Featured
Why Trump Won’t Win. By Hussein Ibish / The Atlantic
His threats to democracy make him dangerous. They also make him a weak candidate.
Over the past few weeks, warnings about the threat posed by Donald Trump’s potential reelection have grown louder, including in a series of articles in The Atlantic. This alarm-raising is justified and appropriate, given the looming danger of authoritarianism in American politics. But amid all of the worrying, we might be losing sight of the most important fact: Trump’s chances of winning are slim.
Yes, recent polls appear to favor him. Yes, Joe Biden is an imperfect opponent. And yes, much could change over the next 11 months, potentially in Trump’s favor. But if Biden’s health holds, he is very likely to be reelected next year. It’s hard to imagine any Republican candidate galvanizing Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans to vote for the current president in the way that Trump will. Read more
Related: Trump recirculates Hitler rhetoric at campaign event in New Hampshire. By Kelly McClure / Salon
Related: Trump’s secret weapon consolidating the GOP: Fear. By Alex Tabet / NBC News
Political / Social
America’s Thirst for Authoritarianism. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
I fear that we’re now on the precipice of fully turning away from democracy and toward a full embrace of authoritarianism. The country seems thirsty for it; many Americans appear to be inviting it.
With Republicans beaconing authoritarianism, and without an intact Obama coalition to thwart it, our democracy hangs by a thread. Read more
Related: Defeating Trump Is Just a Start. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Jury Orders Giuliani to Pay $148 Million to Election Workers He Defamed. By Eileen Sullivan / NYT
A jury on Friday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who said he had destroyed their reputations with lies that they tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Mr. Giuliani had defamed the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages. Read more
Biden economy: New polls reveal experiences of Black and Latino voters. By Christian Paz / Vox
For these families, the last few years’ economic tumult has been particularly pronounced.
Of all the difficult questions Democrats face ahead of 2024, two storylines are particularly confounding. The first is the economy: Most Americans are still pretty pissed about its state, even though economists can point to plenty of positive indicators. And the second is in the polling: Joe Biden continues to underperform among Black and Latino Americans, who are a significant part of the Democratic base. Read more
Diversity policies face ‘full-out attack’ in 2024, leading HR boss warns. By Lauren Aratani / The Guardian
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies within US companies will “come under full-out attack in 2024”, the president of the largest US human resources organization in the US has said.
“It’s going to become a hot-button issue this year,” Johnny C Taylor Jr, president and chief executive of the Society of Human Resource Management, told reporters. The national shift to be more inclusive that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed, is already fading, he said. “We’re already seeing companies go away from it.” Read more
Related: Musk Says Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are ‘Propaganda Words.’ By Dana Hull / Bloomberg
The Biggest Threat to America’s Universities. By Paul Krugman / NYT
The State University System of Florida, which has more than 430,000 students, is under intense political assault by the state’s Republican government.
The American Association of University Professors recently released a report titled “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System,” which details a takeover of key administrative and oversight positions by partisan appointees and growing pressure on faculty members to avoid teaching anything that might be considered woke. This political assault almost certainly will degrade the quality of higher education for large numbers of students, in ways I’ll talk about in a minute. Read more
What elite colleges and their critics get wrong about antisemitism and free speech. By Nicole Narea / Vox
A simple question about genocide at a congressional hearing obscured a complicated debate about antisemitism and free speech.
The firestorm over antisemitism on college campuses may be dying down from its hottest point last week, when congressional questioning of three elite university presidents over their institutions’ responses to antisemitism went viral and resulted in one of them losing her job. But the discord has turned into a lingering debate over free speech on campuses, one that has left experts and scholars worried about its potential chilling effect on dialogue, debate, and education at institutions of higher learning. Read more
A fight for Black representation, with a civil rights landmark on the line. By Patrick Marley / Wash Post
In Louisiana and other Southern states, African American residents are suing under the Voting Rights Act to reverse policies that they say dilute their power. Dorothy Nairne stands outside her home in Napoleonville, La.
The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants. By , and
The largest credit union in the US has the widest disparity in mortgage approval rates between White and Black borrowers of any major lender, a trend that reached new heights last year, a CNN analysis found.
Navy Federal Credit Union, which lends to military servicemembers and veterans, approved more than 75% of the White borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan were approved. Read more
Alabama made $450 million annually from ‘convict leasing,’ forcing Black prisoners to work at fast-food chains: Lawsuit. By Elura Nanos / Laaw and Crime
A group of current and former Alabama prisoners filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday saying that they were forced into “a modern-day form of slavery” by working at fast-food chains for next to nothing.
The complaint, which seeks class-action certification, alleged that the prisoners “have been entrapped in a system of ‘convict leasing’ in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money,” all while Alabama and its corporate partners reap millions in profits. Read more
For some Black women, the fear of death shadows the joy of birth. By Alilah Johnson / Wash Post
In the United States, the deadliest place to give birth among high-income nations, Black women die at two to three times the rate of their White, Asian and Latina peers.
Not only are Black women more likely to die from cardiovascular issues — blood clots, hemorrhages, high blood pressure — while pregnant and after giving birth, they are more likely to experience the discrimination and disrespect that contribute to maternal deaths, research also shows. Read more
Related: Why More Black Moms Are Choosing Home Births. The Assignment with Audie Cornish / CNN Podcast
Racism produces subtle brain changes that lead to increased disease risk in Black populations. By Negar Fani and Nathaniel Harnatt / The Conversation
Negar Fani receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and Emory University School of Medicine. Nathaniel Harnett receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.
We are clinical neuroscientists who study the multifaceted ways in which racism affects how our brains develop and function. We use brain imaging to study how trauma such as sexual assault or racial discrimination can cause stress that leads to mental health disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Read more
Related: Racism, Stress and Higher Risks for Strokes. By Margo Snipe / Capital B
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Disturbed About Man by Benjamin E Mays. Former President of Morehouse College / Amazon
At the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the eulogy was delivered by Benjamin E. Mays, former president of Morehouse College. The men had become close friends when King attended Morehouse.
This famous tribute forms the opening chapter of a book dedicated by Dr. Mays to his former student, “who too was disturbed about man.” In a forceful and straightforward style, Dr. Mays speaks to men of all races and faiths about how to counteract man’s inhumanity to man. His message is that man does not have to attack other nations or his neighbors. He does not have to be a slave to his environment. With God’s help he can overcome and improve his environment; he can “rise above the currently accepted practices and point the way to higher and nobler things.” Read more
Black church coalition names reparations, voting, health equity among priorities. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
The Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches, from left, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen and CNBC President Jacqui Burton in Orlando, Fla. (Photo courtesy of CNBC)
The Conference of National Black Churches has called on African American congregations to embrace a list of priorities — from “government-sponsored reparations” to improved access to health care — as they move out of a pandemic era and into an election year. “We believe Black life must be valued and the humanity of all descendants of African descent must be affirmed,” said the conference’s board in a statement approved Tuesday (Dec. 12), the opening day of the organization’s national consultation, titled “Coming Out of Darkness, Finding Light: The Black Church Responding to the Continuing Pain of the Pandemic.” Read more
James Carville Draws Fire For Calling Speaker Mike Johnson a Christian Nationalist. By Cecilia Buchanan / Beliefnet
Speaker Mike Johnson had some strong words for political consultant James Carville, who called him a Christian nationalist and said he was worse than al-Qaeda.
Carville appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show and was asked by Maher what he thought of him as a Louisiana native himself. “Mike Johnson and what he believes is one of the greatest threats we have today to the United States. I promise you, I know these people,” he said. After affirming to Maher that he was talking about “Christian nationalists,” he said, Read more
Historical / Cultural
What Was Christmas Like For Slaves In America? By Bilal G. Morris / Newsone
One of American history’s most poignant and overlooked aspects is Christmas for slaves on the plantation.
During the holiday season, some enslaved workers got their longest break of the year, even sometimes being granted the privilege to travel to see family, but that solely depended on whether their slave master was generous or not. Slave owners recorded many stories about allowing their slaves to enjoy the festivities of the holidays, which some historians called Christmas propaganda. Many slaves spent the holidays worrying about being sold, whipped or mistreated as they did any other day of the year. In the book Yuletide in Dixie, author and historian Robert E. May explores the Christmas traditions in the antebellum South before, during and after the American Civil War. Read more
100 years ago, the KKK planted bombs at a U.S. university – part of the terror group’s crusade against American Catholics. By William Trollinger / The Conversation
A KKK rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 1923. Dayton Metro Library
The KKK is most infamous for violently terrorizing African Americans. But in the 1920s its hatred also had other targets, especially outside the South. This version of the KKK, known as the Second Ku Klux Klan, harassed Catholics, Jews and immigrants – including students and staff at Catholic universities like Dayton, where I am a historian of American religion. All of this is the focus of my 2013 article, “Hearing the Silence.”
In the worst of America’s Jim Crow era, Black intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois found inspiration and hope in national parks. By Bremer / The Conversation
In his collection of essays and poems published in 1920 titled “Darkwater,” W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about his poignant encounter with the beauty of the Grand Canyon, the stupendous chasm in Arizona.
But Du Bois’ experience undermined a widely held assumption that was reinforced by early conservationists like Theodore Roosevelt – that only white people could appreciate the landscapes of national parks. For Roosevelt and his progressive allies, saving nature was connected to saving the white race. Read more
Confederate memorial to be removed in coming days from Arlington National Cemetery, despite some GOP pushback. AP News
A Confederate memorial is to be removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia in the coming days, part of the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities, a cemetery official said Saturday.
The decision ignores a recent demand from more than 40 Republican congressmen that the Pentagon suspend efforts to dismantle and remove the monument from Arlington cemetery. Read more
Black Music Sunday: Remembering Grover Washington Jr.—’Mr. Magic’ himself. By Denise Oliver-Velez / Daily Kos
Tenor and soprano saxophonist and composer Grover Washington Jr. was born on Dec. 12, 1943, and joined the ancestors just five days after he celebrated his 56th birthday, on Dec. 17, 1999.
Some purist critics have disparaged his importance by pinning him as the founder of “smooth jazz” or “jazz fusion,” which in their opinions aren’t jazz at all. Yet his album “Mister Magic” topped R&B and jazz charts while making waves in the pop genre as well. Washington will always be honored as a musician that brought millions of fans to the music. And so it is only fitting that we also explore and celebrate Washington’s jazz and funk contributions to Black music history. He deserves the title “Mr. Magic.” Read more and listen here
Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only’ Review: Sold-Out Laughs. By Jason Zinoman / NYT
This Netflix movie is aimed at comedy fans, even if they already know many of its stories.
“Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only,” a slick, self-mythologizing piece of Netflix content that follows the two comedians on the recent arena shows they teamed up on, is aimed at comedy fans — even if much of it will be familiar to them. Read more
Sports
Trailblazing baseball player Larry Doby receives posthumous Congressional Gold Medal. By The Grio Staff
Doby joined the major leagues three months after Jackie Robinson and faced much of the same harsh treatment. He would have turned 100 years old on Wednesday.
The second Black baseball player to break the major league’s color barrier posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal on what would have been his 100th birthday. According to ESPN, congressional leaders presented the medal to the son of Hall of Famer Larry Doby, who died in 2003, on Wednesday in a ceremony at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Read more
Congress may honor Major Taylor, first Black American sports world hero. By Michael Kranish / Wash Post
Major Taylor competes in his first European race, at the Friedenau track in Berlin, in 1901. (Courtesy of Major Taylor Association)
It was 1901 when the cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor arrived on Capitol Hill from a triumphant tour of Europe, hailed in a local newspaper as the “Champion of the World.” Here was the first Black American global sports superstar, who had been forced by racism to compete mostly in other countries. He overcame racism to become world champion in 1899 but never received proper recognition, say sponsors of effort to award him congressional gold medal. Read more
Losing the NBA would be a stinging blow to Black D.C. By Kevin B. Blackistone / Wash Post
See, you have to understand that before Washington, D.C., my hometown, was a pro football town, it was a basketball town.
A Black basketball town, to be specific. Basketball became as much the heartbeat of Black Washington as Howard University, as U Street, as half-smokes and go-go. There is an honoree at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., for whom the entry reads: “When Edwin Bancroft Henderson introduced his hometown of Washington, D.C. to basketball in 1907, the game was still less than two decades old. That’s why what unfolded the past few days — with Leonsis announcing an intention to move the Wizards from Capital One Arena south across the Potomac to a plot of land he will develop in Northern Virginia — hurts so, so much. Read more
NFL gets this call right: first all-Black on field and replay crew. By Mike Freeman / USA Today
The NFL announced that the game between the Chargers and the Raiders had the first ever all-Black, on-field and replay crew. It was also the first time that three women (one on the field and two in the replay booth) were on the same crew.
The steps the NFL has taken to make its officiating crews more diverse have at times been incremental but recently they’ve been consistent. In 2020, the NFL announced that a November game between the Rams and Buccaneers would feature the first all-Black, on-field officiating crew. That group was led by longtime referee Jerome Boger. Read more
Tyreek Hill might be the most valuable player in the NFL. By Adam Kilgore / Wash Post
In the spring of 2022, not long after he was hired to coach the Dolphins, Mike McDaniel learned the Kansas City Chiefs had opened their minds to trading Hill. McDaniel could barely contain himself. He went to General Manager Chris Grier with impetuous, only half-joking advice: Give the Chiefs anything they ask for.
Speed matters because it alters the geometry of the field. A fast offensive player enlarges the space a defense must cover, and a fast defensive player shrinks the space in which an offense can operate. Hill is the fastest player in the NFL, and he reaches his top speed immediately, with full control of his body and an underrated understanding of defensive coverage. He effectively allows the Dolphins’ offense to play on a larger field than any other team’s. Read more
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks scoring record overshadowed by game ball drama with Pacers. By Eric Nehm / The Athletic
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo added to his accolades Wednesday, scoring a career-high 64 points against the Indiana Pacers at Fiserv Forum to set a franchise single-game scoring record.
Antetokounmpo passed Michael Redd’s 57 points scored on Nov. 11, 2006, to set the new mark. The two-time NBA MVP went 20 of 28 from the field and 24 of 32 from the free-throw line in the Bucks’ 140-126 win. Read more
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