Saturday, November 28, 2020
Agreed?
From Time -
The 10 Best Movies Based on a True Story
By the Time Staff
https://time.com/5910721/best-movies-based-on-true-story/
The First DACA Rhodes Scholar
An excerpt from CNN -
This student just became the first Latino DACA recipient to win the Rhodes Scholarship. He says it's all because of his elementary school teacher
By Nora Neus, CNN
(CNN) In second grade, Santiago Potes walked into Marina Esteva's gifted and talented classroom at Sweetwater Elementary School in Miami, Florida, for the first time.
He was an undocumented immigrant from Colombia who entered the country when he was 4 years old. Esteva said she quickly noticed his intelligence and wanted to nurture him toward success.
Now, Potes is the first Latino DACA recipient to be awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
On Saturday, the Rhodes Trust announced that Potes, a 2020 graduate of Columbia University in New York, would be one of the 2021 Rhodes Scholars.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/26/us/santiago-potes-latino-daca-rhodes-scholarship/index.html
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Top Black Grad!
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
STUDENT WHO TOOK 21 AP COURSES BECOMES THE FIRST BLACK MALE VALEDICTORIAN AT HIS HIGH SCHOOL
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
Congratulations Rawlin Lee Tate Jr. This is something to be truly proud of! 🎓🎆 https://t.co/jObG4Uo7sb
— Jennifer Jones Newbill (she/her/hers) ✨ (@JenNewbill) November 17, 2020
https://www.blackenterprise.com/student-who-took-21-ap-courses-becomes-the-first-black-male-valedictorian-at-his-high-school/
No Licking!
Oh hi, moose. We have strict instructions about your snack habits. #jasper #Alberta 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/xSNo7YBrXS
— Carolyn Campbell (@_CLCampbell) November 15, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/americas/canada-warns-moose-lick-cars-trnd/index.html
Even the Robots Are Biased
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Can We Make Our Robots Less Biased Than We Are?
A.I. developers are committing to end the injustices in how their technology is often made and used.
By David Berreby
 |
| Chris S. Crawford, a computer scientist at the University of Alabama. “I personally was in Silicon Valley when some of these technologies were being developed,” he said, and more than once, “I would sit down and they would test it on me, and it wouldn’t work. And I was like, You know why it’s not working, right?”Credit...Wes Frazer for The New York Times Over the past decade, evidence has accumulated that “bias is the original sin of A.I,” Dr. Howard notes in her 2020 audiobook, “Sex, Race and Robots.” Facial-recognition systems have been shown to be more accurate in identifying white faces than those of other people. (In January, one such system told the Detroit police that it had matched photos of a suspected thief with the driver’s license photo of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams, a Black man with no connection to the crime.) There are A.I. systems enabling self-driving cars to detect pedestrians — last year Benjamin Wilson of Georgia Tech and his colleagues found that eight such systems were worse at recognizing people with darker skin tones than paler ones. Joy Buolamwini, the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and a graduate researcher at the M.I.T. Media Lab, has encountered interactive robots at two different laboratories that failed to detect her. (For her work with such a robot at M.I.T., she wore a white mask in order to be seen.) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/science/artificial-intelligence-robots-racism-police.html |
Kaep's Message
1,363 days of being denied employment.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) November 23, 2020
Still putting in work with @E_Reid35
Still going hard 5 days a week. #StillReady#StopRunning pic.twitter.com/iMeJ03IRuB
Free Period Products
Proud to vote for this groundbreaking legislation, making Scotland the first country in the world to provide free period products for all who need them. An important policy for women and girls. Well done to @MonicaLennon7 @ClydesdAileen and all who worked to make it happen https://t.co/4lckZ4ZYIY
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 24, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/world/europe/scotland-free-period-products.html
"Racism is a Public Health Threat"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/23/racism-public-health-threat-american-medical-association/6400945002/
Monday, November 16, 2020
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Another First
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
MEET THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO RECEIVE A PH.D. IN NEUROSCIENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
by Dana Givens
 |
| Image via University of Rochester Alumni |
Dr. Monique Mendes has become the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Rochester. The Jamaican-born, first-generation college graduate says the announcement came as a shock to her, not even realizing she had done so until informed.
“I didn’t know I was the first Black woman, but I’m excited,” said Mendes to Diversity Education. “I feel empowered; I really want other students in the Rochester city schools, just around Rochester that are Black, who are people of color that know that this is possible and that they can pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience.”
Her desire to obtain her degree came after she became apart of the McNair Scholars Program at the University of Florida, a program designed to help undergraduate students from low-income and marginalized backgrounds offering financial assistance in addition to mentorship to help them prepare for their doctoral degree. From there, her interest grew and she became more immersed in studying the complexities of the brain, hoping to establish a career in neuroscience.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/meet-the-first-black-woman-to-receive-a-ph-d-in-neuroscience-from-the-university-of-rochester/
The Youngest Composer for the NY Philharmonic
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
THIS 12-YEAR-OLD IS SET TO BECOME ONE OF THE YOUNGEST COMPOSERS FOR THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
by Dana Givens
Teaching music to children has been said to offer positive growth during their early development. For one Brooklyn girl, her love for music led her to continue her dream toward composing original work while achieving remarkable milestones.
Grace Moore is a young musician who is poised for greatness and achieved a huge milestone this week. WPIX 11 reported that the seventh-grader is one of the youngest composers to enter the New York Philharmonic. Moore is enrolled in the organization’s Very Young Composers program designed to teach participants as young as 8-years-old how to create original scores. The members of the program will also get to see their work performed by professional musicians in the orchestra.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/this-12-year-old-is-set-to-become-one-of-the-youngest-composers-for-the-new-york-philharmonic-orchestra/
Making History @ Annapolis
An excerpt from CBS Baltimore -
Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber Will Be The First Black Woman To Lead US Naval Academy’s Brigade
By CBS Baltimore Staff
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — For the first time, a Black woman will serve as the U.S. Naval Academy’s brigade commander.
Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber will be the commander for the spring semester, the academy’s commandant said.
Credit: US Naval Academy
The first female brigade commander ever was then-Midshipman Juliane Gallina, who served in 1991.
Barber, a graduate of Lake Forest High School in Illinois, is a mechanical engineering major and aspires to commission as a Marine Corps ground officer.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/11/09/midshipman-1st-class-sydney-barber-will-be-the-first-black-woman-to-lead-us-naval-academys-brigade/
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Saturday, October 31, 2020
April 7, 2020
Was April 7, 2020 the day that sealed the fate of America?
By Thom Hartmann
On April 18, Bob Woodward recorded Jared Kushner saying that Trump had taken control away from the doctors and was going to open the country back up. So what might have provoked that? What was happening right around that time?
Trump’s official national emergency declaration came on March 11, and most of the country shut down or at least went partway toward that outcome. The economy crashed and millions of Americans were laid off, but saving lives was, after all, the number one consideration.
Trump put medical doctors on TV daily, the media was freaking out about refrigerated trucks carrying bodies away from New York hospitals, and doctors and nurses were our new national heroes.
And then came April 7, 2020, when the New York Times ran a front-page story with the headline: “Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States.”
Across the American media landscape, similar headlines appeared at other outlets, and the story was heavily reported on cable news and the network news that night. White American conservatives responded with a collective, “What the hell?!?”
Rush Limbaugh declared soon after that “with the coronavirus, I have been waiting for the racial component. … The coronavirus now hits African Americans harder—harder than illegal aliens, harder than women. It hits African Americans harder than anybody, disproportionate representation.”
It didn’t take a medical savant, of course, to figure out that would be the case. African Americans die at disproportionately higher rates from everything, from heart disease to strokes to cancer to childbirth.
~~~~~
Tucker Carlson, the only primetime Fox News host who’d previously expressed serious concerns about the death toll, changed his tune the same day, as documented by Media Matters for America.
Now, he said, “we can begin to consider how to improve the lives of the rest, the countless Americans who have been grievously hurt by this, by our response to this. How do we get 17 million of our most vulnerable citizens back to work? That’s our task.”
White people were out of work, and Black people were most of the casualties, outside of the extremely elderly. And those white people need their jobs back!
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/was-april-7-2020-the-day-that-sealed-the-fate-of-america/
At 102 years old, my great aunt, born the year of our last great #pandemic, made her way to the ballot box to cast her #vote. If she can do it, you can too! #Vote #VoteEarly #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/3nFCB3c4Ei
— Quentin Youmans (@QuentinYoumans) October 21, 2020
Then and Now
https://www.boredpanda.com/young-celebrities-kids-then-and-now-digital-art-ard-gelinck/
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Blacks Pay More
An excerpt from Complex -
Study Shows Black Americans Are Paying More to Own Homes
BYJOE PRICE
In a new study from MIT, it has been reported that Black Americans are often forced to pay more than any other group of individuals to own a home.
CNN reports that Black homeowners on average pay more in mortgage interest, mortgage insurance, and property taxes than other homeowners. Written by Edward Golding, MIT's executive director of the Golub Center for Finance and Policy, the paper concludes that the vast difference between what Black homeowners and white homeowners pay indicates that it's considerably more difficult for Black homeowners to accumulate wealth through ownership at the same rate as white homeowners.
The differences between mortgage payments is $743 per year, mortgage insurance premiums $550 per year, and property taxes at $390 per year. Totaling $13,464 "over the life of the line," the gap could result in up to $67,320 in lost retirement savings.
"The small differences compounding over the life of the mortgage and during home ownership can add up," writes Golding. "Even if it is a few hundred dollars a year here and there, it can amount to another year's salary families would otherwise have."
https://www.complex.com/life/2020/10/black-americans-pay-more-to-own-homes-study-shows
A Hotel Where Women Reign
An excerpt from Insider -
A new hotel in DC features a Ruth Bader Ginsburg portrait made from 20,000 hand-painted tampons — and that's not even the wildest design
By Melissa Wiley
Called Hotel Zena, it features over 60 bold and provocative artworks dedicated to female empowerment and those who have fought for women's rights.
 |
| View of the exterior of Hotel Zena, seen from Thomas Circle in northwest Washington, DC. Hotel Zena |
https://www.insider.com/dc-women-rights-hotel-features-ruth-bader-ginsburg-portraity-2020-10#called-hotel-zena-it-features-over-60-bold-and-provocative-artworks-dedicated-to-female-empowerment-and-those-who-have-fought-for-womens-rights-2
HBCU Virtual College Fair
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Black students in California offered CSU, UC alternatives at HBCU virtual college fair
BY MARCUS D. SMITH
President and CEO Dr. Alan Rowe and his wife, Donna, founded the U-CAN foundation in 1988 when looking to enroll their son in a four-year college or university. They realized the limited resources and programs for Black students and started a foundation that would shape scholars in Sacramento – and California – for the next 40 years.
The HBCU college fair has now expanded throughout the entire state of California.
The United College Action Network (U-CAN) is hosting its 21st Annual Historically Black College and University (HBCU) College Fair online, in accordance with public health regulations.
U-CAN’s goal is to give California’s Black student population the opportunity to attend a four-year university. What started with just five students admitted in 1989 has grown to thousands of students accepted to various HBCUs across the country with their on-the-spot admission annual college fair.
The fair began on Wednesday and will end on Saturday. Registration is free and available every day of the virtual fair online at ucangotocollege.org.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/article246425780.html
Expelled From 10 Schools - Now Ph.D.
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
THIS BLACK MAN GRADUATED WITH HIS PH.D. AFTER BEING EXPELLED FROM 10 SCHOOLS
by Dana Givens
 |
| Image via Tommie Mabry |
The pursuit of higher education looks different for each person—with so many barriers standing in the way of obtaining a college degree for many marginalized groups. One man was able to beat all of the odds from his upbringing and is now celebrating earning his Ph.D.
As a child, Dr. Tommie Mabry was expelled from 10 different schools all before entering high school. Fast forward to December 2019, he was able to celebrate a huge milestone, finally obtaining his Ph.D. after a difficult journey of pursuing his education.
“My mom and dad [have] all my books in their house, they’re proud and they’ve come to all my graduations. Hopefully, if God says the same, they will be there at my Ph.D. graduation in December,” Mabry told Because Of Them We Can. “My mom said she didn’t think I would make it and now [I’m] the only doctor she knows.”
https://www.blackenterprise.com/this-black-man-graduated-with-his-ph-d-after-being-expelled-from-10-schools/
The Million Man March - 25 Years Ago
From Esquire -
The Million Man March Inspired a Generation. Here Are Photos From the Historic Event.
On Oct. 16, 1995, Black men from across the country marched on Washington, D.C.
By The Esquire Editors
 |
| Attendees at the Million Man March carried signs and raised their fists in the symbol for Black power. |
Oct. 16, 2020 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Million Man March, an event in which Black men from across the country poured into Washington, D.C. as a sign of unity. The event was massive. More than 11,000 buses delivered passengers in the days ahead of the event, according to the New York Times, with planes and trains ferrying even more. Celebrities like Will Smith, Stevie Wonder, and Diddy (then Puff Daddy) attended, along with civil rights icons like Jesse Jackson Jr. and Al Sharpton.
“I lost my mind,” Virgil Killebrew, who attended the march, told USA Today. “It wasn’t the speeches. It was the excitement. ... You felt the truth of all these people saying, ‘Black Power.’”
 |
| A wide shot of the National Mall on the day of the March. |
The Nation's Most Pressing Problem
An excerpt from the NY Times -
END OUR NATIONAL CRISIS The Case Against Donald Trump
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Mr. Trump stands without any real rivals as the worst American president in modern history. In 2016, his bitter account of the nation’s ailments struck a chord with many voters. But the lesson of the last four years is that he cannot solve the nation’s pressing problems because he is the nation’s most pressing problem.
He is a racist demagogue presiding over an increasingly diverse country; an isolationist in an interconnected world; a showman forever boasting about things he has never done, and promising to do things he never will.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/16/opinion/donald-trump-worst-president.html
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Sunday, October 11, 2020
This NEW Biden-Harris ad featuring 14 Black mayors from across the country is straight fire!! 🔥🔥🔥 #BlackLivesMatter #BidenHarris2020 pic.twitter.com/qMlWUUoCVo
— ✊🏾 ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER ✊🏾 (@flywithkamala) October 10, 2020
Architecture in Black
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
MEET THE BLACK WOMAN BEHIND ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S FEW BLACK-OWNED ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
by Dana Givens
 |
| Image via Purpose Brands |
Architecture is an extremely difficult field to enter, especially for people of color. In a 2018 report from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board, nonwhite architecture professionals are 25% more likely to stop pursuing licensure with a nonwhite professional representing 45% of participants in the Architectural Experience Program. Black women are an even smaller margin when it comes to diversity within the sector. One woman decided to take her savings to start her career in architecture and is now celebrating 30 years in the business.
Deryl McKissack is the owner of McKissack & McKissack, a firm responsible for overseeing construction projects including the Obama Presidential Center, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Lincoln, and several Martin Luther King, Jr. memorials. In an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, McKissack shares her story about getting into the architecture field and the importance of diversity in the sector.
BE: What inspired you to get into architecture?
McKissack: Architecture was in my blood. I’m the fifth generation in our family to go into the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) business. My great-great-grandfather, a freed slave, was a builder, as was his son, my great-grandfather. His son, my grandfather, was the first Black registered architect in Tennessee. And my father, also a registered architect, would take me and my twin sister to work with him when we were 6, prop us up on his drawing boards and teach us how to draw details, do schedules, use Leroy lettering, make legends, and everything else. By the time we were 13, he was using our drawings.
My sister and I both went to Howard University on academic scholarships as double-majors in architecture and engineering. But I was more drawn to the practical side of things—how buildings work—and eventually made engineering my major. After I graduated, I went to work at an engineering firm.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/meet-the-black-woman-behind-the-countrys-few-black-owned-architecture-firm/
To Be Young, Gifted & Black 2
An excerpt from the Root -
Thanks to This 16-Year-Old Author, Black Girls at Predominantly White Schools Are Telling Their Stories
By Janelle Harris Dixon
 |
| Image: LifeSlice Media, Photo: Courtesy of Olivia V.G. Clarke |
If you’ve never been Black surrounded by a constant overwhelm of White—at school, your place of work, in your neighborhood—just know there can never be enough memoirs, screenplays, or comedies to exhaust the complex experience. You are ever a racial ambassador, an explainer of non-white culturisms, a human Google for thoughtless questions, a pioneering barrier-breaker of beliefs about what Black people do and don’t do. (Once when I was pseudo-swimming in a friend’s backyard pool, a white woman gasped as I adjusted my bathing suit straps and exclaimed, “I didn’t know Black people got tanned!”)
Sixteen-year-old Olivia V.G. Clarke has lived the experience. A graduating senior at Columbus School for Girls, a predominantly white institution in Columbus, Ohio, she’s spent seven of her formative years navigating racial politics. The idea to write about it hit her when she was walking home with her mom.
“I said, ‘how cool would it be to have a book to help other [Black] girls in predominantly white institutions, who either go to one or graduated or are preparing to go? And just have stories, anecdotes and poems to help them feel supported?”
Black Girl, White School: Thriving, Surviving and No, You Can’t Touch My Hair, a 123-page anthology of poems, essays and reflections from contributors ranging from middle-school age to college students, is the creative dividend of that conversation. To represent a range of experiences, Clarke posted a call for writers on social media, reached out to friends and her parents’ friends, and girls she’d met in school, camps and other activities.
https://theglowup.theroot.com/thanks-to-this-16-year-old-author-black-girls-at-predo-1845323110
From Janitor to Nurse Practitioner
An excerpt from Goalcast -
Woman Becomes Nurse Practitioner At The Same Hospital She Used To Clean
By Kawter
Achieving your dreams has no age limit, but sometimes, life gets in the way and we forget just how possible it is. That’s why stories of real life people who overcame all odds to achieve their goals are a strong reminders that we can do it, no matter what.
Such is the story of Jaines Andrades, who in 10 years, went from custodian to nurse practitioner in the very same hospital she used to clean at.
https://www.goalcast.com/2020/10/08/woman-becomes-nurse-practitioner-at-the-same-hospital-she-used-to-clean/
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Young, Gifted & Black
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
THIS 12-YEAR OLD JUST STARTED HIS 2ND YEAR IN COLLEGE, MAJORING IN AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
 |
| image: BlackBusiness.com |
Caleb Anderson, a 12-year old gifted boy from Georgia, has already finished his first year in college and has just started his second year. He is majoring in Aerospace Engineering at Chattahoochee Technical College.
Caleb was just 9-months old when he learned to sign more than 250 words. He eventually learned to speak and read when he turned 11-months old. Aside from the English language, he also learned Spanish, French, and Mandarin.
Caleb’s parents, Claire and Kobi, knew he was special and has been very supportive of him ever since.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/this-12-year-old-just-started-his-2nd-year-in-college-majoring-in-aerospace-engineering/
A Generous Class Act
An excerpt from ESPN -
Houston Rockets' Russell Westbrook leaves $8,000 tip for bubble hotel staff, per report
On his way out of the NBA bubble, Rockets star Russell Westbrook left the housekeepers at the Grand Floridian hotel an $8,000 tip, the Dallas Morning News reported.
By Royce Young
On his way out of the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida, Houston Rockets star Russell Westbrook wanted to show his appreciation for the housekeepers of the Grand Floridian hotel, and he did it with an $8,000 tip, according to the Dallas Morning News.
"They took great care of us," Westbrook told Bleacher Report, confirming the tip. "Took the time and energy to do their job at a high level. That was the right thing. I like to do the right thing."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30056301/houston-rockets-russell-westbrook-leaves-8000-tip-bubble-hotel-staff-per-report
Saturday, October 3, 2020
A Family Photo at the Door
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
I keep a family photo at my front door. It’ll stay there until toxic attitudes toward Black lives go away.
Opinion by Michele L. Norris
I keep a framed family photo next to my front door, positioned on a table, so you see it as soon as you enter. It captures a moment of joy while on vacation. We’re leaning on each other, smiling wide. Family Strong.
I keep that picture by the entry in case police ever enter my home, they know that the people in that photo belong in the house where they live.
That paragraph you just read is a litmus test. Some of you will read these words and wonder, “Why would she ever do that?”
But some of you will read this and nod your head in recognition. Or perhaps conclude, “Maybe I should do that, too.”
Those of us in that second category are not worried about police entering our home because we’re engaged in criminal behavior. We worry — actually, we know, that we could be seen as criminals or intruders in our own homes even if we consistently and even obsessively live by the rules. A steady stream of raids-gone-wrong buttresses those fears and yet it goes far beyond all that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-keep-a-family-photo-at-my-front-door-itll-stay-there-until-toxic-attitudes-toward-black-lives-go-away/2020/09/28/0e9027fe-01bb-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html
Swearing Birds
An excerpt from CNN -
Parrots in wildlife park moved after swearing at visitors
By Rob Picheta
London (CNN) — Five parrots have been removed from public view at a British wildlife park after they started swearing at customers.
The foul-mouthed birds were split up after they launched a number of different expletives at visitors and staff just days after being donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England.
"It just went ballistic, they were all swearing," the venue's chief executive Steve Nichols told CNN Travel on Tuesday. "We were a little concerned about the children."
"I get called a fat t**t every time I walk past," Nichols complained.
The African grey parrots -- named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson and Billy -- were given to the park from five different owners within the same week, and shared a quarantining facility together before being placed on display.
But staff immediately noticed that the birds shared a propensity to fly off the handle.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/swearing-parrots-moved-park-scli-gbr-intl/index.html
Monday, September 21, 2020
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Is Racism the Reason?
An excerpt from Deadspin -
Racism is Why Your Favorite Team Might Have Drafted a Sorry White Quarterback
By Carron J. Phillips
This is not a story about Black quarterbacks.
It’s a story about how your favorite team may have a mediocre, on his best day, white quarterback because your general manager drafted him over the really good Black quarterback you could have had.
Life is all about decisions.
When Deshaun Watson signed his four-year, $177.54 million deal on Saturday, with over $111 million guaranteed, it meant that, for now, no one in the NFL will make more than him over the next four years.
That led to Field Yates dropping these staggering numbers in this tweet.
The highest-paid QB in the NFL on average money per new year:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 5, 2020
1. Patrick Mahomes: $45M
2. Deshaun Watson: $39M
3. Russell Wilson: $35M
4. Ben Roethlisberger: $34M
T-5. Aaron Rodgers: $33.5M
T-5. Jared Goff: $33.5M
Due to be paid soon QBs include: Lamar Jackson & Dak Prescott.
Of the six highest-paid quarterbacks on average money per year, the top three are all Black, and the list doesn’t even include the large paydays that Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott are headed for.
But this isn’t about the Haves. It’s about the Have Nots.
Here’s a look at some of the franchises that blew it all because they wanted basic white guys to lead their teams instead of the Black quarterbacks that are rolling in the dough.
https://deadspin.com/racism-is-why-your-favorite-team-might-have-drafted-a-s-1844970698
Black-Owned Bulletproof Vests
From Black Enterprise -
BLACK-OWNED LINE OF BULLETPROOF VESTS FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN SEES 400% INCREASE IN SALES
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
Thyk Skynn, a Black-owned line of fashionable bulletproof vests for men, women, and children, has seen a nearly 400 percent increase in sales over the past few weeks as Americans continue to grow concerned about their protection from police shootings and other random acts of violence.
Mike Tyree, the founder and CEO of Thyk Skynn, was a police officer in the city of Atlanta for 9 years. He says he left his career and decided to start the business to give innocent people a safe way to peacefully protect themselves.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-owned-line-of-bulletproof-vests-for-adults-and-children-sees-400-increase-in-sales/
For more information about Thyk Skynn, visit www.thykskynn.com or follow the brand on Instagram @ThykSkynn
Young, Black, and Rich
From Women's Health Magazine -
'Black Girl Sunscreen' Founder Shontay Lundy Became A Self-Made Millionaire By Taking Risks. But she doesn’t do 7 a.m. meetings.
BY SHONTAY LUNDY, AS TOLD TO ALEXIS JONES
Monday, September 14, 2020
Dog Goes to School
rudy goes to doggy school every day on a bus and he loves it
— Humor And Animals (@humorandanimals) September 10, 2020
(jukin copyright management) pic.twitter.com/SuIO0I6XMT
A Powerful Message
From David Brooks -
“It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love? We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character.”
― David Brooks, The Road to Character
BREAKING NEWS: The@MiamiDolphins players will stay inside for both national anthems. They express their discontentment with what they call “fluff and empty gestures” by the @NFL pic.twitter.com/ghUktHhPt9
— Jay Williams (@RealJayWilliams) September 10, 2020
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Sunday, September 6, 2020
Chadwick Boseman
https://hypebeast.com/2020/9/marvel-chadwick-boseman-official-tribute-art-black-panther-2-potential-recasting
Famous Recipes
From the Food Network -
Copy That! Secret Restaurant Recipes
Make your favorite chain restaurant dishes at home with these copycat recipes, created by Food Network Magazine.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/photos/copy-that-secret-restaurant-recipes
A Class Act
This is the first message Chadwick Boseman sent to my son in 2017. He had already been diagnosed with colon cancer, unknown to anyone. Amazing. 🙏🏾💜✊🏾😭 pic.twitter.com/2Tb4V2O8bN
— Brian Hammond (@_Bro_Hamm_) August 29, 2020
Hanging Tree Guitars
From the Bitter Southerner -
Freeman Vines: Hanging Tree Guitars
https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/hanging-tree-guitars?utm_source=The+Bitter+News&utm_campaign=d78a45fc20-2020_09_01_HOUSE_THAT_CARVING_BUILT&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8269ec3593-d78a45fc20-92175213&goal=0_8269ec3593-d78a45fc20-92175213&mc_cid=d78a45fc20&mc_eid=0b6dd8ed2d
How to Vote in Every State
From Slate -
The Best Way to Vote in Every State
An extremely comprehensive guide to making sure your ballot gets counted, no matter where in America you live.
By MOLLY OLMSTEAD and MARK JOSEPH STERN
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/2020-voting-guide.html
The Marines Have a Problem
An excerpt from the NY Times -
The Few, the Proud, the White: The Marine Corps Balks at Promoting Generals of Color
A respected, combat-tested Black colonel has been passed over three times for promotion to brigadier general. What does his fate say about the Corps?
By Helene Cooper
WASHINGTON — All things being equal, Col. Anthony Henderson has the military background that the Marine Corps says it prizes in a general: multiple combat tours, leadership experience and the respect of those he commanded and most who commanded him.
Yet three times he has been passed over for brigadier general, a prominent one-star rank that would put Colonel Henderson on the path to the top tier of Marine Corps leadership. Last year, the Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, even added a handwritten recommendation to Colonel Henderson’s candidacy: “Eminently qualified Marine we need now as BG,” he wrote.
But never in its history has the Marine Corps had anyone other than a white man in its most senior leadership posts. Colonel Henderson is Black.
“Tony Henderson has done everything you could do in the Marines except get a hand salute from Jesus Christ himself,” said Milton D. Whitfield Sr., a former Marine gunnery sergeant who served for 21 years.
Proud and fierce in their identity, the Marines have a singular race problem that critics say is rooted in decades of resistance to change. As the nation reels this summer from protests challenging centuries-long perceptions of race, the Marines — who have long cultivated a reputation as the United States’ strongest fighting force — remain an institution where a handful of white men rule over 185,000 white, African-American, Hispanic and Asian men and women.
“It took an act of Congress last year to get them to integrate by gender at the platoon level,” said Representative Anthony G. Brown, Democrat of Maryland and a former Army helicopter pilot. “And now they continue to hold onto that 1950s vision of who Marines are.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/us/politics/marines-race-general.html
Mama Said
An excerpt from Bored Panda -
Indian Mom Goes Viral After Son Convinces Her To Put Her Worldly Wisdom On Signs And Share It On IG (30 Pics)
By Jonas Grinevičius and Ilona Baliūnaitė
The world really needs more heartwarming people like Poonam Sapra and her son Pranav. Especially in 2020. Together, the mother-son duo from India runs the ‘Mother With Sign’ Instagram page. They post photos of Poonam holding up signs with wholesome, relatable, and humorous motherly advice for living a good, healthy, and happy life.
They started the page 8 months ago and, since then, they’ve gained a whopping 108k followers. What’s more, they even got the attention of the Humans of Bombay IG account that has over 1.1 million avid fans. Poonam and Pranav’s content is nearly universal because the world’s filled with moms who constantly give out helpful advice.
https://www.boredpanda.com/mother-with-sign-poonam-sapra/