Featured
Will the American project survive the anger of white men? By Carol Anderson / The Guardian
At key moments throughout US history, white male anger has been privileged over national security, progress or basic welfare
A friend recently asked: “Do you think the United States will survive the anger of white men?” As blunt as the question is, the core element is not so far-fetched. The fact that Donald Trump’s candidacy was even viable, given his horrific track record, was because of the support of white men. White men, whose anger was on full display at Madison Square Garden as they spewed racist, misogynistic venom. White men who attacked poll workers and also voters of Kamala Harris. White men who chafed at the thought that their wives and girlfriends would not vote for the man who thought it was “a beautiful thing” that reproductive rights had been destroyed. And, as the New York Times reported, the downwardly mobile, frustrated “white men without a degree, [who] have been surpassed in income by college-educated women”.
And let’s be clear. Trump has laid out an agenda that will provide the “wages of whiteness” to his male supporters but very little else. Read more
Political / Social
Six big lies that won the election: How Donald Trump gaslit America. By Paul Rosenberg / Salon
Nine days before Election Day, Donald Trump delivered his closing argument at a Madison Square Garden rally that drew comparisons to a 1939 pro-Nazi rally in the same arena and characterized by similar anti-democratic themes: demonization of immigrants and political enemies, invocation of strongman leadership, threats of violent retribution, denunciations of the press.
Trump was saying, in effect: The hate you saw was really love, and if you can’t see that, you’re the hateful one. It’s the kind of upside-down logic commonly found in abusive relationships, whenever the abuser is challenged. They may lie all the time, but when the chips are down, they gaslight. Read more
Related: Trump’s Victory and the End of the Rainbow Coalition. By Charles M. Blow / NYT
Related: Readjusting to Trump’s America. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Democrats need to reclaim reality from the right-wing disinformation machine. By Jennifer Rubin / Wash Post
Disinformation has taken hold over democracy.
Whether you believe that Americans embraced President-elect Donald Trump’s misogynistic, racist and bullying persona because they misunderstood what he stood for or because they liked what he stood for; or because they believed (falsely) that the economy was in a recession or because they could not afford to buy their own home; or because of some combination of all of these, we cannot ignore the success of the right-wing media’s disinformation network in shaping how millions of Americans view the country. A now much-discussed Reuters-Ipsos poll found that “Americans who primarily get their news from Fox News and Conservative Media and social media/other are more likely to answer questions about inflation and crime incorrectly than Americans writ large. Read more
The Real Reason Texas Isn’t Turning Blue. By Sam Russek / The New Republic
Every few years, we’re told that Democrats are about to break through in the red state. Here’s why they continue to lose.
The latest high-profile iteration of this brand of politician was Colin Allred, a Dallas native, civil rights lawyer, and former NFL linebacker who took on Senator Ted Cruz. His statewide strategy was code-named “Texas Offense,” and his ads were spliced with mentions of his glory days on the gridiron. He grabbed attention, and nearly outraised Cruz, a prodigiously unpopular candidate, in what was one of the most expensive races in the country. And like McGrath and Hegar before him, Allred lost by a humiliating margin. Read more
Related: Asian Americans favored Harris but shifted right by 5 points. By Kimmy Yam / NBC News
Why Black Americans Feel They Have No Allies After Trump’s Win. By Allison Gaines / Level
MLK said ‘the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty amid a vast ocean of material prosperity.’ His critique still applies
No man is an island,” the English poet John Donne wrote, arguing that “every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.” And yet, such an analogy doesn’t seem to apply to Black Americans, as they’ve been uniquely targeted and discriminated against rather than embraced as part of the whole. Many feel isolated, a sentiment further inflamed by Donald Trump’s victory. While some will argue, as James Carville did in 1992, “it’s the economy, stupid,” to explain voters’ choices, such rhetoric masks a more sinister motivation — racism. Some Americans voted for Trump to protest Black leadership and women’s rights. Casting their ballot was an undeniable rejection of a multiracial democracy. Read more
Why Corporate America Should Reconsider Scaling Back DEI. By Liz Elting / Forbes
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has come a long way in the workplace since its 2020 boom. As sociologist and professor Tsedale M. Melaku Ph.D., professor Angie Beeman Ph.D., professor David G. Smith Ph.D., and professor W. Brad Johnson Ph.D. prompted in their 2020 piece “Be a Better Ally” for Harvard Business Review.
The authors wrote that business leaders could no longer ignore “that they must step up if there is to be any hope of making organizations more diverse, fair, and inclusive.” The article explains that organizations can increase inclusivity and diversity on their teams by prioritizing investment in DEI programs that encourage education and conversation, intentionally hiring diverse job candidates, creating DEI-centered positions, and uplifting those underrepresented in the workplace into executive leadership roles. Read more
Related: Why Abandoning Diversity Efforts Will Hurt Your Bottom Line. By Julie Kratz / Forbes
Related: Minority-owned firms face ‘crisis’ as affirmative action programs fall. By Jullian Mark / Wash Post
Related: How the End of Affirmative Action Is Affecting Indigenous Students. By Sara Weissman / IHE
World News
Putin Is Banking On a Trump Win for His New World Order. By Mikhail Zygar / Vanity Fair
I don’t know which moment in American history Donald Trump imagines when he says, “Make America great again.” He has never given a clear answer in any speech or interview. But I know exactly which moment Vladimir Putin imagines in his own vision for Russian greatness. It is February 1945, when Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill divided the world in Crimea.
This structure existed for the next 45 years, de facto collapsing along with the Soviet Union. Putin once called the extinction of the Eastern bloc “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.” Throughout his presidency, Putin has repeatedly said that the world needs a “new Yalta.” If the old world order no longer works, a new one must be invented. Read more
Haiti replaces its prime minister, marking more turmoil in transition process. By AP and NPR
A transitionary council created to reestablish democratic order in Haiti signed a decree Sunday firing interim Prime Minister Garry Conille and replacing him with Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, a businessman who was previously considered for the job.
The decree, set to be published on Monday, was provided to The Associated Press by a government source. It marks even more turmoil in an already rocky democratic transition process for Haiti, which hasn’t held democratic elections in years in a large part due to the soaring levels of gang violence plaguing the Caribbean nation. Read more
Ukraine Prioritizes Security, Not Territory, as Trump Pushes Truce Talks. Andrew E. Kramer / NYT
President-elect Donald J. Trump may accelerate the timetable for a truce. Kyiv views guarantees against renewed aggression as crucial to any settlement.
Ukrainian officials have said for months that they would not cede territory occupied by Russia in any peace settlement. Now, as Ukraine contemplates an accelerated timetable for negotiations pushed by President-elect Donald J. Trump, it is putting at least as much importance on obtaining security guarantees as on where an eventual cease-fire line might fall. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
New Apostolic Reformation Evangelicals See Trump As God’s Warrior In Their Battle To Christianize America. By Art Jipson / TPM
The movement sees Trump as battling satanic forces.
This movement believes President-elect Donald Trump is fighting a spiritual war against demonic forces within the United States. Trump himself stated in his acceptance speech on Nov. 6, 2024, that the reason that “God spared my life” was to “restore America to greatness.” I have studied various religious movements that seek to shape and control American society. One of these is the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, whose followers believe that they are waging a spiritual battle for control of the United States. NAR is an offshoot of Protestant Christian evangelicalism. Read more
Related: What White Christians Have Wrought. By Robert P. Jones / Time
Did religion matter in the election? By Mark Silk / RNS
Demographically, somewhat; values-wise, yes and no.
Last April, Donald Trump said that any Jew who votes for a Democrat or Joe Biden “should have their head examined.” Word is, the Jews didn’t take the warning to heart. According to exit polls, 78% of them voted for Kamala Harris, up 10 percentage points from their vote for Biden in 2020. How come they bucked the national trend toward Trump? The only other religious grouping to buck the trend was the nones — atheists, agnostics and nothing-in-particulars — who went from 65%-31% for Biden to 71%-26% for Harris. They’re closer to the average on the college-degree front, and therefore the perceived rise of Christian nationalism likely did much to shift them — up 2 points to 24% of the electorate since 2020 — toward the Democratic candidate. Finally, there’s the religious value of having a moral person leading your country. This time around in America, not so much. Read more
Black Church Studies At Duke University’s Divinity School Gets A $5M Boost From Endowment Gift. By Daniel Johnson / Black Enterprise
Edgardo Colon-Emeric, the Dean of the Duke Divinity School, believes the gift will allow for the school to continue to lead in the area of Black theological studies.
Duke University’s Office of Black Church Studies announced a $5 million gift from the Duke Endowment on Oct. 3 to recruit and support a senior faculty member in the university’s Divinity School. According to the Duke Chronicle, the gift establishes the Joseph B. Bethea Professorship. It will support the faculty members the university hires as they do research and theological fieldwork. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Harriet Tubman posthumously named a general in Veterans Day ceremony. By AP and NPR
Revered abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was the first woman to oversee an American military action during a time of war, was posthumously awarded the rank of general on Monday.
Dozens gathered on Veterans Day at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Maryland’s Dorcester County for a formal ceremony making Tubman a one-star brigadier general in the state’s National Guard. Gov. Wes Moore called the occasion not just a great day for Tubman’s home state but for all of the U.S. “Today, we celebrate a soldier and a person who earned the title of veteran,” Moore said. “Today we celebrate one of the greatest authors of the American story.” Read more
Memorial service honors first Tulsa Race Massacre victim identified from mass graves. By DeNeen L. Brown / Wash Post
On Tuesday, six years after Tulsa’s Mayor G.T. Bynum (R) reopened the city’s investigation into a search for mass graves of massacre victims, C.L. Daniel was honored in a memorial service in Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery, blocks from the site of the massacre.
On Feb. 25, 1921, three months before the Tulsa Race Massacre erupted, World War I veteran C.L. Daniel wrote a letter to the U.S. War Department, asking for enough money to get home to his mother in Georgia. Read more
Voters elected Hitler because they liked his fascist promise. Trump’s reelection repeats that history. By Peter Fritzsche / Forward
The assumption was that voters would be turned off by seeing Trump for what he is — authoritarian, pitiless, hateful — and would recognize him as a kind of Hitler. Hitler, the most identifiable villain in modern history, and America’s arch-enemy in World War II.
But the charges didn’t stick. “Fascist” and “authoritarian” proved themselves to be abstract, unfamiliar, and even esoteric labels that did not particularly matter to voters concerned with inflation or immigration. And there was another, less savory, reason that the charges did not really hurt Trump: To suggest that Trump was a fascist was, actually, to identify many of the attributes that made him appealing. Read more
Most US book bans target children’s literature featuring diverse characters and authors of color. By Katherine Spoon and Isabelle Langrock / The Conversation
These findings were based on a comprehensive review of a then-record 2,532 bans that took effect in 32 states during the 2021-22 school year and compiled by PEN America, a nonprofit that defends the freedom of expression. The bans involved 1,643 unique book titles. We combined this with data on counties, sales of restricted books and author demographics.
While much has been written about the rise in book bans, there has been little empirical work done on their content, causes and consequences. Read more
The Curious Case of ‘Naughty Little Nora,’ a Jazz Age Shape Shifter.
Nora Holt was a pioneer of Chicago’s Black classical music scene. A friend of Josephine Baker, she later became a blues singer in Parisian nightclubs.
“Fabulous is the word for Mrs. Nora Douglas Holt,” read the 1974 obituary in The Amsterdam News. And fabulous she was: A pioneer of the Black classical music scene in Chicago, Holt also became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age in Paris. Born into the middle-class, she moved back and forth between worlds: concert artist and blues singer, newspaper columnist and club hostess, erudite scholar and scandalous socialite. Read more
Jazz Sax Great Lou Donaldson Dead At 98. By AP and HuffPost
The celebrated musician played with legends like Thelonius Monk and George Benson and was also sampled by Nas, De La Soul
Lou Donaldson, a celebrated jazz saxophonist with a warm, fluid style who performed with everyone from Thelonius Monk to George Benson and was sampled by Nas, De La Soul and other hip-hop artists, has died. He was 98. A native of Badin, North Carolina and a World War II veteran, Donaldson was part of the bop scene that emerged after the war and early in his career recorded with Monk, Milt Jackson and others. Donaldson also helped launch the career of Clifford Brown, the gifted trumpeter who was just 25 when he was killed in a 1956 road accident. Donaldson also was on hand for some of pianist Horace Silver’s earliest sessions. Read more
Yale introduces class on Beyoncé’s political and cultural impact. By
It’s the latest course to examine Beyoncé’s influence on political activism and feminism through the lens of her celebrity.
Starting this upcoming spring semester, Yale will offer a class titled “Beyonce Makes History: Black Radical Tradition History, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music.” The aim, according to its course description, is to use her work as a lens through which to examine Black intellectual thought and activism. Read more
Sports
NFL coaches diversity report 2024: Head coaches of color make history. By Tom Schad and Jim Sergent / USA Today
At the beginning of the 2024 season, nine of the NFL’s 32 teams were led by a head coach of color — the most in league history. But the complete picture of coaching diversity within the NFL is more nuanced, and complex.
As part of its NFL Coaches Project, USA TODAY Sports once again compiled biographic information — such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, playing background and coaching history — for every on-field coach in the league at the beginning of the season. This ranged from head coaches and coordinators, at the top of the proverbial coaching ladder, to quality control coaches and fellows at the bottom. Strength and conditioning coaches and those who work in analytics or administration were excluded from the data, as were interns. Read more
Klay Thompson wanted a low-key Warriors homecoming, but warm embrace could help heal wounds. By Sam Amick / The Athletic
Klay Thompson didn’t want any of the pomp and circumstance. The warm welcome from 400 or so Warriors employees who met him at the Dallas Mavericks’ team bus Tuesday and cheered for him as he walked toward the visitors’ locker room inside this familiar Chase Center.
Curry’s late flurry ruined Thompson’s plans for a revenge game. The Warriors won 120-117 after Curry buried the Mavs in video game form during those wildly entertaining final minutes. Still, it was quite clear that healing had occurred between the two sides. And by the time Thompson took the postgame podium, having hit six 3s en route to 22 points but surely lamenting his missed 3 that rimmed out with 89 seconds left, the tone that he had set behind the scenes coming into this emotional affair had changed for the better. Read more
Michael Strahan anthem controversy shouldn’t make you mad, unless you’re looking to be mad. By Steve Buckley / The Athletic
The former New York Giants defensive end was caught, if that’s the right word for it, failing to hold his right hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem. To fill out the picture here, the “Fox NFL Sunday” show was done live from Naval Base San Diego on Sunday as part of a Veterans Day salute, and during the anthem, all of the panelists, except Strahan, are shown with their right hand across the heart. Strahan has his arms in a resting position in front of his body, right hand over left.
According to the U.S. Flag Code, civilians “ … should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart.” It’s the “should” part of this that would seemingly give Strahan an avenue for a pass, but that’s playing word gymnastics, don’t you think? This isn’t a legal case, because Strahan didn’t do anything illegal. What’s more, he looked quite dignified and focused during the anthem, as though in church. Read more
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