Featured
The Forgotten Cultural Revolution. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
The civil rights movement transformed American law, but another revolution was unfolding alongside it. African Americans were reclaiming their history, music, appearance, literature, and cultural identity while building institutions capable of sustaining them. That cultural revolution is less remembered today, but its unfinished work remains essential to understanding the continuing struggle for equality and self-definition.
Read complete essay. The Forgotten Cultural Revolution. By Ronald J. Sheehy, Editor / On Race in America
The Week’s Top Stories
Political / Social
The President Can’t Handle the Truth. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Can President Trump distinguish truth from fiction? Does he know what is real and what is the product of a computer program?
One wants to believe that the president of the United States, cloaked in immense power, would understand the difference between reality and fantasy. One would hope, given the terrible stakes of his decision-making, that he had the capacity to understand and internalize objective reality, even if he did not like it. Read more
Related: Trump Is a Liar. That’s Bad. But He’s Delusional—and That’s Even Worse. By Michael Tomasky / TNR
Black Voting Power Is Under Attack, So Thousands Came to D.C. to Fight Back. By Brandon Tensley / Capital B
The reboot of the 1963 March on Washington was meant to offer a jolt of optimism at a time of deep uncertainty.
Friday marked four months since the U.S. Supreme Court further eroded the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the Civil Rights Movement’s chief triumphs. Since then, Republican lawmakers in the South have redrawn maps in ways that dilute Black voters’ ability to elect their preferred candidates, and the Trump administration has sought to restrict mail voting. The Rev. Al Sharpton saw this year’s march as a beginning, not an end. Read more
Related: In Defense of Voting Rights. by Zach D. Roberts / The Progressive Magazine
Elon Musk unleashes first wave of spending on key races in the midterms. By Erin Donerty / Politico
Elon Musk’s super PAC disclosed its first independent expenditures of the 2026 general election in a filing released late Wednesday, detailing roughly $800,000 across key House and Senate races.
Musk’s America PAC targeted several key Senate contests, including races in Texas, Maine, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan and Alaska. Musk has reportedly considered spending at least $100 million for the GOP through America PAC to help Republicans in this year’s midterms, but the full scope of that effort remains unclear. Read more
Nine years after Charlottesville, GOP pushes “blood and soil. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
The nativist doctrine lives on in JD Vance’s vision for the US
A large faction of the modern American right has now adopted this idea to promote nativism and white nationalism, calling it “Heritage American” and basically positing the idea that only people of European ancestry are appropriate to live in the United States. But it’s actually even more specific than that. A true heritage American would be able to trace their ancestry to the colonial period, to Anglo-Protestant and Scotch-Irish early settlers. Read more
Black People Aren’t Hanging Themselves. By Jeffrey Kass / Level
The reemergence of lynching is a natural consequence of our national rhetoric.
Over a dozen Black men and women found hanged, most of them from trees, in just two years. In Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. But also up north in Wisconsin, New York and Michigan. Almost all ruled suicides, often before a full investigation even took place. Suicide, of course, is a sad and serious thing that impacts people of all backgrounds. Including Black people. But the idea that Black people are resorting to hanging themselves, mimicking the racist lynchings that went on in this country all the way through the 1960s, reeks of a cover-up, and of more government silence and tacit approval of racism at the local, state and federal level. Read more
A Data Center Promises Jobs in This Black Town, but Residents Aren’t Convinced. By Aallyah Wright / Capital B
At the center of the debate in Clarksdale, Mississippi, one question lingers: What’s the right development for a dying town?
While there’s currently no agreement in place to build a data center in Clarksdale, the city projects a hyperscale data center could bring in millions in local tax revenue. Such a project could take up to six years to complete, but could create 1,000 temporary jobs and between 200 to 300 permanent positions. Still, Walker said she’s worried a data center would strain Clarksdale’s water, electricity, add pollution, and further burden a community whose resources are already stretched thin. Moreover, her home is only 3 miles away from the proposed development site, and she’s concerned about the impact it could have on her family, including her children. Read more
The Race Equation. By Reveal / Mother Jones
A standard medical test with racist origins is cutting off Black patients from needed treatments. Why do hospitals still use this harmful test today?
A spirometer measures lung capacity and helps doctors diagnose and treat most lung diseases, including asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis. And for generations, it had a so-called race equation built into it. When a patient breathes into the machine, their lung capacity is compared to what is considered normal for their age, gender, and race. For Black patients, that normal range was 10 to 15 percent lower than for white patients. For years, doctors believed that a race “correction” made the test more accurate. Read more
Education
Trump Administration’s War on DEI in Universities Closes Off Students’ Learning Opportunities. By Sara Gabler / The Progressive Magazine
Wisconsin is a prime example of how federal pressure is pushing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher education to the brink.
Education is a right. Not just for the rich and white. We’re defending DEI,” chanted University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) students on a bitterly cold afternoon in February 2026. They were protesting the proposed merging of eight of its student centers—intended for women, Black students, Latine students, Southeast Asian students, LGBTQ+ students, veterans and military-enrolled students, commuters, and first-generation college students, respectively—into a single resource hub. Read more
Related: David Jolly defends DEI, calls for flagship status for FAMU. By James Call / Tallahassee Democrat
New IRS proposal threatens universities’ tax-exempt status over diversity programs. By Brian Faler / Politico
The proposed regulations could affect up to 18,000 high schools, universities and trade schools, the agency said.
The proposed rules would apply to the schools’ admission decisions, how they dole out scholarships and loans, how their programs are run, and other policies. They could also hurt schools’ fundraising because their tax exemptions allow donors to deduct their gifts from their tax bills. “Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. Read more
Tuskegee Just Made 13 New Pilots. The Cockpit Is Still 95% White. By Angela Wilson / The Root
Tuskegee aviation students were honored in a historic milestone with custom leather bomber jackets, adorned with replica patches from Tuskegee Airmen fighting squadrons.
Talk about a full circle moment. Eighty years ago, the Tuskegee Airmen shattered barriers in the skies over Europe. This week, on the same tarmac where that history began, a new class took flight after 13 students secured key FAA flight certifications — with custom leather bomber jackets lined with replica Tuskegee Airmen patches. They enter an industry where Black aviators still account for less than 4.4% of commercial pilots. Read more
From Top Civil Rights Post, She Spars With the Left, and Her Colleagues. Glenn Thrush and Michael C. Bender / NYT
Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights unit, has extracted flashy agreements and personnel moves from big universities and sought to force states to turn over confidential voter data.
Ms. Dhillon, 57, has repurposed a unit created to address Jim Crow injustices into a battering ram against the elite left. In part, it represents the culmination of a mission she began as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College — to impose conservative change on liberal institutions she still views as the entrenched establishment. Read more
World
Trump spends billions to deport Black and brown people. But he wants to double cash aid for white ‘refugees.’ By Heba Gowayed / The Guardian
The United States once led most other nations on resettling refugees from all over the world. But in the fiscal year 2025- 2026, except for three people from Afghanistan, all of the 10,258 people admitted through resettlement were white South Africans.
But admitting en masse the beneficiaries of South African apartheid, while simultaneously cancelling temporary protected status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians, and making a spectacle of detaining and shackling them, is just the tip of the racist iceberg: the Trump administration is reportedly using this moment to double the initial resettlement support that refugees receive to $4,500 per person. Read more
Related: Trump Is Waging War on Haitians. By Sasha Abramsky / The Nation
Related: For Springfield’s Haitians, Ankle Monitors and Fear of Going to Church. By Tom Feran / TNR
The U.S. Has Killed 227 Civilians in Boat Strikes During “A Year of Murders.” By Nick Turse / The Intercept
“The boat strikes are, perhaps, the most stark testament to the lawlessness of the Trump administration.”
In all, the U.S. has conducted more than 65 attacks, resulting in over 225 civilians killed in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean in the last year. The most recent strike, in the Caribbean on August 25, killed four people. Experts in the laws of war, as well as members of Congress from both parties, say the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because people are deliberately slain outside the law. The strikes may also constitute crimes against humanity, violating fundamental rights to life and due process. Read more
Trump’s ‘economic D-day’ against Iran risks driving the stakes even higher. By Sina Toossi / The Guardian
As with its approach to Hormuz, the US has mistaken applying pressure for an actual strategy. But Tehran has chips of its own to play
Donald Trump has found a new way to promise victory over Iran. After months of war have failed to force Iran’s capitulation or collapse, his administration has unveiled what the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, calls Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to cut it off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they continue doing business with Tehran. Read more
Related:Who are the economic winners and losers of the US-Israel war on Iran? By John Power / Aljazeera
Related: Iranian town mourns after deadly strike on wedding. By Deepa Parent / The Guardian
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Why do Christians support internment camps? By Michael Woolf / The Christian Century
The answer seems to be about race, according to new polling.
When pollsters asked Americans whether undocumented immigrants ought to be held in “internment camps” until they can be deported, 41 perce of them said yes. That’s a startling statistic, but it gets worse for those of us who care about the church. White evangelicals (63 percent), White Catholics (55 percent) , and White mainline Protestants (49 percent) were all more likely than the average American to say yes. Jews, Black mainline Protestants, and Hispanic Catholics and Protestants were all less likely to advocate for internment camps. Read more
Aren’t Jesus Teachings Considered “Woke.” By Daily Kos
Woke nowadays refers to being aware or well informed in a political or cultural sense, especially regarding issues surrounding marginalized communities – it describes someone who has “woken up” to issues of social injustice.
Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch points out the irony of “the right wing culture warriors claim to support free speech” but “they seem to want minorities to shut up and stop complaining,” including those who support Woke policies and values. Read more
Related: Is the Wake for Wokeness Premature? By Charles Finch / The Atlantic
Christian Women Say They’re Not Political. Their Living Rooms Disagree.
If you ask Christian women about their politics, many are likely to insist that they’re not political at all. Yet the power of their vote within the Republican Party, starting roughly in the 1970s, tells a different story.
At around 37 percent of the electorate, white women today constitute the nation’s largest voting bloc by race and gender, but also its most divided politically. From suburban “wine moms” spearheading local resistance movements to performative “tradwife” influencers renouncing their right to vote, this key demographic spans the nation’s deep ideological divides. White women are closely divided along partisan lines, but a majority have voted Republican in every presidential election this century. And it is white Christian women who are chiefly responsible for the Republican advantage. Read more
What Howard Zinn Got Wrong. By Heath W. Carter / The Atlantic
“What would Howard say?” This question, which Dave Zirin reports being “asked repeatedly” while he was working on his new biography of Howard Zinn, underscores how unusual a figure his subject cut in contemporary American life. Most historians live and die in relative obscurity. But 16 years after Zinn’s death, many people still look to him, not just as a scholar but as a kind of sage.
The Bill Headed to Newsom’s Desk That Could Force Corporations to Confess Their Slavery Ties. By Phenix S. Halley / The Root
If Newsom signs it, California will become the first state to make large companies disclose slavery-era profits in a public database that stays online indefinitely.
For generations, the names of companies that profited from slavery have largely remained buried in old records, archives and history books. California lawmakers now want some of those companies to put that history on the record. Read more
Related: Who Owned the Most Enslaved People? The Answer Will Surprise You. By William Spivey / Level
Virginia Removes Three Confederate Memorials From Richmond. By AP and HuffPost
Statues honoring Confederate Generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Gov. William “Extra Billy” Smith, as well as Confederate Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire are no longer on display.
Years into efforts to purge Richmond, Virginia — a former Confederate Capital — of memorials honoring the Confederacy, the Commonwealth of Virginia began removing three more Confederate memorials in the city on Friday. Read more
Former gang member found guilty of orchestrating murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. By Steve Futterman / NPR
Jurors convicted a former gang member of the death of Tupac Shakur. Duane Davis didn’t pull the trigger in the 1996 drive-by shooting of the rap icon but admitted to orchestrating the killing.
Sports
Is NIL Money Undermining the Fight for Black Political Power? By Rashad Grove / The Root
Boycotts aimed at driving political reform are coming into conflict with the high-stakes financial reality of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) money. as civil rights leaders are asking athletes to consider the political landscape as they decide where to play. Read more
Colin Kaepernick knelt 10 years ago. America responded with a clear warning to Black people. By Howard Bryant / The Guardian
America likes nice round numbers, perfect for anniversaries and reflections, and it has, suddenly, been 10 years since Colin Kaepernick first protested police killings – more accurately, police killings of Black people that went unpunished either internally or by the courts – by taking a knee during the national anthem for the entirety of the 2016 NFL regular season. He never played in the league again. Read more
Related: Kaepernick and the Movement He Inspired. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
How Alex Eala Became a Symbol of the Philippines. By Albert Samaha / The New Yorker
At only twenty-one, the tennis phenom is likely already the best-ever player from Southeast Asia. Now she is seeking her first Grand Slam title at this summer’s U.S. Open.
Everywhere that Eala plays, from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, legions of fans follow, often waving the Philippine flag and signs in Tagalog (“Laban, Alex!”). Eala mania, people call it. “Many, many Filipinos, they come to watch her win,” Joan Bosch, Eala’s coach, told me recently. “You try to explain to her—there is no pressure.” Yet, in her relatively short career, practically every accomplishment of Eala’s comes with a historic superlative. Read more
Why Isn’t Everyone Talking About Olivia Miles? By Louisa Thomas / The New Yorker
She’s big for a traditional point guard—five feet ten—and is a dynamic athlete, a former star soccer player in high school. She has one of the best handles in basketball. But her game is built around her eyes. She uses them to guide her teammates into space, to misdirect defenders, to drag her opponents into screens.
Miles has a shot at becoming the first rookie to win M.V.P. since Candace Parker did it in 2008. She already has a case for being the best player on the best team in the league—and, night after night, is the most fun to watch. So why isn’t she the biggest story of the league this season? Read more
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