JELANI COBB is the dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and the author of several books, including The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress. He is the co-editor/editor of The Matter of Black Lives: Writing from The New Yorker and The Essential Kerner Commission Report: The Landmark Study on Race, Inequality, and Police Violence, and a producer/co-producer on documentaries including The Riot Report. He received the Peabody Award in 2020 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary. He serves on the board of directors of the American Journalism Project and The New York Public Library Board of Trustees.