Featured
They Were Waiting for Trump All Along. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Of the endless torrent of illegal, unconstitutional — and anti-constitutional — actions flowing from the Trump administration, there are three that stand out for their contempt for the rule of law.
There is the president’s ongoing assault on the right to due process, seen in his administration’s refusal to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The second incident is the suggestion, by the White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that the president might suspend habeas corpus to keep federal courts from releasing the administration’s detainees. The last, and by comparison relatively minor, instance of constitutional subversion by this administration is the president’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury aircraft to temporarily replace Air Force One, provided to the United States by the royal family of Qatar.
Whether you think this moment is continuous with our past, or a break from it, one thing we can say for sure is that conservative support for this type of governance is not an aberration. There is no “Trumpified” conservative movement. There never was. There is only the conservative movement that was, we can see now, waiting for its Donald Trump. Read more
Political / Social
We Study Fascism. And We’re Leaving the U.S. Marci ShoreTimothy Snyder and
Legal residents of the United States sent to foreign prisons without due process. Students detained after voicing their opinions. Federal judges threatened with impeachment for ruling against the administration’s priorities.
In the Opinion video above, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, all professors at Yale and experts in authoritarianism, explain why America is especially vulnerable to a democratic backsliding — and why they are leaving the United States to take up positions at the University of Toronto.re Read more and listen here
Related: Stephen Miller came prepared for war — and he won’t back down. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
Related: My Brush With Trump’s Thought Police.
The majority of employers think Trump’s DEI and immigration policies are creating ‘significant challenges’ for their business. By Sara Braun / Fortune
President Trump has only been in office for a little more than 100 days, but his policy changes have already had widespread consequences for workplaces across the country, as businesses anticipate newfound challenges.
Nearly 85% of employers believe that the federal changes to DEI policy will have an impact on their business during the first year of the Trump administration, according to a new survey from Littler, the largest global employment and labor law firm, which surveyed around 350 legal and HR leaders across various industries. And around 75% of employers said that they had concerns about the business and legal impacts of immigration policy changes. Read more
Related: C.I.A. Rejects Diversity Efforts Once Deemed as Essential to Its Mission. Julian E. Barnes / NYT
“Almost a Gestapo nation”: When ICE seized the mayor, his city showed up. By Bob Hennelly / Salon
Masked, armed federal agents arrested the mayor of Newark for doing his job — and citizens said no
Last Friday, federal immigration police seized Ras Baraka, the mayor of this city, off a public street outside Delaney Hall, a controversial private prison operated by the GEO Corporation, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. This for-profit, publicly traded, multinational employs 18,000 people at over 50 sites here and abroad. The chaotic scene, captured on bystander video, shows three Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rep. LaMonica McIver and Rep. Robert Menendez Jr., encircling Baraka outside the GEO perimeter in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent his being taken inside by the armed, masked agents. Read more
Trump Replaces First Black Librarian of Congress With His Idiot Lawyer. By Malcolm Ferguson / TNR
The Justice Department on Monday announced that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead defense lawyer in his Stormy Daniels hush-money case, will be acting librarian of Congress. Blanche will replace Dr. Carla Hayden, who held the position since 2016 until she was fired on Friday.
Justice Dept. investigating N.Y. attorney general who has targeted Trump. By Shayna Jacobs , Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein / Wash Post
Letitia James’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as the Trump administration’s “latest act of improper political retribution.”
Rodney Hinton Jr. And The Trauma Of Black Grief In America. Tiffany Hamilton / Newsone
The case of Rodney Hinton Jr. is a stark reminder that trauma, especially racial trauma, is cumulative. It builds, silently, beneath the surface until it explodes.
Rodney Hinton is not a monster. He’s a father. A man. A human being who, on May 1, watched the bodycam footage of Cincinnati police officers killing his 18-year-old son, Ryan Hinton. Less than 24 hours later, Hinton was accused of using his vehicle to kill Deputy Larry Henderson in what prosecutors are calling a “targeted attack.” But to simply label this as a calculated act of violence is to ignore the gaping emotional wound behind it—and the systemic rot that helped inflict it. Read more
Democrats pull off an upset in Nebraska, electing Omaha’s first Black mayor. By Maeve Reston / Wash Post
Voters denied Republican Mayor Jean Stothert a fourth term in a race overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington — the latest test of attitudes in a political battleground.
John Ewing Jr. was elected Omaha’s first Black mayor on Tuesday, defeating the city’s three-term Republican mayor, Jean Stothert, in a race where Democrats sought to tie her to President Donald Trump’s unpopular agenda — another warning sign for Republicans in a critical battleground area. Read more
Education
Trump Is Destroying DEI With the Same Tools That Built It. The Pendulum Has Swung Away From Social Justice. By Noliwe M. Rooks / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Back in the mid-1960s to the 1970s, institutions of higher education were dragged — sometimes willingly, more often not — into the unfinished project of removing the structural barriers keeping Black and other minority students off their campuses and out of their classrooms.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, once used to dismantle segregation, opened investigations into colleges suspected of discriminating against white and Asian applicants through affirmative-action policies. The Department of Education rescinded Obama-era guidance encouraging colleges to pursue diversity in admissions. Title VI, once a tool to wedge open doors, is now a weapon formed to challenge diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as discriminatory and unlawful. Read more
Related: Trump’s DEI Policies Threaten Scholarships For Black Medical Students. By Black Information Network
Harvard president decries ‘unlawful’ Trump actions in letter to McMahon. By Lexi Lonas Cochran / The Hill
Harvard University President Alan Garber sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Monday decrying the actions of the Trump administration against his school while stressing areas of concern shared by both sides.
“We share common ground on a number of critical issues, including the importance of ending antisemitism and other bigotry on campus,” Garber said in his letter, adding Harvard “should embrace a multiplicity of viewpoints rather than focusing our attention on narrow orthodoxies.” Read more
Related: Faculty Hiring Is Under Federal Scrutiny at Harvard. By Emma Pettit / The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Morehouse College Names New President as H.B.C.U.s Size Up Trump’s Plans. Alan Blinder / NYT
Morehouse College, the storied Atlanta school, named F. DuBois Bowman as its next president on Tuesday, as historically Black colleges grapple with the Trump administration’s intentions for campuses nationwide.
Dr. Bowman, who will start on July 15, has been dean of the University of Michigan’s public health school since 2018. He is poised to assume Morehouse’s helm at a fraught moment in higher education, as President Trump seeks to upend academic life and stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that had become common on campuses. Read more
Related: Marcus Thompson resigns as Jackson State University President. By Mary Boyte / Clarion Ledger
House Republicans propose $5 billion for private school vouchers. By Moriah Ballingit / ABC News
House Republicans want to set aside up to $5 billion a year for scholarships to help families send their children to private and religious schools, marking an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education
The proposal, part of a budget reconciliation bill released Monday, would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school. Nearly all households would qualify except those making more than three times the local median income. Read more
World
Inside the Extraordinary Contradictions in Trump’s Immigration Policies. Hamed Aleaziz and Michael Crowley / NYT
The Trump administration carved out an exception to its refugee ban for white South Africans. But other groups, including Afghans who helped U.S. forces during the war in their country, are being shut out. Shown is Stephen Miller architect of the policy.
On the same day that dozens of white South Africans arrived in the United States as refugees, at the invitation of President Trump himself, his administration said thousands of Afghans could be deported starting this summer. Mr. Trump’s immigration policies are riddled with contradictions, epitomized by Monday’s arrival of a chartered jet, paid for by the American government, carrying dozens of Afrikaners who say they are facing racial discrimination at home. Read more
Related: Trump Tries to put White Immigrants at the Head of the Line. By William Spivey / Level
“We Will Not Emigrate”: Palestinians Refuse to Be Expelled as U.N. Group Warns of “Another Nakba.” By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
A United Nations special committee has warned the world could be witnessing “another Nakba” as Israel moves to forcibly displace Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Despite the ongoing attacks, Palestinians in Gaza say they refuse to leave their homes.
Mohammed Badr: “We will not emigrate from Gaza, no matter how difficult the circumstances. Even if there’s killings, even if there’s bombings, if there’s no medicine, no food, nothing to drink, no clothing and no shelter, we are not leaving the Gaza Strip. If they are betting on our departure, no. The world might vanish, leave. The fish might migrate from the sea. But we will not emigrate.” Read more
Trump’s China ‘Deal’ Is Bad Economics and Bad for Democracy. By Matt Johnson / The Bulwark
It will leave us with higher prices, less trade, and a too-powerful executive branch.
ON MONDAY, U.S. AND CHINESE NEGOTIATORS agreed to drastically reduce tariffs in an effort to end the destructive trade war President Donald Trump started earlier this year. Chinese tariffs on American goods will fall from 125 percent to 10 percent, while U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will be reduced from 145 percent to 30 percent. The agreement has sent global stocks soaring, and MAGA is taking a victory lap. Read more
Related: This Is the Trade Conflict Xi Jinping Has Been Waiting For. David Pierson / NYT
The U.S. needs a plan to stop Haiti’s free fall. By the Editorial Board / Wash Post
Revoking protections for migrants and cutting aid does nothing to resolve the chaos on America’s doorstep.
The crisis in Haiti is worsening by the day, pushing the Western Hemisphere’s poorest, most unfortunate country to the brink of collapse. In just the first three months of this year, more than 1,600 people have been killed in gang-related violence. More than 1 million people have been displaced. Women and girls especially are left vulnerable to sexual violence. Gangs control around 85 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Town after town is falling under the control of gangs, which conduct prison raids to free inmates and bolster their ranks. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Nationalism In Christianity: Plurality Versus Supremacy. By Henry Karlson / Patheos
Thus, there are two major forms of nationalism Christians have embraced throughout history.
The first kind embraces the plurality of nationalities in the world, looking to promote the unique cultural expressions which emerge from those nationalities, working to bring them together in a harmonious unity in diversity which does not look for ways to promote one as being superior to others. The other engages nationalistic divisions and looks at them in a hierarchical viewpoint, believing some nations and nationalities are superior to others, with one (or a few) deemed as the best and should hold power and authority over the rest. Read more
Author Judith Weisenfeld unpacks historic links between religion, race and psychiatry. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
Princeton University scholar Judith Weisenfeld has long studied the role of religion and race in America — but it wasn’t until recently that she discovered their historical and troubling intersection with psychiatry.
Her new book, “Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake” declares this finding: “there was no other group in American mental hospitals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for which attribution of mental illnesses to religious causes was as prominent as for African Americans.” Read more
Episcopal Church won’t resettle white Afrikaners, ends work with U.S. government. By Jack Jenkins / NPR
In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Trump’s administration.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe wrote. “Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
This Week in ‘Nation’ History: Pardoning the Scottsboro Boys, Eighty Years Too Late.
The Nation immediately recognized Scottsboro as a vital front in the battle for civil rights. The Scottsboro boys dancing and singing in an Alabama prison in 1937. (AP Photo)
Eighty-two years after being pulled off a Memphis-bound freight train, accused of raping two white women, threatened with lynching and subjected to years of blatant miscarriages of justice, the three Scottsboro Boys who had not yet been acquitted or pardoned were cleared by the state of Alabama on November 21. “Today is a reminder that it is never too late to right a wrong,” said State Senator Arthur Orr, who sponsored a bill to create a legal framework for the pardon. But however important as a symbolic gesture, the overdue action only underscored the fact that justice delayed is by definition justice denied: Clarence Norris, the last of the Scottsboro Boys, died in 1989. Read more
Leadership Issues At National Museum Of African American History Point Of Public Concern. By Christopher Smith / Newsone
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., is experiencing one of its most turbulent periods in its nearly nine years of existence and is currently without leadership after its executive director stepped down.
The institution’s recent targeting by President Donald Trump over what his administration deems are “divisive” exhibits has raised concerns among advocates and observers. “Our opponents are trying to erase Black history, Black voices and Black lives,” said African American Policy Forum executive director Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in an interview. Read more
What Diddy’s Trial Means for the Music Industry. by
As the court case begins, some say hip-hop is facing its long-delayed #MeToo moment.
Combs’ conduct and how he wielded his power is the focal point of the trial, where he faces sex trafficking, racketeering, and other charges in connection with a series of elaborate parties known as “freak-offs” in which the authorities say women were coerced into participating in sexual encounters with Combs and others. Read more
Related: Here’s What To Know About Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Sex Trafficking Trial. By / HuffPost
Smokey Robinson’s Lawyer Calls Sexual Assault Claims ‘Vile’ and ‘False.’ Matt Stevens / NYT
Four women have accused the Motown legend of sexually assaulting them while they worked as housekeepers.
A lawyer for Smokey Robinson said late Wednesday that the sexual assault allegations against the Motown singer were “vile” and “false” and that a lawsuit filed by the four women making the accusations was an attempt to extract millions of dollars from him. The women worked as Mr. Robinson’s housekeepers, and their lawsuit accuses him of abusing them dozens of times. Read more
John Legend Says Ex-Friend Kanye West’s ‘Descent’ Into ‘Antisemitism’ And ‘Anti-Blackness’ Is ‘Shocking.’ By Jasmin Tolliver / HuffPost
John Legend says it was “shocking” to see the public “descent” of his ex-friend and former business associate Kanye West after he went from musical genius to a controversial figure.
“Back then Kanye was very passionate, very gifted, and he had big dreams not only for himself but also for all the people around him,” the EGOT winner recalled of working with West in a new interview with The Times. Read more
‘Paris Here I Come!’ Dodai Stewart / NYT
In 1953, Ollie Stewart, a correspondent for The Afro-American newspaper, wrote a guidebook to the French capital aimed at Black travelers. Nearly 75 years later, his grandniece follows in his footsteps. Ollie Stewart in 1943, when he was covering the Second World War for the Afro-American newspaper, interviewing Lt. Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., of the Tuskegee Airmen.
After the war, instead of returning home to the Jim Crow South, he stayed in Paris, where I met him for the first and only time in 1976. I was a small child, traveling with my parents, and I remember just fragments of visiting Uncle Ollie’s tiny apartment: his cigarette smoke, his piles of books and papers, his hulking black typewriter, his wrinkled grin. Read more
Sports
NFL Plans to Double Down on Coaching Diversity Program With Improvements in Mind. By Patrick Andres / SI
A lack of diversity in the NFL’s coaching ranks is an ancient problem—one that persisted long after large-scale integration came to the league’s player pool. The Rooney Rule, the league’s signature coaching diversity initiative, was created in 2002, at which time the league had only ever had seven minority head coaches. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
Earlier this decade, the league created an accelerator program designed to help minority coaching and executive candidates get a foot in the door with teams. Now, that program is being put on hold—with an aim toward improving it in the future. Read more
Michael Jordan Is Coming Back To Basketball With A Major First. By AP and HuffPost
Michael Jordan is joining NBC Sports as a special contributor to its NBA coverage when the 2025-26 season begins.
NBC made the announcement on Monday morning during its upfront presentation at Radio City Music Hall previewing the networks offerings during the upcoming television season. Read more
Why Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury could alter the Celtics’ franchise direction. By Jay King / The Athletic
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum had surgery to repair a ruptured right Achilles tendon, the team announced Tuesday. The Celtics did not provide a timetable for his return.
Tatum’s injury only complicates the coming offseason for the Celtics, who were already staring at an enormous luxury tax bill and likely to make some difficult roster decisions. Just keeping the current roster together would result in a payroll of about $500 million, including luxury taxes. Even before Tatum’s injury, league sources expected the Celtics to shed salary this summer to avoid that enormous price tag. Now that the team is likely eliminated from title contention next season, the front office could consider even bigger changes. Read more
Draymond Green said what many Black people feel. But then he missed the point. By Claudio E. Cabrera / The Athletic
The stereotype of the “angry Black man” or “angry Black woman” is very real. On a daily basis, it follows us into boardrooms, classrooms and corporate offices. So when Draymond Green defended himself after his latest technical foul by saying he’s tired of the “agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man,” it really bothered me.
The “angry Black man/woman” tightrope is one we walk every day. We live in a world where our emotions are constantly viewed through a distorted, racialized lens. Green has to walk that rope too — but not in the same way. So much that comes with being a rich athlete protects him on a daily basis. Many of us don’t have the privilege of going home to gated communities, working under strong unions like the NBPA, or being protected by ironclad contracts like NBA players. Read more
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