Featured
Pope Leo’s Creole Roots Evoke Sense of Connection From Some Catholics of Color. John Eligon / NYT
That the new pontiff’s ancestry can be partially traced to a historic enclave of Afro-Caribbean culture in New Orleans has brought joy to some Catholics. Image by CNN
When Pope Leo XIV emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as the new head of the Catholic Church on Thursday, the Rev. Lawrence Ndlovu of Johannesburg could not help but wonder at the shade of his skin. “‘You’re not the classical white sort of person,’” Father Ndlovu said he had been thinking while watching from South Africa. “But I couldn’t figure out, What are you?”
The revelation that Pope Leo is descended from Creole people of color from New Orleans, including some with potential ties to the Caribbean, has excited Father Ndlovu and other Catholics around the world, particularly those in Africa and other places with deep African ancestry. Read more
Related: Pope Leo XIV’s previously unknown Creole roots are a most American story. By Kathryn Post / RNS
Related: Pope Leo XIV Calls His Election Both A Cross And A Blessing. By Nicole Winfield / HuffPost
Political / Social
The Coming Jewish Civil War Over Donald Trump. By Eric Alterman / The New Republic
Trump is offering American Jews a kind of devil’s bargain: throw in with us against the antisemitic universities and campus rabble-rousers, but pay no attention as we dismantle the traditions and institutions that Jews value.
The war (in Gaza) has exacerbated a burgeoning conflict between the country that Israel is becoming and the values of the majority of American Jews. To put it in familiar terms, Israel has grown politically bright red while American Jews, alone among ethnicities that code as “white,” remain proudly deep blue. Read more
Related: Trump Finally Drops the Anti-Semitism Pretext. By Rose Horowitch / The Atlantic
Stephen Miller Has a Dangerous New Idea About Habeas Corpus. By Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling / TNR
The Supreme Court ordered Donald Trump to allow immigrants slated for deportation to file habeas petitions contesting their potential removal.
The White House is “actively looking” at ending habeas corpus as it continues its massive deportation crusade, according to deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Habeas corpus requires authorities to justify an individual’s confinement.
Related: She was arrested for an op-ed. Now a judge has ordered her freed. by Andrew Prokop / Vox
Trump’s ‘plan’ for Black Americans was mostly a bait and switch. By Theodore R. Johnson / Wash Post
It was a flashy policy agenda designed specifically for Black voters in hopes of luring just enough of them away from supporting Democrats. Today, however, the plan has proved to be mostly a bait and switch.
Trump has used the bully pulpit and executive orders to unleash an offensive against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which seeks to forbid most of the actions he once proposed. Read more
Related: Trump Declares High-Speed Internet Program ‘Racist’ and ‘Unconstitutional.’ By Chris Cameron / NYT
Related: Trump Seeks to Strip Away Legal Tool Key to Civil Rights Enforcement. Erica L. Green / NYT
Trump’s Latest Executive Order Would Make Police Even Less Accountable. By Rajul Punjabi-Johnson / HuffPost
This past Monday, the White House dropped yet another executive order, and this one includes a directive to the Department of Justice to defend and support local police who face liabilities on the job. That “support” includes financially backing law enforcement agencies and officers accused of misconduct.
If you’re feeling particularly strong-stomached today, go ahead and read the whole executive order, which is earnestly titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens.” Read more
Newark’s Mayor Arrested at Protest Outside ICE Detention Center. Tracey Tully Luis, Ferré-Sadurní and Alyce McFadden / NYT
Ras J. Baraka and city officials have said that the lockup is operating without a valid certificate of occupancy. Three members of Congress from New Jersey were with Mr. Baraka when he was arrested.
Mr. Baraka, a Democrat who is running for governor of New Jersey, was taken to a separate federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark and charged with trespassing. He was released roughly five hours later and was greeted by a crowd that had grown throughout the afternoon to more than 200 supporters and included candidates for New York City mayor and prominent labor leaders. Read more
Only half of Americans say Black Americans will ‘eventually’ have equal rights to white Americans: Survey. By Cheyanne M. Daniels / The Hill
Americans are growing less optimistic about race relations across the nation, with only 51 percent saying Black Americans will “eventually” have the same rights as white Americans, according to a new survey.
The Pew Research Center examined Americans’ views on race, policing and Black Lives Matter five years after the murder of George Floyd and found that a staggering 49 percent of surveyed Americans doubt that Black people will ever have equal rights with white people. The number is up from 39 percent in 2020. Read more
Related: Court: Alabama redistricting discriminates against Black voters. By Debbie Elliott / NPR
Education News
How cuts to DEI and a soft job market may affect new Black college grads. By / NBC News
The class of 2025 faces an uncertain future, but members also say they are seeking jobs at companies where “I’m wanted, not where I’m tolerated.”
New grads are entering a tougher job market than those who graduated last year, but even those who did secure internships or jobs told NBC News that DEI rollbacks still weigh on them. “DEI has been politicized in a way to mean if you’re Black, you don’t deserve a job,” said a Syracuse University student who asked not to be named for fear of professional repercussions. Read more
The Pentagon’s Culture Wars Strike West Point. By Greg Jaffe / NYT
A Jan. 29 order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led to canceled classes, book bans and an argument about American greatness.
Some professors said they assumed the school would defend its academic program. Instead, the U.S. Military Academy’s leaders initiated a schoolwide push to remove any readings that focused on race, gender or the darker moments of American history, according to interviews with more than a dozen West Point civilian and military staff. Read more
Related: West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate.
Trump’s dismantling of Education Department gives states ‘green light’ to pursue voucher programs. By
Texas recently became the 16th state to enact a statewide private school voucher program, an uptick critics fear will erode the public education system.
A growing number of red states have expanded their school voucher programs in recent years, a trend that is likely to only spike further amid a push led by President Donald Trump’s administration to return education “back to the states.” Conservative education activists have long lauded such programs as a way to give greater control to parents and families. But public education advocates warn that the expansion of these voucher programs presents further risk to the broader school system as it faces peril from Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education. Read more
Related: Department of Education Eliminates Grant for PBS Children’s Shows. Benjamin Mullin / NYT
Related: Can Head Start Survive the MAGA Era? By Jessica Winter / The New Yorker
World News
The U.S. now has two world leaders. They could not be more different. By
Leo XIV is the first U.S.-born pope. Some see his election as a repudiation of the Trump administration.
“The cardinals took a side: This new pope will stand against this 21st-century variety of authoritarianism we see getting underway in the U.S. and in too many other parts of the globe,” Millies told NBC News. “To choose an American while a second Trump administration is deporting, disappearing [people] and disrupting to such an alarming extent, again, is a message.” Read more
Trump is bringing white South Africans to the US as refugees, but what persecution are they facing? By Gerald Imray / The Hill
The Trump administration is bringing a small number of white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week in what it says is the start of a larger relocation effort for a minority group who are being persecuted by their Black-led government because of their race.
The South African government said the U.S. allegations that the white minority Afrikaners in question are being persecuted are “completely false,” the result of misinformation and an inaccurate view of its country. It cited the fact that Afrikaners are among the richest and most successful people in the country, and said they are amongst “the most economically privileged.” Read more
Related: Trump shut out refugees but is making White South Africans an exception. By Teo Armus / Wash Post
Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing poor children by cutting foreign aid, and says he’s giving away his wealth. By
Bill Gates accused Elon Musk of killing poor children as he announced Thursday that he would donate his remaining fortune to his charity, the Gates Foundation.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, Gates addressed Musk’s recent cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign aid around the world. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, effectively shut down the agency in February. “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he told the Financial Times. Read more
What’s behind India and Pakistan’s conflict over Kashmir, and why it’s so serious. By Meredith Deliso / ABC News
Tensions between India and Pakistan significantly escalated last week, with the neighboring countries exchanging fire for several days after India’s missile attack on Pakistan. While the two countries announced a full and immediate ceasefire on Saturday, experts say dangers in the region remain.
“This is just the most recent in a series of conflicts between Pakistan and India,” retired Col. Stephen Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and former State Department official, said. “Ever since the formation of Pakistan in the mid to late ’40s, these two countries have not gotten along.” With both countries possessing nuclear weapons, the threat of escalation is especially concerning. Read more
Lessons From World War II to Avoid World War III. Jan Lipavský Margus Tsahkna, Baiba Braže, Kęstutis Budrys, Mihai Popşoi, Radosław Sikorski and
Mr. Lipavský is the foreign minister of the Czech Republic. Mr. Tsahkna is the foreign minister of Estonia. Ms. Braže is the foreign minister of Latvia. Mr. Budrys is the foreign minister of Lithuania. Mr. Popşoi is the foreign minister of Moldova. Mr. Sikorski is the foreign minister of Poland. Mr. Sybiha is the foreign minister of Ukraine.
Thursday is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. As leaders of countries that suffered greatly during and after the war, we attach great importance to this date. We remember our fallen parents, grandparents and other relatives who defended our freedom from two tyrannies of the last century. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Is This the End of the Separation of Church and State? By Ruth Marcus / The New Yorker
The Justices, who have steadily eroded prohibitions on government sponsorship of religious schools, now seem ready to end them entirely.
The beginning of the end of the separation of church and state started with recycled tires—specifically, recycled tires used for playground padding at a Missouri church’s preschool. The end could arrive this summer, in the form of a Supreme Court ruling requiring Oklahoma to fund the nation’s first religious charter school, a Catholic institution that is “faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.” Read more
Related: Today Harvard Is the Target. Tomorrow It Could Be Your Church.
‘Sinners’ opens a new conversation about Black religion in film. By Christopher S. Gurley Jr. / RNS
As the conflict in the hit film ‘Sinners’ unfolds, it deftly interrogates the role of religion within the Black community.
Praised by critics, “Sinners” immerses its audience in a twofold battle of supernatural strife and racial tension. In this world, Black people are fighting to survive and build society in the Jim Crow era, and as otherworldly creatures are determined to strip them of their humanity. As the movie’s conflict unfolds, Coogler deftly interrogates the role of religion within this Black community. Read more
The church has a DEI problem. By Julian DeShazier / The Christian Century
We love diversity. That doesn’t mean we’re willing to make room for difference.
Cash Can’t Create Families. By Chris Butler / Christianity Today
Government support helps. But the Black church shows good parenting requires the nourishment that flows from intentional congregations.
In an effort to encourage Americans to have more kids, the Trump administration has been assessing several proposals, including a $5,000 “baby bonus” and a medal for mothers who have six or more children. The problem with these purely financial approaches is that they misunderstand the heart of family formation. While the burdens of housing, childcare, health care, and education certainly affect decisions about childbearing, parenting is not merely about finances. Read more
Related: Why does J. D. Vance want more American babies? By Mac Loftin / The Christian Century
Historical / Cultural
The Jim Crow Origins of National Police Week. By Elizabeth Robeson / The Nation
Tens of thousands of police officers will descend on Washington next week for the 62nd annual commemoration of National Police Week running May 11–17.
National Police Week emerged from Jim Crow South Carolina as the handiwork of Olin Dewitt Johnston, a three-term governor elevated to the US Senate in 1944 months after the US Supreme Court struck down the white primary in Smith v. Allwright. As a defiant son of the Palmetto State, Johnston called the state legislature into extraordinary session and, in a torrent of hellfire, conjured the looming specter of a second Reconstruction: “Where you now sit,” he warned, “there [once] sat a majority of negroes. They left a stench in the nostrils of the people of South Carolina that will exist for generations to come.” Read more
The Book MLK Historians Are Learning From. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. arrives at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California
This week on Edge of Sports, we speak to Jeanne Theoharis, author of the groundbreaking new book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South. It is a deep dive into the remarkable political work that King accomplished north of the Mason-Dixon Line and in Southern California. Theoharis has uncovered a treasure trove of information that has gobsmacked even serious historians of King’s life and legacy. Read more and listen here
Nikole Hannah-Jones: Trump Is Erasing Black History. By Al Letson / Reveal
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of “The 1619 Project” argues that Trump’s civil rights rollback is returning the US to the 19th century.
On this week’s episode of More To The Story, host Al Letson talks to Hannah-Jones about the rollback of DEI and civil rights programs across the country, the ongoing battle to reframe American history, and whether this will lead to another moment of rebirth for Black Americans. Read more and listen here
Related: Trump’s Order to Sanitize Black History Meets Institutional Resistance. Clyde McGrady / NYT
This opera tells the story of ‘The Central Park Five,’ Donald Trump’s role included. By Neda Ulaby / NPR
The Central Park Five won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for composer Anthony Davis in 2020; it debuted the year before at the Long Beach Opera in California. The opera has also been staged at Oregon’s Portland Opera. Now, the Detroit Opera is producing the work from May 10-18 in Michigan.
“I wanted the audience to empathize and to identify with the Five,” Davis said of the young men, who were mostly only 14 and 15 years old at the time of their arrests. “I thought that the story was a story of perseverance.” Read more
Harlem’s Schomburg Center Celebrates 100 Years Of Black Culture Despite Anti-DEI Backlash. By Jameelah Mullen / Black Enterprise
100 years of Black excellence. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating its 100th anniversary amid growing concerns about the right-wing crackdown on government-funded programs that help preserve history, address historical injustices, and provide visibility to Black Americans and other marginalized groups.
The renowned center, part of the New York Public Library, will commemorate its centennial with a new exhibition called “A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity.” The exhibition showcases the library’s history by displaying books and photos from the past century. Read more
The Met’s celebration of Black dandyism has a dark side. By Karen Attiah / Wash Post
Having a Met Gala along this theme during a time of Black erasure feels complicated at best. Lupita Nyong’o, Rihanna and Lauryn Hill attend the 2025 Met Gala on May 5 in New York.
At a time when arts grants are being canceled all over the country, a massive fundraiser to support art in the form of fashion does matter. This year’s gala is set to earn $31 million, the most ever in Met history. At the same time, even while celebrating (as well as profiting off) Black culture, high fashion still remains almost exclusively a White power structure. Read more
Sports
Jim Dent, Long-Driving Golfer on PGA and Senior Tours, Dies at 85. Richard Sandomir / NYT
Honing his skills on segregated courses, he became one of the few Black golfers in the pro ranks, following the lead of Charlie Sifford, Pete Brown and Lee Elder.
Dent accumulated $564,809 in earnings, but he never won a tournament on the tour, and he did not qualify to play in the Masters. His best finish came in 1972, when he tied for second place, nine strokes behind Jack Nicklaus, at the Walt Disney World Open Invitational in Florida. Read more
Jemele Hill Is Returning To ESPN After Being Canned As SportsCenter Host In 2017. By Eric Italiano / Brobible
Jemele Hill, a writer who previously worked from ESPN from 2006 to 2017, including working as a SportsCenter host, is returning to the network. Hill will be featured as a panelist on Around the Horn, which is set to end its two-decade-plus-long run on May 23.
Hill was a far more controversial figure in ESPN history due to her politics clashing with some of the network’s viewers and the manner in which she shared those opinions. She has since leaned into being a political firebrand. Read more
The Best Player In the W.N.B.A. Now Has Her Own Shoe. Why Did It Take So Long? Tania Ganguli / NYT
The marketability of A’ja Wilson offers a case study in race, fame and gender.
A’ja Wilson, a center for the Las Vegas Aces, is widely acknowledged as the best player in the Women’s National Basketball Association. She is something like the league’s on-court answer to LeBron James or Michael Jordan. If Ms. Wilson were playing in the National Basketball Association, she would have long ago gotten a signature shoe, the on-court footwear designed with and for a player. More than two dozen N.B.A. players have them. Read more
Jalen Brunson is chasing Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier and New York Knicks legacy. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Frazier remains ‘bigger than life,’ a combination of style and winning that unified NYC during tumultuous 1970s
The greatest Knick? Brunson may be close. Walt Frazier close? That’s another matter. Frazier was not only a great player, but like baseball legend Willie Mays, Clyde is a state of mind. Frazier has won a pair of championships, and, in our business, — the business of sport and play — championships matter and legacy building begins with winning championships. Read more
Site Information
Articles appearing in the Digest are archived on our home page. A collection of “Books/Podcast and Video Favorites ” is also found on our home page. And at the top of this page register your email to receive notification of new editions of Race Inquiry Digest.
Click here for earlier Digests. The site is searchable by name or topic. See “search” at the top of this page.
About Race Inquiry and Race Inquiry Digest. The Digest is published on Mondays and Thursdays. The Week’s “Top Stories” are published on Saturday.
Use the customized buttons below to share the Digest in an email, or post to your Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter accounts.