Featured
The Illiberalism at America’s Core. By Julian E. Zelizer / The New Republic
A new history argues that illiberalism is not a backlash but a central feature from the founding to today. Illiberal America: A History by Steven Hahn
Steven Hahn’s point is not to dismiss liberalism, which he characterizes as an ideology that imagines “rights-bearing individuals,” “civic inclusiveness,” “representative institutions of governance,” “the rule of law and equal standing before it,” democratic “methods of representation,” and the “mediation of power” through “civil and political devices.” His intention, he writes, is to unpack the “shaky foundations on which liberal principles often rested” and “the ability of some social groups to use those principles to define their own communities while refusing it to others.”
Hahn defines illiberalism as being founded, like its liberal adversary, on a key set of principles. Illiberalism emphasizes a “suspicion of outsiders” to the community that justifies the “quick resort to expulsion.” In this tradition, the needs of the community triumph over the individual, and rights are limited to both local geographic spaces and a small number of actions. “Cultural homogeneity” is prized over pluralism and difference, and “enforced coercively.” Illiberal politics demand resistance to some forms of authority—especially to state functions like taxation and regulation—while submitting to others, including religion. Read more
Related: The Deep, Tangled Roots of American Illiberalism. By Steven Hahn / NYT
Related: American conservatives embrace Hungary’s authoritarian leader at Budapest conference. By , , and
Political / Social
Trump WILL be convicted in the New York Case. By Sarah Longwell and George Conway. The Bulwark Podcast (Image NBC News)
Sarah Longwell and George Conway take on Trump’s New York criminal trial: Hope Hicks’ testimony and a story about Trump glaring at George across the courtroom. Don’t worry — George explains it all. Listen here
Trump vows to fight ‘anti-white feeling’ in the United States. His allies have a plan. By Gram Slattery and Nathan Layne / Reuters
Donald Trump‘s pledge to fight what he calls “anti-white feeling” in the U.S. will likely embolden allies who seek to dismantle government and corporate programs created to battle racism and boost diversity in American life.
Related: Trump’s Big Lie is hurting Republicans’ efforts to get out the vote. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
Why Are Some Latinos Drifting to the Right? By Isabela Dias / Mother Jones
Journalist Paola Ramos talks about the “quiet radicalization” that is “taking place across the nation in plain sight.”
In Defectors, Ramos, a contributor for Telemundo News and MSNBC, investigates the “quiet radicalization of Latinos [that] is taking place across the nation in plain sight” and the factors behind the pull. Dispelling common stereotypes of Latinos in the United States as a unified bloc of voters allegiant to the Democratic Party and progressive values, Ramos writes that “to understand our history, which tells us that Latinos can carry white supremacist tendencies—whether they’re racially coded as white or not—is to understand that Latinos can easily act as the majority we are supposed to reject.” Read more
Kamala Harris Is Not Your Mammy — Or ‘Momala.’ By
Drew Barrymore asked the vice president to be “Momala” of the country, and I really wish she hadn’t.
Anyway, Barrymore was sitting there under the vice president’s nostrils, and she was doing the white liberal thing of earnestness through sympathetic facial expression, and the two started bonding over being stepparents. “Barrymore had the most powerful woman in the world on her couch, and she asked that woman, who is Asian and Black, to be America’s stepmom.” Read more
An Asian American Scholar Explores the Admissions Debate That Divided Her Community. By Eric Hoover / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
The long legal battle over race-conscious admissions policies ended last summer. But the many cultural currents that shaped the successful lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill still matter.
And those currents are complex, as OiYan Poon explains in her new book, Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family (Beacon Press). The researcher and activist set out several years ago to answer a big question: How did members of her diverse community come to hold such conflicting views of colleges’ race-conscious admissions programs — and of racism itself? Read more
Related: National strategy to build diverse STEM workforce unveiled. By Alison Snyder / Axios
Related: White job candidates benefit most from employee referrals. Here’s why. By Jessica Guynn / USA Today
The $57 Million Congressman Standing In The Way Of A Historic Black Candidate. By Liz Skalka / HuffPost
Rep. David Trone, a liquor store magnate, is breaking the bank to beat Angela Alsobrooks, who would be Maryland’s first Black female senator.
Rep. David Trone, a white Democrat, knows the path to winning a Democratic nomination in Maryland goes through its Black voters. “All of my elections, I’ve always done fantastic in minority areas, because so much of what I stand for is people who are left behind,” said Trone, a three-term congressman from not far outside Washington, who became lavishly wealthy operating a national chain of discount liquor stores. Read more
Related: Angela Alsobrooks Wants You to Know She Really Gets It. By Mel Leonor Barclay / The 19th
How civil rights law distorts the anti-Zionism vs. antisemitism debate. By Jason Willick / Wash Post
Is the anti-Zionism espoused by campus activists antisemitic? Israel’s supporters tend to say yes — antipathy toward the existence of the world’s only Jewish state is a form of antipathy toward Jews as such. Israel’s opponents tend to say no — anti-Zionism is motivated by universal values, not prejudice against any group.
So why does the discussion of campus turmoil keep getting routed through this supposed dichotomy? One reason is U.S. civil rights law and the pattern of thinking it encourages. The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to amend civil rights law as it relates to Jews by defining more anti-Zionist speech on campus as antisemitic. Read more
Related: House passes GOP antisemitism bill amid college unrest. By Lauren Peller / ABC News
California Man Charged With Sending Death Threats to Fani Willis. By Amanda Yen / The Daily Beast
A southern California man was charged with sending death threats to Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis over her prosecution of Donald Trump, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia announced Friday.
Marc Shultz, 66, of Chula Vista, made his first federal court appearance in San Diego on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. He had been indicted by a federal grand jury on April 24 and will be formally arraigned in Atlanta in June. Read more
Wealthier and Whiter: Louisiana School District Secession Gets a Major Boost. By Beth Hawkins / The 74
Court approves a 10-year effort to turn East Baton Rouge suburb into a new city — presumably with its own, far less impoverished, school system.
When finalized, the secession will likely cost East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools 10,000 students and 25% of its $700 million budget, school board President Dadrius Lanus estimated. “This is all rooted in institutional racism,” he said in an interview. “It’s about what white, middle-class people want for their kids.” Read more
Rep. James Clyburn Among Notable Black Leaders Awarded Presidential Medal Of Freedom. By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone
Congressman James E. Clyburn and other notable Black leaders were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
On Friday, President Biden named Clyburn and 18 others who “have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” the White House said in a press statement. Read more
Attorneys for family of Frank Tyson compare death to George Floyd, Eric Garner. By Drew Scofield , Tara Morgan , Bryn Caswell , and Bob Jones / News5Cleveland
The family of Frank E. Tyson, the Canton man who died in police custody last month, held a news conference with attorneys Thursday, calling for action against the police department.
Like Floyd, Tyson told police, after he was already on the ground and handcuffed, that he wasn’t able to breathe. “How many more teachable moments, America, at the cost of Black people’s lives, do we have to give you before you believe us when we say, ‘I can’t breathe,'” Crump said. Read more
Gov. Ron DeSantis Continues His Assault on Black Floridians. By Jessica Washington / The Root
Florida’s new six-week abortion ban just effect. Black Floridians will feel the impact.
The law is expected to have devastating impacts on Black pregnant people in Florida, who already suffer from disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. The Root spoke to Black Floridians about the ban last year, and they did not mince words. “This legislation is playing with people’s lives. People are going to die for the sake of an agenda, an agenda that doesn’t benefit people that look like me, a black woman,” Metayer Bowen, the first Black and Haitian woman Commissioner of Coral Springs, FL, told The Root last April. Read more
World News
The demographics of migration to the U.S. are rapidly shifting. What’s behind the change. By , and
“This is not a U.S.-Mexico border problem. This is now a worldwide issue,” a former Homeland Security official said.
The greatest numbers have come from countries farther away in the Americas that have never before sent migrants to the border at this scale. In the 2019 fiscal year, for example, the number of Colombians apprehended illegally crossing the border was 400. In fiscal 2023, it exploded to 154,080 — a nearly four-hundred-fold increase. But they come, too, from countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and every region in Asia. Read more
US losing ground to Russia in geopolitical battle over Africa. By Brad Dress / The Hill
At risk for the U.S. is not just keeping ISIS, Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in check, but also the growing influence of Russia, Iran and China, all of which are jockeying for power in Africa along with the West.
Will Walldorf, a professor studying politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, said the U.S. focus on counterterrorism is “missing the heart of the problem” and that it was “staggering” how terrorism has surged under U.S. watch. “The lack of good governance, the lack of meeting the everyday needs of citizens in West Africa, where we know food insecurity is extreme, has been really the core driver of terrorist recruitment in the region,” he said. Read more
Related: What Does African Rejection Mean for the U.S.?
Haiti’s Police Are ‘Begging for Help’ in Battle Against Ruthless Gangs. David C. Adams and
The United States is rushing support to Haiti’s depleted police force, which is awaiting international help as it tries to restore order and quell violence.
Gangs stormed the neighborhood of Haiti’s police chief, Frantz Elbé, in March, broke into his house, set it afire and killed his dog. Mr. Elbé and his family were not home at the time, and he did not want to discuss what happened in any detail. But the attack, which was captured on video, sent a chilling message through police ranks and to residents of the country’s embattled capital, Port-au-Prince. “It symbolized that no one was safe,” said Reginald Delva, a Haitian security consultant and former Haitian government minister. Read more
Americans’ views divided on US policy toward Israel-Hamas war: POLL By Gary Langer / ABC News
Nearly four in 10 Americans say the U.S. is doing too much to support Israel.
Nearly four in 10 Americans in a new ABC News Ipsos poll say the United States is doing too much to support Israel in its war with Hamas, up from about three in 10 in January. And more trust former President Donald Trump than President Joe Biden to handle the issue, though few call it critical in their choice of a candidate. Read more
Black High School Students And The Overthrow of Apartheid. By Noor Nieftagodien / AAIHS
Black students at universities and schools were pivotal actors in the anti-apartheid movement and, at crucial moments, changed the course and character of the liberation struggle in South Africa.
Their spirit of dissent and refusal to be beaten into submission by continuous and violent state repression were instrumental in dismantling white minority rule. From the mid-1970s, they repeatedly embarked on various forms of protest and built their own organizations to challenge apartheid education. The Soweto uprising of 1976 was undoubtedly the high point of Black student’s rebellion, but it was preceded by smaller experiments of creating student movements and inspired future generations of students to commit to the struggle for freedom. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
What Shakespeare can teach us about racism. By David Sterling Brown / The Conversation
William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy “Othello” is often the first play that comes to mind when people think of Shakespeare and race. And if not “Othello,” then folks usually name “The Merchant of Venice,” “Antony and Cleopatra,” “The Tempest,” or his first – and bloodiest – tragedy, “Titus Andronicus,” my favorite Shakespeare play.
Among Shakespeare scholars, those five works are known as his traditionally understood “race plays” and include characters who are Black like Othello, Jewish like Shylock, Indigenous like Caliban, or Black African like Cleopatra. Read more
Churches tied to Civil Rights awarded National Park Service preservation funds. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
Six churches are among 39 projects being awarded grants from the National Park Service to preserve historical examples of the Civil Rights activism of African Americans. Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama.
“The Interior Department and the National Park Service are entrusted with using the power of place to tell the story of our country,” Jordan Fifer, a spokesperson for NPS, told Religion News Service in a Friday (May 3) statement. Read more
Catholic leaders, urging cease-fire, call on Biden to halt weapons shipments to Israel. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
More than 200 Catholic leaders, including a cardinal, an archbishop and numerous nuns, have put their names on a letter urging President Joe Biden to push for a cease-fire in Gaza, secure the release of Israeli hostages and halt the shipment of weapons to Israel.
“We call on President Biden, a fellow Catholic, and other U.S. and international leaders, to do everything possible to ensure a permanent end to hostilities, including halting additional shipments of U.S.-funded offensive weapons to Israel, a return of all hostages, and the immediate distribution of robust humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the letter, released on Thursday (May 2), reads in part. Read more
Devout Christian Alan ‘Reacher’ Ritchson calls Trump a “rapist” and “conman.” By Daily Kos
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson — best known for his role as Jack Reacher on TV’s Reacher — expressed confusion at Trump’s appeal to a wide swath of religious hypocrites. Unlike many who fear alienating fans by taking a stand, Ritchson is willing to tell it like it is.
“Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal. I don’t understand it.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
Did You Know The Oldest Degree-Granting HBCU Was Founded 170 Years Ago Today? By Rayna Reid Rayford / Essence
On April 29, 1854, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to Ashmun Institute, which in 1866 would become renamed after President Lincoln, to what is now known as Lincoln University.
Horace Mann Bond graduated from the university in 1923 and would go on to serve as its eighth president. Bond’s book “Education for Freedom,” states that Lincoln University was “the first institution found anywhere in the world to provide a higher education in the Arts and Sciences for male youth of African descent.” Read more
On its 125th anniversary, W.E.B. Du Bois’ ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ offers lasting lessons on gentrification in Philly’s historically Black neighborhoods. By Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana and Freeden Blume Oeur / The Conversation
Society Hill, where Sixers star Joel Embiid recently put his penthouse condo on the market for US$5.5 million, has long been one of Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhoods.
It’s a distant cry from what the neighborhood looked like 125 years ago when sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois published “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study.” The book examines in meticulous detail the social conditions of thousands of Black Philadelphians living in what was then called the Seventh Ward, a neighborhood that overlaps present-day Society Hill. Read more
Historians Look Back at Life and Career of Civil Rights Activist and Representative John Lewis in New Biography. By Charlotte Phillipp / People
‘John Lewis: A Life’ will look back on the late politician’s career, from becoming a symbol of resistance after Selma’s ‘Bloody Sunday’ to serving in the House of Representatives
Nearly four years after his death at 80 years old, a biographer is looking back on the life and career of civil rights activist and Georgia Representative John Lewis. According to a press release from Simon & Schuster, Rutgers University history professor David Greenberg is set to publish a biography of Lewis titled John Lewis: A Life later this year. Read more
Barbara O. Jones, Actress Who Brought Black Cinema to Life, Dies at 82. By Clay Risen / NYT
Her arresting roles in movies like “Bush Mama” and “Daughters of the Dust” helped shape a generation of independent filmmakers. Ms. Jones in Ms. Dash’s short film “Diary of an African Nun” (1977), adapted from a story by Alice Walker. Credit…Julie Dash
Her first leading role in a feature film was in Mr. Gerima’s “Bush Mama” (1979). The movie’s story followed the daily life of Dorothy, played by Ms. Jones — a hangdog, working-class Black woman facing the sort of frustrations that regularly confronted Black Americans but were rarely seen on the big screen in that era. Read more
The dark side of Diddy’s American Dream. By Travis M. Andrews, Anne Branigin ,Helena Andrews-Dyer and Samantha Chery / Wash Post
How the myth of Sean Combs has come undone
Black lawmakers reintroduce federal CROWN Act legislation to ban hair discrimination. By Jonathan Franklin / NPR
A host of Black Democratic lawmakers reintroduced legislation Wednesday that would ban discrimination against a person’s hairstyle or hair texture.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., led a group of 84 lawmakers in sponsoring the reintroduction of HR 8191, or the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill — which was previously passed in the House in 2019 and 2022, but blocked in the Senate — aims to end race-based hair discrimination in schools and workplaces for Black Americans and other communities of color. Read more
Sports
Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention. By Ben Strauss / Wash Post
Sports, politics, sex, SpongeBob: There’s nothing ESPN’s biggest star won’t argue about — as long as you keep listening.
Smith, 56, is the long-running host of ESPN’s debate show, “First Take,” on which his longevity, ubiquity and uncanny ability to deliver opinions have made him the most famous talking head in sports. This studio, though, belongs not to ESPN but to Smith, and it’s home to his namesake podcast and YouTube show. Read more
Brittney Griner says she considered suicide while imprisoned in Russia. By Matt Bonesteel / Wash post
During a television interview, Brittney Griner outlines her struggles to survive her imprisonment in Russia.
Basketball star Brittney Griner said she considered suicide at the start of her nine-year sentence in a Russian labor camp, the result of her 2022 arrest near Moscow for carrying a small amount of cannabis oil. “I wanted to take my life more than once in the first weeks,” Griner told Robin Roberts on ABC. “I felt like leaving here so badly.” Read more
Coco Gauff Soars to New Heights With $5.3 Billion Worth Sponsor as She Announces Delightful Sneaker Surprise for Fans. By Ankita Banerjee / Essentially Sports
In a move to further redefine the sneaker game, Coco Gauff has announced the brand-new addition to her “New Balance” collection.
The brand has recently experienced a surge in revenue after 2022 that made it hit $5.3 billion at the end of the year! And extending the excitement even more, Gauff’s latest Instagram post created a wave of happiness among sneaker fans with her upcoming “Grey Day” edition. Read more
Darvin Ham out as Lakers coach after two seasons. By Jeff Zillgitt / USA Today
The Los Angeles Lakers fired Darvin Ham on Friday, four days after the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Denver Nuggets for the second consecutive season.
He spent two seasons with the Lakers, going 90-74 in the regular season and 9-12 in the playoffs. The Lakers reached the Western Conference finals as the No. 7 seed last season and were swept by Denver. They were the No. 7 seed again this season and lost to the Nuggets 4-1 in the first round. Read more
After another early exit, the Clippers proved you can’t buy NBA glory. By Ben Glover / Wash Post
Former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer has poured unlimited resources into the Clippers, but they continue to come up short in the postseason.
Over the past three seasons, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has spent more money on player salaries than all of his rivals except the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers’ payroll topped $200 million this season alone, a staggering sum that reflected only a small percentage of the former Microsoft executive’s investment in his passion project. But Ballmer’s decade of decadent spending has proved that money can buy respectability in the NBA — but not glory. The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Clippers from the playoffs with a 114-101 home victory Friday in Game 6. Read more
Confidence made Anthony Edwards a star. Trust has made him a monster. By Ben Golliver / Wash Post
The 22-year-old guard scored 43 points in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Game 1 victory at the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in the Western Conference semifinals.
Meet the new-and-improved Edwards, a 6-foot-4 brick wall who swishes midrange turnarounds with ease, drills three-pointers off the dribble, rises high to dunk over centers and, perhaps most importantly, understands there are moments when it’s best for the team if he downshifts. Read more
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