Black men tune out mainstream media, Pope apology over slavery, RIP Sonny Rollins
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What I’m Reading
The Voting Rights Act is dead. Here’s a new model for Black politics, The New Republic
After the Supreme Court’s decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act, Perry Bacon Jr and Jake Grumbach argue that now is the time for a new “framework for Black politics—fresh strategies, tactics, leaders, and goals.” In The New Republic, the two writers explain that past civil rights strategies won’t work in this dire moment.
AI models are going viral – and they’re stealing real Black women’s faces, Glamour Magazine
Tabby Kibugi explored the insidious world of digital Blackface, which involves AI influencers that are built by “scraping real Black women creators’ content without consent, replicating their faces, bodies and movements for views and profit.”
Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery, The Associated Press
Pope Leo XIV made an historic apology for the “Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery and for failing to condemn it for centuries.” Black American catholics have called for the Vatican to publicly atone for its role in legitimizing slavery for European colonizers.
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: A federal court blocked a map that would have eliminated a Black-majority congressional seat…
California: Chaka Khan opened up about her time as a member of the Black Panther Party in Chicago during a fireside chat in Oakland...
District of Columbia: D.C. taxpayers are funding broadcasting legend Donnie Simpson’s talk show, but no one seems to know exactly how much it costs…
Georgia: Atlanta officials say they are partnering with Morehouse School of Medicine on a proposed $800 million hospital…
Kentucky: An anonymous group of Kentucky State University students are suing over a new law to transform the HBCU into a polytechnic institution...
Florida: The popular American Black Film Festival is celebrating 30 years in Miami Beach…
Maryland: Morgan State University announced it is expanding student housing to meet strong demand, adding more than 300 beds…
Mississippi: The Supreme Court sided with Terry Pitchford, a Black death row inmate, who claimed there was racial bias in the makeup of the jury that convicted him…
New York: New York state officials have agreed to push back a long-awaited report on reparations to 2029…
Pennsylvania: Paul Beale’s Flowers has been in business in Philly since 1971. The family wants to keep the Black-owned business going as long as they can…
South Carolina: The South Carolina Senate rejected Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional district before the midterm elections…
Tennessee: A school district has reversed its ban on Alex Haley’s “Roots” after weeks of community backlash and statewide criticism…
Texas: Rep. Christian Menefee has won the Democratic primary for the 18th House District in Texas, defeating Rep. Al Green in a GOP-engineered showdown…
Virginia: The historic Alfred Street Baptist Church announced it will fund the Black student government whose funding was cut at Mizzou due to DEI restrictions…
What’s Happening
I listened in on a focus group of Black men who voted for Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and found they are increasingly getting their news from nontraditional media outlets…I talked about my story with NBC 4 Washington above…
The Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to over 250 companies, calling on them to oppose redistricting efforts by Republican-led states…
Nikole Hannah Jones in the New York Times: “Black representation may once again disappear in the South, where more than half of Black Americans live. This could lead to the largest decimation of Black political power since the fall of Reconstruction”...
The New Yorker: Justice Clarence Thomas has made clear that he views Progressivism, past and present, as anti-American…
Eugene Scott for Boston Globe: Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt says Jim Crow is gone. Many Black Americans aren’t convinced…
The Southern Poverty Law Center is seeking dismissal of what its lawyers call a “vindictive” indictment by the Justice Department…
Three years after Monica and Shawn Williams witnessed a cross burning outside their house in South Carolina, their white neighbor has been charged. But the state still won’t call it a hate crime, Aallyah Wright reports…
Employees at the Department of Labor were urged to file whistleblower complaints and report anyone prioritizing DEI…
BuzzFeed is now a Black-owned company after Byron Allen closed the acquisition this week. Disclosure: I work at HuffPost and BuzzFeed is our parent company…
Don Lemon seeks grand jury transcripts in his Minnesota civil rights case, citing misconduct…
Sierra Lyons spoke with Kimberlé Crenshaw about her new memoir, how she coined the term “intersectionality,” and much more...
“Rising carbon dioxide is stripping nutrients like iron, zinc, and protein from staple crops such as rice, wheat, beans, and potatoes—the building blocks of Black American diets,” Adam Mahoney reports for Capital B News…
The New York Times reviewed Eddie Glaude’s “America, U.S.A.,” a book about how race shadows the nation’s anniversaries…
Entertainment News
Comedian Josh Johnson sat down with “CBS Mornings” about finding humor in everyday life, how storytelling is at the center of his jokes and his first HBO special, “Symphony.” Watch above…
George Clinton is suing UMG Recordings, claiming the music corporation owes him more than $1.1 million in royalties…
The Athletic columnist Candace Buckner writes that it is “unreasonable to expect 20-year-olds to move to the front lines” of the NAACP’s fight against gerrymandering in the South…
For Newsone, Nicky Childers defended Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend organizing a dinner celebrating Black tennis players...
Here’s how Issa Rae built TikTok’s first micro-drama hit, drawing over 150 million views…
Kathy Sledge, one of disco’s biggest stars, answered all of your questions in this new interview with The Guardian…
The cast of “The Chi” spoke with Essence writer Victoria Uwumarogie about the show’s eighth and final season…
For EBONY, Malik Peay talked with director Boots Riley about his latest film, “I Love Boosters,” and his vision…
Kevin Hart defended the layoffs and restructuring at his media company, Hartbeat, during a recent appearance on “The Breakfast Club”...
After over a decade, VIBE announced it is relaunching print and the first issue set to be released next week…
Big Tigger announced that NPR Music will pay homage to BET with a stacked lineup of artists for its Tiny Desk series…
Obituaries
Sonny Rollins, one of the most influential jazz musicians of our time, has died. He was 95…He was the last of the jazz titans…
Clarence B. Jones, a lawyer and speechwriter who drafted part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, has died. He was 95…
Rob Base, one-half of Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, who was best known for the hit “It Takes Two,” has died. He was 59…
Grizz Chapman, the massive actor who played Tracy Jordan’s bodyguard in “30 Rock,” has died. He was 52...
John McClain, the visionary music executive who served as co-executor of Michael Jackson‘s estate, has died. He was 71…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 11 seconds…
I spoke with WTOP’s JJ Green about the Washington Association of Black Journalists, and its impact over the past 50 years…
Interested in working at Essence Fest in New Orleans? Fill out the waitlist form to be considered....
Check out “Master Teachers: Foundation to Future Soul,” an exhibition at Manifest 002 exploring DC’s role in the creation of Black Music Month. The exhibit is open to the public in Washington June 4…
The application for the tuition-free Schomburg Center’s Junior Scholars Program in New York is now available. The deadline is June 15...
Nicole Carr will present her landmark new book, “The Price of Exclusion,” at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in D.C. on June 18th…
This article makes an important point: Black political power cannot only be measured by representation, party loyalty, or who gets a seat at the table. It has to be measured by whether Black communities are gaining real protection, real economic power, and real access to the future of work.
This directly connects to what we discussed in Chapter 4 of our article series, “The Black Jobs Crisis.” Voting rights, labor rights, and economic justice are now deeply connected. If Black workers are facing DEI rollbacks, AI displacement, hiring discrimination, wage stagnation, and shrinking access to stable careers, then the next model of Black politics must include a serious jobs agenda.
Representation still matters, but representation without economic protection is not enough. A new Black political model should fight for fair hiring, workforce retraining, protections against biased AI hiring systems, stronger labor rights, small business support, and policies that make sure Black workers are not pushed out of the economy while technology and corporations continue to grow.
The future of Black politics cannot only be about who speaks for Black people. It must be about who is willing to fight for Black workers, Black families, and Black economic survival.
I knew that is what Ai would turn into. All some people do is mimic. Thank you for this article. We must recreate ourselves.