Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor
  9/22/2020
  

  Alabama's State Archives Confronts Its Racist Past

  In June, leaders formally acknowledged the department’s past role in perpetuating racism and so-called “lost cause” ideals.

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  9/22/2020
  

  Alumni Blitz for the Liberal Arts

  Adrian College planned to terminate history, philosophy, religion and more -- until graduates organized to stop it. Faculty members still don't understand why the programs were threatened.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/24/2020
  

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to Leave America to See how Unfairly it Treated Women

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg's research trip to Sweden at age 29 challenged her to see that gendered divisions of labor and opportunity in American society were not automatic or necessary. 

• 
• SOURCE: Iowa Public Radio
  9/23/2020
  

  “The White Man Who Stayed” Tells A Story Of Activism During The Civil Rights Era (audio)

  Poet James Autry's newest book tells the story of his cousin, a white man who remained in Mississippi as a liberal advocate for integration and justice. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/22/2020
  

  U.K. Conservation Society Details Links to Colonialism and Slavery

  The British historic preservation agency has begun to grapple with how to present the historic connections between properties it manages and fortunes built through slavery and colonialism.

• 
• SOURCE: The Baffler
  9/22/2020
  

  Desiring Machines

  In 1993, soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, consensual same-sex relationships were decriminalized in Russia as the economy underwent a wrenching transition away from central planning. Documentarian William E. Jones documents this moment by splicing together the non-sexual scenes from gay pornography shot in the former Soviet bloc. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/23/2020
  

  Go Live in Another Decade. I Recommend It.

  After 1960, much of history as many Americans experienced it — through popular culture on TV, on the radio and at the movies — is preserved and easily accessible online. With a few clicks around YouTube, history leaps into the present, often in ways that deepen and complicate the narrative.

• 
• SOURCE: Associate Press
  9/23/2020
  

  Dear Donald, Dear Mr. President: A Trump-Nixon ’80s tale

  Letters between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon in the 1980s, recently released by the Nixon Library, show the two men bonded over themes that resonate today: a shared distrust of the media, a desire to maximize TV ratings, the idea of using people as “props,” and more.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  9/23/2020
  

  Cost Of Racism: U.S. Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because Of Discrimination, Bank Says

  Citigroup's recommendations aren't new: various studies have shown similar findings and experts have called for similar action for years, though so far progress has been slow.

• 
• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  9/18/2020
  

  The Danger Of Depoliticising Black Power Activism

  Both celebrities and consumer brands have appropriated the aesthetics of the Black Panther Party and other Black militants, without dealing with the substance of their politics. 

• 
• SOURCE: Bloomberg
  9/20/2020
  

  Trump Wants $5 Billion From TikTok Deal for History Project

  This announcement continues a Trump tradition of claiming other nations will pay for domestic culture war projects. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/21/2020
  

  Donald Trump vs. the Ivy League: An Election-Year Battle

  The Trump administration has always engaged in rhetorical attacks on Ivy League institutions as elitist, but critics say launching a civil rights investigation of Princeton represents an effort to weaponize executive branch agencies to fight a culture war. 

• 
• SOURCE: Seattle Times
  9/18/2020
  

  How Jimi Hendrix, Racism and Grunge Intersect, 50 Years after the Guitarist’s Death

  Although the guitarist made a global impact on rock music, he left a particular legacy for Black musicians in his hometown of Seattle. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/21/2020
  

  Conservatives Are Already Whitewashing the Trump Years

  Danielle Pletka’s historical revision of Jesse Helms’s career shows how Trumpists will rationalize their role in this disastrous presidency.

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  9/21/2020
  

  My Life in the Media Machine

  by Tom Scocca

  Independent journalism has been in a decades-long death spiral because "the circulatory system of money that had made the writing possible was punctured and bleeding out, and draining into Silicon Valley."

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Education
  9/21/2020
  

  U of Michigan Faculty Vote No Confidence in President

  The university's reopening plans were at the center of a narrow vote by the university's faculty to declare no confidence in President Mark Schlissel.

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  9/21/2020
  

  Arbitrator Sides with U of Akron on Faculty Layoffs

  Some of the terminated faculty members had since chosen to retire, but the result means that the 67 who did not will not be able to return to their jobs.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/22/2020
  

  How the Religious Right Has Transformed the Supreme Court

  Law professors Lee Epstein and Eric Posner argue that the conservative bloc on the court has shifted from the libertarianism favored by big business to a more aggressive religious activism. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/22/2020
  

  Down With Judicial Supremacy!

  by Jamelle Bouie

  The power of the courts to define the meaning of the Constitution has been challenged by legislative, executive and popular action at different times in American history. If that prospect seems scary, remember that it's the process that overthrew the Dred Scott decision as the law of the land, argues NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie.

• 
• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  9/21/2020
  

  A Neighborhood’s Race Affects Home Values More Now Than in 1980

  by Brentin Mock

  The real estate industry has adopted appraisal standards in response to fair housing laws that are, on the surface, race-neutral. But they don't account for the ways that racism has lowered the sale value in diverse neighborhoods, and still penalize Black and Latino homeowners.