The Oppressed & Persecuted

On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: "America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions."  More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington's vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.  It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries.  It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually.

Secretary Noem on Twitter (1 December 2025): "I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.  WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE."

Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders.  They are not, it emerges, "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies."  They are instead, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer's disease, a software engineer at a national bank, a laboratory assistant, a college economics major, and a full-time registered nurse.

Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system.  Her answer?  Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight.  She complains of strains to our economy.  Her answer?  Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable.  She complains of strains to our healthcare system.  Her answer?  Turn the insured into the uninsured.  This approach is many things -- in the public interest is not one of them.

There is an old adage among lawyers.  If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts.  If you have the law on your side, pound the law.  If you have neither, pound the table.  Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side -- or at least has ignored them.  Does not have the law on her side -- or at least has ignored it.  Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).

Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants.  Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program.  The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.

By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay.

-- US District Judge Ana C. Reyes ruling for the Plaintiffs in Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, et al v Donald J Trump et al (2 February 2026)

Background Circumstances

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  Under our Title VII precedents, a plaintiff may make out a prima facie case of disparate treatment by showing "that she applied for an available position for which she was qualified, but was rejected under circumstances which give rise to an inference of unlawful discrimination." Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248, 253 (1981).

The question in this case is whether, to satisfy that prima facie burden, a plaintiff who is a member of a majority group must also show " 'background circumstances to support the suspicion that the defendant is that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.' " 87 F. 4th 822, 825 (CA6 2023) (per curiam).  We hold that this additional "background circumstances" requirement is not consistent with Title VII's text or our case law construing the statute.  Accordingly, we vacate the judgment below and remand for application of the proper prima facie standard.

-- Justice Jackson, for the unanimous Supreme Court of the United States in Marlean A. Ames, Petitioner v Ohio Department of Youth Services, in which the court ruled that cases of reverse discrimination require no higher standard of proof than other discrimination cases (5 June 2025)

Neither Knows Nor Tolerates

But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.  There is no caste here.  Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.  In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.  The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.  The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.  It is, therefore, to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a State to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. ...

The sure guarantee of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, National and State, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens of the United States without regard to race.

-- Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson (18 May 1896), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment allowed "separate but equal" accommodations by race; Plessy was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (17 May 1954), ending racial segregation in public schools [h/t Heather Cox Richardson]

Keep Going

Next time we march we may have to keep going when we get to Montgomery.  We may have to on to Washington.

-- John Lewis (1940 - 2020), American politician and civil rights leader, U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020.  Told to New York Times (7 March 1965) by Lewis, chairman of the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee and organizer of the Selma to Montgomery march, after police stopped the demonstrators with violence

Not A Day Off

Dr. King's birthday is a celebration of his life and values, but it is more than that.  The slogan "A Day On, Not A Day Off" is very important.  MLK Day is a day of learning, commitment and service, and I hope a great many students get involved.

-- Gloria Gibson, chair of the campus King Commission and associate vice chancellor of multicultural affairs, quoted in "Civil Rights Commission chair highlights celebration of Martin Luther King's life", Indiana University, (15 January 2002)

Speed Up That Day

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last.  Free at last.  Thank God almighty, we are free at last.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968), African American clergyman, civil rights activist, and Nobel laureate, final paragraph of his "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March on Washington, 28 August 1963

Emmett Till And Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code, hereby proclaim, set apart, and reserve as the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (monument), the objects identified above and all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States within the boundaries described on the accompanying maps entitled "Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument Boundary," which are attached to and form a part of this proclamation, for the purpose of protecting those objects.   The reserved Federal lands and interests in lands within the monument's boundaries encompass approximately 5.7 acres, which is the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.

-- Proclamation on Establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, enacted on what would have been Emmett Till's 82nd birthday, 25 July 2023

Affirmative Action

Of course, students on my campus and countless others across the country were -- and continue to be -- granted special consideration for admissions.  Some have parents who graduated from the same school.  Others have families who can afford coaches to help them run faster or hit a ball harder.  Others go to high schools with lavish resources for tutors and extensive standardized test prep that help them score higher on college entrance exams.  We don't usually question if those students belong.  So often, we just accept that money, power, and privilege are perfectly justifiable forms of affirmative action, while kids growing up like I did are expected to compete when the ground is anything but level.

And while I know the strength and grit that lies inside kids who have always had to sweat a little more to climb the same ladders, I hope and I pray that the rest of us are willing to sweat a little, too.  Today is a reminder that we've got to do the work not just to enact policies that reflect our values of equity and fairness, but to truly make those values real in all of our schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.

-- Statement by former First Lady Michelle Obama in response to the Supreme Court decision against affirmative action in college admissions, 29 June 2023

I Am A Man

That hand is not the color of yours, but if I prick it, the blood will flow, and I shall feel pain.  The blood is of the same color as yours.  God made me, and I am a man.

-- Standing Bear, Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader, successfully arguing in United States ex rel. Standing Bear v. Crook that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" and have the right of habeus corpus (April 1879)

RIP Harry Belafonte

My social and political interests are part of my career.  I cannot separate them.  My songs reflect the human condition.  The role of art isn't just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.

-- Harry Belafonte (1 March 1927 - 25 April 2023), Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor, "Pass The Torch: Harry Belafonte" at DVRepublic (2005)

Not Policymakers

But the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis.  And courts should not be in the business of perpetuating administrative edicts designed for one emergency only because elected officials have failed to address a different emergency.  We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.

-- Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissenting in Arizona et al v Secretary of Homeland Security, in which the majority left in place Title 42 restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum, pending further hearings, 27 December 2022

It Didn't Take A Year

I don't think that that's something that baseball should really be proud of.  It looks bad.  It let's people know it didn't take a year or even a decade to get to this point.  But there is help on the way.  You can tell by the number of African American No. 1 draft choices.

-- Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker Jr. (15 June 1949 -), American baseball manager and former outfielder who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball, currently playing the 2022 World Series, regarding the fact that the 2022 Series features zero U.S.-born Black players for the first time since 1950, 27 October 2022

Composite Nationality

A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.

To those who doubt and deny the preponderance of good over evil in human nature; who think the few are made to rule, and many to serve; who put rank above brotherhood, and race above humanity; who attach more importance to ancient forms than to the living realities of the present; who worship power in whatever hands it may be lodged and by whatever means it may have been obtained; our Government is a mountain of sin, and, what is worse, its [sic] seems confirmed in its transgressions.

-- Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895), American abolitionist, orator, author, and statesman during the American Civil War, born a slave in Maryland, in a speech in Boston, MA ,"Our Composite Nationality" (7 December 1869)

I Am Patient

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it. 

-- Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), English poet and critic, The Last Years of a Rebel (1967)

Neither Persons Nor Property

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

-- Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895), American abolitionist, orator, and author, and statesman during the American Civil War, speech on the twenty-fourth anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. (16 April 1886)

Virtual Enfreakment

In "Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters," we analyze 64 characters who had ties to physical world nationalities and ethnicities from the popular fighting videogames Street Fighter V and Tekken 7.  

Through our analysis, we conclude that the distinct appearances, costumes, attitudes, and powers of these characters often result in a systematic process that we call virtual enfreakment -- the grotesque amplification of identity attributes based on cultural, ethnic, and gender prejudices, which objectifies and demeans some groups for the pleasure and consumption of others.  We propose that enfreakment not only affects the portrayals of underrepresented gender and ethnicities in a detrimental fashion but also that characters who stand in a power position within the hegemony of play (white, male, primarily Western, and secondarily Asian) can become exaggerated or stereotyped in their gender or ethnic identities.  We identify this as a future research direction.  Although our data contains only characters from Street Fighter V and Tekken 7, we argue that the phenomenon of enfreakment can be observed in other games and genres with crowded rosters of characters such as fighting games, looter shooters, multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs), and first-person shooter MOBAs.

-- Sercan Şengün, Research affiliate at MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality, Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies - Game Design at Illinois State University, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Game Design at Northeastern University, via Facebook, 27 April 2022

Who Am I?

So who am I? 

I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom, who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense.

No child alive today is responsible for slavery. 

No one in this room is responsible for slavery. 

But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history.  Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we respond to history and the world around us. 

We are not responsible for the past. 

We also cannot change the past. 

We can't pretend that it didn't happen or deny people their very right to exist. 

-- Democratic Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow (1986 -), in response to accusations made by Republican Lana Theis in a fundraising letter, 19 April 2022

Antilynching Act

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act”.

SEC. 2. LYNCHING; OTHER CONSPIRACIES.
Section 249(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(5) LYNCHING.—Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.

“(6) OTHER CONSPIRACIES.—Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, or if the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.”.

-- H.R.55 - Emmett Till Antilynching Act, signed into law by President Biden on 29 March 2022

Well Timed

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.  Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was "well timed" according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation.  For years now I have heard the word "wait."  It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity.  This "wait" has almost always meant "never."  It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration.  We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."  We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our God-given and constitutional rights.  The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.  I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait." 

-- Martin Luther King Jr. (15 January 1929 - 4 April 1968), American Baptist minister and activist, "Letter from Birmingham City Jail", an open letter written on 16 April 1963

Not A Character Flaw

When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character.  This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor.  But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw.  Stigmatise those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.

-- Sarah J. Kendzior (1978 -), American journalist, author, and anthropologist, Poverty is not a character flaw, sarahkendzior.com, 5 October 2013