Editor's note

This weekend “All Eyez on Me,” the biopic of rapper Tupac Shakur, opens in theaters. In the years spanning Tupac’s birth in 1971 and his tragic death in 1996, the University of Connecticut’s Jeffrey Ogbar sees a host of hostile forces that confronted an entire generation of black youth. Ogbar describes how Tupac grappled with these same forces – from the War on Drugs to mass incarceration – in his life and in his music.

With Father’s Day on Sunday, communication scholar Kory Floyd explores the understated and unexpected ways that dads express their love, while the University of South Carolina’s Joshua Gold pulls from years of studying stepfamilies to write about the challenges stepdads often face. And Andrew Leland from Rutgers University shares what he has learned about fathers in two-dad families.

And yesterday in Miami’s Little Havana, President Trump came through on a campaign promise to his Cuban exile supporters by announcing that he was rolling back his predecessor’s engagement with Cuba. The University of Florida’s Brian Gendreau says the immediate effect of the new policy – which prohibits all dealings with the Cuban military and restores restrictions on American travel to the island – “will be to hurt Cuba’s nascent private sector” while American University’s William M. LeoGrande concludes that “Trump has restarted the Cold War in the Caribbean.”

Nick Lehr

Editor, Arts and Culture

Top story

In the work of many rappers today, the legacy of Tupac Shakur lives on. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

In Tupac's life, the struggles and triumphs of a generation

Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, University of Connecticut

Tupac's sensitivity, intelligence and creativity confronted the hostile forces that antagonized black youth across the country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Arts + Culture

  • The understated affection of fathers

    Kory Floyd, University of Arizona

    Wives sometimes chide their husbands for being cold or distant toward their sons. But men express their love in subtle ways that deserve to be honored rather than belittled.

  • Navigating the tricky waters of being a stepdad

    Joshua Gold, University of South Carolina

    Stepfathers often enter a family unit with certain expectations about what their role should be. They're usually wrong.

Education

  • Dear students, what you post can wreck your life

    Thao Nelson, Indiana University

    To post or not to post? Colleges and employers are increasingly checking social media to get a sense of their candidates. Here's what you should (and shouldn't) post in order to secure your future.

  • Can people 'like me' go to college? Inequality and dreams of higher ed

    Daphna Oyserman, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Neil Lewis Jr., University of Michigan

    While most Americans do aspire to higher education, college is not a reality for many. But why is the gap between hopes and reality larger for some? And how can we strive for equity?

  • How families with 2 dads raise their kids

    Andrew Leland, Rutgers University

    Research reveals few differences between the parenting of gay men and their straight peers. But it looks like gay fathers could be more apt to volunteer at their children's schools.

Politics + Society

Health + Medicine

  • How Obamacare may morph into Medicaid

    JB Silvers, Case Western Reserve University

    Senate Republicans have been trying to find a way to get enough votes to repeal Obamacare. Here's how their delay could lead to a result they did not expect – more Medicaid.

  • Why the South still has such high HIV rates

    Thurka Sangaramoorthy, University of Maryland; Joseph B. Richardson, University of Maryland

    The number of new HIV-positive cases has sharply declined – in most parts of the country. Nonurban areas, particularly in the South, are showing sharp increases. Why?

  • Why treating breast cancer with less may be more

    Ashish A. Deshmukh, University of Florida; Anna Likhacheva, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

    Women with breast cancer often have six weeks of radiation therapy after surgery to remove the cancer. A recent study suggests that shortening that time is not only effective but also cost-saving.

Science + Technology

Ethics + Religion

Environment + Energy

Economy + Business

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