Featured
HBCUs Under Pressure: Navigating Political Threats. By Ronald J. Sheehy / Race Inquiry Digest Weekend Edition (Graves Hall Morehouse College)
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have long served as pillars of opportunity and advancement for African American students. Founded in response to exclusion from predominantly white institutions, HBCUs have, over generations, produced scholars, scientists, and civic leaders who have shaped American life.
Today, however, these institutions face intensifying political threats under the Trump administration, ranging from targeted funding cuts and anti-DEI policies to legal allegations of discrimination that strike at the heart of their mission. Read more
Related: How Trump is using civil rights laws to bring schools to heel. By Cory Turner / NPR
Political / Social
Donald Trump has an Achilles heel that threatens the whole world. By Thom Hartman / MSN
Could Trump’s weakness and the GOP’s cowardice mean the end of democracy around the world? Could his part in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell scandal be the proverbial horseshoe nail that brings down majority rule and representative government worldwide?
And here we are, exactly 80 years after the end of that war against fascism, and America again faces the test: will we defend and preserve democracy for ourselves and the world, or will we let the new Axis that’s forming this week in China take over the planet as Trump reshapes America into a police state and realigns us with the world’s fascist nations? Read more
Related: Donald Trump’s Presidency Is Making America Irrelevant. By David Rothkopf / Daily Beast
Related: Across America there are stirrings of a giant backlash against Trump. By Robert Reich / AlterNet
Related: ‘Unconstitutional’ and ‘unlawful’: Judges push back on Trump’s expanding power. By and
Trump’s War on Black America Isn’t an Accident—It’s a Strategy. By Perry Bacon / TNR
Lisa Cook, Kamala Harris, Black mayors—the pattern is obvious. But the best way to attack Trump’s racism is to tie it to his other hatreds.
In my view, what drives this administration is authoritarianism and ideological conservatism more than racial bigotry. Authoritarianism and ideological conservatism hit Black people in America really hard, and racism is a useful tool to further authoritarianism and ideological conservatism. Read more
Related: Trump’s playbook: America’s most powerful man targets Black women in power. By Edmond W. Davis / MSN
Chicago vs. Trump: Is This A Preamble to Civil War? By Stacey Patton / Newsone
President Trump has declared his intention to deploy federal forces, including the National Guard, to Chicago, calling the city a “hellhole” and insisting, “We’re going in,” though offering no timeline or specific authorization request from Illinois officials. The timing, scope, and legality of such a move remain murky.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has not requested deployment, and state Guard officials have already signaled their opposition. But the announcement sets the stage for a clash between Washington and one of America’s largest cities. Mayor Brandon Johnson certainly isn’t blinking. Read more
Related: With no end in sight, National Guardsmen deployed to DC grow weary. By , and CNN
Related: Trump sending National Guard to New Orleans in next crime crackdown. By Sarah Polus / The Hill
Black Unemployment Surges in August 2025 as Job Market Slows – Only 22K Jobs Added Overall. By Fisher Jack / Eurweb
African American workers face rising joblessness as federal cuts and weak hiring hit key industries
The August 2025 jobs report brought troubling news for the Black community. The unemployment rate for Black or African American workers jumped to 7.5%, up from 7.2% in July. This is the highest rate since October 2021, when the economy was still recovering from the pandemic. It now stands nearly double the national average of 4.3%. In contrast, White workers had a 3.7% unemployment rate, revealing a deepening economic divide. Economists say this signals growing cracks in the labor market, The Guardian reports. Read more
GOP Senator Draws Outrage After Speech on Who America “Belongs To.” By Robert McCoy / TNR
Republican Senator Erich Schmitt is openly embracing white nationalism.
“America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny,” the senator continued. “If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all. But we know that’s not true.” He went on: “When they tear down our statues and monuments, mock our history, and insult our traditions, they’re attacking our future as well as our past. By changing the stories we tell about ourselves, they believe they can build a new America—with the new myths of a new people. But America does not belong to them. It belongs to us. It’s our home. It’s a heritage entrusted to us by our ancestors. It is a way of life that is ours, and only ours, and if we disappear, then America, too, will cease to exist.” Read more
Pressure Mounts for Eric Adams to Drop Reelection Bid. By Nia Prater / Intelligencer
As his reelection hopes grow dimmer by the day, speculation is growing as to whether Eric Adams is considering suspending his bid for a second term at City Hall. While the mayor has continued to dismiss rumors that he’s eyeing the proverbial exit, he is facing increasing pressure to suspend his campaign to help narrow the field before the November election.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he believes a two-person race is the only way to defeat Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who Trump has inaccurately denounced as a “communist.” Currently, Mamdani is leading the field that includes former governor Andrew Cuomo, who has consistently polled second, Republican Party nominee Curtis Sliwa, and Adams. Read more
Education
Emory Cuts DEI Programs, Georgia NAACP Responds. By Kandis Edwards / Black Enterprise
On Sept. 3, Emory University announced its decision to close its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office.
The Atlanta institution will effectively end its DEI-related Initiatives. The decision has sparked concern among students and faculty, even as Interim President Leah Ward Sears assured the community that the move was made in response to federal mandates. Read more
Related: Mississippi universities halt funding for student groups, citing DEI law. By
Related: At George Mason University, Trump Has Found an Unbending Adversary. Stephanie Saul / NYT
College Board Cancels Tool for Finding Low-Income High Achievers. Stephanie Saul and Dana Goldstein / NYT
After the Trump administration criticized the use of what it called “racial proxies,” the group behind the SAT shut down a way for universities to identify promising applicants from disadvantaged communities.
When the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, many universities began looking more closely at socioeconomic status to admit more diverse classes without considering race. Scores of schools turned to a tool created by the College Board, which administers the SAT exam, to identify promising high school students from disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools. This week, the College Board quietly notified schools that it was eliminating the tool, called Landscape. The board provided little explanation for its decision. Read more
First-of-its kind HBCU prep school opening in New York City. By Arthur Jones II / ABC News
The school is a partnership with Delaware State University. The school’s mission is to cultivate a “community of learners dedicated to academic excellence, diversity, societal contributions, and social justice,” according to its website. In this screen grab from a video, Dr. Asya Johnson, principal of HBCU College Prep High School, speaks on the first day of school, Sept. 4, 2025, in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
New York City officials opened the doors of a unique school Thursday: a first-of-its kind Historically Black College and University (HBCU) preparatory high school in a major U.S. city. “There’s just not enough exposure to HBCUs across the country,” Johnson said during an interview with ABC News ahead of the school’s opening. “We talk about college and college access, but we do not spend enough time celebrating the history and the data around it.” Read more
The History of School Desegregation Reveals That the Job Isn’t Done Yet. By Heather McNamee / Time
The second Trump Administration has not minced words regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in education. Along with gutting the Department of Education, attacking college accreditors, and requiring new standards for K-12 school discipline, President Donald Trump has taken steps toward dismantling the fruits of decades of civil rights activism in education.
Trump and his allies argue that the need for DEI has long passed. In their assessments, desegregation and the passage of time have cured all of America’s racial ills. Yet, this argument rests on an ahistorical understanding of the civil rights movement — one in which its work is complete. This narrative neglects the systemic nature of discrimination, Black lived experiences, and ongoing activism. Read more
World
Trump’s deadly Venezuela boat attack takes us into dangerous waters. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
POTUS believes he has unlimited power — all over the world
On Tuesday, the Trump administration decided that norms and measures were a waste of time. A U.S. naval ship blew up a vessel in the Caribbean that the president claimed belonged to a drug cartel and was being used to smuggle illegal narcotics. Its crew of 11 were killed. Trump proudly released the video of what can only be called a murder by the U.S. government, posting on Truth Social that it was done “against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists.” Read more
Related: Deadly U.S. Strike on Venezuelan Boat Raises Fears of Wider War. By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
Related: What to Know About a Rapid U.S. Military Buildup in the Caribbean. By Eric Schmitt / NYT
The Return of the ‘War Department’ Is More Than Nostalgia. It’s a Message. By David E. Sanger / NYT
President Trump and his defense secretary say they want to return to the era when America won wars. They largely ignore the greatest accomplishment of the past 80 years: avoiding superpower conflict.
When President Harry S. Truman signed the law creating the Defense Department from the remnants of the War Department in August 1949, Joseph Stalin was 16 days from proving the Soviets could detonate a nuclear weapon, and Mao Zedong was less than two months from declaring the creation of the People’s Republic of China. It was a terrifying time for Americans, and the new name was intended to reflect an era in which deterrence was critical — because war, if it broke out among the superpowers, could be planet-ending. Read more
Homeless and Hungry, Gazans Fear a Repeat of 1948 History. Raja Abdulrahim / NYT
Israel’s war in Gaza has displaced most of the 2.2 million Palestinian residents from their homes. Many of them fear it will be permanent, a reprise of the Nakba.
In recent weeks, Israel’s defense ministry has promoted a plan to force much of Gaza’s population into an area near the Gaza-Egypt border, which legal experts warn would violate international law by displacing hundreds of thousands of people indefinitely. Palestinians in northern Gaza now face that prospect again as the Israeli military plans a full assault on Gaza City. “We are in a bigger Nakba now,” said Mr. Abu Samra, a retired teacher.
Related: Israel blasts Gaza City neighborhoods, residents have no refuge. By Aya Batrawy and Anas Baba / NPR
Related: Why Hamas Refuses to Give Up. Adam Rasgon / NYT
A new U.S. plan offers hope for Haiti. Editorial Board / Wash Post
Nothing has been able to rescue Haiti from its descent into gang-fueled violence and chaos. Not the resignation last year of the unpopular prime minister and the formation of a transitional presidential council. Not the deployment of a Kenyan-led international security force. Not the Haitian government’s enlisting of a private American security company. Not even the use of weaponized drones has been able to break the gangs’ stranglehold.
In the latest attempt to curb the violence — and a tacit acknowledgment that the previous efforts have all failed — the United States, joined by Panama, has proposed the establishment of a 5,550-member U.N. Gang Suppression Force for Haiti. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Help Wanted! A Rallying Cry Against Religious Extremism. By Ginny Baxter / Patheos
Rosie the Riveter, a World War II campaign piece depicting strong women on the home front, is updated to showcase strong women fighting hatred in 21st century America. |
Project 2025 is an instruction manual for systemic hatred that needs to be destroyed. The hatred is gaining ground in the U.S., but it isn’t too late for Christians and non-Christians, whites and non-whites, gays and straight people, and everyone else who values freedom to stand up to America’s religious extremism and Project 2025. Read more
At NatCon (National Conservatism) an effort to make Christian nationalism a more inclusive movement. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
A right-wing gathering that was once considered fringe, NatCon now boasts among its alumni Vice President JD Vance and this year featured a number of Trump appointees and allies, including Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director; Kelly Loeffler, director of the Small Business Administration; and Steve Bannon, a longtime podcast host and former chief strategist for President Donald Trump.
NatCon attendees seemed to mitigate their differences by trying to find common cause. Asked about the dynamic, Wilson derided antisemitism but acknowledged the tension between advocating for a Christian America and holding together a coalition that includes Jewish people. Read more
Related: At NatCon, a confusing resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
At Morning Prayers, Harvard’s Former Chief Diversity Officer Urges Students to Embrace Pluralism. By Alexander W. Anoma and Chantel A. De Jesus / The Harvard Crimson
Harvard’s chief Community and Campus Life officer Sherri A. Charleston, who led the University’s diversity office before it was renamed in April, said at a Memorial Church service on Thursday that her overhauled office was committed to elevating pluralism and going beyond “diversity in numbers.”
Charleston said that Harvard — which has spent years being buffeted by accusations of political intolerance and months as a political target for the Trump administration — may be uniquely able to demonstrate how to build understanding across differences. Read more
Texas AG goes step further in push for Christianity in public schools. By Ben Brasch / Wash Post
Ken Paxton urged students to recite the Lord’s Prayer after backing a law allowing designated prayer periods in schools.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has backed laws requiring his state’s public schools to display the Ten Commandments and enabling the schools’ adoption of a state-backed, Bible-based curriculum along with designated prayer periods. This week, the Republican went a step further — urging children to recite “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ,” if their public schools established a prayer period as permitted by a state law that took effect Monday. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Slavery and Capitalism : A New Marxist History. By David McNally / UC Press
Karl Marx’s writings on enslavement and labor have fallen out of favor among historians, but David McNally injects new life into them. Slavery and Capitalism gives the first systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery—using colonial travel literature, planter records and diaries, and slave narratives—to support the provocative claim for enslaved labor in the plantation system as capitalist commodity production.
Weaving together history, political economy, and radical abolitionism, McNally demonstrates that plantation slaves formed a modern working class. Unlike those scholars who insist that enslaved people were too sensible to set their sights on liberty, he highlights the self-activity of enslaved people fighting for their freedom and reframes their resistance as labor struggles over production and reproduction, with significant implications for US and Atlantic history and for understanding the roots of racial capitalism. Read more
Related: Trump Is Scrubbing Slavery From Our Historical Sites. By Kevin Sack / NYT
Related: How a Tradition Forged in Slavery Persists Today. By Danielle Amir Jackson / The Atlantic
The National Museum of African American History Is Under Threat, But This Organization Isn’t Having It. By Jameelah Mullen / Black Enterprise
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) faces possible loss of federal funding after being targeted by a Trump administration executive order 14253, also called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
America’s History SOS (Save Our Smithsonian), an advocacy group founded by a collective of Black lawyers, is leading the effort to stop the order. Read more
‘Nobody Can Give You Freedom’: A closer look at Malcolm X’s words. By Ken Makin / CS Monitor
To suggest that Kehinde Andrews is a fan of Malcolm X would be an understatement. The author, with his goatee, may be starting to favor his hero, whose picture sits on a bookshelf in his office.
The title of Professor Andrews’ latest book, “Nobody Can Give You Freedom,” comes from a famous Malcolm X quote. The book, which was released May 1 in the United Kingdom, is slated for a Sept. 9 release in the United States. Read more
Amid debate about U.S. history, Harlem Hellfighters receive Congressional Gold Medal. By Alana Wise / NPR
The Harlem Hellfighters of the New York National Guard’s 369th Infantry Regiment were posthumously honored this week with a Congressional Gold Medal. They received the highest civilian honor given by Congress, decades after their service during World War I was largely ignored by top military brass — and amid broader efforts to revisit how American history is remembered.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., at the Wednesday ceremony celebrating the troops and their families. Read more
The Story of Vanessa Williams, The Controversial First Black Miss America. By Angela Johnson / The Root
A 1984 scandal threatened to ruin her career but Vanessa Williams came back better than ever. Here’s her story.
Vanessa Williams made history on Sept. 17, 1983 when she became the first Black woman to earn the title of Miss America. But her reign was cut short when she was forced to resign after nude photos of her were released to the press without her consent. Read more
Sports
Maya Moore’s Hall of Fame career is the least important reason she’s an all-time great. By David Aldridge / The Athletic
How can you decipher a basketball career, which will be cemented this weekend with Moore’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, that includes three state championships in high school (career record at Collins Hill High: 125-3), two national championships at UConn (career record with the Huskies: 150-4), four WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, a league and Finals MVP award, and six All-Star appearances?
How else can you consider someone who was, arguably, the best basketball player in the world at the time, rationally deciding, at the top of her prime, at 30, to walk away from all of it in 2019, and to put all of her substantial energy and focus and platform into overturning the conviction and 50-year prison sentence of a man she sort of knew through her godparents? Read more
Carmelo Anthony deserves to be in the Hall of Fame after delivering on his NBA career. By Zach Harper / The Athletic
Anthony goes into the newest class of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinements this weekend, and in every single way, he is a Hall of Famer, no matter what you think of his career or him as a player.
He’s not getting in because of that championship run at Syracuse or his play for the United States Olympic basketball squad either. Carmelo is a bona fide first-ballot Hall of Famer because of the NBA career he had. Read more
All About Félix Auger-Aliassime’s Parents, Marie Auger and Sam Aliassime (Who Trained Him for 10 Years). By Emily Blackwood / People
Félix Auger-Aliassime learned to play tennis from his father, Sam, when he was 4 years old
The tennis star told The New York Times that his dad, a former tennis coach, began teaching him at the age of 4, alongside his older sister Malika Auger-Aliassime. “Our parents wanted me to be a complete athlete,” he told ESPN in March 2019. “So we played all sports, but tennis always was at the top.” Read more
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