Featured
Buffalo Shows the Double Terror of Being Black. By Ibram X. Kendi / The Atlantic
Structural racism killed Black people in east Buffalo, and then a gunman killed the survivors.
What group did the Buffalo shooter choose to target? He selected “an obvious, visible, and large group of replacers.” He chose Black people, he explained, because “all black people are replacers just by existing in White countries.”
Imagine how much a white supremacist has to replace reality in order to believe that white people—who remain on the higher end of nearly every racial disparity—are being killed off, that they are being replaced, that they are being harmed, and that to protect themselves, they need to attack the very Black people who are actually on the lower end of nearly every racial disparity. The Great Replacement theory wholly replaces reality, presenting the dying as the living, and the living as the dying. Read more
Related: It’s been two years and Black people still can’t breathe. By Ben Crump / Wash Post
Political / Social
Herschel Walker, Raphael Warnock to face off in crucial Georgia Senate race. By and
Former football star Herschel Walker has clinched Georgia’s Republican nomination for the Senate, NBC News projects, setting up a general election against Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, who also won his party’s primary Tuesday. The race, which is projected to be one of the most competitive in the country, will be a rare case of two Black candidates competing in a critical Senate contest. With the Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, both parties see Georgia as a must-win. Read more
Stacey Abrams Wins Democratic Gubernatorial Primary. By Sara Bobolitz / HuffPost
The voting rights champion ran unopposed in Tuesday’s primary following years of grassroots organizing. Her initial victory comes nearly four years after she narrowly lost the last governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp, who was in charge of overseeing the election in his capacity as Georgia’s secretary of state. Read more
Obama On Texas Elementary School Shooting: Country Is ‘Paralyzed’ By Gun Lobby, GOP. By Sarah Ruiz- Grossman / HuffPost
In a series of tweets, Obama expressed both sadness and outrage. He put blame squarely on Republican lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, arguing that “our country is paralyzed — not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might prevent these tragedies.” The massacre marks the deadliest mass shooting in the country this year. It came less than two weeks after 10 Black people were shot dead by an 18-year-old white supremacist at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Read more
Biden Set to Issue Policing Order on Anniversary of Floyd Killing. Zolan Kanno-Youngs and / NYT
Mr. Biden will direct federal law enforcement agencies to revise their use-of-force policies and to restrict tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants, while using grant incentives to encourage state and local agencies to adopt the same standards. His order will also create a national registry of officers fired for misconduct and restrict the transfer of most military equipment to police, the people familiar with the order said. They asked for anonymity to discuss details of the order before it is announced. Read more
Related: For Minneapolis Police, Change Comes Slowly. Shaila Dewan and / NYT
Related: Two Years After George Floyd, Black Leaders Reflect On Change. By Jared Council / Forbes
Eric Holder: Democracy is worth saving — and justice is coming for Donald Trump. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Obama’s first attorney general on the lessons of history, the fight for racial justice and the payback for Jan. 6
In this wide-ranging conversation Holder explains his deep worries about American democracy in this moment of crisis. Holder also discusses the events of Jan. 6, 2021, which were a white supremacist attack on multiracial democracy — as well as on Obama’s legacy and the very idea of Black and brown people being in positions of leadership in American society. Read more
States are mandating Asian American history lessons to stop bigotry. By Marian Chia-Ming Liu / Wash Post
As anti-Asian attacks surge nationwide, a movement is hoping to combat hate with history, pushing states to require lessons on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in public schools. Illinois and New Jersey require such classes, and Connecticut’s governor is expected to sign legislation soon. Other states such as New York have bills pending that would mandate them. A growing number of lawmakers, along with teachers, students, parents and business leaders, aim to head off these attacks partly by teaching children that the Asian American community is American, too — and that Asian American history is also American history. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Why Juneteenth Should Matter to the Church. By Christianity Today
On June 15th at 1 PM CDT, join Our Daily Bread’s Rasool Berry, CT’s Russell Moore, and other Christian thought leaders for a free webinar on the enduring significance of Juneteenth and how this pivotal event in American history points to the biblical visions of freedom, restoration, and hope. The webinar will include a time for live Q&A. Attendees may ask questions during the event or by submitting them in advance to: events@e.christianitytoday.com. Read more
The conversation white parents should be having with their children. By Kelly Brown Douglas / RN
Schools are being barred from discussing racism. That leaves parents and our faith communities.
As has been widely discussed in this time of white people’s heightened awareness of “racialized” policing, we Black parents are used to the conversations with our children about how to behave around law enforcement personnel just to keep them alive. But no one seems to be talking about a more important conversation between white parents and their children. Read more
The beloved community and the heresy of white replacement. By Robert P. Jones / RN
“This is a Sacred Space,” a handmade sign outside of Cup Foods in George Floyd Square, Minneapolis, Minnesota
“The Beloved Community.” We white Christians have learned these words. I mean, we know them. And we love to quote them in Januaries. But we must, once and for all, get clear about the stakes before we again utter mere lip service to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision. The beloved community is the repudiation of the violent theology of replacement germinating in white supremacy. We white Christians must figure out how to drag ourselves and our peers to kneel at the altar of repentance. We must confess our complicity in the heretical and only half-unconscious belief that God has ordained whites to replace — that is to say, to kill and displace — others, and that, once accomplished, white dominance is to be perpetually preserved as the divinely approved state of affairs. Read more
Historical / Cultural
U.S. bases that honored Confederate leaders to receive new names. By Eleanor Watson / CBS News
The commission tasked with renaming military assets bearing the names of Confederate leaders released new recommendations for nine military installations, with some names honoring women and African Americans. Until now, these posts have exclusively been named for White men. The congressionally mandated Naming Commission issued its initial recommendations for the new names for nine U.S. Army installations. The commission’s final report is due to Congress in October, and then it will go to the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. Read more
Early Black Collegians and the Fight for Full Inclusion. By John Frederick Bell / AAIHS
This July 7th will mark the 181st anniversary of the formation of the first Black student organization in American higher education. In the summer of 1841, John Mifflin Brown, Charles Henry Langston, and George Boyer Vashon, three African Americans studying at the predominantly white Oberlin Collegiate Institute, declared themselves the “Committee in behalf of Colored Students.” The Black collegians’ proclamation denounced “the cruel prejudice that would make color instead of character the ground of our reception” to colleges and universities. Read more
Related: The African American Quest for Institutions of Higher Education Before the Civil War: The Forgotten Histories of the Ashmun Institute, Liberia College, and Avery College. By Russell W. Irvine
The Long History of Resistance That Birthed Black Lives Matter. By Elias Rodriques / The Nation
A conversation with historian Donna Murch about the past, present, and future of Black radical organizing.
Donna Murch is one of the foremost historians of Black radical movements in the 20th century. Her first book, 2010’s Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, retold a seemingly familiar story with new insights drawn from oral histories and untapped archives. Since that groundbreaking book’s publication, Murch has become known as well for her distinguished essays on racial inequities in America. Her most recent book, Assata Taught Me, collects these and other writings about the development of the Movement for Black Lives as part of a longer history that dates back at least to the Black Panther Party and that has been especially inspired by the work and thought of Assata Shakur. Read more
‘You Can Feel the Spirits’: Historic Black Cemetery Rediscovered and Helps Tell the Story of a Georgia Town’s Racist Past. By Kavontae Smalls /Atlanta Black Star
Starting more than 150 years ago, a plot of land began being used as the final resting place for what became some 170 Black people in a Georgia county where they eventually became the only African-Americans allowed to remain within its borders. The Tolbert Street Cemetery is off the beaten path, nestled near a wooded area in Cumming, Georgia, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. The small cemetery is less than an acre. It’s dotted with a handful of headstones and countless other quartz and other stones marking the head and food of the 170 graves. Read more
How ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ honors the legacy of Black Navy pilots. By Arturo Conde / NBC News
Jay Ellis, who grew up in a military family, said he and his co-stars “understand the responsibility to be amazing on-screen” to represent the armed services.
Actor Jay Ellis remembers watching the 1986 movie “Top Gun” at an Air Force base in Austin, Texas. He was only 8 or 9 years old, and the blockbuster made him dream about becoming a fighter pilot. Ellis wanted to be part of that military community. Now, he plays Navy fighter pilot Payback in the anticipated sequel “Top Gun: Maverick,” which releases nationwide Friday and in select theaters starting Tuesday. He said he sees the film as a way to say thank you to the real men and women who inspired him as a boy. Read more
Maya Cade Created The Black Film Archive With Love. By Candice Frederick / HuffPost
The Black Film Archive highlights the many ways Black culture has shown up in films from the past, and tells you where you can stream them.
Like anyone else who’s had a lifelong love affair with movies, Maya Cade struggles to name which films from her vast personal collection she would grab if she could only fit three in a bag on an extended trip out of town. “I started the process of collecting these films in a thread,” Cade recalled, “when we were seeing Black Lives Matter marches and conversations about ‘Black films are only this. They’re only that.’ I just knew that there was a whole other world that people weren’t seeing.” Read more
Sports
New book on the ‘Black Fives’ restores the buried history of basketball. By Jesse Washington / Andscape
It all started with an enticing name: the Smart Set Athletic Club. In 1998, Claude Johnson was working for the NBA’s marketing department when he picked up the book A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete, by tennis legend Arthur Ashe. One of the Black basketball teams Ashe mentioned was the Smart Set Athletic Club, founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1904 as the first independent, formally organized Black basketball team. Read more
Will face time with NFL owners result in minority employees filling top-tier jobs at higher rates? By Jason Reid / Andscape
A common refrain among many Black NFL employees who have interviewed for top-tier positions in football operations is that they rarely – if ever – interact with decision-makers before the processes begin, whereas team owners often are much more familiar with their white counterparts’ professional and personal backgrounds. The imbalance, NFL officials acknowledge, is yet another impediment to the upward mobility of diverse employees in a league that continues to struggle in its stated attempt to have a truly inclusive workplace from the front office to the field. Read more
When “Jackie Robinson” Is Used as a Racial Slur. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
What happened at Yankee Stadium is not about one incident. It’s about how Major League Baseball chooses to remember Robinson’s legacy.
If you missed it, the Yankees third baseman, Josh Donaldson, called Chicago White Sox starter, Tim Anderson—one of the most prominent of the dwindling number of Black MLB players from the United States—“Jackie” several times. That’s “Jackie” as in Jackie Robinson, the legend who broke baseball’s color line in 1947. Calling someone “Jackie Robinson” should be the ultimate compliment. That it can be used as a slur only tells us just how much work this league still has to do to confront its own ugly past and reckon with how that past informs its present. Read more
Millionaire Stephen Curry Earns More Than Serena Williams Per Year Without Stepping Foot on the Court. By Anujtalwalka / Essential Sports
Stephen Curry is one of the biggest athletes in the entire world. The NBA giant is not only an entertainer on the court, but his off-court success is second to none. With multiple big-time deals, he earns a huge majority of his earnings through his off-court activities. It is even comparable to the salaries of multiple NBA players. However, how does he compare to the biggest female tennis star of all time, Serena Williams? Read more
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