Featured
Trump Is Constitutionally Prohibited From the Presidency. By J. Michael Luttig and Laurence H. Tribe / The Atlantic
The only question is whether American citizens today can uphold that commitment. J. Michael Luttig is a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University.
As students of the United States Constitution for many decades—one of us as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, the other as a professor of constitutional law, and both as constitutional advocates, scholars, and practitioners—we long ago came to the conclusion that the Fourteenth Amendment, the amendment ratified in 1868 that represents our nation’s second founding and a new birth of freedom, contains within it a protection against the dissolution of the republic by a treasonous president. Read more
Political / Social
Texas Woman Charged With Threatening to Kill Judge in Trump Election Case. By Alan Feuer / NYT – Image NY Post
Days after the woman called her chambers, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan cautioned the former president about making “inflammatory statements” that could harm the integrity of the case.
The woman, Abigail Jo Shry, of Alvin, Texas, called Judge Chutkan’s chambers on Aug. 5, two days after Mr. Trump was arraigned on the election interference charges, and left a voice mail message attacking the judge, who is Black, with a racial slur, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday. In the message, Ms. Shry told Judge Chutkan, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, bitch,” according to the complaint. She added, “You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.” Read more
Who still likes Donald Trump? Lots of Republicans — but we looked for specifics. By Jonathan Schulman and Matthew A. Baum / Salon
Trump dominates DeSantis among all Republicans — especially younger, more rural and more conservative GOP voters
We are a multi-university team of social scientists who have been regularly polling Americans in all 50 states since April 2020. Our most recent survey, which ran from June 29, 2023, to Aug. 1, 2023, included 7,732 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. We explored who, among these respondents, supports Trump in the 2024 Republican primary and how they reacted to his June 2023 indictment for withholding classified documents. Read more
Related: Trump’s most racist supporters are coming to his defense. By Eugene Robinson / Wash Post
Prominent US firms face allegations of workforce discrimination over diversity efforts. By Reuters and Fox News
America First Legal this week urged the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate Activision’s alleged use of gender and racial preferences in hiring and internship programs, after lodging a similar complaint against Kellogg last week. Shown is Stephen Miller. Image by VF
America First has filed complaints with the EEOC involving Starbucks Corp, McDonald’s Corp, Morgan Stanley, Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC, and Hershey Co, among other companies designated on its website as “woke corporations.” The group is headed by Stephen Miller, who was a senior adviser to Republican former President Donald Trump known for his hardline stance on immigration. Ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker are board members. Read more
Related: DEI Bans at Colleges: What Students Should Know. By Sarah Wood / US News
We Need Black-Majority States. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
Dear Black Americans, Please move to the south. An argument for consolidating Black political power.
Charles Blow has a bold proposition for Black Americans: leave the country’s northern cities and move to the South. In this audio essay, Blow argues that becoming a voting majority in states like Georgia and Mississippi could give Black Americans the opportunity to control the levers of state power and influence national politics. Listen here
Enrique Tarrio and the Curious Case of the Latino White Supremacist. By Yarimar Bonilla / NYT
Enrique Tarrio, then chairman of the Proud Boys (holding megaphone) with members of that group and other right-wing demonstrators, at a rally in Portland, Ore., in 2019.Credit…Noah Berger/Associated Press
On Thursday, Department of Justice prosecutors threw the book at the Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, recommending a 33-year sentence for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The embrace of racist ideologies of late by Latinos like Mr. Tarrio and Mauricio Garcia, the Texas mall shooter who praised Hitler on social media, have led to much debate. After the Texas shooting, the right-wing commentator Mark Levin wondered how a person can “be a nonwhite and be a white supremacist?” Read more
Green Party candidate Cornel West owes more than half a million dollars in taxes and child support: Records. By Abby Cruz an Laura Gersony / ABC News
The outstanding child support payment is owed to Aytul Gurtas, his former partner and mother of one of his children. ABC News was unable to reach Gurtas for comment.
While it’s not clear how long West didn’t pay child support, New Jersey family lawyer Kathleen Stockton said that the amount of money appears substantial. The average U.S. child support obligation is about $5,800 per year, according to census data, making West’s nearly $50,000 more than eight times that. Read more
HBCU Medical Schools Growing in Number. By B. Denise Hawkins / Diverse Issues In Higher Ed
Now there are four — and two more are on the way. Shown is Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith Dean of CDU’s College of Medicine
For the first time in nearly 50 years, the number of Black medical schools in the country is growing. The fourth and newest, an independent four-year medical program at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) in Los Angeles, opened in early July with 60 students. CDU joins Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ethics / Morality / Religion
New book ‘The 272’ traces enslavement practices in the US Catholic church. By Bernard G. Prusak / NCR
It is a striking irony of history that the U.S. Supreme Court should have found affirmative action in college and university admissions unconstitutional just when U.S. institutions of higher education are beginning to reckon in earnest with their entanglements in the North American slave economy.
Rachel L. Swarns has synthesized her findings into a new book, The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. The subtitle of Swarns’ book indicates the ambition of its argument. According to Swarns, “Without the enslaved, the Catholic Church in the United States, as we know it today, would not exist. Read more
Churches must lead development in Black communities — if they want it to get done. By Quentin E. Primo / RNS
Black churches are primed to lead a new kind of movement, one centered on economic development and closing the staggering racial wealth gap.
Often among the few institutions that remain in underserved Black communities, churches are tapped into the community’s history, potential and needs and uniquely equipped to spur neighborhood development. Black churches have long supported Black people in the face of severe structural disparities. It’s time that all of us — religious or not, people of color or not — aid churches in this laudable duty. Eradicating inequity is about more than correcting historic injustices; opening the floodgates of opportunity for those who’ve been systematically deprived helps our country live up to its potential and improves possibilities and potential for all who live in this nation. Read more
Women at the first March on Washington: a secretary, a future bishop and a marshal. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
People demonstrate for racial justice on Aug. 28, 1963, in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. Photo by Warren K. Leffler/LOC/Creative Commons
In front of the crowds and the cameras, the speeches of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other men loomed large 60 years ago at the March on Washington. But the women, including those of faith, who played roles in its organization, its music and its news coverage were mostly left off the official program. “Individuals like Anna Arnold Hedgeman of the National Council of Churches strategized with others and convinced (organizer Roy) Wilkins to include a female speaker. Only one woman spoke: Daisy Bates, NAACP chapter president and an advisor to the Little Rock Nine.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
Using Frederick Douglass to Rationalize Slavery? In Florida, Yes! By Charles M. Blow / NYT
Last month, the Florida Department of Education announced that grade-school teachers could use videos produced by Dennis Prager’s PragerU Kids in their classrooms.
In reality, PragerU is little more than a propaganda media site. The Southern Poverty Law Center takes an even dimmer view of its credentials, saying, “PragerU seems to be yet another node on the internet connecting conservative media consumers to the dark corners of the extreme right.” In the video produced by PragerU, the two children travel back in time to talk to Frederick Douglass. One of the first things that the girl says to him is, “You have really cool hair.” Seriously? The cartoon Douglass says in the video: “Our founding fathers knew that slavery was evil and wrong, and they knew that it would do terrible harm to the nation. They wanted it to end, but their first priority was getting all 13 colonies to unite as one country.” Read more
African American Studies course will be offered in Little Rock School district for college credit, school board decides. By Jamiel Lynch / CNN
In a sharp break from Arkansas education officials, the Little Rock School District said in a news release it will offer AP African American Studies for credit. Students make their way into Little Rock Central High School in 2020.
Earlier this month, state education officials said students enrolled in the controversial Advanced Placement course would not receive credits toward graduation. “As part of our commitment to providing a rich and comprehensive learning experience, we will continue with our plans to offer the AP course,” the district’s release said Wednesday. “We will also continue to work closely with the College Board regarding content and curriculum.” Read more
How GOP lawmakers are pushing for Confederate monuments to be (legally) set in stone. By Abhinav S. Krishman / USA Today
For over a century, a life-size statue of a Confederate soldier has stood atop a towering monument in Fort Smith, Arkansas. “This statue is a clear and present ode to the values of the Confederacy that we do not share,” residents wrote in a petition to the city.
But before local leaders could decide its fate, the Arkansas Legislature revoked their power. Citing the “vandalism” of monuments, Republican state lawmakers passed a law in 2021 that prevents Fort Smith from removing its monument and supplants local control over dozens of other statues across the state. Read more
The Man Who Made the Suburbs White. By Mark Dent / Slate
J.C. Nichols pioneered racial covenants in Kansas City’s surrounding enclaves. The country is still grappling with them. J.C. Nichols in 1935. The State Historical Society of Missouri.
Today, for most Americans, Nichols is an anonymous figure. But, as a U.S. senator opined on the floor of the Capitol decades ago, “there are few cities of large size in the United States that in one way or another have not felt his genius.” In 1999 Builder magazine listed Nichols third when it counted down 100 of the most important figures in American housing during the 20th century (behind only FDR and Henry Ford). Read more
Morgan Freeman Shines Long-Overdue Spotlight On Black War Heroes In New Documentary. By Jazmin Tolliver / HuffPost
“It doesn’t make any sense that American history doesn’t include Black people to the extent that it should,” Freeman says in a trailer for the film.
In the riveting documentary, Freeman speaks with one of the last surviving members of the 761st, Cpl. Robert C. Andry, and the first Black secretary of defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, to uncover the history of the unrelenting men who endured a record-breaking 183 grueling days in combat and liberated 30 towns on their crusade into Germany. The “761st Tank Battalion” explores “the major battles” the group faced both overseas and in the United States in the fight for equality. Streaming on the History Channel. Read more
BET Remains White-Owned As Black Bidders Fall Short Of Asking Price. By Zack Linly / Newsone
Not long ago, people on social media were convinced that the deal had been finalized to make Black entertainment mogul Tyler Perry the majority shareholder at Black Entertainment Television. Black folks in particular were celebrating the prospect of making BET Black-owned again. Well, unfortunately, that dream appears to be dead in the water because not only has no deal been finalized for Perry, Diddy, Byron Allen or any other Black mogul rumored to be in a bidding war to purchase BET, but none of them put up enough money to satisfy Paramount executives in the first place. Read more
Sports
Michael Oher is now protecting his blind side. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Who’s right: ‘The Blind Side’ protagonist or the family who helped him? Time will tell, though the truth is they used each other.
Earlier this week, I finally gave in and watched The Blind Side. I had no interest in watching it when the movie was released in 2009 because I had no interest in taking in another white savior story. But in the wake of explosive charges this week from Michael Oher, the movie’s protagonist, I felt compelled to check it out. In a petition filed earlier this week, Oher claimed that crucial elements of the hit movie were untrue and made up by the family for its profit and gain. Read more
Related: Blind Side’ Lawsuit Shows Strains in Depiction of Black Athletes. By Santul Nerkar / NYT
Related: Why Hollywood embraced white savior movies like ‘The Blind Side.’ By Char Adams / NBC News
Darryl Strawberry Is Not Trying to Save You. By Michael Bamberger / NYT
But if you want to hear what he has learned about lost promise and the prison of yearning, ask him. He’ll talk to anybody.
Strawberry can’t tell you much about the Mets’ left-handed bats off the bench. His life in baseball has come and gone. But he knows and appreciates the doors baseball opened for him, and he was at the ballpark on that recent night to meet and greet some big-check donors to the foundation he runs with his wife, Tracy Strawberry. Among other things, the foundation helps pay for treatment programs for addicts of every kind. Strawberry knows such programs intimately. So does his wife. Tracy Strawberry is an ordained minister, has a doctorate in theology and, like her husband, is an addict in recovery. Read more
24 NBA Players Who Lost It All. By Sigrid Forberg / Moneywise
For many kids, playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is a dream come true. Shown is Kenny Anderson.
But for many ballers plucked out of high school or fresh out of college, getting drafted and earning millions of dollars isn’t the fast break they think it is. And between excessive spending, trusting the wrong people, following bad financial advice and supporting 30 of their nearest and dearest, many players have found themselves in dire financial straits. Here are 24 of the NBA’s shining stars who have lost millions of dollars. Read more
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