At The Guardian, women authors including Siri Hustvedt and Joyce Carol Oates reflect on how much Hillary Clinton’s gender affected the outcome of the 2016 election.
The New Yorker has collected essays from sixteen writers—including Toni Morrison, Atul Gawande, Mary Karr, and Larry Wilmore—on the reasons for and the effects of Trump’s win on the country.
On a BBC panel, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Americana, offered this response to R. Emmett Tyrrell, the editor-in-chief of American Spectator, after he stated that Trump was not racist throughout his campaign: “I am sorry, but if you are a white man, you don’t get to define what racism is.”
Ishmael Reed—whose novels include Mumbo Jumbo and The Freelance Pallbearers—has written an incendiary response to the presidential election titled “White Nationalism’s Last Stand.” He begins by taking issue with the notion that many Trump supporters feel that they’ve been “forgotten” or “left behind.” “Left behind? They belong to unions that have excluded blacks for decades. His FBI, NYPD, Secret Service fans, and thousands of police whose unions endorsed Trump–left behind?”
John Oliver returned to Last Week Tonight and dedicated the entire show to Trump’s election: “It is going to be easy for things to start feeling normal,” Oliver said, “so keep reminding yourself: This is not normal.”
Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who bankrupted Gawker by supporting Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the company, will join Trump’s transition team. Thiel will assist in “vetting presidential appointments and selecting which of Trump’s campaign promises will become the policies of America’s 45th president.”
The Trump transition team has been accused of plagiarism after using information and exact wording written by the Center for Presidential Transition on its own website without credit. James Grimmelmann, a Cornell University law professor, said that it was unlikely that the copy and pasting would lead to any legal challenges: "When someone is using something in service to the nation, we give them a bit more leeway."
When the news gets too grim, you can always turn to fiction podcasts. The Times recommends eleven standout shows, including The Truth, Limetown, and The Message.
