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Complicity Trumps Racism and Sexism. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America

In American political life, representation has long been treated as a measure of progress. The elevation of women and minorities to positions of power is often taken as evidence that the nation is moving beyond its history of exclusion. But representation alone does not guarantee justice. In the current moment, it can obscure something more troubling: the strategic use of diversity to advance agendas that may undermine the very communities being represented.

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The Week’s Top Stories

Political / Social

‘Boxed in Trump’ has ‘nowhere to move’ as his presidency crumbles: top historian. By Nick Hilden / AlterNet

As President Donald Trump’s latest approval numbers collapse to historic lows of 32 percent, renowned historian Heather Cox Richardson says, “We’re into new hatred territory here for any American president.”

In response to this plunging popularity, the White House is “flailing” for a win while attempting to characterize those who disapprove of Trump as “enemies of the state.” “That’s obviously an incredibly dangerous thing,” says Richardson, “but it’s also operating from an extraordinary position of weakness. He desperately, desperately, desperately needs to reassert his authority over the United States and over Congress.” She goes on to provide wide-ranging evidence. Read more

In Narrowing Voting Rights Act, Conservative Justices See Progress on Racism. By Adam Liptak / NYT

The majority said the law was a victim of its own success and no longer needed. Dissenters responded that Congress should make the call.

To hear Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. tell it, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has served its laudable purpose of eliminating racial discrimination in elections and has now passed its sell-by date. “Vast social change has occurred throughout the country and particularly in the South,” Justice Alito wrote for the six conservative justices in the majority in Wednesday’s decision that appeared to deal a coup de grâce to a towering achievement of the civil rights movement. Read more

Black Businesses Could Lose Access To Federal Contracts Due To DEI Order, Report. By Nahlah Abdur-Rahman / Black Enterprise

A new report says President Trump’s latest DEI order could significantly derail Black businesses’ ability to gain federal contracts.

The Blackout Report, published April 23 by Onyx Impact, suggests that Black businesses are at risk of being left out of federal contracting opportunities due to this anti-DEI legislation. The Blackout Report details the “concrete harms” to Black communities prompted by the Trump administration and its policies. Read more

Cole Tomas Allen is a Black Man Who Had Everything Going for Him—So Why? By Earl Ofari Hutchinson / Eurweb

The instant Cole Tomas Allen was identified as the alleged would-be assassin apprehended outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, one thing immediately caught my eye. Allen got his graduate degree from the same university where I got my graduate degree, Cal State University Dominguez Hills. It’s a California university with high academic and professional standards and ratings.

That was just the first of several other things about him that made little sense given the magnitude of his alleged planned assault. He was an engineer. He was a top-flight tech programmer. He was a top-rated teacher of the month. He looks almost regal in his cap and gown graduation picture from Caltech, where he got a degree in mechanical engineering. Read more

US activists plan May Day economic blackout: ‘No school, no work, no shopping.’ By Michael Sainato / The Guardian

Labor unions, democratic organizations and community groups are organizing an economic blackout this year to commemorate May Day, International Workers Day, inspired by the economic blackout in Minnesota during the massive ICE operation in the state.

May Day Strong events are being planned across the US, with organizers calling for “no school, no work, no shopping”, in protest of government policies they say put billionaires’ needs above those of workers. Read more

The GOP Has Almost Completely Run Out Of Black People. By Zack Linly / Newsone

The four Black Republican members of the House are on their way out the door, and Sen. Tim Scott will be the only Black GOP member left.

Look, I’m sure at this point that the Republican Party is tired of being referred to as the “old white party,” but now all four Black Republicans in the House of Representatives are on their way out the door, leaving Sen. Tim Scott to be the lone token Black friend of the GOP. As the New York Times noted, “eight years ago, Kevin McCarthy, then the House Republican leader, embarked on a push to recruit more Black Republicans to run for Congress, arguing that the G.O.P. needed to diversify to survive.” Read more

Trump Sued For Racial Discrimination, Accused Of Firing 75% of Black Officials At Independent Federal Agencies. By Christopher Rhodes / Blavity

Upon returning to office, President Donald Trump immediately implemented orders and policies against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in government and beyond while also slashing federal agencies and laying off employees. Now, a new lawsuit alleges that these policies have combined to target Black federal employees, as the Trump administration is accused of racial discrimination.

Alvin Brown, a Democrat nominated by President Joe Biden who served as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, filed a complaint alleging that his dismissal in May 2025 was done because of racial bias. Brown argues in his complaint that his firing cannot be explained by partisan reasoning. Read more

Employment Agency Pushes Discrimination Cases That Match Trump’s Agenda. By Rebecca Davis O’Brien / NYT

Field staff at the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace say they are under intense pressure from leadership to bring in cases that fit the Trump administration’s priorities, including charges of discrimination against white men and charges of antisemitism on college campuses. Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

That pressure has led investigators and lawyers at the agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to focus its thin resources on pursuing and fast-tracking cases that have little evidence and tenuous legal bases, according to more than a dozen current and former employees, both Republicans and Democrats. Read more

‘Come and make the ask’: Talarico faces a test with Black voters in Texas. By Samuel Benson and Cheyanne M. Daniels / Politico

Democrats’ hopes of taking Texas ride on the state’s nearly 3 million Black voters, many of whom supported Jasmine Crockett in the primary.

In the month-and-a-half since he won the nomination, Talarico has begun criss-crossing Texas, including visiting some Black churches, holding meetings with faith leaders and elected officials, and block-walking in majority-Black cities. But frustration from worshippers at Friendship-West — who have yet to hear from him directly — and interviews with Black power brokers across the state reveal the pressure Talarico faces to move faster to heal open wounds from a contentious primary and convince voters to turn out. Read more

Multiracial Americans are surging. But data erases them. By Russell Contreras / Axios

America is becoming more multiracial, but its data systems are still thinking in black and white. Why it matters: Outdated measurement systems are shaping how elections are analyzed, health risks are tracked and civil rights laws are enforced.

The multiracial (“Two or More Races”) population grew from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million in 2020, per the U.S. Census.
The multiracial population is expected to keep growing faster than most groups, and exactly how fast depends as much on how America measures race as how it lives or understands it. Read more

Education

Historically Black colleges team up to pursue top research status. By Susan Svrluga / Wash Post

Fifteen historically Black colleges and universities are working together to pursue R1 status with support from top schools such as Harvard.

The newly announced Association of HBCU Research Institutions (AHRI) aims to help its members reach Research 1 status, a designation that gets more federal funding and makes it easier to recruit top faculty and students. The group will work with the country’s foremost research universities, with space within the Association of American Universities (AAU) headquarters in Washington, and support from Harvard University. Read more

Why We Are Suing the Department of Education. By Charles Ornstein / ProPublica

The Office for Civil Rights is keeping the public in the dark on which schools it’s investigating and why.

Early last year, Cohen and Smith Richards reached out to sources inside the Department of Education. They learned the department had significantly cut back its efforts to investigate some types of discrimination in schools. Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school had been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored. Read more

What Saint Augustine’s University Bankruptcy Means For The Future Of The HBCU. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone

Saint Augustine’s University has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Here’s what’s next for the HBCU.

According to the Triangle Business Journal, WRAL, and a press release from Saint Augustine’s University on Aug. 28, the university, one of the oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy protection. According to WRAL, the Raleigh-based HBCU filed on April 27 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is designed to allow organizations to reorganize their debt and continue operating. Read more

World

Boat Strike Death Toll Approaches 200 as Trump Administration Continues Murders at Sea. By Jon Queally / Truthout

The murder spree being conducted by the U.S. government under the direction of President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth climbed to an estimated 185 people on Sunday after the Pentagon announced another bombing of a boat it claims was trafficking illegal narcotics.

Whether or not those targeted are in fact trafficking drugs — have no justification under international maritime law and that the extrajudicial killings should be seen for what they are: cold-blooded murder. Read more

Iran didn’t have a nuclear weapon before this war. But you can see why it would want one now. By Simon Tisdale / The Guardian

With every bomb dropped, ship seized and blood-curdling threat of annihilation, Donald Trump increases Iran’s incentive to reject his “grand bargain” peace deal and sprint instead to acquire nuclear weapons for future self-defence.

Justifying his declaration of war on 28 February, Trump claimed that Iran – and primarily its nuclear programme – posed an “imminent threat”. But Iran does not possess nukes. The US and Israel do. Read more

It’s Been Centuries Since Haiti’s Revolution. It’s Still Paying for It. By Laurent Dubois / NYT

“Two hundred and twenty-two years ago today,” Mr. Cantor said, “Jean-Jacques Dessalines led Haitian forces into the Battle of Vertières” — the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution — “where he defeated the French and gained independence.” The country’s triumph on the soccer field, he suggested, was the latest chapter of its long quest for dignity and sovereignty.

For many Haitians, the convergence was deeply meaningful. In a world in which they and their country are often attacked and demeaned, in which their people are often pushed around and rejected, the moment of unity and victory on a global stage was part of a sustained struggle against the odds. Read more

The long history of America’s conflict with Cuba. By Mo Rocca / CBS News

The island nation just 90 miles from Florida has indeed played an outsized role in our foreign policy for close to 70 years. But back in the 1950s, most Americans thought of Cuba as little more than a hedonistic paradise.

It was “a playground where anything goes, where there are casinos, where there’s prostitution … and to a great extent, that was true,” said Jorge Malagon Marquez, a Cuban-American, and a professor of history at Miami Dade college. “You had celebrities like Frank Sinatra coming down. It’s party time. “What Americans weren’t seeing was the dissatisfaction amongst regular Cubans running just below the surface,” he said. Read more

Why South Africa’s Inequality Fuels Black-on-Black Violence. By Bakari K Lumumba / Levelman

Wealth hoarding by the elite leaves many Black South Africans fighting each other.

Moreover, the wealth disparities created under the settler colonial regime of Apartheid remain, cloistering the majority of Black South Africans in some of the most deplorable living conditions in the Global South. However, the Black middle class, though small, has expanded, and Blacks have made inroads in the mining industry that was once restricted by Apartheid. Read more

Ethics / Morality / Religion

America’s founding promise of religious freedom has long coexisted with prejudice, even as many Christians have worked to confront it. By David Mislin / The Conversation

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its independence, old questions have returned about who belongs and whose religious practices are truly protected in the country. Student artwork on display at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2019, marks the one-year anniversary of the attack.

At the start of the year, an arson attack significantly damaged the oldest synagogue in Mississippi. Two days later, local officials in Oklahoma rejected a proposal to build a mosque after opponents declared Islam “hostile to our Constitution.” A Texas GOP congressman complained on social media that a Hindu festival was a “third world” practice. These incidents come amid resurgent claims that the United States is a Christian nation. Read more

Pope Leo has stirred awake a progressive Christianity. It can rise again. By Bill McKibben / The Guardian

With his stand against Trump, the pope has shown the far right doesn’t have a monopoly on Christianity. If people of good faith push hard, the future could be redefined

The pope … has taken on Maga’s regressive form of Christianity more memorably and powerfully than any religious leader in recent history. Read more

Black Hope Faces a Crisis. By Thomas Anderson / Christianity Today

The Black church survived on a wager. The bet was that the God who raised Jesus from the dead would do something with all the suffering that African Americans have experienced throughout the country’s history. It was a bet that the lynching tree was not the last word. And that the God who brought Israel through the Red Sea would bring his people through whatever America had planned for them next.

That wager has held for more than two centuries, from the earliest slave congregations to the present. But a generation of young Black men and women who love Jesus are now wondering if it still holds. These are Christians who have looked at the distance between what the church proclaims and what their lives contain and have begun to question whether the whole apparatus of Christian hope is a mechanism for enduring what should be confronted. Read more

Historical / Cultural

How Harriet Tubman and Philadelphia abolitionists coordinated dangerous journeys to freedom. By Nilgun Anadolu-Okur and Jeremy Mennis / The Conversation

Beginning in earnest around 1830, Philadelphia’s vibrant free Black community, led by successful Black industrialists and merchants such as James Forten and Robert Purvis, collaborated with local white abolitionists, including Quakers such as Thomas Garrett, to fund and arrange people’s escapes from slavery on the Underground Railroad.

Harriet Tubman plays a prominent role in Still’s records as a brave woman who was called “the Moses of her people.” Tubman memorized the routes and went back at least 19 times to the Eastern shore of Maryland where she originally escaped from. Carrying a rifle, she would walk with her company at night, heading north and passing through New York’s Finger Lakes, across the international bridge at Niagara Falls, to St. Catharines in Canada. Her final stop was the Salem Chapel British Methodist Episcopal Church, where she gave thanks for delivering her passengers to safety. Read more

Defying His State’s Restrictions, a Retired Professor Teaches About Racism: ‘History Has to Be Felt.’ By Katherine Mangan / Chronicle of Higher Ed.

As politicians dictate the way professors talk about race in the classroom, Marvin Dunn has pitched a lone battle to fight back

Three dozen students and faculty members from Bethune-Cookman and Stetson Universities sat in a circle on a wooded, five-acre plot of land in Rosewood, Fla., last month reflecting on the massacre that unfolded there one frigid day just over a century before. At least six and maybe as many as two dozen Black residents had been killed, and the entire town was burned to the ground. The violence began after a white woman falsely said she’d been attacked by a Black man, prompting an angry white mob to hunt for him. Leading the discussion last month was the property’s owner, Marvin Dunn, a Florida International University professor emeritus. Read more

Black Prom Isn’t ‘Doing Too Much,’ It’s One Of Our Most Beautiful Traditions. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone

Black prom is a rite of passage for many Black teens. Here’s why it’s so special for our community.

Black proms in the United States are far more than end-of-year dances; they are vibrant, deeply meaningful celebrations that reflect history, identity, and community. While prom season typically arrives in the spring, with most events held in April or May, Black proms stand apart for their scale, style, and cultural significance. From elaborate gowns and tailored suits to community-wide send-offs, these events are intentional, expressive, and rooted in something much larger than a single night. Read more

The Cost Of Dying While Black: Inside A Southern Funeral Home Where Tradition, Poverty, And Profit Collide. By Jodi Ham / Newsone

After slavery, Black funeral homes became cultural anchors preserving rituals of care, community, and what many call a proper “homegoing.”

At just 18 years old, James Ray Lewis walked into a profession most people spend their lives avoiding. Now, decades later, the veteran funeral director in Goldsboro, North Carolina, has buried generations of Black families, watching not only their grief, but the business of death itself, change in ways that trouble him. Read more

How Toni Morrison blurred the lines between being an editor and a writer. By Danielle Amir Jackson / The Guardian

Two recent books about Morrison attempt to make sense of her legacy as a writer, editor and thinker on Black life

Toni at Random, by the Howard University scholar Dana A Williams, centers Morrison’s work in publishing. On Morrison, by novelist Namwali Serpell, closely reads the author’s fiction, criticism and plays as sites of “doing philosophy”. The two books work in tandem, revealing Morrison’s editorial and literary work as expressions of the same practice, since Morrison’s years at Random preceded (one might even say made possible) her Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for writing. Read more

Sports

LeBron James on MJ debate: ‘Our games are totally different.’ By ESPN

As LeBron James approaches the end of his NBA career, he has limited time to bolster his case as basketball’s GOAT above Michael Jordan. While that debate might never be settled, James, in a wide-ranging series of interviews with ESPN conducted during the season, acknowledged the influence Jordan had on him.

“I hope I made him proud at least, wearing that No. 23,” James told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. The 6-foot-9, 250-pound James pointed out the inherent differences between him and Jordan, who was listed at 6-6 and 200 pounds in his playing days. “I never have compared myself to MJ because our games are totally different,” James said. “I have been a point-forward/forward-point my whole life. I have always looked for the pass. MJ kind of looked for the shot. Not kind of, he did. He looked for the shot. Read more

Trinidad Chambliss Is Making Millions Playing College Football. The NCAA Wants to Stop Him. By Bomani Jones / Vanity Fair

The 23-year-old star quarterback talks to Vanity Fair about his landmark legal case, his coaches past and present, and his upcoming season at Ole Miss

“I have a financial adviser, I have an agent, I have a marketing agency,” Chambliss tells me on Saturday, still trying to believe it himself. When he started college, Chambliss recalls, “it was, Okay, I have $100 to spend on my groceries for these two weeks. It’s just wild to see, like, the first check hit and it’s like, Wow, I have that much money. That’s crazy.” Read more

John Wall to serve in ‘dream’ role as president of basketball operations at Howard. By Zack Powell / NYT

Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall has agreed to become the president of basketball operations at Howard, one of the top-ranked historically Black universities in the country, the program announced Thursday.

Wall’s new role follows a trend of former or current NBA players taking managerial roles at universities. Golden State Warriors phenom Stephen Curry accepted a role to become the assistant general manager at his alma mater, Davidson College. Curry played three seasons for the Wildcats. Wizards guard Trae Young agreed last year to become Oklahoma’s assistant general manager. Shaquille O’Neal agreed in April 2025 to become Sacramento State’s general manager of men’s basketball. Read more

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On Race in America (May 2) – Stories, Insight and Perspective

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