Feature – LeBron James, the most important athlete in America, explained. How the world’s best basketball player became a political force for racial justice. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said. ”We got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African Americans until we feel equal in America.” Read more 

Judge rules that Judaism is not a race but Jewish people can be targeted for racism. Here’s why that matters. Judaism is not a race. But Jewish people can be targeted for racism. That may seem like a contradiction. But a recent ruling by U.S. Magistrate Mark Hornsby of Louisiana updated anti-discrimination laws in the state. In doing so, Hornsby has potentially helped to clarify the distinction between race and racism at a time when white supremacy is expanding its reach — and finding new groups to single out for hate. Read more 
Are white people ready to bail on democracy? These researchers say the danger is real. In an effort to address these questions and many others, I recently spoke with Steven Miller, a professor of political science at Clemson University, and Nicholas Davis, a research scientist at the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University. They are the authors of the new research paper “White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy.” Read more 

“Bring the War Home”: The Long History of White Power and Paramilitary Violence in the United States. Organizers from Unite the Right, the group that held the rally in Charlottesville, have announced they will hold a repeat rally on the anniversary of last year’s deadly event, with plans to descend on Washington, D.C. For more on white supremacist violence in the United States, we speak with Kathleen Belew, assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago. Her new book is titled “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” Listen to the interview here 
The National Council of Negro Women and the Black Freedom Struggle.  In Strategic Sisterhood: The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, Rebecca Tuuri examines one of the longest-standing Black women’s organizations in the United States. Tuuri, a historian at the University of Southern Mississippi, provides a richly sourced overview of the NCNW over five decades—from its founding in 1935 through its international work in the mid-1980s. Read more 

I wore a ‘Caucasians’ shirt to expose the hypocrisy of racist logos. In an effort to turn a mirror back on people privileged enough to not have their respect challenged daily, I decided to wear a shirt that parodied the Washington Redskins logo to a radio panel I was scheduled to be a part of one afternoon. Read more 

How Richmond is addressing the debate over Confederate monuments 1 year after Charlottesville. In June 2017, two months before the Charlottesville protests, Richmond officials were grappling with what to do. They established a Monument Avenue Commission.   The Commission said that it would support or initiate the removal of the statue of Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, from Monument Avenue, citing the fact that he was not a Virginian himself and noting that “of all the statues, this one is the most unabashedly Lost Cause in its design and sentiment,” referencing the ideology that paints the Confederates as heroic. Read more 

Remembering Ron Dellums: The Radical Congressmember Who Fought Against War, Apartheid & Poverty. Legendary antiwar activist, former Oakland mayor and longtime Democratic Congressmember Ron Dellums of Oakland, California, died on Monday at the age of 82. Read more 

The importance of the predominantly black Mamie Johnson team at the Little League World Series. On July 24, the Mamie Johnson Little League (MJLL) team based in Washington, D.C., defeated the Capitol Hill squad to win the District’s Little League championship. This wouldn’t be major news in any other year since the District champion has never advanced to the Little League World Series. But MJLL is different from all those other teams from the nation’s capital. Read more 

Why White Liberals Are So Unwilling to Recognize Their Own Racism. In a new book called White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo examines how a large chunk of white America got to a place where it is constantly feeling besieged and victimized, and why she thinks even white progressives are so unwilling—or unable—to acknowledge their own racism. Read more 

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