Leadership Matters

An excerpt from NBC News - 

Why are similar countries experiencing COVID-19 so differently?

What do the United States, Russia, Brazil and India all have in common? Leaders who have downplayed the virus.

By Dante Chinni

The point is sometimes the data show that underlying economic and health factors have a smaller impact than you might think, even in a pandemic. One thing the U.S., Russia, Brazil and India share, however, is government leaders that have at times downplayed the impact the virus.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his people yoga could help build a “protective shield” of immunity against the virus as the country has loosened its rules to aid the economy. In Russia, Vladimir Putin declared victory over the virus this week and held a massive public military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the country’s defeat over Nazi Germany. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has belittled the virus and not worn a mask (though this week a judge ordered him to wear one or pay a fine). And, of course, President Donald Trump has begun to resume his large campaign rallies — which are mask-optional — as he mocks the virus.

None of this is to say those leaders are wholly responsible for their countries higher new-infection numbers. There is a wide range of societal factors in each country, from population density to the actions of local officials in each.

But as the pandemic continues and nations head down different paths, the politics and the data seem to be carrying a message. The voices at the top matter.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/why-are-similar-countries-experiencing-covid-19-so-differently-n1232358

Ken Burns on Monuments

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/23/ken-burns-our-monuments-are-representations-myth-not-fact/?arc404=true

Jimmy Fallon, the Original Hamilton Cast & The Roots Sing "Helpless" (At...

Alabama? Some Folks Are Turning Over in Their Graves!

View this post on Instagram

“In this moment in history, we can’t be silent.”

A post shared by Alabama Football (@alabamafbl) on Jun 25, 2020 at 12:01pm PDT

Black Academics - A Rallying Cry

An excerpt from the Boston Globe - 

#BlackintheIvory: a hashtag that became a rallying cry for Black academics

By Deirdre Fernandes

Since then hundreds of professors, graduate students, researchers, and doctors across the United States and around the globe have rallied around #BlackintheIvory, calling out their personal experiences of discrimination and racial inequality on college campuses. Their words and experiences are searing: Doctors and medical students mistaken for janitors. Researchers discouraged from focusing on issues related to the Black community. Tenure denials and assumptions from white colleagues that they earned admissions and funding because of their race, not their accomplishments. And the unpaid and underappreciated work of mentoring students of color.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/27/metro/hashtag-that-became-rallying-cry-black-academics/

Frederick Douglass Speaking Truth

An excerpt from the Washington Post - 

Frederick Douglass delivered a Lincoln reality check at Emancipation Memorial unveiling

By DeNeen L. Brown 

In his speech at the 1876 statue unveiling, Douglass exposed Lincoln’s legacy. “Truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory,” Douglass said, “Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.”

Douglass, who had met Lincoln on several occasions at the White House, said that Lincoln was not a president for black people and that Lincoln’s motivation above all was to save the union, even if it meant keeping black people in bondage.

“He was preeminently the white man’s president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men,” Douglass said, according to the speech stored at the Library of Congress. “He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/27/emancipation-monument-in-washington-dc-targeted-by-protests/

MAGA = Pity for America

An excerpt from the Atlantic - 

The Decline of the American World

Other countries are used to loathing America, admiring America, and fearing America (sometimes all at once). But pitying America? That one is new.

Story by Tom McTague

It is hard to escape the feeling that this is a uniquely humiliating moment for America. As citizens of the world the United States created, we are accustomed to listening to those who loathe America, admire America, and fear America (sometimes all at the same time). But feeling pity for America? That one is new, even if the schadenfreude is painfully myopic. If it’s the aesthetic that matters, the U.S. today simply doesn’t look like the country that the rest of us should aspire to, envy, or replicate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/america-image-power-trump/613228/

JOIN Defeat by Tweet!

https://defeatbytweet.org/

Coach K's Response

Black Lives Matter pic.twitter.com/p14w8PFdhY

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) June 26, 2020

NASA Headquarters Renamed After Black Female Engineer

Our headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African-American female engineer at NASA. She started in @NASAaero research and later moved into the personnel field, working to ensure equal opportunity in hiring and promotion. pic.twitter.com/eMandeaMyv

— NASA (@NASA) June 24, 2020

Brutal

This is brutal

pic.twitter.com/hlTX9T5ePf

— Eleven Films (@Eleven_Films) May 16, 2020

A Fascinating Discovery

From ESPN - (Faye's commentary:  It's worth the read.  I promise you.  Don't cheat and watch the video first.  It doesn't do justice to the story).

KC Chiefs RB coach Deland McCullough's jaw-dropping story behind the search for his family

By Sarah Spain

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29324031/kc-chiefs-rb-coach-deland-mccullough-jaw-dropping-story-search-family

Buy Black

From Buy Black The Movement - 

This is the first “Buy Black” movement that quantifies how Black consumers and allies buy from Black-owned businesses as a collective.  Our goal is to hold consumers who pledge to Buy Black accountable, while publicly demonstrating what happens when we follow through on supporting Black-owned businesses publicly.  Black-owned businesses are at risk of going extinct with 90% of them not receiving Payment Protection Program Loans and 41% projected to close permanently as a result of COVID-related hardship.  Our goal is to activate an army of consumers to support where systems have failed Black entrepreneurs.

https://myblackreceipt.com/

Achieving Greatness @ 17 and Just Getting Started

An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

THIS 17-YEAR-OLD RECEIVED 24 COLLEGE OFFERS WHILE CREATING A COMPANY DEDICATED TO STOPPING GUN VIOLENCE

by Dana Givens

The spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, may have led to the cancellation a lot of major milestones like graduation or prom for young people but the viral outbreak isn’t stopping them from still excelling academically. In the case of 17-year-old RuQuan “Ru” Brown, his mission was always clear—excel in school and get into college. Not only was he able to accomplish both, but he also managed to do it all while running his own company to help stop gun violence.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/high-school-senior-received-24-college-offers-dedicated-to-stopping-gun-violence/

Protest Photos

From USA Today - 

Photos of protests around the world.  View gallery about midway down the page.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/17/george-floyd-police-reform-hearing-turns-into-debate-over-black-lives-matter/3207310001/

Anti-Racist Teachers

An excerpt from the Atlantic - 

What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently

They view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching.

By PIRETTE MCKAMEY

Ask black students who their favorite teacher is, and they will joyfully tell you. Ask them what it is about their favorite teacher, and most will say some version of this: They know how to work with me. So much is in that statement. It means that these students want to work, that they see their teachers as partners in the learning process, and that they know the teacher-student relationship is one in which they both have power. In other words, black students know that they bring intellect to the classroom, and they know when they are seen—and not seen.

As the principal of San Francisco’s Mission High School and an anti-racist educator for more than 30 years, I have witnessed countless black students thrive in classrooms where teachers see them accurately and show that they are happy to have them there. In these classes, students choose to sit in the front of the class, take careful notes, shoot their hands up in discussions, and ask unexpected questions that cause the teacher and other classmates to stop and think. Given the chance, they email, text, and call the teachers who believe in them. In short, these students are everything their families and community members have raised and supported them to be.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/06/how-be-anti-racist-teacher/613138/

The Token Black Friend

An excerpt from Upworthy - 

Reflections from a token black friend

By Ramesh A. Nagarajah

I am regularly the only black kid in the photo. I have mastered the well-timed black joke, fit to induce a guilty "you thought it but couldn't say it" laugh from my white peers. I know all the words to "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers.

I am a token black friend. The black one in the group of white people. This title is not at all a comment on the depth of my relationships; I certainly am blessed to have the friends that I do. But by all definitions of the term, I am in many ways its poster child. And given the many conversations occurring right now around systemic racism, it would feel wrong not to use my position as a respected friend within a multitude of different white communities to contribute to the current dialogue. I believe my story speaks directly to the covert nature of the new breed of racism — its structural side, along with implicit bias — and may prove helpful to many I know who seek a better understanding.

Growing up, I lived in the inner city of Boston, in Roxbury. I attended school in the suburbs through a program called METCO — the longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country, which began in the late 1960s. My two siblings and I attended school in Weston, Massachusetts, one of the nation's wealthiest towns. The place quickly became our second home, and alongside Boston, I would count it equally as the place I was raised. All three of us did very well by all standards. We had all been co-presidents of the school, my brother and I were both football captains, and all three of us went on to top-end universities.

For those wondering about the structural side of systemic racism, I'd ask you to consider a few questions. First: Why does METCO still exist? Segregation ended more than 60 years ago, yet there is a still a fully functioning integration program in our state. We haven't come very far at all. Many of our schools remain nearly as segregated as they were in the 1960s.

Second: What is the point? Weston improves its diversity. Without us, most of Weston's students would go through all those years seeing possibly three or four local black faces in their schools (and that's the reality for many white people in this country). As for the Boston students, most of whom are black, they receive a much higher-quality education. Property taxes, a structural form of racism meant to allow segregation to endure, have ensured that while schools have grown increasingly better in our suburbs, the inner-city schools continue to struggle with resources, attendance, and graduation rates.

https://www.upworthy.com/reflections-of-a-token-black-friend

Charts of Racial Disparities

From USA Today - 

12 charts show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond

When people talk about systemic racism, they mean systemic: impacting institutions, policies and outcomes across all aspects of Black Americans' lives.

By Mabinty Quarshie, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Anne Godlasky, Jim Sergent, and Veronica Bravo, USA TODAY

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/06/18/12-charts-racial-disparities-persist-across-wealth-health-and-beyond/3201129001/

Black Daddies

An excerpt from the Washinton Post - 

A dad posted joyful photos of black fathers to shatter stereotypes. Then it became a movement.

By Sydney Page 

Williams aimed to debunk the misconception of black fatherhood by creating an initiative called The Dad Gang.

He began by posting photos of him and his kids, now ages 15, 4 and 3, on social media. Then he started posting photos of other black fathers he knew.

“It started as an Instagram page, with the goal of focusing exclusively on positive stories, images and videos of active black dads,” Williams said. “I wanted to showcase the reality of black fatherhood and rewrite the narrative.”

When he and some friends called out to black fathers to share their stories, submissions started overflowing.

The account, which now has more than 86,000 followers, features dads doing it all: From braiding hair to dancing, teaching to cooking, The Dad Gang Instagram page shows black fathers collectively smashing the stereotype.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/19/dad-posted-joyful-photos-black-fathers-shatter-stereotypes-then-it-became-movement/

 

View this post on Instagram

Feel good post of the day. 😃 Dad and baby got the moves! . #THEDADGANG

A post shared by THE DAD GANG ™ (@thedadgang) on May 16, 2020 at 6:42am PDT

Reign of Terror

An excerpt from National Geographic - 

Remembering ‘Red Summer,’ when white mobs massacred Blacks from Tulsa to D.C.

The U.S. was gripped by a reign of racial terror after World War I, when whites rose up to quash prosperous Black communities.

BY DENEEN L. BROWN

A group of white women beat a group of Black women with sticks and stones as they begged “for mercy,” Hurd wrote. But the white women “laughed and answered the coarse sallies of men as they beat the negresses’ faces and breasts with fists, stones and sticks.”

The East St. Louis Massacre launched a reign of racial terror throughout the U.S. that historians say stretched from 1917 to 1923, when the all-Black town of Rosewood, Florida, was destroyed. During that period, known as the Red Summer, at least 97 lynchings were recorded, thousands of Black people were killed, and thousands of Black-owned homes and businesses were burned to the ground. Fire and fury fueled massacres in at least 26 cities, including Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; Omaha, Nebraska; Elaine, Arkansas; Charleston, South Carolina; Columbia, Tennessee; Houston, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/06/remembering-red-summer-white-mobs-massacred-blacks-tulsa-dc/#close

Black Violin - Lift Every Voice and Sing

Powerful Reflections

Please take the time to read this in its entirety.  It's too powerful to cherry-pick an excerpt.

Reflections on the Color of My Skin

By Neil deGrasse Tyson

https://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/commentary/2020-06-03-reflections-on-color-of-my-skin.php

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Will Smith - Just The Two Of Us (Official Video)

2004: The Murder of Emmett Till

2018 - Inside the memorial to victims of lynching

Tulsa's Black Wall Street massacre

What is Juneteenth?

Ways To Help

From the Strategist - 

135 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color

The Editors

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-for-black-lives-matter.html

Covid vs. Police Violence

An excerpt from GQ - 

I've Spent Months Fighting Coronavirus in the ER. Police Violence Is What Really Scares Me

For a Black doctor, simply getting to the hospital feels like the most dangerous part.  

BY DR. DARIEN SUTTON-RAMSEY

I’m an emergency medicine physician in New York City—one of the only Black physicians in the entire emergency department at my hospital. While many New Yorkers followed shelter-in-place orders, I’ve been called to work to help heal the people afflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. I drive to work, and lately, compared to typical New York City traffic, the roads are empty. You might think this was a relief for me, but it was the opposite. I may have a shorter commute, but I’m a Black man behind the wheel when law enforcement and the government have ordered us to stay home. Stay-at-home rules have been enforced much more harshly against Black people, and I am aware that I am very much a moving target.

https://www.gq.com/story/making-myself-essential

Ivy League Student Who Grew Up Homeless Tells Her Inspiring Story

No Baby Critters, Please!

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

View this post on Instagram

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"

View this post on Instagram

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

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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/