A Proud Father and Son

An excerpt from ESPN - 

Doug Williams, the first black QB to win a Super Bowl, shares 42 years of 'teaching moments'

By John Keim

My son, D.J. [an offensive assistant with the Saints], sent me a text Saturday morning [June 6] that brought me to tears.

"You raised a strong black man! You created America's worst nightmare. A SMART, EDUCATED, AMBITIOUS, BLACK MAN with great character. Thanks for that Pops. I can't even begin to imagine the things you went through coming from seeing crosses burning and just your ride as a black man and a black player in this country. Love you Pops. I'm a product of you and that's what I am most proud of my brother"

We always have had a great relationship, talking about life and how to handle situations. When he was driving back and forth to Grambling [where he went to college and played football], I used to tell him, "If you get stopped, be compliant. You've got to get out and say, 'Yes, sir.'" He was going through Mississippi and a few country towns. Don't be argumentative. He would always say, "Don't worry about me." But I had to worry, because he's black and he's driving by himself through little towns. And then to get that note? It says a lot about him and what he thinks of me. It made me feel like I'd done a decent job. He wanted me to know the impact I had on his life, that I raised a smart, educated, ambitious black man. As an older black man, that's pretty good. Yeah, from an emotional standpoint he brought something out of me.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29297476/doug-williams-first-black-qb-win-super-bowl-shares-42-years-teaching-moments

More Black Girl Magic!

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self esteem or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams.

A black female neuroscientist.

Shot by: @Txmmy4k pic.twitter.com/KAa7zApnSn

— Ono (@_onvme) June 7, 2020

American Apartheid

An excerpt from Salon - 

American apartheid: This country still treats too many of its black citizens like slaves

What happened to George Floyd has a long history. Until we face that history honestly, we'll never escape it

By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

Imagine that you are a black citizen of this country. Every day, you wake up in your house or your apartment, and you must wonder, is this the day? Is this the day I'm going to be jogging down a neighborhood street, like Ahmaud Arbery, and be killed by armed civilians? Is this the day I'm going to be arrested outside a convenience store, like George Floyd, and be strangled to death? Is this the day I'm going to be stopped in my car by a policeman for failure to signal a lane change, like Sandra Bland, and be arrested and jailed and end up dead? Is this the day I'm going to be birdwatching in the park, like Christian Cooper, and have a passerby call the police and report me? Is this the day I'm going to be stopped for a broken brake light, like Walter Scott, and shot five times in the back and killed? Is this the day I'm going to walk up to the door of my apartment building and be confronted by four policemen and when I reach for my wallet, be shot 19 times, like Amadou Diallo? Is this the day I will be snatched off the street by three white supremacists and dragged with a chain behind a truck for three miles until I die, like James Byrd Jr. in Texas?

How would you like to be afraid every single day of your life that something terrible will happen to you, just because you are black?

https://www.salon.com/2020/06/13/american-apartheid-this-country-still-treats-too-many-of-its-black-citizens-like-slaves/

The NFL - Will They Do The Right Thing?

An excerpt from the Undefeated - 

For the NFL, issues have to outweigh the optics this time around

This is an ideal time for America’s sport to lead the conversation

BY J.A. ADANDE

The reason the NFL keeps winding up in the middle of the police brutality debate is because both professional football and violence are woven into America. You could actually make a case that professional football is so quintessentially American specifically because it is so violent. The nexus of football and violence also reminds us of the limits historically placed on African Americans, that their prominence rarely accompanies power, that for all the attention given to black players in the NFL and their outspokenness about police brutality, they were unable to do much about it on their own. It is a dynamic as old as America itself.

As a way to quantify the prominence, consider this: Black players scored 80% of the touchdowns in the NFL last season. Not to diminish the importance of blocking, tackling, special teams play, film study, playcalling or any of the other components of winning football games, but ultimately what matters to us are touchdowns. Black people, in overwhelming numbers, produce the thing we care about the most in the sport we care about the most.

“Touchdowns equal happiness,” John Madden once said as the cameras showed jubilant fans reacting to a touchdown. The equation is unbalanced. For all of the happiness produced by black players, there should be an expectation to not only pay their salaries but to pay attention to their concerns, hopes and fears. That didn’t happen in 2016 when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started a wave of players kneeling during the national anthem to protest inequality and injustice.

https://theundefeated.com/features/for-the-nfl-issues-have-to-outweigh-the-optics-this-time-around/

Ravens

Ravens united.

Black Lives Matter. pic.twitter.com/3KAl3dFSrQ

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) June 12, 2020

People are loving this adorable boy's politeness

Simply Living is Dangerous for Us

From the Washinton Post - 

I can’t breathe

By Sergio Peçanha

I can’t breathe.

Eric Garner, New York City

I can get killed by police at a Walmart.

John Crawford III, Beavercreek, Ohio

Or when I’m playing at a park.

Tamir Rice, 12, Cleveland

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/ever-growing-list-what-black-people-cannot-do-without-risking-their-lives/?arc404=true

Good For Business? What's the Message?

This is a horrific graphic to have put up on air.

My god. pic.twitter.com/HoDof1AN9l

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 5, 2020

Somebody's Baby

ok baby names dot com go off pic.twitter.com/4jkDQHKsDP

— bij (@bijanstephen) June 9, 2020

When It's Too Much to Bear, Bake Some Cookies

From Delish - 

Cookie Recipes

https://www.delish.com/cooking/g1956/best-cookies/

For All the Mothers

   June 15, 2020

    https://time.com/5847667/story-behind-george-floyd-time-cover/

    https://time.com/5847487/i-cannot-sell-you-this-painting-artist-titus-kaphar-on-his-george-floyd-time-        cover/

Where is Kaep's Apology?

Everything is meaningless and falls on deaf ears until there is a formal apology to Colin Kaepernick.

We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv

— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020

Michael Che "Black Lives Matters" Stand Up Comedy | Laugh Into Tears

The History of Lynchings

An excerpt from the NY Times - 

Art That Confronts and Challenges Racism: Start Here

Our writers suggest works that illuminate and tackle issues of police brutality, social injustice and racial inequity.

By Melena Ryzik, Wesley Morris, Mekado Murphy, Reggie Ugwu, Pierre-Antoine Louis, Salamishah Tillet and Siddhartha Mitter

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, 

the Alabama museum dedicated to the history of lynching.

Credit...Robert Rausch for The New York Times

Artists and thinkers have already shown us how: Bryan Stevenson, the crusading lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, has a memoir, and a movie based on it, “Just Mercy,” that is attracting a new audience, alongside the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Alabama museum dedicated to the history of lynching, which embodies his life’s work. The filmmaker Ava DuVernay made the documentary “13th,” about the roots of mass incarceration, and has long been boosting independent black voices with her distribution company Array. Here, writers recommend other works that illuminate and confront racism, tracing a path, thorny as it may be, forward. MELENA RYZIK

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/arts/racism-writings-books-movies.html?searchResultPosition=1

We Cannot Stay Silent About George Floyd | Patriot Act Digital Exclusive...

Mayor of DC Painted the Street - Love her!

#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/OQg6977n5r

— Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MurielBowser) June 5, 2020

From Rolling Stone - 

Street in Front of White House Officially Renamed ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’

“Black Lives Matter” also painted on the street leading up to the president’s residence

By BRENNA EHRLICH 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/black-lives-matter-plaza-1010752/ 

What We Have To Do

@skoodupcam

Jus some unwritten rules my mom makes me follow as a young black man ##fyp ##blacklivesmatter

♬ original sound - marcappalott

BLM to NFL . . . We'll See

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A post shared by Michael Thomas (@cantguardmike) on Jun 4, 2020 at 6:07pm PDT

How Can We Win

Police Have a License to Kill Provided by the Supreme Court

An excerpt from USA Today - 

Police act like laws don't apply to them because of 'qualified immunity.' They're right.

There's a legal obstacle that's nearly impossible to overcome when police officers and government officials violate our constitutional and civil rights.

By Patrick Jaicomo and Anya Bidwell

On Monday, May 25, Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. While two officers pinned the handcuffed Floyd on a city street, another fended off would-be intervenors, as a fourth knelt on Floyd’s neck until — and well after — he lost consciousness.

But when Floyd’s family goes to court to hold the officers liable for their actions, a judge in Minnesota may very well dismiss their claims. Not because the officers didn’t do anything wrong, but because there isn’t a case from the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court specifically holding that it is unconstitutional for police to kneel on the neck of a handcuffed man for eight minutes until he loses consciousness and then dies.

And such a specific case is what Floyd’s family must provide to overcome a legal doctrine called “qualified immunity” that shields police and all other government officials from accountability for their illegal and unconstitutional acts.

The Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1982. With that novel invention, the court granted all government officials immunity for violating constitutional and civil rights unless the victims of those violations can show that the rights were “clearly established.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/30/police-george-floyd-qualified-immunity-supreme-court-column/5283349002/

Love Her!

Click the arrow on the right about midway down the page to proceed to the next page. 

View this post on Instagram

#justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter

A post shared by BILLIE EILISH (@billieeilish) on May 30, 2020 at 3:31am PDT

"I Just Wanna Live"

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just singing what’s on my heart...hope this blesses someone🙏🏾❤️ @sdhtoronto thanks for this dope shirt!!🔥🔥 #ijustwantolive #blacklivesmatter #ijustwannalive #equality #black #blackexcellence #racism #justice @mstinalawson

A post shared by Keedron Bryant (@keedronbryant) on May 26, 2020 at 2:01pm PDT

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

b

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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/