Race Inquiry Digest (February 22) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Feature – The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger. “Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all,” Killmonger scolds the Wakandan court. “Where was Wakanda?” The revolutionary ideals of Black Panther’s profound and complex villain have been twisted into a desire for hegemony. Read more 

‘Annihilation’ and Hollywood’s Erasure of Asians. The creatives behind ‘Annihilation’ can explain why two characters were cast as white women. But the time for excusing Hollywood’s continued erasure of Asians must end.  Read more 

Attacking the ‘Woke’ Black Vote. The tragic irony is that these young people, many of whom already felt like the American political system was failing them, were encouraged (foreign and domestic) to lay down one of the most powerful political tools they have, thereby ensuring an amplification of their own oppressions. Read more 

What’s behind the rise of interracial marriage in the US? Attitudes, migration patterns, availability of partners and education are all factors of interracial and interethnic marriages. Read more 

Black Incarceration Rates Are Dropping While White Rates Rises, But What’s Really Behind This Surprising Trend? “The trends started around 2000 before the opioid epidemic, so it was starting in that direction. It may be more related to the underlying changes in white working-class communities — declining economic opportunity, physical disabilities, job-related and others.” Read more 

Whitewashing Trump Country. How the media erases people of color from rural communities. No one is disputing the reality of racism in red states. But the Trump-loving blue collar worker doesn’t represent rural America, which is composed of a collection of communities. Read more 

How ‘Strange Fruit’ Killed Billie Holiday. One of the primary attempts to silence her came from a man named Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and an extreme racist, even for the 1930s. Read more 

Trump wants to pit black Americans against Latino immigrants. Don’t fall for it. The anti-immigrant argument that appears to resonate most among African Americans is the assertion that immigrants take jobs away from black people born in the US. Read more 

How long will white women continue to vote Republican? Republicans are panicking over dropping support among white women. The handling of recent domestic violence accusations only makes things worse. Read more 

The “Black National Anthem” May Be More Patriotic Than “The Star Spangled Banner.” Civil rights activists including James Baldwin (front, far right) sing at a memorial for victims of an Alabama church bombing in September 1963. Read more 

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