By Ivan Sanchez This year’s Grammy nominees showcase striking diversity, a consistent trend in the awards’ history. However, despite the inclusive nominee list, the Grammys have faced criticism for frequently awarding white winners when the results are announced. Among the Record of the Year nominees, including Jon Batiste for “Worship,” Victoria Monét for “On my Mama,” and SZA for “Kill Bill,” Black artists contribute to approximately 40 percent of the nominees in this category. Notably, no Latino artists received nominations for the industry’s top award this year. In an effort to embrace diversity, the Grammys introduced a new category, Best…
Author: Ivan Sanchez
By Ivan Sanchez As 2023 draws to a close, reflection on a year marked by the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) prompts consideration of future directions. A recent study by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility posits that generative AI has the potential to exacerbate the racial economic gap in the United States by $43 billion annually. While generative AI and automation present transformative possibilities, they also pose challenges. The emergence of “deepfakes,” realistic yet fabricated images, illustrates one facet of AI application. Generative AI’s capacity to produce deceptive videos and stories contributes to the proliferation of “fake news”…
By Ivan Sanchez Donald Trump dominated the news once again this year, almost two years after January 6, 2021, shook the peaceful transfer of power in this country, unabridged for centuries. This year multiple indictments were filed against the former President, and 2024 brings the court cases that will decide his role going forward. While much of the media has continued to paint next year’s presidential race as close, none of the harbingers of doom that we typically see for a party in threat of losing the presidency showed up this year. Democrats took back control of the Virginia legislature,…
By Ivan Sanchez The US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs threw US politics into turmoil with multiple states, including Tennessee, banning abortions and removing female bodily autonomy. The backlash against the Supreme Court decision has been immense, and abortion foes have been defeated in every ballot initiative since Dobbs. In 2022, voters established a constitutional right to abortion in California, Michigan and Vermont. They also rejected ballot measures in Kansas, Kentucky and Montana that attempted to restrict abortion rights access. In the same year, in what was expected by many pundits to be a Republican wave year, US house race…
By Ivan Sanchez Spotify, a popular music streaming service, has recently unveiled “Spotify Wrapped 2023.” This list documents the top genres, songs, and artists streamed by people all over the world over the last year. This year’s top streamed artist globally is Taylor Swift with the list also including eight Black and Latino artists including Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Drake, Peso Pluma, Feid, Travis Scott, SZA, KAROL G, and Lana Del Rey. Mega-hits like “Ella Baila Sola” by Estabon Armado and Peso Pluma and “Kill Bill” by SZA powered minority artists to the top of the Spotify charts this year,…
By Ivan Sanchez The question of Puerto Rican statehood versus independence has long been a focal point of political discourse, shaping the island’s identity and its relationship with the United States. As Puerto Rico grapples with its political future, the US Congress has introduced a bill for a binding plebiscite to decide the future of Puerto Rico. American politics are dominated by two parties, the Republicans, and the Democrats. While some have argued that an admitted state of Puerto Rico would be staunchly democratic, the island has no conception of those parties. Instead, two major political parties have dominated Puerto…
By Ivan Sanchez The practice of gerrymandering has long been a contentious issue, with racial gerrymandering emerging as a concerning facet of American politics. This deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries based on racial lines raises significant questions about the fairness and inclusivity of the democratic process. Racial gerrymandering involves the intentional drawing of electoral districts to dilute the voting power of a particular racial or ethnic group. Instead of ensuring equal representation, it undermines the principles of fair and impartial elections. This practice has historically been employed to consolidate power, perpetuate discrimination, and disenfranchise minority communities. No where is…
By Ivan Sanchez Alabama was a bright light in eliminating racial bias in redistricting, but the redistricting wars have not stopped across the US South. The more recent decisions have been of mixed results for those that support racial and political fairness in US House elections. North Carolina’s GOP, with a now veto-proof majority, has ripped apart the current congressional map, eliminating up to four Democrat held seats in their congressional delegation. Districts that were once competitive have been made safely Republican. In North Carolina, the governor has no veto power over redistricting, so the delegation (currently 7 Republicans and…
By Ivan Sanchez Across the United States, the 2023 off-year elections had a significant impact on the abortion rights debate, offering insight into party directions for 2024. Elections in Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Virginia spotlight the significance of abortion issues in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape. In Ohio, voters determined to codify abortion rights into the state Constitution. In August, voters decisively rejected a proposal seeking to raise the referendum passing threshold from 50 percent to 60 percent. This vote was widely seen as a proxy for abortion rights, and now Ohioans have enshrined women’s access to reproductive services in…
By Ivan Sanchez While the recent US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision in Alabama regarding redistricting, created a new Black opportunity district that would enable Black voters to elect the candidate of their choice, other Southern states have seen backsliding on the principle of one person, one vote. States across the Southeast are going for broke in eliminating or reducing minority voting power. In the otherwise middling midterms of 2022, North Carolina lost their Democratic majority on their Supreme Court. A few months into the new legislative term, the North Carolina Supreme Court summarily reversed the previous court’s decision that banned…