Featured
The Supreme Court’s originalism is white supremacy. By Baynard Woods / NBC News
The conservative supermajority has weaponized this harmful judicial philosophy as a way to embrace a racist, patriarchal narrowing of political rights.
Even as the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court was sworn in Thursday, the slate of rulings from the newly empowered, right-wing and originalist court majority this term has made it clearer than ever that the court is motivated by a reliance on the white supremacist patriarchy of the Constitution’s framers.
In other words, in those decisions, originalist judges express a belief that we should interpret the U.S. Constitution according to the legal opinions of 18th century white men — the same white men who denied the right to vote or own property to anyone but themselves. Read more
Related: Will Reactionaries Impose a Red-State Social Order on the Rest of Us? By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Related: Supreme Court makes it clear there’s a red America and a blue America. By Ariane de Vogue / CNN
Political / Social
Out West, we know the right-wing extremist threat just keeps rising. By Leah Scottile / Wash Post
On a recent sunny Saturday in the lake resort city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, police pulled over a U-Haul truck and rolled up the back door. Thirty-one members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front stared back at them. Police said they came from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. As police peeled down the balaclavas, the reality of right-wing extremism in the United States was revealed: White supremacists can be found anywhere. Read more
Related: Boston Mayor Lashes March By ‘Cowardly’ Extremist Patriot Front Mob. By Mary Papenfuss / HuffPost
Ohio Police Officers On Paid Leave After Fatal Shooting Of Black Driver. By Ben Blanchet / HuffPost
25-year-old Jayland Walker was reportedly shot multiple times by police following a four-and-a-half minute chase.
A number of Ohio police officers are on paid leave following a chase that led to the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Black man Jayland Walker on Monday. Officers tried to pull Walker over in a traffic stop and he led officers on a chase by car — and later by foot — prior to a confrontation, according to Akron Police Chief Stephen Mylett. The chase lasted four-and-a-half minutes and reached speeds of up to about 80 mph, police said. Officers used “tasers” and later “fired bullets” multiple times at Walker before his death, the Akron Beacon Journal reported. Read more
Related: Akron police release ‘heartbreaking’ footage of Jayland Walker shooting: Live updates. USA Today
Related: ‘Ordinary self-defense’ doesn’t exactly apply to Black people. By Jonathan Capehart / Wash Post
Arizona moves “to kill public education” with new universal voucher law. By Kathryn Joyce / Salon
Families who bail on public school will get $7,000 per kid in GOP’s new scheme: “Every red state” urged to follow
Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. Legislators in the Grand Canyon State passed a universal school voucher bill that, once signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, will become the most wide-reaching school privatization plan in the country. In his January State of the State address, Ducey called on Arizona lawmakers to send him bills that would “expand school choice any way we can,” and the Republican-dominated legislature obliged, delivering last Friday’s bill, which will open a preexisting program for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) up to the entire state. Read more
Tesla hit with new lawsuit alleging racial abuse against Black workers. By Reuters / NBC News
Tesla hit with new lawsuit alleging racial abuse against Black workers
Fifteen Black former or current employees at Tesla filed a lawsuit against the electric car maker on Thursday, alleging they were subjected to racial abuse and harassment at its factories. The workers said they were subjected to offensive racist comments and behavior by colleagues, managers, and human resources employees on a regular basis, according to the lawsuit filed in a California state court. Read more
Who Segregated America? By Colin Gordon / Dissent
Federal housing policies contributed to the segregation of American cities in the twentieth century. But it was private interests that led the way.
As new work on the scope of private racial restrictions underscores, racial segregation in American cities (especially Northern and border cities) was largely accomplished by private interests and private action long before the FHA spent a dime or the HOLC opened its first bottle of red ink. Race-restrictive deed covenants and agreements reserved the occupancy of individual lots or entire residential subdivisions to those (in the phrasing preferred by developers in St. Louis County) “wholly of the Caucasian Race.” Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
After Roe’s fall, Black churches support some or all reproductive health options. By Adele M. Banks / RNS
The high court ruling gave states ‘a license to put the lives of millions of Black and poor women at severe risk,’ said the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a plurality (38%) of reported abortions in 29 states and the District of Columbia in 2019 were obtained by Black women, despite a smaller population size. Other sources’ data varies widely and there is much division on this hot-button issue, but there is nevertheless broad agreement that Black women disproportionately seek abortions in the United States, often due to economic and social reasons. Read more
Related: What has the demise of Roe v. Wade cost the Catholic Church? By Thomas Reese / RNS
Watch Sermon on Roe v. Wade By Dr Howard John Wesley / Alfred Street Baptist Church
This provocative sermon on the recent Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade preached by a dynamic young pastor, Dr. Howard John Wesley, begins at 56 min into the video. Watch here
Historical / Cultural
Emmett Till’s family wants woman arrested after warrant unearthed 67 years later. By AP and NBC News
The unserved warrant from 1955 charges a white woman who accused the 14-year-old Till of making improper advances.
A team searching a Mississippi courthouse basement for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later. A warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham — identified as “Mrs. Roy Bryant” on the document — was discovered last week by searchers inside a file folder that had been placed in a box, Leflore County Circuit Clerk Elmus Stockstill said Wednesday. Read more
Related: Unsolved murders and the mothers of Jackson, Mississippi. By Jim Axelrod and Andrew Bast / CBS news
Once Again The Supreme Court Breaks America’s Promise To Tribes. Chuck Hoskin Jr / HuffPost
The highest court in the land has ruled that state governments can now prosecute non-Natives for crimes committed against Natives on tribal land.
In April, Justice Neil Gorsuch asked his colleagues on the Supreme Court if they would “wilt today because of a social media campaign.” The case was Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, in which the state of Oklahoma claimed it holds jurisdiction to prosecute certain crimes committed against Indian citizens on Indian reservations. That claim was backed by neither the law nor history, falling afoul of court precedent, established. Read more
Medal of Freedom recipients: Denzel Washington, Simone Biles, more. Darlene Superville / USA Today
President Joe Biden will present the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people, including actor Denzel Washington, gymnast Simone Biles and the late John McCain, the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S. Senate, the White House announced Friday. Read more
R. Kelly: Jim DeRogatis on why 30-year sentence is just the beginning. By Nitish Pahwa / Slate
The stories about the singer somehow just keep getting more horrific.
I spoke to DeRogatis last year on the eve of the trial, and on Thursday morning, I caught up with him again to talk about the sentencing, what it took to reach this point, and what comes next. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read more
The SNCC Freedom Singers: Songs of strength and courage that mobilized people to vote. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
I know what I have learned to do when shit hits the fan and gloom is in the forecast for the days ahead. I draw upon the wisdom of musical organizers who always put a little “stiffnin” in my spine, and give me the courage and strength to get up and face yet another day. With that in mind, join me this Black Music Sunday in meeting, honoring and listening to the SNCC Freedom Singers. The Freedom Singers’ story begins with the formation of the Albany Movement. As told on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) website: Read and listen here.
‘The Message’ turns 40: How the groundbreaking record changed hip-hop. By Jim Beckerman / North Jersey
At first, there was no message. Rap was all bluff and bluster. Party stuff, straight up. Hip hop, you don’t stop. Throw your hands in the air, and wave ’em like you just don’t care. Somebody scream. And then — straight outta Englewood — came “The Message.” That record, released 40 years ago Friday, hit the reset button. “You could smell the ‘hood in the song,” said Melvin Glover, aka Melle Mel, the vocalist and one of the key architects of the record. “The Message,” issued July 1, 1982, set the pattern for all the hip-hop records that came after. Read more
Whoopi Goldberg, Dick Gregory comedy impact told in ‘Right To Offend.’ By Elise Brisco / USA Today
The phrase “laugh to keep from crying” is brought to life in a new documentary exploring Black comedy’s relationship with social justice movements through history. Executive producer Kevin Hart‘s “Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution,” (available on-demand and streaming now on the A&E app) premiered at Tribeca Festival in June and chronicles a comedy lineage from the 19th century to today’s comedians while highlighting the movements and injustices many of their laughs were up against. Read more
Sports
Why today’s Black QBs owe late pioneer Marlin Briscoe a huge debt. By Mike Jones / USA Today
Briscoe’s career embodied one of the ugliest chapters in NFL history while also providing a glimpse into a future where quarterbacks of color would dominate the league.
“Marlin the Magician,” as Briscoe was dubbed, parlayed a fourth-quarter relief effort in 1968 into a five-game stint as the starting quarterback to close out his rookie season. Briscoe, who became the first Black starting quarterback in pro football’s modern era, didn’t just start. He dazzled. Using his supreme athleticism and quick-twitch reflexes to elude defenders and his strong arm and keen instincts as a passer, Briscoe set a Broncos rookie passing record of 14 touchdowns. Read more
Venus Williams Has Perfect Response To Tennis Reporter’s Ridiculous Question. By Ben Blanchet / HuffPost
The reporter asked the mixed doubles pair, Venus Williams and Jamie Murray, about their reason for playing in Wimbledon this year.
Tennis players Venus Williams and Jamie Murray chuckled and joked after a reporter’s question about why they’re playing at Wimbledon. Williams and Murray, who wrapped up a second round victory in the tournament’s mixed doubles bracket, were hit with the question during a post-match press conference on Saturday. The reporter, in a clip shared by BBC Sport, asked if the two were “in it to win it” at the tournament. “What kind of question is that?” Williams responded as she turned to Murray to laugh. “We’re in it for a stroll. Come on.” Read more
Trial For WNBA Star Brittney Griner Begins In Russian Court. By Jim Heintz / HuffPost
Griner was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Police said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil.
American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial Friday, 4 1/2 months after her arrest on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for a Russian team, in a case that unfolded amid tense relations between Moscow and Washington. Read more
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