Browsing: A Message from The Publisher

       Donald Trump calls it “big” and “beautiful.” He flashes it like ILL-gotten gain at campaign rallies, the massive, multi-billion-dollar legislation packages he brags about. Infrastructure, border security, policing, tax cuts. To Trump, these bills are monuments to his greatness. To us, Black, Brown, Indigenous, poor, queer, immigrant, these bills are reminders that this nation still sees us as expendable.

       Is this selling out the Black cause for a few dollars—or is this the kind of awakening that stirred Nat Turner from silence to sacrifice?

      The NAACP is decidedly  grounded in legacy and moral clarity: it will not invite Donald Trump to speak at its 2025 national convention. In doing so, the nation’s oldest “Badest and Boldest” civil rights organization has reminded the country and Black America that principle must always come before politics because you don’t want to Fool Around and Find Out!

    When history repeats itself, it is not by accident, it is by negligence. It is by willful ignorance dressed as patriotism, by fear disguised as policy, and by power wielded without justice. From the smoldering ashes of the 1965 Watts Rebellion to the global outcry following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, America’s refusal to confront its original sins has become its most destructive tradition. And today, as Donald Trump re-emerges as a central force in American politics, wielding rhetoric that inflames division and rewrites the past, we are watching history loop in real time—only this time, the stakes feel apocalyptic.

       As I sit beside my father’s bedside, time seems to bend. Each breath he takes feels sacred, and each moment that passes invites me to listen, not just with my ears, but with my soul. In this silence, there is sound. I hear the quiet truth: life is precious beyond measure.

       It’s graduation season. Test season. The time of year when young people are pushing hard to succeed and please those that love them. The pressure is real for them—but so are their accomplishments. And while life continues to remind us of its challenges—aging parents, our own aging bodies, and the responsibilities of adulthood—I’ve found hope and pride in the achievements of the next generation.

       The foundation of America has always rested on an uneasy but determined unity—a nation of disparate people striving for liberty, equality, and justice. But that foundation is cracking, and it is hate that is hammering the fault lines. We are being torn apart from the inside, and history has taught us this truth plainly: a house divided against itself cannot stand.

       Due process is the idea that everyone should be treated fairly under the law no matter who you are. But during Donald Trump’s time in office, this basic American right is pushed aside in favor of politics and power.

       The headlines are oppressively constant with more shootings, more hate crimes, more senseless deaths. The air feels heavy with a thick musty smell of fear and rage. It’s hard to ignore the feeling that we’ve slipped into a lawless, dangerous era trumped with more weapons of human destruction. like a modern-day Wild Wild West where life feels cheaper, and anger burns hotter. But even as the chaos seems to grow louder, I believe there’s still a quieter force like the smell of Jasmine rising in the background: the Booker will of the people to bring us back from the brink.