Chris Arnade
American Compass
East Kootenay E, BC, Canada
Contact Chris
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Past articles by Chris:
Dignity to Endure
After spending eight years driving four hundred thousand miles to take 60,000 pictures of working class Americans, I could easily write a Labor Day essay on the dignity of work, topped by a photo of a man dirty from work, leaning on his well cared for F150 with a back-rack, silver tool box, two bright […] → Read More
Our forgotten towns: struggle, resilience, love and respect in 'back-row America'
In his new book, Chris Arnade lays bare what life is like for America’s marginalized poor – and exposes the broken social systems that have betrayed them → Read More
With drugs, there are no good choices, only less awful ones
For six days in Portsmouth, Ohio, I keep trying to fool myself. Eventually, I am unable to just watch and listen → Read More
A Town Forgotten – Chris Arnade –
Cairo (locals pronounce it Kay-Row) Illinois lays on a tongue of land between the intersecting Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It is a small (population 2,450), mostly black (roughly 65%), town in a… → Read More
White flight followed factory jobs out of Gary, Indiana. Black people didn't have a choice
Residents who know the ugliness of racial politics all too well blame automation, not immigrants, for the destruction and despair that Trump promised to fix → Read More
Nostalgia: the yearning that will continue to carry the Trump message forward
Economic anguish after years of prosperity drove millions to Donald Trump’s nationalistic agenda, and continues to fuel resentment of an America many feel has left them behind → Read More
Outside coastal cities an ‘other America’ has different values and challenges
Beyond the bubbles of the big cities and elite college campuses is an America that values community over careers, and has faced a downward trajectory for decades → Read More
What I learned after 100,000 miles on the road talking to Trump supporters
Donald Trump’s message resonates in the most forgotten corners of the US, because viewed from these places, America no longer seems a great country → Read More
American elites need to stop mocking Trump fans and start finally listening to them
It's time to acknowledge that some of the frustrations of Trump supporters are valid. They need our support, not our scorn. → Read More
'Living in hell'? Milwaukee's black residents defy Trump's stereotypes
Photographer and writer Chris Arnade spent a week in one of the most segregated neighborhoods in Milwaukee, where 23-year-old Sylville Smith was shot by the police last August → Read More
Pride and pain in Trump country: 'We all grew up poor, but we had a community'
In Floyd County, Kentucky, residents grapple with joblessness and addiction. But local churches, restaurants and a Walmart serve as centers of mutual support → Read More
Life in Appalachia: Walmart, church, politics and a tight community – in pictures
Prestonsburg is a small coalmining town in the Appalachian hills. It has undergone drastic changes in recent decades but a sense of community remains → Read More
The rise of K2: the drug is legal, dangerous – and can’t be stopped
The use of synthetic marijuana is on the rise and can be bought in corner shops everywhere. Because its contents always change, it’s impossible to legislate → Read More
What do Donald Trump voters really crave? Respect
They want respect because they haven’t just lost economically, but also socially. But it’s dangerous territory: anger tainted with revenge and, sometimes, racism → Read More
Why Trump voters are not “complete idiots” (in charts and photos)
Trump voters may not vote the way I want them to, but, after having spent the last five years working in (and having grown up in) parts of the US few visit, I know they are not dumb. → Read More
Life looking across the US-Mexico border in El Paso: 'You are glad you are here'
From the Texas border town, you can see and hear what’s happening in Ciudad Juárez across a fence – and it’s a reminder of what it means to be a US citizen → Read More
TARP: A Love Story —
Lessons learned after the bailout. → Read More
McDonald's: you can sneer, but it's the glue that holds communities together
When many lower-income Americans feel isolated and empty, they yearn for physical social networks. All across US, this happens organically at McDonald’s → Read More
My heroin addict friend: thrown in jail, a rebound in rehab – now Shelly has hope
A photographer describes how Rikers and a long-term rehab facility in the Bronx helped a subject who has become his friend have a chance for a future → Read More
America's opioid addiction: 'I ended up selling all my valuable stuff to buy pills'
Response has been slow to the turmoil overrunning parts of central Appalachia – is the premise of addiction as a moral failing partially to blame? → Read More