Featured
Socialism for the Wealthy. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
Socialism is again part of America’s political conversation, embraced by some progressives and condemned by conservatives. But beneath the ideological debate lies a striking contradiction: Government assistance to ordinary Americans is often attacked as socialism, while government policies that benefit corporations and the wealthy are accepted as legitimate economic policy. The question, then, is not simply whether government intervenes in the economy, but for whom?
Read complete essay. Socialism for the Wealthy. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
Related: Could socialism make America happy again? By William Becker / The Hill
Related: The rise of socialism and the return of history. By Jason Willick / Wash Post
The Week’s Top Stories
Political / Social
Why Trump’s plummeting approval ratings are even worse than they look. By Zeeshan Aleem / MS NOW
Two recent polls show that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are dropping as low as they ever have for him. But more striking still are signs that his hardcore base is dissipating — which could affect turnout in the midterm elections and render the MAGA brand less potent over time.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll of adults conducted between Aug. 14-17 found that 33% approved of Trump’s performance and 64% disapproved. As Reuters noted in its write-up of the survey, “Trump’s approval rating, down from 35% in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower than at any point in his current term, has now tied the lowest level of his prior term reached in December 2017.” A big driver of that decline is Trump’s failed war on Iran and the spike in oil prices it triggered. That has not only made gas more expensive, but it has also caused a spike in food prices as well. Read more
Related: Trump Is in a Fantasy Land of His Own Making. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Related: The dark truth behind Trump’s treacherous new fabrications. By Robert Reich / AlterNet
How Angie Nixon Beat the Odds to Pull Off Florida’s Most Shocking Primary Upset. By Phenix S. Halley / The Root
Angie Nixon entered the Florida primary race as an underdog with far less money and national recognition. Here’s how she beat Alex Vindman anyway.
Nixon, 42, defeated Vindman in a stunning victory, winning 56% of the vote. The win put a Democratic Socialist on the November ballot in a state where Republicans have dominated statewide politics for years, especially under former President Donald Trump. Read more
David Jolly vs. Byron Donalds: Can Democrats break 27 years of Republican rule? By Claire Heddles / Miami Herald
Republican Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly will lead the November ballot to become Florida’s next governor — but with a massive fundraising split between the two, Democrats still face longshot odds to win back the governor’s mansion after nearly three decades of GOP control.
Jolly is a former Republican congressman who opposed Donald Trump and has since switched parties. He’s entering the general election largely untested statewide, after not facing a well-funded primary challenger and sweeping the primary with 61% support after most votes were counted. Read more
Related: Florida’s First-Ever Black Governor Could Be A Trump Apologist. By S.V. Date / HuffPost
Related: Byron Donalds performed worse in white, rural parts of Florida. Ashley Borja / Tampa Bay Times
In Florida, Wasserman Schultz sparks a debate over what representation means in diverse districts. By Bill Barrow / AP
Wasserman Schultz is seeking her 12th term by running in a new district after Republicans scrambled the state’s congressional map earlier this year.
The fallout pushed Wasserman Schultz, a former national party chair with powerful ties in Washington, to cross district lines from her Fort Lauderdale exurb and be the only white candidate against four Black candidates in an area of Broward County that has helped send Black Democrats to Congress since 1992. That’s yielded an uncomfortable fight following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act provisions undergirding minority voting strength and effectively cleared Old Confederacy states, including Florida, to reshape House districts. Read more
Related: ‘A slap in the face’: Black Democrats blast Wasserman Schultz campaign. Julianne McShane / MS NOW
Americans have elected only 3 Black governors. This year, 8 major party candidates are on the ballot. By Bill Barrow and Steven Sloan / PBS
Across 250 years, only three elected governors out of thousands have been Black — all Democrats and all men, including current Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. But Moore could soon have company.
Democrats, meanwhile, emphasized that their Black candidates — who also include Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia (shown), Jermaine Johnson in South Carolina and David Crowley in Wisconsin — are especially important after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to redraw legislative districts that are majority or plurality nonwhite. That was compounded by President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives and push to rewrite how the U.S. tells its history of the slave trade and Jim Crow segregation. Read more
DEI policies brought no financial penalty to firms, study finds. By Megan Cerullo / CBS News
The companies that stuck with their DEI efforts had no difference in abnormal returns from those that eliminated their programs, the analysis found. The researchers also studied the effects on revenue to gauge whether consumers supported or expressed a backlash against corporations over their DEI efforts, finding no detectable differences.
The findings suggest that “U.S. firms have a lot of leeway” to resist pressure to cut such programs, Grumbach said. Read more
Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp renews $1 million commitment to Black and Brown communities. By Peter Kerich / The Grio
Kaepernick’s organization is marking a decade since his national anthem protest by directing another $1 million toward community-led organizations.
The announcement comes on the 10th anniversary of the protest that catapulted Kaepernick into the center of a national debate over racial injustice, police brutality and the role of athletes in political protest. “When I made the Million Dollar Pledge in 2016, I wanted to put resources directly into the hands of the organizations and people doing the work in our communities every day,” Kaepernick said in the announcement. “The last ten years have shown us that community is the real power.” Read more
The Battle Over Black Representation in a White Mississippi County. By
In DeSoto County, Black voters have a chance to elect their first Black judge, but the legal fight isn’t over.
The county’s Black population has grown from roughly 11% in 2000 to 36% today. In response, the state legislature created two new judgeships as part of its redistricting plan, to be filled by this upcoming November election. The shift is meant to give Black voters greater representation on the bench, but that gain is now under legal attack: White voters have sued in federal court to cancel the upcoming election. Read more
Education
Black Colleges Are Building More Dorms Amid Enrollment Growth. By Alecia Taylor / Capital B
Housing has long been a strain on Black colleges, but this summer, several HBCUs flipped that narrative. They are breaking ground on new dorms and announcing housing developments just as enrollment climbs. North Carolina A&T State University faculty cut the ribbon to inaugurate Bluford Residence Hall in July 2026.
HBCUs make up just 3% of U.S. higher education institutions, yet they educate more than 10% of Black Americans with college degrees, according to UNCF. Read more
Before Classes Begin, Morehouse Gives Its Freshmen a Lesson in Belonging. By Noah Cathey / Capital B
“The enduring legacy of Morehouse College awaits you,” President F. DuBois Bowman says to the Class of 2030
A boisterous crowd sang into the summer night air as they flanked a long line of young men dressed in white shirts and maroon ties as they exited King Chapel. It is with those words, sang by upperclassman and alumni, that Morehouse College welcomed 722 freshmen who make up the Class of 2030 to their New Student Orientation. Read more
Urban Community College Leadership: Transforming Higher Education to Reshape Marginalized Student Opportunities. By Marcel Jagne-Shaw, Terry Calaway and Margaretta B. Mathis / Eduledger
Urban community colleges serve a crucial role in providing access to higher education for marginalized and underserved students.
A recent study by Jagne-Shaw (2026) provides strategies to advance social equity gleaned from assessing the leadership practices of urban community college executives. Twelve senior level executives were interviewed who serve at varying levels from chancellor to dean in colleges across 11 states. Their insights pertaining to best practices in addressing social equity were inspiring. Read more
The Truths That Failed Jason Arday. By Tyler Austin Harper / The Atlantic
Systemic, ritualized dishonesty undid the Cambridge professor.
Yesterday in London, Jason Arday, the controversy-plagued British academic and author, was found dead. Made famous as the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s more than 800-year history, Arday had been dogged by weeks of scrutiny amid accusations of plagiarism, fake qualifications, and a fabricated backstory filled with hard-to-believe details. Read more
World
After Six Months of War, Trump Is Still Losing to Iran. Ishaan Tharoor / The New Yorker
The conflict marks a “precipitous collapse of American power and American prestige.”
Now none of the initial aims touted by Trump—including the shuttering of Iran’s nuclear program and the dismantling of its ballistic-missile capabilities—have been realized; instead, the U.S. finds itself trying to figure out how to deprive Iran of a tool—the strait—that is in play only because of Trump’s intervention. Read more
Cuba Is Out of Time.
Cubans are seasoned, involuntary experts at waiting — for the day’s bread ration, for overcrowded buses, for visas to leave home. Since the pandemic threw the island into a deep crisis and especially since the Trump administration instituted a de facto oil blockade of Cuba in January, that daily exercise has become a slow suffocation.
Now Cubans wait for everything. They wait for imported food and over-the-counter medicines sent by relatives abroad. They wait for electricity that returns for only an hour or two each day or for a feeble breeze in the oppressive summer heat that might allow their children a couple of hours of sleep. Read more
‘Ghana was the crime scene’ – the country leading the demand for slavery reparations. By Aleem Maqbool / BBC
This year has seen a dramatic change in tone in the global conversation about the transatlantic slave trade. The demand for formal apologies, debt relief and financial compensation from nations and institutions that benefited from slavery has become increasingly forceful.
In March, a resolution was passed at the United Nations recognising slavery as “the greatest crime against humanity” – though the United States voted against the resolution and every European nation abstained from the vote. The UK, which alongside Portugal dominated the transatlantic slave trade, has consistently rejected the idea of paying reparations, which is perhaps unsurprising given estimates of what Britain “owes” in damages to nations affected run into many trillions of pounds. This resistance has not deterred the country that has become the leading voice on reparations: Ghana. Read more
Ebola Congo cases surpass 5,000 as record-setting pace of spread continues. By CBS
The Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached 5,000 cases, government data showed Wednesday, as responders warn it is spreading at an unprecedented speed outpacing efforts to slow it in one of the country’s remotest regions.
Data from Congo’s Ministry of Health showed the outbreak had so far recorded 5,021 cases, including 2,378 deaths as of Sunday, as it rages in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable fueled by insecurity, displacement and intense population movements. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has no approved vaccines or treatments. Read more
Judge Allows Trump to Force Out More Black Immigrants With End of TPS. By Malcolm Ferguson / TNR
Thousands of Ethiopians are now losing their Temporary Protected Status designation.
A federal judge has allowed President Trump to end Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians, placing 5,000 people who immigrated to the United States at risk of deportation. Ethiopians first received TPS designation in 2022—in the midst of a war between the Ethiopian government and the people of the northern Tigray region. Any Ethiopians under TPS must now leave the country in 60 days or risk being deported. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Why the Black Pastors I Meet Want School Choice. By Joshua C. Robertson / Christianity Today
Support for the programs is high in minority communities—and among the hundreds of church leaders I’ve met.
Earlier this year, I attended a gathering of 70 bishops from the Church of God in Christ, a predominately Black denomination. Each bishop oversees at least 30 churches, collectively found across all 50 states. We were in Little Rock, Arkansas, for a denominational meeting, and they invited me, as a pastor working on educational issues, to discuss a topic in my wheelhouse: how churches can start and grow schools. Read more
MAGA Christianity and the Return of Religious Coercion. By Steve Kennedy / TNR
The right is increasingly embracing an anti-social version of the Christian faith that favors restrictive control with none of the underlying moral obligations.
American revival movements have always contained two competing impulses: the belief that all people possess equal moral worth before God, and the belief that society must be disciplined into righteousness whether it wants to be or not. That tension runs throughout the history of American Christianity. It shaped the First and Second Great Awakenings, fueled both abolitionism and moral policing, and inspired democratic reform movements—all while simultaneously justifying social hierarchy and coercion. Read more
Why Americans now hate each other more than ever. By John Mac Ghlionn / The Hill
Researchers at the Marquette Law School Poll recently identified a sharp generational decline in trust across the United States. Americans born before 1960 still hold onto a baseline assumption that their neighbors will not rob them, given half a chance. They are the most trusting demographic in the country.
The numbers worsen with each successive generation. The cohort born in the 2000s registers the highest levels of distrust ever recorded by the project. A significant portion of young adults operate under the functional premise that everyone else is a threat. Read more
Historical / Cultural
40 Acres and a Lie Part 2. By Reveal / Mother Jones
We trace “40 acres” land titles to a staggeringly beautiful sea island off the coast of Georgia that’s now a wealthy gated community.
Skidaway Island, Georgia, is home today to a luxurious community that the mostly white residents consider paradise: waterfront views, live oaks, and marsh grass alongside golf courses, swimming pools, and other amenities. In 1865, the island was a thriving Black community, started by freedmen who were given land by the government under the 40 acres program. They farmed, created a system of government, and turned former cotton plantations into a Black American success story. Read more
Birmingham church bombing wasn’t an isolated act of terrorism – there were dozens of attacks on Black houses of worship during the Civil Rights Movement. By Jason Wollschleger / The Conversation
Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of an infamous terror attack: the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. On that Sunday morning, members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, planted dynamite on the east side of the brown brick building. Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee pray beside the ruins of a burned church near Dawson, Ga., in 1962.
The bomb went off in the midst of Sunday school, at 10:22 a.m., murdering four girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, who were all 14 years old, and Denise McNair, who was 11. The blast injured 22 other churchgoers, including a 12-year-old girl, Sarah Jean Collins, who was blinded in one eye. Read more
How Maryland is Reckoning With Forgotten Black Boys Who Died in State Care More Than a Century Ago. By Phenix S. Halley / The Root
More than a century later, the state of Maryland is investigating the deaths of Black boys who died in state custody.
For more than a century, the hundreds of Black children buried in a wooded patch of Prince George’s County, Maryland, were largely invisible. Now, the state is being forced to reckon with them. More than 300 Black boys and young men died while confined at the former House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children in Cheltenham, Maryland, a segregated state institution open from the late 19th century into the 20th century, according to the Center for Youth Justice. Read more
Hubert Harrison’s Brand of Black Radicalism. By Peter Cole / The Nation
In this interview with Brian Kwoba, The Nation talks with the author about his new book on the legacy of a little-known but influential activist. Harrison sitting next to Flynn and Big Bill Haywood.
Hubert Harrison was a Caribbean-born educator and activist who was a prominent advocate for labor rights, free speech, radical internationalism, and free love in the Jim Crow era. He inspired and contributed to political organizations and cultural movements as diverse as the Socialist Party, the Marcus Garvey movement, and the so-called “Harlem Renaissance.” Harrison also wrote a number of pieces for The Nation in the 1920s as the magazine’s first regular Black book reviewer. Read more
‘Jim Crow must go’: the artists and everyday heroes who fought injustice – in pictures
Turn the Volume Up! at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University highlights the activism of everyday people who have confronted injustice.
New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, quoting the Bronx rapper KRS-One’s song Turn The Volume Up during his election-day victory speech inspired the name of the exhibit. Featuring work by artists such as Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and the Guerrilla Girls, the show examines how protests and collective action can create and inspire social change. Read more
How Much Do You Really Know About Black August? The Legendary Prison Protests That Launched a Legacy of Resistance. By Phenix S. Halley / The Root
Black August may have started behind prison walls in California, but 55 years later, its legacy of resistance still resonates nationwide. Photo of Black activist George Jackson (R), Attica Correctional Facility inmates protest (L)
Black August grew from a turbulent chapter in history marked by prison uprisings, political radicalism, racial injustice and the deaths of men – including Black Panther member George Jackson – who became symbols of resistance. What began within prison walls eventually reached far beyond them. So how did a prison protest become a movement with a legacy that still sparks debate today? We’re going back to where it all started, following the people, confrontations and controversies that shaped Black August and the legacy of prison reform in America. Read more
Who killed Tupac? What to know about the trial of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis. By Chris Hamill-Stewart / Aljazeera
Three decades after rapper Tupac Shakur’s death, a former California gang boss is the first person to be prosecuted.
The mystery of who killed the rapper has intrigued fans and conspiracy theorists alike since 1996. The trial of 63-year-old Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis could soon put the question to rest. Davis’s trial is set to begin on Monday in Las Vegas. He is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. United States prosecutors aim to prove it was Davis who orchestrated Tupac’s killing by supplying the gun – but they are not claiming he pulled the trigger. Here’s what we know: Read more
Sports
Stephen A. Smith Vs. NABJ: The ‘Thumbs Down’ Award Beef Explained. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
The clash between sports commentator Stephen A. Smith and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has stirred up controversy, and the details behind their ongoing feud are now being examined.
Stephen A. Smith found himself facing a new wave of criticism this weekend after the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awarded him its annual “Thumbs Down” Award on Aug. 15. The ESPN First Take host was singled out over what the organization described as a recurring pattern of disparaging commentary involving prominent Black women in politics, sports and media. Read more
Kelsey Mitchell ties WNBA scoring record in Fever win over Tempo. By AP and Reuters
The three-time All-Star made history when she registered 20 or more points in a Women’s National Basketball Association game for the 20th straight time.
Kelsey Mitchell tied a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) record when she finished with 29 points before sitting out the fourth, while Caitlin Clark added 24 points for the Indiana Fever to beat the Toronto Tempo 101-95 for their fifth straight victory. Clark and Mitchell have each scored 20 or more in the same game 16 times this season, a WNBA record. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter did it 15 times with Phoenix in 2008. Read more
Related: What’s Happening to the WNBA Isn’t Normal. By Jemele Hill / The Atlantic
Colin Kaepernick, Natasha Cloud and the enduring demand for Black athletes to ‘shut up and dribble.’ By Julienne Louis-Anderson / The Grio
This week, Colin Kaepernick pledged another $1 million to Know Your Rights Camp campaigns which support increased awareness and protection around safety, healthy living, education, and more. This came weeks after he helped fund the independent autopsy of Nolan Wells.
During that same week, Natasha Cloud, the Chicago Sky guard, wore a Black shirt reading “Nolan Wells” to the WNBA All-Star Game. Her outfit became its own side story. But not everyone was a fan. “Shut up and dribble” appeared in the comments on Cloud’s Instagram and underneath stories about her outfit. Others suggested that if she were less interested in Nolan Wells, Mayor Mamdani, Israel and other political issues, perhaps the Chicago Sky would be winning more games. Different athletes. Different sports. Same demand: Shut up and dribble. Read more
The Shedeur Sanders vs. Deshaun Watson quarterback battle is intriguing beyond football. By William C. Rhoden / Andscape
Because so few NFL rosters in history have included two high-profile Black quarterbacks, Cleveland’s quarterback competition is the league’s first attention-demanding battle between two Black quarterbacks aiming for a starting job. Byron Leftwich and David Garrard competed for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ starting spot in 2006, but neither of them had the résumé of Watson nor the hype surrounding Sanders.
The competition between Sanders and Watson is not about a Black man overcoming institutional bias or proving that he has the “necessities” to play the position. These are two Black men representing different generations — Watson, 30, a millennial, and Sanders, 24, from Generation Z — vying to lead a franchise without a title since 1964 or a great quarterback since the 1950s. I don’t have a sentimental favorite in the competition, but I do appreciate each player’s substantial challenge. Read more
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