Featured
Jan. 6 hearings: A national civics lesson on the dangers of fascism. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
In his opening statement Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland summoned up the words and wisdom of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, in the context of the country’s long struggle to become a multiracial “We the People” democracy. Describing the explosive events of Jan. 6, 2021, Raskin said:
Mr. Chairman, as you know better than any other member of this committee from the wrenching struggle for voting rights in your beloved Mississippi, the problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America.
Abraham Lincoln knew it too. In 1837, a racist mob in Alton, Illinois, broke into the offices of an abolitionist newspaper and killed its editor, Elijah Lovejoy. Lincoln wrote a speech in which he said that no transatlantic military giant could ever crush us as a nation, even with all of the fortunes in the world.
But if downfall ever comes to America, he said, we ourselves would be its author and finisher. If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work.
Mobs and demagogues will put us on a path to political tyranny, Lincoln said. … [T]his very old problem has returned with new ferocity today, as a president who lost an election deployed a mob, which included dangerous extremists, to attack the constitutional system of election and the peaceful transfer of power. Read more
Political / Social
For This Supreme Court, Justice Isn’t Blind. Faith Is. By Pamela Paul / NYT
Imagine your boss fervently proclaiming his religious beliefs at the end of a companywide meeting, inviting everyone on the team who shares those beliefs to join in. You’re surrounded by colleagues and other higher-ups. Everyone is watching to see who participates and who holds back, knowing that whatever each of you does could make or break your job and even your career, whether you share his convictions or not. But hey, totally up to you! That’s what Joseph Kennedy, a former assistant coach in Kitsap County, Wash., did with his team — only he did it with public-school students at a high-school football game. Read more
Roads and race: Black, Hispanic pedestrians in US face more danger. Celina Tebor and Maria Aguilar / USA Today
Just being a pedestrian is far more dangerous for Black and Hispanic Americans as compared to white Americans, a recent study found.
Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on June 7, a recent study found that mile-for-mile, walking and biking are drastically more deadly activities for Black and Hispanic Americans compared to white Americans. Cycling is 4.5 times more deadly and walking is 2.2 times for Black people on American streets as compared to white people, the data says. Read more
Asian American Student Success Isn’t a Problem. Kang / NYT
Over the past three years, as universities across the country have abandoned standardized test requirements and moved toward more holistic models for admission, a persistent yet largely unexamined question has arisen: Would these changes be happening if white students were at the top of the academic food chain? The performance gap between Asian American and white high school students on standardized tests has grown over the past decade. Read more
Related: Elite Colleges’ Quiet Fight to Favor Alumni Children.
1 in 3 U.S. students attend a racially segregated public school, government watchdog says. By
“Ensuring equal access to educational opportunity … remains a persistent challenge,” the lead author of a new report wrote.
Nearly 19 million students in the U.S., or more than a third, attended a public school in the 2020-21 school year where at least 75% of students were of the same race or ethnicity, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office. The 45-page analysis looked at years’ worth of data from the Department of Education. It provides a stark assessment of the state of racial and socioeconomic equity for K-12 students. Read more
Florida university removes some anti-racism statements, worrying faculty. By Susan Svrluga / Wash Post
The University of Central Florida temporarily removed some academic departments’ statements, prompting fears of self-censorship under a new state law
The University of Central Florida removed statements condemning racism from several academic departments’ websites this week, prompting some faculty members to worry that school officials were self-censoring in an effort to maintain compliance with a new state law limiting what can be taught about race and identity. Read more
Emmett Till’s family rebuts claims in accuser’s recently leaked memoir. By / NBC News
Carolyn Bryant, left, and her sister-in-law Juanita Milam pose five days before their husbands go on trial for the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, in Sumner, Miss., on Sept. 14, 1955.
Emmett Till’s family disputes the version of events recounted in a recently leaked memoir by the white woman who accused Till of making unwanted advances toward her before his lynching in 1955. The manuscript by Carolyn Bryant Donham, titled “I Am More Than a Wolf Whistle,” was obtained by The Associated Press and NBC Chicago. In it, Donham repeats what she said during Till’s murder trial, in which her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were acquitted. The men, though, later admitted to killing Till. Read more
Muhammed Aziz, man exonerated for Malcolm X assassination, sues City of New York for $40 million. By
According to the civil rights lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, Muhammad Aziz’s “wrongful conviction was the product of flagrant official misconduct, including, inter alia, by the NYPD and its intelligence unit, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations.” Several identified and anonymous city employees, many of whom are former NYPD detectives involved in the original investigation, are also named as defendants. “Aziz spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit and more than 55 years living with the hardship and indignity attendant to being unjustly branded as a convicted murderer of one of the most important civil rights leaders in history,” the lawsuit says. Read more
I’m Black. Remote work has been great for my mental health. By Leron Barton / Slate
In my 20-plus years in corporate America, there has never been a time that my race was an afterthought. I have always been a Black person before any title, and the office space never let me forget that. When there would be discussions about race, I or other African Americans were often viewed as the experts on everything Black. That psychological toll is why many African American employees are opting out of going into the office and embracing remote work. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Disturbed About Man. By Dr. Benjamin E. Mays / John Knox Press
Editor’s Note: This book, published in 1969, is out of print. However, because of its relevancy for today’s challenges it will be worth the effort to get a copy.
In a forceful and straightforward style, Dr. Mays speaks to men of all races and faiths about how to counteract man’s inhumanity to man. “I am disturbed and uneasy about man because I am not certain that he is going to make it on the earth,” declares the author. Endless wars, prejudice, and poverty, indicate that man far from improving, is trying to destroy himself. As a Christian, however, Dr. Mays sees hope. Man does not have to attack other nations or his neighbors, He does not have to be a slave to his environment. With God’s help he can overcome and improve his environment, he can “rise above the currently accepted practices and point the way to higher and nobler things.”
A Private Christian College May Take Over Public Education in Tennessee. By Andy Spears / The Progressive
Hillsdale College, with Republican Governor Bill Lee’s support, is planning to open dozens of charter schools to spread rightwing propaganda.
In addition to operating charter schools, Hillsdale also created the “1776 Curriculum,” a conservative program for teaching civics in schools. The curriculum “relies on approaches developed by Arnn and other members of the 1776 Commission appointed by Trump to develop a ‘patriotic education’ for the nation’s schools,” according to News Channel Five.
The curriculum calls for students to be “taught that ‘the civil rights movement was almost immediately turned into programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the Founders,’ ” News Channel Five notes. Hillsdale’s curriculum suggests that “Modern social-justice movements…are not based on the Founders’ views of equality, but on what it calls ‘identity politics’ that make it ‘less likely that racial reconciliation and healing can be attained.’” Read more
Historical / Cultural
‘Pivotal Moment’: Statue of Mary McLeod Bethune Is the First Black Figure In U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall State Collection. By Nyamekye Daniel / Atlanta Black Star
Mary McLeod Bethune, education trailblazer and civil and women’s rights activist, is now honored among the statues at the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, making history as the first Black image in the distinguished collection. The 13-foot-long block of marble of Bethune, a daughter of formerly enslaved people, replaced a nearly 100-year-old bronze sculpture of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith on Wednesday, July 13, in Florida’s collection. Bethune statue wears a cap and gown and carries a black rose, representing the students that she served with her schools. Read more
My name is a Confederate monument, so I cross it out when I write it. By Baynard Woods / Wash Post
I needed a way to reject my family’s role in the history of slavery without denying it
I grew up in South Carolina, where I had been raised to revere Lee, Jackson and other white-supremacist enslavers. Among their number, I counted members of my own family. Standing out there, sleepless and shattered, I realized that my own name had stood as a Confederate monument over every story I had ever written.
I’d been looking into my family’s history since the Mother Emmanuel church massacre in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, but after Charlottesville, I again began to contemplate what it meant that in 1860, to take a single year, various Baynards believed that they owned 781 people, while the Woodses — from whom I’m directly descended — claimed possession of 23 more. But enslavers tended to marry enslavers, so I have no idea how many thousands of people were held in bondage by those associated with my family. Read more
Related: On anniversary of a Maryland lynching, students’ poems call for change. By Daniel Wu / Wash Post
Related: Ole Miss yearbooks appear to mock lynching victims. By Gillian Brockell / Wash Post
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Creator of The 1619 Project, Reaches Settlement with UNC Chapel Hill. By Alexandra Jane / The Root
The settlement may resolve any potential legal action, but what she’s owed is far more than what was offered.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and creator of the landmark 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones. In April of 2021, both parties made headlines after Hannah-Jones was denied a tenured position, instead being named the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the university’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and offered a 5 year contract. Read more
Before jazz, Black people drummed and danced in New Orleans’ Congo Square. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
“Spirit of Congo Square,” a cast bronze sculpture by Adewale Adenle, was commissioned by the city of New Orleans and installed in Louis Armstrong Park in 2010.
New Orleans provided the perfect incubator for African and Caribbean music, drumming, and dance to produce multiple musical offshoots on new soil. What makes New Orleans unique to this day is that the music that grew up there and took root was never contained inside of clubs, brothels and concert halls; it is still intimately entwined with street performance and outdoor celebratory rituals of birth, death and sheer enjoyment. Read more
Sports
Black women are balling out, making their impact on the U.S. national soccer team. By Tamerra Griffin / Andscape
The USWNT looks set to have historic levels of representation in next year’s World Cup, a sign of optimism for Black soccer legends like Briana Scurry
It’s a monumental shift for those who want to see people who look like them reflected in the spaces they care about. The growing presence of Black female soccer players in the U.S. has inspired whole podcasts (Shea Butter FC, Diaspora United) dedicated to celebrating them in their melanated glory. But this fresh group of players is also doing wonders for anyone who simply wants the national team to uphold its legacy. Read more
Fred Kerley is world’s fastest man after leading 1-2-3 finish for USA. By Adam Kilgore / Wash Post
Kerley cemented all-time status Saturday night at Hayward Field. In a 100-meter final drenched in red, white and blue at the world track and field championships, Kerley seized the title of fastest man in the world by inches over countrymen Marvin Bracy-Williams and Trayvon Brommel. Kerley finished in 9.86 seconds, 0.02 seconds ahead of both bronze medalist Bromell and second-place Bracy-Williams, who led until the last five meters. Kerley’s lean gave him the crowning achievement of an ascendant career and the Americans a podium sweep. Read more
Related: Allyson Felix bids a joyful goodbye to track and field. By Adam Kilgore / Wash Post
Bill Russell Rule helps West Coast Conference advance minority hiring. By Scooby Axson / USA Today
In its quest to improve minority hiring at its schools, the West Coast Conference implemented the Russell Rule that has helped spur diversity gains.
Less than three months after Floyd’s death, the WCC created the Russell Rule, named for Bill Russell, a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer who led conference member San Francisco to two men’s national championships in 1955 and 1956. The rule requires schools in the conference with open head and assistant coaches’ jobs, plus senior administrative positions, including athletics directors, to interview at least one qualified minority candidate. The first-year results were immediate, signaling movement in a positive direction. Read more
LeBron James calls Boston fans ‘racist as f—‘ but city is changing. By Mike Freeman / USA Today
LeBron James said on a new episode of his show “The Shop” that Boston sports fans are racist. He’s right and other athletes have said the same. But we also have to admit Boston is slowly changing
“Cause they racist as f —,” James responded. “They will say anything. And it’s fine. It’s my life… I’ve been dealing with it my whole life. I don’t mind it. I hear it. If I hear somebody close by, I check them real quick, then move onto the game. They’re going to say whatever … they want to say.” What James says isn’t controversial. It’s factual. If you have a problem with it, either you’re willfully ignorant, or just don’t know Boston. I mean, James may have some uncomfortable moments in his role as part owner of the Red Sox, but he’s correct. Read more
Related: LeBron James backtracked, but does U.S. have Brittney Griner’s back? By Greg Moore / USA Today
The NFL still isn’t sure how to deal with a freak like Lamar Jackson. By Candace Buckner / Wash Post
Judging by the survey released this week by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Jackson’s a nonconformist at best and a conundrum at worst. Fowler polled a mixed bag of more than 50 NFL folks about the best quarterbacks in the league, and Jackson was not named among the top 10. A surprising development but also the tax paid for possessing a different kind of talent while trying to thrive in a traditional space. While the game has evolved, thrust forward by the arrival of athletes who are built like power lifters but as nimble as ballerinas, a particular mind-set remains stuck in the olden times. NFL quarterbacks should play a certain way. Jackson doesn’t play like typical NFL quarterbacks. And they certainly can’t play like him. He’s a trapezoid peg in the square hole of signal callers. He doesn’t quite fit. Read more
Thirty women settle with Houston Texans over claims related to Deshaun Watson. By Brent Schrotenboer / USA Today
Thirty women who made or intended to make claims against the Houston Texans related to Deshaun Watson’s alleged sexual misconduct have reached confidential settlements with the organization, according to the women’s attorney, Tony Buzbee. Watson, the former Texans quarterback, had been sued by 24 women who accused him of sexual misconduct during massage sessions in 2020 and early 2021. One of them sued the Texans last month, alleging the team enabled his behavior while he was a member of that team. That lawsuit is now settled, as are 29 others who had not filed suit against the Texans, Buzbee stated. Read more
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