David M. Perry
The Nation
Twin Cities, MN, United States
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Past articles by David:
Can Biden Minimize the Cruelty of the Public Charge Rule?
Immigrants can put their residency status at risk by receiving government benefits. Could the president change this without altering the law? → Read More
Dividing Up the Autism Spectrum Will Not End the Way You Think
The Lancet’s proposal to create a new label of “profound autism” serves only to distract us from the work of ensuring that all autistic people have everything they need to thrive. → Read More
Opinion: The real reason some people are so afraid of 'Maus'
David Perry shares his first time reading Art Spiegelman's graphic novel 'Maus' as a teenager, explaining why the discomfort it caused him was part of a deep learning experience. That's why a recent move in Tennessee to ban the book is so chilling, he argues: To outlaw this book is to outlaw good teaching. → Read More
The Right’s Bad-Faith Argument About Bodily Autonomy
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wants to catch us in a trap where either we concede the state’s right to coerce reproduction or we abandon the state’s right to mandate vaccines. → Read More
The Many Myths of the Term 'Crusader'
Conceptions of the medieval Crusades tend to lump disparate movements together, ignoring the complexity and diversity of these military campaigns → Read More
Why Dragons Dominated the Landscape of Medieval Monsters
The mythical beasts were often cast as agents of the devil or demons in disguise → Read More
Are Bans Against School Mask Mandates Against the Law?
The Biden administration may use disability rights legislation to require masks in schools. → Read More
'The Green Knight' Adopts a Medieval Approach to 'Modern' Problems
A new film starring Dev Patel as Gawain feels more like a psychological thriller than a period drama → Read More
Opinion: Lurching back to 'normal' is risky
On the heels of the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, David M. Perry argues that Americans must retain the gains in accessibility achieved during the pandemic. We need to hold on to our flexible, hybrid world, in work, school, and play, wherever possible, he says. → Read More
What the Medieval Olympics Looked Like
The Middle Ages didn't kill the Games, as international sporting competitions thrived with chariot races and jousts → Read More
Which Is the More Prescient Dystopia? ‘Gattaca’ or ‘Parable of the Sower’
Is it the 1997 film starring Ethan Hawke or is it Octavia E. Butler’s 1993 novel? → Read More
A Historian of the Tulsa Race Massacre Confronts the Myth of Objectivity
Karlos Hill argues that a scholar’s power lies in “being a catalyst for change.” → Read More
Opinion: Covid protesters must stop exploiting symbols of the Holocaust
Recent anti-vaccination protesters seen in London wearing yellow Stars of David reflect a growing trend in multiple countries to analogize Covid measures to Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews. David Perry says such naked trivialization of the Holocaust constitutes its own form of denialism and is a dangerous misuse of history. → Read More
Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?
Scholar Monica Green combined the science of genetics with the study of old texts to reach a new hypothesis about the plague → Read More
I Shouldn’t Have to Dehumanize My Son to Get Him Support
Instead of focusing on the challenges facing disabled people, we should emphasize goals. → Read More
Opinion: Human beings can't grieve alone. The cost of trying will be staggering
After losing his father-in-law to cancer, David Perry warns that American society is unprepared for the titanic social and psychological toll of deferred grief building up as Covid-19 deaths continue and the pandemic prevents anyone from mourning with their own rituals of human connection. → Read More
Opinion: America's education system is in need of dramatic reform
David Perry writes that throughout the pandemic, the American education system has been falling behind, instead of building capacity for the next year. While there's very little that can be done to fix this February, a better August is still on the table. → Read More
Opinion: How Elvis Presley can help us with a Covid vaccine
Former presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama have all said they'll get a Covid-19 vaccine publicly. David Perry reflects on a crucial 1956 moment when Elvis Presley got a polio vaccine on television; Perr argues we have an even greater need today for trusted public figures and celebrities from all walks of life to help normalize the Covid vaccine. → Read More
Opinion: Keep schools open -- and shut down almost everything else
We know more lockdowns are coming in the US; it's time to choose wisely between bars and restaurants and schools and daycares, says David Perry, whose son tested positive for Covid-19 after attending school in-person to get the services he needs as an autistic teen with Down Syndrome. It's time to keep schools and daycares open -- and shut almost everything else down, Perry argues. → Read More
UNC fiasco reveals truth about reopening colleges (opinion)
The reopening of on-campus life then near-immediate closure after a surge in Covid-19 at UNC-Chapel Hill -- along with outbreaks and quarantines at other big schools -- are just the first wave, says David M. Perry, but they seem to indicate the worst is yet to come. → Read More