alter their lives
BY MELISSA CHAN

D’Angelo Sandidge sits outside the federal courthouse in downtown

Indianapolis, near the site of his arrest during a June protest
PHOTOGR APH BY ASA FEATHERSTONE IV FOR TIME
Nation
than 30. Of those who attended protests,
D’Angelo Sandidge 17% were Black, 22% were Hispanic, and
46% were white. A smaller survey look-
ing at protest demographics in Washing-

was lying in bed and ton, New York City and Los Angeles found
that the median age of protesters was 29,
according to Dana Fisher, a University of
Maryland sociology professor whose team

scrolling through conducted surveys in the three cities in

June. About 25% of those polled were 24
or younger, Fisher says, and white pro-
testers made up about 54% of the crowds.

Instagram on June 1, But when it came to arrests, the faces

were less diverse. While there is no racial
breakdown of protest arrests nationwide,
some analyses of city and county arrest re-
cords the first weekend after Floyd’s death
thinking about the ground sausage he was a misdemeanor, the charge will show up show that many who were jailed were
about to fry for breakfast, when he stum- on background checks even if he’s acquit- Black. Of the 2,172 people the Chicago
bled upon a video that he’d heard about ted or the case is dismissed, an outcome police department arrested from May 29
but not yet seen. His anger intensified as that particularly concerns Sandidge. to May 31, more than 70% were Black and
he watched the footage of George Floyd “I’ve never dealt with anything like 10% were white, according to an analy-
begging for his life while a white Min- this,” says Sandidge, who didn’t have a sis of department records by the Chi-
neapolis police officer knelt on his neck. smudge on his driving record, much less cago Reader. In Atlanta, 48 of the 82 peo-
By the time the video ended, after he’d a criminal history, when he was arrested. ple processed through the Fulton County
watched Floyd, who was Black, call out “I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” jail that same weekend were Black, Geor-
for his mother and eventually fall silent, Demonstrations against racism and gia Public Broadcasting found.
Sandidge had lost his appetite. “I felt sick police violence led to more than 7,800 When Sandidge was sitting on the
to my stomach,” he says. arrests in the U.S. in May and June, accord- sidewalk in handcuffs, he says, white by-
Until that moment, Sandidge, who is ing to the Crowd Counting Consortium, standers walked past him without being
also Black, had not been one to hit the which collects data from news reports. stopped by police, even though they were
streets in protest. But this was different. An Associated Press tally found more also out after the 9 p.m. curfew. At one
At 6 ft. 4 in. and 280 lb., he is about the than 10,000 protesters were arrested in point in the night, he says, all 25 inmates
same height and substantially heavier than just the first 10 days after Floyd’s death in his jail cell were Black. He often won-
Floyd, and that video was a reminder of on May 25. Amid the ongoing protests, ders why authorities stopped him in the
how quick people are to judge those who many of those jailed, however briefly, are first place. Each time, he comes to the
look like him. So the next day, Sandidge coming to terms with the repercussions same conclusion. “One hundred percent
bought a poster board and some markers of their decisions to take part in a major it was because I was Black,” he says. The
and made a sign wider and taller than his moment in history. Young protesters, par- Indianapolis metro police declined to
torso that read, NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, ticularly those of color, face chilling con- comment.
NO CALMNESS IN THE STREET. Sparked sequences on top of prosecution, includ- Coricia Campbell, a Marine veteran
by a sense of urgency to take a stand as ing costly fines; loss of employment; and who is Black, also believes race played a
a Black man in America and by a desire a stigma that legal experts say could affect significant role in her arrest. On May 30,
to find camaraderie among people who their ability to obtain housing, jobs, edu- during a peaceful demonstration in Jack-
could relate to his pain, the 24-year-old cation and occupational licenses. sonville, Fla., Campbell was sitting on
set out to join a Black Lives Matter pro- “My confidence and my faith that I’ll the ground beside a white friend who
test in downtown Indianapolis. get everything back on track is shattered,” was also protesting. Video shows police
By the end of the night, he was in jail, Sandidge says. officers shoving Campbell’s friend aside
accused of violating curfew and resist- while pulling Campbell into their midst
ing arrest by fleeing. Police say that as he IN WHAT EXPERTS CALL the largest and handcuffing her. “In that entire line
fled, Sandidge was trying to reach into his sustained mobilization in modern his- of people, I was the only one who was ar-
backpack, where they found a taser and tory, some 23 million people across the rested,” she says. In her holding cell, one
a can of bear spray—items Sandidge says U.S. have attended demonstrations since woman out of eight was white, Campbell
he normally carries for self-protection. He Floyd’s death, a Civis poll from mid-June adds. “It’s really hard not to think it was
was not charged with the curfew viola- suggests. According to a national Pew Re- racial profiling,” she says.
tion, but Sandidge faces up to a year in search survey of more than 600 people Orlando criminal-defense lawyer
prison and a fine of up to $5,000 if con- who say they attended a recent protest fo- James Smith says the racial disparity in
victed of resisting arrest. Even though it’s cused on race, about 41% were younger protest arrests is not surprising. Black
58 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 parole boards. Black and Hispanic de-
fendants are more likely than white de-
fendants to be denied bail, according to
the report, and they’re more likely to ac-
cept plea deals—even if they protest their
innocence—because they’re less likely to
be able to afford costly legal battles. The
recent round of arrests “highlights the ra-
cial double standard here in this nation,”
says Smith, who represents seven arrested
protesters, all of them Black or Hispanic.
The disparities go beyond arrests.
When it comes to employment, an arrest
or conviction can decrease the likelihood
of getting a callback for jobs, especially
if an applicant is a person of color, says
Beth Avery, a senior staff attorney with
the National Employment Law Project
(NELP). That means Black and Hispanic
protesters will be most affected in the
long term if they’re arrested at demonstra-
tions. “These protests going on all around
the country are all about racial inequities
and bias in our criminal legal system, and
it doesn’t stop with the police,” Avery says.
“It permeates throughout all these other
aspects of life.”
If a young protester who was recently
arrested applies now for a job or a student
loan, the pending criminal case will likely
pop up. Criminal-history questions also
appear in the majority of undergraduate
college applications. National surveys
have shown that 60% to 80% of private
institutions and 55% of public institu-
tions require prospective students to an-
swer questions about their criminal past
during the admission process, according
to a Brookings Institution report. “One
thing I don’t think the average American
realizes is just how devastating even an
initial contact with the criminal-justice
system can be,” Smith says. “The perfect
storm is for that college-aged student who
is trying to get their lives started.”
Even for someone like Campbell, who
is 31 and has a job, the results of her ar-
Americans in general are more likely △ rest have been devastating. Prosecutors
than white Americans to be arrested, Police arrest Coricia dropped Campbell’s unlawful-assembly
convicted and given lengthy prison sen- Campbell during a Black charge, but while she was in jail, she
tences, according to a 2018 report by Lives Matter protest in missed a surgery scheduled to remove
the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit fo- Jacksonville, Fla., on her gallbladder. “It’s a really stress-
cused on reforming the U.S. criminal- May 30 ful situation,” says Campbell, who suf-
justice system. There are many reasons fers from irritable bowel syndrome and
ASHLEY N WHITMER

for the disparity, the report found, in- gastroesophageal reflux disease. Because
cluding racial biases at every level of the of COVID-19, she doesn’t know when
justice system, including among police she can reschedule the operation. But
officers, prosecutors, judges, jurors and Campbell says she felt a duty to protest
59
Nation
and doesn’t question her decision. In fact,
she’s participated in three more demon-
strations since her arrest. “Regret im-
plies that if you had a choice to do it over
again, you’d make a different decision,”
says Campbell. “I would still be there.”
Lawyers representing protesters fear
many are marching under the mistaken
impression that minor cases disappear
from criminal records once charges are
cleared. Sandidge and Campbell walked
into protests with that mindset. But
in reality, arrests remain on criminal
records in most states’ court systems,
threatening a person’s ability to find
work and housing for years. At least 28
states, including where Sandidge and
Campbell were arrested, require an in-
dividual to take often onerous court ac-
tions to seal or expunge an arrest re-
cord, even if they’ve been acquitted or
a charge has been dismissed, accord-
ing to the nonprofit Collateral Conse-
quences Resource Center. Even then,
many states allow only one expungement
in a lifetime, says John Phillips, a Flor-
ida civil rights lawyer who helped get
Campbell’s unlawful-assembly charge
dismissed. “Right now, you think you’re
invincible,” Phillips says. “But this may
stick, and it can add up. It’s a snowball
going down the mountain.”
Records of arrests and even mug
shots also live on in public and private
databases, which employers, college-
admissions boards and some loan issu-
ers can access. “All someone has to do
is Google your name, and information
will come up showing what you’re ar-
rested for,” Smith says. “The arrest re-
cord could, frankly, be around for most
of your productive life.” This has long
been a problem in a nation where nearly
1 in 3 adults, or 70 million, have an arrest
or conviction record and where, accord-
ing to the Brennan Center for Justice, as
many Americans have criminal records
as college diplomas. “Employers are not employers to consider job candidates’
supposed to rely on arrest records alone,”
‘The arrest record qualifications before asking them to dis-
says Avery, the NELP attorney. “But the close arrest or conviction records. Four-
truth is that if it shows up on a back- could, frankly, be teen of those states have gone further,
ground check, it’s going to affect an em- barring private employers from includ-
ployer’s view of the applicant.” around for most of ing questions about criminal convictions
on job applications.
A MOVEMENT to prevent this has made your productive life.’ “We’re coming around to everyone
progress. Thirty-five states since 1998 recognizing that perhaps people with
—James Smith, lawyer
have adopted so-called Ban the Box laws an arrest or conviction record shouldn’t
or policies that require public-sector be perpetually punished,” Avery says.
60 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 ◁
People arrested in Houston during a
protest on June 2 wait to board a bus
for the Harris County jail

chase that ended with the two being

captured and handcuffed.
The county prosecutor cleared
more than 100 people arrested that
first weekend in June for nonviolent
offenses. But because police allege
Sandidge had been trying to reach into
his bag, possibly for a weapon, before he
was apprehended, a spokesman for the
prosecutor’s office told TIME his charge
was warranted. He declined to comment
further on the case. Sandidge denies
trying to get into his bag and says he had
no intention of using anything inside
it as a weapon. The spray was sealed,
and the taser was in a secured pouch,
says Sandidge. Indiana law permits the
carrying of both without a permit.
“For me to be another statistic, it ter-
rifies me,” Sandidge says of his arrest.
“I’ve never, never, never had to worry
about having anxiety or fear, because
I’ve always had a clean track record.”
After a little over 24 hours in
jail, Sandidge was released a few
hours before he was due to attend an
orientation for a new job at a security
company. Because he was concerned
about being exposed to COVID-19
and because his wallet, which had his
driver’s license, had been confiscated
and not yet returned, Sandidge missed
the orientation. The company offered
him the option of completing his
training online instead, but Sandidge
says he was too preoccupied and felt
his life was too much “in shambles” to
continue pursuing the job. “I was just
going through so much mentally that I
wouldn’t have been any good to anyone
in a work environment,” he says.
Sandidge’s first court appearance
But the change may not be happening the rally after parking his car, Sandidge is scheduled for Sept. 16. Until then,
quickly enough to save today’s protest- says, he heard shouts and saw figures all he can do is wait. If he applies for a
ers from years of setbacks. charging toward him in the dark. He job now, his pending criminal case may
says he ran, not knowing the figures hinder his chances. He’s filled with
ON THE AFTERNOON of June 2, San- were police. fear thinking about the outcome of his
SERGIO FLORES — GE T T Y IMAGES

didge took his homemade sign and According to a probable-cause affi- case, his next possible encounter with
joined dozens of demonstrators at the davit obtained by TIME, police said police and whether he has sabotaged
Soldiers and Sailors Monument in they spotted Sandidge and another his future, derailing his plan of saving
downtown Indianapolis. He left for a man trying to duck behind flower beds. enough money to afford college. “It did
while, then decided to return with a The men began running as one officer something different to me,” he says of
friend at about 10 p.m. As he got near shouted, “Stop. Police,” sparking a foot his arrest. “It changed me.” □
61
Society

Seventy years
after the
Rosewood
massacre,
survivors and
descendants were
awarded
$2.1 million. Is this
a model for
reparations in
the U.S.?
B Y V I CTO R L UCKER SON
 A home burns on Jan. 9, 1923,
during a white mob’s attacks on the
Black community of Rosewood, Fla.
P H O T O G R A P H B Y B E T T M A N N A R C H I V E /G E T T Y I M A G E S
Society

M
MARY HALL DANIELS ERECTED HER FINAL HOME
in Hilliard, Fla., just the way she liked it. Three bed-
rooms, two baths, encased in light brown brick with
a miniature palm tree out front. There was a metal
carport in the back for her sturdy Dodge Intrepid
and plush red carpet on the inside, evoking a cozy
church like the one she attended every Sunday and
Wednesday two miles down the road. She watched
her soaps on a small TV in the laundry room next to
the kitchen and collected stuffed animals in one of
the guest rooms. She tended the yard herself, man-
ning a riding lawn mower in weathered work boots
and a bright green baseball cap until she was 90 years
old. The house was hers, and no one could take it
from her. Not again.
She’d built it in a one-stoplight town near Jack-
sonville at a cost of nearly $100,000. It was a hefty
price for a woman who was living off a modest retire-
ment from her job as a nursing assistant and from
Social Security payments. But by the time the thick
red carpet indoors was laid in the year 2000, Daniels
had already paid off the entire bill. Six years earlier,
she was awarded $150,000 by the state of Florida be-
cause of what had happened to her very first house,
in an obscure rural hamlet called Rosewood.
In 1923, when Daniels was 3 years old, a white
mob burned down the mostly Black enclave after
a white woman in a nearby town of Sumner said
she had been assaulted by a Black assailant. On a
cold January night, Daniels and dozens of other
Black Rosewood residents fled their homes into
the central Florida swamps as armed white men
bore down on their community. “We didn’t have no
clothes, no shoes, no nothing,” Daniels recalled de-
cades later. From the time she was whisked from
her bed until she died in 2018 as the last known
survivor of the attack, Daniels never again stepped
foot in Rosewood.
The story of the Rosewood massacre would lie
PHOTOGR APHS BY R AHIM FORTUNE FOR TIME
dormant for decades, until a small group of living
witnesses, aided by their media-savvy descendants
and a powerful law firm, persuaded the Florida state
legislature to award direct cash payments to nine sur-
vivors of the event. Descendants of those survivors
also received money, in the form of small cash sums
and college scholarships. Though politicians care-
fully avoided using the term reparations, the legis-
lation represented the first time in modern U.S. his-
tory that a government not only acknowledged its
64 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 ‘We can sit our kids down and explain
to them how we came to live on this
property. It wasn’t just handed to us.’
—Carlous Hall, grandson of Rosewood massacre survivor Mary Hall Daniels,
with his wife and sons in the house his grandmother bought with her settlement, left.
Portraits and remembrances of Daniels at the Hall home, right

65
Society
role in the centuries of systemic racism, violence and capitol buildings and city-council chambers. Mary
economic harm toward African Americans, but also Hall Daniels and the other Rosewood families have
compensated them for it. “I remember Mama saying, already done the work; the rest of the nation may
‘Finally, we’re going to get something for our prop- finally be ready to follow their lead.
erty that my mom and dad had that they took from
us,’ ” says Daniels’ daughter, Alzada Harrell. ROSEWOOD WAS A SMALL GLIMMER of Black in-
Rosewood was one of many incidents in which dependence in the shadow of the Jim Crow South.
white mobs, from Washington, D.C., to Tulsa, Okla., In the 1910s, Black entrepreneurs there operated a
violently attacked and destroyed Black communities sugarcane mill, a turpentine distillery and at least two
in the years after World War I. Such vicious acts of general stores. By 1923, the community had seen bet-
terrorism have never fit neatly into the arc of racial ter days but was still a peaceful enclave of about 120
progress that America markets as history. But the people. Many residents were employed at the sawmill
usual order of things has been upended by the killing in the nearby town of Sumner or served as domes-
of George Floyd and the summer of fiery protest that tic workers for its white residents. Others farmed or
followed. People have taken to the streets demanding trapped, catching and selling wild animals. Though
not only the end of police violence that steals Black their homes spread out far among the dense pine
lives but also the beginning of economic policies that trees and Spanish moss of rural Florida, Rosewood
restore Black livelihoods. Calls for reparations have residents took pride in their three churches, school,
extended across long distances and targeted injustices Masonic lodge and amateur baseball team.
across even longer time frames: from the arrival of It was in Sumner that the trouble started. On the
enslaved people on colonial shores in 1619 Virginia to morning of Jan. 1, 1923, a white woman named Fannie
the unfair treatment of Black homeowners Taylor came running out of her house in a panic, claim-
seeking mortgages in 2018 Chicago. The ing that she had just been assaulted by an unknown
Tallahassee collective memory of the people is finally Black man who’d escaped through her back door.
catching up to the institutional memory of News emerged that a Black convict was on the loose.
Jacksonville
the state. And greater historical knowledge White men of Sumner quickly formed an armed search
Rosewood FLA. is driving more Americans toward a simple party with bloodhounds and set out for Rosewood.
conclusion: there’s a debt to be paid. Over the course of the next week, an ebb and
Tampa The Rosewood case was a single, ardu- flow of intense violence would rack Rosewood as
ous effort to repay a sliver of that debt. The white people sought Fannie Taylor’s alleged assail-
surprising success of the Florida case could ant. When an African-American blacksmith named
offer a model for a new generation seeking Sam Carter couldn’t answer the white men’s ques-
justice for historical wrongs—though that tions to their satisfaction, the posse shot Carter
assumes a consensus exists about the best at point-blank range and hanged him from a tree.
way such an effort might proceed. Among Another Black Rosewood resident, Aaron Carrier,
people who support reparations, many want Con- barely escaped a lynching. As rumors of a mysteri-
gress to enact a comprehensive federal policy. A ous Black attacker spread, white people from sur-
patchwork of state reparation laws and initiatives rounding towns poured into the region, forming a
could distract from that approach. And some com- lawless mob that numbered more than 100. Ku Klux
munities are seeking redress through the courts Klan members were likely in their ranks—the hate
rather than legislation—perhaps discouraged by the group had held a large rally in nearby Gainesville on
politics of the issue: nationally, support for repara- New Year’s Day.
tions is starkly divided along racial lines. While 72% The manhunt reached a crescendo on the night
of African Americans believe the federal government of Jan. 4, when members of the mob attempted to
should compensate Black people whose ancestors forcibly enter the home of Sarah Carrier, a Rosewood
were enslaved, only 14% of whites support such a matriarch who worked as a domestic servant in Sum-
measure, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll. ner. Sarah’s son Sylvester, armed with a shotgun, was
But paying the Rosewood victims was itself seen protecting the house. When men attempted to kick
as a radical long shot before it actually happened. down the front door, Sylvester shot and killed two.
When the Florida state senate finally passed the The Carrier house was burned to the ground, and
bill in the spring of 1994, the survivors didn’t thank Sarah and Sylvester were later found dead inside.
the lawyers or the legislators first—they thanked The pretense of seeking justice for Fannie Taylor was
God. Their stories of childhood terror and lost replaced with a wrathful desire for revenge for the
opportunities as adults had moved the government killing of two white men. Over the next two days, the
to try to atone, however late. This is the basic calculus churches, the Mason hall and the houses of Rosewood
of any reparation claim, which must feed the deeply would all be enveloped in flames. A woman named
personal traumas of America’s racist past into the Lexie Gordon, who was trying to escape her burning
grinding bureaucracy of present-day courtrooms, home, was shot to death by white attackers. All told,
66 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
the Rosewood atrocity would end with an official New Year’s Day, 1923, when Sam Carter was being
count of at least six Black people and two white people lynched, Levy County deputy sheriff Clarence Wil-
dead, though descendants of Rosewood families have liams did nothing to intervene. The coroner ruled
claimed as many as 37 people were killed or missing. Carter’s killing “death by unknown hands,” though a
The Black folks who survived were left with bat- crowd of at least two dozen men had been present to
tered souls and shattered livelihoods. Mary Hall Dan- witness the murder. Sheriff Robert Walker declined
iels’ family moved to Gainesville, where her mother to request that Florida Governor Cary Hardee send
cooked in white people’s kitchens. The abundance in the National Guard as violence escalated. After the
of their Rosewood farm was gone forever—Mary had killing was over, a grand jury returned no indictments.
to put aside an interest in music because the fam- “The state did nothing, even after Rosewood
ily couldn’t afford the 25¢ lessons. Her older brother burned, to go in and protect that property for the
Wilson recalled the three-room shack they crammed owners,” says Martha Barnett, one of the lawyers who
into in Gainesville, a far cry from their former two- represented the Rosewood families in the reparations
story home. But it was more than financial security push. “We made the argument that the obligation
that had been taken. Mary’s older sister Margie was of the state to do that existed the night Rosewood
skittish around white people the rest of her life. And burned, it existed the week after Rosewood burned,
Mary, whose father died when she was a baby, always and it existed 70 years later.”
ached for the pictures of him that had been lost in In 1992, when the law firm Holland and Knight
the blaze. “I don’t know my daddy,” she said decades took up the Rosewood case as a signature effort of its
later. “I don’t even know how he looked.” pro bono division, Barnett was a corporate lobbyist
While Daniels’ family eventually migrated to Hill- well known in the halls of the Florida statehouse. Her
iard, many of the Rosewood survivors ended up in typical clients included IBM and Pepsi. But Holland
Lacoochee, a small town near Tampa where the mill and Knight quickly realized that a case advocating
that had employed many Black workers in Sumner was for the Rosewood survivors would be much easier to
relocated. There, a rigid set of rules emerged dictat- build in the capitol building than in the courthouse.
ing that the horrors of Rosewood could be discussed In a civil trial against the state, witness memories
only at the discretion of family elders. “It was fear and might be dismissed as hearsay. The statute of limita-
protection,” Arnett Doctor, a great-grandson of Sarah tions would also make it difficult for the law to reach
Carrier’s, would later recall. “That mob that ravaged so far back in time. This was a cruel wrinkle of a jus-
Rosewood as they did, many of those people were still tice system that was only beginning to grapple with
alive, and my mother was aware of them by name.” the human-rights violations it had legally sanctioned
Doctor learned about what had happened in before the civil rights movement. “We had death and
Rosewood from relatives as a small boy in the late injury, but we didn’t have a judgment,” Barnett says.
1940s. For Alzada Harrell, in Hilliard, her aunt Mar- In the legislature, there was a clearer path to res-
gie broached the topic when she was a teenager in titution. Holland and Knight could file an equitable-
the 1970s. No one who had experienced the ter- claims bill, arguing that the state government had
ror wanted to dwell on it. But in the 1980s, Doc- injured the families of Rosewood and had a moral ob-
tor began quietly compiling information about ligation to compensate them, regardless of whether
Rosewood—not just the stories passed down by his there was an explicit legal one. If enough legislators
elders but also land deeds, birth certificates and tax agreed, a hearing would be convened. Holland and
records. In 1982, an investigative journalist named Knight would be able to call witnesses and pres-
Gary Moore published the first modern account of ent evidence. The state, represented by the attor-
the Rosewood incident in the St. Petersburg Times. ney general, would be able to cross-examine them.
(Moore in 2015 published Rosewood: The Full Story, An official known as the special master, similar to a
an exhaustive account of the many uncovered facts judge, would advise the legislature on whether the
and myths tied to the massacre.) The next year, the bill should be passed. “It’s kind of like a minitrial
story of Rosewood was beamed into homes nation- in a legislative arena,” Barnett says.
wide on 60 Minutes. The prominent news coverage At first, there was little appetite among legislators
helped push the families to start organizing an an- for a bill that was seen as politically risky and racially
nual reunion in Lacoochee. divisive. Even among Black members of the state
Rosewood was no longer a secret. Eventually, its government, there was skepticism. Eventually, the
victims would advocate for something their counter- Rosewood families found key allies in Al Lawson
parts in Tulsa, Washington and dozens of other sites and Miguel de Grandy. The bill’s two co-sponsors
of racial horror never received: justice. brought together several factions that might
traditionally be at odds: Democrats and Republicans,
THE ARGUMENT for Rosewood reparations hinged African Americans and Hispanics, North Floridians
not on the reckless acts of a nameless mob, but on and South Floridians.
the government officials who refused to stop it. On The initial version of the bill leaned heavily on
67
Society
the moral imperative to atone for the sins of the racism. It called for $7 million in payments to a spe-
past, remarking that “the inhabitants of Rose- cific list of Rosewood victims and their descendants,
wood were hunted like animals.” It called for an un- including $270,000 for each person who had sur-
specified sum of money for an unspecified num- vived the attack itself. With skeptical legislators
ber of massacre victims. The bill was never heard at least somewhat convinced, and press coverage
on the floor of the Florida house of representatives. around the globe, a special legislative hearing was
“It was a huge flop,” recalls Barnett, who tracked organized in February and March of 1994.
down nearly every legislator to pitch the bill One after another, Rosewood’s elderly survivors
face-to-face. “Most people said, ‘It’s been 70 years. traveled to the Florida capitol in order to paint vivid
It’s a terrible story. It’s an awful chapter in the his- pictures of the trauma they’d endured as children.
tory of our state, but we didn’t do it.’” Arnett Goins recalled seeing the bodies of the two
There, again, was the cruel wrinkle of a flawed white men who had tried to enter Sarah Carrier’s
justice system. Because the state had waited so long home splayed out in the living room. From the sec-
to answer for Rosewood, legislators argued that any ond floor of his home, Wilson Hall could see the
debt owed to survivors should simply be wiped from flames dancing from other houses in the area before
the moral ledger. It was hardly a new talking point. his family were forced to flee their own. Minnie Lee
When enslaved people were freed after the Civil War, Langley, the lead witness, recalled how bitterly cold
they had reason to expect that the government would it was in the swamps as they huddled by a fire, wait-
grant them land as delayed payment for generations ing for a train that would rescue women and children
of labor exploitation. The phrase 40 acres and a mule (but not men). “We stayed out there three days and
derives from General William T. Sherman’s 1865 field three nights out there in the woods,” she said at the
order to distribute 400,000 acres of land to newly hearing. “It hurt me.”
freed Black families in 40-acre plots. Instead, gov- Crucially, the Rosewood case had something
ernment officials insisted that compensating Black investigations into Jim Crow crimes often don’t.
people was a practical impossibility. After a formerly Earnest Parham, a white man who had been an
enslaved woman named Callie House helped launch 18-year-old store clerk at the time of the massacre,
a national campaign demanding pensions for her fel- testified that he had witnessed the killing of Sam
low freedmen, the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Carter. “It was almost as if the state needed a white
Pensions said in 1902 that “reparation for historical person to corroborate what the Black residents of
wrongs” was a false hope that would be “followed by Rosewood were saying,” says Maxine Jones, a his-
inevitable disappointment, and probably distrust of tory professor at Florida State University who led
the dominant race and of the Government.” research for the state legislature’s report.
In Florida, the lawyers and legislators hoped ad- Special master Richard Hixson, acknowledging
ditional facts and a sharper legal argument would that the Rosewood case wouldn’t pass muster in a
overcome a century’s worth of antireparation rhet- court of law, appealed to the “moral obligations of the
oric. The bill’s backers persuaded the legislature to state.” He recommended that the legislature award
commission a report from several prominent Florida $150,000 to each survivor. The legislature quickly
academics that would provide a factual account of abided, passing the bill in both chambers by com-
the events at Rosewood. In the meantime, Doctor fortable margins. Rosewood family members hugged
was talking up their story in the press. and wept. A 10-year-old descendant named Benea
Everyone involved carefully avoided using the Ousley read a family poem, “The Rosewood Story,”
word reparations, even though both Doctor and on the capitol steps. Within five months the Office of
Holland and Knight had closely examined a repa- the Comptroller in the state of Florida began issuing
ration law from 1988, in which Congress awarded checks to Minnie Lee Langley, the Hall siblings and
$20,000 to each Japanese American who was forced the other survivors. Reparations were real.
into an internment camp during World War II. In- The Rosewood money was divided into three pots:
stead, the key concept became property rights, the the $150,000 lump sum for each of the nine survi-
notion that the government has a duty to protect vors; a $500,000 pool of funds for their descendants;
any citizen’s land, regardless of race. The framing and individual $4,000 scholarships for the youngest
struck a chord with some Republicans and provided generation of Rosewood family members. The total
some amount of political cover for legislators who payment was $2.1 million, significantly less than the
feared wading into the reparations debate. “They initial request of $7 million—but, crucially, some-
would ask me, ‘Al, does this have anything to do thing to build on.
with race?’” says Lawson, now a Congressman rep- For many Black households, financial precarity
resenting North Florida. “I said, ‘No, it’s about prop- is a way of life, especially for those who don’t own
erty value. You can vote for this.’ ” homes that can be borrowed against. In the U.S., for
Lawson and de Grandy brought a revised bill every dollar of wealth held by a median white fam-
in 1994, which dialed back the language decrying ily, a Black family has just 10¢. This wealth gap was
68 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 One of the oldest living descendants
of the Rosewood massacre,
Altamese Wrispus, with three
generations of family members

formed by the beams and trusses of structural rac- by unforeseen expenses: higher medical bills because
ism over the course of centuries. Black people were the boost in income disqualified a survivor from Med-
barred from accessing the best jobs after Reconstruc- icaid, or a new home-security system to guard against
tion, refused bank loans for suburban homes after the perpetual fear that someone would try to finish
the New Deal, and in particularly vivid cases, run off what the mob in Rosewood had started. What was
their own property by unruly white mobs throughout left arrived too late to be properly enjoyed by people
the early 20th century. The chasm in prosperity that whose lives had been transformed by white violence.
emerged from these acts naturally argues for mate- “They didn’t get a chance to go on any big cruises and
rial recompense. enjoy and have fun,” says Sherry DuPree, a historian
Generational wealth, however, is easier to start for the Rosewood Heritage Foundation. “They had to
building early in life rather than at its end. While pay money out to take care of their needs.”
Mary Hall Daniels was able to buy a new home, for The money for descendants was divided among
many of the Rosewood survivors, the money offered a number of sprawling family trees drafted by the
small comforts in life’s twilight: a sturdier roof, a new attorney general’s office. It didn’t go far. Fewer than
car, a big-screen TV. Much of the money was eaten up half of the claimants received more than $2,000, and
69
Society
some received only a few hundred dollars. The money
offered opportunities for moments of joy—Altamese
Wrispus, one of the oldest descendants still living,
spent her $3,000 on her niece’s wedding—but hardly
enough to transform a life. However, it did establish
a precedent for providing direct cash payments to
descendants of people who suffered property loss
due to acts of racial terror.
The Rosewood legacy lives on today primarily
through the scholarships. So far, 297 descendants
have received help paying for school, according to
the Washington Post. If not for the Rosewood bill,
Carlous Hall might not have finished college. A
grandson of Mary Hall Daniels’, who now lives in her
three-bedroom house in Hilliard with his wife and
two sons, he doesn’t know if he would have had the
money or motivation to complete a four-year degree
on his own. But Hall enrolled at Bethune- Cookman
University in 1997, using scholarship money allo-
cated in the bill. “Without the scholarship, it would
have been very hard for me to go to any four-year col-
lege,” he says. “There was no way I was gonna blow
that chance, given the fact that I got a scholarship
based on what happened to my grandmother back
in the ’20s. That was a huge impact on my life.” He
now teaches special education and history at Hill-
iard’s high school.
Ebony Pickett, another early scholarship recipi-
ent, was already in college at Florida A&M University
when the reparation law was passed. The scholarship
money gave Pickett the confidence and financial se-
curity to switch majors to occupational therapy dur-
ing college. “I may have just settled for something I
can do, not necessarily where my passion lies,” she
says. “In that aspect, I’m truly grateful.”
Pickett’s two younger sisters—Benea Denson, who
sang on the capitol steps when the Rosewood bill was
passed, and Keri Miller—followed in her footsteps at
Florida A&M, earning degrees in pharmacy and el-
ementary education. While all three sisters appre-
ciate the financial freedom the scholarship afforded
them, they also recognize the opportunities lost by
their ancestors. When I asked what form reparations
might take in the future, Denson’s response was im-
mediate: “Land. Building generational wealth. That’s
what we lost with Rosewood.”

LAST SUMMER, Randolph Bracy, a Florida state

senator, watched the U.S. congressional hearing on Former Holland and Knight
reparations from his district in Ocoee, Fla. Repara- attorney Martha Barnett
retains thousands of
tions had quickly gone from a moribund political
Rosewood files at her office
topic to an issue advocated by Democratic presi- in Tallahassee
dential candidates. The debate was no longer just
about slavery but also the misdeeds that came dur-
ing and after the Jim Crow era. Maybe it’s time,
Bracy thought.
Ocoee had its own buried history of shocking
racial violence. On Election Day in 1920, a Black
70 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 ‘They didn’t get a chance to go on any big
cruises and enjoy and have fun. They had to
pay money out to take care of their needs.’
—Sherry DuPree, historian, near the site of Rosewood

71
Society
resident named Moses Norman had a confrontation the massacre. If successful, the case could set a new
with several white men when he protested being precedent for how the historical impacts of systemic
turned away at the polls. Norman fled to the home racism are adjudicated. “We must have repair. We
of a friend, July Perry, for safety, and in self-defense must have reparations. And we must have respect,”
they killed two members of the white mob coming lead lawyer Damario Solomon-Simmons said.
after them. Incensed white people proceeded to
lynch Perry and burn 20 buildings in the Black dis- THESE DISPARATE INITIATIVES compelled pro-
trict, possibly killing as many as 60 Black people. fessors at Columbia University and Howard Uni-
Soon every Black resident was run out of town. versity to form the African American Redress Net-
“Rosewood set a precedent,” Bracy says. “How work in June. The organization hopes to provide
it was done in ’92 is what I tried to do.” He commis- opportunities for local leaders nationwide to share
sioned a study to establish the facts, began drum- strategies in current reparation campaigns. In the
ming up media attention and introduced a bill last long term, the group may offer the logistical and fi-
fall that would provide up to $150,000 for descen- nancial resources that are necessary to grease the
dants of former Ocoee residents. wheels of effective political movements, according
Without the influence of well-heeled lobbyists or to Justin Hansford, the director of the Thurgood
a Republican co-sponsor for his bill, Bracy’s measure Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard. “At the
stalled in Florida’s senate committees and was ulti- end of the day, it was power and politics that got the
mately turned into an Ocoee education bill rather bill across the finish line,” Hansford said, referring
than a reparation one. His plans to start rallying pub- to Rosewood. “People have known reparations was
lic support for another reparation effort next year the right thing to do for a long time, and nothing’s
were scuttled by the onslaught of the coronavirus in happened. But when the power dynamics shift,
March. But then the George Floyd protests erupted, things happen.”
and a dam holding back generations’ worth of frus- Sandy Darity, a public-policy professor at Duke
tration with American racism burst open. University, argues that people should reject piece-
Protesters took to the streets calling for the ar- meal reparations as a matter of principle, since
rest of killer cops, the defunding of police depart- there’s no way they could come close to account-
ments, and reparations for Black people. “We have ing for the economic harms brought on by enslave-
been taught in direct ways and in indirect ways to ment, Jim Crow and modern racist practices. In a
disregard, disrespect and to not value Black life,” says new book, From Here to Equality, he and co-author
Shirley Weber, an assembly member in the Califor- A. Kirsten Mullen propose that Congress enact a
nia state legislature. “The Floyd case makes people reparation program that would eliminate the ra-
sit up and say, ‘O.K., I know I may have been resis- cial wealth gap between Black people and white
tant to some of this stuff in the past, but maybe my people. Such a program would cost $10 trillion to
resistance was uncalled-for.’ ” $12 trillion, which Darity and Mullen believe could
In June, the California state assembly passed a bill be allocated over the course of 10 years. That would
that would assemble a reparations task force to study amount to slightly less than the Social Security Ad-
the impact of slavery and later forms of discrimina- ministration’s $1.2 trillion in annual spending, the
tion on Black people in the state. The city council in largest line item in the federal budget. But the sta-
Asheville, N.C., passed a similar ordinance in July, tus quo also costs money—between $1 trillion and
and the mayor of Providence, R.I., backed repara- $1.5 trillion from 2019 to 2028, the global con-
tions the same month. Bracy now believes the drastic sulting leader McKinsey estimated last year, cit-
shift in the political environment will help financial ing, apart from the human toll of the wealth gap, its
reparations come to pass in Ocoee when he reintro- dampening effect on consumption and investment.
duces the initiative next year. Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for President,
Communities are also turning to the courts in has said in the past he supports the congressional
order to seek redress. On Sept. 1, survivors of the bill to study reparations, but did not include the
1921 Tulsa race massacre and their descendants filed concept in his racial-equity plan, released in July.
a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa, which has never Much of the skepticism about reparations is
compensated victims of the brutal event in which framed as a problem of logistics. How would we pay
white mobs burned down more than 1,200 homes for it? Who would get the money? What is the legal
and killed as many as 300 people. The case argues argument for prosecuting decades-old crimes? But
that local and state officials created a public nuisance these are really deflections from the core moral ques-
by allowing the massacre to happen, sustained that tion at the heart of the argument: Do we, as a society,
nuisance over the course of generations through owe a debt for the injustices of the past—injustices
disinvestment from the Greenwood business district, that our own government could have addressed long
and must now restore the neighborhood to the ago but chose not to? In Florida, in one instance, the
financial position it would have been in if not for answer was yes.
72 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 Mary Hall Daniels built a three-
bedroom home in Hilliard, Fla.,
after receiving $150,000 from
the state as a Rosewood survivor

Darity’s proposal would result in direct payments The former Hall land is privately owned. But from
of $250,000 to every African-American descendant the road that abuts it, you can see an American flag
of enslaved people in the U.S.—or about the same draped across a wooden gate, taking proud owner-
amount of money Mary Hall Daniels received, ad- ship of a certain version of history.
justing for inflation. That money is still providing Though Hall’s family no longer owns a piece of
a roof over her family’s head and allowing them to Rosewood, he still believes it’s important that his
derive something besides anger, fear and bitterness children know where they came from. “We can sit
from a trauma that may never fully heal. “Of course our kids down and explain to them how we came to
it makes me upset, but I’m proud of the fact that live on this property,” he says. “It wasn’t just handed
the people back then were resilient,” her grandson to us. Some people worked hard and sacrificed.
Carlous Hall says. There’s lessons involved in all of that.”
Last year, Hall’s two sons visited Rosewood for the
first time. Every Black home erected before 1923 is Luckerson is a journalist who writes a biweekly
gone, and only a weathered historical marker on the newsletter about neglected Black history called
side of State Road 24 denotes what happened there. Run It Back at runitback.substack.com
73
Politics

DOWN THE
RABBIT
HOLE
How conspiracy theories are
shaping the 2020 election—
and shaking the foundation of
American democracy
BY CHARLOTTE ALTER/MILWAUKEE

KELLY FERRO IS A BUSY MOM ON HER WAY TO

the post office: leather mini-backpack, brunet
topknot, turquoise pedicure with a matching
ombré manicure. A hairdresser from Kenosha,
Wis., Ferro didn’t vote in 2016 but has since
become a strong supporter of Donald Trump.
“Why does the news hate the President so
much?” she says. “I went down the rabbit hole.
I started doing a lot of research.”
When I ask what she means by research,
something shifts. Her voice has the same honey
tone as before, and her face is as friendly as ever.
But there’s an uncanny flash as she says, “This
is where I don’t know what I can say, because
what’s integrated into our system, it stems deep.
And it has to do with really corrupt, evil, dark
things that have been hidden from the public.
Child sex trafficking is one of them.”
Ferro may not have even realized it, but she
was parroting elements of the QAnon conspir-
acy theory, a pro-Trump viral delusion that
began in 2017 and has spread widely over re-
cent months, migrating from far-right corners
of the Internet to infect ordinary voters in the
suburbs. Its followers believe President Trump
is a hero safeguarding the world from a “deep
state” cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles,
Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebri-
ties who run a global sex-trafficking ring, har-
vesting the blood of children for life-sustaining
chemicals.

74 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

 At an Aug. 22
“Save the
Children” rally
in St. Paul,
Minn., protesters
trumpet elements
of the QAnon
conspiracy theory

P H O T O G R A P H B Y S T E P H E N M AT U R E N — G E T T Y I M A G E S
Politics
None of this is even remotely true. But persuaded by job losses or stock market Trump Administration officials have said
an alarming number of Americans have gains, and they won’t care if Trump called they have not ruled out the possibility that
been exposed to these wild ideas. There America’s fallen soldiers “losers” or “suck- it was the result of an accident in a lab.)
are thousands of QAnon groups and pages ers,” as the Atlantic reported, because they In a recent poll of nearly 1,400 people by
on Facebook, with millions of members, won’t believe it. They are impervious to left-leaning Civiqs/Daily Kos, more than
according to an internal company docu- messaging, advertising or data. They half of Republican respondents believed
ment reviewed by NBC News. Dozens of aren’t just infected with conspiracy; they some part of QAnon: 33% said they be-
QAnon-friendly candidates have run for appear to be inoculated against reality. lieved the conspiracy was “mostly true,”
Congress, and at least three have won Democracy relies on an informed and while 26% said “some parts” are true.
GOP primaries. Trump has called its ad- engaged public responding in rational Over a week of interviews in early Sep-
herents “people that love our country.” ways to the real-life facts and challenges tember, I heard baseless conspiracies from
In more than seven dozen interviews before us. But a growing number of Amer- ordinary Americans in parking lots and
conducted in Wisconsin in early Septem- icans are untethered from that. “They’re boutiques and strip malls from Racine to
ber, from the suburbs around Milwau- not on the same epistemological ground- Cedarburg to Wauwatosa, Wis. Shaletha
kee to the scarred streets of Kenosha in ing, they’re not living in the same worlds,” Mayfield, a Biden supporter from Racine,
the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shoot- says Whitney Phillips, a professor at Syra- says she thinks Trump created COVID-
ing, about 1 in 5 voters volunteered ideas cuse who studies online disinformation. 19 and will bring it back again in the fall.
that veered into the realm of conspiracy “You cannot have a functioning democ- Courtney Bjorn, a Kenosha resident who
theory, ranging from QAnon to the notion racy when people are not at the very least voted for Clinton in 2016 and plans to vote
that COVID-19 is a hoax. Two women in occupying the same solar system.” for Biden, lowered her voice as she specu-
Ozaukee County calmly informed me that lated about the forces behind the destruc-
an evil cabal operates tunnels under the AMERICAN POLITICS HAS always been tion in her city. “No rich people lost their
U.S. in order to rape and torture children prone to spasms of conspiracy. The his- buildings,” she says. “Who benefits when
and drink their blood. A Joe Biden sup- torian Richard Hofstadter famously neighborhoods burn down?”
porter near a Kenosha church told me called it “an arena for angry minds.” In But by far the greatest delusions I
votes don’t matter, because “the elites” the late 18th and early 19th centuries, heard came from voters on the right.
will decide the outcome of the election Americans were convinced that the Ma- More than a third of the Trump sup-
anyway. A woman on a Kenosha street sons were an antigovernment conspir- porters I spoke with voiced some kind of
corner explained that Democrats were acy; populists in the 1890s warned of conspiratorial thinking. “COVID could
planning to bring in U.N. troops before the “secret cabals” controlling the price have been released by communist China
the election to prevent a Trump win. of gold; in the 20th century, McCarthy- to bring down our economy,” says John
It’s hard to know exactly why peo- ism and the John Birch Society fueled a Poulos, loading groceries into his car out-
ple believe what they believe. Some had wave of anti-Communist delusions that side Sendik’s grocery store in the Milwau-
clearly been exposed to QAnon conspir- animated the right. More recently, Trump kee suburb of Wauwatosa. “COVID was
acy theorists online. Others seemed to be helped seed a racist lie that President manufactured,” says Maureen Bloedorn,
repeating false ideas espoused in Plan- Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. walking into a Dollar Tree in Kenosha. She
demic, a pair of conspiracy videos fea- As a candidate in 2016, Trump seemed did not vote for Trump in 2016 but plans
turing a discredited former medical re- to promote a new wild conspiracy every to support him in November, in part be-
searcher that went viral, spreading the week, from linking Ted Cruz’s father to cause “he sent Obama a bill for all of his
notion that COVID-19 is a hoax across the Kennedy assassination to suggesting vacations he took on the American dime.”
social media. (COVID-19 is not a hoax.) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was This idea was popularized by a fake news
When asked where they found their infor- murdered. In interviews at Trump rallies story that originated on a satirical website
mation, almost all these voters were cryp- that year, I heard voters espouse all man- and went viral.
tic: “Go online,” one woman said. “Dig ner of delusions: that the government On a cigarette break outside their
deep,” added another. They seemed to was run by drug cartels; that Obama was small business in Ozaukee County, Tina
share a collective disdain for the main- a foreign-born Muslim running for a third Arthur and Marcella Frank told me they
stream media—a skepticism that has only term; that Hillary Clinton had Vince Fos- plan to vote for Trump again because
gotten stronger and deeper since 2016. ter killed. But after four years of a Trump they are deeply alarmed by “the cabal.”
The truth wasn’t reported, they said, and presidency, the paranoia is no longer rel- They’ve heard “numerous reports” that
what was reported wasn’t true. egated to the margins of society. Accord- the COVID-19 tents set up in New York
This matters not just because of what ing to the Pew Research Center, 25% of and California were actually for children
these voters believe but also because of Americans say there is some truth to the who had been rescued from underground
what they don’t. The facts that should an- conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 sex-trafficking tunnels.
chor a sense of shared reality are mean- pandemic was intentionally planned. (Vi- Arthur and Frank explained they’re
ingless to them; the news developments rologists, global health officials and U.S. not followers of QAnon. Frank says she
that might ordinarily inform their vote fall intelligence and national-security officials spends most of her free time researching
on deaf ears. They will not be swayed by have all dismissed the idea that the pan- child sex trafficking, while Arthur adds
data on coronavirus deaths, they won’t be demic was human-engineered, although that she often finds this information on
76 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 the Russian-owned search engine Yan- △ Experts who follow disinformation
dex. Frank’s eyes fill with tears as she de- A man in a QAnon shirt appears say nothing will change until Facebook
scribes what she’s found: children who outside a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla., and YouTube shift their business model
are being raped and tortured so that “the on June 20 away from the algorithms that reward
cabal” can “extract their blood and drink conspiracies. “We are not anywhere near
it.” She says Trump has seized the blood algorithms on platforms like Facebook peak crazy,” says Mele. Phillips, the pro-
on the black market as part of his fight and YouTube are designed to serve up fessor from Syracuse, agrees that things
against the cabal. “I think if Biden wins, content that reinforces existing beliefs— will get weirder. “We’re in trouble,” she
the world is over, basically,” adds Arthur. learning what users search for and feeding adds. “Words sort of fail to capture what
“I would honestly try to leave the country. them more and more extreme content in a nightmare scenario this is.”
And if that wasn’t an option, I would prob- an attempt to keep them on their sites. But to voters like Kelly Ferro, the
ably take my children and sit in the garage All this madness contributes to a po- mass delusion seems more like a mass
and turn my car on and it would be over.” litical imbalance. On the right, conspiracy awakening. Trump “is revealing these
theories make Trump voters even more things,” she says serenely, gesturing with
P R E V I O U S S P R E A D : G E T T Y I M A G E S; T H I S PA G E : S I N N A N A S S E R I

THE RISE IN conspiratorial thinking is loyal to the President, whom many see her turquoise-tipped fingernails. Ameri-
the product of several interrelated trends: as a warrior against enemies in the “deep cans’ “eyes are being opened to the dark-
declining trust in institutions; demise of state.” It also protects him against an Oc- ness that was once hidden.”
local news; a social-media environment tober surprise, as no matter what news After yoga in the morning, Ferro says,
that makes rumor easy to spread and dif- emerges about Trump, a growing group of she often spends hours watching vid-
ficult to debunk; a President who latches U.S. voters simply won’t believe it. On the eos, immersing herself in a world she be-
onto anything and anyone he thinks will left, however, conspiracy theories often lieves is bringing her ever closer to the
help his political fortunes. It’s also a part weaken voters’ allegiance to Biden by truth. “You can’t stop, because it’s so ad-
of our wiring. “The brain likes crazy,” says making them less likely to trust the voting dicting to have this knowledge of what
Nicco Mele, the former director of Har- process. If they believe their votes won’t kind of world we’re living in,” she says.
vard’s Shorenstein Center, who studies matter because shadowy elites are pulling “We’re living in an alternate reality.”
the spread of online disinformation and the country’s strings, why bother going —With reporting by LESLIE DICKSTEIN
conspiracies. Because of this, experts say, through the trouble of casting a ballot? and SIMMONE SHAH 
77
 Politics

HOMEGROWN
THREAT
Misinformation about voting has eroded Americans’ faith in a fair election
BY VERA BERGENGRUEN AND LISSANDRA VILLA

AFTER MONTHS OF WATCHING COMMENTERS FLOOD thority to do, until Americans can safely vote in person.
his office’s social-media posts with voting myths and None of this is new, exactly. As a candidate in 2016,
fielding calls about election conspiracies from constitu- Trump pushed baseless claims of voter fraud, including
ents, Brian Corley finally got fed up. In July, the super- that hordes of dead people and noncitizens would vote
visor of elections in Florida’s Pasco County decided to for Democrats. Now, with the weight of the most pow-
shut down his office’s Facebook and Twitter accounts erful office in the world, his allegations are being par-
to stop false claims from spreading. “I just got tired of roted by federal and state officials, GOP activists, local
the misinformation and the partisan bickering back and campaigns, small-town radio shows and national media
forth,” says Corley, a Republican with 13 years on the outlets. Vice President Mike Pence has backed up his un-
job. “I saw no value in it as an election administrator.” founded claims, and Attorney General William Barr has
If 2016 showed how foreign operatives were exploit- alleged that mail voting “opens the floodgates to fraud.”
ing social media to influence the U.S. election, the lesson Election administrators from both parties, as well as
of 2020 is already clear and even more worrisome: the nonpartisan officials in Trump’s own government, in-
greatest threat to a credible vote is homegrown. From sist voting by mail is safe. The FBI says it has found no
the White House on down, Americans have taken a page evidence of coordinated fraud with mail-in ballots and
from the Kremlin’s playbook by weaponizing misinfor- emphasized such a scenario would be very unlikely. “It
mation online to advance their political goals. Election would be extraordinarily difficult to change a federal
officials like Corley are struggling to break through an election outcome through this type of fraud alone,” a
avalanche of falsehoods about mail-in ballots, doubts senior FBI official told reporters in an Aug. 26 briefing.
about the integrity of voting systems and skepticism But a claim doesn’t have to be true to affect an elec-
about the validity of the results. tion. U.S. national-security agencies and social-media
No one has done more to sow suspicion or spread companies, which spent the past four years working to
lies than President Donald Trump, whose aggressive weed out false claims perpetuated by foreign adversar-
attacks on mail-in voting and false allegations of wide- ies, say the domestic disinformation this year presents
spread voter fraud have capitalized on fear and uncer- a new challenge. Because of the constitutional right to
tainty about holding a presidential election in the midst free speech, it can be nearly impossible to police bad-
of the COVID-19 pandemic. On television, at rallies faith claims, whether the speaker is an Internet troll or
and on Twitter, Trump has falsely claimed that mail- the Commander in Chief.
in ballots “lead to massive corruption and fraud,” that The result threatens not only the perceived legiti-
foreign powers will “forge ballots” and that the “only macy of this election but also Americans’ broader faith
way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is in U.S. democracy. “We have seen already that the Pres-
rigged.” He has falsely implied that ballots are being sent ident’s rhetoric is affecting the confidence that voters
to undocumented immigrants in California and even have in vote-by-mail, particularly, and also in elections
suggested delaying the election, which he has no au- in general,” Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections
PHOTOGR APH BY DAVID GUTTENFELDER FOR TIME
79
at Common Cause, testified to Congress Roxanna Moritz, auditor, it with them,” Heller said, echoing argu-
on Aug. 4. Gallup found last year that 59% Scott County, Iowa (Democrat) ments made by the Trump campaign in
of Americans are not confident in the hon- ‘THE WAY YOU DISENFRANCHISE a suit seeking to block the law. Heller’s
esty of the nation’s elections, third worst VOTERS IS BY CONFUSING THEM.’ claims were repeated in television inter-
among the world’s wealthy democracies. views and widely shared on social media,
While Trump and his allies have propa- Trump’s fearmongering about the need even as the state’s Republican secretary of
gated misinformation about voting, the to fight voter fraud has given new life to state, Barbara Cegavske, tried to reassure
Gallup poll found that Trump’s critics are decades-old tactics like voter-roll purges, voters such claims weren’t true.
most distrustful: 74% of those opposed stringent voter-ID laws, “poll watchers” Trump’s rhetoric has also been ad-
to the U.S. leadership reported a lack of who try to intimidate people from casting opted by Republican candidates. “Elec-
confidence in the honesty of American ballots, and other measures that reduce tion fraud should concern each and every
elections. The Trump Administration’s turnout. “2016 was the ‘fake news’ elec- voter in this country,” wrote Margaret
attacks on the Postal Service exacer- tion, but 2020 makes it look like noth- Streicker, a Republican running in Con-
bated the problem, raising the question ing in comparison,” says Samuel Woolley, necticut’s Third Congressional District,
of whether the agency is capable of de- project director for propaganda research in a post shared more than 100 times on
livering ballots before state deadlines. at the Center for Media Engagement at Facebook. Nicole Malliotakis, a Repub-
Even as officials scramble to fight back the University of Texas at Austin. “This lican running in New York, took it up a
by explaining that voting by mail is secure, infrastructure that has been scaled up notch, paying for Facebook ads claiming
they worry about the stakes for the nation. since politicians started figuring out so- she had “stopped the liberal Democrats’
The prospect of misinformation drowning cial media has now become concretized plan to automatically register illegal aliens
out credible facts and eroding voters’ faith under Donald Trump down to the state to vote in our elections.”
in elections “keeps me up at night,” says level, the city level. It’s the democratiza- The purpose of such claims is hardly
Corley, the Pasco County Republican. “It’s tion of propaganda.” subtle. In early April, Georgia state
tough to put the genie back in the bottle.” Last month, former Nevada Republi- speaker of the house David Ralston said
can Senator Dean Heller claimed with- the quiet part out loud when he argued
THE THREAT IS an order of magnitude out evidence that a new state law, which that if the state allows mail-in ballots, it
greater now than four years ago. In 2016, would send every registered voter a ballot “will be extremely devastating to Repub-
a hostile foreign adversary tried to sway in the mail, would allow Nevadans to vote licans and conservatives” because it “will
Americans to vote for one candidate over twice. “They’re going to allow anonymous certainly drive up turnout.”
another; this year, that candidate is calling people to walk into any home, any facil- This combination of disinformation,
into question the integrity of the vote itself. ity, to help you fill out your ballot and take uncertainty and valid concerns over the
80 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 logistics of holding an election during a Brian Corley, supervisor of elections, operating with one hand tied behind our
pandemic also has many Democrats on Pasco County, Florida (Republican) back,” Trump deputy campaign manager
edge. “The Trump Administration is a cor- ‘IT’S TOUGH TO PUT THE GENIE Justin Clark told the Conservative Politi-
rupt Administration,” Berthilde Dufrene BACK IN THE BOTTLE.’ cal Action Conference this year, detailing
said on Aug. 28 at a racial-justice protest how Republicans planned to leverage an
on the anniversary of the 1963 March on lated incidents—by both Democrats and army of 50,000 volunteer poll watchers in
Washington. “I see what they are doing Republicans,” veteran GOP election law- 2020.“There’s all kinds of ways people can
with the post office and voter suppression, yer Benjamin Ginsberg wrote in the Wash- steal votes,” said Clark. “We are going to
so I am concerned that they will cheat, ington Post on Sept. 8. have scale this year. We’re going to be out
they will steal, they will lie to keep this Yet Trump’s claims have found a will- there protecting our votes and our voters.”
man in power.” ing audience in his party. The GOP has The misleading claims promoted by
These fears were worsened by Trump’s long promoted the idea that fraud is ubiq- Trump and other politicians have domi-
recent promise to send law enforcement uitous in order to support legal efforts to nated national headlines. But their effect
M O R I T Z : D AV I D G U T T E N F E L D E R F O R T I M E ; C O R L E Y: C H R I S T O P H E R M O R R I S — V I I F O R T I M E

to the polls to monitor for voter fraud. restrict ballot access, which dispropor- at the grassroots level is no less important.
“We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re tionately affect voters of color who tend In Davenport, Iowa, Roxanna Moritz, a
going to have law enforcement, and we’re to vote Democratic, and to justify a need Democrat who serves as the Scott County
going to have hopefully U.S. Attorneys,” for close election monitoring. While both auditor, has decided not to bother with
Trump said on Fox News on Aug. 20. The parties regularly use poll watchers, this social media as a primary method of
President has no control over local law en- year will mark the first presidential elec- communicating information to voters.
forcement, yet the mere threat could de- tion in decades in which Republicans will Misinformation is too rampant. In one
press turnout if voters believe it. have the freedom to pursue their poll- Facebook post, a man shared a photo of
monitoring plans without prior approval an address with seven absentee-ballot re-
VOTER FRAUD IS exceedingly rare in the from a court, after a federal consent de- quests, claiming this was “their plan to rig
U.S., according to a 2017 Brennan Center cree that limited the Republican National the election” and calling the applications
for Justice review of more than a dozen Committee’s operations ended two years a “danger” to democracy. Moritz looked
studies. A Trump-appointed commission ago. The consent decree had its roots in up the address and found a simple expla-
disbanded in 2018 after it was unable to voter intimidation. It was put in place by a nation: there were seven voters registered
find evidence of widespread voter fraud. federal court when the party was accused to that address.
“The truth is that after decades of look- of menacing minority voters in the 1980s “Ten years ago, perhaps your normal
ing for illegal voting, there’s no proof of with a “National Ballot Security Task citizen would get a lot of their informa-
widespread fraud. At most, there are iso- Force” in New Jersey. “We were really tion from their local news channel, but
81
Politics
now they get most of their information police brutality and economic inequity, information on cyberthreats, is working
from cable news channels,” says Moritz. often pretending to be Black Lives Mat- with the Department of Homeland Secu-
“Whatever the narrative is from the na- ter activists. rity (DHS) and other U.S. agencies on a
tional level is how they’re driven to re- These tactics are still in use today. “Misinformation Reporting Portal” where
ceive their information.” Far-right Republican Laura Loomer’s election officials can flag suspected false
The constant onslaught of misinforma- “Twitter army” used messaging that was claims and get a quick response from
tion about mail-in ballots led to a trend “squarely targeting Black and Latino vot- social-media platforms. “Perhaps the
this summer where users who said they ers,” according to an analysis shared with biggest challenge that we face as a na-
were Trump supporters posted videos of TIME by Win Black/Pa’lante, a group that tion going forward,” the group’s president,
themselves throwing their absentee or focuses on combatting disinformation tar- John Gilligan, told lawmakers on Aug. 4,
mail-in ballot requests in the trash and geting these communities. Accounts sup- “is how we address the impact of mis- and
encouraged others to do the same. This porting Loomer, a congressional candi- disinformation on elections.”
was especially frustrating for election offi- date in Florida, did so by seeding false Social-media companies have belat-
cials in states that have long offered mail- claims using the hashtags #JohnLewis, edly begun to address the problem, with
in voting, like Colorado, where counties #JimCrowJoe and #BlackLivesMatter. Twitter taking the most aggressive ac-
began using it for some elections in 1993. Misinformation is “the next major bar- tions. On Aug. 23, after the President
“I can no longer listen to the rhetoric that rier to the right to vote for Black and La- tweeted multiple false claims about mail-
Colorado’s mail ballot system is at risk in tino people. We see it in the same trajec- drop boxes, including that they would
the upcoming general election,” Fremont tory as a poll tax or a literacy tax,” says make it possible for people to vote mul-
County clerk Justin Grantham, a Repub- Andre Banks, a co-founder of Win Black/ tiple times, Twitter obscured his tweet
lican, wrote in an op-ed. “I feel it is my Pa’lante. “There’s a sustained campaign and added a label saying that it had vio-
duty to assure you that your right to vote around the election now where you have lated Twitter’s rules on “civic and election
is protected and secured.” integrity.” To read the presidential tweet,
According to an August WSJ/NBC poll, users had to click on the message.
just 11% of Trump supporters said they JUST 11% OF TRUMP Facebook says it is labeling voting-
planned to vote by mail, compared with
47% of supporters of Democratic nomi-
SUPPORTERS SAY THEY related posts so users are warned before
sharing potentially misleading informa-
nee Joe Biden. State and local officials are PLAN TO VOTE BY MAIL, tion. It also announced that it will block
trying to explain to Republican voters that
mail-in ballots are safe and legitimate,
COMPARED WITH 47% new political ads the week before the
election, which critics say is too little,
often contradicting the President’s words. OF BIDEN SUPPORTERS too late. This comes after a scathing civil
In one case, a mailer sent to GOP voters rights audit of the company’s policies in
in North Carolina by the Trump Victory all the bad actors—foreign agents, trolls, July. “Ironically, Facebook has no qualms
Fund featured Trump’s face and a partial all the way to the U.S. President at the about . . . limiting misinformation about
quote from one of his tweets asserting, in- top—drowning out all of the attempts to COVID-19,” the report found, “but when
correctly, that voting absentee is secure, help people get the real information.” it comes to voting, Facebook has been far
while voting by mail is not. The mailer in- Targeted misinformation campaigns too reluctant to adopt strong rules to limit
cluded the part of Trump’s tweet declar- have proved effective. More than 35% of misinformation and voter suppression.”
ing that “absentee Ballots are fine” but registered voters say they are not confi- Ultimately, whether Americans believe
blurred out the rest of it, which read, “Not dent the election will be fair, according to November’s election to be free, fair and
so with Mail-Ins. Rigged Election!!! 20% an August Monmouth University poll. Re- valid is being challenged by one of the two
fraudulent ballots?” The confusion forced publicans say the problem is voter fraud; men on the ballot. Four years ago, Rus-
Darryl Mitchell, chairman of the Johnston Democrats say it’s voter suppression. And sia subverted American democracy with
County Republican Party, to post on Face- while there are reasons to worry that every a campaign to elect Donald Trump. This
book, reassuring voters that the mailer was American will not have access to the polls, year, the Kremlin is taking its cues from
real. But in the comments section below, both concerns underscore the task that him. On Sept. 3, DHS issued an intelli-
voters insisted they’d vote in person. election officials now face. “If the percep- gence bulletin warning that Russia is once
tion is there, then people believe that it’s again seeking to undermine faith in the
A LOT OF THE CANARDS and falsehoods a fraudulent election,” Kim Wyman, the U.S. electoral process. Among its meth-
being spread about 2020 have targeted Republican secretary of state in Washing- ods? “Amplifying criticisms” of “the in-
Black and Latino communities. That was ton, told TIME in June. tegrity of expanded and universal vote-
true in 2016 as well: according to a Sen- Officials are countering with the facts. by-mail, claiming ineligible voters could
ate Intelligence Committee investigation The National Association of Secretaries of receive ballots due to out-of-date voter
into Russia’s Internet Research Agency re- State launched a social-media campaign rolls, leaving a vast amount of ballots . ..
leased last year, “no single group of Amer- with the hashtag #TrustedInfo2020 to vulnerable to tampering.” Not much ques-
icans was targeted by IRA information op- amplify credible sources of voting infor- tion where the Kremlin came up with that.
eratives more than African-Americans.” mation. The Center for Internet Security, —With reporting by BRIAN BENNETT,
Foreign operatives stoked anger over a nonprofit that helps governments share MARIAH ESPADA and ABBY VESOULIS □
82 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
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86 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 rld

illion-dollar energy
riends and donors

SHUSTER
/WNYC-PROPUBLICA

TON LOOKING FOR A DEAL, AND

tenure as Energy Secretary, he
il 19, 2017, and Perry, the former
tial candidate and contestant on
ng in his office on Independence
krainians. “He said, ‘Look, I’m a
Texan,’” recalls one of them, Yuriy
nergy negotiator. “We’re ready to
aying.
day became central to Ukraine’s
rump Administration, a relation-
er with the House vote to impeach
was a leading figure in the im-
was among the officials, known as
hadow foreign policy in Ukraine
cording to the findings of the im-
, was to embarrass Trump’s main

on, Perry and his staff at the En-

nce energy deals that were poten-
Perry’s friends and political do-
by reporters from TIME, WNYC
hese deals seemed set to benefit
any on whose board Perry served
stint in Washington. The biggest

PHOTO-ILLUSTR ATION BY PETER HORVATH FOR TIME 87

World
was worth an estimated $20 billion, according to U.S. and
Ukrainian energy executives involved in negotiating them.
If this long discussed deal succeeds, Perry himself could stand
to benefit: in March, three months after leaving government,
he owned Energy Transfer shares currently worth around
$800,000, according to his most recent filing with the Securi-
ties and Exchange Commission.
Perry appears to have stayed on the right side of the law
in pursuing the Ukraine ventures. Federal prosecutors in the
Southern District of New York (SDNY) questioned at least
four people about the deals over the past year, according to
five people who are familiar with the conversations and dis-
cussed them with our reporting team on condition of ano-
nymity. “As far back as last year, they were already interested
in events that had taken place in Ukraine around Rick Perry,”
including allegations that Perry “was trying to get deals for
his buddies,” says one of the people who spoke to the Manhat-
tan prosecutors. Perry is not a target of their investigation, ac-
cording to two sources familiar with the probes.
But two ethics experts say Perry’s efforts were violations of
federal regulations. Administration officials are not allowed to
participate in matters directly relating to compa-
nies on whose board they have recently served. Trump and
Other experts say Perry and his aides may have bro- Perry embrace
ken a federal rule that prohibits officials from advo- after a June
cating for companies that have not been vetted by 2017 event in
the Commerce Department. “Even if it skirts the Washington
criminal statute, it’s still unethical,” says Richard
Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the White House of
President George W. Bush, with whom we shared our findings. the team uncovered have not previously been reported, and
Through a spokesman, Perry said he “never connected together they reveal another side of the events that set the
or facilitated discussions” between Energy Transfer and stage for the impeachment of the U.S. President.
Ukraine’s state energy firm in one of the deals we uncov-
ered. The spokesman declined to comment on the other ven- THE UKRAINIANS WERE never naive in their overtures to
tures Perry advanced while in government, including the the Trump team. They realized that Trump was a business-

P R E V I O U S PA G E S : G E T T Y I M A G E S (6) ; B L E Y Z E R : VA DY M G U L I U K ; T H E S E PA G E S : K E V I N D I E T S C H — U P I / R E U T E R S
$20 billion deal, or on the federal probe. In response to writ- man. “We studied his psychological profile,” says Konstantin
ten questions for this article, Energy Transfer said, “We are Eliseev, who advised Ukraine’s President on foreign policy
not aware of any contact between Secretary Perry and Ukrai- when Trump took office in 2017. Their strategy, says Vitrenko,
nian officials on Energy Transfer’s behalf.” was “to lure or to seduce” the Trump Administration by offer-
Our investigation shows how the hunt for energy profits in ing deals to its officials. “It was typical for Ukrainian politi-
Ukraine mixed money and politics at the highest levels of the cians,” says the energy negotiator. “They thought that if they
Trump Administration. Perry, in and out of office, advanced could, to some extent, corrupt the U.S. government, or get
the business interests of his friends and political allies. The them interested commercially or personally, it would help.”
Ukrainians, in turn, sought to exploit Perry’s agenda to advance The Ukrainians desperately needed that help. Since 2014,
their national interests. Now the success of Perry’s deals may they have been at war with Russia, and their country relies on
depend on the outcome of the November elections, according U.S. support for its very survival. The first offer they dangled
to Ukrainian officials involved in the negotiations. That means in that April 2017 meeting with Perry was indeed seductive:
the presidential race will not only set the conduct of American they were looking for a Western partner to take a 49% stake in
foreign policy. It could also reshape billions of dollars’ worth the country’s gas-pipeline network. “It’s a classic cash cow,”
of business deals whose fate is closely tied to who is in power. says Oleksandr Kharchenko, one of the Ukrainian energy ex-
This account is based on interviews with more than two perts involved in trying to sell a stake in the company. Its an-
dozen current and former government officials and energy nual profits, he says, are close to $2 billion.
executives in the U.S. and Ukraine. Our reporting team has The Ukrainians apparently got Perry’s attention. From the
pursued leads and sources in Miami, Houston, New York, outset, Perry’s focus on Ukraine had puzzled his colleagues in
Kyiv and Washington, D.C., and reviewed hundreds of pages government, who say that he took a personal interest in the
of legal documents, lobbying records, corporate emails and country’s affairs. Those affairs would normally fall under the
internal government communications. Many of the details purview of the State Department, not the Energy Department.

88 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

 ence at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, often requesting meetings
with U.S. Ambassador Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch. “Bleyzer
came to the embassy once a month,” says a person familiar
with the meetings. The embassy staff were deeply concerned
about the dual role Bleyzer appeared to be playing, both as a
private businessman in search of oil and gas deals in Ukraine,
and as an informal adviser to Perry. “We always tried to con-
vince Masha not to take the meeting,” says a person familiar
with these visits. “But she said, ‘I can’t. He’s Perry’s buddy.’”
(Yovanovitch declined to comment for this article.)
Bleyzer also had contacts at Energy Transfer, the com-
pany where Perry used to be a director. Its CEO, Kelcy War-
ren, gave $6 million to super PACs behind Perry’s 2016 pres-
idential race. In mid-June 2018, Bleyzer organized a trip to
Kyiv for one of the company’s executives. “I brought Energy
Transfer to Ukraine,” Bleyzer says of that trip. Their inter-
est, he says, had to do with Ukraine’s gas-pipeline network,
which the country had opened to foreign investment. It was
the same deal the Ukrainians had pitched in Perry’s office a
year earlier, in April 2017. “Bleyzer told me, when he came to
visit me, that this [company] was blessed by Perry,” says one
of the Ukrainian executives he met with. “The company was
called Energy Transfer.” (Bleyer denies saying this and says he
“never discussed Energy Transfer with Perry.”)
The two sides did not make an obvious match. Energy
Transfer has never done a major deal outside of North America.
But the investment in Ukraine was enticing. The country’s
pipeline system is a reliable moneymaker, says Sergey Makogon,
the head of the company that operates it. Russia pays more
But at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, officials felt that Perry’s office than a billion dollars a year to send its gas through Ukraine’s
had taken the lead on Ukraine policy. “Secretary Perry’s staff pipelines to Europe. If Energy Transfer invested in that pipeline
was very aggressive in terms of promoting an agenda and ex- system, it could get a share of those profits. Vitrenko, who later
cluding embassy personnel from meetings without giving expla- led the negotiations with Energy Transfer, says they discussed
nations,” David Holmes, a senior embassy official, said in a de- an American investment of as much as $3 billion.
position to Congress during the impeachment inquiry last year. During his time in the Trump Administration, Perry had
Some of the voices driving that agenda were not members no formal ties to Energy Transfer. He had sold his shares in
of the Energy Department but private businessmen, usually the company after Trump nominated him to his Cabinet,
from Texas. The most visible was Michael and stepped down from its board. At his
Bleyzer, an old friend and political donor confirmation hearing before the Senate in
of Perry’s. Known for his long mane of F ROM TH E OU TS E T, January 2017, Perry said under oath that
silver hair and a passion for scuba diving, P E RRY TOOK A he had no conflicts of interest in leading
Bleyzer was born in the Ukrainian city P E R S ONA L INTE R E S T the U.S. Energy Department. But during
of Kharkiv and had immigrated to the I N U K R A INE , his tenure, the Energy Department
U.S. in 1978. As Bleyzer explained in a C OL L E AG U E S S AY worked to advance a deal between
series of emails and phone interviews, he Ukraine and Energy Transfer, according
shares an interest in photography with to three of the Ukrainian negotiators
Perry, and they have taken trips together to shoot pictures involved. “They support this deal 100%,” says Kharchenko,
in Colorado and Israel. “He considers me to be Mr. Ukraine,” one of the Ukrainian negotiators. The Energy Department
says Bleyzer. “Whenever he had questions about Ukraine, he says it did not encourage or advance these talks. The company
would turn to me.” says it never got enough information from the Ukrainians to
So did the Energy Department. In July 2017, three months determine the value of a potential investment.
after Perry’s first Ukraine meeting, his staff invited Bleyzer But the pipeline system was hardly the biggest project
to discuss Ukraine policy at their office in Washington, ac- Ukraine had to offer the Americans. Far more valuable was
cording to their internal emails. (The emails were released the prospect of selling American gas in Europe. At the end of
in February in response to a Freedom of Information Act re- 2015, while Perry was serving on the company’s board, En-
quest from American Oversight, a good-governance watch- ergy Transfer received a federal permit to build a gas-export
dog.) Over the following year, Bleyzer became a steady pres- terminal in Lake Charles, in southern Louisiana. A few

89
World
months later, the company signed a deal with Shell, the Dutch
energy giant, to jointly develop the terminal at an estimated
cost of about $11 billion.
This new export venture had left one big question
unanswered: Where would Energy Transfer ship its gas? The
global market for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, has plenty of
suppliers, with shipments pouring out of Qatar, Australia and
other major exporters. To make this project succeed, Energy
Transfer needed a major buyer for its gas, ideally a buyer that
would commit to a long-term supply deal. By 2019, an oppor-
tunity like that had emerged in Ukraine.

PERRY WASN’T COY about his agenda in Ukraine. When he first

visited Kyiv in November 2018, he told a gathering of business-
men about a complex way to get American gas to Europe. It
would involve shipping the gas to Poland on giant tankers, then
stashing it underground in Ukraine before selling it back, west-
ward, into the European Union. “The potential for Ukraine is
stunning,” Perry told the business roundtable. Soon after, of-
ficials at the Energy Department began to coin new terms for by that point. Starting in the early 2000s, Bensh spent over a
American LNG, calling it “freedom gas” and “molecules of free- decade as one of the few American investors in Ukraine’s oil
dom” as they sought to market it around the world. and gas sector. His contacts in Kyiv included close associates
While the Obama Administration also sought to undercut of Ukraine’s corrupt former President Viktor Yanukovych,
Russian energy influence by exporting American LNG to Eu- who was ousted in a revolution in 2014. After that revolution,
rope, some of Perry’s colleagues in the Trump Administration Bensh’s business in Ukraine dried up, and he had returned to
were surprised, and often frustrated, by the Secretary’s focus Houston. “I wanted nothing to do with Ukraine,” Bensh told
on selling gas. “He was a fierce advocate for LNG exports our reporting team in a series of interviews.
around the globe,” said Tom Pyle, who headed the Trump The Ukrainians soon understood at least one of the reasons
transition team at the Department of Energy. “But he failed for his return: Bensh was tied to Perry’s dream of exporting
to restart the nuclear-waste program or initiate the much American gas to Ukraine. Along with a group of investors from
needed reforms at the agency, which are major disappoint- Louisiana, Bensh was promoting a company called Louisiana
ments,” Pyle told the energy-focused publication E&E News. Natural Gas Exports Inc., better known among its founders as
Perry ultimately went straight to the top in Ukraine with LNGE. Established in June 2018, the company had no deals
his energy evangelism—and his favored or assets to its name. The man listed as its
disciples. In May 2019, President Trump co-founder and director, Marsden Miller,
sent him to Kyiv to attend the inaugura- P E R RY S L IP P E D is related to Bensh by marriage. In 1987,
tion of Ukraine’s new President, Volody- T H E U K R A INIA N a jury in Louisiana found Miller guilty of
myr Zelensky. During a meeting that day, P R E S ID E NT A NOTE corruption; his sentence was later over-
Perry did something his handlers at the WI T H NA M E S OF turned, and the government dropped the
U.S. embassy did not expect, despite their case against him after the U.S. Supreme
‘ P E OP L E H E TR U S TS ’
extensive planning for the talks. Perry Court narrowed the relevant statute in an
handed a piece of paper to Zelensky and unrelated case. LNGE owns no gas fields,
urged him to have a look. As he did so, Perry explained that no pipelines, no tankers and no export terminal. But its exec-
the note contained a list of names of “people he trusts,” ac- utives had connections in Ukraine and at the Energy Depart-
cording to Holmes, the U.S. diplomat, who was the official ment. On July 10, 2019, those connections began to bear fruit.
note taker at the event. That date marked a turning point in Ukraine’s relations
Among the names on the list was Bleyzer, Perry’s old friend with the Trump Administration. It was that afternoon in the
from Houston. The following month, June 2019, Bleyzer fi- White House that two officials from Kyiv were pressured to
nally got the deal he wanted in Ukraine. In an auction of li- open investigations into Trump’s political rivals. National
censes to drill for oil and gas, the choicest license went to Security Adviser John Bolton memorably called the day’s
Bleyzer’s company, which got the rights to develop some of events a “drug deal.”
Ukraine’s biggest oil and gas fields over the next 50 years. The But the Ukrainians had another date with the Trump Ad-
deal was first reported by the Associated Press in November. ministration that evening. After the unsettling interaction at
It is potentially worth billions of dollars. the White House, the two had a dinner meeting in a restaurant
There was another name on Perry’s list, and it surprised the near the White House with two top Perry aides. Also there:
Ukrainians: Robert Bensh. A little-known oil and gas execu- Robert Bensh. As he sat down at the table, Oleksandr Dany-
tive from Texas, Bensh had known Perry for only a few months liuk, then the national security adviser to Ukraine’s President,

90 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

 Key players in
Perry’s energy
deals include
Ukrainian
negotiator
Yuriy Vitrenko,
gesturing at far Ukraine’s new President. “The only reason I made the
left, and Perry call was because Rick asked me to,” the President later
friend Michael told a group of Republican lawmakers, according to a
Bleyzer, below report in Axios that cited three of them. “Something
right, with Perry about an LNG plant,” Trump reportedly added. When
and Ambassador the call took place on July 25, 2019, Trump urged the
Yovanovitch.
Ukrainian President to open investigations against the
A tanker off-loads
U.S. gas, left Biden family, famously asking Zelensky to “do us a
favor.” A rough transcript of the call would become
Exhibit A of the impeachment inquiry.
The rough transcript makes no mention of Perry’s
gas agenda, but in the wake of the presidential shake-
down, Perry pressed ahead. For much of that summer,
his staff had been preparing to sign an international
energy agreement during a summit in Warsaw. The
aim of the summit, which began at the end of August
2019, was to pave the way for U.S. companies to ship
gas to Ukraine via Poland. LNGE was angling to be-
come one of those U.S. companies, and Perry’s team
had invited the company’s chief executive to attend.
The company had even written up a preliminary offer
to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state energy firm.
Perry and his staff were urging Ukraine to sign it,
according to three energy executives close to the on-
going negotiations. “They basically said: ‘If you want
us as friends, you’ve got to do this,’” one of them re-
called. But the Ukrainians had bigger worries at the
time. A few days before the summit, Politico had
broken the news that the Trump Administration had
frozen a package of military aid to Ukraine later re-
remembers wondering why Bensh would be invited to a pri- vealed to be worth $400 million. The Kyiv delegation was
vate dinner with senior government officials. “Smells like desperate to get the freeze lifted. “The biggest priority for me
trouble,” Danyliuk remembers thinking. was the military aid,” says Danyliuk.
The deal Bensh and his partners had in mind was very simi- So he left it to Naftogaz, the state energy company, to
lar to the one Perry had raised during his first trip to Kyiv eight consider the offer of a deal with LNGE. “We looked them up,”
months earlier. To them, at least, it seemed like a win all around. says Andrew Favorov, the Naftogaz executive who vetted the
Shipping U.S. gas via Poland to Ukraine and then reselling it in potential partner. A Google search led them to the past legal
the European Union would “make money for LNGE,” Bensh woes of Miller, LNGE’s co-founder and director. That was a red
explains. It could also make a lot of money for an American flag for the Ukrainians. Moreover, says Favorov, “The company
company like Energy Transfer that was looking for long-term has no real assets.” So Naftogaz advised its government not to
buyers of gas from its export terminal. “To be able to build their pursue a gas deal with the Louisiana company.
terminals, they have to get orders,” says Bensh. And of course Soon the deal faced another problem. Three weeks after the
V I T R E N K O, TA N K E R : G E T T Y I M A G E S ; P E R R Y: C O U R T E S Y U . S . E M B A S S Y K Y I V

the deal would also fit with Perry’s agenda of selling American Warsaw summit, news broke that a whistle-blower had raised
“freedom gas” to the world. the alarm over Trump’s pressure campaign in Ukraine, and the
But from Ukraine’s point of view, the plan had some criti- White House released the rough transcript of Trump’s phone
cal flaws. One was the cost of transport: shipping American gas call with Zelensky. Amid all the public attention, the discus-
to Europe is expensive. And if Ukrainians agreed to buy that sions of a U.S.-Ukraine gas deal went quiet, according to energy
gas, they might get stuck paying a premium for many years to executives involved on both sides. With the impeachment in-
come. While prior governments in Kyiv had espoused the idea, vestigation gaining steam, and his name emerging as a central
the new administration there was skeptical. “It looks like it player in the Ukraine saga, Perry announced in October that he
would be a big disaster,” says Danyliuk, the national security would resign from the Energy Department at the end of the year.
adviser. In any case, during that dinner near the White House,
he was too preoccupied with the day’s “drug deal” to talk about THE DEAL THAT PERRY and his allies pursued for three
any gas deals. Bensh could see it was the wrong time to push. years while he was in Washington didn’t die when he stepped
But Perry continued to promote his vision for American down and returned to Texas. After Trump’s acquittal in the
natural gas exports. That same month, July 2019, he was Senate on Feb. 5, Perry’s allies inside and outside of govern-
among the U.S. officials urging Trump to hold a phone call with ment revived the massive U.S. gas-export deal he had been

91
World
advancing, and pushed forward. In early March, representa-
tives of LNGE met with Perry’s successor as Energy Secretary,
Dan Brouillette, a veteran of Louisiana politics. “He told us
they were still 100% behind the deal,” says one of the LNGE
representatives who was at that meeting. The Energy Depart-
ment denies it supported the deal. The meeting with LNGE
“was purely introductory and informational,” says Shaylyn
Hynes, a spokesperson for the department.
After that meeting, things in Ukraine began to move fast.
On March 11, the Zelensky government issued a decree ap-
pointing Bensh to the board of Naftogaz. Two days later,
Ukraine’s deputy energy minister announced that Ukraine
had agreed to a major LNG deal with the Americans. The U.S.
partner on the deal: Louisiana Natural Gas Exports.
The details were not disclosed, but the way the deal came
about raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S.,
critics pointed out that the Energy Department’s apparent sup-
port for the deal appears to have violated federal rules that bar
U.S. officials from advocating for U.S. companies that have not
been vetted by the Commerce Department. LNGE never went
through that vetting process, according to its executives. “The
vetting process is there to identify conflicts of interest, previ-
ous improper dealings, anything that might reflect poorly on
the U.S. government as a whole,” says Theo LeCompte, who
was a deputy chief of staff at the Commerce Department dur-
ing Barack Obama’s second term. Brouillette’s office confirmed
that LNGE had not been vetted and denied that the depart-
ment had advocated for the company.
On the Ukrainian side, things were even more curious:
Ukraine had not invited any competition for the deal. But Ukraine. Executives at the Louisiana company say they pro-
even with the U.S. Energy Department’s apparent bless- jected the total sales from the deal to be around $20 billion, or
ing, the deal still wasn’t a lock. Naftogaz executives were roughly a billion dollars per year over two decades.
still refusing to partner with the Louisiana company. As Still, the agreement left one crucial question unanswered:
an alternative partner on the Ukrainian side, Kyiv’s en- Where was the Louisiana company going to get all that gas? In
ergy ministry proposed an obscure state entity called MGU, June, LNGE turned to Energy Transfer. By that point, Perry
which holds the shares of Ukraine’s gas-pipeline system. had reclaimed his seat on the board of Energy Transfer and
But executives at that company also acquired its stock. Once the Louisiana ex-
began to raise alarms, most notably the ecutives had their preliminary deal with
chairman of its supervisory board, Walter A S TR U M P ’ S Ukraine, they went to Energy Transfer in
Boltz, a stately Austrian who had been R E -E L E C TION search of a gas terminal, says Miller, the
brought in to help clean up the notori- C H A NC E S WA NE D, co-founder of LNGE. In a statement, En-
ously troubled Ukrainian gas industry. P E R RY’ S A L L IE S G OT ergy Transfer played down these discus-
“Nobody wanted to tell the Americans, T H E C O L D S H OU L D E R sions, saying they amounted to “one in-
‘O.K., this is a silly idea, stop it,’” says troductory conference call” that did not
Boltz of the Louisiana deal. “You need go any further, and Miller insists they did
to keep your friends happy.” And the Ukrainians, he added, not talk about a partnership in Ukraine at the time. Other ex-
“might even be willing to pay a little bit more, I guess, to make ecutives at LNGE say it was just one step toward complet-
Trump happy and keep the military aid flowing.” ing the $20 billion deal. “First we had to finalize the deal in
By the end of May, the energy ministry had fired the skeptic Ukraine,” one of them says. “Then we get the gas.”
Boltz and announced another preliminary agreement with the It was at this final stage in the negotiations that the deal ran
Louisiana company. In a 20-page document, known as a mem- into major trouble. The Ukrainians began to stall. According to
C O U R T E S Y U. S . E M B A S S Y K Y I V

orandum of intent, the two sides spelled out the rough terms one official involved in Ukraine’s deliberations about the deal,
of the deal. Ukraine would agree to take shipments of gas from the reason for the delay was in large part political. By then, the
Louisiana for the next 20 years, according to a copy obtained COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and Trump’s approval rat-
by our reporting team. The volumes involved were substantial, ings had gone into sharp decline amid his chaotic handling of
amounting to 5.5 billion cubic meters per year, more than the an- the outbreak. His chances of winning re-election began to look
nual gas consumption of Slovakia, an E.U. member that borders less and less likely.

92 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

 In emails obtained by our reporting team, Miller, the direc-
tor and co-founder of the Louisiana company, lashed out
at Naftogaz for telling the government in Kyiv about Mill-
er’s overturned conviction on corruption charges. “This
is the guy who went to the U.S. Attorney for the SDNY?”
Miller wrote indignantly to his colleagues, referring to An-
driy Kobolyev, the Naftogaz CEO. Indeed, the U.S. attorney’s
office for New York’s Southern District had contacted Ko-
bolyev in the fall of 2019, and he says he agreed to speak to
its investigators. Those investigators have since questioned
at least three other people about Perry’s efforts to secure gas
deals in Ukraine, according to the people familiar with what
they told the investigators.
But earlier this year, prosecutors dropped that line of ques-
tioning, according to two people familiar with the questions
they have posed since April. Noah Bookbinder, a former anti-
corruption prosecutor with whom we shared our findings,
says U.S. laws make prosecuting conflicts of interest difficult.
“Criminal conflicts of interest are not charged all that fre-
quently, because they can be hard to prove,” he says. “It’s got
a relatively modest sentence. So often prosecutors will look
at that and say, ‘It’s a lot of hard work to prove
Perry held that, and it’s not the biggest offense. So we’re not
energy talks going to take the time to go down that path.’”
with Zelensky, Two years ago, some Democrats called for
left, in Kyiv on tighter restrictions on potential conflicts of in-
May 20, 2019 terest, and they have pointed to Perry’s relation-
ship with Energy Transfer to justify new legisla-
tion. Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill
For the Ukrainians, that changed the political equation be- in 2018, known as the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity
hind the deal. “If Biden is elected, I’d say Biden’s [team] would Act, that would ban corporations from hiring or paying for-
be pretty curious, to say the least,” about how the deal with mer heads of agencies they have lobbied. In a letter to Perry
LNGE came together, says the official involved in Ukraine’s and Energy Transfer last January, Warren urged Perry to re-
deliberations. “In terms of relationships, that would be very sign from Energy Transfer’s board. “This is exactly the kind
damaging,” adds the official. “Given the latest [poll] numbers, of unethical, revolving-door corruption that has made Ameri-
that’s simply a stupid thing to do,” he says. cans cynical and distrustful of the federal government,” War-
Perry’s allies found themselves getting the cold shoulder. ren wrote. In a curt reply, the company told Warren it was
Six months after the Zelensky government named Bensh to “fully aware of our legal and ethical standards related to Sec-
the board of Naftogaz, he has yet to officially take up that post. retary Perry rejoining our board.”
Bleyzer, Perry’s friend from Texas, hasn’t fared much better. So is the $20 billion deal dead? Not necessarily. The
Soon after he won the licenses to develop oil and gas fields Ukrainians appear to be waiting to see which way the
in Ukraine in June 2019, Naftogaz challenged the awarding political winds turn in November. Should Trump win another
of those licenses in court. Ukraine’s government, which owns term, some Ukrainians assume Perry’s deal might come back
100% of Naftogaz, has declined to interfere in the litigation, to life. “Wait three months, and then see what happens,”
which has prevented Bleyzer’s oil and gas projects from get- says the official involved in the deliberations in Kyiv. “This
ting off the ground. is obvious political stuff. You don’t have to be a genius to
As for Energy Transfer, during the heat of the impeachment understand this logic.”
investigation in October 2019, the Ukrainian parliament de- But for all the Ukrainian efforts to seduce the Americans, some
cided that selling the country’s gas pipelines wasn’t such a great at least are disappointed with the entire process. They had hoped,
idea, and it voted to ban foreign ownership of those pipelines. on some level, that the U.S. agenda was still driven by a shared
The global collapse in gas prices during the COVID-19 pan- set of goals and values, like strengthening alliances and pushing
demic, meanwhile, hit Energy Transfer hard. Its plans to build back against the influence of Russia. But over time, says Vitrenko,
an LNG-export terminal in Louisiana took a blow at the end of the energy negotiator, it became clear that the overarching aims
March 2020, when Shell, its 50-50 partner in the project, de- were simpler and, to the Ukrainians, more familiar. “It was about
cided to pull out, citing adverse market conditions. making deals,” he says. And making money. —With reporting
Some of the executives in Louisiana are furious over the by DORIS BURKE/PROPUBLICA, BARBARA MADDUX/TIME and
foot-dragging in Kyiv, and they put the blame on Naftogaz. KATHERINE SULLIVAN/WNYC 

93
 Essay

I didn’t assign
a gender to my kid.
It’s up to them to
decide what identity
fits them best
BY KYL MYERS

W
HAT ARE YOU HAVING?” I’D gender-neutral personal pronouns they, transgender women of color, and the
be standing in line at the post them and their. We imagined it could be way intersex people–those born with bi-
office or a movie theater, and years before our child would tell us, in ological traits that aren’t typically male
I’d realize a stranger was star- their own way, if they were a boy, a girl, or female–are stigmatized or completely
ing at my belly. The kind person thought nonbinary or if another gender identity fit overlooked. But I also taught about the
they were asking me a simple question them best. Until then, we were committed victory of same-sex marriage equality,
with a simple answer: Is it a boy or a girl? to raising our child without the expecta- more women running for office, fathers
If you want to get technical, my part- tions or restrictions of the gender binary. demanding family leave, the rising visibil-
ner Brent and I had found out our child’s I have a gender-studies degree and a ity of transgender actors in the media, and
sex chromosomes in the early stages of my Ph.D. in sociology. In the decade before the movement to end intersex surgery.
pregnancy, and we had seen their genitals Zoomer was born, it was literally my job With every new semester, the number
during the anatomy scan. But we didn’t to study and educate others about gen- of students asking me to call them by dif-
think that information told us anything der. There was no shortage of gender- ferent names and use different pronouns
about our kid’s gender. The only things disparity statistics, but I felt confident than they were given at birth grew. Women
we really knew about our baby is that that progress toward gender equity was confided that they were experiencing sex-
they were human, breech and going to be gaining momentum. In my Sociology of ism from their chemistry professors. Men
named Zoomer. We weren’t going to as- Gender and Sexuality course, I would vented about the pressures of masculin-
sign a gender or disclose their reproduc- lecture on discrimination against queer ity. These 18- to 20-something-year-olds
tive anatomy to people who didn’t need people, the motherhood penalty, men’s were feeling crushed by gender stereo-
to know, and we were going to use the higher suicide rate, violence against types. I could relate. I was raised as a girl
PHOTOGR APH BY LINDSAY D’ADDATO FOR TIME
Kyl, Zoomer and
Brent in Liberty
Park in Salt Lake
City on Aug. 10
Essay

Halloween 2016

February 2016 March 2016 Father’s Day 2017

in the Mormon church, and it took a long cutting food into tiny pieces. Holding ically different, and in the case of track
time for me to untangle myself from the space for the possibility a child might be and field, that boys are better. I refused
conditioning that the only things I should trans or nonbinary or queer is also pre- to have our family participate.
want (and could be good at) were mar- ventive care. The experience was disappointing, if
riage and motherhood. The goal of gender-creative parent- not unexpected. When I was pregnant,
I could see the trail of bread crumbs. ing is not to eliminate gender—the goal I would dream up hypothetical situations
How gender inequalities get their start in is to eliminate gender-based oppression, with cruel pediatricians refusing to use
childhood. How girls do more chores than disparities and violence. The aim isn’t to they/them pronouns and flight atten-
boys and are paid less allowance. How kids create a genderless world; it’s to contrib- dants treating Zoomer like a stereotype
are dressed in shirts that say SORRY BOYS, ute to a genderfull one. We as a society and anxiously think through how I would
DADDY SAYS I CAN’T DATE UNTIL I’M 30, have an opportunity to shake up child- react to these circumstances. I was afraid
yet when a child says they’re gay, they’re hood gender socialization in a way that that my family members might be so ner-
told they’re too young to know that. How creates more healthy and equitable adult- vous about accidentally using a gendered
girls are discouraged from running for stu- hoods for everyone. What have we got to pronoun for Zoomer, so nervous about
dent government. How boys are discour- lose? The patriarchy? Good riddance. offending me, that they would distance
aged from playing with dolls. How queer themselves from us.
and trans youth are kicked out of their THE SUMMER BEFORE I was pregnant, But for the most part, the past four
homes. People have asked me to prove I noticed a YOUNG SPRINTS TRACK MEET years have not been filled with tears and
that gender-creative parenting will have banner fastened to the chain-link fence of strife (at least no more tears than you’d
positive outcomes. I double-dog dare the local high school. I can’t wait till I have find in any home of a young child and tired
someone to prove that hypergendered a little one who can run in that! I thought. parents). Our life looks remarkably like a
childhood is a roaring success. Three years later, I left that track meet lot of other families’ lives, filled with joy
Kids fare better in environments in tears after I found out that despite as- and affirmation. And color. Lots of color.
where they are accepted for who they surances to the contrary, the 2- and When people think of gender-neutral,
are. The negative outcomes that are 3-year-old girls would run in different their minds often go to a grayish beige,
often experienced by queer and trans heats than the boys. “I not running?” potato-hued color palette. But we don’t
COURTESY K YL M YERS (5)

youth are mitigated by supportive fam- Zoomer asked as we drove away. I felt ter- dress Zoomer in burlap sacks, or only
ilies and friends. Parents take precau- rible for leaving. Zoomer just wanted to give them toys the color of Wheat Thins.
tions to keep their children healthy and run. But I also would have felt terrible if I We give them options, and they thought-
safe by enrolling them in swim lessons, had stayed. It is these moments that plant fully pick what they like the most. For a
teaching them to stay away from fire and the seeds that boys and girls are dramat- while, Zoomer’s favorite color was pink;
96 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 toenails and let them get muddy. Call ing out of the girl box I was placed in in
them handsome and beautiful; sensitive 1986. I’m trying on new labels and pro-
and brave. Give them the opportunity to nouns, and giving myself the same en-
play with the Hot Wheels and the kitchen couragement to play with gender that I
set.” Because Zoomer has been raised am giving my child.
with a focus on inclusivity, they have an Not everyone has the support that
instinct to make everyone feel welcome. Brent and I have. We sprang gender-
When a character on a kids’ show says, creative parenting on our families, and
“Hello, boys and girls!” Zoomer adds, they decided to get on board. They shared
“And nonbinary pals!” in the emotional labor and took it upon
A friend of mine recently told me when themselves to educate our extended fam-
she first found out how we were going to ily and their co-workers, neighbors and
parent, she thought, That’s going to be friends. They are champions at using
endless work for Kyl. “But now I actually gender-neutral pronouns. Some of my
think that you are so lucky and had some friends have not been so lucky. They’ve
great foresight,” she said. “I spend so lost touch with family members or have
much of my time tearing the walls down strained relationships because of their
that people are trying to build around my decision to do gender-creative parent-
daughters. People aren’t trying to build ing. I know of a grandparent who keeps
walls around Zoomer because they don’t a stash of clothing, so whenever their
know which walls to build.” gender-creative grandchild comes over,
they change them out of the outfit the
I WANTED TO GIVE my child a gift. The gift child picked to put them in something
of seeing people as more than just a gen- more stereotypically associated with their
June 2018 der. The gift of understanding gender as sex. Some of my friends’ family members
complex, beautiful and self-determined. have called child protective services, re-
I hadn’t considered how much of a gift I’d porting their grandchild is being abused,
then it was orange. They picked the pink, also be giving myself. While curating an simply because they weren’t assigned a
purple and aqua bedsheets; the fire-truck experience for Zoomer to come to their gender. This is also a reason I feel strongly
socks; the outer-space sleeping bag; and own identity, I in- about being a public
the violet climbing shoes. They wanted advertently started advocate for parent-
the Cars Pull-Ups one time and the Min- taking a closer WHEN A CHARACTER ing this way—many
nie Mouse ones the next. Zoomer has a look at mine too. SAYS, ‘HELLO, BOYS AND others don’t have
stuffed dog named Dante that goes every- One day, Zoomer GIRLS!’ ZOOMER ADDS, the safety, support
where with them and a baby doll that they and I were playing and resources to talk
‘AND NONBINARY PALS!’
named DeeDee. Zoomer loves Play-Doh hide-and-seek. They openly about it.
and molds neon-colored animals and pre- cupped their eyes as Around their
tend food. They say, “I’m not going to eat I hid in the pantry, then walked around the fourth birthday, Zoomer started declar-
it.” Then I see that their teeth are bright house mimicking the words we use when ing a gender identity and claiming some
blue, and they have, in fact, tried to eat it. we are trying to find them. “Mommy, you gendered pronouns . Brent and I are hon-
A common critique of gender- in the plant? No . . . Mommy, you under oring Zoomer’s identity and expression
creative parenting is that “the kid will the couch? No.” As they got closer, they and answering all their questions in an
be confused,” but Zoomer doesn’t seem called out, “Kyl! Where are you?” age-appropriate and inclusive way. (I’m
confused at all. In fact, they have a more Gender-creative parenting comes with using they here because Zoomer is still ex-
nuanced understanding of sex and gen- a giant mirror and forces me to ask myself, ploring gender and I want them to have
der than a lot of adults. We teach them “Kyl! Where are you?” I’ve examined my some autonomy over how they share their
to use gender-neutral words until a per- own gender identity and expression more identity with the world.)
son tells us about themself. We call kids in the past four years than I had in the I’m witnessing my child create their
friends. We have taught Zoomer about three decades before becoming Zoom- own gender—and who Zoomer has be-
their own body without using boy-girl la- er’s parent. As I’ve tried to create an en- come is greater than anything I could have
bels. Zoomer understands that some girls vironment where Zoomer is free from the imagined or assigned. Instead of us telling
have penises and some boys have vulvas, chains of binary gender, I am working to the children who they should be, maybe
and some intersex kids have vulvas and figure out what about my gender is au- it’s the children who will teach us how to
testes. Zoomer knows some daddies get thentic and what was prescribed to me, be. We just have to get out of their way.
pregnant and some nonbinary parents are and is it even possible to differentiate at
called Zazas. At day care, I tell teachers, this point? I love my body, but I don’t love Myers is the author of Raising Them:
“Please snuggle them and wrestle with that I was assigned a specific gender role Our Adventure in Gender Creative Par-
them. Please compliment their painted because of it. In my early 30s, I’m climb- enting, from which this essay is adapted
97
British Vogue
editor in chief
Enninful in
Ladbroke Grove,
London, on Aug. 31
Profile

Fashioning
Change
British Vogue’s Edward Enninful shows
the power of inclusion
BY DIANA EVANS/LONDON

AUGUST 2020 SAW NO SOCA FLOATS and take it in, all that sound and spec-
sliding along West London’s Lad- tacle, which for decades has been the
broke Grove. No pink feathered triumphant annual pinnacle of Lon-
wings or giant plumes of headwear. don’s cultural and racial multiplicity.
The Notting Hill Carnival was can- It was this world that nurtured
celed, like all mass gatherings in late his creativity and helped shape the
COVID lockdown, the streets still vision he has brought to the pages of
spare, the air still choked with grief. British Vogue since being appointed
No curry goat or jerk pan smoke editor in chief in 2017. “I was always
rose up into the city trees. And the othered,” Enninful says on a nostalgic
music, the great churning music of walk through the streets of Ladbroke
the Caribbean islands, of Black Brit- Grove, a much gentrified, still bohe-
ain, of Africa and the Americas, did mian part of London, where he moved
not thump to the foundations of the with his family from Ghana at the age
neighborhood terraces, making them of 13, “you know, gay, working-class,
tremble. Black. So for me it was very impor-
All of this would have been part tant with Vogue to normalize the mar-
of a normal summer for Edward En- ginalized, because if you don’t see it,
ninful while growing up in the area in you don’t think it’s normal.”
the 1980s. His mother Grace might Today, Enninful is the most pow-
look out of the window of her sewing erful Black man in his industry, sit-
room in their house right on the Car- ting at the intersection of fashion and
nival route, and see some manifesta- media, two fields that are undergoing
tion of Trinidad going by, or a reggae long-overdue change and scrambling
crew, wrapped in amazing sculptures to make up for years of negligence
of bikini and shiny hosiery. Edward, and malpractice. Since becoming the
one of six siblings, would stay out late only Black editor in history to head

PHOTOGR APH BY CAMPBELL ADDY FOR TIME 99

Profile
any of the 26 Vogue magazines—the most influential to how it was,” he wrote on Twitter. This summer, in
publications in the multibillion-dollar global fash- the wake of worldwide Black Lives Matter protests
ion trade—he has been tipped as the successor to sparked by the killing of George Floyd, we are see-
Anna Wintour, the iconic editor of American Vogue ing a seismic reckoning across industries, scrutiniz-
and artistic director for Condé Nast. The privately ing who is doing what and who is not doing enough
held company is navigating, on top of an advertising to bring about real change in equality and represen-
market battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, public tation. “My problem is that there’s a lot of virtue-
controversies around representation both in its of- signaling going on,” he says. “But everyone’s listen-
fices and on its pages. ing now, and we need to take advantage of that. This
Enninful’s vision for British Vogue comes at a is not the time for tiptoeing.”
critical moment for the international publisher. “I
wanted to reflect what I saw here growing up, to WE MEET AT Ladbroke Grove tube station in a late-
show the world as this incredibly rich, cultured place. summer noon. When anticipating an interview
I wanted every woman to be able to find themselves with the leader of a historic luxury fashion bible,
in the magazine.” He chose the British model Adwoa it’s tempting to have inferior thoughts about your
Aboah to front his first issue, in 2017: “When oth- Nissan or your Clarks boot collection or your latest
ers took steps, Edward took massive strides, show- unlatest something, but Enninful, 48, is unassum-
ing the importance of our visibil- ing, arriving in a loose navy suit,
ity and stories,” she says. Covers pale blue shirt and shades, the only
since have featured the likes of giveaway to his sartorial imperium
Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Judi ‘I was always the no socks with his brogues. He
Dench (at 85, British Vogue’s old- othered—you is warm and relaxed, bearing the
est cover star), Madonna and soc- close-shouldered tilt of the lifelong
cer player Marcus Rashford, photo-
know, gay, hard worker; he rises at 5 a.m. most
graphed for this year’s September working-class, days to meditate before work.
issue by Misan Harriman, the first
Black male photographer to shoot
Black. So for me These days he resides toward
Lancaster Gate, on the posher
a British Vogue cover in its 104-year it was very side of Ladbroke Grove, with his
history. While other publications, important with long-term partner the filmmaker
including American Vogue, have re- Alec Maxwell and their Boston
duced frequency during the pan-
Vogue to terrier, Ru Enninful, who has his
demic, British Vogue has remained normalize the own Instagram account and whose
financially stable and is still pro- marginalized, daily walking was a saving grace
ducing 12 thick issues in 2020. during lockdown. But the London
Under Enninful, British Vogue because if you Underground is where Enninful’s
has morphed from a white-run don’t see it, you journey into fashion began, one
glossy of the bourgeois oblivious don’t think it’s day on the train in a pair of ripped
into a diverse and inclusive on- blue jeans, when he was spotted by
point fashion platform, shaking normal.’ stylist Simon Foxton as a potential
up the imagery, tracking the con- model for i-D, the avant-garde Brit-
temporary pain. Its shelf presence ish fashion magazine. Being only
is different—more substance, more political—and 16, a shy, sheltered kid who grew up in a Ghanaian
perhaps in part because of it, the shelf as a whole army barracks and who was less than four years in
looks different. No more do Black women search the U.K., of course he had to ask his mother. Albeit a
mainstream newsstands in vain for visions of them- clothes fanatic herself, a professional seamstress and
selves. Now we are ubiquitous in my newsagent, in regular rifler (with Edward) through the markets of
my corner shop, and it really wasn’t that hard; all it Portobello and Brixton for fabrics, Grace was wary
took was to give a Black man some power, to give of the hedonistic London style vortex, the enormity
someone with a gift, a voice and a view from the mar- of the new land, and reluctant to release her son into
gin a seat at the table. its mouth. He begged. He wore her down: “I knew
“My Blackness has never been a hindrance to I couldn’t just walk away from this, that something
me,” Enninful says. Yet he is no stranger to the pass- special was going to come out of it.”
ing abuses of systemic racism. On a Wednesday in He never had the knack for modeling, he says
mid-July, while entering British Vogue’s London with characteristic humility. “I was terrible at it. I
headquarters, he was racially profiled by a security hated the castings, all that objectifying. But I loved
guard who told him to enter via the loading bay in- the process and the craft of creating an image.” He
stead. “Just because our timelines and weekends are soon moved to the other side of the lens, assist-
returning to normal, we cannot let the world return ing on shoots and assembling image concepts and
100 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 narratives, a particular approach to styling that im- “Now that I’m older, I realize he just wanted to pro-
pressed i-D enough to hire him as their youngest ever tect us. He’s come to understand that I had to follow
fashion director at only 18, a post he held for the next my heart and forge my own path.”
20 years. Without the courtesy designer clothes later He credits his parents for his strong work
at his fingertips, he would customize, shred, dye and ethic—“drummed into you from a very early
bargain for the right look, using the skills he’d devel- age by Black parents, that you have to work
oped at home in the sewing room. “I realized that I twice as hard”—and his Ghanaian heritage
could say a lot with fashion,” he says, “that it wasn’t for his eye for color. His approach to fashion
just about clothes, but could tell a story of the times as narrative comes from the “childish games
we’re in, about people’s experiences in life. And that I would play with my mother,” creating char-
freedom to portray the world as you saw it.” acters around the clothes, sketching them out.
What was innate to Enninful—this blend of “I can’t just shoot clothes off the runway,” he
skilled creativity with the perception of difference says. “There always has to be a character, and
as normal, as both subject and audience—was rela- that character has to have an inner life.” Since
tively unique in an industry dominated by white, co- Grace’s death three years ago, his father has
lonial notions of beauty and mainstream. Legendary lived alone by the Grand Union Canal and
Somali supermodel Iman remembers a 2014 W mag- is very proud of his son, particularly of the
azine shoot in which she, Naomi Campbell and Ri- Order of the British Empire awarded to him
hanna were cast by Enninful, the publication’s then by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 for his services
style director, wearing Balmain, designed by Olivier to diversity in fashion. The Queen, inciden-
Rousteing. “Until Edward appeared, no one at the tally, is high on Enninful’s list of Vogue cover
mainstream fashion magazines would have cared to dreams.
commission a portrait exclusively featuring three
women of color, and furthermore who were all wear- THE BRITISH VOGUE Enninful inherited
ing clothes designed by a person of color,” she says. from former editor in chief Alexandra Shul-
“He’s an editor in vocation and a reformer at heart, man three years ago was starkly different
compelled to spur woefully needed social change.” from today’s rendition. During her 25 years
He shows me his various old haunts and abodes, in charge, only 12 covers out of 306 featured
the top-floor bedsit where he used to haul bags of styl- Black women, and she left behind an almost
ing gear up the stairs, the Lisboa and O’Porto cafés of entirely white workforce. Now the editorial
Golborne Road—or “Little Morocco”—where he’d sit team is 25% people of color—“I needed cer-
J A M I E H A W K E S W O R T H ( B R I T I S H V O G U E , J U LY 2 0 2 0); N I C K T O W E R S ( I - D, J A N U A R Y 1 9 9 5 ); S T E V E N M E I S E L ( V O G U E I TA L I A , J U LY 2 0 0 8)

for hours chewing the fat with people like makeup tain lieutenants in place,” he says—and similar
artist Pat McGrath, Kate Moss, Nick Kamen and pho- shufflings are being called for over at Condé
tographer David Sims. Name-drops fall from his lips Nast in New York. Enninful is reluctant to
like insignificant diamonds—stylists, photographers, tarnish names any further, maintaining that
celebrities—but he navigates his domain in a manner Shulman “represented her time, I represent
apparently uncommon among fashion’s gatekeepers. mine,” and declining to comment on the U.S.
Winfrey says of him, “I have never experienced in all headquarters.
my dealings with people in that world anyone who Enninful’s rise is particularly meaningful
was more kind and generous of spirit. I mean, it just to people like André Leon Talley, former edi-
doesn’t happen.” tor at large of American Vogue, where Enninful also
Her shoot for the August 2018 cover of British worked as a contributing editor. Talley describes the
Vogue left Winfrey feeling “empress-like,” and she new British Vogue as “extraordinary,” and was joy-
ascribes his understanding of Black female beauty to ous at Enninful’s appointment. “He speaks for the From top: Train
his being raised by a Black mother. “Edward under- unsung heroes, particularly those outside the priv- driver Narguis
stands that images are political, that they say who and ileged white world that Vogue originally stood for. Horsford on
what matters,” she adds. Enninful’s father Crosby, a He has changed what a fashion magazine should be.” British Vogue in
major in the Ghanaian army who was part of U.N. “I’m a custodian,” Enninful says of his role, sit- July; a January
1995 Fashion
operations in Egypt and Lebanon, had thought that ting in a sumptuous alcove of the club bar at Elec-
Week report by
his bright, studious son would eventually grow out tric House. “Vogue existed before I came, and it will Enninful in i-D;
of his fascination with clothes and become a lawyer. still exist when I leave, but I knew that I had to go Naomi Campbell
But three months into an English literature degree at in there and do what I really believed in. It’s our re- on Vogue Italia
Goldsmiths, University of London, studying Hardy, sponsibility as storytellers or image makers to try in July 2008
Austen and the usual classics, thinking maybe he’d to disrupt the status quo.” Ironically, though, he
be a writer, or indeed a lawyer, Enninful quit to take does not see himself as an activist, rather as some-
up the position at i-D. His father did not speak to one who is unafraid to tackle political issues and
him for around 15 years, into the next century, until educate others, while remaining firmly within the
Grace suffered a stroke and entered a long illness. Vogue lens. “They said Black girls on the cover don’t
101
 Enninful
at London
Fashion
Week on
Feb. 16,
2019

sell,” he says. “People thought diversity equals now is that I have the platform to speak about it and
down-market, but we’ve shown that it’s just good point it out. The only way we can smash systemic
for business.” British Vogue’s digital traffic is up 51% racism is by doing it together.”
since Enninful took over. He previously edited the Activism, then, is intrinsic. Fashion is altruism, as
2008 Black issue of Vogue Italia, which featured much as story and craft, as much as the will to cap-
only Black models and Black women and sold out ture beauty. For Enninful, there is no limitation to the
in the U.S. and the U.K. in just 72 hours. radicalism possible through his line of work. Rather
Since the incident with the security guard in than the seemingly unattainable elements of style
July—which Enninful reveals was not isolated and (the £350 zirconia ring, the £2,275 coat) obscuring
had happened before (the culprit, a third-party the moral fiber of the message, the invitation to think
employee, was dismissed from headquarters)— and see more openly, the style instead leads you to
building staff have been added to the company’s it, perhaps even inviting you to assemble something
diversity-and-inclusion trainings. Enninful would similar within the boundaries of your real, more bru-
also like to see financial aid put in place for middle tal, less elevated existence. “Relatable luxury,” he
management, “because we forget sometimes that calls it, and though it’s difficult to imagine exactly
the culture of a place does not allow you to go from how one might evoke a £2,275 coat without his cus-
being a student to the top.” In 2013, he tweeted tomizing skills and magical thinking, I am inclined
about another incident, where he was seated in the to accept the notion, partly because I saw soul singer
second row at a Paris couture show while his white Celeste in a £1,450 dress in the September issue and
counterparts were placed in front. “I get racially think I might give it a try. Anything is possible. “I still
W AY N E T I P P E T T S — S H U T T E R S T O C K

profiled all the time,” he says, going right back to feel like I’m at the beginning,” he says with palpable
his first experience of being stopped and searched optimism. “I feel the fire of something new.” —With
as a teenager, which “petrified” him. “When I was reporting by CADY LANG/NEW YORK and MADELINE
younger, I would’ve been hurt and withdrawn, but ROACHE/LONDON
now I will let you know that this is not O.K. Peo-
ple tend to think that if you’re successful it elimi- Evans is the author of Ordinary People,
nates you, but it can happen any day. The difference The Wonder and 26a
102 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
 SPOOKY SEASON
A new crop of
women filmmakers
release horror
movies perfect
for our summer
of discontent

INSIDE

AMERICA’S PAST BECOMES ITS TEENS TAKE TO ITALY IN LUCA JANE FONDA WANTS YOU
PRESENT IN ANTEBELLUM GUADAGNINO’S TV DEBUT TO HELP SAVE THE WORLD

ILLUSTR ATIONS BY FR ANZISK A BARCZYK FOR TIME

Time Off is reported by Mariah Espada, Anna Purna Kambhampaty, Simmone Shah and Julia Zorthian
TimeOff Opener
MOVIES ramshackle home, a cheap way of get-
Women filmmakers ting domestic help: incapacitated by
neuroses—and drinking—Shirley can
capture the fear of 2020 barely get out of bed, let alone make

P R E V I O U S PA G E A N D T H E S E PA G E S: S H I R L E Y, S H E D I E S T O M O R R O W: N EO N ; R E L I C: I F C M I D N I G H T; A M U L E T: M A G N E T R E L E A S I N G
progress on her novel.
By Stephanie Zacharek But when she’s able to function, she’s
blazingly charismatic, with a knowledge

S
OMETIMES WOMEN REPRESENT FRAGILITY AND of witchcraft, folklore and the tarot.
innocence in horror movies, symbols of purity Shirley isn’t easy; like her husband, she
worth saving; what would King Kong have been can be manipulative to an almost mon-
without his tiny captive inamorata Fay Wray? strous degree. But her powers are finite
Other times they’re sympathetic companions or spokes- and human. When she confronts a blank
people for misunderstood monsters. But their allure goes page, she’s really staring down a demon.
further and deeper than that—especially when it’s women Her sexual currency has diminished
who are doing the looking. too. Her husband has taken up with the
Today the term the male gaze is thrown around more ostensibly more attractive wife of a fel-
loosely than its originator, filmmaker and film theorist low academic. Shirley isn’t strictly a hor-
Laura Mulvey, intended. Even when there’s a man behind ror movie, but it stirs up the murk of
the camera, the lens doesn’t always simply cater to man’s so many women’s fears: If I can’t create
desires. Women love watching other women; we identify, something of worth, does that mean I
we admire, and sometimes we feel a frisson (or more) of too am worthless? If I have a child, what
desire. Other times we recoil, though that may only inten- part of myself do I lose—and do I ever
sify our fascination. So what happens when women film- get it back? Shirley has a strange, heady
makers take control of the horror genre themselves? earthiness, like a perfume sourced from
The summer of 2020, a mini-epoch of isolation, has an enchanted, treacherous forest—one
provided the perfect conditions to see. In the past two you enter at your own risk.
months, we’ve seen horror attuned to women’s experiences Many sources of anxiety defy cat-
in canny, unnerving ways. Most of the women in these egorization by gender: men must feel as
movies (all available to rent or purchase on streaming plat- much stress as women do when it comes
forms) aren’t heroic in the superhero sense. But they’re
also not the girl who needs to be saved.

IN AMULET, the directorial debut from actor Romola Garai

(who also wrote the script), an ex-soldier from Eastern Eu-
rope, Tomaz (Alec Secareanu), has taken refuge in London,
working odd jobs and sleeping in a flophouse. He finds a
temporary home in a decrepit house with a young woman,
Magda (Carla Juri), who dutifully cares for her ailing
mother, kept locked in a room upstairs.
Magda appears to be the trapped innocent, the woman
who needs saving; she’s also a fabulous cook—but what,
exactly, is she serving up? Garai has some grim fun with
notions of what men expect women to be vs. who they
really are. The movie is marred by a confusing coda that
muddies its ending, but it does feature one enduring
image: a squirmy, newborn batlike thing that emerges
from a womb with all its teeth. If that’s not a childbirth-
anxiety metaphor, I’m not sure what is.
Sometimes the scariest things we give birth to aren’t,
at least literally, living things. In Shirley, directed by Jose-
phine Decker and based on a novel by Susan Scarf Mer-
rell, Elisabeth Moss plays a fictionalized version of Shirley
Jackson, the author of the elegantly chilling 1959 ghost
novel The Haunting of Hill House. Moss’s Shirley is mar-
ried to a seemingly jovial Bennington academic (Michael
Stuhlbarg) who actually exerts brutish control over her.
He invites two young newlyweds, Rose and Fred (Odessa
Young and Logan Lerman), to move into their comfortably
106 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
to doing right by an elderly parent. But find a safer place for her mother to live. sometimes surprisingly funny existen-
I’m not sure a man could have made She visits a nursing home, where the tial thriller She Dies Tomorrow, writer-
Relic. Emily Mortimer and Bella Heath- manager says with businesslike cheer- director Amy Seimetz burrows deep
cote play Kay and Sam, a mother and fulness, “Think of it as independent into some of our dumbest 3 a.m. fears,
daughter who become alarmed when living with the edges taken off.” It’s the and wonders aloud, What if they’re not
they learn that Kay’s mother Edna movie’s most chilling line. so dumb? Kate Lyn Sheil plays Amy,
hasn’t been seen for days. They drive Director Natalie Erika James—who a young woman who becomes seized
to her remote house, where they poke co-wrote the script with Christian with a fear she can’t explain: she’s cer-
around her things, tidying up and tak- White—uses horror-palette colors to tain she’s going to die the next day. In a
ing stock of all the place explore tensions endemic panic, she calls her closest friend, Jane
markers we use to track ex- The things to mothers and daughters. (Jane Adams), begging her to come over.
actly where our parents are that scare There’s nothing supernatural Jane shows up and tries to talk sense
at as they age. There’s some
shriveled fruit in a bowl;
women the about any of that. But anyone
who has watched a parent age
into her friend—only to return home,
get into her pj’s and suddenly feel para-
little Post-it reminders are most are will recognize Kay’s anguish lyzed by the same fear. When Jane con-
marked with phrases already as she traces the changes in fesses her anxiety to others—to her
like TURN OFF THE STOVE. inside them Edna’s behavior and bear- brother (Chris Messina), to the doctor
The next morning, Edna— ing. Relic’s ending is an em- to whom she goes for treatment (Josh
played by Australian actor Robyn brace of terror and tenderness. So many Lucas)—they too downplay her distress,
Nevin—appears in the kitchen, as if horror-film makers start out with great only to find themselves captive to the
she’d never gone missing. But some- ideas and don’t know how to wrap them same debilitating panic minutes later.
thing is very wrong. Edna is herself—yet up. James caps off her debut feature with She Dies Tomorrow takes place in a
not. One minute her eyes dance with an operatic flourish that feels earned. world much like the one we’re living in
warmth; the next they’ve gone cold, right now, one that feels untrustworthy.
seeing her own family members as hos- IF OUR IMAGINATIONS are capable of Yet what if it’s not the greater world but
tile strangers. Kay, meanwhile, is filled conjuring great horrors as well as won- ourselves we can’t trust? Fear of death
with guilt over the fact that her relation- der, here’s a question: Can we pass on isn’t specific to women, obviously—
ship with Edna hasn’t been particularly our most acute fears, virus-style, to the male characters in Seimetz’s movie
amicable. She also thinks it’s time to others? In her shivery, evocative and are susceptible to it too. But maybe,
given women’s often complex relation-
ship with aging, our fear of death has a
slightly different tenor. In Shirley, the
matronly, middle-aged protagonist is
not only unable to write, which is her
chief measure of her own self-worth,
but her husband has also taken up with
a supposedly superior woman—and
isn’t the moment we lose faith in our
own magnetism a small death? Watch-
ing our parents age, as Kay does in Relic,
is a test of our mettle when we see the
traits that have calcified in our forebears
begin to manifest themselves in us. In
Amulet, the exhausted Magda has a dif-
ferent problem: she’s simply waiting for
her mother to die so she can be free.
All of these movies were conceived
and made before we had any sense of
how a worldwide pandemic would
shape and circumscribe our lives. Yet
all speak of constricted freedom, of
carrying on with life until it decides it’s
through with us. They’re about all the
things we can’t protect ourselves from,
what we used to call, in more innocent
times, fear of the unknown. Now we
know what to fear—only to realize that
knowing isn’t necessarily better. □
107
TimeOff Movies
REVIEW
Dancing way
too fast
IN FRENCH DIRECTOR
Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties,
an 11-year-old French girl
from an upright Senegalese
Muslim family, Amy (Fathia
Youssouf), becomes en-
tranced with a group of girls
who have formed a dance
troupe, eager to show off
their skills at an upcoming
competition. They rebuff
her at first—Amy is shy and
retreating. Then she picks
up some racy moves from
grownup dancers in music
△ videos, earning the group’s
Monáe carries the torch, and she knows how to use it dubious approval.
Cuties—originally titled
REVIEW Mignonnes—earned Dou-
couré a directing award at
Slavery’s horror, played Sundance earlier this year,
out in the present though it has since drawn
By Stephanie Zacharek controversy over fears that
it sexualizes young girls. But
EVEN IF WE DIDN’T LIVE IN A COUN- picture that seeks both to entertain and that view of Cuties misses the
try where a shockingly large fraction of provoke, rather than to simply punish point: eager impatience to be-
people think Confederate monuments its audience. Some of Antebellum’s more come a woman is part of girl-
are A-O.K., Gerard Bush and Christo- brutal scenes are difficult to watch, but hood, a stage that Doucouré
pher Renz’s Antebellum would resonate most of its violence is blunt, righteous explores with honesty and in-
like the boom of a Union Army cannon. and gratifying. And in the midst of the tegrity. For Amy, womanhood
If you’ve seen the trailer, you already story’s sobering ambience, Bush and represents the promise of
know the twist: Janelle Monáe plays a Renz know the value of a well-placed having some control over her
slave named Eden on a plantation some- joke: when a white restaurant hostess life. Little wonder she’s rush-
where, ostensibly, in the Civil War–era shows Veronica and her party to the ing toward it. Only grownups
South. Escape from the property— worst table in the house, her best friend, know how fleeting childhood
overseen by a cruel Confederate general played by Gabourey Sidibe, sets the really is. —S.Z.
(Eric Lange)—is impossible. Worse yet, woman straight and then fumes behind
there’s no escape from this life, which her back, “The caucasity!” CUTIES streams on
isn’t Eden’s real life at all. She’s really It’s Monáe, though, always as elec- Netflix beginning Sept. 9
Veronica Henley, a successful sociolo- trifying an actor as she is a singer, who
gist and writer with a loving husband sets the film ablaze. Veronica’s boldness
and daughter. For reasons Veronica doesn’t vanish when she’s forced into
A N T E B E L L U M : M AT T K E N N E DY— L I O N S G AT E ; C U T I E S : N E T F L I X

can’t comprehend, she’s been dropped the role of Eden; it lies in wait, coiled
into a nightmare that looks an awful lot like a cobra. “They’re stuck in the past.
like real-life American history. We are the future,” Veronica says to a
Even if Antebellum’s trailer gives the group of Black women gathered to hear
game away, it still holds the movie’s most her speak, but the line belongs to all of
effective secrets close. The opening is history’s Edens, too. Monáe speaks for
magisterial and chilling, a sweeping shot them as well, in a story where ghosts
that captures both the grand beauty of triumph not just over the past, but also
the Southern landscape and the savage over an insidiously threatening present.
horror of these characters’ altered lives. △
Bush and Renz keep careful control ANTEBELLUM streams on various Youssouf, right, as Amy:
over the tone: this is a tense, thoughtful platforms beginning Sept. 18 rushing toward womanhood
108 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
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TimeOff Television
◁
Call her by his name:
Caitlin (Seamón) and Fraser
(Grazer) complete each other

son. Characters are more flexible in

their identities than meets the eye. Gua-
dagnino lingers on blurred binaries—
straight and gay, Black and white, ado-
lescence and adulthood, love and hate.
The base is, itself, a liminal space: a tiny
American dot on the map of Italy.

IT’S A LOVELY, if increasingly com-

mon, theme—one that is fleshed out
in languid scenes of beach trips, street
festivals, all-night parties. When Cait-
lin, Fraser and their friends get swept
up in collective ecstasy, still shots
freeze the action, as if to commemo-
rate the brief fusion of so many con-
sciousnesses. The cultural references,
REVIEW from Frank Ocean on the soundtrack
Guadagnino tries TV to a peach pie that sent me back to the,
er, juiciest scene of Guadagnino’s own
in We Are Who We Are masterpiece, serve a real, emotional
By Judy Berman purpose. When an intoxicated Black
boy tries to prove to a rival that he has
FRASER IS AN ANGSTY 14-YEAR-OLD NEW YORKER WITH depth, what comes out is a line from
painted fingernails and a fuzzy upper lip. He reads William S. Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” (which it-
Burroughs, listens to androgynous ’70s singer Klaus Nomi and self quotes Alice Walker’s The Color
twirls derisively through basketball games, as though mock- Purple): “Alls my life I has to fight.”
ing the very idea of sports. Caitlin, meanwhile, is part of a wild An inscrutable character suddenly be-
clique. She has a boyfriend but seems ambivalent about sex. comes slightly more legible.
A beautiful late bloomer, she’s begun to have an effect on guys Such moments, when time dilates
that incites fearsome outbursts from her older brother. Some- and an audiovisual medium achieves al-
times she puts on a loose button-down shirt, stuffs her long most tactile vividness, are Guadagnino’s
wavy hair into a cap and lets girls her age mistake her for a boy. ‘This is trademark. Yet his sensibility doesn’t
In We Are Who We Are—a sensual, immersive but weirdly about the fully translate to TV. While a movie is
inert HBO drama from Call Me by Your Name and Suspiria di- bodies self-contained, We Are Who We Are
rector Luca Guadagnino—the teens are interlocking puzzle and souls doesn’t generate enough narrative mo-
pieces. They become neighbors when Fraser’s (Jack Dylan of now.’ mentum in early episodes to either hook
Grazer) mom Sarah (Chloë Sevigny) is named commander weekly viewers or fuel an eight-hour
of a U.S. Army base in Italy, uprooting him as well as her wife LUCA GUADAGNINO, binge. The distinction between film and
to IndieWire, on what
Maggie (Alice Braga). After Fraser catches Caitlin (Jordan differentiates his TV has been whittled down to near non-
Kristine Seamón) in drag, accepting what her MAGA-hat- TV debut from Call existence, now that the pandemic has
wearing dad would surely not, Fraser introduces her to the Me by Your Name made all video into home video. Auteurs
concept of nonbinary gender identity. She helps him feel less from David Lynch to Paolo Sorrentino
alone in a strange land. They make each other make sense. to Jane Campion have adapted their sig-
The show develops characters and relationships to the nature styles to a serialized format. But
near exclusion of plot, with the first two episodes covering that doesn’t mean every transition to
Fraser’s arrival at the base from his perspective, then again serialized storytelling will be seamless.
from Caitlin’s. When the story finally starts to move, what Guadagnino, for one, might have to set-
emerges isn’t a galvanizing problem so much as a sense that tle for being a master filmmaker.
each character, no matter how seemingly clear, will come to
surprise us. Sarah is dominant at work and in her marriage WE ARE WHO WE ARE debuts Sept. 14
but absorbs violent attacks from her emotionally disturbed on HBO

110 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020

 REVIEW

A murder case that won’t die

ERROL MORRIS .. . IN FRONT OF THE that his family was slaughtered by a
camera? The jarring sight of the iconic Manson-like band of hippies were true?
documentarian sitting for an interview A teen named Helena Stoeckley did,
is the first hint that FX’s A Wilderness after all, repeatedly confess to being in
of Error isn’t typical true-crime fare. his home that night.
The next clue is that the series revis- Smerling’s haunting film-noir visual
its the case of Jeffrey MacDonald, style succeeds at reinvigorating an old
a former Army physician convicted in story. His messy conclusion isn’t neces-
△ the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife sarily a problem. Still, I wish his Error
Keef’s (Morris) mighty pen and two daughters. One of the toughest engaged in earnest with the question
homicide cases in history, it has of why so many great minds have spent
REVIEW
preoccupied such A-list writers as Joe so much time on these murders. Might
Rude awokening McGinniss, whose 1983 best seller the polite white doctor and Princeton
Keef is on a winning streak. Fatal Vision was adapted into a hit alum have activated their empathy to an
The comic he draws, starring miniseries, and Janet Malcolm—who, in extent that most alleged killers do not?
an anthropomorphic slice of The Journalist and the Murderer, used Of course, if this case has taught us any-
toast and pat of butter, has McGinniss’s close relationship with thing, it’s that lingering questions are
just secured syndication. MacDonald as Exhibit A in a moral in- bound to reappear in the inevitable next
He’s leaving his roommates dictment of journalism. Morris wrote round of inquiry. —J.B.
behind to share a fancy his 2012 book, also titled A Wilderness
apartment with his lawyer of Error, after his obsession with the A WILDERNESS OF ERROR premieres
girlfriend. But one day, he’s case failed to yield funding for a movie. Sept. 25 on FX
minding his own business That was before The Jinx—produced
when cops surround him with by Error director Marc Smerling—made
guns drawn. One tackles true crime TV’s most bankable genre.
him. They’ve mistaken him Now, Smerling can justify
for a mugger on the loose. updating Morris’ investi-
While the confusion is quickly gation in a five-part series
cleared up, Keef (Lamorne
that borrows the filmmak-
Morris, who played New Girl’s
wonderfully weird Winston)
er’s cinematic re-enactment
is a changed man. No longer style and audio from his
W E A R E W H O W E A R E : YA N N I S D R A K O U L I D I S — H B O ; W O K E : L I A N E H E N T S C H E R — H U L U; A W I L D E R N E S S O F E R R O R : F X (3)

an apolitical cartoonist who interviews, as well as incor-

happens to be Black, he’s porating his funny, profound
suddenly a Black cartoonist voice. Like Malcolm, Morris
whose pen has a mind of its mistrusts McGinniss’s
own. (Literally—it’s voiced influential reporting.
by J.B. Smoove.) When he “What happens when
fulminates over racism at a a narrative takes the
comics convention, it upends place of reality?” he
his career. “Broke,” a pal warns asks. And like Mor-
him, “rhymes with woke.” ris, Smerling probes
Co-created by The K Chron- a counternarrative:
icles cartoonist Keith Knight, What if MacDon-
Hulu’s Woke traces Keef’s ald’s wild claim
rough path to consciousness.
Morris makes an endearing
lead, with Sasheer Zamata and
Blake Anderson rounding out
the funny cast. And despite
a title freighted with baggage, ▷
the show approaches thorny MacDonald,
issues—from race in general now 76, has
to the experiences of Black maintained for
artists—with a light touch. —J.B. the past five
decades that he
WOKE is streaming now on Hulu is innocent
111
TimeOff Books
REVIEW

On death and
friendship
By Annabel Gutterman

IT’S SEPTEMBER 2017, AND AN UNNAMED

middle-aged writer attends a lecture at a college.
Her ex-boyfriend, an author, is speaking about
the bleak future of humankind. He presents the
growing threats to civilization—cyberterrorism,
climate change, global jihadism—and offers no
sense of hope. “It was too late, we had dithered too
long,” he says. “Our society had already become
too fragmented and dysfunctional for us to fix, in
time, the calamitous mistakes we had made.”
When the lecture is over, the writer stumbles
out of the auditorium in search of a drink, which
she finds at a local café. There, she overhears a
father and daughter discuss the recent passing of
the daughter’s mother. The writer is a fly on the
wall, listening closely to their intimate conversa-
tion. It’s these moments that fill the first pages
of Sigrid Nunez’s new novel, What Are You Going
Through, which follows the unnamed writer as she
recounts a series of interactions of subtle impor-
tance. Among the people she describes are her pre-
tentious ex with the doomsday attitude, the Airbnb “Women’s stories are often sad stories,” then
host whose cat died before her stay and a woman shares the separate experiences of two women.
from her gym who is obsessed with losing weight. One contemplates what it means to grow older,
As the novel explores this tapestry of daily life, while the other has an inappropriate interaction
it comes to emphasize one specific thread: the with an elderly man. Individually, these moments
writer’s friend who is dying of cancer. While sitting may feel unrelated to the writer, but together
at a bar they used to frequent years ago, the friend they create a larger portrait of the pain she endures
tells the writer that she dislikes the word terminal. and how she tells stories to make sense of it.
“Terminal makes me think of bus stations, which This becomes important for the writer as
makes me think of exhaust fumes and creepy men she witnesses the suffering of her dying friend.
prowling for runaways,” the friend explains. This Though the situation is steeped in sadness, it’s
is when she reveals that she has obtained a eutha- never melodramatic. Nunez describes the friend’s
nasia drug. She wants to die—and she asks the plan in declarative prose, and finds the space
writer to be her companion through her final days. for humor just when it’s needed most. After the
writer tells her friend she’ll accompany her to
IT’S UNSURPRISING that Nunez’s latest book is △ the end, the friend says, “I promise to make it
concerned with death and friendship—and the vo- Nunez’s as fun as possible.”
cabulary we use to describe it all. Her last novel, eighth novel As their plan is set in motion, the question
2018 National Book Award winner The Friend, tackles that connects the pieces of What Are You Going
followed a woman in the wake of her best friend suffering Through becomes clear: At what point is the pain
and mentor’s suicide. The protagonist took in the too much? The two women don’t know the answer.
man’s Great Dane, who was too big for the minus- They are both finding it difficult to categorize
cule New York City apartment where they learned what they are going through. The friend doesn’t
to live and grieve together. Both books ask how we know how to describe her new relationship with
remember the most meaningful relationships in the writer, and simply refers to it as “all this.”
JESSE DIT TMAR— REDUX

our lives—and do so without relying on plot. The writer remarks to herself, “all this: the
In What Are You Going Through, Nunez leans inexorable, the inexpressible.” It’s a sentiment
on the writer’s introspective tendencies to the echoed throughout the book: sometimes the
point where the novel veers into essayistic terri- only words we have are insufficient to express
tory. She begins one section with the proclamation what we really want to say. 
112 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
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TimeOff Books
QUICK TALK
LIST
Can’t-miss Jane Fonda
September The activist and actor, 82, has written a new book about her experiences leading
fiction “Fire Drill Fridays,” where she was arrested weekly in the fall of 2019 while calling
for government action on climate change. The book, What Can I Do?, is presented
as a guide for those who are concerned about the issue but unsure how to help.

Do you think your book will get older voters to think about climate change
and vote with the issue in mind? They’re already thinking about it! The young
climate strikers globally have had a lot to do with that. I’m targeting the people
who notice the climate crisis and don’t know what to do about it. I’m teaching them
more about it and then giving people things to do .. . Civil disobedience has to
become the new norm. No matter who is elected in November.
TRANSCENDENT
KINGDOM You write that older women play a critical role in the movement. What do you
While her debut, Homegoing,
mean by that? First and foremost, older women generally tend to get braver, less
was a sweeping saga,
Yaa Gyasi’s follow-up is afraid of being up front in expressing their anger. Studies show that women care
more narrow in scope, more about the climate crisis. They’re willing to do something about it. But women
exploring science, faith sometimes feel insecure about the science; I wanted to give the science so they
and grief through the eyes could be more secure in that.
of a Ghanaian-American
neuroscientist.
You note that you wanted the blessing of fellow climate activists
before getting involved. Why was that? Imagine a movie star comes
popping into D.C. and starts holding these rallies every
Friday, without ever talking to the people who have been
there for a year. We met with all the major environmental
groups and the young activists, asking for their
participation and their blessing. And we got along great.

What was it like working together? Did you see

HOMELAND ELEGIES parts of your younger activist self in them?
What does it mean to Oh my God. They’re so much better than I was!
belong? The question is I’m blown away. They are really smart. They’re also very
central to playwright Ayad
Akhtar’s second novel, which
depressed—these young people are carrying grief.
follows a man of Pakistani
heritage in Trump’s America. How has your approach to activism evolved
In finding the answer, Akhtar over the years? Often in my younger years,
crafts a stunning narrative because I went pretty quickly from being
about a fractured country.
Barbarella to being an activist, I was
kind of lost and confused, so I was using
other people’s narratives. Now, it’s
my narrative that I’ve metabolized.
It’s part of me and my body.

How are the stakes different this

time? It’s all-consuming. This climate
crisis is an existential issue that has to
be dealt with if anything else is going
JACK
FONDA: AMANDA EDWARDS — GE T T Y IMAGES

Marilynne Robinson revisits to be achieved. There were issues that

the world of Gilead, Iowa, in mattered to me before, but they weren’t
the fourth installment of her life-or-death—nothing else is going to
acclaimed series. The novel matter if this isn’t solved—like the climate
explores the complications crisis is. —JUSTIN WORLAND
of American life through
the story of an ill-fated
interracial romance. ▷
—Annabel Gutterman Fonda is the author of
four personal books
114 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
10 Questions
Reed Hastings The Netflix co-CEO
on company secrets, his new book,
No Rules Rules, and chilling

D o you remember that there was a

time in this country when people
received little plastic discs in
the mail in red envelopes? That’s crazy!
We still have 2 million DVD members,
out that human taste is hugely variable.

How many people do you have working

on improving your discovery function?
It depends on the boundaries, but I’d say
because on DVD you get a comprehensive roughly 1,000 people.
selection—we have all the HBO stuff, every
movie ever made. And then of course it Are those humanists or data scientists?
works in deep rural areas where we don’t You need a mix. You have a bunch of
yet have broadband. humanists sort of generating hypotheses,
but they don’t know exactly what’s possible.
You built a company that transformed A weekly interview And then you have a bunch of data scientists
the global media landscape, yet you series with the world’s who are really good at what’s possible.
wrote a book on corporate culture, most influential CEOs
not the future of entertainment and and leaders, emailed What are you thinking hard about these
directly to you.
technology. Why? We don’t want to give Subscribe at time days? How do we share content around
away our secrets in entertainment. .com/leadership the world? Usually the linear networks,
the HBOs and ABCs of the world, are very
When you were still building the nation-specific. And we’re trying to do
company in the 2000s, I interviewed something where we have great French
you and you were pretty combative, movies in America, where we have great
maybe even a brilliant jerk. If I came German movies in the U.K. We’re try-
across that way, then it’s just personal ing to share the world’s content, and it’s
failings; it’s not intention. challenging.

Many of the rules in your book—have How much are you spending on content
a talent-dense company, pay top dollar— annually? $15 billion.
may work well at a company that’s
minting money, but are not possible Are you as impressed as the rest of
for many companies. For most of our the world by TikTok? In the earnings
corporate life, we’ve been nearly broke, letter, I talked about it, as there’s lots
losing money, and not the Yankees or the of innovation left in the world, and
Patriots. And so whatever our budget is, TikTok’s growth against YouTube and
though, we’d rather have the talent density. Facebook is quite remarkable.
I think we actually get more done with that.
As they say in business school, what
For a CEO, you have an unusual is your target addressable market?
take on making decisions. A good Humans on the Internet who enjoy
quarter would be one where I made entertainment.
no decisions, a no-hitter. I haven’t had
that yet. But mostly my job is to inspire Modest goals. Netflix and chill has
people, excite them: How can we serve become part of the popular lexicon.
C H R I S T O P H E A R C H A M B A U LT — A F P/G E T T Y I M A G E S

the customer better? I’m sort of educating, How do you feel about your corporate
coaching, cheerleading, guiding—but I’m name being part of a euphemism for
not making decisions. sexual activity? It’s not a campaign
we created. We love it that we’re
What grade would you give your search important enough to people’s lives
and discovery features, which help that they use us in various references,
subscribers find new movies and shows but we neither built that nor do we exploit
that they might enjoy? Well, internally, it. I would say it’s recognition of how
I say we suck, compared to how good we significant we’ve become for many people.
want to be in three years. It’s hard. It turns —EBEN SHAPIRO
116 TIME September 21/September 28, 2020
Makes
broccoli less
broccoli-ey.

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