A Letter From South Phoenix, Where Two Pandemics ‘Have Turned American Life Feral’
Raising a Black and Brown Family Here Was Complicated, Even Before COVID Struck
Thank God for the sun. Its excessive heat has forced the ants, flies, and cockroaches to retreat under the electric boxes planted around the neighborhood jungle gym I call “Dope Bag Park.” (It gets its name because frequently I’ll see cellphones glow and lighters flicker under the slide as dope dealers and smokers lounge, disguised by the night; come dawn, little plastic bags holding on to the faint smell of weed will remain, blowing onto my front doorstep.) Although insects are no longer a nuisance in the Arizona heat, the …
