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
Sunday, September 6, 2020
A Class Act
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/
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Just A Minute
“I only have a minute.
Sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, I did not choose it,
But I know that I must use it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Suffer, if I lose it.
Only a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.”
- Dr. Benjamin E. Mays
"I Wish I Dried Up"
An excerpt from Upworthy -
It's Black Breastfeeding Week. Wondering why? One gut-wrenching poem says it all.
"I wish I dried up..."
By Annie Reneau
It's Black Breastfeeding Week, a week set aside in the U.S. to celebrate and encourage Black breastfeeding parents.
Some may wonder why such a week is necessary. After all, that's a pretty narrow niche, isn't it? Aren't Black moms included in all breastfeeding awareness and education campaigns? Is there something special about Black people breastfeeding?
The answer is yes, there is something unique about Black breastfeeding. Several somethings, actually, but one reason for Black Breastfeeding Week is summed up in a gut-wrenching poem by feminist author Hess Love.
"I wish I dried up
I wish every drop of my milk slipped passed those pink lips and nourished the ground
Where the bones lay
Of my babies
Starved while I feed their murderer
I wish I dried up
So the missus babies would dry up too
And be brittle
So I could crumble them to dust
Return them to the ground
Where all children of my bosom lay equal"
- Hess Love
https://www.upworthy.com/its-black-breastfeeding-week-if-you-wonder-why-this-gut-punching-poem-offers-one-reason
Best Books by Black Authors
From Cosmopolitan -
The Best Books by Black Authors to Add to Your Bookshelf Right Now
Not an anti-racist reading list.
by PAULINA JAYNE ISAAC
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/g33625689/best-books-black-authors/
Meals Served With Love, No Prices
From Black Enterprise -
BLACK-OWNED FAMILY-STYLE RESTAURANT IN ALABAMA HAS NO PRICES AND FEEDS ANYONE WHO IS HUNGRY
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
The founders of Drexell & Honeybee’s, a Black-owned family-style restaurant in Brewton, Alabama, are gaining national attention because they serve meals with no prices. The donation-only restaurant does not use cash registers and also feeds everyone – including those who don’t have anything to pay.
Every lunchtime from Tuesday to Thursday, husband and wife team, Freddie and Lisa Thomas-McMillan, are busy serving hungry people with soul food and Southern dishes from their daily-changing menu such as fried chicken, cornbread, and collard greens.
Everyone who comes to the restaurant doesn’t have to worry about the payment because they can leave a handful of coins, a generous donation, or even just a thank-you note. The owners then use 100% of the donations for the operational costs of feeding the hungry so they don’t really profit from it.
Still, the McMillans continue serving people from all walks of life in exchange of the joy that they get from all of it. They say there’s real joy whenever people leave their restaurant “with a full stomach, a full heart, and the understanding that you are loved and worthy of love.”
https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-owned-family-style-restaurant-in-alabama-has-no-prices-and-feeds-anyone-who-is-hungry/
Pharrell Williams - Entrepreneur (Official Video) ft. JAY-Z
Stick with this. It has a POWERFUL MESSAGE!
Club Cardinal - Launch Video
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/stanford-university-students-flock-to-virtual-campus-180975675/
BLM Poster Not Welcome Here
An excerpt from Upworthy -
Texas teacher placed on leave after parents complained about her virtual 'Black Lives Matter' poster
By Tod Perry
Via Change.org
Taylor Lifka, a 25-year-old English teacher at Roma High School in Roma, Texas, wanted to create an inclusive environment for her online classes this school year.
So she created a virtual background with posters that read: "Black Lives Matter," "Amiga, tu lucha es mi lucha," (Your struggle is my struggle) and "Diverse, Inclusive, Accepting, Welcoming, Safe Space for Everyone" in rainbow colors.
Before the first day of school, she asked her incoming students to put their names and preferred pronouns in the chat box on the digital chalkboard. Then, she posted a screenshot of her classroom on her social media.
Some parents complained about the inclusive posters to the principal.
"My assistant principal told me, 'Please take the posters down.' I guess once that happened, I knew that it might be a rocky road, but considering being put on leave? I never really thought that that was going to be their first step," Lifka told The Texas Tribune.
https://www.upworthy.com/texas-teacher-placed-leave-after-parents-complained-about-her-black-lives-matter-poster
Comply or Die
"Comply or die. That is the only thing we're able to tell our young Black sons."@MariaTaylor shared what her father, who was in the FBI, told her brother about interacting with police. pic.twitter.com/VDJukqNSWr
— ESPN (@espn) August 28, 2020
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Sunday, August 23, 2020
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