Race Inquiry Digest (January 14) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Featured – Trump’s border wall isn’t about national security. It’s about stoking racial resentment. By Jason Sattler / USA Today

No amount of evidence will cure birtherism. And no wall will protect Trump’s followers from the fear of losing cultural dominance or majority status. There’s no deal to be had with Trump and his hard-liners because this isn’t about securing a border, which is more secure than it has been all this century or possibly ever. It’s about the same thing birtherism was about: Re-establishing the dominance of white Americans. Read more

Trump doesn’t want a wall, all he wants is an issue. By Lucian K. Truscott IV / Salon

Trump is looking down the dark tunnel of the next two years and all he can see are the dual headlights of Mueller and a Democratic House of Representatives coming straight at him. He’s desperately afraid that if he loses his base of support among Republican voters, he’ll lose the presidency either to the legal jeopardy he faces with Mueller, or the political jeopardy he faces with a congress exercising its power to impeach him. Read more

Donald Trump: Racist liar, or just a liar who happens to be a racist? By Chauncey DeVega / Salon

Trump’s speech on Tuesday night on the supposed “national emergency” at the U.S.-Mexico border provides considerable evidence for either claim. Trump’s obvious lies and grotesque immorality speak only to the siege mentality of an audience haunted by fear. Read more

The GOP must stamp out the seeds of hatred before it’s too late. Henry Olsen / Wash Post

Two recent examples offer Republicans such opportunities: The first is Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who has persistently been criticized for making racist comments and for supporting a white-nationalist candidate in last year’s mayoral race in Toronto. His comments in a recent New York Times interview — “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” — make clear that those prior acts and words were not random. Read more

Here’s what’s really at stake for Asian Americans in the Harvard affirmative action case. Jenelle Wong / NBC News

A federal lawsuit challenging Harvard University’s race-conscious admissions policies is pending in federal court, and the outcome could potentially affect affirmative action policies at universities across the U.S. University of Maryland professor Janelle Wong joined THINK to talk about what’s at stake in the Harvard case. See video here.  

To Get To College, It Helps Black Students To Have A Black Teacher Early On. By Mayowa Aina / NPR

A recent study — part of a series of working papers published by the National Bureau of Economic Research — shows that having just one black teacher not only lowers black students’ high school dropout rates and increases their desire to go to college, but also can make them more likely to enroll in college. Read more

Florida Pardons the Groveland Four, 70 Years After Jim Crow-Era Rape Case. By Jacey Fortin / NYT

The so-called Groveland Four — Charles Greenlee, Ernest Thomas, Walter Irvin and Samuel Shepherd — were accused of the rape in 1949 near the city of Groveland in Lake County, Fla. Mr. Thomas was killed shortly thereafter, and the other three were taken into custody, beaten, and eventually convicted. Mr. Shepherd was later shot and killed by the county sheriff. Read more

Renowned sportscaster says NFL teams are racist when it comes to hiring coaches. By Brandon Griggs / CNN

A Dallas sportscaster is causing a stir for a blistering TV commentary in which he acknowledged his own “white privilege” and slammed the “covert racism” of NFL owners who won’t give talented coaches of color a chance. Dale Hansen of WFAA made his comments in reaction to the Arizona Cardinals’ hiring of head coach Kliff Kingsbury, even though Kingsbury has no NFL experience and was just fired as coach at Texas Tech, where he had a losing record. Read more

The (Really) Long Road To Glory: Stephon Marbury’s China Redemption. Eli Laskey / Tiebreaker

Stephon Marbury’s NBA career crashed and burned, leaving him hopeless. He had run out of options and was nearing the end. Thankfully, the Chinese Basketball Association reached out and wanted to give the former star one final chance. Marbury accepted the offer and turned his career and life around through a series of remarkable, seemingly scripted events, all while becoming one of the most beloved people in China. Here’s how Stephon Marbury went from NBA outcast to Chinese legend. Read more

R. Kelly and the Complexities of Race in the #MeToo Era. By Jelani Cobb / The New Yorker

Rather than indicting the character of its subject, “Surviving R. Kelly” indicts a public that knew of his character and did nothing about it. Read more

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