Barack Obama on Speaking Out Against Trump and That Racist AI Ape Video: ‘I’d Never Talk About Somebody’s Family in That Way’; Variety, May 4, 2026

Arushi Jacob, Variety; Barack Obama on Speaking Out Against Trump and That Racist AI Ape Video: ‘I’d Never Talk About Somebody’s Family in That Way’

"In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Barack Obama explained his reaction after an AI video was posted to Donald Trump‘s Truth Social account in February that depicted the former president and first lady, Michelle Obama, as apes."

‘Proactively fall in line’: Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed content after Trump returned to office; Politico, April 5, 2026

 IRIE SENTNER, Politico ; ‘Proactively fall in line’: Holocaust Memorial Museum quietly changed content after Trump returned to office

Two former employees said they believed the museum was altering its content preemptively to avoid unwanted negative attention from the Trump administration.

"In the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington quietly removed from its website educational resources about American racism and canceled a workshop about the “fragility of democracy.”

The changes, which have not been previously reported, came as Trump cracked down on what he called “corrosive ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution, demanding a slew of alterations at the world’s largest museum network to more closely align its content with his worldview. They also coincided with the administration’s efforts to remove content related to diversity, equity and inclusion from federal websites...

The museum pulled from its website a page called “Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow” at some point after Aug. 29, 2025, the last time the page was captured on the Internet Archive. That page provided lesson plans and resources about the connections between American de jure racism and the Nazi regime, including links to sites about “African American Soldiers during World War II” and “Afro-Germans during the Holocaust,” among other topics.

It also linked to a 2018 video on the museum’s YouTube channel featuring a conversation between a Holocaust survivor and a woman whose father was lynched in Alabama. That video is now unlisted, meaning it does not show up on the USHMM’s YouTube page but is still accessible via direct URL.

Leaders at the museum also renamed a one-day civic education workshop designed for college students from “Fragility of Democracy and the Rise of the Nazis” to “Before the Holocaust: German Society and the Nazi Rise to Power.” In an email, obtained by POLITICO, between a senior staff member at the museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education and a staffer planning the workshop, the senior staff member said the change was necessary due to “concerns regarding how the term fragility may be perceived or interpreted in the current climate.”"

Nine Black College Students Were Arrested in 1961 for Reading at a Segregated Public Library. Their Contributions to the Civil Rights Movement Have Long Been Overlooked; Smithsonian Magazine, March 26, 2026

 Kayla Randall - Digital Editor, Museums, Smithsonian Magazine; Nine Black College Students Were Arrested in 1961 for Reading at a Segregated Public Library. Their Contributions to the Civil Rights Movement Have Long Been Overlooked

"When nine Black college students walked into a segregated public library in Mississippi on March 27, 1961, they knew what to expect next: Staff would call the police, and they would probably be arrested if they refused to leave. According to local laws, being Black in a space designated only for the white public constituted a breach of peace. By stepping through the doors of the Jackson Municipal Library, they would be risking physical harm and verbal abuse. They might even face an angry crowd.

But the students, from the historically Black Tougaloo College, had trained for this moment. This was a sit-in, a nonviolent direct-action protest, and they were prepared. They’d been guided by the likes of Medgar Evers, the NAACP’s first Mississippi field officer, who was known for his public investigation into the murder of Emmett Till and his fight against Jim Crow laws in the state; Ernst Borinski, a Jewish lawyer who’d fled Nazi Germany, then accepted a position teaching sociology at Tougaloo after World War II; and Tougaloo chaplain John Mangram.

The civic-minded students wanted to effect change in Mississippi. Entering that library would boldly oppose the state’s unyielding system of segregation and highlight the disparities they experienced as Black residents."

Pickens Co. library board fires director without explanation after sweeping policy overhaul; The Post and Courier Greenville February 25, 2026

Spencer Donovan, The Post and Courier Greenville; Pickens Co. library board fires director without explanation after sweeping policy overhaul

 "Trustees of the Pickens County Library System voted to remove the library’s director with no explanation after nearly two hours of private discussion.

The move comes after library staff were directed by the board to review more than 86,000 books in the children’s and teen sections, an effort that is expected to last a year. The library canceled a slew of events and stopped interlibrary loans to reassign staff members’ time for the review.

Policy changes in Pickens follow recent fights over the types of books accessible at local libraries nationwide. Many of the debates have surrounded access to books that touch on themes about LGBTQ identity or racism.

During a special called meeting the evening of Feb. 24, the library’s board of trustees voted 5-2 to terminate Executive Director Stephanie Howard effective immediately. Howard, a Pickens County native, started in her role in 2019...

Howard holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of South Carolina and has more than two decades of library management experience.

In 2025, she was given the Intellectual Freedom Award by the South Carolina Library Association. The annual award “recognizes members of our community who have contributed to an awareness of intellectual freedom and censorship issues in South Carolina libraries,” the SCLA description states."

OpenAI Blocks Videos of Martin Luther King Jr. After Racist Depictions; The New York Times, October 17, 2025

Claire Moses, The New York Times ; OpenAI Blocks Videos of Martin Luther King Jr. After Racist Depictions

[Kip Currier: This latest tech company debacle is another example of breakdowns in technology design thinking and ethical leadership. No one in all of OpenAI could foresee that Sora 2.0 might be used in these ways? Or they did but didn't care? Either way, this is morally reckless and/or negligent conduct.

The leaders and design folks at OpenAI (and other tech companies) would be well-advised to look at Tool 6 in An Ethical Toolkit for Engineering/Design Practice, created by Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics:

Tool 6: Think About the Terrible People: Positive thinking about our work, as Tool 5 reminds us, is an important part of ethical design. But we must not envision our work being used only by the wisest and best people, in the wisest and best ways. In reality, technology is power, and there will always be those who wish to abuse that power. This tool helps design teams to manage the risks associated with technology abuse.

https://www.scu.edu/ethics-in-technology-practice/ethical-toolkit/

The "Move Fast and Break Things" ethos is alive and well in Big Tech.]

[Excerpt]

"OpenAI said Thursday that it was blocking people from creating videos using the image of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with its Sora app after users created vulgar and racist depictions of him.

The company said it had made the decision at the request of the King Center as well as Dr. Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s daughter, who had objected to the videos.

The announcement was another effort by OpenAI to respond to criticism of its tools, which critics say operate with few safeguards.

“Some users generated disrespectful depictions of Dr. King’s image,” OpenAI said in a statement. “OpenAI has paused generations depicting Dr. King as it strengthens guardrails for historical figures.”"

Opinion: Nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now; Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2023

 ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Los Angeles Times; Opinion: Nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now

"Students have the right to say very offensive and even hateful things, but school administrators — deans, presidents and chancellors — have free speech rights too. They must exercise them and take a stand even if it will offend some and subject them to criticism.

It is a very difficult time on campuses across the country. Many of our students and faculty members have family and friends in Israel or in Gaza. Many care deeply about the suffering we are seeing, and yet there is no bridge between those who seek the elimination of Israel and those who believe it is essential to have a Jewish state. I hope there will be a time when campus officials can find ways to bring their communities together. But it is not realistic now. This makes it all the more important that they show moral leadership and speak out against the antisemitism that is rampant now, as they would condemn all other forms of racism and hate on campus.

Erwin Chemerinsky is a contributing writer to Opinion and the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. His latest book is “Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism.”

What Is a Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library Doing in North Dakota?; The New York Times, October 27, 2023

Jennifer Schuessler,  The New York Times, October 27, 2023; What Is a Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library Doing in North Dakota?

"The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, set to open on July 4, 2026, will pay tribute to the 26th president’s “relentless, resilient spirit” and environmental vision. Perched dramatically on a butte, it aims to be “a people’s presidential library,” rooted not in books and archives — there are none — but immersive exhibits that challenge visitors to get, as Roosevelt famously put it, “in the arena.”...

More than a century after his death, Roosevelt remains one of the most popular presidents, celebrated as a man of action, a muscular nationalist, an environmental visionary, a trustbuster or all of the above. He’s a favorite of Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, Tom Brady and LeBron James. Historians consistently rank him among the top five.

But Roosevelt also saw life as a struggle between the weak and the strong, with whites at the top of the evolutionary heap. Which raises another, thornier question: How do you build an honest 21st-century museum about a figure whose 19th-century attitudes about race, empire and, especially, Native Americans still trail him like a cloud of dust?...

“The library is the landscape,” Edward F. O’Keefe, the project’s chief executive, said on a visit to the site last month. It’s a mantra cited often here, along with the library’s core values: “dare greatly, think boldly, care deeply and live passionately.”...

Snohetta has also designed major libraries in Calgary and in Alexandria, Egypt. “Libraries aren’t just about books and buildings,” Dykers said, “but also about places, and learning about those places directly.”...

Scott Davis, a former executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, said he immediately texted Governor Burgum when he saw the news. “I was really upset,” he recalled in an interview last month in Medora. After a long conversation, Davis said, the governor raised the possibility of adding a “platform” for Native voices at the library...

A two-page spread in the library’s “Story Guide” lists “sensitive issues,” including Roosevelt’s support for eugenics, his militarism and his often “coarse and fearful” views of Native Americans.

“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians,” he said in 1886, “but I believe nine out of every 10 are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”"

“Keep on Pushing” Celebrating the life and career of E. J. Josey; American Libraries, June 27, 2020

Phil Morehart , American Libraries; “Keep on Pushing”

Celebrating the life and career of E. J. Josey

[Kip Currier: Uplifting article about the late E.J. Josey, Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences and indefatigable champion for full inclusion of Black Americans during the tumultuous 1960's Civil Rights era and beyond. Dr. Josey was a consummate challenger of barriers to equality. His life and this article inform one of several capstone essays that graduate students in my inaugural LIS 2040: The Information Professional in Communities course are writing this month:

Reflection Essay 1: Breaking Down Barriers to Access by Communities

1. Barriers to information and resources are prevalent and persistent for many kinds of analog and digital communities. Read this 6/27/20 American Libraries article, “Keep On Pushing”: Celebrating the life and career of E.J. Josey. (see https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/keep-on-pushing/). The late E.J. Josey was a professor at Pitt’s School of Library and Information Sciences and was a “transformative force and leader” whose entire life was about breaking down barriers:

At the 1964 ALA Annual Conference in St. Louis, Josey “did something extraordinary” by putting forth a resolution to prevent the Association from working with Southern state library chapters that refused membership to Black librarians. “All hell broke loose,” said [Prof. Renate] Chancellor, quoting Josey, but the resolution passed.” https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/keep-on-pushing/

In a 750 – 1,000 word essay, identify and discuss at least one barrier that information professionals face in promoting access to information and resources for at least one specific community. Talk about at least one tangible strategy that you, as an information professional, can use to help to break down barriers and promote more access to information and resources for the community you identify. Cite at least one scholarly source in your essay.

Kip Currier (c) 2020]

[Excerpt]

"The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) honored the legacy of a trailblazing librarian—and celebrated its own 50th anniversary—at a live-streamed event at ALA Virtual June 26.

“E. J. Josey’s 1964 Charge: ‘Keep on Pushing’” charted the life of E. J. Josey (1924–2009), librarian, educator, author, activist, founding member of BCALA, and 1984–1985 American Library Association (ALA) president...

The session was moderated by Anthony Dunbar, librarian, sociology professor, and equity-diversity-inclusion consultant at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. He began by asking speaker Renate Chancellor—associate professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and author of E. J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)—to briefly encapsulate Josey before they moved into the breadth of his work.

“He was a transformative force and leader,” Chancellor said. “A lot of younger librarians may not be aware of his contributions to the profession.”...

1964 was a pivotal year for Josey, Black librarians, and civil rights, Chancellor said. At the 1964 ALA Annual Conference in St. Louis, Josey “did something extraordinary” by putting forth a resolution to prevent the Association from working with Southern state library chapters that refused membership to Black librarians. “All hell broke loose,” said Chancellor, quoting Josey, but the resolution passed.

“Josey was so passionate about equal rights and equality,” Chancellor said, describing how those issues drove much of his life’s work, from working with the student chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People while employed at Savannah (Ga.) State College; cofounding BCALA in 1970; and eventually becoming ALA president in 1983. One of Josey’s strengths, Chancellor said, was his ability to see the bigger picture."

LSU Renames Library; Schools Across the Nation Take Similar Steps To Address Racist Past; Library Journal, July 2, 2020

Lisa Peet , Library Journal; LSU Renames Library; Schools Across the Nation Take Similar Steps To Address Racist Past

"As calls for accountability are amplified across the country, many institutions are starting by addressing their racist history—many of which involved naming rights for funders or founders. Recently the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University (LSU) unanimously voted to remove the name of former university president Troy H. Middleton, whose 1961 correspondence stated his wish to keep the school segregated, from the LSU Library.

Members of the LSU community—particularly Black students—have long taken issue with the fact that their library was named for a man who would have preferred to exclude Black students from sports and school functions, Dean of Libraries Stanley Wilder told LJ. “This is not simply a knee-jerk reaction to the recent troubled times that we've been going through,” he noted. But “this time it happened in the context of a cultural moment where the LSU community was able to listen and act.”

Middleton’s papers are preserved in the LSU archives—among them, a letter he wrote to former University of Texas Chancellor Harry Ransom. At the time, the University of Texas was facing widespread legal and internal pressure to desegregate its dormitories, and Ransom had written to leaders at several other Southern schools to ask them how they handled integration.

Middleton wrote back: “Though we did not like it, we accepted Negroes as students.” But LSU did not allow Black and white students to room together, he said. “We keep them in a given area and do not permit indiscriminate occupancy.”

He went on to write, “Our Negro students have made no attempt to attend social functions, participate in athletic contests, go in the swimming pool, etc. If they did, we would, for example, discontinue the operation of the swimming pool.” If a Black student asked to participate in school athletics, Middleton concluded, “I think I could find a good excuse why he would not participate. To be specific—L.S.U. does not favor whites and Negroes participating together on athletic teams.” LSU’s varsity football team did not have a Black member until the early 1970s.

The library, which opened in fall 1959, was named for Middleton after his death in 1979."

Stan Lee’s Radical Fight Against Racists: ‘The Only Way to Destroy Them Is to Expose Them’; The Daily Beast, November 13, 2018

Stereo Williams, The Daily Beast; Stan Lee’s Radical Fight Against Racists: ‘The Only Way to Destroy Them Is to Expose Them’

[Kip Currier: Inspiring and powerful example of the ways every person can make a choice to stand against hatred of the "other" and bigotry, in all its forms.]

"Regardless of ongoing controversy surrounding the contributions of Kirby and others, Lee should be remembered for being an agent of change in his medium. A 1968 post from Lee’s mail column has been making the rounds in the wake of his death. In it, Lee makes plain his stance on racism.

“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them—to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater—one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen—people he’s never known—with equal intensity—with equal venom.

“Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God—a God who calls us ALL—His children.”

Stan Lee’s creative voice helped reshape the role of comics in American society and helped affect how American society saw comics. In doing so, Lee helped challenge his readers and his peers. His characters live now as part of the fabric of our culture—in blockbuster movies, acclaimed TV shows, video games and a host of other media. Generations of comic-book lovers saw themselves in those characters, and that was what he’d wanted all along. As some quarters of America tell themselves that politics have no place in pop art, the proof in Stan Lee’s history reminds us that the message has always been a part of the medium. Those who believe otherwise maybe have to consider that they aren’t the “good guy” in the story. After all—you can’t be a hero if you don’t stand for anything."