Black queer activist Preston Mitchum has been on PrEP — pre-exposure prophylaxis, a medication used to reduce the risk of getting HIV — since around 2014, just two years after its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Washington, D.C., resident remembers the barriers he and many others faced when trying to secure […]
Donald Trump
Posted inBlack Businesses, Politics & Policy, Technology
With TikTok Ban in Limbo, Black Creators Face an Uncertain Future
The story has been updated. The original story was published on January 16. Lifestyle content creator Talia Cadet hasn’t quit her day job, but TikTok has changed her life, she says. The additional income generated from her viral lists of Black-owned products, books she loves, and local events has made “a huge difference,” especially as […]
Posted inEducation
Trump’s Education Department Shutdown Plan Creates Uncertainty for Black Students With Disabilities
It had been over a year since Carla and Byron Scott’s 10-year-old son, Tyler, was diagnosed with ADHD, autism, and adjustment disorder. The couple questioned whether Tyler’s teachers in Portsmouth, Virginia, knew how to care for his disabilities, or if they would simply pass him through grades even if he performed poorly in school. Then, […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Rural Issues, Technology
Broadband Program Changes Stir Uncertainty for Rural Black Communities
A promise made by former President Joe Biden to connect millions of Americans to reliable and affordable high-speed internet service may become another casualty of President Donald Trump’s campaign to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the nation. A top outgoing official at the U.S. Department of Commerce warned that funds for the Broadband, […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
EPA Rollbacks Mean More Pollution, Less Justice for Black Communities
For a quarter of a century, a Black neighborhood in Beaumont, Texas, where Chris Jones lives has been the subject of two federal civil rights investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency that explore the role of race in his community’s disproportionately high levels of air pollution. In San Francisco, Kamillah Ealom’s neighborhood has been the […]
Posted inFederal Overhaul, Politics & Policy, The Workplace
The Trump Administration Is Leaving Federal Workers Vulnerable to Discrimination
Federal Overhaul is a multipart series that explores the impact of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the federal government on Black communities. “Overbearing.” “Intimidating.” “Aggressive.” Oscar Hampton, a Black former attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor, claimed in a federal district court complaint filed in 2023 that this was the language that white attorneys at […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics & Policy
Energy Costs Are Soaring. Trump’s Tariff War Could Make It Even Worse.
Raya Salter remembers the yells as a child when she asked her mother to turn up the heat in the winter: “Put on a sweater. Put on two sweaters. Here’s an extra blanket. That’s gonna make it work because the heat is not going up.” For decades, many Black households have had to make those […]
Posted inBlack Farmers, HBCUs, Rural Issues
Black Farmers Mobilize to Protect Vital HBCU Scholarship
In the two weeks since the White House reversed course on the 1890 National Scholars Program and lifted its suspension, Kendall Strickland still feels a sense of unease about the program’s future. Created in 1992, the program covers full tuition and room and board for underserved or rural students interested in studying food, agriculture, natural […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Rep. Al Green Accepts Censure Vote and Recalls Civil Rights Era Protests
Rep. Al Green of Texas thought about the Black liberation struggle of the 1960s on Thursday, as House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, prepared to read the resolution censuring the 77-year-old Democratic lawmaker. “I recalled when we were faced with adverse circumstances, we would sing a song that would inspire and encourage us to move […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics & Policy
Calls to Free George Floyd’s Murderer Grow. This Is Why It’s Unlikely to Happen
As calls for a pardon for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin are growing in right-wing circles, the real question: is it even possible? The short answer: not quite. Since March, right-wing conservatives have been calling for President Donald Trump to extend clemency for Chauvin’s convictions related to the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Less […]