Donald Trump’s threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University may be novel, but it is not new. It is, in fact, a resurrection of a previous kind of discrimination. There’s one other time in American history when a…
Dismantling Education Department is straight out of Project 2025
News that President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order dissolving the U.S. Department of Education has riveted attention on Trump’s adherence to Project 2025, a conservative evangelical blueprint for dismantling the federal government. The Wall Street Journal…
Dissent and resistance
In my last column, I held up as a worthy example for us all, a textile worker in a small North Carolina town — the one in the floral shirt and white scarf, who chose to follow the urging of…
Was that a blatantly racist tweet from a Texas senator or not?
The ranking U.S. senator from Texas tweeted a response to former President Barack Obama June 25 that online observers immediately called out as blatantly racist. Exactly what Sen. John Cornyn meant is not clear, as he has not responded to…
Why is there a boom in enrollment at private Christian schools? Here’s one critical theory: Race
The New York Times headline, “Christian Schools Boom in a Revolt Against Curriculum and Pandemic Rules,” begs the question “Why?” “Why are Christian schools growing? Before addressing this thematic question, there is a definitional concern that needs attention. The secular…
Racism and the evolution of Protestant support for private education
Earlier this summer, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that private religious schools should have the same access to public funds as private “nonsectarian” schools. Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion cited the Constitution’s protection of the…
White Christians at ‘a moment of reckoning,’ author says
Jefferson Davis’ statue coming down in Richmond, Va., and Walmart refusing to fly the Mississippi state flag because of its Confederate emblem are powerful signs the movement against white supremacy is taking hold, Robert P. Jones said during an online discussion hosted June 26 by the BJC.
Commemorating Thurgood Marshall
Not many baby boys are named Thoroughgood, but that is the name William and Norma Marshall gave their son after his birth in 1908. As a second-grader, though, Thoroughgood decided he wanted a shorter, quicker-to-spell name, so he changed it…