Open Thread | Since October 1, 2025, the U.S. has accepted 6,668 refugees. Of those, 6,665 were Afrikaners.

Posted on June 12, 2026 by rikyrah

Lips so pursed.

Donald V. Watkins
17h
·
TRUMP ENGAGES IN A LAND GRAB IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA FOR THE PRIORITIZED RESETTLEMENT OF APARTHEID-LOVING WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN REFUGEES
PART I
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on June 10, 2026

Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, South African native Elon Musk convinced President Donald Trump in January 2025 that fellow white South Africans, known as “Afrikaners,” are victims of genocide in their own country. Afrikaners are the white ethnic minority that ruled South Africa with brutal force during the era of racial apartheid (1948-1994) in that country.
Since October 1, 2025, the U.S. has accepted 6,668 refugees. Of those, 6,665 were Afrikaners. Trump plans to admit up to 17,500 Afrikaners by the end of the 2026 fiscal year in September.

According to a New York Times article in May 2025, one of the primary resettlement cities for Afrikaners is Birmingham, Alabama. The city that was once known as the “Johannesburg of the South” for its violently enforced racial segregation and suffocating discrimination against Blacks is being prepared to receive the family members of the Afrikaners who enforced White Supremacy against the country’s black South African majority with massacres, torture, beatings, and unimaginable acts of gratuitous violence.

Trump’s U.S. Departments of State (DOS), Homeland Security (DHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Health and Human Services (HHS), have partnered with the Alabama Office for Refugees (AOR) and various non-profit groups to administer the resettlement of Afrikaners in Birmingham (and three other primary locations in America). This effort is coordinated through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which has an $11 billion budget for the 2026 fiscal year.

AOR currently has three primary in-state regional offices that participate in the federal refugee resettlement program, with one – Birmingham-based Inspiritus — specifically identified as a processing center for Afrikaners in Birmingham.
Once the Afrikaners arrive in America, they get generous cash stipends, more than adequate food assistance, healthcare via Medicaid, employment placement assistance, educational assistance for their children, and housing assistance on an interim and permanent basis. In short, Trump has federal money flowing to the Afrikaners on a priority basis.

Five Birmingham Neighborhoods and Communities Have Been Targeted in a Land Grab for Afrikaner Resettlement
Working quietly with AOR, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, and Sen. Katie Britt, the Trump administration has targeted the Birmingham neighborhoods and communities of Smithfield, which includes College Hills, Graymont, Enon Ridge, and East Thomas, and Bush Hills for the resettlement of thousands of incoming Afrikaners.

One of the main pillars of Trump’s Birmingham Afrikaner resettlement plan took shape on November 10, 2025, when DHS and the U.S. Coast Guard issued a joint public notice of their intent to purchase property for a “training center.” The property description in the notice mirrored the property description of the 192-acre campus of Birmingham-Southern College (BSC).
The Coast Guard is a DHS law enforcement agency, just like ICE. It is ramping up its force by up to 15,000 law enforcement members and support staff. What’s driving this growth is Trump’s ramped-up of ICE roundups, detentions, and deportations of immigrants of color.

The BSC purchase, which was announced in March, was part of Trump’s “Trojan Horse” trick on the unsuspecting Birmingham neighborhoods and communities. The $126 million used for the purchase reportedly came from the $38 billion allocated in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, for 34 new ICE detention centers.
On June 5, 2026, the Trump administration celebrated the BSC purchase with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an official dedication program on the BSC campus. No Black federal, state, city, or county official was permitted on the stage at the dedication ceremony or in the photo-op of the ribbon cutting. This snub occurred three days after the U.S. Supreme Court okayed a congressional redistricting map that intentionally discriminated against black voters in Alabama.
This snub was a subtle but direct message to the incoming Afrikaners, as well as the 11,000 new ones in the citizenship pipeline this fiscal year, that the “White Supremacy” to which they were accustomed in South Africa is intact in Birmingham and protected by the Trump administration, the state of Alabama, and the Supreme Court today.

The estimated 1,000 civilian jobs at the Birmingham Coast Guard facility are earmarked for Afrikaners, not the black residents who live in the five adversely impacted neighborhoods and communities. What is more, the presence of the Coast Guard facility affords the Trump administration a unique opportunity to use the federal power of eminent domain to: (a) clear these neighborhoods and communities of existing residents and other “undesirables,” (b) take the private residential properties into the federal land management program that holds title to two soon-to-be-demolished public housing projects in the affected neighborhoods, and (c) lease or sell all of this federal property to private developers for the exclusive use in the Afrikaner resettlement program on an autonomous “Whites Only,” mini-version of a “Freedom City.”

The Trump administration also plans to use federal eminent domain power to obtain additional property in the vicinity for DHS’s ICE immigrant detention center function. No local approvals are needed for Trump’s land grab. He can repurpose this property on an emergency basis for critical federal government functions.

On May 7, 2025, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the MAGA-controlled Alabama legislature conducted advance preparatory work for Trump’s land grab plan by seizing control of the Birmingham Water Works Board’s $1.3 billion in assets, without any significant fight, and placing these assets under the firm control of a newly-formed, white-controlled, Central Alabama Water agency. Trump and his allies in Alabama knew that whoever controls the water controls land development and redevelopment projects.

Funding for Trump’s Birmingham land grab for the Afrikaner resettlement plan is coming from $18 billion in budgeted federal funds and $5 billion in tax credits that have been redirected and earmarked for different scales and versions of Trump’s “Freedom Cities” program.

Part II in this investigative series will follow the money. Who is benefiting from the flow of money in Trump’s Birmingham land grab, and who is not? The answers will shock you.

Posted in Breaking News, Immigration, Open Thread, Politics, Racial Bias, Racism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Open Thread | Must Keep On The Lookout for the Phony SuperPacs

Posted on June 10, 2026 by rikyrah

Glad that he did the digging. You know this isn’t the only one out there. So, we must keep on our toes.
Citizen United…
Contributing to the WORST COURT SINCE TANEY

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
1. Lead Left, a super PAC created on 4/24, purports to stand “against MAGA extremists.”

It has spent $3M+ in Democratic primaries.

But it’s funders and motivations have been secret.

Until now.

It’s a GOP dirty tricks operation.

🧵
7:59 AM · May 27, 2026

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
2. Popular Information found that Lead Left is linked to Caleb Crosby, a Republican operative. Crosby is the treasurer of the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the primary super PAC of the House GOP.

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
3. Lead Left’s spending has been unusual.

In Texas, Lead Left spent 900K supporting Maureen Galindo in the Democratic House primary. Galindo, a sex therapist, pledged to turn an ICE detention facility a “prison for American Zionists.”

Her campaign less than 11K. (She lost last night.)
7:59 AM · May 27, 2026

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
4. Lead Left has also intervened in Dem primaries in swing House districts in Nebraska and PA.

It has gone to great lengths to conceal its identity and backers. It listed its address as a mailbox at a Staples on 2241 North Monroe Street in Tallahassee, Florida. Its treasurer has no online footprint
7:59 AM · May 27, 2026

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
5. But of the roughly 48,500 political committees created since 2016, only two others share an address with Lead Left — the Staples at 2241 North Monroe Street in Tallahassee.

Both of those committees are connected to the Crosby Ottenhoff Group, the political compliance firm founded by Crosby.
7:59 AM · May 27, 2026

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
6. One of the groups located at 2241 North Monroe Street was Fight Right Inc, the super PAC that spent over $14 million supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. The Treasurer for Fight Right Inc was Kaylen Melton, a CPA at Crosby Ottenhoff.

Judd Legum
@JuddLegum
7. The other group listed at 2241 North Monroe Street is Justice Truth, a super PAC that was also active during the 2024 cycle. The treasurer of the group is another GOP operative linked to Crosby Ottenhoff, Thomas Datwyler.
https://x.com/JuddLegum/status/2059620585244590358

Posted in 2026 Elections, Buying Influence, Dark Money In Politics, Elections, Open Thread, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 44 Comments

Open Thread | I Just Can’t…….The Latest Whistleblower Report

Posted on June 8, 2026 by rikyrah

Has got to enrage you, cause it did me.

ONCE AGAIN…
IT WAS NEVER EVER EVER ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

Trump officials planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, whistleblower claims
A former Social Security executive said the plan, which was not carried out, would have used a death database to pressure immigrants to leave the country.

June 5, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

By Meryl Kornfield

The Trump administration had plans to classify 2.7 million living people — including some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents — as dead as part of its immigration enforcement efforts, according to a former senior Social Security executive.

The previously unreported plan, which the Social Security Administration said was not carried out, would have used one of the government’s most consequential identity databases to effectively erase people from the financial system, potentially cutting them off from wages, banking, government benefits and other services.

Jeremiah Schofield, who worked at Social Security for 25 years and helped lead the agency’s IT modernization efforts before leaving in October, said he refused to help implement the plan after agency lawyers warned that falsely marking living people as dead could violate federal law. Schofield said he realized the plan’s possible intent — to intimidate and worsen the finances of immigrants — as well as its potential unlawfulness after taking a sample of people from the 2.7 million and discovering they were all alive. Some were U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, teenagers and senior citizens, including one widow who was a legal permanent resident receiving survivor benefits.

Schofield has provided details on the plan in a 49-page whistleblower disclosure to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The disclosure was reviewed by The Washington Post, and it offers the most detailed account yet of how officials from Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service sought to use Social Security data in service of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In an interview with The Post, Schofield said he is speaking publicly for the first time because he believes Americans need to understand how government data can be misused and, in some cases, already has been.

Social Security carried out a smaller version of such an effort last year, The Post previously reported, moving 6,100 immigrants into its “Death Master File” — a database used by banks, employers and government agencies to determine whether someone is alive. Some of those people later showed up at Social Security field offices to prove they were alive and were restored in agency records.

In a written statement, a Social Security spokesperson who did not provide their name said the agency “did not add a list of 2.7 million names to the Death Master File. SSA maintains the highest level of internal controls. This includes having all appropriate policies and procedures in place to maintain the integrity and accuracy of agency records.”

Schofield’s whistleblower complaint describes a tumultuous period inside Social Security, as career officials questioned the legality of such efforts and watched DOGE officials gain access to some of the government’s most sensitive databases. In one meeting, Schofield said, a DOGE official working with the Department of Homeland Security described the goal of declaring 2.7 million living people dead: making immigrants so miserable that they self-deported or went to Social Security offices for help, where they could be arrested.

Just reading this…..this is pure evil.

Posted in Immigration, Open Thread, Politics, Social Security Administration | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Weekend Open Thread

Posted on June 6, 2026 by rikyrah

Good Morning.

I hope that you are enjoying this weekend with family and friends.

We lost the wonderful Peabo Bryson, who passed away this week at 75.

Peabo Bryson, R&B singer known for Disney classics, dies at 75

By Emily St. Martin
Staff Writer
June 2, 2026 Updated 9:02 PM PT

Peabo Bryson, a Grammy-winning R&B singer known for his duets from Disney classics “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast,” has died. He was 75.

His family confirmed to The Times that he died Tuesday in Marietta, Ga. The cause was complications from a stroke he suffered over the weekend.

“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” the family shared. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

Bryson was a fixture on the R&B scene for decades, scoring with such hits as “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” and “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again.

In a career peak in 1992, the singer was featured on recordings that topped four separate charts: “A Whole New World,” a duet with Regina Belle from the Disney animated movie “Aladdin,” topped the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts; “The King and I” album, featuring Bryson, was No. 1 on the Classical Crossover charts, and Kenny G’s “Breathless” album, featuring Bryson on “By the Time the Night Is Over,” topped the Contemporary Jazz charts.

He nabbed two Grammy Awards back to back in 1993 and 1994 for his performance of “Beauty and the Beast” with Céline Dion, and his performance of “A Whole New World” with Regina Belle.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can’t do,” Bryson told The Times. “I see myself as a true Renaissance man. I don’t like one-dimensional concepts of myself.”

Robert Peapo Bryson was born on April 13, 1951, in Greenville, S.C. He grew up attending concerts his mother would bring the family to, and by the time he was in high school, he knew he wanted a career in music.

In 1978, he told David Nathan, an editor for Blues & Soul magazine, that his mother wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of him chasing his dreams in the rhythm-and-blues biz and worried he’d get into trouble.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been into music,” Bryson said. “It’s all I ever wanted to really deal with. … I had to make that decision, when I was around 14, as to what I was going to get into, career-wise. Well, I’d thought about being a doctor or something like that, but I really felt that music was my thing.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Black History, Music, Weekend Open Thread | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Open Thread | Checking in on The Worse Court Since Taney

Posted on June 4, 2026 by rikyrah

UH HUH
UH HUH


The Washington Post
@washingtonpost
The Supreme Court allowed Alabama to hold upcoming elections using a congressional map that a lower court found discriminates on the basis of race and dilutes the political power of the state’s Black voters.
https://x.com/washingtonpost/status/2062134465753666015


Norman Ornstein
@NormOrnstein
Our chief justice, John “Jim Crow” Roberts
8:19 AM · Jun 4, 2026

Democracy Docket
@DemocracyDocket
LAST NIGHT: Alabama is allowed to use a congressional map in the 2026 midterms that was found to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, the Supreme Court ruled.

The decision suggests that almost no federal protections remain for non-white voters.
https://x.com/DemocracyDocket/status/2062166085151883390


Ari Berman

‪@ariberman.bsky.social‬
Roberts Court wants to create world where Dems have no legitimate chance to ever take control of Congress, there are no Black members of Congress from the South & no voting rights violations can ever be proven. Their end goal is permanent white GOP minority rule http://www.motherjones.com/politics/202…
https://bsky.app/profile/ariberman.bsky.social/post/3mnfckykm5c2r

From TPM:
SCOTUS Cobbles Together Excuse to Let Alabama Discriminate Against Black Voters in New Order
by Kate Riga
06.02.26 | 11:45 pm

The Supreme Court showed beyond a doubt Tuesday that it will never again put a stop to Republican states snuffing out the Black vote.

The six right-wing justices granted Alabama’s request for a stay, which clears the way for the state to hold its 2026 elections under a 2023 map crafted to deliver Republicans six congressional seats and Democrats only one. It does so by making Black Alabamians’ votes count for less than white ones’.

In Louisiana v. Callais, the Court made vote dilution nearly impossible to prove. It ignored Congress’ alterations to the Voting Rights Act and turned it back into an intents test, where the plaintiffs had to make the extremely difficult showing that the legislators intended to discriminate based on race. And yet, in the Alabama case, the plaintiffs managed to do that. The district court found plentiful evidence that the state intentionally discriminated after the court had previously ordered it to produce a map with two districts composed of a Black majority or near-majority, and Alabama flatly ignored it. The state instead produced another map with only one Black-majority district.

That evidence, rare in its unambiguity, still failed at the Supreme Court.

“As to intentional vote dilution, the District Court did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith because it interpreted the State’s legal disagreement with the court’s earlier remedial order as proof of discriminatory animus,” the majority wrote.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the Court’s order proves that “there is no realistic case in which the presumption of legislative good faith can ever be rebutted.” It also, she added, “corrodes the rule of law by rewarding Alabama’s gamesmanship and outright defiance of court orders.”

The majority then delivers the death blow to any attempt to stop red states from suppressing the Black vote.

“Under Callais, the District Court was required to deny relief unless the plaintiffs’ alternative map performed ‘just as well’ with respect to all of the State’s constitutionally permissible districting criteria,” it wrote.

In other words, courts can only force red states to draw additional majority-minority districts if those districts will vote for Republican candidates. Since this will never happen in the South, where race and partisanship are intertwined, it ensures that red states’ efforts to gerrymander Republican candidates into easy wins will always trump Black voters’ ability to elect members of Congress who represent their interests.

SCOTUS Justice Blasts Colleagues in Scathing Dissent
LAW AND DISORDER
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority voted to greenlight Republicans’ power grab in a new state.
Janna Brancolini
Updated Jun. 3 2026 7:35AM EDT
Published Jun. 3 2026 7:30AM EDT

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted her conservative colleagues for “disregarding both democratic values and the rule of law” in a blistering dissent to a decision allowing Alabama to eliminate a majority-Black district at the 11th hour.

The justices voted 6-3 to grant an emergency request filed by Republican officials to use a congressional map in this year’s midterms that was approved in 2023 but had never been used because a lower court found the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

After the Supreme Court instructed the lower court to revisit its decision in light of an April ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a three-judge panel of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump appointees again found on May 26 that the map was unconstitutional.
…………..

The state’s primaries were originally supposed to take place on May 19, but Alabama’s Republican leaders suspended the election while they raced to take advantage of Callais to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts and boost Republicans’ chances in six of the state’s seven districts.

In her dissent, Obama-appointee Sotomayor wrote that the conservative justices had rejected an “orderly election, held under a tried-and-tested congressional map” and instead chose “a chaotic election, held under a never-before-used congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black Alabamians.”
……………………
Alabama also adopted the map “in unashamed defiance of a prior court order directly affirmed by this Court,” Sotomayor wrote.

In 2023, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling rejecting another Alabama map drawn in 2021 that eliminated a majority-Black district.

“Just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos,” Sotomayor wrote.

Continue reading →

Posted in 2026 Elections, Black Voter Suppression, Breaking News, Chief Justice John Roberts, Elections, Gerrymandering, Open Thread, Politics, Supreme Court, Updated Jim Crow, Voting Rights, Voting Rights Act | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Call Alert! Call Your Congressman and tell them HELL NO ON Section 224

Posted on June 3, 2026 by rikyrah

THEE ENTIRE PHUCK!!!

GenXGirl
@GenXGirl1994
House Armed Services Committee Hearing on FY27 NDAA is on Thursday, June 4, 2026 at 10:00AM

CALL TO ACTION: Tell your House Rep to Remove ❌ Section 224: US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation

CALL YOUR HOUSE REP: 202-224-3121

GenXGirl
@GenXGirl1994
CONFIRMED: SECTION 224 WAS ISRAEL’S PLAN

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu confirms Section 224 of the NDAA was HIS PLAN in a letter to Congress, thanking them for doing his bidding.

TELL YOUR HOUSE REP TO REMOVE SECTION 224!
https://x.com/GenXGirl1994/status/2062214961863037259

Brian Allen
@allenanalysis
JUST IN: Benjamin Netanyahu just thanked Congress for Section 224 of the NDAA.

That should probably get your attention.

Foreign leaders don’t usually thank Congress for provisions they don’t consider important.

Section 224 creates a “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” focused on joint weapons development, data sharing, and deeper military coordination. (Al Jazeera)

Go read Section 224.
https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2062238619868266767?s=20

Continue reading →

Posted in Breaking News, Israel, Military Weaponry, Open Thread, Politics, US military | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Open Thread | Data Centers- We Can’t Continue Down This Path

Posted on June 1, 2026 by rikyrah

Read this and the video shown at the link is devastating.

Wall Street Apes
@WallStreetApes
This is the Rio Grande in New Mexico

It’s currently completely dry

Meta’s data center in Los Lunas in central New Mexico is using 75 million gallons of water per year from the Rio Grande water

But they’re not the only Data Center using Rio Grande water, there’s many more.

The Rio Grande River is dry through here for a few reasons

– Extremely low snowpack this winter
– Record-low reservoir levels like Elephant Butte, which is New Mexico’s largest on the Rio Grande are at critically low levels
– Agriculture uses 85% of water use from the Rio Grande in New Mexico, it’s unsustainable long-term
– Data Centers

The exact number actively drawing from it right now is not fully public due to limited transparency on water rights

Total data centers in New Mexico: Around 21 operating or planned facilities. These centers collectively consume up to 1.8 billion gallons per year

Large proposed projects like Project Jupiter near El Paso are in the Lower Rio Grande region and would require significant ongoing water use

This isn’t sustainable. This can’t continue

https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2058905926984405155?s=20

Khashoggi’s Ghost
‪@urocklive1.bsky.social‬

Follow
This pretty much sums it up:

1/2



Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Data Centers, Open Thread, Politics | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

Weekend Open Thread

Posted on May 30, 2026 by rikyrah

Good Morning.
I hope that you are enjoying this weekend with family and friends.

The concert that never was😂😂

Posted in Weekend Open Thread | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Open Thread | They Have Outlived Their Usefulness

Posted on May 29, 2026 by rikyrah

Plain and simple.

Willie Ross Jr. Knee Deep
@RossKneeDeep
Very interesting:

All four Black House Republicans are retiring — the timing tells an important story.
All four Black Republican members of the House of Representatives have announced they will not seek reelection after this term. The departures are happening simultaneously, during a second Trump presidency that has taken a documented and systematic approach to eliminating diversity programs, removing Black officials from positions across the federal government, and installing a senior leadership team that is overwhelmingly white in composition.

The GOP spent several years — particularly in the period following 2020 — making visible and stated efforts to recruit and elect Black candidates to Congress. The argument was both moral and strategic: a party that aspires to govern a diverse country should reflect some of that diversity in its elected representation. Those efforts produced, among others, the members now leaving.

The context in which they’re leaving is specific. The current administration has not only rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies — it has done so with explicit rhetoric that frames such programs as discriminatory against white people. Trump has personally circulated content that carries white nationalist framing. Black officials who were appointed or retained in earlier periods have been removed in significant numbers.

For Black Republicans who spent careers making the argument that their party had room for them and for the communities they represented, this environment creates a specific and difficult position. The argument they were making — that Black voters and Black candidates could find meaningful space in Republican politics — faces the most direct possible institutional challenge from the top of their own party.

The four retirements are individual decisions made for individual reasons. But four simultaneous exits by the entire Black Republican caucus in the House, in this specific moment, is a pattern that carries meaning beyond any single member’s calculus.
What it means for the party’s stated commitment to diversity, for Black voters who supported Republican candidates, and for the candidates who might have considered following this path is a question the departures make more urgent rather than less.

Where does Black MAGA go from here?
https://x.com/RossKneeDeep/status/2050032845049987378?s=20

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Posted in GOP, Open Thread, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Open Thread | Pope Leo XIV Apologizes For Holy See’s Role In Legitimizing Slavery and Failing To Condemn It

Posted on May 26, 2026 by rikyrah

I never thought that I would read these words.

The Associated Press
@AP
BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery and for failing to condemn i.t for centuries

Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery
By NICOLE WINFIELD and PAOLO SANTALUCIA
Updated 11:59 AM CDT, May 25, 2026

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the Holy See’s role in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”

Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday.

The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Leo raised the slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling.

Black American Catholics, activists and scholars have long called for the Holy See to atone for its role in the colonial-era trade in human beings, beyond generic apologies for the involvement of individual Christians.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Shannen Dee Williams, historian at the University of Dayton and author of the 2022 history of American Black Catholic nuns, “Subversive Habits,” welcomed the apology as a “monumental step toward the kind of essential truth-telling and reparation that many Catholics have prayed and worked to witness.”

“The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy,” said Williams. “Black Catholics have waited a long time to hear the Vatican speak honestly about the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery–and thus by extension the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Catholic Church, Christianity, Open Thread, Politics, Slave Trade | Tagged , , , , , , | 55 Comments