An excerpt from Very Smart Brothas - (From me. Note - PWI = Predominating White Institutions)
10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
By Lawrence Ware
I regret not attending an HBCU.
If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism.
Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of the fact that I was an “other.” Often, I was the only black student in my class, and when my fraternity wanted to host events, we were forced to jump through hoops that white Greek organizations did not know existed.
Now, working at a PWI as a faculty member and administrator, I try to do for my students what I wish someone had done for me: prepare them for the challenges that come along with the reality of life at a PWI as a student of color.
If I could give an intellectual going-away gift to every black freshman headed to a PWI this fall, in addition to a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce (the cooks at PWIs don’t know how to season the damn food), I would include the following:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-things-to-help-black-students-prepare-for-life-at-a-1797642965?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-09
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Caltrans is Hiring!
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Another FAMU Success Story
An excerpt from the LA times -
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
A Legal Document That's Fun to Read
From the NY Times -
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
ACLU Brief on Behalf of John Oliver by LawNewz on Scribd
Focusing on the Booze
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Monday, August 7, 2017
Getting Their Due
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
By Tom Sietsema
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
Tackling Homelessness in the Bay Area
From Upworthy -
This mother-son duo is taking homelessness to task in an amazing way.
We’re talking the kind of close that only single moms and their children understand.
And for Chris and his mom, this bond has only been strengthened by a shared mission to end homelessness.
His mom was always very driven — she climbed the corporate ladder, becoming a successful Venture Capitalist, then CEO of Napster and another high-tech startup. But it was while Chris was away at college that she decided to tackle a social issue: homelessness.
So in 2004, Eileen popped her head into a food closet in Palo Alto, California, hoping to do just that. And it didn't take her long to decide to take giving back to the next level, leading her to launch the Downtown Streets Team.
The nonprofit isn't your average give-'em-food-and-a-place-to-stay-for-the-night-then-send-'em-on-their-way kind of initiative.
In exchange for community volunteer work, Downtown Streets Team offers homeless people food and housing as well as job skills training.
http://www.upworthy.com/p-this-mother-son-duo-is-taking-homelessness-to-task-in-an-amazing-way-p-cc3-3a?c=click
This mother-son duo is taking homelessness to task in an amazing way.
We’re talking the kind of close that only single moms and their children understand.
And for Chris and his mom, this bond has only been strengthened by a shared mission to end homelessness.
His mom was always very driven — she climbed the corporate ladder, becoming a successful Venture Capitalist, then CEO of Napster and another high-tech startup. But it was while Chris was away at college that she decided to tackle a social issue: homelessness.
So in 2004, Eileen popped her head into a food closet in Palo Alto, California, hoping to do just that. And it didn't take her long to decide to take giving back to the next level, leading her to launch the Downtown Streets Team.
The nonprofit isn't your average give-'em-food-and-a-place-to-stay-for-the-night-then-send-'em-on-their-way kind of initiative.
In exchange for community volunteer work, Downtown Streets Team offers homeless people food and housing as well as job skills training.
http://www.upworthy.com/p-this-mother-son-duo-is-taking-homelessness-to-task-in-an-amazing-way-p-cc3-3a?c=click
He Nails It
This dad perfectly nails fatherhood with his hilarious comics.
by Evan Porter
http://www.upworthy.com/this-dad-perfectly-nails-fatherhood-with-his-hilarious-comics?c=upw1
by Evan Porter
http://www.upworthy.com/this-dad-perfectly-nails-fatherhood-with-his-hilarious-comics?c=upw1
How to Answer Interview Questions
From Lifehack -
How to Answer Common Interview Questions in an Uncommon Way
By Brian Lee
No matter how much we may love our job, there are always aspects that we could do without. And among all of my duties as Chief of Product Management at Lifehack, interviewing is by far my least favorite. It’s an awkward, draining task that wears me down both mentally and physically. Most interviews take around an hour to get through, a grueling 60 minutes that neither I nor the interviewee enjoys. I hear the same answers to the same questions time and time again. Boring, basic answers that by no way separate the individual from their competition. But every once in a while I will hear an answer that catches me off guard, leaving me impressed and inspired.
To help you to knock out your next interview, I’ve compiled a list of the best possible answers to common interview questions, and what to avoid.
http://www.lifehack.org/620362/what-employers-are-really-looking-for-in-the-most-common-interview-questions?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_3&mid=20170807&uid=789627&hash=726d85717f746d7e7c714c73796d75783a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_3&utm_medium=email&action=click
How to Answer Common Interview Questions in an Uncommon Way
By Brian Lee
No matter how much we may love our job, there are always aspects that we could do without. And among all of my duties as Chief of Product Management at Lifehack, interviewing is by far my least favorite. It’s an awkward, draining task that wears me down both mentally and physically. Most interviews take around an hour to get through, a grueling 60 minutes that neither I nor the interviewee enjoys. I hear the same answers to the same questions time and time again. Boring, basic answers that by no way separate the individual from their competition. But every once in a while I will hear an answer that catches me off guard, leaving me impressed and inspired.
To help you to knock out your next interview, I’ve compiled a list of the best possible answers to common interview questions, and what to avoid.
http://www.lifehack.org/620362/what-employers-are-really-looking-for-in-the-most-common-interview-questions?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_3&mid=20170807&uid=789627&hash=726d85717f746d7e7c714c73796d75783a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_3&utm_medium=email&action=click
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