Sunday, May 13, 2018
Responding to Racism
An excerpt from the Root -
Black Oakland Electric Slides on Racism by Throwing Big Ass Cookout in Park Where White Lady Called Cops
By Angela Helm
What’s the best way to deal with pervasive, persistent and blood-pressure rising racism on the daily, as well as give a big fat fuck you to gentrification and the criminalization of black folks? Why throw a cookout, of course!
In a pointed response to a recent incident where a white woman thought it her civic duty to call the police on a few black couples using a grill in a public park, the melanated masses of Oakland threw their own party at that very same site, Lake Merritt Park.
Check out the video at the link below.
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/black-oakland-electric-slides-on-racism-by-throwing-big-1825981027
Black Oakland Electric Slides on Racism by Throwing Big Ass Cookout in Park Where White Lady Called Cops
By Angela Helm
What’s the best way to deal with pervasive, persistent and blood-pressure rising racism on the daily, as well as give a big fat fuck you to gentrification and the criminalization of black folks? Why throw a cookout, of course!
In a pointed response to a recent incident where a white woman thought it her civic duty to call the police on a few black couples using a grill in a public park, the melanated masses of Oakland threw their own party at that very same site, Lake Merritt Park.
Check out the video at the link below.
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/black-oakland-electric-slides-on-racism-by-throwing-big-1825981027
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Black in America
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212262518343741&set=a.1153550404558.2023283.1401614751&type=3
HBCU Love
An excerpt form the Huffington Post -
What If We Loved Real HBCUs As Much As We Love Beyoncé’s?
By Taryn Finley
After one semester at my beloved HBCU, I recognized what I was missing when looking at my identity. Pre-Howard, I was conditioned to always juxtapose my blackness against the concept of whiteness, not fully understanding how powerful it is to appreciate my background outside the context of oppression. That limited me to a very narrow and monolithic view of what blackness can be.
Contrary to popular belief, HBCUs do prepare students for the real world, and they do a damn good job at it.
But black colleges show their students the beauty and expansiveness that blackness already is on its own. For me and others who shared this mindset, Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, NCAT, Hampton, Fisk and any of the more than 100 other HBCUs are pivotal. Not only do they center blackness in academia (even my math classes would turn into black history lessons at times), but they also provide spaces for their students to be fully embraced by faculty and their peers alike, fostering a sense of community and mentorship.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-finley-hbcu-beyonce_us_5ae0d38de4b04aa23f1eb5e3
What If We Loved Real HBCUs As Much As We Love Beyoncé’s?
By Taryn Finley
After one semester at my beloved HBCU, I recognized what I was missing when looking at my identity. Pre-Howard, I was conditioned to always juxtapose my blackness against the concept of whiteness, not fully understanding how powerful it is to appreciate my background outside the context of oppression. That limited me to a very narrow and monolithic view of what blackness can be.
Contrary to popular belief, HBCUs do prepare students for the real world, and they do a damn good job at it.
But black colleges show their students the beauty and expansiveness that blackness already is on its own. For me and others who shared this mindset, Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, NCAT, Hampton, Fisk and any of the more than 100 other HBCUs are pivotal. Not only do they center blackness in academia (even my math classes would turn into black history lessons at times), but they also provide spaces for their students to be fully embraced by faculty and their peers alike, fostering a sense of community and mentorship.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-finley-hbcu-beyonce_us_5ae0d38de4b04aa23f1eb5e3
Deja Vu
An excerpt from Slate -
The Privilege of 911
White people should call the police less. Minorities should be able to call them more.
By HENRY GRABAR and MARK JOSEPH STERN
On Tuesday, a white graduate student at Yale called the police to report that one of her black classmates was napping in a dorm common area. The ensuing encounter between the police and the student, Lolade Siyonbola, who is getting a master’s degree in African studies, was captured in a video that has drawn national attention to the case.
It’s the latest in a string of recent incidents in which white Americans have called the police on their black neighbors for nothing at all: In Philadelphia, it was Starbucks while black. In Rialto, California, Airbnb while black. And in New Haven, Connecticut, trying to pull an all-nighter while black.
At the core of each incident is white Americans’ deep suspicion and mistrust of their black neighbors. The most infamous example of this dynamic occurred in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012, when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman called the police on 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before stalking him, confronting him, and killing him. (The Sanford Police Department told Zimmerman not to follow Martin; Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted on charges of second-degree murder.) But more mundane displays of this regularly play out on forums like NextDoor, a website for neighborhood news and activism where interest gravitates, tabloid-style, towards perceived disorder and its perpetrators.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/in-america-calling-911-is-still-a-privilege-of-being-white.html
The Privilege of 911
White people should call the police less. Minorities should be able to call them more.
By HENRY GRABAR and MARK JOSEPH STERN
On Tuesday, a white graduate student at Yale called the police to report that one of her black classmates was napping in a dorm common area. The ensuing encounter between the police and the student, Lolade Siyonbola, who is getting a master’s degree in African studies, was captured in a video that has drawn national attention to the case.
It’s the latest in a string of recent incidents in which white Americans have called the police on their black neighbors for nothing at all: In Philadelphia, it was Starbucks while black. In Rialto, California, Airbnb while black. And in New Haven, Connecticut, trying to pull an all-nighter while black.
At the core of each incident is white Americans’ deep suspicion and mistrust of their black neighbors. The most infamous example of this dynamic occurred in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012, when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman called the police on 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before stalking him, confronting him, and killing him. (The Sanford Police Department told Zimmerman not to follow Martin; Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted on charges of second-degree murder.) But more mundane displays of this regularly play out on forums like NextDoor, a website for neighborhood news and activism where interest gravitates, tabloid-style, towards perceived disorder and its perpetrators.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/in-america-calling-911-is-still-a-privilege-of-being-white.html
"Why Not You?"
An excerpt from People -
Melissa McCarthy Says These 3 Words from Her Parents Changed the Course of Her Life
By ALE RUSSIAN
The Life of the Party actress, 47, admits in PEOPLE’s latest cover story that her mother Sandy and her father Mike’s honesty when it came to their support shaped the way she looks at life. In fact, a three-word phrase they would repeat still rings true to her.
“‘Why not you?’ is an unbelievably great sentiment to give to a kid,” McCarthy tells PEOPLE in the new issue out Friday. “Not entitlement but instead: Work your butt off, and you have a decent chance at this. ‘Why not you?’ is an undervalued way of thinking.”
http://people.com/movies/melissa-mccarthy-says-these-3-words-from-her-parents-changed-the-course-of-her-life/
Melissa McCarthy Says These 3 Words from Her Parents Changed the Course of Her Life
By ALE RUSSIAN
The Life of the Party actress, 47, admits in PEOPLE’s latest cover story that her mother Sandy and her father Mike’s honesty when it came to their support shaped the way she looks at life. In fact, a three-word phrase they would repeat still rings true to her.
“‘Why not you?’ is an unbelievably great sentiment to give to a kid,” McCarthy tells PEOPLE in the new issue out Friday. “Not entitlement but instead: Work your butt off, and you have a decent chance at this. ‘Why not you?’ is an undervalued way of thinking.”
http://people.com/movies/melissa-mccarthy-says-these-3-words-from-her-parents-changed-the-course-of-her-life/
We're Stuck With This
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Der Spiegel Cover Portrays Trump As A Finger Flipping Off Europe
Time to join the resistance, German newsmagazine says, “against America.”
By Mary Papenfuss
Germany’s respected weekly news publication Der Spiegel doesn’t much care for Donald Trump. But after the U.S. president announced the nation is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the magazine pulled out all the stops, portraying Trump on its cover as a blond-mopped middle finger flipping off all of Europe. “Goodbye, Europe!” says the digit.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/editorial-trump-deals-painful-blow-to-trans-atlantic-ties-a-1207260.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#ref=rss
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/der-spiegel-trump-flipping-off-europe_us_5af65ba3e4b00d7e4c1ac5f5
Der Spiegel Cover Portrays Trump As A Finger Flipping Off Europe
Time to join the resistance, German newsmagazine says, “against America.”
By Mary Papenfuss
Germany’s respected weekly news publication Der Spiegel doesn’t much care for Donald Trump. But after the U.S. president announced the nation is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, the magazine pulled out all the stops, portraying Trump on its cover as a blond-mopped middle finger flipping off all of Europe. “Goodbye, Europe!” says the digit.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/editorial-trump-deals-painful-blow-to-trans-atlantic-ties-a-1207260.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#ref=rss
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/der-spiegel-trump-flipping-off-europe_us_5af65ba3e4b00d7e4c1ac5f5
Friday, May 11, 2018
Places That Will Pay You to Live There
https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/05/10/six-places-will-pay-you-to-live-there-orig-me.cnn
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Does It Matter?
An excerpt from VerySmartBrothas -
Black Life, White Wife and the Art Caught in the Middle
By Panama Jackson
But there is a question that nags at me when it comes to dating and marrying outside your race (I’m not opposed to this, by the way; I’m the product of one of those unions): How much influence and impact does your spouse have on your work, especially when it’s couched in extreme racial observation and display?
Glover (and we can even throw Jordan Peele in here for now) work in a space that is heavily inspired by the world around him. It’s not a bird’s-eye view or navel-gazing; he’s doing very nuanced, informed and intentionally complex work about black culture. His show Atlanta, for instance, takes the black experience and shows it for all it can be.
~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder how those conversations about the execution of art that centers blackness and interacts with whiteness as, at times, a goofy, ignorant and uninformed barrier happen in Glover’s household. From personal experience with my white mother, I’ve had to defend blackness. I’ve had to point out things that I feel shouldn’t have to be pointed out. I indulged those conversations because it’s my mother. I imagine that a life partner would have to be indulged as well. And I know nothing of his partner at all (I haven’t so much as looked up her name), but I imagine that being with a creative means lots of conversations about art and the implications of it.
Am I to believe that he never uses her as a sounding board or asks her for her opinion? And if he does, how does that opinion seep into the art? Does it? I struggle with the idea that it doesn’t; that a person who works in such a racially rich context manages to create in a silo where the person he loves has no bearing on his creative decisions. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but your worldview is your worldview, and when you see something that is the opposite of your own, you are likely to question and offer an alternative view.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/black-life-white-wife-and-the-art-caught-in-the-middle-1825854549?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-05-09
Black Life, White Wife and the Art Caught in the Middle
By Panama Jackson
But there is a question that nags at me when it comes to dating and marrying outside your race (I’m not opposed to this, by the way; I’m the product of one of those unions): How much influence and impact does your spouse have on your work, especially when it’s couched in extreme racial observation and display?
Glover (and we can even throw Jordan Peele in here for now) work in a space that is heavily inspired by the world around him. It’s not a bird’s-eye view or navel-gazing; he’s doing very nuanced, informed and intentionally complex work about black culture. His show Atlanta, for instance, takes the black experience and shows it for all it can be.
~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder how those conversations about the execution of art that centers blackness and interacts with whiteness as, at times, a goofy, ignorant and uninformed barrier happen in Glover’s household. From personal experience with my white mother, I’ve had to defend blackness. I’ve had to point out things that I feel shouldn’t have to be pointed out. I indulged those conversations because it’s my mother. I imagine that a life partner would have to be indulged as well. And I know nothing of his partner at all (I haven’t so much as looked up her name), but I imagine that being with a creative means lots of conversations about art and the implications of it.
Am I to believe that he never uses her as a sounding board or asks her for her opinion? And if he does, how does that opinion seep into the art? Does it? I struggle with the idea that it doesn’t; that a person who works in such a racially rich context manages to create in a silo where the person he loves has no bearing on his creative decisions. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but your worldview is your worldview, and when you see something that is the opposite of your own, you are likely to question and offer an alternative view.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/black-life-white-wife-and-the-art-caught-in-the-middle-1825854549?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-05-09
If I had a Dime . . .
For every time this happens, I'd be rich.
A black Yale graduate student took a nap in her dorm's common room. So a white student called police
By Brandon Griggs,
A white person voices suspicions about an innocuous person of color. Police are summoned. And the encounter is posted on social media, sparking outrage about racial profiling.
In what is becoming an all-too familiar episode, a black Yale University graduate student was interrogated by campus police officers early Tuesday morning after a white student found her sleeping in a common room of their dorm and called police.
The black student, Lolade Siyonbola, posted two videos of the encounter to Facebook, where they have been widely viewed and drawn thousands of comments.
"I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else," an annoyed Siyonbola told responding officers in one video after they asked for her ID. "I'm not going to justify my existence here."
The incident is one of several in recent weeks in which police have been called on people of color for seemingly harmless acts. In one of the most recent, three black women were detained while leaving their California Airbnb after a neighbor called police, thinking they were burglars. Last month two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia after a manager called 911 on them because they didn't order anything.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html
A black Yale graduate student took a nap in her dorm's common room. So a white student called police
By Brandon Griggs,
A white person voices suspicions about an innocuous person of color. Police are summoned. And the encounter is posted on social media, sparking outrage about racial profiling.
In what is becoming an all-too familiar episode, a black Yale University graduate student was interrogated by campus police officers early Tuesday morning after a white student found her sleeping in a common room of their dorm and called police.
The black student, Lolade Siyonbola, posted two videos of the encounter to Facebook, where they have been widely viewed and drawn thousands of comments.
"I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else," an annoyed Siyonbola told responding officers in one video after they asked for her ID. "I'm not going to justify my existence here."
The incident is one of several in recent weeks in which police have been called on people of color for seemingly harmless acts. In one of the most recent, three black women were detained while leaving their California Airbnb after a neighbor called police, thinking they were burglars. Last month two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia after a manager called 911 on them because they didn't order anything.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Again. Yep.
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
A woman called 911 about burglars at her neighbor’s house. They were black Airbnb guests.
By Marwa Eltagouri
They checked out of their Airbnb rental. They loaded their suitcases into the car. Then they found themselves surrounded by police.
Moments before, a neighbor had watched the three black women carry their luggage out of the Rialto, Calif., house. She didn’t recognize the guests as homeowners, so she called the police about a possible residential burglary in progress, police said. Police responded as they typically would to a report of an in-progress burglary, sending six police officers and a helicopter to the scene with the goal of surrounding the house’s perimeter, making it difficult for the criminals to escape, Rialto Police Lt. Dean Hardin told The Washington Post.
The April 30 incident is the latest example of law enforcement summoned by a business or individual to deal with minorities who had simply been going about their day. Last month, two black men were arrested for trespassing in Philadelphia after a Starbucks employee called police because they hadn’t purchased anything. Last week, two Native American brothers were pulled from a Colorado State University tour after a parent told a 911 dispatcher that their behavior was “odd” and that their dark clothing had “weird symbolism or wording on it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/08/a-woman-called-911-about-burglars-at-her-neighhors-house-they-were-black-airbnb-guests/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.201649378347
A woman called 911 about burglars at her neighbor’s house. They were black Airbnb guests.
By Marwa Eltagouri
They checked out of their Airbnb rental. They loaded their suitcases into the car. Then they found themselves surrounded by police.
Moments before, a neighbor had watched the three black women carry their luggage out of the Rialto, Calif., house. She didn’t recognize the guests as homeowners, so she called the police about a possible residential burglary in progress, police said. Police responded as they typically would to a report of an in-progress burglary, sending six police officers and a helicopter to the scene with the goal of surrounding the house’s perimeter, making it difficult for the criminals to escape, Rialto Police Lt. Dean Hardin told The Washington Post.
The April 30 incident is the latest example of law enforcement summoned by a business or individual to deal with minorities who had simply been going about their day. Last month, two black men were arrested for trespassing in Philadelphia after a Starbucks employee called police because they hadn’t purchased anything. Last week, two Native American brothers were pulled from a Colorado State University tour after a parent told a 911 dispatcher that their behavior was “odd” and that their dark clothing had “weird symbolism or wording on it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/05/08/a-woman-called-911-about-burglars-at-her-neighhors-house-they-were-black-airbnb-guests/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.201649378347
Monday, May 7, 2018
Sunday, May 6, 2018
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
It Has Evolved
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Lynching Didn’t Disappear, It Just Evolved
By A.T. McWilliams, Guest Writer
Whereas black people were presumed to be dangerous in the Jim Crow South for standing around — and killed as a result — they are now killed for fitting a description, being in a problem area or holding seemingly any object. Whereas thousands once gathered to watch black people be lynched, millions can now tune in to video recordings and livestreams to watch police brutality unfold.
Lynching hasn’t disappeared; it has evolved.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-mcwilliams-lynching-memorial_us_5aeb1d42e4b041fd2d23bdd4
Lynching Didn’t Disappear, It Just Evolved
By A.T. McWilliams, Guest Writer
Whereas black people were presumed to be dangerous in the Jim Crow South for standing around — and killed as a result — they are now killed for fitting a description, being in a problem area or holding seemingly any object. Whereas thousands once gathered to watch black people be lynched, millions can now tune in to video recordings and livestreams to watch police brutality unfold.
Lynching hasn’t disappeared; it has evolved.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-mcwilliams-lynching-memorial_us_5aeb1d42e4b041fd2d23bdd4
Wish This Was a Surprise
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Three black teens are finalists in a NASA competition. Hackers spewing racism tried to ruin their odds.
By Perry Stein
The three D.C. students couldn’t believe the news. They’d developed a method to purify lead-contaminated water in school drinking fountains, and NASA announced last month that they were finalists in the agency’s prestigious high school competition — the only all-black, female team to make it that far.
“Hidden figures in the making,” one of the teens wrote in a celebratory text message to her teammates and coaches, a reference to the 2016 movie about the true story of three African American women who worked for NASA in the 1960s.
The next stage of the science competition included public voting, and the Banneker High School students — Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner and Bria Snell, all 17-year-old high school juniors — turned to social media to promote their project.
But while the teens were gaining traction on social media and racking up votes, users on 4chan — an anonymous Internet forum where users are known to push hoaxes and spew racist and homophobic comments — were trying to ensure the students wouldn’t win.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/three-black-teens-are-finalists-in-a-nasa-competition-then-hackers-spewing-racism-tried-to-ruin-their-odds/2018/05/02/a702f53e-4d72-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html?utm_term=.bd933cbe8c55&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Three black teens are finalists in a NASA competition. Hackers spewing racism tried to ruin their odds.
By Perry Stein
The three D.C. students couldn’t believe the news. They’d developed a method to purify lead-contaminated water in school drinking fountains, and NASA announced last month that they were finalists in the agency’s prestigious high school competition — the only all-black, female team to make it that far.
“Hidden figures in the making,” one of the teens wrote in a celebratory text message to her teammates and coaches, a reference to the 2016 movie about the true story of three African American women who worked for NASA in the 1960s.
The next stage of the science competition included public voting, and the Banneker High School students — Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner and Bria Snell, all 17-year-old high school juniors — turned to social media to promote their project.
But while the teens were gaining traction on social media and racking up votes, users on 4chan — an anonymous Internet forum where users are known to push hoaxes and spew racist and homophobic comments — were trying to ensure the students wouldn’t win.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/three-black-teens-are-finalists-in-a-nasa-competition-then-hackers-spewing-racism-tried-to-ruin-their-odds/2018/05/02/a702f53e-4d72-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html?utm_term=.bd933cbe8c55&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Monday, April 30, 2018
Balikbayan Boxes
An excerpt from the LA Times -
These boxes are a billion-dollar industry of homesickness for Filipinos overseas
By FRANK SHYONG
Today balikbayan boxes, named after the Tagalog word for a returning Filipino, have become one of the most enduring symbols of the Filipino diaspora. The boxes help feed relatives who are struggling, console daughters separated from their mothers, and give far-flung overseas workers a tangible tether to their families.
"This is the Filipino way. You can't go home without a box." Marie Maruquin
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-balikbayan-boxes-20180428-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
These boxes are a billion-dollar industry of homesickness for Filipinos overseas
By FRANK SHYONG
Today balikbayan boxes, named after the Tagalog word for a returning Filipino, have become one of the most enduring symbols of the Filipino diaspora. The boxes help feed relatives who are struggling, console daughters separated from their mothers, and give far-flung overseas workers a tangible tether to their families.
"This is the Filipino way. You can't go home without a box." Marie Maruquin
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-balikbayan-boxes-20180428-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Wait. What?
The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself. pic.twitter.com/6Pw6NTQAe6— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) April 28, 2018
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Friday, April 27, 2018
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Monday, April 23, 2018
Sunday, April 22, 2018
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