Featured
Trump’s deranged purge of American history is the story of white supremacy. By Michael Signorile / AlterNet
The iconic photograph from 1945 by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press of U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raising the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, sat for years on a Pentagon web page honoring the contributions of Native Americans who served in World War II.
One of the six Marines in the photo was Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian. The page is now gone, targeted in the Trump purge of DEI—diversity, equity and inclusion—which has also removed other pages focused on the contributions of other Native Americans, women, Black Americans, LGBTQ service members and others. Read more
Related: Military’s DEI purge seen putting its future — and its history — at risk. By Bill Chappell / NPR
With Trump’s crackdown on DEI, some women fear a path to good-paying jobs will close. By Andrea Hsu / NPR
In 1980, Lauren Sugerman was enrolled in a vocational program aimed at getting more women and Black Americans into the steel mills. Lauren Sugerman maintained and repaired elevators in the 1980s. She says she got the job because of a 1965 executive order that required federal contractors to identify and address barriers to employment for women and people of color.
President Trump revoked EO 11246 on his second day in office as part of his own executive order cracking down on what he sees as widespread and illegal use of “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” under the guise of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Read more
Raised in Apartheid, Backed by ‘Privilege’: The Real Reason Elon Musk Hates DEI, According to His Dad. By Christian Boone / Atlanta Black Star
Why, The Washington Post wanted to know, does Elon Musk harbor such intense animosity to anything related to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)? For help, they turned to the tech CEO’s father, whose answer revealed a lot about how Musk looks at the world outside his billionaire bubble.
“They were not into political nonsense, and we lived in a very well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all,” he said of Musk and his brother. “Actually no crime. We had several black servants who were their friends.” “I am not sure if Elon can conceive of systematic discrimination and struggle because that’s not his experience,” Pienaar said. “His life now in some ways is how it was under apartheid — rich and entitled with the entire society built to sustain him and his ilk.” Read more
Why Attacks on BLM, CRT, Woke, and DEI are Cut From Same Cloth. By Allison Wiltz / Level
Opposition to BLM, CRT, Woke, and DEI appear unrelated. But, upon closer investigation, we can see they were cut from the same racist fabric.
Americans expanding their awareness of this is key to challenging prejudice going forward. As sociologist Rodney D. Coates wrote, “at the heart of covert racism one finds a deliberate policy of denial, omission, and obfuscation of black, brown, red, tan, and yellow issues, persons, and groups.” Read more
Political / Social
Trump Administration Dropped Policy Prohibiting Contractors From Having Segregated Facilities. By Erica L. Green / NYT
The provision had been in place since the civil rights era.
The Trump administration has removed a longstanding directive from the civil rights era that explicitly prohibited federal contractors from allowing segregated facilities, the latest move to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion policies from government operations that has drawn fierce rebuke. Read more
Related: The Trump-Musk Regime Wants to Make Segregation Great Again. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Trump Sets His Sights on “Eliminating” Public Education. By Chris Lehmann / The Nation
Yesterday’s executive order would dismantle the Department of Education, shutting down programs American families rely on.
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday stating his intention to “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all,” he was doing more than implementing the standard DOGE agenda of cluelessly targeting phantom government waste. The Education Department, which Congress created in 1979, represents a key fulcrum in the right-wing theology of culture warfare. That’s why dismantling most key functions of the agency is a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s wrecking-ball tour through the administrative state: The agenda of publicly funded education has always been anathema to the modern conservative movement. Read more
Related: How Trump’s Education Dept order could affect students. By Kayla Jimenez / USA Today
Trump Demands Major Changes in Columbia Discipline and Admissions Rules. By Katherine Rosman / NYT
The Trump administration on Thursday demanded that Columbia University make dramatic changes in student discipline and admissions before it would discuss lifting the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts. It said the ultimatum was necessary because of what it described as Columbia’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment.
The government called for the university to formalize its definition of antisemitism, to ban the wearing of masks “intended to conceal identity or intimidate” and to place the school’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership.” Read more
Related: Will There Finally Be More Black Students At Harvard? By Sage Howard / HuffPost
Related: Former diversity officer at USF resigns after comments on DEI laws. By Divya Kumar / Tampa Bay Times
Supreme Court to debate claims of racial gerrymandering in Louisiana. By Maureen Groppe / USA Today
The case from Louisiana will also determine if Democrats or Republicans get the advantage in a disputed district in the 2026 midterm elections that will decide control of the closely divided House.
The challenge to the congressional map by non-Black voters tests the balancing act states must strike in complying with a civil rights law that protects the voting power of a racial minority while also not discriminating against other voters. Civil rights group fear the court could rule in a way that could undermine voting protections. Read more
In these dark times, Americans must harness the power of the civil rights movement again. By Al Sharpton / The Guardian
We have power as individuals and communities to boycott companies that don’t respect us and support those who stand with us
One of the first executive orders that Trump signed in office was to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in federal agencies. Many corporations, such as Target, McDonald’s, Walmart and others, unfortunately have fallen in line and capitulated to pressure from the right to either scale back significantly their DEI policies, or eliminate them altogether. It is why I announced on Martin Luther King Day that National Action Network will lead a strategic boycott of two companies that have dropped their DEI commitments. Read more
World News
“A tragedy for the world”: How the Trump-Musk takeover is sowing global chaos. By Paul Rosenberg / Salon
The time seemed ripe to interview Petersen again, primarily about how he make sense of Trump’s second term so far, with the world’s richest internet troll by his side.
Petersen is in charge of Denmark’s current investigation on “power and democracy,” which will run through 2028. He speaks from the perspective of a leader responsible for addressing and improving democracy at a fundamental level — a task our country sorely needs addressed. that America is sorely in need of. “You have a person [Elon Musk] who is not sharing information with the objective of creating an accurate representation of the state of the world, but who is trying to mold the way his audience thinks such that it aligns with his core interests.” Read more
Related: Meet the Opposite of Elon Musk. By Nicholas Kristof / NYT
67,000 white South Africans express interest in Trump’s plan to give them refugee status. By Gerald Imray / ABC News
The U.S. Embassy in South Africa says it has received a list of more than 67,000 people interested in refugee status in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate members of a white minority group he claims are victims of racial discrimination.
The list was given to the embassy by the South African Chamber of Commerce in the U.S., which said it became a point of contact for white South Africans asking about the program announced by the Trump administration last month. The chamber said the list does not constitute official applications. Read more
Related: Ghosts of apartheid haunt South Africa as compensation anger brews. By Sumaya Bakhsh / BBC
Israel’s Renewed Assault on Gaza Is a Prelude to Mass Expulsion. Ben Reiff / The Nation
With Trump’s green light for ethnic cleansing, Israel’s return to war threatens to become an all-out effort to empty the enclave of Palestinians.
Two months after agreeing to a ceasefire deal that should have ended the war, Israel has resumed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip with an intensity that recalls the earliest days of the onslaught. Within the first few hours, Israeli air strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more, and the army has ordered thousands of residents of the towns and neighborhoods spanning the perimeter of the Strip to flee their homes. Read more
“No place for migrants”: Advocates fear expelled Venezuelans “already being tortured” in El Salvador. By Tatyana Tandanpolie / Salon
The Trump administration is using an infamous prison in El Salvador as a legal “black hole.” In this handout photo provided by the Salvadoran government, members of the Salvadoran army stand guard at the gates of the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) at CECOT on March 16, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
Amid the public outcry over the Trump administration’s decision to deport more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants over the weekend, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted a harrowing video on social media of the detainees’ arrival at his country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison in the town of Tecoluca that holds thousands of gang members — and is known among human rights advocates for its sprawling list of alleged human rights violations. Those advocates fear those expelled from the United States without due process are facing those abuses right now. Read more
On concessions to Russia, Trump and Americans are on different pages. Aaron Blake / Wash Post
Polling has shown Americans don’t like Trump’s kid-gloves approach to Russia. And a new poll shows they might not like his potential concessions.
One of President Donald Trump’s chief concerns right now is fulfilling a campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine. It’s proving more difficult than he treated it on the trail — he at times promised to end the war immediately — but we’re finally at least seeing signs of a potential ceasefire. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Faith After DEI: Will Religious Inclusion Survive? By Debbie Almontaser / Patheos
In recent years, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives have served as a beacon of hope for marginalized communities, providing platforms for underrepresented voices to be heard and fostering environments of equity and belonging. Among those who benefited from these efforts were religious communities, particularly those facing discrimination and misrepresentation in media and public life.
However, with the growing pushback against DEI programs and the dismantling of such initiatives by major corporations and government institutions, faith-based communities are now at risk of being sidelined once again. Read more
Tracking the legal battles faith groups are fighting against the Trump administration. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
Since he was inaugurated in January, President Donald Trump has faced virtually constant pushback from faith groups, including in the courts.
President Donald Trump remains locked in at least five major lawsuits filed by religious groups during the first two months of his new administration, showing tensions between the White House and the faith-based organizations challenging his agenda. The latest chapter in the ongoing legal battles unfolded on Monday (March 17), when a legal report announced the federal government had paid Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth more than $47 million for refugee resettlement work — funds frozen since Trump halted the federal refugee program in January. Read more
Is Our Political Identity Now Stronger Than Our Religious Identity? By Michael Steele / The Bulwark Podcast
Michael Steele speaks with New York Times opinion columnist and author Ross Douthat about his new book, “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.”
The pair discuss how political identity now overshadows religious identity, the decline of religion in the U.S and how we can begin to reconcile science and faith. Watch and listen here
Historical / Cultural
Slavery’s legacy remains in Puerto Rico. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
When the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is discussed or taught in schools here in the continental U.S. (though that subject is currently under attack by the racist Trump administration), rarely is the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico part of the discussion.
It did not become a U.S. colonial possession until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. The Spaniards were in no rush to free enslaved people working their plantations on the island. The Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico details that history: Read more
When the KKK Came to D.C. By Van R. Newkirk II / The Atlantic
Revisiting a 1925 march through the eyes of Black newspapers
A century ago, in 1925, the Ku Klux Klan came to Washington, D.C. The Klansmen had arrived in early August: the Kleagles and Dragons and Exalted Cyclopes, regalia folded and packed, families in tow. Loyal men came from the South, as expected, but that was not where the group’s true strength lay. The Invisible Empire sent agents from all four corners, from New Jersey and Ohio and California and pretty much everywhere else. Read more
They Blinded A Black Soldier—Now They’re Blinding America. By Antjuan Seawright / Newsone
When Sergeant Isaac Woodard was riding the Greyhound home to Winnsboro, S.C., on Feb. 12, 1946, I’m sure there was a lot on his mind. He’d seen the world change and his constant diet of patriotism and possibility had fed an idealism that carried him through the worst of the war and felt that hope stirring in his chest as he rode the bus home.
But that hope was dashed when the driver stopped in Batesburg, S.C., when Batesburg Police Chief Lynwood Shull arrested, beat and blinded Woodard, still in his Army uniform, simply for asking to use the restroom. One of the officers had even asked him if he was still in the Army or had been discharged first. Read more
Dorothy Height, NCNW, and the National Black Family Reunion. By M. Keith Claybrook / AAIHS
Dorothy Height presenting Eleanor Roosevelt the Mary McLeod Bethune Human Rights Award, New York, November 12, 1960 (Wikimedia Commons)
Dorothy I. Height and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) organized the National Black Family Reunion beginning in 1986. Founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune, the NCNW played a major role in the mid-twentieth century’s Black Freedom Movement with Height as its national president. Read more
Sports
Jackie Robinson Teaches Us to Never Back Down to Bigots. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
An article on Robinson’s military career was restored to the Defense Department’s website. It’s a reminder that we can beat back the racist right.
Rachel Robinson, a professor, nurse, activist, and the wife of baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, is still with us at 102 years old. This month, the Department of Defense deleted a webpage detailing Jackie Robinson’s World War II military history and replaced it with an error page with the letters “DEI” in the URL. Perhaps the most upsetting part of it is that Rachel Robinson has lived to see her late husband’s name demeaned by a new round of white supremacists 78 years after he broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Read more
Related: Major League Baseball removes ‘diversity’ from careers page after executive order. By The Guardian
Jesse Owens and the Anniversary We Should Remember. By Dave Zirin / The Progressive
The iconic athlete was willing to give up his Olympic moment in order for the collective to rise.
In 1936, Owens traveled to Berlin, Germany, for a Summer Olympics that would be warped by infamy. Used as a way to promote Adolf Hitler’s ascendent Nazi Party, the 1936 Olympics featured nationalistic pageantry the likes of which had never been seen before in the global sporting event. It was into this rancid stew of racial supremacy that Owens, a Black track and field athlete, bravely entered and resolutely conquered—winning an unprecedented four gold medals. Read more
George Foreman, Boxing Champion and Grilling Magnate, Dies at 76. By Victo Mather / NYT
He claimed a world title in his 20s and, improbably, again in his 40s. He then made millions selling the George Foreman Grill.
When Foreman returned to the ring after 10 years away, there was skepticism that a fighter of his years could beat anyone younger, much less come back to the top of the game. But in 1994, he shocked the world by beating the undefeated Michael Moorer to reclaim the world title. Foreman’s career spanned generations: He fought Chuck Wepner in the 1960s, Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the ’80s and Evander Holyfield in the ’90s. With his fellow heavyweights Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, Foreman embodied a golden era in the 1970s, when boxing was still a cultural force in America. The three great champions thrilled fans with one classic bout after another. Foreman was the last living member of the trio. Read more
Days after bringing up Haiti’s independence debt, Naomi Osaka makes grand show of her heritage at Miami Open. By Akshav Kapoor / Sportskeeda
The crowd in Miami witnessed patriotism from Naomi Osaka who beamed with pride as she saw a fan waving the Haition flag in the stands. She borrowed it and wrapped the country’s colors around her shoulders.
Osaka was born in Japan but has strong ties to Haiti through her father. She grew up immersed in both cultures with the Japanese roots of her mother. The WTA star takes pride in her Haitian heritage and actively supports the country. This includes raising awareness about Haiti and donating notable amounts to aid its recovery from natural disasters. Read more
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