The Most Jaw-Dropping Stories You Can't Miss This Week

Shot and killed just shy of his 18th birthday, Deonte Hoard was one of 489 homicide victims in Chicago last year. How this happened — and how it keeps happening — is both one person’s story and the story of how a community has been forced to adjust to murder as an everyday fact of life. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Thomas Pogge, one of the world’s most prominent ethicists, stands accused of manipulating students to gain sexual advantage. Did the fierce champion of the world's disempowered abuse his own power? Katie J.M. Baker investigates. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Sylvia Obell explores how one Angela Renée White strategically ascended the throne of reality television's royal family. "And so the Kardashians, a family often accused of stealing black men, black features, and black culture, got beat at their own game by a black woman." Read it at BuzzFeed Reader.

While anti-transgender bathroom bills have only recently gained momentum, gender-segregated public restrooms have been sites of gender inequity for over a century. Shannon Keating traces how cultural anxieties about bodily secretions, disease, sex, shame, and power — codified into law and reinforced by Hollywood — have allowed the segregated institution to stand. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

As belief in the American dream gives way to outrage over its unfulfilled promises, Eli Saslow follows one middle class family's struggle to come to terms with the new normal. “This is how it feels to be sold out by your country.” Read it at The Washington Post.

Fifty years ago, Rona Barrett forged a Hollywood gossip empire. Then she left it all behind, her innovations attributed to others, her legacy almost entirely overlooked. As Miss Rona nears 80, Anne Helen Petersen learns that there's very little this legend regrets. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

A push for marriage equality is building in Japan, but same-sex couples aren’t leading the charge. J. Lester Feder and Nikki Tsukamoto Kininmonth discover why, when it comes to LGBTQ rights, "Japan’s motto is don’t rock the boat." Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Between 2009 and 2015, the number of scripted television shows exploded — from just over 200 to over 400 last year. Industry insiders tell Josef Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez what it's really like to work in the age of Peak TV. Read it at Vulture.

Tomi Obaro explores why the Chicago artist’s exuberant faith has never been more liberating — or necessary. "In a time when justice is nonexistent, black artists, as they’ve done before, call upon a salvation that this Earth cannot give us."

Read it at BuzzFeed Reader.