Featured
Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated. Michael H. Keller and
The white majority is fading, the economy is changing and there’s a pervasive sense of loss in districts where Republicans fought the outcome of the 2020 election.
A shrinking white share of the population is a hallmark of the congressional districts held by the House Republicans who voted to challenge Mr. Trump’s defeat, a New York Times analysis found — a pattern political scientists say shows how white fear of losing status shaped the movement to keep him in power. Because they are more vulnerable, disadvantaged or less educated white voters can feel especially endangered by the trend toward a minority majority, said Ashley Jardina, a political scientist at George Mason University who studies the attitudes of those voters.
“A lot of white Americans who are really threatened are willing to reject democratic norms,” she said, “because they see it as a way to protect their status.” Read more
Related: This Supreme Court Term Is All About White Grievance. By Pema Levy / Mother Jones
Related: Do We Really Have to Care About Miserable White People? By Joan Walsh / The Nation
Political / Social
Raphael Warnock, Herschel Walker, and Black Politic’s Future. By Zak Cheney-Rice
The legacy of the civil-rights movement may hinge on Raphael Warnock’s reelection campaign.
Warnock is a refined product of Morehouse College and Union Theological Seminary. Since 2005, he has been the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King’s former parish, where the late representative John Lewis was one of his parishioners. He is probably the closest thing to the civil-rights movement’s golden child. Walker, by contrast, is a multi-millionaire ex-athlete and Donald Trump protégé with no political experience who says he is “not that smart.” He “lies like he’s breathing,” one of his aides told the Daily Beast, including about being an FBI agent able to kill COVID with a “dry mist” he keeps in his home. Read more
Democrats are losing Latino voters as Republicans eye opportunities at midterms. By Kai McNamee / NPR
Recent polling shows a majority of Latino voters plan to back Democratic candidates in next month’s midterm elections, continuing a trend that has held for decades. But that support is on the decline.
According to a recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll, Democrats have a 27-point advantage with voters who identify as Hispanic. That’s a generous margin, but it’s down significantly from the nearly 40-point advantage the party had in 2018. One of the biggest reasons for this shift, Rocha said, was Republicans have been stepping up their efforts to gain the support of Latino voters. Read more
Related: No, Latinos aren’t abandoning the Democratic Party. By Dana Milbank / Wash Post
Governor Ron Desantis Uses Lone Florida Governor Debate Continue Spreading His Critical Race Theory Nonsense. By Murjani Rawls / The Root
The Florida Republican Governor still thinks teaching the full history of America is causing children to hate each other.
“What I think is not good is to scapegoat students based on skin color. What I think is not good is to distort American history by saying the American Revolution was fought to defend slavery. “I don’t want to teach kids to hate our country. I don’t want to teach kids to hate each other, and the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Desantis’ last point is interesting because it’s exactly why you teach children and adults the true history of America. You learn about slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and 60s because you don’t want those things to happen again. Read more
Slavery Is on the November Ballot in Five States. By Christina Carrega / Capital B
The nearly 160-year-old ‘slavery loophole’ has allowed incarcerated people to work for pennies or no wage at all.
The loophole enabled the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, which strictly regulated Black Americans’ behavior and movements, and has influenced the mass incarceration era, funneling millions of Black people into correctional facilities. Incarcerated people are often paid pennies per hour or no wages at all for their labor. When they refuse to work — even in cases of injury or illness — they can be punished by losing visitation privileges, being placed in solitary confinement, or losing good-behavior credits that would lessen their sentences. On Election Day, voters in those five states will decide whether to remove the slavery exception, meaning certain labor practices in correctional facilities could be deemed unconstitutional by courts. Read more
A Group of Former Trump Aides Is Behind Racist and False Anti-Immigrant Ads. By Isabela Dias / Mother Jones
And they’re connected to Stephen Miller’s legal organization.
Baseball fans in California and Pennsylvania watching the playoffs last Saturday had to sit through commercial breaks that included racist, xenophobic ads filled with misleading and false claims. “You worked hard for what you have,” one of the ads says. “Followed the rules, paid your taxes, saved and sacrificed for your piece of the American Dream, and now it is being stolen for you, stolen from your family, stolen from your children. Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats have erased our southern border, and they have released a record number of illegal immigrants into the United States, all at your expense. This giant flood of illegal immigration is draining your paychecks, wrecking your schools, ruining your hospitals, and threatening your family.” Read more
Alabama Senate: Peter Riehm could beat Vivian Figures in Mobile, flipping a Black Democratic seat MAGA. By Molly Olmstead / Slate
Should Figures lose her seat to Riehm, the outcome won’t change the political make-up of the state overall. There are only eight Democrats in the state senate to 27 Republicans. But it’s worth paying attention to this one race—a very rare competitive election in Alabama—because it shows the ways extreme, conspiracy-theory minded candidates are quietly rallying for local power, even when there is little, politically, on the line.
The important backdrop of this election is the state’s redistricting after the 2020 census. Since the ’70s, either Figures or her husband has represented a chunk of the Mobile metropolitan area, including a city to the north that’s almost 90 percent Black. But when the Alabama legislature reworked the map, her district carved into the overwhelmingly white suburb of Spanish Fort. Read more
Black Republicans are ‘no longer hiding’ as they run for Congress. By Eugene Scott / Wash Post
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), greets attendees during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC on Feb. 25 in Orlando.
Affirmative Action’s Last Best Hope. By Justin Driver / NYT
Fortunately, reports of affirmative action’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Several plausible reasons suggest that the Supreme Court may not kill affirmative action — at least not with such alacrity. Even if most of the justices wish to end affirmative action, authoritative legal considerations may nevertheless compel the court to issue a decision permitting it to exist until June 2028. Given that the Harvard and UNC cases will almost certainly not be resolved until next summer, this approach would provide universities with a five-year reprieve before they adjust to a post-affirmative action world. Read more
Related: What hope would Thurgood Marshall see now? By Ruth Marcus / Wash Post
Related: How one man brought affirmative action to the Supreme Court. Again and again. By Robert Barnes / Wash Post
Why Clarence Thomas Gave A Temporary Reprieve to Lindsay Graham From A Federal Subpoena Over Alleged Election Interference. By Jamila Bey / BET
The South Carolina senator asked the justice to spare him from discussing calls he made to Georgia’s Attorney General after Trump lost the state.
Thomas’ action, in which he made the decision alone without consulting the rest of the bench, is unusual. The departure from usual Supreme Court protocol, and the nature of the testimony Thomas was allowing Graham to withhold, has led to calls for his impeachment and claims that the chief justice was acting undemocratically. Read more
How big finance bankrupts Black America. By Emily Flitter / Fortune
An excerpt from ‘The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America.’
And in deciding how to answer customers’ questions, the algorithm did not just look at a small sample of customer histories or credit scores. It used data that connected customers’ preferred devices—smartphones versus laptops—the models of these devices, the kinds of cars the customers drove, even the colors of those cars. An ocean of data went into predicting what kinds of financial decisions each customer was most likely to make and how Capital One could maximize its own revenue based on them. Dr. Luke and her team succeeded in this complex task, even patenting their creation. It was, in a very significant sense, the first of its kind in banking. Other banks rushed to develop competing versions of it. Read more
How Black Landowners in the South Are Recovering Lost Generational Wealth. By Cameron Oglesby / The Nation
William Barber III at the Vera Brown Farm in Jamesville, N.C. (Justin Cook for The Margin)
Piney Woods serves as a counterfactual to modern Black land ownership in this country; it exemplifies what Black wealth and connection to land could have been in the United States had Black landowners been allowed to thrive. This type of multigenerational land retention is rare, and the pervasiveness of Black land loss in the United States is well documented. “This story needs to be told so people cannot say that these types of communities did not exist; so that people cannot say that there were never unadulterated Black homesteaders, landowners, and farmers who were not simply sharecroppers or not simply oppressed by the land.” Read more
Kanye West’s antisemitic conspiracy theories and white supremacist rhetoric continues. What is he doing? Aja Romano / Vox
Ye has always courted controversy. This time feels different.
Fake children, lost Black tribes of Israel, and vast conspiracies: This is not the Kanye West we used to know. Ye, né Kanye, habitually draws headlines for more than just his music, whether it’s for his outspoken comments on race and politics, his beefs with other artists, or his contentious relationship and divorce from Kim Kardashian. Ye is so much, all the time, that it might be easy to skim past the last several weeks of non-stop Ye controversy. Read more
Related: Kanye West may have finally reached the point of no return. By Travis M. Adrews / Wash Post
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Deconstruction or reconstruction? Pastors discuss a reboot of evangelicalism. By Bob Smietana / Religion News
In a Chicago suburb, a group of pastors gathered to discuss evangelicalism’s failings and how to repair them.
A conference about the future of the nation’s largest religious tradition began with a bit of honesty. “Nobody knows exactly what an evangelical is,” said Joel Lawrence, executive director of the Center for Pastor Theologians, at the opening of the Reconstructing Evangelicalism conference Monday (Oct. 24). The conference, which drew about 400 pastors and other church leaders to Calvary Memorial Church in the Chicago suburbs, was inspired by a recent trend among evangelicals and other Protestants to “deconstruct” the faith they grew up with — examining core beliefs and often rejecting the conservative politics, sexism and racial divides evangelicalism has come to be known for. Read more
Why religious piety tells us nothing good (or bad) about politicians. By Paul Waldman / Wash Post
The Constitution may forbid any religious tests for public office, but where politics is actually practiced, candidates are constantly testifying about their faith, hoping we’ll see them as principled and moral — no matter our own beliefs.
Is there any evidence at all that pious and observant politicians make better governors or senators? Are they wiser, more compassionate, more competent, possessed of more integrity than those who don’t regularly attend services or look to scripture for policy guidance? If there is, I haven’t been able to find it. In our long history of rogues and villains in public office, the highly religious are more than adequately represented. As in the rest of society, there’s no pattern in which the corrupt are more likely to be secular and the moral more likely to be religious, either personally or in their official capacity. Read more
Why White evangelicals won’t recoil against the worst MAGA pols. By Jenifer Rubin / Wash Post
A man holds a Bible during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. (John Minchillo/AP)
Many Americans remain puzzled by how self-described evangelical Christians can support a MAGA movement that increasingly normalizes bigotry and celebrates morally and intellectually unfit leaders. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” has studied the politics of White Christian evangelicals for decades. Our recent email conversation appears below lightly edited for style and length: Read more
Historical / Cultural
The Transatlantic Slave Trade. By Equal Justice Initiative
American port cities from New England to New Orleans were shaped by the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Between 1501 and 1867, nearly 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto European and American ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved, abused, and forever separated from their homes, families, and cultures. Coastal communities across the U.S. were permanently shaped by the trafficking of African people. New England, Boston, New York City, the Mid-Atlantic, Virginia, Richmond, the Carolinas, Charleston, Savannah, the Deep South, and New Orleans had local economies built around the enslavement of Black people. Few have acknowledged this history. EJI’s new report examines the economic legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which created generational wealth for Europeans and white Americans and introduced a racial hierarchy that continues to haunt our nation. Read more
Exhumations to resume in a bid to identify Tulsa Race Massacre victims. By AP and NPR
A group prays during a small ceremony as remains from a mass grave are re-interred at Oaklawn Cemetery on July 30, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla.
Some of the 19 bodies taken from a Tulsa cemetery and later reburied that could include remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre will be exhumed again starting Wednesday, part of a bid to gather more DNA for possible identification. The latest exhumation of bodies, some of which were taken last year from Oaklawn Cemetery in the northeastern Oklahoma city will be followed by another excavation for additional remains. “There were 14 of the 19 (bodies) that fit the criteria for further DNA analysis,” according to city spokesperson Michelle Brooks. “These are the ones that will be re-exhumed.” Read more
Why I Keep Coming Back to Reconstruction. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Credit…James E. Purdy, via National Portrait Gallery
I write frequently about the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, not to make predictions or analogies but to show how a previous generation of Americans grappled with their own set of questions about the scope and reach of our Constitution, our government and our democracy. The scholarship on Reconstruction is vast and comprehensive. But my touchstone for thinking about the period continues to be W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Black Reconstruction,” published in 1935 after years of painstaking research that was often inhibited by segregation and the racism of Southern institutions of higher education. Read more
‘I Dream A World’ celebrates the timeless, urgent vision of Black Women. By Lonnae O’Neal / Andscape
Photos and words from three decades ago speak precisely to this moment
There is a timelessness to the 14 black-and-white portraits of Black women evenly spaced along the walls of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The images, part of an exhibit titled “I Dream A World,” draw you in with a precision and resonance that feel custom-made for this moment, even though the photos are decades old, and some of these women now belong to the ages. It makes it that much more powerful to look into their eyes, and to feel them speak of courage anew. Read more
Black Music Sunday: Celebrate Diwali and Deepavali by shining some light on the world of Indo-jazz. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
On Black Music Sunday we’ve traveled the (musical) globe, exploring the worldwide appreciation of jazz and other genres of American Black music, and how they’ve been blended with music of other cultures. In honor of the holidays of Diwali and Deepavali—celebrated by over 1 billion people worldwide—what better time to examine the history of jazz in India? The history of the classical music of South Asia, and many of the instruments used to play it, is a very old one, and has been traced to about 1500 BCE. Jazz, of course, is much more modern, dating back to the coming together of African and European cultures—an offspring of the slave trade in the American South. The story of how the two worlds came together is a fascinating one. Read more
Sports
Russian court rejects Brittney Griner’s appeal of 9-year sentence. By T.J. Quinn / ESPN
A Moscow court rejected Brittney Griner‘s appeal of her nine-year sentence on drug charges Tuesday, a completely anticipated result in a trial that U.S. and international officials have called an illegitimate proceeding.
U.S. officials have said they believe Russia will eventually send the WNBA star home in a prisoner swap but have expressed frustration over what they say is Russia’s failure to respond to the “significant” offer the United States made in June. We are aware of the news out of Russia that Brittney Griner will continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. Read more
Jeff Pearlman’s new book seeks truth behind Bo Jackson legend. By Michael Grant / Awful Announcing
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson’ examines one of America’s greatest athletes, and the many stories about him.
Everyone who knows him has a story about Bo Jackson. Somebody saw Jackson (seen above posing for pictures with fans ahead of a Sept. 17 Auburn game) do this. Somebody saw Jackson do that. The tales are sometimes fantastical, but you can’t dismiss them. That’s amazing considering the extraordinary feats we know for sure. He’s almost like the sports version of Paul Bunyan where the facts are occasionally clouded and it is difficult to say with certainty where the truth ends and the mythology begins. Read more
Bubba Wallace’s one-race suspension another lesson in a season full of them. By Deron Snyder / Andscape
NASCAR Cup Series’ only full-time Black driver has faced intense scrutiny from the track to social media. It all boiled over in Las Vegas.
All in all, Bubba Wallace’s 2022 NASCAR season was winding down pretty well before his suspension Tuesday. In July, he drove his #23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry around Chicago to promote NASCAR’s inaugural street race there next summer. In August, he signed a multiyear contract extension with 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and fellow driver Denny Hamlin. In September, Wallace earned his second career victory in the Cup Series, making him the first Black driver to win multiple Cup races. But Wallace was suspended for driving, not “fighting.” After Larson nudged him into the wall Sunday during the South Point 400, Wallace veered left and seemingly clipped Larson from behind deliberately. Their cars spun out and wrecked, ending the race for both men. That’s when Wallace went after Larson, offering an apology on Monday. Read more
How NFL teams use Black coaches to clean up their messes. By Emily Giambalvo / Wash Post
When things fall apart, NFL owners often turn to Black coaches to serve as interim leaders. But they face a tougher road to capitalize on those auditions than their White peers. Steve Wilks took over as interim coach of the Carolina Panthers after Matt Rhule was fired. Just a few days later, the team had traded two key offensive players. (Ashley Landis/AP)
The experiences of Black interim coaches call into question whether the Panthers will consider Wilks a legitimate candidate. Though Black coaches are vastly underrepresented among the league’s head coaches and coordinators, they have historically been better represented among the league’s interim coaches, The Post found. The trend echoes a corporate America phenomenon known as the “glass cliff,” in which women and people of color are called on to lead in times of crisis. Read more
LeBron James redefined player empowerment – but not the way you think. By Justin Tinsley / Andscape
LeBron’s Power Plays is an occasional series examining LeBron James’ two decades in the NBA and how he has influenced both professional sports and the larger culture.
“LeBron has shown you don’t have to start when you’re at the tail end of your career. You can start being a business person very early in your career and reap the benefits of trying to take more control over your destiny,” said Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse. “I think he’s encouraged others to think beyond the conventional options. The conventional ways of structuring deals … He’s really pushed the boundaries in a number of different ways.” “LeBron has had to understand he was a brand since he was a high schooler. That concept of ‘You are a brand and your brand is your business,’ ” Renee Montgomery, co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, said in a phone interview last month. “That business is a separate business from basketball. That’s what LeBron gave. That’s gonna be the gift that keeps on giving.” Read more
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