Featured
George W. Bush compares violent domestic extremists to 9/11 terrorists. By Sarah Elbeshbishi / USA Today
Former President George W. Bush compared domestic and foreign extremists Saturday, seeming to liken the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to the 9/11 hijackers and calling on Americans to confront the growing threats from both groups.
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said during a speech at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.” Read more
Related: For many Americans of color, Sept. 11 only inflamed division. By Raj Tawney / USA Today
Related: To Be Young, American and Muslim After 9/11. By Meher Ahmad / NYT
Political / Social
Senate Democrats Close To Agreement On Voting Rights Compromise. By Paul Blumenthal / HuffPost
Senate Democrats are nearing an agreement on a compromise version of their sweeping voting rights bill, the For The People Act, to be able to secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the lone Democrat to oppose the original bill. The compromise bill trims the original For The People Act to meet the outline of compromise legislation Manchin put forward in June, according to sources. It includes most of the voter access expansions and election administration provisions in the original bill, including mandatory early voting, automatic voter registration and other key voting rights elements that were originally taken from the late John Lewis’ Voter Empowerment Act. It also includes provisions limiting partisan gerrymandering, banning undisclosed “dark money” in elections and newer provisions on addressing so-called election subversion, among other, as yet undisclosed elements. Read more
Judge Blocks Florida’s GOP-Backed ‘Anti-Riot’ Law. By Curt Anderson / HuffPost
Florida’s new “anti-riot” law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The 90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently-enacted law “vague and overbroad” and amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly as well as the Constitution’s due process protections. Read more
What year is it in America, anyway? How complacency and naiveté brought us to this crisis. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
On the same day that Texas overturned Roe v. Wade, another new set of laws went into effect that aim to subvert democracy by making it more difficult for Black and brown people to vote. Summoning a 21st-century version of Jim and Jane Crow, the new Texas anti-democracy laws encourage voter intimidation and harassment, make it easier for votes to be disqualified, restrict mail-in voting, and selectively target those means of voting used disproportionately by Black and brown people. Read more
Related: The precedent for the Texas abortion law? The Fugitive Slave Act. Bob Irvin / Wash Post
Louisiana Police Head Would Welcome A DOJ Probe Into Racial Profiling / NPR
The head of the Louisiana State Police said Friday he wants to know why 67% of his agency’s uses of force in recent years have been directed at Black people, and would welcome a U.S. Justice Department “pattern and practice” probe into potential racial profiling if that is deemed necessary. “If the community is concerned about that, obviously I am concerned about that,” Col. Lamar Davis told The Associated Press in an interview. “I’m a Black male. I don’t want to feel like I’m going to be stopped and thrown across a car just because of that, and I don’t want anyone else to feel that way.” Read more
Black Opioid Overdose Deaths Increasing Faster Than Whites, Study Finds. By Marisa Penaloza / NPR
A study published Thursday reveals a growing racial disparity in opioid overdose death rates. Deaths among African Americans are growing faster than among whites across the country. The study authors call for an “antiracist public health approach” to address the crisis in Black communities. The study, conducted in partnership with the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, analyzed overdose data and death certificates from four states: Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts and New York. It found that the rate of opioid deaths among Black people increased by 38% from 2018 to 2019, while rates for other racial and ethnic groups did not rise. Read more
Hunger rose for Latino and Black families in 2020 despite federal pandemic aid. By Reuters / NBC News
The number of Latino and Black families without enough to eat climbed in 2020, the U.S. government said on Wednesday, as the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered businesses and left millions of laid off Americans scrambling to put food on the table. Latino families with children facing hunger jumped 28% to more than one in five, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) annual Household Food Security in the United States report. One in four Black households with children were food insecure at some point in 2020, meaning they had to skip a meal or had less to feed their families — an 18% increase versus 2019. Read more
Related: Inequality Has Cost the U.S. Nearly $23 Trillion Since 1990. By Catarina Saraiva / Bloomberg
Related: ‘Black Capitalism’ Promised a Better City for Everyone. What Happened? Michael Corkery / NYT
Minorities And Women In The Air Force Face Harassment And Bias, A Study Finds. By AP / NPR
About a third of the female service members in the Air Force and Space Force say they’ve experienced sexual harassment and many can describe accounts of sexism and a stigma associated with pregnancy and maternity leave, a study released Thursday has found.
The review, done by the Air Force inspector general, also concluded that minorities and women are underrepresented in leadership and officer positions, particularly at the senior levels, and get promoted less frequently. It echoed many of the findings of an initial review, released last December, which found that Black service members in the Air Force are far more likely to be investigated, arrested, face disciplinary actions and be discharged for misconduct. Read more
The pandemic released a wave of anti-Asian hate. Now they’re fighting bias in their own pews. By Sarah Ngu / NBC News
Last month, the Presbyterian Church in America convened its annual general assembly with more than 1,200 male elders — only men can hold the office — in St. Louis. Asian American clergy had proposed a number of overtures, or official requests for the denomination to take action, including one that referenced March’s Atlanta-area spa shootings and called on the PCA to “strongly repudiate the sin of anti-Asian racism” and “actively denounce anti-Asian rhetoric.” Read more
What’s Truly Behind Buckhead’s Push to Split from Atlanta to Form Its Own City? Community Leaders and Critics Say It’s ‘Taxes, Money & Race.’ By Kavontae Smalls / Atlanta Black Star
A group of Buckhead residents say they’ve had enough with Atlanta and want to form its own city. The Buckhead City Committee, the group leading the effort to secede from the City of Atlanta, claim they are not getting enough bang for their buck in the form of city services. They also believe crime is out of control and feel they can do a better job at keeping Buckhead safe. Buckhead is currently 77% white and 11% Black. Rose believes the push to split Buckhead off from Atlanta has less to do with city services and crime and more to do with the race of Atlanta’s leaders. “They don’t say because you have a Black mayor, but that’s the bottom line, some of them don’t like the Black leadership,” said Rose. Read more
Vice President Kamala Harris to visit Hampton to advocate for more focus on STEM. By Mia Berry / The Undefeated
As a part of National Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Week, Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Hampton University on Friday. Harris’ visit will stress the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at HBCUs, and she will tour STEM facilities as part of the White House Initiative’s HBCU Week conference, which began Tuesday and ends Friday. “Vice President Harris will continue her long-standing efforts to uplift and support HBCUs by visiting Hampton University. HBCUs play an important role in training for the future — and keeping our nation competitive through STEM education,” said Vince Evans, deputy director of the office of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, office of the vice president. Read more
Related: Biden appoints longtime ally to chair board of advisers on HBCUs. By Alex Gangitano / The Hill
Queen Elizabeth supports Black Lives Matter movement, says aide. By Jack Guy / CNN
Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family support Black Lives Matter (BLM), a senior representative has told UK broadcaster Channel 4. Ken Olisa, the first black Lord-Lieutenant for London, said that the issue of race is a “hot conversation topic” in the royal household, in an interview which will be aired Friday, reports PA Media. The royal family’s attitude to race has been in the spotlight recently following allegations of racism from Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the revelation that ethnic minority immigrants and foreigners were banned from clerical positions until at least the late 1960s. However Olisa suggested that the family are open to talking about racism. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser. By Dana Milbank / Wash Post
Related: Let’s get real about Robert E. Lee and slavery. By Gillian Brockwell / Wash Post
Related: Robert E. Lee’s statue is gone. Now can we dismantle the myth, too? By Eugene Robinson / Wash Post
Where are the monuments to Confederate Gen. James Longstreet? By Stephen A. Holmes / CNN
Despite his distinguished war record, Longstreet’s absence from the pantheon of Confederate heroes was no accident. It was the result of a deliberate campaign by Southerners to punish him for his actions following the war. After the end of the war, Longstreet eventually settled in New Orleans. There, unlike many of his compatriots, he spoke out in favor of Reconstruction. He became a Republican. He endorsed Ulysses S. Grant – who was reviled by Southerners – for president in 1868. In 1874, he had the temerity to lead a predominantly black force of state militia in pitched gun battles against white supremacists in the streets of New Orleans. To many in the South, these efforts branded Longstreet a traitor to the white race to be either vilified – or forgotten. Read more
Alphaeus Hunton: The Fight for Equality and Liberation during WWII. By Tony Pecinovsky / AAIHS
It has been argued that the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) neglected the struggle for African American equality during World War II. It has been further argued that anti-fascism overshadowed anti-colonialism during the Popular Front and WWII periods among Communists, socialists, and progressives. W. Alphaeus Hunton’s work in the National Negro Congress (NNC), the Council on African Affairs (CAA), and as a columnist for the Daily Worker challenges this notion. Hunton, a Howard University professor and a Communist, led the Washington, D.C. NNC chapter and served on the organization’s national executive board. Shown is Alphaeus Hunton with his wife, Dorothy, Paul Robeson, and W.E.B. Du Bois, sometime between 1949 – 1963. Read more
Colson Whitehead on moving from Underground Railroad and Nickel Boys to Harlem Shuffle. By Laura Miller / Slate
Colson Whitehead’s two previous novels, 2016’s The Underground Railroad and 2019’s The Nickel Boys, earned him Pulitzer Prizes and a much wider audience than he’d enjoyed before. Those new readers, who know him for his depictions of harrowing historical atrocities, may find his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle, a startling departure. For Whitehead’s longtime fans, it’s something of a return to form: a cool, funny, slyly elegant genre outing that deftly weaves in weightier themes around the edges of a story about crooks and schemers in mid-20th-century New York. Read more
Take a Look in the Mirror: The Horror of the New “Candyman” Is Complicity. By Edwin Rios / Mother Jones
In DaCosta’s movie, co-written by Jordan Peele, Candyman’s legend is carved from the deaths of Black men before him—the Black painter, Daniel Robitaille, killed in the late 1800s for impregnating a white woman; the impoverished man named Sherman Fields, who was wrongly accused of putting razor blades in the candy he handed out to children and who was subsequently beaten to death by the cops. The legend of Candyman gets formed and forgotten and reformed over the years, the embodiment and in some way the avenger of intergenerational trauma. Read more
Theme songs: Meet the Black music and musicians who serenade us from the small screen. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
While mourning the passing of actor Michael K. Williams last week, I revisited some of the episodes of the HBO classic series The Wire and was reminded of the theme song: Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole.” The song was performed by different artists each season, including The Blind Boys of Alabama—whose version was selected for the series’ premiere season—as well as the Neville Brothers, Waits himself, and a group of Black Baltimore teenagers. Listening to these very different versions got me thinking about Black musicians and music in other television series. Though white artists and composers predominate scoring and performing for television series, I was elated to find Black music offerings in various genres. Some I was familiar with, and others which I had not heard until I started searching. So for today’s #BlackMusicSunday, join me in a musical expedition on the small screen, starting with The Wire. Shown are the Blind Boys of Alabama. Read more
Sports
Venus Williams: The Thing That Has Really Made Me Tough. By Venus Williams / NYT
I’m sitting at my desk after having to pull out of this year’s U.S. Open with a leg injury. Managing physical ailments is always difficult, but it’s part of a professional athlete’s job. I have always understood this. But my body is only half of it. I still remember the first time my mother told me this: If I wanted to thrive in this sport — and in life — I needed to take care of my “whole self.” What my mom was telling me that day in Oakland was that none of those elements of winning would work unless I also tended to my mental health. I needed to have a balanced life and not identify myself solely as a tennis player. Even though I was beginning to have success as a young pro, I had to remain committed to my education, to stay connected to my religion, and to enjoy the experience of improvement — not be so driven that I would miss it all. Read more
Why Stephen A. Smith wanted Max Kellerman off ESPN’s ‘First Take.’ By Chris Bumbaca / USA Today
With a salary that stretches to eight figures, what Stephen A. Smith wants, Stephen A. Smith gets. He wanted former “First Take” host Max Kellerman off the show, and that’s exactly what happened. Smith elaborated on his thought process during an appearance on New York City morning radio program “Ebro in the Morning.” “The rumors are accurate in terms of me wanting him off the show. Let’s get that out of the way,” Smith said. Smith maintained the two had a good relationship and that he liked Kellerman. Their on-air chemistry had waned, he explained. Read more
What to Know About the Sexual Misconduct Lawsuits Against Deshaun Watson. By Ben Shipigel / NYT
Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson is the subject of 22 civil suits filed in March and April which accuse him of coercive and lewd sexual behavior, with two that allege sexual assault. He has not been charged criminally and his lawyer has denied the accusations. Here’s where the cases stand. Twenty-two women have accused Watson of assault in civil lawsuits filed in Harris County, Texas. The lawyer representing them, Tony Buzbee, said the women have largely echoed one another’s claims of sexual misconduct and coercive behavior against Watson. Read more
‘Muhammad Ali’ Explores the Many Layers of ‘the Greatest.’ By Finn Cohen / NYT
A new four-part documentary series by Ken Burns paints a sweeping portrait of a man whose life intersected with many of modern America’s most profound changes. “He won people over because he was right about the war,” Remnick continued. “He won people over because as an athlete, he proved himself over and over again to be not only beautiful to watch, but unbelievably courageous. So his athleticism and his superiority as an athlete just couldn’t be denied, even when he lost.” Muhammad Ali,” a four-part documentary series premieres Sept. 19 on PBS, Read more
Black quarterbacks are taking over the NFL. But there’s still more ground to gain. By Michael Lee / Wash Post
Carmelo Anthony Still Feels Like He’s Proving Himself. Cunningha
That characteristic impression of unbothered contentedness makes it all the more startling to read Anthony’s new book, “Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope.” Out this month from Gallery Books, it is a frank accounting of the years before Anthony arrived in the N.B.A., as the third pick in the 2003 draft, selected by the Denver Nuggets. (The draft is the book’s final scene.) Readers follow the young Melo, from toddlerhood to late adolescence, through a life that was anything but easy. Read more
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