https://www.anativeson.org/p/an-epidemic-of-selfishness
An Epidemic of Selfishness
Eddie
September 14, 2026
A Native Son
Substack
There is a moment in James Baldwin’s interview with Dr. Kenneth Clark on May 24, 1963, that keeps drawing my attention. Against the backdrop of the horrors of Birmingham and in the immediate aftermath of a meeting with Robert Kennedy who, with a kind of insufferable arrogance, dismissed the idea of his brother escorting a small Black girl to school in the deep South as a “meaningless moral gesture,” Baldwin judged the character of the country and found it corrupted.
Babies had been beaten. Dogs sicced on innocents. Firehoses, with enough pressure to rip the bark off trees, were directed at children. Ours, in his view, was a nation full of “moral monsters.”
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This moral apathy – this death of the heart – strikes me as a particularly apt description of our current days. Cruelty, selfishness, greed, and hatred have overrun our politics and policies. Children are thrown in detention centers. People disappeared. And politicians post photographs of men in chains with the caption, “Next Stop, Haiti.”
We talk about an epidemic of loneliness and what it portends for our democracy: that people are isolated and lack meaningful social connections. But what of the epidemic of selfishness, the death of the heart, that makes men and women so cruel?
Over the last forty years or so, this country has been guided by a political and economic philosophy that has centered selfishness as the key to well-being. We have been transformed from people in community with others into self-interested persons in competition and rivalry with each other. The sole measure of value has been material gain. The role of government reduced to ensuring the efficient workings of the economy and national defense (often in the service of American corporations). Social safety nets shredded as the most vulnerable among us have been demonized. We have seen the massive transfer of wealth from working people to the richest of the rich. And we now confront the monstrous consequences of it all.
Liberty stands as a synonym for selfishness. Empathy considered a sin.
Much of this has been motivated by the ongoing effort to undo the gains of the freedom movements of the mid-20th century. The inheritors of the people Baldwin described in 1963 as moral monsters now seek to rip apart the very idea of the state that emerged in the aftermath of the civil rights movement.
That hatefulness joined with a view of political economy gave birth to this “zombie democracy.” A nation full of the walking dead (no wonder “wokeness” presents such a threat).
Appeals to charity and philanthropy as an indication of the goodness of American character won’t hide the reality of this deep malaise. These are often sentimental gestures. Virtue performances mostly. A gift masquerading as justice. Sentimentality buries the harsh reality underneath what Wallace Stevens called “a failure of feeling.” It masks cruelty.
But in our days people don’t even hide behind sentimentality. They are simply mean-spirited and cruel.
Something more is required to address this epidemic of selfishness. We must attack the root causes: the idea that the country belongs only to white people, an economic system that assumes that some people are disposable, that material gain is our primary source of value, and that government’s responsibility is limited to economics and defense.
We have to imagine a robust idea of the public good that assumes that every human being has dignity and standing. We need a revival in this country that gives voice to a social contract that states our basic obligations to one another. Not to retrieve some idea of an Edenic past. The fantasy of American goodness will only seal our fate. But a revival of our moral and political imaginations to make real, once and for all, the Beloved Community. A new politics for a new America.
That will require an antidote to the selfishness – the death of the heart – that has covered the land in the darkness and made moral monsters of so many.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/us/ice-shooting-austin-texas.html
ICE Agent Shoots Venezuelan Immigrant in Austin, Local Authorities Say
The shooting in the Texas capital is the latest by federal immigration agents as the Trump administration intensifies its deportation effort.
Listen · 7:21 minutes
Venezuelan Immigrant Injured in ICE Shooting in Austin
VIDEO: 1:20
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and injured an immigrant from Venezuela on Sunday. It was the second ICE shooting to occur in Texas since July.Credit: Lauren McGaughy/The New York Times
by Christina Morales, Lauren McGaughy and Devon Lum
Lauren McGaughy reported from Austin, Tex.
Updated Sept. 21, 2026,
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot an immigrant from Venezuela in the torso in Austin, Texas, local authorities said, the latest violent episode to occur as the Trump administration pushes to increase deportations.
The injured man, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken to a hospital, but his wife was not allowed to see him, said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said at the hospital that she is now representing him and his family.
Later on Sunday evening, representatives from the hospital told Mr. Garces Perez’s wife that he had been released hours earlier into ICE custody. Ms. Lincoln-Goldfinch added that they did not know where he was.
Mr. Garces Perez was delivering for DoorDash at the time that he shot inside of a blue Toyota Corolla by an ICE agent, his wife, Elizdar, said in an interview in Spanish.
After the shooting under a highway overpass in Northwest Austin, Mr. Garces Perez called his wife, crying, to say that he was in pain after immigration agents fired at him in the vehicle. When she got to the scene, officers investigating the incident told her he had already been taken to a hospital.
The Northwest Austin area is home to many Latino residents and has had a recent surge in immigration activity, Austin city officials said at a news conference about the incident.
Local authorities said that many details about what led up to the shooting and in the moments after remained murky. Officials from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to several requests for comment.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said they received a request for assistance from ICE at around 12:50 p.m. local time regarding a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla. The shooting took place before troopers arrived.
It was unclear whether Mr. Garces Perez had been the target of an immigration operation, but Lisa Davis, the Austin police chief, said at the news conference that the shooting had occurred after a “small foot pursuit.”
Videos on social media that were verified by The Times did shed some light on the incident.
A video live streamed on Facebook at approximately 12:48 p.m. local time captured audio of sirens blaring and tires screeching as the camera whips around to show Mr. Garces Perez’s blue Toyota Corolla and an unmarked Ford SUV driven by a federal immigration officer. Both vehicles are stopped and facing in opposite directions.
The video then shows an officer exiting the driver’s side of the unmarked SUV and circling around to the back passenger side of the Toyota Corolla. The immigration officer remains to the side of the vehicle and does not appear to move out of the way as it rolls forward slightly.
Three gunshots rang out, and the Toyota continued rolling forward slowly before coming to a stop. The video then shows the officer running to the driver side of the vehicle.
Footage recorded moments later shows two bullet holes in the Toyota’s back passenger window, as well as a large dent on the front passenger side door. It showed that Mr. Garces Perez remained seated in the driver’s seat, where he applied pressure to his left shoulder with his right hand.
An officer wearing a vest marked “ERO” — denoting the Enforcement and Removal Operations branch of ICE — then walked from the unmarked SUV back to the driver side of the Toyota Corolla, holding a phone to his ear. He did not appear to administer first aid to the driver.
Another video filmed minutes after the gunshots rang out shows Mr. Garces Perez still sitting in the Toyota, holding his shoulder without any signs of medical assistance. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and an Austin police officer helped remove him from the vehicle, and an ICE officer placed him in handcuffs.
The video then shows officers sitting him down on the curb. He appears to be bleeding from a wound in his upper left back. An Austin police officer then put on gloves, but the footage does not show any of the officers providing medical care.
“I’m very angry about this,” Mayor Kirk Watson of Austin said at the news conference. But, he added, “I’m not surprised at all. It’s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days and the chaos that we see it performing and fomenting.”
The violence in Austin was the second Texas ICE shooting in recent months. President Trump has intensified his deportation effort with more targeted operations, which attract less attention, since two civilians were shot and killed during a crackdown in Minneapolis in January.
VIDEO: 1:20
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and injured an immigrant from Venezuela on Sunday. It was the second ICE shooting to occur in Texas since July.Credit: Lauren McGaughy/The New York Times
by Christina Morales, Lauren McGaughy and Devon Lum
Lauren McGaughy reported from Austin, Tex.
Updated Sept. 21, 2026,
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot an immigrant from Venezuela in the torso in Austin, Texas, local authorities said, the latest violent episode to occur as the Trump administration pushes to increase deportations.
The injured man, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was taken to a hospital, but his wife was not allowed to see him, said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said at the hospital that she is now representing him and his family.
Later on Sunday evening, representatives from the hospital told Mr. Garces Perez’s wife that he had been released hours earlier into ICE custody. Ms. Lincoln-Goldfinch added that they did not know where he was.
Mr. Garces Perez was delivering for DoorDash at the time that he shot inside of a blue Toyota Corolla by an ICE agent, his wife, Elizdar, said in an interview in Spanish.
After the shooting under a highway overpass in Northwest Austin, Mr. Garces Perez called his wife, crying, to say that he was in pain after immigration agents fired at him in the vehicle. When she got to the scene, officers investigating the incident told her he had already been taken to a hospital.
The Northwest Austin area is home to many Latino residents and has had a recent surge in immigration activity, Austin city officials said at a news conference about the incident.
Local authorities said that many details about what led up to the shooting and in the moments after remained murky. Officials from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to several requests for comment.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said they received a request for assistance from ICE at around 12:50 p.m. local time regarding a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla. The shooting took place before troopers arrived.
It was unclear whether Mr. Garces Perez had been the target of an immigration operation, but Lisa Davis, the Austin police chief, said at the news conference that the shooting had occurred after a “small foot pursuit.”
Videos on social media that were verified by The Times did shed some light on the incident.
A video live streamed on Facebook at approximately 12:48 p.m. local time captured audio of sirens blaring and tires screeching as the camera whips around to show Mr. Garces Perez’s blue Toyota Corolla and an unmarked Ford SUV driven by a federal immigration officer. Both vehicles are stopped and facing in opposite directions.
The video then shows an officer exiting the driver’s side of the unmarked SUV and circling around to the back passenger side of the Toyota Corolla. The immigration officer remains to the side of the vehicle and does not appear to move out of the way as it rolls forward slightly.
Three gunshots rang out, and the Toyota continued rolling forward slowly before coming to a stop. The video then shows the officer running to the driver side of the vehicle.
Footage recorded moments later shows two bullet holes in the Toyota’s back passenger window, as well as a large dent on the front passenger side door. It showed that Mr. Garces Perez remained seated in the driver’s seat, where he applied pressure to his left shoulder with his right hand.
An officer wearing a vest marked “ERO” — denoting the Enforcement and Removal Operations branch of ICE — then walked from the unmarked SUV back to the driver side of the Toyota Corolla, holding a phone to his ear. He did not appear to administer first aid to the driver.
Another video filmed minutes after the gunshots rang out shows Mr. Garces Perez still sitting in the Toyota, holding his shoulder without any signs of medical assistance. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and an Austin police officer helped remove him from the vehicle, and an ICE officer placed him in handcuffs.
The video then shows officers sitting him down on the curb. He appears to be bleeding from a wound in his upper left back. An Austin police officer then put on gloves, but the footage does not show any of the officers providing medical care.
“I’m very angry about this,” Mayor Kirk Watson of Austin said at the news conference. But, he added, “I’m not surprised at all. It’s happened in other cities with the nature of ICE and the way ICE is doing its business these days and the chaos that we see it performing and fomenting.”
The violence in Austin was the second Texas ICE shooting in recent months. President Trump has intensified his deportation effort with more targeted operations, which attract less attention, since two civilians were shot and killed during a crackdown in Minneapolis in January.
Bullet holes and car damage from a blue Toyota Corolla involved in the shooting. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh/Reuters
In July, an ICE agent in Houston shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in the abdomen while he was on his way to work at a construction site with three other men. Mr. Araujo, a father, a husband and business owner who had moved to the United States 35 years ago from Mexico died at a hospital.
Federal officials later said that Mr. Araujo had not been the operation’s intended target.
Less than a week after Mr. Araujo’s death, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while he headed to work in Biddeford, Maine. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE has said publicly whether he was the target of an enforcement operation.
More than 20 people have been fired on by federal immigration agents since Mr. Trump took office in January 2025. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed in those shootings, nearly all of which involved officers firing at people in vehicles.
Months before the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, a 23-year-old American man named Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by an ICE officer in South Padre Island, Texas.
Mr. Watson, the mayor, and other city officials called on federal authorities to be open and truthful about the shooting. Information initially reported by D.H.S. in other shootings has, in some cases, proven to be inaccurate.
Protesters quickly descended upon the scene of the shooting on Sunday, where more than 200 people shouted in English and Spanish at federal, state and local officers investigating the incident.
“There is a reason that people in Austin and across the country are deeply suspicious of anything that ICE has said, and there is a reason that people are hurting right now when they hear about this having happened in their city, even before they know all the facts,” said Rep. Greg Casar, who represents the area in Congress.
Miriam Jordan and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
Lauren McGaughy is the Texas politics correspondent for The New York Times, writing about the ways that policymakers in the second largest state are changing lives for their citizens and influencing American politics.
Devon Lum is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times, specializing in open-source techniques and visual analysis.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 21, 2026, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: One Person Is Shot During Encounter With ICE in Austin. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper |
See more on: U.S. Politics
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/converse-sneaker-ad-kkk.html
In July, an ICE agent in Houston shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in the abdomen while he was on his way to work at a construction site with three other men. Mr. Araujo, a father, a husband and business owner who had moved to the United States 35 years ago from Mexico died at a hospital.
Federal officials later said that Mr. Araujo had not been the operation’s intended target.
Less than a week after Mr. Araujo’s death, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian immigrant, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while he headed to work in Biddeford, Maine. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE has said publicly whether he was the target of an enforcement operation.
More than 20 people have been fired on by federal immigration agents since Mr. Trump took office in January 2025. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed in those shootings, nearly all of which involved officers firing at people in vehicles.
Months before the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, a 23-year-old American man named Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by an ICE officer in South Padre Island, Texas.
Mr. Watson, the mayor, and other city officials called on federal authorities to be open and truthful about the shooting. Information initially reported by D.H.S. in other shootings has, in some cases, proven to be inaccurate.
Protesters quickly descended upon the scene of the shooting on Sunday, where more than 200 people shouted in English and Spanish at federal, state and local officers investigating the incident.
“There is a reason that people in Austin and across the country are deeply suspicious of anything that ICE has said, and there is a reason that people are hurting right now when they hear about this having happened in their city, even before they know all the facts,” said Rep. Greg Casar, who represents the area in Congress.
Miriam Jordan and Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
Lauren McGaughy is the Texas politics correspondent for The New York Times, writing about the ways that policymakers in the second largest state are changing lives for their citizens and influencing American politics.
Devon Lum is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times, specializing in open-source techniques and visual analysis.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 21, 2026, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: One Person Is Shot During Encounter With ICE in Austin. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper |
See more on: U.S. Politics
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/converse-sneaker-ad-kkk.html
Converse Removes Ad That Drew Comparisons to K.K.K. Imagery
“This should not have happened and we will do better,” said Converse, which apologized for the ad. Critics said it depicted a Ku Klux Klan robe and a lynching.
Listen · 3:15 minutes
Converse apologized and removed an advertisement after a backlash. Credit: Andrew Kelly/Reuters
by Emmett Lindner
September 19, 2026
New York Times
The footwear and apparel company Converse said this week that it had taken down a sneaker advertisement that set off intense backlash as social media users said it was evocative of Ku Klux Klan imagery.
One image in the campaign featured the bottom half of a person wearing a white garment, which commentators likened to a Klan robe, while the figure holds a pair of black sneakers.
The lighting is such that the shoes, critics said, appear to be dangling in the air as if someone were being hanged.
The shadows also create the outline of a long, tapering triangle that was compared to the pointed hood of a Klan robe, an image of racism indelibly seared into American history.
“As a Black man and someone who loves Converse shoes, I find this very insensitive and distasteful,” Kendall Peacock, who runs the Education Firm, a tutoring and mentorship program in Atlanta, said on social media.
“Deliberate racist intent hasn’t been established yet, but that doesn’t erase the impact,” he added.
Stephanie Schwartz, a social justice photographer, wrote on social media, “Every photographer can tell you, whoever did this ad knew EXACTLY what they were doing.”
Online commentators said that, taken together, the design evoked a lynching.
“We’re sorry,” Converse said in an emailed statement on Saturday. “We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong.”
“We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared,” the statement added. “This should not have happened and we will do better.”
It was not immediately clear who designed or approved the advertisement. Converse did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The photo was part of a campaign that started internationally at the end of August to promote the Chuck 70 X sneaker.
The promotion was a collaboration with the K-pop singer Karina, who is a member of the group aespa. She was appointed as a global ambassador for Converse in June.
Representatives for Karina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Converse introduced the first sneaker mass-produced for basketball players in 1917.
Chuck Taylors, or Chucks, as the style came to be known, were named after the company’s most popular spokesman, Chuck Taylor, himself a famous basketball player who joined the company in the early 1920s.
In August, the retailer Target stopped selling a children’s Halloween costume that many said evoked racist stereotypes of Black Americans.
The product depicted a circus clown costume with accessories including gloves, a top hat and a mask shaped like a grinning mouth with large teeth.
Critics said those features, in addition to a promotional image that appeared to show a Black child wearing the costume, echoed caricatures from Jim Crow-era minstrel shows.
Retail Backlash:
Target Apologizes and Drops Halloween Costume Criticized as Racist
Aug. 25, 2026
Gucci and Adidas Apologize and Drop Products Called Racist
Feb. 7, 2019
H&M Apologizes for ‘Monkey’ Image Featuring Black Child
Jan. 8, 2018
Emmett Lindner is a business reporter for The Times.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 21, 2026, Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: "Converse Takes Down Sneaker Advertisement That Drew Comparisons to Ku Klux Klan Imagery"
See more on: Ku Klux Klan
