This week in racism

Black Migrants Are More Likely to Be Deported

Also, turns out race-based hostility can happen when working remotely

People from Haiti and others who are seeking asylum in the United States sit and sleep outside the El Chaparral border crossing on February 19, 2021 in Tijuana, Mexico. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

It’s been a hell of a week. We’ll start with a trip to the underworld courtesy of Lil Nas X, learn what space travel has to do with the descendants of enslaved Africans in Brazil, and finish up with the next piece of Black Girl Magic that Marsai Martin is blessing us with. Here are some of the race- and racism-related stories you might have missed in the last week.

Good takes on hellscapes: Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video continues to leave a trail of controversy in its wake, from the moral panic of Christians offended by its use of satanic imagery to FKA twigs fans who thought the pole dance into hell is a little too similar to her video for “Cellophane.” But where there is controversy there is commentary, and I’d like to highlight a couple of really good pieces. In this Twitter thread by Imani Barbarin, a Black woman with cerebral palsy, she argues that the pole scene is a metaphor for disability and faith. And this column by Tirhakah Love beautifully breaks down the spiritual imagery of the video and its rejection of a theology that tells LGBTQ people to hate themselves.