Tag: Opinion

Categories
Community Community Development Khalilah Jones Style

Living at the Intersection of Too Much Yet Not Enough: The Dichotomy of the Black Woman

by Khalilah Jones | Photos by Kristen Finn and Anica Marcelino

Hey friends! I have been confronted with a few situations lately and had something on my heart that I wanted to share. I know that my Sisters and all the GWORLS (if I may use a cute colloquialism), can relate. If you’re a Black woman, you’ve probably found yourself walking a tightrope that feels like it was designed by some twisted circus master. You’re told “you’re too loud,” but also asked why you’re so quiet. You’re praised for your resilience but chastised for your attitude. In the world of fashion, the workplace, relationships, and heck, in society in general, Black women are navigating a maze that’s often invisible to everyone else. Let’s break it down.

Fashion: Serving Looks and Stereotypes 

Black women have always been trendsetters. From banging out braids and amazing afros to making streetwear chic, we’re the blueprint. Here’s the kicker: while our style is constantly imitated, we’re often criticized for it. Have you ever been told your natural hair is unprofessional? Or that your curves are too much for the office? Welcome to my world. 

It’s a diabolical ride trying to stay fly while battling stereotypes. You see a white girl in cornrows, she’s considered “edgy.” You wear them, and it’s “ghetto.” We’re expected to tone down our essence to fit into a mold that was never meant for us, but guess what? We’re done dimming our light. It’s 2024, and I encourage you to unapologetically embrace your style, whether it fits mainstream standards or not. 

Photo by Anica Marcelino

The Workforce: Boss Moves and Backhanded Compliments 

Now, let’s talk about work. Black women are out here making boss moves, climbing the corporate ladder, and slaying glass ceilings, but let’s keep it 100—it’s not always a fair game. We’re often overqualified yet overlooked. You’re either the “token diversity hire,” or you’re not “a good fit.” 

Then there’s the infamous “angry Black woman” trope. Dare to speak up in a meeting? You’re aggressive. Stay silent? You’re not engaged. It’s exhausting playing this never-ending game of “professionalism” that feels like it was designed to keep us on our toes and jumping through endless hoops, but here’s the tea: Black women are rewriting the rules. We’re creating spaces that celebrate our voices and pushing for diversity that’s not just a box to tick but a fundamental change in culture. 

Relationships with Men: Love, Loyalty, and Liberation

On to relationships. If you’re like most Black women, you’ve likely been bombarded with all sorts of mixed messages. Society tells us to be strong but submissive, nurturing but independent. It’s like they want us to be superheroes with no room for vulnerability

Dating as a Black woman can feel like a minefield. We’re either fetishized or disregarded. Some men see us as exotic trophies, while others buy into stereotypes that paint us as undesirable. However, I will let you in on a secret—Black women are and always will be, magic. We bring love, loyalty, and a depth of understanding that’s unparalleled. The key is finding partners who see us as equals, who respect our strength without trying to diminish it.

Our Role in Society: The Backbone and the Spotlight 

Black women have always been the backbone of society. We’re the ones holding it down in our communities, advocating for change, and setting trends that everyone else follows. Yet, our contributions are often minimized or ignored. It’s a wrap for that jack! We’re no longer waiting for validation. We’re claiming our space, telling our stories, and demanding the recognition we deserve. Whether it’s in activism, art, business, or politics, Black women are leading the charge. And we’re doing it with that special razzle dazzle that’s uniquely our own. 

Embrace the Dichotomy 

Living at the intersection of too much yet not enough is a balancing act that only Black women truly understand. We’re constantly told to shrink ourselves while being expected to carry the weight of the world. She walks with the universe on her shoulders and somehow, seamlessly makes it look like a pair of wings. It is in this dichotomy that we find our strength. We’re redefining what it means to be a Black woman in every space we occupy. 

So, to all the Black women out there: keep being too much! Keep breaking barriers and challenging norms. Because in a world that often tries to tell us we’re not enough, we are everything and more. 

Stylishly Yours,

Khalilah

Categories
Community Community Development Entertainment Food and Drink Michaela Franklin Travel

Discovering the Allure of Bamboo Zanzibar

 

Headed out of the country soon ? Looking for a perfect place to stay? Well, continue reading, because as always, I got you

Back in August, I had the pleasure of a lovely trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania, for my birthday this year. Zanzibar, with its beautiful people and out-of-this-world beaches, is memorable. However, one of my favorite parts of the trip was our stay at Bamboo Zanzibar Design Hotel. Bamboo Zanzibar is a hidden (not hidden) gem. Tucked on the southernmost part of Zanzibar Island, it’s a bit of a trip but WELL worth it.”

Our day started with a pickup from the airport. After a two-hour drive on lovely, winding (and very bumpy) roads, with schoolchildren peeking out of local markets and mothers walking the red clay roads with baskets on their heads, swaddling happy babies on their backs, we pulled up to a nondescript location. We initially passed it because the sign wasn’t exactly visible. However, once the door opened, it was like the pearly gates were in front of us!

First, let’s delve into the aesthetic and vibe. The interior design team for Bamboo DID THAT. I have to say, having stayed at several hotels in my life, this is easily one of the top five most beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure of being in. Upon entering, you are greeted with a large, geometric amphitheater-style area that houses the main restaurant on the premises. As you walk up the stairs, a panoramic view of the Indian Ocean welcomes you—it is quite literally breathtaking.

Another impressive aspect of Bamboo Design Hotel is its dedication to being eco-friendly. Usually, when people hear ‘eco-friendly,’ they immediately think of reusable and scarce items. However, you can see that everything, from the shower and water systems to the usage of solar power throughout the grounds, was carefully curated with no compromise on design. The property features three main infinity pools, a dedicated area for a lovely barbecue, and the beach is just a staircase away.”

ACCOMODATION

Okay the good stuff: “Thee” Villa! MY GAWDDDDD. It was everything I imagined. We stayed in the Ocean View Suite with a private pool which comes up to $400 per night including breakfast. The villa is massive, close to one thousand square feet. The space is composed of two different sections. The first being the bedroom/bathroom/dining area which also connects directly to the pool. Perfect for a nice morning dip or a lovely breakfast in bed overlooking the views. The second section is the living room and entertainment area, which also opens into the terrace and yard area. The villa is accented with bamboo furnishings, and local Tanzanian art. One of my favorite aspects of traveling is immersive experiences. For this trip in particular I really wanted to stay in a more localized place.

FOOD

Let’s get into the food because this was also a highlight. The food was also well priced with the average meal costing under $20. The food was plated beautifully and frankly, there is SO much food that you won’t be able to eat it all. Also, the food was fresh. Zanzibarian tea, masala, and freshly squeezed juices accented every meal. Highlights included the fresh seafood from the grill. Now if you know anything about me, I am a proper tidewater girl. Chesapeake Virginia born and bred. Seafood is not only my thing, but also a way of life! Let me say I am also a huge stickler for properly cleaning shrimp and crab, so the fact that the seafood was fresh and clean stood out as a plus.

Highly recommended foods to try:

  1. Prawn popcorn
  2. Bamboo deluxe
  3. Spicy chicken bao buns
  4. Grilled octopus w/ ugali

 

Now for my fellow libation fans, the drinks were another highlight during our stay at Bamboo Zanzibar. There was a large variety of specialty cocktails, and most of them were pretty cheap with costs averaging about $3-5 dollars. I recommend the bellinis and mimosas, as they are both made with specific local ingredients.

ACTIVITIES

 Listen, this was a ‘bae-cation,’ okay? The villa had food, a bomb pool, and a view directly in front of the ocean. Why would we leave? There are paddling, kayaking, fishing, and, of course, swimming available.

If you are looking for a hotel that has a list of activities on the premises, Bamboo is not that place. This is actually their strength because the hotel is created for you to never want to leave. We had the best intentions of participating in some scheduled offsite activities, but after the first day there we made a quick change and decided to stay on site. We did, however, partake in some spa time at the Bamboo Elements Spa. We chose a few different treatments—stone massage and head massage. The focus at the spa is very Ayurvedic-based, so before we were taken into the spa, we were treated to a pleasant foot bath and sound bath. This was nice, considering we rushed to the appointment, so our adrenaline was a bit high. The bath immediately relaxed us. Then we were brought into the room for our 90-minute massages.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service at the hotel deserves a huge shout out. Every guest has their own personalized butler as well as suite WhatsApp group chat, where the team directly speaks to your room and is on hand 24/7 for all of your needs. The team is composed local citizens hailing from Tanzania and Kenya. My suggestion is to take time to get to know the hotel team. The atmosphere is extremely relaxing, so you easily get into quite lovely conversations with people. For my actual birthday, I had treats and cakes delivered all day. The cake was a chocolate and vanilla slice of HEAVEN.

So, when it comes to Zanzibar, its northeast ‘cousins’ Nungwi and Kendwa get a lot of the fanfare, and we did stay there for the second half of our trip. I would highly recommend the Jambiani and Paje beach areas, which are located in the southeastern part of the island. The vibe is tranquil. Nungwi is where the party is, but there were some local clubs in Jambiani as well. We checked out a fun reggae club, called Red Room, which had the beach as the main dance floor. The club was open most of the night and was 5 min drive from Bamboo Zanzibar.

 

Overall, the stay was lovely, and I cannot wait to go back!

Categories
Community Community Development Education Health and Wellness Vanessa Johnson

Prioritizing Relationships Beyond Diagnosis

by Vanessa Johnson

The world of Human Services involves many types of providers who feel a call to help those in need and want to assist them with living lives that are healthier both mentally and emotionally. Every day, individuals who work in the human service field work with people who have experienced great trauma and are unsure of how to navigate the waters between healing and not seeing the world around them through the lens of trauma and hopelessness.

When individuals present signs of mental and emotional health disorders A diagnosis will be given to identify the specific mental or emotional health issue. As we move into a new century of how individuals are responding to the therapeutic process, we have come to recognize that the work with them has to be seen not only from the lens of a textbook. Building relationships has become a foundation that contains a level of trust that therapeutic treatment can be built on. Relationships have proven to be not only a way to connect with individuals and families, but also aids in helping them through difficult stages of the healing process. For example, when a person is presented with therapeutic services such as therapy, In home counseling, or therapeutic mentoring, they may wonder how this practitioner views them. If the practitioner enters the client’s space and begins to talk about all the issues that are present without understanding them as a person, the interaction between them becomes a space of transaction where a problem needs to be “fixed” instead of a person in need of services.

Entering into the realm of family dynamics and the challenges they face, it’s important to know that the impact of mental and emotional health disorders goes beyond individual experiences. When circumstances like neglect, abuse, child endangerment, domestic violence, amongst others are present in families on top of individual traumas, the involvement of human service organizations like the Department of Social Services can add an extra layer of support but also exacerbate a family’s level of stress and anxiety.  People are hungering for someone to see them through a lens that allows the person working with them to show them a future beyond their current circumstances. Studies continually show that the root of the aforementioned concerns have a root of trauma that is related to the manifestation of these behaviors. Transactional relationships do not take the cyclical nature of these behaviors in mind thus causing them to only scratch the surface of what is happening within these family systems. Very often after the checklist has been completed these behaviors will resurface and regression is imminent. The cycle of bringing new providers into the family unit with the same mindset only keeps families repeating behaviors thus causing more harm to their family system.  Healing cannot take place in an environment that addresses only what is seen and negates the hidden emotional instigators that have been a detriment to these families.

Agencies that work with individuals and families from a community-based perspective need to recognize the importance of relationships to those that they serve. To discount the evidence and dismiss the atmosphere that trust forms in helping families, creates a barrier to the healing and restoration process.  Those in crisis deserve providers in the human service field who see them not as a diagnosis but simply as human. These interactions are crucial to not only changing families but the community at large.

 

Vanessa Johnson is a Human Service Counseling Professional since 1993, specializing in family support. With a BS in Psychology and an MA in Human Service Counseling, she combines academic knowledge and practical experience. Pursuing an Ed.D in Community Care and Counseling(Traumatology) from Liberty University, Vanessa aims to educate on trauma’s emotional impact. Vanessa is the owner of Thrive2Heal Services, a Charlottesville based  Counseling service that offers community based therapeutic services to the Central Virginia area. To learn more please visit thrive2healservices.com .

Stock photo from FREEPIK

 

Categories
National Headlines

Nikole Hannah-Jones teaches Chris Wallace about white people

March 15, 2022; Nickole Hannah-Jones talks with Mark Sanders during the Red Smith Lecture at the Leighton Concert Hall in the Debartolo Performing Arts Center. (Photo by Peter Ringenberg/University of Notre Dame)

OPINION: Either CNN host Chris Wallace doesn’t know history, or he thinks Nikole Hannah-Jones shouldn’t discuss how America’s ‘greatest generation’ fought against democracy for Black people.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

One of the things that infuriates me about most Hollywood versions of Black history is how they cast crotchety, wrinkled white dudes as racists.

Think about it: Who were the men spitting on Black kids and yelling at protesters in the civil rights photos? (We’ve seen the pictures of the civil rights protests.) Who brought tiki torches in bulk to march at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.? Who donned a Viking helmet and smeared feces inside the U.S. Capitol?

According to Chicago Project on Security & Threats, 78 percent of right-wing extremists arrested between 2015 and 2020 and 63 percent of the people arrested for the Capitol Hill insurrection were under 45 years old. George Stauber was 24 when he drowned Eugene Williams and sparked the Chicago Race Massacre during the Red Summer of 1919. James Earl Ray was 39 when he killed Martin Luther King Jr. Two of the four men who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 were under 40. Alabama teenagers shot and killed 13-year-old Virgil Ware minutes later. Kyle Rittenhouse was 19 when he took a long gun to a protest in Kenosha, Wisc. The reason why they call themselves Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys is that old white people have stuff to do and people to oppress!

Far be it from me to write about the mistreatment of white men, but the notion that old white people are the most virulent kind of white supremacists is problematic in many ways. It’s why every generation seems to believe that their generation of white kids will magically disinherit themselves from the white supremacy perpetrated by their forefathers. Apparently, young white kids aren’t racist. Everyone knows racists are old.

Ask Chris Wallace.

On Thursday, the water-carrier-for-white-supremacy-turned-CNN+ host challenged Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has an actual degree in history and African-American studies, on actual history, African-Americans and her factual claims that the young white freedom fighters known as “the greatest generation” were responsible for withholding democracy from Black Americans.

CHRIS WALLACE: Here’s where I take some objection. If you say the country that we were fighting for democracy overseas, and we were not living in, walking the walk, talking the talk at home, I completely agree with you. But you specifically say the greatest generation brutally suppress it, many of this generation, brutally suppressing democracy for millions of Americans.

To me, and I think Tom Brokaw when he originally wrote the book, The Greatest Generation, was talking about 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds who came out of the farm fields of the Midwest, who came out of ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn and South Philly and storm the beaches of Normandy and and, you know, fought to defeat the most, the worst regime, I would argue in world history. And to say that they were 20, 30 year olds, the country was brutally suppressing Blacks, but the greatest generation wasn’t.

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: Well, they were.

CHRIS WALLACE: No, they weren’t, you don’t be telling me that a farm, that a kid coming off a farm in Indiana or a kid who came from Brooklyn, is was suppressing Black people?

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: Indiana has the largest population of the Klan in the United States. The Klan was raised, was reached first in Indiana.

CHRIS WALLACE: I understand but that wasn’t the 20-year-old kid who —

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: You don’t think 20-year olds were in the Klan?

CHRIS WALLACE: I didn’t think many of them were, no.

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES: I mean, I don’t know what evidence you have of that.

CHRIS WALLACE: Well, what evidence do you have that they were, since you wrote it.

Chris Wallace Goes At Nikole Hannah-Jones for Claim Greatest Generation ‘Violently Suppressed’ Black Voters in Heated CNN+ Exchange https://t.co/6q1RyKcwzi via @mediaite pic.twitter.com/X95MhXtt7e

— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) April 7, 2022

Nikole Hannah-Jones is right. Chris Wallace is wrong.

According to the actual facts, the greatest generation was racist AF.

Historians estimate that in 1925, the “second wave” of the Ku Klux Klan boasted between 3 and eight million official members, which means somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of white American males were members of the KKK. And it wasn’t just a Southern thing. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana all had more than a quarter of a million Klansmen as citizens of their states.

Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was actually arrested at a New York Klan rally when he was 21 years old. The greatest generation gave us America’s first blockbuster movie—Birth of a Nation—which was adapted from the book written by Thomas Dixon Jr., the “great-granddaddy of American white nationalism.” The New Negro movement, which birthed the civil rights movement, was inspired, in part, by Black World War II veterans returning home to inequality, discrimination and racial terrorism at the hands of the “greatest generation.”

But Chris Wallace is just a man who says things on television, and Nikole Hannah-Jones is a woman who knows things.

She knows that the murder that sparked the movement for democracy that we call the “civil rights era” began when 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant sicced her 24-year-old husband on Emmett Till. She knows that Robert Edward Chambliss, the man convicted for killing four little girls in a Birmingham, Ala., church bombing in 1963, was a member of the greatest generation. She knows that the record for the longest filibuster in American history is held by a member of the greatest generation, Strom Thurmond, who fought every effort for civil rights and true democracy and was repeatedly elected by the greatest generation. She knows that greatest generation member Edgar Ray Killen killed three civil rights workers who were fighting for democracy during the Freedom Summer of 1964. She knows that George Wallace, who vowed “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” was part of the greatest generation. Jones probably knows that the men who murdered Medgar Evers, beat Fred Shuttlesworth and broke John Lewis’ skull were also part of the same great white dopes defended by Chris Wallace.

Here’s what else Chris Wallace doesn’t know.

In 1913, John, a high school graduate nicknamed “Speed,” earned his first job at the Library of Congress, a few blocks away from the neighborhood of his youth. Speed displayed such a skill for organizing and cataloging the library’s massive amount of material that, by the time he earned his law degree in 1917, Speed had been tapped for a new position at the Bureau of Investigation’s War Emergency Division.

Speed’s boss was Woodrow Wilson, who had become president by radicalizing the American youth with a new form of populist, white nationalism. When Wilson held the first movie screening in the White House, he invited Speed’s frat brother Thomas Dixon Jr. because his book was the basis for the racist blockbuster Birth of a Nation, which Wilson screened at the White House. Meanwhile, Speed got a new job in the Justice Department’s “radical division,” where he would convict Marcus Josiah Garvey of mail fraud. Garvey was the first of many Black leaders who would be targeted by Speed over the next 50 years.

But over that time, all the names would change. The New Negro Movement began to use the phrase “civil rights.” The “radical division” became the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Bureau’s director, Speed, was now called J. Edgar Hoover.

Instead of employing law enforcement agents, Hoover preferred to hire military veterans with experience in surveillance and counterintelligence. After World War II, the FBI agents came exclusively from the ranks of military veterans. According to the book Enemies: A History of the FBI, these young, dogged G-men formed the spine of the greatest generation of FBI agents because they targeted “enemies” like W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall and the leader of every movement for freedom and justice for the next 50 years.

Too bad there isn’t a movie about this.

Chris Wallace could star in it.

Michael Harriot theGrio.com

Michael Harriot is a writer, cultural critic and championship-level Spades player. His book, Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America, will be released in 2022.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

The post Nikole Hannah-Jones teaches Chris Wallace about white people appeared first on TheGrio.

 

Source: Nikole Hannah-Jones teaches Chris Wallace about white people

Categories
National Headlines

The 3-minutes of ‘Dying Laughing’ where Royale Watkins talks about bombing makes the whole thing worth watching

OPINION: The comedy documentary delves into the less glamorous side of life as a comedian in an insightful fashion.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

There was a fairly brief era of my life where, because of the success we had with Very Smart Brothas (VSB), I decided to take a shot at being a stand-up comic. A vast majority of the things Damon Young and I wrote at VSB were intentionally insightful and intentionally funny. We both realized early that taking a comedic approach to societal issues, where appropriate, was our bread and butter.

With this new goal in mind, I started studying comics like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, of course, but also the ones whose bits particularly tickled my fancy, like Gary Gulman, Mitch Hedberg and Patrice O’Neal, among others. I got religious about studying structure, timing, etc. I started looking into comedy open mics in Washington, D.C., where I could get up on stage and try out this killer three minutes I was working on. I never did get on stage as a comic, but that didn’t change my interest in and appreciation for the craft and study of comedians.

Such brings me to the documentary Dying Laughing (released in 2016), which is currently streaming on theGrio TV and theGrio’s streaming mobile app. Despite featuring a litany of your favorite comedians (from Chris Rock and Kevin Hart to Bob Saget, Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Silverman, etc.; everybody’s in this documentary), this 1 hour and 20 minutes isn’t very funny. But that’s almost the point; it’s a film about the life of comedy and what it looks like day-to-day and what kind of person it requires you to be to both participate in and succeed as a comedian, which includes dealing with hecklers (which was particularly enlightening) and most insightfully, bombing.

If you are ever involved in creative endeavors, the idea of bombing (in your particular arena) isn’t foreign. When I write articles, especially ones where I am taking a stance where there is a significant division or creating an entirely new stance, I think about how it might be received. And because of social media, the negative responses come quick, fast and in a hurry. I imagine it’s like that with artists of all stripes; nobody hits on all cylinders at all times. But from listening to the comedians, there’s something especially deep about bombing as a comedian. One comedian, in particular, pointed out that it’s almost as if the audience hates YOU as a person. They don’t just hate the jokes or what you have on; they hate you. They’ve decided at that moment that you, as a person, are not worth listening to.

Consider that comedians are the masters of their own destiny. You live or die by the jokes you tell, and because it’s literally “thinking out loud for a living” and the validation of those thoughts either comes back immediately in the form of laughter (or desired interaction, i.e., gasps, groans, etc.) or silence, the pain or pleasure is swift. Several comedians interviewed spoke about how a bad set and being booed or heckled off stage would often sit in their psyche; the loneliness of a bad show takes up rent in their heads. It’s the kind of stuff that could make you quit. It’s truly fascinating hearing these successful people talk about the fears and downsides of the job.

Which brings me to the Royale Watkins, who isn’t a name that immediately rings a bell, but who I recognized (after a few rewinds) as Telly from Deliver Us From Eva, the 2003 movie starring Gabrielle Union, LL Cool J, Duane Martin, Essence Atkins and Megan Good, among others. Royale shares about a time on stage when he bombed so badly (in front of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Richard Dent) and how in a fit of not knowing what else to do, he just put the microphone back on the stand and walked off the stage.

Now, that doesn’t sound that evocative on its own, but when you realize he’s telling this story through literal tears,  you can feel the pain he felt. This man’s recollection of that evening brought him to tears during the filming of his segment. I had to stop it because it was drawing emotions in me. You think of comedians getting up on stage, people laugh, and all is well, but there is a significant emotional toll to getting up on a stage and sharing and then people effectively telling you that you suck and don’t belong there.

He mentions how Bernie Mac graciously got up there and brought him back out, and the crowd applauded, but that one memory was so painful for him, it’s amazing he continued in the profession. He’s quite successful, mind you; he’s even currently a writer on the show A Million Little Things and has done plenty, but the three minutes where he talks about bombing was powerful. I rewound it several times to really zero in and appreciate what he was sharing.

So yeah, check out Dying Laughing if you haven’t. I had never heard of it, and now I’m glad I watched it. Come for Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and Kevin Hart and stay for the honesty, realness and insights on what it’s like to be a traveling comedian.

Panama Jackson theGrio.com

Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things and drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

The post The 3-minutes of ‘Dying Laughing’ where Royale Watkins talks about bombing makes the whole thing worth watching appeared first on TheGrio.

 

Source: The 3-minutes of ‘Dying Laughing’ where Royale Watkins talks about bombing makes the whole thing worth watching

Categories
National Headlines

Welcome to March Madness, where players are still exploited

Opinion: Consider this a friendly reminder that players aren’t compensated for the labor that produces ginormous bags of money for everyone else.

March Madness is back, signaling a return of office pools, watch parties, and—if we’re lucky—a bunch of buzzer-beating baskets throughout the tournaments.

It’s also a fine time to recall a dirty detail about this vast enterprise, a little fact that big-time college hoops shares with big-time college football. Recent relaxations of NCAA rules might have obscured the truth and pushed it out of mind, but the reality remains unchanged, so don’t get it twisted.

Players are still exploited.

In 2010, CBS and the Turner Broadcasting System signed a 14-year deal worth  $10.8 billion (average $770 million per year) for broadcast rights to the NCAA men’s tournament. They extended the pact in 2016, tacking on another eight years, with the NCAA average haul jumping to $1.1 billion starting in 2025. In college football, TV revenues are projected to exceed $1 billion in 2024-25. None of this includes funds that schools receive from their individual conferences.

Consider this a friendly reminder: Players aren’t compensated for the labor that produces ginormous bags for everyone else, from coaches making eight figures, athletic directors making seven figures and down the line.

Former Ole Miss basketball player Kylia Carter—mother of Orlando Magic forward and former Duke star Wendell Carter Jr.—nailed it during remarks to the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics in 2018. She said the NCAA is a system “where the laborers are the only people that are not being compensated for the work they do while those in charge receive mighty compensation. The only two systems where I’ve known that to be in place are slavery and the prison system.”

I know you’re thinking, “That’s changed. What about players’ deals for their name, image, and likeness? The NCAA allowed them to start making loot on NIL last summer. Doesn’t that count?”

Yes, it does.

But that does not cover the money-making sweat athletes break on their schools’ behalf.

Imagine we’re talking about the car industry, with Power 5 conferences as automakers and individual schools as models. Let’s say the Atlantic Coast Conference is Toyota and Duke represents Camrys; the Southeastern Conference is Chevrolet and Alabama represents Impalas; the Big Ten is Ford and Michigan represents Explorers; etc.

The assembly-line workers put in long hours and gain a measure of celebrity for their skill, expertise, and artistry. Toyota and particularly Camry builders are stars among basketball fans. Chevy and especially Impala builders draw a massive following among football fans. Ford and, notably, Explorer builders enjoy wide crossover appeal within both circles.

Businesses take note and decide some workers could be useful in advertising campaigns locally and perhaps nationally. Deals are made, and workers begin appearing on billboards, commercials, and promotions. Nice side-hustle for the workers, right?

Until you learn they toil on the assembly lines for free.

Critics complained about the arrangement for years, but the national association of automakers (the NCAA) always said its workers were paid in other ways—just not with money. Even worse, the companies threatened to fire workers who made any dough. Finally, with pressure mounting from politicians and workers’ rights groups, the automakers relented.

But only to the point of greenlighting side gigs!

Withholding athletes’ NIL rights should’ve been illegal from the jump. How are you gonna tell some students (athletes) that they can’t profit off their own name, image and likeness, yet other students (non-athletes) are free to stack paper as high as possible?

Now, just because the NCAA has ended one jacked-up practice, we’re supposed to forget about the other one, the free labor on the assembly line? No.

It’s still a rip-off.

The workers can’t even get comfy with their new rights because the bosses are mad. Accustomed to controlling every aspect of their student-athletes, the NCAA is looking to dial it back on NIL. Athletes making money and enjoying the freedom to easily switch schools—just like coaches—is too much to swallow. “We expect that all members and their representatives are abiding by current NCAA rules regarding recruiting and pay-for-play, which are in place to support student-athletes,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said.

If he really wants to support the athletes responsible for a multi-billion-dollar industry built on basketball and football,  there’s an easy solution.

Stop the madness and pay them.

Deron Snyder thegrio.com

An award-winning columnist and a principal of BlackDoor Ventures, Inc., Deron Snyder is a veteran journalist, stratcomm professional, author, and adjunct professor. A native of Brooklyn and an Alpha from H.U.-You Know, he resides in metropolitan DC with his wife, Vanessa, mother of their daughters, Sierra and Sequoia. To learn more, please visit blackdoorventures.com/deron.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

The post Welcome to March Madness, where players are still exploited appeared first on TheGrio.

 

Source: Welcome to March Madness, where players are still exploited

Categories
National Headlines

In response to Biden’s State of Union, Rep. Rashida Tlaib will state facts though centrist Democrats don’t want to hear it

OPINION: Moderates don’t want the Michigan representative to mention their role in creating gridlock on the president’s agenda, but Tlaib will stay focused on fighting for Biden’s policies and everything the American people need.

Did y’all catch all of the headlines, pre-emptive messaging attacks and alarm bells centrist Democrats recently hurled at The Squad and progressive Democrats? You know, the repeated stories about how Squad politics will sink Democrats in the midterm elections and how Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-Mich.) response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address tonight is the equivalent of “keying your own car and slashing your own tires.”

When I tell you centrist Democrats are pressed, that is an understatement. But while they are all up in arms, Rep. Tlaib is staying focused on progressive Democrats’ mission of fighting to deliver on President Biden’s agenda and everything that the American people desperately need. Honestly, this has been their goal for years. So, it’s unclear why anyone is shocked or scared of what the congresswoman from Michigan will say tonight.

In an interview with the Nation, Rep. Tlaib makes it plain that she will remind President Biden of the same energy that he had on the 2020 campaign trail when he set a positive, inspiring vision for the country and how he didn’t hesitate to enact it when he took office, especially his swift action to pass the American Rescue Plan. “In particular, she will argue that Democrats need to refocus attention on the Build Back Better agenda as the 2022 midterm elections approach,” the Nation’s John Nichols writes. “‘I’ll literally say, ‘Mr. President, it’s unfinished. We’re here to help. Let’s get it done,’” Tlaib said.

This sounds 100 percent rational and factual to me. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has been front and center working to advance President Biden’s agenda, and Rep. Tlaib will celebrate achievements like the effectiveness of the child tax credit that Biden included in the American Rescue Plan and how it pulled millions of children out of poverty, how critical investments were throughout this pandemic in historically excluded communities as well as the president’s historic nomination of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Rep. Tlaib will also likely push Biden on critical issues like canceling student loan debt and expanding benefits and support for people experiencing poverty.

AOC The SquadU.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks as Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) listen during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)

But the fact remains that the president’s agenda is unfinished, and the president and Democrats must use their majorities in Congress to refocus on delivering their campaign commitments as we approach the November midterm elections. Truly, this is the most basic of election strategies—help as many people as you can by delivering on what you promised.

The cornerstone of Rep. Tlaib’s speech tonight is that “It doesn’t have to be this way,” and her response is, quite frankly, a well-timed push for President Biden and Democrats to get to work. It’s not divisive to say that there is still a window of time where Democrats can pass components of the Build Back Better legislation that will help people right now. It’s not divisive to outline progressives’ continued support for President Biden’s vision and 2020 campaign promises. It’s not divisive to express the frustration and the urgency that people who are struggling across the nation are feeling in real time. It’s not divisive to tell the nation that progressives are fighting to deliver an agenda that is still overwhelmingly popular.

If only centrists saw things the same way.

In their minds, by calling out the reality that President Biden’s agenda is unfinished, centrist Democrats feel that tinge of stress in their chests because of their role in obstructing portions of his agenda alongside Republicans. I’m talking about those threats from centrist Democrats that prompted the decoupling of the bipartisan infrastructure deal from the Build Back Better Act, all but dooming the latter. And remember how centrists dragged out the negotiations for Build Back Better by repeatedly moving targets and forcing false choices between key provisions like lowering prescription drug costs or expanding Medicare benefits to include vision and dental coverage and extending the child tax credit or offering paid family leave.

Also, we can’t forget about how one week centrist Democrats were comfortable changing a congressional procedure to keep the United States from defaulting on its debts but refused to change that same congressional procedure the next week to pass critical voting rights laws at a moment when our democracy is under attack at the state and local levels. And just yesterday, a centrist Democrat joined Republicans in refusing to codify Roe as law at a moment when a 6-3 Supreme Court is set to issue rulings that will all but end access to abortion care. Their fingerprints are all over each of these moments, and instead of owning up to this reality, those same centrists want it to be glossed over.

Centrist Democrats don’t want Rep. Tlaib to mention their role in creating the conditions for the gridlock and inaction on President Biden’s agenda. So, instead, they introduce diversions—cue the flurry of headlines over the past two weeks. Then, they talk about how it’s irregular for members of the president’s party to offer a response to the State of the Union address—though it’s not. Rep. Jamaal Bowman offered remarks in 2021, also on behalf of the Working Families Party. So, this is not the first time remarks will be made while a Democratic occupies the White House.

Ultimately, their efforts are all for naught, and I fully expect that Rep. Tlaib will still call out the centrist Democrats as part of the problem, as she should.

Juanita Tolliver is a veteran political strategist and MSNBC Political Analyst who previously served as National Political Director at Supermajority and Director of Campaigns at the Center for American Progress. Follow her on Twitter: @juanitatolliver.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

The post In response to Biden’s State of Union, Rep. Rashida Tlaib will state facts though centrist Democrats don’t want to hear it appeared first on TheGrio.

 

Source: In response to Biden’s State of Union, Rep. Rashida Tlaib will state facts though centrist Democrats don’t want to hear it

Categories
National Headlines

‘Jeen-yuhs’: How we got from the old Kanye to the new Kanye

Ye

OPINION: Netflix’s new three-part docuseries, a 20-year study of Ye’s life, is a valuable tool to understand who he is and where he comes from.

We talk a lot about Kanye’s ego. It’s massive and corrosive; it leads him to make great music and fight publicly with family and friends; it leads him to wear unique fashion and to say really stupid things.

No artist, nay, no modern celebrity, is more representative of an unbridled ego who speaks without regard for how it impacts others for better or worse. Kanye’s titanic ego is at the center of modern culture, especially when he’s trending over the Super Bowl on Super Bowl weekend. So it’s natural to ask how did we get here, or really, how did he get here? Now we have a three-part Netflix docuseries called jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy, which follows him through 20 years. Jeen-yuhs offers us an answer to the question, where did Kanye’s ego come from?

Most supervillain origin stories include some well-meaning person doing something that the villain perceives. Someone tried to do something nice, but something happened, and it all went wrong. You may or may not consider Kanye a supervillain though he does seem to relish the role of the heel as if he longs to trigger us into disliking him. Some performers purposely try to piss off the audience. They dig themselves into a hole just to see if they can dig themselves out and win the audience back. This is what Kanye has done with his life in recent years, and it’s exhausting. But it’s all rooted in something beautiful.

Jeen-yuhs follows a brash young Ye through Chicago and New York as he fights to climb up the music industry ladder. But because this is an all-access doc made by a friend, co-director Coodie Simmons (along with Chike Ozah), the cameras take us everywhere, even into a night at home where Kanye hangs with his mom, Dr. Donda West. Here we see the beginnings of modern Ye.

Kanye West “jeen-yuhs” (Netflix)

I’ve met and interviewed Dr. West. She was a lovely, brilliant woman who loved her son immensely. Kanye was her only child, and she told me she worshipped the ground he walked on. She was the sort of parent who told her son that the sun revolved around him. In the doc, we see her filling him with confidence and affirmation and encouraging him at every turn. She is the well-meaning source of Kanye’s now giant ego. His mom told him he could do anything, and he believed it. That had one impact when he was a rising star who had a lot of doors closed in his face and needed the self-confidence to keep going. It has an entirely different impact now that he is a full-fledged megastar who sees no boundaries, which leads to both original art and obnoxious behavior.

Dr. West surely did this on purpose. She was highly educated and very intentional. I think she knew that a Black boy, or any Black child, needed a ton of self-esteem to succeed. It’s beautiful to watch a Black parent fill their child with self-esteem. In a world that beats Black people down, many of us need that. We can see why Ye is still making albums named after her.

Kanye needed her when he was going up the mountain of success, but now that he’s there, he needs a new gear. He needs to use his ego for good, not for evil. But I suspect he also feels tremendous guilt for his mother’s death, leading him to see himself as a villain and act like one. It’s a path to getting attention, even if it’s not positive attention.

As loud as Kanye is, he remains enigmatic, and jeen-yuhs, this 20-year study of his life, is a valuable tool to understand who he is and where he comes from. In so many ways, he’s still a boy who wants attention. A boy whose mom told him he was right before he even started talking. A boy who longs to have his mother back and feels horrible that she’s not here and blames himself for her not being here. When you see Kanye and his mother together, you start to understand who he really is, and that’s one of the most important lenses jeen-yuhs is giving us.

Touré, theGrio.com

Touré is the host of the podcast “Toure Show” and the podcast docuseries “Who Was Prince?” He is also the author of seven books.

TheGrio is now on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! 

The post ‘Jeen-yuhs’: How we got from the old Kanye to the new Kanye appeared first on TheGrio.

 

Source: ‘Jeen-yuhs’: How we got from the old Kanye to the new Kanye

Categories
Politics

Election results show policing and public safety are top issues for Black voters

OPINION: David Love writes that the 2021 elections demonstrate why the time is now for Democrats to act on police reform

The 2021 election results have proven that policing remains a frontburner issue in light of the George Floyd protests last year. The efforts and failures to enact police reform, the pressing needs in the Black community, and the Republicans’ continued exploitation and racialization of the police all take place under the backdrop of Democratic inaction on policing on the federal level.

In New York City, Brooklyn Borough President and retired police captain Eric Adams won handily against the Republican candidate, Guardian Angel leader Curtis Sliwa, to become the second Black person elected mayor of the overwhelmingly Democratic and majority Black and Brown city. Sliwa had suggested Adams would abuse the police practice of stop-and-frisk against Black and Latino men.

Meanwhile, Adams said he “protected Black and Brown and low-income New Yorkers” from police abuse, and noted his son was a victim of the practice, adding that he calls for “appropriate police tactics” rather than “aggressive police tactics.” Adams — who took a measured approach to the issue of policing during the campaign and called for cutting waste in the department — said he would select a woman of color for the role of police commissioner. 

Eric AdamsNew York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams holds his hands together as he takes the stage during his election night party at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge on November 02, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Adams, who himself had been beaten by police as a teen and later became a critic of the police as an officer, did not endorse “defunding the police,” reducing police budgets, reinvesting in communities, and diverting resources toward social services and intervention.

Minneapolis, which was ground zero in the protests and where George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin, had the opportunity to vote for a ballot measure to replace the police department with a department of public safety and treat public safety as a public health matter. The measure was defeated by 56% of the voters — a blow to the movement for Black lives.  

“Let’s work together for increased safety for all, instead of pursuing reckless policies which only empower criminals,” read a statement from the Minnesota Police & Peace Officers Association.

However, police reform was victorious in a number of races. For example, Pittsburgh just elected its first Black mayor, Ed Gainey, who advocates for police reform — including demilitarizing the police — and affordable housing, said he wants to make the city the most “safe, affordable and diverse” city in the country. 

Further, in Cleveland, which just elected its first new mayor in years, outsider and nonprofit executive Justin Bibb, voters approved of a reform to the city charter which creates civilian oversight of the police. Bibb supported the measure and ran on police reform and accountability to “improve law enforcement, save taxpayers’ money, rebuild trust, and most importantly save lives.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mayor-Elect Justin Bibb (@bibbforcle)

However, the elephant in the room, other than the apparent nail-biting victory of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, is the victory of Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin over former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and the apparent Democratic loss of the Virginia House of Delegates. The Trump-endorsed Youngkin — an Ivy League graduate who positioned himself as a reasonable Republican, albeit perhaps a white supremacist with a smile –nevertheless leaned hard on the Southern Strategy of boogeyman racial politics in the form of critical race theory.

Although Virginia Democrats have had months to strategize and counter the narrative coming from the segregationist astroturf campaigns descending upon school board meetings, they squandered their time and failed to craft a strong message. McAuliffe could not even effectively attack Youngkin’s leadership at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm accused of predatory practices, because the Democrat invests in the firm. In addition, Youngkin, who received broad law enforcement support, opposes eliminating qualified immunity for police officers and profits from the sale of military weapons used by police. Support for more police funding was one of the issues that attracted voters to the GOP.    

And Virginia, home of the Unite the Right rally, has some unaddressed problems around race and policing. Nikuyah Walker, the first Black woman elected mayor of Charlottesville, has resigned because she could not stand the white supremacy. This comes after the city manager fired Dr. RaShall Brackney, Charlottesville’s first Black female police chief who sought transformative change and racial equity.

RaShall BrackneyDr. RaShall Brackney, Charlottesville’s first Black female police chief. (Photo: Charlottesville Police Department)

However, the key takeaway from this election cycle is not to blame progressive Democrats such as ‘The Squad’ or Black voters for the election results in Virginia. Rather, the problem is white women, 57% of whom voted for Youngkin, and specifically uneducated white women, three-quarters of whom voted for the Republican. “WE are NOT the problem and pandering to white women AIN’T the solution,” said Danielle Moodie, host of WokeAF Daily.  

Rather the problem is milquetoast moderates who do not respond to the needs of their strongest constituents such as Black folks, while always currying favor with white voters whose support they will never win. White moderates are perhaps in the worst position to save us from white supremacy, fascism and Jim Crow authoritarianism, even as they have had nearly 60 years since the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign to learn and fight back against the Southern Strategy.

Kentucky Senate candidate Charles Booker summed up the election results with a tweet: “In all of the political analysis, there is a truth that must be understood. Republicans win by weaponizing racism, and Democrats lose by trying to ignore it.”

And as Charles Ellison, host of Reality Check on Black talk radio station WURD in Philadelphia noted, “The incompetence of Democrats, the cartoonish failure of those parading as capable (& well paid) strategists, & the lack of fight from those *calling* themselves warriors against racism, all on full display, is just …. Infuriating.” He added, “This isn’t a game, fam. Course correct in 2022.”  

Louisville Police Officer Charged With Wanton Endangerment In Breonna Taylor's DeathA protester raises his hands in the air during a standoff with law enforcement on September 23, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The Democrats, afraid of their own shadow and compromising with themselves, have not enacted police reform, nor have they passed a number of measures including voting rights, infrastructure and the other elements of the Biden agenda that enjoy overwhelming support. Meanwhile, Trumpism is on the ballot in 2022 and 2024, and you should be afraid. As James Baldwin once said, “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

On police reform, community control of law enforcement and so much more, the Democrats must reframe strongly and deliver a message for their constituents without compromise. They must have Black people’s back and speak out against racism, or there will be trouble with enthusiasm and turnout. They must support policies to make Black people safe and secure, with social initiatives that address the underlying issues of wealth and economic inequality — not more police, and not more police with weapons, but alternatives to police and a redefinition of public safety.

The protests last year were not for nothing, and the GOP only cares about law and order when it means more dead and imprisoned Black people. With the Republicans poised for a redistricting and voter suppression bonanza and the gutting of multiracial democracy in the midst of Democrats’ inaction, they will happily oblige.

Follow David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove

Have you subscribed to the Grio podcasts, ‘Dear Culture’ or Acting Up? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!

The post Election results show policing and public safety are top issues for Black voters appeared first on TheGrio.

Source: Election results show policing and public safety are top issues for Black voters

Categories
Politics

Charlottesville trial will be a verdict on white supremacy in America

OPINION: What is particularly noteworthy about the civil suit regarding the Unite the Right rally is the federal law it invokes, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871

More than four years after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, the victims of the white supremacist mob are seeking justice. And the lawsuit they filed against the individuals and organizations who were responsible for that deadly rally is important to the future of American multiracial democracy.

While this trial may bring monetary compensation to the plaintiffs, more importantly it is part of the process of deciding whether white domestic terrorism and racial violence are an acceptable form of free speech, and if white criminality will go unpunished. This nation must now decide if it will allow organized white supremacist violence to run the show.

Jury selection and opening arguments have been made in the trial of Sines v. Kessler, a civil case filed on behalf of members of the Charlottesville community against 14 men and 10 far-right groups accused of waging the violence in Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and 12 in 2017. The Unite the Right protest, which focused on the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, culminated with James Fields, a Hitler admirer, plowing his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring dozens more. Among the defendants are high-profile white supremacists and neo-Nazis, such as Andrew Anglin, Christopher Cantwell, Nathan Damigo, Matthew Heimbach, Jason Kessler, Elliot Kline, Jeff Schoep and Richard Spencer among others. 

The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the “alt-right” during the “Unite the Right” rally August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Cantwell was reportedly inspired by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who promotes the Great Replacement Theory, a white supremacist theory that elite liberals, Democrats and progressives want to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants. Once embraced by fringe elements, the Great Replacement Theory is now a mainstream belief of the Republican Party. The tiki torch-wielding Nazis who shouted “Jews will not replace us” and “You will not replace us” in Charlottesville were referring to that theory.  

Integrity First for America, a nonprofit organization, filed the lawsuit. The plaintiffs seek compensatory and statutory damages for physical and emotional injuries they sustained over the two-day period.

What is particularly noteworthy about this civil suit is the federal law it invokes. The plaintiffs have sued under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was passed by Congress to enforce the 14th Amendment, protect the rights of 4 million formerly enslaved Black people and eliminate vigilante violence that terrorized Black folks and threatened the Republican Party’s Reconstruction efforts in the South following the Civil War. The law authorized the president to intervene by declaring martial law, sending in the Army and inflicting heavy penalties against terrorists when the former Confederate states refused to protect Black people and their White allies and attempted to deny “any person or any class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or immunities under the laws.” At a time when Black people were almost exclusively sided with the Republican Party, the legislation found opposition among Democrats as well as moderate and conservative Republicans because it targeted private individuals and not just government officials.    

Today, in a nation where the Republican Party now breaks bread with domestic terrorists and relies on Jim Crow tactics, political violence, coups and insurrection to maintain white power, the Ku Klux Klan Act is as relevant as ever.

Earlier this year, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the NAACP filed a lawsuit against former President Doanld Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and white hate groups for conspiring to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in attempt to stop the Electoral College vote of of the 2020 presidential election in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act. After being selected to chair the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thompson said in July that he dismissed his claim in the lawsuit “to avoid the appearance of a conflict.”

The tragedy in Charlottesville foreshadowed the Capitol insurrection when rightwing militias, neo-confederates, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Qanon cult members and others — with apparent support from some GOP officials — stormed the Capitol and attempted to take over the government for Trump after his election loss to now-President Joe Biden. Other events such as the mass murder at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh point to white supremacist violence as the most pressing terrorist threat in America today.  

Meanwhile, as the nation witnesses the bubbling of white rage and violent white supremacist ideology, people wonder what is coming next. And some of us wonder if America is going to make it. The nation formed through slavery and genocide is about to be consumed by the white mob — the forces of racial violence it refused to reckon with.      

The Confederacy lost the Civil War, but is winning the long game. After all, they never went away; they only changed names, and were never held accountable for their actions. The Charlottesville trial is important because this could be the first step to shutting down these white terror groups and putting them out of business. This is a test to see if America will hold white supremacist violence accountable in order to save itself.

Follow David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove

Have you subscribed to theGrio podcasts, Dear Culture or Acting Up? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!

The post Charlottesville trial will be a verdict on white supremacy in America appeared first on TheGrio.

Source: Charlottesville trial will be a verdict on white supremacy in America

Categories
National Headlines

The time for progressives to get behind NYC mayoral candidate Maya Wiley is now

OPINION: Ifeoma Ike, who previously worked on the mayoral campaign of Dianne Morales, says as a senior advisor she believes Maya Wiley is the best woman for the job.

A lot of people call this political season “messy.” I call it a beautiful struggle. When I agreed to be the senior advisor to NYC mayoral candidate Dianne Morales, most of my peers didn’t believe I had enough time to help transform a campaign many people still didn’t know existed.

What many don’t know is that I said “yes” when both my parents were ill with COVID-19. Both essential workers, I was haunted by the thought that news of effective vaccinations came too late for my working-class, immigrant family. And for full transparency, it took a month for me to commit to any electoral work; not only because of the crowded field, but also because I was disappointed at the lack of our city’s investment in educating all communities about rank choice voting.

What motivated me to join was that I knew our people deserved more than the status quo: a platform willing to reach the root causes of race and gender inequity that the majority of New Yorkers are experiencing. As a former City Hall executive deputy director and a lawyer, I also knew that we needed a mayor who truly understood the city and possessed a record of building justice-minded infrastructure, not just using social justice language.

New York City Mayoral candidate Maya WileyNew York City Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley speaks to the media on June 02, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Like many political operatives, early mornings and late nights was my daily campaign routine. I’m also the CEO of a social impact startup with a team of nine people; working two full-time jobs requires a lot of coffee. The entire season has been a struggle: some progressive spaces loved our platform, but questioned our viability; the press failed to cover the buildup of our transformative campaign; and for the longest, it was only eight of us building a full operation.

But what we didn’t miss was our people.

We remained on the ground, even during a pandemic, supporting mutual aid efforts, providing resources to young mothers in need of childcare and signing up seniors for vaccinations — while also competing in a rigorous cycle of forums, fundraisers and events. The thought of running politics as usual never crossed our minds, and the more we met the community where they were, the more we were able to connect them with a vision that put those left behind at the center. 

This is also why this past week has been so painful to experience. What took other campaigns a year to achieve, our scrappy team accomplished in five months. Endorsements and increased media coverage were welcomed affirmations, but it’s really the family we built that I’m forever grateful for, especially my fellow Black femmes and immigrant and first-gen siblings.

But like so many things began to fall apart in the public eye, and I walked away from a campaign I helped build, I reminded myself that politics, in itself, isn’t the movement. People are. No one candidate possesses all of the solutions. And in the most transformative political season of our city, no one can afford to sit on the sidelines, including me.

Exhausted, but still determined, I am proud to join Maya Wiley’s mayoral campaign team as a senior advisor because the moment calls for the wide tent of progressives to coalesce and model something different. Maya and I don’t agree on everything, and recently had a 21-minute debate over how much the NYPD should be defunded. I argued that the police state is pervasive not only in our streets, but in our schools and childcare systems and that defunding by $3 billion is where we need to start.

New York City Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley speaks to the media on June 02, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Maya didn’t disagree, substantively, and shared that $1 billion is where she’d start, followed by a full audit to determine how and where to divest from. I pushed back, sharing how communities feel betrayed by the current administration’s “tale of two cities” rhetoric that ultimately expanded policing, even while we were quarantined.

“And that’s why I’ve invested so much time into a safety strategy, Ify, and we’re rolling out our housing platform that I think you’d like,” she said.

That simple statement revealed two key things: that Maya understands that our communities are not falling for more failed promises; and that we share an understanding of safety beyond policing. And after viewing her recent video reminding us of the brutal tactics employed by NYPD on protesters last summer, I fully believe our city under her leadership can mobilize to fight the police union and confront practices originally engineered to target Black bodies.

Maya is, indeed, our city’s best chance at stopping the many special interests that continue to marginalize Black and Brown communities — the very communities that kept us alive last year. 

Outside of this race, Maya was a mentor to those of us who worked inside City Hall and endured frequent misogynoir as we tried to advocate for our people. Maya helped advance many of my team’s projects and she and I co-drafted the city’s first-ever Equity Executive Order. When I organized a space for women of color at City Hall just to breathe during the workday, I asked Maya if she had time in her busy schedule to speak. She came in like the rest of us, plopped in the chair, and exhaled “Whew, y’all I am tired!” to which we each chimed in our agreement in our own unique, sisterly way.

That memory is not easily erased from my mind, and with every debate we have on policies, I also know her character and the space she has provided me in moments of stress and frustration. That matters.

It’s an honor to advise leaders who dare to be the first; leaders who dare to be bold; leaders who dare to confront systems. Our survival is connected to what happens on June 22. We cannot let the mess of this political season take our eyes off of what’s possible for our people. There will be time to analyze what did and didn’t work in this political cycle. Until then, let’s struggle together with our best chance to reclaim City Hall. 

Time for us to get behind Maya Wiley and rank her number one. 

Ifeoma Ike, Senior Advisor for Maya Wiley's NYC Mayoral campaign

Ifeoma Ike is an activist, CEO of social impact and equity firm, Pink Cornrows and creator of the Black Policy Lab. She is the former senior advisor to Dianne Morales for NYC.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

The post The time for progressives to get behind NYC mayoral candidate Maya Wiley is now appeared first on TheGrio.

Source: The time for progressives to get behind NYC mayoral candidate Maya Wiley is now

Categories
National Headlines

‘Friends’ reunion has arrived, but put some respect on ‘Living Single’

OPINION: HBO Max’s “Friends” reunion sounds like a total snooze. But do wake me up if and when a “Living Single” reunion rolls around for a true “90s kind of world.”

Does everyone have their plans together for the reunion episode of Friends on HBO? Didn’t even realize it was happening? Me neither, chile. And honestly who could blame us? 

I’ve often found that, similarly to the make-up of the show, the fan base usually falls right along color lines, with many of my white friends being in love with the NBC sitcom, while many of my other friends …. Well, not so much. 

While I’ve heard murmurings about the pending reunion episode, I can fervently and honestly say that I’m neither interested in watching it, nor have I ever been particularly invested in the show. But that may be because the series’ creators have never really shown interest in nor invested in people like me. 

Read More: Michelle Williams shares reunion calls with, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland

I remember growing up in suburban (read: white) northern New Jersey. You would have thought Friends was the only show on television. Sure I’ve seen a few episodes sporadically here and there (trust me, it was only because someone else had put it on, and I was going along to get along), but I could never get into the show in the same way my fairer counterparts could. 

Scene from NBC sitcom “Friends.” (Photo: NBC)

There were exactly zero characters I could identify or resonate with in any serious way. How you gon’ have a show in one of the most culturally, ethnically and racially diverse cities in the world (New York), yet feature absolutely no people of color, except the occasional cameo? 

Where they do that at?! 

Even then, the appearance of anyone who had even a little bit of melanin in their skin was few and far between, and they weren’t even at all that memorable. I literally cannot recall a single character of color without googling. Can you? I’ll wait.

In fact, a quick search actually turned up that throughout the show’s entire span of ten seasons (1994-2004), there were exactly two characters of color featured. Please — and, I really mean this — allow that to sink in. Even as a child and young teen, the show’s casting struck me as seriously lacking. And, it still does. Things that really make you think.

I may be biased as a late 80s baby myself, but the 90s was arguably one of the best eras in TV. Most of the programming I remember was family-friendly and therefore family-oriented; think TGIF on Friday nights, which at various times featured shows like Family Matters, Full House, Sister, Sister and Hanging with Mr. Cooper. 

Family Matters Jaleel Ross thegrio.com(Credit: WARNER BROS. TELEVISION)

But Friends is considered to be a stand-out, an iconic cult-classic likely because many think that nothing like it had been done before; that the premise — a group of friends, navigating their way through the world, through the trials and tribulations of life, love and work, with all the accompanying comedic hijinx — was entirely new or original. It was not. 

Now, if you’re reading this (and of the caucasian persuasion), please raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Living Single. No? 

Living Single, which had a five season lifespan (1993-1998), was also a show based on following the lives of a group of friends, who, in various combinations, lived together, loved each other and worked together. The difference? They were all Black, and rather than being set in Manhattan, it was of course, based in Brooklyn, New York. 

Queen Latifah, who played the beloved character, Kadijah, was one of the creators of the show. She also came up with the show’s intro song, which is still a bop! Don’t believe me? Just watch. 

Read More: T.C. Carson fired from ‘Living Single’ for challenging Warner Bros over ‘Friends’: ‘Gave them everything’

What even is the intro/theme song for Friends? I honestly couldn’t tell you because I don’t remember, which mostly tells me that it certainly does not slap the same.

Not only was Living Single first, a fact which the chronological timeline alone makes clear, but it’s also demonstrably funnier (argue with yo mama) and more culturally relevant, with modern shows like Insecure paying homage to Living Single for paving the way.

During an interview with James Corden in 2016, Queen Latifah recalled the infamous origin story of Friends and how it was inspired by Living Single, which also starred Kim Fields, Kim Coles, Erika Alexander, Terrence C. Coleman and John Henton.

“It was interesting because when Living Single came out, shortly thereafter Warren Littlefield, who was president of NBC, they asked him if he could have any of the new shows on television which one would it be [and[ he said Living Single,” said Latifah. “And next thing you know here comes Friends.”

Furthermore, the characters and storylines on Living Single are much more believable for the time period. They had relatable careers and jobs, which didn’t require suspension of disbelief in order to justify their living arrangements. 

Friends, on the other hand, has always had us all scratching our heads and saying “huh?” due to the fact that the character’s careers could hardly maintain and support the lifestyles and living quarters showcased on the show. Unless, of course, they all had co-signers, which for some young, white twenty-somethings in NYC, I guess isn’t too much of a stretch. 

Now, to be fair, some of the cast of Friends have discussed the obvious lack of diversity. Lisa Kudrow, who played the character Phoebe, last year surmised that should the show be done again today, the cast would look much different and be a lot more diverse. But I find that statement to be a bit disingenuous. This was the 1990s and early 2000s we’re talking about; not the 1890s or early to mid-twentieth century, which I could maybe understand. 

But given that we’re talking about just two to three decades ago, there is literally no excuse other than they either didn’t think of it (which seems dubious at best) or quite frankly didn’t care (which seems much more likely), so please miss us with that nonsense and bye Felicia (or in this case, Lisa). 

Another notable is David Schwimmer, who played the character of Ross, and was the only character to have any non-white romantic interests on the show (an Asian woman and later a Black woman), which Schwimmer himself says he actively advocated and fought for at the time. 

Actor David Schwimmer and Actress Aisha Tyler star in “Friends.” (Photo: NBC)

Just last year, Schwimmer proposed that perhaps there needs to be an all-Black or all-Asian Friends, but as many clapped back, Friends, with an all-Black cast, had already existed. What’s more, it’s reported that one of the proposed names for Living Single around its original inception was … you guessed it: “Friends.”

Folks, there’s a term for this and it’s called — say it with me now —  appropriation. And as with most cultural appropriations, the original creators are hardly ever properly acknowledged or credited. 

While I’m genuinely happy for Friends fans, who may get their final fix with this reunion, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the show was at all original. This blueprint was most certainly Black. And, if it’s not already abundantly clear, let me state affirmatively that I will absolutely not be watching the reunion of Friends. 

Quite frankly, it sounds like a total snooze. But do wake me up if and when a Living Single reunion rolls around, if only to relive, even for a moment, a true “90s kind of world.”

Thameka Thompson, theGrio.com

Thameka Thompson has a B.A in African American Studies from Yale University. Based in the New York/New Jersey area, she is a freelance writer, and owns a spiritual practice.

Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!

TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

The post ‘Friends’ reunion has arrived, but put some respect on ‘Living Single’ appeared first on TheGrio.

Source: ‘Friends’ reunion has arrived, but put some respect on ‘Living Single’