Tax targeting Gullah-Geechee, over 1,000 nonprofits drop DEI language, I'm on TikTok!
Happy holidays! This newsletter turns 3 years old on January 1st.
What I’m Reading
TikTok recently lifted my ban, so I’m back on the platform! I prefer text-based platforms so I won’t be leaving any of the others I use, but I’ve been enjoying the challenge of doing something different. I’m veryyyy far away from the well-edited videos you might see on there, so bare with me!
Check out my TikTok page here!
Under Trump, more than 1,000 nonprofits strip DEI language from tax forms, ProPublica
Ellis Simani, a data reporter at ProPublica found that over 1,000 nonprofits have removed DEI-related language from their mission statements this year.
At many top law schools, Black student enrollment continues to drop, The New York Times
The number of Black students entering many of the nation’s top law schools declined this year, according to data released this week by the American Bar Association. I made a TikTok about this story!
‘It’s not a coincidence’: journalists of color on being laid off amid Trump’s anti-DEI push, The Guardian
Melissa Hellmann spoke with the Black and brown journalists who were pushed out of newsrooms like CBS, NBC and Teen Vogue about their layoffs and how they view them as “capitulation to the Trump administration’s war on DEI.”
Related: Joy Reid’s next act is building her own media empire: “The mainstream media is cooked”…
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: Alabama’s Black lawmakers could nearly be wiped out if Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is eliminated, a new report warns…
California: This is Katrina Freeny’s first Christmas since the Eaton fire, which burned down her home and destroyed her priceless Black Santa Claus collection. Read about what she lost and what she is holding onto this holiday season…
District of Columbia: The Washington Post talked to residents in one D.C. neighborhood about what it felt like to be targeted by the federal surge and how they’re still impacted months later...
Georgia: A historical marker of Mary Turner, who was lynched in 1918, is now safely on display in Atlanta after it was repeatedly shot and vandalized…
Illinois: Chance the Rapper’s nonprofit SocialWorks and Raising Cane’s gave away 100 children’s bikes in Chicago…
Louisiana: Four months have passed since an oil facility burst apart, covering Roseland homes, farms and waterways in a black sludge. For Capital B News, Adam Mahoney reports on residents’ fight for relief...
Maryland: Lawmakers are set to create a commission to study potential reparations for slavery in the state, overriding Gov. Wes Moore’s veto. I made a TikTok about this story…
Mississippi: Attorneys are suing Jackson over lead in the city’s drinking water. Here’s the latest…
New York: skyler Winston, a student journalist at Columbia Journalism School, wrote about the Black New Yorkers who backed mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and what they’re expecting…
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Tribune managing editor Irv Randolph will retire at the end of January after 31 years…
South Carolina: Congratulations to Omar Shaheed III, who just became South Carolina State University’s first mechatronics engineering graduate…
Tennessee: Dr. Marie Feagins, the former school superintendent who was ousted from her position, announced she is running for Shelby County mayor…
Texas: Celebrity chef Tiffany Derry is urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to enroll the state in a federal program that would give qualifying families $120 per child for groceries during summer…
What’s Happening
Gullah-Geechee descendants on Sapelo Island may be facing a massive property tax increase that could open the doors for developers to turn the island into a vacation spot for the rich…
In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led a walkout of her segregated Virginia high school. This week, her statue replaced Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol…
Michael Jones hopped on the phone with Evan Turnage to talk through his decision to challenge Rep. Bennie Thompson for his seat…
My former boss Danielle Belton and her colleague Junny Ann Hibbert are working to foster community among Black women who have been pushed out of the workforce with their Ebony & Orchid dinners in New York City...
Capital B’s Alecia Taylor reported on the steps HBCUs are taking to protect students and ensure campus safety in the wake of recent threats…
The Trump administration announced this week a new $12 billion package of one-time bridge payments for American farmers, but Black farmers worry it won’t come soon enough…
The Navy quietly disciplined 18 Navy SEALs after investigators found a private group chat in which they shared racist memes targeting a Black SEAL who was also in the chat…Related: Capital B’s Brandon Tensley spoke with Black veterans who are warning that the military isn’t safe for Black prospective service members…
Texas State University officials uninvited a Black history exhibition from campus, citing the state’s anti-DEI law…
“Trump’s tariffs and immigration raids are driving the latest farm crisis. White farmers have stood by him year after year—and still do,” Kali Holloway writes for The Nation…
The New Republic is out with a profile of Brandon Scott, the young mayor who has worked to change the outside perceptions of Baltimore…
Rep. Ayanna Pressley has released a report on Trump’s clemency actions since January, highlighting that the pardons primarily benefited the white and wealthy…
Heidi Anderson, president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, is suing the former professor who accused her of plagiarism...
The Congressional Black Caucus is urging members of Congress to pass the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act, Gerren Keith Gaynor reports for The Grio…
A Mississippi appeals court has ordered a new murder trial for Tameshia Shelton, “a 47-year-old mother of four who has long insisted on her innocence in the death of her sister’s boyfriend”...
The trespassing case against Khalid Kamau, the former mayor of South Fulton, Georgia, is heading to trial in February…
Rayna Reid Rayford has launched an app aimed at addressing the Black maternal health crisis following the medical neglect she experienced during her pregnancy...
Entertainment News
Darryl M. Bell, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, and Cree Summer are coming back together for the “A Different World” Netflix spinoff series…
More than 90 percent of the top 250 current and library scripted titles streaming in 2024 were created by a white person, according to UCLA’s second annual Hollywood Diversity Report. Read the full report here…
“The Breakfast Club” will publish video episodes exclusively on Netflix starting in 2026 after the streamer announced a partnership with iHeartMedia…
Superstar boxer Terence Crawford announced his retirement from boxing, stating he’s “walking away as a great with nothing else left to prove”...
Roy Wood Jr’s “Have I Got News For You” has been renewed for a fourth season at CNN…
Renowned Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates is creating a piece using photo archives from Jet and Ebony magazines for the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center…
Dr. Warren L. Williams will take on the role as the band director of Tuskegee University, the school announced...
Esquire: Ryan Clark, the former NFL safety turned ESPN analyst, is working to build his own media empire…
Sometimes it can feel like R&B is dead. For Billboard, Kyle Denis argues that the genre had a lot to celebrate in 2025…
Esther Phillips, the First Lady of Black country, is from Houston, and she recorded the greatest country album you’ve never heard…
Netflix has hired its first on-air sports host: Elle Duncan…
“The majestic multi-instrumentalist changed the course of soul music and did so with Blackness at the focal point of his iconic career,” Keith Murphy writes of the late, great D’Angelo…
Danyel Smith wrote about the late D’Wayne Wiggins for the New York Times Magazine’s “The Lives They Lived” edition...
Donna Summer has been posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the organization announced this week…
Obituaries
Maya Cade memorialized the pioneering Black artists we’ve lost this year in her Black Film Archive…
Pauline Copes Johnson, a descendant of Harriet Tubman who spent a lifetime guarding her legacy, has died. She was 98…
Carl Carlton, the singer-songwriter best known for hits “Everlasting Love” and “She’s a Bad Mama Jama,” has died. He was 72…
Phil Upchurch, a legendary Chicago guitarist who collaborated with the likes of Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson and Curtis Mayfield, has died. He was 84…
Charles Robinson, a giant of the Black press and award-winning journalist, has died. He was 69…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 13 seconds…
The application for the Columbia HBCU Fellowship Program is now open to seniors and recent graduates...
Grinnell College’s Department of African Diaspora Studies is seeking applicants for a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship…
Have a high school or first-year college student interested in journalism in the DMV area? Encourage them to apply for the Urban Journalism Workshop! The program is free and the deadline is Jan. 12…