An excerpt from OZY -
WHICH LEADER SNUBBED JESSE OWENS? HINT: IT WASN'T HITLER
By James Watkins
Adolf Hitler famously refused to shake Owens’ hand, not wanting the humiliation of acknowledging a Black athlete’s brilliance, or so the story goes. But the truth is that, after the first day of competition, Hitler didn’t shake any athlete’s hand because the head of the International Olympic Committee told him he must congratulate all gold medalists or none at all. Sure, the führer wasn’t keen on photo ops with Black or Jewish athletes, but he simply chose to steer clear of the stadium altogether. So Owens was never personally snubbed by Hitler, but his story is still defined by systematic racism — not in Nazi Germany, but in the United States.
After the Olympics, in which 18 African-American athletes competed with record-breaking success, only white athletes were invited to meet President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the White House. It was an election year, and FDR “did not want to be perceived as being soft on the negro issue,” says Harry Edwards, a sociologist and campaigner for Black participation in professional sports. The most decorated American athlete of the Games, Owens had to enter his own celebratory reception at the Waldorf Astoria through the freight elevator. After being banned from amateur competition because he declined to take part in a post-Olympics promotional tour, and with no professional opportunities or sponsorships, Owens worked as a playground janitor. He would later work as a gas station attendant before eventually filing for bankruptcy and being prosecuted for tax evasion. Owens began smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, a habit that would eventually kill him.
http://www.ozy.com/the-huddle/which-leader-snubbed-jesse-owens-hint-it-wasnt-hitler/71998
Monday, April 24, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Fueled by Taunts
From the Washington Post -
These robotics students were told ‘to go back to Mexico.’ The taunt only fueled their success.
By Kristine Phillips
Just a few months ago, not many knew about these five fourth-graders from a low-income community in Indianapolis.
But now, the Panther Bots, a thriving robotics team at Pleasant Run Elementary School, have become the face of a success story about a group of kids who were taunted with racial slurs but were too determined to let that affect their confidence. Earlier this month, they found themselves being honored on the Senate floor of the Indiana Statehouse. The group travels to Louisville on Sunday to compete in a worldwide robotics contest.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/04/23/these-robotics-students-were-told-to-go-back-to-mexico-the-taunt-only-fueled-their-success/?utm_term=.c0e0ecee6c44&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1
These robotics students were told ‘to go back to Mexico.’ The taunt only fueled their success.
By Kristine Phillips
Just a few months ago, not many knew about these five fourth-graders from a low-income community in Indianapolis.
But now, the Panther Bots, a thriving robotics team at Pleasant Run Elementary School, have become the face of a success story about a group of kids who were taunted with racial slurs but were too determined to let that affect their confidence. Earlier this month, they found themselves being honored on the Senate floor of the Indiana Statehouse. The group travels to Louisville on Sunday to compete in a worldwide robotics contest.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/04/23/these-robotics-students-were-told-to-go-back-to-mexico-the-taunt-only-fueled-their-success/?utm_term=.c0e0ecee6c44&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1
See Your Mail Before It Arrives
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2017/04/20/postal-service-offers-look-your-mail-before-arrives/100693104/
Signs of the Times
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| March for Science Rally, Paris - April 22, 2017 Francois Guillot, AFP/Getty Images |
Friday, April 21, 2017
The Invisible Monument at UC Berkeley
An excerpt from 99percentinvisible.org -
Be sure to check out the podcast that accompanies this article. It came be found on the bottom of the page.
The Invisible Monument to Free Speech
“This soil and the air space extending above it shall not be a part of any nation and shall not be subject to any entity’s jurisdiction.”
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-22-the-invisible-monument-to-free-speech/
From Atlas Obscura - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/free-speech-monument
From RoadsideAmerica - http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/30278
Be sure to check out the podcast that accompanies this article. It came be found on the bottom of the page.
The Invisible Monument to Free Speech
“This soil and the air space extending above it shall not be a part of any nation and shall not be subject to any entity’s jurisdiction.”
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-22-the-invisible-monument-to-free-speech/
From Atlas Obscura - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/free-speech-monument
From RoadsideAmerica - http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/30278
From Prisoner to Law Professor
From the Washington Post -
He robbed banks and went to prison. His time there put him on track for a new job: Georgetown law professor.
By Susan Svrluga
Hopwood’s new job as a tenure-track faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center is only the latest improbable twist in a remarkable life: In the last 20 years, he has robbed banks in small towns in Nebraska, spent 11 years in federal prison, written a legal petition for a fellow inmate so incisive that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, done that again, earned undergraduate and law degrees and extremely competitive clerkships, written a book, married his hometown crush and started a family.
But this could be his most compelling role yet. His time in prison gave him a searing understanding of the impact of sentencing and the dramatic growth in incarceration in the United States, an unusual perspective on the law that allows him to see things other lawyers overlook. And he takes the job at a time when criminal-justice issues have real urgency, from lawmakers to protesters to students.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/21/bank-robber-turned-georgetown-law-professor-is-just-getting-started-on-his-goals/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_georgetown1100am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.dd54e4087b44
He robbed banks and went to prison. His time there put him on track for a new job: Georgetown law professor.
By Susan Svrluga
Hopwood’s new job as a tenure-track faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center is only the latest improbable twist in a remarkable life: In the last 20 years, he has robbed banks in small towns in Nebraska, spent 11 years in federal prison, written a legal petition for a fellow inmate so incisive that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, done that again, earned undergraduate and law degrees and extremely competitive clerkships, written a book, married his hometown crush and started a family.
But this could be his most compelling role yet. His time in prison gave him a searing understanding of the impact of sentencing and the dramatic growth in incarceration in the United States, an unusual perspective on the law that allows him to see things other lawyers overlook. And he takes the job at a time when criminal-justice issues have real urgency, from lawmakers to protesters to students.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/04/21/bank-robber-turned-georgetown-law-professor-is-just-getting-started-on-his-goals/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_georgetown1100am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.dd54e4087b44
Fixed
From Full Frontal Samantha Bee -
https://twitter.com/FullFrontalSamB/status/854835411486740487/photo/1
https://twitter.com/FullFrontalSamB/status/854835411486740487/photo/1
History Lesson - African-American Female Activists
From Upworthy -
They're here: photos released of 8 female activists that history almost forgot.
JAMES GAINES
In 2013, the Library of Congress got a hold of the photograph collection of William Henry Richards, a prominent African-American leader who taught at Howard University from 1890 to 1928.
In the collection, they found portraits of the young, badass female African-American activists whom Richards worked alongside.
http://www.upworthy.com/theyre-here-photos-released-of-8-female-activists-that-history-almost-forgot?c=upw1&u=6861cbea6edfdfe5a709ee39ad3c14b64135e61f
They're here: photos released of 8 female activists that history almost forgot.
JAMES GAINES
In 2013, the Library of Congress got a hold of the photograph collection of William Henry Richards, a prominent African-American leader who taught at Howard University from 1890 to 1928.
In the collection, they found portraits of the young, badass female African-American activists whom Richards worked alongside.
http://www.upworthy.com/theyre-here-photos-released-of-8-female-activists-that-history-almost-forgot?c=upw1&u=6861cbea6edfdfe5a709ee39ad3c14b64135e61f
Prison Reform With Potential
An excerpt from the Los Angeles Times -
'I took someone’s life — now I am giving back': In California's prisons, inmates teach each other how to start over
By Jazmine Ulloa
The men Daniel Hopper teaches about drug and alcohol abuse are serving sentences of 10 years to life at a state prison tucked away in the Vaca Mountains of Northern California. They grew up in different places, most of them under difficult circumstances: dangerous schools and neighborhoods, fathers behind bars, brothers in gangs.
Hopper, a tall 35-year-old with cropped black hair, rectangular glasses and piercing wit, can relate to them on a level few others can. He is doing time for killing another teenager when he was 17 and a San Diego gang leader.
“Going to prison was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Hopper said. It forced him to face what he did — and live differently, he said.
A largely self-educated inmate who had resigned himself to dying within prison walls, Hopper became a substance abuse counselor through the Offender Mentor Certification Program. Now, with Proposition 57 ushering in a massive overhaul of the state’s prison parole system, the program could bring him and his students closer to an early release that some of them thought they would never see.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-prop-57-prison-programs-20170420-htmlstory.html
'I took someone’s life — now I am giving back': In California's prisons, inmates teach each other how to start over
By Jazmine Ulloa
The men Daniel Hopper teaches about drug and alcohol abuse are serving sentences of 10 years to life at a state prison tucked away in the Vaca Mountains of Northern California. They grew up in different places, most of them under difficult circumstances: dangerous schools and neighborhoods, fathers behind bars, brothers in gangs.
Hopper, a tall 35-year-old with cropped black hair, rectangular glasses and piercing wit, can relate to them on a level few others can. He is doing time for killing another teenager when he was 17 and a San Diego gang leader.
“Going to prison was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Hopper said. It forced him to face what he did — and live differently, he said.
A largely self-educated inmate who had resigned himself to dying within prison walls, Hopper became a substance abuse counselor through the Offender Mentor Certification Program. Now, with Proposition 57 ushering in a massive overhaul of the state’s prison parole system, the program could bring him and his students closer to an early release that some of them thought they would never see.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-prop-57-prison-programs-20170420-htmlstory.html
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