Featured
The Dawn of a New Era of Oppression. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
I am fascinated, and alarmed, by the swiftness with which periods of backlash take shape after surges of Black progress, and I believe that we have entered another such period.
This disturbing data arrived to little attention as people remain distracted by raging wars, a border crisis, the various court cases of a former president and the start of the presidential primaries.
I believe that the whiplash from these events has been particularly disorienting and enraging for younger Americans, for whom this may be their first experience of such a backlash, and that their frustration has manifested in a broad dissatisfaction with politics in general that has fed a dissatisfaction with the current administration.
The unfortunate reality of all this is that if history is our guide, the effects of these backlashes linger for decades. Read more
Related: ‘If Destruction Be Our Lot, We Must Ourselves Be Its Author and Finisher.’ By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Related: How Donald Trump reduced the GOP to groveling sycophants. By Mike Lofgren / Salon
Political / Social
Biden leads Trump in 2024 matchup, sees boost from female voters. By Sudiksha Kochi / USA Today Image by WSJ
President Joe Biden leads ex-President Donald Trump by six points in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, as a gap between male and female voters appears to widen, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
The poll, conducted between Jan. 25 and Jan. 29, found Biden leads Trump 50% to 44% among a nationwide sample of voters. It’s a departure from a December Quinnipiac poll, in which the matchup was “too close to call.” At the time, Biden received 47% of support while Trump received 46%. Read more
Related: Biden easily wins first official Democratic primary in South Carolina. By Alex Gangitano / The Hill
Kamala Harris Bolsters Biden for 2024 and Lays Groundwork for 2028. Reid J. Epstein and
Stumping for the president ahead of South Carolina’s Democratic primary, Ms. Harris has been working to shore up his vulnerabilities with Black voters and younger voters.
So when Vice President Kamala Harris arrived on Friday in Orangeburg, S.C., for her ninth visit to South Carolina since taking office, she came as a known quantity. While she and Mr. Biden are running for renomination without serious challengers, the relationships she has developed in the state are expected to play a part in lifting their ticket to a comfortable triumph on Saturday in the party’s first recognized primary election. Read more
For the First Time, Black Women Are Leading Democrats in Early Primary States. By
The women serve as the public face of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, Nevada, and Michigan. Here’s what they have planned for 2024. Christale Spain became the first Black woman to chair the South Carolina Democratic Party in April 2023. (Meg Kinnard/Associated Press)
For the first time, Black women are leading all three of these Democratic state parties as polls offer warning signs of Biden’s standing among Black voters. Christale Spain in South Carolina, Daniele Monroe-Moreno in Nevada and Lavora Barnes in Michigan are all the first Black women to be party chairs in their states — raising money and serving as the Democrats’ public face. Read more
Barbara Lee’s Antiwar Campaign for the Senate. Emily Witt / The New Yorker
In California’s crowded primary, can a longtime congresswoman sell her progressive ideals to the mainstream?
Barbara Lee, the Democratic congresswoman from the Bay Area, who is currently running to represent California in the United States Senate, attended a King Day breakfast sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Under a tent near the end of the parade route, members of the Hollywood Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, and other unions sat at folding tables, eating from a buffet of sausage, eggs, and grits. Lee, who is the highest-ranking Black woman currently serving in the House, wore a T-shirt that said “Elect Black Women” under a blue puffer vest embroidered with the logo of the Congressional Black Caucus, which she chaired from 2009 to 2011. Read more
They Didn’t Plan to Be at the Center of a Civil Rights Battle. Then the Fearless Fund Was Sued. By Janell Ross / Time
Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons sit for a portrait on September 28, 2023. Piera Moore for TIME. Simone is co-founder and CEO of the Fearless Fund, the nation’s first venture-capital (VC) firm run by women of color that invests exclusively in tech and consumer-goods companies owned by women of color.
On Aug. 2, the American Alliance for Equal Rights—an organization led by Edward Blum, the architect of the affirmative-action cases decided by the Supreme Court in June, in which the court struck down race-based college-admissions programs—filed a federal civil rights suit against the Fearless Fund, its management, and the nonprofit Fearless Foundation. It alleges that Fearless engages in racial discrimination by operating the Fearless Strivers Grant in which the foundation has awarded $10,000 to $20,000 and business-development services to early-stage Black-woman-owned businesses. Read more
Filing from DA in Trump case admits ‘personal relationship’ with prosecutor but denies wrongdoing. By Olivia Rubin / ABC News / Image by CTV News
The rebuttal came in a 176-page court filing Friday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday pushed back on allegations of misconduct after she was accused of financially benefiting from a relationship with one of the prosecutors on her Georgia election interference case. In a 176-page court filing, Willis claimed she has “no financial conflict of interest that constitutes a legal bases for disqualification” from the case and that she has “no personal conflict of interest” that would justify her or the office’s dismissal. Read more
Nikki Haley Tells ‘The Breakfast Club’ Obama Caused Racial Division And Dylan Roof Murders Weren’t Racist. By Zack Linly / Newsone / Image by MSN
Listen: Every prominent Republican in the country is invested in the demonstrable lie that America isn’t a racist country. They’re all pushing the self-serving narratives that we live in a post-racial America, that America’s greatness outweighs its racist past, and that Black people aren’t hindered by racism.
So, basically, Nikki Haley went on The Breakfast Club saying racial division in America started under Barack Obama and that the killings of Black people in a Black church weren’t about racism—and she thought that would all be fine. (Spoiler alert: None of it was fine.) Read more
Related: The hidden message in Nikki Haley’s attack on Kamala Harris. By / MSNBC
The anti-DEI movement is going frighteningly well in red states. By
Right-wingers have been complaining about and lobbying against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives for years.
Axios ran the numbers on Republican efforts to strike down those programs in state education systems in a recent report, and it turns out that those efforts have been shockingly successful: GOP state lawmakers in 21 states have introduced laws dismantling DEI programs on state college campuses and, since 2021, have managed to get such laws passed in nine of the states. Read more
It Will Take Black Americans 320 Years to Catch Up to White Neighbors. By Kelsey Butler / Bloomberg
It will take more than three centuries for Black Americans to achieve the same quality of life as their White neighbors, according to McKinsey & Co., after the racial gap widened in more than half the country in the past decade.
Based on the rate of change in quality of life metrics between 2012 and 2021, it would take roughly 320 years for Black residents in rural counties like Caddo Parish, Louisiana, to achieve parity, a new report from the consultancy shows. Even in megacities like New York and San Francisco, where outcomes overall are better for Black residents, parity would take 160 years. Read more
The Most Overlooked Reason Black Americans Are Moving South. By Adam Mahoney / NYT
A neighborhood next to a Marathon Petroleum facility in Detroit in 2022. Emma Lockridge left Detroit to escape pollution from industrial sources.Credit…Emily Rose Bennett for The New York Times
The air pollution in Emma Lockridge’s community in Detroit was often so bad, she had to wear a surgical mask inside her house. The smokestacks of nearby refineries and factories filled the sky outside her windows with black particles. “I couldn’t sleep because of those fumes,” she told me last year. In 2021 she fled Detroit for Memphis (which she soon found had pollution issues of its own), joining the million-plus Black Americans who have migrated to the South in the past three decades. Read more
Violence interrupters bring hope to cities struggling with gun crimes. ByByron Pitts, Kyle Rollins, Ashley Schwartz-Lavares, Marjorie McAfee, and Aria Young / ABC News
Many American cities are struggling to combat gun violence, and in neighborhoods with high numbers of shootings community violence intervention (CVI) can mean the difference between life and death.
Dante Barksdale, known to his community as Tater, helped mediate conflicts as a violence interrupter. Barksdale, a convicted drug dealer, helped found Safe Streets, Baltimore’s flagship violence prevention program aimed at keeping teenagers off drugs and out of jail. Read more
A Dallas pastor is stepping into Jesse Jackson’s role as leader of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. By Jamie Stengle / Independent
The civil rights group founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1970s is elevating a new leader for the first time in more than 50 years, choosing a Dallas pastor as his successor to take over the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
The Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III is set to be formally installed as president and CEO in a ceremony Thursday in downtown Dallas, replacing Jackson, 82, who announced in July that he would step down. Read more
Joe Madison, Radio Personality And Civil Rights Activist Dies at 74. By Daniel Johnson / Black Enterprise
Joe Madison, longtime radio host and influential civil rights activist, died following a battle with prostate cancer at 74. As NBC Washington reports, no cause of death has yet been announced, but Madison did take a leave of absence from hosting his radio show in December 2023 to address health concerns. He had been battling prostate cancer.
Madison, who was known as The Black Eagle, was involved in the civil rights movement before he went to the airwaves, often posing the question “What are you gonna do about it?” to his listeners. Madison is remembered as one of those who served as a voice for the voiceless, as Kojo Nnamdi from WAMU told NBC Washington, “He comes from a tradition of activism, and he understands that change only occurs when people take part in some form of movement or some form of struggle.” Read more
Carl Weathers, who starred in ‘Rocky’ movies, dies at 76. By AP and NPR
Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” has died. He was 76.
Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday. His family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his sleep.” Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
At National Prayer Breakfast, Biden speaks of praying, working for peace. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
President Joe Biden stands after Andrea Bocelli performs during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
President Joe Biden vowed to keep working and praying for resolutions to global conflicts as he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast. He also urged congressional leaders not to treat those with whom they disagree as enemies. “My prayer, my hope, is we continue to believe our best days are ahead of us, that as a nation we continue to believe in honesty, decency, dignity and respect,” he said in remarks Thursday (Feb. 1) in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. “We see each other not as enemies but as fellow human beings, each made in the image of God, each precious in his sight.” Read more
Gerald L.K. Smith: The Ghost of Christian Nationalism’s Past. By Hank Kennedy / The Progressive
Today’s Republican extremists are (perhaps unwittingly) influenced by a wannabe Christian Nationalist demagogue from the 1940s. Let me tell you, my friends, that if it is rabble-rousing to praise the flag and the Constitution and to love and revere the Holy Bible, then I pray to God that He in His wisdom will make me the greatest rabble-rouser in the land.” – Gerald L.K. Smith, 1936
Christian Nationalism is once again on the rise. Members of Congress have professed its creed, including Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Mary Miller of Illinois. So has white nationalist, Holocaust denier, and Trump-dinner-guest Nick Fuentes. Current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is animated by Christian Nationalist ideas. But what exactly is Christian Nationalism? To answer this question, it helps to examine one of its early ideologues, Gerald L.K. Smith, one of the most hateful demagogues to ever stalk the United States. Read more
The relentless focus on White Christian nationalism is spreading a racist myth. By John Blake / CNN
Evangelicals explain differences between some White and non-White evangelicals
The constant linking of Whiteness with evangelical Christianity, though, obscures another major story. There are millions of Black, Latino, African and Asian evangelical Christians who are already profoundly changing America. They represent what one scholar calls the “de-Europeanization of American Christianity.” And these non-White evangelicals will likely not only save the American church but transform the nation’s politics. Read more
Historical / Cultural
A trip to U.S. slavery’s 1619 birthplace leaves Black students feeling empowered. By Curtis Bunn / NBC News
Justice Alexander, a senior at Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia, felt something come over him as the bus carrying 21 of his classmates entered the grounds of Fort Monroe on the Chesapeake Bay.
Sure, Alexander knew the facts of the place: Four centuries ago, in 1619, a ship called the White Lion crossed the Atlantic Ocean from central Africa with “twenty and odd” souls. Aboard that ship were the first enslaved Africans torn from their homes arriving in what was then called Point Comfort, in the Virginia colony. Read more
Related: Two daring slave escapes, two descendant families and a DNA mystery. By Bryan Greene / Wash Post
The meaning of Black History Month on campus following the ouster of Harvard’s president. By Khalil Gibran Muhammad / CNN
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard University, an organizer of the Freedom to Learn movement and co-host of the Some of My Best Friends Are podcast.
Last week, at my alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, about 100 faculty rallied against what they decried as “anti-democratic” attacks on diversity, academic freedom and free speech. Faculty and staff at private universities across the country now face a similar plight, as do many teachers, librarians and academics at public colleges and universities who have been censored, harassed, physically threatened and fired for doing their jobs over the past year. As these dangerous assaults move to private universities, many academics are preparing for the worst. I count myself among them. Last year, for the first time in my 25-year career as an academic historian, my teaching was singled out by a powerful politician for causing hate. Read more
Students reported her for a lesson on race. Then she taught it again. By Hannah Natanson / Wash Post
Mary Wood walked between the desks in her AP English Language and Composition classroom, handing out copies of the book she was already punished once for teaching.
Chapin, S.C. – Twenty-six students, all but two of them White, looked down at Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me,” a memoir that dissects what it means to be Black in America — and which drew calls for Wood’s firing when she tried to teach it last year in her mostly White, conservative town. Wood crossed to a lectern and placed her hands on either side of a turquoise notebook, open to two pages of bullet points explaining why she wanted to teach Coates’s work. Read more
The Home of Carter G. Woodson, the Man Behind Black History Month. By Anna Kode’ / NYT
Dr. Woodson’s house, the birthplace of the annual month, was a hub of scholarship, bringing together generations of intellectuals, writers and activists.
The origins of Black History Month can be traced back nearly a hundred years to an unassuming, three-story brick rowhouse in Washington. In 1922, Carter G. Woodson, known as “the father of Black history,” bought the home at 1538 Ninth Street for $8,000. The home served as the headquarters for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (which is now known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, or A.S.A.L.H.). Read more
‘Genius: MLK/X’ review: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are examined in a split-screen miniseries. By Brian Lowry / CNN
Kelvin Harrison Jr., center left, as Martin Luther King Jr. and Aaron Pierre, right, as Malcolm X in “Genius: MLK/X.” Richard DuCree/National Geographic
The fourth edition of National Geographic’s “Genius” series is essentially a two-for-one proposition, following parallel stories about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. “Genius: MLK/X” collectively presents a richly detailed look back at the civil-rights movement, while bogging down in the early going with its alternating split-screen structure before rallying toward the end. “Genius: MLK/X” premieres February 1 at 9 p.m. ET on National Geographic, with the first episode to be simulcast on ABC. Episodes will play the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. Read more
Issa Rae and Hollywood’s Unkept Promises. By Andrew R. Chow / Time
Rae, 39, is especially determined to turn the page because last year was “not fun at all,” she admits. In public, she was absolutely crushing it: She won a Peabody Trailblazer award, stole scenes in two of the year’s most hyped films, Barbie and American Fiction, and released the second season of her critically acclaimed Max show Rap Sh!t.
But Rae says she witnessed Hollywood backsliding on pledges to increase representation and diversity. “I’ve never seen Hollywood this scared and clueless, and at the mercy of Wall Street,” she says. Read more
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates 65 years of legacy and art. By and
Three and a half decades after Alvin Ailey’s death, his American Dance Theater is still championing African American artistry and forging a bold path for his legacy.
One of the most storied dance companies in the country is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year with artists of all ages learning and perfecting the art of dance and movement. When guests walk into the modern glass building of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in Midtown Manhattan, they enter a large open lobby covered in posters of performers adorning the walls. Classical music, jazz and traditional African drums pours out of different studios throughout the building. Read more
What is code-switching? Why Black Americans say they can’t be themselves at work. By Jessica Guynn / USA Today
As one of the few Black women in the corporate offices where she worked, Regina Lawless took pains to blend in. She donned conservative blazers and low-wedge heels and tucked her hair in a wig instead of wearing natural hairstyles or braids.
Echoing the speech patterns of her white colleagues, she avoided African American Vernacular English, spoke in a quieter voice and buttoned down her mannerisms. Even in casual moments around the watercooler, she constantly monitored how she carried herself and chatted about the latest episode of “Game of Thrones,” not “Insecure.” “I was coming in as a young Black woman and I didn’t want them to think of me as unprofessional or ghetto or pick your negative stereotype of Black women,” she said. “It was my way not to have people question my competence or my professionalism.” Read more
Sports
How Black male college athletes deal with anti-Black stereotypes on campus. By Jonathan Howe / The Conversation
Professors have lower academic expectations of Black college athletes compared with white college athletes, a study found. supersizer/E+ Collection/Getty Images
In an effort to avoid stereotypes about Black male athletes, such as being labeled a “dumb jock,” Spike, a college football player, says he wore athletic clothes to class as little as possible. “I mean, granted, I’m a 6-foot-4, 240-pound Black kid on campus, so it’s kind of hard to get away from that,” he said. “But I didn’t want any, you know, significant confirmation that I was an athlete. So, I just wore like a collared shirt, jeans and nice shoes every day.” Read more
NFL head coaching hiring cycle shows signs of diversity improvement. By Mark Maske / Wash Post
The Falcons hired Raheem Morris, most recently the Rams’ defensive coordinator, as their head coach. (Kyusung Gong/AP)
The minority hiring gains the NFL had seen in teams’ front offices in recent years had not translated into progress in the diversity of the league’s head coaches, but that changed in recent weeks with the latest hiring cycle. NFL teams hired four minority head coaches — three of them Black — among eight vacancies, providing a significant boost to the league’s efforts. League leaders and others involved in promoting diversity in the NFL’s hiring practices now must hope the gains are a sign of lasting progress. Read more
Deion Sanders teaches class at Colorado: Here’s what coach had to say. Brent Schrotenboer / USA Today / Image by SI
Head football coach Deion Sanders taught his first class this semester at the University of Colorado, taking on the role of “Professor Prime” as he spoke to undergraduate students about life, personal branding and even building a football roster in today’s chaotic college football environment.
The class debuted recently in Boulder and is named after his nickname: “Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership.” This was the first time “Coach Prime” appeared with his entourage of cameras and security detail in a session that was documented on YouTube by his son Deion Jr. The class will feature different speakers and topics, with Sanders slated to speak once more, per the Boulder Daily Camera. Read more
How Wichita’s stolen Jackie Robinson statue brought baseball together. By Mike Freeman / USA Today
You may have heard about the destruction of a bronze Jackie Robinson statue in Kansas. The statue honored the man who broke baseball’s color barrier and one day, it simply went missing, cut from the top of the shoes.
The destruction of the statue led to a rallying cry that was united and loud. Everyone came together to decry the destruction of the statue. Lutz said MLB and its individual clubs would help replace the statue. There’s also a GoFundMe that’s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a country divided there was unity over the statue of Robinson. Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “You can steal the statue but you can’t steal the spirit of what the statue represents! Read more
Damian Lillard’s Portland return filled with love and appreciation: ‘I could feel it.’ By Jason Quick / The Athletic
Sixty-three seconds.
That’s how long they cheered in Portland. How long they screamed. How long they yelled for Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard. The ovation during player introductions Wednesday would have been louder, but many were using two hands to record on their phones the first time Lillard played in Portland for a team other than the Trail Blazers. It was a moment nobody wanted to happen, but it was a moment that was too special, too memorable and too emotional to miss. So for 63 seconds, a city and fan base poured into Lillard and filled him with love.
Why F1’s Lewis Hamilton is quitting Mercedes to form a Ferrari ‘superteam.’ By Luke Smith / The Athletic
It’s the end of an era — and the biggest driver move in Formula One history.
After 12 seasons, six world championships and 82 race wins, Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. It’s a day most thought would never come. Hamilton himself said last year he expected to remain with Mercedes “til my last days”, and there was “no place I would rather be.” But the appeal of a shock move to Ferrari, announced for 2025 on Thursday, proved too strong for the seven-time champion seeking a record-breaking eighth world title. Read more
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