A Reminder of the UAE Here in Sacramento

A Sacramento food influencer made her name in Dubai. She has a new plan for the U.S.

BY ASHLEY WONG

Despite the fact that she’s been up since 3 a.m. and caught about five hours of sleep, Lamees AttarBashi picked up the call with an easy laugh and a boisterous personality that bubbles through the phone.

“It’s the only way to have my peace and quiet. I love my kids to death, but please shush,” AttarBashi laughed.

This is AttarBashi, 38, an Instagram food blogger with a budding snack food company. Her Instagram page is testament to the hours she spends each day on her culinary creations, full of rich, smoky and hearty recipes whose fragrance practically floats off the photos, from the flaky sticky-golden basbousa to charred eggplant boats stuffed with pomegranate molasses and browned beef.

Her dishes are mainly Middle Eastern, but her page is also scattered with the British food of her youth like Scotch eggs and scones, as well as more whimsical offerings, like cookies piped with frosted mummy faces for Halloween. But what many Sacramentans new to her page may not realize is that she’s also a TV personality, having already made a name for herself years ago in Dubai.

It all started with a cake recipe in a children’s book when she was a kid. Her mother, whom AttarBashi credits with planting and nurturing her love of cooking, guided her through the steps as she created her own dish from start to finish for the first time.

“I was so fascinated, like how can you create something from nothing?” AttarBashi said. “Forty minutes in the oven ... I just sat in front of it waiting for it to bake. That was the spark of how it led to where I am right now.”

AttarBashi has been chasing that spark ever since, letting it guide her out of an unsatisfying engineering job to culinary school, a business degree and Dubai cooking TV shows. In Sacramento, where she, her husband and two children settled four years ago, AttarBashi is moving into food blogging and a forthcoming snack food company in the U.S.

https://www.sacbee.com/article248961094.html

 

Let the Debates Begin!

From USA Today Sports - 

The 51 best HBCU players in NFL history

By Doug Farrar  

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/gallery/hbcu-walter-payton-jerry-rice-deacon-jones/

Too Good To Excerpt

From Faye - This article is too good to cherry-pick.  Take the time to read it in its entirety.  I promise you it's worth it.  

~~~~~

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 'One Night in Miami' Grapples With the Risk and Responsibility of Black Entertainers Speaking Out

The Oscar-contending film imagines a heated debate between Malcolm X and Sam Cooke about the duty of successful Blacks to be the public face of the civil rights movement — one The Hollywood Reporter's columnist long has embraced.

By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-one-night-in-miami-grapples-with-the-risk-and-responsibility-of-black-entertainers-speaking-out

Black Woman Building $25 Million Tech Hub in Mississippi

An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

MEET THE BLACK WOMAN TRANSFORMING 12 ABANDONED ACRES INTO $25 MILLION TECH HUB IN MISSISSIPPI

by Charlene Rhinehart

Dr. Nashlie Sephus purchased 12 abandoned acres to develop a $25 million tech hub for entrepreneurs in Mississippi. On September 11, 2020, the Jackson native closed on the purchase of 12 acres and seven buildings near Jackson State University. Now, she’s putting in the work to transform her vision into a reality to help the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s really important for me to give back to the community that helped shape me and I always love to see people get enthused and exposed to technology and so I wanted to make that process a little bit easier,” Dr. Sephus shared with WLBT.

Last month, she shared her passion for her work in a LinkedIn post. “Some may not understand my labor of love and life’s mission of helping underserved communities reach their full potential in STEM. It’s not easy, but it WILL happen.”

https://www.blackenterprise.com/black-woman-transforming-abandoned-acres-tech-hub-mississippi/

Google's Strategy is a Roadblock

An excerpt from Washington Post - 

Google’s approach to historically Black schools helps explain why there are few Black engineers in Big Tech

The company tried to recruit engineers by partnering with HBCUs. Critics say the program exposed how the search giant fell short.

By Nitasha Tiku

For years, Google’s recruiting department used a college ranking system to set budgets and priorities for hiring new engineers. Some schools such as Stanford University and MIT were predictably in the “elite” category, while state schools or institutions that churn out thousands of engineering grads annually, such as Georgia Tech, were assigned to “tier 1” or “tier 2.”

But one category of higher education was missing from Google’s ranking system, according to several current and former Google employees involved in recruitment, despite the company’s pledges to promote racial diversity — historically Black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs. That framework meant that those schools were at a lower priority for hiring, even though Google had said in 2014 that it wanted to partner with HBCUs as a way to recruit more minority talent.

In lieu of a tier, Google’s University Programs recruiting division, responsible for forging partnerships with universities, labeled these colleges “long tail” schools, in reference to the fact that it could take a long time before they would produce a large number of graduates qualified to work at Google, according to the Google employees.

“Google allocated resources so disparagingly because of how they tiered — and thought of — our schools,” said former recruiter April Christina Curley, who helped lead Google’s outreach to HBCUs for six years. Curley, who is Black, said she was fired in September largely as a result of continually raising concerns about bias against HBCU students in the interview and hiring process.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/04/google-hbcu-recruiting/

Kris Fuchigami - Can't Take My Eyes Off You (HiSessions.com Acoustic Live!)

Foster child gets his fairytale ending when math teacher adopts him

Momma Bear Struggles with Cubs || ViralHog

 

Everyone should know the international sign for Help me. Let’s make this famous #HelpMe pic.twitter.com/RF5aOq8jCY

— Harjinder Singh Kukreja (@SinghLions) March 10, 2021

Former Homeless Student Surprises Teacher (Emotional Reunion)

Tyler Perry Spring Tuskegee Commencement Speech

A Sharecropper's Child Gifted $50 Million to Black College

An excerpt from Bloomberg Equality - 

Ivy League Star, a Sharecropper’s Child, Revives a Black College

But even a $50 million gift can’t reverse generations of state discrimination.

By Janet Lorin

Lawrence’s historically Black college, Prairie View A&M in Texas, had suddenly come into the kind of money once reserved for Harvard and the other richest schools. Over a month starting in November, students behind on their bills — one out of 10 undergraduates — got this year-end lifeline from economic turmoil in the pandemic. As much as $2,000 apiece, it was the first installment of what will ultimately be $10 million worth of “Panther Success Grants,” named after their school mascot.

It’s part of the unlikely homecoming and valedictory act of Prairie View’s president, Ruth Simmons, one of higher education’s most prominent Black leaders. Simmons is using her clout and connections — and the current U.S. reckoning with systemic racism — to create a renaissance at a school long neglected by its state.

“We don’t want our students to give up,” says Simmons, who will be Harvard’s commencement speaker in May. “We know what's waiting for them at the other end when they do finish and have a brilliant career. They get to lift their families out of poverty and have incredible lives. We don't want them to give up too soon.”

The youngest of 12 children in a family of sharecroppers, Simmons grew up in Texas, just a couple of hours north of Prairie View. She then rose to the pinnacle of the academy, as a French literature scholar with a Harvard Ph.D, a dean at Princeton and later president of Brown, the first Black person to lead an Ivy League school. She was a star fundraiser, sought after in corporate board rooms, where she was a director at Chrysler, Texas Instruments Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-03-19/ivy-league-star-a-sharecropper-s-child-revives-a-black-college

Blistering Indeed

From Mediate - 

WATCH: Tiffany Cross Delivers BLISTERING Commentary on Sharon Osbourne and Her ‘Complicity to White Supremacy’

By Tommy Christopher

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-tiffany-cross-delivers-blistering-commentary-on-sharon-osbourne-and-her-complicity-to-white-supremacy/

Maliya Kabs SHOCKS dad with Spanish & Portuguese

Two neighbours playing piano between a wall - Giorgio and Emil

https://www.upworthy.com/piano-duets-with-mystery-neighbor

 

It’s rare to see a league partner activate on both NBA & WNBA rights in the same ad spot, but love how this turned out and need more of it. pic.twitter.com/cwT8LK4x4U

— Avish Sood (@AvishSood) March 28, 2021

"Banner" by Stanford's Everyday People

Only 4 Black Fortune 500 CEOs

An excerpt from GoBankingRates - 

There Are Only 4 Black Fortune 500 CEOs

See the leaders who are carving a new path.

By John Csiszar 

In spite of all the progress made in Black representation in America, these advances have yet to translate to the C-suite in corporate America. With the resignation of Tapestry CEO Jide Zeitlin in July 2020, the number of Black CEOs among the Fortune 500 dropped to a woeful four. One person will soon be added to that list as Rosalind Brewer, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, will take over as the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance. She will be leaving Starbucks at the end of February and will then be the only Black woman CEO at a Fortune 500 company. Unfortunately, this list will shrink again when Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier retires in June 2021.

Over the complete history of the Fortune 500, which dates back to 1999, there have only been a total of 18 Black CEOs leading America’s Fortune 500 companies. The peak year for representation was 2012, when a still-anemic total of six Black CEOs led corporate America’s most prominent companies. As Black History Month unfolds, it’s a good time to take a closer look at the four Black CEOs paving the way for future leaders of color.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/business/fortune-500-includes-only-4-black-ceos/

Clever Art

From Bored Panda - 

https://www.boredpanda.com/street-art-tom-bob-nyc/

Racial Gaslighting

An excerpt from Your Tango - 

How To Know If Someone's Racially Gaslighting You — And 10 Ways To Respond 

By Angelique Beluso

Experiencing racism can be a lonely experience at times. And It's exhausting to have to defend your experience. But in moments like these, it's important to stand your ground and speak your truth. 

There are ways to respond to racial gaslighting that allows you to stand up for yourself while encouraging a healthy discourse. 

Here are a few ways to respond to racial gaslighting:

1. “My experience is not up for debate.”

2. “This is my truth of what happened, please don’t try and invalidate that.”

3. “I would never question if you experienced racism, please don’t question if I did.”

https://www.yourtango.com/2021340295/how-to-know-if-someone-racially-gaslighting-you-ways-to-respond

Former Inmate turns life around with luxury shoe brand Bungee Obleceni |...

DC Native Becomes First Black Woman to Own a Tequila Brand

Every Opportunity

Proud Puffs said to become first Black-owned cereal company

More HBCU Love

From Newsone - 

Black History In The Making: 21 HBCU Graduates Who Are Changing The World In 2021

By Bruce C.T. Wright

https://newsone.com/playlist/hbcu-graduates-changing-the-world/

Wild Black Bear Dances to Live DJ Set Video- Techno and House Music Wild...

Love This Momma!

🎶 SINCE U BEEN GONE 🎶

"Mom please sto-"

🎶 I CAN BREATHE FOR THE FIRST TIME 🎶 pic.twitter.com/4b5DQ7SzdE

— Maryland Basketball 🐢 (@TerrapinHoops) December 12, 2018

Traveling While Black

From the NY Times - 

 

The Black Panthers Revisited

 From the NY Times - 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/black-history-month-short-documentaries.html?referringSource=articleShare

Stay Close

 From the NY Times - 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/black-history-month-short-documentaries.html?referringSource=articleShare

The Lost Astronaut

 From the NY Times - 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/black-history-month-short-documentaries.html?referringSource=articleShare

The story of Keeth Smart

The Orangeburg Massacre

An excerpt from Newsone - 

‘Orangeburg Massacre’ In South Carolina Occurred On This Day In 1968

Written By D.L. Chandler

One of the most stirring tragedies of the civil rights movement during the 1960s took place in the small town of Orangeburg in South Carolina. On this day in 1968, police officers fired in to a crowd of Black students protesting segregation, killing three and wounding 28 others, in what has been called the “Orangeburg Massacre.”

After Black students were denied entry to the Whites-only All Star Bowling Lane alley and began protesting at the establishment’s door, the students — now numbering into the hundreds — gathered on the campus of South Carolina State University to demonstrate against the bowling alley. The students were raucous and sparked a bonfire, with the group throwing firebombs and other objects. As an officer put out a fire, he was hit with an unknown object. Police claimed to hear gunfire and began to fire in to the throng.

The police killed three people that day:  Samuel Hammond and Henry Smith, both students at SCSU, and Delano Middleton (all pictured above), a student at nearby Wilkinson High School. 28 others were injured by both gunfire and other weapons, including one pregnant young woman who reported having a miscarriage a week later due to beatings by police.

https://newsone.com/2190700/orangeburg-massacre/

The Historic Impact of the Tuskegee Airmen | Tuskegee Airmen: Legacy of ...

Dr. Patricia Bath, Black Doctor Who Revolutionized Eye Surgery

 

https://abc7.com/health/black-female-doctor-who-revolutionized-eye-surgery-could-receive-posthumous-national-honor/10321774/

‘I’m not a cat’: Lawyer goes viral for kitten filter in Zoom virtual cou...

An HBCU Gets Animation Studio

An excerpt from The Black Detour - 

Bowie State University Makes History Becoming First HBCU With Animation Studio

An animation studio is opening at  Bowie State University, making history becoming  the first historically Black college or university, NBC Washington reported. The university partnered with the Oscar-nominated animation house, LAIKA, to make the animation studio a reality.

“The partnership will enhance BSU’s animation curriculum, with the goal of providing a career pathway for BSU students into the animation industry,” LAIKA said in a statement. LAIKA will fund upgrades to Bowie State’s green screen studio, that will allow stop-motion animation production according to the press release. The art form includes the movement of objects, puppets, filmed at a high rate to create the illusion of movement.

https://theblackdetour.com/bowie-state-university-becomes-first-hbcu-with-a-animation/

I Love FAMU! My HBCU!

An excerpt from The Undefeated - 

My HBCU experience has been life-changing

We are taught to stand tall, be confident and make our presence known

By Marissa Stubbs

My HBCU has served as my haven, a place where I can be unapologetically Black. The discussions that take place in our classrooms go beyond the four walls of our illustrious institutions. Instead, we carry them with us into the real world and apply them to our daily lives. Addressing topics such as racism, police brutality and systematic oppression helps us see where we as students can come in and help make a change.

Every time I step on campus, I feel like I belong and I’m protected. After graduating, I will be sure to carry the lessons I’ve learned and apply them to my everyday life. Choosing an HBCU was one of the best decisions I’ve made, and I will forever be grateful for the knowledge my university has instilled in me.

https://theundefeated.com/features/my-hbcu-experience-has-been-life-changing/

Bird

 

Nolan Richardson talking about Larry Bird might be the funniest clip you see on Twitter today 😂 pic.twitter.com/cDKoPMfJuT

— Tye Richardson 🐗 (@TyeSportsRadio) February 11, 2021

Bringing the Funk!

 

The Mothers of Martin, Malcolm & James

An excerpt from People - 

The Three Mothers Shares Untold Stories of MLK Jr., Malcolm X, James Baldwin's Moms

Anna Malaika Tubbs writes about the surprising and sometimes heartbreaking lives of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin

By Morgan Smith 

Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. James Baldwin. These three men — among the most influential in the Civil Rights Movement — are celebrated for challenging racism and hatred through their prose, ideas and activism. During Black History Month, especially, Instagram feeds and classrooms are filled with inspiring quotes and lessons imparted to us by these leaders. 

Yet little is known about the women who raised them. Anna Malaika Tubbs's biography, The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation seeks to change that, telling the stories of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin — the women who loved, taught and pushed their sons to greatness. 

https://people.com/human-interest/new-book-the-three-mothers-shares-untold-stories-of-mlk-jr-malcolm-x-james-baldwins-mothers/

Why We Need a White History Month | The Amber Ruffin Show

"No Thanks" to Black History Curriculum

An excerpt from The Hill - 

Utah school allowing parents to opt students out of Black History Month curriculum

BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO

A Utah charter school that incorporates Black History Month into its lesson plans is now facing backlash from some after the school announced it was allowing parents to opt students out of the curriculum. 

Maria Montessori Academy Director Micah Hirokawa announced the decision in a Friday post on the school’s private Facebook page, according to local news outlet the Standard-Examiner. 

Hirokawa wrote that he “reluctantly” sent a letter to families stating that administrators were allowing them “to exercise their civil rights to not participate in Black History Month at the school.” 

Hirokawa said in the post that “a few families” had asked not to participate in the curriculum, though he declined to tell the Standard-Examiner the exact number of parents who had contacted the school or the reasons they gave for making the request. 

The public charter school director added that the demand from parents “deeply saddens and disappoints me.” 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/537677-utah-school-allowing-parents-to-opt-students-out-of-black-history-month

Woman in Dubai Faces Jail & $140K Fine for Text

An excerpt from the Insider - 

British woman in Dubai faces jail time and $140,000 fine for rude WhatsApp message to her roommate

By Joshua Zitser 

A British woman in Dubai has been told she could face up to two years in jail and a 500,000 AED ($136,129) fine for swearing at her roommate in a WhatsApp message, according to MailOnline.

The unnamed woman faces charges under the United Arab Emirate's cybercrime laws, the news outlet reported.

She is accused of writing "f--- you" to her Ukrainian ex-roommate after arguing about the use of a dining room table, MailOnline's Paul Thompson said.

The 31-year-old woman admits to sending the rude message last October but prosecutors have yet to bring forward a formal legal case, according to MailOnline.

The prosecutors are waiting to file a forensic report on the woman's phone before a case is brought forward, the news outlet said.

The woman was arrested when trying to board a flight from Dubai International Airport to London's Heathrow Airport, the Independent reported.

She has since tried to contact her former roommate to resolve the situation but her request was rebuffed, the paper said.

https://www.insider.com/dubai-woman-faces-jail-140000-fine-rude-message-to-roommate-2021-2

Recognizing White Privilege

 

Rep. Dean Phillips: "I'm here tonight to say to my brothers & sisters in Congress & all around our country, I'm sorry. For I've never understood, really understood, what privilege really means. It took a violent mob of insurrectionists & lightning-bolt moment in this very room." pic.twitter.com/PqnoBMiQDu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2021

Amend: The Fight for America | Official Trailer | Netflix

Explaining White Privilege

 

If trying to understand sharing your inherent privilege, think: when someone shorter than you needs to see the stage better at a show, you usually let them stand in front of you, right? You both get to enjoy the show, it’s only a slight inconvenience, and you. don’t. shrink.🙂

— Arlan 👊🏾 (@ArlanWasHere) August 28, 2018

#Dontbeadick

Using your voice is a political choice | Amanda Gorman

Madame President!

NCeePhotography

 https://cafemom.com/news/maryland-photographer-first-birthday-photoshoot-kamala-harris

Tap dance showdown between toddler and seasoned pro

Hate Speeding Tickets?

 

More "Trauma-Free Blackness" Please

An excerpt from CNN - 

We need more 'trauma-free Blackness.' Here's a start

There are vast regions of Black life that are filled with joy, romance and beauty. Here are some favorite examples.

By John Blake

I was scrolling through Facebook one evening when I noticed an odd image that someone had posted on my page. It was a screenshot of a solitary Black man on roller skates, freeze-framed in the middle of a country road flanked by horse pastures.

As I clicked on the video I braced myself, expecting to see a Black person being brutalized by police or accosted in public by White strangers. But that's not what I saw.

The man flashed a wide smile and he started to dance. He had a gray beard, but he skated like someone 20 years younger: rolling his shoulders, shimmying his hips while Mary J. Blige sang "Not Gon' Cry" in the background. Soon I was smiling, too.

The video had no caption, but I had a name for what I was watching: It was a snapshot of what I call "trauma-free Blackness."

Here's my wish for a new year: more trauma-free Blackness.

Last year was a rough one for most Black people. We watched videos of Black men being brutalized or killed and read about Black women fatally shot in their homes by police. We've watched a pandemic devastate our community. At times I, too, have felt exhausted by what one writer calls "the relentlessness of Black grief."

But my boogie-down skater buddy reminded me of something I had almost forgotten: There is a Blackness that exists outside of trauma.

There are vast regions of Black life that have nothing to do with suffering or oppression. We lead lives that are also filled with joy, romance, laughter and astonishing beauty, but those stories don't tend to grab the headlines. It's time to change that.

What follows are my favorite examples of "trauma-free Blackness" -- striking expressions of Black life that aren't filtered through the lens of racism.

I also asked my CNN colleagues to join me in creating a list of our favorite trauma-free moments. To do so we pored through movies, TV, music, art, literature, internet memes and other slices of Black culture. It's by no means an exhaustive list -- just a good place to start.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/trauma-free-blackness-culture-queue/index.html

LaTroy Hawkins - Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/01/25/baseball-hall-fame-ballot-latroy-hawkins/6696285002/

The First Black Fighter Pilot

An excerpt from Mental Floss - 

Eugene Bullard, the World's First Black Fighter Pilot

BY MELANIE HAMILTON 

Eugene Bullard survived some of the deadliest battles in military history, became the world's first Black fighter pilot, and even had his own monkey sidekick—and all before the age of 30. He went on to spy on Nazis and fifth columnists, rub shoulders with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and earn the nickname "Black Swallow of Death." More than that though, Bullard was a pioneer who laid the groundwork for Black servicemen everywhere.

FROM RUNAWAY TO PRIZEFIGHTER

Bullard was born on October 9, 1895, in Columbus, Georgia, to a former enslaved Haitian man and a Muskogee Creek woman. Slavery had been abolished in the South only 30 years prior and still cast a long, dark shadow. Bullard was no stranger to discrimination, hardship, and outright violence. At 10 years old, he witnessed his father narrowly escape a lynching; not long after, his mother died unexpectedly.

Bullard ran away from home when he was 11. By chance, he found a group of Romani in Atlanta, Georgia, known as the Stanley Clan. They took him in as one of their own. But after spending six years tending to horses and living a nomadic lifestyle, Bullard was ready for a change. He hoped to head to France—a place his father had never visited, but spoke of often.

At 17, Bullard stowed away on the Marta Russ, a German merchant ship bound for Europe. Shortly after departing the ship at port in Aberdeen, Scotland, he joined a vaudeville troupe where he performed as a boxer and quickly became one of Great Britain's most beloved prizefighters. But he still yearned for France.

Bullard would soon reach his goal. After some time with the troupe in Great Britain, he was booked for a fight in Paris in 1913. "When I got off the boat train in Paris, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Here I was in the place I had wanted to be and to see all my life. And it was wonderful," he wrote in his journal.

Because of his Haitian roots, Bullard was fluent in French. This, combined with Paris's liberal lifestyle, made him decide to stick around the City of Love for a while. But the start of World War I quickly changed his plans.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/640184/eugene-bullard-first-black-fighter-pilot

Swing Tables

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SWINGTABLES (@swingtables)

The Original King of Buffalo Wings

 An excerpt from the NY Times - 

The Story of John Young, the Original King of Buffalo Wings

His restaurants closed and his glory faded, but a historical reclamation effort is bringing new attention to the secret sauce he perfected.

Text by Rachel WhartonIllustrations by Koren Shadmi

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/dining/buffalo-wings-john-young.html?referringSource=articleShare

A Mama's Boy

An excerpt from the Chicago Sun-Times - 

I’m a mama’s boy, no apologies.  I was Mama’s joy. Manchild in the Promised Land.

By John W. Fountain

I’m a mama’s boy. This hasn’t always been easy to admit. But those late nights when I saw her sit, staring out the bedroom window, trying to hide the salty tears that fell like midnight rain for years and stained her pillow.

I could always plainly see her pain, though I was just a boy with no answers for the bitter pill called Life. Or for those ill men who are cancer. Or those men who failed her. I always felt her pain, her strain, her drain.

I’m a mama’s boy, though I bear my father’s name.

I was Mama’s joy. Manchild in the Promised Land. Eating from Mama’s tender brown hands as Mama sought to devise a plan to raise a Black boy to be a decent Black man.

A mother at 17, she went back to high school to graduate. I stare at her picture in cap and gown with admiration that only punctuates: I’m a mama’s boy.

Mama’s boy on those 60’s early sun-kissed mornings, when me and Mama danced. And she held my hand. And I held hers, as we twisted and mash-potatoed. Danced the Watusi and “the bird.”

“Love” was the word.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/1/29/22257026/john-w-fountain-mothers-and-sons-chicago-west-side

Gone viral: High school football phenom Gary Haynes catches his own passes

14 Year Old Environmental Scientist and Entrepreneur!

 An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

14-YEAR-OLD EARNED A MASTER’S DEGREE AND NOW SHE’S AN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST AND ENTREPRENEUR

by Charlene Rhinehart

Young environmental scientist Dorothy Jean Tillman garnered national attention when she received her master’s degree at 14-years-old.

Now, the Chicago teen is breaking into entrepreneurship by exposing more youth to opportunities in STEAM. She’s giving more Chicago youth a headstart in life by showing them what’s possible. 

“I know, one thing that I would want every kid to know is that what I did is an option and that they can do it too,” said Tillman to Rolling Out. “It doesn’t take a genius or someone who has been learning forever. I’m not perfect. I’m not the smartest person in the world. It just takes dedication.”

From Environment Scientist to Entrepreneur

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) is a growing field and Tillman wants more youth to know how they can get involved.

The 14-year-old has always had a passion for STEM, obtaining high rankings in all those subjects in school. This inspired her to pursue a master’s degree at Unity College. Tillman made history as the youngest environmental and sustainable scientist in the U.S. Her desire to expand opportunities is stronger than ever since COVID-19 has eliminated many traditional activities for youth.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/14-year-old-earned-a-masters-degree-and-now-shes-an-environmental-scientist-and-entrepreneur/

The Black Church | Extended Trailer

What Makes Food "Black?"

 An excerpt from USA Today & the Louisville Courier-Journal - 

'Is butter pecan ice cream a 'Black thing'?' Louisville podcast explores how race impacts food.

By Dahlia Ghabour - Louisville Courier-Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It all started with ice cream. 

After working at Louisville Cream in the hip downtown Louisville NuLu district for a year, Kelly Nusz noticed a pattern she was too shy to ask anyone about. After a Google search didn't answer her question, she finally decided to ask her friend and boss, Louisville Cream owner Darryl Goodner.

"Is butter pecan ice cream a 'Black thing'?"

Goodner laughed. "Of course, it is."

"Why?" she asked.

Well, Goodner didn't really know what to say. He'd grown up eating it and had fond memories of the cheap ice cream he'd get from the store and share with his family. It was the flavor his relatives always gravitated toward.

But was it part of his heritage as a Black man in America? 

That question launched a conversation, which led to research, which led to some answers and more questions. What made a food a "Black" food versus a "white" food? And what foods that we eat today have a racist history attached to them that people don't know about? 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/02/01/black-owned-louisville-cream-launches-butter-pecan-podcast/4318599001/

Josh Groban ft. Donald Lawrence + Company - 'America The Beautiful' (Bid...

‘Twas the Night Before Super Bowl | Frito-Lay 2:00

I Accidentally Went on a Gay Date - Barry Brewer

12 Year Old Headed to College

 

Mickey Guyton - Black Like Me (Live At Capitol Studios)

From Quarterback to Chaplain

An excerpt from InsideHook - 

Randall Cunningham Makes Move From Quarterback to Chaplain

He's now addressing the spiritual needs of the Las Vegas Raiders

BY TOBIAS CARROLL

Writing at The New York Times, Kalyn Kahler explored how Cunnngham’s life after his playing days had ended eludes each comparisons. Kahler writes about how Cunninghm and his wife Felicity settled in Las Vegas — where Cunningham had an outstanding collegiate career — in 2002. In 2004, he was ordained as a pastor.

The idea to bring in Cunningham as the Raiders’ chaplain came about when the team moved to Las Vegas. Raiders coach Jon Gruden — whose time as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator had overlapped with Cunningham’s time playing in Philadelphia — came up with the idea. “That guy warms my heart,” Gruden told the Times.

https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sports/randall-cunningham-chaplain-las-vegas-raiders

Stevie Wonder Could See the Difference

From Buzzfeed - 

32 Pictures that Show The Huge Difference Between The "Protests" At The Capitol Vs. The Black Lives Matter Protests - Spot the difference.

by Matt Stopera & Dave Stopera - BuzzFeed Staff

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/pictures-from-capitol-vs-2020

Martin Scorsese Presents | Pretend It’s A City | Official Trailer | Netflix

Destiny's Child Medley Violin Cello Ember Trio

Too Cute!

From Bored Panda -

Mom Makes Fun Of Her Model Brother By Having Her Toddler Recreate His Poses, And Result Is Hilariously Adorable (45 New Pics)

By Hidrėlėy 

https://www.boredpanda.com/baby-copies-uncle-model-poses-babyandthebody/

Rodrigo y Gabriela- "Hanuman" OFFICIAL

Auld Lang Syne (New Year's Eve) - Fingerstyle

Do You Love Me?

How The Multi-Billion Dollar HOT CHEETOS Idea Was Born! (Creator, Richar...

https://www.upworthy.com/janitor-who-invented-flamin-hot-cheetos

 

🗣 @dionnewarwick pic.twitter.com/Hrl3QTnFIP

— Twitter (@Twitter) December 21, 2020

🗣 @lauren_lablue pic.twitter.com/gbzG3ukvxK

— Twitter (@Twitter) December 21, 2020

Busted!

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BLAIR MONIQUE WALKER (@blairmonique)

An Unexpected Blessing, Year After Year

An excerpt from USA Today - 

Decades ago, a mystery man spent thousands to give an Ohio family 'a nice visit from Santa Claus'

By Mark J. Price, Akron Beacon Journal

Mary Arnold sits at a table with her nine children on Dec. 23, 1955, to look for gift ideas
in the Beacon Journal after receiving $100 from a mysterious benefactor in Akron.  
The kids, from left, are Carla, 3, Gary, 5, Mona, 9, Gale, 8, Cathy, 14, Donna, 7 months,
Gerald 2, John 7, and Royal 11.  Beacon Journal File Photo

AKRON, Ohio — Santa Claus really did exist.

Helen Arnold met him unexpectedly in 1953 while shopping at Polsky’s department store in downtown Akron.

The brief encounter changed her family's lives. From that year to 1965, the Arnolds had a generous secret Santa at Christmastime.

With her weekly pay as a dishwasher, Helen had only $37 to spend on gifts in 1953. Her husband, Roy, had been laid off from the Akron Sanitation Department, and the couple had eight kids — Cathy, Royal, Mona, Gale, John, Gary, Carla, and Gerald — and would soon welcome a ninth, Donna. A 10th child, Marsha, had died as a baby.

They resided in a small home below a nearby bridge. In addition to the family of 10, Helen’s parents, brother, two sisters, and their three children also lived there.

Royal Arnold, 76, of Akron understood that it was a struggle for his parents to pay the bills. He even offered to make do with less so that his siblings might have more.

“I remember telling her that ‘If you don’t have enough to get me a Christmas gift, don’t worry about it,’” he said.

Royal was 9 years old in 1953 when he and three siblings accompanied their mom to Polsky’s. They were browsing the bargain basement when a stranger approached them.

“Are these your children?” the man asked Helen. “They’re lovely children and well-behaved.”

Before Helen knew what was happening, the stranger placed a $20 bill in her hand and said: “Buy them something nice for Christmas.”

He then disappeared into the bustling crowd. It happened so fast that Helen didn’t get a good look at him, but she later described him as short, white and slim, maybe 50 years old with graying brown hair.

“All I remember is holding my mother’s hand and my mother was shocked,” Royal said.

It was a Christmas miracle. Helen went home that night and jotted a note to the Akron Beacon Journal, now part of the USA TODAY Network:

(This is Faye.  Please click the link for the rest of the story.  It gets better and better.).

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/24/secret-santa-helped-akron-ohio-family-christmas-over-decade/4010569001/

Lirica App - Learn Languages With Music

 

Patient asks if I can also fix teddy bear just before being put off to sleep... how could I say no? pic.twitter.com/WOKFc5zr91

— P. Daniel McNeely (@pdmcneely) September 30, 2018

He Created Science Kits for Kids

 An excerpt from CNN - 

This California teen started a nonprofit to help kids learn about science. He just got accepted into Stanford

By Simret Aklilu, CNN

(CNN)Every year, high school seniors anxiously wait for college admissions letters, hoping they get accepted into their dream schools. Ahmed Muhammad was one of them.

So when Muhammad got accepted into Stanford University, he was delighted. "It was a dream come true," Muhammad told CNN. "It still doesn't feel real."

He will become a first-generation college student.

Over the course of his high school career at Oakland Technical, the California native has taken nine college classes on top of his high school workload -- no small feat for a senior who not only tutors students and plays as point guard for his school's varsity basketball team, but also runs a nonprofit that designs science kits for kids.

The nonprofit, Kits Cubed, became the main focus of his personal statement for Stanford University.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/25/us/cali-teen-science-stanford-trnd/index.html

How to Use Writing to Sharpen Your Thinking | Tim Ferriss

A 19 year old + A Billionaire = A Christmas Miracle

 An excerpt from the Chicago Sun-Times - 

How a young woman on Chicago’s West Side infused a billionaire with the Christmas spirit of giving

But in a fairer society, there would be so much less need for charitable giving to begin with.

By CST Editorial Board 

At the end of a year that has seen particular hardships and struggles, hundreds of charitable organizations working to ease the pain got early Christmas gifts in the form of surprise multimillion dollar donations.

The money — some $4.2 billion in the last four months — was donated to 384 organizations across the country by the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, and she says her inspiration was a young Black woman on Chicago’s West Side, Alycia Kamil.

“In March, a 19-year-old girl in Chicago sent a group text to her friends suggesting they buy supplies for people in their neighborhood who had lost their jobs,” Scott, the former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, wrote recently, expressing her admiration for Kamil. “She posted two Google forms — one for people who needed help and another for people with help to give — and by two days later they’d raised $7,000.”

Two days. That’s all it took. And with that money, Kamil and her friends were able to deliver $200 to $300 worth of groceries to 30 families.

“I wanted to do a more hands-on thing to be considerate of the people who, even if they get the money, they have to take the bus and then bring all these groceries on the bus,” Kamil told USA Today. “It’s about the importance of understanding communal living. We should all be able to resource and depend on each other.”

We can’t think of a better expression of the Christmas and holiday spirit. But it’s a reminder, as well, of the great and growing wealth inequality in our country, made worse by the pandemic, that makes such charitable giving so necessary.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/12/24/22197522/alycia-kamil-chicago-mackenzie-scott-donation-editorial

I was an MS-13 gang member. Here's how I got out. | Gerardo Lopez | TEDx...

The Black Wall Street Massacre

 An excerpt from the NY Times - 

The Haunting of Tulsa, Okla.

A recently unearthed mass grave may soon provide answers about what happened to victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

By Brent Staples

The Tulsa, Okla., police department set the stage for mass murder in the spring of 1921 when it deputized members of a mob that invaded and destroyed the prosperous Black enclave of Greenwood. The armed marauders who swept into the community in the early hours of June 1 wreaked havoc in the spirit of a police directive that urged white Tulsans to “Get a gun, and get busy and try to get a nigger.”

They murdered at will while forcing Black families from their homes. They looted valuables that included jewelry, furs and fine furnishings. They used torches and oil-soaked rags to set fires that incinerated homes, churches, doctors’ offices, hotels and other businesses across an area of 35 square blocks.

The first day of June was less eventful on the other side of the tracks, in white Tulsa’s business district. In his 1968 memoir, “Oklahoma Boy,” Ross Warner recalls that his work took him to the First National Bank building, on the corner of Fourth Street and Main. “From time to time on June 1,” he writes, “we heard sirens and, on looking out of the window, saw trucks headed south on Main Street with Negro bodies in them. We saw at least 30 or 40 hauled away in this fashion.”

A few years after the appearance of “Oklahoma Boy,” the Tulsa County undersheriff, E.W. Maxey, told a local historian that as a teenager he, too, had been present on Main Street that day in 1921. He recalled seeing five or six trucks moving up the street carrying Black bodies “stacked up like cordwood.” He had no idea where the dead were taken but presumed they were being hauled “out somewhere” to be disposed of in ditches.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/opinion/tulsa-race-massacre-mass-grave.html?referringSource=articleShare

Black Men Have the Shortest Lifespans of Any Americans. This Theory Expl...

https://www.propublica.org/article/black-men-have-the-shortest-lifespans-of-any-americans-this-theory-helps-explain-why

The Skepticism is Justified

 An excerpt from the New Yorker - 

African-American Resistance to the COVID-19 Vaccine Reflects a Broader Problem

By Jelani Cobb

Yet, for Black America, the story extends far beyond Trump. In September, when Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University, a historically black institution in Louisiana, announced that he had volunteered for a vaccine trial, and encouraged his students do likewise, the Internet exploded with references to the Tuskegee experiment. In that four-decade-long medical scheme, which began in 1932, nearly four hundred African-American men with syphilis were led to believe that they were receiving treatment, but were, in fact, left untreated, so that doctors could chart the course of the disease. In the nearly fifty years since the experiment was exposed, it has become a central reference point for understanding Black Americans’ relationship to the medical establishment. The story of Henrietta Lacks—a Black woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, and whose cancerous cells had been harvested for research, without her knowledge, by Johns Hopkins Hospital, replicated, sent to labs around the world, and later sold commercially—has likewise become shorthand for medical exploitation. That history, chronicled in works such as Harriet Washington’s “Medical Apartheid” and Dorothy Roberts’s “Killing the Black Body,” is, in part, what hampered efforts to recruit African-American volunteers for the trials, and now hampers efforts to get African-Americans vaccinated.

In this context, conversations about the vaccine are inevitably balancing acts between the unknown likelihood of contracting, or succumbing to, the virus and the known medical history of the African-American population. Such concerns are not walled-off by discipline, which is why the coercive approach of the N.Y.P.D. this spring, and the events that sparked the months of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, also contribute to a broader skepticism about—if not the science itself—the good faith of the system in which it exists. On Monday, Thomas Fisher, a Black E.R. physician at the University of Chicago Medicine, told me that “our essential people are getting sick, but being pushed to deliver food and drive Ubers, and things like that, without P.P.E.” He added, “It’s hard to imagine that we won’t also reflect maybe these same inequities with the distribution and uptake of this vaccine.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/african-american-resistance-to-the-covid-19-vaccine-reflects-a-broader-problem

THE LITTLE THINGS Official Trailer (2021)

COMING TO AMERICA 2 Official Trailer (2021)

PALMER Trailer (2021) Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Drama Movie

Great Chocolate Muffin Recipe

 An excerpt from Mashed - 

These Costco copycat chocolate muffins are better than the real thing

By Molly Allen

Biting into a Costco muffin is an experience like no other. The texture is on point, the flavor is great, and they're huge. They're perfect for sharing or munching on all morning long. And while the blueberry and poppy seed versions are delicious options in their own right, there's just something so incredible about Costco's chocolate muffins.

Now, you can reproduce those giant, moist, and flavorful chocolate muffins in your own kitchen with this recipe. With just a handful of ingredients, a few minutes of your time, and a whole lot of chocolate chips, you'll have freshly baked Costco copycat chocolate muffins ready at home in no time.

Read More: https://www.mashed.com/290597/costco-copycat-chocolate-muffins/?utm_campaign=clip

Do You Have An Unrelated Identical Twin? | Full Documentary | Finding Th...

Maryam Tsegaye, Canada, Physics, Winner: 2020 Breakthrough Junior Challenge

DocMorris Weihnachtsfilm #Herzensangelegenheit

Job Hunting Advice

An excerpt from CNBC - 

If you say any of these 6 things during the job interview, don’t expect to get an offer: Career expert

By J.T. O’Donnell, Contributor

Each and every little thing you say (yes, even just one sentence) during a job interview shapes whether or not a hiring manager thinks you are a strong fit for the job.

And sometimes, it may be tempting to give an answer that felt right at the time, but in hindsight was extremely poor and made you seem weak or average. That’s why it’s important to remind yourself in advance of what to resist saying.

Here are six responses to avoid if you want to boost your chances of landing an offer, along with tips and examples of what to say instead:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/15/if-you-say-any-of-these-things-during-job-interview-dont-expect-an-offer-says-career-expert.html

Google — Year in Search 2020

My Favorite Failure

“You’ve Got A Friend” by Carole King – sung by London City Voices choir,...

Rock the Runoff: Broadway for Georgia performs "Georgia On My Mind"