Featured
The Art and Politics of Attention-Grabbing. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
In contemporary American politics, attention is not incidental to power—it is power. What citizens are induced to notice, react to, and argue about, obscures what goes unscrutinized and unchallenged. Attention-grabbing is therefore not a personality trait or media gimmick; it is a governing strategy. Its purpose is not persuasion through reason, but dominance through distraction, emotion, and exhaustion. Read more
Related: The Real Reason Trump Backed Off Greenland. By Michael Wolff / The Daily Beast
Related: Inside the deception that made Trump possible. By Thom Hartman / MSN
The Week’s Top Stories
Political / Social
The Coming Trump Crackup. By David Brooks / NYT
Last week Minneapolis’s police chief, Brian O’Hara, said the thing he fears most is the “moment where it all explodes.” I share his worry. If you follow the trajectory of events, it’s pretty clear that we’re headed toward some kind of crackup.
We are in the middle of at least four unravelings: The unraveling of the postwar international order. The unraveling of domestic tranquillity wherever Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents bring down their jackboots. The further unraveling of the democratic order, with attacks on Fed independence and — excuse the pun — trumped-up prosecutions of political opponents. Finally, the unraveling of President Trump’s mind. Read more
Related: The GOP faces its day of reckoning as Trump hemorrhages power. By D. Earl Stephens / MSN
Related: How Trump made the far-right love the government: ex-FBI agent. By Sarah K. Burris / MSN
Related: This Is the End. By Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark
House Passes Bill Funding ICE — With Help From Democrats. By and
The bill provides $10 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement with no meaningful constraints on its often violent tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere.
The House of Representatives passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday with no meaningful constraints on President Donald Trump’s often violent crackdown on immigrants in Minnesota and other blue states across the country. Read more
Louisiana v. Callais Will Have Powerful Implications For Black Voting Rights. By Anoa Changa-Peck / Newsone
Once again, our right to fair representation and exercise of political power hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court considers the future of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Voting Rights, elections, and the power of people to define themselves remain as important in 2026 as they were in 2006, 1982, and 1965. And once again, our right to fair representation and exercise of political power hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court considers the future of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana v. Callais could undermine one of the Voting Rights Act’s last remaining enforcement mechanisms. Ashley Shelton, Executive Director of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, told NewsOne that Louisiana v. Callais “has powerful implications for representation at every level of government.” Read more
Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico Face Off in a Texas Senate Primary Campaign. J. David Goodman / NYT
Two of the Democrats’ rising stars, Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico, are seeing if a red state should be won courting disaffected Republicans or focusing on the party’s base.
Early voting for the March 3 primary begins Feb. 17, meaning the next four weeks will be an all-out sprint between these two young, social media savvy Democrats. The contest has drawn national attention and raised the party’s hopes that 2026 could be — finally, maybe, after 30 long years — their best chance for victory in Texas. Read more
Related: Lisa Cook Case Tests Presidential Power and Black Women’s Resolve. By
Behind the December jobs report: Black unemployment remains nearly double the national rate. By Andrea Bossi / MSN
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly job report, that’s like a barometer for U.S. employment, on Friday. On its face, the December 2025 jobs numbers are not so bad. But, digging into the data a little deeper, there are some more alarming trends.
All in all, the report shows employers added 50,000 jobs in December. This was mostly in line with analysts’ expectations. These new jobs kept the national unemployment rate — now 4.4% — little changed. However, the unemployment rate and job losses look drastically different when zooming into Black employment and women’s employment. Read more
Related: Black women face prolonged unemployment. By CBS News
According to a new report, Harris County, Texas, is the deadliest place to give birth for Black women. By Kay Wicker / The Grio
According to new data, Harris County, Texas has the highest Black maternal mortality rates, nearly double the national average.
Houston isn’t just home to the largest medical center in the world— it is also, as new data suggests is the deadliest place in America for Black women to give birth. Citing a recent report from Harris County Public Health, the outlet reported that from 2016 to 2020, Black women in Harris County experienced the highest pregnancy-related death rate in the nation. Their mortality rate reached 83.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, while white women were dying at roughly one-fourth that rate. Read more
Conservatives are flipping civil rights principles on their head. By Russell Payne / Salon
A year into President Donald Trump’s second term, the federal government is flipping the logic of civil rights on its head, using the language of nondiscrimination to destroy the legal structures that themselves aim to prevent discrimination.
Early in Trump’s second term, he moved to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion measures, popularly referred to as “DEI” programs. While DEI programs found themselves the topic of conservative ire in the 2020s, especially after the summer of 2020, the programs go back decades. Read more
Related: 12 ways the Trump administration dismantled civil rights law and the foundations of inclusive democracy in its first year. By Spencer Overton / The Conversation
Related: We Are Risking the Legacy of the Civil Rights Generation. By Justin Giboney / Christianity Today
Related: The Civil Rights era is losing its grip on young Americans. By Russell Contreras / Axios
Education News
Probes Into Racism in Schools Stall Under Trump. By Meredith Kolodner / TPM
Since President Donald Trump took office, the agency has not publicly announced a single investigation into racial discrimination against Black students, instead prioritizing investigations into alleged anti-white discrimination, antisemitism complaints and policies regarding transgender students.
All told this year, the Education Department under Trump has dismissed thousands of civil rights investigations. During the first six months of this year, OCR required schools to make changes and agree to federal monitoring in just 59 cases, compared with 336 during the same period last year, a Washington Post analysis found. Read more
Related: Trump Administration Drops Appeal In DEI Lawsuit. By Joe Jurado / Newsone
When Philanthropy Becomes a Suspect: Black Institutions, Federal Scrutiny, and the MacKenzie Scott Moment. By Fisher Jack / Eurweb
Why major gifts to Black empowerment have always attracted undue scrutiny—and what’s different now.
Since 2020, Scott has donated more than $26 billion, with an unprecedented concentration of giving to HBCUs, community-based nonprofits, and organizations serving people long excluded from America’s economic mainstream. By any historical metric, she is the single largest individual donor to Black-serving institutions in U.S. history. And yet—suddenly—her name is being circulated in media narratives that imply, rather than prove, wrongdoing by associating her giving with organizations now facing federal or congressional scrutiny. Read more
Florida is reshaping higher education. Other states are watching. By Lucy Marques / Tampa Bay Times
The state has been at the forefront of the push to eliminate campusdiversity initiatives, create schools focused on Western thought and restrict student activism on campuses. It even established a college accrediting body this summer that includes university systems in the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee.
Florida’s 2022 Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Woke act, was one of the first pieces of legislation to try to restrict campusconversations about race and push back against critical race theory, the idea that racism is systemic. The legislation prohibits any teaching that would make someone feel “guilt, anguish or other psychological distress” due to their race. Read more
World
People in Gaza dig through garbage for things to burn to keep warm — a far cry from Trump’s vision. By Toqa Ezzidin and Julia Frankel / AP
Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood dug with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to fend off the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war.
The scene in the Muwasi area of the city of Khan Younis contrasted starkly with the vision of the territory projected by world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, where they inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace that will oversee Gaza. Read more
Trump seeking ‘regime change’ in Cuba by end of the year: US media report. By Erin Hale / Aljazeera
United States President Donald Trump aims to remove Cuba’s leadership and is actively seeking government insiders in Havana who are willing to make a deal with Washington to “push out the Communist regime”, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The US newspaper, quoting unnamed US officials, reported on Wednesday that the Trump Administration does not have a “concrete plan” for Cuba, but that the recent abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the US military was “left behind as a blueprint and a warning for Cuba”. Read more
Trump’s Greenland threats push Europe toward divorcing America. By Tim Ross / Politico
For many European governments, including America’s longest-standing and most loyal allies, Trump’s threat of punitive tariffs against anyone who tries to stop him taking Greenland was the final straw. Divorce, they believe, is now inevitable.
In private, dismayed European officials describe Trump’s rush to annex the sovereign Danish territory as “crazy” and “mad,” asking if he is caught up in his “warrior mode” after his Venezuela adventure — and saying he deserves Europe’s toughest retaliation for what many see as a clear and unprovoked “attack” against allies on the other side of the Atlantic. Read more
Related: Global shock and panic over Trump’s threats on Greenland / CBS News
Trump withdrew the U.S. from UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. Experts see a more sinister ploy. By Gerren Keith Gaynor / The Grio
While it likely went unnoticed by many living in the United States, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent is alarming advocates and international leaders.
They warn that, though the move carries out President Trump’s year-long agenda to do away with DEI both domestically and abroad, the withdrawal also threatens momentum for racial and reparative justice around the world. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
It’s Not ‘Christian Nationalism.’ It’s Conservative Identity Politics. By George Yancey / Christianity Today
Conservative Christians have become politically active in ways that are concerning. Some, particularly activists, prioritize political salvation over spiritual salvation and view electoral victories as a key needed to remake society.
There is value in finding a term that captures this activism and help us understand politically active conservative Christians and what motivates them. In my work as a sociologist, I have come to believe the concept that best describes the current phenomenon is conservative identity politics. Read more
The Christian Curriculum Teaching Civil Rights to a New Generation. By Harvest Purdue / Christianity Today
At age 93, Young is lending his name and wealth of wisdom to a new program aimed at encouraging young people to take up the mantle of King and other civil rights leaders like himself to be bridge builders in today’s divisive and polarized age.
The program—called Andrew Young Higher Education Initiative—teaches students about the formative principles of nonviolence, belief in the dignity of human life, and other formative principles of the Civil Rights Movement. It encourages students to wrestle with the central role Christianity played in the movement and challenges them to consider how nonviolent principles can inform our response to today’s challenges. The latter, facilitators note, is increasingly important amid rising political violence. Read more
Sermon for Martin Luther King Day. By William J. Barber II
Related: As Trump wars with King’s legacy, America must embrace it. By Svante Myrick / The Hill
Top Catholic cardinals say U.S. foreign policy raises moral questions. By Michelle Boorstein and Anthony Faiola / Wash Post
Historical / Cultural
We’ve Never Agreed About George Washington and Slavery. By John Garrison Marks / Time
On Jan. 22, National Park Service staff tore down an outdoor exhibit on the history of slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia, part of Independence National Historical Park.
The removal comes after months of conjecture and protest over whether and how the site—which tells the story of the nine people George Washington enslaved while president—would reconcile its content with President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order demanding the removal of history that might “inappropriately disparage” famous Americans. Read more
When Free, Light-Skinned, Black Women Were Required to Wear Headgear to Identify Themselves as Non-White. By William Spivey / Level Man
The 1786 Decree That Tried to Mark Black Women.
Free Black women were desirable to both French and Spanish men, and, as a group, they became lighter-skinned over generations. There came a point where light-skinned Black women were often indistinguishable from white women. Their appearance and status challenged the colonial assumption that whiteness was obvious and superior. Read more
Related: The Side of Slavery Never Seen in the Movies or on Television. By William Spivey / Level Man
Texas posthumously exonerates Tommy Lee Walker, executed 70 years prior for rape and murder of White woman. By Alexander Koch / Fox News
Tommy Lee Walker was 21 when he was put to death in 1956 after being wrongfully convicted by an all-White jury for rape and murder of a White mother
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot on Wednesday asked commissioners to sign a resolution acknowledging Walker’s innocence after finding he was coerced into a confession and convicted by an all-White jury. The case, the oldest assigned to the Dallas County DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, involved Walker, a 19-year-old accused of raping and murdering Venice Parker, a 31-year-old White woman, on her way home from work in 1953. Read more
Mathematician Gladys West, whose models led to the invention of GPS, dies at 95. By Nhari Djan / The Grio
The Virginia native is credited with her work at the Naval Proving Ground, where she calculated ways to model the shape of the Earth.
West was born as Gladys Mae Brown on October 27, 1930, in Sutherland, Virginia. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, she worked on a tobacco farm with her family, but also excelled in school. She was consistently top of her class and graduated from her high school as valedictorian. This earned her a scholarship at the historically Black institution, Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics. It was there that she also became a member of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. Read more
A Black Film Just Made Oscars History With a Record 16 Nominations. By
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” received the most nominations in the Academy Award’s history.
A decade after the #OscarsSoWhite movement, a Black director’s film has gotten the most nominations ever in the Academy Award’s nearly 100-year history. On Thursday, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners received 16 nominations. And Ruth E. Carter, who worked as costume designer on the film, is now the most nominated Black woman in Oscars history. This comes nearly two weeks after winning the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Golden Globes. Read more
Sports
How Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson ended up pitted against each other. By Ken Makin / The Christian Science Monitor
It’s hard to imagine that Jackie Robinson’s contributions to baseball – and more important, to civil rights – would ever be forgotten. And yet, the contributions of a comparable civil rights giant, Paul Robeson, have largely been removed from our collective consciousness.
Author Howard Bryant juxtaposes the politics and power of these two men in his latest book, “Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America,” published Jan. 20. Their testimonies before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1949 are a huge point of reference in the book, along with other flashpoints from their professional and political careers. Read more
In a place like Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin could never escape the shadow of race. By Jesse Washington / Andscape
The challenge of being a Black coach in the whitest metro area in America
“Coaching in Pittsburgh is unlike anywhere else,” Mike Tomlin said in his farewell statement as head coach of one of the most important franchises in sports. What does that really mean? Tomlin cited the “passion, loyalty and high expectations” of Steelers Nation, but those traits are far from unique. Tomlin did not elaborate because that is not his way. When he resigned Tuesday, under intense criticism from that same Steelers Nation, the door to Tomlin’s inner thoughts remained as hermetically sealed as ever. Read more
Why is Rodman signing and highest female soccer salary controversial? By Kevin Hand / Aljazeera
Forward Trinity Rodman’s new three-year deal to remain with the Washington Spirit has brought to an end months of speculation about the Olympic gold medallist’s future in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). It has also shattered the wage record for a female footballer.
The Spirit announced the signing in a statement on Thursday evening, calling it “one of the most significant contracts in the NWSL and the women’s game worldwide, reflecting both Rodman’s elite status and the Spirit’s role as a global standard-bearer in women’s football”. Read more
For Khris Middleton, helping produce ‘Hoops, Hopes & Dreams’ was a no-brainer. By Marc J. Spears / Andscape
It’s common knowledge that former President Barack Obama is a basketball fanatic with a nice jumper. But did you know that late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., could hoop, too?
The story of how MLK and Obama used basketball to make connections is revealed in “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams,” a documentary debuting on Hulu today on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The 20-minute documentary with animation tells the story of how King Jr., civil rights leaders and Obama used basketball to unify, connect for outreach, make lasting change and engage with young voters. “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” earned the best documentary short award at the 2025 Cleveland International Film Festival. Read more
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