Featured

The Real ‘DEI’ Candidates. By Adam Serwer / The Atlantic

Kamala Harris’s evisceration of Donald Trump at the debate revealed who in this race is actually unqualified for power.

Before Tuesday’s debate, Donald Trump and his supporters insisted that Kamala Harris was a lightweight who was barely able to speak coherently. Trump has called Harris “dumb as a rock,” “low-IQ,” “unable to put two sentences together,” and “unable to put two sentences together without a teleprompter.” Republicans have said that Harris was chosen “because of her ethnic background,” that she’s a “DEI hire” who “gets more favorable treatment because of her race and gender.”

Conservatives have taken to referring to DEI as “didn’t earn it.” But to the extent that the candidates are running on unearned advantages related to personal biography, this better describes Trump and Vance than it does Harris, who worked her way up from local to state to federal office over the course of decades.

That’s the irony—the actual “didn’t earn it” candidates are the two white guys running on the Republican ticket. Read more

Affirmative Action Was Banned. What Happened Next Was Confusing. By Anemona Hartocollis and Stephanie Saul / NYT

Here is what we know about the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision curtailing race-based admissions at selective universities. And why many experts and administrators are baffled.

When the Supreme Court ruled against race-conscious admissions, the expectation — based on statistical modeling presented in court — was that the proportion of Black students at highly selective schools would go down and the proportion of Asian American students would rise. That is what happened at many colleges and universities. But as schools have released data over the last few weeks, there have been some striking outliers. Read more

Political / Social

These people have seen Harris in the Situation Room. Here’s what they have to say. By David Ignatius / Wash Post

Would Kamala Harris make a good president and commander in chief? The vice president certainly strengthened her case with a deft performance in Tuesday night’s debate. To use a combat metaphor, she appeared to encircle and at times overwhelm her adversary.

To get a better sense of her potential strengths and weaknesses, I interviewed more than a half-dozen current or former officials who have observed her in the Situation Room or other sensitive national security meetings. They all expressed versions of the same basic theme: Harris behaves like the prosecutor she was for much of her career. She’s skeptical, probing, sometimes querulous. She can be impatient and demanding. But she asks good questions. And if she’s convinced of the need, she’s not afraid to act. “She’s more hard-line than most people think,” said one retired four-star general who has briefed her many times. Read more

Harris and Biden warn that Trump would roll back Black progress. By Maeve Reston / Wash Post

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris told Black lawmakers Saturday night that their Republican opponents are intent on rolling back progress achieved by Black Americans, saying it is critical to mobilize and organize to help Harris prevail in the November election.

Harris warned that Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), disdained the vision of an America that included “a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice — not just for some, but for all.” “Today, that vision, our vision, is under profound threat,” she said at a dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. “While we move — and fight to move — our nation toward a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies want to move our nation backward.” Read more

Donald Trump is openly running a Great Replacement Theory campaign. By Jason Stanley / Salon

Donald Trump made clear on the Philadelphia debate stage this week, as he has throughout his three presidential campaigns, the basis of his run for office. Trump is running on the platform that non-white immigration is an existential threat to the nation. This time around, Trump has made his primary message, the so-called Great Replacement Theory (GRT), more vivid than ever. It is therefore of existential importance in understanding the stakes of this election to have clearly in mind what has happened in the past when GRT has been the central driving narrative both of individuals and of states.

According to the Great Replacement Theory, the nation’s greatness, its traditions and its practitioners, are existentially imperiled by an influx of foreign races, ethnicities or religions. The foreign elements are sometimes described in the narrative of GRT, as vermin or diseases. Read more

Trump’s Ugly Rants About Haitians Suddenly Take On a More Sinister Hue. By Greg Sargent / TNR

Bomb threats have come to Springfield, Ohio. So why don’t Trump and J.D. Vance back off the demagoguery? Because supercharging all these toxic social tensions is precisely what they want.

In a shocking new development—OK, it was entirely predictable—the mayor of Springfield, Ohio has now confirmed that the widely reported threat by email to bomb Springfield’s City Hall included hateful language toward immigrants. This suggests at least the possibility that MAGA’s Two-Minute Hate of the Week about Haitians eating people’s house pets helped incite a threat of mass violence. Read more

Why Thousands of Haitians Have Settled in Springfield, Ohio. By Miriam Jordan / NYT

Businesses needed workers, and Haitians, many already authorized to work, heard living costs were low. But the newcomers have strained resources, and that has fueled tension.

Over the last few years, many immigrants from Haiti have settled in Springfield, Ohio, drawn by the low cost of living and plentiful jobs. But the pace and volume of Haitian newcomers have strained local resources and stirred some tensions. And now, ahead of the presidential election, the city has found itself caught up in the fiery debate over immigration. Read more

My former friend JD Vance has aligned with something far worse than MAGA. By Sofia Nelson / MSNBC

Most Americans haven’t heard of the post-liberal right, the small but influential group of conservative, mostly Catholic men who have declared that liberal democracy, the animating principle of America’s founding, has failed and want to bring about a new social order where there is no separation of church and state and men and a hyperconservative Catholicism reign supreme.

They are disdainful of secularism and individual liberty. Just like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump illustrated during Tuesday night’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, these men idolize the authoritarian Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary. To repeat, I once considered Vance a friend. We were in the same class at Yale Law School, he knew me as an openly trans person, and we remained in communication until 2021. Read more

I’ve Traveled Across The Country To Attend Trump Rallies. Here’s What You Won’t See On TV. By

“The real action takes place while everyone is waiting for the rally to start, not during the actual speech.”

I am a journalist and researcher working on a book about the psychology of the MAGA movement and the far right. I have been immersed in far-right internet forums for nearly a decade, studying how people are radicalized and identifying when there is a potential for violence. Even as a trained, objective observer, there are days when the bigotry, conspiracy theories, misogyny and hate speech in those spaces overwhelms me. But I also know online vitriol does not always reflect offline reality. Read more

Here Are the Investigations Surrounding the Administration of Eric Adams. By Michael LaForgia / NYT

Federal agents and prosecutors have launched an array of inquiries into Mr. Adams and some of his highest-ranking aides in City Hall.

For more than a year, federal prosecutors have been circling around Mayor Eric Adams of New York City and his campaign, and more recently, they have seized phones and sought information from some of the highest-ranking members of his administration. Read more

Fani Willis skips Georgia state Senate hearing seeking her testimony. By Olivia Rubin / ABC News

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, did not appear Friday at a hearing held by a Republican-led state Senate committee that has been investigating her.

Willis has challenged the legality of the subpoenas she received from the committee, a spokesperson for her office previously told ABC News. Read more

HBCUs, though underfunded, provide billions in economic stimulation. By Cheyanne M. Daniels / The Hill

A new report details how historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have continued to provide opportunities of upward mobility for Black Americans even as they remain woefully underfunded compared to predominantly white institutions (PWIs).

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) released its 2024 HBCU Economic Impact Report — Transforming Futures: The Economic Engine of HBCUs — Thursday, providing data about the economic power, policy reform and partnerships needed to ensure these universities and colleges receive funding and support to continue operating. Read more

World News

Putin threatens war as Western allies near deal on missile strikes in Russia. By Dan Bloom, Esther Webber and Jamie Dettmer / Politico

White House summit on Friday could grant Ukraine new powers to strike Russia’s military bases.

Britain and the U.S. are poised to cross a decisive Rubicon in the Ukraine war on Friday at a White House summit where they will discuss plans to allow Kyiv to strike targets inside Russia with Western-supplied missiles. In a final bid to scare off the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday evening he would regard such an agreement as tantamount to NATO directly entering the war. “This will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are fighting Russia,” he said. Read more

‘We Have Something to Say’: Younger Black Voters Want Attention on Gaza. by Brandon Tensley / Capital B

They’re concerned that the Democratic Party’s calls for freedom are too narrow — that they ignore the plight of Palestinians.

Yes, they’re enthusiastic that Vice President Kamala Harris is at the top of a major political party’s ticket. But they’re also concerned that the party’s calls for freedom and a more inclusive democracy are too narrow — that they ignore the plight of Palestinians. This friction contributes to a generational divide. One pollster, per The New York Times, observed an almost 30-point gap in support for Democrats between Black voters from the ages of 18 through 49 and Black voters 50 and over. Closing this gap will require Democrats to engage more intentionally and directly with frustrated voters, or else they might sit out the election altogether. Read more

America first? Or the United States as the leader of the free world? By H.W. Brands / Wash Post

Eighty-four years ago, America experienced a presidential election campaign that was historic in two regards. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 was trying to break the unwritten ban on third terms that dated to George Washington. And the central issue of the campaign was whether the United States should set aside a century and a half of diffidence and seize the leading role in world affairs.

Roosevelt won the election, defying the hoary taboo. His first request upon his third inauguration was for a blank-check program of aid to Britain and other countries fighting Germany and its allies, Japan and Italy. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 and Roosevelt directed American aid to the communist dictatorship, Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

The Moral Test of Trump’s Lies About Haitian Immigrants. By Russell Moore / The Atlantic

If we’re willing to see children terrorized because of a false rumor about Haitian immigrants, we should ask who abducted our conscience, not someone’s pet. A Haitian father attempts to pick up his child outside Fulton Elementary School in Springfield, Ohio, after a bomb threat prompted an evacuation on September 12, 2024.

The accusation that Haitian immigrants in a small Ohio city are abducting and eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs relies not on one falsehood but on a web of them. The rhetoric evokes racist tropes about “savages” who do not conform to our civilized Western world. There’s also a religious angle: the idea that Haitian refugees are voodoo occultists who might be worshipping the devil. As an evangelical Christian who actually believes in the existence of Satan, I agree that we can indeed see the work of the devil at play here, only it’s not on the menu of the Haitian families but rather in the cruelty of those willing to lie about them. Read more

Will Your Presidential Vote Send You to Hell? By Russell Moore / Christianity Today

Decisions made on Election Day have implications for Judgment Day. But let’s not confuse one day for the other.

A family I know and love was rattled recently to get a note from someone they considered a longtime friend suggesting that the family was going to hell. The cause for the impending brimstone was not that the family denied the faith, embraced some heresy, or adopted some unrepentant life of immorality. At issue was that the family did not support a presidential candidate. Read more

Christian Nationalism is Distorting Christ’s Message. By Beverly Lussier / Patheos

In the heart of America, Christian nationalism is eroding the very essence of our values. Masquerading as faith, it poses a significant danger by distorting the beliefs and teachings of Jesus.

It manipulates Christianity itself. Through blind allegiance to a political figure, followers forsake the principles of love, compassion, and justice. This clouds moral judgment and perpetuates systemic oppression and marginalization. The impact translates into policies and actions that actively harm marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ individuals, people of color, the poor, women, immigrants, and religious minorities. Such actions stand in direct contradiction to the inclusive message of Jesus, who embraced the outcast and championed the marginalized. Read more

Historical / Cultural

White People Have Never Forgiven Haitians for Claiming Their Freedom. By Elie Mystal / The Nation

Behind the vicious Trump-Vance attacks on Haitian immigrants is a long history of making the people of Haiti pay for the audacity of their revolution.

Haitians committed the greatest sin possible in the modern world: We took our freedom back from the white man. Haiti is the birthplace of the only successful slave-led revolt in the “New” or “Western” world. Like everywhere else in this hemisphere, enslaved Haitians asked for their freedom, agitated for it, and were willing to negotiate terms with the enslavers for their emancipation. Unlike everywhere else, when those negotiations and political dealings resulted in nothing more than the continuation of permanent chattel slavery, Haitians stopped talking and started rebelling—and by 1804 had liberated themselves from their suddenly-not-so-superior captors. Read more

Examining Identity in Louisiana’s 19th-Century Black Literature. By Tanguy Gil / AAIHS

Slave narratives were a central genre of African American literature in antebellum America. Still, some authors wrote fiction works, the first of whom is recorded to be Victor Séjour, a Louisianian whose native language was French. In 1837, he published a short story bearing the title “Le Mulâtre” (“The Mulatto”). This work is considered as the first fiction written by an African American ever to be published in the United States. “In the French meat market, New Orleans” (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

The African American French-speaking community in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, dated back to the 17th century and the colonization of the region by France. During the 18th century, many African Americans were enslaved in Louisiana. Others migrated from Santo Domingo, which was under French rule, to settle in the region of New Orleans, thus contributing to the development of a large Francophone group of African descent. As the Europeans of New Orleans were mostly of Spanish and French origin, French was the vehicular language used between individuals, explaining the use of French in African American Louisianian literature. Read more

Represent: The Unfinished Fight for the Vote / book by by Marc Favreau and Michael Eric Dyson / Thrift books

Renowned thought leader Michael Eric Dyson and widely celebrated author Marc Favreau shine a light on the fight for democratic representation, an ongoing and epic quest to build the democracy promised in the Constitution.

Each chapter takes on a new battle between champions of freedom and those who stand in the way of their right to vote–from the American Revolution straight up to the present day as we approach the 2024 presidential election. Read more

How a Cultural Shift Favors Harris. By David Brooks / NYT

Right now, I’d say, Kamala Harris is benefiting from the beginning of a cultural shift and is beginning to have the cultural winds at her back. Donald Trump is beginning to be slapped in the face by those winds.

Trump emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the tail end of the culture of narcissism, or what Tom Wolfe called the Me Decade. It was the era of the unchained self — self-esteem, self-expression, self-promotion. In the ’80s, especially in Manhattan, there was an unabashed fascination with wealth, self-display, ego, the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Read more

Frankie Beverly, R&B and funk legend, dies at 77. By Sidney Madden / NPR

Born in Philadelphia in 1946, Beverly found his voice singing in church, and formed many R&B and doo-wop groups throughout the 1960s before refining his sound and founding Raw Soul, later renamed Maze, in 1970. The funk band, made up of highly skilled live instrumentalists and supporting vocalists, tied together with Beverly’s strong, smooth lead vocals as the constant, got its big break after relocating from the East Coast to San Francisco in 1971 and being invited by Motown giant Marvin Gaye on tour as his opening act.

In 1977, the band released its debut album, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and gained prominence for songs like the slinky and euphoric “Happy Feelin’s.” From the time of the band’s debut until the 1990s, Maze proved to be a reliable source for quiet storm and R&B hits, including “Golden Time of Day,” “Joy & Pain” and “We Are One.” Read more

Caribbean Matters: Honoring Afro-Latinos during Hispanic Heritage Month. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos

Sept. 15 marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Far too frequently Afro-Latinos here in the U.S.—people with both an African heritage and one from Spanish-speaking countries—aren’t prominently portrayed as representative symbols, nor are their contributions to U.S. history common knowledge.

We have communities here with people born or descended from Caribbean island nations where Spanish is the official language such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. There are also people from the Caribbean basin countries on the coasts of South America and Central America from regions of Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Colombia, and Venezuela. Additionally, there are Spanish speakers here from Aruba, Curacao, Belize, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Trinidad and Tobago. Each one of these groups has members who are Black of all or partial African descent. Read more and listen here

Kendrick Lamar drops first song since ‘Not Like Us.’ By Daysia Tolentino / NBC News

The rapper released the untitled track on Instagram during the MTV Video Music Awards.

Months after the beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake seemingly reached a conclusion, Lamar has dropped a new track. Lamar posted an untitled song to his Instagram Reels without a caption on Tuesday evening. He uploaded the post right as the MTV VMAs were starting. Lamar’s smash hit “Not Like Us,” which disses Drake, was nominated in three categories at the VMAs on Tuesday but did not snag any awards. The new untitled track was only released on Instagram. Lamar similarly released one of his diss tracks against Drake, “6:16 in L.A.,” on Instagram only. Read more

Sports

Patrick Mahomes’ silence on the Trump-Harris election race speaks volumes. By Ja’han Jones / MSNBC

The NFL star says he isn’t planning to endorse a candidate, which is noteworthy since he has spoken out on police misconduct and the two candidates couldn’t be more different on that issue.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a star on the field, but when it comes to politics, he’s reducing himself to riding the bench. The NFL star says he doesn’t plan to endorse a presidential candidate in this year’s election. “I think my place is to inform people to get registered to vote, is to inform people to do their own research and then make their best decision for them and their family,” he told reporters Wednesday. “Every time I’m on this stage and I get asked these questions, I’m going to refer back to that, because I think that’s what makes America so great.” Read more

Colorado coach Deion Sanders wanted decisive Colorado State win after ‘disrespect’ from Rams. By Brent Schrotenboer / USA Today

The Colorado coach expressed displeasure with Colorado State after beating the Rams on the road with an electric display from two-way star Travis Hunter

It was that kind of night for the Buffaloes (2-1). Coach Deion Sanders almost seemed relieved and didn’t mind rubbing it in with the rival Rams (1-2) in front of a sold-out crowd of 40,099. “We just really wanted it to be decisive,” Deion Sanders said. Sanders and Colorado could have pulled their offensive starters from the game in the final minutes and then run the ball on every play to run out the clock with a 28-9 lead. But they didn’t. Instead, Shedeur Sanders threw up some deep balls on Colorado’s final series and attempted passes on five of his final seven plays. Read more

How James Earl Jones shaped our thinking about race and sport. by Kevin B. Blackistone / Wash Post

From “The Great White Hope” to “The Sandlot,” James Earl Jones gave us profound performances at the intersection of race and athletics.

In December 1967, Arena Stage in Southwest Washington did something you might expect from what was the first integrated theater in the nation’s capital: It raised the curtain on an original production by a 37-year-old Jewish playwright, Howard Sackler, that dared to explore race and racism in America. Through the lens of sport, to boot. Sackler titled his play “The Great White Hope.” He based it loosely on the profligate life of Jack Johnson, the first Black boxer allowed to fight for the world heavyweight championship — which he won — a title that was perceived as the mark of masculinity forever reserved for White men to prop the myth of racial superiority. And to play the Johnson character, Sackler chose a 36-year-old Black actor, James Earl Jones, who had been bouncing around Broadway stages after supporting himself as a janitor upon moving to New York in the mid-1950s. Read more

Jordan Chiles looking for ‘my peace’ and ‘my justice’ after bronze medal dispute. By David K. Li / NBC News

In her first public comments since she was stripped of a bronze medal she appeared to have rightfully won, Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles said Wednesday she’s still seeking “justice” and “peace.”

Chiles, speaking at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in New York City, said the situation regarding the disputed medal has taken a severe emotional toll. The biggest thing that was taken from me was,” Chiles said, her voice choking with emotion that forced her into a 14-second delay to compose herself, “the recognition of who I was, not just my sport, but the person I am.” Read more

Aces star A’ja Wilson breaks the WNBA’s single-season scoring record. By AP and NPR

A’ja Wilson broke the WNBA single-season scoring record just before the first half of the Las Vegas Aces’ game against the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night.

Wilson hit a jumper from the free throw line with 26.4 seconds left in the second quarter to surpass the previous mark of 939 points set by Jewell Loyd in 2023. The Aces’ two-time league MVP came into the game averaging 27.3 points and 11.9 rebounds. Read more

Amid calls for Tua Tagovailoa to step away, his coach calls for patience. By Mark Maske / Wash Post

What’s next for Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins? Plenty of uncomfortable questions.

The implications of the latest concussion suffered by Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa were only beginning to come into focus Friday. He was being evaluated under the NFL’s concussion protocols that put doctors solely in charge of determining when he can return to the field, and Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel said it was inappropriate for others to speculate on whether the standout quarterback should retire after at least his third diagnosed concussion since 2022. Read more

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