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☆ Opinion | Using Frederick Douglass to Rationalize Slavery? In Florida, Yes!
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last month, the Florida Department of Education announced that grade-school teachers could use videos produced by Dennis Prager’s PragerU Kids in their classrooms. PragerU is no more a university than Trump University was. In fine type at the bottom of its webpage, it admits that “PragerU is not an accredited university, nor do we claim to be. We don’t offer degrees, but we do provide educational, entertaining, pro-American videos for every age.”In reality, PragerU is little more than a propaganda media site. The Southern Poverty Law Center takes an even dimmer view of its credentials, saying, “PragerU seems to be yet another node on the internet connecting conservative media consumers to the dark corners of the extreme right.”

Persons: Ron DeSantis’s, Dennis Prager’s, “ PragerU, ” Organizations: Republican, Florida Department of Education, Trump University, Southern Poverty Law Center Locations: Florida

☆ Opinion | The Montgomery Brawl Was, for Some, a Clarifying Moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Alabama Sweet Tea Party. That was one nickname people gave to a brawl this past Saturday on a Montgomery, Ala., riverfront dock, captured in viral videos, after a group of white people attacked Damien Pickett, a Black riverboat co-captain who was trying to clear a berth for his vessel, and a group of Black people came to Pickett’s defense. In some obvious ways the whole episode is sad: The situation should never have descended into violence. The people who were asked to move their boat so that the riverboat could dock in its reserved space should simply have complied. But in other ways, many Black people, in particular, saw it as an unfortunate but practically unavoidable response to what can feel like an unending stream of incidents in which Black people are publicly victimized, with no one willing or able to intervene or render aid.

Persons: Damien Pickett Organizations: Alabama Sweet Tea Party, Black Locations: Montgomery, Ala, United States

☆ Opinion | Part Thriller, Part Whodunit: The Trump Indictment Is a Must-Read
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Avid consumers of news and those of us in the news business can grow cold to this kind of development. We read the stories and the books as they’re written. For us, the indictment may feel anticlimactic, just a bit farther down judicial and political lines laid like parallel train tracks. It allows them to see not only what lies Trump is accused of telling, but also how he viewed the things he said at the time he said them. People often talk about Trump lying for self-aggrandizement and about his thirst for others’ lies meant to flatter him.

Persons: anticlimactic, they’re, It’s, Trump, ’ Organizations: Trump

☆ Opinion | Black History Is a Casualty in Ron DeSantis’s Christian Nationalist Quest
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last week, Florida approved an overhaul of its African American history standards, including guidance that middle schoolers should be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”Outrage ensued, including from Vice President Kamala Harris, who blasted the standards, saying, “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us.”She’s right. But I think the project underway in Florida is far larger, and far more consequential than many comprehend. The insult to Black people — and to the country — is incidental. In the same way that Donald Trump made his bones as America’s white nationalist in chief, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is trying to make his as the country’s chief Christian nationalist, a subset of white supremacy that holds that God has ordained America as a Christian nation, and that its ideals must be protected from the encroachment of pluralism — racial, religious or otherwise.

Persons: Kamala Harris, “, ”, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis Locations: Florida, America

☆ Opinion | Why Trump’s Indictments Don’t Feel Like Part of the Finale
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It looks as though Donald Trump will be indicted — again. Federal prosecutors have informed him that he’s a target of their investigation into the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This would be Trump’s third criminal indictment and counting. So why does it feel so anticlimactic? Why is there no sense of finality in the air?

Persons: Donald Trump, —, Trump Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Georgia

☆ Opinion | Tommy Tuberville Is Whitewashing White Nationalism
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But in this stew of adulterated meanings, “white nationalist” gets conflated with being a white patriot and allows any suggestion of racism to become an aspersion cast at white nationalists without cause. They did this for this reason.’ But to say it was inherent because of their skin is where I say that is critical race theory. You’re saying that race defines a person.”Be clear: White racists attacked and destroyed the Black community in Tulsa called the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street. I guess Walters’s argument, as flimsy as it is, hangs on the word “inherent.” And no, white people are not inherently terrorists or racists. But, there have been white people who were terrorists and racists and wreaked havoc and destruction in this country.

Persons: Trump, Ramaswamy, ”, Ryan Walters, Walters, Jim Crow Organizations: Greenwood District Locations: Oklahoma, Tulsa, Black Tulsa

☆ Opinion | The Supreme Court Enshrines Racial Imbalance
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

There is a recurrent theme in American history: the clawing back of hard-won progress. And the Supreme Court last week used the most specious of arguments to do so with affirmative action. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that affirmative action — in this case, the use of race as a factor in university admissions — cannot stand because “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” But, of course, neither the court nor America itself has any desire to eliminate all of it. What the court was really signaling was that it intended to let racial imbalances born of both historical and current injustices be locked in and go unchecked. Affirmative action, however imperfect, is at least an acknowledgment of racialized imbalance and injury, and an attempt to lessen their effects.

Persons: John Roberts Locations: America

☆ Opinion | Republicans’ Anti-Woke, Anti-Vote Crusade Has Crashed Into the Constitution
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Before the dust had cleared on the 2020 election, Republicans in statehouses across the country had already regrouped and coalesced around a core crusade — revived and revitalized — that was anti-woke and anti-vote. Having lost control of the presidency and Congress, they funneled their quest for control into voting booths, bathrooms, locker rooms, classrooms and doctors’ offices. If they couldn’t control the highest rungs of power, they would look to exert control over Americans’ lives at the lower rungs. They would come to insert themselves into the most intimate of activities — between voters and ballots, between families and doctors, between teachers and students. In that fight, Arkansas passed the first-in-the-nation law outlawing gender-affirming care for transgender children.

Persons: —, ’ Organizations: Congress Locations: statehouses, Arkansas

☆ Opinion | Coming Out Late — and Finding a New Life in Midlife
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Born, bred, toasted, buttered, jelly-jammed and honeyed in Harlem.”That’s how Audrey Smaltz, a former model and fashion industry veteran who turned 86 this month, introduced herself to me years ago at a Midtown Manhattan reception. She was the grande dame of the room, floating through it, incandescent, fun and unabashedly flirty. “I had fabulous men in my life,” she told me recently, but in 1999, the Olympic basketball star Gail Marquis, 17 years Smaltz’s junior, asked her out to dinner. Smaltz didn’t think of it as a date and said she had no interest in women at the time. But when Marquis kissed her good night, Smaltz recalled, “it was like kissing a man.” She said, “I couldn’t believe myself,” then laughed, punctuating the thought: “Whoa!”They married in 2011.

Persons: “, ”, Audrey Smaltz, Gail Marquis, Smaltz didn’t, Marquis, Smaltz, Gallup Organizations: Olympic, Pew Research Center Locations: Harlem, Manhattan

☆ Charles M. Blow on ‘Rapper’s Delight’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Charles M. Blow | Charles Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

America Is An Island Where the Rules Never Changepick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. America Is ... We asked 17 columnists topick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. Opinion America Is Black Pain and Joy“Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang was the first rap song I remember hearing. Struggle and pain are often a kiln for creativity, and that has meant that much of American culture is born of the story of Black American life. It took the crosscurrents of Black life and produced of them a chorus, and America — and the world — was enthralled.

Persons: topick, Joy “, Eric Reese, I’m, America — Organizations: Library of Congress, Sugarhill, America Locations: America, South, New Jersey

☆ Opinion | L.G.B.T.Q. Americans Could Become a ‘New Class of Political Refugees’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

According to research by the Clark University professor Abbie Goldberg published in January by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, which surveyed 113 parents in Florida who are L.G.B.T.Q. And as the study notes, for some families with L.G.B.T.Q. legislation creates “will be significant.” Uprooting and moving to get away from political persecution is a privileged option that’s just not feasible for everyone, at least in the short term. One high-profile family that resolved to leave Florida is that of Dwyane Wade, who won three N.B.A. The couple has a transgender daughter, 16-year-old Zaya, and Wade has said that Florida’s anti-L.G.B.T.Q.

Persons: Kelley Robinson, Abbie Goldberg, Florida’s, “, Goldberg, Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle Union, Wade, ” Organizations: Human Rights, Clark University, Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, ” —, Miami Heat Locations: America, Florida, Miami, “

☆ Opinion | Yes, We’re in an L.G.B.T.Q. State of Emergency
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the L.G.B.T.Q. bills since 2018, and that number has recently accelerated, with the 2023 state legislative year being the worst on record. According to the Human Rights Campaign, in 2023 there have been more than 525 such bills introduced in 41 states, with more than 75 bills signed into law as of June 5. In Florida — the state that became known for its “Don’t Say Gay” law — just last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that banned gender transition care for minors and prohibited public school employees from asking children their preferred pronouns.

Persons: There’s, —, Ron DeSantis, Kelley Robinson Organizations: Pride, Human Rights, Gov Locations: Florida

☆ Opinion | Vivek Ramaswamy Is the Latest in a Line of Politically Problematic Tech Bros
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Vivek Ramaswamy, a hedge fund analyst turned biotech executive, is the fifth-ranked candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, going by the Real Clear Politics polling average. We’re both energetic people.” And many of Ramaswamy’s views aren’t far from those of Gov. Ron De‌Santis‌ — who is polling a distant second behind Trump and is another anti-woke crusader. When he began his campaign, Ramaswamy tweeted: “We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis. Wokeism, climatism & gender ideology have replaced them.” His tweet came with a video that quotes Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech — the only King speech Republicans ever seem to quote.

☆ The Panic Over Joe Biden’s Age Is Manufactured - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This brings me to the coverage of Biden’s age. It’s true that if he’s re-elected, Biden would be the oldest president we’ve ever had. But he was already the oldest president the first time he was elected. I’d argue that the biggest change wasn’t the simple passage of time, but the decision of some Republican leaders to focus like a laser on Biden’s age as the factor weighing against him. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas noted that she’s half Biden’s age.

☆ Opinion | Tucker Carlson, ‘White Men’ and the Lynch Mob Mentality
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How did the people in these mobs — made up mostly of white men in the American accounts I’ve read — rev themselves up to peak barbarity? I have stared at the pictures of glassy-eyed men and boys (and sometimes women) standing beneath dangling bodies or standing above charred ones. I have read the histories of communities consumed by the desire to not only kill, but to mutilate. In 1893, Henry Smith, a Black man accused of killing a white girl, was lynched in Paris, Texas, before a crowd estimated at 10,000 people. His body was burned with “red-hot” irons “inch by inch until they were thrust against the face.” His eyes were burned out and the hot irons shoved down his throat.

☆ Opinion | Biden’s Highest Hurdle Isn’t Age, It’s Passion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The age question is major concern for Biden, according to political advisers I’ve spoken to recently — and according to the chatter on cable news and online. And the sense that he has underwhelmed is particularly problematic for Biden when it comes to young voters. Younger voters can also be barometers of how much a candidate’s passion factors into his appeal. I reached out to several voting rights advocates and political organizers to discuss Biden’s bid, and the overall impression settles somewhere between cautious optimism and dampened enthusiasm, not so much about Biden’s age, but how voters, including younger voters, look at his policy priorities. As Clifford Albright, the co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, told me, although younger voters would generally like to see younger candidates, “the age thing can be overcome if you’re talking about the right issues.”

☆ Opinion | The Harry Belafonte Speech That Changed My Life
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the summer of 2013, I participated in a daylong series of talks at the Ford Foundation in Midtown Manhattan. The event, the Road Ahead for Civil Rights: Courting Change, was meant to mark the semicentennial of the civil rights movement. My panel was in the morning, but I stayed for the lunch session because Harry Belafonte was participating in it, along with the activist Dolores Huerta. I didn’t know the Belafonte my parents knew, the young, handsome calypso singer. But there were no notes that I could see; we were witnessing the brilliance of Belafonte in real time.

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