The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week, we’re sharing stories from Jay Caspian Kang, Ryan Goldberg, Brendan I. Koerner, Andrew Richdale, and Ferris Jabr.

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1. What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity

Jay Caspian Kang | New York Times Magazine | August 9, 2017 | 29 minutes (7,433 words)

Jay Caspian Kang reports on the death of Michael Deng, a college freshman who died while rushing an Asian-American fraternity, and examines the history of oppression against Asians in the U.S. and how it has shaped a marginalized identity.

2. The Drug Runners

Ryan Goldberg | Texas Monthly | July 1, 2017 | 28 minutes (7,224 words)

Northern Mexico’s indigenous, rural Tarahumara are some of the world’s best endurance runners. Facing drought and famine, some members of this reclusive tribe have been lured into carrying drugs into the US for Mexican cartels ─ literal drug runners. As cartel violence worsens and groups take over the tribes’ lands to grow marijuana and opium poppies for the drug-hungry West, the Tarahumara’s fate is uncertain, but it doesn’t look good.