For several months now, I've been making an effort to include alt text for images in this newsletter. Alt text is a written description of what an image depicts. It's often highlighted as one way of making digital content more accessible to people who are visually impaired—and that was my motivation. But a funny thing happened when I started being mindful of alt text: It changed how I consume the many images that come across my screens every hour.

Case in point: The past few days have been dominated by photos of gleeful bigots strutting through the US Capitol with impunity, an act of Trump-sanctioned violence that was designed to terrorize certain Americans and recruit others. Many people described these images as shocking. I certainly didn't wake up Wednesday morning expecting to see them. But then I thought about the most widely circulated photos in terms of their alt text:

White man [a state legislator, a real estate broker, an associate general counsel, etc.] poses with his feet propped on a heavy wood desk / standing behind a podium / waving the banner of bigotry after easily entering the U.S. Capitol. He does not wear a mask even though a highly contagious virus is killing thousands of people a day. He is smiling.

The alt text version is not so shocking. "This is America," Roxane Gay writes. "This has always been America. If this were not America, this coup attempt would not have happened. It’s time we face this ugly truth, let it sink into the marrow of our bones, let it move us to action."

Here's the alt text for a very different image, one that I want to elevate above those photos of the people in red hats at the Capitol:

Black woman who lost her race for governor because of voter suppression then devoted herself to systemic change bumps elbows with the first Black senator from Georgia, who will flip the balance of the US Senate and make even greater change possible. They both wear face masks that say VOTE, so it's hard to discern their expressions. But he is looking at her. And she is looking directly at us.

What happened to a Black family—and their town—in the months after a white woman was captured on camera calling the cops on them. How a Sri Lankan coup quickly turned from farce to tragedy. What Trump has in common with African dictators. How the Chicago PD protects its most violent cops and retaliates against those who tell the truth. China built its vast network of detention camps to do more than simply keep people behind bars. Voices from the front lines of America's food supply chain, and inside the farmworker rebellion. The fight against fracking that threatens drinking water on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. At last, an entire institute for queer ecology. ACT UP’s legacy and the epidemic dead, and our choice to remember or forget in year 2 of the pandemic. All the dirt on American Dirt. How MF DOOM questioned the relationship between identity and image in hip-hop. The godfather of rollerdisco. Why are credit-card points worth anything at all? A fascinating explainer on the meaning of artistic works in the public domain.The humbling power of dogs. The case for cold-water swimming. On liminal spaces.

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How adaptations for people with disabilities end up benefiting everyone. An interview with the families of  George Floyd, Jacob Blake and Eric Garner. Literal Renaissance women.

How do starlings move in a murmuration? "Each bird pays attention to just seven other birds and moves in relationship to those."

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Rituals for a new year, especially the advice from Sabrina Hersi Issa about how to come home to yourself.