Party of White Supremacy

Ibram X. Kendi visits Build to discuss the book Stamped: Racism, 

Antiracism and You at Build Studio on March 10, 2020 in New York 

City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) (Michael Loccisano)

A professor at Boston University said that Republicans are "the party of white supremacy."

In an op-ed for The Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi, Boston University Andrew W. Mellon professor in the Humanities and Director of the Center for Antiracist Research said that Republicans are not the party of "any group of parents," but rather "the party of white supremacy."

Kendi wrote in the op-ed that Republican opposition to critical race theory means it is "clearly" not the party of parents.

"The Republican Party is clearly not the party of parents. The Republican Party is certainly not the party of parents of color. But is the Republican Party even the party of white parents?" Kendi wrote.

He stated that Republican "branding" of being the "party of parents" is a "myth" that's equivalent to "the great lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump," adding that it has been built on "false conceptual building blocks.

Kendi says that the "false conceptual building blocks" are "Republican politicians care about white children," "Anti-racist education is harmful to white children," "Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education," and "Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education."

He goes on to say that if Republican politicians care about White children, "they would not be ignoring or downplaying or defending or bolstering the principal racial threat facing white youth today."

Milky Way Streaking

In 2017, astronomers noticed a star streaking out of the Milky Way at nearly 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) — roughly four times faster than our sun orbits — and flying against the direction in which most stars trek around the galactic center. 

It's also made of completely different star stuff, mostly heavy, "metallic" atoms rather than the usual light elements. 

LP 40-365, as it was called, was as eye-catching as a wooden car barreling up the interstate against traffic at hundreds of miles per hour.

"It is exceptionally weird in a lot of different ways," said study lead author J.J. Hermes, an astronomer at Boston University.

The star moves so quickly that it's headed out of our galaxy for good, which astronomers have taken as evidence that the metallic explorer was launched here by a cosmic catastrophe — a supernova. 

But they couldn't tell how the supernova had sent it flying. Was LP 40-365 a piece of the exploded star itself? Or was it a partner star flung clear by the shockwave associated with star explosions? 

A new analysis of old data finds that the star — called a white dwarf — spins about its axis at a leisurely pace — a hint that it is indeed a piece of stellar debris (not a partner star) that managed to survive one of the galaxy's most violent and mysterious events.

"We can now connect this star to the shrapnel from an exploded white dwarf with a lot more confidence," said Hermes.  READ MORE