Featured
Wall Street’s DEI Retreat Has Officially Begun. By Max Abelson, Simone Foxman, and Ava Benny-Morrison / Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has made a surprising change to its “Possibilities Summit” for Black college students: It’s opened the program to White students.
At Bank of America Corp., certain internal programs that used to focus on women and minorities have been broadened to include everyone. And at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., executives are being urged to reconsider hard metrics for workforce diversity. Lose them, lawyers have advised. This is what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like on Wall Street today: anxious, fraught – and changing fast.
From C-suites down, American finance is quietly reassessing its promises to level the playing field. The growing conservative assault on DEI, coupled with pockets of resentment among White employees, have executives moving to head off accusations of reverse discrimination. It’s not just Wall Street. In recent weeks, Zoom Video Communications Inc. cut its internal DEI team amid broader layoffs and Tesla Inc. removed language about minority workers from a regulatory filing. Read more
Related: Destroying DEI Is a Death Sentence for American Prosperity. By Malia C. Lazu / The Daily Beast
Related: Reaction pouring in after U of Florida axes diversity and inclusion positions. CBS News
Political / Social
Super Tuesday sets up Trump and Biden for a 2024 rematch. By Jonathan Allen / NBC News
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump sailed through Super Tuesday primaries Tuesday, racking up enough delegates — in contests held in 16 states and American Samoa — to all but mathematically secure an encore of their 2020 election fight.
For more than a year, polls have shown Americans anticipating a sequel with the kind of eagerness typically reserved for a drug-free colonoscopy. But Republicans show little interest in stripping their standard from Trump’s hands, and Biden, like most modern incumbents, faces no serious competition for his party’s nod. Read more
What Nikki Haley’s history-making campaign tells us about the GOP and women. By Mel Leonor Barclay / The 19th
She navigated issues of gender and race even as she downplayed their role, becoming Donald Trump’s last remaining primary rival before ending her campaign Wednesday.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets,” Haley said, adding that she is not going to immediately endorse Trump and that she expects him to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him.” Read more
Trump’s Conquest of the Republican Party Matters to Every American. The Editorial Board / NYT
With Donald Trump’s victories on Tuesday, he has moved to the cusp of securing the 1,215 delegates necessary to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. The rest is a formality. The party has become a vessel for the fulfillment of Mr. Trump’s ambitions, and he will almost certainly be its standard-bearer for a third time.
This is a tragedy for the Republican Party and for the country it purports to serve. Read more
Robinson and Stein will face off in North Carolina governor’s race, CNN projects. By Gregory King / CNN
The gubernatorial showdown in North Carolina is set for what is expected to be one of the most competitive races of the year, after Democrats chose moderate, strait-laced state Attorney General Josh Stein to square off with Republican nominee Mark Robinson, a right-wing firebrand currently serving as lieutenant governor.
Stein and Robinson are vying to replace term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper, as Democrats try to protect one of their last-remaining footholds in the upper echelons of Southern politics – and attempt to flip the state in what’s also expected to be a hotly contested presidential ballot. Read more
Colin Allred wins Democratic Texas Senate primary to face Cruz. By Sergio Martínez-Beltrán / NPR
Congressman Colin Allred, D-Texas, has won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, according to a race call by The Associated Press, and will now face Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the November general election.
Allred, 40, is a former professional football player who first won a seat in Congress in 2018. He’s been endorsed by big labor groups such as the Texas AFL-CIO and has stressed his support for abortion rights. Allred finished well ahead in Tuesday’s nine-candidate Democratic primary, while state Sen. Roland Gutierrez came in second. Read more
Appeals court blocks Fla. ‘Stop Woke Act,’ says it’s a ‘First Amendment sin.’ By Anumita Kaur / Wash Post
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Monday that blocked Florida from enforcing a law, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, that restricts how private companies teach diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Monday that the “Stop Woke Act” “exceeds the bounds” of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression in its attempts to regulate workplace trainings on race, color, sex and national origin. The appeals court upheld a federal judge’s August 2022 ruling that said the same. Read more
There’s hope and despair in what happened to my home state. By Van Jones / CNN
Many were shocked last year when the Tennessee legislature dramatically expelled state representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. Their offense? Breaching decorum by speaking out in favor of common-sense gun reform alongside Rep. Gloria Johnson — something it seems many of their constituents wanted them to do.
But nobody was more stunned by their expulsion than I was. I started my political career as a legislative intern in that majestic building in Nashville. The procedure unfolding on TV last year made the place seem like a circus. (After their expulsion, Pearson and Jones were both reappointed to their seats; the GOP-controlled Tennessee House recently passed a bill seeking to ban such reappointments.) Read more
World News
Harris Calls for an ‘Immediate Cease-Fire’ in Gaza. By Erica L. Green / NYT
Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday called for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza, saying that Hamas should agree to the six-week pause currently on the table and that Israel should increase the flow of aid into the besieged enclave amid a humanitarian crisis.
Ms. Harris’s remarks, delivered in Selma, Ala., bolstered a recent push by President Joe Biden for an agreement and came a day before she was to meet with a top Israeli cabinet official involved in war planning, Benny Gantz. Her tone echoed a sharper and more urgent tone coming from the White House as its frustration with Israel grows. Last month, the president called Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack “over the top.” Read more
Related: Kamala Harris’ Gaza speech watered down by administration officials before delivery. By , , and
Related: Black and Latino voters are pursuing candidates who want a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. By
Haiti declares state of emergency after mass prison escape. By Michelle Velez, Stefano Pozzebon, and
Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency on Sunday after thousands of inmates apparently escaped from its largest prison during a surge of gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation for months.
The government cited the “deterioration of security,” notably in the capital Port-au-Prince, and “increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs,” including kidnappings and killings of citizens, violence against women and children and looting, according to a statement from Finance Minister Patrick Boivert, who is serving as acting prime minister. Read more
Related: 3 things to know about the current crisis in Haiti. By Eyder Peralta / NPR
The Church of England aims to raise more than $1 billion to address its past links to slavery. By Jill Lawless / RNS
The fund was established as part of efforts by the Anglican church to reckon with its historic complicity in the trans-Atlantic slave trade
The Church of England should create a fund of 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) to address its historic links to slavery, an advisory panel said Monday. That’s 10 times the amount the church previously set aside. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
“They’ve told me he’s Jesus”: Unpacking Trump’s empty pseudo-religion. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Evangelicals have embraced a “despot wrapped in piety” — and our expert panel says that’s exceptionally dangerous
The most zealous and most extreme of MAGA supporters are white right-wing evangelical Christians, who have sought to identify Trump as a messiah or prophet, blessed and ordained by God as their weapon in an end-times battle against “evil,” whose goal is to conquer American society, end multiracial democracy, and transform the country into an authoritarian theocracy. These fantasies and delusions are shared, at least to some extent, by Trump himself. Read more
Conversations on Faith, Mission, and Black Leadership. By Christianity Today
On February 28, CT and Seminary Now joined together to host a roundtable discussion featuring Black evangelical leaders from a variety of vocational ministry settings. Their conversation explored the blessings and challenges of being a Black leader in today’s divided and often volatile ministry environment.
Their journeys in the church, academia, and the arts offered practical lessons for creating, serving, and leading in a variety of contexts. Featured panelists for the online conversation included Chicago-based pastor Marshall Hatch Sr. on church leadership, author and poet Rachel Marie Kang on creativity and the arts, Baylor University seminary professor Daniel Lee Hill on theology and higher education, and CT’s own chief impact officer Nicole Martin on women and ministry leadership. Read more and listen here
How a Chinese Church in America Surmounts Racism and Ethnocentrism. By Qian Bin and David Doong / CT
Their Chinese pastor prayed and shared pulpits with Black and white pastors and volunteered to deliver packages to know the multicultural surroundings better.
Chinese churches scattered across the globe hold immense potential within the universal Christian mission, but that potential often remains untapped. One persistent challenge is the deep-seated racial discrimination prevalent among Chinese people, as well as their indifference to, or even their tendency to avoid, the diverse races, cultures, and language groups that surround them. Read more
What the ancient Indian text Bhagavad Gita can teach about not putting too much of our identity and emotions into work. By Robert J. Stephens / RNS
A scholar of South Asian religions explains how one lesson from the text, ‘nishkama karma’ – or acting without desire – may be useful for navigating the contemporary workplace.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that U.S. employees are generally unhappy at work. The number of those who feel angry and disconnected with their organization’s mission is climbing. An analysis of data from 60,000 employees by BambooHR, an HR software platform, also found that workplace morale was getting worse: “Employees aren’t experiencing highs or lows — instead, they are expressing a sense of resignation or even apathy.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
The women who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. and sustained a movement for social change. By Vicki Crawford / The Conversation
Coretta Scott King is often remembered as a devoted wife and mother, yet she was also a committed activist in her own right. She was deeply involved with social justice causes before she met and married Martin Luther King Jr., and long after his death.
While Scott King’s support and ideas were particularly influential, many other women played essential roles in the success of the civil rights movement. Read more
Florida replaced sociology with an early US history course. A closer look. By Divya Kumar / Tampa Bay Times
In a move that rankled academics across the country last month, Florida officials removed sociology as one of the core courses students can choose to complete their studies at public colleges and universities.
Manny Diaz Jr., the state education commissioner, likened the subject to “woke ideology” and said it was based mostly in theories, not facts. In sociology’s place, then, the state inserted a new option for students: an introductory course surveying U.S. history up to 1877. We talked to history professors about that class, and about the decision that put it at the center of the storm. Read more
Remembering Virginia’s only seaside resort for Black people. By Kathleen Lundy and Alex Littlehales / 13Newsroom
The hotel hosted several national conferences, sporting events, weddings and performers like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
A hotel that once resided along Buckroe Beach in Hampton was an iconic vacation spot for African Americans during segregation. The Bay Shore Hotel, built in the 1890s and nestled along Hampton’s Buckroe Beach, was the only seaside resort for African Americans in Virginia for several decades. What began as a modest four-room cottage expanded to a grand three-story, 70-room resort by the 1920s. Read more
The blank spaces in Relisha Rudd’s story are the most horrifying. By Colbert L. King / Wash Post
Ten years after Relisha Rudd’s disappearance, it remains an agony to imagine her fate. What we know is a horror. Worse is what we are forced to suppose.
Sunday’s front-page Post article on the 2014 disappearance of Relisha, then 8, from a makeshift, dilapidated and bug-ridden shelter at what used to be D.C. General Hospital in Southeast Washington portrayed some of the people who knew and interacted with her before she went missing. It recaptured the disgraceful conditions under which the little second-grader lived. And it touched briefly on Kahlil Tatum, the janitor employed by the nonprofit Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, which the D.C. government hired to operate the shelter. Tatum, the prime suspect in Relisha’s disappearance, was wanted by the FBI in connection with his wife’s murder but apparently killed himself before authorities could question him. Read more
Texas insists on discriminating against Black hair. By Karen Attiah / Wash Post
Once again, Texas is making Black hair history, but this time, for all the wrong reasons.
Arguably, the length of a high school student’s neatly styled hair should not be a federal case, but regulating Black hair has a long history, not limited to Texas, or America for that matter. Enslaved Africans were typically forced to cut their hair to remove traces of their original identities. It was one step in the process of breaking their spirits. Colonizing powers in Africa applied similar rules. Even today, in a number of African countries, including my fatherland of Ghana, girls are often required to shave their hair, and boys are not allowed to wear dreadlocks or other styles. Read more
Sports
Emmitt Smith urges Black athletes to fight for diversity programs at the University of Florida. By Ja’han Jones / MSNBC
As Republicans across multiple states follow through on vows to ban and restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Black DEI-backers have homed in on one point of leverage that can be used in the immediate term: college athletics.
NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith, a University of Florida alum, released a scathing letter on Sunday that denounced his alma mater’s recent firing of all its DEI employees. “To the MANY minority athletes at HF, please be aware and vocal about this decision by the University who is now closing the doors on other minorities without any oversight.” Read more
As LeBron James hits 40,000-point threshold, the age-old GOAT debate has shifted. By Sam Amick / The Athletic
The story of this author’s childhood obsession with Michael Jordan is not unique.
But to watch LeBron James surpass 40,000 points on Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets was to realize he is truly all by himself in the annals of basketball history. Jordan, nor anyone else in the field of 4,890 players who have taken the court since the NBA began in 1947, can touch this legacy he’s leaving. Read more
Russell Wilson cut by Denver Broncos, who take record salary cap hit. By Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz / USA Today
The Denver Broncos are officially parting ways with Russell Wilson, bringing an unceremonious end to the quarterback’s tenure with the team just two years after the franchise made the seismic move to acquire the nine-time Pro Bowl selection.
The move will leave the Broncos with an NFL-record $85 million dead cap hit. Wilson, 35, was due to have his 2025 salary of $37 million become fully guaranteed on March 17. His 2024 salary of $39 million is already guaranteed. Read more
Meet Khaman Maluach, the 7-foot-2 NBA Draft prospect who wants to ‘change the game.’ By Joe Vardon / The Athletic
Khaman Maluach is a 7-foot-2 center who shoots 3s, dribbles between his legs, is unstoppable at the rim and a prolific shot blocker at age 17.
Over the last few weeks, Maluach (last name pronounced “Mah-lu-watch”), who lives in Senegal and joined NBA Academy Africa, has visited Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and UCLA. He is projected to be a high lottery pick in the 2025 draft — maybe even No. 1, because, again, he is about as tall as and can do many of the same things as Wembanyama. Read more
Related: The NBA is doomed with Spurs star Victor Wembanyama in the league. By Jack Simone / USA Today
Former NBA guard Allan Houston’s FISLL brand connects fathers, sons and Black history. By Joshua Heron / Andscape
As fans traversed certain NBA arenas and ended up in team stores, they were bound to come across apparel that includes a Black NBA logo, an Aug. 28, 1963, homage to the March on Washington, the embroidered word “DREAM,” and more details celebrating Black history.
The apparel was created and supplied by New York Knicks legendary guard Allan Houston and his FISLL brand’s Black History Collection. FISLL is a social impact brand that embraces five fundamental values — faith, integrity, sacrifice, leadership and legacy — and hopes to apply the principles through fashion, technology, sports, mentorship and community service to equip others to develop traits needed to make an impact. Read more
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