Black Girl Magic @ MIT

An excerpt from CNN - 

MIT elects first black woman student body president in its 159-year history

By David Williams

Danielle Geathers will be the president of the Undergraduate Association at MIT 

where about 6 percent of the graduates are black and 47 percent women, according to the school.

Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have elected a black woman as president of the Undergraduate Association for the first time in the school's history.

Danielle Geathers and running mate Yu Jing Chen won the student government election earlier this month.

Geathers just finished her sophomore year at MIT and is majoring in mechanical engineering. She served as the diversity officer last year.

"In terms of coming from that diversity space and being focused on promoting equity across MIT, it would kind of be important to have someone in the President's role who's focused on that," she said.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/mit-black-woman-student-president-trnd/index.html

The Added Burden of Keeping Up Appearances

An excerpt from Medium - 

Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot

I just witnessed the lynching of a black man, but don’t worry Ted, I’ll have those deliverables to you end of day.

By Shenequa Golding

Between Amy Cooper’s Oscar worthy Central Park performance, Ahmaud Arbery shooting death in Georgia, Breonna Taylor’s assassination inside her Louisville home, and the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, black people in America are running on fumes.

We’re tired, angry, confused and yet, this space is familiar to us. This place of torment and trauma has become a home of sorts. The cycle begins in the far corners of Twitter with rumblings of a killing. Then a recording of the victim’s last moments pop up and shortly after, we finally learn the person’s name.

A new name to add to a growing list no one wants to be part of.

Sparks of outrage, disgust and bewilderment soon follow. Maybe a protest happens, and in the case of Floyd, uprisings. Men and women ballooned with righteous anger take to the streets to make their presence known; to scorch earth and shout from the pits of their belly to the top of their lungs that their lives matter. Whether the powers that be hear or acknowledge their chants is one thing, but it’s the community formed by the injustice of another black death that acts as a temporary solve.

And while some of us take to the streets, the rest of us have to hide these shared feelings behind professionalism.

https://medium.com/@shenequagolding/maintaining-professionalism-in-the-age-of-black-death-is-a-lot-5eaec5e17585

NETFLIX Supports BLM

To be silent is to be complicit.
Black lives matter.

We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.

— Netflix (@netflix) May 30, 2020

STARZ Supports NAACP & ColorOfChange

.@NAACP @ColorOfChange pic.twitter.com/R8v1XMjzlv

— STARZ (@STARZ) May 31, 2020

HULU Supports Black Lives

We support Black lives. Today, and every day. You are seen. You are heard. And we are with you.

— Hulu (@hulu) May 31, 2020

Pushed to the Edge

An excerpt from the LA Times - 

Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge

By Kareem Abdul-Jabar

What was your first reaction when you saw the video of the white cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck while Floyd croaked, “I can’t breathe”?

If you’re white, you probably muttered a horrified, “Oh, my God” while shaking your head at the cruel injustice. If you’re black, you probably leapt to your feet, cursed, maybe threw something (certainly wanted to throw something), while shouting, “Not @#$%! again!” Then you remember the two white vigilantes accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through their neighborhood in February, and how if it wasn’t for that video emerging a few weeks ago, they would have gotten away with it. And how those Minneapolis cops claimed Floyd was resisting arrest but a store’s video showed he wasn’t. And how the cop on Floyd’s neck wasn’t an enraged redneck stereotype, but a sworn officer who looked calm and entitled and devoid of pity: the banality of evil incarnate.

Maybe you also are thinking about the Karen in Central Park who called 911 claiming the black man who asked her to put a leash on her dog was threatening her. Or the black Yale University grad student napping in the common room of her dorm who was reported by a white student. Because you realize it’s not just a supposed “black criminal” who is targeted, it’s the whole spectrum of black faces from Yonkers to Yale.

You start to wonder if it should be all black people who wear body cams, not the cops.

What do you see when you see angry black protesters amassing outside police stations with raised fists? If you’re white, you may be thinking, “They certainly aren’t social distancing.” Then you notice the black faces looting Target and you think, “Well, that just hurts their cause.” Then you see the police station on fire and you wag a finger saying, “That’s putting the cause backward.”

You’re not wrong — but you’re not right, either. The black community is used to the institutional racism inherent in education, the justice system and jobs. And even though we do all the conventional things to raise public and political awareness — write articulate and insightful pieces in the Atlantic, explain the continued devastation on CNN, support candidates who promise change — the needle hardly budges.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-05-30/dont-understand-the-protests-what-youre-seeing-is-people-pushed-to-the-edge

Murdered by Police

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Say my name.

A post shared by Warner Music (@warnermusic) on May 29, 2020 at 9:46am PDT

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We Keep Reliving the Same Nightmare

I've included a snippet, but this article is too good to cherry-pick.  I hope you'll have the time to read it in its entirety.

An excerpt from Salon - 

A lynching without a rope — and in America, that’s nothing new

It used to be racist mobs. Now it’s racist cops. Watch Donald Trump pivot from 100,000 dead to "law and order"

By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

Today, in 2020, it's George Floyd in Minneapolis, killed by a police officer kneeling on his throat during an arrest for the alleged offense of "forgery." Cell phone cameras captured the whole thing. Images of a handcuffed black man lying face-down on the street, under the knee of a white police officer, quickly flew around the world. Rioting broke out on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Stores were looted. Buildings burned. Early on Friday morning, fires burned at the Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis, where the four officers present at the death of George Floyd were assigned.

But long before there were cell phone cameras, there were black men and black boys, and there were cops who beat them or killed them, and there were riots in the streets of cities where the killings took place. What followed was as predictable as it was pathetic. Governors issued lamentations and called for "understanding" and "unity." Stores and buildings destroyed during the rioting were rebuilt. Occasionally, official "commissions" were empaneled to "study" the cause of the violence, and lame pledges were made that we've got to do better. 

https://www.salon.com/2020/05/30/a-lynching-without-a-rope--and-in-america-thats-nothing-new/

How Much Time Do You Want?

How much time do you want, for your progress pic.twitter.com/zq7edBylnc

— Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) May 29, 2020

She Did It!

An excerpt from People - 

Yale Student Who Grew Up Homeless Reveals How She Achieved Goals: 'Keep Your Eyes on the Prize'

Chelesa Fearce's mother experienced a health battle that led to a series of financial difficulties

By Susan Young 

It’s a big leap from homeless teen to Yale medical school student, but perseverance paid off Chelesa Fearce of Clayton County, Georgia.

“Just keep your eyes on the prize,” Fearce, now 24, tells PEOPLE. “You can’t get stuck in the moment and worry about the right now."

"You always have to think about your future and what inspires you," she adds. "That’s helped me get through.”

Fearce was a fourth grader when her mom, early childhood education teacher Reenita Shephard, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. That began a financial spiral for the mother of four.

“People don’t realize it can happen to anybody,” Fearce says.

She and her family moved in and out of shelters, hotels and even the family car.

https://people.com/human-interest/yale-student-who-grew-up-homeless-reveals-how-she-achieved-goals/

Radio Silence From College Football Coaches

An excerpt from USA Today - 

Opinion: College football coaches scared to speak, stand with players in conversations on racism, police brutality

By Dan Wolken

The profession that sells leadership and toughness as if it were a TED Talk was largely silent on Friday.

The profession that relies on the talent of young African-American men to keep millions of dollars flowing to lavish athletics budgets and bloated salaries took a pass on the national conversation around racism, police brutality and unequal treatment before the law.

The profession that drones on and on about becoming a man and doing the hard things decided to sit this one out.

On a day where athletes across many sports were speaking out, just a few prominent college football coaches tackled this painful moment.

The murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that have brought us — again — to this miserable place as a country is apparently too hot for most coaches to handle. The pressure to take a public stand about how we need to change as a society, as a culture, was left to the young people, many of whom are grieving and scared. The guys making millions of dollars? They were mostly sending tweets about recruiting, as if the entire concept of George Floyd wasn’t something that was hitting home at that very moment with every black player they recruited and promised to fight for. 

Where’s their fight now? Where’s the truth? It certainly wasn’t on social media, where hardly any head coaches even acknowledged that something was desperately wrong in America.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/05/29/college-football-coaches-silent-george-floyd-and-police-brutality/5287206002/

Liberal Redneck - Minnesota Burning

Am I Next?

Coco Gauff - Tennis Phenom

           

George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Dai...

Michelle Obama Responds

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Like so many of you, I’m pained by these recent tragedies. And I’m exhausted by a heartbreak that never seems to stop. Right now it’s George, Breonna, and Ahmaud. Before that it was Eric, Sandra, and Michael. It just goes on, and on, and on. Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it. It’s up to all of us—Black, white, everyone—no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out. It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. It ends with justice, compassion, and empathy that manifests in our lives and on our streets. I pray we all have the strength for that journey, just as I pray for the souls and the families of those who were taken from us. Artwork: @nikkolas_smith

A post shared by Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on May 29, 2020 at 3:59pm PDT

For once, Don’t Do It | Nike

Hmmmmm?

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White supremacy is a system of structural and societal racism which privileges white people over everyone else, regardless of the presence or absence of racial hatred. White racial advantages occur at both a collective and an individual level. We just updated this chart, which presents *some* of the ways people practice and reinforce white supremacy that they may not be aware of, or even think of as “white supremacy”. If you are unsure of what any of these terms mean, please feel free to look them up. There is an abundance of scholarship and research on each of these things. Image Source: Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005). Adapted: Ellen Tuzzolo (2016); Mary Julia Cooksey Cordero (@jewelspewels) (2019); The Conscious Kid (2020). #AntiRacism #AntiRacist #TeachersOfInstagram #WhitePrivilege

A post shared by The Conscious Kid (@theconsciouskid) on May 26, 2020 at 5:35pm PDT

Oprah Responds

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I’ve been trying to process what can be said or heard in this moment. I haven’t been able to get the image of the knee on his neck out of my head. It’s there every morning when I rise and when I go through the ordinary duties of the day. While pouring coffee, lacing my shoes, and taking a breath, I think: He doesn’t get to do this. And now the video from the other angle of two other officers pinning him down. My heart sinks even deeper. His family and friends say he was a gentle giant. His death has now shown us he had a giant soul. If the largeness of a soul is determined by its sphere of influence, George Floyd is a Mighty soul. #GeorgeFloyd: We speak your name. But this time we will not let your name be just a hashtag. Your spirit is lifted by the cries of all of us who call for justice in your name!

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah) on May 29, 2020 at 11:23am PDT

Cure for Racism?

An excerpt from the NY Times - 

Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us

Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait for a cure for racism.

By Roxane Gay

Eventually, doctors will find a coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait, despite the futility of hope, for a cure for racism. We will live with the knowledge that a hashtag is not a vaccine for white supremacy. We live with the knowledge that, still, no one is coming to save us. The rest of the world yearns to get back to normal. For black people, normal is the very thing from which we yearn to be free.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/trump-george-floyd-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare

Why He Took a Knee

An excerpt from the Washington Post - 

This is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee

By Sally Jenkins 

Two knees. One protesting in the grass, one pressing on the back of a man’s neck. Choose. You have to choose which knee you will defend. There are no half choices; there is no room for indifference. There is only the knee of protest or the knee on the neck.

NFL owners chose the knee on the neck. They did. They may rationalize it as controversy avoidance or respect for the flag or audience mollification or economic strategy or business exigency. But when they collectively ostracized Colin Kaepernick for his protests against police brutality on unarmed black citizens, they chose the wrong knee. They chose the knee on the neck, the knee that pressures, stifles, gags, chokes and silences.

Kaepernick is still so present in the American consciousness that he might as well be playing in the league. Oh, the owners thought they made him disappear with a settlement. But the image of the kneeling, bow-headed Kaepernick becomes newly indicting each time someone is pinned down by a brute in a blue uniform and dies pleading in a street. The owners misidentified the problem, you see. The problem they can’t get rid of isn’t Kaepernick or his knee. It’s themselves. Their own denial, that’s what dogs them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/05/30/this-is-why-colin-kaepernick-took-knee/

What a Difference a Color Makes

An excerpt from Salon - 

I can't get past the differences between the Minneapolis BLM protest and anti-lockdown protests

In Minneapolis, police tear-gas unarmed protesters opposing racist violence — but armed Trumpers get the red carpet

By AMANDA MARCOTTE

On Memorial Day, four Minneapolis police officers killed a black man named George Floyd. In a video taken by a bystander, one can hear Floyd, who is on the ground and not resisting as an officer named Derek Chauvin kneels on his neck, pleading for his life, saying, "I can't breathe" and moaning in pain. (Chauvin was involved in at least two previous police shootings of civilians.) Onlookers can also be heard begging the police not to kill Floyd, while another cop named Tou Thao just glares at them, indifferent to the gathered crowd's increasing panic. As the cops take Floyd's unconscious body away, one man can be heard yelling, "You just really killed that man, bro."

The video is incredibly disturbing, so it's no surprise that thousands of people hit the streets in protest on Tuesday, breaking lockdown in a city with a rising rate of coronavirus infection to register their outrage.

The vast majority of protesters weren't violent and none were armed. But Minneapolis police showed up ready to rumble. News photos show the cops pouring out of vehicles fully clad in riot gear and as soon as a handful of protesters committed minor acts of property damage and threw some water bottles (the Star Tribune reports that peaceful protesters pleaded with others to stop the vandalism), cops used that as a pretext to shoot tear-gas canisters into the crowd. 

Those images are much like the ones we've grown accustomed to in the era of Black Lives Matter protests (though this time with the addition of face masks): Cops in riot gear striding like conquering soldiers through clouds of tear gas, unarmed protesters running in terror and weeping, surreal images of people's faces covered in milk as they try to wash the tear gas from their eyes. 

But what I can't get past — and judging from the reactions on social media, I'm not alone — is how wildly different that scene played out compared to the astroturf anti-lockdown protests staged in various state capitals across the country over the past month or so. 

https://www.salon.com/2020/05/27/i-cant-get-past-the-differences-between-the-minneapolis-blm-protest-and-anti-lockdown-protests/

Oh God! It Happened Again.

If you’re unbothered or mildly bothered by the 1st knee, but outraged by the 2nd, then, in my father’s words, you’re “more devoted to order than to justice.” And more passionate about an anthem that supposedly symbolizes freedom than you are about a Black man’s freedom to live. pic.twitter.com/kxpVOEeTNR

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) May 26, 2020

Black History is American History - Memorial Day

An excerpt from Time  -

The Overlooked Black History of Memorial Day

BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN

Nowadays, Memorial Day honors veterans of all wars, but its roots are in America’s deadliest conflict, the Civil War. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, about two-thirds from disease.

The work of honoring the dead began right away all over the country, and several American towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Researchers have traced the earliest annual commemoration to women who laid flowers on soldiers’ graves in the Civil War hospital town of Columbus, Miss., in April 1866. But historians like the Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight have tried to raise awareness of freed slaves who decorated soldiers’ graves a year earlier, to make sure their story gets told too.

According to Blight’s 2001 book Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, a commemoration organized by freed slaves and some white missionaries took place on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, S.C., at a former planters’ racetrack where Confederates held captured Union soldiers during the last year of the war. At least 257 prisoners died, many of disease, and were buried in unmarked graves, so black residents of Charleston decided to give them a proper burial.

In the approximately 10 days leading up to the event, roughly two dozen African American Charlestonians reorganized the graves into rows and built a 10-foot-tall white fence around them. An archway overhead spelled out “Martyrs of the Race Course” in black letters.

About 10,000 people, mostly black residents, participated in the May 1 tribute, according to coverage back then in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New York Tribune. Starting at 9 a.m., about 3,000 black schoolchildren paraded around the race track holding roses and singing the Union song “John Brown’s Body,” and were followed by adults representing aid societies for freed black men and women. Black pastors delivered sermons and led attendees in prayer and in the singing of spirituals, and there were picnics. James Redpath, the white director of freedman’s education in the region, organized about 30 speeches by Union officers, missionaries and black ministers. Participants sang patriotic songs like “America” and “We’ll Rally around the Flag” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In the afternoon, three white and black Union regiments marched around the graves and staged a drill.

The New York Tribune described the tribute as “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.” The gravesites looked like a “one mass of flowers” and “the breeze wafted the sweet perfumes from them” and “tears of joy” were shed.

https://time.com/5836444/black-memorial-day/

HBCU Love

An excerpt from The Undefeated -

My family is rooted in black colleges and now I am, too
I found my passion as a journalist at Hampton University
BY RANDALL C. WILLIAMS

My entire family is rooted in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

When my family could attend college, my grandparents flocked to North Carolina Central University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Fayetteville State University. My parents followed suit, attending Hampton University and N.C. A&T. That left the HBCU legacy up to me. And after attending predominantly white schools for all of K-12, I decided it was time for a breath of fresh air.

I followed my father’s footsteps to Hampton, and four years later, I can finally say that I understand the HBCU experience. It means connecting with young black folks from all around the world, blossoming, creating memories that will last a lifetime and building foundational steps for their desired profession.

https://theundefeated.com/features/my-family-is-rooted-in-black-colleges-and-now-i-am-too/

Dad Advice

From Upworthy -

Man whose dad walked out when he was 12 shares his own fatherly wisdom  'Dad, How Do I?' channel
by Annie Reneau


Rob Kenney's dad left his family when he was 12. One of eight kids, Kenney went to live with his older brother when he was 14, spending his teenage and young adult years without a father to guide him.

Now a father of two grown children himself, Kenney is offering others the fatherly wisdom and skills he had to gain on his own. His YouTube channel "Dad, How Do I?" shares videos on everyday practical things most people might ask their dad like the proper way to tie a tie, how to unclog a sink and how to check the car oil. Since it was launched April 1, the channel has exploded in popularity.

https://www.upworthy.com/man-whose-dad-walked-out-when-he-was-12-shares-his-own-fatherly-wisdom-dad-how-do-i-channel

This 8-year-old’s financial knowledge is mind blowing l GMA Digital

Obama: Pandemic Has 'Finally Torn Back The Curtain' On Trump Administrat...

Key Lime Pound Cake Recipe

From Good Housekeeping -

This Key Lime Pound Cake Is Better Than Pie
Sweet and tart in the best of ways.
BY CANDACE BRAUN DAVISON

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/dessert/a32476677/key-lime-pound-cake-recipe/

Angela Robinson's 2020 Spring Graduation Message

Donald Trump: A Study in Leadership

Favorite Zoom Meeting EVER!

Still having the company meetings online. pic.twitter.com/aR3LfuSdKl

— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) May 11, 2020

We Could Learn From Them, But We Won't

An excerpt from the New Yorker -

What African Nations Are Teaching the West About Fighting the Coronavirus
By Jina Moore

n early March, Ingrid Gercama left her home in the Netherlands and flew to war-torn South Sudan. An applied-research anthropologist with a special interest in epidemics, she had spent time on the African continent during a public-health emergency before, remaining in Liberia, in 2014, during that country’s Ebola outbreak. When she landed at the frill-free airport in South Sudan’s capital of Juba, she was taken to a separate screening area, the shape and size of a shipping container, where her temperature was recorded by government health workers, along with her hotel address and her local telephone number. Gercama was asked a series of questions about her travel and health, she recalled, including whether she had recently come into contact with a bat. The screening area’s walls were covered with posters about covid-19 and its symptoms, and she was ushered into the country past a banner explaining the disease and offering a telephone number for a national coronavirus hotline, which she was to call if she developed a fever. She had to wash her hands once to get into the screening area, and again when she left.

Much of what Gercama encountered at the airport had been designed to prevent Ebola. Since 2018, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan’s neighbor to the southwest, has been struggling with the disease. But local public-health officials’ quick repurposing of Ebola protocols and infrastructure impressed Gercama, as did the work of rapid-response teams, whom she twice witnessed respond to suspected coronavirus cases during the week she spent in the country. She left South Sudan on March 19th, a few days after the country began quarantining arriving passengers, and a few days before they stopped international flights altogether. From Juba, she flew through Stockholm, where no one asked her where she had been nor recorded her temperature, and landed back in Amsterdam, where, again, she was not questioned about her travel history or health. When she passed through passport control, she found no leaflets, no covid-19 awareness banners, no hotline. “They didn’t even tell me to self-isolate,” Gercama told me. “I did so because I have common sense.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-african-nations-are-teaching-the-west-about-fighting-the-coronavirus

Multi-Talented Mr. Foxx

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#billwithers #music #acapella #beardgame just a vibe

A post shared by Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) on May 12, 2020 at 6:04pm PDT

Princeton’s First Black Valedictorian In School’s 274-Year History

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Congratulations to Nicholas Johnson, named valedictorian and Grace Sommers, named Latin salutatorian for #Princeton20! 👏⁣ ⁣ Nicholas Johnson ’20⁣ Hometown: Montréal, Québec⁣ Major: Operations Research and Financial Engineering⁣ Certificates: Statistics and Machine Learning, Applied and Computational Mathematics, and Applications of Computing⁣ Residential College: @whitmanatprinceton⁣ Thesis: “Sequential Stochastic Network Structure Optimization with Applications to Addressing Canada’s Obesity Epidemic”⁣ Post-grad plans: Johnson begins Ph.D. studies in operations research at @MITpics.⁣ ⁣ “My favorite memories of my time at #PrincetonU are [those] spent with close friends and classmates engaging in stimulating discussions - often late at night - about our beliefs, the cultures and environments in which we were raised, the state of the world and how we plan on contributing positively to it in our own unique way."⁣ ⁣ Grace Sommers ’20⁣ Hometown: Bridgewater, NJ⁣ Major: Physics⁣ Certificates: Applications of Computing, Applied and Computational Mathematics, Ancient Roman Language and Culture⁣ Residential College: @butlercollegeprinceton⁣ Thesis: “Order and Disorder in a New Class of Spin Systems”⁣ Post-grad plans: Sommers begins Ph.D. studies in physics right here at #PrincetonU.⁣ ⁣ “In addition to the joy of learning the material … the approachability of my professors, both as advisers and as instructors, has been a highlight of my learning experience … I’ve enjoyed having thought-provoking conversations with my professors and classmates."⁣ ⁣ Johnson and Sommers will participate in the 2020 virtual commencement on May 31, 2020. Congrats to Nicholas and Grace!

A post shared by Princeton University (@princeton) on Apr 27, 2020 at 2:21pm PDT

Learning From Mom

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Everything I learned about being a dad, I learned from my mom
By Nevin Martell

As soon as my son, Zephyr, arrived, I realized my autonomy had an unexpected downside: It felt like going up a certain creek without a paddle. I needed a lodestar to help guide me through the process. I had so many questions and so few answers. Sometimes, I even considered reading all the books still taking up space on my nightstand. But, nah. Too much work.

And then, my mother came to live with us for several weeks to help us transition into parenthood smoothly. Whenever Indira needed a break from holding Zephyr and I wasn’t there, my mom swooped in to take him before she was even asked. I’d be feeling tired, and my mother would magically ask whether I’d like a cup of the coffee she was thinking of brewing. Zephyr would be on the verge of getting fussy, and she would suddenly be rocking him while cooing and making cute faces. She seemed to anticipate everyone’s every needs, often offering help before we even knew to ask.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/05/08/everything-i-learned-about-being-dad-i-learned-my-mom/

A Shining Star

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Kizzmekia Corbett spent her life preparing for this moment. Can she create the vaccine to end a pandemic?
This 34-year-old African American woman scientist is a rarity. But with increased visibility comes increased scrutiny.
By Darryl Fears

Kizzmekia Corbett talks with President Trump, Anthony S. Fauci
and other officials at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., in early March. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Halfway through the school year, Myrtis Bradsher found herself paying close attention to a little girl called Kizzy. She always looked sharp, with ribbons knotted to her ponytails and socks that matched every outfit. But it was the way she rushed to help other fourth-graders with classwork that really stood out. “She had so much knowledge,” the teacher recalled. “She knew something about everything.”

In 25 years at Oak Lane Elementary School in rural Hurdle Mills, N.C., Bradsher had not seen a child like her. Bradsher was one of a few black teachers, and Kizzy was a rare black student. At a parent-teacher conference, Bradsher pushed to give the girl the advantages she felt she deserved. “Look,” she recalled saying to her mother, Rhonda Brooks, “she’s so far above other children. We need to send her to a class for exceptional students. I need you to say we have your permission.”

Bradsher’s recommendation put Kizzmekia Corbett on a path that ultimately led her to the National Institutes of Health, where she is heading the government’s search for a vaccine to end the coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 1.2 million Americans, killed over 70,000 and devastated the economy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/06/kizzmekia-corbett-vaccine-coronavirus/

Kindness Remembered Almost 200 Later

An excerpt from Upworthy -

Irish help raise $1.8 million for COVID-hit Navajo Nation, repaying $170 sent during the potato famine
by Annie Reneau

The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation in the southwestern U.S. have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. With a third of the population having no running water, proper virus-avoiding hygiene is nearly impossible. Access to groceries is limited, and the community has a high number of elderly and individuals with health conditions that put them at higher risk of complications from the virus.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was organized on behalf of the Rural Utah Project Education Fund to raise money for groceries, water, health supplies, and other necessary items in these Native communities. And this week, they have received a huge influx of donations from a seemingly unlikely source—Ireland.

If you're wondering what would prompt people on an island across the Atlantic to send money to a specific community in the U.S., the answer is simple. Gratitude.

In 1847, Native American tribes were struggling to get established after being forced to relocate from their homelands during the cruel and shameful Trail of Tears. The tribes had suffered greatly and had very little. But when the Choctaw nation heard about the suffering of the Irish people during the potato famine, they pulled together a donation of $170—around $5000 in today's dollars—to send to Ireland.

That collective act of sacrificial generosity was not forgotten. And now people in Ireland are repaying that gift many times over in a beautiful expression of historic human connectedness.

https://www.upworthy.com/navajo-covid

Rings Hollow

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Heroes, we cannot possibly repay you for your sacrifice, so we will make no effort to
By Alexandra Petri

Good news, front-line worker: You are essential. No, more than that: You are a hero.

Look, some jets are flying over!

Here is your salute! Here is your banging of pans! Look, your employers have made you — with their own dollars! — a commercial with gentle piano music, in the tenderest possible tone, to say thank you. We salute you. No, we do more than that: We owe you a debt of gratitude. No, wait, let us not introduce the word “debt,” which might imply monetary compensation of some kind. You are a hero, after all. You are beyond all that money nonsense. We are beyond all that.

Look, here are some more jets!

We cannot hope to thank you for this sacrifice you are making so we can be fed and entertained and comforted. But we will offer you this word: essential! Do you not feel better? Is the word itself not better than any kind of safety gear? Okay, here are some masks — not to wear, but affixed together into a big collage, as a symbol! As the vice president has shown, masks are optional. But symbolism — that is essential.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/30/heroes-we-cannot-possibly-repay-you-your-sacrifice-so-we-will-make-no-effort/

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View this post on Instagram

And am I sick of taking selfies🤳🏾😂 Fame is a very funny and dangerous thing. It can be highly deceiving, cold blooded and set you down a dark path that ends in self destruction if you let yourself buy into your own fame. I started to become as asshole about my fame when I was a famous pro wrestler in my 20’s, (and I wore a fanny pack 😂🤦🏽‍♂️) until one fateful night changed my perspective and self awareness and GRATITUDE for the rest of my life. My advice to teenagers, young adults or anyone who wants to be famous/ Don’t worry about being famous. Instead work hard to become good at something. Then work harder to become great. Then work even harder and put in the 10, 15, 20+ years to become MASTERFUL. Fame will come. Or maybe it won’t. Either way, fame is fleeting but your legacy is forever. Mahalo for the great questions 🌍 and keep ‘em coming. Most importantly, stay healthy my friends. D

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Apr 16, 2020 at 11:56am PDT

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You First

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

The test for those who want to reopen the economy too soon: You go first
By Jennifer Rubin

Let me suggest a simple test for those arguing for a quick return to business as normal absent a robust testing, contact tracing and quarantine program: You go first.

Trump should cease requiring everyone who comes into his orbit to submit to a covid-19 test. After all, if it’s not important enough for all of us to have the same protection, he should feel perfectly comfortable re-engaging with those of unknown health status.

Fox hosts who recommend hydroxychloroquine should be lining up to participate in clinical tests. They can be the canaries in the coal mine. (I would not be so irresponsible as to suggest they take it outside controlled circumstances.)

Business leaders and Trump sycophants such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who push for a May reopening of the economy should be the first on the factory floors (shake every returning worker’s hand), the first to ride public transportation to and from work, and the first to pay social calls at nursing homes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/12/test-advocates-opening-country/

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Black Women Magic

From the NY Times -

Clockwise from left: TARAJI P. HENSON in a Givenchy dress, $8,130, givenchy.com, Stuart Weitzman shoes, $395, stuartweitzman.com, and her own jewelry. MARY J. BLIGE in a Giorgio Armani jacket, $5,195, and pants, $1,195, armani.com, Eres bra, $500, eresparis.com, Misho earrings, about $200, mishodesigns.com, Leigh Miller ring, $185, leighmiller.us, and Stuart Weitzman shoes, $395. ANGELA BASSETT in a Victoria Beckham dress, $1,495, Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills, (310) 550-5900, Panconesi earrings, $470, ssense.com, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, $795, giuseppezanotti.com, and her own bracelet. LYNN WHITFIELD in a Valentino dress, $5,900, (310) 247-0103, Mateo earrings, $825, mateonewyork.com, and Anita Ko ring, $8,000, anitako.com. HALLE BERRY in a Louis Vuitton dress, price on request, louisvuitton.com, Tiffany earrings, $6,800, tiffany.com, and Gianvito Rossi shoes, $995, gianvitorossi.com. KIMBERLY ELISE in a Proenza Schouler dress, $1,790, proenzaschouler.com, Mateo earrings, $1,875, Anita Ko ring (right), $8,000, stylist’s own ring (left) and Stuart Weitzman shoes, $395. Photographed at Line 204 Studios in Los Angeles on Feb. 26, 2020. Photo by Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont. Styled by Shiona Turini

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/13/t-magazine/black-actresses-bassett-berry-blige-henson-whitfield-elise.html?campaign_id=20&emc=edit_wg_20200413&instance_id=17609&nl=watching&regi_id=38867499&segment_id=25018&te=1&user_id=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610

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Cat Towers - AMAZING!

From the New Republic & Bored Panda -

Man Builds Two Kitty Towers Inside His Home And Now Everyone's Cats Are Jealous

https://va.news-republic.com/a/6814079407406187014?app_id=1239&c=sys&gid=6814079407406187014&impr_id=6814305187210561797&language=en&region=us&user_id=6717278245165171717

Mousetrap - Ohio PSA

Social distancing works. We are all #InThisTogetherOhio. https://t.co/jU4ZAkm3Py pic.twitter.com/uKJtfi4cuP

— Ohio Dept of Health (@OHdeptofhealth) April 9, 2020

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A Hero!

From Upworthy -

Navy aircraft carrier captain ousted for raising alarm on COVID-19 received a hero's send-off from sailors
By Tod Perry

https://www.upworthy.com/navy-captain-ousted-for-raising-alarm-on-coronavirus-gets-a-passionate-heros-send-off-from-sailors