Race Inquiry Digest (March 18) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Featured – It’s Time to Attack White Nationalism for the Terror Group It Is. By Christopher Dickey / The Daily Beast

Tarrant may have been a lone shooter when he slaughtered 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday, but he was not a “lone wolf.” He was part of a much wider movement that is every bit as extensive as Al Qaeda was when it attacked the United States in 2001, and potentially much more dangerous to the future of Western democracies. Read more

White Nationalism Is an International Threat. By Patrick Strickland / The Nation

The Christchurch attacks point to a disturbing web reaching from the United States, to the United Kingdom, to Greece, and beyond. Read more

The Longer History of the Christchurch Attacks. By David C. Atkinson / The Nation

For over a century, the United States has played a role in inspiring and enabling white supremacy in Australia and New Zealand. Read more

The New Zealand Shooter’s Rhetoric Sounds Like Something You Might Hear In Congress. By Matt Fuller / HuffPost

When I read the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto, what struck me most were the similarities between his writings and some of the things I hear from members of Congress on immigration. So in the interest of a more introspective immigration debate, let’s look at some of the remarkable similarities between the shooter’s writings and these lawmakers’ words. Read more

Does anyone doubt that Donald Trump inspired the New Zealand massacre? By Chauncey DeVega / Salon

According to various reports, the alleged terrorist specifically cited President Trump as an inspiration. His online manifesto praises Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.” Read more

The Myth of White Meritocracy. By Linda Wiggins-Chavis / The Progressive

The recent college admissions cheating scandal involving parents accused of committing bribery and fraud to get their children into elite schools raises two issues: the myth of meritocracy for the privileged and the continued denigration of affirmative action for the less-privileged. Read more

Who “belongs” at elite universities? The raging hypocrisy of higher ed gatekeeping. By Rachel Leah / Salon

What the elite college admissions scam reveals about race, privilege and the fight against affirmative action. Read more

Martin Luther King or Lonnie King, we all have the power to change America. By Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick / USA Today

MLK set a daunting example, but local heroes can be role models, too. We lost one last week in Atlanta when another civil rights activist named King died. Read more

This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile. By Nicholas Kristof / NYT

In a homeless shelter in Manhattan, an 8-year-old boy is walking to his room, carrying an awkward load in his arms, unfazed by screams from a troubled resident. The boy is a Nigerian refugee with an uncertain future, but he is beaming. He can’t stop grinning because the awkward load is a huge trophy, almost as big as he is. This homeless third grader has just won his category at the New York State chess championship. Read more

In Some Major Cities Black DAs Have Arrived, But Will They Help Change the Criminal Justice System? By David Love / Atl Black Star

The vast majority of elected prosecutors in America are white, particularly white men, which stands as a barrier to equal justice and an engine of mass incarceration. A new generation of reform-minded Black district attorneys, state’s attorneys and county prosecutors emanating from the community has infiltrated the white-dominated field, charged with the task of changing a criminal justice system that has disproportionately impacted Black people. Read more

Ending HIV In Mississippi Means Cutting Through Racism, Poverty And Homophobia. By Ari Shapiro / NPR

Ending HIV transmission in America within the next decade — a stated goal of the Trump Administration — isn’t a question of coming up with new medication. The medicines to prevent and treat HIV infections already exist. But the road to eliminating HIV and AIDS runs through the deep South, where racism, poverty, and homophobia can be formidable obstacles to testing and treatment, particularly for black gay men. Read more

Atlanta’s Civil War Monument, Minus the Pro-Confederate Bunkum. By Daniel Judt / The Atlantic

Every city in the South, it seems, is trying to figure out what to do with its monuments. Richmond has kept its grand “Monument Avenue” lined with statues of Confederate luminaries. New Orleans took Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis down from their pedestals. In the city of Atlanta, whose leading Civil War monument is the enormous Atlanta Cyclorama, the strategy is novel: use history itself to strip a divisive object of its symbolic power. Read more

‘While Black’: New York City Commission on Human Rights Launches Campaign to Combat Anti-Black Racism. By Monique Judge / The Root

The impetus behind a new ad campaign the commission is launching Friday called “While Black,” which encourages people to file a report when they have been the victim of anti-black racism or discrimination—no matter how big or small. Read more

Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ scintillates and confounds at SXSW premiere. By Soraya Nadia McDonald / The Undefeated

Once again, Peele, who won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for Get Out, has left an audience scintillated, confounded and in need of hours of conversation + Googling to process his latest creation, which lands in theaters March 22. Read more

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