Race

Widely viewed as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on a path to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at universities as part of his plan to overhaul publicly funded higher education.

This week, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said Portugal should formally apologize for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Portuguese were responsible for selling nearly 6 million people into slavery — mostly in Brazil. Some activists and scholars say an apology is just a start and there's still a long way to go.

By and large, many African countries have stayed on the sidelines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As major importers of wheat and fertilizers from the two warring nations, they are reluctant to jeopardize those vital supplies by taking sides, observed Olayinka Ajala, a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University in Britain.

Former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, who now directs the 100 Year Starship Project, talks about the power of the "big, blue marble" image of planet Earth, taken 50 years ago.

Scholars explain what affirmative action is — and isn’t — as well as what its effects are, and why, among others, the military has supported it for decades.

At least 1,500 Black Americans have moved to Ghana since 2019, when the government declared its "Year of Return" initiative, calling on Africans in the diaspora to return to Africa. As the US continues to confront its history of racism and police brutality against Black people, many are heeding Ghana's call.  

The Brazilian town of Santa Bárbara d’Oeste is known for one thing above all — its annual Confederate festival. Descendants of thousands of people who emigrated to Brazil from the US South after they lost the Civil War celebrate their American heritage. Typically, the Confederate flag stands out. But recently, the City Council voted to ban the flag because of its racist symbolism.

The song “PAF.no,” one of the biggest hits in Norway this year, features a chorus in Arabic that has everyone singing along — and also discussing what it means to be Norwegian. 

Crystal Kwok is the director of "Blurring the Color Line," a new documentary about her family’s experience in Augusta, Georgia, and the relationships between Chinese Americans and Black people during the Jim Crow era.

Through glittering costumes, provocative floats and bold song lyrics, several samba schools at this year’s Carnival — the first since the pandemic hit — are paying tribute to the country’s Black history while also lambasting the racism and violence that Black Brazilians continue to face.