Cute & Conscientious: A Winning Combination

 

Michael B. Jordan launches basketball showcase for HBCU athletes

By Jaelen Ogadhoh

Michael B. Jordan attends the 51st NAACP Image Awards,
Presented by BET, at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on
February 22, 2020 in Pasadena, California.
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Basketball as we know it today may not exist without the contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their alumni, such as Howard University graduate Edwin Henderson, who earned the nickname “The Father of Black Basketball” in the early 20th century when he introduced the game to African Americans in Washington D.C., catalyzing the sport’s rapid growth in popularity among Black communities nationwide.

Today, largely thanks to Henderson’s contributions, basketball is not only one of the most popular sports among HBCUs, but among Black Americans across the country. Despite the current popularity, only one five-star-ranked high school basketball player has opted to play for an HBCU since ESPN began ranking players in 2007.

Actor and producer Michael B. Jordan is among the high-profile public figures making efforts to further amplify HBCUs and their student-athletes in 2021. The Black Panther and Just Mercy star is launching the “Hoop Dreams Classic,” a basketball showcase featuring the nation’s top Division 1 HBCU men’s and women’s basketball teams.

 

Edwin Henderson (November 24, 1883 – February 3, 1977), widely recognized as the "Grandfather of Black Basketball." pic.twitter.com/TGk5jEbKjx

— BeverlyBlack (@gumboforthesoul) September 8, 2016

https://news.yahoo.com/michael-b-jordan-launches-basketball-215059107.html

 

Great! You First.

An excerpt from the Metro - 

‘You can’t call yourself a hairdresser unless you can do Afro hair,’ says white salon owner

By Natalie Morris

Anne says there needs to be significant changes
in the beauty industry (Pictures: Anne Veck)

Last month it was announced that all UK hairdressers would have to learn to cut and style Afro hair as standard – in an update to beauty regulations.

The move was welcomed by many who called it long-overdue, particularly people with Afro hair who don’t live in diverse areas and would have to travel long distances to find a salon that could cater to their needs.

Anne Veck is a white hairdresser, originally from France, and the owner of Anne Veck hair salon in Oxford. She believes that the changes to training standards are of course welcome, but within salons there is still lots more to do.

The 58-year-old is on the hair committee for the British Beauty Council and was also a finalist at the British Hairdressing Awards 2021 with an all Afro hair collection.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/08/10/you-cant-call-yourself-a-hairdresser-unless-you-can-do-afro-hair-15066246/?ito=smart-news

Go, Baby Go!

Great job baby pic.twitter.com/hgH80xr3mI

— chris russell (@watke_) August 8, 2021

I'm Not a Baseball Fan, But This Batgirl is My Hero!

Here’s some video sent that was sent to me. pic.twitter.com/9hICgcVdR5

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 8, 2021

The Impact of Racism

An excerpt from Market Watch - 

‘Males, particularly white males, are persistently overrepresented’: Many kids of color don’t see themselves in the books they read

Researchers used artificial intelligence technology to analyze imagery in children’s books

By Andrew Keshner

A new study looks at the images looking back at kids in children's books
(PHOTO BY GEORGE FREY/GETTY IMAGES)

The researchers were not attempting to offer any suggestions on the right amount of demographic and race representation in kids’ books, they said.

Instead, they noted the study showed that with the help of technology, it’s possible to quantify the amount of race and gender representation in children’s books.

“By providing research that expands our understanding about the diversity in content, we can help to contribute to work that aims to overcome the structural inequality that pervades society and our daily lives,” they wrote.

The study comes amid a debate on the presence of critical race theory in the classroom. The theory says race is a social construct. The theory is pointing out that social institutions like the criminal justice system, housing market, healthcare system and more can treat races differently, according to observers like Rashawn Ray, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. 

The “scholars and activists who discuss [critical race theory] are not arguing that white people living now are to blame for what people did in the past,” Ray wrote. “They are saying that white people living now have a moral responsibility to do something about how racism still impacts all of our lives today.” (Highlighted by Faye)

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/males-particularly-white-males-are-persistently-overrepresented-many-kids-of-color-dont-see-themselves-in-the-books-they-read-11628535154

'A Journal for Jordan' trailer starring Michael B. Jordan, directed by D...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zvmxYSE4UY

She Was a Pioneer in WWII

An excerpt from Time - 

This Pioneering Officer Led an All-Black Women’s Army Corps Battalion in a Daunting World War II Mission: Saving Soldiers' Mail

BY MARI K. EDER

Maj. Charity Adams, commanding officer of the
WAC Postal Battalion serving in England Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Charity Adams was already on her way to the European theater in January 1945, and there was a sealed envelope on her lap. It was time to find out where she was going. She tore open the sealed orders and gasped. It was the job every officer coveted: command, troop time, and being in charge. Adams, who had been the highest-ranking Black officer at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, had commanded a training company, which was a good experience, but to be selected to command a battalion—a brand-new unit—overseas during wartime was a tremendous vote of confidence in her abilities. It was every opportunity she could have hoped for.

Adams had been born in 1919, at a time when the U.S. was celebrating victory in World War I. The next year, the 19th Amendment was passed, and women were given the right to vote. It was a time of change in the country. A feeling of optimism was in the air, and it felt like new possibilities were open for women—unless you were Black. Then it was still a fight, all the way. Growing up in Columbia, S.C., the oldest of four children of a minister and a teacher, she’d been first in many things in her life, including being first in her high school class, valedictorian, and she continued that streak in 1942, becoming part of the first officer class of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, later simply WAC).

By the time she reached Fort Des Moines for basic officer training, she’d already gotten her first taste of racism in the Army. A white lieutenant had insisted and made certain that Black recruits didn’t sit with the white women on the bus headed for the camp. In that first officer class, there were 400 white women. There were also 40 Black women—the “ten percenters.” While their training was integrated, their living conditions were not.

The Army had scrambled to assemble Adams’ new unit, the 6888th Central Postal Battalion. By 1944, there was a two-year backlog of mail for troops, members of the Red Cross and civilians serving in Europe. There simply weren’t enough postal units. The all-Black WAC unit, known as the “Six Triple Eight,” was the only Black WAC unit to be deployed—another first, with an impossible mission.

The Six Triple Eight’s 855 women were sent to Birmingham, England. When the first contingent arrived, Adams was there to meet their ship. Many had been seasick on the trip over. After being chased by submarines, others were glad to be on land. Their arrival came with a message about the danger of their work—a German V1 rocket, the “Buzz Bomb,” came screaming in just as the women were heading down the ramp. They ran for cover as it hit the dock close to where they were disembarking. No one was injured, but it was a definite reminder that they had arrived in a war zone.

https://time.com/6085055/charity-adams-world-war-ii/

They Got the Last Laugh

An excerpt from the Mirror - 

People who have had the last laugh with funny messages on their tombstones

Here are our favourite picks of some of the most entertaining, comical, light-hearted and even slightly questionable gravestones out there

By Olivia Rose Fox

Merv certainly must have had a sense of humour as demonstrated by
his light-hearted gravestone at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park,
Westwood, California (Image: ©Joseph P. McKenna)

You can't exactly say that this one didn't
get straight to the point ( Image: Diane Diederich)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/people-who-last-laugh-funny-24652964

Lockdown Love

An excerpt from Entrepreneur - 

She Made Personalized Cards for Her Husband in Prison. Then She Realized Thousands of Prison Wives Would Buy Them.

Danielle Macias started True Blue Stationery as a side hustle. She soon discovered there was more demand than she could possibly meet.

By Elizabeth Greenwood, Author of LOVE LOCKDOWN: Dating, Sex, and Marriage in America's Prison System

Image credit: Danielle Macias

Danielle Macias never set out to be a stationery designer. Back in 2014, when she started her business, she was working full-time as a medical diagnostic scheduler and supporting her husband José through his 25-year prison sentence. They met as teenagers and married while José was incarcerated in Kern Valley State Prison, in California. Between visits, she wrote him love letters, decorating the envelopes and sheets of paper with simple designs. “I’m a horrible artist,” Danielle, 34, says. Still, a friend with whom she carpooled to the prison caught a glimpse of an envelope Danielle had prepared for José, 35. It was adorned with a cartoon image of a mailbox and the phrase “love letter” in a striking script. She asked Danielle where she had gotten this prison-specific piece of stationery, and Danielle told her she’d made it. She asked Danielle to make something similar for her, and True Blue Stationery was born.

“I didn’t go into this thinking I’d make a whole business out of my cards,” Danielle says, “but it took off pretty quickly.” She had tapped into a large and underserved customer base: There are more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States, 93% of them men. And on the outside, there are millions more caring for them from afar, like Danielle. 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/379077

The 2nd Amendment Is Not Intended For Us

An excerpt from Slate - 

“The Second Amendment Is Not Intended for Black People”

Tracing the racist history of gun governance.

BY DAHLIA LITHWICK 

Black gun owners take part in a rally in support of the
Second Amendment in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,
on June 20, 2020. Reuters/Lawrence Bryant

On a recent episode of Slate’s legal podcast Amicus, host Dahlia Lithwick spoke with historian Carol Anderson, professor and chair of African American studies at Emory University, about her new book, The Second. Anderson’s work explores how the Constitution’s Second Amendment was not only crafted to suppress Black Americans, but was continually enforced throughout the centuries in a racist manner, leading to everything from the terrorizing of Reconstruction-era Black Americans to the police killings of even legally armed Black people today. A portion of the conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, has been transcribed below.

Dahlia Lithwick: I wonder if you could start by talking about what led you to this exploration of the connection between slavery, the founding, and guns.

Carol Anderson: It began in 2016 with the killing of Philando Castile. In Minnesota, you have a Black man who was pulled over by the police. The officer asked to see his ID. Castile, following NRA guidelines, alerts the officer that he has a license to carry a weapon with him but he says he’s reaching for his ID. The police officer begins shooting and kills Philando Castile. We see the film of it. It is horrific.

We have a Black man killed simply for having a gun—not for brandishing it, not for threatening anyone, simply for having a license to carry a gun. The National Rifle Association, that protector of the Second Amendment, goes virtually silent. And I thought, how is the NRA silent on this, particularly when it was calling federal law enforcement jackbooted government thugs at Ruby Ridge and at Waco? On this, they’re like virtually silent. Journalists began asking, “Well, don’t African Americans have Second Amendment rights?” And I thought to myself, that’s a great question, and that’s what led me on to this hunt.

In the epilogue to your book, you put in Trevor Noah’s quote from when he looks at a whole host of incidents in which police officers talk down a white man with a gun: They persuade him to disarm and they arrest him. Noah makes the argument that “the Second Amendment is not intended for Black people.” I think the argument is saying that the Second Amendment is in fact working exactly the way it was intended to work with respect to Black folks, and that is as a tool of persistence, subordination, and destruction. I just want to be super clear that you’re not saying the Second Amendment is broken, that it was conceived to do a thing that it doesn’t do. You’re saying the Second Amendment does precisely the thing it was crafted to do.

Exactly. You nailed it.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/08/second-amendment-guns-racist-black-americans-history.html

Brothers help underprivileged students afford historically Black college...

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/brothers-raise-money-help-students-080018355.html

Black Kids Labeled Negatively Early

An excerpt from Neuroscience News - 

The Older People Think a Black Child Is, the More Likely They Are to Wrongly See the Child As Angry

Summary: The older an adult believes a Black child to be, the more likely they are to believe the child is exhibiting angry emotions, even when they are not. The same emotional perception shift does not occur when an adult sees an image of a white child.

Source: North Carolina State University

    

             These misperceptions occurred significantly

           less frequently for white children.

            Credit: North Carolina State University

A recent study from North Carolina State University finds that the older an adult thinks a Black child is, the more likely the adult is to incorrectly view the child as being angry. There was no similar shift in adults’ perceptions of white children’s emotions.

“Our earlier work had established that racialized anger bias is imposed on both Black adults and Black children,” says Amy Halberstadt, co-author of a paper on the work and a professor of psychology at NC State.

“This study shows again that Black children are more likely than white children to be seen as angry, even when they are not angry, which has ramifications for receiving unfair consequences.”

“The new part in this study was to see if anger bias increased as a function of the child’s age,” says Alison Cooke, first author of the study and a former Ph.D. student at NC State.

“Do people see Black children as older and does that increase the likelihood that people will incorrectly perceive Black children as angry?”

https://neurosciencenews.com/race-perception-anger-19074/

Black & Beautiful Luxury Shoe Designer

An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

‘ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS’: MEET THE YOUNGEST, BLACK FEMALE LUXURY SHOE DESIGNER IN THE INDUSTRY #BLACKBUSINESSMONTH

by Alexa Imani Spencer

(Photo Ganesia Wveighlin)

This woman is kicking out glass ceilings and walking in her power as the youngest, Black female designer in the luxury shoe industry who owns 100% of her brand.

Meet Ganesia Wveighlin, 32, owner of CaesarWalks; a unique, expressive luxury shoe brand she founded in 2017. Wveighlin boldly stepped into the luxury shoe market with a vision and hasn’t looked back since. 

                                                                                                                                                               

The brand includes shoes for women and men with some handmade touches. Wveighlin studied shoemaking in 2019 so she could make her shoes by hand. Her education first started in Brooklyn and continued in London, England. 

https://www.blackenterprise.com/youngest-black-female-luxury-shoe-designer-ganesia-wveighlin/

He Opened His Heart and His Wallet

An excerpt from Readers' Digest - 

A Man Heard an Elderly Woman Was About to Lose Her House, So He Gave Her the Money to Keep It

When a Detroit man heard a woman was about to lose her house, he opened his heart—and his wallet. 

By Emily Goodman

Michael Evans (right) inspires his son (left) to continue his legacy of charity.

EE BERGER FOR READER'S DIGEST

Michael Evans was standing in line at the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office in Detroit last August, waiting to pay his taxes, when he heard a disturbing sound ahead of him. The elderly woman at the window was crying—and so was the cashier helping her. Then Evans learned why: He heard the cashier inform the woman that her house was in fore­closure and headed for auction. He also heard the woman tell the cashier that her daughter had recently died.

Evans, a businessman who had just buried his father, couldn’t stomach the idea of this woman losing her home right after losing her child. He approached the window. “I don’t mean to butt in,” he said to the cashier, “but if y’all can get her house back, I’ll pay for her taxes.” The amount due: $5,000.

The two women were stunned. Their despair turned to disbelief. The cashier left for a moment to confirm the amount and that it was all right for Evans to pay it. Evans vowed to go straight to the bank and come right back with the money. And he did.

But when he returned to the treasurer’s office, he asked someone else waiting in line to hand the $5,000 check to the cashier. Evans was trying to slip away quietly and, preferably, anonymously.

“I didn’t want this attention,” he explains.

Of course, attention found him—it’s not every day that someone pays a stranger’s hefty tax bill. 

https://www.rd.com/article/a-very-special-tax-break/

Black-Owned Drive-In Thrives

An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

Black-Owned Drive-In Movie Theater That Opened At Height of COVID Has No Plans to Close

By Jeroslyn Johnson

Ayana Morris and Siree Morris (BlackBusiness)

A Black-owned drive-in movie theater in New Jersey that opened during the height of the pandemic has no plans of closing as their business thrives in a social distancing society.

Co-founders and husband-and-wife Ayana Morris and Siree Morris opened Newark Moonlight Cinema after seeing an opportunity while a pandemic plagued the world. Through the drive-in service, one of the few Black-owned theaters in the country, they were able to host over 20,000 cars during 2020, CNBC

reports.

While many small businesses struggle to make it as the pandemic looms on, Newark Moonlight Cinema is building its community-driven business to stand the test of time.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-owned-drive-in-movie-theater-in-new-jersey-capitalizing-on-distancing-protocols/amp/

Black Billionaires

From Essence - 

Here's Everyone On The Black Billionaire List Now

THOUGH THERE ARE JUST 15 BLACK PEOPLE AMONG THE WORLD’S ESTIMATED 2,755 BILLIONAIRES, FORTUNATELY, THE LIST IS GROWING.

BY JASMINE BROWLEY 

Rihanna (Getty Images)

https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/black-billionaire-list-2021/

 

Start Your Day With a Smile

From Buzzfeed - 

60 Pictures That Make Me Smile Uncontrollably No Matter How Many Times I've Seen Them

Can't stop smiling.

by Dave Stopera

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/60-wholesome-things

Rihanna is a BILLIONAIRE! Way to Go RiRi!

An excerpt from USA Today - 

Rihanna officially becomes a billionaire: Forbes names her the 'richest female musician'

By Elise Brisco

Forbes has announced Rhianna as a billionaire with
most of her worth coming from her Fenty brand.
Roy Rochlin, Getty Images

Rihanna shines bright like a diamond, or several diamonds: The multi-hyphenate star is now a billionaire. 

Forbes announced Wednesday that Rihanna joins the ranks of Oprah Winfrey as one of the richest entertainers in the world. The publication estimates her net worth at $1.7 billion, with most of it coming from her cosmetic brand Fenty Beauty. 

In lieu of another album – which fans are still waiting for – the singer-turned-entrepreneur, born Robyn Fenty, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017 in partnership with luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. The brand's launch focused on inclusivity with a then-unprecedented 40 shades of foundation, which prompted the "Fenty Effect" in which other brands expanded their shade ranges for complexion products. Now the brand covers everything under the sun of makeup, from brushes and blushes to lipsticks. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/08/04/rihanna-billionaire-forbes-richest-female-musician-fenty-beauty/5480614001/

She Deserves Every Penny and More!

An excerpt from Deadline - 

‘9-1-1’ Cast Gets Raises Ahead Of Season 5 With Angela Bassett Eyeing New Benchmark For Actresses Of Color

By Nellie Andreeva 

Angela Bassett - 911 on FOX

After lengthy negotiations for some, all series regulars on Fox’s flagship drama 9-1-1 have secured pay increases ahead of Season 5, I have learned.

Series star Angela Bassett led the way with a major bump that I hear takes her to north of $450,000 an episode. That is believed to be among the top salaries on network television for any actor — male or female — and could be the highest ever for an actress of color on a broadcast drama series.

For Oscar-nominated Bassett, it encompasses other services beyond acting. She was involved in the development of 9-1-1, whom Ryan Murphy created for her. She serves as an executive producer on 9-1-1 as well as spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star.

https://deadline.com/2021/08/9-1-1-cast-raises-season-5-angela-bassett-deal-1234796117/

Pharmaceutical Companies Have Gotten Rich From Her Cells. Her Family Has Gotten Nothing.

An excerpt from Newsonyx - 

Henrietta Lacks’ Family Will Sue Pharmaceutical Companies Who’ve Gotten Rich From Her Cells

Her HeLa cells have been used in research for decades without consent.

By Aziah Kamariby

Photo Courtesy of Baltimore Magazine (Mike Morgan)

The family of Henrietta Lacks has hired a prominent civil rights attorney, Ben Crump, who plans to seek compensation for them from big pharmaceutical companies across the country that have made fortunes off medical research with the use of Lacks’ famous cells.

On January 29, 1951, doctors at The Johns Hopkins Hospital took a biopsy from Henrietta Lacks, who had an aggressive form of cervical cancer.

She died eight months later, but the tissue was taken without her consent eventually established the cell line HeLa. The cells were the first immortal human cells to live outside of the body and be grown in culture.

For the next 70 years, cells taken from Lacks are the most widely used human cells in scientific research and helped lead to a multitude of medical treatments and advances, including the COVID-19 vaccine. However, neither Lacks nor her family gave consent.

Now, her descendants seek compensation from big pharmaceutical companies that profited from HeLa cells, and they hired the infamous Crump to help them do so.

https://www.newsonyx.com/henrietta-lacks-family-will-sue-pharmaceutical-companies-whove-gotten-rich-from-her-cells/