"Should Black Americans Make Inroads Within the System to Enact Change, or Should They Work to Dismantle the Status Quo and Assert Their Power by Any Means Necessary?"

"While applauding the new convention's aspirations, participants in and scholars of its 1972 predecessor also offered a cautionary note in recent interviews. They warned that social media can be an effective educational and organizing tool—one they never had access to—but that online attention should not be mistaken for political change. They emphasized the importance of unity, which they weren't always able to maintain themselves. Perhaps most important, they argued that in order to achieve lasting change, organizers will need to understand the benefits of coordinating with other marginalized groups to elect more Black officials into the political system, while also working from the outside to hold those in power to account.
"That's one lesson the Black Lives Matter activists seem to be taking from 1972 so far. 'Electoral politics is not something that we can neglect,' Lumumba says. 'Unless we continue to experiment with governing, we will never see ourselves being free.'"

Jesús A. Rodríguez at Politico looks back to the 1972 National Black Political Convention.

"A 1950s American Dream Life Lived to Its Fullest"

"'I pay respect to people's lives from another generation,' Townsend says during a phone interview with L.A. Weekly, echoing what he told the seller: 'Even though we don't know who these people are, they took the time—over 30 years—to document their lives, their travels, their family, and kept it all together. They passed away but their story is still intact. If you sell the slides separately, their story disappears forever.'"

Amy Roberts at the L.A. Weekly discusses artist Robert Townshend and his series of portraits.

"Trump's Sham Populism"

"Good Jobs Nation is calling for an executive order to halt offshoring by federal contractors. But since Trump repealed the last order tightening requirements on companies that get federal funds, it's unlikely that he'll have a change of heart now. As they head toward the 2018 midterms, politicians should be thinking long and hard about their response to the GOP's tax cuts, continuing job losses, and the accelerating shift of wealth upward. The Quinton Franklins of this world, looking for new jobs that pay a fraction of what the old ones did, want some material change in the conditions of their lives. That means wage increases, not Reaganesque trickle-down tax cuts, and it means thinking about policies that really protect people if their jobs disappear. It means understanding the anger and betrayal that many people feel right now, and figuring out how to put it not just into words, but into law.

Sarah Jaffee at the New Republic discusses Donald Trump's "Mission Accomplished moment."

"The Nation’s Next Chief Executive"?

"In the months between now and November, Pence's record is likely to receive substantially more scrutiny. But for the moment, he's being assessed mostly in terms of his electoral impact—likely negligible—and not as the man who might run the federal government for the next four years.
"That's a mistake."

Yoni Appelbaum at The Atlantic writes that Donald Trump may delegate his presidency to Mike Pence.

"So—Is the Fuss Over the Indiana Law Overblown?"

"No.
"The statute shows every sign of having been carefully designed to put new obstacles in the path of equality; and it has been publicly sold with deceptive claims that it is 'nothing new.'  
"Being required to serve those we dislike is a painful price to pay for the privilege of running a business; but the pain exclusion inflicts on its victims, and on society, are far worse than the discomfort the faithful may suffer at having to open their businesses to all. "


Garrett Epps at The Atlantic discusses the controversy this week over the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.