Featured
DeSantis signs bill to defund DEI programs at Florida’s public colleges. By Jack Stripling / Wash Post
Joining a national wave of conservative attacks on programs that promote diversity in higher education, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday to defund such efforts at the state’s public colleges and limit how race can be discussed in many courses.
Critics of the new law worry it is trampling on academic freedom and could hurt efforts they say are critical to serving increasingly diverse student populations. But DeSantis and other opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion programs say they reinforce racial divisions and promote liberal orthodoxy. “If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a news conference at New College of Florida in Sarasota. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.” Read more
Related: How Florida became a conservative bastion. By Max Greenwood / The Hill
Political / Social
How Affirmative Action Was Derailed by Diversity. By Richard Thompson Ford / Chronicle of Higher Ed
Most observers of the Supreme Court expect that it will declare affirmative action unconstitutional next year in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.
Diversity is not the same as justice. It is a substitute for justice. Like saccharine instead of sugar in diet soda, diversity serves some of the functions of justice, and also takes its place. Diversity has made justice seem redundant. Because it has become a regular part of our diet, it’s easy to forget what the real thing tastes like. Diversity transforms what should be an indictment of social practices of exclusion into a plea for “tolerance,” as if the issue were how to manage uncouth upstarts rather than how to correct centuries of deliberate subordination and violent exploitation. This mangles the historical record and softens the diagnosis of social injustice. Read more
Related: The False Promise of Colorblind Admissions. By Richard Thompson Ford / Chronicle of Higher Ed.
College-going gap between Black and white Americans is getting worse. By Jon Marcus / USA Today
As states push back against diversity programs at public universities, and the Supreme Court considers whether to eliminate affirmative action in admissions, a central question remains: whether the playing field has finally been leveled, especially between white and Black Americans who aspire to college educations and the higher quality of life they bring.
Ally of Mitch McConnell Wins G.O.P. Primary for Kentucky Governor. By Nick Corasaniti / NYT
Daniel Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general and a close ally of Senator Mitch McConnell, clinched the state’s Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, fending off a spirited and costly challenge by Kelly Craft, a wealthy former ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr. Cameron turned to the general election in his victory speech. “The new religion of the left casts doubt on the greatness of America,” he said. “They embrace a picture of this country and this commonwealth that is rooted in division, that is hostile to faith and that is committed to the erosion of our education system.” Ms. Craft, attacked Mr. Cameron for supporting the closure of a coal plant (the coal plant in question was in West Virginia) and rebuked him for not fighting the Justice Department’s investigation into the Louisville Police Department after police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor during a botched raid on her apartment in 2020. Read more
Cherelle Parker Wins Philadelphia’s Democratic Mayoral Nomination. By Daniel Marans / HuffPost
The former City Council member is now virtually guaranteed to be the first woman to lead the nation’s sixth largest city.
Parker, a Black woman from a working-class background in North Philadelphia, promised first and foremost to restore a “sense of order” to a city reeling from record-breaking gun violence. She has said she would hire 300 more police officers to be dispersed evenly throughout the city, and would reinstitute a “constitutional” stop-and-frisk policy that she calls “Terry stops.” Among other measures, she has also spoken about expanding the hours of city public schools to provide more safe spaces for kids to spend their free time. Read more
Related: Pennsylvania Dems retain their House majority! By Dartagnan / Daily Kos
Supreme Court to consider South Carolina plan that ‘exiled’ Black voters. By Robert Barnes / Wash Post
A lower court said the redrawn district amounted to racial gerrymandering that helped a Republican beat a Democrat
Texas Republicans Push New Voting Restrictions Aimed at Houston. By J. David Goodman / NYT
The bills propose limits on polling places, tougher penalties for illegal voting and a way for the Republican-led state to order new elections in its largest city.
The two-front fight, both in the courts and in the State Capitol, highlighted just how important it is for Republicans to keep Harris County in play and not let it become another strongly blue urban center along the lines of Austin or Dallas. As recently as 2014, the party controlled the county, whose Republican top official was re-elected in a landslide. But it has been moving left ever since. Read more
Tim Scott is in a better position than you might think. By David Byler / Wash Post
The South Carolina senator, who is expected to join the 2024 Republican presidential race later this month, has quickly built a national profile and a cash surplus by earning media attention — not through controversy, but through compromise. That strategy has made him the strongest candidate of the GOP’s second tier.
Scott has been in Congress since 2011, but he mostly flew under the media’s radar until Trump took office. At that point, Scott started gaining coverage for steering his party on racial issues and test-driving an optimistic message. The Scott donors I spoke with praised his policy chops, his ability to compromise and his personal story of hard work and upward mobility. Read more
The Republican Embrace of Vigilantism Is No Accident. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
It’s been nearly three years since the riots and subsequent shooting in Kenosha, Wis., where a gunman — Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from nearby Antioch, Ill. — killed two protesters in what a court eventually determined was self-defense. Among the most troubling aspects of the shooting was the almost jubilant reaction of conservative media to the news that someone had taken the law into his own hands and meted out lethal force.
Prominent conservatives have taken the same view of Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old assailant in the killing of Jordan Neely in a New York City subway car this month. What you would know is that some Americans are “heroes” and “law-abiding citizens” and others are not. You would know that those Americans get the benefit of the doubt. And you would learn that to be seen as a problem by one of these law-abiding citizens is to be in jeopardy and even, potentially, to forfeit your claim to life. We see this in the worst of the discourse around Neely, who is framed not as a citizen with rights worth respecting but as a dangerous nuisance who deserved his fate. Read more
Related: Vigilante Killings on the Subway Are Not Legal or Moral. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Related: America’s split view over death of Jordan Neely in New York subway. By Trevor Hughes / USA Today
Study reveals staggering toll of being Black in America: 1.6 million excess deaths over 22 years. By Liz Szabo / NBC News
Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people.
Now a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades. Because so many Black people die young — with many years of life ahead of them — their higher mortality rate from 1999 to 2020 resulted in a cumulative loss of more than 80 million years of life compared with the white population, the study showed. Read more
IRS admits Black taxpayers are more likely to get audited. By Aimee Picchi / CBS News
The IRS on Monday said an internal investigation has found that Black taxpayers are audited at higher rates than would be expected given their share of the U.S. population.
The findings come after researchers earlier this year found that Black Americans are up to five times more likely to have their federal tax returns audited than taxpayers of other races. The tax agency’s acknowledgement comes after lawmakers and policy experts called on the IRS to review its auditing processes following the findings about about Black taxpayers. An earlier analysis also found that low-income Americans are five times as likely to get audited than any other filer, primarily because of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a benefit aimed at low-wage workers that has a high rate of erroneous claims. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Latino faith leaders to gather for summit on Christian nationalism. By Alejandra Molina / RNS
Christian nationalism has ‘infiltrated’ the Latino Christian community ‘in such a powerful way,’ said one clergyman, ‘that they are not even aware of the position they are supporting.’
ReAwaken America events have been a hub for election deniers, conspiracy theorists and those who discuss immigration as a plot to “replace us” — “us” being by implication white evangelical Christians. On this score, Miami may appear to be an odd choice for the tour’s organizers: More than half of the city’s residents were born outside the U.S. and more than 70% are Latino. Yet there is evidence that white supremacy and Christian nationalism have made their way into the Latino community in the United States, including among the most violent fringe of those movements. Read more
Related: How I became a ‘Christian nationalist.’ By Kenneth L. Woodward / Wash Post
Related: Whose Version of Christian Nationalism Will Win in 2024? By Michelle Goldberg / NYT
Trump’s dogwhistle to the Christian right is a permission slip to openly hate women. By Amanda Marcotte / Salon
As Trump doubles down on “grab ’em by the p*ssy,” the Christian right gets comfy admitting they love male dominance
During his CNN “town hall” last week, Donald Trump offered a lip service denial that he had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in the 90s when asked about the recent court verdict affirming he did it. He soon shifted, however, to the message he really wanted to send: A winking admission that he did it. Sadly, however, this reaction will likely not make a dent in the Beltway wisdom that Christian conservatives dislike Trump’s violent misogyny, and are merely overlooking it out of political expedience. Most of the people squealing in laughter at Trump’s victim-blaming likely consider themselves “Christians.” Sounds an awful lot like those “Christians” are just fine with sexual violence. Trump declared that Carroll deserved to be raped and bragged that he was entitled to do it. And they clapped. Read more
Religion is less important in the lives of many Americans. By Jason De Rose / NPR
The importance of religion in the lives of Americans is on the decline.
However, for people who do still attend religious services, they say they’re optimistic about the future of their house of worship. Those are among the findings of a new report from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Just 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives, according to the PRRI study, down from 20% a decade ago. Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, says that this data reflects another trend in American religious life. “Americans,” she says, “are becoming increasingly likely to become religiously unaffiliated.” Read more
Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitism Was Inevitable. By Yair Rosenberg / The Atlantic
Criticizing George Soros is not inherently anti-Semitic. But casting him as an avatar of evil is.
Last night, Elon Musk made two rookie social-media mistakes: He tweeted after 10 p.m., and he echoed paranoid anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. “George Soros reminds me of Magneto,” he declared, likening the financier to the Marvel supervillain, both of them Jewish Holocaust survivors. In case the meaning was unclear, Musk quickly clarified to another user, “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”This is the language of anti-Semitism through the ages, which perpetually casts powerful Jewish actors as the embodiment of social and political ill. Read more
Historical / Cultural
King Cotton: The Confederacy’s Attempt to Gain Legitimacy Through Cotton. By Hansen’s Histories / Morning Clips
Cotton played a role in the outbreak of the Civil War and remained a political and economic factor throughout the war
At the time of the Civil War, it is estimated that two-thirds of the world’s cotton came from the American South. Much of the cotton grown in the South was sent to Northern states or to Europe for textile manufacturing. Just prior to the war cotton was the United States’ top export totaling around $192 million. From the outset of war, the Confederacy turned to its highly prized commodity as a means to gain support and legitimacy. In what came to be known as “Cotton Diplomacy” the Confederacy sought to win the support of foreign nations by withholding cotton. The target of this strategy were European nations, but in particular Great Britain. Read more
Erasing the Confederacy: Army changes names of iconic Fort Hood and Fort Benning bases. By Tom Vanden Brook / USA Today
Two iconic military posts are being rebranded as part of the military’s effort to scrub the Confederacy’s legacy from its bases, streets, gyms and ships.
Fort Benning, the Army’s giant training base in Georgia, will now be known as Fort Moore, named after Vietnam War General Hal Moore and his wife, Julia. It previously honored a secessionist, slavery advocate and Confederate general. And Fort Hood, the nation’s third-largest military base, located in central Texas, is now Fort Cavazos, honoring Richard Cavazos, the first Hispanic American to become a four-star general. Read more
Birmingham civil rights history: The backstory behind the famous photo of Walter Gadsden, officer Dick Middleton, and his police dog. By Joshua Clark Davis / Slate
A police dog attacks 15-year-old Walter Gadsden during a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 3, 1963.Bill Hudson/AP
The attacks by Birmingham’s police dogs prompted three main responses from Americans. Conservative critics of the civil rights movement defended the dogs as a necessary law enforcement tool against criminals. Many white liberal observers in the North, by contrast, decried them as cruel weapons of a renegade police force, while insisting that the Birmingham police were a department of “bad apples” amid an otherwise honorable profession. But it was civil rights organizers themselves whose response was most consequential. The dog attacks in Birmingham offered activists in the South and North a political language for analyzing police abuses within the larger context of Black people’s pursuit of freedom and equality. Read more
Expert: US has long history of silencing Black officials and disenfranchising their constituents. By Rodney Coates / Salon
State legislatures have long disenfranchised Black representatives and voters
As a sociologist who studies race and ethnicity, I have closely followed these moves by the states. Throughout U.S. history, I see three main periods of legislative disenfranchisement in which legislative bodies have voted to expel members. These events have been shown to be a form of “white backlash” working to keep Black officeholders out of power and their constituents powerless without representation. Read more
Attacks on ‘segregated’ graduation ceremonies overlook the history of racism on campus. By Crystal Garcia and Antonio Duran
For most college students, graduation is a one-time event. But for a growing number of students from various groups, such as students of color or LGTBQ students, there might be multiple graduation ceremonies to attend.
These special graduation ceremonies for certain groups are known as “affinity graduations.” These ceremonies are drawing the ire of conservatives, who dismiss them as “segregated” graduations. As scholars who focus on issues of equity and student development, we have a different take. We see such celebrations as not only relevant but critical to fostering a sense of belonging for students of color. This sense of belonging is particularly important among students from what we refer to in our 2021 book as “minoritized” groups – that is, groups that are not the dominant group and are seen as minorities even when numerically they are not. Read more
Hip-hop turns 50: Here’s a part of its history that doesn’t always make headlines. By Art Daniel / NPR
In 2005, Dr. Olajide Williams felt like he had two jobs. Each evening, he’d finish up his work as a physician at Harlem Hospital Center and walk seven blocks to the studio of hip-hop artist and “The Original Human Beat Box” Doug E. Fresh.
Their goal was to create a hit but with an unusual lyrical premise — to teach people how to detect stroke symptoms and respond appropriately. Williams wanted to demonstrate that hip-hop could be used for public health interventions. This is what Williams and Fresh were trying to do in that Harlem studio. It took them weeks to get the beat and the lyrics of “Stroke Ain’t No Joke” right, but once they had it locked in, “Doug went into the studio and I think he knocked it out in a few days,” says Williams. “He was that inspired.” Read more
Sports
The Ja Morant gun situation is not just about Ja Morant. By Martenzi Johnson / Andscape
The Grizzlies All-Star is a problem, but he’s not the problem. The problem is guns and their prevalence in society.
The Memphis Grizzlies guard was suspended from the team on Sunday for once again brandishing the blicky on social media, just over two months after being suspended for doing the same thing in March. Zeroing in on Morant’s actions misses the forest for the trees. Morant being reckless with a firearm on two occasions is bad, sure, and doing it on social media shows a defiance that, if left unchecked, will lead to even worse results for the fourth-year player. Read more
Related: Ja Morant gun video reveals wrong, but deeply American firearm fetish. By Mike Freeman / USA Today
What Jayson Tatum Did and Didn’t Learn from Kobe Bryant. By Louisa Thomas / The New Yorker
The Boston Celtics forward grew up idolizing the late N.B.A. legend. But beneath the influence and adulation there is a fundamental difference.
Certain aspects of Tatum’s game are a carbon copy of his hero’s: the smooth spin moves, the quick crossovers, the deft touch, the unmistakable shiver. But, despite the influence and the adulation, Tatum has always struck me as different from Bryant in a fundamental way. Bryant projected a terrifying intensity, on and off the court. Tatum, at his best, makes things seem easy. His long limbs are loose. His manner is playful. Even on a fast break, he seems somehow unhurried. Bryant famously feuded with his teammates. Tatum hugs his teammates with obvious affection. Read more
Despite Millions in Earnings, Olympic Gold Medal, and World Titles, Daughter Says Boxing Didn’t Make Muhammad Ali Successful. By Chirag Radhyan / Essentially Sports
Rasheda Ali appeared on the UP-CLOSE show on YouTube and talked about how in her childhood, she used to help people all the time. This was one of the crucial values that were predominant in Ali’s household. Muhammad Ali believed that the sole purpose of everybody in this life is to serve others.
She also stated that boxing didn’t make her dad successful, as people saw Ali in a totally different light than just a boxer. She said, “When people look at Muhammad Ali and what made him successful, they can- most of them will agree that he was a humanitarian and he served others his whole entire life and I think that’s what made him successful.” Read more
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts earns his master’s degree. By Joe Hernandez / NPR
It’s been a big year for Jalen Hurts.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback took his team to the Super Bowl in February. Last month he got one of the biggest contract extension deals in NFL history. And now he’s earned a graduate degree from the University of Oklahoma. “I Know Momma Proud Of This One,” Hurts said in an Instagram post on Saturday, under photos of him wearing his graduation cap and gown and posing with a diploma. Read more
‘I don’t understand the hate’: Cardinals QB Kyler Murray proud of Asian roots. By Tyler Dragon / USA Today
Kyler Murray was part of the more than 200 athletes to join the NFL’s international diversity initiative last season. The Arizona Cardinals quarterback sported a South Korean flag decal alongside an American one on his helmet.
Murray’s decision to take part in the initiative was to honor his Asian heritage. Murray is one-quarter Korean. His father is Black and his mother is half Korean. “I’m proud to play with the flag of South Korea on my helmet. It’s a great way to honor my mom, honor my heritage and highlight the diverse backgrounds that make up the NFL,” Murray said, via the Cardinals official website. Read more
Site Information
Articles appearing in the Digest are archived on our home page. And at the top of this page register your email to receive notification of new editions of Race Inquiry Digest.
Click here for earlier Digests. The site is searchable by name or topic. See “search” at the top of this page.
About Race Inquiry and Race Inquiry Digest. The Digest is published on Mondays and Thursdays.
Use the customized buttons below to share the Digest in an email, or post to your Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter accounts.