Ashanti’s Masters: Who Holds What
Ashanti says she can re-record her debut and own the new masters. Nobody has shown who owns the 2002 originals. Here is what the record supports and what it does not.
Where Did the $174 Million for HBCUs Come From?
It came from colleges serving Latino, Asian American and Native students, and from majority-Black colleges that aren't HBCUs. The legal theory that moved it could one day reach HBCUs too.
Who Owns ALLBLK
Bob Johnson built a streamer for Black viewers in 2014. It has changed hands twice since. No one has disclosed what it's worth.
The Refugee Door Opens One Way
The US refugee program now admits almost only white Afrikaners, on a persecution claim many Afrikaners reject. Underneath it sits a demand about who owns South Africa's telecom and mining companies.
Somebody Always Pays
Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe made US Open history together. Neither of them paid full price to get there. The question is who did.
Reparations Isn't Just an American Argument Anymore
A UN treaty body just told 182 governments the "it was legal at the time" defense no longer holds. Whether it matters depends on who cites it next.
Louisiana Is Keeping People Locked Up After the Law Says They're Free
LDOC found it in its own 2012 audit. Over 2,000 people a year, held an average of 71 days past their release date. Fourteen years and four lawsuits later, nothing has changed.
What Actually Got Karen Attiah Her Job Back
An arbitrator reinstated Karen Attiah and everyone called it a First Amendment win. It wasn't. It was a union contract, and the difference explains why almost nobody else in her position gets her outcome.
The Test You Cannot See
The federal government has claimed the right to test AI models for ideological content using benchmarks it will not publish. Thirteen months in, it has never used them.
He Owned a Piece of Jerusalem. Then a Billionaire's Son Did.
Amar'e Stoudemire helped buy an Israeli basketball club in 2013, then spent years defending Black Hebrew Israelite theology while converting to Orthodox Judaism. By the time his Hall of Fame plaque got made, his ownership stake had quietly disappeared into a casino family's portfolio.
Black Hollywood Is Moving Into Microdrama Before the Ownership Window Closes
Microdramas are the one growing format in a shrinking Hollywood. Two Black-owned platforms are already building inside it. Whether they end up owning anything depends on what happens in the next 24 months.
Hip-Hop Is Being Streamed More and Represented Less
Hip-hop's raw streaming grew every year through 2025. Its share of the Hot 100's top 10 collapsed anyway. The chart and the listening data are telling two different stories.
How a Data Center Gets Approved Before Anyone Notices
A utility can file a data center's actual power draw as protected information, so even the public record doesn't show the real number. That's not a loophole. It's the design.
When the Official Story Arrives Too Fast
A Mississippi family disputing a death investigation ran into the same wall every family in that position hits: the state has legal custody of the evidence first. What the law actually allows, and what one family did with it.
Follow the Billions: The Black Business Guide to NYC Procurement
NYC spends $46 billion a year. The Mayor's office and the Comptroller's office each published a different number for how much of it reached minority-owned businesses in FY25. Both are true. That's the story.
Republicans Need 15% of Georgia's Black Vote. They've Never Gotten Past 11.
Georgia's GOP has set a Black-vote target no Republican campaign has ever hit, in a race complicated by the nominee's son-in-law's ties to white nationalism.
Three Systems, One Shape
ESPN, Amazon, and Walmart are cutting the same tier for three different reasons. America's Barbell Economy.
The Equity Audit: How to Tell Whether NYC's Racial Plan Is Real
NYC built a 600-indicator racial equity system with no enforcement power behind it — and a faster federal threat aimed at killing it before it's tested.
The Black Woman Who Never Existed
AI accounts built to look, sound, and move like Black women are pulling millions of views. The people whose faces trained them didn't get a credit or a check.
The Last Scrape: Africa's Fight to Own Its News
Nigeria filed a copyright complaint as a competition case instead. The difference is why Meta, Alphabet, and X should be paying attention.
The Rescue Model: How Black Archives End Up Owned By Someone Else's Money
A Black-founded photo archive went bankrupt. A consortium of white-endowed foundations bought it and called it a rescue. Nobody fought it. That's the story.
The Architecture of Access
A police chief stalked his ex through a license-plate camera network. Federal immigration agents got into the same network through a different door. Same lock, left open on purpose.
The Black Unemployment Number Both Sides Skip
The Urban League and the White House cited two different windows of the same jobs data this week. Neither named the monthly report both are quoting from.
The Robots Went to the Prosecutor First
A legal tech blogger wrote a column about why AI skipped criminal defense. The real story is who it showed up for instead.
Two Weeks in Jail for a Signature
A woman went to jail for refusing to sign away a 200-year-old land patent. The viral version says the courts ruled against her family's claim. The actual ruling never touched it.
Tim Scott's Family Business
Two sisters run the two most important levers in Scott's political operation. The Graham-death news hook isn't the real story. The org chart is.