Featured – ‘White supremacy’ is really about white degeneracy. Today’s far-right populists relish the idea that they can be morally contemptible, yet still prevail.
The concept of “white supremacy” is having a moment right now, and understandably so. White resentment, entitlement and bigotry never went away, but it is closer to the political mainstream now than it has been for decades. Social Darwinism, and “scientific” attempts to prove the superiority of the “white race” still have a presence on the far right. But I don’t think that this is the dominant ideological driver behind the resurgence of white racism. Keith Kahn-Harris / The Guardian Read more Also see, A Brief History of White Supremacy – Ronald J. Sheehy
House Judiciary Committee Member Slams Trump For Not Countering U.S. Hate Crimes.
Ranking member Jerrold Nadler penned an open letter demanding that the president come to the table on anti-Semitism and white supremacy. Andy Campbell / HuffPost Read more
How the spike in hate crimes is forging unlikely alliances.
The recent rash of hate crimes has led to some seemingly unlikely alliances. After an election season full of anti-refugee fearmongering, rabbis organized a pilgrimage to the southern border to protest the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants. After the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Muslim leaders offered to stand guard outside synagogues to protect Jews while they worshiped and raised money to support the community. Shana Bernstein / Wash Post Read more
Why racist politics appeals to white women, explained by American history.
Mississippi Senate race: Cindy Hyde -Smith and white women in America. To understand white women’s political behavior, you have to understand how they’ve been both empowered and disempowered. Anna North / Vox Read more
The GOP is now the party of neo-Confederates.
Many of us have left the GOP in disgust over the rise of Trumpism. The neocons who are now in the ascendancy are the neo-Confederates who have been encouraged to come into the open by President Trump’s unabashed appeals to racist and xenophobic prejudices. Max Boot / Wash Post Read more
Mississippi’s first black senator was greeted with applause. But it wouldn’t last.
Hiram Revels, an African American preacher and educator, was elected to the Senate from Mississippi to become the first black member of Congress. Hiram Rhodes Revels, a onetime barber and former Union Army chaplain, came to Washington in 1870, at the start of a remarkable (albeit short-lived) period of what historians call “biracial democracy” in the Reconstruction-era Deep South. Steve Hendrix / Wash Post Read more
Stacey Abrams’ New Lawsuit Against Georgia’s Broken Voting System Is Incredibly Smart.
At the very least, the lawsuit will shine the light of day on how Georgia makes it much harder than many other states to register and successfully cast a ballot. If the lawsuit achieves its more ambitious aims, a court could put Georgia’s voting system back under federal supervision for up to 10 years. Richard L. Hasen / Slate Read more
Booker’s ambitious proposal to close the racial wealth gap.
His idea — commonly described with the catchy monicker, “baby bonds” — is a proposal to grant at birth every American a cash account that could be used in adulthood to climb the ladder of economic success. Sam Fulwood III / Thinkprogress Read more
How Creed Forever Changed the Rocky Series.
Ryan Coogler and Sylvester Stallone profoundly altered the racial subtext of America’s most iconic sports-film franchise. Coogler who, with Creed, as he did later with Black Panther, deftly subverted a cherished American cinematic tradition, placing black communities at the center of genres in which they were never meant to be more than plot devices, mere stepping stones for white protagonists on a journey to greatness. Adam Serwer / The Atlantic Read more
The ‘Good Guy With the Gun’ Is Never Black.
The deaths of Emantic Bradford and Jemel Roberson remind us who the Second Amendment protects. Protestors carry a sign reading “Justice for E.J.” during a protest at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., . A police shot and killed 21-year-old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. of Hueytown while responding to a shooting at the mall on Thanksgiving evening. Jamil Smith / Rolling Stone Read more
A Baptist Preacher’s Buddhist Teacher: How My Journey with Daisaku Ikeda made Me a Better Christian.
In this inspiring, soul-stirring memoir, Lawrence E. Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, shares his remarkable quest to experience King’s “beloved community” and his surprising discovery in mid-life that King’s dream was being realized by the Japanese Buddhist philosopher and tireless peace worker Daisaku Ikeda. Read more
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