Featured
Trump Recasts Mission of Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Office, Prompting ‘Exodus.’ By Devlin Barrett / NYT
Hundreds of lawyers and other staff members are leaving the Justice Department’s civil rights division, as veterans of the office say they have been driven out by Trump administration officials who want to drop its traditional work in order to aggressively pursue cases against the Ivy League, other schools and liberal cities.
“With the reckless dismantling of the division,” said Stacey Young, who once worked in the division as a lawyer, “we’ll see unchecked discrimination and constitutional violations in schools, housing, employment, voting, prisons, by police departments and in many other realms of our daily lives.”
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Political / Social
How Does a Stymied Autocrat Deal With Defeat? By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
The window of opportunity that allowed President Trump to overwhelm his adversaries with an onslaught of executive orders dismantling core American institutions is closing.
Public opinion has turned against him, the economy is faltering, the Supreme Court has ordered him to stand down, his tariffs have backfired, and such conservative mainstays as National Review and The Wall Street Journal are questioning his judgment. How does a stymied autocrat deal with defeat? As the opposition gains strength, frustrating the nation’s commander in chief, how will Trump respond? Read more
Related: The First 100 Days of Self-Dealing Trump’s Thugocracy. By Sasha Abransky / The Nation
Black Americans have suffered the most during Trump’s first 100 days in office, say critics. By Gerren Keith Gaynor / The Grio (Image The Guardian)
The actions of the Trump administration will result in “disastrous and disparate impact on African Americans,” warned NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
On his first day back in the White House on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs — which his administration calls “illegal and immoral discrimination” — throughout the federal government. The administration has also eliminated or defanged offices and programs intended to address historical inequities impacting Black and Brown communities. Read more
Related: Trump’s plan for Black Americans was mostly bait and switch. By Theodore R. Johnson / Wash Post
Black And Latino Shoppers Continue To Boycott Target — And It Might Be Working. Here’s Why. By Monica Torres / HuffPost
After Donald Trump got re-elected, Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, said in January that it would end the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals it had made to hire and promote more women and people of color, as well as to recruit more diverse suppliers to stay “in step with the evolving external landscape,” according to a company memo sent to employees.
Until Target changes its DEI policies, boycotts like these will continue. “The Black community is serious about this boycott, and it’s going to continue. We’re building a Black-brown coalition as we go,” Turner said. Read more
Related: “When Are More Americans Going to Speak Up?” By David Remnick / The New Yorker
Trump’s War on Higher Education Isn’t Just About Crushing Dissent. By Indigo Olivier / The New Republic
The administration’s assault on colleges and universities is a key part of a larger right-wing project to reassert control over gatekeeping institutions.
As the GOP escalates its crackdown on student protesters in the wake of the Gaza solidarity movement, a familiar pattern is reasserting itself in American politics. Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, Republicans are resurrecting an old ideological project. The goal is twofold: to restrict who gets education, and to control what they learn once they get there. What’s unfolding is not just a moral panic over campus protests but a structural power grab: The ultimate aim is not merely to silence dissent but to fundamentally remake higher education. Read more
Related: Demystifying College Accreditors, Trump’s Latest Higher Education Target. By Emma Whitford / Forbes
As a diversity grant dies, young scientists fear it will haunt their careers. By Brett Kelman / NPR
The MOSAIC program — short for “Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers” — was created in 2019 (during the first Trump Administration) to provide early-career support to promising scientists from “underrepresented backgrounds” with a long-term goal to “enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce,” according to NIH grant documents.
In recent weeks the NIH has notified most MOSAIC recipients that the program was “terminated” and their funding will end by this summer, regardless of the years left on their grant. Read more
World News
South Africa Says Israel ‘Acts With Impunity’ In Gaza As U.N. Court Hearing Kicks Off. By Sanjana Karanth / HuffPost
The U.N.’s top court is hearing arguments about whether Israel has violated international law by blocking starving Palestinians from receiving aid. A Palestinian flag flies outside the International Court of Justice.
“Under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories are being subjected to atrocity crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide,” South Africa representative Zane Dangor said. “While we watch, the gaze of Palestinians is directed squarely at the international community and this court, whose advice is urgently being sought for the protection of the most fundamental rights, including the right to life.” Read more
China says it won’t ‘kneel’ to U.S., urges countries to resist bullying. By Katrina Northrop and Lyric Li / Wash Post
As the trade war between the two economic giants continues, Beijing declared that “bowing to a bully is like drinking poison to quench a thirst.”
Though China exempted some U.S.-made goods, including semiconductors, from its retaliatory 125 percent tariffs last week, Chinese officials have repeatedly rejected the administration’s claim that tariff negotiations are taking place or that Trump and Xi have spoken on the phone. Read more
Why Trump Is Giving Putin Everything He Wants. By Robert Kagan / The Atlantic
If the U.S. president holds all the cards, why hasn’t he won any concessions from Russia?
If Putin is weak and desperate, and Trump holds all the cards, why is Putin getting everything he wants and giving up nothing in return? The answer tells us something about Trump, but more important, it gives us an insight into the nature of the new era we have entered in international affairs. Read more
Haitians who fled mass violence await judge’s decision on Trump’s deportation order. By and
Thousands of people who fled Haiti could be forced back to a country dealing with vast gang violence and political turmoil if a judge clears the runway for the Trump administration to end a Biden-era immigration program.
Kevinson Jean, 28, said receiving a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informing him that he needed to self-deport was terrifying. “I didn’t know what to do. It felt like a nightmare,” he said. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Pope Francis’s Lesson of Love and Peace. By Kathy Kelly / The Progressive Magazine
In 2022, Pope Francis created a will expressing his desire that just one word be inscribed on the stone marking his burial place: Franciscus.
As the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis unified people of different generations. He encouraged genuine love for humans—“Todo, todo, todo.” Or, as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal physician, the late beloved Chicagoan Dr. Quentin Young would often say, “Everybody in, nobody out.” Read more
Rev. William Barber arrested in Capitol Rotunda after praying against Republican-led budget. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
While arrests of protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic: After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press.
The arrests occurred roughly 15 minutes after Barber, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, started praying in the Rotunda as dozens of police stood nearby, some prepared with plastic handcuffs. The three took turns praying, lamenting potential budget cuts to social safety-net programs such as Medicaid, often chanting together: “Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy. Read more
The Supreme Court Will Decide If Taxpayers Have To Fund Religious Schools. By
Oklahoma State Charter School Board v. Drummond is the latest in a string of so-called “religious freedom” cases that have gone before the Supreme Court in recent years.
In June 2023, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to allow the state’s Catholic church to open an online public charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond blasted the decision, in a break with the Republican Party. “The approval of any publicly funded religious school is contrary to Oklahoma law and not in the best interest of taxpayers,” he said in a statement. “It’s extremely disappointing that board members violated their oath in order to fund religious schools with our tax dollars.” Read more
Bishop T.D. Jakes steps down from megachurch Potter’s House. By Julia Gomez and Jonathan Limehouse / USA Today
Bishop T.D. Jakes announced he will be stepping down and handing leadership of the Potter’s House Church, a nondenominational Christian church, to his daughter and her husband.
“This is legacy,” Jakes said. “Not because they’re kin, but because they’re the kind. They’ve immersed themselves into the DNA of this church for years.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
Today Is Confederate Memorial Day And These States Are Still Proud Losers. By Sharelle Burt / Black Enterprise
Did you know April 26 is Confederate Memorial Day? If not, pay attention to some of the states that still celebrate the holiday honoring Confederate soldiers, Savannah Morning News reported.
In Alabama, Confederate Memorial Day is recognized on April 28. States like South Carolina celebrate on May 9 and in Texas, the celebration is known as Confederate Heroes’ Day on January 19. Read more
I wrote the book on Hitler’s first 100 days. Here’s how Trump’s compare. By Peter Fritzche / Forward
Crucially, Trump hasn’t matched Hitler’s efficacy
In the example of Hitler’s first 100 days in power — about which I published a book in 2020 — is an unsettling lesson for the contemporary United States, where President Donald Trump has employed many of the same moves as Hitler in working to swiftly consolidate power in the early months of his second term. Read more
5 Race Riots In America That You Were Never Taught In School. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
Countless riots—tragic and often ignored—have unfolded throughout American history, remaining absent from most textbooks and classrooms. Here are five you may not have learned about in school. Scene from Chicago Race Riot, 1919.
When we think of race riots in American history, the 1919 Chicago Race Riots or the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising often come to mind. But there are many other riots that have occurred—devastating, overlooked events—that have been left out of most history books. These weren’t just isolated outbursts of violence; they were explosions of racial tension fueled by systemic injustice, fear, and hatred. Here are five race riots you likely never learned about in school, but should have. Read more
Trump’s attack on diversity takes center stage as Boston remembers 1965 Freedom Rally led by MLK. By Michael Casey / ABC News
Sixty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a rally protesting housing discrimination and segregated schools in Boston, thousands of people are expected to gather at the same site to honor and reflect on the historic event
As a Black teenager growing up in Boston, Wayne Lucas vividly remembers joining some 20,000 people to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak out against the city’s segregated school system and the entrenched poverty in poor communities. Sixty years on, Lucas will be back on the Boston Common on Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of what became known as the 1965 Freedom Rally. Read more
Duke Ellington And The Harlem Renaissance. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
Jazz icon Duke Ellington was a key figure during The Harlem Renaissance movement. Here’s what we know about his legendary life.
April 29 marks the birthday of jazz pioneer and Harlem Renaissance icon, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1899, Ellington turned his passion for music into a remarkable career as a band leader, a composer and as the revered pioneer of big band jazz. Read more
The Symbolism in ‘Sinners.’ By Maya Phillips / NYT
Beneath the spectacle of an action-packed vampire movie, the film has plenty to say about what is sacred and what is profane. Michael B. Jordan plays the twins Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.”
Ryan Coogler’s fantastical new Black horror film, “Sinners,” is a critical smash, a box office hit. But the director’s latest collaboration with the actor Michael B. Jordan has also left viewers with plenty to unpack. “Sinners” is a work that’s interested in moral dichotomies. There are monsters and victims, of course — it’s a vampire movie. But when the film’s characters, objects and themes are examined through the lens of its political subtext, quite a bit is revealed about how “Sinners” defines good and evil in this supernatural version of the Jim Crow South. Read more
Sports
NFL is Shedeur Sanders’ first major hill to climb. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Passed over until the fifth round of NFL draft, quarterback now faces one of greatest challenges of his athletic career
This is not a situation I had anticipated, nor was it the subject of a column I expected to write. The answer? Who knows? Perhaps young Sanders is being humbled by powers that be who do not like his swagger. On the other hand, perhaps he simply is not the great prospect many of us thought he was. Read more
Related: Shedeur Sanders, White Fragility, And The NFL Draft. By Stephen A. Crockett Jr. / Newsone
Gabby Thomas Vents Frustrations About Racial Discrimination After Track and Field Star Trolled Over Color. By Tajamul Islam / Essentially
Gabby Thomas isn’t just a name you hear on the track—she’s a force of nature. A Harvard graduate and an Olympic champion, Thomas has spent her career shattering records and breaking barriers, both in sports and beyond.
But Thomas isn’t just about speed—she’s a trailblazer who’s advocated for equity, from volunteering at health clinics in Texas during the pandemic to pushing for women’s rights in track and field. Her resume speaks volumes, but it’s her voice that’s currently making waves off the track. What happens when a champion like Thomas faces the harsh glare of online hate? Read more
Eagles Legend Sends Clear Message to Jalen Hurts After Eagles QB Missed the White House Visit. By Gourab Saha / Essentially Sports
Locker rooms thrive on unity, but his absence forces teammates to reconcile personal beliefs with team identity.
Barkley, who attended the event, faced backlash but countered. “Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand,” Barkley. Meanwhile, Hurts’ quiet defiance echoes icons like Muhammad Ali—a comparison Jenkins reinforced by quoting Bill Russell: “He is better equipped than anyone I know to withstand the trials in store for him. What I’m worried about is the rest of us.” Read more
Shannon Sharpe is Just Not That Smart. By Lawrence Ware / The Root
Everyone is thinking it…it’s time we admit it once and for all.
Now, an older man dating a younger woman is a tale old as time. Sean “Diddy” Combs started dating Cassie when she was 19 and he was 36. Eddie Murphy, the father of 11 children, has a wife 19 years his junior. Dating a younger woman is not the issue. The problem with Sharpe’s choice in a sexual partner is that she was 19 when he was 54. Even Leonardo DiCaprio would disapprove of a 35-year age difference. That’s just not smart. Read more
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