Featured
Jonathan Butler on his jazz album ‘Ubuntu.’ By Ayesha Rascoe / NPR
NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe speaks to South African musician Jonathon Butler about his new jazz album “Ubuntu,” which was inspired his upbringing during the Apartheid and a Zulu philosophy of unity.
RASCOE: Ubuntu – it’s a school of Zulu philosophy, right? Can you talk to me about what that meaning is? And that’s the name of your album.
BUTLER: To show humanity to your brother is what ubuntu in South Africa meant. I am because you are. You know, I am because we are. It’s the humanity towards others that matters even in the face of apartheid, even in the face of racism, the wickedness and stuff, the hardships that we’ve seen.
BUTLER: There are blind spots in white society when it comes to white privilege, racism, segregation, prejudice. And we should have messages that can speak of the times that we’re living in. And if we can address what’s within us, you know, I mean, what happened to George Floyd – something happened to all of us. And you can’t forget that – like me, as a kid growing up poor under apartheid and singing in white clubs and whites-only establishments and stuff like that. Read more and Listen here
Politics / Social
Ron DeSantis is drawing from the Trump Supreme Court playbook. By Joan Biskupic / Salon
When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared for the first time before the Florida Federalist Society in January 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared to a large banquet audience on the Disney World grounds: “I do think he is our greatest living justice.”
Later that night, DeSantis and Thomas retreated to a private dinner at a steakhouse also at Disney with a few Federalist Society stalwarts, including Leonard Leo, a wealthy conservative activist who has influenced Supreme Court appointments more than anyone outside the White House and Senate. Read more
Related: In DeSantis’s Florida, it’s vouchers-for-all, even the wealthy. By Lizette Alvarez / Wash Post
The other threat to Democracy. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
His “war on the woke” is silly but if Ron DeSantis has done nothing else, he’s shown that he is deadly serious. “… we will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob! “
Even DeSantis, the undisputed Supreme Commander of the anti-woke army, couldn’t adequately explain it in terms that voters who aren’t tuned in to the far-right fever swamp can grasp: ” It’s a form of cultural Marxism. It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth. And as that has infected institutions, and it has corrupted institutions. So, you’ve got to be willing to fight the woke, we’ve done that in Florida, and we proudly consider ourselves the state where woke goes to die.” Read more
Related: Republicans Are No Longer Calling This Election Program a ‘Godsend.’ By Jesse Wegman / NYT
Related: The GOP Is Not Gaining Black Voters. By Steve Phillips / The Nation
Moms for Liberty named ‘extremist’ by civil rights watchdog. By Odette Yousef / NPR
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, in Vero Beach, Fla., on May 5. The Southern Poverty Law Center has added the group to its list of antigovernment extremist entities. Bloomberg via Getty Images
More than two years into a conservative push against teaching about Black history, literature and gender identity in public schools, the Southern Poverty Law Center has concluded that a dozen so-called “parental rights” groups behind the movement are extremist. The civil rights organization particularly focuses on the largest of these, the nonprofit Moms for Liberty, in its annual Year in Hate & Extremism report for 2022, saying that it advances an anti-student inclusion agenda. The SPLC has put it and similar organizations on its list of anti-government extremist entities, drawing comparisons between them and parent groups that attempted to re-segregate public schools during the civil rights movement. Read more
Sen. Tim Scott And The Embarrassing Black Conservatives Who Ignore Racism. By Dustin J. Seibert / HuffPost
The South Carolina Republican is the latest Black conservative to cozy up to white traditionalists by ignoring systemic racism to place Black progress solely on African American self-sufficiency.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) hopped in the 2024 presidential race Monday with a campaign speech in his hometown of North Charleston, South Carolina. Scott employed language similar to every other Black evangelical politician: “Victimhood or victory? I choose freedom, hope and opportunity.” “I disrupt their narrative.” And more language suggested that he refuses to be defined by his Blackness. In his most attention-grabbing comments, Scott diminished the existence of racism to what appears to be a largely white audience. Read more
Related: Tim Scott Gets Booed During Chaotic Visit To ‘The View.’ By Kelby Vera / HuffPost
Cornel West launches presidential campaign with The People’s Party. By Marina Pitofsky / USA Today
Cornel West, a progressive activist and scholar, announced a bid for the White House, saying he has opted to “run for truth and justice.”
West on Monday tweeted a video announcing his campaign, sharing that he wants to “reintroduce America to the best of itself.” “In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” West said in the video. “I come from a tradition where I care about you. I care about the quality of your life. I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, health care for all, the escalating destruction of the planet, the destruction of American democracy,” West added. Read more
Related: Cornel West’s Presidential Run Is Already Shaking Up the 2024 Race. By John Nivhols / The Nation
Related: Could Joe Biden pick Barack Obama as his running mate? Yes. But. By Philip Bump / Wash Post
There Is One Group the Roberts Court Really Doesn’t Like. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
It is difficult to overstate the hostility of the Roberts court to organized labor and the rights of American workers.
Under John Roberts, who became chief justice in 2005, the court has made it harder for workers to bring suit against employers collectively, limited the power of workers to hold employers responsible for discrimination on the job, ended the ability of public sector unions to require dues from nonmembers who benefit from collective bargaining and struck down a California law that allowed unions to recruit workers on the property of agricultural employers. Read more
Related: How the SCOTUS ‘Supermajority’ is shaping policy on abortion, guns and more. By Dave Davies / NPR
Detroit’s 40-year reign as nation’s largest majority-Black city may be over. By Clara Hendrickson Kristi Tanner and Dana Afana / Detroit Free Press
Since 1980, Detroit’s borders have encompassed a larger population than other mostly Black cities in the U.S., according to the decennial census, the once-a-decade count of all people in the country. But new population data released in the years between each decennial census show a possible end to Detroit’s 40-year reign as America’s biggest majority-Black city.
Population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau last Thursday show that at 621,056 residents, Memphis has a larger population than Detroit’s 620,376 as of July 1, 2022. The most recent census survey data showed both cities were majority-Black cities with Detroit home to a 76% Black population and Memphis to a 63% Black population as of 2021. Read more
Increases in Black unemployment are especially dire for Black women, experts say. By Claretta Bellamy / NBC News
The unemployment rate increased from 4.4% in April to 5.3% in May for Black women.
After the racial gap in unemployment was at its slimmest in months, an increase in unemployment among Black workers is causing some concern over lapsed progress for the Black labor force. The unemployment rate increased for Black people from April to May, from 4.7% to 5.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. In February, unemployment rates among Black workers had hit their lowest levels in more than a year, narrowing a gap with white workers. Read more
Kristen Welker To Become First Black Host Of “Meet The Press.” By Melissa Noel / Essence
This fall, NBC News’ major Sunday political show, “Meet the Press,” will have a new host. In September, Kristen Welker, NBC’s chief White House correspondent, will take over Chuck Todd’s role as the network’s chief political analyst.
Welker, 46, will be the first Black journalist and only second woman to host the show. She has been at NBC News in Washington since 2011 and has been Todd’s chief fill-in for the past three years. Welker has also co-hosted “Meet the Press NOW,” a show on NBC News NOW, the company’s internet streaming network. Read more
FAMU students are suing Florida government over funding gaps. By Char Adams / NBC News
In a class-action lawsuit, six students say the state is chronically underfunding and diminishing Florida A&M, its only public HBCU, using “separate but equal” tactics.
A Florida judge, for now, is allowing a class-action lawsuit to go forward that accuses the state of discriminating against a historically Black university while prioritizing its largest public university, which is predominantly white. Judge Robert L. Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida heard oral arguments Thursday in the first court test for a class-action lawsuit filed in September. He dismissed the state’s request to dismiss the suit, but did ask for revisions. The six students at Florida A&M who filed the suit claim that the University of Florida receives a larger state appropriation per student than A&M. The complaint says that over 33 years, from 1987 to 2020, that shortfall amounted to approximately $1.3 billion, though the two schools share the distinction of being the state’s only two public land-grant colleges. Read more
Philadelphia’s slumping voter turnout worries Democrats ahead of 2024. By Anthony J. Rivera and Colby Itkowitz / Wash Post
A polling place during Philadelphia’s mayoral primary on May 16 has more workers than voters. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
This historic city has long fueled Democratic victories in Pennsylvania, helping candidates for president, governor and U.S. Senate run up huge margins to offset Republican advantages across most of the state. But more recently, the once strong election engagement by Philadelphia’s voters has been waning. In the 2022 midterms, when turnout rose statewide, just 43 percent of voters in the city cast ballots, down from 49 percent in 2018. And on May 16, when the city had a high-stakes mayoral primary that drew record spending, just 32 percent of Philadelphia’s nearly 800,000 registered Democrats turned out, according to the Philadelphia City Commissioners. Read more
Woman Who Shot Ajike “AJ” Owens Arrested and Charged. By Kalyn Womack / The Root
The woman who fatally shot a Black mother of four in Ocala, Florida has finally been arrested and charged, per The Washington Post. The arrest comes four days after residents and family members demanded justice be served for the heinous crime.
Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with manslaughter with a firearm, culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault in connection to the shooting death of Ajike “AJ” Owens, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Read more
Research Shows Link Between Racial Bias and AI Technology in Major Industries. By Iman Milner / Black Enterprise
AI technology has become a polarizing topic in recent years for a litany of reasons. Chief among them is how implicit bias may play a role in programming its data, according to research conducted by MIT scientist Joy Buolamwini.
Historical / Cultural
Amanda Gorman’s Book Sales Soar Amid Florida Bans Of Her Work. By Rivea Ruff / Essence
Just days after it was announced that Amanda Gorman‘s acclaimed poem “The Hill We Climb,” was formally banned in Florida‘s Miami-Dade elementary school curriculum, the poet laureate has experienced a major boost in interest and support.
In the wake of the ban, three of Gorman’s literary works, including her collection of poems, Call Us What We Carry, the hard copy of the now-“controversial” poem she read at Joe Biden’s inauguration, The Hill We Climb, and her children’s book, Change Sings, have each made Amazon’s bestseller list, via The Hollywood Reporter. Read more
How Black Women Writers Got It Done. By Marina Magloire / The Nation
Claudia Tate’s 1983 collection of interviews is an important look into the trials writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou faced on their way to mainstream acceptance.
Tate’s 1983 collection Black Women Writers at Work, a genre-defying compilation of interviews with some of the foremost Black women writers of the 20th century, including Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Tate’s interviews bear the indelible mark of intimacy: the rustle of papers, the chatter of public spaces, the laughter and prickliness of Black women speaking frankly. Read more
5 Minutes That Will Make You Love New Orleans Jazz. By Giovanni Russonello / NYT
Many cities have rich jazz histories, but none goes back as far as New Orleans. We asked Wendell Pierce, Courtney Bryan and others what song they would play to get a friend to join the party.
The United States is full of cities with their own rich jazz histories, but none goes back as far as New Orleans. And the music remains very much a part of life there. To really discover the beauty of New Orleans jazz, the in-person experience is key. This is a participatory, effervescent music. But unless you’re about to book a trip, why not take five minutes to read and listen, and see if you get hooked? Read more
“Our Migrant Souls” author Héctor Tobar: the challenge of ‘Latino.’ By Raul A. Reyes / NBC News
Héctor Tobar writes in “Our Migrant Souls” that the focus on Latinos in crisis or as undocumented immigrants misses their history and centrality to the American story.
Author Héctor Tobar is not surprised by the recent spate of measures to restrict diversity and inclusion efforts in education. “There are a lot of people who are threatened by Latinos when they are assertive and self-confident,” he said in an interview with NBC News. “And so they’re trying to keep us in our place, to belittle us. These campaigns are happening so that young Latinos don’t grow up thinking of themselves as people who matter. ”The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and scholar rebukes such thinking with his latest book, “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of Latino.” In it, Tobar explores what it means to be Latino in the 21st century — by reflecting on his past, visiting his parents’ homeland and taking a road trip across the United States. Read more
Related: Black immigrants are growing in numbers but often feel invisible in the U.S. By Leah Donnella / NPR
A few Indian boarding schools remain open. By Sequola Carillo and Allison Herra / NPR
Navajo citizen Lorenda Long, who attended a federal boarding school as a young girl, is a supporter of students at Riverside Indian School today. Brittany Bendabout for NPR
Riverside sits perched along a hill overlooking the Washita River in Anadarko, the very heart of Indian Country in southwest Oklahoma. This is Caddo, Delaware and Wichita land. The school opened its doors in 1871 and is one of four off-reservation boarding schools still operating in the U.S. today. Oklahoma at one time had the highest number of federal Indian boarding schools, more than 80, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. Read more
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ stats show how representation works. By Manuela Lopez Restrepo / NPR
Turns out inclusivity also means more people want to give you their money! The early box office figures for the new Spider-Man film — and the demographic data of moviegoers — paint a vivid picture.
What’s the big deal? The most recent film in the series, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has made even bigger headlines and received rave reviews. The film grossed $208 million worldwide in its opening weekend, roughly three times as much as the opening of the first film, as reported by NPR’s critic, Bob Mondello. Read more
Sports
The NBA’s Florida conundrum. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Black players see what is happening in the state and must find a way to express their disapproval. Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem was born and raised in Florida and says, “Everybody ain’t down with what’s going on in Florida,” referring to Gov. Ron DeSantis. David Zalubowski/AP Photo
As the NBA’s postseason continues, the Finals’ move to Florida comes at a time when that state has become ground zero for a legislative assault on diversity, equity and inclusion. There is a push from the governor’s mansion to erase Black history from the curriculum of public institutions. A league built on Black players must find a way to express its disapproval. Read more
Deion Sanders, Who Signed a $29,000,000 Deal With Colorado, Broke into Tears After Delivering His Last Speech at JSU. By Deepesh Nair / The Sports Rush
Apr 22, 2023; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders is interviewed by ESPN broadcaster Quint Kessenich during the first half of a spring game at Folsom Filed. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
When Coach Prime left Jackson State’s locker room, it was quite an emotional moment for the entire football fraternity. The HBCU community was highly distressed, especially because of the commitment and success he reaped at Jackson State in two years. In his last press conference for the team, Deion Sanders left his followers teary-eyed by delivering an emotional message for the players and his entire community. Read more
Carl Lewis Hopes to Lead ‘Speed City’ to a National Title. By Kris Rhim / NYT
Lewis, the American track and field legend, is now head coach of the sport at the University of Houston. He expects excellence, and an N.C.A.A. Division I team title.
When Carl Lewis left the University of Houston over 40 years ago, he was 19, the indoor world-record holder in the long jump and one of the best sprinters on earth. Lewis would go on to become a colossal sports figure, his famous face gracing the top of the Olympic medal stand nine times, and appearing on the cover of Gentleman’s Quarterly Magazine plus a few Hollywood movies and television shows. Lewis, now 61 with prickly grays on his balding head, is back at the school he left four decades ago, coaching on a track at a complex bearing his name. He hopes to fill what is seemingly the only void in his storied track career: a collegiate team national title. Read more
Mike Pence’s misguided fantasy of baseball history. By Kevin B. Blackstone / Wash Post
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