Featured

Trump Has Big Plans for 2025. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT

As he contemplates a third straight run for the presidency, Donald Trump has a multimillion-dollar political machine and a network of tax-exempt advocacy groups at his disposal. He also has a plan. The plan is to wrest control of the federal government from what he sees as a policy apparatus dominated by “radical left-wing Democrats.”

While many in Washington were arguing (or hoping) that Trump was fading, Trump himself outlined his agenda for a second term in a speech at the America First Policy Institute last week:

To drain the swamp and root out the deep state, we need to make it much easier to fire rogue bureaucrats who are deliberately undermining democracy, or at a minimum just want to keep their jobs. They want to hold on to their jobs. Congress should pass historic reforms, empowering the president to ensure that any bureaucrat who is corrupt, incompetent or unnecessary for the job can be told — did you ever hear this? — “You’re fired? Get out. You’re fired.”

In the same speech, Trump announced his intention to enact legislation granting the president authority to send in the National Guard in the case of violent protests by Black Lives Matter or other groups. Read more

Political / Social

The mini-Trumps are as big a threat to democracy as Trump is. By Perry Bacon Jr. / Wash Post

Republicans are eroding American democracy day by day. It’s not a fully coordinated effort directed by former president Donald Trump or national party leaders. Instead, GOP officials, particularly at the state and local levels, are regularly taking actions that add up to an antidemocratic movement. They are reducing news media access, making it harder to vote, aggressively gerrymandering legislative districts and using government power to threaten their political enemies. We are not seeing democracy die in darkness but rather democratic decline in the light. Read more

Walker says he will debate Warnock in high-stakes Georgia Senate race. By Brad Dress / The Hill

Republican candidate Herschel Walker on Tuesday said he accepted a debate with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) in October as the two battle it out for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. Walker, a former NFL player, told Fox News host Sean Hannity on his show Tuesday night that he would debate Warnock on Oct. 14 in Savannah, Ga. His campaign confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the debate would be hosted by Nexstar-owned WSAV. Nexstar also owns The Hill. Read more

Rueben E Brigety II confirmed as next US ambassador to South Africa. By SABC News

Rueben E Brigety has been confirmed by the United States Senate as the next Ambassador to South Africa. The Senate confirmed the replacement to Ambassador Lana Marks by a 55 to 40 margin. The next envoy to Pretoria will be accompanied by his physician wife Dr Leelie Selassie, an ICU doctor born in Ethiopia. Brigety acknowledged his Senate confirmation after the news of his nomination was first reported by SABC News as far back as November 2021. His name was formally sent to the Senate by the White House in February 2022. Brigety resigned his position as President of the University of the South in Tennessee soon after news of his nomination broke. Read more

Apple, GE, other major US companies ask Supreme Court to uphold affirmative action. By Devin Dwyer / ABC News

The companies said race needs to be considered to help build diverse workforces.

More than 80 major American companies that employ tens of thousands of U.S. workers are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the use of race as a factor in college admissions, calling affirmative action critical to building diverse workforces and, in turn, growing profits. The businesses — some of the most high-profile and successful in the U.S. economy — outlined their position in legal briefs filed Monday ahead of oral arguments this fall in a pair of cases expected to determine the future of the race-based policy. Read more

Longtime University President’s Legacy: A Diverse New Generation in STEM. By Erica L. Green / NYT

Freeman Hrabowski transformed a onetime commuter school into the country’s strongest pipeline of Black graduates in science, technology, engineering and math.

Late one night in the fall of 2020, when Kizzmekia Corbett learned the vaccine she had helped design was highly effective against the coronavirus, there was only one person she wanted to call: Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the longtime president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. At 34, Dr. Corbett was the first Black woman to achieve such a feat, a groundbreaking development in the fight against the deadliest pandemic in recent U.S. history. But all she could think about was the man she had met as an 18-year-old freshman at the university, who immediately recognized her thick Southern accent and her potential to make history. Read more

It’s time to give Black fathers the credit they deserve. By Alvin Thomas / Salon

Pop culture is finally pushing back against mischaracterizations of Black fathers as absent or uninvolved

Although they are routinely overlooked and under-credited in our society, Black fathers have grand plans for their babies. They want to see their children rise to levels they themselves long dreamed of. They want their children to be happy and successful. They want their children to outlive them. Indeed, Richard Williams shared that he wrote a 78-page blueprint that would lead to the development of the star athletes we know today. Read more

Black female firefighters sue D.C., alleging racial and gender bias. By Paul Duggan / Wash Post

The lawsuit comes almost a year after a similar case was filed by current and former Black female police officers in the District

Four Black female firefighters in the District sued the city Monday, saying they have been “systematically and continuously discriminated against on the basis of their race and gender,” including being denied salary increases and overtime pay and being subjected to unfair disciplinary action. Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

The Negro’s God as Reflected in his Literature. By Dr. Benjamin E. Mays / Mount Vernon Press (Available at Amazon)

Editor’s Note: This book was published in 1938 while Dr. Mays was Dean of the Chapel at Howard University.

“The ideas of God in Negro literature are developed along three principal lines: (1) Ideas of God that are used to support or give adherence to traditional, compensatory patterns; (2) Ideas, whether traditional or otherwise, that are developed and interpreted to support a growing consciousness of social and psychological adjustment needed; (3) Ideas of God that show a tendency or threat to abandon the idea of God as a ‘useful instrument’ in perfecting social justice.

Samuel Alito Believes That Christians Are Oppressed in America. By Matt Ford / New Republic

He won’t rest until the Supreme Court enshrines religious freedom protections for a select minority of Americans—at the expense of everyone else.

If Alito was jubilant in his moment of triumph, he did not show it last week during a surprise speech in Rome. The justice, who authored the majority opinion that overturned Roe, gave an address to a summit on religious liberty hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s law school in the Italian capital. Despite all the victories for his causes this term, particularly on the religious front, he said that religious freedom still faced serious challenges in Europe and the United States. His understanding of the problem also shows why he thinks it persists. Read more

The backlash to Christianity: Republicans are now panicked — but they only have themselves to blame. By Amanda Marcotte / Salon

It’s not lack of school prayer causing people to abandon faith, it’s that Christianity has become a toxic religion

There can be no doubt about it: Religion, especially Christianity — while still powerful in American culture — is in decline. Fewer than half of Americans even belong to a church or other house of worship. Rates of church attendance are in a freefall, as younger Americans would rather do anything with their precious free time than go to church. As religion researcher Ryan Burge recently tweeted, “Among those born in the early 1930s, 60% attend church weekly. 17% never attend. Among those born in the early 1950s, 32% attend weekly. 29% never attend. Among those born in the early 1990s, 18% attend weekly. 42% never attend.” Read more

How Some Black Churches Approach Abortion After Ruling on Roe. By Aallyah Wright / Capital B

The decision to support the procedure — or not — is complicated.

The Rev. Leonard Edloe doesn’t discuss abortion in the pulpit of his rural Virginia church. While the issue disproportionately affects Black women, members at New Hope Fellowship haven’t shared any abortion-related concerns or questions with him, he said. But outside of the church walls, some have come to him seeking guidance about the procedure. Edloe said he approaches each conversation with nuance and tries to “get people to see things in a Biblical way, to appreciate life.” While he opposes abortion, Edloe said his goal is to understand, empower, and support women rather than condemn them. The issues are complex, he said, and there is no easy solution for a complicated problem. Read more

Christianity was a major part of Indigenous boarding schools – a historian whose family survived them explains. By Brenda J. Childs / The Conversation

Like many other Indigenous people of the U.S. and Canada – especially those, like me, whose family members attended the schools – I listened with interest as Pope Francis asked his audience for forgiveness “for the evil committed by so many Christians.” He apologized “for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated” in projects of forced assimilation while not acknowledging the role that the Catholic Church as an organization played in residential schools. Read more

Historical / Cultural

Reproductive Rights, Slavery, and ‘Dobbs v. Jackson.’ By Jennifer L. Morgan / AAIHS

In 1662, the Virginia legislature cast a cold, calculating eye on Black women’s children. Never mind that fewer than 150 Black women were enslaved there at the time, those legislators recognized that control of women’s reproductive bodies yielded both profits and policing that would be at the heart of their wealth and the colony’s future. In doing so, they set in motion a precedent for violent state involvement in the bodies of dispossessed women that we are viscerally encountering today some 360 years later. Read more

Racist humor empowers white supremacy, Raúl Pérez argues in book, “The Souls of White Jokes.” By Raul A. Reyes / NBC News

The concept of “feeling pleasure in regarding others as inferior,” argues “The Souls of White Jokes” author Raúl Pérez, has deep roots in American history, and it is used today by alt-right groups, politicians, media and law enforcement.

“We were sociology majors, we were taking ethnic studies courses,” Pérez said, “and here we were in an environment where people were free to make racist and offensive jokes.” Convinced that there was more behind such experiences than “just jokes,” Pérez embarked on academic research on the intersection between humor, race, power and inequality. Now he has released his first book, “The Souls of White Jokes,” which aims to show how racist humor fuels white supremacy. He also shows how pervasive its use is — from media figures and politicians to law enforcement and far-right groups. Read more

Film Producer Janet Yang Elected First Asian American President Of The Academy. By Jake Coyle / HuffPost

Yang is the fourth woman to ever be president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Yang, the 66-year-old producer of “The Joy Luck Club” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” becomes the fourth woman to lead the organization behind the Oscars. Elected by the academy’s 54-member board, Yang succeeds outgoing president David Rubin, the veteran casting director, who is stepping down after three years due to term limits. Read more

Mary Alice Should Have Been A Household Name. But She Wasn’t A Part Of White Hollywood. By Law Ware / HuffPost

The Tony Award winner, who passed away Thursday, led an acting career that never quite reached the height of her talents. This wasn’t her fault: Hollywood is built this way.

This woman was astounding. Alice died last week at the age of 85. Looking back at her career now, I see that she was often given scenes like this ― and she crushed them every time. Alice was an incredible actor. If she were white, she would have been as sought-after for roles as Meryl Streep and as Oscar-nominated as Cate Blanchett. She might have had a career like Dame Judi Dench, working well into her twilight years with roles that allowed her to display her considerable talents. Read more

Nichelle Nichols Helped Show America a Different Future. By Stacy Y. China / NYT

As Lieutenant Uhura in “Star Trek” and an advocate for inclusiveness in the U.S. space program, Nichols made an indelible impact on our collective imagination.

She was the embodiment of a declaration splashed across billboards decades later: There Are Black People in the Future. When “Star Trek” debuted on NBC in September 1966, Uhura’s very presence hit the audience like a thunderbolt. At the time, Black people were in a very literal and ultimately existential fight for autonomy of their bodies and souls. It was the era of marches, freedom rides and sit-ins. Malcolm X was already dead. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still preaching. Black people of all abilities and professions were still being relegated to the corners of restaurants, hotels and offices. Black women, if ever mentioned in the larger media, were portrayed as either loud, undignified troublemakers or genial, overweight maids and nannies who supposedly delighted in doting on white folk’s children. Out of this madness, Uhura appeared. Read more

In beguiling ‘American Prophet,’ Frederick Douglass lets freedom sing. By Peter Marks / Wash Post

The world-premiere musical at Arena Stage turns the famous abolitionist’s words into moving hymns and anthems

To the grace notes in the oratory of 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, you can now add beguiling new ones, courtesy of the 21st-century composer Marcus Hummon. The songwriter infuses “American Prophet,” the exquisitely sung, melody-rich world premiere at Arena Stage, with gorgeous hymns that contextualize Douglass’s rise as a voice of conscience for a divided nation. Read more

Five Minutes That Will Make You Love Duke Ellington. By Giovanni Russonello and Marcus J. Moore / NYT

We asked jazz musicians, writers and others to tell us what moves them. Listen to their choices.

He grew to be a Black American icon on the national stage, and then an ambassador for the best of American culture around the world. Jazz’s status as a global music has a lot to do with Ellington: specifically, his skill as a leader, collaborator and spokesman, who rarely failed to remind his audience, “We love you madly.” Here are 13 tracks that we think will make you love Ellington. Enjoy the listening, and be sure to leave your own favorites in the comments. Read more and listen here.

On Beyonce’s ‘Renaissance,’ Freedom is in the Flesh. By Mankaprr Conteh / Rolling Stone

With a rapper’s spirit, Christian imagery, and club energy, Beyoncé made a dance odyssey that empowers everybody

With her new album Renaissance, Beyoncé flung open the doors to a nightclub of her own making, a place where anyone can be the hottest person in the galaxy. Released last Friday, the album traverses eras of dance music to conjure the superhuman confidence and deeply human connection of a night out. The thematic triumph of the auteur’s seventh album is this union of the extraordinary and the earthly across it, a duality that lives on the dancefloors Renaissance was inspired by—and in all of us. You can hear it in the way God is someone you can meet on “Cuff It” and is someone you are on “Cozy.” It’s in the way Beyoncé simultaneously establishes her dominance and your uniqueness on “Alien Superstar.” Renaissance channels the energy and the conceit of the club into a demonstration of self-love. Read more

Jerrod Carmichael, Bo Burnham comedy specials are going introspective. By Hannah Yasharoff / USA Today

“Rothaniel,” the comedian’s third special released in April, grabbed the attention of the comedy world and casual stand-up viewers alike – without a sold-out stadium venue or a larger-than-life concept aiming to appeal to as many viewers as possible. It felt like a raw quasi-therapy session: unpacking Carmichael’s emotional process of coming out as gay to his family as he – in real time – came out to the rest of the world. His performance is emblematic of a greater shift over the last few years in how some top and rising comedians are approaching their craft: Many are getting intimate with the content and scope of their comedy specials. Read more

The cast of ‘P-Valley’ on the new season and going to the darker side of the Dirty South. By Kelundra Smith / Andscape

Down in the valley/Where the girls get naked/If you throwin’ bands/Then you know she gon’ shake it/1, 2 break ’em/3, 4 rake ’em — Jucee Fruit, “Down in the Valley”

Those haunting lyrics by Jucee Froot introduced the world to one of the dirtiest parts of the Dirty South when the television series P-Valley premiered on Starz in the summer of 2020. The song set the stage for a story about the dancers and patrons at The Pynk, a strip club in the fictional town of Chucalissa, Mississippi. Read more

Sports

Bill Russell, Who Transformed Pro Basketball, Dies at 88. By Richard Goldstein / NYT

A Hall of Famer who led the Celtics to 11 championships, he was “the single most devastating force in the history of the game,” his coach Red Auerbach said. Even before the opening tipoff at Boston Celtics games, Bill Russell evoked domination. Other players ran onto the court for their introductions, but he walked on, slightly stooped. “I’d look at everybody disdainfully, like a sleepy dragon who can’t be bothered to scare off another would-be hero,” he recalled. “I wanted my look to say, ‘Hey, the king’s here tonight.’ ” Read more

Jackie Robinson Museum opens in New York after 14 years of planning. By CBS News

Long dreamed about and in development for longer than the big league career of the man it honors, the Jackie Robinson Museum opened Tuesday in Manhattan with a gala ceremony attended by the widow of the barrier-breaking ballplayer and two of his children. Rachel Robinson, who turned 100 on July 19, watched the half-hour outdoor celebration from a wheelchair in the 80-degree heat, then cut a ribbon to cap a project launched in 2008. Read more

By Attacking Brittney Griner, Trump Signals to His Base: “I’m Still Racist.” By Dave Zirin / The Nation

The former president is reconnecting with his fans by using an old playbook: demonize a Black athlete, lie about who they are, and reap the benefits.

Trump’s one constant has been his racism and bigotry. Even when it seemingly makes no political sense, his unerring instinct moves him toward his happy place: hating others. Never underestimating the racism that lives in this country’s marrow has been his greatest political survival skill, and his survival has never felt more precarious. This is the best way to understand why Trump would look at the political landscape, see Brittney Griner rotting in a Russian prison, and say she should be buried under the cell. Read more

Where things stand in the racial discrimination lawsuit filed by Brian Flores against the NFL. By Jason Reid / Andscape

With commissioner Roger Goodell looming as a potential arbiter, concerns about partiality and fairness remain in the case against the league

A major ruling on a procedural motion in the case is looming. In June, the league and the six teams being sued filed for arbitration, arguing in court papers that employment agreements with clubs signed by Flores, Wilks and Horton include language requiring arbitration in disputes. If the NFL is successful in its bid to move the case, commissioner Roger Goodell, who works for club owners, would serve as the arbiter or appoint someone else. Read more

Black NFL quarterbacks still face undue criticism — ask Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray. By Jason Reid / Andscape

The spotlight on the league’s young Black signal-callers is rooted in systemic racism

As work resumed on the field, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens — two of the NFL’s most decorated players regardless of race — faced criticism about their performance from, supposedly, defensive coordinators who were too cowardly to put their names behind their words. And Murray addressed concerns about his work ethic stirred by the actions of the franchise that recently rewarded him with a massive contract extension. It all added up to Black quarterbacks being under the spotlight again for all the wrong reasons, bringing to mind most of NFL history, when these sorts of slights were as commonplace as they are offensive. Read more

Browns Quarterback Deshaun Watson is suspended for 6 games. By Bill Chappell / NPR

NFL disciplinary officer Sue L. Robinson has ordered Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson to be suspended without pay for six games, the league confirmed to NPR on Monday. The punishment comes after 24 women accused Watson of sexual misconduct, sparking civil lawsuits and putting the star quarterback on the sidelines in 2021. Watson settled 20 of the cases against him in June. The six-game suspension is “the most significant punishment ever imposed on an NFL player for allegations of non-violent sexual conduct,” Robinson said in her decision, adding that “Mr. Watson’s pattern of conduct is more egregious than any before reviewed by the NFL.” Read more

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