Feature – Donald Trump’s empire of disorientation: Where the future is the past, made worse. Trump wants to turn back the clock — but how far? To the 1950s or the Gilded Age? To before the Civil War? Trump’s “empire of disorientation” has left his enemies confused and uncoordinated. They are wandering blindly through a dark landscape without a map, unable to see the hazards ahead. Read more 

African-Americans and the Strains of the National Anthem. Many of us who were born black in the 1950s abandoned reverence toward the national anthem once we were old enough to grasp what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said that the country had defaulted on the promises embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Read more  

Anthony Bourdain’s Meal With Obama Was a Proud American Moment. In Hanoi, Obama asked Bourdain how to properly prepare and eat Bun cha, the pork-based dish they were about to share. “I will walk you through it,” Bourdain said, without a hint of judgment or mockery. Both men deftly used black chopsticks from a red plastic cup. Read more and watch the video. 
The Jewish family on Hitler’s street: “We didn’t know he was going to turn the world upside down.” Edgar Feuchtwanger’s family escaped Germany after his father’s imprisonment in Dachau. Here’s what he remembers. Edgar Feuchtwanger, right, with co-author Bertil Scali. Read more 

Back to Basics : Donald Trump returns to race baiting as Republicans stumble toward the midterms. The sense that Republicans are behind in the race for a House majority might explain why President Trump has recently turned up the heat on racial resentment. Read more 

A second American Civil War? Imagine that an impeachment resolution against Trump passes the House. Trump claims it’s the work of the “deep state.” Fox News’s Sean Hannity demands every honest patriot take to the streets. Rightwing social media call for war. As insurrection spreads, Trump commands the armed forces to side with the “patriots.” Read more 
‘I Want to Hate …’ On an April night nearly 30 years ago, a young investment banker was beaten and raped when she went for a jog in Central Park. The attack left her in a coma. She happened to be white. Five teenagers arrested for the crime — four black and one of Hispanic descent — went to trial. They were eventually exonerated. After they were freed, Trump wrote: “Yes, Mayor Koch, I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.” Read more 
Steve Kerr speaks truth to power — and his players respect him for it. Kerr, responding to President Donald Trump canceling the Philadelphia Eagles’ trip to the White House this week, made a point to say NFL players kneeling during the national anthem has nothing to do with the military. Kerr said it has everything to do with police brutality and racial inequality. Read more 
What a 1963 RFK-James Baldwin meeting teaches us about race in Trump’s America. In the spring of 1963, Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general of the United States, and James Baldwin, the great writer and novelist, met in a penthouse apartment in New York City. Read more 

North Carolina tries to revive its discriminatory voter ID law as constitutional amendment. In an effort to stop the lawmakers from reinstating the law, which the U.S. Supreme Court said last year targeted “African-Americans with almost surgical precision,” advocates are going after two unlikely targets: Apple and Amazon. Read more 

Visit our home page for more articles, and at the top of this page register your email to receive notification of Race Inquiry Digest updates.  Click here for earlier Digests.