Top 5: Friendship and adolescents

+ Black wealth, tolerance, and instagram chefs

Inspired by the East coast’s snow storm the next few days, look at this beautiful fox in Turkey. Image credit: Ahmet Okur/Anadolu Agency/Getty

Top 5 articles for your week:

1. “The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship” (The Atlantic)

   Because the pandemic has disrupted the ways we socialize, relate, and respond to human interaction.

2. “Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on young people’s lives. We owe it to them to see this through.” (Washington Post)

   Because, like other demographics, this pandemic has affected teens in particular ways. “Though we have come to understand schools’ fundamental role in the lives of young people, some states reopened bars before ensuring the safety of classrooms. We still don’t aggressively fight for the welfare of teenagers.”

3. “The mirage of the Black middle class” (Vox)

   Because current household income doesn’t tell the full story when it comes to racial economic inequality.

4. “The Tolerance Dilemma” (American Purpose)

   Because whoa: “Maybe it wasn’t always like this, and maybe it didn’t have to be like this. But modernity creates a toleration paradox: Modernity begins, as Gray argues, ‘not with the recognition of difference but with a demand for uniformity.’ It longs for sameness precisely as that sameness drifts out of reach.” Shadi Hamid’s latest is worth reading.

5. “Cooks Turned Instagram Into the World’s Greatest Takeout Menu” (NYT)

   Because many cooks, from the unknown to the stars, are just trying to make it during this pandemic.