Featured
Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t Either. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Virtually every person of note in American politics has, rightfully, condemned the horrific killing of Charlie Kirk and expressed their deep concerns about the growing incidence of political violence in the United States. Wherever we stand politically, we all agree that he should still be alive.
There has been less agreement about Kirk’s life and work. Death tends to soften our tendency to judge. And sudden, violent death — especially one as gruesome and shocking as this one — can push us toward hagiography, especially in the immediate wake of the killing. There is no doubt that Kirk was influential, no doubt that he had millions of devoted fans. But it is difficult to square this idealized portrait of Kirk as model citizen with the man as he was. Read more
Related: Wrestling Over Charlie Kirk’s Legacy and the Divide in America. Elisabeth Bumiller / NYT
Related: Let’s Not Forget Who Charlie Kirk Really Was. By Joan Walsh / The Nation
Related: How to Canonize a White Supremacist. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Political / Social
Trump vows vengeance against ‘radical Left’ for Charlie Kirk slaying. By Josh Meyer / USA Today
Trump, saying he was ‘filled with grief and anger,’ vowed in a taped address to ‘find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity.’
For Trump, Kirk’s slaying was personal. The young firebrand, 31, was a staunch political ally of Trump and helped fuel his political comeback and return to the White House in January. He had featured red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps on stage with him when he was shot once in the neck while talking to students as part of his “The American Comeback Tour.” Read more
Related: Trump Is Weaponizing the Murder of Charlie Kirk to Go After the Left. By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
Related: In an Era of Deep Polarization, Unity Is Not Trump’s Mission. By Peter Baker / NYT
Trump Is Expanding His Masked Thugocracy. By Sasha Abramsky / The Nation
Federal agents are essentially acting as paramilitaries to fulfill the administration’s violent fantasies. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, they will be empowered.
Within minutes of Kirk’s death, with the assassin still on the loose and with no proof of what the shooter’s motives were, Trump and his allies declared that now was the time to use the full force of the state to, according to at least some of Trump’s more outspoken supporters, eradicate the leftist menace. Some talked of a civil war; others of the need to “exterminate” people they see as “anarcho-terrorists.” Read more
Related: Trump says he’s sending the National Guard into Memphis to ‘fix’ crime like D.C. By and
Stephen Miller Pours Fuel on the Fire, Again. By Ian Gordon / Mother Jones
Donald Trump’s senior adviser wasted no time ratcheting up the rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.
On Thursday morning, the day after the shooting at Utah Valley University, Miller tweeted: “There is an ideology that has steadily been growing in this country which hates everything that is good, righteous and beautiful and celebrates everything that is warped, twisted and depraved. It is an ideology at war with family and nature. It is envious, malicious, and soulless. It is an ideology that looks upon the perfect family with bitter rage while embracing the serial criminal with tender warmth. Its adherents organize constantly to tear down and destroy every mark of grace and beauty while lifting up everything monstrous and foul.” Read more
Trump’s excuse for firing Fed governor doesn’t hold water. By CK Smith / Salon
Records confirm the Fed governor followed the rules, undermining the case used to justify her firing
The accusation, first raised by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, claimed that Cook simultaneously designated two properties — her Michigan home and an Atlanta condominium — as “primary residences” in order to secure favorable loan terms. That allegation triggered a Justice Department probe and was used by Trump to argue she had engaged in conduct unbecoming a Fed governor. There is also a condo in Massachusetts that they are now adding to the complaint. But a 2021 loan estimate for the Atlanta property shows Cook explicitly declared it as a “vacation home.” Read more
Anyone who bought RFK Jr.’s hype should read this report. By Leana S. Wen / Wash Post
When President Donald Trump tapped anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary, politicians on both sides of the aisle and many reputable doctors reacted with cautious optimism. They reasoned that any damage he might inflict on vaccine standards could be offset by his promised reforms to address chronic diseases.
It should be clear by now that this logic was flawed. For the latest evidence, look to Kennedy’s newly released action plan to “Make America Healthy Again.” At best, it’s a disappointing grab bag of half-baked ideas. At worst, it’s a blueprint for how Kennedy’s health agenda will actively make Americans sicker. Read more
Trump’s plan to control Congress could cost these Black lawmakers their seats. By Garren Keith Gaynor / The Grio
President Trump’s call for Republicans to redraw maps in their favor ahead of the 2026 midterm elections leaves several members of the Congressional Black Caucus vulnerable in a nationwide battle for voting rights.
A modern-day fight for voting rights is escalating in states across the country as Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps target Black and Latino voters to maintain President Donald Trump‘s control of Congress in 2027. If successful, several Black members of Congress would lose their seats in the process. Read more
Why the Spike in Black Unemployment Is an Alarming Sign of What’s to Come. By Layla A. Jones / TPM
Troubling and unusual unemployment numbers for Black Americans are signaling that the U.S. is on its way to a potential recession, economists tell TPM.
The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed an increasingly negative employment situation for Black workers, one that has rapidly deteriorated over the last four months as a result of policy decisions from the Trump administration. Black middle-class Americans are bearing the brunt of the initial impact “because the federal workforce is specifically being targeted,” Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Read more
Education
Trump administration cuts grants for minority-serving colleges, declaring them unconstitutional. By Collin Binkley / AP
The Trump administration is ending several grant programs reserved for colleges that have large numbers of minority students, saying they amount to illegal discrimination by tying federal money to racial quotas.
In a shift upending decades of precedent, the Education Department said Wednesday it now believes it’s unconstitutional to award federal grants using eligibility requirements based on racial or ethnic enrollment levels. The agency said it’s holding back a total of $350 million in grants budgeted for this year and called on Congress to “reenvision” the programs for future years. Read more
The Supreme Court Says ICE Can Consider Race, But Colleges Can’t. By Pema levy / Mother Jones
So much for the justices’ promise of a “colorblind Constitution.”
Like Roberts, Thomas argued that the only justification for stereotyping and dividing based on race would be an emergency action needed as “a bulwark against anarchy, or to prevent violence.” And yet, Roberts and Thomas were silent this week as the court voted to allow the Trump administration to detain suspected immigrants based in part on the color of their skin or whether they spoke English with an accent. Read more
Multiple historically Black colleges launch lockdowns after ‘terroristic’ threat. By Joanna Slater and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff / Wash Post
At least five historically Black colleges and universities received violent threats on Thursday, prompting several of them to place their campuses on lockdown and cancel classes. Baton Rouge Police block the entrance of Southern University’s campus on Thursday. (Javier Gallegos/The Advocate/AP)
The universities included Virginia State University and Hampton University in Virginia, as well as Alabama State University, Bethune-Cookman University in Florida and Southern University’s Baton Rouge campus. Read more
Charlie Kirk Brought Hard-Right Politics To A New Generation. By Matt Shuham / HuffPost
Perhaps more than anyone else, Charlie Kirk, the prominent Donald Trump ally and political organizer who was shot and killed Wednesday, brought hard-right politics to a generation of younger Americans, expanding the reach of Trump’s politics largely through raucous, theatrical in-person debates designed to go viral online.
Kirk’s well-funded group Turning Point USA, which he co-founded and is oriented toward students, has over 800 college campus chapters, according to its own figures. Its “professor watch list” was arguably a precursor to the Trump administration’s own efforts to target academia. And its sister political advocacy group, Turning Point Action, helped fuel Trump’s 2024 political operation. Read more
At Emory University, the disbanding of DEI contradicts the school’s progressive reputation. By Curtis Bunn / NBC News
The Georgia NAACP says it’s concerned the move is regressive and out of step with Atlanta’s legacy of civil rights, while an alumni group says it supports the school’s Black president.
As the Georgia NAACP weighs a protest at Emory University over its president’s announcement that it would dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a group of Black alums has banded together in support of the elite college’s first Black leader, who made the proclamation. The Sept. 3 announcement from newly installed ( 3 days on the job) interim President Leah Ward Sears that the venerable Atlanta institution, renowned for its civic engagement and social accountability, would disband its DEI initiatives generated a range of emotions from those connected to the school and community. Read more
Related: University of Denver Scraps DEI Policies After DOJ Warning. By American Faith
Related: Harvard notified grants frozen by Trump administration will start to be restored. By AP and NBC News
World
Charlie Kirk mourned by a global right he influenced. By Susannah George / Wash Post
The slain conservative activist forged connections between Trump’s MAGA movement and nationalist, populist counterparts in Asia and Europe.
After Kirk was fatally shot on a Utah college campus Wednesday, on the heels of a trip to meet with students and activists in South Korea and Japan, international political figures and world leaders expressed condolences. Most vocal among them were Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (shown) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — central figures in a global nationalist right with deep connections and shared affinities to Trump’s MAGA movement. Read more
Related: Charlie Kirk was spreading his conservative message in Asia days before he was killed. By
Related: Massive nationalist rally shows MAGA-fueled movement’s appeal in U.K. By Leo Sands / Wash Post
Trump Boat Bombing Takes Darker Turn as Damning New Info Emerges. By Greg Sargent / TNR
Questions are mounting about President Trump’s decision to bomb a small boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing all 11 people on board.
The administration says these were drug cartel members who posed a threat to the United States, but many legal experts have concluded the bombing might have been illegal or a war crime. Read more
Related: Rubio continues attacks on Cuban medical missions. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
U.S. says it will defend ‘every inch’ of NATO territory after Poland shoots down Russian drones. By
The U.S.-led military alliance said it would bolster defenses along its eastern flank after the incursion, the first of its kind since the Ukraine war began; Russia denied targeting Poland. NATO’s top commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.
Tensions have been high across Europe as leaders condemned the airspace violation on Wednesday — a first since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022 — as the latest sign of escalation from the Kremlin, which has rebuffed President Donald Trump’s bid to broker peace talks. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II,” but Moscow downplayed the incident, saying it had “no plans to target” facilities in Poland. Read more
Related: The Beginning of the End of NATO. By Robert Kagan / The Atlantic
Bolsonaro sentenced to over 27 years in prison for coup plot in Brazil. By Marina Dias / Wash Post
Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled the former president tried to reverse his 2022 election loss with a plot that included plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The 4-1 ruling by a panel of five justices of Brazil’s Supreme Court made Bolsonaro the first former president convicted of trying to undermine Latin America’s largest democracy. Advocates for accountability hoped the verdict would prove a turning point for a nation that has suffered more than a dozen coup attempts but historically has opted for political conciliation rather than prosecution. Trump, a Bolsonaro ally and friend, had imposed tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctions on justices to pressure them to drop the case. Read more
Related: Brazil Just Succeeded Where America Failed. Filipe Campante and
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Charlie Kirk leaves behind a sweeping MAGA Christian network. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
‘I’d argue there might not be a more important institution on the religious right, right now,’ than Turning Point Faith and Turning Point USA, said Christian scholar Matthew Taylor.
“But a civilization that abandons God will deteriorate and ultimately collapse from the inside out, or because it loses the will to repel a malicious, external force,” Kirk tweeted. It was one of dozens of religious messages Kirk tweeted or said publicly over the past few years, each promoting an uncompromising form of evangelical Christian faith fused with his famously bellicose political conservatism. Read more
Related: How Charlie Kirk drew power from his influence with young Christians. By Kathryn Post / RNS
MAGA’s plan for a white Christian America is unfolding before our eyes. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
Their ambitions were on full display at the National Conservatism Conference
Turning Point USA, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has attracted the entertaining activist types, while the more staid National Conservatism Conference brings together the more serious thinkers. Held last week in Washington, D.C., NatCon featured speakers and panels that plotted an even more conservative future that was downright chilling. Read more
Don’t Erase Augustine’s Africanness. By Phillip Jenkins / Christianity Today
A new book recovers the significance of the church father’s geographic and cultural roots.
In her new book, Augustine the African, Conybeare brings her interpretive toolkit to bear on the great church father, emphasizing the importance of his geographic and cultural origins. We already know, of course, a great deal about Augustine’s life and his theological reflections. Intellectually, we may know Augustine came from Roman Africa, with its vital center at Carthage. But what difference, if any, did that make to his life and thought? How might these have differed if Augustine had been the product of Spain or Sicily? Read more
An Exhortation to the Exhausted Black Christian. By Lecrae Moore / Christianity Today
I found myself angry, grieved, and deeply disillusioned as I repeatedly watched—and read—about unarmed Black men and women being killed.
I was grieved, and assuming most Christians cared about their deaths, I raised my voice. I thought this was a chance for the church to be salt and light. But what I saw from some of my white brothers and sisters was something else: Silence. Dismissal. Deflection. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Yes, this is who we are: America’s 250-year history of political violence. By Maurizio Valsania / The Conversation
The day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University, commentators repeated a familiar refrain: “This isn’t who we are as Americans.”
American politics has long personalized its violence. Time and again, history’s advance has been imagined to depend on silencing or destroying a single figure – the rival who becomes the ultimate, despicable foe. Hence, to claim that such shootings betray “who we are” is to forget that the U.S. was founded upon – and has long been sustained by – this very form of political violence. Read more
Related: When Alabama’s Birmingham was “Bombingham.” By Jim Meisner Jr. / Patheos
The Ritual of Civic Apology. Beth Lew-William / The New Yorker
More than a century after driving out their Chinese residents, cities across the West are saying sorry, with parks, plaques, and proclamations. But it’s seldom clear who they’re talking to—or what they’re remembering. Chinese fishermen in Monterey, California, 1875.
I was standing onstage at the University of Puget Sound, preparing to give a talk about anti-Chinese violence in the American West, when a man I’d never met stepped up beside me. He was introduced as a member of the Tacoma City Council. Without preamble, he turned to the audience—and then to me. “I tell my kids reconciliation begins with an apology,” he said. “On behalf of the city of Tacoma, I am sorry.” Maybe he meant the apology for the room. But it landed on me. Read more
‘Seen & Heard’ Confronts The Uncomfortable Truth About Black Representation On TV. By Njera Perkins / HuffPost
Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry and Shonda Rhimes are just some of the celebs who are speaking out in HBO’s two-part documentary.
In the world of entertainment, specifically onscreen, conversations about Black representation are often double-edged: On one side, there’s the tokenism imposed on a people who were long denied control over their own narratives; on the other, there’s the powerful reclamation of all that was stripped away, and then some. That’s the dual discourse at the heart of “Seen & Heard,” HBO’s two-part exploration of the history of Black representation on television. Read more
Sports
‘Revolt of the Black Athlete’ author Dr. Harry Edwards says a new equality movement is coming to sports and the nation. By Lonnae O’Neal / Andscape
The towering intellectual and activist says Black college athletes must read up, build coalitions, and organize to meet this moment.
Dr. Harry Edwards, who pioneered the sociology of sports and who, for more than six decades, has provided the historical framing, intellectual heft and counsel behind iconic protests and expansive NFL, NBA and MLB initiatives, contends that’s a misapprehension of the role of sports in society historically. And in this moment. “Sports recapitulates society,” Edwards told Andscape. “It is a functioning institution of society.” From Civil Rights to Black Power to Black Lives Matter, “when an idea, when a movement has been generated — inevitably, unavoidably — it comes to be reflected in sport.” And according to him, the next new movement is coming. Read more
School Coaches Shouldn’t Be Pushing Religion. By Mickey Dollens / The Progressive Magazine
It should always be a player’s choice whether or not to participate in prayer and religious discussion.
Faith should be a personal choice. It should never be used as a test of team loyalty or buy-in. But in college sports, more and more coaches are crossing that line, pushing their personal religious beliefs onto players and shaping the culture of the team around it. Take Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders, a prominent head football coach at the University of Colorado, who has repeatedly misused his position to proselytize to his players, urging them to “let God direct your path” and telling them “in Jesus’ name we pray.” Read more
Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford makes history with upset victory over Canelo Alvarez. By AP and NBC News
Crawford, who moved up two weight classes, went down to a knee even before the decision was announced and then wept after he was named the winner.
Terence Crawford became the first male boxer to capture three unified division titles when he defeated Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision on Saturday night to win the super middleweight championship before an announced record crowd of 70,482. Two judges awarded Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) the match 115-113 and the third 116-112. The Associated Press scored the fight 118-110 in favor of the 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska. Read more
Serena Williams invests in women’s basketball league Unrivaled. Now valued at $340 million. By Megan Cerullo / CBS News
Serena Williams has set her sights on new playing court: basketball. The retired tennis star has invested in the women’s 3-on-3 basketball league, Unrivaled, now valued at $340 million, the league said Monday.
Williams participated in the two-year-old league’s Series B investment round through her Serena Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. Joining her is former FIFA World Cup champion Alex Morgan, through her Trybe Ventures. Tennis legend Billie Jean King and other notable sports figures participated, too. 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 Monday and Thursday. The Weekend Edition is published on Saturday. Click here for earlier Editions.
Use the customized buttons below to share the Digest in an email, or post to your Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter (X) accounts.