Commentary from Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
When I was growing up in New York’s borough of Brooklyn in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, I had several “best friends” who were not Black (most were Jewish) and I remember being a bit surprised when I visited their homes and noticed that the family coffee tables displayed many of the same magazines we had in our home — with one glaring exception. None had Ebony or Jet. When I was about 9 or 10, their newspapers, like ours, included The Village Voice and The New York Times, however nowhere was The Amsterdam News to be found, which we always had at home. My family in Philly subscribed similarly, however they read The Philadelphia Tribune, “the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper reflecting the African-American experience.”
Fast forward six decades or more, and we live in a era dominated by the internet, smart phones, and multiple media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook as well as the standard tv channels alongside of streaming outlets like HULU and Disney and Amazon Prime.
Twice each week here at Black Kos I do a news roundup from accounts I follow on TwitX and Bluesky, and I wonder…do not-Black readers here follow, and re-post any of them? This is not to say that there aren’t Black journalists and tv hosts at venues like the NYT or on MSNBC and CNN, however it’s interesting that we Black folks are expected to be cognizant of all things not-Black, but the reverse is not true. I’ve actually had people ask me why I daily cover Puerto Rico since I’m not Puerto Rican? My answer — why not?
After listening to the following program from Roland Martin, I wondered how many not-Black readers listen to/subscribe to his podcast?
’ve conducted polls about Black Kos readership in the past. Back in 2011 I posted: A question for Kossaks (with poll) which was followed up in Black Kos the next day: Black Kos, Tuesday’s Chile: roll call and lurker come-out edition
This is the first time I’m asking about what Black social media accounts you read and follow. For those of you who are Bluesky purists (most Black accounts are still not there) here’s a suggestion:
The Equal Justice Initiative
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On this day in 1910, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution encouraging U.S. senators and congressmen to work toward repealing the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to Black people born in the U.S.
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— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji.org) September 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Given the current efforts of the Klanster in Chief and his minions to erase Black History, we need not-Black allies to spread the word now more than ever. Hope you’ll take the poll below, and join us in comments.
For some reason my poll has disappeared:
Here was the poll:
What Black media do you follow?
I regularly read Black Kos
I subscribe to Black-owned newspapers
none
Some — will discuss
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The city’s churches are preparing for the disruption that President Trump may bring with a federal takeover. The Grio: Chicago churches urge calm resistance ahead of expected federal intervention
The Rev. Marshall Hatch urged congregants of a prominent Black church on Chicago’s West Side to carry identification, stay connected to family and protest as the city readied for an expected federal intervention.
“You need to start telling people about your whereabouts, so you don’t disappear,” Hatch said during Sunday services at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. “We’re not going to despair. We’re not going to feel threatened. We’re not going to give up and give in to fascism and authoritarianism.”
As Chicago braced for an immigration enforcement crackdown and a possible National Guard deployment, churches across the city turned up their response from the pulpit. Some worked to quell fears about detention and deportation while others addressed the looming possibility of more law enforcement on the streets of the nation’s third-largest city.
President Donald Trump has threatened federal intervention in Democratic strongholds, most recently warning apocalyptic force could be used in Chicago to fight crime and step up deportations. He’s repeatedly cited the expected plans over fierce objections from local leaders and many residents who call it unnecessary and unwanted.
While fears have been high in immigrant circles since Trump took office the second time, the threat of more federal agencies and troops has also inflamed tensions, particularly in Black and Latino communities where trust in police is fragile.
Lisa Cook, Kamala Harris, Black mayors—the pattern is obvious. But the best way to attack Trump’s racism is to tie it to his other hatreds. The New Republic: Trump’s War on Black America Isn’t an Accident—It’s a Strategy
A recentNew York Timesstoryconcluded that the number of Black women who have jobs has decreased by more than 300,000 nationally since Donald Trump took office. Black women are the only demographic group showing a dip. That article provided empirical evidence of what I and many others already perceived—this administration is harming and in some ways targeting Black people in particular. There have been countless anti-Black moves, including trying to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, stripping Kamala Harris ofher Secret Service protection, deploying the National Guard to cities with Black mayors and large African American populations, essentially outlawing diversity and equity initiatives.
Many liberals, including my colleague Michael Tomasky, say that the Trump administration ismuch more racist than its predecessors. I agree, but not in the common understanding of that word. Someone being racist is generally understood as them disliking or treating people unfairly based on their skin color or appearance. It’s possible that Trump and his aides have this kind of explicit animus toward African Americans. But in my view, what drives this administration is authoritarianism and ideological conservatism more than racial bigotry. Authoritarianism and ideological conservatism hit Black people in America really hard, and racism is a useful tool to further authoritarianism and ideological conservatism.
Let me start with ideological conservatism. Trump’s administration is arguably the most conservative in modern history, aggressively implementing goals that Republicans have long supported but didn’t follow through on, wary of political backlash. For example, Trump has drasticallycut the federal workforce, particularly employees of agencies such as theDepartment of Educationthat are perceived to be more left-leaning. Under Trump, long-standing Republican wariness about affirmative action and other efforts to reverse the effects of sexism, racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination has turned into a comprehensive defunding of virtually any diversity and inclusion program, both inside and outside the federal government.
Ideological conservatism isn’t inherently against people with dark skin. But because of how African Americans have been discriminated against throughout American history, policies that are liberal and redistributive tend to disproportionately benefit them. In our more recent history, the federal government has made great efforts to ensure its hiring processes are transparent, fair, and inclusive of people of all backgrounds. As a result, Black people have been able to find andkeep jobs in the bureaucracymore than other sectors of the economy. African Americansoften embrace DEI initiatives and work in such programsbecause they seek to address inequities that Black people recognize.
On the 7th anniversary of launching his show, Roland Martin Unfiltered, the pioneering journalist sat with theGrio to unpack how DEI attacks have hurt Black journalists and newsrooms. The Grio: Why Roland Martin says Black-owned media is under attack in the anti-DEI era — and how to fight back
Roland Martin has always known the worth of Black-owned media outlets. The popular journalist may have been a regular on TV networks, but never lost sight of the power of owning the stories he tells—and his own story as a journalist.
“A lot of people didn’t realize I had been independent for a long time,” Martin told theGrio in an extended interview on the seventh anniversary of the launch of his digital streaming show “Roland Martin Unfiltered.” Martin, who is also the owner of the four-year-old Black Star Network, has full control of his brand and the equipment he uses to stream to nearly 2 million loyal subscribers daily. He even owns six 32-terabyte servers of content.
“I understood the importance of being able to have your own stuff,” he says.
A string of high-profile TV personalities exiting mainstream television proves Martin’s point about the real power being in who calls the shots off-camera. Reflecting on his decades-long journalism career, Martin remembers numerous instances of having non-Black executives try to censor his work or determine which Black-focused stories were worthy of being run. That inspired Martin to go into CEO mode on overdrive, focusing more on creating his own platform.
“The greatest mistake of journalists — they don’t learn the business of the business. We get fixated on how it looks,” Martin tells theGrio.
The impact of business on the news is being seen throughout the media industry, as brands go out of business and advertising dollars shrink. Journalists of all backgrounds have been hit with layoffs and censorship during the second Trump administration, but Martin says there is no greater threat to the empowerment of Black communities than the silencing of Black-led newsrooms — ones that cover more than entertainment.
“Our people really don’t understand that we are this close to literally not having Black-owned media covering news and information. That’s why I don’t spend lots of time on sports entertainment. We got lots of that,” Martin tells theGrio.
Critics of President Trump have long condemned his personal attacks on journalists, but especially Black female journalists like Alcindor. The Grio: Trump’s ‘second-rate’ tirade against Yamiche Alcindor recalls history of attacks on Black female journalists
PresidentDonald Trumppersonally attacked NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor at the White House as she questioned him about a jarring social media post in which he appeared to threaten “war” in Chicago. The blistering tirade recalled previous clashes with Alcindor and other Black female journalists during his first term, and drew swift criticisms from Black leaders, including the president of the nation’s largest association for Black journalists.
“Are you trying to go to war with Chicago?” Alcindor asked Trump on Sunday before he boarded Marine One to depart the White House for the U.S. Open men’s final match.
Just a day before, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that “Chicago is going to learn why it’s called the Department of WAR,” referring to his newly renamed Cabinet-level department for the United States Armed Forces. The post came after weeks of Trump decrying crime in majority Black and brown cities and threatening to send the National Guard to Chicago and other major cities led by Black Democrats.
Emphasizing war in an American city, however, was quite an escalation and drew criticisms from Democrats. Trump downplayed the post, and his border czar, Tom Homan,dismissedit as being “taken out of context.”
When Alcindor attempted to get the president to explain his post, he fired back, “When you say that, darling, that’s fake news.” Alcindor quickly responded, “Well, why would you use the Department of Defense?”
“Listen. Be quiet. Listen. You don’t listen. You never listen. That’s why you’re second-rate,” said Trump.
What it took to build Africa’s largest hydro-electric dam BBC: Ethiopia outfoxes Egypt over the Nile’s waters with its mighty dam
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After outfoxing Egypt on the diplomatic stage for more than a decade, Ethiopia is set to officially inaugurate one of the world’s biggest dams on a tributary of the River Nile, burying a colonial-era treaty that saw the UK guarantee the North African nation the lion’s share of its water.
The dam – built on the Blue Nile at a cost of about $5bn (£3.7bn), with a reservoir roughly the size of Greater London – has led to a surge in Ethiopian nationalism, uniting a nation often polarized along ethnic lines and mired in conflict.
“Ethiopians may disagree on how to eat injera [their staple food], but they agree on the dam,” Moses Chrispus Okello, an analyst with the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC.
“They do not see it as a pile of concrete in the middle of a river, but as a monument of their achievement because Ethiopians, both at home and in the diaspora, funded the dam’s construction. There were waves and waves of appeals for contributions when construction started in 2011.
“The government also issued bonds that were bought by companies and workers. So, the sense that all Ethiopians own the dam has grown exponentially, and its inauguration is a source of great pride for the nation,” Mr Okello said.
Named the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), it is Africa’s largest hydro-electric plant, raising hopes that not only will it meet the 135 million-strong population’s energy needs but it will also give the country “energy hegemony” and boost its foreign currency earnings, the analyst added.
Ethiopia was planning to increase the sale of electricity to neighboring countries such as Kenya and Djibouti, with ambitions of building a transmission network to cross the Red Sea to sell to Middle Eastern states like Saudi Arabia, he said.
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Renewables are thriving, with Africa breaking solar energy records – but action is needed to plug financing gap. The Guardian: Hopes rise for green economy boom at Africa Climate Summit
The first signs of a takeoff of Africa’s green economy are raising hopes that a transformation of the continent’s fortunes may be under way, driven by solar power and an increase in low-carbon investment.
African leaders are meeting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for theAfrica Climate Summit, a precursor to theglobal UN Cop30 in November. They will call for an increase in support from rich countries for Africa’s green resurgence, without which they will warn it could be fragile and spread unevenly.
Richard Muyungi, the climate envoy and adviser to the president of Tanzania, said: “Africa is ready to be part of [the global fight to stave off climate breakdown] provided we are supported with finance, technology and capacity-building.
“There has been an increase of investments in some areas but Africa still needs a lot of financing to be able to be part of the global solution, and to address the challenges we are facing.”
“… They warned of an international cabal of satan worshippers and Kenyan witch doctors baking hate with yellow cake from Africa… “ — Justice Putnam
by Black Kos Editor, Justice Putnam
The White Brain Hive was broken long before Trump’s current madness, but Krasnov’s hands were all over it at the time. The racism that dripped over his accusations against Obama was almost like a siren call to Klan sleeper cells from sea to shining sea. Every racist trope was traipsed out and the media covered it like it was Mint Julep Time at the Kentucky Derby, how do you like my hat?
I remember thinking, how stupid do they think we are, but “they” were not directing the tropes at us as a way to kick the libs, no… the tropes were directed at the John-Boys at the Winn-Dixie and the Bubbas basting bacon on the oil barrel bbq, and the caravans of open carry Jim Crow cheerleaders in Dallas Cowboy tasseled boots and Texas Star miniskirts, who warned about the coming assaults and midnight murders while they slept, so the White Brain Hive slept with one eye open and a finger on the hair-trigger with the safety off.
They warned of an international cabal of satan worshippers and Kenyan witch doctors baking hate with yellow cake from Africa, they warned of angry Black women and twelve-year old Black boys who would hulk up and murder anyone who looked at them wrong. They warned of secret Muslims and of birth notices planted in Hawaii’n classifieds decades before. None of it made any sense who had any sense. It only made sense to the basket of deplorables, the poorly-educated who remain so revered and whose poorly-educated rural diner counsel was sought by major media from across the continent, those pure souls from the heartland, unfettered by spice and the vicissitudes of dark melanin.
So, in the interest of making sense of the senseless, let us step back in time for a little blast from the past.
The Vast Wright Wing Conspiracy by Justice Putnam
“The chickens have come home to roost.” — Rev Wright
Malcolm X had just sent another reply to another Instant Message from Thomas Jefferson. Adams, even though a neighbor of Jefferson’s from across town, had replied more and more infrequently these last generations to even regular snail mail, so Malcolm took up the slack. Though Adams was enthralled with the modern Navy, he hated texting and the internet tubes. Nixon, Reagan, Hoover and Jackson never replied to Jefferson’s missives, and he had sent them many. It was probably because mail delivery is rather spotty in Hades. Plus, there is no broadband there and interference from the heat disrupts the wireless signal. Kennedy and both Roosevelts carried on an infrequent correspondence, Lincoln as well, but they were engaged with other pursuits in heaven, so Jefferson and Malcolm X began to Instant Message each other daily. After all, they lived only light years away from each other in Limbo, wireless is free, the signal strong and never disrupted.
It seemed Jefferson was worried about Obama’s chances for the Presidency with this Reverend Wright oratory causing such concern.
T-Jeff: “I’m afraid my southern brethren will take the good reverend’s rhetoric all too personal.”
Mal 10: “As well they should; I’m still picking shards of Plymouth Rock out of my skull.”
T-Jeff: “But that’s the point, my good friend. Plymouth Rock may have landed on you, but they landed on Plymouth Rock and need to feel grateful. Reverend Wright is not respecting their gratefulness.”
Mal 10: “It’s hard to respect folks who will put you in chains, crush your dreams and keep you separate, inferior and feared, and then harp that you are not grateful enough for your good fortune.”
T-Jeff: “I was just speaking with Sally about that this morning when she was washing my clothes. I could tell she was getting a little snippy when I corrected her grammar and spelling on a letter she was writing to MLK. After all I’ve done for her, she seemed a bit, well… ungrateful. Then it struck me, if not for the economic necessities in the forging of this Nation, she might have become the Queen of The Congo that was her birthright.”
Mal 10: “That’s what I like about you man, even though you’re a manipulative, white landowner who is formed by the Enlightenment, your profession of guilt keeps me in this amorphous corporeal state so I can continue to point out the inequities still!”
T-Jeff: “Well, my dear friend, I’m not taking the bait. But I’m still concerned about this Wright fracas. It’s important for the survival of The Great Experiment that Obama convince The People to vote him to the Presidency. Bringing up that the Black Community was infected with HIV and flooded with drugs by the government is a little over the top, no?”
Mal 10: “On this we agree, I find it impossible that a society and government that would infect the Tuskagee Airmen with syphilis, who would test insecticides on black communities, who would impose poll taxes, literacy tests and voter ID laws, who would buy drugs from the Contras to sell guns to the Iranians, who would incarcerate black men at rates that are astronomical… is capable of such heinous acts. Reverend Wright is surely stretching it a bit.”
T-Jeff: “So what can be done about this Wright Wing of the Black Community?”
Mal 10: “It’s surely a conspiracy, another tactic to disenfranchise the Black Man. I’m not disagreeing with Wright’s premise, mind you. I was a target in my day, hell they went after Martin the way they’re going after Jeremiah. They’ll use any means necessary to achieve their ends, even if it means using our words against us, even if our words are the truth.”
T-Jeff: “Yes, you are correct. It is a vast conspiracy. I feel so helpless, though, as if I’m caught between worlds. Not quite in hell, but definitely not in heaven.”
Mal 10: “I know what you mean, man. I know what you mean.”
