Featured – The Deepening ‘Racialization’ of American Politics. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT

Heading into the 2020 election, President Trump is prepared for the second time in a row to run a racist campaign. He continues, for example, to denigrate, in virulent terms, immigrants from Mexico and Central America. At the same time, Democrats are doubling down on a racially liberal political agenda, becoming more outspoken and more confrontational in their defense of diversity and multiculturalism. Read more

Republican Lawmaker Freaks Out When Democrat Says Using a Black Person as a Prop is a “Racist Act.” By Daniel Politi / Slate

In between all the grandstanding and non-answers, there was an emotional moment near the end of Michael Cohen’s congressional hearing when a Democratic lawmaker called out one of her colleagues for what she described as a “racist act.” It ended in an all-too-familiar scene. Read more

Racism, not a lack of assimilation, is the real problem facing Latinos in America. By Suzanne Gamboa / NBC News

Julián Castro, a Mexican-American, is running for president. Latin music is more popular than country music, and one of the most recognizable political faces in the United States is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose family comes from Puerto Rico. And yet, Latinos — even those whose roots in this land stretch back to before the nation’s origins — still face overt and subtle racism and discrimination. Read more

Chicago To Get Its First Black Female Mayor As Candidates Head To Runoff. By Matthew S. Schwartz / NPR

The next Chicago mayor will either be a self-described political outsider who has never run for office or a longtime city alderman and chair of the county’s Democratic Party. Either way, for the first time, the city’s top political official will be an African-American woman. Read more

Bernie Sanders Vows To Fight ‘All Forms Of Racism’ In First Televised Town Hall. By Daniel Marans / HuffPost

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promised to do everything in his power to combat racial injustice and inequity during a televised CNN town hall on Monday night, seeking to quiet criticism that his focus on class comes at the expense of fighting racism. Read more

When It Comes to Diversity, These Were the Perfect Oscars for 2019. By Inkoo Kang / Slate

This time, the academy’s idea of inclusion finally seemed to go beyond the black-white binary that tends to dominate racial discussions in American culture. In addition to the many presenters of color, racial representation at the awards ceremony included multiple Oscar-winner Roma, a film that is not only centered on Latino and Latina characters of both European and indigenous heritages but also showcases the complexity of Mexican history and society. Read more

Overcoming A ‘Long, Bitter Relationship,’ Grand Canyon And Tribes Mark Centennial. By Laurel Morales / NPR

“Most Americans think Native Americans are gone but we’re still here,” Tilousi says. Tilousi is a Havasupai council member and grew up in the Grand Canyon. Read more

Toni Morrison: First Lady of Letters. By James McBride / NYT

Morrison, quietly and without ceremony, lays another gem at our feet. “The Source of Self-Regard” is a book of essays, lectures and meditations, a reminder that the old music is still the best, that in this time of tumult and sadness and continuous war, where tawdry words are blasted about like junk food, and the nation staggers from one crisis to the next. Read more

A new report finds predominantly white school districts get $23 billion more in funding than nonwhite ones. By Jay Croft / CNN

A report from EdBuild, which promotes equity in public schools, found that the average white school district got $13,908 for every student in 2016, compared to $11,682 per student in districts that mostly serve people of color. Read more

Doctors and Racial Bias: Still a Long Way to Go. By Aaron Carroll / NYT

The majority of studies found an implicit preference for white patients, especially among white physicians. Two found a relationship between this bias and clinical decision making. One found that this bias was associated with a greater chance that whites would be treated for myocardial infarction than African-Americans. Read more

What Catholic Church records tell us about America’s earliest black history. By Jane Landers / The Conversation

In 1513, a free and literate African named Juan Garrido explored Florida with a Spanish conquistador, Juan Ponce de León. In the following decades, Africans, free and enslaved, were part of all the Spanish expeditions exploring the southern region of the United States. In 1565, Africans helped establish the first permanent European settlement in what is St. Augustine, Florida today. Read more

What Leaving Neverland Leaves Out by Ignoring Race. By Jason King / Slate

However much Jackson wanted to transcend race, it has always been at the core of his celebrity, from those vitriolic sellout accusations to his resurrection as a kind of black superhero after his 2009 passing. All of which is why it’s curious that Dan Reed’s provocative HBO documentary Leaving Neverland declines to confront race almost at all. Read more Also see, It’s Too Late to Cancel Michael Jackson 

Visit our home page for more articles. And at the top of this page register your email to receive notification of new editions of Race Inquiry Digest.  Click here for earlier Digests.