Friday, June 18, 2021
"High on the Hog"
An excerpt from Vice -
'High on the Hog' Proves Why Food Travel Shows Need New Gatekeepers
“The reason why [the show] is so resonant for Black people is because that’s really who it’s for. It’s for us.”
By Kristin Corry
“Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you where you are from,” famed Yoruba artist Romuald Hazoumè told Stephen Satterfield, host of Netflix’s inspiring new travel show High on the Hog. The phrase could double as the thesis of food historian Dr. Jessica Harris’s book of the same name, which resonated so much with production duo Fabienne Toback and Karis Jagger that they chose to adapt it for their first full-length documentary.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93y3vd/netflix-high-on-the-hog-food-travel-show-interview
Honoring Her Parents
From Today -
Graduating senior honors farm-worker parents with special photos
Jennifer Rocha began working in the fields with her parents when she was in high school.
By Kait Hanson and Mohammed Syed
One California woman is going viral for the emotional graduation photos she took to honor her parents.
21-year-old Jennifer Rocha, from Coachella, California, has been working in the fields with her parents, both immigrants from Michoacán, Mexico, since she was in high school.
"My dad decided to take me to work in the field when I was in junior year of high school," Rocha told TODAY Parents, adding that during that time she was also running on the cross-country team at school. "My dad would pick me up from cross-country practice at around 2, 3 p.m. and then come home, eat something, (and) change. And then we would go and plant strawberries overnight."
https://www.today.com/parents/ucsd-student-honors-farm-worker-parents-photos-field-t222050
Quads Graduate From Yale
From People -
Ohio Quadruplets Who All Graduated from Yale Say They Were Able to Carve Their 'Own Paths' at Ivy
Aaron, Nick, Nigel and Zach Wade graduated together from Yale University last month
By Rachel DeSantis
https://people.com/human-interest/ohio-quadruplets-graduated-from-yale-carved-own-paths/
Heading to Harvard
From People -
N.Y. School's First Black Valedictorian Is Heading to Harvard: 'There's No Dream Too Big'
https://people.com/human-interest/new-york-teen-onovu-otitigbe-becomes-high-schools-first-black-valedictorian-heads-to-harvard/
Monday, May 24, 2021
Black Family Cookout Rules
An excerpt from Afro.com -
What you not fid’na do at a Black family cookout
By Rev. Dorothy Boulware
Yes we have rules for everything and everybody. Rules for behavior in Big Mama’s house. Rules of proper conduct for “in person” church. Rules for butting or rather, not butting into grown folks’ conversations. And we have rules for going to a cookout, a Black family cookout. Granted they’re not written, but you’d better ask somebody if you don’t know.
~~~~~
Cookout or barbeque. Some prefer one over the other. Picnic? Absolutely never!!! Check out a Black history book. So what are the rules of your family’s barbecues? The funny thing is that when the question was posed to family, friends, FB friends and AFRO staff, the answers were quite similar.
*Don’t disrespect Big Mama.
*Don’t pack take-home dishes before everyone eats.
*Don’t come empty handed (unless we have eaten, or not eaten, your food before)
*Don’t put raisins in anything that’s not dessert. Seriously. Even if you are newly Black.
*Don’t bring your new girlfriend when you know your Ex is always invited.
(Click below to check out the entire list. Please pass this on far and wide to those who need it. You know who. - Faye)
https://afro.com/what-you-not-fittin-do-at-a-black-family-cookout/
Priceless Guide to Black BBQs
From Deadspin -
The Caucasian's Guide To Black Barbecues
By Michael Harriot
As interracial dating, integration, and cross-cultural friendships increase, many people find themselves attending events in which they are the minority, and have no frame of reference from which to base their etiquette. In an effort to help bridge the cultural gaps we all have to traverse at some point, I have created a few rules for all my Caucasian friends who might find themselves at a black cookout.
1. You gotta bring something. One time, I went to a co-worker named Tom’s barbecue and brought a pasta salad. He looked at me like I had shit in the middle of his living room.
At a black cookout (yes, if there’s more than seven black people there, the name automatically changes from “barbecue” to a “cookout”), only the meat and the grill is supplied by the host. Everything else is brought by attendees—and no, this is not “potluck.” Black people don’t do potlucks. Potluck dinners are for Caucasian bible-study meetings where one can bring store-bought dishes. Here, you either show up with a homemade dish, or they’re gonna look at you funny. And please don’t try no new shit like potato salad with raisins or vegetarian shish kabobs. If you can’t cook, or you don’t have all the required black seasonings, just bring some cups and napkins. Or LOTS of aluminum foil. I don’t know what the hell black people do with all the aluminum foil at cookouts, but they ALWAYS need more. I have long suspected that black cookouts were ploys by hosts to get free aluminum foil. In any case, you are expected to bring something.
https://adequateman.deadspin.com/the-caucasians-guide-to-black-barbecues-1730865233
Sunday, May 23, 2021
What Are They Afraid Of?
An excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune -
Leonard Pitts: Sometimes you wonder what they’re so afraid of
The powers that be have conspired to protect white people — and prevent Black people — from knowing our history.
By Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald
Not that the subject has ever been easy. No, as has often been noted in this space, this country has been positively Herculean in its effort to remain ignorant of African American history. From schools trying to ban it to state laws restricting it, to textbooks telling lies about it, that history is something we have long resisted.
But if the subject was never easy, it has seldom been as fraught — as filled with political heat — as it is now. The New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,” in which reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones had the temerity to reframe America’s story through the lens of slavery, seems to have tapped something primal in some of us; something that has moved them to spend two years condemning it; something that has states like Texas, Tennessee and Idaho rushing to pass laws banning schools from teaching critical race theory (which seemingly all conservatives fear and none can define); something panicky that is emphatically not explained by academic arguments over points of factuality.
For the record, I consider myself pretty well-informed about Black history. But it is not lost on me that most of what I know was learned on my own after my formal education ended, that I somehow managed to graduate an elite private university knowing next to nothing about it.
Even at that, I was more fortunate than some. School only left me uneducated. It left them miseducated, i.e., taught things that were not true. In an inspired feat of enterprise journalism, Michael Harriot of The Root recently dug up the high school history textbooks that would have been used by many of those who grew up to deny the reality of systemic racism or seek to restrict the teaching thereof. The results are enlightening.
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2021/05/16/leonard-pitts-sometimes/
From Custodian to Teacher
An excerpt from The Black Detour -
Georgia School Janitor of 23 Years Graduates College With A Degree in Education
A Georgia school janitor for the last 23 years has graduated from college with a degree in education. Tylan Bailey is now ready to change careers and become a teacher.
“Just walking through these halls every day, you’re surrounded by education. Each corner of this building, education. So why not be a part of that,” Bailey told WSBTV 2.
Over the last 23 years Bailey has worked at Hightower Elementary School in DeKalb County as its head custodian.
“He’s the kind of person you want in your building, on your side,” Principal Sheila Price told the news outlet. “It’s a bittersweet moment because we love him and we want to keep him here. But we know this is a huge step and we support him. We’re here for him for whatever he needs.”
In 2017, Bailey started his journey to become a teacher when he began attending classes at Georgia State University while still working part-time.
https://theblackdetour.com/georgia-school-janitor-of-23-years-graduates-college-with-a-degree-in-education/
Katie vs. Big Pharma
Big Pharma says they need to charge astronomical prices to pay for research and development. Yet, the amount they spend on manipulating the market to enrich shareholders completely eclipses what's spent on R&D. Today, I confronted a CEO about the industry's lies, with visuals ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/c3jSLr0yVd
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) May 18, 2021
Grants & Scholarships For Black Women
From Essence -
9 Grants, Scholarships and Resources For Black Women To Apply For Right Now
WHETHER YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR OR A CREATIVE, WE FOUND THESE GRANTS THAT ARE WAITING FOR YOU!
https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/grants-scholarships-for-black-women-to-apply/
Black Girls Climbing in the Midst of Racism
From the Washington Post -
The Racism of the Great Outdoors
Hikers and climbers of color face a host of obstacles, from bigoted route names to Confederate flags. This D.C.-based group is trying to change that.
By Ikya Kandula
Five years ago, Gabrielle Dickerson, then a sophomore at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, lay awake in her sleeping bag on her first overnight climbing trip, enveloped by the woods of the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve near Fayetteville, W.Va. Like many rock climbers in the D.C. area, she’d been drawn to the New, as outdoor enthusiasts call it — a five-hour road trip from Washington — because it offers 1,400 of the best climbing routes in the United States.
The rest of her group had swiftly fallen asleep after a day of projecting — the process of strategizing about, and eventually completing, a climb with no breaks — but apprehension took hold of Dickerson. “I was very aware of how uncomfortable I was in the backcountry of West Virginia,” Dickerson recalls. “Not only because I was a Black woman, but also because of the relationship and trauma my ancestors had with the woods.” Her grandfather had been born on a North Carolina cotton farm in 1930 and picked cotton until he escaped from the owner in his teens. On his way to Philadelphia and a new life, he witnessed his best friend get lynched in the woods.
Loneliness sank in as Dickerson realized that no one in her campsite would be able to relate: She was the only Black climber in her group. She’d been climbing in a gym in Rockville, Md., for six months; that day in the New was her first experience projecting in a natural space. She’d spent the afternoon struck with a sense of wonder, but that didn’t offset her disquietude in that moment. She knew that the deep canyons that surrounded her overflowed with histories of Black families just like her own.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/05/19/rock-climbers-color-face-host-obstacles-this-group-is-trying-change-that/?tid=a_classic-iphone&no_nav=true
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Sunday, May 16, 2021
A Luxury Dog House
From Buzzfeed -
This Guy Built His Dog A Luxury Home, And It's Nicer Than Anything I've Ever Owned
"For all the people asking, 'Why a TV?' Being extra is a choice, and we chose it."
by Alexa Lisitza, BuzzFeed Staff
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexalisitza/diy-luxury-dog-house
The morning makes you. So make the most of your mornings with MTN DEW RISE ENERGY. @KingJames #MorningMakesYou #MTNDEWRISE pic.twitter.com/CBty4JIZTU
— MTN DEW RISE ENERGY (@MountainDewRise) May 13, 2021