Jelani Cobb

Queens native, Dean @ColumbiaJourn. Staff Writer @NewYorker. Left-hander, check my doc Policing the Police2020: https://t.co/OrlHpwJWU3

Articles

A Tumultuous Spring Semester Finally Comes to a Close

1 week ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Jelani Cobb

Share On a morning in May, Mordecai Johnson, the president of Howard University, testified before a congressional subcommittee about the prevalence of far-left ideas among his faculty and students. Given that the federal government has historically provided funding for the university’s budget, through an annual allocation, Johnson had a difficult choice to make.
A Tumultuous Spring Semester Finally Comes to a Close

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Jelani Cobb

On a morning in May, Mordecai Johnson, the president of Howard University, testified before a congressional subcommittee about the prevalence of far-left ideas among his faculty and students. Given that the federal government has historically provided funding for the university’s budget, through an annual allocation, Johnson had a difficult choice to make.
Ryan Coogler’s Road to “Sinners”

1 month ago | portside.org | Jelani Cobb

Ryan Coogler’s Road to “Sinners” Published May 4, 2025 The decade-long dominance of Marvel Studios in American popular cinema has insured that, among other things, we all recognize an origin story when we see one. To the extent that such neat inception points exist in real life, an afternoon at an aging movie palace on the corner of Lake Park and Grand Avenues, in central Oakland, California, provided one for the filmmaker Ryan Coogler.
Ryan Coogler’s Road to “Sinners”

1 month ago | newyorker.com | Jelani Cobb

To prepare for “Black Panther,” Coogler made his first trip to Africa, and spent several weeks travelling there. He told me, “I realized, All right, African Americans are extremely African. We may be more African than we know.” That discovery shaped the way he understood Mississippi’s complicated past for “Sinners.” “With this film it was, like, Oh, we affected this place,” he told me.
Trust Issues: Credibility, Credulity, and the Crisis of Journalism

2 months ago | cjr.org | Jelani Cobb

Sign up for The Media Today, CJRâs daily newsletter. On Monday, Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, delivered the 2025 Reuters Memorial Lecture at Oxford University. ***Journalism is the work of reporting the news. Often events transpire at such a pace that it is difficult to find a discrete beginning and end with which to frame oneâs reporting.
Jelani Cobb on Jay-Z's Criminal Justice Reform Efforts

Dec 4, 2024 | rollingstone.com | Jelani Cobb

December 4, 2024 Jay-Z has put significant resources into the fight for criminal justice reform.
How Trump’s Election Victory in 2024 Differs from 2016

Nov 7, 2024 | newyorker.com | Jelani Cobb

Eight years ago on Election Night, as the returns came in from North Carolina, where I was reporting, I made a panicked phone call to a friend. I told him that I feared the country was sliding into the hands of a demi-fascist, and that it might even be time to start considering an exit plan.
Rationalizing the Horrors of Israel’s War in Gaza | The New Yorker

Oct 14, 2024 | archive.ph | Isaac Chotiner |Evan Osnos |Adam Gopnik |Jelani Cobb

You yourself said they weren’t going to completely defeat Hamas. But I want to bring this back to what you said about the streets of London. One of the things that has been so disturbing about antisemitism, especially after October 7th, is American Jews or British Jews being blamed for what the Israeli government is doing. I agree this is disgusting, but it seems that this has somehow led a lot of American and British Jews, like yourself, to support whatever the Israeli government is doing.
What the Polls Really Say About Black Men’s Support for Kamala Harris

Oct 14, 2024 | rsn.org | Jelani Cobb

After the 2016 election, progressives blamed white women for Hillary Clinton’s loss. This year, Black men have come under special scrutiny. In early October, just before Kamala Harris spoke at the Dort Financial Center, in Flint, Michigan, the N.B.A. Hall of Famer Magic Johnson took the stage to offer a few insights about the candidate and her campaign. The choice of Johnson, who is a Michigander, to introduce Harris made sense for several reasons.
What the Polls Really Say About Black Men’s Support for Kamala Harris

Oct 13, 2024 | newyorker.com | Jelani Cobb

In early October, just before Kamala Harris spoke at the Dort Financial Center, in Flint, Michigan, the N.B.A. Hall of Famer Magic Johnson took the stage to offer a few insights about the candidate and her campaign. The choice of Johnson, who is a Michigander, to introduce Harris made sense for several reasons.