Featured
The Haiti I Know Is No More. But There Is Still Hope. By Joel Dreyfuss / Politico
Haiti has suffered political crises before, but never has its future seemed so bleak. But one of its native sons sees a solution to the chaos.
I have a cousin in Haiti who’s an ophthalmologist. Each morning, she turns on the radio before leaving for her office. She’s not listening for the weather or traffic but for the safest route amid the gang violence that has gripped Haiti. What intersections are blocked? Where were the shootings overnight? Are the police still in control of major roads? Who was kidnapped yesterday? Even as the violence has soared, she still goes to work.
She’s one of 12 million Haitians living precariously in a country that has tumbled into lawlessness. I admire her courage and her dedication to her patients — she doesn’t benefit from an armored car, as do some of Haiti’s rich — but I am not surprised. Members of our family have a three-century tradition of service to Haiti, going back to the colonial era and the struggle for independence from France. Read more
Related: Many in Haiti learn to survive without a government. By Eyder Peralta / NPR
Political / Social
Donald Trump and American Justice. By the Editorial Board / NYT
The former and possibly future president of the United States is now on trial in Lower Manhattan, the first criminal prosecution of an American elected to the nation’s highest office.
Donald Trump, who relentlessly undermined the justice system while in office and since, is enjoying the same protections and guarantees of fairness and due process before the law that he sought to deny to others during his term. Read more
Related: Trump’s first criminal trial is a test run. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Related: Donald Trump’s Secret Shame About New York City Haunts His Trial. By Elizabeth Spiers / NYT
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, draws friends close and critics closer. By Walter Ray Watson / NPR
Observers, friends and former colleagues view Alvin Bragg Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, as a smart, deliberate lawyer and a selfless public servant. And people who claim him as their friend say he’s a thoughtful one.
Alvin Bragg Jr. attended Trinity, a private K-12 college prep school. He was nurtured in a storied section of Harlem called Strivers’ Row. His mother, Sadie, taught high school math and later was vice president at Borough of Manhattan Community College. His father, Alvin Sr., headed the local Urban League for several years. He retired as the city’s director of homeless shelters. Bragg’s parents wanted their only child to be open and experience all kinds of people. Bragg worshiped at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem as a child, and still does now with his wife and children. He teaches Sunday school there. In 2021, the late pastor Calvin Butts III introduced candidate Bragg during a Sunday service as “a son of Harlem.” Rev. Butts gave Bragg a few moments to make his pitch to potential voters. Read more
They didn’t want Trump. But they’ll live with the Republican nominee. By Jesús Rodríguez / Wash Post
Some high-profile conservatives would simply rather have a Republican in office — even a ‘consummate narcissist’ who mocks and threatens them
The Kamala Harris Moment Has Arrived. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
Fast-forward to now, when Vice President Harris has served nearly a full term alongside President Biden, and she is moving into another moment when the political stars are aligned for her as the perfect messenger on a subject that has fixed Americans’ attention and is central in the 2024 presidential campaign: reproductive rights.
This time, her target is Donald Trump. And being in a position to go on the offensive is something of a reversal of fortune for a vice president who has endured withering — often unfair — attacks and who struggled to define herself in the role. Read more
Democracy Doesn’t Need Independent Candidates Like RFK Jr. By Ed Kilgore / New York Intelligencer
Is Kennedy a real alternative to the two parties or just a floating cult of personality helping Trump? Photo: Thos Robinson/Getty Images for The Democratic National Committee
Independent presidential campaigns are invariably a vanity project for their candidates and provide a unique avenue for wealthy narcissists like Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996 and for demagogues marketing conspiracy theories and cure-alls, arguably like RFK Jr. this year. Democracy doesn’t need them, particularly given their tendency to spoil major-party outcomes in ways that may thwart the will of the electorate and give minority vote-getters a path to unearned power. Kennedy is not going to be elected president in November, but there are ample signs he may elect Donald Trump. Read more
Related: The Kennedys rally to prevent RFK Jr. from extinguishing their torch. By Karen Tumulty / Wash Post
Related: RFK Jr. Denounced By Environmental Colleagues, Urged To End Campaign. By
DEI is under attack. Here’s the real reason it makes many white men uncomfortable. By Barron Witherspoon Sr. / Fortune
The pushback to DEI is pervasive and highly visible. In the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott was demonized on X as the “DEI Mayor.” Across social media platforms, anti-DEI celebrants declare the acronym stands for “Didn’t Earn It.”
A recurring theme from my discussions with white men during my tenure as Procter & Gamble’s senior vice president of Global Industry Affairs & Corporate Race Initiatives is how DEI efforts make them bear the brunt of negative comparisons. Because they often comprise the largest employee segment, they are used as the benchmark or standard. Yet, instead of feeling like the benchmark, many feel like they are being left out–or even a target. Read more
Related: UNC System committee’s move to gut DEI stinks to high heaven. By Readers / The News and Observer
Supreme Court: Elena Kagan’s tactical victory for civil rights plaintiffs. By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern / Slate
We had some good news this week, a little bright moment in the form of a Title VII case that could have gone horrifically awry but didn’t.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court handed down Muldrow v. St. Louis, an important civil rights victory for employees who face discriminatory job transfers. Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick discuss the case in Saturday’s Slate Plus episode of Amicus. Below is a preview of their conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity. To listen to the full episode on Saturday, join Slate Plus. Read more
Congressional committee grills Columbia University president on campus antisemitism. ByBill Hutchinson / ABC News
Committee chair says Columbia has some of the “worst cases” of antisemitism.
Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik testified Wednesday before a congressional committee investigating antisemitism on the New York City campus after two of her counterparts at other elite colleges resigned amid a backlash over their responses at a previous hearing of the same panel. Read more
Related: Republicans Wanted a Crackdown on Israel’s Critics. Columbia Obliged.
Despite ‘model minority’ trope, 1 in 10 Asian Americans live in poverty. By Rachel Hatzipanagos / Wash Post
Advocates say ‘data disaggregation’ is key to dismantling harmful stereotypes about Asian Americans
Women of color still lag behind in STEM jobs, despite efforts to change. By Marisa Peñalozay / NPR
A mural at the first National STEM Festival held in Washington, D.C., this month shows the purpose of the gathering. High school students from around the country were celebrated for winning a science challenge.
Amid longstanding efforts to increase diversity in these fields, and as STEM jobs are expected to rise in the coming years, women of color remain underrepresented and underpaid in the STEM workforce, according to a Pew Research Center study. Read more
Related: Missing Black women, girls; WI lawmaker works on making task force. By Darronté Matthews / Fox6now
New study shows more botched executions for Black prisoners. By Chiara Eisner / NPR
A lethal injection gurney is seen at the at Nevada State Prison, a former penitentiary in Carson City, Nev., in 2022.
Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. In an analysis of the more than 1,400 lethal injection executions conducted in the U.S. since 1982, researchers for the nonprofit Reprieve reported that states made significantly more mistakes during the executions of Black people than they did with prisoners of other races. Read more
A Georgia beach aims to disrupt Black students’ spring bash after big crowds brought chaos last year. By AP and NBC News
Critics say local officials are overreacting and appear to be singling out Black visitors to a Southern beach that only white people could use until 1963.
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. — Thousands of Black college students expected this weekend for an annual spring bash at Georgia’s largest public beach will be greeted by dozens of extra police officers and barricades closing off neighborhood streets. While the beach will remain open, officials are blocking access to nearby parking. Read more
World News
‘I am prepared to die’: Mandela’s speech which shook apartheid. By Nick Dall / Aljazeera
Sixty years ago during the Rivonia Trial in South Africa, Nelson Mandela delivered one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century. He expected to be sentenced to death but instead lived to see his dream ‘of a democratic and free society’ realised.
“During my lifetime, I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Read more
A prophet or a controversial figure in the Church of Africa? By Lucie Sarr / By La Croix International
Cardinal Robert Sarah has lived nearly the past quarter-century at the Vatican, but the Guinean-born prelate has still been able to exert “incredible” influence on the Church in Africa.
During a lengthy visit to Cameroon earlier this month, Cardinal Robert Sarah praised the bishops of the Central African nation for their Christian witness while criticizing their confreres in Europe and the West. “African bishops, in their poverty, are the heralds of divine truth today in the face of the power and wealth of certain Western episcopates,” he declared on April 9 in an address to the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC). The 78-year-old cardinal, a Guinean who’s worked most of the past two decades as a top official at the Vatican, said there are bishops in the West who would be “paralyzed at the thought of opposing the world”, which he said is inflicted by the “temptation” of a “fluid and practical atheism”. Read more
Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rashid Khalidi on Israeli Occupation, Apartheid & the 100-Year War on Palestine. By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now (Nov 24 2023)
In this special broadcast, we air excerpts from a recent event organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature at the Union Theological Seminary here in New York.
The event featured a discussion between the acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi. Coates won the National Book Award for his book Between the World and Me. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia. His books include The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. Their conversation was moderated by civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander. Read more and listen here
Criminalization of Indigenous Land Defenders on the Rise, Says UN Report. By Sarah Sax / Mother Jones
“This is what brings fear” to their communities and thwarts “their right to self-determination.” Indigenous leaders and their water-protector allies set up camp to protest a pipeline in front of the Minnesota Capitol Building. Michael Nigro/AP
The report “Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ human rights” lays out the mechanisms by which Indigenous Peoples around the world are increasingly facing criminalization and violations of their rights with impunity. Indigenous land, subsistence, and governance rights are often poorly implemented if at all, leading to violations when they intersect with government and third party interests, especially in extractive industries and conservation. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Conspiracy Theories Surrounding The Assassination Of MLK. By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone
It’s been 56 years since Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was tragically cut short when he was assassinated in Memphis, but there are still so many questions surrounding his death. When someone the world loves is suddenly taken away, people need answers and if they don’t get those answers, conspiracy theories begin to take form. On this episode of Black Folklore, we dive into the complex and fascinating MLK conspiracies surrounding the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Read more
As Civil Rights Era Fades From Memory, Generation Gap Divides Black Voters.
For years, Loretta Green has voted at her Southwest Atlanta precinct wearing the same custom T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of her first voter registration card, dated to 1960. The front of it reads: “This is why I vote.” Since gaining the legal right, Ms. Green, 88, has participated in every possible election. This November will be no different, she said, when she casts a ballot for President Biden and Democrats down the ticket. But conversations with her younger relatives, who have told her they’re unsure of voting or considering staying home, illustrate some of the challenges Mr. Biden’s campaign faces in reassembling his winning 2020 coalition, particularly in key battleground states like Georgia. Read more
A meta-play about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. By Rhoda Feng / Wash Post
’Sally & Tom’ by Suzan-Lori Parks at the Public Theater doesn’t quite live up to its concept
“To cut or not to cut? That is the question,” mocks an actor in Suzan-Lori Parks’s leaden, overworked “Sally & Tom.” While rehearsing a play within the play, she concedes that the lines in question are “finger-waggy” but realizes that axing them might cause their mouthpiece to quit the show. The question of trimming — and “significantly reduced” word counts — is taken up several more times in “Sally & Tom,” which made its world premiere at Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater in 2022 and opened Tuesday off-Broadway at the Public Theater. Read more
FAMU will host jazz concert to honor new Julian and Nat Adderley Music Institute unveiling. By Tarah Jean / Tallahassee Democrat
An undated photo of Miles Davis (left), Julian “Cannonball Adderley (middle) and John Coltrane (right). Provided by FAMU Music Department
Florida A&M University is setting an atmosphere filled with soulful sounds of the blues with a jazz concert Thursday to celebrate the honorary naming of its Julian “Cannonball” and Nat Adderley Music Institute. The ticketed musical celebration at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at FAMU’s Lee Hall Auditorium is open to the public and will have performances by the university’s Jazz Ensemble, featuring Nat Adderley Jr. and other special guests. Read more
Sports
Why Does Caitlin Clark Have Signature Shoe But Not A’ja Wilson? By Stephanie Holland / The Root
As the media frenzy around the new Indiana Fever guard continues, we need the examine the role race is playing in all the craziness.
Caitlin Clark’s unprecedented success and popularity has brought new fans and attention to women’s basketball. The media frenzy around her could lead to more growth for the sport. However, it’s also kickstarted conversations about the role race plays in marketing WNBA athletes. On Wednesday, the discussions about how race is playing into the media coverage of Clark got louder when news of her impending shoe deal broke. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the Indiana Fever point guard is close to signing an eight-figure deal with Nike. This led to a deep dive of current WNBA players who’ve had signature shoe deals — a list that includes the legendary Candace Parker as the only Black player. Read more
How a new class of Japanese stars is changing baseball. By Chelsea James / Wash Post
Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers this offseason.
The highest-paid hitter in the majors, Shohei Ohtani, began his playing career in Nippon Professional Baseball. The highest-paid pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, earned his deal entirely based on his track record in NPB. Chicago Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga has looked dominant. New York Mets right-hander Kodai Senga finished second in National League rookie of the year voting last season. In an era of fleeting starter durability, San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish is sixth among active pitchers in career strikeouts. Read more
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson ‘never changed’ in his rise to stardom. By Marc J. Spears / Andscape
Brunson, a first-time NBA All-Star, was fourth in the NBA in scoring (28.7 points per game) and 13th in assists (6.7) this season. The six-year veteran also scored a career-high 61 points on March 29 versus San Antonio. But with fellow All-Star Julius Randle sidelined since Jan. 27 and other key injuries to OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson, Brunson has not only taken over for the Knicks as a scorer, but as the captain and heart and soul of the team.
“Nothing could be done without my teammates, and them and my coaching staff believing in me,” Brunson said. While those words are quite humble, Brunson has made a loud statement by leading the Knicks to the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed in the NBA playoffs. The Knicks open playoff action Saturday (ESPN, 6 p.m. ET) at Madison Square Garden against the Philadelphia 76ers and All-Stars Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Read more
Ryan Garcia wins stunning majority decision over Devin Haney – as it happened. By Bryan Armen Graham / The Guardian
Ryan Garcia drops Devin Haney to the canvas during Saturday’s fight. Photograph: Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy
Garcia has handed Haney the first defeat of his professional career in stunning fashion. He’s just won a majority decision to score the seismic upset. The judges’ scores were 114-110 and 115-109 for Garcia with the third scoring it a 112-112 draw. Read more
Tennessee State hires coach in big step to being the first HBCU to add ice hockey. By AP and Andscape
Duanté Abercrombie, shown speaking to players as an instructor at the Washington Capitals’ inaugural Rising Stars Academy in Arlington, Virginia, in 2023, has been hired to coach Tennessee State University’s ice hockey team.
Tennessee State has taken its biggest step yet toward becoming the first historically Black college and university to introduce ice hockey by hiring Duanté Abercrombie as the Tigers’ coach. President Glenda Glover and athletic director Mikki Allen announced the hiring Thursday. They first announced the HBCU’s plans in June 2023 during the NHL draft in Nashville hoping to start play this year at the club level and eventually field Division I men’s and women’s teams. Read more
Stephen A. Smith Slams NAACP Calling Him “Blasphemous” On Trump. By Fred Delgado in Daily Edition / 2paragraphs
This week, while Trump attended the first week of his criminal trial in Manhattan, TV and sports media personality Stephen A. Smith appeared to defend the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and said: “Black folks find him relatable because of what he is going through is similar to what Black Americans have gone through, he wasn’t lying. He was telling the truth.”
The civil rights organization NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) responded to Smith’s comments on X by writing: “Relatable!?! Show of hands: Anyone in your Black family have 88 felony charges pending, filed for bankruptcy 6x, made an attempt to overthrow a presidential election and our democracy, and still have the ability to fall asleep in court and dream of being POTUS?” The all-caps hashtag BLASPHEMOUS was added. Read more
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