Featured
Donald Trump, Felon. By the Editorial Board / NYT
In a humble courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, a former president and current Republican standard-bearer was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The jury’s decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder — perhaps the starkest to date — of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.
The guilty verdict in the former president’s hush-money case was reached by a unanimous jury of 12 randomly selected New Yorkers, who found that Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, was guilty of falsifying business records to prevent voters from learning about a sexual encounter that he believed would have been politically damaging. Read more
Related: Donald Trump Is Guilty in His New York Hush-Money Trial. By David Remnick / The New Yorker
‘No way out without bloodshed’: the right believe the US is under threat and are mobilizing. By Rachel Leingang / The Guardian
In ‘mirror world’, Trump is martyr and Biden is autocrat, as calls for violence erupt on internet after ex-president’s conviction
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars. Read more
Related: Right-Wingers Are Already Promising Vengeance After The Trump Verdict. By and
Related: The MAGA Internet Calls for War. By Ali Breland / The Atlantic
Political / Social
How Biden has restored fairness to the courts. By Dartagnan / Daily Kos
President Joe Biden reached a milestone last week with the Senate’s confirmation of Angela Martinez and Dena Coggins, the 200th and 201st judges Biden has nominated to the federal judiciary thus far.
They represent the successful effort by both the administration and Democrats to diversify the federal bench. As pointed out by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and reported by Kaia Hubbard and Melissa Quinn for CBS News, the Senate under Biden has now confirmed more Black women to the U.S. Courts of Appeal than all prior presidents combined. Read more
How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases. By Jamie Raskin / NYT
Mr. Raskin represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
Many people have gloomily accepted the conventional wisdom that because there is no binding Supreme Court ethics code, there is no way to force Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Jan. 6 cases that are before the court. Justices Alito and Thomas are probably making the same assumption. But all of them are wrong. Read more
Democrats are taking Latinos for granted. By Luis Miranda / Wash Post
Those of us who have spent a lifetime working in Latino politics find ourselves fielding a single question these days: How can Latinos even consider voting for a candidate who suggests that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”?
But Latino politics are far more complicated than that. Yes, Latino voters lean toward Democrats. However, they are not automatically Democratic voters. They are persuadable swing voters, and that single misconception is hurting President Biden and his party. Read more
She Made an Offer on a Condo. Then the Seller Learned She Was Black. By Debra Kamin / NYT
A Black woman claims a white homeowner tried to pull out of a sale because of her race. Dr. Raven Baxter, a molecular biologist, was in escrow on a new home when she was told the seller didn’t want to hand over the keys to a Black person.
Perched on a hill with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, the condo in Virginia Beach was just what Dr. Raven Baxter wanted. It had a marble fireplace, a private foyer and details like crown molding and wainscoting in its three bedrooms and three bathrooms. At $749,000, it was within her budget, too. She offered the asking price, which was accepted, and sent over a down payment. And then when she was in escrow earlier this month, her broker called her late at night on May 17, a Friday, with some bad news. The seller wanted to pull out of the deal. Read more
Related: What Is Fair Housing? By Debra Kamin / NYT
Two Virginia colleges face backlash after backtracking on plans to require diversity courses. By
Vergamini said they created lessons that covered the history of slavery in the United States, the Jim Crow era, racism against Asian Americans, and the nationwide movement to remove Confederate statues, including those in the state’s capital, Richmond, which was once the seat of the Confederacy. The curriculum, she said, was designed to benefit students of all races. But in May, months before the course mandate was set to be rolled out this fall, VCU’s Board of Visitors voted to drop the requirement. The Board, which is made up of 16 members appointed by the governor of Virginia, voted 10 – 5 against making the curriculum mandatory, according to a statement from the University. Read more
Lawsuit says American Airlines kicked 8 Black men off plane, citing body odor. By Hannah Sampson / Wash Post
Florida Cop Who Shot Black Airman in His Own Home Fired. By Amanda Yen / The Daily Beast
Tuskegee University Makes History, Names Alum Mark Brown President. By Shanique Yates / Black Enterprise
Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama, dies at 86. By AP and Andscape
“I would not be who I am today without the steady hand and unconditional love of my mother, Marian Shields Robinson,” Michelle Obama wrote in her 2018 memoir, “Becoming.” “She has always been my rock, allowing me the freedom to be who I am, while never allowing my feet to get too far off the ground. Her boundless love for my girls, and her willingness to put our needs before her own, gave me the comfort and confidence to venture out into the world knowing they were safe and cherished at home.” Read more
South African Voters Reject the Party That Freed Them From Apartheid. By John Eligon / NYT
With South Africans facing one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, shortages of electricity and water and rampant crime, the governing party still bested its competitors but fell far short of the nearly 58 percent of the vote it won in the last election, in 2019. The staggering nosedive for Africa’s oldest liberation movement put one of the continent’s most stable countries and its largest economy onto an uneasy and uncharted course. Read more
Netanyahu aide says Israel agreed to Biden’s cease-fire plan for Gaza. By
Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said that it was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.”
Biden announced Friday that Israel had proposed a three-part plan that would ultimately lead to a complete cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of all hostages who have been held there for the last eight months. It’s “time for this war to end,” Biden said. Read more
Kwame Bediako Still Defines the Debate on African Culture and Christianity. By Bruce Barron / Christianity Today
What Luther and Calvin are for evangelical Christians globally, Kwame Bediako is for many African evangelicals. From his dramatic conversion in 1970 to his death in 2008, Bediako was the primary architect of and inspiration for theological work that grappled with the realities of African culture.
On this 20th anniversary of the publication (by Orbis Books) of some of Bediako’s most influential essays in Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience, his memory still reverberates across the continent, as indicated by the seven reflections collected below on his ongoing influence. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Tulsa Race Massacre Photos: Vintage Pictures Of Anti-Black Terror. By Bruce C.T. Wright / Newsone
An increasing number of Americans have been forced to come to grips with one of the country’s most racist black eyes — pun intended — as we approach the annual commemorations of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921 when white supremacists destroyed a thriving Black business district and killed hundreds of people in Oklahoma.
It was widely regarded as the worst single instance of violence by white people against Black people in the history of the United States of America. Photos taken during the Tulsa Race Massacre’s 18 hours of violence as well as others captured in the hours, days, weeks, months and years since it took place underscore the devastation inflicted on Black Wall Street and its survivors, many of whom lost family members. Read more
An African American holiday predating Juneteenth was nearly lost to history. It’s back. By Eduardo Cuevas
A New York lawmaker has a measure pending at the state Capitol – built atop a historic Pinkster gathering space – to enshrine Pinkster in state law alongside Juneteenth and Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, a Brooklyn Democrat who authored the bill, recently learned about the holiday and now considers Pinkster a key part of his state’s history. He says it’s essential the government recognize Black Americans not just in pain or hardship, but also in joy and family. Even during the hardest moments of enslavement, he said, “We still found moments to come together and celebrate our collective history.” Read more
The Conservative War on Democracy Was Over 200 Years in the Making. By Ari Berman / Mother Jones
Everyone seems to be talking about saving democracy this year. “American democracy, that’s what the 2024 election is all about,” Joe Biden has emphasized, painting the threat of Donald Trump’s return to power as the central issue in the 2024 campaign. “We have to prove that our model isn’t a relic of history.”
But the crisis facing American democracy is much older and deeper than Trump and it is, indeed, a relic of a very different time in US history. In a new video companion for Mother Jones, based on my forthcoming book Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It, digital producer Sam Van Pykeren explores how the US political system was created to restrain democracy, not protect it. The founders essentially placed a ticking time bomb at the heart of our political system—and this could be the year it explodes. Read more
A Black farmer in South Carolina cultivates culture, history — and rice. By Caroline Hatchett / Wash Post
Rollen Chalmers has been integral to the region’s rice revival, and now chefs and home cooks are becoming loyal customers.
Plenty of Americans have eaten rice grown by Chalmers — even if they don’t know it. Chalmers is a longtime collaborator with Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills and champion of heirloom grains, and for close to two decades, he has worked in the background of South Carolina’s rice revival. The farmer grows organic rice, among other crops, at Turnbridge Plantation, where Richard Schulze Sr. resurrected nutty, aromatic Carolina Gold rice in the late 1980s. Read more
Florida Is Keeping Its “Slavery Was a Good Thing” Social Studies Curriculum. By Bess Levin / Vanity Fair
Yes, the one that literally states that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Remember last year, when Florida’s Board of Education came out with new standards for its African American studies curriculum that required public school teachers to tell their students that there were upsides to being enslaved? And most people were like, what the absolute fuck? Including Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s then competitors for the GOP nomination, one of whom literally said, “anybody that is implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane”? Well, the state has decided its insane policy is here to stay. Read more
Looking Back on “All in the Family,” the Sitcom That Reshaped America. By Tim Brinkhof / The Progressive
The program faced societal problems head-on, but it also implicitly allowed conservatives to express their bigotry out loud.
At its center was Archibald “Archie” Bunker, a foul-mouthed, cigar-stomping, Nixon-loving dock worker who lorded over his kind, uneducated wife Edith while butting heads with his rebellious daughter Gloria and her long-haired, peace-loving, progressively-minded husband Michael. Read more
American Beauty Standards May Have Black Women Tricked. By Zayna Allen / 21`Ninety
Living in America is undoubtedly a difficult task for a Black woman. Amongst many of the struggles Black women face on a systemic level, they also have to grapple with societal beauty standards.
Black women do not fit into the American beauty standards molded from European beauty ideals. These societal standards of beauty often dictate how a Black women feels about herself. This is a feeling that Candice Brathwaite-Aboderin knows all too well. However, one trip to Jamaica changed her entire perspective, leaving her feeling like an entirely new woman. Brathwaite-Aboderin’s eye-opening trip unveiled to her the truth that your environment profoundly influences your sense of beauty. In one of her social media posts, she candidly reflects on her experience in Jamaica and the shift it brought her perception of her beauty. Read more
Barbershop therapy: providing a safe space for men of color to talk about their problems. By Lataya Rothmiller, Mireya Villarreal, and Jim Scholz / ABC News
Dr. Antonio Igbokidi and Stan Norwood create a place for men to open up.
Talking about mental health often isn’t easy, particularly for men, who often fight gender stereotypes that make them hesitant to share their feelings. It’s especially true for men of color. Now, local barbers in Texas and Louisiana have created a safe space for men to come together and have open dialogues about their mental health – in barbershops, a place where conversation is already part of the culture. Read more
How a Group of Rappers Became Trump Evangelists. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
Donald Trump with the rappers Sheff G, right, and Sleepy Hallow at a rally in the Bronx last week.
Both rappers are facing felony charges. And that fact actually makes their appearance at the rally make sense — it tracks with Trump’s seemingly transactional relationship with several hip-hop artists, a history of which I have no doubt Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow are aware. Read more
Sports
The History of Black Baseball Players, on Full Display.
Catto, born a free Black man, turned to baseball in the shadows of the Civil War. He was a founder of Philadelphia’s all-Black Pythian Base Ball Club, which included Frederick Douglass’s son, Charles. (They lost their first game, 70-15, but improved quickly.) The Pythians applied for and were denied entry into Pennsylvania’s association of amateur baseball and the National Association of Base Ball Players. The story of Catto, who was also a civil rights activist before his 1871 assassination, is among many that the museum is showcasing in its new exhibit “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball.” Read more
Negro League supporters hope MLB stat integration is merely a first step. By Michael Lee / Wash Post
By Frederic J. Frommer and Andrew Jeong / Wash Post
How Grievance Splintered American Sports. By Jerry Brewer / Wash Post
Our games have changed from a unifying bond to a platform for division. Is there any going back?
Some consider Donald Trump the culprit, but he was just the closer. Tension was already there, prime for manipulation. Seven years ago, during a political rally at the Von Braun Center, Trump used his presidential privilege to finish the job. With one vulgar and meandering diatribe against protesting NFL players, he made American sports civility collapse. It seems no one cares to rebuild it. The president shouted: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say: ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ ” His taunt became the soundtrack for sports discord. Read more
Emotional Shannon Sharpe almost breaks down in tears after ‘losing personal relationships’ because of Undisputed drama with Skip Bayless. By Joshua Rogers / talkSport
Charles Barkley Goes Rogue in NBA Rights Fight. By Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair
NFL diversity, equity, inclusion efforts are noble. But league now target of DEI backlash. By Jarrett Bell / USA Today
The NFL says it remains committed to diversity, equity and inclusion programs despite being tested by DEI political backlash.
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