For years, Black Twitter has affectionately named the gloomy, drawn-out winter months as “cuffing season,” made perfect by dropping temperatures and “cuddle weather.” It’s when you hole in with your chosen partner or community, binge-watch television, and, if you’re lucky, crank up the heater while darkness takes over outside. But the winter months are not […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Why So Many Black Candidates Struggled in the Midterm Elections
Several Black candidates made history on election night: Democrat Wes Moore became Maryland’s first Black governor. Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old progressive activist, won his bid to become the youngest member of Congress. And in Pennsylvania, voters elected their first Black U.S. representative, Democrat Summer Lee. But for many more — particularly those whose names topped […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Turn Out to Polls Despite Election Day Confusion
Black voters were at the center of legal disputes and polling-site confusion on Election Day, as voting rights advocates responded to allegations of intimidation at the polls and Republican interference in ballot counts. In Philadelphia, election officials made a last-minute change to the ballot-count process on Tuesday that could delay the vote tally for days, […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
The Black Candidates to Watch on Election Day
The Nov. 8 elections have the potential to be historic, as a record number of candidates are running to become the first Black woman or Black man to hold their office. With diverse faces on ballots nationwide — from governorships to school board races — Tuesday’s midterms could increase Black political power across layers of […]
Posted inHousing, Money
Housing and Homelessness Are on the Ballot. Will Unhoused People Have a Say?
Most Americans across racial and ethnic groups say affordable housing is a serious problem where they live, according to an August 2022 poll. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates the nation has a shortage of 7 million affordable and accessible rental units, made worse in recent years by the convergence of the coronavirus pandemic […]
Posted inBlack Businesses, Money
Ye Can’t Sell ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirts Because Two Black Men Own the Trademark
The reason Ye — the artist formerly known as Kanye West — can’t legally sell his “White Lives Matter” T-shirts is not because the phrase is designated as hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League. It’s because two Black men own the legal trademark. Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, two Black radio hosts in Phoenix, Arizona, […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
How Natural Disasters Create Voting Crises
Voting has often been inconvenient for residents of Florida’s Dunbar community. For decades, they fought to get an early-voting site in their Gulf Coast neighborhood. It finally came to fruition ahead of the 2020 election, but now, just two years later, that polling site has shut down. The story is similar for many in this […]
Posted inMoney, Wealth Gap
California’s Reparations Plan Exposes Deep Divides in Black Communities
With a packed house behind him, Milton Hall, a Los Angeles Mid-City Neighborhood Council representative, approached the microphone. Under his breath, he lamented about missing the beginning of his golf game to attend this meeting, a gathering of California’s reparations task force for descendants of American slavery. The task force is the first of its […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Why the LA City Council Scandal Is About More Than Racist Slurs
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday that his office will investigate the Los Angeles City Council’s redistricting process following the release of an audio recording in which council members hurled racist insults about Black, Jewish, and Mexican indigenous communities. On Wednesday, City Council President Nury Martinez resigned her seat, three days after the release […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Water Quality
Jackson’s Not Alone. Water Crises Are Plaguing Black Communities Nationwide.
JACKSON, Miss. — The historic floods that washed across southern Louisiana in 2016 left Joyce Turner Keller’s home so damaged she was forced to sleep in her car. The Baton Rouge native had no flood insurance to recover the belongings she lost in the floodwaters. Government officials were slow to respond as she struggled with […]