From USA Today -
The world’s 50 most innovative companies
Samuel Stebbins
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/01/12/worlds-50-most-innovative-companies/1023095001/
Monday, January 15, 2018
Honored for His Bravery
An excerpt from Slate -
ACLU Honors Colin Kaepernick For Bravery in “Risking and Losing His Job” for the Cause of Social Justice
By Jeremy Stahl
BEVERLY HILLS, California—Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a surprise honoree at the ACLU of Southern California’s annual "Bill of Rights Dinner" on Sunday, receiving the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award.
Kaepernick, whose public speaking appearances have been rare in recent months, remained unsigned this year after he spent last season protesting racial inequities in the criminal justice system by taking a knee during the national anthem.
“Our next honoree took a stand. He took a stand knowing he would risk his job. And he has lost his job, one that he loved and was supremely talented and skilled at,” executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, Hector Villagra, told a packed ballroom at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “He took a stand knowing that some would criticize him and he has been viciously and unfairly criticized.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/12/03/aclu_honors_colin_kaepernick_for_bravery_in_risking_and_losing_his_job_for.html
ACLU Honors Colin Kaepernick For Bravery in “Risking and Losing His Job” for the Cause of Social Justice
By Jeremy Stahl
BEVERLY HILLS, California—Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a surprise honoree at the ACLU of Southern California’s annual "Bill of Rights Dinner" on Sunday, receiving the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award.
Kaepernick, whose public speaking appearances have been rare in recent months, remained unsigned this year after he spent last season protesting racial inequities in the criminal justice system by taking a knee during the national anthem.
“Our next honoree took a stand. He took a stand knowing he would risk his job. And he has lost his job, one that he loved and was supremely talented and skilled at,” executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, Hector Villagra, told a packed ballroom at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “He took a stand knowing that some would criticize him and he has been viciously and unfairly criticized.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/12/03/aclu_honors_colin_kaepernick_for_bravery_in_risking_and_losing_his_job_for.html
Making a Difference
An excerpt from OZY -
MINORITY ENTREPRENEURS STRUGGLE TO GET BUSINESS LOANS. THIS FUND AIMS TO FIX THAT
By Laura Elizabeth
Bennett says she’s proof the EOCF works. A quick cash injection helped her say yes to the arena project, bring on workers and deliver the job. “Being able to do that one project teleported us to a whole different level,” she says now. “We are getting looked at by contractors that wouldn’t have known who we were two years ago. And we are looking at bigger and better opportunities that we would never have been able to consider before.”
The EOCF has been deemed such a success — with $4.5 million loaned to more than 40 minority entrepreneurs since it launched in 2015 — that the fund has lately attracted new investors and tripled from $6.5 million to $18 million. Based on the Detroit model, similar funds will be introduced to San Francisco and New York this year.
But the problem the fund wants to solve goes far beyond a handful of cities. A 2016 report from the Hamilton Project, which studies fiscal policy, called for better federal funding to help minority and women entrepreneurs nationwide, arguing this could help resolve major social injustices.
http://www.ozy.com/acumen/minority-entrepreneurs-struggle-to-get-business-loans-this-fund-aims-to-fix-that/83095?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01152018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
MINORITY ENTREPRENEURS STRUGGLE TO GET BUSINESS LOANS. THIS FUND AIMS TO FIX THAT
By Laura Elizabeth
Bennett says she’s proof the EOCF works. A quick cash injection helped her say yes to the arena project, bring on workers and deliver the job. “Being able to do that one project teleported us to a whole different level,” she says now. “We are getting looked at by contractors that wouldn’t have known who we were two years ago. And we are looking at bigger and better opportunities that we would never have been able to consider before.”
The EOCF has been deemed such a success — with $4.5 million loaned to more than 40 minority entrepreneurs since it launched in 2015 — that the fund has lately attracted new investors and tripled from $6.5 million to $18 million. Based on the Detroit model, similar funds will be introduced to San Francisco and New York this year.
But the problem the fund wants to solve goes far beyond a handful of cities. A 2016 report from the Hamilton Project, which studies fiscal policy, called for better federal funding to help minority and women entrepreneurs nationwide, arguing this could help resolve major social injustices.
http://www.ozy.com/acumen/minority-entrepreneurs-struggle-to-get-business-loans-this-fund-aims-to-fix-that/83095?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01152018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
Yes. Of Course He Is.
Excerpts from the NY Times -
Trump Is a Racist. Period.
By Charles M. Blow
Racism is simply the belief that race is an inherent and determining factor in a person’s or a people’s character and capabilities, rendering some inferior and others superior. These beliefs are racial prejudices.
The history of America is one in which white people used racism and white supremacy to develop a racial caste system that advantaged them and disadvantaged others.
Understanding this, it is not a stretch to understand that Donald Trump’s words and deeds over the course of his life have demonstrated a pattern of expressing racial prejudices that demean people who are black and brown and that play to the racial hostilities of other white people.
~~~~~~~~~~
As the brilliant James Baldwin once put it: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” When I see that in poll after poll a portion of Trump’s base continues to support his behavior, including on race, I can only conclude that there is no real daylight between Trump and his base. They are part of his racism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/trump-racist-shithole.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Trump Is a Racist. Period.
By Charles M. Blow
Racism is simply the belief that race is an inherent and determining factor in a person’s or a people’s character and capabilities, rendering some inferior and others superior. These beliefs are racial prejudices.
The history of America is one in which white people used racism and white supremacy to develop a racial caste system that advantaged them and disadvantaged others.
Understanding this, it is not a stretch to understand that Donald Trump’s words and deeds over the course of his life have demonstrated a pattern of expressing racial prejudices that demean people who are black and brown and that play to the racial hostilities of other white people.
~~~~~~~~~~
As the brilliant James Baldwin once put it: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” When I see that in poll after poll a portion of Trump’s base continues to support his behavior, including on race, I can only conclude that there is no real daylight between Trump and his base. They are part of his racism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/trump-racist-shithole.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Martin & Malcolm
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. The photo still haunts us with what was lost.
By DeNeen L. Brown
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met only once. On March 26, 1964, the two black leaders were on Capitol Hill, attending Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
King was stepping out of a news conference, when Malcolm X, dressed in an elegant black overcoat and wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, greeted him.
“Well, Malcolm, good to see you,” King said.
“Good to see you,” Malcolm X replied.
Cameras clicked as the two men walked down the Senate hall together.
“I’m throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle,” Malcolm X told King.
King would say later: “He is very articulate, but I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views — at least insofar as I understand where he now stands.”
The exchange would last only a minute, but the photo remains a haunting reminder of what was lost. They would never meet again before each was assassinated, first Malcolm X and then King.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/14/martin-luther-king-jr-met-malcolm-x-just-once-the-photo-still-haunts-us-with-what-was-lost/?utm_term=.cf7036b7132f&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. The photo still haunts us with what was lost.
By DeNeen L. Brown
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met only once. On March 26, 1964, the two black leaders were on Capitol Hill, attending Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
King was stepping out of a news conference, when Malcolm X, dressed in an elegant black overcoat and wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, greeted him.
“Well, Malcolm, good to see you,” King said.
“Good to see you,” Malcolm X replied.
Cameras clicked as the two men walked down the Senate hall together.
“I’m throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle,” Malcolm X told King.
King would say later: “He is very articulate, but I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views — at least insofar as I understand where he now stands.”
The exchange would last only a minute, but the photo remains a haunting reminder of what was lost. They would never meet again before each was assassinated, first Malcolm X and then King.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/14/martin-luther-king-jr-met-malcolm-x-just-once-the-photo-still-haunts-us-with-what-was-lost/?utm_term=.cf7036b7132f&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Franklin's Debut
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Guess Who’s Coming to ‘Peanuts’
By DAVID KAMP
“Is this your beach ball?” These were the first words spoken by Franklin, addressing Charlie Brown as the latter stared glumly out to sea. And this is how Charles M. Schulz integrated his comic strip, “Peanuts,” on July 31, 1968. Franklin’s initial three-strip arc unfolded quietly and gently, with the boys building a sand castle together while chatting.
Franklin stayed quiet and gentle, taking his place in the “Peanuts” gang as a steady but low-key presence over the next three decades — sometimes to the chagrin of African-Americans who found him to be anodyne at best and a token at worst. In a 1992 “Saturday Night Live” routine, Chris Rock complained, comically but pointedly, that Mr. Schulz had deprived Franklin of the kind of signature traits he had assigned the other “Peanuts” kids.
“Linus got the blanket, Lucy’s a bitch, Schroeder plays the piano, Peppermint Patty’s a lesbian,” Mr. Rock said. “Everybody got their thing except Franklin! Give him something! Damn, give him a Jamaican accent!”
Yet Franklin’s careful rollout and nice-guy equanimity were very much by design, as “50 Years of Franklin,” a new exhibition at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, in Santa Rosa, Calif., reveals. The exhibition opens this weekend in conjunction with the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday on Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/opinion/sunday/peanuts-franklin-charlie-brown.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Guess Who’s Coming to ‘Peanuts’
By DAVID KAMP
“Is this your beach ball?” These were the first words spoken by Franklin, addressing Charlie Brown as the latter stared glumly out to sea. And this is how Charles M. Schulz integrated his comic strip, “Peanuts,” on July 31, 1968. Franklin’s initial three-strip arc unfolded quietly and gently, with the boys building a sand castle together while chatting.
Franklin stayed quiet and gentle, taking his place in the “Peanuts” gang as a steady but low-key presence over the next three decades — sometimes to the chagrin of African-Americans who found him to be anodyne at best and a token at worst. In a 1992 “Saturday Night Live” routine, Chris Rock complained, comically but pointedly, that Mr. Schulz had deprived Franklin of the kind of signature traits he had assigned the other “Peanuts” kids.
“Linus got the blanket, Lucy’s a bitch, Schroeder plays the piano, Peppermint Patty’s a lesbian,” Mr. Rock said. “Everybody got their thing except Franklin! Give him something! Damn, give him a Jamaican accent!”
Yet Franklin’s careful rollout and nice-guy equanimity were very much by design, as “50 Years of Franklin,” a new exhibition at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, in Santa Rosa, Calif., reveals. The exhibition opens this weekend in conjunction with the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday on Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/opinion/sunday/peanuts-franklin-charlie-brown.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Promoting Civil Rights Tourism
An excerpt from AP News -
Southern states join to promote civil rights tourism
By Jay Reeves
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Southern states that once fought to maintain racial segregation are now banding together to promote civil rights tourism at sites including the building where the Confederacy was born and the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.
Fourteen states stretching from Kansas to Delaware, including all of the Deep South, are joining to promote the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which will highlight about 130 sites linked to the modern civil rights movement. The joint effort is being unveiled as part of the MLK holiday weekend.
Individual Southern states have used such promotions for years, beginning with a black history trail launched by Alabama in the 1980s, but never before have they joined together in a single push to bolster civil rights tourism, said Lee Sentell, a leader of the effort.
“Everyone wants to showcase their landmarks. For the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, we’re saying ’What happened here changed the world,’” said Sentell, Alabama’s tourism director.
Most states participating in the promotion are part of the Atlanta-based Travel South USA, which is funded by state tourism agencies to lure visitors to the region. The organization has launched civilrightstrail.com and is placing advertisements in national magazines to promote the trail.
https://apnews.com/65c188db42cb4c0d98c0fd65a6fe332c/Southern-states-join-to-promote-civil-rights-tourism?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&stream=top-stories
Southern states join to promote civil rights tourism
By Jay Reeves
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Southern states that once fought to maintain racial segregation are now banding together to promote civil rights tourism at sites including the building where the Confederacy was born and the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.
Fourteen states stretching from Kansas to Delaware, including all of the Deep South, are joining to promote the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which will highlight about 130 sites linked to the modern civil rights movement. The joint effort is being unveiled as part of the MLK holiday weekend.
Individual Southern states have used such promotions for years, beginning with a black history trail launched by Alabama in the 1980s, but never before have they joined together in a single push to bolster civil rights tourism, said Lee Sentell, a leader of the effort.
“Everyone wants to showcase their landmarks. For the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, we’re saying ’What happened here changed the world,’” said Sentell, Alabama’s tourism director.
Most states participating in the promotion are part of the Atlanta-based Travel South USA, which is funded by state tourism agencies to lure visitors to the region. The organization has launched civilrightstrail.com and is placing advertisements in national magazines to promote the trail.
https://apnews.com/65c188db42cb4c0d98c0fd65a6fe332c/Southern-states-join-to-promote-civil-rights-tourism?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&stream=top-stories
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Medical Treatment of Black Women
An excerpt from Vox -
What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women
Black women are often dismissed or ignored by medical care providers. Williams wasn’t an exception.
By P.R. Lockhart
A new Vogue profile of Serena Williams sheds light not only on the health risks that can come with childbirth, but also how those factors — coupled with racial bias in the medical field — can have dangerous, even life-threatening results for black women.
In Vogue’s February cover story, Williams recalls dealing with serious complications shortly after the recent birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia. Williams explains that the problems started the day after her daughter’s birth by Cesarean section, when Williams felt short of breath. Due to her history of pulmonary embolisms (Williams underwent emergency treatment for a life-threatening embolism in 2011), the tennis star quickly alerted a nurse about her symptoms.
But the response wasn’t what she expected. Vogue writer Rob Haskell explains:
She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”
Williams adds that she continued to have problems after this scare. Williams coughed frequently due to the embolisms, and the coughs were forceful enough to cause her C-section wound to rupture. When she went in for surgery, doctors found that a hematoma had filled her abdomen, a result of the blood thinners. A filter was placed into one her major veins to keep more blood clots from traveling to her lungs. When she finally returned home, Williams needed six weeks of bed rest.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women
What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women
Black women are often dismissed or ignored by medical care providers. Williams wasn’t an exception.
By P.R. Lockhart
A new Vogue profile of Serena Williams sheds light not only on the health risks that can come with childbirth, but also how those factors — coupled with racial bias in the medical field — can have dangerous, even life-threatening results for black women.
In Vogue’s February cover story, Williams recalls dealing with serious complications shortly after the recent birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia. Williams explains that the problems started the day after her daughter’s birth by Cesarean section, when Williams felt short of breath. Due to her history of pulmonary embolisms (Williams underwent emergency treatment for a life-threatening embolism in 2011), the tennis star quickly alerted a nurse about her symptoms.
But the response wasn’t what she expected. Vogue writer Rob Haskell explains:
She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”
Williams adds that she continued to have problems after this scare. Williams coughed frequently due to the embolisms, and the coughs were forceful enough to cause her C-section wound to rupture. When she went in for surgery, doctors found that a hematoma had filled her abdomen, a result of the blood thinners. A filter was placed into one her major veins to keep more blood clots from traveling to her lungs. When she finally returned home, Williams needed six weeks of bed rest.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women
Friday, January 12, 2018
Yes Indeed!
From Very Smart Brothas -
10 Reasons I’m Glad I Was Raised in a Black Household
By Panama Jackson
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-reasons-i-m-glad-i-was-raised-in-a-black-household-1821891589
10 Reasons I’m Glad I Was Raised in a Black Household
By Panama Jackson
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-reasons-i-m-glad-i-was-raised-in-a-black-household-1821891589
A New Low
An excerpt from the New York Times -
‘The Lowest White Man’
By Charles M. Blow
Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy.
It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.
As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Trump’s supporters are saying to us, screaming to us, that although he may be the “lowest white man,” he is still better than Barack Obama, the “best colored man.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/trump-immigration-white-supremacy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
‘The Lowest White Man’
By Charles M. Blow
Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy.
It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.
As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Trump’s supporters are saying to us, screaming to us, that although he may be the “lowest white man,” he is still better than Barack Obama, the “best colored man.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/trump-immigration-white-supremacy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
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