A few of my articles.
Why Would a Marine Call Himself a ‘Racketeer for Capitalism’? (guest essay) - Jan. 28, 2022 - The faltering of our democracy is directly connected to the impunity with which we wage wars. Not for the first time, the violence, unaccountability and dehumanization the United States has long employed overseas is being brought home as a strategy for securing political power.
U.N. Admits Role in Cholera Epidemic in Haiti - Aug. 17, 2016 - For the first time since a cholera epidemic believed to be imported by United Nations peacekeepers began killing thousands of Haitians nearly six years ago, the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged that the United Nations played a role in the initial outbreak.
James Fields Guilty of First-Degree Murder in Death of Heather Heyer - Dec. 7, 2018 - Sixteen months after swastika-toting white supremacists swarmed the streets of Charlottesville, one of the demonstrators was convicted of first-degree murder Friday
U.S. Wants Former Salvadoran Ally to Face Justice in 1989 Massacre - Sept. 13, 2015 - This quiet shift, taking place in hidden discussions and nearly empty courtrooms, is a sign of how much has and has not changed since the end of the Cold War.
In Chapel Hill, Suspect's Rage Went Beyond a Parking Dispute - March 3, 2015 - Interviews with more than a dozen of the victims’ friends and family, lawyers, police officers and others make two central points: The students took concerted steps to appease a menacing neighbor, and none were parked in a way that would have set off an incident involving their cars.
René Préval, President of Haiti in 2010 Quake, Dies at 74 - March 3, 2017 - A man of quiet demeanor in a country with a politically raucous history, he was best known for what did not happen to him: He was neither assassinated nor overthrown.
Anti-Gay Laws Bring Backlash in Mississippi and North Carolina - April 5, 2016 - The divide between social conservatives and diversity-minded corporations widened with developments related to the rights of gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender people in both states.
Shooting Unarmed Black Man Was Self-Defense, Officer’s Lawyer Tells Charlotte Jury - Aug. 18, 2015 - The lawyer for a white Charlotte police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter concluded his defense on Tuesday by shifting accusations onto the black former college football player who died.
See more of Jonathan's work at nytimes.com
The Disappearing Schools of Puerto Rico - Sept. 12, 2019 - Over the past three years, hundreds of schools have closed across Puerto Rico. Their ruins are among the most visible
evidence of the island’s vicious circle of poor governance, neglect by Washington and environmental catastrophe.
In Exile - Jan. 13, 2016 - Deportations and violence have driven tens of thousands of people of Haitian descent from their homes in the Dominican Republic — while the world is silent.
The U.N.'s Cholera Admission and What Comes Next - Aug. 19, 2016 - This week, a phrase came out of United Nations headquarters that I thought I would never hear.
What Happened to North Carolina? - Oct. 7, 2016 - It is also Exhibit A of the partisan self-sorting that has defined national politics in recent decades; a trend that has produced violent mood swings.
Reporting on Zika When You Have Zika - Feb. 8, 2016 - There’s a lot we don’t know about the Zika virus, but there’s one thing I’m sure of: I had it last month.
How Not to Report on an Earthquake - April 28, 2015 - These myths come with consequences.
See more of Jonathan's work at nytimes.com/magazine
When America Invaded China - Jan. 17, 2022 - The Boxer Rebellion still shapes Beijing’s attitude toward the United States.
It Happened Here - Jan. 9, 2021 - Trump’s movement is a uniquely American fascism, built on a century of American imperialism.
Haiti’s Convenient Disaster - Jan. 9, 2021 - Trump’s movement is a uniquely American fascism, built on a century of American imperialism.
U.S. Intervention in Haiti Would Be a Disaster—Again - July 13, 2021 - The nation’s poverty and chaos has been shaped by Washington for decades.
In the Time of Cholera - Jan. 10, 2013 - How the U.N. created an epidemic -- then covered it up.
The U.N.’s Haitian Shell Game - Dec. 18, 2012 - Ban Ki-moon still isn't taking responsibility for Haiti's cholera outbreak.
The King and Queen of Haiti - May 4, 2015 - No country more clearly illustrates the confusing nexus of Hillary Clinton’s State Department and Bill Clinton’s foundation than Haiti—America’s poorest neighbor.
Birth of a Birthright - Oct. 31, 2018 - Meet Wong Kim Ark, the Chinese-American whose Supreme Court case changed the country.
In North Carolina, Some Democrats See Their Grim Future - Dec. 27, 2016 - The GOP's moves have many on the left worried their bare-knuckle tactics will spread nationally.
The Man Who Launched the GOP's Civil War - Oct. 1, 2015 - How a textile magnate turned the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Trump.
Did the AIDS Panic Make Trump Afraid of Haitians? - Jan. 15, 2018 - To understand this example of Trump’s racism, let’s go back to the early 1980s, when he was a thirtysomething playboy businessman in New York City.
The Clintons' Haiti Screw-Up, As Told By Hillary's Emails - Sept. 2, 2015 - The family still doesn't know how to wield its own power.
The Disasters in Afghanistan and Haiti Share the Same Twisted Root - Aug. 20, 2021 - Both Haiti and Afghanistan owe their sorry conditions to decades of direct U.S. control. Looking closely at the links between the two is essential for understanding how to respond to each in ways that help, rather than do more harm.
The Secretary-General In His Labyrinth - March 3, 2015 - When Ban Ki-moon was a child, the United Nations saved his village from a war. Can he save the U.N. from irrelevance?
Jean-Claude Duvalier Is Dead, But He Will Haunt Haiti for Years to Come - Oct. 6, 2014 - Though he was a dictator, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier is remembered best for rarely being in control.
Accountability Is the Cure for an Ailing Democracy - Jan. 20, 2021 - The United States should follow the examples of other nations that were brave enough to make their despotic leaders face justice.
The Secretary-General In His Labyrinth - March 3, 2015 - When Ban Ki-moon was a child, the United Nations saved his village from a war. Can he save the U.N. from irrelevance?
Diplomacy in the Shadow of Terror - Nov. 30, 2015 - “Paris,” I told him. He mulled this over. “Well, you be careful,” he finally offered, reassuringly.
Who Wants What in the Final Climate Deal - Dec. 11, 2015 - LE BOURGET, France—The circus ended today.
See more of Jonathan's work, including his full coverage of the 2015 Paris Climate Talks, at newrepublic.com
Historians Are Mad at the New York Times, Again. Should They Be? - May 24, 2022 - An ambitious project on Haiti and debt draws fire from the academy.
Puerto Rico’s Latest Man-Made Disaster - Jan. 17, 2020 - Centuries of colonialism as well as Trump-era corruption have led to a new humanitarian crisis.
Colonial Uprising - July 25, 2019 - The protests that brought down Puerto Rico’s governor are also about the island’s troubled relationship with the mainland.
The Red Cross Won’t Save Houston - Aug. 28, 2017 - There is too much focus on the American Red Cross in disasters such as Harvey, in a way that goes beyond any one organization.
The Truth About the Clintons and Haiti - Sept. 22, 2016 - Trump has turned Haiti into the new symbol of Bill and Hillary’s crookedness. If only things were that simple.
Not Every Concentration Camp Is Auschwitz - June 20, 2018 - Why it’s fair to use the controversial phrase in the debate over U.S. immigrant detentions.
What They Knew and When They Knew It - March 30, 2017 - New emails reveal just how soon American officials realized the U.N. had brought cholera to Haiti. What they did next helped pave the way for Trump.
The Killer Hiding in the CDC Map - April 14, 2016 - To understand what’s so insane about it, you need to know a little about two of the maps in that image and the CDC’s history with the epidemic.
See more of Jonathan's work at slate.com
Haiti's Shadow Sanitation System - March 12, 2014 - Russell Leon works under the cover of darkness as part of a small crew sworn to secrecy.
Money, Politics, and Pollution in North Carolina - May 7, 2014 - In North Carolina, the debate over whether unrestricted campaign spending represents the flourishing of democracy or its corrosion is not an abstract one. It is literally in the water.
Biden is continuing the U.S. pattern of saying Haiti’s woes aren’t our problem - Sept. 25, 2021 - The countries’ interests have long been intertwined — usually in ways that work to most Haitians’ detriment
Who suffers when disasters strike? The poorest and most vulnerable. - Sept. 1, 2017 -Policy decisions about poverty, housing and crisis management hurt low-income victims.
This is how ignorant you have to be to call Haiti a ‘shithole’-Jan. 12, 2018 - President Trump's defenders don't know anything about Haiti's history — or the United States's.
Call immigrant detention centers what they really are: concentration camps - June 9, 2019 - If we call them what they are we will be more likely to give them the attention they deserve.
As Republicans lose their grip on North Carolina, they deal one final blow - Dec. 17, 2016 - Republican lawmakers have spent years shifting the state in their favor. But as the tables turn, they’ve taken aim at incoming Democrat governor Roy Cooper.
Black votes matter: the North Carolina electors who say new law is unfair - July 19, 2015 - The month after the US supreme court relaxed oversight of its voting procedures, North Carolina passed a law critics say discriminates against the poor and non-white
Disaster aid: how US charity begins at home - Jan. 11, 2013 - On the third anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, it's time to question the US's helping hand
Jamestown: the settlement's hidden history is threatened by climate change - Aug. 5, 2015 - New discoveries have come amid a race against the vagaries of rising sea levels and the island’s acidic soil
See more of Jonathan's work at theguardian.com
The Words the AP Didn’t Want to Use (Interview) - Aug. 10, 2021 - The reporter Jonathan Katz explains how he wrestled with the sins of U.S. interventions abroad—and what to call them.
What Happened When a Nation Erased Birthright Citizenship - Nov. 12, 2018 - The Dominican Republic deported an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people of Haitian descent over three years. Those left behind live in a state of institutionalized terror.
The Legacy of a Century-Old War Is Reshaping Power in the Pacific - Aug. 10, 2017 - U.S. news outlets struggled to interpret Duterte's reference to America’s “past sins.” But Filipinos knew what he meant.
What General Pershing Was Really Doing in the Philippines - Aug. 18, 2017 - Trump has again circulated a debunked history about terrorism. The real story can tell us something more important about America.
What Happens When a Celebrity Becomes President - Feb 9., 2016 - In electing a pop star, whose five-year term ended Sunday, Haitians may have been ahead of the curve.
“The Whole Facility’s Culture Is Rotted From the Core”: What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Saw Inside the El Paso Camps - July 2, 2019 - In an interview with Jonathan Katz, AOC describes the cruelty and impunity she glimpsed at the border.
How Did a Man Who Murdered Three Muslims Receive a Presumption of Racial Innocence? - June 17, 2019 - Craig Stephen Hicks and the power of the false conditional.
Who Was Naive About Bernie Sanders Meeting the Sandinistas? - May 30, 2019- In newspaper, an atrocity forgotten.
Havana's Hotspots - Oct. 15, 2015 - Cuba is coming online, but who will control its internet?
How the Apocalypse Will Bring Out the Best in People - April 22, 2016 - After cataclysmic natural disasters, authorities tend to anticipate looting, violence, and a breakdown of social bonds. What they more often find, though, is a rugged spirit of solidarity.
The Supreme Court v. The Paris Agreement - Feb. 12, 2016 - The irony is that no one is more likely to scuttle any nation’s carbon pledge—and the Paris Agreement—than Fox’s core audience in the Republican Party, which sits at a uniquely cozy nexus of energy company money and science denial.
The Coca-Cola of Disaster Relief: What's the Red Cross Really Doing for Hurricane Sandy? - Nov. 6, 2012 - One important fact hovers over every dollar donated so far: We don't really know how, or if, that money is being spent.
The Celebrity as Hero: When Sean Penn Fought a Phantom Epidemic - Aug. 5, 2013 - Image and resume are always inseparable in Hollywood, and most of us have been living in greater Hollywood all our lives.
United States of Climate Change-Florida: 'We Don't Discuss the Cause' - Dec. 7, 2017 - A reliably Republican area of Florida is confronting the reality of climate change. Sort of.
A Seven-Month Wait for Lunch - July 25, 2013 - Why food aid needs to overhaul its delivery system.
