Here’s your week in review, in haiku.
1.
Why crime time when the
system is designed for you?
A Hallmark moment.
2.
O rlly Netflix?
3.
North Korea runs
hot, Brexit runs cold, lights on
in Venezuela.
4.
Screams of the dying
on Facebook. YouTube. Reddit.
Meritocracy
5.
Gather in worship
unafraid. A prayer for love
in a time of hate.
It’s spring break! RaceAhead is going outside for a while. Take good care until we return Tuesday, March 26. We believe in you.
On Point
| Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees |
| The 82-year-old icon and former litigator was synonymous with the organization, which was founded in 1971. The stated reason was misconduct. “As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world,” SPLC President Richard Cohen said in the emailed statement. “When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action.” |
| Montgomery Advertiser |
| Nation surprised to learn that Carson Daly has a late-night show |
| And yet for seventeen years, he persisted! But now he’s giving up his slot on NBC to comedian, actor, and YouTube star Lilly Singh. It’s an embarrassment of milestones: She’s now the only woman with a late-night show on broadcast television, she’s also the first Indian-Canadian-openly bisexual woman, too! A Little Late With Lilly Singh will be a half-hour interview and sketch comedy show, and debuts in September. The Ontario-born performer said in a press release. “I’m thrilled to bring it to life on NBC, and I hope my parents consider this to be as exciting as a grandchild.” |
| Hollywood Reporter |
| Jussie Smollett pleads not-guilty |
| Smollett is facing 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct and has been accused of lying about a hate crime and filing a false police report. He appeared in court yesterday morning and entered a not guilty plea to all charges and has vowed to fight back. |
| Essence |
On Background
| The roots of white supremacy in the U.S. |
| Adam Serwer has published a deeply reported must-read, particularly chilling coming on the heels of the terrorist attack in New Zealand. “Americans want to believe that the surge in white-supremacist violence and recruitment…the hate crimes whose perpetrators invoke the president’s name as a battle cry—has no roots in U.S. soil, that it is racist zealotry with a foreign pedigree and marginal allure,” he writes. These Americans would be very, very wrong. Longtime raceAhead readers will recognize the name of the man who helped make white supremacy a deeply rooted American value: Madison Grant, the author of the influential and profoundly racist book, The Passing of the Great Race. |
| The Atlantic |
| What the admissions scandal says about disability |
| Writer Aditi Juneja highlights one particularly vile aspect of the college admissions: Wealthy parents pretending their kids had learning disabilities to increase the time allotted for standardized tests. It made her boil, she said. “I thought about all of the shame and embarrassment I had felt for needing, and sometimes using, accommodations for the ESPA, GEPA, ACT, LSAT, and bar exam,” she says. “While I am no longer ashamed about needing accommodations, I do feel deep contempt for the people abusing these accommodations so they can succeed in a system that is built for them.” |
| Vox |
| By erasing Islam from Rumi’s poetry, we all miss his point |
| Rumi’s love poetry has been a revelation for seekers of universal wisdom around the world for centuries. But the New Yorker’s Rozina Ali argues that his popularity, particularly within high tone circles – Madonna, Tilda Swinton, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin are among his celebrity fans – have allowed publishers to erase Rumi’s Muslim essence from his work to our detriment. But don’t blame rock and roll. “It was in the Victorian period that readers in the West began to uncouple mystical poetry from its Islamic roots.” It was Rumi’s unique experience at the intersection of Sufism, Sunni Islam, and Koranic debate that informed his voice, and animated his desire for oneness with God. But a committed contempt for Islam persuaded scholars over the years that Rumi was “mystical not because of Islam but in spite of it.” |
| New Yorker |
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