An upcoming issue of The New Republic — the magazine’s first since a large number of its writers and editors resigned in December — will grapple with TNR’s “perceived legacy of racism” in a 4,000-word cover story by Canadian journalist Jeet Heer.
Last month, amid the barrage of criticism aimed at owner Chris Hughes — who’d just seen most of his staff resign in protest after Hughes forced out editor Franklin Foer — a number of writers offered pointed critiques of the way the magazine has handled issues of race over the years. On Dec. 5, Heer — who has a habit of publishing in-depth arguments, bit by bit, via his Twitter account — posted a lengthy takedown of TNR, calling it a “voice of technocratic Ivy League liberalism” and slamming the magazine for only treating the topic of race as “a thought experiment.” On Dec. 9, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates similarly scolded TNR in an essay, writing that “black lives didn’t matter much at all to the magazine.”
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You can read Heer’s entire story here.
