I knew nothing about Cole before meeting him; he was just a name on a list of boys at a private school outside Boston who had volunteered to talk with me (or perhaps had had their arm twisted a bit by a counselor).
The afternoon of our first interview, I was running late. As I rushed down a hallway at the school, I noticed a boy sitting outside the library, waiting—it had to be him. He was staring impassively ahead, both feet planted on the floor, hands resting loosely on his thighs.
My first reaction was Oh no.
It was totally unfair, a scarlet letter of personal bias. Cole would later describe himself to me as a “typical tall white athlete” guy, and that is exactly what I saw. At 18, he stood more than 6 feet tall, with broad shoulders and short-clipped hair. His neck was so thick that it seemed to merge into his jawline, and he was planning to enter a military academy for college the following fall. His friends were “the jock group,” he’d tell me. “They’re what you’d expect, I guess. Let’s leave it at that.” If I had closed my eyes and described the boy I imagined would never open up to me, it would have been him.
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Denne historien er fra January - February 2020-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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'Lord, Help Us Make America Great Again' - A close reading of Trump-rally prayers
A week before Christmas, an evangelical minister named Paul Terry stood before thousands of Christians, their heads bowed, in Durham, New Hampshire, and pleaded with God for deliverance. Th e nation was in crisis, he told the Lord— racked with death and addiction, led by wicked men who “rule with imperial disdain.”
Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap - The Impossible Pad to America - I went to the Darién Gap in December with the photographer Lynsey Addario because I wanted to see for myself what people were willing to risk to get to the United States.
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An Intoxicating 500-Yearold Mystery - The Voynich Manuscript has long baffled scholars-and attracted cranks and conspiracy theorists.
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Pity the Bad Man
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The Wild Adventures of Fanny Stevenson
Her surprising marriage to Robert Louis Stevenson changed literary history.
Does the World Need a Great American Biracial Novel?
The hero of Danzy Senna’ new satire is trying, and failing, to write one.
How Greed Got Good Again
In HBO's Industry, Gen Z reveals itself to be just as moneyobsessed as the corporate raiders of Wall Street.
My Mother the Revolutionary
She cared about saving the world more than she cared about me.
HOW M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
The filmmaker weathered some of the wildest hype and harshest backlash that Hollywood has to offer. Then he found a different path.
AMERICAN FURY
For years, experts have warned of a wave of political violence. We should prepare for things to get worse before they get better.