Nearly all the improvement in the unemployment rate over the past few months has been for white workers. By Emily Peck, HuffPost — At first glance, the unemployment rate seems a lot less terrible than it did a few months ago. In April, at the start of the COVID-19 shutdown, the jobless rate was a record-high 14.7%. This month, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.4%. But…
Black diasporans discuss the ways the label can be overly broad—and leave out an important part of their identities. By Janel Martinez, Vice — For many Black people, their identification with Latinx identity is complicated—the term, meant to be all-inclusive, has the exact opposite effect. Though Black and Indigenous Latin Americans have contributed significantly to Latinx culture (think musical genres like rumba, tango, and reggaetón, to name a few, or the masterful creations…
The country needs truth-telling and acceptance of our moral, legal, political, and sociocultural responsibilities. By Joyce Hope Scott, BU Today — This is a transformative moment in history in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. Despite myths of a post-racial society as a result of many positive social transformations, we are today again forced to examine our inheritance of America’s great sin—slavery and its…
By Dustin Gardiner and Alexei Koseff, SF Chronicles — California legislators approved a bill that would create a task force to study reparations for slavery for African Americans, a measure intended to eliminate disparities that linger more than 150 years after an economic and social system that kept Black people in bondage was banished. Separately, lawmakers also sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring corporations in the state to…
A multi-dimension film that explores the Black Lives Matter movement from a Barbados/Caribbean perspective. Featuring: Eddy Grant Anthony “Gabby” Carter David Comissiong Robert “Bobby” Clarke Trevor Marshall Luci Hammans Alex Downes Peter “Adonijah” Alleyne Aida Gerbremariam Riddim Tribe Dance Collective Produced/Choreographed by: Aisha Comissiong
And still, we overcome. By Cimajie Best, Huffpost — It was Aug. 28, 2020, at 9:26 p.m. Central Standard Time when Black Twitter was hit with a wave of shock and immense sadness. First, there was disbelief. Surely this a joke, right? Quick, somebody confirm it! Has TMZ said anything? And then a single tweet from his account with the official confirmation that after a four-year battle with cancer, Chadwick Boseman had…
Vantage Point Radio August 31, 2020 — On this edition of Vantage Point, host Dr. Ron Daniels aka The Professor talks with guests Marc Morial and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D. Topics National Urban League’s State of Black America Report Reflections on the Founding of the National Black Independent Political Party The Professor on the Soap Box Guests Marc Morial, President/CEO, National Urban League, New York, NY Dr. Gwen Zohorah Simmons,…
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson — One day after Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back by a Kenosha, Wisconsin cop, there was a terse one liner from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. It noted that its Division of Criminal Investigation would issue a report within 30 days on whether to recommend the filing of criminal charges against the officer who shot Blake. 30 days, recommend, and a one…
By comparing white supremacy in the U.S. to the caste system in India, her new book at once illuminates and collapses a complex history. By Sunil Khilnani, The New Yorker — As the summer of 1958 was coming to an end, Martin Luther King, Jr., was newly famous and exhausted. All of twenty-nine years old, he had been travelling across the country for weeks promoting his first book, “Stride Toward…
By Wesley Young, Winston-Salem Journal — Mayor pro tem and North Ward Council Member D.D. Adams says the time is right for Winston-Salem to move forward on reparations for its Black citizens for slavery, years of Jim Crow and other racial inequities. Adams brought forward the idea in this month’s meeting of a committee she chairs on the Winston-Salem City Council. Adams says she knows it is a controversial concept….
If the U.S. ever wants to move forward and right the wrongs of its past, there must not only be a public acknowledgement of the crimes committed against Black people, but there must be programs in place to serve as a form of restitution. By Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes — America is finally waking up from its 400-year slumber and an honest acknowledgement of racism is happening. The public’s opinion…
By Dr. Maulana Karenga — Part 1: In our awesome and exacting history in this country, the month of August is a time of remembering and recommitment to prophesies, promises and practices of whirlwind and fire. Indeed, it is good to remember and reflect deeply on the fact that, as a people, we were born, baptized and built up in the transformative waters, whirlwinds and fires of righteous and relentless…
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