Featured
Clarence Thomas, Harlan Crow And The Original Meaning Of Corruption. By Paul Blumenthal / HuffPost
Shown are Republican operative lawyers Peter Rutledge, Leonard Leo, and Mark Paoletta who are depicted with United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Republican donor Harlan Crow in this painting by Sharif Tarabay. The canvas is both set at Crow’s lavish Adirondacks resort, Camp Topridge, and part of the compound’s decor.
In the past month, Thomas has been revealed to have hidden hundreds of thousands of dollars in private jet and yacht travel, luxury vacations and lodging, the sale of a family property and the payment of his adopted son’s boarding school tuition, all in connection with Crow. His wife, Ginni Thomas, also reportedly received secret payments from Leonard Leo, the mastermind of the conservative takeover of the court.
“A citizen who took bribes from men in power was not only corrupt in the common sense of the word, but corrupt in the classical; he was liable to become dependent on that source of supply and, like the soldiers of the late Roman Republic, to degenerate from a citizen into a client,” political historian J.G.A. Pocock wrote in his essay “Civic Humanism and Its Role in Anglo-American Thought.” Read more
Related: What Congress can do, right now, about Justice Thomas. By the Editorial Board / Wash Post
Political / Social
One very rich billionaire bought Supreme Court and made himself richer. By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos
Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, speaking at the 2017 National Lawyers Convention in Washington on Nov. 16, 2017
Last year, The New York Times broke a story about the largest nefarious dark money deal to date, a $1.6 billion transaction that gave arch-conservative activist Leonard Leo even more power to run the whole show on the right. The Times has a follow-up this week detailing where a small pot of that money has gone: to the vast web of dark money groups Leo controls, and back into his own pocket. Read more
White Supremacy Is The ‘Most Dangerous Terrorist Threat,’ Biden Tells Howard Grads. By Sara Boboltz / HuffPost
Biden speaks at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C. to Howard University graduates in a keynote address where he calls out racism and white supremacy.
Biden drew a sobering picture of the national political landscape with his address, touching on the threats to American democracy, threats to suppress Black history, and threats of violence — including the recent bomb scares made to HBCUs, or historically Black colleges and universities. “I thought, when I graduated, we could defeat hate,” Biden said. (He earned a law degree from Syracuse in 1968.) “But it never goes away. It only hides under the rocks.” He added: “And when it’s given oxygen, it comes out from under that rock. That’s why we know this truth as well: Silence is complicity.” Read more
Related: Biden makes 2024 pitch to Black voters in Howard address. By Emily Olson / NPR
The battle against fascism in Florida: Lessons on how to beat back authoritarianism from abroad. By Maria J. Stephan / Salon
Florida has become the epicenter of a struggle between authoritarianism and those committed to freedom and justice for all.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, actively campaigned for election deniers, embraced divide-and-rule politics, and enacted extreme policies that gut fundamental freedoms enshrined in Florida’s and the US Constitution. These policies, grounded in racial resentment, misogyny, homophobia, and the punishment of opponents using state power, come straight from the global authoritarian playbook and are already spreading from Florida to other state legislatures across the country. Attacks on fundamental rights and freedoms are only likely to accelerate should DeSantis’ clear 2024 presidential ambitions be realized. Read more
A pointed message from one judge to nine others about race and guns. By Ruth Marcus / Wash Post
In our judicial system, lower-court judges take instruction from the Supreme Court, not the other way around. In the case of U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, that’s too bad. Walton, appointed to the local court in the District of Columbia by Ronald Reagan and to the federal bench by George W. Bush, has a message for the justices that is appropriate, respectful — and devastating.
Messages, actually, delivered in a speech Thursday about the importance of affirmative action, which the high court, as Walton predicted, is about to dismantle; and about the scourge of gun violence, which, as Walton outlined, has been made all the more intractable by the court’s wrongheaded Second Amendment rulings. If only the justices had been present to hear it. If only they were open-minded enough to take it in. Read more
Related: Mass killings leave Americans fearful, numb and wondering: Am I next? By Joanna Slater / Wash Post
Related: It’s bigger than guns: Why the right does little to stop violence. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
CNN should have learned from Fox News: Pandering to Trump will cost bigly. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
CNN’s been moving to the right ever since the change in corporate ownership of the network last year
I think everyone knew that CNN’s very special episode of The Trump Show on Wednesday night was going to be a fiasco. How could it not be? Donald Trump lies as easily as he breathes and he was going to be given a live platform to do it. We’ve seen him do these events for years now and there was no reason to believe this one would be any different. If there was anything startling about it it was the friendly audience that cheered and jeered as if they were at a Trump rally. But we should have expected that too. CNN said the town hall was for Republican primary and “undeclared” voters and there’s no mystery about what kind of people show up for campaign events with Donald Trump. All that was missing were the red hats and the awkward line dancing to “YMCA.” Read more
Related: Trump’s CNN town hall is rigged. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Texas mall shooter’s ‘neo-Nazi ideation’ shocks Latino community. By Silvia Foster-Frau / Wash Post
Jessel Paredes, 16, places flowers on a makeshift memorial outside the Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Tex., on May 7. The day before, a 33-year-old gunman killed eight people before being killed by police. (Jeffrey McWhorter for The Washington Post)
After hiding in terror as the sound of bullets rang out nearby, Marvin Castaneda and his family emerged from the outlet mall last Saturday to the sight of the gunman, lying dead on the sidewalk. Through the gore, Castaneda noticed something unexpected: the shooter, Mauricio Garcia, who killed eight people that afternoon, was Latino. A barrage of news would soon follow about Garcia. The 33-year-old was wearing a badge that read “RWDS,” for Right Wing Death Squad and had a tattoo of a swastika, according to police. He had been inculcated in white supremacist and other hate-based movements, scrawling anti-Asian and anti-woman messages on social media platforms. In one online post, Garcia said he had once been “ashamed” to be Hispanic. Read more
Related: The Long and Violent History of Anti-Black Racism in the Latino Community. By Cecilia Marquez / NYT
The Rise and Fall of “Woke” with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. By Audie Cornish / CNN Podcast
What’s it like to be at the forefront of a cultural backlash? Academic and author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi certainly knows. His books, “How to Be an Antiracist,” and its follow-up, a youth-friendly version called, “How to Be a (Young) Antiracist,” teach readers how to actively fight racism instead of passively acknowledging it. Audie talks with Dr. Kendi about the backlash around “wokeness,” antiracism, and what it’s like to live in the middle of cultural maelstrom. They spoke in front of a live audience at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in Seattle. Read more and listen here
Related: Report links workplace discrimination to high blood pressure. By Linda Searing / Wash Post
Biden announces two historic nominations to Fed board. By Rachel Siegel / Wash Post
The White House would make Philip Jefferson the Fed’s second-ever Black vice chair, and Adriana Kugler the Fed’s first Latina board member
The White House would elevate Philip Jefferson, who became a Fed governor last year, to the No. 2 role. Biden also nominated Adriana D. Kugler, now the U.S. executive director of the World Bank, to a seat as governor. Those moves would fill the Fed’s remaining vacancy after former vice chair Lael Brainard moved to the White House. And the decisions would further Democrats’ attempts to make the 109-year-old central bank more reflective of the country it serves. Read more
Feds Deem Black Community’s Waste System a Civil Rights Violation. By Katie Myers / Mother Jones
Alabama and Loundes County denied people access to basic sanitation. In Hayneville, Alabama, tour facilitator Catherine Flowers shows off a Lowndes County home with a failed septic system. Lance Cheung/U.S. Department of Agriculture
For as long as anyone can remember, the lack of a sanitation system in Lowndes County, Alabama, and resulting reliance on piping human waste directly into septic tanks and local creeks, has made life in the community miserable. After years of organizing and calls to action by the residents of this rural, low-income, and largely Black community, Earthjustice and Alabama grassroots leaders submitted a civil rights complaint, alleging racist neglect by Alabama public health officials. In response, federal authorities launched an investigation. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
‘Anti-Asian Racism’ names the sin of white supremacy in Catholic Church. By Clarrissa V. Aljentera / NCR
Servite Fr. Joseph Cheah is hopeful that telling Asian American-centered stories will help communities and individuals begin to understand the ways in which racism and white supremacy have shaped history. In his latest book, Anti-Asian Racism: Myths, Stereotypes, and Catholic Social Teaching, Cheah takes a wide and integral view on how Catholic social teaching can inform the way Catholics engage in the work of anti-racism in the context of Asian American communities. Read more
Christian Groups Confront Pro-Trump Rally With This Quote From Jesus. By Andrew Stanton / Newsweek
Christian organizations protested the pro-Trump ReAwaken America Tour in Miami this week by highlighting a Bible verse that warns of “false prophets.”
The tour’s most recent stop in Miami has drawn protests from more progressive Christian organizations, who have sounded the alarm about the rise of Christian nationalism in the U.S. One of these billboards confronted the conference with the Bible verse Matthew 7:15-20, in which Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.” Read more
Chicago auxiliary bishop named chairman of U.S. bishops’ anti-racism committee. By Gina Christian / NCR
A Chicago bishop has been tapped to lead the U.S. bishops’ ongoing efforts to combat racism.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago has been named chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism. The appointment, made by the bishops’ conference president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, was announced May 10. Read more
The Religious Landscape is Undergoing Massive Change. It Could Decide the 2024 Election. By Ryan Burge / Politico
One of the most significant shifts in American politics and religion just took place over the past decade and it barely got any notice: the share of Americans who associate with religion dropped by 11 points.
It’s a development of tremendous impact, one that will ripple across the political landscape at every level — and especially in presidential politics. Why? Because of what it means for the God Gap — the idea that the Republican Party is the one that fights for the rights of religious individuals (primarily Christians), while Democrats have become increasingly secular over time. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Black Women’s Resistance in Slave Rebellions. By Asia Thomas Uzomba / AAIHS
“Nat Turner & His Confederates in Conference.” 1863 (Wikimedia Commons)
Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community by Vanessa M. Holden, an associate professor of history, narrates the 1831 Southampton Rebellion and maps out the resistive geography of Black communities in Southampton County, Virginia. Historical accounts on the Southampton Rebellion often focus on leader Nat Turner and other men and boys who were involved in what is considered one of the most famous rebellions against slavery. Holden illuminates specific acts of evasion and survival in the daily life of free and enslaved women and children that lived in Southampton County and positions the Southampton Rebellion as the product of an interconnected community. Read more
He Called for His Mother. By Lottie Joiner / The Nation
Mamie Till-Mobley was one of the first in a far-too-long line of Black mothers to seek justice for their sons. Illustration St. George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia.
In each case, a mother and Black women nationwide, stood up, marched, protested, cried, and sought justice for these Black men who were sons and fathers and brothers and uncles. We will never know what these young men could have been or what they could have done or how they could have used their skills, talents, and gifts to make this world a better place. But we do know that Tyree Nichols called for his mother, and that George Floyd did too. Read more
MLK’s famous criticism of Malcolm X was a ‘fraud,’ author finds. By Gillian Brockell / Wash Post
Jonathan Eig was deep in the Duke University archives researching his new biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he made an alarming discovery: King’s harshest and most famous criticism of Malcolm X, in which he accused his fellow civil rights leader of “fiery, demagogic oratory,” appears to have been fabricated.
“I think its historic reverberations are huge,” Eig told The Washington Post. “We’ve been teaching people for decades, for generations, that King had this harsh criticism of Malcolm X, and it’s just not true.” The quote came from a January 1965 Playboy interview with author Alex Haley, a then-43-year-old Black journalist, and was the longest published interview King ever did. Because of the severity of King’s criticism, it has been repeated countless times, cast as a dividing line between King and Malcolm X. The new revelation “shows that King was much more open-minded about Malcolm than we’ve tended to portray him,” Eig said. Read more
Asian Americans are over just being included — they’re defining mainstream culture. By and
Why Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are no longer chasing the opportunity to merely be represented.
Netflix’s “Beef” dives deep into the psyches of two people who happen to be Asian American as they’re entangled in a universal experience — road rage. But what the show doesn’t do is spend time with heavy-handed explanations about the cultural nuances of identity. And it’s because Asian American and Pacific Islander creators have reached a point where they don’t necessarily feel they have to, critics say. Starring an all-Asian cast, “Beef” is an example of how Asian Americans are seeing pieces of themselves and their families comfortably integrated into on-screen stories like never before. Read more
Related: Florida schools soon will be required to teach Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history.
Chimamanda Adichie: How I Became Black in America. By Chimamanda Adichie / The Atlantic
America fascinated me as America fascinates every newcomer. Nineteen years old and fleeing the study of medicine at my Nigerian university, I longed to be a writer, to live a life of the mind. From my first days, I watched and read and learned. I was struck by the excess and the newness of America, by its flagrant contradictions, but mostly by how identity as an idea shaped so much of American life. I became Black in America. It was not a choice—my chocolate-colored skin saw to that—but a revelation. I had never before thought of myself as “Black”; I did not need to, because while British colonialism in Nigeria left many cursed legacies in its wake, racial identity was not one of them. Read more
Review: Beyoncé Renaissance World Tour Begins in Stockholm. By Hunter Harris / Vulture
The first shows of her tour make it clear: We are living in the Beyoncéverse.
For two nights this week, Stockholm became the capital of Black Planet, the epicenter of all internet activity, when the Renaissance tour — Beyoncé’s first solo tour in seven years and two(-ish) albums — took over the city. Read more
Sports
Russell Westbrook Means Business. By Matt Craig / Forbes
History says he won’t get there. Only three athletes have achieved billionaire status according to Forbes—Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tiger Woods—and Westbrook has made it only about a third of the way. Across 15 NBA seasons, he has earned more than $336 million in salary (before taxes and agent fees) and nearly $200 million from endorsements and other businesses off the court, according to Forbes estimates. Read more
Americans are too divided for this sports tradition to continue. By Jeff Pearlman / CNN
The University of Georgia’s football team has turned down an invitation to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, and people are crazy mad. Or they’re very happy.
Like our nation, which often feels broken to the point of disrepair, the sports team-visits-the-White House no longer works. We have stopped viewing the president as a representative of our nation. He is now a personal barometer—if you voted for Biden, you dig him. If you voted against him, you loathe him. There are no in-betweens. No subtleties. Sports don’t need that. Sports teams don’t need that. We hit up a stadium or an arena to feel good. To scream, to cheer, to watch the spectacular and to embrace the bliss. Sports give us simple pleasures in a complicated world. Politics, on the other hand, sucks the joy out. It makes us mean and petty and stupid. It is cruel. It is nasty. The White House visit, once an honor, now feels like a burden. We no longer can handle it. Read more
As Black coaches fight for NFL jobs, Reggie Barlow turned to the XFL By Barry Svrluga / Wash Post
Reggie Barlow was the XFL’s coach of the year after leading the D.C. Defenders to the league’s championship game. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
They gave me a sheet of paper and said, ‘You’re the head coach. Go and hire your director of player personnel, your team operations person, find a coaching staff and then go find a team,’ ” Barlow said. Barlow got his 51 guys. But he also intentionally hired Von Hutchins, a Black former NFL player, to be in charge of personnel. He intentionally hired Stacie Johnson, a Black woman, to be his director of team operations. He assembled a coaching staff that included veteran NFL defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. He became the XFL’s coach of the year. Read more
Site Information
Articles appearing in the Digest are archived on our home page. 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. The site is searchable by name or topic. See “search” at the top of this page.
About Race Inquiry and Race Inquiry Digest. The Digest is published on Mondays and Thursdays.
Use the customized buttons below to share the Digest in an email, or post to your Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter accounts.