Aaron Schatz

With the passage of the Bush tax cut — and in particular the revelation that a number of taxpayers won’t be benefiting from the child tax credit in the bill — a strange verbal tic seems to have developed among commentators and politicians on the right: They keep saying that millions of Americans pay no […]

In 1987 comedian Robert Townsend wrote, directed and starred in a film called Hollywood Shuffle, portraying a struggling black actor trying to make his way in Hollywood. In one of the film’s best scenes, Townsend goes to audition for a stereotypical gangster role, where the casting directors tell the aspiring actors, “What we’re looking for […]