The National Association of Black Bookstores (NAB2), founded on Juneteenth, 2025, has announced the first National Black Bookstore Day to be celebrated on April 7.

National Black Bookstore Day is intended to “recognize, elevate, and drive support to Black-owned bookstores across the United States.” NAB2 founder Kevin Johnson, who owns Underground Books in Sacramento, CA, noted in a release that the event also honors the legacy of his late mother, Georgia “Mother Rose” Peat West, who opened Underground Books in 2003.

Participating in National Black Bookstore Day is easy:

• Consult NAB2‘s directory to locate a Black-owned bookstore near you.
• Make a purchase.
• Share on social media using #NationalBlackBookstoreDay and #NAB2.

Your support matters. Per data from the State of the Black Bookstore Report NAB2 released in February, the 306 Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. account for just 8% of all indies, and the vast majority (more than 90%) report annual revenue under $250k.

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If you’re in one of the 14 states that does not currently have a Black-owned bookstore, you can shop online from a NAB2 member store or donate directly to the organization.

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A new report in the Chronicle of Higher Education shows how Black Studies departments around the country have been kneecapped by a multi-pronged conservative strategy to halt the study of race at American schools.

Those who have been paying attention to the administration’s ongoing campaign against “DEI” will not be shocked to find that gambling’s been going on here. But Jafari S. Allen, author of the Chronicle analysis and editor of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, broke down the how and the who in a compellingly clear-eyed study.

Inspired by an emergency forum held earlier this March—which convened leaders of the imperiled discipline from colleges all around the country—Allen takes a bird’s eye view of bummer terrain. The current crisis facing ethnic studies, he argues, is the result of four distinct rhetorical, legal, administrative, and enforcement strategies.

Allen pins the origins of a rhetorical strategy to early 2020, when conservative activist Christopher Rufo launched his screed against Critical Race Theory, a complex body of scholarship that he effectively defined as “any teaching in K-12 education about race, racism, and American history.”

This tack gained major traction on the right, and became a key Trump platform. And while public opinion was being whipped, a legal strategy kicked off behind the bench.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ended “race-conscious admissions,” i.e., affirmative action.

The past three years of enrollment data show the consequences of this landmark decision. Black student enrollment has fallen drastically at Ivy League schools. Which correlates to a decline in the number of students concentrating and majoring in Black Studies.

Those schools, in turn, can now defund programs based on low numbers. But “this is not an oversight,” Allen insists. “The argument that departments are failing to attract students is being made by the people who ensured fewer of those students would arrive.”

On the admin end, colleges have been lately cowed by new regulations at the Department of Education. A 2025 letter enshrined the SFFA decision into a general—if, again, vaguely defined—policy.

In a particularly craven twist, this letter enlisted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause to halt or hinder affinity programming in schools. Because as the new legal logic goes, any theory designed to acknowledge race in America is racist.

The last move—enforcement—launched in February of this year, when the Education Department announced that dozens of universities would terminate their partnerships with the PhD Project, a nonprofit “that has helped more than 1,500 Black, Indigenous, and Latino students earn doctoral degrees in business.”

Schools that signed on to this resolution also allowed an audit of all their external partnerships, so federal and state enforcers could suss out potential Civil Rights violations. Which will inevitably lead to more stories like this one, about the recent curricular kerfuffle ousting Plato and his gender ideology from Texas A&M.

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Allen’s report also shows how ethnic studies departments have been structurally vulnerable since their inception. Early investment in race and gender studies “favored programs over departments,” which has always made financing a tenuous proposition. And at the end of the day, even the highest minded universities stay beholden to bottom lines and trustees.

Noting a pattern whereby ethnic studies programs are bundled or absorbed into other departments—a recent phenomenon we can observe at New York University and the University of Iowa, among other places—Allen is clear-eyed.

“An institution genuinely committed to Black intellectual life as part of its scholarly mission would respond to the current assault the way it would respond to any political intervention threatening a department whose scholarly standing was beyond dispute. An institution merely managing minority difference will run a calculation.”

The thing to change, then? We’re back to rhetoric.

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To recap: the conditions are Not Great, Bob for ethnic studies across the board. In Kentucky, where House Bill 4 recently eliminated DEI programs at all public universities, the University of Louisville’s Pan-African Studies doctoral program is now on the chopping block. This program represents the state’s only comprehensive Black Studies department.

The University of Texas recently dissolved its department. And a Senate Bill in Florida has siloed its African American Studies courses—among others, ethnically-minded—through a keyword search stripping courses of “their general-education designation,” which status is crucial to secure funding.

What does this mean for the future of a key American intellectual tradition? Traditions?

Allen insists that there is a path to resistance. And in the meantime, rolling over is a non-starter. “The most dangerous threat to Black studies right now is not coming from the federal government,” he writes. “It is coming from institutions that have decided, in advance, that accommodation is the same thing as survival.”

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NASA is preparing to launch a mission to the moon — and it’s making history for more reasons than one.

The space agency’s Artemis II launch marks the U.S.’s first journey back to the moon in more than 50 years. It will also carry the first Black astronaut and the first female astronaut to travel to the moon, though the mission will be a flyby without a touchdown on the surface.

The launch, originally scheduled for early February and now delayed, will carry four astronauts around the moon and back, including Victor Glover and Christina Koch, the first Black and first female astronauts, respectively, to make the flight.

The mission follows the success of the Artemis I launch in 2022, which was uncrewed, and marks NASA’s next step toward eventually sending astronauts to Mars.

“The benefits of the Artemis program are technological, but they’re also cultural,” Glover, who is a decorated U.S. Navy captain and has traveled to the International Space Station, said in a 2024 NASA video. “What really means something to me is the inspiration that will come from it, inspiring future generations to reach for the moon, literally to reach for the moon.” 

Koch began her career at NASA, starting as an engineer and going on to conduct scientific research before becoming an astronaut in 2013, also traveling to the International Space Station.

“The one thing I’m most excited about is that we are going to carry your excitement, your aspiration, your dreams with us on this mission,” Koch said at the 2023 press conference when the mission’s astronauts were announced.

Danielle Wood, a professor in the astronautics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said this mission builds upon decades of NASA’s work, including lessons learned from its previously failed endeavors.

“NASA’s been thinking through this whole process, two decades’ worth, of what we’re going to do is prepare the government to focus on these harder, next-generation missions and be able to do things that are not already demonstrated,” Wood told CNBC.

Wood said she’s also thankful that NASA has created a commitment to sending more diverse astronauts to space who “represent society in a more broad way.” Though the space agency initially emphasized military training for astronauts, she said opening up those requirements has led to exciting developments.

“It is still the case that there are many firsts, many glass ceilings, that need to be broken by Black women and Black men and women in general — that’s still real,” Wood added.

The mission will encompass more than just an exploratory journey to the moon too, she said. NASA will be conducting scientific research on the astronauts’ health, the rocket and the science of the moon. The mission is also working in conjunction with other countries, like Saudi Arabia and Germany, as part of “goodwill” agreements to pool together resources for moon research, Wood said.

“That’s just one step for this bigger, new form of operation,” she said.

Space historian Amy Shira Teitel, who’s been studying space for more than two decades, said Artemis II is the beginning of NASA’s next chapter of research.

“It’s marking a new era of leaving low Earth orbit, which we haven’t done since 1972,” she told CNBC. “It’s still a significant step because at the end of the day, we’re still going to gain some information that can be applied to whatever the next step is.”

Still, Teitel has her doubts about whether this launch will be the first step toward a lasting presence on the moon. Between budget restraints, multiple launch delays and complicating political factors, Teitel said the rocket launching this mission is “widely regarded as a huge boondoggle.”

That comes even as the space sector — and the journey back to the moon — has become more crowded.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced earlier this month that it was shifting its efforts from Mars explorations to moon explorations. Texas-based rocket and spacecraft builder Firefly Aerospace and Houston-based space startup Intuitive Machines have both sent spacecraft to the moon.

And NASA plans to retire the International Space Station in favor of smaller space stations focusing on the moon and Mars, with costs adding up. The U.S. Senate has also advanced legislation to support NASA’s advancements and create thousands of aerospace jobs, especially in Alabama, where the Marshall Space Flight Center is located.

Though the Artemis II launch will mark a significant step in NASA’s history, Teitel said she is choosing to remain cautiously optimistic about the future of space exploration, despite the hurdles.

“There’s so many challenges with this program right now stemming from policy, not from the astronauts or the engineers, just stemming from the fact that space is so complicated and so rooted in politics and so expensive that it’s hard to be that thrilled about this as the next step when everything else feels so tenuous,” Teitel said.

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On the heels of its warning about the potential impact on jobs at the end of last month, the CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council, Grainne Hurst, shared an open warning on November 7 to the Chancellor and the UK government about concern around the proposed gambling tax hike in the Autumn Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has hinted that UK gambling firms could expect to see big tax humps on sports betting, online or in betting shops, excluding horse racing, with rates rising from 15% to as high as 30%, while online slot taxes could climb from 20% to 50%.

Industry leaders have been quick to rally against the proposed plans, with one of the UK’s largest bookmakers, Betfred, warning that such a move could result in all its high-street shops closing down. Now, Hurst is also adding her voice to the criticism, warning that further tax increases would not only directly impact UK businesses but also put consumers at risk. This comes after Hurst referred to those at risk of gambling harms as a small minority while giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee last month.

“Further tax increases on the regulated online sector risk undermining consumer protections by pushing players towards the unsafe, unregulated black market, while reducing Treasury revenues and cutting the vital funding our members provide to British sport, including horse racing, football, rugby league, darts, and snooker,” she wrote in the article published by the BGC.  “Independent analysis by EY shows such proposals could put over 40,000 jobs at risk, divert £8.4 billion in stakes to the black market, and wipe £3.1 billion from the sector’s contribution to the UK economy.”

Hurst addressed many of the concerns around supporting gambling businesses, underlining how BGC members invest their profits into protective measures to reduce gambling-related harm. As with other UK businesses, the BGC also underlined how they contribute to the UK economy through taxes already, while also providing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

UK gambling business already pay their ‘fair share’ amid tax hike plans

In terms of the current level of taxation on UK gambling firms, Hurst argued that companies are already “already highly taxed” and “highly regulated.” Currently, all online betting and gaming in Britain is taxed on a ‘point of consumption’ basis, so any bet placed by a UK customer is taxed at the point of sale, no matter where the operator is based.

In real numbers, BGC members contribute £6.8 billion ($9 billion) to the economy, generate £4 billion in tax, and support 109,000 jobs, according to data cited by Hurst.

“Much is at stake in the Chancellor’s Budget,” she concluded. “Get it wrong, and it’s not just jobs and growth that will suffer, it’s safer gambling itself. To protect consumers and support a safer, stronger industry, we must keep gamblers playing within the regulated market.”

Featured image: Canva

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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center Turns 100

Happy 100th to NYPL’s Schomburg Center! The Schomburg holds “one of the world’s leading collections of material relating to the African diaspora,” as well as Langston Hughes’ ashes. Jennifer Schuessler of The New York Times wrote about the event kicking off a year of celebrating the Schomburg and the opening of the Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints, including this weekend’s Schomburg Centennial Festival, which features a day of literary and cultural events. There are so many interesting facts and ties to literary greats in this profile, including that Passing author Nella Larsen was a librarian there. Learn more about the celebration and, hey, Rioter Erika Hardison (Fabulize Magazine Presents: MSAB! Mixtape Vol.1) will be moderating a “Black Utopias” panel for the Centennial Festival, featuring Cebo Campbell (Sky Full of Elephants), Andrea Hairston (Archangels of Funk), Clarence A. Haynes (The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery), and Isis Asare (Afrofuturism Short Stories) on June 14. Check it out!

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The Animated Animal Farm a Decade in the Making

George Orwell’s Animal Farm was one of those rare assigned books I actually loved as a young reader. It lured me in with the anthropomorphized animals and kept me around with the political satire. Now Andy Serkis is bringing the classic to the big screen with a fully animated adaptation that has a contemporary twist. Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter observes that Seth Rogen’s Napoleon the pig bears resemblance to a particular person in power, but Serkis said, “there are enough despots around the world using the same divisive techniques — misinformation, disinformation — to control people. That’s what we wrote about years ago.” We also have a new character in the form of young Lucky the pig. Whether or not the film successfully manages to capture the satirical wit and sharpness of the original text, you can’t say the film lacks star power with Rogen joined by Glenn Close and Kieran Culkin, to name a few of the A-list voices behind the characters. The film is currently seeking distribution.

The Best Romance Novels of 2025 (So Far)

If you’re looking for a healthy dose of HEAs this summer, check out this NYT list of the best romance of the year so far. The picks are categorized to make it easier for romance readers on the hunt for something specific to find their flavor (A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera for readers who would “like a steamy scorcher set in Belle Époque Paris,” for example), and there’s even a flag for romance novels popular with Times readers.

Oprah’s Book Club Announces 115th Pick and It’s An Author She’s Picked Before–Twice

I’m guessing Wally Lamb doesn’t sweat the sales of his books, considering Oprah can’t stop won’t stop picking his books for her eponymous book club. This is the third time one of his books has been selected. Learn why Oprah selected The River Is Waiting and the identities of the mere three other authors who’ve been selected as many times.

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The meeting, which was initiated by Target, follows recent decisions by the retailer to scale back DEI initiatives — a move that prompted backlash from civil rights organizations.

Though Sharpton himself has not yet called for an official boycott, he openly supports the consumer movements urging shoppers to avoid Target.

Target CEO Brian Cornell (pictured) is set to meet civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton this week in New York. Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com

“You can’t have an election come and all of a sudden, change your old positions,” Sharpton told CNBC.

“If an election determines your commitment to fairness then fine, you have a right to withdraw from us, but then we have a right to withdraw from you.”

Sharpton stated he is open to initiating a formal boycott if Target does not reaffirm its support and investment in the black community and black-owned businesses.

“I said, ‘If [Cornell] wants to have a candid meeting, we’ll meet,’” Sharpton said. “I want to first hear what he has to say.”

Target confirmed the planned meeting between Cornell and Sharpton but declined further comment.

Sharpton is supporting boycotts of Target — though he himself has not explicitly endorsed a boycott. Matthew McDermott

The controversy arose when Target announced in January it would terminate its three-year DEI targets and cease providing company reports to external groups such as the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equity Index.

The company also ended certain measures aimed at increasing shelf space for products from Black and minority-owned businesses.

Following these announcements, Target experienced declining store visits for 10 consecutive weeks starting in late January, as recorded by data firm Placer.ai.

Before this period, store traffic had shown consistent year-over-year increases. Analysts have warned, however, that the drop in the number of shoppers could also be related to larger macroeconomic trends such as high inflation.

While this metric does not directly reflect overall sales, the decline coincided with public outcry over the company’s decision.

Rev. Jamal Bryant, an Atlanta-based pastor, has been another vocal critic of Target’s DEI policy shift.

Bryant initiated a “fast” from shopping at Target during Lent as a demonstration of black consumer influence, signaling plans to announce further actions related to the boycott soon.

Target’s policy changes mirror broader corporate caution around DEI programs, as companies including Walmart, McDonald’s and Tractor Supply have similarly scaled back their initiatives — partly due to pressures from conservative activists and politicians.

The meeting, which was initiated by Target, follows recent decisions by the retailer to scale back DEI initiatives. Christopher Sadowski

In contrast, Costco notably maintained its DEI initiatives, successfully resisting conservative shareholder proposals aimed at weakening these policies.

Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) recently engaged with other corporations facing similar scrutiny.

He met PepsiCo executives after the beverage giant ended its DEI targets.

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Though details of commitments from PepsiCo remain unclear, Sharpton acknowledged the significance of CEO Ramon Laguarta personally attending the discussions.

Sharpton’s meetings represent a significant counter-effort against conservative activists, like Robby Starbuck, who have aggressively targeted corporate DEI policies.

Starbuck’s campaigns have notably succeeded in pressuring several major corporations into reconsidering or eliminating diversity initiatives.

Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) recently met with PepsiCo executives over the company’s withdrawal of its DEI initiatives. REUTERS

During their upcoming meeting, Sharpton plans to question Cornell on Target’s reversal from commitments made following George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Target’s hometown.

Cornell previously expressed deep personal and corporate commitment in the wake of Floyd’s killing, saying it profoundly impacted him.

“That could have been one of my Target team members,” he remarked in 2021.

Sharpton stressed the necessity of accountability from companies that pledged support during critical moments of civil unrest.

“You made commitments based on the George Floyd movement… what changed?” he asked.

“Are you trying to say everything’s fine now because the election changed? That’s insulting to us.”

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