Featured
A Trumped Up Police State Is Coming. By Radley Balko, Akela Lacy and Jessica Washington / The Intercept Briefing Podcast
From militarized crackdowns to legal impunity, Trump’s policing agenda is designed to crush dissent and critics.
Donald Trump’s all-caps executive order on policing — “STRENGTHENING AND UNLEASHING AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PURSUE CRIMINALS AND PROTECT INNOCENT CITIZENS” – is less about policy and more about intent. And that intent is clear: To give Trump direct control over local law enforcement and further shield police from accountability.
The executive order calls for “military and national security assets” to assist in local policing, directs federal resources and protections for state and local law enforcement, and enhances police protections, among other proclamations. But it reflects a deeper ambition. Read more and listen here
Stephen Miller re-emerges as an ‘untouchable’ force in Trump’s White House. By , , and
Trump says he killed DEI. So why isn’t it dead yet? Cracks emerge in war on ‘woke.’ By Jessica Guynn / USA Today
With the swirl of a black Sharpie marker, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day back in the White House, cracking down on what he calls “illegal and radical” diversity, equity and inclusion practices. It was the first in a series of actions to make good on campaign promises to wipe out DEI.
“The vast majority of organizations have simply gone quiet, neither retreating from or defending their DEI programs in the public square,” Tomaskovic-Devey said. The data seems to bear that out. Just 8% of business leaders surveyed by the Littler law firm are seriously considering changes to their DEI programs as a result of the Trump administration’s executive orders. Nearly half said they do not have plans for new or further rollbacks. Read more
Related: Republican Hypocrisy Reaches Into the Countryside. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Supreme Court Retains Block on Using Wartime Law to Deport Venezuelans. Abbie VanSickle / NYT
Wes Moore, the nation’s lone Black governor, vetoes bill to study reparations. By Erin Cox / Wash Post
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Friday vetoed a bill that would have required the state to define the economic harms to Black descendants of enslaved people and recommend remedies, dealing a blow to reparations supporters who counted on the only Black governor of a U.S. state to be an ally. Read more
The Right Is Trying to Make the N-Word OK Again. By Kali Holloway / The Nation
Conservatives don’t just want white dominance. They want to be able to abuse Black people in the worst ways possible—and get rewarded for it.
The response to Shiloh Hendrix, a grown white woman and mother from Minnesota, is instructive. Earlier this month, Hendrix called a 5-year-old Black boy a “nigger” on a Minnesota playground. She then repeated the slur while admitting to using it when a bystander began filming. When the footage went viral, Hendrix adopted a pose of victimhood, asking the public for money, and raised nearly $800,000. Read more
Education
Some Republicans Push to Put School Desegregation Officially in the Past. Sarah Mervosh / NYT
Louisiana officials want to overturn the remaining federal desegregation orders in their state. They may find allies in the Trump administration.
It has been 71 years since the Supreme Court made racially segregated schools illegal in its landmark 1954 ruling, Brown v. Board of Education. Louisiana officials say that federal orders forcing school districts to comply with the decision are outdated and no longer needed, and that the country needs to move on. Read more
Related: The Resegregation of America’s Public Schools. By Jeffrey Kass / Level
Related: How Public Schools Became Ground Zero for America’s Culture Wars. By Mother Jones
Black Harvard Scholars Fear Silencing Amid DEI Battle. by
As the country’s oldest university takes on the president, Black students and Black professors said they carry an emotional toll.
The ongoing legal battle between the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the federal government underscores the social and cultural challenges that Black students and Black professors often face at Harvard and other elite institutions: On one hand, they applaud the school’s efforts in standing up against the Trump administration, but on the other they have to grapple with how Harvard’s new policies and decisions have disproportionately harmed them. Read more
FAMU Finalist Faces Backlash Over DeSantis Ties, Lack of Experience. By , and
Many in the Florida A&M community don’t believe that Marva Johnson has the experience needed to lead the storied institution
The Florida A&M University Board of Trustees on Friday picked Marva Johnson as the school’s 13th president in an 8-4 vote. Her selection is subject to confirmation by the 17-member Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public university system. This decision comes as a blow to many students and alumni. Over the past week, they mounted fierce opposition to Johnson’s candidacy, arguing that the current group vice president of state government affairs at Charter Communications lacks the experience needed to lead the state’s flagship historically Black school. Read more
World
The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement. Katie J.M. Baker / NYT
Even before President Trump was re-elected, the Heritage Foundation, best known for Project 2025, set out to destroy pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.
Now the Heritage contingent was in Israel, in part, to discuss another contentious policy paper: Project Esther, the foundation’s proposal to rapidly dismantle the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States, along with its support at schools and universities, at progressive organizations and in Congress. Read more
Related: Trump administration working on plan to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya. By , and
Nuclear War Avoided, Again. But Next Time? W.J. Hennigan / NYT
After four days of exchanging airstrikes and drone attacks on military infrastructure brought India and Pakistan to the precipice of war, these nuclear-armed nations are holding to a tenuous cease-fire.
The world may have sidestepped a disaster. But last week’s fast-moving crisis demonstrates the inherent dangers of the modern nuclear age — and the corresponding and urgent need for diplomacy — as more nations expand their nuclear arsenals and rely on them for coercion or to make up for a weakness in conventional forces. The indefinite combination of more weapons and human fallibility can lead to their use, intentional or not. There is never zero risk. Read more
South African president to visit White House after Afrikaners arrive. By Caroline Linton / CBS News
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit the White House next week, his office said Thursday, days after the arrival in the U.S. of the first group of White South Africans, having been granted refugee status under a new Trump administration policy.
Ramaphosa’s office said the visit will provide a “platform to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries.” The statement said Rampahosa, who is the current president of the G20, and President Trump will meet on Wednesday, May 21. Read more
Related: Why Republicans are fixated on fake ‘white genocide.’ By Oliver Willis / Daily Kos
Related: Are white South Africans really refugees? A historian explains. By Nicole Narea / Vox
U.S. funding halted Africa’s HIV crisis. Trump’s cuts have forced a reckoning. By Chico Harlan and Ilan Godfrey / Wash Post
How the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. foreign aid has exposed a devastating downside in one small African country.
SIDVOKODVO, Eswatini — When American taxpayer money started flowing here 18 years ago, this country was the epicenter of the global HIV/AIDS crisis, with the world’s highest prevalence rate, and so much death that 1 in 10 households was headed by a child. U.S. aid unleashed a flood of lifesaving antiretroviral pediatric drugs. It funded doctors and data systems. It helped build an ultramodern medical facility in the center of the country, known as the Miracle Campus, that provided free care behind an entrance sign saying: “From the American people.” Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
South African bishop thanks Episcopal leader for declining to resettle white Afrikaners. By Jack Jenkins / RNS
‘Our government implements affirmative action on the lines of that in the United States, designed not to discriminate against whites but to overcome the historic disadvantages Black South Africans have suffered,’ the Most Rev. Thabo Makgoba wrote.
The leader of Anglican churches in South Africa thanked the American head of the Episcopal Church for refusing to resettle white Afrikaners in the United States who have been deemed refugees by President Donald Trump’s administration, arguing the government’s justification for taking in members of the group is inaccurate. Read more
Poll: American Jews overwhelmingly reject Trump and his antisemitism policies. By Yonat Shimron / RNS
The most recent poll shows 74% of Jewish voters disapprove of Trump’s job performance. Jews think Trump is ‘dangerous,’ ‘racist,’ ‘fascist’ and ‘antisemitic.’
The poll by GBAO Strategies, a longtime pollster of Jewish public opinion, shows that three-quarters of Jewish voters (74%) disapprove of Trump’s job performance (70% “strongly disapprove”). Most American Jews think Trump is “dangerous” (72%), “racist” (69%) and “fascist” (69%). Perhaps most tellingly, 52% of American Jewish voters think Trump is antisemitic. “The intensity of the opposition is extraordinary,” said Jim Gerstein, GBAO’s founding partner who summarized the poll’s results to reporters Tuesday. “This very high level of disapproval far exceeds what you see in the national population.” Read more
One racial group in US is more religious than others, poll finds. Which is it? By Natalie Demaree / Miami Herald
In the United States, where religion is “very” or “somewhat” important according to nearly two-thirds of adults, one racial group stands out when it comes to practicing their faith, a new poll found. The Public Religion Research Institute American Values Atlas poll based religious activity on three categories: how often people pray, how often they read the Bible or another sacred text, and how often they attend religious services.
Black Americans ranked more devout in each category than white Americans and Hispanic Americans, according to the poll. The group also had higher rankings in each category than Americans overall, the poll found. Read more
Is Donald Trump About to Launch a Denaturalization Purge? By Rafia Zakaria / The Nation
Mass denaturalization could be used to move the country toward the MAGA movement’s larger goal of a white Christian nationalist United States.
Immigration enforcement is far more central to the second Trump administration than it was to the first. We can see this in how the administration has made ideological issues the basis of visa revocations. Such an agenda fits with the white Christian nationalism of many MAGA supporters, and it provides a legal route to cast out those citizens that they do not want in their imagined country. Making examples of errant citizens who are brown and Muslim—like the detained green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil—is just the sort of political spectacle that excites Trump’s MAGA base. Read more
Related: Denaturalization, explained: how Trump can strip immigrants of their citizenship. By Dara Lind / Vox
Historical / Cultural
Critics question why exhibits at the African American History Museum are rotating out. By , and
President Donald Trump issued an order to take down exhibits that “divide Americans based on race,” but the White House says it wasn’t involved and the museum says the moves were part of normal rotations.
In an email to NBC News, the museum reiterated that rotating objects is normal. But Turner isn’t convinced. “We have to now say enough is enough, and America is better than this, Black and white,” he said. “We are stronger than this. If our children can endure being lynched, then white children can endure a classroom that teaches that America used to lynch kids.” Read more
Ibram X. Kendi Introduces Malcolm X to a New Generation.
The National Book Award-winning author shows young readers a humane political philosophy that many adults still fail to appreciate.
Now, with his vital, brilliant “Malcolm Lives!,” Ibram X. Kendi (the National Book Award-winning author of “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America”) has rendered the story of Malcolm Little, a.k.a. Malcolm X, a.k.a. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, who would have been 100 on May 19, for young readers. And while he adjusts his voice slightly for age — Kendi writes, like Malcolm spoke, with a piercing clarity — that is his only accommodation. Read more
Snoop Dogg Has Lost Over Half A Million Followers After Trump-Affiliated Crypto Ball Performance. By Kui Mwai / Blavity
Fans are not happy with Snoop Dogg after the 53-year-old performed at President Donald Trump’s Crypto Ball, an event leading up to and in celebration of the inauguration. According to Vibe, the rapper has lost more than 500,000 followers on social media following the performance.
Though not attended by the presidential guest of honor, the ball, which was held at the Andrew W. Mellon auditorium on Jan. 17, saw many of Trump’s supporters and financial backers celebrate the change of administration in Washington, D.C. Snoop performed in the venue’s main ballroom, CNBC reported. Read more
The Triumph and Tribulations of Chaka Khan. By Angela Johnson / The Root
Since she introduced herself to the world as a young woman singing lead for the funk band Rufus, singer-songwriter Chaka Khan has topped the chart with hit songs that have stood the test of time, including the unofficial women’s empowerment anthem, “I’m Every Woman.”
The woman known as the “Queen of Funk” is so much more – fusing jazz, R&B and soul and earning 10 GRAMMYs in the process. Despite her industry success, Khan also faced a series of heartbreaking challenges, including addiction and family tragedy. Today, Khan is stronger than ever and continues to inspire future generations of artists like H.E.R.and Mary J. Blige. This is the story of Chaka Khan. Read more
Sports
Magic Johnson Donates $500,000 To Xavier University. By Jovonne Ledet / BIN
NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson pledged $500,000 to Louisiana’s Xavier University to support student scholarships.
On Friday (May 9), Johnson appeared at Xavier’s Centennial Gala, where he contributed $500,000 to $2 million in total donations made to support scholarships, per Black Enterprise. The Centennial Gala was the university’s 100th-anniversary celebration. Johnson said he made the pledge in honor of President Emeritus Dr. Norman C. Francis. Read more
Jayson Tatum’s injury will transform the NBA, not just the Celtics. By Jared Weiss / The Athletic
Tatum was one of the league’s ironmen, but the reality of sports is harder than metal. He spent his career transforming from a finesse shooter to a bulldozing driver, then suffered a career-altering injury in the most pedestrian way, late into one of the best games of his career.
This moment could diffuse the league’s center of gravity depending on what the Celtics do next. The NBA has orbited around Boston for most of the past two seasons. There are other teams with young players entering their primes who could be up next, but barring a Tatum-less Celtics turnaround in this series, this will be the seventh season in a row without a repeat champion. There’s not much reason to believe that will change anytime soon. Read more
LeBron James has seemingly made his retirement decision after suffering knee injury. By Joshya Mbu / The Mirror
LeBron James has unfinished business in the NBA, with the Los Angeles Lakers star wanting to win another championship before retiring and assuming a guaranteed spot in the Hall of Fame
The 40-year-old admitted that he was undecided over his future in the NBA after the Lakers were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves. “I don’t know,” James said on his future. “I don’t have an answer to that. Something I’ll sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play. I don’t know the answer to that right now, to be honest. So we’ll see.” Read more
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