From: FORTUNE raceAhead - Friday Mar 15, 2019 06:35 pm
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March 15, 2019

Here’s your week in review, in haiku.

 

 

1.

Why crime time when the

system is designed for you?

A Hallmark moment.

 

2.

O rlly Netflix?

Miss Moreno cancels YOU

One Day At A Time

 

3.

North Korea runs

hot, Brexit runs cold, lights on

in Venezuela.

 

4.

Screams of the dying

on Facebook. YouTube. Reddit.

Meritocracy

 

5.

Gather in worship

unafraid. A prayer for love

in a time of hate.

 

It’s spring break! RaceAhead is going outside for a while. Take good care until we return Tuesday, March 26. We believe in you.

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On Point

White supremacist commits a terrorist attack on worshipping Muslims in New Zealand
At press time, 49 people are dead after a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Some 41 others, including young children, are being treated for gunshot wounds. The police have taken  a 28-year-old white man from Australia into custody. He appears to be driven by white nationalism with an aim to stoke racial divisions. He seems to be a violent product of the internet age: He posted his racist manifesto online and shared it on Twitter and 8chan, streamed the attack on Facebook, where it spread. His manifesto makes references to other white supremacists, and the U.S. president, among others. The attacks took place during Friday Prayer.
New York Times
Southern Poverty Law Center fires co-founder Morris Dees
The 82-year-old icon and former litigator was synonymous with the organization, which was founded in 1971. The stated reason was misconduct. "As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world," SPLC President Richard Cohen said in the emailed statement. "When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action."
Montgomery Advertiser
Nation surprised to learn that Carson Daly has a late-night show
And yet for seventeen years, he persisted! But now he's giving up his slot on NBC to comedian, actor, and YouTube star Lilly Singh. It's an embarrassment of milestones: She's now the only woman with a late-night show on broadcast television, she's also the first Indian-Canadian-openly bisexual woman, too!  A Little Late With Lilly Singh will be a half-hour interview and sketch comedy show, and debuts in September. The Ontario-born performer said in a press release. "I'm thrilled to bring it to life on NBC, and I hope my parents consider this to be as exciting as a grandchild." 
Hollywood Reporter
Jussie Smollett pleads not-guilty
Smollett is facing 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct and has been accused of lying about a hate crime and filing a false police report. He appeared in court yesterday morning and entered a not guilty plea to all charges and has vowed to fight back.
Essence
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On Background

The roots of white supremacy in the U.S.
Adam Serwer has published a deeply reported must-read, particularly chilling coming on the heels of the terrorist attack in New Zealand. "Americans want to believe that the surge in white-supremacist violence and recruitment…the hate crimes whose perpetrators invoke the president's name as a battle cry—has no roots in U.S. soil, that it is racist zealotry with a foreign pedigree and marginal allure," he writes. These Americans would be very, very wrong. Longtime raceAhead readers will recognize the name of the man who helped make white supremacy a deeply rooted American value: Madison Grant, the author of the influential and profoundly racist book, The Passing of the Great Race.
The Atlantic
What the admissions scandal says about disability
Writer Aditi Juneja highlights one particularly vile aspect of the college admissions: Wealthy parents pretending their kids had learning disabilities to increase the time allotted for standardized tests. It made her boil, she said. "I thought about all of the shame and embarrassment I had felt for needing, and sometimes using, accommodations for the ESPA, GEPA, ACT, LSAT, and bar exam," she says. "While I am no longer ashamed about needing accommodations, I do feel deep contempt for the people abusing these accommodations so they can succeed in a system that is built for them."
Vox
By erasing Islam from Rumi's poetry, we all miss his point
Rumi's love poetry has been a revelation for seekers of universal wisdom around the world for centuries. But the New Yorker's Rozina Ali argues that his popularity, particularly within high tone circles - Madonna, Tilda Swinton, and Coldplay's Chris Martin are among his celebrity fans - have allowed publishers to erase Rumi's Muslim essence from his work to our detriment. But don't blame rock and roll. "It was in the Victorian period that readers in the West began to uncouple mystical poetry from its Islamic roots." It was Rumi's unique experience at the intersection of Sufism, Sunni Islam, and Koranic debate that informed his voice, and animated his desire for oneness with God. But a committed contempt for Islam persuaded scholars over the years that Rumi was "mystical not because of Islam but in spite of it."
New Yorker
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Quote

Remember me. / I will be with you in the grave / on the night you leave behind / your shop and your family. / When you hear my soft voice / echoing in your tomb,  / you will realize / that you were never hidden from my eyes./ I am the pure awareness within your heart, / with you during joy and celebration, / suffering and despair.
—Rumi
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