I was recently on a flight to Charlotte, and when the flight landed two women, one Black one white, got into an argument after bumping into one another in the aisle. When they got off the plane, the white woman turned to the Black woman, red with anger, and called her the n-word.

It is truly difficult to express, with the language we have at our disposal, how abhorrent the existence of the death penalty is. Firing squad. Electric chair. Lethal injection. It’s all disgraceful.