Category: Black Issues

How Russia Meddles Abroad for Profit: Cash, Trolls and a Cult Leader

December 9, 2019
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — The Russians were hard to miss. They appeared suddenly last year in Madagascar’s traffic-snarled capital, carrying backpacks stuffed with cash and campaign swag decorated with the name of Madagascar’s president.It was one of Russia’s most overt attempts at election interference to date. Working from their headquarters in a resort hotel, the Russians…

China Says U.S. Will, and Must, Cut Tariffs to Reach a Trade Deal

December 8, 2019
The development suggests progress toward an interim agreement that would provide relief to businesses and consumers.A container ship docked at a port in Shanghai.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York TimesWASHINGTON — The United States and China have agreed that an initial trade deal between the two countries would roll back a portion of the…

Arkady Renko Has Been Sent to Siberia. And He’s Fine With That.

December 8, 2019
CrimeCredit...Pablo AmargoPublished Nov. 15, 2019Updated Nov. 18, 2019If this is a Martin Cruz Smith mystery, we must be in Moscow, maybe in Gorky Park. But in a thrilling change of pace, THE SIBERIAN DILEMMA (Simon & Schuster, $27) takes us out of the city and into Russia’s untamed wilderness in search of a journalist who’s…

Saving Birds by Ruffling Some Feathers

December 8, 2019
Children’s BooksWe hear so much about the challenges of young female friendships. But STRANGE BIRDS: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers (Kokila, 350 pp., $16.99; ages 8 to 12), Celia C. Pérez’s second middle-grade novel (after “The First Rule of Punk”), is a story about the magic and beauty of these bonds, especially when they…

14,000 Lives: ‘Rare Case Where Racial Biases’ Protected Blacks

December 6, 2019
The New health CareFewer opioid prescriptions meant fewer deaths (possibly 14,000), but the episode also reveals how prevalent and harmful stereotypes can be, even if implicit.Published Nov. 25, 2019Updated Dec. 2, 2019When the opioid crisis began to escalate some 20 years ago, many African-Americans had a layer of protection against it.But that protection didn’t come…

What the 2019 Election Means for 2020 – The New York Times

December 6, 2019
On PoliticsFour lessons from Tuesday night.Credit...Tim LahanNov. 6, 2019There was at least one clear loser in last night’s elections: my dream of reaching Inbox Zero.My email (current unread count: 40,149!) is now flooded with hundreds more messages, all from overjoyed Democratic organizations, strategists and candidates eager to get their piece of the credit for the…

Walmart’s Strategy When Wading Into Culture Wars: Offend Few

December 4, 2019
A Walmart in Secaucus, N.J. The retailer’s approach to public policy issues is more nuanced than a desire to simply do the right thing, interviews show.Credit...Gabby Jones for The New York TimesPublished Nov. 4, 2019Updated Nov. 5, 2019Walmart is getting out of the vaping business, but still sells cigarettes. It is working to reduce plastic…

Fiona Hill and the American Idea

December 4, 2019
A naturalized American exposes Trump’s attack on what America is and must be.Nov. 22, 2019Fiona Hill leaving a closed hearing on Capitol Hill early this month.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York TimesFor a naturalized American, raised in Britain, I found Fiona Hill’s testimony at impeachment hearings this week to be a powerful reminder of what…

Popeyes Sandwich Strikes a Chord for African-Americans

December 2, 2019
Credit...Nick Kindelsperger/Chicago Tribune, via Getty ImagesKANSAS CITY, Mo. — The videos of mind-numbing first bites and long lines, the celebratory memes and fawning reviews: The return of the Popeyes chicken sandwich on Sunday has met with the same social-media frenzy that first greeted it last summer.But embedded in many of the catchy memes and witty…

Overlooked No More: Lillian Harris Dean, Culinary Entrepreneur Known as ‘Pig Foot Mary’

December 1, 2019
From a baby carriage on a Manhattan street corner, she sold Southern food to African-Americans who, like her, had moved to New York during the Great Migration. Left, the corner of 135th Street and what is now Malcolm X Boulevard in the 1920s, near where Lillian Harris sold her traditional Southern meals. Above, Benja Kay…

William Loren Katz, Historian of African-Americans, Dies at 92

December 1, 2019
He documented the often overlooked contributions of black people in books for young adults, helping to refashion social studies curriculums across the country.William Loren Katz in an undated photo. He wrote some 40 books about the integral roles that black people played in American history.Published Nov. 21, 2019Updated Nov. 22, 2019The fountainhead of the historian…

That Recruitment Letter From Harvard Probably Doesn’t Mean Much

November 30, 2019
Especially if you’re African-American, according to a new study.A working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that Harvard intentionally draws applications from African-Americans who effectively have no chance of getting in.Credit...Cody O'Loughlin for The New York TimesNov. 29, 2019The message, emailed to more than 100,000 high school students, was seductive and flattering:…

Battlefields: Recent Books in Military History

November 29, 2019
NonfictionEugene BullardCredit...US Air ForcePublished Nov. 5, 2019Updated Nov. 7, 2019Watching the recent resurgence of white supremacism in America, I have come to think that much of what I was taught about our history is wrong. For example, Reconstruction did not collapse because of its inherent faults, as my high school teachers said. Rather, it was…

The Pork Chops You’ll Make Again and Again

November 29, 2019
EatPork chops in lemon-caper sauce.Credit...Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Paola Andrea.There are precious few feelings as nice as the one that comes from falling in love with a cookbook — with its aesthetics and point of view, with its larder and stories, above all with the…

Five Places to Visit in Washington, D.C. With a Black Digital Storyteller

November 29, 2019
Travel|Five Places to Visit in Washington, D.C. With a Black Digital Storyteller5 PlacesLanae Spruce made a name for herself as a social media specialist at the Smithsonian’s African American Museum. Here are her top D.C. spots.Lanae Spruce, a social media storyteller, lists the Anacostia Arts Center as one of her favorite spots in Washington. “It’s…

‘Our Nation Is Being Torn Apart. Truth Is Questioned.’

November 27, 2019
Fiona Hill’s warnings challenge Trump to keep America safe from Moscow’s efforts to destabilize democracy and snare influence around the globe. By Jeffrey A. StaceyDr. Stacey is a former State Department official and is working on a book titled “Rise of the East, End of the West?”Nov. 23, 2019Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council…

Surviving Droughts, Tornadoes and Racism

November 27, 2019
TANNER, Ala. — “There are easier ways to make a living than farming,” Greg Bridgeforth said as he drove a combine through fields he farms in northern Alabama. “But this is what I truly love to do — till the soil and grow things, just like my father, grandfather and great-grandfather did. You know, when…

What Were the Most Memorable Moments From Last Night’s Debate? – The New York Times

November 26, 2019
Politics|What Were the Most Memorable Moments From Last Night’s Debate?For a Democratic debate that was without major fireworks, there were several memorable moments. Here are the lines that stood out. Videotranscripttranscript‘Donald Trump Got Punked’: The Best One-Liners From the DebateFrom Cory Booker’s buzzkill response to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s stance on marijuana legalization to Andrew…

Five Polling Results That May Change the Way You Think About Electability

November 25, 2019
Our battleground surveys had some outcomes that upended the conventional wisdom. Nov. 12, 2019ImageDemocratic strength in Arizona was perhaps the most surprising topline result in the six states polled.Credit...Matt York/Associated PressDemocratic voters have a clear ideological choice in this year’s presidential primaries. But if there is any lesson from the recent New York Times/Siena College…

Race and ‘The Real Housewives’

November 24, 2019
Bravo’s shows offer a wealth of diversity, but its crown jewel has often been divided on racial lines.How the cast of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” has evolved since it premiered in 2010Credit...Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Getty Images“The sun always shines on Beverly Hills, but not on everyone,” Camille Grammer says…

Five Polling Results That May Change the Way You Think About Electability

November 24, 2019
Our battleground surveys had some outcomes that upended the conventional wisdom. Nov. 12, 2019ImageDemocratic strength in Arizona was perhaps the most surprising topline result in the six states polled.Credit...Matt York/Associated PressDemocratic voters have a clear ideological choice in this year’s presidential primaries. But if there is any lesson from the recent New York Times/Siena College…

Confederate Statue in North Carolina Comes Down After 112 Years

November 22, 2019
U.S.|Confederate Statue in North Carolina Comes Down After 112 YearsThe statue’s removal came after months of “high emotions, division and even violence” in the small town of Pittsboro, a county official said.Workers loaded the monument onto a truck after it was removed from its place in front of the Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro, N.C.,…

The Democrats Are in Georgia. The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher.

November 21, 2019
The state’s demographics have been favorable to turn it blue, but destiny is shaped by history, too. By Joseph CrespinoMr. Crespino is a history professor at Emory University.Nov. 20, 2019Voters last year in Atlanta.Credit...Jessica Mcgowan/Getty ImagesWith tonight’s presidential primary debate, Georgia Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief. Finally, they are saying, the national party…

Trump Is Speaking at a Historically Black College. His Allies Will Outnumber Students.

November 20, 2019
President Trump, speaking at Benedict College in South Carolina, said he had done more for black voters than any other president.President Trump spoke at a criminal justice forum at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., on Friday.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesCOLUMBIA, S.C. — President Trump, speaking to a handpicked audience of supporters at a historically black…

Essex Crossing Is the Anti-Hudson Yards

November 20, 2019
Even half-done, Essex Crossing, on the Lower East Side, is shaping up as one of New York’s most promising new mixed-use developments — the anti-Hudson Yards. A $1.9 billion, six-acre, for-profit mega-project occupying several blocks around Delancey Street where traffic barrels onto and off the Williamsburg Bridge, it replaces what had been a vast no-man’s…

Who Will Wear My Dead Husband’s Clothes?

November 18, 2019
It took me a long time to find a new home for the belongings he left behind.By Fernanda SantosMs. Santos, a former national correspondent for The Times, teaches journalism at Arizona State University.Nov. 1, 2019Credit...Bianca BagnarelliPHOENIX — My husband and I shared a narrow, shoebox-shaped closet in our home here, his clothes facing mine from…

$27 Million for Reparations Over Slave Ties Pledged by Seminary

November 18, 2019
The Princeton Theological Seminary said it was committed to “telling the truth” about its ties to slavery. Black students don’t think it goes far enough. The Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812.Credit...Mel Evans/Associated PressA New Jersey seminary has pledged to spend $27 million on scholarships and other initiatives to address its historical ties to…

Democrats in Battleground States Prefer Moderate Nominee, Poll Shows

November 18, 2019
A New York Times/Siena College survey in six key states also showed voters want a candidate who can work with Republicans. If the Democratic presidential primary were being held today, whom would you vote for? Biden 24% 27% 30% 29% 28% 23% Warren 15% 19% 21% 15% 16% 25% Sanders 16% 13% 17% 13% 14%…

Children of Poor Immigrants Rise, Regardless of Where They Come From

November 17, 2019
The Upshot|Children of Poor Immigrants Rise, Regardless of Where They Come FromA pattern that has persisted for a century: They tend to outperform children of similarly poor native-born Americans. Oct. 28, 2019ImageImmigrants waiting to be transferred, Ellis Island, Oct. 30, 1912.Credit...Library of CongressImmigration to the United States has consistently offered a route to escape poverty…

A Post-9/11 Veteran as President? Pete Buttigieg Makes His Case

November 16, 2019
On the Democratic debate stage Tuesday night, Mr. Buttigieg didn’t brag about his military service, but he did outflank his rivals.Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., at a campaign rally in Des Moines.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York TimesThe last time a Democratic presidential nominee was trying to unseat a Republican incumbent, he arrived…