January 1st, 2025
J. Pharoah Doss: Biden’s Lame Duck Death Penalty One-Upmanship
Getty Images Stock Photo Lame duck: an elected official continuing to hold political office during the period between the election and the inauguration of a successor One-upmanship: a situation in which someone does something in order to prove they are better than someone else *** In the early 1990s, Democratic Senator Joe Biden called Republican … Continued
December 27th, 2024
J. Pharoah Doss: The Supreme Court, Gender-Affirming Care, and Weighing the Risk
Anti-trans legislation adjudicates the bodily autonomy of those who do not conform to gender norms. Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Three transgender teenagers and their families have challenged Tennessee’s 2023 restriction on gender-affirming care for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the first week of December. The World Health Organization defines gender-affirming care as a … Continued
December 20th, 2024
J. Pharoah Doss: Did Good Samaritans deadlock the Danial Penny Jury?
Daniel Penny was arraigned on May 12 on a charge of second-degree manslaughter of Jordan Neely. Penny was acquitted of the crime this month (AP pic under a CC BY 4.0 license). In 2023, a fatal encounter occurred aboard a New York subway train when Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old White marine veteran, used a chokehold … Continued
December 14th, 2024
J. Pharoah Doss: Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus
In 1989, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Andre Braugher starred in the American Civil War film Glory. The movie was about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first all-Black regiments in the Union Army. The actor who played Robert Gould Shaw, the White colonel in command, narrated the film. Glory depicted the regiment’s encounters … Continued
December 8th, 2024
J. Pharoah Doss: The once and future Democratic Party
“Donald J. Trump is the President of the United States. His unexpected win has finally electrified American liberals and leftists. They are busily planning what they term a ‘resistance’ to what he represents.” That may sound like a mission statement from a progressive activist organization, written the day after Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was defeated … Continued
Bishop William J. Barber II Shares His Thoughts About What He'd Like to See at The 2024 DNC
