Featured
Remember MLK’s words as we approach a pivotal Jan. 20. By Colbert I. King / Wash Post
In the days ahead, will the U.S. government, which so often has come down on the right side, still stand up for justice?
King’s story about a time in his life when, out of fear and uncertainty, he felt temptation to surrender, hits home. Many of us, I suspect, have known those moments. King said he could hear an inner voice say: “Martin Luther King, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you, even until the end of the world.”
King knew he was not alone. There were others who shared an unwavering belief in doing what’s right, in remaining true to the call and the demand to “stand up for justice.” On the occasion of Trump’s inauguration and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we must pledge to do no less. Read more
Related: What MLK knew that today’s progressives keep forgetting. By John Blake / CNN
Related: If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive, how would he have approached the Trump era? By Earl Ofari Hutchinson / LA Times
Political / Social
Trump Brings a Chill to Washington. By Maureen Dowd / NYT
For many moons over the Potomac, the protocol for inaugurations has been as immutable and dignified as the words of presidents engraved on their monuments.
But what if you are coming to honor a man who tried to overthrow the government and steal an election? A man who riled up his followers to sack the Capitol and then lumbered out of town, a sore loser in a vile humor, skipping the inauguration of his successor? Read more
Related: Trump Barely Won the Election. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way? By Ezra Klein / NYT
Related: Standing Up to Donald Trump’s Fear Tactics. By The Editorial Board / NYT
Related: How Trump’s Promises Will Become Betrayals. By Karen Dolan / The Progressive
Biden’s racial record reflects both failures and quiet progress. By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Toluse Olorunnipa / Wash Post
The 46th president was unable to push through policing changes or voting rights laws. But he elevated numerous Black leaders and launched programs to aid minority communities.
Four years after Biden vowed to commit his presidency to sweeping efforts to advance racial equity, his legacy is mixed, with some of his allies questioning whether he did all he could to make the racial progress he promised. Read more
What’s next for Kamala Harris. By Deepa Shivaram / NPR
Vice President Harris sat at her ceremonial desk Thursday afternoon for a tradition that started back in the 1940s — signing the top drawer.
In her final public event before her political opponent’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Harris pulled out a Sharpie and became the first woman to sign the desk, capping off a historic four years as she broke barriers as the first woman elected to the vice presidency. Harris is leaving office in a fairly unique position. Her national profile was boosted over the course of her short presidential run last year. She has a higher approval rating now than when she launched her campaign, though it is lower than when she first came into office. Read more
Related: Kamala Harris Was Poised to Crush the Women’s Vote. What Went Wrong? By Joan Walsh / The Nation
NAACP report criticizes Pam Bondi’s voting rights stance. By Cheyanne M. Daniels / The Hill
Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), has a history of “undermining” voting rights, according to a report opposing Bondi from the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.
The report highlights that Bondi’s work as Florida attorney general and as chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) make her “unfit” for the office of U.S. attorney general. Read more
Related: Trump’s HUD pick, Scott Turner, faces questions on the Hill. By Jennifer Ludden / NPR
Conservatives Are Full Of It When It Comes To DEI And Pete Hegseth Is Proof. By Zacki Linly / NewsOne
There’s arguably no better example of modern white supremacy in America than the success of anti-DEI propaganda. (Also see anti-critical race theory, anti-Black history and pro-Great Replacement Theory propaganda.)
White America has thoroughly convinced itself that merit is the reason white men have overwhelmingly dominated every major industry in the nation for all of its history as opposed to patriarchy and systemic racism. Meanwhile, clearly underqualified white men are invisible in that world, which is why none of them seem to notice how often white men are able to fail upwards. Read more
Related: The End of the DEI Era. By John Hendrickson / The Atlantic
Related: ‘DEI is dead’ as American businesses prepare for Trump presidency. By James Titcomb / The Telegraph
Related: FBI Shuttered DEI Office Ahead of Trump’s Inauguration. By Phillip Nieto / Mediaite
‘Split-second decision’: Supreme Court returns to the question of police killings. By Lawrence Hurley / NBC News
The court will hear arguments this week over the “moment of the threat doctrine,” which addresses how much time can be taken into consideration when police kill people. Ashtian Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes, and sisters Al’edra and Anaya Barnes.
It took just seconds for a routine traffic stop on a Texas highway to escalate into a fatal shooting that left 24-year-old Ashtian Barnes bleeding to death in the driver’s seat. What happened during those seconds and the minutes prior during the April 2016 incident is now central to a Supreme Court case being argued on Wednesday that could make it easier — or harder — to hold police officers accountable for the use of excessive force. Read more
Will Cuomo Run for Mayor? Racial Politics Complicate His Decision. Nicholas Fandos and Jeffery C. Mays / NYT
An ill-fated run against a Black opponent nearly ended the career of Andrew Cuomo. As he weighs challenging Mayor Eric Adams, he cannot afford a repeat.
Andrew M. Cuomo has been here before. In 2002, fresh off a stint as the nation’s housing secretary, Mr. Cuomo decided to run for governor of New York. Fellow Democrats already had a well-liked Black candidate in mind, H. Carl McCall, but Mr. Cuomo bet his family name and raw political talent would carry the day. Read more
Related: New York City Mayor Eric Adams meets with Trump in Palm Beach. By and
Rudy Giuliani Settles With Former Georgia Election Workers, Agrees To Stop Defaming Them. By Larry Neumeister and Michael R. Sisak / HuffPost
Rudy Giuliani settled with two former Georgia election workers on Thursday in a deal that will let him keep his homes and personal belongings in return for compensation and a promise to never defame them again, lawyers and the women said.
The trial was supposed to decide the ownership of his Florida condominium and three World Series rings and was supposed to start in the morning with Giuliani’s testimony. But that never happened. An agreement was announced by all parties in the afternoon. Read more
What Happened to Enrollment at Top Colleges After Affirmative Action Ended. By Aatish Bhatia, Ben Blatt, Francesca Paris, Alicia Parlapiano and Eve Washington / NYT
Three findings from the first class to enter college without race-conscious admissions.
At the start of the school year, the Upshot asked selective colleges for the racial and ethnic composition of their incoming classes. We obtained this data for 66 colleges, allowing us to put together the most detailed look yet at how the makeup of these colleges changed after the end of affirmative action. While it’s still early to draw definitive conclusions — it will be years before we understand the full impact of the ban — here are three things we learned. Read more
World News
How American Racism Sabotaged the World’s Fight Against Genocide. By Anthony Conwright / The Nation
The international laws against genocide were deliberately crafted to prevent the US from being held accountable for its crimes against Black and Indigenous people.
In fact, the very creation of the Genocide Convention was marked by this imperial self-interest. During its drafting phase, the US worked to successfully guarantee that the ultimate definition of genocide would shield its government from being charged with the genocide of Black Americans. In other words, the international response to the worst crime against humanity was indelibly shaped by American white supremacy. Read more
Gaza ceasefire begins after delay as Hamas names hostages to be released Sunday. By AP and NPR
A long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza began after a three-hour delay as Hamas named the three female hostages it plans to free later on Sunday. Israel had vowed to keep fighting until it received the names, as the long and uncertain process aimed at ending the war got off to a bumpy start.
Celebrations erupted across the war-ravaged territory and some Palestinians began returning to their homes despite the delay, which underscored the fragility of the agreement. The truce, which started at 11:15 a.m. local time, is a first step toward ultimately ending the conflict and returning nearly 100 hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered it. Read more
South African police and illegal miners standoff draws to a grisly end. By Kate Bartlett / NPR
They look like the walking dead. Dusty men, skin and hair caked in dirt, skeletal. Some struggle to walk and collapse. They blink like moles in the harsh South African sunlight. Some look painfully young.
Operations to rescue hundreds of illegal miners at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, a small mining town about 100 miles Southwest of Johannesburg, started Monday and ended Thursday when rescuers said there was no longer anyone left in the shaft. In total during the rescue operation, 246 illegal gold miners were brought to the surface alive. Seventy-eight more were brought up dead. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
King’s Non-Violence Trumps Christian Nationalism. By Ray Kirstein / RNS Podcast
This week, we focus on the confluence of the inauguration of Donald Trump on the day we observe Martin Luther King Day, January 20th.
Host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush brings attention to the dichotomy of these two pivotal events, reflecting on the contrasting paths that America finds itself on—one leading towards justice, equality, and liberation, as exemplified by Dr. King, and the other toward Christian Nationalism, which advocates for privilege, power, and exclusion. Read more and listen here
Racial Unity Is Out of Style. By Justin Giboney / Christianity Today
Christians’ race debate is increasingly a battle between those blind to the sin of racism and those convinced racism and sexism are the only sins.
The sentiment seems to have shifted in such a significant way that the once-popular racial-reconciliation project is now passé in many spaces. Even the term racial reconciliation feels corny and cringeworthy to some. But the problem is much bigger than semantics: I see the church’s racial and partisan divide growing at a moment when society most needs an example of a Christian ethic that destroys racial barriers and the dividing walls of partisan hostility (Eph. 2:14). Read more
How shall we render to God and Caesar during another Trump administration? By Richard Lischer / The Christian Century
Thankfully, the Christian tradition is filled with models of resistance to unjust leaders.
As we consider the inauguration of a new president and the prospect of an unchecked authoritarian regime, many Christians are warily seeking the rationale for a life of faith in a changed political and social environment. We are testing our religious convictions for their durability in heavy weather. We are sorting through and sharpening our models for Christian witness in the world. It is the perennial spiritual exercise. Read more
Related: What does it mean to be a Christian in these times? By Kelly Brown Douglas / The Christian Century
Historical / Cultural
More Than a Century After the Tulsa Race Massacre, One Question Endures: What Is Justice? Visuals by Joseph Rushmore and Text by Audra D. S. Burch / NYT
More than a century ago, Greenwood, a Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., was destroyed in a violent spree by a white mob. It was one of the worst episodes of racial terror in U.S. history.
The attack left a vast crime scene that essentially became a cold case. No person or entity has ever been held accountable for the massacre and no victim has been compensated. Over the generations, one question has endured: What, if anything, is owed to the people? Read more
Two states still honor Robert E. Lee on Martin Luther King Day. See which ones, why. By Bonnie Bolden / Clarion Ledger
When the federal holiday was adopted in the 1980s, Mississippi and Alabama lawmakers opted to add it to an existing holiday honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Many states in the South initially adopted this approach. Most, including Lee’s home state of Virginia, have since dropped celebrating Lee, who was born on Jan. 19, 1807.
Attempts to separate the holidays through legislation have failed. Mississippi State Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, introduced bills that failed in 2023 and 2024. He submitted a new bill to separate the holidays on Wednesday, Jan. 15. Read more
‘Nickel Boys’ Awakens Black Cinema’s Time Revolution. By Robert Daniels / NYT
By bending time and leaning on nonlinear storytelling, “Nickel Boys” joins a recent trend of contemporary Black filmmakers relinquishing the impulse to frame Black stories chronologically.
Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’s film tells the story of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), an idealistic Black kid unjustly sent to an abusive Florida reform school called the Nickel Academy (based on the real-life Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys). Read more
In historically Black neighborhoods, the California wildfires could leave deeper inequality in its wake. By Andscape and AP
The sight of celebrity mansions and movie landmarks reduced to ashes can make it seem like the wildfires roaring through the Los Angeles area affected a constellation of movie stars.
But a drive through the charred neighborhoods around Altadena shows that the fires also burned through a remarkable haven for generations of Black families avoiding discriminatory housing practices elsewhere. They have been communities of racial and economic diversity, where many people own their own homes. Some now fear the most destructive fires in California’s history have altered that for good. Recovery and rebuilding may be out of reach for many, and pressures of gentrification could be renewed. Read more
Sports
Remember How Roberto Clemente Lived, Not How He Died. By Dave Zirin / The Progressive
Thinking about the legacy of the humanitarian and star as his island home sits in darkness from power outages.
On December 31, 2024, I stared at the ocean past Puerto Rico’s Piñones Beach. It was the anniversary of the day when, fifty-two years ago, Roberto Clemente’s plane went down just past the Piñones as he attempted to deliver food and medicine to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua. Nicaragua’s U.S.-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza, had looted previous planes sent by Clemente, which were loaded with aid and medicine. The renowned baseball player believed his presence as a Latin American icon would pressure Somoza’s thugs to back off so that the aid could be distributed to those who desperately needed it. Read more
Lamar Jackson teeth, explained: Why Ravens star wears diamond grills and estimated cost. By Gilbert McGregor / The Sporting News
Ravens superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson is a two-time MVP and a generational talent who shines every time he steps onto the gridiron. He also has a smile that lights up any room he walks into. Literally.
When watching Jackson lead his team, most notice the jewels that glimmer each time he opens his mouth. Naturally, they shine even brighter when Jackson steps off the field and onto the podium to fulfill his duty of speaking with the media. Read more
Jayden Daniels has been cold-blooded since childhood. By Sam Fortier / Wash Post
If the Commanders’ rookie quarterback seems especially poised, that’s by design. His father drilled it into him at an early age.
When his son lost control, Javon would point out how his emotions affected other kids. Stay composed, Javon told him. Don’t celebrate excessively until the game is over; don’t get upset when things are going poorly. It’s better to reflect on what went wrong, correct it and move on. Crying meant dwelling, which never helped anyone finish a job. Read more
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