News & Commentary

This past July, Oumou Kanoute was a rising sophomore at Smith College, working on campus over the summer to mentor high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, careers. A young Black immigrant and the daughter of a single mother, Oumou is exactly the kind of striver colleges like Smith seek to attract. But Oumou felt anything but welcome on that late July afternoon. As she ate in a common room, wearing the unofficial Smithie uniform of athleisure c

The president of the United States is once again spreading unsubstantiated claims about rampant voter fraud and undermining faith in the integrity of our democracy. This time, he’s claiming that 95,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in Texas and more than half have actually voted. These numbers, he concluded, are “just the tip of the iceberg.” Unsurprisingly, Trump’s tweets are in need of a serious fact-check. Here’s what is actually happening in Texas.

President Trump may be the world’s most renowned fan of building walls, but there’s at least one wall he loathes: the wall of separation between church and state. From the Muslim ban to his so-called “religious freedom” executive order, Trump and his theocratic supporters have pushed laws and policies aimed at demolishing the First Amendment’s protections against government promotion of religion and favoritism of particular faiths. And now, he’s targeting church-state separation in our public schools. After Fox News aired a segment on “[b]ringing the Bible back to the classroom” on Monday morning, President Trump

The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that includes language that would encourage states to pass unconstitutional laws penalizing businesses and individuals who participate in politically motivated boycotts against Israel. More than two dozen states have adopted such laws in the past four years. Their collective target is the boycott, divestment, and sa

Following the airing of Lifetime's six-part docuseries, "Surviving R. Kelly,” — which describes decades of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse he allegedly perpetrated against Black girls and women — many of Kelly's fans and supporters continue to rally around the singer-songwriter and even place blame on his accusers for being “fast.” This is not surprising. Studies have shown that Black girls, women, and non-binary people are hyper-vulnerable to abuse. About

Across the United States, there are over 440,000 children in the public child welfare system. Nearly a quarter of these children are awaiting adoption with many living in group homes because no family is available to care for them. In the end, too many of these children will age out of the system without ever becoming part of a loving family. Despite these facts, the Trump administration this week made it even harder for these children to find foster and adoptive parents to love them. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s request

In January 2016, Richard Jackson, a Black man, was driving to his home on Chicago’s West Side when he noticed a car trailing him. As he turned into the alley leading to his driveway, the unmarked police car pulled him over and four officers leapt out, demanding that he lower all four of his car’s windows. Jackson’s grandparents, who live with him, watched from their home’s window in fear. After running his license, one officer told Jackson he would be let go with a warning. But when Jackson asked why he ha

When Ronald Campbell went to his polling location in Horry County, South Carolina, to vote in the 2018 midterms, he wasn’t expecting it to become an odyssey. But when he and his wife arrived at their polling location, the lines were so long that Ronald feared he and his wife wouldn’t be physically able to stand for the amount of time it would take to get to the voting booth. Nevertheless, they returned to the polling location four separate times throughout the day until the line had become reasonable — that’s how determined Ronald and his wife were to vote. But Ronald never got a chance to cast his ballot. When they finally reached the check-in ta

On her way home from the bus stop on a spring night in the Bronx last year, Linda Dominguez cut across a park because it was the most direct route to her apartment. Even though others leaving the bus were also crossing the park, three officers from the New York City Police Department singled out and arrested Linda, a Latina transgender woman, and took her to the precinct. Linda, who doesn’t speak English, had no idea why the police had stopped her or what they were arresting her for. While it is t