After the votes are counted, probably this week, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice. But members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who wanted to use her confirmation hearings for everything but the thing they were designed for are also walking away satisfied. Republican senators like Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marsha […]
But what will the ‘optics’ be? Read More »
God must be sick of the lot of us. That was my first thought on reading the text message exchanges between Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “This is a fight of good versus evil,” Meadows reportedly wrote to Thomas. “Evil always looks like
Can we just leave God out of it? Read More »
Brent Renaud was an award-winning journalist, a documentary filmmaker and photographer, whose work took him around the country and the world, where he covered an earthquake in Haiti, cartel violence in Mexico and, in a Vice News series titled “Last Chance High,” a therapeutic school in Chicago. He won a prestigious Peabody Award for that last project in
Shining a light on truth, at any cost Read More »
March 7, 1965, is a day to remember. That was never a problem for 90-year-old Ora Bell Shannon of Selma, Ala., then a young mother who ran with her children from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, or for Betty Boynton, who could see the tear gas rising and baton-wielding state troopers beating peaceful marchers. Civil rights activists — among
Yesterday’s march, with lessons for today Read More »
In a brief mention in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden described his Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as a “consensus builder” and touted her support from the Fraternal Order of Police, before moving on to other topics. That was understandable in a time of war and division, overseas and closer to home. But
A balancing act that’s worth it Read More »
I lead a double life. That’s not as sinister as it sounds. I cover the news of the day and write opinion columns on the intersection of politics, culture and race. And, if you’ve been paying attention, you know that it’s rough out there. In my other, not-so-secret life, I spend time with thought leaders
Seeing double: Part exasperation, part inspiration Read More »
Censoring what you say and do? Trembling in fear that you are being surveilled, with your words and actions reported to “the state”? Looking over your shoulder in case a government-sponsored militia decides to swoop into your precinct as you attempt to cast a ballot, just to guarantee you’re not trying anything “funny”? If that
It couldn’t happen here, unless it already is Read More »
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was shocked and, indeed, insulted that anyone would ascribe even a hint of racist intent to his recent statement that divided the electorate into African Americans and Americans: “If you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” On the one hand, that outrage
Black women are Americans, and representation raises the bar — legal and otherwise Read More »
Black history is often celebrated as though it were not American history. So many presidents have held up proclamations on behalf of Black History Month while their policies betray Black Americans. Mary C. Curtis talks with Boston Globe opinion writer Renee Graham about the need to expose hypocrisy and view Black history in a way that honors Black Americans as equals.
Should there be a Black History Month? Read More »
Emails made public by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School recently showed that officials under President Donald Trump tried whatever they could to rig the system for redistricting purposes. It and other government documents detailed clashes between the administration and the bureau’s experts in areas that had the potential of
What do the census, voting rights and democracy have in common? Read More »
