When Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, the fashion editor-personality who became famous as the first Black woman to style a Vogue cover (in 2021) and even more famous after she got into a social media brouhaha with Kanye West, was interviewing for her first big fashion job at Vogue, she ended up, not surprisingly, in front of Anna […]
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Supreme Court Won’t Block Use of Race in West Point Admissions for Now
The Supreme Court declined on Friday to temporarily block race-conscious admissions at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, clearing the way for the school to continue considering race as a factor in selecting the class that will enroll in the fall. The court’s order rejected a request for emergency relief from Students for Fair […]
Read MoreThe World Has Caught Up to Frantz Fanon
The shock of the new, in political life, often sends us back to the past in search of an intellectual compass. Amid the rise of Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsanaro and other authoritarian leaders, Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” published in 1951, enjoyed a surge of attention, and Arendt herself acquired a prophet-like […]
Read MorePollution Is Driving Black Americans to the South. It May Not Be Any Better.
The air pollution in Emma Lockridge’s community in Detroit was often so bad, she had to wear a surgical mask inside her house. The smokestacks of nearby refineries and factories filled the sky outside her windows with black particles. “I couldn’t sleep because of those fumes,” she told me last year. In 2021 she fled […]
Read MoreAn Autistic School Board Member Sued for Discrimination. She Won $10.
When Sarah Hernandez joined the Enfield, Conn., Board of Education in 2017, she had a goal: making sure schools met the needs of students with disabilities. Among the first openly autistic candidates to be elected to public office in the country, she saw her win as a sign that her small town was open to […]
Read MoreThe Dawn of a New Era of Oppression
I am fascinated, and alarmed, by the swiftness with which periods of backlash take shape after surges of Black progress, and I believe that we have entered another such period. Much of my inquiry on the matter has focused on the period after Reconstruction was allowed to fail and that saw Jim Crow begin to […]
Read MoreUtah Sets Restrictions on Transgender People’s Bathroom Use
The News Utah will prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms in public schools and government-owned buildings that align with their gender identity, after Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill on Tuesday imposing the restrictions. Background The bill, House Bill 257, which passed the Legislature last week, set sweeping restrictions for transgender people. Under the bill, […]
Read MoreIvy League Campus Wars Aren’t About Gender … Are They?
In the first weeks of the war between Israel and Hamas, Nancy Andrews read about American college presidents under fire and something nagged at her. Why, she wondered, did it seem like so many of those presidents were women? Dr. Andrews, who was the first female dean of Duke Medical School and until last year […]
Read MoreIn a New Cannabis Landscape, a Navy Veteran Battles for Racial Equity
“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places. Jam the towel under the door. Open the window. And hide the bong. For decades, college students have found ways to mask the pungent aroma of marijuana smoke on campuses. Wanda James, however, did not always feel a need to hide. A […]
Read More‘Barbie’ Is Bad. There, I Said It.
We can all agree 2023 was a good year for the movies. Critically and commercially, several movies did well, and only one of those successes took place within the Marvel cinematic universe. Even the 10 Oscar nominees for best picture, announced on Tuesday, included nine actually good films. Is it safe now to call “Barbie” […]
Read MoreFirst Black Women to Cover the White House Are Honored in the Briefing Room
On her first day covering the White House, Alice Dunnigan had every reason to stand out. She was the first Black woman to be credentialed to join the White House press corps, and she had even arrived an hour early to cover her first news conference with President Harry S. Truman. But as she sat […]
Read MoreMocking Haley, Trump Adds to His Long History of Racist Attacks
Donald J. Trump first established his connection with the largely white Republican base more than a decade ago by stoking discomfort with the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president — the beginning of the so-called birther movement. In the years since, he has continued to pile up accusations of racism on the […]
Read MoreDonald Trump Is the Heir Apparent to George Wallace
In a post for the new Opinion blog — which you should read! — I argued that there’s nothing mysterious or hard to grok about Donald Trump’s appeal to a large segment of American voters. It is not hard to find, throughout American history, Trump-like demagogues with loyal followings. And these men tend to represent, […]
Read MoreFrench Police Officer Convicted in Théo Luhaka Abuse Case
A police officer who brutalized a 22-year-old Black man with an expandable baton during an arrest seven years ago was convicted by a French court on Friday of “intentional violence” in one of the country’s highest-profile cases of police abuse. The young man, Théo Luhaka, sustained a four-inch tear to his rectum after the police […]
Read MoreWith Harsh Anti-L.G.B.T.Q. Law, Uganda Risks a Health Crisis
For decades, Uganda’s campaign against H.I.V. was exemplary, slashing the country’s death rate by nearly 90 percent from 1990 to 2019. Now a sweeping law enacted last year, the Anti-Homosexuality Act, threatens to renew the epidemic as L.G.B.T.Q. citizens are denied, or are too afraid to seek out, necessary medical care. The law criminalizes consensual […]
Read MoreWhy Black Women Are Showing Up And Showing Out For Claudine Gay
Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images) Black women in Washington are standing by Dr. Claudine Gay after her resignation as Harvard University’s first Black woman president. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they delivered a letter in an act of solidarity. Her six month stint as the school was sadly the shortest in their history. AME […]
Read MoreChina’s Population Shrank Again in 2023 as Births Continue to Fall
China’s ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to more have babies. It has offered them sweeteners, like cheaper housing, tax benefits and cash. It has also invoked patriotism, calling on them to be “good wives and mothers.” The efforts aren’t working. Chinese women have been […]
Read MoreWhite Teacher Files ‘Anti-White Racism’ Complaint Against NY School Over Nooses
Ohhh brother. A white woman who works as a teacher in Long Island, New York, filed a complaint against her school district alleging that she was subject to “anti-white racism.” Why? She said she was blamed for a poster depicting nooses. AME Pastor Who Protested Biden Connects Gaza & Palestine Solidarity To The Black Church & […]
Read MoreOpposing D.E.I. Does Not Mean Opposing Diversity
There are few national conversations more frustrating than the fight over D.E.I. Short for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the term — like the related progressive concepts of wokeness and critical race theory — used to have an agreed-upon meaning but has now been essentially redefined on the populist right. In that world, D.E.I. has become […]
Read MoreYou Could Soon Be Fined For Defamation for Calling Someone Racist in Florida
As the situation grew worse, Scavino said he printed out potential tweets Trump could post to urge the rioters not to get violent. At 2:38 p.m., after many protesters had already breached the Capitol, Trump finally let Scavino post a message on Trump’s Twitter (now called X) account telling the mob to “stay peaceful.” Minutes […]
Read MoreA Small-Town Stabbing Takes On a Larger Significance for France
The traditional village ball 18 minutes outside the city ended in the traditional way: young men fighting outside. What made it different were the flashing knives. Three young men were rushed to the hospital early in the morning on Nov. 19. One, the 16-year-old captain of a local rugby team, died en route from a […]
Read MoreFlorida Republicans Introduce Most Terrifying Assault on Trans Rights Yet
“We’re one of the worst in the nation, and that’s been true for a while now,” Bernard said. “Parents are going to skip meals, or you’re going to stretch meals farther. The charitable side will try and fill that gap. But there are going to be some struggles.” Although Oklahoma has rejected the summer program, […]
Read MoreFlorida Republicans Introduce the Most Terrifying Assault on Trans Rights Yet
“We’re one of the worst in the nation, and that’s been true for a while now,” Bernard said. “Parents are going to skip meals, or you’re going to stretch meals farther. The charitable side will try and fill that gap. But there are going to be some struggles.” Although Oklahoma has rejected the summer program, […]
Read MoreVinie Burrows, Acclaimed Actress Who Became an Activist, Dies at 99
Vinie Burrows, a Harlem-born stage actress who made her mark on Broadway in the 1950s, but who grew frustrated by how few choice roles were available for Black women and turned her focus to one-woman shows exploring the legacies of racism and sexism, died on Dec. 25 in Queens. She was 99. Her death, at […]
Read MoreFor Claudine Gay, Harvard’s First Black President, Race Was an Unavoidable Issue
In her late September inauguration, Claudine Gay looked out at a packed audience and spoke of her pride in making history as the first Black president of Harvard in its 387 years. “I stand before you on this stage, in this distinguished company and magnificent theater,” she intoned before continuing, “with the weight and honor […]
Read MoreLook What We Made Taylor Swift Do
There’s no way of knowing what could have happened if Ms. Swift’s masters hadn’t been sold. All we know is what happened next. In early August, Ms. Swift posted a rainbow-glazed photo of a series of friendship bracelets, one of which says “PROUD” with beads in the color of the bisexual pride flag. Queer people […]
Read MoreEddie Bernice Johnson, Trailblazer in Congress and Beyond, Dies at 88
Eddie Bernice Johnson, who blazed a trail as a Black woman in health care and government, first as a nurse in Dallas, then as the first Black state senator from the city since Reconstruction and then in 15 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, died on Sunday. She was 88. Her death was confirmed […]
Read MoreA.I. Use by Law Enforcement Must Be Strictly Regulated
One of the most hopeful proposals involving police surveillance emerged recently from a surprising quarter — the federal Office of Management and Budget. The office, which oversees the execution of the president’s policies, has recommended sorely needed constraints on the use of artificial intelligence by federal agencies, including law enforcement. The office’s work is commendable, […]
Read MoreHow Do You Respond to Kids Dealing With Racism and Bullying at School?
The sixth-grade boy who raised his hand was wiry and small. “People at my school make racist jokes,” he said, when I called on him. His voice had yet to change. “How do I get them to stop?” I was sitting on a high school stage in Piedmont, Calif., where I had finished a conversation […]
Read MoreAsian American Officials Cite Unfair Scrutiny and Lost Jobs in China Spy Tensions
When Thomas Wong set foot in the United States Embassy in Beijing this summer for a new diplomatic posting, it was vindication after years of battling the State Department over a perceived intelligence threat — himself. Diplomatic Security officers had informed him when he joined the foreign service more than a decade ago that they […]
Read MoreA Midwestern Republican Stands Up for Trans Rights
As 2023 slouches to an ignominious end, some news came Friday that gave me an unexpected jolt of hope. I have spent much of the year watching with horror and trying to document an unrelenting legal assault on queer and trans people. Around 20 states have passed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for trans […]
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