Conservative: A White George Floyd?

“Another death in police custody,” this time of an “18-year-old British student named Henry Nowak,” shows a striking “asymmetry” of response: the global outrage over George Floyd’s 2020 death vs. silence on Nowak — who was arrested and handcuffed by Southampton, England, police while he was bleeding out after being stabbed by a man wielding “a ceremonial Sikh knife known as a kirpan,” notes Dan Hannan at the Washington Examiner.

The assailant “claimed that he had been racially abused” by Nowak, so “the officers’ first reaction was to put the dying man in handcuffs.”

This demonstrates the “power of the anti-racism taboo, especially in the public sector,” where “being accused of racism is often career-ending.”

Labor beat: Teachers’ Unions, Dems Before Members

“Both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)” are accused of “spending tens of millions of dollars on electing Democratic political candidates,” fumes Frannie Block at The Free Press, prioritizing “politicking over the needs and interests of their union members.”

In fiscal year 2025, just 10% of “the NEA’s $450 million annual disbursement budget” went “directly” for member activities, while it “reported $51.7 million in political activities and lobbying,” plus “$123.3 million in contributions, gifts, and grants.”

“Of the NEA’s political spending,” over 90% “went to Democrats.” Meanwhile, “substantive gains for teachers have been diminishing,” e.g., “the average teacher salary has fallen” more than 6%, even as “per pupil spending rose” 25%.

Culture critic: Unusual Assimilation in Miami

“Miami’s apparent incorporation into the Republican coalition has not settled the deeper question of whether the city’s Hispanic majority has assimilated into the American mainstream,” contends Gil Guerra at City Journal.

Research shows “Spanish language retention is abnormally high in Miami” — yet “English fluency” has also “increased.”

And “Miami performs well” in other metrics of assimilation: “college-degree rate, labor force participation, median wage, share employed in management or professional roles, homeownership, and naturalization rate,” areas where “Miami Hispanics have converged with, and in some cases overtaken, national non-Hispanic whites.”

The “unusual language pattern is the product of” qualities unique to Miami. Still, the situation may make “English-only residents” feel “excluded,” so “young, second-generation Hispanics like me should feel an obligation to privilege English above Spanish in public settings” out of “pride in being American” and since “English as a shared language remains an indispensable connective tissue of civic life.”

From the right: Death of a Civil-Rights Hero

Robert L. Woodson Sr., who died Tuesday at age 89, “made his mark in the tradition of Booker T. Washington” by arguing that “the best path for empowering minorities and the poor is helping them lift up themselves,” mourns the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

“Active in the civil-rights movement during its 1960s heyday,” Woodson “emphasized work at the community level,” especially “in fighting crime and giving the poor the tools to help themselves.”

His “thinking ran counter to the dominant orthodoxy of the day,” which held that “government programs are the key to empowerment and opportunity.”

Woodson’s vision “has been vindicated by decades of evidence,” and his “life and work is a tribute to the Declaration’s promise” of “the American principles of freedom and equality.”

Media watch: Pathetically Lionizing Colbert

Stephen Colbert’ “hagiographic” departure from “The Late Show,” which “treated a mediocre comic like an inspiring political leader,” exemplifies “the slow and humiliating death of establishment liberals,” snarks David Masciotra at UnHerd.

Prestige media “has run fawning profiles of Colbert, reporting on his monologues as if they were the Gettysburg Address,” and now cover “his show’s cancellation as if it is the funeral of a beloved head of state.”

The tired finale was “a reminder of why so few people” watched him “no matter how hard the legacy press works to prop him up.”

Donald Trump, oddly, was Colbert’s “best friend,” as “with every attack he signal-boosts” him, making him look “more influential and popular” than ratings otherwise indicated.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board