Featured

A Pot of Gold: Why Math Literacy Must Become a Black Educational Priority. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor and Franca E. Sheehy / Race Inquiry Digest

Ronald J. Sheehy has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. Franca E. Sheehy operated Kumon Math and Reading Centers in Peachtree City, Georgia

For generations, Black educators have observed a troubling pattern: within much of the African American community, math literacy has never carried the same urgency as reading. This disparity is not the result of a lack of ability or ambition. It is the legacy of history. After emancipation, reading was the essential tool of freedom. Newly freed people pursued literacy with extraordinary intensity because it opened the door to contracts, scripture, newspapers, civic life, and political participation. In that moment, reading meant survival. Mathematics, by contrast, did not hold the same immediate relevance and slipped to the margins of educational priorities. That legacy remains with us. Read more

Unlocking the Nation’s Untapped Genius. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / Race Inquiry Digest

The Benjamin Banneker Honors College at Prairie View A&M University was established in 1984.

At a time when science is being devalued and expertise questioned, and when programs advancing diversity are under attack, the story of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett stands out. As an NIH scientist, she helped develop the mRNA vaccine that saved millions during the coronavirus pandemic. Her achievement, however, did not begin in the laboratory. She is a proud graduate of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County—the groundbreaking initiative led by Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III that has become one of the nation’s most successful engines for producing Black scientists and engineers. Her success reflects a belief shared by many of us who came before her: that America’s future depends on discovering and developing the genius too long overlooked. Read more

The Week’s Top Stories

Political / Social

Zohran Mamdani Is Following a Trail That Jesse Jackson Blazed. By Steve Phillips / The Nation

Mamdani’s election represents a profound and seismic development in the country’s political landscape—one set in motion by Jackson over 40 years ago.

Three recent events have converged to illuminate the road map for Democrats, progressives, and anyone committed to building a multiracial democracy: the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, the hospitalization of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the release of journalist Abby Phillip’s book on Jackson’s transformative political journey. Read more

Judge rejects ‘racially gerrymandered’ maps in Texas that gave Republicans extra districts. By Rachel Leingang / The Guardian

New maps that added five Republican districts in Texas hit a legal roadblock on Tuesday, with a federal judge saying the state cannot use the 2025 maps because they are probably “racially gerrymandered”.

The decision is likely to be appealed, given the push for more Republican-friendly congressional maps nationwide and Donald Trump’s full-court press on his party to make them. Some states have followed suit, and some Democratic states have retaliated, pushing to add more blue seats to counteract Republicans. Read more

Trump’s war on immigrants is a war on Black Americans, too. By Jonathan Jean-Baptiste / USA Today

If there ever was a time for solidarity, the time is now. The end of due process for immigrants is the end of due process for everyone.

When I read headlines about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and National Guard deployments in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, – and now possibly Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans – childhood trauma resurfaces. As a Black, first-generation citizen born in the United States, who grew up in an overpoliced immigrant community, I feel echoes of painful memories. Read more

Maps Show How Latinos Who Shifted Right in 2024 Snapped Back Left in 2025. By Christine Zhang and Shane Goldmacher / NYT

The New Jersey governor’s race was the first significant sign that President Trump’s success with Hispanic voters in 2024 may have been only a temporary shift.

The results are stark: The heavily Hispanic areas that shifted the most to the left in 2025 were virtually a mirror image of the places that had swung the farthest to the right in 2024. The outcome suggests that President Trump’s surge of support among Hispanic voters last year may have been fleeting, or at least not transferable to other candidates in his party. Read more

The Case for a Third Reconstruction. By K. Sabeel Rahman / Dissent

Illustration of the Office of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1866 from Harper’s Weekly (Wikimedia Commons)

The scale and depth of the attack on our institutions means that there is no simple way for a pro-democracy coalition to flip the lights back on after Trump. We need transformative thinking. Read more Or, read a summary.

So DEI doesn’t work. OK, what would be better? By Nina Stachenfield / The Fulcrum

It is no secret that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are under attack in our country. They have been blamed for undermining free speech, meritocracy, and America itself. The University of Virginia is the latest to settle with the government and walk away from its DEI initiatives rather than defend its programs or find a new solution.

Those who decry DEI say they do so in the name of meritocracy. They argue that those who benefit from DEI programs do so at the expense of other, more qualified individuals, and that these programs are weakening professions such as our military, science, education, and healthcare. But these arguments have it exactly backwards. DEI programs were never designed to give privilege to underrepresented people. They were put in place to chip away at discrimination and nepotism, both concepts that are antithetical to meritocracy. Read more

Education

Are Black Women Still The ‘Most Educated’ Group In America? By Shannon Dawson / Newsone

Black women have long been celebrated for their educational achievements, but does the narrative still hold true that they are the “most educated” in 2025? Recent data suggests that Black women are still making significant strides in higher education, though broader challenges remain.

According to 2024 data from Pew Research, Black women continue to lead academically at colleges and universities across the U.S. Approximately 38% of young Black women have earned a college degree, compared to just 26% of Black men. This marks a dramatic shift from 30 years ago, when only 14% of Black women and 16% of Black men had bachelor’s degrees. However, Black women still trail behind other ethnic groups in bachelor’s degree attainment. During the same period, 77% of young Asian women and 52% of white women earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to a lower percentage of Black women. Read more

MacKenzie Scott Channels Over $700 Million to HBCUs in Historic Giving Spree. By Walter Hudson / Eduledger

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has directed more than $700 million to over a dozen historically Black colleges and universities this fall, delivering some of the largest unrestricted gifts in the institutions’ histories.

The latest wave of contributions arrived Friday, with Prairie View A&M University in Texas receiving $63 million, Bowie State University in Maryland securing $50 million, and Philander Smith University in Arkansas obtaining $19 million. Read more

Universities Said Black Lives Mattered In 2020. Texas A&M Just Proved They Didn’t Mean It. By Stacey Patton / Newsone

The same system that claimed it would fight racism is now banning its discussion and punishing professors who answer student questions honestly.

This week, the Texas A&M University System exposed itself when it made a move so sweeping and authoritarian that it instantly shattered whatever remained of the myth that American universities are committed to racial justice. With a unanimous vote, the regents approved a policy requiring every campus president to pre-approve any course that could be “seen as advocating for race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” These are categories they deliberately defined so vaguely that simply teaching the truth about racism is now considered “shaming” white people. Read more

Judge indefinitely bars Trump from fining UC over alleged discrimination. By AP and NPR

The Trump administration cannot fine the University of California or summarily cut the school system’s federal funding over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled late Friday in a sharply worded decision.

The administration over the summer demanded the University of California, Los Angeles pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations. Read more

World

U.S. pushes new Ukraine peace plan as Trump’s Army secretary visits Kyiv. By Adam Taylor et al. / Wash Post

The administration is renewing efforts to end the war, pitching a revised ceasefire proposal containing elements long rejected by Ukraine.

A breakthrough appears unlikely, however. One person familiar with Witkoff’s efforts said the administration’s latest proposal includes several concessions that Zelensky will find difficult to approve, including a significant loss of territory and strict limits on Ukraine’s military. Read more

Israel needs to face accountability for our genocide. And so does the US. By Yuli Novak / The Guardian
(Image NYT)

The international community allowed all of this to happen. We must not look away or move on

Genocide is a process, not an event. When genocide happens, its roots, and the conditions that allowed it, often become visible only in retrospect. If those conditions remain unchanged and there is no accountability, there’s every reason to believe the violence will return, perhaps even worse, especially if it was never fully halted. This is exactly what we are seeing in the case of Gaza. Demanding accountability from Israeli leaders isn’t just about the past, it’s the only way to challenge a system designed to repeat such violence. Read more

Haitians displaced by violence face deportation after fleeing to Dominican Republic. By Ali Rogin et.al. / PBS

The UN says 1.4 million Haitians have fled because of violence and instability. Many crossed the border into the Dominican Republic. But there, they live in fear and limbo, and many have been deported back to Haiti.

As part of our series on border security around the world, fellows from British Columbia University’s Global Reporting Program have this report, narrated by Ali Rogin. Read more

Trump Boat Bombings Take Dark, Unnerving Turn with Leaked Memo Stunner. By Greg Sargent / TNR

A new Trump administration memo argues that those carrying out the boat attacks can’t be prosecuted. Why? Because the administration says so!

Ever since President Trump started bombing alleged drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea while refusing to provide even minimal factual justification for it, a couple of big questions have gone unanswered: Are Trump’s underlings being given illegal orders? Do they fear that they’re being given illegal orders? Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

A Christian Answer to Trump and Trumpism Is Finally Here. By David French / NYT

Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a “special message” on immigration that was an unmistakable rebuke of the Trump administration and its cruel and punitive immigration crackdown. The message did not mention President Trump by name, but its meaning could not have been clearer.

By a vote of 216 to 5, with three abstentions, the bishops approved a statement that said, in part: “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.” Read more

‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’: why the Democratic party is seeing a rise of white clergy candidates. By David Smith / The Guardian

From Texas and Iowa to Arkansas, faith leaders are wading into politics to counter the rise of Christian nationalism. Dauphin county commissioner Justin Douglas introduces Joe Biden in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, on 5 January 2024.

In Arkansas, Robb Ryerse, a Christian pastor and former Republican, is mounting a challenge to Representative Steve Womack, adopting the slogan “Faith, Family & Freedom” – rhetoric more commonly found in Republican campaign literature. Ryerse, 50, from Springdale, Arkansas, said: “I joke sometimes that the two people who have changed my life more than any others are Jesus and Donald Trump, for very different reasons. Donald Trump is absolutely inconsistent with Christian principles of love and compassion, justice, looking out for the poor, meeting the needs of the marginalised. Read more

California’s Oldest AME Church Celebrates Historic 175th Anniversary. By Antonio Ray Harvey / Eurweb

On Nov. 15-16. The congregation celebrated its 175th anniversary with a special church service and a “living museum” event in Sacramento.

In 1850, Daniel Blue, alongside other formerly enslaved men, Barney and George Fletcher, helped establish St. Andrews A.M.E. in the basement of Blue’s home. The church — initially called the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church before becoming Bethel AME — is recognized as the first AME congregation on the West Coast. Read more

Historical / Cultural

The Ken Burns Case for Breaking the Myth of the American Revolution. By Lex Pryor / The Ringer

Ken Burns unpacks the Revolutionary War—and explains why history doesn’t repeat, even if human nature never changes

Burns’s 38th full-length release, The American Revolution is both an overt reckoning with founding-era mythmaking and an attempt to mine an authentic, shared American origin story. It arrives at a perilous moment for scrupulous historical efforts in media. Burns, who turned 72 in July, told me that in the decade he spent working on the film, his primary concern was not letting the context of the present shape his work. “You want to make a film that lasts the ages,” Burns said over the phone. “The last thing you want to do is play to the present.” Read more

Meet the first self-ruled community of Black freedmen called Mitchelville — still standing on Hilton Head’s shores. By Natasha S. Alford / The Grio

Tucked along the water in the lowcountry of Hilton Head, South Carolina, the land that Black American rebels once walked is still growing green grass.

The sacred ground is called Mitchelville Freedom Park, and it was once home to Black residents who were technically “illegal” in the eyes of a changing America. They were considered contraband– “products” of war.” Merriam Webster defines “contraband” as “goods or merchandise whose importation, exportation, or possession is forbidden.” These human beings, Black, American and formerly enslaved, were not supposed to be walking free. But with the end of the civil war, they were looking for home. As white masters and plantation owners fled for their lives, thousands of formerly enslaved Black people sought out the Union Army’s headquarters in Hilton Head. Read more

Ruby Bridges’ Legacy: The Lessons America Still Hasn’t Learned. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone

Ruby Bridges’ legacy remains deeply relevant as America continues to confront issues of race and equality.

It has been 65 years since Ruby Bridges, now 71, made history by stepping into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. In 1960, Ruby Bridges opened up the doors for millions of Black children around the world when she fearlessly walked into William Frantz Elementary School. She was the first Black student to integrate the New Orleans public school, walking past outraged white parents and students with her head held high and marking a new chapter in the fight for equality. Read more

The remains and stories of Native American students reclaimed from a Pennsylvania cemetery. By Mark Scolforo / NCR

The 1892 student body of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School assembles on the school grounds in Carlisle, Pa

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School had not yet held its first class when Matavito Horse and Leah Road Traveler were taken there in October 1879, drafted into the U.S. government’s campaign to erase Native American tribes by wiping their children’s identities. Persistent efforts by their tribes have finally brought them home. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma received 16 of its children, exhumed from a Pennsylvania cemetery, and reburied their small wooden coffins last month in a tribal cemetery in Concho, Oklahoma. Read more

Black Music Sunday: Celebrating W.C. Handy, ‘The Father of the Blues.’ By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

W.C. Handy nods approval and chuckles as an eighth grade pupil, Donell Callaway, 13, wails blues on his trumpet in New York City, United States, on Feb. 10, 1954.

W. C. Handy’s remarkable life started eight years after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Born in a log cabin in Florence, Alabama, on November 16, 1873, William Christopher Handy entered into a new era for black people–an era that he himself would help define by introducing his people’s music to the world. He thereby became the “Father of the Blues.” […] Read more and listen here

Michelle Obama’s New Book Is a Historical Document Dressed Up as a Coffee-Table Tome. By Vanessa Friedman / NYT

Michelle Obama’s new book, “The Look,” is a lot of things. It is an Amazon best seller. It is a glossy photo book full of fashion. It is the story of the expectations that were heaped upon the first Black first lady. And it is the third installment of a trilogy of books by Mrs. Obama that focus on self-realization, including her memoir, her advice book on overcoming adversity and, this time, a meditation on the power of clothes.

But most of all it is a historical document, capturing a pivotal moment in the evolution of the role of first lady when clothing became an even bigger part of communication. When, in other words, dress became an officially recognized part of the job. That’s a bigger deal than it might appear. Read more

Sports

A trooper’s shove showed stardom doesn’t protect Black athletes from police. By Etan Thomas / The Guardian

Nyck Harbor was confronted by the Texas trooper after scoring a touchdown.

A quick recap of what happened on Saturday. ESPN’s broadcast showed the trooper appear to intentionally barge Harbor and his teammate Oscar Hadaway III after the receiver had scored a touchdown against Texas A&M in their home stadium. In doing so, the trooper came off like a school bully with low self-esteem – the kind of senior who gets his kicks plowing through a sea of freshmen, daring them to speak up so he can enjoy pummeling them in front of everyone. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which employs the trooper, later said he had been sent home. Read more

Browns Head Coach Faces Allegations After Shedeur Sanders Decision. By Max Escarpio / Athlon Sports

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders made his long-awaited NFL debut against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Sanders didn’t play well, going just 4-of-16 with an interception and a fumble in the loss. After the game, head coach Kevin Stefanski admitted that Sanders had zero reps with the first team in practice, so his first action was during the game on Sunday. Dillon Gabriel left the game early with a concussion, and Sanders played the rest of the way in a 23-16 loss to the Ravens. Stefanski has faced plenty of criticism for the way he has handled the Browns’ QB situation. After Sanders made his first NFL appearance, Cam Newton laid into the Browns’ coach during an episode of “First Take.” Read more

Time Runs Out on Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks. By Brady Brickner-Wood / The New Yorker

The infamous N.B.A. executive once said that “time will tell” on the trade that sent the superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. Not even a year later, he’s out of a job.

Nico Harrison, the former general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, made many head-scratching comments after he inexplicably traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, last February. He claimed that exchanging the twenty-five-year-old Dončić, one of the best basketball players in the world, for the thirty-one-year-old Anthony Davis, a decorated yet injury-prone big man nearing the end of his prime, would help the Mavericks “win now and win in the future. Read more

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