Featured
Cuba in the Crosshairs: The Complication of Colorism. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
It is tempting to view Cuba as a relic of the Cold War—an island suspended between revolution and ruin. But Cuba’s story is not static. It is a living case study in power, race, ideology, and the enduring question of whether any system—capitalist or socialist—can deliver justice without reproducing inequality in new forms.
Read complete essay: Cuba in the Crosshairs. The Complication of Colorism
The Week’s Top Stories
Political / Social
Is the Don’s Con Gone? By David Corn / Mother Jones
The Iran war is the latest in a series of moves that have undermined his scams.
A con man’s challenge is to stay ahead of his con. If his marks begin to see too many signs that they are being played—and the swindler can’t craft a cover story to account for these contrary facts—the artifice can start to crumble. Donald Trump may be at this point. Read more
Related: How to defeat Trump every time. By Robert Reich / The Guardian
Related: Trump’s Desperate Madman Ploy. By David Frum / The Atlantic
House Democratic leaders signal openness to 25th Amendment push. By Andrew Solender / Axios
House Democratic leadership took a noticeable step Wednesday towards embracing a long-shot push to remove President Trump from office through the 25th Amendment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday that Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) will host a virtual briefing Friday afternoon “on Trump administration accountability and the 25th Amendment.” Read more
Related: These Politicians Have All Called For The 25th Amendment To Be Used Against Trump. By
Related: Republicans Call for Trump Impeachment After Wild Iran Death Threat. Daily Beast / Leigh Kimmins
How Trump intends to hijack the midterms. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
The president is building a system where the outcome is decided before ballots are even counted
As the Washington Post reported on Monday, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were a trial run. Then, he “pressured Republican county election officials, state lawmakers, and members of Congress to find him votes after he lost his reelection bid. Now, he’s seeking to change the rules before ballots are cast.”These strategies include “challenging long-established democratic norms” and making “unprecedented demands that Republican state lawmakers redraw congressional districts before the constitutionally required 10-year schedule, the prosecution of political opponents, a push to toughen voter registration rules and attempts to end the use of voting machines and mail ballots.” Read more
Black veterans face unequal support from the nation they served. By Cristina Johnson / Yahoo News
From housing to health care, the data shows Black veterans still face disparities we can’t ignore.
Black veterans make up about 15% of Texas’ veteran population — more than 227,000 men and women who have served this country. Yet they account for roughly 44% of homeless veterans in the state. That gap is not just striking; it reflects deeper, persistent inequities that demand attention. Read more
Trump Goes After Federal Programs He Calls ‘Woke’ in Budget Proposal. Luke Broadwater and Michael C. Bender / NYT
The president’s request for 2027 reflects his preoccupation with eliminating programs that support diversity and civil rights. Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director.
In section after section of his budget request, Mr. Trump sought to cut programs he connects to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which he argues discriminate against white people. The proposed cuts, which are tiny compared with the $1.5 trillion budget he suggested for the military, reflect the president’s focus on stamping out federal initiatives created to support disadvantaged groups. Read more
Related: Hunger is rising — by Republican design. By Ashlie D. Stevens / Salon
Why Latinos Join ICE. By Geraldo L. Cadava / The Atlantic
One reason: They’re aiming to protect, not betray, their communities.
Jesús Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez, the two federal immigration agents who killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, are Latinos from South Texas—Ochoa a Border Patrol agent, Gutierrez a Customs and Border Protection officer. Statistically speaking, this should come as no surprise. Over the past half century, Latinos went from making up a negligible fraction of Border Patrol agents to constituting half of the entire force. Latinos have been central to the work done by the Border Patrol for decades. Read more
13 Disturbing Truths About Black Maternal Health They Don’t Want You to See. By
Before Black Maternal Health Week begins Saturday, we’re discussing 13 alarming truths no one should ignore, & the policy gaps still failing Black moms.
In America, one of the most dangerous things a Black woman can do is give birth. It’s a statistical anomaly that defies modern medicine’s logic, sadly proving that wealth doesn’t shield you, education won’t protect you and fitness plus a good diet provides no sanctuary. Read more
Education
Judge Halts Trump Administration’s ‘Chaotic’ Higher Ed Data Mandate on Race Reporting. By Autumn A. Arnett / The EduLedger
A federal judge in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on April 3, 2026, blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a new requirement that universities report race and gender data for all applicants, effectively pausing a policy that critics called a “fishing expedition” against diversity efforts.
The recent decision marks the latest escalation in a series of policy shifts that have reshaped the landscape of higher education. The first full year of enrollment data following the Supreme Court’s decision to block the use of race in admissions revealed a stark “cascade effect”: while Black student enrollment plummeted at “Ivy Plus” institutions, 83 percent of state flagships surprisingly saw gains. However, interpreting these shifts is becoming increasingly difficult as a rising number of applicants choose to “decline to state” their race. Read more
Black Caucus scholarships discriminate on race, lawsuit alleges. By Jessica Guynn / USA Today
An anti-affirmative action group is suing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, alleging college scholarships for Black students from underfunded schools in majority Black districts illegally discriminate based on race.
Part of a broader effort to upend programs intended to remedy discrimination, the lawsuit calls out the Congressional Black Caucus, which partners with the foundation. “Awarding educational opportunities to some young constituents but not others – based on the color of their skin – is neither conscientious nor legal,” the American Alliance for Equal Rights said in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC. Read more
New Bill Tightens Control Over Kentucky State University. By Sara Weissman / Inside Higher Ed.
Kentucky lawmakers passed legislation that would grant them new oversight over the commonwealth’s historically Black land-grant university and transition it into a polytechnic institution.
State University students and alumni successfully lobbied state lawmakers to soften plans for strict oversight over the institution’s programs and spending and a mandated pivot towards applied learning. But the bill the state’s General Assembly passed last week will still exert significant fiscal control over the historically Black land-grant institution while it stabilizes its finances and reconfigures as a polytechnic. Lawmakers argue that ramping up oversight for the cash-strapped institution is better than the alternative they previously considered among themselves—shuttering it altogether. Read more
Texas Considers Required Reading List for Schools, Which Includes the Bible. By Sarah Mervosh / NYT
Education officials are planning an overhaul to English and social studies in the nation’s largest Republican led state.
The changes would also bring a U.S. and Texas centric lens to history, with less emphasis on world history, a shift some historians and progressive groups have opposed. But it also includes passages from the Bible in middle and high school, raising questions about the separation of church and state. Read more
World
How the Iran ceasefire could impact the U.S. economy. By CBS
CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger breaks down when Americans could see relief at the gas pump and how the temporary Iran ceasefire could impact consumer spending and the U.S. economy. Watch here
Related: Trump’s Iran Deal Gives Him Nothing He Wanted. By Nancy A.Youssef / The Atlantic
Related: It’s Not a TACO. It’s a Surrender. By William Kristol, Andrew Egger and Jim Swift / The Bulwark
How US, Israel are waging a war on Iranian culture, education. By Priyanka Shankar / Aljazeera
Iranian officials have told Al Jazeera the US and Israel’s attacks seek to wipe out Iranian identity. The Laser and Plasma Research Institute of Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran’s Evin area.
While the United States and Israel maintain they are striking military targets, the Iranian government’s data tells a story of cultural and scientific loss. At least 56 heritage sites, 30 universities and 55 libraries have been damaged so far, according to local media reports. Read more
Related: The War Is Turning Iran Into a Major World Power. By Robert A. Pape / NYT
Almost all US refugees are now from South Africa, as Trump focuses on Afrikaners. Sarah Matusek / CS Monitor
All but three of the 4,499 refugees let into the United States this fiscal year so far have come from South Africa. This squares with President Donald Trump’s pledge to prioritize Afrikaners from that nation – who are white – while capping refugee entries at a record low.
Halfway through fiscal year 2026, the latest State Department data, published this week, shows that refugee arrivals have already surpassed half of the 7,500 admissions cap. Read more
U.S. cut aid to Africa. The continent proved resilient. By Editorial Board / Wash Post
The abrupt change was messy, but forced governments to reform fast.
The Trump administration’s sharp reduction in aid to Africa last year seemed likely to cause a continent-wide crisis of apocalyptic proportions. While there has been pain, particularly in health care, many African nations displayed remarkable resilience. Read more
Related: Universities ‘Need to Reclaim What It Means to Be African.’ By Juliette Rowsell / Inside Higher Ed.
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Faith leaders denounce Trump s civilization will die threat. By Fiona Murphy, Aleja Hertzier-McCain and Ulaa Kuziez / The Christian Century
In the hours before President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran, religious leaders across faith traditions responded with alarm after the president’s message Tuesday morning warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. In response, X and other social media platforms were flooded with reactions from lawmakers, clergy, and faith leaders. Read more
Related: Pope Leo Is Speaking Truth to Donald Trump’s Power. By John Nichols / The Nation
Related: Trump’s Strategic and Moral Failure in Iran. By David Remnick / The New Yorker
Far-Right Religious Leaders Advising Trump See Iran as an End Times Holy War. By Alain Stephens / The Intercept
Since the Trump regime launched its war on Iran, his administration has gotten a lot more biblical.
In the last few weeks, Trump and his circle have delivered a chorus of mandates — many sounding as if sent from the Almighty himself — from encouraging lawmakers to support legislation “for Jesus” to billing America’s 250th anniversary as a moment to rededicate the nation under a single, unified God. Read more
Related: Trump’s Iran War Is Tearing Apart His Catholic–Evangelical Coalition. By Kiera Butler / Mother Jones
Related: The Christian right’s victim complex fuels Trump’s Iran war. By Amanda Marcotte / Salon
One of the Bible’s Greatest Moral Revolutions. By Shai Held / NYT
A hallmark of the second Trump administration has been the hunt for the foreign born, from children to adults, criminal status apparently notwithstanding.
Many of the administration officials who champion this project often invoke God in their speeches, asserting that their allegiance to the Constitution is rooted in their fealty to a far older text: the Bible. It is clear that many of our leaders lack the most fundamental understanding of the central biblical commandment to love and care for the immigrant. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Selma Still Matters. By Keith Ellison and Yusef D. Jackson / The Nation
What was born there was a new definition of who gets to be an American. And that legacy is under threat.
We went back to Selma, Alabama, this year—not as dignitaries or guests at a ceremony, but as inheritors of an unfinished revolution. And we did not go alone. We brought a new generation: organizers from Latino, Somali, Hmong, Cambodian, and Laotian communities. Many of them had just watched armed, masked ICE agents surge through their neighborhoods in Illinois and Minnesota. Just like the students of 1965, they came to Selma to stand up, to speak out, and to demand that America finally become what it has always promised. Read more
The Black Women Changing the DAR. By Andrew Lawler / The Atlantic
More and more women of color are joining the 136-year-old organization.
In 1976, Karen Batchelor was a young mother desperate for mental stimulation. One day, she went to a library in Detroit to explore her family’s history and unexpectedly found an Irish ancestor who had served as a Revolutionary War soldier on the Pennsylvania frontier. Batchelor, who is Black, was even more surprised when a librarian told her that this discovery qualified her for membership in Daughters of the American Revolution. Read more
A Short History of American Politicians Threatening to Wipe Out Civilizations. By William Spivey / Level Man
Trump is arguably the most out-of-control politician in American history. Yet he isn’t the first to threaten the lives of an entire civilization. He is, however, the first to announce a time and date. April 7, 2026, at 8 pm Eastern time.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” — Donald Trump. American political leaders, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, also made troubling remarks. Read more
Related: The United States Is Now an Apocalyptic Terror State. By Sasha Abramsky / The Nation
Who Is Black Comedy For? By K. Austin Collins / The Atlantic
Chappelle’s era of comedic dominance is the denouement of Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy From Vaudeville to ’90s Sitcoms, a new book by Geoff Bennett.
A PBS News Hour anchor, Bennett traces the trajectory of Black comedy, beginning with the long backstory of its arrival in the network-TV mainstream. The first of the book’s two sections is a series of historical profiles of Black comics, from the minstrel-era performer Billy Kersands through Eddie Murphy. Bennett then turns to several landmark Black television shows of the ’80s and ’90s—series in which, as a youth, he could “see Blackness represented in a way that felt real and expansive.” The book concludes with Chappelle’s Show. Read more
Trick Daddy Defends His Music After Performance at AKA Event is Cut Short. By
The room was filled with AKAs of all generations. So when Young began performing his hit songs like “I’m a Thug,” many were caught off guard.
Florida rapper Trick Daddy is known for his Florida slang and raunchy lyrics. But now, the rapper is catching heat from a regional director of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) after his performance rubbed lots of folks the wrong way. Read more
Sports
Like Jackie Robinson, Indians’ Larry Doby Deserves Day Of Recognition. By Bernie Pleskoff/ Forbes
Breaking the color barrier in baseball was a major accomplishment for the very gifted, very athletic, very personable, and very courageous.
While Robinson was the first to break MLB’s color barrier, left-handed slugger Larry Doby became the first Black MLB player in the American League on July 5, 1947. Three months after Robinson’s debut, Doby joined the Cleveland Indians. While the tribute for Robinson is of critical importance to baseball, it seems very sad to this writer that there is no special commemoration for Larry Doby. Since a mere few months separated Robinson and Doby’s arrival to the major leagues, it seems only right to commemorate Doby breaking the color barrier in the American League. Read more
52 years ago: Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home-run record. By Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos
On April 8, 1974, Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball legend Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking the record formerly set by Babe Ruth.
During the fourth inning in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Aaron launched Al Downing’s pitch into history, circling the bases while navigating enthusiastic fans who ran onto the field to celebrate. Aaron faced death threats from 1973 to 1974, as he approached Ruth’s record. But according to teammate Dusty Baker, Aaron was unflappable in the face of all of that hate. Read more
The Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Sporting Life. By Dave Zirin / The Progressive Magazine
The way Jackson carried himself in the sports world offers lessons progressives would do well to remember and carry forward.
My very first column, written for Prince George’s Post, about the politics of sports, was inspired by Jackson’s efforts in 2003 to get Sylvester Croom hired as the head coach of the University of Alabama football team. Croom would have been the first Black head coach in any sport in the Dixie-tinged Southeastern Conference. Jackson saw it as a civil rights battle in the long tradition of fights for racial justice in Alabama and led a demonstration in Montgomery. What fascinated me most was how at ease Jackson seemed in this space between sports and politics—a place where, at the time, few dared to tread. Read more
The extraordinary story of boxing’s racist ‘colour line’ and the fighters who broke it. By Lord Cryer / Politics Home
Thankfully the ‘colour line’ is not a phrase often heard today, but the history behind boxing’s racist exclusion of black fighters should not be forgotten.
From the 1870s until the late 1930s, black boxers were forbidden from competing for world titles in a conspiracy maintained by white fighters, administrators and promoters. This excluded black athletes from a what was one of the great pinnacles of world sport at the time – heavyweight boxing. Some of them, almost certainly, would have been champions. The most egregious example was Harry Wills, who time and again was prevented from fighting for a world title. Read more
The night Geno Auriemma snapped — and Dawn Staley showed the game has changed. By Jerry Brewer / The Athletic
The confrontation wasn’t about a handshake. Beneath all that ego and pride, rage and obstinance, Geno Auriemma must know that. It was about control — a slipping, shifting, sport-changing control — and a kind of frustration that the best coach in women’s college basketball refused to keep hidden.
For four decades, Auriemma hasn’t just dominated the sport. He set the terms. He renovated the throne. He stitched “One Size Fits Geno” on the crown. In this game, nothing can move without encountering him. Then Dawn Staley built her own galaxy. Suddenly, there was more than one center of power. Read more
Site Information
On Race in America is published every Saturday. Some articles may be AI-assisted. Articles appearing in On Race in America are archived on our home page. A collection of Books, Podcasts, and Video Favorites can also be found there.
On each page you can register your email to receive notifications of new editions of On Race in America.
Click here for earlier Editions
The site is fully searchable by name or topic—see the Search option at the top of the page. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find custom share buttons that let you email the edition or post it directly to your Facebook, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter) accounts.