Featured
My Father, My Faith, and Donald Trump. By Tim Alberta / The Atlantic
Here, in our house of worship, people were taunting me about politics as I tried to mourn.
I had never told Pastor Winans about the confrontations at my dad’s viewing, or the letter I received after taking Rush Limbaugh’s name in vain at the funeral. Now I was leaning across the table, unloading every detail. He narrowed his eyes and folded his hands and gave a pained exhale, mouthing that he was sorry. He could not even manage the words.
We both kept quiet for a little while. And then I asked him something I’d thought about every day for the previous 18 months—a sanitized version of my wife’s outburst in the living room.
“What’s wrong with American evangelicals?”
Winans thought for a moment.
“America,” he replied. “Too many of them worship America.” Read more
Related: Trump-Era Controversies Had a Measurable Effect on Church Attendance. By Daniel Sullivan / CT
Political / Social
If Trump Wins Again, There May Be No Stopping Him. By Matt Ford / TNR
If a presidential candidate is telling you that he wants to end the republic, believe him.
Seven years ago, former President Donald Trump raised his hand to take the presidential oath of office. He swore to “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States” and to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.” Things went downhill for him—and for the country—from there. His presidency ended in an insurrection that sought to illegally keep him in power. Read more
Related: Trump Has a Master Plan for Destroying the ‘Deep State. By Donald P. Moynihan / NYT
Related: Trump ‘coming for’ Black America’s health care with Obamacare vow. By Gerren Keith Gaynor / The Grio
Two Men Running to Stay Out of Prison. David A Graham / The Atlantic
Bad things happen when political candidates fear personal consequences of an electoral loss.
A candidate who is running to potentially stay out of prison is a dangerous candidate. He is not just running for his own ideology or pride; he’s running for his very freedom. That warps his incentives, making him more likely to employ demagogic tactics, less concerned about the way history might judge him, and more inclined to use every avenue possible to win the election—even if it means bending or breaking the law. Yet Trump may not be alone. In recent weeks, the former president has been more explicit about his intention, if reelected, to prosecute Joe Biden. And that means both leading candidates could have their freedom at stake. Read more
Related: How Popular Does Biden Need to Be to Beat Trump? Not Very. By Ed Kilgore / New York Magazine
Related: Is Trump Disqualified From Holding Office? The Question Matters, Beyond Him. By Mark A Graber / NYT
Republicans Are Escalating Their Attacks on the Voters They Hate the Most. By Tori Otten / TNR
The GOP’s broad war against voting rights is increasingly being fought on America’s college campuses.
In recent election cycles, young voters have consistently delivered major wins for Democrats. Republicans have decided that the best response is to try to disenfranchise young people. Read more
Koch network endorses Nikki Haley for president as it looks to stop Trump. By Dylan Wells and Hannah Knowles / Wash Post
The powerful political network led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch endorsed Nikki Haley for president on Tuesday, as it looks to stop Donald Trump from being the Republican nominee.
Americans for Prosperity Action, the network’s flagship political group, announced the group’s first endorsement of its type in a presidential race. In 2015, the Koch network identified five approved presidential candidates, all of whom fell to Trump. Read more
Large Latino poll finds cost of living and economy top voters’ concerns. By Suzanne Gamboa / NBC News
In a poll of 3,000 Hispanics, inflation and pocketbook issues are most pressing, with housing affordability making a debut in the top five. Biden’s job approval is at 47% of those surveyed.
Immigration and border security are considered pressing national problems heading into the 2024 elections, but a national survey of registered and eligible Latino voters found the cost of living and the economy, jobs, health care, crime and guns, and housing affordability were considered more important issues, a new voter survey found. Read more
Returning to the south: what can ‘reverse migration’ do for Black Americans? By Vivian Ho / The Guardian
From 1915 to 1970, an estimated 6 million Black Americans left their homes in the south, fleeing Jim Crow laws and racial violence to seek out new beginnings in the north and the west.
Five decades later, the New York Times columnist and author Charles Blow says it’s now time for these Black Americans and their descendants to return. In his 2021 book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, Blow argued that the way for Black Americans to truly overcome white supremacy and effect social change was to gain political power. They could do this, he said, by moving back to the south and concentrating their voting potential in key southern cities that already have large Black populations – and eventually take political control of certain states. South to Black Power, a HBO documentary, picks up where Blow’s book left off by looking at some of the reverse migration that has already happened. Read more
Related: Charles Blow Says Black Power is in the South. By Angela Johnson / The Root
HBCUs Increase Black Students’ Likelihood of Graduating. By Jessica Blake / Inside Higher Ed.
A recent report from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University suggests that the type of college where Black students initially enroll could narrow racial disparities in degree completion and influence students’ long-term financial outcomes.
Black students who enrolled at a non-HBCU four-year institution were 24 percentage points less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree within six years than white students over all, according to the report. Read more
Related: After Supreme Court ruling, college applicants still write about race. By Nick Anderson / Wash Post
Where Do Colleges’ Antiracism Centers Go From Here? Calli McMurray / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Three years ago, a handful of colleges opened centers devoted to combating systemic racism. As their newly tapped directors were still getting their bearings, the centers’ founding principles quickly came under attack.
College leaders announced these centers as part of their institutional response to the outrage that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Their missions and methods varied, but generally they aimed to confront racism and repair the harm it causes. Typically they were branded as “antiracism centers,” following the model of the bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist by the historian Ibram X. Kendi. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Conservative Christian Affection for Fascists Predates Trump. By Ed Kilgore / New York Magazine
National Bishop Ludwig Mueller whoops it up with fellow Nazis in 1933 outside the church where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation. Photo: Hulton Deutsch/Corbis via Getty Images
Most conspicuously, the ascension to power of Adolf Hitler, the author of Mein Kampf, was accompanied by rapturous support from German Protestants. This was especially true in small-town and rural parts of the country, where the fear of socialism and communism was intense and Nazi racial ideology fed on an antisemitic tradition exemplified by Reformation founder and German cultural icon Martin Luther. Read more
Americans Under 30 Don’t Trust Religion — or Anything Else. By Jessica Grose / NYT
When I wrote my series on why Americans are moving away from organized religion, I didn’t focus specifically on those under 30, even though I knew they were the least religiously affiliated.
I wanted to tell the full story that included different age groups because in recent decades, all age groups have seen a decline in religious participation. The sociological term for the unaffiliated is “nones,” a catchall for atheists, agnostics and those who say they have no religion in particular. Read more
Dr. King and a Moral Plan for Justice. By M. keith Claybrook / AAIHS
This article explores the last book written by King himself, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, which revealed his thoughts and plans for achieving a good and just society.
This analysis challenges current and future generations to broaden its understanding of King beyond struggles in the American South, speeches, marches, and his martyrdom to include his nonviolent direct action, moral compass, political organizing, and plans for the whole of the United States and the world. Lastly, it encourages considering King’s approach and plan as an option towards attaining justice. King was clear when he stated, “freedom is not given, it is won.” King had a moral plan of action to bring about freedom for all. Read more
Ending the death sentence: Black maternal health and the Catholic Church. By Efran Menny / NCR
For many African American women, delivering a baby has become a death sentence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Black women are nearly three times more likely than white women to die from a pregnancy-related cause. In light of this disheartening medical statistic, it’s imperative that any agency or organization that interacts with medicine and Black women should understand the nature of the problem. As Catholics in the body of Christ, the importance of a consistent life ethic for Black people is key. Stand for Black people not just in the womb but in the delivery room, the postpartum period, and beyond. Be true to what the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms when it says that everyone should work to support and create institutions that promote the well-being of human life. Read more
Historical / Cultural
How the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike Changed the Labor Movement. By Kurtis Lee / NYT
Sanitation workers prepared to demonstrate on March 28, 1968, as part of a labor strike that led to union recognition.Credit…Ernest C. Withers, Sr., via Withers Family Trust
The 1968 action led to greater economic mobility for Black workers. Today, union activists are trying to capture some of that spirit. Read more
The History Behind America’s Shortage of Black Doctors. By Margaret Vigil-Fowler / Time
A paucity of Black physicians is shortening the lives of African Americans—and politicians are starting to take note.
Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have proposed the Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Act to address the broader shortage of primary care physicians. The bill allocates funding to medical schools for increasing the number of primary care physicians and requires 20% of its funding to go to Minority Serving Institutions, including historically Black medical schools. This provision aims to increase the number of Black primary care physicians. Read more
Joyce Ladner and SNCC. By Mariee Bunch / AAIHS
In Netflix’s upcoming movie Rustin, set to be released in November, the world will learn more of this story and more about one of the significant organizers of the March, Dr. Joyce Ladner.
Women’s participation in the March on Washington has been often overlooked, and as Ladner recently explained in a New York Times article, “There was not a spotlight in the country focused on parity for women. And race was such a dominant, overbearing issue in my life that being a woman didn’t even factor into it. I lived during two lynchings in Mississippi. The last one in 1959 occurred 15 miles from where I lived. So, there was little room for me to delineate women out of that larger group of oppression.” Despite it all, Ladner knew that she would be part of a generation that enacted change, and her contributions illustrate that women were monumental in organizing the demonstration. Read more
Tulsa Teacher Opens School To Teach Black History After Oklahoma Passed Law To Censor America’s Past: ‘Creating Our Narrative’.” By Tomas Kassahun / Blavity
An Oklahoma activist has opened a private school to teach Black history after the state passed a law that aims to cover America’s troubling past. The 2021 law, adopted by Republican legislators, restricted the teaching of race and gender in the state’s public schools.
As many teachers feared the possibility of losing their jobs if they violate the law, Kristi Williams started a grassroots initiative she calls Black History Saturdays, NPR reported. Williams, who has received funding from the National Geographic Society to launch the initiative, is leading the Black history sessions once a month in Tulsa. The private school is free for children and adults. Read more
GOP Senator In Florida Proposes Amendment to Ban Reparation Payments to Black Residents In State. By A.L. Lee / Atlanta Black Star
A Republican state senator from Florida introduced a constitutional amendment on Monday, Nov. 27, aimed at prohibiting the state and all local level governments from paying reparations to Black residents for slavery.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill, who is the former chairman of the state Republican Party, proposed the amendment, which will come up for consideration during the next legislative session in January, with the goal of putting the issue on the ballot in November. The amendment would “prohibit the state, a county, a municipality, and any other political subdivision from paying compensation in the form of reparations to an individual who is a descendant of an enslaved individual who lived in the United States before December 6, 1865.” Read more
The Highly Anticipated “Book Of Clarence” Drops New Trailer. By Hollywood Unlocked
From visionary filmmaker Jeymes Samuel, The Book of Clarence is a bold new take on the timeless Hollywood era Biblical epic.
Streetwise but struggling, Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield) is trying to find a better life for himself and his family, make himself worthy to the woman he loves, and prove that he’s not a nobody. Captivated by the power and glory of the rising Messiah and His apostles, he risks everything to carve his own path to a divine life, a journey through which he finds redemption and faith, power and knowledge. The Book of Clarence Official Soundtrack features new music by Jeymes Samuel, JAY-Z, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi and more. Read more and watch the trailer.
Can Dionne Warwick get an amen? Always. By Sonia Rao / Wash Post
She grew up in a family of strong voices, conquering the pop scene with her ballads. And she still has confidence to spare as the internet’s favorite auntie.
At 6 years old, she sang “Jesus Loves Me” while standing atop a pile of books at the pulpit of St. Luke’s AME Church, where her grandfather was a minister. She shares this origin story often, even opening her memoir with it. It marked the first time she performed at a service, and a moment of discovery that would lead to years of singing at the nearby New Hope Baptist Church. Read more
Sports
I Am Not Ok..’ – Serena Williams Openly Addresses Fans in a Strong and Reassuring Mental Health Message. By Akshay Kapoor / Essentially Sports
Serena Williams often speaks about mental health. She struggled after welcoming her daughter, Olympia, in 2017. She was also open about how she would cry and have meltdowns sometimes. Hence, she chose to spread more awareness about mental health. Following the same path, the retired tennis star did so once again.
Tiger Woods discusses return to golf, sport’s ‘murky’ future. By Matt Bonesteel / Wash Post
Tiger Woods on Tuesday described his golf game as “rusty” entering this week’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, his first tournament since his third-round withdrawal from the Masters in April and subsequent ankle surgery.
“I haven’t played in a while,” Woods told reporters at a pretournament news conference. “I’m excited to compete and play, and I’m just as curious as you are to see what happens because I haven’t done it in a while. And I can tell you this: I don’t have any of the pain that I had at Augusta in my ankle. Other parts are taking the brunt of the load, so I’m a little sore in other areas. But the ankle’s good, so that surgery was a success.” Read more
Years After Suffering $222.5 Million Loss, Evander Holyfield Finally Opens Up About How He Built His 45,000 sq.ft. Castle While Making a Brutally Honest Confession. By Sudeep Sinha / Essentially Sports
Not a lot of people can claim they’ve lived in a multi-million dollar mansion! But Evander Holyfield can. Following his success in the sport, the only four-time heavyweight champion built a 45,000 sq. ft. mansion. It was the largest single-family home in Georgia. However, the house turned out to be more pain than pleasure. Back in 2012, ‘The Real Deal’ went bankrupt after separating from his wife. Read more
Gauff First To End Season In Top 3 In Singles And Doubles Since Serena Williams In 2009. By Sebastian Dahlman / Tennis-Infinity
Coco Gauff had a really strong season; in fact, she’s the first player to finish ranked Top 3 in both singles and doubles on the WTA Tour since Serena Williams did in 2009.
Coco Gauff respects Serena Williams greatly, and had it not been for Williams, Gauff might have never picked up a racquet; however, she dislikes being compared to the legend. It makes sense because it puts a lot of pressure on Gauff to live up to Serena, which she doesn’t have to do. She’s a different player with a different career and, one day different legacy. Read more
LeBron James museum opens up in Akron, Ohio. By GMA Team / ABC News
LeBron James’ Home Court, a museum about the star’s career, opens in Ohio.
The LeBron James Family Foundation opened the LeBron James Museum in Akron, Ohio, this past Saturday, with the aim of showcasing the life and career of the eponymous NBA star. Dubbed LeBron James’s Home Court, the museum is located in the athlete’s hometown. Read more
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