Featured
Racism Pervades College Sports. It’s Taking An Alarming Toll On Athletes. By Margo Snipe / Capital B
Students say they’re treated more like machines than humans. Rice University football players march across the Houston campus in a show of unity by the team to protest systemic racism in September 2020. (Photo by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The National Collegiate Athletics Association has long been criticized for profiting from young adults’ labor. Modern-day slavery, some say. Keep the fans coming. Cram the arena. Bring in revenue. Sports programs nationwide are pushing young adults to the edge to prepare for game day. And, although rare, the strain has ended in death. The system relies heavily on the money-generating sports of football and basketball where Black athletes make up more than half, and their well-compensated coaches are overwhelmingly white.
To be a Black athlete on campus, some said, means always feeling behind on LinkedIn and internships while being an athlete minority among the Black minority in higher education, trying to navigate microaggressions. The pressure to perform on the field lingers, too. They manage injuries, sometimes concealing them to keep a spot. And when they finally seek counseling services, few — if any — therapists look like them. Read more
Political / Social
Supreme Court Rejects Voting Map That Diluted Black Voters’ Power. By Adam Liptak / NYT
The Supreme Court, in a surprise decision, ruled on Thursday that Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters in drawing a congressional voting map, reaffirming a landmark civil rights law that had been thought to be in peril.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has often voted to restrict voting rights and is generally skeptical of race-conscious decision making by the government, wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 ruling, stunning election-law experts. In agreeing that race may play a role in redistricting, the chief justice was joined by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal members, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Read more
Related: The Voting Rights Act Has Survived Another Attempt on Its Life. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Related: Supreme Court decision on Alabama voting could shake up 2024 election. By John Fritze / USA Today
Related: Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing, nearly 50-page dissent about why the Supreme Court should have gutted voting rights. By Kelly McLaughlin / Insider
The Failed Affirmative Action Campaign That Shook Democrats. Michael Powell and Marcus / NYT
The Supreme Court will soon rule on race-conscious college admissions, a core Democratic issue. But an analysis of a California referendum points to a divide between the party and voters. Shown are voter outside the Alameda County Courthouse casting their ballots in the 2020 election in Oakland, Calif.Credit…Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The 2020 campaign to restore race-conscious affirmative action in California was close to gospel within the Democratic Party. It drew support from the governor, senators, state legislative leaders and a who’s who of business, nonprofit and labor elites, Black, Latino, white and Asian. None of these efforts persuaded Jimmie Romero, a 63-year-old barber who grew up in the working-class Latino neighborhood of Wilmington in Los Angeles. Mr. Romero was one of millions of California voters, including about half who are Hispanic and a majority who are Asian American, who voted against Proposition 16, which would have restored race-conscious admissions at public universities, and in government hiring and contracting. Read more
Related: Most Asian Americans favor affirmative action, new Pew study shows. By Kimmy Yam / NBC News
Related: If the Supreme Court Abolishes Affirmative Action, Here’s What Women Need to Do. / NYT
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first major opinion saves Medicaid. By Ian Millhiser / Vox
The Supreme Court voted not to make federal Medicaid law virtually unenforceable.
Last November, the Supreme Court heard a nightmarish case that threatened to destroy a significant portion of the United States’ social safety net. Had the defendants’ arguments in Health and Hospital Corporation v. Talevski prevailed before the justices, federal Medicaid law could have been rendered practically unenforceable — leaving patients with no resource if they were unlawfully denied care or abused by their health providers. But the Court rejected that approach in a 7–2 decision. It’s also Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first majority opinion in a case with this kind of sweeping policy stakes. Read more
Trump’s indictment is tragic for our country but an imperative for justice. By E.J. Dionne Jr. / Wash Post
From the moment Donald Trump left office under the cloud of an insurrection he inspired, two questions troubled the American conscience:
The first, asked urgently by Trump’s opponents, was rooted in the imperative of equal justice: Shouldn’t a former president be held accountable for breaking the law, as any other citizen would be? The second, popular among Trump’s supporters but also resonant with some of his historically minded critics: How could the Justice Department of a new administration move to indict President Biden’s 2020 opponent — and potential future challenger — without damaging democratic norms? Read more
Randy Cox New Haven police brutality case settled for $45M. By TaMaryn Waters and Claire Thornton / USA Today
A $45 million settlement has been reached in the civil police brutality case involving Richard “Randy” Cox, a Black man now paralyzed from the chest down following an arrest by police officers in New Haven, Connecticut, nearly a year ago.
The case represents the largest settlement involving police misconduct in U.S. history and comes two years after the $27 million settlement involving the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day weekend in 2020. Read more
Black workers at California Tesla factory allege rampant racism, seek class-action status. By AP and NBC News
240 workers described an environment rife with discrimination and harassment, including references to the manufacturing site as a plantation or a slave ship.
The testimonies filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court comes from contractors and employees who worked on the production floor of the factory in Fremont, roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. The vast majority worked at the site between 2016 to the present. Lawyers suing Tesla, Inc. estimate at least 6,000 workers could be part of the class. Read more
UDC names scientist and HBCU leader as its new president. By Susan Svrluga / Wash Post
A scientist and senior administrator at a historically Black school will become the University of the District of Columbia’s 10th president, school officials announced Thursday.
Maurice D. Edington, a physical chemist who rose from a junior faculty member to provost and now executive vice president and chief operating officer at Florida A&M University, was unanimously approved as president in a vote by UDC’s board of trustees Thursday. He is expected to start in August. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
How Pat Robertson made white evangelicals Republican. By Mark Silk / RNS
It all began with his 1988 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Across the Bible Belt, the Robertson campaign was cut off at the knees. But the exercise taught Robertson a lesson, and he put it to good use after the campaign was over and he established the Christian Coalition. The organization’s stock in trade became voter guides distributed at election time in evangelical churches across the nation. Read more
Three years after George Floyd’s death, faith groups quietly advance racial healing. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
A range of Christian groups are working separately to continue to address the often-fraught divisions along racial lines among their members and in the wider society.
In New Orleans next week, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has been roiled by unrest over critical race theory and other racial issues in recent years, will hold a forum on racial reconciliation. Beginning Friday (June 9), meanwhile, representatives of mainline and historic Black Protestant denominations will discuss their plans for “eradicating racism,” in the words of a session planned for a three-day meeting in Philadelphia. Read more
How Right-Wing Christians Are Taking Over the Charter School Industry. By Carol Burris / The Progressive
Backed by taxpayer money, the religious right has been rapidly opening charter schools across the country.
Former Education Secretary and Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos, want to advance God’s “kingdom” with taxpayers footing the bill. School choice is the banner under which the DeVoses and their Christian nationalist allies fight to turn back the clock on American culture by undermining “government schools.” Their preference is to spread religious school vouchers, but the expansion of charter schools designed to appeal to Christian nationalist families serves their plan too. Read more
Related: Why religious fundamentalists are so excited about charter schools. By Dan Arel / Salon
Group of pastors leading effort to remove confederate statue in Jessamine County. By WKYT News Staff
A group of Jessamine County pastors from different denominations and ethnic backgrounds are coming together via a Facebook video to get a Confederate statue removed from the courthouse lawn.
Pastor Moses Radford of First Baptist Church in Nicholasville is one of the leaders of the coalition. He says he and about 19 other pastors have been trying to get the statue removed since the nationwide injustice protests of 2020. That didn’t get anywhere after dozens of pastors signed a petition of removal. Now they are starting a movement through a Facebook video to request the statue come down. The statue was placed there in 1896 in honor of those Confederates buried in a nearby cemetery. Read more
Historical / Social
DeSantis pledges to restore Confederate general’s name to U.S. military base. By Haris Alic / The Washington Times
Gov. Ron DeSantis is pledging if elected president in 2024 to restore the name of a Confederate general to a North Carolina military base.
Mr. DeSantis told a North Carolina Republican Party convention on Friday he would push to restore the name Fort Bragg to a key military base within the state. “I also look forward to, as president, restoring the name of Fort Bragg to our great military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina,” said Mr. DeSantis, Florida Republican. “It’s an iconic name and iconic base, and we’re not gonna let political correctness run amok.” Read more
We Can’t Exclude Black or Asian American History in Classroom. By Kimi Waite / The Progressive
Histories of resistance and solidarity aren’t new, but in Florida, they won’t be taught.
For the past two years, teachers around the country have rallied at historic sites to speak out against anti-history education bills. On June 10, 2023, teachers are rallying again for the Teach Truth Day of Action, co-organized by The Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School and The African American Policy Forum. Read more
Black Music Sunday: Celebrating talented Tony award-winning sistahs. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
Juanita Hall in 1956.
In honor of the 76th Tony Awards taking place Sunday night, I thought it would be fun to take a dive into Tonys music history. This week, we’ll feature some Black female award winners from the past in honor of the first African American and first Black woman to win a Tony: Juanita Hall. Read more and listen here
Taylor Swift Vs. Beyoncé: How These Super Stars Stack Up Against One Another. By Justin Conklin / Forbes
Sports
‘The Godfather of the Jordan Brand’: How Howard White found his calling as Michael Jordan’s closest confidant. By Aaron Dodson / Andscape
A movie character, a Mercedes-Benz and a heart transplant — the many stories behind Nike’s longest-tenured Black executive, who helped build Air Jordan
There’s only one person who’s been alongside Michael Jordan for the entire story of Air Jordan. Howard White, the smoothest of talkers, has been the man behind the scenes for Jordan and his brand since the beginning. Back in 1984, White — who’s now 72 and the longest-tenured African-American executive in Nike history — sat in the room during the company’s original pitch to Jordan and his parents. Later that year, when Jordan signed an endorsement deal with Nike that changed the footwear industry, he became Jordan’s daily manager and mentor. Read more
Biden says Chiefs show power of ‘unity’ during White House visit. By Des Bieler / Wash Post
Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, left, and Travis Kelce present President Biden with a custom Chiefs jersey at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Biden welcomed the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House on Monday, saying the reigning Super Bowl champions showed the power of “unity” and praising their ability “to remind us who we are as Americans.” It was the first time the Chiefs, who won the franchise’s third Super Bowl title in February, participated in the traditional champions’ visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Their first such victory came after the 1968 season, before the tradition began, and their February 2020 triumph took place shortly before the coronavirus pandemic drastically disrupted the world. Read more
How Stephen Curry helps kids build identity, confidence through community and sports. By Kelly McCarthy / GMA
Even in the offseason, Golden State Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry is putting up big points with local fans.
Curry surprised a handful of students in Oakland, California, earlier this week with his Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation for an unforgettable day of play — and San Francisco ABC station KGO was there to capture the sights and sounds of the special afternoon. Read more
Vida Blue is an essential part of telling baseball’s story. By Clinton Yates / Andscape
No number could ever describe the Oakland Athletics pitcher’s impact on baseball, America and Black folks
To say that Blue was a critical part of that A’s team would be an understatement. His statistics are eye-popping to the modern eye. A six-time All-Star pitcher, he’s the only player to win MVP, a Cy Young Award, three championships and 200 games on the mound. But there is no number that could ever really describe Blue’s impact on baseball, America and Black folks. Read more
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