Featured
Whose Queen? Netflix and Egypt Spar Over an African Cleopatra. By Vivian Yee / NYT
Egyptians say the influential streaming service is dragging an ancient queen into a modern, and decidedly Western, debate — about Black representation in Hollywood — in which she has no real place. Shown is Adele James as Cleopatra.
Modern battles over Cleopatra’s heritage and skin color have erupted time after time, finding fresh fuel with each new Hollywood casting, from Elizabeth Taylor, who played her in 1963, to Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga and Gal Gadot, all recent contenders to portray her in various projects.
Netflix’s casting of Adele James, a biracial British actress, is a reflection of Western arguments over Black representation in Hollywood and whether history is too dominated by white narratives that revolve around European primacy.
But it stirred up a very different debate in Egypt, where many view identity and race through another lens. For many Egyptians, the question is whether Egyptians and their ancient ancestors — geographical location notwithstanding — are African. Read more
Related: Fear of a Black Cleopatra. By Gwen Nally and Mary Hamil Gilbert / NYT
Related: Martin Bernal revisits ‘Black Athena’ controversy in lecture. By Sam Warren / Cornell Chronicle
Related: Cheikh Anta Diop: The African Origin of Civilization Myth and Reality. By Raul Da Gama / JazzdaGama
Political / Social
Texas gunman fantasized over race wars on social media before mass killing. By Jack Douglas , Tim Craig, Alex Horton, Hannah Allam, and Brittany Shammas / Wash Post
The gunman who killed eight people at an outlet mall in suburban Dallas posted photographs of the shopping center three weeks before the attack on a social media account where he fantasized about race wars and the collapse of society.
The social media posts, the last of which went online Saturday shortly before he stormed into the shopping mall, included violent, hateful references that included singling out Asians with slurs. Mauricio Garcia, 33, also used his account on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social media platform, to reference “the noble war,” a phrase that many white supremacists use to describe their belief in an impending race war. Read more
Related: Timothy McVeigh’s Dreams Are Coming True. By Michelle Goldberg / NYT
A Gun-Filled America Is a World of Fear and Alienation. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
The frequency of mass shootings in the United States means there is a ritual, of sorts, associated with each occurrence. Republican politicians offer “thoughts and prayers,” Democratic politicians condemn those offering only “thoughts and prayers,” and their respective allies in the media trade barbs over gun control.
There are those who already live in a garrison state of sorts. For some Americans, it is a garrison of their own making: gated communities manned by armed guards. For others, it is more akin to a surveillance state, one of constant police presence and contact. Either way, it is a world of fear and alienation, where people live in a state of heightened awareness, even anxiety. It is not a world of trust or hope or solidarity or any of the values we need to make democracy work as a way of life, much less a system of government. Read more
Related: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Rips Republicans On Gun Violence: ‘A Suicide Pact.’ By Lee Moran / HuffPost
Why non-White people might advocate white supremacy. By Phillip Bump / Wash Post
Right-wing podcaster Nick Fuentes, at center right in sunglasses, greets supporters before speaking at a pro-Trump march in Washington on Nov. 14, 2020. Fuentes is known for “promoting white supremacy,” the Justice Department has said. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The Post has previously explored the ways in which non-White Americans at times ally with extremists who would seem to be their natural enemies. But the point can be made succinctly by considering two things: “White” is not as hard and fast a racial category as many assume, and “white supremacy” is about power as much as it is about race. Read more
Related: White Supremacists Don’t Have to Be White. Joan Walch / The Nation
Under the Radar, Right-Wing Push to Tighten Voting Laws Persists. Nick Corasaniti and
The first recent wave of legislation tightening voting laws came in 2021, when Donald J. Trump’s false claims of voter fraud spurred Republican lawmakers to act over loud objections from Democrats. Two years later, a second wave is steadily moving ahead, but largely under the radar.
Propelled by a new coalition of Trump allies, Republican-led legislatures have continued to pass significant restrictions on access to the ballot, including new limits to voting by mail in Ohio, a ban on ballot drop boxes in Arkansas and the shortening of early voting windows in Wyoming. Behind the efforts is a network of billionaire-backed advocacy groups that has formed a new hub of election advocacy within the Republican Party, rallying state activists, drafting model legislation and setting priorities. Read more
How Joe Biden should solve the Kamala Harris Conundrum. By Matt Bai / Wash Post
President Biden’s main vulnerability in a reelection campaign may not be his age. It’s not his lagging approval ratings or the slowing economy, either.
It’s the uncomfortable question of whether voters can get their heads around Biden’s vice president as a potential president — a question that is probably more pressing for Biden, who would be 82 if he takes the oath for a second time, than it has been for any nominee since Franklin D. Roosevelt sought a fourth term. So if I were giving Biden advice he surely doesn’t want, I’d tell him to steer into the storm rather than away from it, and run with Harris almost as if he expected her to take over. Read more
Related: Kamala Harris gets personal at White House Asian American heritage celebration. By
Senate panel asks Crow for full accounting of gifts to Thomas, other justices. By Liz Goodwin and Marianne LeVine / Wash Post
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats also asked for a list of guests who had access to Clarence Thomas during his luxury travels
Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and the committee’s 10 other Democrats signed on to the letter asking Crow to provide an itemized list of gifts worth more than $415 that he’s made to Thomas, any other justice or any justice’s family member, as well as a full list of lodging, transportation, real estate transactions and admission to any private clubs Crow may have provided. Read more
As Politicians Target Higher Ed’s Diversity Efforts, HBCU Students Worry About Their Campuses. By Kyla Hubbard / Chronicle of Higher Ed
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spearheaded a campaign this spring against higher ed’s efforts to create diverse and inclusive campuses, Florida A&M University students were among the most vocal critics.
As many students at historically Black colleges and universities see it, the recent actions of DeSantis and other Republican politicians across the country diminish the plight of Black Americans, which directly affects HBCUs. HBCU students who protested this semester said they aimed to send a message about what they saw as political attacks across the country on Black students and Black history. “We won’t stand for social injustices,” said Sydney Aitcheson, president of Florida A&M’s NAACP chapter. “We will march until victory is won.” Read more
Report: 600,000 Fewer Black Students Enrolled in US Colleges vs 20 Years Ago. By Brett Peveto / Public News Service
A recent report looking at Black enrollment in the nation’s colleges shows a stark downturn in recent years.
The Lumina Foundation’s Level Up report says that despite a steadily growing Black young adult population since 2000, over the last 20 years Black student enrolment in the nation’s colleges has declined by around 600,000, and 300,000 of those are students lost from the community college system. The report illustrates the more frequent financial and life challenges faced by Black students, including their being more likely to be caregivers to children or parents versus other students. Black learners are also more likely to be managing full-time jobs while attending school. Read more
Five things to know about a major new Pew poll of Asians in the U.S. By Joe Hernandez / NPR
The Pew Research Center has released a sweeping new survey of Asians in the U.S., the country’s fastest growing racial and ethnic group in recent years.
The first-of-its-kind poll of about 7,000 adults was conducted in English and five other languages and sheds new light on how Asians — both immigrants as well as those born in the U.S. — see themselves and others. The report put a particular focus on the six largest Asian subgroups — Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese — which together account for roughly four in five Asians across the country. Here are a few takeaways from Pew’s survey: Read more
For Black Americans, the pandemic spike in fentanyl deaths was decades in the making. By Krista Mahr / Politico
White House officials for years warned that opioids were becoming rampant in Black communities. Then came Covid-19.
In 2020, the rate of drug overdose deaths among Black Americans skyrocketed, increasing faster than that of any other racial or ethnic group in the country. Fentanyl, which had become more ubiquitous, drove the rising toll. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing that more Black Americans died from fentanyl overdoses than from any other drug in 2021 and at far higher rates than whites or Hispanics. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Christian Faith Was Jackie Robinson’s Haven in a Heartless World. By Clayton Trutor / Christianity Today
A new biography offers an intimate account of his spiritual life, on and off the baseball field.
Historian Gary Scott Smith has built onto the wing of the Jackie Robinson library that Henry, Long, and Lamb started to erect a few short years ago. In Strength for the Fight, part of Eerdmans’s Library of Religious Biography series, Smith offers a more intimate account of Robinson’s spiritual life than was previously known. Rooted in previous books on his subject, Smith’s book is both a work of synthesis and a triumph of original research that casts a distinct analytical eye on Robinson’s religious life. Read more
‘Morning Joe’ Says the ‘Bill Will Come Due’ for Evangelicals Who Support Donald Trump (Video) / The Wrap
“The bill will come due for a church that embraces Christian nationalism, and embraces a guy who says it may be a good thing that stars can rape women in 2023,” Scarborough said during a panel discussion titled, “Why Do Evangelicals Continue to Stand Behind Trump?”
Scarborough, while recalling his own Christian upbringing in various Baptist churches in Mississippi, added, “This foray into politics has been devastating for evangelicals,” as, he said, more and more young people avoid many churches’ increasingly conservative stance. Read and watch here
The Texas legislature explores new frontiers of Christian nationalism. By Paul Waldman / Wash Post
As everyone knows, there is no more effective way to shape the behavior of young people than through state-mandated posters on their classroom walls. At least that’s what Republicans in the Texas legislature seem to believe, which is why they’re advancing a bill requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state.
Texas is growing more purple with each passing year, which is exactly why the Republican-dominated legislature is reasserting the right’s political and cultural power with ever more radically conservative laws. Part of that effort is a series of bills meant to impose not just religion but Christianity into public schools. Read more
Why Habitat for Humanity’s theology of the hammer offers hope in polarized times. By Bob Smietana / RNS
For nearly five decades, Habitat for Humanity has inspired people from different backgrounds — who often can’t agree on anything — to work together for their neighbors’ benefit.
For nearly five decades, those ideas — which Habitat’s founder referred to as the “theology of the hammer” — have helped Habitat grow from its humble beginnings at a Christian commune in Georgia into a worldwide housing nonprofit that’s helped more than 46 million people around the world find a place to call home. “When you step onto the Habitat build site and someone puts a paintbrush or a hammer or a saw in your hand, no one asks, ‘Who did you vote for?’” said Roberts. “No one asks, ‘Where did you go to church or did you go at all?’” Read more
Historical / Cultural
The Revolutionary Language of Black Abolitionists. By Frank Kalisik / AAIHS
Lee, R., photographer. Photo engraver of the Chicago Defender, Chicago, Illinois, 1941 (LOC)
In the summer of 1854, a group of free Black men and women from across the United States met in Cleveland, Ohio, to discuss their future of living in the country divided between half slave and half free states. Between the 24th and 26th of August, members at the National Emigration Convention of Colored People argued that Black people would be better suited to live in Canada where the legal system was (perceived to be) much more hospitable to them, and men and women could afford to purchase land and become members of a community without facing the hostility they faced settling as free people in America. Read more
A Philosopher and a Slaver, but No Longer a Name on a Library. By Ed O’Loughlin / NYT
No one disputes that George Berkeley was among Ireland’s greatest thinkers, but he was also an unapologetic slaver. Now, Trinity College Dublin is taking his name off one of its buildings.
Trinity College Dublin has decided to seek a new name for its central library, the Berkeley, after concluding that the alumnus it honors, the 18th-century philosopher George Berkeley, owned slaves in colonial Rhode Island and wrote pamphlets supportive of slavery. The University of California, Berkeley, was also named for the philosopher. Read more
Related: Army base drops Confederate’s name, honors pioneering Hispanic general. By Andrew Jeong / Wash Post
What Martin Luther King, Jr.,’s New Biographer Reveals. By Kelefa Sanneh / The New Yorker
We revere the man and revile the strategy, but King knew what he was doing.
The latest is “King: A Life” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), by Jonathan Eig, whose previous book was a biography of Muhammad Ali. Eig wants to give readers an alternative to the “defanged” version of King that endures in inspirational quotes. Eig’s new sources include the latest batch of files released by the F.B.I., which was surveilling King even more closely than he suspected; notes from Reddick; and remembrances from King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, who recorded her thoughts in the time after his killing. “The portrait that emerges here may trouble some people,” Eig writes. Read more
CORE and the Early Civil Rights Movement in Los Angeles. By M. Keith Claybrook Jr. / AAIHS
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)was founded in the spring of 1942 in Chicago by James Farmer along with a racially diverse group of liberals, pacifists, socialists, and religious groups, most of whom were college students.
From its origin and expansion throughout the country, CORE was committed to interracialism and nonviolent direct action. With branches from Brooklyn to Seattle, CORE was a major organization in the struggle for civil rights and racial justice in the mid-twentieth century. By 1947, CORE had affiliates in nearly two dozen cities around the United States, including Los Angeles. Through numerous actions and collaborations, Los Angeles CORE played an important part in the early phase of the Civil Rights Movement. Read more
Survivors say Buffalo’s history of segregation and racial tensions linked to Tops shooting. By Bill Hutchinson, Alysha Webb, and Jade Lawson / ABC News
“It was going to happen,” said former city councilman Charley Fisher III.
Advocates for the east side say Buffalo’s history of racial tensions and pronounced segregation provided the killer a roadmap to carry out the massacre, further wounding a community that has been reeling from decades of neglect and exposing underlying inequalities. A 2019 University of California, Berkeley, study ranked Buffalo the 17th most segregated city in America. About 85% of its Black population live on the east side, according to a 2018 study by the Partnership for the Public Good, a Buffalo think tank. And the Tops shooting came amid a nationwide rise in concerns about white supremacy. Read more
Another Side of W.E.B. Du Bois | The Nation. By Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins / The Nation
Du Bois is principally known for his domestic activism and his works addressing racial inequality in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois, 1958. (Photo by David Attie/Getty Images)
But his criticism of racial inequality at home was always rooted in the international realities of European and US economic imperialism. Indeed, a recent collection of Du Bois’s writings, edited by Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts, shows him to be an essential thinker of international relations. W.E.B. Du Bois: International Thought consists of 24 of his essays and speeches on international themes, spanning the years from 1900 to 1956. Read more
Amazing base: A singer wed in a D.C. ballpark, and 19,000 paid to attend. By Terence McArdle / Wash Post
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, shown during an impromptu 1957 performance at London Airport, needed a boost after her gospel records’ sales declined. (AP)
Sports
Muhammad Ali won a title fight in Maryland. Then he went to prom. By Nicole Asbury / Wash Post
World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali keeps challenger Jimmy Young up against the ropes during their championship fight at Landover, Md., on April 30, 1976. The following night, Ali surprised hundreds of teens attending prom in Prince George’s County. (AP) (Associated Press)
It was May 1, 1976, long before such a celebrity appearance might make the rounds on social media. Few people took pictures of Ali, and no newspapers documented the visit at the time. But earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Prince George’s police department happened to see photos from the prom in the house of a former Parkdale High School teacher and began sharing the tale. Read more
‘It is almost like being with Michael Jordan’: Tom Joyner has gone from radio icon to Miami Heat fan. By Marc J. Spears / Andscape
From left to right: Former NBA player Jamal Mashburn, former national radio host Tom Joyner and sports commentator Reggie Miller attend Game 4 in the first-round series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat at the Kaseya Center on April 24 in Miami.
From singer Gloria Estefan to rapper DJ Khalid to boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. to musician Jimmy Buffet, the Miami Heat always have celebrities sitting courtside. There is, however, one particular celebrity fan that longtime Heat big man Udonis Haslem pays his respect to before home games. For Haslem, the mere sight of him evokes fond memories of his late mother and father. Haslem calls the man Mr. Joyner. The world knows him as Tom “The Fly Jock” Joyner, who is also a Heat season-ticket holder. Read more
How Racist Car Dealers KO’d Joe Louis. By Silke-Maria Weineck / The Nation
A never-before-published tranche of letters reveals the white-collar racism that prevented the world’s most popular athlete from selling Fords.
It’s 1948, and Joe Louis is ready to quit boxing. He has been heavyweight champion for more than a decade, longer than any fighter before him. After carrying a near-messianic burden, he gets in touch with Henry Ford II himself to see if he can open a car dealership in Chicago. But a document in a folder archived in the Benson Ford Research Center sums up the reasons why it didn’t work out: Read more
Vida Blue, who won 3 World Championships with the Athletics, dies at 73. By Ayana Archie / NPR
Vida Blue, a left-handed pitcher who helped lead the Oakland Athletics to three World Series championships in a row from 1972 to 1974 and made six All-Star teams, died Saturday at age 73, according to his family and Major League Baseball.
Blue was picked in the second round of the 1967 Major League Baseball draft, and made his major league debut at the age of 19 in 1969. In his first two seasons, Blue played 18 games, but found his spark in 1970 when he threw a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals, becoming the youngest player to do so since the Live Ball Era began in 1920, according to MLB. Read more
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