One of 2016s “best of” according to Longform was an essay written by Wesley Morris called The Last Taboo and after reading it I certainly understand why. This piece of writing comes from a place of obviously well thought-out questioning and personal experience, which really makes reading it feel investigative almost while also being very personal and full of pathos. It’s an exploration of a very simple idea: Black men’s penises, but Morris looks at the reaction to them rather than the men themselves. He explores sexuality in himself as a black man, he talks about films and the unspoken rules about race and nudity. Morris knew that racism is engrained in a lot of close-minded people and to approach a very specific facet of racism, hidden in pop culture may be the way to get the fact that people of color still aren’t treated with respect into the back of everyone’s mind. He uses strong examples throughout the essay that readers could not deny and is able to unravel a very specific effect of racism into an exploration of historical racism, fetishization, and dehumanization.
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anna hilbert 