By Quintessa Williams 
Word in Black 

It’s no longer a surprising revelation that Black girls are disciplined at disproportionately high rates compared to their peers of other racial backgrounds. 

However, new data from two women’s advocacy organizations and the federal government has further shed light on this persistent trend. Black girls, who make up just 15 percent of public school students, are far more likely than White girls to be suspended for behavior issues — and face exclusionary expulsion and corporal punishment as early as preschool.

A 2024 report from the National Black Women’s Justice Institute found that Black K-12 girls represented more than three times their enrollment share in transfers and corporal punishment and more than double their share in expulsions. This data has been bolstered by a new report from the Government Accountability Office, which found that in the 2017-2018 school year, Black girls accounted for nearly half of all exclusionary discipline cases — including 45 percent of out-of-school suspensions, 37 percent of in-school suspensions, and 43 percent of expulsions.

This disparity also echoes the findings from the National Women’s Law Journal and Ed Trust, which reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, Black girls were five times more likely than their White peers to be suspended. In addition, the report also found that as early as preschool, Black girls made up 20 percent of the female enrollment but accounted for 53 percent of out-of-school suspensions.

Bayliss Fiddiman, senior director of educational equity at NWLC, tells Word In Black that the new findings illustrate the uphill battle Black girls face in school.

“These disparities have existed for years, but the GAO report is a stark reminder that little has changed,” she said. “The data reinforced what we already knew as a problem — Black girls are subject to harsher disciplinary actions for behaviors that are often perceived through the lens of bias, such as defiance or disruption.”

Adultification and colorism contribute to the disparity

The GAO identified that the disproportionate discipline of Black girls is due to a range of factors, including poverty levels, disabilities, and the presence of school resource officers. However, racial bias — particularly via adultification and colorism — plays the most significant role.

“Teachers and school staff often perceive Black girls as older and more mature than they are, which means they are seen as more ‘responsible’ for their actions and are punished more severely than their peers,” says Dr. Sydney McKinney, executive director of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute. “This bias manifests in labeling typical teenage behavior as ‘disrespect’ or ‘disruption,’ and Black girls often bear the brunt of these stereotypes.”

Fiddiman also elaborated on the colorism factor: “Black girls with darker skin are undoubtedly more likely to be punished than those with lighter skin,” she says. “It’s an unfortunate extension of the racial bias that permeates school discipline systems.”

Black girl discipline is a national public crisis

The discipline crisis among Black K-12 girls spans every state in the U.S. McKinney pointed to the long-standing trends in exclusionary discipline data from the 2024 NBWJI report. “Our data from 2011 to 2018 shows consistent overrepresentation of Black girls in nearly every category of discipline—whether it’s suspensions, expulsions, or referrals to law enforcement,” she says. “This consistency over time is perhaps the most alarming aspect. It’s clear that little progress has been made despite awareness of the issue.”

The over-punishment of Black girls in schools is not a recent phenomenon but part of a broader historical trend of excessive discipline rooted in racial and gender biases. That includes corporal punishment in the classroom. 

In Arkansas, for example, an 8-year-old Black girl was paddled for refusing to do her schoolwork. The administrator involved later acknowledged the harm caused by such punishment, especially when disproportionately applied to Black students​. 

A 2019 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies later found that Black girls like the 8-year-old are paddled at three times the rate of White girls.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word In Black

For decades, voting for president every four years was as easy and safe as picking up a loaf of bread from the supermarket: show up to the polls, cast your ballot and move on with the rest of your day. Then, the 2020 election happened. 

There were lies about election fraud and strict voter ID laws some say are racist. Vigilante “poll monitors,” some of them armed, menaced voters and poll workers, often in Black communities. Intimidating new rules that all but declare a blue vote in a red state may not be counted. 

It’s enough to make a faithful voter wish for divine intervention. Faiths United to Save Democracy, however, could be the next best thing. 

A nonpartisan, multi-racial, interfaith organization, FUSD is an organization designed to help and protect voters on Election Day. It dispatches trained, non-partisan volunteers —  poll chaplains — to help ensure free and unhindered access to the polls for members of vulnerable communities. 

Armed with the law

Together with “peacekeepers” — lay volunteers trained with the chaplains —  they support voters, explain the rules or help them report irregularities, including electioneering, harassment and intimidation. The goal: help people navigate rules that could make it more difficult for Black people, young people, the elderly and differently abled to cast a ballot and have it count.

FUSD’s voter protection campaigns this year will take place in the South, including Alabama, Florida and Texas, along with Ohio and several key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

The organization was created in the wake of the 2020 election to “protect the sacred freedom to vote of vulnerable citizens” because of “wide acceptance of political violence and the increase in anti-voting laws,” Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a clergywoman and activist, said in a letter to new team members.

Amen, says Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, pastor of the Second Episcopal District of the AME Church in Washington, D.C. 

“We’re going to watch and pray that there be no intimidation, no obstruction and no challenges,” he says. “We just want to keep the peace. We are 100 percent non-partisan in nature.” 

With early voting already underway in more than a few states, Faith United to Save Democracy and partner organizations — including the NAACP, Latino Christian National Network, the National Council of Churches, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Nation’s Mosque — have dispatched some of the peacekeepers and poll chaplains they’ve trained since summer. 

While some right-wing poll watchers show up with loaded guns, the FUSD teams are armed only with knowledge of election rules and laws, nonviolent intervention tactics, a voting-rights hotline, and, of course, prayer. The need for peacekeepers and poll chaplains is clear, according to an FUSD press release. 

Fighting chaos with witness

Since the 2020 election, “voters have faced increasing barriers to exercising their right to vote,” according to the statement. “Nearly 400 voter restriction measures in 49 states, from ID laws to limited access to mail voting, have been proposed or passed. These laws erect barriers that disproportionately limit people of color, the elderly and the poor from being able to vote.”

At the same time, “increasingly violent rhetoric and events throughout the 2024 election,” including election fraud conspiracies and death threats to poll workers, “has given voters credible concern about violence or intimidation at the polls,” according to the statement.

To counter those developments, “trained poll chaplains and peacekeepers will be deployed to cities and polling sites in areas of greatest need in this critical time for the future of our democracy,” according to the FUSD statement.

Though trained together, peacekeepers will be inside polling places as helpers while poll chaplains will stand outside to assist voters as needed. The task is simple, says Dr. James Perkins, pastor emeritus of Detroit’s Greater Christ Baptist Church.

“Be on time, let your presence be known, and be helpful as needed,” he says. “And keep the number of the hotline handy, just in case it’s needed.”

“The involvement of poll chaplains and Peacekeepers is essential in actively safeguarding the vote in local communities,” says Rev. Moya Harris, director of racial justice at Sojourners, a faith-based social justice nonprofit and FUSD member. “This is integral to our call as people of faith — to combat chaos with love and witness.”

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By Keith Boykin
Word in Black 

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

This month, Kamala Harris unveiled a new agenda for Black men. The plan is extensive, but I want to highlight 10 specific steps she would take as president that would empower Black men with the tools we need to build wealth, provide for our families, and lead our communities.

Number 1- Business loans

Black Americans are twice as likely to be denied credit by banks, so Harris would provide 1 million fully forgivable loans of up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and others who have historically faced barriers to starting a new business or growing an existing one. 

Number 2- More jobs without college degrees

Harris would eliminate unnecessary degree requirements and promote pathways for those without college degrees for 500,000 federal jobs. 

Number 3- more Black male teachers

As a former high school English and social studies teacher, I know it’s important for young Black males to see Black men in front of the classroom as role models and mentors. Only 1 percent of public school teachers are Black men, so Harris would create pathways for more Black men to become teachers, including apprenticeship programs and loan forgiveness. 

Number 4- Health care

My uncle, who had sickle cell disease, died last year, and I know several Black men my age who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. And don’t get me started on the mental health needs of the Black men in my family and community. I see it every day. We’ve been traumatized by an unfair criminal justice system and a world that demonizes us instead of understanding us. Fortunately, Harris would launch a National Health Equity Initiative focused on Black men that addresses sickle cell disease, diabetes, mental health, and prostate cancer. 

Number 5- Weed equity

Black men have been disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for marijuana-related charges. Now that cannabis is becoming more socially acceptable and profitable, it’s only fair that we benefit from the changing system that hurt us. Vice President Harris not only wants to legalize recreational marijuana but also create opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in this new industry. 

Number 6- Ban the box

I have a law degree, and yet when I lived in Harlem, I was still stopped on the street, arrested, and locked up in jail. I know Black men have been targeted by a racist criminal justice system. Harris would work with Congress to require businesses to limit the unnecessary use of criminal arrest histories, convictions, and credit scores in employment decisions. 

Number 7- Mentorship Programs 

Harris would expand funding for community mentorship programs with a proven track record of helping young Black men succeed. She will also support programs like My Brother’s Keeper.

Number 8- Support Black farmers

Harris would continue to support Black farmers and ranchers who have been denied access to capital. As vice president, she already distributed funding to thousands of Black farmers and ranchers in a $2 billion relief package. 

Number 9. Relieve Medical Debt. My stepfather passed away in April 2020 , with a mountain of medical debt. Vice President Harris plans to work with states to relieve medical debt, which is the leading cause of bankruptcy in America, and disproportionately hurts Black Americans.

And Number 10. Crypto Protection. More than 20 percent of Black Americans, including me, have owned cryptocurrency assets. I lost money in crypto, but the high-risk, high-reward crypto markets provide opportunities outside of the existing stock market for many Black men. A Harris administration would support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and other digital assets to protect Black men who invest in these assets. 

Now, let me answer a few questions I’ve already seen from critics:

Question 1: Why didn’t she do this in the last four years? 

Because she’s not the president. She’s the vice president. Trump was actually a president, and he did none of these things in his four years in office.

Question 2: But why do some of these policies say Black men “and others?” Why aren’t they all Black-specific? 

Well, because Trump’s Supreme Court Justices and federal judges keep striking down programs that focus on Black people? Trump’s Supreme Court ended race-specific affirmative action in college admissions. A Trump-appointed federal judge forced the Minority Business Development Agency to help white people. Another Trump-appointed federal judge blocked a disaster relief program for Black farmers. And two Trump-appointed federal judges in Georgia blocked a private program by the Fearless Fund to help Black women in business.

If Trump’s judges won’t allow a private group of Black women to help each other, do you think they’re going to let a government program that only helps Black men and excludes others? No. But this is what happens when we don’t vote. So we have to create clever ways to get around the Trump MAGA Republican bans on helping Black people.

Question 3: Yeah, but why does it feel like Democrats only care about Black women? 

Yes, Joe Biden elevated two very prominent Black women in the past four years:VP  Kamala Harris and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. But the Democratic Party is filled with Black men in positions of power and leadership. The highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives is Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will become the first Black Speaker if Democrats win the House in November. The highest ranking leader in the military is Lloyd Austin, the first Black Secretary of Defense. Two of the three Democratic Black U.S. senators — Raphael Warnock and Cory Booker — are Black men. The Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore, is a Black man. The mayors of New York City, Chicago, and Atlanta are all Black men in the Democratic Party. And the only Black person ever elected president, Barack Obama, is also a Black man. 

And Question 4: But isn’t Trump better for Black men? 

Was he better for Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — the Exonerated Five teenagers who went to prison when Trump led a lynch mob against them for a rape they did not commit, and then refused to apologize after they were exonerated by DNA evidence? Was he better for the Black casino workers who sued him for racial discrimination? Was he better for Colin Kapernick and the NFL players he attacked for taking a knee? Was he better for Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Police Officer who had to fend off a mob of angry white Trump supporters who tried to take over the Capitol on January 6? Was he better for the Haitian American Black men in Springfield, Ohio, who were subjected to death threats because of Trump’s lies about them eating dogs and cats? Was he better for Marcellus Williams, the Black man who was executed by the State of Missouri last month because Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court Justices refused to agree with the Democratic Justices to stop the execution? Was he better for the Black farmers denied relief by his judges? Was he better for the Black men who died while he mismanaged the COVID pandemic? And will he be better for the Black youth who will be harassed by the police when he brings back stop and frisk? 

Kamala Harris wants to help Black men build wealth, provide for our families, and lead our communities. Trump wants to use us as political pawns in his angry MAGA campaign. Those are the choices. Choose wisely.

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Obama is asking all men, including Black men, to rethink our relationship with women in positions of power, and to reevaluate our understanding of manhood.

By Keith Boykin

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

Former President Barack Obama just ignited a firestorm of debate about Black men and manhood. Speaking to Black men in Pittsburgh on Oct. 10, Obama warned about the attitude of “sitting out” of the election “or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that’s a sign of strength.” 

“Putting women down” is “not acceptable,” he said. 

His comment sparked criticism from those who felt Obama was scolding Black men again. I have a more nuanced take with two key points.

Black Men Are a Success Story

First, Black men are a success story for Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. After all the gaslighting from Republicans about Black men leaving the Democratic Party four years ago, Joe Biden won 87 percent  of the vote from Black men in 2020. That makes us the second most loyal constituency of the Democratic Party. Only Black women, who voted 95 percent for Biden, are more supportive. 

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll last month found Black men overwhelmingly support Harris over Trump on every issue, including abortion, crime, the economy, and immigration. The Pew Research Center found that Black men are more confident in Kamala Harris than Trump to make good decisions about issues that affect us. A CNN poll last month found very little gender divide among Black voters. And research this summer found that Black men in Georgia supported Kamala Harris and strongly disapproved of Trump. 

That means Kamala Harris will probably win 85 percent to 90 percent of Black men. That’s good news, and Black men should be celebrated for that. 

Personally, I don’t understand how any Black man could vote for Trump after he led a lynch mob against the now exonerated Central Park Five, lied about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, blackballed Colin Kapernick out of the NFL, and bragged about bringing back racist policing tactics like stop-and-frisk. But I also know that unanimity of opinion is unattainable. No candidate or party is ever going to get 100 percent of Black people to support them, but 87 percent is pretty damn good. 

That’s why I’ve said before that we can’t pathologize Black men for our voting patterns when other groups, mainly White women, are the real problem.

An Internal Conversation With Black Men

That brings me to my second point. Contrary to the hot takes on social media, I don’t think Obama was scolding or pathologizing Black men. Instead, he was having an internal conversation with Black men to get us to examine some of the reasons that some of us don’t support Kamala Harris. That’s why the Black men Obama was speaking to in the room seemed to agree with him. 

The question is how do you increase voter turnout for Black men, when 66 percent of Black men said they planned to vote compared to 71 percent of Black women, and that tiny gap could make a huge difference in a close election.

Obama made a point that a small but vocal contingent of men, including Black men, refuse to support any woman candidate for president. Many of them have unrealistically high expectations for Kamala Harris but don’t hold Trump to the same standards. 

One Black man in Pennsylvania told reporters he plans to vote for Trump because Harris “doesn’t come from a background similar to the majority of Black Americans.” That makes no sense. Does he think a White man who spent his career refusing to rent to Black people and spreading racist lies about us understands the Black experience better than a Black woman who grew up in Oakland, attended Howard University, and joined AKA sorority? I’m sorry. I call bullshit. That man just doesn’t want to vote for a woman.

Obama wasn’t speaking to all Black men. He was speaking to that man and to the Black men who have no problem with Trump selling cheap mugshots and $400 gold sneakers as “Black outreach” but when a Black woman who spent her entire life around Black people tries to get them to vote for her it’s considered “pandering.” Just stop lying about why you’re voting for Trump because you’re making yourself sound ridiculous. 

“And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama said. “Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

It’s the exact same message that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul delivered on the “Win With Black Men” Zoom call with 40,000 Black men supporting Kamala Harris in July. “Sometimes as Black men we get confused as to what strength is, and sometimes we think that standing behind a Black woman as a leader does not display strength as Black men,” Raoul said. 

So why are we acting all new with Obama?

He wasn’t just focused on Black men. He delivered a similar message to all men at a rally in Pittsburgh the same day. “I’m sorry, gentlemen — I’ve noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump’s behavior, the bullying and the putting people down, is a sign of strength,” he said. “I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is and has never been.”

Part of the confusion may be that critics thought he was shaming the Black men in the room when actually he was describing an issue he’s seen among other men in the community. But Obama is asking all men, including Black men, to rethink our relationship with women in positions of power, and to reevaluate our understanding of manhood.

Being a man is not about controlling women, mocking the weak, or insulting the vulnerable. That’s a caricature of manhood that Trump creates. Manhood is about honesty, fairness, responsibility, duty, and courage. A real man is secure enough in his identity to stand up in a crowd of “yes men” and tell them “No” when they do wrong.

True manhood is powerful. It’s about using our strength not just to help ourselves, but to help those in need.

Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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Faith is not just a part of their identity — it’s what made them decide to take a risk and start a business.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

More and more, entrepreneurs are stepping into the business world, driven not just by a passion for their products and services but also by a deep sense of faith. These “faith-filled” business owners see their work as a means to serve their communities, live out their beliefs and build a legacy for their families.

This is especially true for women of color.  According to the Minority Christian Women Entrepreneurs Network, they account for 47 percent of all women-owned businesses — around 5.8 million in total — employing over 2.2 million people and generating $386.6 billion in revenue.

What courage it must take to step out and start a business, the success of which you are solely responsible for. And of course, that’s where faith steps in. Word In Black talked to three women entrepreneurs whose faith is not just a part of their identity — it’s the driving force behind their decision to take a risk and start a business. And each business is more than a livelihood; it’s a platform to serve, inspire and make a lasting impact on their communities.

Brittany Veney, founder of B. Real Creative Studio

One such entrepreneur is Brittany Veney, founder of B. Real Creative Studio, a branding and website design agency based in Baltimore that serves clients nationwide. For more than five years, Veney has helped individuals and organizations craft purpose-driven brands through strategic design and marketing. 

“We specialize in creating unique brand identities, user-friendly websites, and engaging marketing materials that resonate with audiences. Our mission is to transform ideas into strategic, actionable plans that elevate brands and foster genuine engagement,” Veney explains.

For Veney, faith is both a foundation and a compass, sustaining her, “by providing strength and resilience in the face of obstacles.” She says her faith encourages her “to trust the process and remain committed to my vision. I find solace in prayer and community support, which helps me navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. My faith also inspires me to give back to others, reinforcing my sense of purpose.”

Veney is set to launch “The Health Suite” this October, a new initiative within B. Real Creative Studio aimed at health-focused brands. 

“I was driven by my extensive background in the healthcare field where I’ve spent over a decade working behind the scenes, so I possess a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities that health-focused brands face,” Veney says. 

She hopes to empower health professionals to effectively communicate their mission and make a meaningful impact in their communities.

Shannon Davis, owner of Shay’s Cakes

Another faith-driven entrepreneur, Shannon Davis of Shay’s Cakes in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, remembers the moment she felt called to start her business. 

“I actually started after hearing a message from my pastor entitled ‘What’s in Your House?’” Davis recalls, relating it to a biblical story of a widow who multiplies her last bit of oil through faith. 

“I often think about that message and the push from family and friends to continue baking,” she says.

Davis bakes signature Bundt cakes. From micro-minis to 10-inch confections, she offers a range of flavors like carrot, chocolate, lemon, sweet potato, red velvet, 7Up and pound cake. Although her business is local, she ships nationwide through online orders and is currently working on expanding her media presence to grow her brand further.

Kim Dukes, owner of K. Monique Salon and Vintage Boutique

The average lifespan of a small business is only 8.5 years, according to Nav, a financial platform for entrepreneurs, but some faith-based entrepreneurs defy the odds.

Kim Dukes, owner of K. Monique Salon and Vintage Boutique in Baltimore’s Mt. Vernon area, has run her salon for over 33 years. As a cosmetologist, she’s offered varied hair services, with a specialty of short cuts. But there’s more.

”I also sell handpicked clothing and my own unique and stylish pieces,” she says. “My husband and I have an urban clothing line that’s featured in the boutique as well.” 

Dukes says she always knew she wanted to own a business, but didn’t know how to make it happen.

”I worked in several salons and learned the business. When it was my turn, I put feet to my faith and stepped out and did it.”

It was her faith that assured her she wouldn’t fail — and she didn’t.

”It literally was not an option. I believed I could and I did. And I still am. I’m always going to seek God and I believe that he’s a rewarder of those who seek him diligently.”

Beyond the salon, Dukes is a creative force — a singer and first-time author of a book called “Unmuted.”

“I’m a woman of faith and a creative,” Dukes declares. “With those two mixed together, I’m unstoppable.”

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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We’re seeing the death and destruction extreme rainfall causes, and Black folks in the Southeast are disproportionately at risk.

By Willy Blackmore
Word in Black

When Helene reached northern Georgia as a tropical storm at the end of last week, its wind speeds had dropped to the point that it was no longer a hurricane. Huge and comparatively slower-moving too, the storm took two days to pass through the Atlanta metro area, and while it hung over the city it dropped an extraordinary amount of rain: nearly a foot at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport, where the previous two-day record rainfall of 9 inches was set in 1886.

Some areas saw even more rain, like McDonough, Georgia, which recorded nearly 14 inches. According to the latest numbers, nearly 200 people have been killed by the hurricane, including 25 in Georgia, and hundreds of people are still missing.

The storm went from a tropical depression to being forecast as a major hurricane in what was likely record time.

“They had never forecast a major hurricane within 60 hours for a disturbance below tropical storm level,” said Sam Lillo, a meteorologist and software engineer for DTN Weather, based on a computer analysis of the center’s historical forecast data. “The entire forecast is also basically faster than has ever been seen for 36 hours and 48 hours from a tropical depression.” And the resulting storm ended up causing catastrophic damage in Western North Carolina.

When 12, 14, or 31 inches of rain falls just about anywhere it’s going to create problems — but Helene dropped so much water on some Western North Carolina mountain towns that they have all but washed away.

Nearly half of Black folks live in 11 southeastern states —Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Given the concentration of Black folks in the region, that makes hurricanes — and the torrential rain and flooding they often bring — a disproportionate threat to Black households.

As we’ve previously reported, structural racism exacerbates the dangers Black communities face when hurricanes (and so-called 100-year, or 1,000-year storms roll through) and bring torrential rains with them. Atlanta was rebuilt after the Civil War to be, by design, a city where White people lived at the tops of hills and Black people lived at lower elevations — where water (and, before the city developed a municipal sewer system, waste) ran down to. 

It’s no wonder then that research from McKinsey shows that Black people in the Southeast are almost twice as likely to be affected by a hurricane as their non-Black neighbors. And, McKinsey projects that “by 2050, nearly 17 percent of Black-owned homes will be at risk of storm damage.”

Although storms like Helene may have the potential to be worse for Black neighborhoods, they’re so large and so full of moisture that the damage can strike seemingly everywhere. Case in point: Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, both wealthy and largely White, flooded during the storm too.

Helene is just the latest storm to pose a serious threat of flooding and damage from intense rainfall. Hurricanes have always had the capacity to drench inland areas once they move past the coast — Beryl caused dramatic rain totals and flooding in Vermont in July. But climate change is making these weather events even more intense.

“We can’t talk about Hurricane Helene without talking about climate change, which is causing stronger and more destructive storms,” Michael Mann, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, told ABC News. “Helene is a poster child for the ways that human-caused climate change is amplifying the coastal threat from intensified hurricanes combined with rising sea levels.”

Meanwhile, hurricane season doesn’t end until Nov. 30, so more catastrophic storms could be on the way.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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By Keith Boykin

Three Black men have dominated the news in recent days for different reasons: Eric Adams, Marcellus Williams and Mark Robinson. Their stories don’t have much in common, but they reveal much about our country and our politics.

First, Adams, mayor of New York City, was indicted recently on bribery and corruption charges. Three years ago, when I was still living in New York, I refused to vote for him. Even after he was elected, I was still not a fan but gave him four years to prove me wrong.

He did not prove me wrong. 

Last year, Adams refused to condemn a White man who choked a Black man to death on a subway train. In January, he vetoed a ban on solitary confinement in city jails and killed  a plan to document police stops. Just as I expected, Adams brought back the racially biased stop-and-frisk policing that was ruled unconstitutional a decade ago. And in the past few months, his administration has been engulfed in scandals and resignations. 

Adams is exactly who I thought he would be, and many of us tried to warn New Yorkers. But I remember talking to Black men in Harlem who supported him over a talented Black woman named Maya Wiley, in part because he’s a Black man. For all the lies about Vice President Kamala Harris — that “Kamala is a cop” — Adams actually was a cop, and a former Republican.  But many Black men were still willing to support him.

Second is Williams, a 55-year-old Black man from St. Louis, my hometown. The state of Missouri executed him this week after the Supreme Court refused to stop his execution, even though the prosecutor said the case against Williams was flimsy and tainted. The NAACP appropriately called the execution a “lynching.”

A 6-3 Supreme Court decision split along party lines: the six conservatives  approved his execution, while the three liberals voted to stop it. Donald Trump appointed three of the six conservatives; therefore,  if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016 Williams would more than likely still be alive.

Still, some people on social media tried to blame President Joe Biden and V.P. Harris for Williams’s death. That’s a damn lie. Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, and Missouri’s Republican Supreme Court approved the execution. It was the Democratic prosecutorin St. Louis County, and the Democratic appointees on the U.S. Supreme Court, who tried to stop it.

No legal authority gives Biden the power to intervene or pardon Williams in a state murder case. So, if you’re going to criticize Democrats, at least understand how our system of government works. 

I’ve been a lifelong opponent of the death penalty in all cases, so for anyone who is upset about Williams’s execution, don’t ever tell me it doesn’t matter who wins elections. This is literally life or death. Elections have consequences.

Third, Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, has been outed as a self-hating, hypocritically porn-obsessed, Black Nazi who wants to bring back slavery and join the Ku Klux Klan. After all that, Trump and running mate JD Vance refuse to disavow him. This proves the point I’ve made many times that Republicans love Black people…who hate Black people.

I get why White people support Robinson, but how the hell can any self-respecting Black person be associated with a party like this? Just this week, Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins called Haitian Americans “wild,” nasty, “vudu”-loving, pet-eating “thugs” who should get “their ass out of our country.” And even then, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to condemn his racist rhetoric.

“Clay Higgins is a dear friend of mine and…a very frank and outspoken person. He’s also a very principled man,” Johnson said. 

First of all, Clay Higgins admitted years ago that he voted for Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for governor of Louisiana, so why is he a dear friend of Johnson?

Second, Johnson claimed that Higgins deleted the post after “he prayed about it.” Turns out that the “very principled man” only did so only after the Congressional Black Caucus brought up a resolution to censure him. 

“But, you know, we move forward,” said Johnson. “We believe in redemption around here.”

Redemption?

No, sir. There can be no redemption without contrition. So, tell me: when will Trump, Vance, Higgins, and Elon Musk apologize to the Haitian Americans whose lives they’ve endangered in the most overtly racist major-party presidential campaign in 60 years? 

These people are not the least bit remorseful about their bigotry unless it blows up in their faces. And just like Robinson, they all had a long history of racist, sexist, and inflammatory rhetoric before these scandals erupted.

And that’s the problem. Too many Americans don’t pay attention to their government until it’s time for a presidential election every four years. But Adams, Williams, and Robinson show what happens when we don’t. 

Our ignorance makes us susceptible to the clickbaiters, cynics, opportunists, hoteps, bots, and opps who spread misinformation for clout and pay. I’ve worked in local, state, and federal government, and I know that governing is complicated. The system is designed to make it easy for the powerful to maintain their power but difficult for the powerless to fight back.

So stop listening to the clout-chasing clowns who don’t know anything about government or politics who try to get you not to vote or to throw away your vote. Stop listening to cynics peddling unrealistic expectations of what can happen in a single term in office and then weaponize your disappointment. 

The truth is we can’t win if we don’t participate, and we can’t participate effectively if we don’t know the rules.

This op-ed was originally published by Word in Black. 

The post The tragedies of Eric Adams, Marcellus Williams and Mark Robinson appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Quintessa Williams
Word in Black

Springfield, Ohio, has become the center of a political firestorm after unfounded rumors surfaced that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets. Despite being debunked by local authorities, these lies gained national attention after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, amplified them.

Six schools, including several elementary schools and a middle school, in the 7,700-student Springfield City School District, were evacuated in the span of a week. With Black kids being 24 percent of students and minority enrollment at 50 percent of students overall, these events have disproportionately impacted students of color in the city.

Earlier this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby called the unsubstantiated reports that led to the bomb threats “dangerous” misinformation. “Because there will be people that believe it, no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is,” Kirby said. “And they might act on that kind of misinformation, and act on it in a way where somebody can get hurt, so it needs to stop.”

On Sunday, Sept 15, Senator Vance reiterated the false claims on CNN without evidence and admitted that these stories were created. “The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said.

As students continue to face threats linked to political misinformation, concerned residents like Immah Marsh tell Word In Black it’s critical steps be taken to protect students and their schools.

“Misinformation that leads to this level of a threat should have no place in our schools, whatsoever,” Marsh says. “And it’s up to our community, state and national leaders to push back against the harmful rhetoric that threatens the well-being of Black and minority students. They have enough to worry about at school as it is. It has to stop somewhere.” 

Philomene Philostin, a Haitian American business owner in Springfield, told CNN she’s feeling the fallout from the lies about her community — and says it’s hitting the kids hardest. She said her own child has been asked awkward, uncomfortable questions about Haitian culture that leave them feeling embarrassed and upset. 

“People here, they’re really scared,” she said. 

The national impact on Black students

As K-12 schools become increasingly politicized due to culture wars over DEI, teaching Black history and other issues, the students in them — particularly Black and other students of color — bear the brunt of the fallout. These threats exacerbate a harsh reality: For nearly 30 years, researchers have found that many Black students don’t feel safe at school.

According to a 2023 Journal of Adolescent Health report, 9.1 percent of all students aged 11-17 often stayed home due to feeling unsafe at school. The prevalence of feeling unsafe was higher among students of color, with nearly 9 percent of Black students and just over 11 percent of Hispanic/Latino students reporting feeling unsafe. In comparison, just over 7 percent of White students reported feeling unsafe.  

In addition, the repeated bomb threats and evacuations in Springfield highlight the emotional and psychological toll such events take on students — particularly Black students, who are already more likely to experience racial tension in schools. A 2020 study by the Education Resources Information Center found that minority students are 30 percent more likely to report feelings of fear and anxiety related to threats to school safety than their White peers. 

Allison Wiltz, an English teacher from New Orleans, tells me that these feelings can manifest in lower academic performance, higher absenteeism rates and reduced engagement in school activities — all of which disproportionately impact Black students.

“The recent school evacuations in Springfield make it clear that racism is more than ill-will or disrespectful words,” Wiltz says. “Language has power, and it perpetuates violence that impacts our marginalized students the most.”

The impact of misinformation, bomb threats, and unsafe school environments aren’t unique to just affect K-12 students. False narratives and political misinformation targeting immigrant and Black communities are part of a troubling pattern of violence at the college level. In early 2022, bomb threats targeted 49 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 19 Predominantly Black Institutions.

“The recent bomb threats experienced by HBCUs have shaken students and fractured their sense of safety and belonging, which are critical to their academic success and wellbeing,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement at the time.

Where do we go from here?

Misinformation, bomb threats, and unsafe school environments all exacerbate the challenges Black students already face in the education system, from racial disparities in discipline to unequal access to resources.

On Monday, Sept. 16, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, said state police will now conduct daily sweeps of schools in Springfield after authorities were forced to investigate “at least 33” bomb threats that led to evacuations and temporary building closures. 

“We cannot let the bad guys win,” DeWine said in a separate statement. “We must take every threat seriously, but children deserve to be in school, and parents deserve to know that their kids are safe. The added security will help ease some of the fears caused by these hoaxes.”

“Springfield is a community that needs help,” Mayor Rob Rue said in an interview with The Washington Post. The mayor added that national leaders should provide help and not “hurt a community like, unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of days.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Keith Boykin
Word In Black

Here we go again. A handful of rappers, celebrities and instigators out here are discouraging Black people from voting or trying to convince us that our vote doesn’t matter because both candidates are the same. Don’t believe them. 

Every four years, a few vocal people — who rarely, if ever, use their voices to mobilize their followers to engage in specific political action — suddenly crawl out of the woodwork to spread misinformation about the next presidential election.

This year is no different. I thought about posting weekly rebuttals, but rather than spending the next two months debunking these voices over and over again, I want to ask two questions. 

First, what’s their strategy to achieve their goals? Assuming you agree with everything they want to do, how do they propose to get it passed through our divided Congress, signed by the President into law and upheld by a Republican-dominated Supreme Court that now considers any race-specific remedy to be illegal or unconstitutional? 

And second, if they had some genius strategy, where were they the last four years when Republican lawmakers and judges:

•Blocked the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

•Blocked the John Lewis Voting Rights Act

• Ended affirmative action

• Halted Black farmers’ relief

• Restricted a venture capital fund for Black women

• Outlawed minority business grants

• Erased Black congressional districts

• Banned Black books

• Banned Black history classes

• Closed DEI offices 

• Refused to indict the officers who killed Breonna Taylor

• Ousted Black lawmakers in Tennessee 

• Arrested Black people for voting in Florida 

• Banned civil rights groups in Georgia from providing food and water to people standing in long voting lines

Many of us have been playing defense without a full bench the last three quarters, and we could have used some help from all the new celebrity players showing up in the fourth quarter who want to change the playbook.

As Malcolm X said, “Show me in the White community where a singer is a White leader.” Yes, celebrities have a valuable supporting role to play, but they don’t get to show up two months before an election, ignore the work of Black thought leaders and demand a meeting with a presidential candidate like they’re some official spokesman for Black America.

So, instead of spending the next eight weeks responding to every lie about Kamala Harris, I propose 10 constructive things we can do to help advance our political agenda well into the future. 

Ten things we can do

1-Get informed. Follow the news. Take a class. Become a critical thinker and more sophisticated consumer of information. I read dozens of news sources every day. You don’t have to read that many, but don’t rely on one source for all your news. Review multiple, credible sources. 

2-Verify the information you share. Learn to spot misinformation. And try not to forward fake news. Fact-checkers like Daniel Dale, Snopes.com, Factcheck.org and Politifact try to debunk misinformation, but sometimes they make mistakes or can’t keep up. That’s why you need to know your sources. Media outlets like Fox News, the New York Post, Newsmax, TownHall, the National Review and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have a distinct right-wing political bias that favors Trump and the Republicans. Also, rappers, athletes and celebrities have every right to share their opinions, but they’re not always the most reliable sources for information about government and politics.

3-Vote. Election Day is November 5, but some states require you to register weeks before then. Go to Vote.org today to find the voter registration deadline in your state. If you think you’re already registered, know that Republicans are trying to challenge and purge inactive voters. So check to make sure your name has not been removed from the rolls.

4-Attend local government meetings. Many of the decisions that affect us, including where liquor stores and pollution sites are built and which books are banned in schools, are made at local public meetings that very few people bother to attend. Go there and speak up.

5-Volunteer. Campaigns are always looking for people to make phone calls and knock on doors. Drop by the local campaign office, sign up to host an event, put up yard signs, or become a poll watcher. This is especially important if you live in one of the seven battleground states that will determine the election: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

6-Donate. If you’re not invested in the presidential election, find a candidate you do support and contribute to their campaign. This year, we have 435 House members, 34 Senators, 11 governors’ races, nine lieutenant governor seats, 10 attorneys general, seven secretaries of state and thousands of lower-level offices up for election in November. Unlike the presidential campaign, many of these candidates never get the attention and resources they need to win. Your money could make all the difference.

7-Don’t Reinvent the Wheel. Support organizations that are already doing the work. Groups like Color of Change and the NAACP are developing important policy goals and working to implement them. 

8-Lobby your elected officials. The president can make some critical unilateral decisions for the country, but most government decisions that affect your day-to-day life are made by Congress, your state legislature, your county commissioners, your city council, your zoning board and your school board. Do you know these officials? Visit their offices. Call them up. Write them letters. Let them know what issues you care about. The phone number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. 

9-Run for office. If you’re not satisfied with the people in government, show them how it’s done. Run for school board, town council, state representative or even Congress. Don’t expect somebody else to do it for you. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

10-Start a PAC. This is one of the most difficult tasks on the list, but it can be done. If none of the other steps work for you, you can start your own political action committee to fight for the causes you believe in. You can even create a legislative scorecard to give ratings to members of Congress based on the issues you care about. 

There are dozens of other constructive things you can do, so don’t be limited by this list. But remember this guiding principle. Cynicism is not a strategy, and apathy is not a solution.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Jennifer Porter Gore
Word in Black

Before he was old enough to start kindergarten, Heman Bekele began using dishwashing liquid and other household chemicals to see what concoctions he could whip up. 

At age seven, Heman’s parents gave him a chemistry set for his birthday — and things got a bit more serious. He’d already started learning about chemical reactions online, so he got inventive and mixed the kit’s sodium hydroxide with aluminum to produce heat.

“I thought that this could be a solution to energy, to making an unlimited supply,” he told TIME magazine. 

His curiosity and desire to make the world a better place through chemistry resulted in a first-place finish in the 3M Company’s 2023 Young Scientist Challenge — and made him the winner of TIME magazine’s 2024 Kid of the Year. The rising 10th grader created a compound-based soap to treat skin cancer. 

The magazine said Heman’s “ambition” and “selflessness”earned him the recognition.

“I’m really passionate about skin-cancer research,” Heman told TIME. “It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life.”

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Heman and his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was four years old. Even at that young age, the budding scientist remembers seeing laborers working in the hot African sun without skin protection. 

In the U.S., Heman began hearing about the dangers of the sun’s ultraviolet rays and the damage it can cause — including skin cancer. It is the most common cancer in the United States, but the disease is treatable, especially if it’s caught early.  

A few years ago, Heman read about imiquimod — a multi-use drug approved to treat one type of skin cancer — and wondered if it could be an effective, simple treatment for early-stage patients. His logic was simple: “Almost everyone uses soap and water.”  

So, he got to work, developing an imiquimod soap, winning the 3M Young Scientist Challenge (and a $25,000 prize) in the process.

This summer Heman worked part-time in a lab at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore to refine the product.  Over the next five years, he hopes to create a nonprofit organization that can distribute the soap to communities in need.

Deboarh Isabelle, a 3M engineer and Heman’s mentor during the Young Scientist Challenge competition, said the TIME Kid of the Year honor was well deserved.

“Heman is an incredibly charismatic, curious, intelligent, articulate young man,” Isabelle said. “But more than that, he’s compassionate and has a heart for people. He’s created an invention that has the potential to make the world better for so many people.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Renata Sago
Word in Black

As students at four colleges in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania head back to campus this fall, they will have access to a new resource where they can learn how to dismantle false beliefs about racial hierarchies. 

Seven years after launching its Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation program in colleges, the American Association of Colleges and Universities has expanded the program, opening centers at Antioch University and Bard College, Cuyahoga Community College and Elizabethtown College.

The new centers give professors, administrators, faculty members and students a dedicated space to learn and guide discussions around race, gender, age, class and spiritual beliefs. It’s part of a concerted effort to bring healing dialogues throughout the United States within higher education institutions. 

“We don’t dictate to any institution how they are implementing, how they will implement and realize the goals of TRHT or how they would implement the TRHT areas within their institutional context,” says Tia McNair, senior consultant with the American Association of Colleges and Universities. “They look at their strategic priorities, their student population, their community relationships, and partnerships to develop what we call an action plan. So each institution does it differently.”

The campus centers began in 2017 as a concept that was part strategic, part organic. The ten initial host institutions — a mix of public and private schools — introduced various approaches for dismantling racial bias on campus, including racial healing circles and special dinners intended to create safe spaces for sensitive dialogue. 

Since then, schools have continued to embrace virtual and in-person conversations that provide gentle reassurance — and sometimes uncomfortable exposure — to past and present-day events that have shaped views on race in society. 

The host institutions range from liberal arts colleges and historically black colleges and universities to faith-based institutions and community colleges. The selection process for colleges includes training on how to speak the language of racial healing within the Institute on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation’s framework. 

The former executive director for the TRHT Campus Centers, McNair says the TRHT program is essential now more than ever. 

“There are attacks happening on the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our institutions within our communities, within our states, across the board,” says McNair. “I think that knowing that the growing majority of undergraduate students in this country are from racially minoritized groups…is critical for us to maintain and expand resources to help the success of all students.”

In its tracking of 196 campuses in 29 states, The Chronicle of Higher Education found that colleges throughout the United States have eliminated their DEI programs due to political pressure, establishing an “inconsistent and confusing landscape.” 

The effects of these changes are unclear, which is why McNair, who is also a partner at SOVA, a higher education consulting firm in Washington, D.C., would like for campus centers to create some opportunities for personal and professional development for marginalized students. 

“Whether you are the student who is coming into the environment that may not be fully prepared — not at a fault of your own, but just because of circumstances – not fully prepared to succeed in the same way as others, then how do we help you? How do we make sure that we actually live our commitment? That we fulfill our commitment to you as being part of this educational journey so that everyone has the opportunity to thrive?” said McNeir. 

When education reform takes place at the federal, state, or local level, it can have predictable consequences, undoing decades of important work. This is why McNair is hoping that the campus centers will serve as a springboard for repairing old wounds and sustaining supportive principles for community building beyond campus. 

The vision is to encourage ways of thinking that transcend the present political uncertainty, inviting ongoing dialogue and action.

“I think we as educators within higher education play a critical role in preparing the next generation of leaders to build more just and equitable communities,” says McNair. “This work is not about trying to get anyone to think in the same way we think, but to actually value each and every person’s human dignity, their contributions, their lived experiences in a way where we can transcend what has been causing division and conflict within our communities.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

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By Quintessa Williams
Word In Black

When Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, she became the first woman of color with a realistic shot at the presidency and an instant inspiration to Black women — some of whom raised $1.3 million on her behalf in just a few hours. 

Harris’s groundbreaking campaign has now spearheaded another phenomenon: young Black women are currently leading the recent surge in voter registrations.

According to data from TargetSmart, the voter registration rate for young Black women in 13 key battleground states has skyrocketed to 175 percent — nearly triple the rate from the last presidential election four years ago. The registration rate for Black women in general, experienced similar growth — increasing by 98 percent, while the overall Black voter rate also rose by 85 percent, according to TargetSmart data.

Since Harris’ nomination, Democrats have significantly out-registered Republicans, highlighting the effectiveness of the Democratic National Committee’s targeted efforts to engage young Black voters.

The civic origins of young Black women

Public education has long been critical to nurturing the civic identities of Black students. After the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, centered on Linda Brown, a Black girl — the ruling enabled Black students to attend better-funded, previously all-White schools. 

Black girls and young women were integral in organizing and participating in civil rights protests during the Civil Rights movement, such as the Birmingham Children’s Crusade in 1963. Black girls like Ruby Bridges, who became the first African American child to attend a formerly Whites-only school, risked physical and psychological harm to move the United States closer to its democratic principles. 

However, the quality of civic education in these integrated schools often varied, with Black students receiving less emphasis in the classroom on African American history and political engagement. 

Civic education as a pathway to national political participation

A 2022 report from Child Trends found that Black students were more likely than their peers to report an interest in civic engagement and activities. Drawing on this history and experiences with racism, Black students continue to spearhead civic efforts to promote racial and social justice in the United States. Today, Black children are more likely to use pathways such as social media to engage in activism and promote political awareness and participation among their peers. 

Programs like Black Girls Lead and Girls Who Vote have been instrumental in increasing political engagement among Black girls and fostering civic responsibility. These programs provide mentorship and civic education, which are essential in preparing Black girls to become active voters and community leaders.

In addition, Black youth activism is expressed not only at the local level, such as when a group of girls at Pretoria High School for Girls held a protest earlier in July to highlight alleged racism they experienced, — but also in national movements such as those sparked by the murder of George Floyd when 17-year-old Daniella Fraizer took out her cell phone and recorded his murder in 2020. Such incidents speak to young Black children —particularly Black girls—civically advocating for social justice in their schools and communities.

Surging ahead

Black girls, who account for 7.8 percent of the overall K-12 student population in the United States, have led a trend of civic engagement, contributing to increased voter registration among young Black women. Additionally, experts say Harris’ groundbreaking run for the White House has captured the imagination of Black women and girls who see themselves in her. 

However, the surge is not an isolated incident but rather a culmination of years of civic education and empowerment initiatives that have prepared these young women to take their place as influential voters.

Hilary Wilson, a doctoral student studying education in Louisiana, believes that the historical cultivation of civic engagement will likely have a lasting impact on Black K-12 education and voter registration turnout moving forward.

“As these young girls and women continue to assert their political power, their influence could extend into shaping educational policies, like more civic education in the classroom, that will benefit predominantly Black schools and communities.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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Join Word In Black on Sept. 10 for live pre- and post-presidential debate commentary with insights on issues that matter to Black voters.

By Word In Black

Word In Black is excited to announce Debate Night in Black America: A Virtual Conversation, an event designed to engage the African American community during the Sept. 10, 2024, presidential debate. This groundbreaking livestream show offers a platform for insightful discussion and analysis centered on Black viewers.

The virtual conversation — hosted by Word In Black Managing Director Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier and Deputy Managing Director Joseph Williams — will be streamed starting at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST on Sept. 10, 2024, before and after the ABC presidential debate. The streaming show will provide commentary and perspectives that resonate with the unique experiences and concerns of the Black community, creating a space for meaningful dialogue on the critical issues at stake in this election.

“We believe it’s essential for the Black community to have a platform where our voices are centered in the national conversation, especially during such a pivotal moment in our nation’s history,” said Courquet-Lesaulnier. “With this event, we’ll do what the Black press has done for nearly 200 years: create a space where our community can come together to discuss, analyze, and engage with the issues that matter most to us.”

In addition to the virtual event, participating WIB publishers will host local debate watch parties in communities across America for in-person participation in the conversation. These watch parties will foster a sense of unity and collective engagement, ensuring that the African-American community’s voice is heard loud and clear.

Local participants in the participating cities will share their post-debate thoughts during the livestream — providing a one-of-a-kind opportunity to hear from Black Americans across the nation about their insights and perspectives about the presidential election.

Newsroom outlets participating in the post-debate livestream include the following:

Atlanta – The Atlanta Voice & The Atlanta Daily World

Baltimore – The AFRO

Chicago – The Chicago Defender

Dallas – The Dallas Weekly

Detroit – The Michigan Chronicle

Houston – The Houston Defender Network

New York – The Amsterdam News

Pittsburgh – New Pittsburgh Courier

Sacramento – The Sacramento Observer

St. Louis – The St. Louis American

Washington, D.C. – The Washington Informer
Click here to register for Debate Night in Black America.

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By LaTricea D. Adams
Word In Black

This summer, we witnessed weather transform from a mere inconvenience to a nationwide crisis in our Black communities. What was once a hot day or heavy rain now poses a direct threat to our health — particularly for our elderly, child-birthing people, pregnant mothers, and children — and it places a strain on our finances.

The Biden Administration has taken significant steps in the right direction, but the urgency of our situation demands more. The stakes are high, and the time is now for all of us to continue demanding more, pushing for stronger protections, and developing solutions within our communities. We cannot just prepare for the next heatwave, flood, or hurricane; we must be ready to overcome the extreme-weather impacts. But this is not just about weather — it’s about systemic inequities that leave Black neighborhoods more vulnerable to climate disasters and less likely to receive adequate support in their aftermath.

As a young Black environmental activist and founder of Young, Gifted and Green, I’m here to sound the alarm about the devastating impact that extreme weather has had on our communities this year, especially in Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. The scorching temperatures and flooding we faced were particularly disruptive for our elders and the most vulnerable. I also want to offer solutions that can provide a way out of what seems impossible. 

The toll of climate change

In Michigan, the heart of Detroit faced catastrophic flooding. Houses that have stood for generations were suddenly filled with water, destroying belongings and displacing families. In Georgia, scorching heat waves made daily life unbearable, with older adults and children suffering the most. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania saw a terrifying mix of floods and heat, hitting communities like Philadelphia with a double whammy of climate chaos.

What happens in these states, all home to significant Black populations, highlights a grim reality: our communities are often hit first and worst by extreme weather.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of decades of underinvestment, environmental racism, and economic disparities. We’re talking about poor infrastructure, limited green spaces, and homes less likely to have air conditioning or proper insulation. When disasters strike, our neighborhoods often lack the resources to recover quickly, if at all.

The impact of the inflation reduction act

So, what can be done to address this? Let’s start with the Inflation Reduction Act at the federal level. This landmark new law, pushed through by the Biden-Harris administration, includes much-needed funding for climate resilience and infrastructure improvements. Across the country, communities are benefitting from the $369 billion in historic climate and clean-energy investments. These investments will help retrofit homes, improve energy efficiency, and support renewable energy projects — crucial for Black communities, which are more likely to consist of older, energy-inefficient homes and apartments.

The IRA also includes disaster preparedness and response funding, ensuring that communities have the resources to withstand extreme weather. But here’s the kicker: for these funds to make a real difference, they must be equitably distributed. Too often, federal aid bypasses the most vulnerable in favor of those with a safety net. We must ensure that Black communities are front and center in these initiatives.

But we can’t wait for the federal government to fix everything. Grassroots action, especially at the state and local levels, is equally essential.

In Michigan, Young, Gifted and Green’s Flint Youth Environmental Justice Council is training youth on civic engagement and community service grounded in the environmental justice principles. Another organization providing solutions includes the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which works to build sustainable urban agriculture, ensuring that residents have access to fresh, affordable food even in times of crisis. They also advocate for better flood management systems and infrastructure improvements to prevent future disasters.

In Georgia, community cooling centers have become a lifeline. Churches, schools, and community centers are opening their doors, providing a haven from the oppressive heat. These centers offer physical relief while fostering a sense of solidarity and mutual aid. Meanwhile, advocacy groups are pushing for better enforcement of environmental regulations to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from industrial pollution and its exacerbating effects on climate change.

Pennsylvania’s Black communities are organizing around resilience, too. In Philadelphia, initiatives like the Philly Thrive movement fight for clean air and environmental justice. They’re demanding that the city invest in green infrastructure, such as parks and community gardens. These spaces can mitigate the impacts of extreme weather. The spaces help manage stormwater and provide crucial cooling effects during heat waves.

Community resilience and the power of voting

Education and advocacy are critical components of community resilience. We must empower our communities with the knowledge and tools to advocate for their rights and demand action from local officials. Workshops on disaster preparedness, energy efficiency, and environmental justice can make a significant difference. When we understand the systems at play, we can better navigate and challenge them. This is our power, our voice, and our right to demand a better future for our communities.

On a broader scale, voting remains one of our most powerful tools. Climate change is a political issue, and the leaders we elect directly impact our ability to address it. We must support candidates who prioritize climate justice and are committed to equitable solutions. This means voting in both national and local elections, where decisions about infrastructure, zoning, and community resources are made. Your vote is not just a mark on a ballot; it’s a powerful tool that shapes the future of our communities.

Moreover, businesses and entrepreneurs in our communities can play a pivotal role. Investing in renewable energy projects, sustainable agriculture, and green building practices can create jobs and build resilience. Black-owned businesses, in particular, can lead the way in fostering a more sustainable and equitable future.

A call to action

The extreme weather of 2024 is a wake-up call, a stark reminder that climate change is here and hitting Black communities hard. But it’s also a call to action. By leveraging federal resources like the Inflation Reduction Act, working at the grassroots level, and voting for leaders committed to climate change and environmental justice, we can build resilience and protect our communities.

The fight for climate justice is inseparable from the fight for equal justice. We must continue to stand together, advocate for our rights, and build a future where our communities not only survive but thrive, creating better futures for all.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Dr. Frances Murphy “Toni” Draper
Word In Black

For baseball fans, the popularity of the game overshadows a more disturbing trend: the number of American-born Black players in MLB is at a historic low of 6 percent, despite many efforts to reverse the declining trend. And the question is, why?

I asked AI, and it came up with several theories: a shift in sports preferences among young Black athletes, lack of access and exposure to baseball, few youth baseball programs and the high cost of playing the game. 

While these reasons may be valid (who’s to argue with AI?), most sound like the same excuses we’ve all heard about the lack of Black people in boardrooms and C-suites: “We just can’t find anyone qualified,” or “All the eligible, talented players go to college, and “That’s where most of our recruits come from.” Or, “We’re doing the best we can.”

There was a time, however, when Black baseball players in the Negro Leagues themselves were ambivalent about playing in the major leagues, as evidenced by the article below written by AFRO sportswriter Sam Lacy nearly 85 years ago. Eight years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, Lacy not only highlighted the issue at hand, but his writing also reminds us why an independent Black press who tells the whole story was needed then and is still needed today.  

“Although there has been much agitation for the inclusion of colored players in major league baseball, it occurred to me recently that few people, if any, seem to care a rap about what the players themselves think of the idea,” Lacy wrote. While journalists, fans and others spoke out in favor of integrating the whites-only major league, he wrote, “no one seems to give a tinker’s damn about the ideas of the guys they’re trying to boot into the organized game.”

Lacy then interviewed four then-active Negro League players — Vic Harris, Jud Wilson, Felton Snow, and Dick Lundy — about what they thought. Some doubted if Negro League players could make it in the bigs; others wondered what would happen to their league if they did. 

“We do have some good ball players among us but not nearly as many fit for the majors as seems to be the belief,” Harris said. “But if they start picking them up, what are the remainder going to do to make a living?”

“Our crowds are not what they should be now,” he said. “And suppose our stars — the fellows who do draw — are gobbled up by the big clubs. How could the other 75 or 80 percent survive?” 

Wilson was worried about Black men eating, sleeping, and playing alongside pro players born and bred in the South.

“It will never be because the big-league game, as it is now, is overrun with Southern blood,” he said. “Fellows from the South are in the majority on almost every team in the major leagues … The training camps are in the South; the majority of minor leagues are located in the South and there’s a strong Southern sentiment in the stands. There’d be trouble for sure.” 

Snow, on the other hand, thought some of the Negro League players “just wouldn’t act right,” if they made it to the majors. 

“Some of these fellows who are pretty good out there on the diamond would give you a heartache elsewhere,” he said. “You see, there are so many men that get three or four dollars in their pockets and right away want to tell ‘the man’ where he can go. I don’t know if it would be the best move or not.”

And Lundy thought the Negro League owners should get their house in order first. “We’ve got to get some men in the game who have some money and who don’t have to pull a lot of funny moves in order to cover up every little loss.” 

Lacy summed it up himself: “Colored baseball, itself, has now spoken,” he wrote. 

The question, however, remains: “What saith the Black MLB player — or the Black MLB general manager, or the Black MLB manager, or the Black MLB majority baseball owner — about the dismally low number of Black players, general managers, managers, and owners?”

Oh, that’s right: It’s 2024 and there are not a lot of people with first-hand knowledge because only 6 percent of MLB players are Black, there’s only one Black general manager, two Black managers, and ZERO Black majority owners. I wonder what Sam Lacy and those who fought so hard to integrate MLB would have to say about this 85 years later. 

Sam Lacy was the sportswriter for the Baltimore-based AFRO for more than five decades. He became the first Black sportswriter to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26, 1998. Sam Lacy died March 14, 2014, a few months before his 100th birthday.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post What’s going on with the erasure of Black baseball players? appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Quintessa Williams

During the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama’s stunning braids and Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson’s mighty afro were celebrated nationwide as symbols of Black pride, cultural identity and resistance. 

Given that the former First Lady once said America wasn’t ready to see a Black woman with anything but straight hair in the White House, their hairstyles symbolize a growing acceptance and recognition of natural hair in political spaces. 

However, while Black hairstyles are becoming more accepted in politics, a stark contrast exists in America’s public schools. Black hair may be embraced in some spaces, but it remains heavily policed and criminalized in classrooms. 

Hair dress code policies in schools disproportionately affect Black students, leading to higher rates of negative perceptions about their identity, severe psychological effects and students being shoved into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Just weeks before the DNC, a judge dismissed a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by Darryl George, a Black student in Texas, after it was ruled that he was lawfully punished for wearing locs, a hairstyle rooted in African culture and spirituality. The school cited ‘”its dress code”’ as the reason for the suspension.

A national issue for Black students

Savannah Walker, an Andrew Jackson High School senior in Jacksonville, Fla., tells Word In Black that when schools enforce such policies, they are “not only policing hair but identity as well.”

“They’re basically telling us that we as our natural selves are unacceptable and that we must conform to White norms to be seen as respectable and worthy. This is hurtful, especially for young people like me who are still figuring out their sense of self and identity.”

 In 2017, 17-year-old Jenesis Johnson was sent to in-school suspension for wearing her natural afro to school. The school’s dress code mandated that hair be “kept neat and out of the face,” and administrators claimed her afro was a distraction. 

A year later in 2018, Faith Fennidy, an 11-year-old from Louisiana, was sent home because her braided hairstyle allegedly violated the school’s dress code. Fennidy’s case garnered national attention and sparked outrage over discriminatory hair policies in schools.

In 2019, Tyler House, a high school wrestler in Kentucky, was forced to cut his locs on the spot or forfeit his match. The referee insisted that his locs were not compliant with the sport’s regulations despite other athletes with similar hairstyles not being asked to make changes. 

These incidents, and many others like them, highlight the ongoing struggle Black students face in schools across the country.

According to a 2020 report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Black students, who make up only 15 percent of the U.S. public school student population, account for 45 percent of all school suspensions related to hair being cited as a dress code violation. In addition, 25 percent of Black students reported being penalized for wearing their natural hair, compared to just 5 percent of White students. 

Does the CROWN Act protect Black students?

As of 2024, 25 states have passed the CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), which protects against hair-based discrimination in workplaces and schools. 

The act first became law in California in 2019 and is designed to ban discrimination based on hair texture and protective hairstyles, including locs, braids, twists, and afros. In March 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the federal version of the CROWN Act. The Biden Administration voiced its support for the legislation. However, the bill stalled in the Senate, leaving millions nationwide without protection against hair-based discrimination.

In states without the CROWN Act, 67 percent of Black students report experiencing discrimination or bias related to their natural hair in school. However, states with the CROWN Act have seen a 25 percent decrease in reported incidents of hair discrimination. 

Where do we go from here? 

In May 2024, Democrats reintroduced the CROWN Act at the federal level. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a leading voice in the fight for the CROWN Act, said, “This is not a partisan issue. The federal government would simply be following the lead of our states. This is an issue of justice. This is an issue of fairness. This isn’t just an issue of ending discrimination that has existed for too long. Enough is enough.”

Meanwhile, in Jacksonville, Savannah Walker’s father, Kadeem Walker, says he believes a potential federal ban on discrimination against Black hair will ensure all students are free to express their cultural hair identity without fear of punishment. 

“We must implement federal protections like the CROWN Act and hold schools accountable for discriminatory dress code policies,” he says. “It will be a giant step in ending these discriminatory practices on natural hair across the nation.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

The post Black hair as a battleground: From the DNC stage to school suspensions appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Aziah Siid
Word in Black

From the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s to the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s death, Black students have been marching in the streets and demanding justice. Some are more hesitant than others about engaging in political discussions or activism, while others jump in as soon as they get the chance.

Now, with a presidential election on the horizon — one that could see Vice President Kamala Harris become the first woman of color in the Oval Office — educators and experts see a historic, teachable moment unfolding outside the classroom. They are exploring ways to get students engaged with what’s happening around them and how their voices can influence history.

“Black people — especially young Black people — can make a huge difference in swaying election outcomes,” says Diane Robinson, educator and founder of Yard Girl Productions, which makes films about education and social change. One need look no further, she says, than to the last presidential and midterm elections: “In 2020 and 2022, Black people and young people were key to the outcomes of those elections.” 

This year, “young people are 40 percent of the (U.S) electorate — they can determine the outcome of the election by either staying home or how they vote,” Robinson says. “Their voices and vote especially definitely matter.”

K-12 students and voting  

Jonathan Collins, professor of science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, says K-12 students and political activism go hand in hand. Schools have helped educate young people about politics for generations, and not just in civics classes.

During the civil rights era, for example, Black children were on the front lines of the movement, even if they weren’t old enough to vote. Ruby Bridges was just 6-years-old when she became the first student to integrate an all-White school in the South; in the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, about 1,000 grade-school students marched every day for a week, demanding equality.

More recently, after Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury and other unarmed Black people were shot and killed under questionable circumstances, Black K-12 students joined Black Lives Matter activists in protest marches from New York to California. And there have been youth-led movements demonstrating against everything from school shootings to climate change.

With data showing 1 in 4 Black people age 23 or younger is registered to vote, several nonprofit voter-registration organizations have popped up in recent years, looking to harness that political power. Organizations like The Civics Center and the Youth Voter Movement help students organize in-school voter registration drives and provide information on voting laws in all 50 states.

More specifically, initiatives like Black Voters Matter and other activist networks work to mobilize young Black voters to gather and utilize their voice. 

Threat to Black voices 

Despite the long tradition of student activism and voting, the right of young people to protest is under threat. They point to Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for the next Republican president, that would remake the federal government — including shutting down the Department of Education.

If that happened, full control of the nation’s education policies would revert to the states, and students would lose the Office of Civil Rights, a key department responsible for investigating complaints of discrimination. Without the Education Department, Black students likely would lose the right to equitable resources, culturally relevant learning, and other essential support for Black students. Given that, it’s highly likely Black students would be opposed to Project 2025.

One way Collins recommends students who oppose the plan and want to make it known is to create or ensure they have a safe space to come together and share their thoughts. Second, he says, is to start having important conversations among peers and others about what changes in their schools, around their neighborhoods, and in the districts they’d like to see. 

“There will be a response to what they identify as an important problem,” he says. “Especially Black kids. We don’t even see the idea that we have agency in these kinds of processes.”

He cites an example from his own high school experience to illustrate the point.

“I went to an all-black high school,” he says. Back then, “the idea that we could go to a school board and actually push back against some of the rules and policies that were forced upon us — we didn’t think that was possible.”

Yet Robinson, the educator and filmmaker, says students using their voices to oppose something real going on in their lives is the foundation for initiating change, forcing policy makers to pay attention and connect it to their right to vote.

“Based on what I have learned by spending time with young Black people and asking them what inspires them to get involved in our political system, I think it is always best to start with the issues young people care about,” Robinson says. 

Fighting disinterest  

Too often, young Black people are disillusioned with politics; studies show they don’t believe one vote makes a difference in their lives. According to a Harvard Youth Poll, fewer Black voters under age 30 plan to vote in the upcoming presidential election than did at this point in the 2020 election cycle.

But an increasing number of Black elected officials — including Harris, the vice president, who could become the first president to graduate from an HBCU and the first who is a member of a Black sorority — could drive up voter participation among Black youths. For the first time since 2016, they will have someone on the presidential ballot who looks like them.

“Representation matters, and this is where the authenticity of the representation matters,” Collin says. “The job of the representative is to kind of be that conduit between communities. So if we get representatives who are comfortable in these community spaces, well, then you have someone who’s there and who comes from where you come from to have a certain kind of political conversation. ”

Robinson, who in 2020 followed the lives of a diverse group of students and activists in the film ‘The Young Vote’, agrees. Besides representation, she says, it’s about equipping young people with the tools and skills they need to take action.

“Specifically, a young African American woman that I followed in The Young Vote was encouraged by her teacher to reach out to a local elected leader about an issue that was really important to her,” Robinson says. “This started her journey as a student activist and got her to make the connections between what she cared about and the political system.” 

Still, there are different ways for young Black people to get involved in a movement or a campaign. Some use their social media presence; others stand on street corners, handing out flyers or speaking into a bullhorn. Still others prefer taking trips to Capitol Hill to watch committee meetings or contact their members of Congress.

“The young woman that we followed in The Young Vote was initially skeptical about the power of voting but she realized that it was a powerful way to use her voice,” Robinson says. “I also learned from her that voting alone does not make you a “beautiful citizen” but it is staying engaged in your community in an ongoing way.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post Black kids have a political voice, too appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Aziah Siid
Word in Black

What was supposed to be a routine field trip to the courthouse turned into a nightmare for 15-year-old Eva Goodman, a Detroit teenager, who found herself handcuffed, forced into jail clothes, and detained for hours — all under the orders of Michigan’s 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King.

The dehumanization and mistreatment of the teen during the Aug. 13 incident sent shockwaves through Detroit, and people across social media asked why the child was treated so poorly, and speculated on if Eva had not been a young Black girl, would she have been treated the same 

The questions highlight the broader issue of the adultification of Black children — how they are often perceived as older and less innocent than their White peers, leading to harsher treatment. Given that the teen is homeless, the incident also put the plight of Black students who are housing insecure in the spotlight.

The adultification of Black kids 

Research shows that due to racial bias, people simply don’t assume the best of Black children, and are apt to criminalize them. Whether they’re in school or on a field trip, because of this bias, Black children are expected to behave like adults, and they’re deprived of the care, concern, grace, and empathy given to their White peers. They are adultified.

“When people see Black children, if they don’t see them as people, they definitely don’t see them as children,” Amir Gilmore, assistant professor of cultural studies and social thought in education at Washington State University, explained to Word In Black last year. 

Indeed, people may fall asleep in court due to medication, a medical condition, the temperature in the courtroom, or not understanding the court proceedings. But instead of assuming Eva was tired for a good reason, King assumed she had fallen asleep to disrespect him. 

“It wasn’t so much, in fact, that she had fallen asleep because I have attorneys that fall asleep sometimes, so that’s not too big of a deal. It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” King told 7 News Detroit in an Aug. 14 interview. “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.” 

Eva and her mother say the judge took an unnecessarily harsh approach to the teen. As a result, Eva — along with her mother Latoreya Hill — is suing Judge King, alleging that he violated her Fourth Amendment rights. The lawsuit states that King’s actions were his own version of “Scared Straight,” a misguided attempt to “teach a lesson” that left Eva traumatized and humiliated. In the wake of the lawsuit, Judge King has been temporarily removed from the docket and is expected to undergo additional training.

“It’s been pretty devastating. Eva doesn’t want to come outside … It’s hard for her to sleep at night. She’s asking me, ‘why did the judge do me like this out of all the kids?’ Like she’s really not understanding the or the whole thing of the system or what happened or was going on,” Hill said at a news conference after the incident.

A Crisis of Housing Insecure Students

The judge was so busy disciplining Eva he failed to learn she and her family are unhoused. Till told NBC News that they have no permanent housing at the moment, and actually arrived late where they were staying the night before the field trip. 

A recent analysis of students in Detroit found that “Black students were at a greater risk of homelessness than their peers of other races at 86 percent of students who were homeless compared to 83 percent of students overall.”  At a national level, an analysis of federal data found that “Black high school students are 2.25 times more likely to experience homelessness.”

Given their lack of housing, Eva’s mom expressed her outrage over what King said to her daughter to Detroit’s WXYZ-TV.

“The fact that he was talking about ‘You go home and get in your bed,’ how do you know my baby got a home? How do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in? She don’t have that right now, so she was tired,” Till said.

King defended his decision to have the teen treated like a criminal, stating he did not like the child’s attitude. He told WXYZ-TV he hadn’t been disrespected like that in a long time.

The negative effect on Eva, however, could last for the rest of the teen’s life. “I wish I could have brought my daughter here for today, but she doesn’t want to be in front of the camera,” her mom said. “She doesn’t want to talk. She’s embarrassed, humiliated, and I can’t blame her.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

The post The high price of being a Black, tired and homeless student appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Jennifer Porter Gore
Word in Black 

Anyone wondering why it feels like grocery shopping requires taking out a small loan isn’t imagining things. Grocery prices, which soared due to pandemic-era inflation, are still just too blankity-blanking high, and the federal government suspects food producers might be engaged in some lucrative price-gouging.

But for Black consumers, decades of supermarket redlining, disinvestment and racially-driven urban planning have put them in an even tighter financial squeeze in the grocery-store checkout lines.

Experts say Black households, on average, pay disproportionately higher prices than whites at the checkout line, with few options for bargain-hunting in food deserts and less access to fresh, nutritious food. Coupled with chronically high, post-pandemic inflation and food producers’ continued price spikes, they say, Black households are at greater risk of food insecurity than whites.

Although whites make up the bulk of the food-insecure population in the U.S. “food insecurity rates among Black individuals and Latino individuals exceed those of White individuals” nationwide, according to a report by Feeding America, a nonprofit. “These disparities are an example of how historical, social, economic and environmental factors have held many communities of color back, creating barriers to food security.”

At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission recently announced it will investigate the high cost of groceries that are straining the budgets of Black households. The investigation comes on the heels of a March FTC report that questions why prices have continued to rise amid what FTC Chair Lina Kahn this month called “enormous profits” for the commercial food industry. 

Researchers say that, for decades, Black households have consistently been twice as likely as white households to experience food insecurity, and this trend continued in 2022, the latest year for available data. More than 1 in 5 Black families grappled with hunger, while around 1 in 10 white households did. 

Several factors contribute to this disparity, including lower household incomes, higher unemployment rates and the seemingly intractable presence of food deserts — neighborhoods where residents have limited access to healthy, affordable food, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Instead of full-service supermarkets or grocery stores, food desert residents must rely on convenience stores, bodegas or discount markets to buy groceries. Rather than fresh produce, those stores are more likely to stock limited supplies of highly processed food, prepackaged meats, sodas and salty snacks — and sell them at inflated prices — than stores in more affluent areas. 

The lack of nutritious food in food deserts contributes to higher rates of diet-related diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, health challenges that disproportionately affect Black people. 

That helps explain why Black consumer spending on food is projected to grow each year between 2021 and 2030, according to a 2022 report from the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, a nonprofit policy center.

The report describes supermarket redlining as “the disinclination of major grocery chains to open or maintain stores in disproportionately Black, low-income communities,” which “limits choices while driving up prices for the food options that are available.”

“Counties with higher-than-average Black populations tend to have more convenience stores and fewer fresh food options compared to counties with lower-than-average Black populations,” the report states. “Those counties have about 1.2 convenience stores for every convenience store in a county with a lower-than-average Black population.”  

The federal government, along with several states, and nonprofit organizations, are working to end hunger in America. 

Earlier this year, the Biden Administration launched its Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities, with a goal of eradicating food insecurity. In June, Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Pennsylvania Democrats, introduced bills that would expand access to free or reduced-price meals for children. And the city of Minneapolis made food insecurity a part of its development plan for the city’s future.

Meanwhile, the FTC wants to know why grocery prices are still high although the supermarket industry has seen its costs decline and supply chains have improved. “We want to make sure that major businesses are not exploiting their power to inflate prices for American families at the grocery store,” says FTC’s Khan.

This story was originally published by Word in Black.

The post ‘Supermarket Redlining’: Why Black families pay more for food appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Anissa Durham 
Word in black 

Shadawn McCants, of Houston, was diagnosed with HIV at 17-years-old. Now 46, she says back in 1995 when she was diagnosed, it was a death sentence, and there was a lot of fear surrounding her prognosis. 

“I tell people I gave birth to triplets: shame, fear, and guilt,” she says. “I was very unsure of what this really meant for me. I had dreams at that time, but because my life changed, I had to take a different path.” 

Despite the internal and external shame and stigma she faced, McCants still went on to finish high school, get her undergraduate degree, and later her master’s degree. Now, she’s a licensed therapist and an advocate for HIV awareness. 

The days of HIV being a death sentence are long over. With advancements in medicine and prevention efforts, contracting the virus doesn’t mean your life will end. But stigma, misinformation, and shame continue to burden Black and Brown folks who are overwhelmingly vulnerable to the virus. 

What’s going on in the South? 

In 2022, Southern states accounted for nearly 50 percent of new HIV infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. African Americans made up 37 percent of the estimated 31,800 HIV infections in that year, higher than other racial and ethnic groups.  

But what is it about the South that puts Black people at higher risk of contracting the preventable disease? 

“The South is really a critical battleground in the fight against HIV, with some unique challenges,” Randevyn Pierre says. The Atlanta resident serves as the director of the external affairs community liaison team at ViiV Healthcare and is on the board of directors of the Southern AIDS Coalition.

Many of the states with the highest rates of poverty in the U.S. are in the South, with more than 20 percent of poverty occurring in rural areas. Pierre says transportation is spread out in these rural Southern areas, which adds to the disparities and difficulties folks have in accessing HIV care. 

One of the most exacerbating factors to the rates of HIV infection is: stigma. HIV stigma and discrimination continue to affect the mental state of those living with the disease, according to the CDC. And it can lead people to delay getting tested and treated for the virus.

“The stigma tends to be different in the South,” Pierre says. “We’re living in the Bible Belt, where people tend to think more traditionally about family, identity, partnership, and sexual orientation.” 

To alleviate those challenges, he suggests creating policies that increase health care access for communities that are most at risk and pushing to remove barriers to prescription medications that treat the disease. But Pierre says there needs to be more attention on Black women who are heavily impacted by HIV and “have carried our community for so long.” 

While data shows that men who have sex with men account for the highest percentage of new HIV infections, infection rates also disproportionately affect Black women. In 2022, Black American women accounted for 50 percent of new HIV diagnoses, a little more than two times the rate for white women and two and a half times the rate for Hispanic women. 

Taking Care of HIV and Mental Health 

As a teen, McCants admits she coped the best way she knew how, by putting her head down and masking the pain with substances and partying. And prior to her diagnosis, she had already experienced abuse, neglect, and sexual assault.  

“I was already a young adult that was needing mental health treatment and support, but I didn’t receive it,” she says. “Even at the time of my diagnosis, I was seen as a strong Black woman.”

The Strong Black Woman stereotype is systemically endorsed as Black women who can overcome all obstacles, remain strong through any trial, and sacrifice themselves for others. For McCants, she was left with little to no mental health care services, in large part because she was expected to be a strong resilient Black woman — even as a teen.

It’s not just stereotypical tropes that reinforce stigma and barriers to HIV care. 

“The Bible Belt is a big barrier when we talk about HIV. Because we’re in the Deep South, the conversation is abstinence. What they tell you is, don’t bring a baby home. But don’t bring a baby home means that you’re still having sex,” McCants says. “It’s unfortunate because there are women who are sitting in those pews, living with a diagnosis and don’t know where to go. You tell me to pray — however, you’re telling me (Jesus’) looking at me with a mark.” 

In recent years, churches across the South have increased initiatives to reduce HIV stigma among Black men and congregation wide testing. Since 2017, the National Faith HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is celebrated every August 29. And individual churches connect folks with HIV health care and counseling services. 

Saving lives with grassroots solutions 

“Initially, all I wanted to do was pass out sandwiches,” says DeWayne Crowder, executive director of A Vision 4 Hope, a service-based organization in Atlanta that offers health care services to underserved communities. Part of its work includes offering HIV testing to those who are positive or may be impacted by the virus, initiation of health care services, and connecting folks to housing. With a background in social work and health care, Crowder quickly realized there was a lot of need in the community.

“I wanted to create something that was instant gratification for the community I serve. Sometimes, within the LGBTQ community, a referral doesn’t necessarily lead to (services). I wanted to make something impactful for the community to eradicate HIV,” he says. 

While these grassroots efforts are needed and important, Crowder recognizes the gaps in HIV prevention and barriers to access in other Southern states. For example, he says more effort needs to be made to create status neutral programs for transgender individuals — where treatment goes hand in hand with prevention. 

Another challenge? Medicaid.  

More than 40 percent of Americans who are living with HIV are enrolled in Medicaid. The expansion of this health insurance can significantly improve health outcomes, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. And prevention efforts continue to show improvements in HIV infection rates, with a year over year decline from 2018 to 2022, according to the CDC. 

The type of care someone gets in a health care setting can also impact their health outcomes, studies continue to show. Everyone deserves to have access to culturally competent care, Crowder says — but especially Black and Brown communities. 

“It’s something that’s needed to eradicate HIV, to put an end to it, to make sure everyone is aware of their sexual health status,” he says. “It’s important we create theses resources of linkage for those who lack access.” 

On a mission to shift the narrative 

In the last 28 years that McCants has lived with HIV, she’s heard every adjective you can imagine. Those living with the virus are often called nasty, disgusting, dirty, dark, and ugly, she says. And this type of harmful language can cause individuals to internalize negativity and feel as though they are HIV instead of living with HIV.  

Part of McCants advocacy work involves shifting the language and narrative of how people talk about HIV. And as a mental health therapist, she knows folks who internalize this language are more likely to experience loneliness, depression, and anxiety. 

“Babygirl, Babyboy, that’s not who you are. You’re not HIV,” she says. “HIV is just a part of your story.” 

From a clinical perspective, McCants says it’s important that we as a community work towards healing. Part of that healing process is recognizing that the letter H in HIV stands for human. And she encourages folks to educate themselves about the virus, because misinformation and a lack of information fuels ignorance in these spaces.  

The onus isn’t just on those who are vulnerable to HIV. Friends and family can do a lot, McCants says it can be the difference between life and death.  

“People are dying because of the stigma, because of the shame,” she says. “They’re dying because they didn’t feel like they have anyone to love or support them. What family can do, is love them beyond the diagnosis.” 

And McCants tells anyone who is living with HIV to remember these words: “You are inherently valuable. You are love. You are light. You are one amazing, pretty damn dope individual. I see you as worthy. I see you as loveable. I see you as enough. You are not this virus.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

The post Stigma, stereotypes, and the HIV crisis in the South appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

Kamala Harris busted the ghosts of failed Democratic candidates of the past in one of the most successful conventions in history.

By Keith Boykin
Word in Black

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black,
examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

CHICAGO — A few weeks ago, Democrats were a divided party headed toward a potentially explosive convention in Chicago. Today, those fears are gone, as Kamala Harris has united the party and concluded one of the most successful conventions in American political history.

Democrats came into Chicago haunted by three ghosts: 1968, 2000, and 2016, and Kamala Harris banished all of them.

The ghost of 1968 was the haunting reminder of Chicago, where antiwar demonstrators took over the streets to protest the war in Vietnam.

The ghost of 2000 was when the last incumbent Democratic vice president, Al Gore, tried and failed to follow a president into the White House.

And the ghost of 2016 was when the last woman, Hillary Clinton, tried to break the glass ceiling to the presidency.

Kamala Harris looked all three of those ghosts in the face and busted them. 

This was not 1968. Harris addressed the war in Gaza head-on in her convention speech, refusing to run away from the most divisive internal issue in the party today.

This was not 2000. Harris acknowledged and thanked President Biden but laid out her own hopeful, optimistic vision for America based on freedom.

And this was not 2016. Harris did not dwell on her history-making campaign as a woman. She introduced herself to America in a relatable convention speech, but then told the country how she plans to focus on us and not on her.

It was not only a contrast to the self-centered Trump campaign but a refreshing reminder that Democrats can win if they stay on offense instead of defense. Harris refused to be defensive on Gaza or the border, as she laid out a strong vision of American power as a force for good in the world that can positively reflect our values.

The former district attorney prosecuted the case against convicted felon Donald Trump and forced Americans to use their common sense. 

As she shared the story of how she had to introduce herself in the courtroom, “Kamala Harris, for the people,” she told America that she had spent her career with only one client: the people. While Trump, on the other hand, had spent his life focused only on himself.

In a night that also featured the Exonerated Central Park Five, no serious African American could watch Harris compared to Trump’s long-winded, rambling Milwaukee speech and conclude that he was the better candidate.

She even brought out her adorable grand-nieces to teach Americans how to say her name: Comma – LA.

By nominating Kamala Harris, Democrats have busted the ghosts of the past and embraced a new future that recognizes their strength. 

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and this week Kamala Harris proved that her time had come. As she always says, when we fight, we win.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

The post Black Vote, Black Power: Kamala Harris’ time has come appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Joseph Williams

In Georgia four years ago, Stacey Abrams was well positioned to make history as the first Black woman in the U.S. to ever occupy a governor’s mansion. Running neck-and-neck with Gov. Brian Kemp, a White Republican, heading into election day, Abrams had the Black vote largely behind her, and many believed it would power her to victory.  

Political analysts and pundits, however, detected an Achilles’ heel: polls repeatedly showed her struggling to fully win over Black men, a constituency that most believed were politically aligned with her. Her outreach, though, came too late in her campaign and she lost to Kemp by 8 percentage points. 

Now comes Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold the office, and the parallels between her and Abrams are hard to miss. Like Abrams, Harris is a Democrat and well-positioned to win a tight, highly consequential election. Like Abrams, Harris has generated excitement and enthusiasm, particularly among Black women voters, who see themselves in her. 

And, like Abrams, it’s unclear whether Black men — feeling politically frustrated, unempowered, and disillusioned to the point of skipping elections — will fully support a Black and South Asian woman presidential candidate, even if her run for the White House makes history.

Considering the question, Mondale Robinson, founder of the Black Male Voting Project, told ABC News that Black men feel abandoned and ignored by both political parties, until the next election comes around. They vote, he says, but feel politicians have given them little in return.

“There’s no apathy in Black men. There’s a level of antipathy,” he said. “Antipathy is a whole different emotion. You hate what politics is and does because you’ve not seen the growth, or benefit of it. Black men are not better off because of politics.” 

But data also suggests a strain of lingering sexism could have been a factor in Abrams’ struggles with Black men — and a potential pothole for Harris’s groundbreaking run. 

A 2023 survey on gender attitudes by PerryUndem, a public attitudes research firm, found that 4 in 10 Black men don’t agree that the country would be better off with more women of color in elected office, 48 percent believe women are easily offended, and nearly half think society punishes men “for acting like men.” 

Dr. Moya Bailey, a Northwestern University professor, told The New York Times that patriarchy is not unique to the Black population, but “the consequences are much higher” in what’s seen as a do-or-die race against Trump.  

There are other troubling signs for Harris, including disparities when Black men do show up at the ballot box. According to the Pew Research Center, Black women vote at higher rates than Black men, and are overwhelmingly more likely to choose the Democratic Party. In the 2020 presidential election, for example, 95 percent of Black women voted for Biden, while 13 percent of Black men voted for Donald Trump, Harris’s opponent. 

To be clear: Black men still vote in large numbers, and, like most Black women, tend to vote for Democrats. While the differential between Black men and Black women may seem small, it could make a big difference in Harris’ race against Trump, an election most experts believe will be won or lost at the margins.

“As Kamala Harris inherits the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, she also inherits his sagging poll numbers with working-class Black men,” Roger House, an American studies professor at Emerson College, wrote in an essay for The Hill. “The historic nature of Harris’s candidacy will be viewed by many Black male voters as cold comfort unless she finds a way to address their material and cultural concerns.”

Then there’s Harris’s past career as a prosecutor in California, a background that has Black men wary of her. Disinformation and misinformation have spread on social media that Harris contributed to the over-incarceration of Black men, locking up tens of thousands of them. It’s an incorrect notion her campaign has tried to dispel.

An analysis by The Marshall Project found Harris’s record is more nuanced: on the job, she advocated for progressive criminal-justice policies, including re-entry programs for the formerly incarcerated. Politically, however, she adopted a tough-on-crime stance when critics accused her of coddling criminals. 

Of course, not every Black man will vote for Harris but there are positive signs a majority know what’s at stake in November and plan to cast a ballot for her.

Not long after Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, a virtual fundraiser called specifically for Black men drew 40,000 participants who poured more than $1 million into her campaign coffers. 

“Sometimes as Black men we get confused as to what strength is, and sometimes we think that standing behind a Black woman as a leader does not display strength as Black men,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who spoke on the call. “I’m here to tell you all tonight that it does the opposite of that: it displays strength.”

Mr. Raoul then cut to the point. “I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of theUnited States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man,” he said. “I’m asking all of you all to do the same.

For her part, Harris has personally reached out to groups and organizations that speak to Black men, held White House listening sessions with influential Black business leaders and pledged to earn their vote — not take it for granted. 

“There is a trope in this election which I take issue with, because the underlying premise suggests that Black men should be in the back pocket of Democrats,” Harris told The Nation magazine in an interview last month. “And that is absolutely unacceptable. Here’s why: Why would any one demographic of people be different from any other demographic? They all expect you to earn their vote! You’ve got to make your case.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Joseph Williams
Word In Black

Project 2025, the far-reaching Republican Party plan to demolish and radically remake the federal government under a Trump presidency, has gotten a lot of attention lately, and not necessarily in a good way. 

President Joe Biden warns it’s a threat to democracy. Former President Donald Trump says he had nothing to do with it, even though members of his administration helped write it. Actress Taraji P. Henson sounded the alarm while hosting the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards last month, urging viewers to “look it up! Project 2025 is not a game!”

What’s been missing in the conversation so far about Project 2025 — which calls for eliminating the Department of Education, replacing career civil servants with political appointees, ending affirmative action in government hiring and virtually eliminating access to abortion, among other sweeping changes — is what it would mean for Black America. 

To answer that question, Word In Black took a look at Project 2025’s potential effect on five issues important to Black communities: education, healthcare, the environment, criminal justice and faith. 

While some proposals are explicit, others are unclear and likely would face significant, insurmountable barriers. But it’s likely that Trump would use much of it as a roadmap for his second term. 

Education

While the document contains dozens of controversial proposals, arguably the biggest one is to shut down the Department of Education (ED), an institution created in 1867, not long after the end of the Civil War. The theory, according to the blueprint, is to eliminate red tape so that families will be “free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments.” 

But the plan also would wipe out the ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), a sub-agency that enforces civil rights laws and investigates schools accused of engaging in discrimination. Although it’s been 70 years since the Supreme Court outlawed separate-but-equal education in public schools, OCR is not lacking for work: in 2023, it handled more than 19,000 complaints, roughly 1,000 more cases than in 2022. 

“The total number of complaints has almost tripled since fiscal year 2009, and during this same period OCR’s number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff has decreased from 629 to 556,” according to the ED’s annual report.  

Dismantling a cabinet-level agency that’s been around for 157 years and has more than 4,000 employees would probably be a very heavy lift for any administration. But other proposals in Project 2025 would be far easier to initiate: replacing Title I funds to struggling schools with block grants, allowing states to decide how to spend their share of federal tax dollars, expanding school-choice programs, using federal dollars to fund private schools, cutting “wasteful” school meal programs, swapping Pell grants for private loans while eliminating Biden’s student loan forgiveness program and curbing the teaching of race in schools. 

Ultimately, the plan essentially cripples the struggling public education system, which educates the bulk of Black students. It would make it harder to file a discrimination lawsuit. And fewer college-bound Black students — most of whom depend on the federal government to help pay tuition — would be able to pay for higher education. 

Health

One of the project’s core objectives is to reduce the federal government’s involvement in healthcare. This means the incoming president could take a battleax to the agencies that run Medicare and Medicaid as well as affiliated offices that research treatments for insidious diseases and approve prescriptions, medical devices and personal products like cosmetics. 

The main goal: fewer Black or low-income people will have healthcare. Black women, especially expectant mothers, will continue having the worst health outcomes, and the practice of medicine will become more politicized than ever.

Although the plan doesn’t explicitly call for a federal ban on abortion, it does list “abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights” as terms the incoming president must delete from every federal government document to make “institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors.” And it removes federal protections for members of the military and their families if they choose to terminate a pregnancy.

The guidebook argues that “the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) also pushes abortion as a form of ‘health care,’” and that the “US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) should…reverse its approval of chemical abortion drugs because the politicized approval process was illegal from the start.”

The plan also proposes restrictions that effectively criminalize abortion: besides increasing the prospect that abortion providers would face criminal penalties, it calls for the government to track miscarriages, stillbirths and abortions. It would also restrict access to Plan B contraceptives — even if insurance covers the drugs.

The standard GOP goal of reducing regulations is frequently mentioned and would decrease oversight of healthcare providers and insurers, pharmaceutical companies and major wrongdoers like the tobacco industry. 

Project 2025 also proposes significant changes to Medicaid, including a work requirement, and making Medicare Advantage, currently the paid supplement to Medicare, the default option. 

Criminal justice

Since it began garnering attention, the criminal justice-related headlines from Project 2025 have focused on its proposed politicization of the Justice Department, allowing Trump to salt the department with political appointees and order investigations of his political enemies. But the blueprint also proposes a range of low-key reforms that would have a significant impact on Black communities.

It argues for the undoing of police reforms enacted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, absolves police departments under federal oversight because of racial discrimination, calls for more draconian sentencing guidelines and puts federal district court prosecutors on very short leashes.

The justification, according to the report, is that a left-wing approach to law enforcement — including progressive prosecutors, lenient judges and hamstrung police — has led to a “catastrophic” rise in violent crime. 

“In recent years, federal and state officials have succumbed to calls from anti-law enforcement advocates for so-called criminal justice reform,” according to Project 2025. “This campaign is not just ill-advised; it has had real-world consequences.”

In reality, crime has decreased substantially, nationwide, over the last four years. Police departments under federal supervision usually end up that way because an investigation has revealed long-standing patterns of misconduct. Unleashing those departments increases the likelihood that more Black people will end up like Floyd — dead at the hands of aggressive law enforcement with no federal consequences.

And harsher prison sentences for federal offenders are likely to increase the over-incarceration of Black men, a trend that not only harms Black families but also disrupts Black communities.

Faith

Like the priests who blew their horns in the Biblical battle of Jericho, Project 2025 is a clarion call for demolishing the Constitutional wall separating church and state. And it’s not good news for Black Americans. 

The plan integrates “Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis,” directly and indirectly, into official government policies, from using taxpayer money to fund parochial schools — which would further undermine public schools — to pushing businesses to close on Sunday, a move experts say would damage the economy. 

The project calls for dismantling same-sex marriage, erasing specialized lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) healthcare programs, sharply curbing the sale of abortion pills by mail or in person and criminalizing pornography. While it doesn’t explicitly ban abortion — the top goal of far-right conservatives — it outlines policies to make the procedure as difficult as possible.

It allows churches to retain tax-exempt status, even if they engage in racial discrimination or partisan political activity. And it reinstates the ban on Muslims immigrating to the U.S. 

In short, Project 2025 reads like the fantasy wish list of Christian conservatives while dropping a nuclear bomb in the decades-long, left-vs-right culture wars. Critics say it eliminates individual rights and all but establishes Christianity as a state religion, but supporters say it simply restores traditional values to a nation founded on them. 

Leslie Tune-Copeland, senior associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches, says the faith-based portion of Project 2025 does “the absolute opposite” of Christ’s teachings about tolerance and love.

“It’s the absolute opposite in the Bible. Jesus doesn’t force his will on anybody, right?” Tune-Copeland says. “If we’re disciples of Christ, we can encourage people, we can support people, we can minister to people, but we don’t force people to do what we do or to think what we think. But there are people out there who are telling you that that’s exactly what you should be doing.”

Those people, she says, “unfortunately, have manipulated our faith in such a way that people have bought into it. They have bought into some of the lies that White Christian nationalism has told us.”

Climate justice

When it comes to the American government, there are few things conservatives fantasize about more than cutting programs related to climate change. So, it’s no real surprise that Project 2025  is full of ideas for slashing regulations, weakening government enforcement mechanisms and cutting federal investment in programs related to the environment. 

At this point in history, however, when the window for saving the climate is rapidly closing, those plans would be disastrous — and, like most extreme weather events, the consequences for Black and Brown Americans would surely be even worse.

Project 2025 proposes slicing up the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), to name a few. All have a role in either addressing or monitoring climate change. The plan also calls for using the Department of the Interior to expand oil and gas exploration on all public lands. The federal government would eliminate funding and programs for renewable energy, like wind and solar, and would fast-track fossil fuel production. 

At the same time, Project 2025 recommends moving climate-related decisions from the hands of actual climate scientists to political officials. 

Considering that Paul Dans, the architect of Project 2025, believes “the science is still out” on human-caused climate change, you can only guess what kind of political decisions would be made if this plan is put into action.

Heritage’s Paul Dans, director of Project 2025, told The New York Times that one of its aims is to “investigate whether the dimensions of climate change exist.” In terms of the role of fossil fuels in driving climate breakdown, he told the Times: “I think the science is still out on that, quite frankly.”

The plan also proposes eliminating multiple clean energy programs and offices within the Department of Energy — such as the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the DOE Loan Program, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and DOE’s Clean Energy Corps.

The agenda further says that NOAA should be “broken up and downsized,” claiming it has become “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post How will Project 2025 impact Black America? appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By James Bridgforth

In the intricate tapestry of the American economy, one thread stands out not only for its resilience but also for its potential to drive significant economic growth and social change. That thread is the African American economy — a force that not only supports its community but also bolsters the broader economic fabric of the United States.

The narrative of African American economic power is often overlooked or underestimated, overshadowed by persistent disparities and historical injustices. However, to truly grasp the impact and potential of this economic force, one must recognize its depth and breadth across various sectors — from entrepreneurship and consumer spending to workforce participation and investment.

African Americans represent a substantial consumer base in the United States, wielding immense purchasing power that influences industries ranging from fashion and entertainment to technology and healthcare. According to a report by Nielsen, Black consumers collectively have a buying power projected to reach $1.8 trillion by the end of 2024. This economic influence extends beyond mere consumption; it shapes market trends, influences product development, and drives innovation.

Moreover, the entrepreneurial spirit within the African American community is a cornerstone of economic vitality. Historically, Black-owned businesses have played a pivotal role in local economies, fostering job creation, community development, and economic empowerment. 

Today, Black entrepreneurs continue to launch enterprises at a higher rate than the national average, contributing to economic diversity and resilience.
Investments in education and skills development further amplify the economic impact of African Americans. 

As more individuals from this community pursue higher education and specialized training, African Americans contribute to a skilled workforce that drives productivity and innovation across industries. The growing African American presence in professions such as law, medicine, academia, and technology not only enhance these fields but also advance the nation’s overall economic competitiveness.

Furthermore, the economic influence of African Americans extends beyond domestic borders. In an increasingly globalized economy, cultural exports from the Black community — including music, art, fashion, and entertainment — have garnered international acclaim and economic success. These exports not only generate revenue but also promote American cultural influence worldwide, further solidifying the economic footprint of African Americans.

Despite these achievements, challenges persist. Structural barriers, systemic inequalities, and disparities in access to capital continue to hinder the full realization of African American economic potential. Addressing these challenges requires concerted efforts from policymakers, business leaders, and the broader community to foster an inclusive economy where all individuals can thrive.

To harness the full economic power of the African American community, strategic initiatives are essential. These include:

Promoting Entrepreneurship and Business Development: Enhancing access to capital, mentorship programs, and networking opportunities for Black entrepreneurs can foster a thriving ecosystem of businesses that drive economic growth and job creation.

Investing in Education and Skills Training: Increasing access to quality education, vocational training, and STEM programs can equip African Americans with the skills needed to excel in a rapidly evolving economy and fill critical gaps in the labor market.

Advancing Financial Inclusion and Wealth Building: Encouraging financial literacy, homeownership programs, and equitable access to banking and investment services can empower African Americans to build generational wealth and economic stability.

Fostering Inclusive Corporate Practices: Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within corporate environments can create pathways for African Americans to advance professionally, contribute to innovation, and drive corporate profitability.

Supporting Cultural and Creative Industries: Investing in Black-owned media, arts, and entertainment ventures can amplify diverse voices, celebrate cultural heritage, and stimulate economic growth through creative expression.

In conclusion, the economic power of the African American community is a formidable force that secures the financial outlook for the nation. Moreover, by leveraging this power through strategic investments, inclusive policies, and collective action, we can unleash untapped potential, drive sustainable economic growth, and create a more prosperous future for all Americans.

As we celebrate our achievements of African Americans and honor the many contributions to the nation’s economic landscape, let us also commit to building a more equitable and inclusive society—one where every individual, regardless of race or background, has the opportunity to thrive and contribute to the collective prosperity of our great nation.

By embracing diversity and harnessing the economic power of the African American community, we not only strengthen our economy but also uphold the principles of justice, equality, and opportunity upon which America was founded. Together, let us forge a path towards a brighter, more inclusive future where every individual has the chance to achieve the American dream.

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

The post Harnessing the economic power of the Black community appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Keith Boykin
Word in Black

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

Donald Trump is losing it. 

Today in New Jersey, Trump tricked reporters into covering a “press conference” that turned out to be a lengthy speech to his supporters at his golf course. Low-energy Trump read from a thick binder that included a string of outrageous lies, including the ridiculous claim that more than 100 percent of new jobs created in the U.S. are going to migrants. 

The 78-year-old Trump thought he could coast to victory against a slightly older 81-year-old White male opponent only to find himself in the battle of his life against a much younger and more energetic Black woman. Suddenly, the tables have turned, and now 58 percent of voters say Trump is the one who is too old to be president.

By every metric — voter registration, national polls, swing state polls, fundraising, enthusiasm, media coverage, and even crowd size — Kamala Harris has the momentum and Trump is losing steam. Democrats are even beating Republicans in new voter registrations in North Carolina for the first time all year. 

“She’s bringing out people who are not interested in voting for either Trump or Biden,” Republican pollster Frank Luntz told CNBC. It’s barely been a month, but “I haven’t seen anything like this happen in 30 days in my lifetime.” 

And that’s all before Democrats hold their convention in Chicago next week, where candidates usually get a bounce in their poll numbers.

It’s been a rough four weeks for Trump and his running mate. He’s spent the month lying about Kamala Harris’s crowd sizes, attacking her with personal insults, and now finds himself forced to pay in advance for his campaign rallies after leaving a trail of unpaid bills across the country. Even his interview with Elon Musk was delayed by glitches and marred by Trump’s suspiciously slurred speech, but this time he didn’t berate the host for the technical issues the way he did with the National Association of Black Journalists. I wonder why?

Just today, new video emerged showing Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought explaining that Trump is claiming to distance himself from the group, but the group is “not worried about that” because “he’s been at our organization, he’s raised money for our organization. He’s very supportive of what we do.”

And earlier this week, Trump admitted that he wants to abolish the Department of Education, the same proposal included in the Project 2025 plan that Trump claims to know nothing about.

Meanwhile, after losing the childless cat lady vote, JD Vance is back in hot water for newly revealed comments suggesting that he thinks that women have no purpose in life after menopause except to take care of grandchildren.

These guys are not ready for prime time.

While Kamala Harris is outlining her plans to stop corporate price gouging, build new housing, and cut prices for seniors on prescription drugs, Republicans are complaining that Trump is losing it. 

“He lacks self-control. He lacks discipline,” Republican donor Eric Levine told the New York Times. 

He’s focused on a “very strange victimhood and grievance,” said Republican strategist Liam Donovan. 

Trump’s self-inflicted implosion is good news for Democratic candidates from the presidency on down, but don’t be lulled into complacency by the polls. The race is far from over, and who knows what dirty tricks Republicans have up their sleeves? The electoral college is still stacked against Democrats, and Kamala Harris will need a big voter turnout to win the presidency.

But be ready. If she pulls it off, Trump’s gonna lose it even more.

Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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DNC chair Jaime Harrison breaks down how Kamala Harris has improved the lives of hardworking Americans — and Trump can’t say the same.

By Jaime Harrison
Word in Black

Last week, Donald Trump once again showed the world what he truly is: racist, disrespectful, and unfit to lead. In a conversation with the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris “could be” a “DEI hire” and “happened to turn Black.”

Those despicable comments say a lot about Trump’s character, and they also tell us something else — Trump and JD Vance don’t think they can beat Vice President Harris so they need to resort to racist and sexist comments. They know they can’t win an election on the merits of policy ideas or leadership ability. And we know that they are scared. 

Trump and Vance should be scared because Vice President Harris has done more good in the last three-and-a-half years as vice president than they’ve done in their entire lives. 

Vice President Harris played an essential role in President Biden’s initiatives that invested an unprecedented $16 billion in HBCUs and to date have forgiven $167 billion in student loan debt for nearly 5 million Americans. The Biden-Harris administration also capped the cost of insulin at $35 per month for seniors and acted to lower prescription drug costs. Over the last three years, we’ve seen Black unemployment go down, and new Black-owned small businesses are opening every day. 

In every corner of our nation, the vice president has improved the lives of hardworking Americans. Trump certainly can’t say the same. 

But that’s nothing new for Kamala Harris. Let’s take a look at some of the work she has done before taking office:

As a young lawyer in California, she fought against a measure that would allow prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants as adults. During her tenure as district attorney of San Francisco, she made history when she officiated the first same-sex wedding in California after Proposition 8 was overturned, and created a groundbreaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and a pathway to employment. While she was attorney general of California, Vice President Harris defended the Affordable Care Act in court and took on big banks that were preying on vulnerable Americans. 

Now when you consider her accomplishments, think about the fact that she is the first woman and first person of color to hold these jobs in California. She has spent a lifetime making critical decisions when all eyes were on her, and she has more than enough experience handling doubters who scrutinize her every move. The pressures of the presidency will be nothing new. 

That is why we know she will not back down when it comes to supporting the Black community. She’s not planning to coast on past accomplishments. Once she’s in office, she will continue fighting for policies that create equity and opportunity for Black Americans across the country and uplift our voices in every corner of the world.

I can guarantee you that promises made by the vice president are promises kept. Because over the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know her well. She reminds me so much of the Black women who shaped my life. I see the strength and determination of my grandmother, who picked cotton and raised a family on next to nothing. I see the warmth of my mother who had me as a teenager and worked three times as hard to make sure I could be anything I wanted. And I see the brilliance of my wife who succeeds at literally everything she does. 

The vice president embodies the best qualities of our community and our country. And she needs us now to rally around her and show her the same love and respect we show the women in our lives.

We’re already seeing that support through record fundraising numbers, droves of new volunteer signups and the unbelievable attendance at rallies. There’s renewed energy around this election. But we have to keep that energy going all the way through November because we cannot risk another four years of Donald Trump.

No matter what he says, Trump is not fighting for us. At best, he’s fighting in spite of us. We cannot let the world forget the division and violence that took place on his watch. His policies did not make Black communities any wealthier. 

Trump’s rhetoric at the NABJ conference told us that not only will nothing change if he’s back in the White House, but there is much more damage he can do. 

Thankfully, we have the power to stop him. We can usher in a new generation of leaders and an America that works for all of us. 

That starts when we elect Kamala Harris to serve as president of the United States. 

Jaime Harrison currently serves as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. As the son of a single teenage mom, Jaime Harrison was raised by his grandparents in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Jaime knows what it’s like for a family to have to choose between paying the electric bill and putting food on the table, and what it feels like to go to sleep in a home with no heat, because the power was shut off.

But thanks to a good public school education, the love of his family, and the support of his community, Jaime was able to earn a scholarship to Yale University and attend Georgetown Law. After college, Jaime came back home to Orangeburg to teach at his old high school, then worked to help empower disadvantaged kids to attend college. Jaime also served as an aide to legendary South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn. In 2013, Jaime was elected the first African American chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, a position he held until 2017, when he was appointed by DNC Chair Tom Perez as an Associate Chair of the DNC. In 2020, Jaime ran for the U.S. Senate from South Carolina, building a national grassroots movement and setting a fundraising record for the most raised by a Senate candidate. Jaime and his wife Marie live in Columbia, South Carolina, where they raise their two young sons.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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By Willy Blackmore
Word in Black

There has been a wave of endorsements big and small for Vice President Kamala Harris since President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for reelection this year. 

Some were very quick in coming, like Biden’s own endorsement, while others that took a matter of days were still slow enough to create some degree of controversy, namely that of Barack and Michelle Obama. 

But on July 31, Harris got an endorsement that stands out because it’s one President Biden did not receive: The Green New Deal Coalition, which includes more left-leaning and youth-oriented environmental groups like the Sunrise Movement, is backing the vice president in the 2024 race against Donald Trump.

Harris — who served both in the Senate and as the state attorney general in California before becoming the first woman to serve as vice president — mostly shares President Biden’s climate record. But while the administration passed the largest climate bill ever, the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden has still been criticized by groups in the Green New Deal Coalition for not doing enough in the face of the climate crisis. The more left-leaning groups have also been highly critical of his approach to the war on Gaza. So any change at the top of the Democratic ticket is welcomed by the coalition.

“This has really lit a candle of hope for a lot of us that have been in the doldrums for the past year or so,” Kaniela Ing, the coalition’s national director, told Inside Climate News.

The one big material point of difference between Harris and Biden happened during the Obama administration. After plans were finalized to allow oil exploration off the California coast near Santa Barbara for new hydraulic-fracturing wells, then-attorney general Harris sued the federal government. Climate groups have not forgotten that she was willing to challenge Big Oil in such a manner (not to mention her own party), and they want to see more of that from the White House.

Harris was also a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal legislation in the Senate. In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, she ran on increasing federal spending on climate issues by $10 trillion over a decade, and also advocated for a carbon tax.

There’s a bit of identity politics at play in the endorsement, too, as there likely will be throughout Harris’s historic campaign: The Green New Deal Coalition believes that, as a Black woman, Harris will be an effective advocate.

Willy Blackmore is a freelance writer and editor covering food, culture, and the environment. He lives in Brooklyn.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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The 91st National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses celebrated both traditional artists and contemporary sounds.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

A celebration of faith, culture, and musical innovation went down in late July in Philadelphia at the 91st National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, which gathers musicians and singers of all genres of gospel music. 

The convention’s continuing legacy is to foster and promote an appreciation and high standard of excellence for gospel music and gospel music performances. It offers sessions for youth and adults who seek to enhance their skills as singers, instrumentalists, educators and leaders. It is also the place to showcase newly written gospel music. 

And as contemporary artists push boundaries and face criticism reminiscent of the gospel’s early days, it provides a space for intergenerational dialogue and sharing new works that keep gospel alive. 

From Blues to Blessings

The convention’s name is long, but its members lovingly call it the Dorsey Convention. Its renowned founder, Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey — the “Father of Gospel Music” — led the convention from its founding in 1932 until his death in 1993. Dorsey wrote more than 1,000 gospel songs, including “If You See My Savior Tell Him That You Saw Me;” “Take My Hand, Precious Lord;” “Peace in the Valley;” and “If You See My Savior.” 

The funny thing about the NCGCC’s founder is that his type of music was disparaged by regular churchgoers back then in the same way as gospel creators such as James Cleveland with his worldly adaptations, Kirk Franklin with his song “Stomp,” and the gospel rappers with their spoken word.

Dorsey is said “to have combined the good news of the gospel with the bad news of the blues,” according to author Anthony Heilburt.

Nurturing Talent, Celebrating Diversity

Eric Scott is one of those whose music was presented in Philadelphia. His composition “With My Whole Heart” features lead vocals sung by his son. His music has also been presented at a past Dorsey Convention in Baltimore and at the Hampton Ministers Conference two years ago. 

Scott and his wife, Pastor Marsha Scott are founders of the Lighthouse Worship Center in Baltimore, a “progressive, multi-generational inner-city ministry expanding the Kingdom of God through sincere worship and preaching of the word of God,” according to its website. 

Scott has been a composer for quite some time and this latest is just one of those shared with the gospel music world. Knowing he was lead student accompanist at Morgan State University under the late Dr. Nathan M. Carter is a dead giveaway to his great giftedness. If you know, you know. But Scott is also out here innovating and keeping gospel alive and fresh.

Other presenters of their own compositions included Chicago-based gospel artist Kevon Carter, and Baltimore gospel artists Daniel Curtis and Eric Waddell.

With performances by luminaries like Bishop Hezekiah Walker and a host of choirs and ensembles — ranging from traditional to contemporary — the convention put the diversity of gospel on full display. And as gospel music continues to grow and evolve, the Dorsey Convention stands as a through-line of Black expression, spirituality, and resilience.  

So next time you hear someone complain about gospel music changing or “not being what it used to be,” remind them that’s the point. It’s always changing, always adapting, but always speaking to the soul. And conventions like this make sure that conversation keeps going, generation after generation.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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For Larry Brown and Roberta Jones, the sport keeps the mind and body strong.

By Renata Sago
Word in Black

Brain Health is a unique series focused on how to help you age well. These stories have been created in cooperation with AARP and Word In Black.

In a sport where Black competitors are rare, Larry Brown and Roberta Jones are making waves as archery coaches in New York City. Their work challenges stereotypes about race and age and demonstrates how taking aim and releasing an arrow can be a powerful tool for mental and physical well-being.

Indeed, Brown, 71, and Jones, 69, have found that archery offers benefits beyond hitting a target. It builds confidence, improves focus and enhances physical strength and cognitive abilities  — valuable skills across all age groups and crucial in our distraction-filled digital age.

Jones, who began archery in her 50s, emphasizes the sport’s mental aspects. 

“That ability to focus is real important for —to be able to weed out all of the distractions,” she says. You have to be able to center yourself.”

Brown also says concentration is essential. 

“The more you pay attention to the process, the more you pay attention to your physical ability to shoot the shot,” he explains.

Brown has plenty of experience encouraging people to ask themselves these questions. He is a level 3 coach for USA Archery and was the first Black coach for the women’s archery team at Columbia University.

There are an estimated 5.4 million competitive archers in the United States, and roughly 80 percent of them are White. 

In 2008, Brown founded Brooklyn-based Center Shot Archers, Inc. to bring the sport to diverse, underserved communities. The multiethnic, multiracial, mixed-gender and multicultural archery club boasts the United States’ first Black and Latino competitive archery team. 

He picked up his first bow and arrow at age 5 when his father, a bowmaker, introduced him and his brothers to archery in Queens. 

Nowadays, he trains all types of learners — from novice third-graders needing to channel their energy to octogenarians looking to stay active. Whatever their lived experiences, Brown believes they have to embrace the mental and the physical.  

Brown’s emphasis on mental acuity also aligns with recent findings from AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health, which states repetitive processes through exercise and frequent socialization are essential to a healthy brain. 

“Whether a young person, a child, a young adult, middle-aged person, or an older person, every group can benefit from an increase in physical activity and exercise,” Art Kramer, director of the Center for Cognitive & Brain Health at Northeastern University says.

Archery’s ability to build strength and endurance is equally impressive. Depending on skill level, an archer might manage 25 to 35 pounds of draw weight and walk a mile during a tournament. 

Jones, who coaches students alongside Brown, acknowledges that learning archery might feel intimidating to newcomers in general and, specifically, players of color. However, she believes having the resolve to learn the sport can be empowering.  

“There is that wonder about ‘Can I do this?’ ‘Am I strong enough?’” Jones says. “And then there’s the miracle of actually doing it. There is a kind of power that I, as a woman, felt.”

Jones says she’s also experienced first-hand how archery improves her cognition — prompting alertness and, in tournaments, enhancing her ability to do mathematical computations to keep accurate scores.

She finds coaching youth especially energizing. She sees her students building up their minds and beginning to tap into the depth of their potential. They listen to music while practicing, which helps them establish a rhythm with how and when to take action. 

“It’s very confidence-building,” Jones says, and ultimately, archery is a vehicle for learning life lessons. 

“A shot is like a thousand little pictures,” Brown says. “If you don’t pay attention to the small pictures, you will miss the big picture.”

To find more information from AARP about brain health, click here.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack com.

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The Moral Mondays leader and other clergy prayed at the Supreme Court for the poor, seeking action to ensure their voices and votes are heard..

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

On July 29, leaders from various faiths gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., to demand justice. Together, they called for equality in pay, housing, voting rights, public safety, and health care.

This group regularly collaborates with the Right Rev. William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. Barber has instituted a year-long effort to engage eligible voters who haven’t voted in the past because their concerns have not been addressed by those in power.

“We come in all of our rich diversity, seeing the divinity in our diversity, to pray keeping faith with the highest ideals,” said the Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson in his opening remarks. “Praying that we would use our voices and votes to get closer to what we say we want to be…one nation under God.”

Barber said, “We come as clergy because the right to vote is from God, not from humanity or a constitution. God gives us the ability to choose this day. My Jewish friends taught  me that the words for voice and vote are the same in Hebrew. Something is deeply wrong when any candidate says vote for me and I alone can fix things. Vote for me and it will be the last time.”

Rev. Rob Stevens introduced the first leaders to pray, reminding that prayer changes things, “but more importantly prayer changes us.” 

“It can help us come closer to what we say we want to be, one nation under God with liberty and justice for all,” he added. “Kneel before our Creator with many names.”

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, echoed the synonymous meaning of voice and vote. He also, with one biblical story, summed up issues of justice for women. He referenced the least familiar Noah in the Bible, a young woman and her four sisters. Because of the times, they were not being considered as heirs to their now deceased father. But they insisted they would not be left out of their fair share just because of their gender and the lack of a man to protect them. They appealed to the prophet who appealed to God. The verdict was that God pronounced their cause just.

Rev. Jimmy Hopkins of the Presbyterian Church USA prayed for guidance during the election, condemning those in office who prioritize their interests over the public’s. He criticized their focus on legislation benefiting the wealthy while disparaging and neglecting those who have too little..

He closed with a plea: “Open our eyes to elect those who have a determined heart to do justice and to love kindness in a humble walk with our God.”

The prayers continued and will be offered the last Monday of each month until the General Election on Nov. 5.

The post Rev. Barber calls for justice and questions Trump’s idolatry appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Fedrick C. Ingram
Word In Black

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t interested in being a leader.

Leaders listen to the people, even those they don’t agree with, in order to foster democracy and empathy for the communities they’ve been elected to serve. 

That is what leaders do.

Last year, at the start of Black History Month, DeSantis blocked the country’s first AP Black Studies course for being “too woke.” This year, just in time for Black Music Month in June, DeSantis vetoed $32 million in cultural and museum grants from his state budget. He clearly wasn’t listening to the voices of his constituents, none of whom asked for such an unprecedented attack on art and culture. A principled leader wouldn’t even imagine eliminating the entire arts budget for the third largest state in the country, depriving countless communities of a vital human endeavor.

That is what autocrats do. 

While slashing the entire arts budget for the state is not a legal crime, it is a moral crime. Art is one of the most important things humans create and an outlet for the frustrated and the forgotten. It can also free the soul from place and time so we can experience the sublime.

That is what art and an arts education did for me. 

As I have written before, music changed the entire trajectory of my life. From a kid born in the Miami projects with a bad stutter to an accomplished leader in education, I needed art to better understand my own potential. 

Learning to sing and then play an instrument before graduating boosted my self-esteem, taught me discipline and stoked my desire to master something on my own steam.

I found new heroes through arts education, too. Names like Branford Marsalis, Prince and Gerald Albright were just as big to me as Michael Jordan or Eddie Murphy. They not only showed me beauty but revealed my connection to my people’s legacy. Of course, I already knew names like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass or A. Philip Randolph, but to understand the soundtrack of Black America as it strove from slavery to freedom was a new frontier. Understanding the music I was playing connected me to the triumphs of my people, made me puff out my chest a bit more and stand a bit straighter.

Studying the arts can also have tangible academic benefits as well. We know it can have a marked increase on standardized reading scores and reduce the need for teacher discipline — a big deal for Black students who are disproportionately punished for behavior in school. Students engaging with arts education had a nearly 4 percent reduction in discipline, a 13 percent increase in standardized writing scores, and an 8 percent increase in compassion for others.

The good news is that most public school children have access to arts education—whether that’s painting, music, writing or many other forms. According to a 2019 report from the Arts Education Data Project, 96% of K-12 students have access to arts education, with 65% participating. 

However, that access is not guaranteed for all children, especially in Florida where public schools are being hollowed out by school vouchers at an increasing rate. So what does this mean for low-income and Black children who, according to a 2020 Knight Foundation study, “report lower levels of access to arts and cultural activities than higher-income or White residents.”

Without the arts, there are voices that will go unheard, and their attachment to the community will be diminished.

It’s hard for me to think that was not the goal.

The beauty of art, aside from the aesthetics, is that it not only comments on the status quo, but challenges it. Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, and Public Enemy have turned art into social commentary. That commentary spawns action and activism. To undermine that endeavor feels like a calculated move from a governor who has regularly shown his disdain for dissenting voices.

This is the same governor banning books by authors whose stories and identities veer too close to some ugly truths instead of the jingoistic fantasy he has in his head. His rejection of AP Black Studies was partly due to his inability to reconcile how queer experiences related to the Black experience — has he never heard of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author James Baldwin or dancer Alvin Ailey? 

I suspect he does know who these people are — but they all made art that challenges his worldview that America is a land with no rough edges, no deep-seated conflicts that have left scars on multiple generations. He and his extremist pals prefer an America that has only done the right thing. In this way, there is no trouble — only troublemakers; anyone who dares to remind us that we still have a long road to true equality must be silenced.

To paraphrase the great John Lewis, we must remain troublemakers. Whether we do that by casting a ballot or writing a song, we must insist on searching for an imagined tomorrow to make today a better place. We must stay connected to the ones before us who inspired us through music, books, plays and movies. Let’s dance, paint, sculpt, and write our brave new future into the soil of this country so we will never forget our past or give up on our glorious future.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Jennifer Porter Gore
Word in Black

Overview:

For years, Black Olympians dominated in sports like track and field and basketball. But a new generation is breaking through in so-called “country-club sports” that typically aren’t available to young Black athletes.

With the 2024 Olympic Games underway  in Paris, France, the powerful United States swimming team will be heavily favored — again — to win the lion’s share of medals in the pool. It holds the all-time record for gold medals with 257; second-place Australia has just 69.

While winning medals is old hat, however, the swim team will make history when it walks into the Paris Olympic Aquatic Centre in Saint-Denis. That’s because Anthony Nesty, a former Olympic swimmer, is Team USA’s first Black swimming head coach.

“I’m very proud of what I’ve done in my career, especially leading young men and women to perform at a very high level,” Nesty said in an interview with NBC 6, a local TV station in South Florida. “It’s a great honor, and with that comes a lot of pressure, too. I’m looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to representing the USA the best way I can.”

In fact, Nesty is one of several elite Black athletes from Team USA competing in events in which the competition is overwhelmingly White. Black athletes are competing in  fencing, volleyball and skateboarding, among other sports.

Besides Nesty — a U.S. resident born in Suriname who in 1988 was the first Black swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal — the U.S. swimming team includes Simone Manuel, a Black woman and gold medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

At the time, Manuel made sure she acknowledged other elite Black competitive swimmers who paved the way for her, like Cullen Jones and Maritza Correia. But she also said she carries a burden in the pool that White swimmers don’t.  

“The gold medal wasn’t just for me, it was for people who came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport,” she told Andscape Magazine just after the 2016 Games. 

“I’m super glad I can be an inspiration to others and hopefully diversify the sport,” she said. “But at the same time, I would like there to be a day where there are more of us, and it’s not ‘Simone the black swimmer.’ The title ‘black swimmer’ makes it seem like I’m not supposed to be able to win a gold medal, or I’m not supposed to be able to break records. And that’s not true.”

Lauren Scruggs, a star of the U.S. women’s fencing team, followed her brother into the sport; Nolen Scruggs is a member of Columbia University’s fencing team. “My brother did it, so I also gave it a try,” she said.  

A Harvard University junior, Lauren Scruggs is the 2022-2023 NCAA Women’s Foil Champion and before attending the university had become the youngest U.S. foil fencer to win a Junior World Championship. She also was one of just two Black Americans — male or female — to win an individual world title. 

The men’s U.S. fencing team will include returning Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson. Born in London and raised in the U.S., Chamley-Watson returned to the U.K. in 2012 to compete in the London Games. He also won a Bronze medal in Rio in 2016. 

“Tiger Woods was like my Michael Jordan. He made people want to watch golf, he made me want to watch golf, in a sport that was predominantly white,” he told the Anti-Blueprint Project website. “I could really relate to that.”

Woods’ journey “showed me that whatever your passion is, as long as you, like, put in the work and don’t care about how hard the journey is,” you can make it on your own terms, Chamley-Watson said. “What I’ve learned is, if I can get to the top, I can bring whoever the hell I want with me.”

The  U.S. women’s volleyball team has two Black members: Rachael Adams, a member of the 2016 bronze medal-winning team, and three-time Olympian Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson. 

The daughter of a former NBA player, Adams says being a Black woman in a White sport hasn’t been easy. Many of her teammates had never interacted with a Black person before.   

“Navigating my identity as a Black woman and athlete in a predominantly white sport has been difficult,” Adams told Darling magazine in a 2020 Q-and-A interview. “My (white) teammates have good intentions, but you don’t know what you don’t know. It has taken me growing up to figure out that my identity is not in people. No matter what I do, no matter what music I listen to or how I speak, I am Black.”

The Black competitors on the U.S. women’s boxing team are competing for just the fourth time in Olympic history. That’s because women weren’t allowed to box competitively at the Olympics until 2012. The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will feature a total of 13 weight divisions, six for women and seven for men. 

This year’s team members include prior winners and first-timers: NaShay Bradford, Ravven Brown, Sa’Rai Brownell, Briana Che, Zhane Crockett, Rashida Ellis, Naomi Graham, Oshae Jones, Morelle McCane and Claressa Shields.

Champion skateboarder Nyjah Huston will attempt to win his first Olympic medals in Paris. He placed seventh in the 2020 Games in Tokyo when skateboarding was first introduced as an Olympic sport.  

Huston got into the sport at age 5 through his father, a strict Rastafarian and an avid skateboarder who incorporated it into his family’s lifestyle. He even purchased an old skatepark for easy access to a practice facility. 

“Skateboarding became a family business and I skated six days a week with my father and brothers at our indoor skatepark,” Huston said in an interview with NBC Sports. “Other than riding a bike and shooting hoops with my brothers at the neighborhood park, I never played any other sports as a kid. Skateboarding was our life, so I didn’t really have a choice.”

Jennifer Porter Gore is a writer living in the Washington, D.C., area.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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Word In Black’s owners and publishers tell why Harris has the leadership experience we need for a free, prosperous, and more just future. 

By Word In Black Owners

As the next presidential election rapidly approaches, our nation is, without question, at a crossroads. To the left is continued racial, economic and social progress; to the right is regression, division and the ongoing resurrection of overt, violent White supremacy. 

Therefore, the result of November’s vote will not only define the trajectory of America in general but also determine the fate of Black America in particular, with far-reaching consequences that could last for generations. 

With such historically high stakes on the table — and an election in which the Black vote could be a decisive factor — we at Word In Black wholeheartedly, and without question endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the next president of the United States. It is our first-ever political endorsement, and we make it without reservation.

At this pivotal moment in American history, Harris represents the change we want to see now. She is a transformational figure, poised to make history not only as the first woman to serve the nation as commander-in-chief but also as the first Black woman, first HBCU graduate and first member of a Black Greek letter organization to hold the most powerful job on earth.

Our endorsement, however, begins with President Joe Biden, who is among the most effective champions for Black America in history and who chose her as his running mate. The Biden-Harris administration created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers, cut child poverty in half, grew Black household wealth, and slashed insulin and asthma inhaler prices. They forgave $168.5 billion in student loan debt, pushed to close the Black-White digital divide, made meaningful investments in policies to fight climate change, and appointed a record number of Black judges to the federal bench. 

The president also demonstrated unparalleled leadership, selflessness and patriotism by withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Harris to replace him on the Democratic Party ticket. She will almost assuredly continue his agenda, but with the added perspective of her lived experience in Black spaces.

Harris has impressive credentials: former San Francisco district attorney, former California attorney general, former U.S. senator, current vice president. Her personal story — child of immigrant activist parents, Howard University graduate, member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., the first Black woman to hold statewide elected office in California — is compelling. She is a fearless champion of civil rights and has advocated for criminal legal system reform, access to health care and investment in underserved communities.  

Furthermore, Harris’s intelligence, tenacity, charisma and joy on the campaign trail sets her apart from her Republican opponents. Her elevation as the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee has electrified the campaign, generating excitement not seen since Barack Obama’s historic 2008 run to become America’s first Black president.

Consider: within the first 24 hours of Harris’ candidacy, her campaign took in a stunning $81 million — the largest single-day fundraising effort in American political history. The total included some $3 million in small-dollar, grassroots donations from an impromptu fundraising drive led solely by Black men and women. 

It is clear evidence that Harris’ presence in the nation’s highest office will be an unprecedented step toward greater representation and inclusion of diverse voices at the highest levels of government.

For nearly 200 years, we in the Black press have stood for freedom, justice, equality, and democracy. We have spoken truth to power, especially when others in the mainstream, White-owned media have avoided it, or have actively spread falsehoods about our leaders and our communities. 

Hear us, then, when we say Harris represents the best hope of defeating two existential threats to Black America: the return of the former president, a bigoted, twice-impeached convicted felon and purported rapist who is attempting to divide America; and Project 2025 — a radical, far-right political, economic and social agenda he will almost certainly implement if he wins the White House. 

For us at Word in Black, the choice for president is as obvious as it is historic. The Republican nominee represents an America that will return to its ugly, violent, racist past, a time when we were treated like second-class citizens and our communities were under constant threat. Harris represents a new generation of leadership, a future built on optimism, inclusion and continued progress toward a more perfect union. 

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Black Americans have an opportunity to determine which version of the nation we want for ourselves and our children. We, the owners and publishers of Word In Black, encourage our readers and supporters to join us in supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in her extraordinary presidential campaign.

Together, we can make a difference and ensure that our voices are heard in shaping the future of our country.

The post Kamala Harris for President appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Anissa Durham
Word In Black

If you’re feeling suicidal or concerned that someone you know may be in danger of hurting themselves, call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. The lifeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is staffed by trained counselors.

How much time do you spend on social media each day? 

The use of social media has recently come under fire by politicians proposing a ban on TikTok and advising parents to set restrictions for their children. More and more research is coming out that says social media is linked to poor overall mental health. Teens often use popular platforms to connect with others and get support. 

But, for Black teens, what is the danger? 

Here’s what we know 

On average, teens spend about five hours a day on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey of 13- to 17-year-old teens, Black and Hispanic teens are more likely to say they are online almost constantly. 

The 2023 Gallup Familial Adolescent Health Survey shows that teens who spent four to five hours on social media per day experienced higher rates of worry, sadness, anger and overall poor mental health. Higher social media use was associated with a significantly higher risk of mental health problems for teens. 

Mental health outcomes are reportedly worse for teens with weak parental relationships. The strength of the relationship, in addition to regulation of screen time and supervision contributes to less social media use. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates for Black people aged 10-24 changed significantly from 2018 to 2021, with an increase from 8.2 percent to 11.2 percent. As a result, researchers have been exploring what factors are contributing to suicidal ideation and suicide among Black youth. 

A 2024 study explores how Black adolescents experience online racial discrimination and the link to suicidal ideation and traumatic stress. Researchers found an indirect association between online racial discrimination and suicidal ideation among the 525 participants. 

Additionally, the Gallup survey found that teens who spent five hours or more on social media experienced two to three times higher rates of suicidal ideation, self-harm behavior in the past year, and poor body image.

A psychiatrist weighs in

Khadijah Booth Watkins, associate director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training program at Massachusetts General Hospital, says racism and discrimination are considered an adverse childhood experience — alongside domestic violence, neglect, abuse and poverty. 

It’s important for teens to feel safe and connected, but the repeated exposure of people who look like them being victimized on social media is stressful. This reverberates into mental health issues, how the body functions and sleep disturbances. 

“For Black and Brown kids, there’s an extra layer of being exposed to so much discrimination and racism … that makes them vulnerable to depression and anxiety,” she says. 

Watkins also has concerns about how often teens are using social media and what it takes away from them. For example, social media often provides a false sense of reality, which can make it difficult for young people to have realistic expectations. 

“Young people are incredibly impressionable,” she says.  

Research on long-term effects is still underway. But Watkins says it’s becoming more challenging for young people to understand how to read between the lines on social media. 

“What we’re seeing is a group of people who can’t tolerate adversity, frustration and an inability to understand the concept of delayed gratification,” she says. “You can scroll endlessly … and for young people, it stimulates this area of the reward system. It’s harder for them to pump the brakes … so they’re constantly chasing this sense of pleasure and gratification.”

Last summer, the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, released an advisory on social media and youth mental health. The 25-page report details the positive and negative impacts of social media on children and adolescents. And examines the different harms youth experience as they use social media.  

A few weeks ago, Dr. Murthy published an op-ed in the New York Times, calling for a warning label to be placed on social media platforms — similar to warning labels placed on cigarettes. 

“An advisory warning is great,” Watkins says. “But, I think the solution is going to be education around what you do. Modeling and teaching young people how to build healthy habits and a healthy relationship with social media.” 

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post Are Black teens safe with five hours of daily social media? appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

The National Council of Churches is spearheading a new wave of social justice activism, to motivate folks to take action and head to the polls.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

As technology continues to reshape every aspect of life, churches face the challenge of evolving their practices to remain relevant and effective. Just as communion and worship have evolved from traditional in-person gatherings to those that are hybrid or totally virtual, evangelism has morphed into likes, shares and online engagement. To thrive, churches must continuously adapt and find never-before-imagined ways to expand their ministries.

In this landscape, the National Council of Churches is equipping its members and partners for the journey at hand and ahead. By embracing modern tools and revisiting the lessons of the past, the NCC aims to foster a new wave of social justice activism, reminiscent of the pivotal Freedom Summer of 1964.

“In 1964, NCC, with a deep sense of urgency, immersed itself into the troubled waters of racial injustice in Mississippi to engage in direct action in the struggle of African Americans for racial justice,” NCC President and General Secretary Bishop Vashti McKenzie said in a statement.

“There was a belief that it was going to be a decisive moment in American history. As it was then, so it is now. We are at a pivotal point in a polarized country. We must retrace our steps to build upon the foundations of justice left by previous generations.”

The NCC’s Freedom Academy is a key part of this effort, designed to train and mobilize faith leaders to inspire and guide their communities to also become people of faith.

Through a Sunday school-style Bible study curriculum, the academy will provide theological grounding from the biblical teachings of Luke 4. The first session in a six-part series of classes, “The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me – Sacred Spirituality of Freedom/Theology of Freedom,” will be taught by Rev. Stephen A. Green, pastor of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, on July 7.

“On the 60th Anniversary of Freedom Summer, I am honored to lead the Freedom Academy for the National Council of Churches. This milestone reminds us of the enduring legacy of those who fought tirelessly for civil rights and social justice. As we reflect on their sacrifices and achievements, we are inspired to continue their work with renewed vigor and dedication,” Rev. Green says. 

“Our mission is to educate and empower leaders who are committed to advancing social change and justice in our communities. Through comprehensive training and collaborative efforts, we aim to equip a new generation of advocates with the knowledge and tools necessary to drive meaningful progress. Together, we can build a more equitable and just society for all.”

The Freedom Academy is merely one part of the broader Freedom Summer Agenda. Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton, chair of NCC’s Governing Board, emphasized the urgent need for action in light of recent setbacks to voting rights.

“The Freedom Summer of 1964 led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 making it possible for thousands of disenfranchised to vote. In 2013 the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act enabling new restrictions to the constitutional right to vote. The Freedom Summer of 1964 turned deadly. The Freedom Summer of 2024 is still a matter of life and death. We dare not stand idle — too much is at stake,” Eaton said in a statement.

“We call upon all people of faith, our member communions, and partner organizations to mobilize for this movement. As we follow in the footsteps of Freedom Summer 1964, let us educate, engage, and empower voters around the country to take part in the democratic process this upcoming election season. ‘For freedom Christ has set us free’ (Galatians 5:1 NRSV).”

Continuing the legacy of the original Freedom Summer, where nearly 1,500 volunteers, including 254 NCC-sponsored clergy, worked in project offices across Mississippi, this year’s Freedom Fellows will help organize congregations to engage in voter registration, community canvassing, and phone and text banking.

The Freedom Summer Agenda also includes the Freedom Riders initiative, which will empower and engage communities through faith, food, and fellowship with stops in Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Durham, North Carolina; Detroit, Michigan; and Jackson, Mississippi.

So as the church adapts to new technological realities, its commitment to justice and equity remains steadfast. And through this initiative, the NCC will, no doubt, mobilize a new generation.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

The post Faith communities mobilize for Freedom Summer 2024 appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Keith Boykin
Word In Black

If you’re thinking of not voting in the November presidential election, let me give you one important reason why you should vote — the courts.

Let’s say you’re a progressive who wants Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and reparations for Black people. Trump opposes all these things, but Biden is too much of an incrementalist for you. So you decide not to vote. What’s the worst that could happen, right?

Well, if Trump is elected, he could appoint up to three new right-wing Supreme Court justices and hundreds of lower court federal judges. Why is that important? Because federal judges have lifetime tenure. Many join the bench when they’re in their 40s or 50s and stay in position for decades until they die or retire.

That means that when the next president comes along in 2028, it will be virtually impossible to implement a progressive agenda. Any policies you support will be struck down by Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices and federal judges for the next two to three decades. 

We’re seeing it already. In just four years in office, Trump appointed one-third of the U.S. Supreme Court and 242 federal judges. That’s why so many of Joe Biden’s policies have been struck down.

Trying to go to college? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 last year that colleges and universities can no longer use race in admissions to create a more diverse student body. All six justices who killed affirmative action were appointed by Republican presidents. The three Democratic-appointed justices dissented.

Struggling to pay your student loans? The Supreme Court killed student loan debt relief that would have helped 40 million Americans. Once again, all six justices were Republican appointees.

Need to have an abortion? The Supreme Court ruled two years ago that women no longer have reproductive rights to control their own bodies. All six justices who overturned Roe v. Wade were Republican appointees. 

Did you fall behind on your rent during the pandemic? The Supreme Court ended the nationwide eviction moratorium that protected millions of American renters from being kicked out of their apartments. Once again, a 6-3 Republican decision.   

Want to vote for a Black member of Congress? The Supreme Court ruled that Republicans can use a racially gerrymandered voting map that disenfranchised Black voters in South Carolina. But all six Republican-appointed justices allowed the map. 

And it’s not just the Supreme Court.

Looking to launch a Black business? A federal judge in Texas ruled that the Minority Business Development Agency, a 55-year-old agency, is now illegal because it discriminates against White people. Once again, the judge was appointed by Donald Trump.

Need startup money for a new firm? A federal appeals court in Georgia ruled that a venture capital fund for Black women called the Fearless Fund can no longer focus on helping Black women. Both judges who voted against Black women in the 2-1 decision were appointed by Donald Trump.

Need help on the farm? A federal judge in Florida stopped President Biden’s debt relief program that helped Black farmers because it was unfair to White farmers. The judge was appointed by Republican President George Bush, exposing the influence of conservative jurists appointed years ago.

Then, just a few days ago, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas wouldn’t even allow emergency disaster assistance for Black farmers because it was unfair to White men.

Republican-appointed judges in the state courts are just as dangerous for Black people.

Want to wear your natural hair? A Texas judge ruled that a school district could force high school student Darryl George to cut his locs, despite the state’s CROWN Act that prohibits hairstyle discrimination. The judge ran as a Republican.

Want to protest racism? A Missouri judge just expunged the records of the infamous St. Louis couple who previously pleaded guilty to assaulting Black Lives Matter protesters with guns. The judge was appointed by Missouri’s Republican governor.

Elections have consequences. President Biden appointed the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court and appointed more Black judges in his first 1,000 days than any president in history. In fact, he appointed more Black judges than the last four Republican presidents combined. Trump, on the other hand, was the first president since Richard Nixon 50 years ago to appoint no Black judges to the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Give him another four years, and it’s all over for us.

While we’re busy scrolling through social media every day, hundreds of decisions are happening in courtrooms all around the country that affect our lives.

By not voting, you’re not helping Black people or promoting the progressive cause. You’re consigning your children to live under a legal regime governed by anti-Black Republican judges for years to come.

This article was originally published by Word In Black. “Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

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On June 29, Rev. William Barber III will convene The Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington D.C. and to the Polls, a somewhat unwieldy name for what could be a big political flex.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

Overview:

Reminiscent of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the upcoming rally on the National Mall is intended to change the narrative around poverty and politics.

There are over 140 million poor and low-income people in the U.S.  In most cases, in the richest nation on Earth, their lives are defined by what they don’t have — healthcare, food, housing, a job that pays a living wage. 

The Right Rev. William Barber, an anti-poverty activist and community organizer, will try to change that narrative this weekend by reminding politicians what poor people do have: the power to vote. 

On June 29, Barber, the founding director of the Center for Public Theology at Yale Divinity School, will convene the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington D.C. and to the Polls, a gathering on the National Mall designed to flex the political muscle of low-income Americans. 

Though it echoes a similar rally Martin Luther King Jr. held some six decades earlier, the Mass Poor People’s March march will “launch a season of continued outreach to 15 million poor and low wage infrequent voters ahead of the 2024 U.S. elections and beyond,” Barber said in a statement.

“We will be demanding that both political parties heed the needs of poor and low-wage people, who we will be working to organize into America’s most potent swing voting bloc,” he said, adding his signature phrase: “It’s not just a march, it’s a movement.”

In other words, the event is intended to send a message to both President Joe Biden and his rival, former President Donald Trump and lawmakers in Congress: poor people will no longer be ignored. And in 2024, where Biden and Trump are running neck-and-neck for the presidency, every vote will matter. 

With poverty defined as a household of four making less than $31,000,  the data alone hints at poor voters’ potential to move the political needle. 

Consider:  almost 39 million children are living in poverty, according to the Repairers of the Breach website. But the largest number of poor people in the U.S. are White, at around 65 million. 

Still, economic justice issues have remained on the fringes of our nation’s public and political discourse for decades, 

At a rally earlier this month, the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said the nation must do better for the less fortunate.

“Given the abundance that exists in this country and the fundamental dignity inherent to all humanity, every person in this nation has the right to demand dignified jobs and living wages, housing, education, health care and welfare,” she said. “But the truth is that millions of Americans are denied those fundamental rights, and thousands are dying as a result.”

Along with demonstrating political power, the event comes with a list of demands for lawmakers. They include abolishing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., hiking the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, expanded access to the ballot box and universal healthcare. 

Appearing on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last week, Barber said he also wants to change racial stereotypes and erase perceptions about poverty in America — including the fact that White people make up the majority of low-income households. 

“I told him (Stewart) the truth about poverty in America: that we have over 135 million poor and low-wage people in this country, 60 percent of Black people are poor or low wealth,” said Barber, co-author of  “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy, in a statement. “That’s 26 million people. But in terms of raw numbers, a whopping 66 million White people are in the same category – 40 million more people.”

On June 29 at the march, “we plan to address the needs of all of America, poor and low wage people, by building a moral fusion movement,” he said. 

Barber went further in an appearance on CNN. 

“We will have White women from West Virginia and Black women from the Delta standing together to demand a moral public policy agenda that makes it so that poverty is no longer the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States,” he said. 

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

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By Keith Boykin
Word in Black

“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election.

If you want to know why Black people don’t vote for Republicans, just look at the Black Republicans.

America’s top Black Republican, Tim Scott, claims that “woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy.” What on earth is woke supremacy? Scott is so desperate for White approval that he voted against the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, even while three of his White Republican colleagues voted for her. 

Then there’s Byron Donalds, who claimed that “the Black family was together” under Jim Crow. Donalds is one of 26 House Republicans who refused to sign a letter denouncing White supremacy. And he was one of only two Black members of Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, which would have disenfranchised Black voters in Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, and other cities.

And just in time for Juneteenth, three Black Republicans in the House of Representatives (Donalds, Burgess Owens, and Wesley Hunt) voted to restore a racist, Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Republicans love Black people — who love White people.

Tim Scott and Byron Donalds have an excuse, but it’s not a good one. They are so desperate to be Trump’s running mate that they refuse to upset his base or hold him accountable even after he was convicted of 34 felonies. What Black man with 34 felony convictions gets a pass from Republicans?

But one of the most notorious Black Republicans today is North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. Robinson tells Black people, “nobody owes you anything for slavery,” and invokes the history of Black abolitionists and civil rights leaders to excuse White people from accountability. “If anybody owes, it’s you,” he says. 

Robinson became popular in the GOP precisely because he loves to attack Black people. He called the Black Panther movie “trash” made by a “satanic marxist,” said that Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, and Issa Rae wear “whore dresses,” and repeatedly misgendered former first lady Michelle Obama as a man. 

Then there’s Winsome Sears, the gun-toting Virginia lieutenant governor, who is upset because she thinks critical race theory is being taught in schools. It’s not. 

Next up is Daniel Cameron, the former Kentucky attorney general who said the police killing of Breonna Taylor was “justified” and declined to charge the officers responsible for her death. I guess Black lives really don’t matter to Republicans.

Or how about Larry Elder? The 72-year-old Black Republican lived through Jim Crow segregation, Rosa Parks’s arrest, and Dr. King’s assassination, but he told Fox News that Donald Trump’s indictment was “probably the most egregious thing I’ve ever seen in the history of our republic.” Was he kidding?

Or Ben Carson, the Trump appointee who thinks systemic racism ended with the civil rights movement, says Colin Kaepernick would never have been criticized if he had just said he loved America, and claims that Obamacare is the “worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” Really, Dr. Carson? 

Providing health care to Black people is worse than segregation, lynchings, and mass incarceration?

And we can’t forget Herschel Walker, the former football player who lied about being his high school valedictorian, lied about graduating from college, had no experience in government, and didn’t even live in Georgia when Republicans recruited him to run for the Georgia Senate seat against Raphael Warnock. Walker’s own son, Christian, admitted that his father was picked mainly “because he was the same skin color as his opponent.”

After years of Republicans weaponizing Dr. King’s line about judging people “by the content of their character,” when it came time to pick a candidate to run against Rev. Warnock, the pastor of Dr. King’s church, they picked an inexperienced Black guy based on the color of his skin.

Last but not least is Clarence Thomas, the Harlan Crow-funded Black conservative who replaced the legendary Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court through affirmative action, and then joined five of his White colleagues to kill affirmative action for everyone else. Thomas also cast the decisive vote to gut the Voting Rights Act that protects Black people at the polls.

What these Black Republicans have in common is that none of them were chosen by Black people. They may have been born in Black communities decades ago, but none of them represent Black districts or interests. That means they have no accountability to the majority of Black Americans.

And that’s important because Black and White people, like Democrats and Republicans, see the world differently. A new study from the Pew Research Center found that nearly 80 percent  of Biden supporters say that White people benefit from racial advantages in society, while only 22 percent of Trump supporters say this. 

In order for Black Republicans to stay relevant with the base, they have to pretend — or in some cases, they may even believe — that racism is not an issue in America. But the majority of Black people know better. If Black Republicans spent more time in Black communities, they’d know it too.

Keith Boykin is a New York Times bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show “My Two Cents,” and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com. 

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By Aziah Siid
Word In Black

From hair products mogul Madame C.J. Walker to Pinky Cole, CEO of Slutty Vegan Foods, the Black community has a long tradition of inspiring and nurturing entrepreneurs. 

The creativity and determination to build a successful business from the ground up — and seeing a venture shine — can be immensely satisfying, and the call to create one is enduring.  According to the most recent official numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are nearly 3.6 million Black-owned businesses, employing millions of people nationwide. 

Now, with platforms like TikTok, Shopify and other methods, Black youth are turning their interest and passions into profits. For students with an entrepreneurial spirit, there are organizations across the country specifically designed to help them plan a venture, fund it and more. Check out five of them here:

1. Black Girl Ventures Foundation

In its mission to provide Black women and girls with access to “community, capital and capacity,” Black Girl Ventures has funded hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the nation, helping transform dreams into realities. 

Founded in 2016 by entrepreneur and computer scientist Shelly Bell, the nonprofit foundation has multiple programs targeting tech-enabled businesses generating under $1M. Their funding model uniquely combines the premise of hit television shows Shark Tank and Kickstarter by activating “community participation in donating to support women-owned businesses directly”.

BGV currently has three signature programs: BGV Pitch, BGV NextGen, BGV Emerging Leaders. It is currently the largest ecosystem builder for Black and brown women founders on the East Coast.

2. The Hidden Genius Project 

The Hidden Genius Project trains and mentors Black boys  in technology creation, entrepreneurship and leadership, skills that can help transform their lives and communities.

Founded in Oakland in 2012, the Project is the brainchild of five Black men who were unnerved by the juxtaposition between high Black male unemployment and the abundance of career opportunities in nearby Silicon Valley.  

To bridge that gap, the founders established a program to connect young Black males with the skills, mentors, and experiences that they need to become high-performing tech-sector workers and entrepreneurs.

3. The NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant 

Along with  fighting social injustice, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also aims to build Black entrepreneurial pipeline. 

In conjunction with Medium Rare and The Shark Group, the NAACP is in its fourth year of the annual NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant. The grant empowers Black entrepreneurs and businesses through funding and resources and, in previous years, has contributed immensely to the growth of Black businesses across the nation.

4. Center for Black Entrepreneurship

The Center for Black Entrepreneurship stems from the long-standing history of creative programming at Spelman College and Morehouse College, both in Atlanta. 

In partnership with Spelman and Morehouse, the Black Economic Alliance Foundation founded the first-ever academic center of its kind to directly produce, train, and support young Black entrepreneurial talent.

According to the site, the CBE seeks to “eliminate the access barrier between Black entrepreneurs, professional investors, and business builders by leveraging education, mentorship, access to capital and opportunity.” 

Building on an existing culture of strong entrepreneurship programs at both historically-black colleges, the CBE is intended to help expand the ecosystem and continue to grow the pipeline of Black innovation. 

5. The Young Entrepreneurs of Color Pitch Competition

A creation of The Abercrumbie Group, the Young Entrepreneurs of Color Pitch Competition launched in 2021 to connect African American and Latinx high schoolers and would-be entrepreneurs to training, resources and mentorship for highschool students in grades 10-12. 

The program features an interactive one-week paid internship in July for students and young professionals. They’ll work together in teams and learn about entrepreneurship, team building, pitching business ideas and providing solutions for real-life scenarios when running a company.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Renata Sago
Word in Black 

Erika Broadwater’s career began 33 years ago with a phone call. A former colleague had seen her work as an intern and invited her to apply as a marketing administrator. The position was ideal. She had just earned a business degree. 

“My résumé was by typewriter,” she remembers. “But you had to, back then, go to the location and complete a paper application. There were no online portals for you to digitally apply.”

Broadwater now manages recruiters and implements some of the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that collect data from job websites. She is also CEO of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources. Although how people navigate the market has greatly shifted from when Broadwater started working, she says one thing has remained the same: name bias. 

“We have been paying a lot more attention in bringing more awareness to that stereotype, and it really is both gender and ethnic-focused,” she says. “We do know through common language — and this is in every culture for the most part, except for, perhaps, those countries and continents within the Middle East — where a name with the ending of an A is usually associated with a woman. But there are some cultures that it’s not.” 

The pressure to secure employment in this economy can lead Black job seekers to think about changing their names. An analysis of 2022 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that 83.6 percent of Black graduates, ages 20 to 29, were employed soon after receiving associate, bachelor’s, or advanced degrees. The percentage of unemployed talent was 8.7 percent — higher than self-identifying Asian, Hispanic, and white graduates.

A report out this year from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute finds that one year after graduating, 60 percent of Black graduates were underemployed. This percentage was higher compared to other groups. Five years later, the underemployment percentage rate was higher than other groups, too. 

Social media influencers humorize the job search process, boasting in mockumentary-style interviews about how proficient they are at Excel formulas or group projects while displaying extreme incompetence once hired. Exaggerating skill sets might be a typical practice among entry-level candidates. Shortening and completely changing names takes place at all levels. Candidates with strong ethnic names might put a more ethnically ambiguous or “whitened” version of their name on an application. This can draw more attention from the hiring team. 

“I can guarantee my name has positively influenced my chances for employment,” Amber Chatham tells Word In Black. “I can recall multiple instances of the hiring manager or whoever was conducting the interview, having a look of slight, almost imperceptible shock on their face when they called me from the lobby, expecting to see someone else. As a biracial woman, I’ve encountered this both professionally and in my personal life countless times.” 

Chatham is a human resources practitioner who screens hundreds of applicants with algorithms that she believes sometimes overlook qualified candidates. It’s tougher in this economy, especially for entry-level candidates. Hundreds of people might be applying for one position that decision-makers don’t fill for different reasons, she says. 

The stability of certain industries fluctuates from year to year, with some candidates pivoting temporarily until their desired industry is back afloat. According to a surveyfrom the National Association of Colleges and Employers, social services and engineering employers are planning to increase hires for the 2023-2024 academic year. The accounting services and electronics manufacturing industries are planning to decrease hires. 

Broadwater with the NAAAHR says Black graduates entering the market this year need to seek professional mentors to talk them through their résumés, salary expectations, and long-term goals. “This generation seems to only want to stay in a job for two to three years. There is no longevity, so there is essentially no commitment. You couple that with looking to come out of school making six figures, and that’s almost unheard of in very competitive instances.”

Staying connected to alumni groups is helpful for learning about opportunities and staying motivated. There are also several organizations — Blacks in HR, Hire Black Now, and The Black HR Society, for example — that offer virtual and in-person support. 

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

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By Joseph Williams
Word In Black

What some teachers see as disruptive behavior in Black children closely tracks broader symptoms of attention-deficit disorder 

When a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report last week revealed that one in nine children in the U.S. are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, experts said the data reflects a surge in cases since 2016 — and a growing understanding of how the disorder affects children, including struggles with attention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.  

The rise in ADHD diagnoses, however, comes at a time when several studies show Black children are substantially more likely to face punishment in school than White children for vaguely defined disruptions — defiance, disruption and insubordination — that could mirror ADHD symptoms.

Coupled with the fact that Black children are less likely to receive treatment for the disorder than White children, it’s easy to see how school suspensions and ADHD overlap. That nexus could shine new light on the disproportionately high disciplining of Black children in public schools as well as the lack of resources and counseling for the disorder.

“I think it’s a really important issue,” says Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, a nonprofit organization. “On one hand, Black kids — Black boys in particular, but Black girls too — are misdiagnosed” with more severe psychological problems such as schizophrenia when it could be ADHD. 

“I think it’s a combination of being under-diagnosed and over-diagnosed for, you know, for sometimes the very same thing,” he says.

According to the CDC report, an estimated seven million children ages three to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, or roughly 11.4 percent of the nation’s school-age population. The data, compiled from a national survey of parents in 2022, also found that boys are nearly twice as likely to get a diagnosis than girls, and that Black and White children are diagnosed at the same rate (12 percent). 

The report found nearly 80 percent of kids with ADHD diagnoses had a co-occurring problem, like anxiety or depression. But almost half of the children had a behavior or conduct problem, including oppositional defiant disorder, a condition whose symptoms include anger, refusal to comply with instructions, or resentment. 

Although the CDC study found they are about as likely as White children to get an ADHD diagnosis, Black children diagnosed with ADHD “are less likely than their White counterparts to receive treatment,” according to a 2022 study published in the journal Psychiatric Services. Further, “Once Black and Hispanic children with ADHD receive treatment, they may be more likely than White children to disengage from treatment or to receive poorer-quality care.”

The reasons range from cultural issues with mental health to less access to quality healthcare and bias among caregivers in the largely-White field of behavioral medicine. 

Those problems can manifest themselves in the classroom, experts say, resulting in the kind of behavior that gets students disciplined, suspended, or kicked out of school. But El-Mekki says the problem runs more deeply, including unequal resources between Black and White schools — particularly when it comes to school counselors and resources. 

“One thing is just the cultural incompetence that occurs by educators” who are more likely to be White, he says.  “The lens (they) use to view students — what might be normal (ADHD) behavior is often viewed as problematic” to the point where “children get over-policed.”

At the same time, there may be other factors that can exacerbate that behavior, ranging from a tumultuous home life to poverty or abuse, as well as environmental factors, such as lead and asbestos in homes, El-Mekki says. 

Making matters worse, he says, is the fact that Black students attending mostly-White schools don’t usually have access to school counselors that look like them, while Black students at mostly-Black schools typically don’t have access to counselors at all. Studies have found that only about 18 percent of U.S. teachers are people of color, while nearly 90 percent of mental health professionals are non-Hispanic White.

“But often, we find it easier to blame children, and label them and then put them in a corner box and say, ‘This is what their problem is,’” El-Mekki says. “When that happens, it’s very easy to make excuses about why we can’t teach them — why they can’t be successful.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Renuka Rayasam
Word in Black

For the past year and a half, Tandra Cooper Harris and her husband, Marcus, who both have diabetes, have struggled to fill their prescriptions for the medications they need to control their blood sugar.

Without Ozempic or a similar drug, Cooper Harris suffers blackouts, becomes too tired to watch her grandchildren, and struggles to earn extra money braiding hair. Marcus Harris, who works as a Waffle House cook, needs Trulicity to keep his legs and feet from swelling and bruising.

The couple’s doctor has tried prescribing similar drugs, which mimic a hormone that suppresses appetite and controls blood sugar by boosting insulin production. But those, too, are often out of stock. Other times, their insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace burdens the couple with a lengthy approval process or an out-of-pocket cost they can’t afford.

“It’s like, I’m having to jump through hoops to live,” said Cooper Harris, 46, a resident of Covington, Georgia, east of Atlanta.

Supply shortages and insurance hurdles for this powerful class of drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, have left many people who are suffering from diabetes and obesity without the medicines they need to stay healthy.

One root of the problem is the very high prices set by drugmakers. About 54 percent of adults who had taken a GLP-1 drug, including those with insurance, said the cost was “difficult” to afford, according to KFF poll results released this month. But it is patients with the lowest disposable incomes who are being hit the hardest. These are people with few resources who struggle to see doctors and buy healthy foods.

In the United States, Novo Nordisk charges about $1,000 for a month’s supply of Ozempic, and Eli Lilly charges a similar amount for Mounjaro. Prices for a month’s supply of different GLP-1 drugs range from $936 to $1,349 before insurance coverage, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. Medicare spending for three popular diabetes and weight loss drugs — Ozempic, Rybelsus, and Mounjaro — reached $5.7 billion in 2022, up from $57 million in 2018, according to research by KFF.

The “outrageously high” price has “the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire health care system,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote in a letter to Novo Nordisk in April.

The high prices also mean that not everyone who needs the drugs can get them. “They’re kind of disadvantaged in multiple ways already, and this is just one more way,” said Wedad Rahman, an endocrinologist with Piedmont Healthcare in Conyers, Georgia. Many of Rahman’s patients, including Cooper Harris, are underserved, have high-deductible health plans, or are on public assistance programs like Medicaid or Medicare.

Many drugmakers have programs that help patients get started and stay on medicines for little or no cost. But those programs have not been reliable for medicines like Ozempic and Trulicity because of the supply shortages. And many insurers’ requirements that patients receive prior authorization or first try less expensive drugs add to delays in care.

By the time many of Rahman’s patients see her, their diabetes has gone unmanaged for years, and they’re suffering from severe complications like foot wounds or blindness. “And that’s the end of the road,” Rahman said. “I have to pick something else that’s more affordable and isn’t as good for them.”

GLP-1 agonists — the category of drugs that includes Ozempic, Trulicity, and Mounjaro — were first approved to treat diabetes. In the last three years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved rebranded versions of Mounjaro and Ozempic for weight loss, leading demand to skyrocket. And demand is only growing as more of the drugs’ benefits become apparent.

In March, the FDA approved the weight loss drug Wegovy, a version of Ozempic, to treat heart problems, which will likely increase demand, and spending. Up to 30 million Americans, or 9 percent of the U.S. population, are expected to be on a GLP-1 agonist by 2030, the financial services company J.P. Morgan estimated.

As more patients try to get prescriptions for GLP-1 agonists, drugmakers struggle to make enough doses.

Eli Lilly is urging people to avoid using its drug Mounjaro for cosmetic weight loss to ensure enough supplies for people with medical conditions. But the drugs’ popularity continues to grow despite side effects such as nausea and constipation, driven by their effectiveness and celebrity endorsements. In March, Oprah Winfrey released an hour long special on the medicines’ ability to help with weight loss.

It can seem like everyone in the world is taking this class of medication, said Jody Dushay, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “But it’s kind of not as many people as you think,” she said. “There just isn’t any.”

Even when the drugs are in stock, insurers are clamping down, leaving patients and health care providers to navigate a thicket of ever-changing coverage rules. State Medicaid plans vary in their coverage of the drugs for weight loss. Medicare won’t cover the drugs if they are prescribed for obesity. And commercial insurers are tightening access due to the drugs’ cost.

Health care providers are cobbling together care plans based on what’s available and what patients can afford. For example, Cooper Harris’ insurer covers Trulicity but not Ozempic, which she said she prefers because it has fewer side effects. When her pharmacy was out of Trulicity, she had to rely more on insulin instead of switching to Ozempic, Rahman said.

One day in March, Brandi Addison, an endocrinologist in Corpus Christi, Texas, had to adjust the prescriptions for all 18 of the patients she saw because of issues with drug availability and cost, she said. One patient, insured through a teacher retirement health plan with a high deductible, couldn’t afford to be on a GLP-1 agonist, Addison said.

“Until she reaches that deductible, that’s just not a medication she can use,” Addison said. Instead, she put her patient on insulin, whose price is capped at a fraction of the cost of Ozempic, but which doesn’t have the same benefits.

“Those patients who have a fixed income are going to be our more vulnerable patients,” Addison said.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

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And the advice is pretty useful for the rest of us, too.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black 

This is the time of year when connectional church bodies — like AMEs, United Methodists, and AMEZs — meet and renew their covenant, mission and goals. They also send returning and new pastors to begin a new ministry year. There’s something about newness that always sparks the heart and mind to start out with new energy, conviction and direction.

How many pastors fail within the first couple of years? Many tales are told of unhappy unions between pastors and people that ended badly and much too soon. How many make regrettable first steps that could have been avoided with the right counsel? There’s no way to know. But a little advice might be helpful.

1. Be clear about who you’re married to

“If you’re married, always remember you’re married to your spouse, not the church,” says Pastor Eric Scott, who pastors the Lighthouse Worship Center in Baltimore along with his wife, Pastor Marcia Scott.

“The church is God’s bride!” 

This must work for him since they’ve been married for more than 30 years.

2. Remember people are people

Scott also says not to allow the size of the crowd to affect your delivery, how you minister and preach.

“If 10-20 people show up, feed them the best meal you can,” he said.

It’s also important to remember church people are just people.

“I will never forget the deacon who could barely read, but who loved the Lord and me. Nor can I forget another church member who confronted me with an attitude that was hardly godly,” says Dr. Chuck Lawless, dean of doctoral studies and vice president of spiritual formation and ministry centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. “God’s church is people — and people can be a blessing one day and a heartache the next. Nevertheless, they are all God’s people, and they deserve our love.”

3. Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Perhaps the first thing is to get comfortable living in the land of the awkward because you’re going to spend the rest of your ministry there, as suggested by the Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership to young pastors.

“Engaging with diverse personalities, comforting the grieving, or addressing sensitive topics can often feel awkward and uncomfortable, remembering that even Jesus faced awkward moments during his ministry, and it is in those moments that we often experience breakthroughs and connections,” senior pastor Steve Tillis wrote in his blog.

4. Accept that you aren’t perfect

Another suggestion is to accept the fact that you will make a wrong decision, let someone down, or say something you regret.

“Perfection is an unattainable goal, even for pastors. It is essential to remember that mistakes are opportunities for growth and humility, and when you stumble, seek forgiveness,” Tillis wrote.

With all the things sure to create stress in a pastor’s life, such as weekly sermon preparation, fundraising and relationship building, finding and maintaining balance between work and play, church family and personal family is a must-do.

The post Words of wisdom for new pastors appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By John Celestand 
Word in Black

John Celestand is the program director of the Knight x LMA BloomLab, a $3.2 million initiative that supports the advancement and sustainability of local Black-owned news publications. He is a former freelance sports broadcaster and writer who covered the NBA and college basketball for multiple networks such as ESPN Regional Television, SNY, and Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia. John was a member of the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championship Team, playing alongside the late great Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and son. Credit: Courtesy photo 

Back in early March, in a statement released on social media, legendary Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith blasted his alma mater, the University of Florida, for eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion program. Smith warned minority athletes at Florida to “please be aware and vocal” about the decision the university was making, which in essence meant closing the doors on students of color. 

A few days later, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson asked “current and prospective” student-athletes to “reconsider any potential decision to attend, and compete at a predominantly white institution in the state of Florida.” He pointed out that “these institutions reap considerable financial benefits from the very individuals they fail to stand by in matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”  

So, should Black athletes refuse to attend schools that defund DEI? 

After all, today’s athletes command major coin when it comes to NIL (name, image, and likeness) dollars. Their ability to enter the portal and transfer to other universities without repercussion could, if leveraged correctly, have a tremendous influence on how universities handle DEI.

The question came up again this week for me after news broke that the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, plans to divert the school’s entire $2.3M DEI budget toward public safety and policing. 

Basically, UNC “said that the opposite of funding DEI programming is funding police,” writer, researcher, and Harvard Kennedy fellow Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman wrote on X this week. 

North Carolina brought in nearly $123 million in revenue from athletics in 2022. If every Black athlete at the school refused to play until the DEI budget was restored, that would undoubtedly put pressure on the school.

But even though today’s college athletes are in a prime position to effect change around DEI at universities because of their platforms, power, and heavy influence, is this really their responsibility?

Who should stand up for DEI?

“I don’t think it is their responsibility” says Leashia Lewis, assistant athletic director for diversity equity and inclusion at Villanova University.“They have an opportunity to use their platform and voices to make change, but it is also the responsibility of athletic departments to support them in doing that. My question would be, are athletic departments willing to or in a position to support student-athletes when they have something to say or want to fight for change?” 

There’s also the reality that Black athletes of the past were fighting for basic civil rights, which made it easier to think from a collective standpoint. 

“The risk of being a social justice activist and using your platform is different now. Many student-athletes are not willing to take the risk,” Lewis says.

“The risk is playing time, reputation, belief that your coach may see you as an outcast —, especially if you are not the superstar. There is also their personal branding, and NIL deals they may not want to risk. Especially for football and basketball players who have the highest platforms. Some of them are not prepared to take that risk.” 

How did we get here?

The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, opened a floodgate of pledges to support DEI across corporate America and beyond. Companies and universities jostled to be first in line to beat their chests and voice their support and commitment to increasing opportunities to hire, accept, and retain people from underrepresented, underprivileged, and less advantaged communities.  

I was always skeptical. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And now it has — falling harder than Humpty Dumpty ever did.

In 2023, Florida, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, became one of the first states to enact a law restricting DEI efforts. It banned the state’s public universities from spending money on DEI initiatives and placed restrictions on how educators could discuss discrimination in mandatory courses. Texas, North Carolina, and North Dakota passed similar bills later in the year. So far in 2024, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Alabama have passed bills that are set to go into effect July 1.  

The University of Texas and Alabama are both ranked in the top five of the AP Top 25 College Football Poll. According to USA Today’s tracking, in 2022, these schools brought in over $239 million and $214 million, respectively.

Translation: Athletes most definitely have some pull. 

Athletes have always been on the frontlines.

Athletes and college students have almost always been on the frontline of change. Many professional athletes, such as Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Jim Brown, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Colin Kaepernick, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos, took stances but also sacrificed their personal lives and careers. 

“Historically, athletes have used their platforms to speak for justice or to make change and bring attention to injustices that are in our society,” Lewis says.

“Much of the DEI work in athletics right now has existed as a result of athletes speaking up in response to Colin Kaepernick in 2017 taking a knee and also in response to George Floyd being murdered,” she says.

As everyone knows, though, Kaepernick’s football career was destroyed by his decision to protest.

Is this what we are expecting of today’s college athletes?  

What if they are prepared to take that risk? 

“Right now, the climate in college athletics across the country in terms of DEI is not as active as it was in 2020,” Lewis says. “There are other things taking priority now like NIL, the transfer portal, unionizing the student-athlete, and having them be considered employees for the institution.” 

There is no definitive answer to this dilemma. If student-athletes covet their individual earnings and opportunities more than the collective justice for the silent, minoritized, and marginalized communities lacking the power to speak up for themselves, then the conversation about risk doesn’t matter. 

And riddle me this: What would I have done back when I was a student-athlete in the late 1990s if I had a million-dollar NIL deal on the table?  

Would I have sacrificed for the collective? If that were the case, then should I have even been asked to?  

Lewis doesn’t believe so. 

“My call to action is to the ecosystem around them,” she says. “Why do they (athletes) have to risk everything for justice when we’ve talked so much about supporting the whole athlete and that we need to give them everything they need to perform? So, in a sense, this is a performance, and we need to give them everything they need to succeed.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

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By Joseph Williams
Word In Black

In 2020, when millions of people worldwide took to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd, a small school district in northwestern Virginia — an area that gave safe haven to Confederate forces during the Civil War — quietly stripped the names of 3 rebel commanders from two of its public schools. 

But the Shenandoah County School Board’s low-key act of racial justice, made in a virtual meeting during the COVID-19 lockdown, triggered an intense backlash. A coalition of White parents and residents, angry at what they saw as a disrespectful move made without public input, launched a four-year campaign to reverse it. 

Last week, they succeeded.

In the first action of its kind, the board voted 5-1 to re-rename a high school for Stonewall Jackson and return the names of Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby to one of the district’s elementary schools. Despite substantial opposition, the board said it was correcting the previous board’s “knee-jerk reaction” to public protests about Floyd’s murder.

Board member Gloria E. Carlineo told CNN that race wasn’t a factor in their decision; rather, the board, she said, acted to restore residents’ trust. “Wrongful actions by governmental systems can and should be rectified” through official channels, she said. 

But experts say the school board’s decision — along with right-wing discrediting of DEI programs, new state laws restricting classroom lessons on Black history and the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision gutting affirmative action programs in college admissions — is another sign that the Great Racial Reckoning of 2020 is probably over. 

Not forgotten or forgiven

“It’s deeply disturbing to me to hear that they reverted to names that present symbolic violence to a large swath of the American public,” says Gregg Suzannah Ferguson, an educator, anti-bias trainer and director of Hampton University’s Upward Bound program. “I am very saddened that we have to fight again (against) unconscious bias hiding in plain sight.”

The Confederate names were stripped from Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School back in July 2020, renaming them Mountain View High and Honey Run Elementary. The community was shut down due to the pandemic at the time, but protests erupted after a police officer killed Floyd in Minneapolis a few months earlier.

At a virtual meeting, the board voted to drop the names, declaring they were in conflict with a recently passed resolution condemning all forms of racism. The county’s population is 78 percent White and just 6 percent Black. 

The reaction was swift and enduring. Outraged residents condemned the switch as a back-door move borne from political correctness — and with next to no public notice. A revote on the in 2022 ended in a tie, allowing the name changes to stand, but it became a hot-button issue in subsequent school board elections. 

Located about 60 miles from Washington, D.C., near the West Virginia state line, the Shenandoah Valley established itself as a pro-slavery stronghold and saw significant fighting during the Civil War. Supporters of the restored names pointed to that history, arguing that Lee, Jackson, and Ashby were men of bravery and honor. 

But opponents said the Confederate commanders were fighting for slavery and Black oppression — and lost. They also pointed out that the painful history of Shenandoah County’s segregated public schools wasn’t that long ago, and erasing those names is a step towards reconciliation.  

Indeed, even in 2024, Black residents of Shenandoah County often have to drive past Confederate flags flying from businesses and front porches. Many of those who fly the banner defend it as a celebration of heritage, not a racist symbol of hatred.

Pride for some, pain for others

Ferguson — a former classroom teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Charleston, West Virginia — says the name change and reversal in Shenandoah County is an equal protection and safety issue. In 2019, she studied the effect schools named after Confederate figures and White supremacists have on Black teachers and students. 

For them, the schools represent “a symbolic trifecta for White supremacy,” Ferguson wrote. “These names amplify racial inequities in society, the opportunity gap for black and Latinx populations, and the White privilege that allows many educators to remain oblivious to the suffering of students and colleagues of color.”

By using those names, school systems and elected officials “are tacitly endorsing the White supremacist agenda that sustained American slavery and continues to deprive students and educators of the respect and dignity they deserve,” she wrote. Teachers and students in those schools, she wrote, experience microaggressions and emotional trauma every time they walk into a building, earn a diploma, or put on a sports uniform with “Stonewall Jackson” or “Robert E. Lee” written on it.

“I’m a Black person. I don’t understand White people in this sense,” Ferguson says. “I’m not gonna say it’s a moral deficit, but there is some faulty logic somewhere causing people to believe that the suffering of others in the society in which we live — and the context in which we evolved as a society — has nothing to do with the now.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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A member of Calvary Lutheran Church says they’ve learned to be “gentle with each other so we can be dangerous together.”

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

May 25, 2024, marks four years since George Floyd was murdered — on May 25, 2020 — by White former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in April 2021, rested his body weight on Floyd’s neck as Floyd cried out, “I can’t breathe.” Chauvin stayed there for 9 ½ minutes until Floyd died.

Floyd’s murder happened outside the Cup Food Store at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. Just a block away, at 39th Street and Chicago Avenue, stands Calvary Lutheran Church, whose pastor is Hans Lee. 

Little did the congregation know how this moment in history would catapult them into a central role in the transformation of their neighborhood.

Word in Black spoke with Shari Seifert, a member of Calvary who allowed herself to be swept up into the emerging community that has become George Floyd Square, a gathering place for comfort, sustenance, and the assurance that one need not be alone. She told her story in her book, “Ashes to Action,” and shared some of her experiences with Word in Black.

Word In Black: How did you first learn of George Floyd’s murder?

Shari Seifert: I received a video in the middle of the night. The same night. That was how I found out. And the video was the first I’d heard of his murder.

WIB: What did you do after seeing the video?

SS: I tried to go back to sleep, but I was horrified. And then this person reached out to me and we talked about doing a protest march. So I called — it was the first of many calls to my pastor — to say, ‘Hey, Pastor Hans, can we launch this march out of our parking lot?’ He agreed, so we just jumped into action and did that. Of course, it was huge. And honestly we had many members that joined the march.

I didn’t join in. I’m not sure why. But I stayed back at the church, and I made sure everyone got home. You know, it was COVID and people weren’t sharing rides together. But we figured out how to get everyone home from the Third Precinct building. And I thought that was going to be it. Because Philando Castile had been killed not that long ago, and it was on video, and nothing happened.

WIB: What happened the next day?

SS: I belong to a group called the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice. We got together, and we made a statement about the brutality, including the murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

People were streaming into the Square to pay respects. And some people were driving crazy. And so just regular neighbors put up barricades with whatever they could find to slow down the traffic so people wouldn’t be hurt. And people began to bring stuff, like it’s a funeral. They brought food and water, masks and all kinds of stuff that we shoved into the narthex of the church.

WIB: What did you do with it all?

SS: We started what we eventually called the community table. So we just had a table on the corner with food and water and snacks and all kinds of drinks. We kind of laughed about it, but it was a serious need. We called it the “ministry of bathroom” because we would let people come in and use our bathroom. Now we have porta potties in the square because that’s just what the community does.

WIB: What was going on beyond the square?

SS: Within a few days, all the grocery stores were burned down. We didn’t have public transportation. The pharmacies were burned down. The post office was burned down. It was kind of a mess. My wife was running the food shelf, which went from serving 25 families a week to serving 177 families a week. There was a lot of need, so we were scrambling.

WIB: What else was going on?

SS: The National Guard came in. What was really interesting is most of the time, the square — the center is at 38th and Chicago, and then it would extend out to the ends of those blocks — was really relatively peaceful. The police came in and messed up some of the stuff. I think that was before we had the barricades up. But they were bad actors. And many of the National Guard were bad actors. It was dystopian.

WIB: Did they feel you were being disloyal by helping the folks, as opposed to, in some way supporting them?

SS: I don’t know what was going on in their minds. They were against everyone, you know? Even the journalists. My pastor had a tear gas canister whiz past his head. And you know, standing there in his collar. But yeah, the journalists were not protected like they normally are. 

There was a show, I guess, they called it “The Reckoning,” I think. It was put on by the journalism department at the University of Minnesota. Journalists came from all over and they had photos up and all that. They were just talking about their experience. Many of them had covered wars, and they said this was the most dangerous they had ever felt. And it was because of the police.

WIB: Why was your church so ready for this? You sprung right into action.

SS: Calvary was ready to meet the moment after George Floyd was murdered because of the years of work we did on anti-racism and dismantling White supremacy. Because Calvary is a close community with resilient relationships, and simply because of where we were located. We also had a pastor who understood that his place at this time was not to be front and center, but to run interference as needed.

So we had really been doing some deep work for a long time, starting in about 2011. We had like a really nice, solid, multiracial race equity committee. 

WIB: Tell me about the Five Assumptions of George Floyd Square.

SS: First, assume everyone has COVID. Mask up or back up. Secondly, this is America, assume everyone is armed. It pays to be patient and polite. Third, assume everything you say and do is being recorded. If you don’t want someone to hear it or see it, don’t say it or do it. But if you say something around the circle, say it with your whole chest. The fourth is, assume that not everyone has your idea of liberation in mind. You can’t be betrayed if you know what’s up. And the fifth is, assume we’re all crazy. Anyone in movement space has been through some trauma. Thwarted expectations can come out sideways. Let’s be gentle with each other so we can be dangerous together. 

Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com. 

The post After George Floyd’s murder, a Minneapolis church builds community appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

A Howard University student renouncing her membership in Delta Sigma Theta, reopened the debate over whether Black Greek Letter Organizations are cults.

By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word in Black

Choosing which sorority or fraternity to pledge is a decision often made before college students arrive on campus — usually based on chosen occupation, what your friends may be doing, and which group offers the most prestige for their future. And, of course, if legacy plays a part, it’s really decided. 

Every now and then, however, the issue arises as to whether the values of the Divine Nine — historically Black fraternities and sororities — are in sync with students’ personal Christian values.

Such was the case on May 20 when Howard University rising senior Zora Sanders posted an open letter to Instagram that said she was renouncing her membership in one of these Black Greek Letter Organizations.

“I am a Spring 2024 Initiate of Alpha Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. I am writing this letter to inform Nationals that I have officially renounced and denounced membership in this organization,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders said that she’d done her due diligence in researching her chosen sorority, but “despite all the research and information I had gathered, I was not aware of the specific requirements.” She then detailed what she now considers to be ritual parts of the Delta initiation that she felt betrayed her faith.

“In order to become a member, I had to make a pledge, swear an oath of allegiance, and perform a ritual ceremony that involved kneeling/bowing at an altar,” Sanders wrote. 

Ultimately, she concluded the process of crossing over to become a Delta involved “idolatry, a sin that costs eternal life.”

Going public in this manner sparked a firestorm of reactions across social media platforms, with many folks upset that Sanders denounced her membership in the Alpha chapter — the first chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. Folks pointed out that she may have taken the spot of another woman who wanted to be in the sorority. Other folks were upset that Sanders shared private information about the initiation process in a public forum. But most of all, folks took issue with the insinuation that BGLOs are in some way cultish or satanic. 

Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Whitehead, host of WEAA’s “Today with Dr. Kaye” show in Baltimore, has been a Delta since 1989. She finds Sanders’ assertion surprising and thinks it’s just TikTok fodder, where everything is done publicly for likes and monetization.

“I am a Christian, a pastor’s kid, and a Delta. I am what people call a crib Baptist, in that I was stuffed with the word when I was in the crib. There has never been a moment when I felt that my faith conflicted with my sorority values,” Whitehead says.

“We pray together, attend church together, and lift each up,” Whitehead says of her fellow Deltas. “We have a large number of members active in their local churches — from deaconesses to pastors to ministers to bishops to prayer warriors.”

Poet, theologian, and educator Ajanaé Dawkins, a fourth-generation member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she was once “deep in a toxic religious space that almost convinced” her to denounce her membership. 

“Theologies that isolate you, demonize the world around you, & demand allegiance to God through public performance creep slowly.”

Dawkins wrote that initially, her membership in AKA wasn’t an issue in her faith community. But the idea of denouncing her membership “was introduced slowly until one day it was being demanded in altar calls.”

And in an op-ed he wrote in February, Rev. Keith Magee, chair and professor of practice in social justice at Newcastle University noted that “some Christians have denounced their BGLOs, publicly attacking them for being ‘idolatrous’ in their use of symbolic Greek letters and for causing members to put loyalty to their organization above loyalty to their faith.”

Magee is convinced “that through the story of Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and soon-to-come return, the message He is sending us, in His wisdom, is one of love. I try to embody that message in everything I do.”

He also said he’s “a proud member of two Black fraternities, Kappa Alpha Psi (one of the Divine Nine collegiate BGLOs) and Sigma Pi Phi (for professionals). Kappa was founded by 10 principled Christian men. With Kappa, I was younger when I crossed and not quite as knowledgeable as I am now about my faith.  Nevertheless, at no point in my life have I ever entered into an unorthodox, uninformed, or ungodly alliance with a Greek deity. Nor have I ever sworn an oath that would in any way hinder, absolve, or negate my Christian beliefs.”

The Rev. Dr. Danielle L. Brown, senior pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Plainfield, New Jersey, encouraged some of the upset commenters on social media to leave Sanders alone. She also raised the issue of whether denouncing has become a trendy thing to do.

“Unfortunately she represents a generation where social media is an idol,”  Brown wrote in a comment on Instagram about Sanders. “Denouncing is the latest trend. If this was done out of a new found desire to represent the Lord loudly, let’s just pray it goes beyond this one post. Nothing else on this page suggests such devotion, so perhaps it’s new.”

Brown also wondered if what Sanders “considers idolatry extends beyond an organization. Ultimately, her money, her choice, and wasted time.”

And, as Dawkins warned folks on X, “If you’re a Black woman or Black queer person being swept up by neo-conservative/harmful theologies, you aren’t the first or last. Avoid echo chambers. Question everything. Learn the difference between man made shame & the voice of God.” 

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.com.

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By Sharif El-Mekki
Word in Black

We need new Black teachers. Just as important, we need to keep the ones we already have.  

Teachers of all backgrounds are leaving schools at increasingly high rates. In cities like Philadelphia, more than 15 percent of them quit each year, costing a district around $20,000 per lost educator in added recruitment and new training costs, not to mention disruptions to student learning, according to the Learning Policy Institute. 

The overall teacher retention crisis is particularly acute when it comes to Black teachers, whose severe shortage has meant that most Black students go through 13 years of public education without having a single Black teacher — someone who can support and mirror a future of greater possibilities. A figure who continues the legacy of historic Black triumphs against seemingly insurmountable odds.  

Yet, when we of the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium sought to provide school and district leaders strategies to retain Black teachers, we found a scarcity of resources. Why educators of color leave their schools, if not the profession altogether, is well researched and documented. What’s confounding is there are no strategies focused specifically on their retention. 

White teacher retention, for example, focuses on identifying, building and leveraging opportunities for belonging; experiences that make educators internalize their role in the school community as a part of their professional, if not also their personal identity. Research suggests a higher sense of belonging is directly linked to increased rates in not just retention but also job performance.  

If the dominant school culture, celebrations, and norms skew towards White culture, for example, teachers, students and families of color may not feel welcomed or included. It can be a curriculum that only highlights White authors and heroes and excludes other groups or deems them as irrelevant; or it might be centering pedagogical and instructional frameworks that leverages the status quo but ignores the educational expertise of Black teachers. The result is the marginalization of key contributors with deep roots in the communities that schools across the country struggle to serve justly. 

But does this type of retention strategy, focused on belonging, support educators of color in schools where the administration, faculty and culture are predominantly White and may be working at various points on an anti-racist continuum? Such strategies would work, presumably as designed, but only once a school culture is truly welcoming to all, where the teachers’ racial identities, histories, aspirations, and cultural backgrounds reflect that of the student body and surrounding community.   

Until then, would Black teachers’ sense of “belonging” to the school’s culture make them want to stay more? Could they feel less themselves if they stayed in an antithetical culture? Would they have to compromise, sell out or deny who they are to fit in?   

Based on my review of retention strategies, there was clearly a need for new ones with Black teachers in mind. Which is why we developed The anti-racist guide to teacher retention. 

This toolkit provides school and district leaders with assessments, exercises and practical information to help make the changes that will entice teachers of color to stay in the profession. School leadership can use the strategies to focus on opportunities for respect, rather than belonging, since most schools have not achieved enough of a welcoming culture for their Black teachers to want to belong.  

It is a truism in education that when a school has high staff turnover, that is an indictment of its leadership. Teachers don’t quit their schools, the saying goes, they quit their principals. 

So how does school leadership avoid this? How do they create such a welcoming culture, and thereby create the conditions that would allow them to recruit and retain their Black teachers? How can school (and district) leaders develop policies and ongoing professional learning opportunities and practices that ensure Black teachers are respected, professionally effective, and fulfilled? 

It’s not easy. It requires a commitment to change and a reexamination of all aspects of our schools’ cultures, recruitment and retention processes.  

I recommend schools begin with cultural audits and insight surveys to gauge the current state of their climate. Leadership must model self-reflection in developing an anti-racist culture, directly asking Black teachers: “How are you experiencing my leadership? What should I change to show my respect for your experiences, expertise and aspirations?”  

There must be ongoing professional development for all educators to examine the basic human condition that often enables biases (not only racial) to get in the way of leading classrooms, schools, and districts well. Schools and districts should ensure feedback loops  that actually consider how to implement retention strategies that so many affinity groups recommend. Far too many school and district leaders give space for affinity groups, but block the participants from addressing cultures that undermine healthy, anti-racist working and learning spaces. 

But these are only the first steps in what must be a broad-based approach. We hope school leaders across the country use the toolkit to jumpstart this hard, but meaningful and critical work.  And we hope everyone will help us refine this unique, much needed resource.  

We know how critical it is to rebuild the Black teacher pipeline, the mission of our Center for Black Educator Development. That is because Black teachers can save Black children’s lives, changing their future trajectories.  

Research shows when a Black student has one Black teacher by third grade, they’re 13 percent more likely to enroll in college. With two Black teachers, that jumps to 32 percent. For Black boys from low-income households, their on-time high school graduation rates soar by almost 40 percent.  

In fact, students of all racial identities and ethnicities benefit from increased educator diversity, while energizing the professional development of non-Black educators. An educator workforce that better reflects society brings more opportunities for school experiences that counter racism and negative stereotypes and promote cross-cultural understanding, preparing all our children for life in an increasingly diverse and complex world.   

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Aziah Siid
Word In Black

April 25 marked exactly 10 years since a tragic story of environmental and racial injustice began in Flint, Mich. An unelected bureaucrat decided that saving $5 million over two years was worth risking the health and futures of thousands of children in the majority-Black city. The city’s drinking water supply was switched from the reliable Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River, releasing a torrent of lead and poisoning a generation.

Due to the crisis, health researchers found blood lead levels in Flint’s children doubled from roughly 2.5 percent to 5 percent. Under CDC guidelines, even minuscule detectable levels of lead in blood are associated with difficulties in learning, developmental delays and behavioral issues. 

And now a new study published in “Science Advances” by a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan finds that the seemingly benign decision to switch the city’s water source — and the lead poisoning that accompanied it — triggered an academic setback for a generation of Flint schoolchildren.

Analyzing standardized test scores from 2007 to 2019, researchers found that, after the crisis, students lost the equivalent of five months of learning progress in math — and they hadn’t recovered by 2019. They wrote, however, that they “did not observe a significant detectable effect on reading achievement in our main analysis.”

But that’s just what can be quantified on standardized tests.

One former Flint public school teacher, reflecting on her classroom experience, believes the literacy rate among the city’s schoolchildren may have plunged drastically — motivation for her to create a nonprofit organization to help them catch up. 

“One of the big things we dealt with was the declining literacy rates due to the water crisis,” says Danielle Green, who taught for two decades and is CEO of EMPOWER The People, an organization she founded to help Flint’s youth.

“I think the literacy rates dropped 75 percent” since the crisis, she says.  

Black students left behind 

To be clear, there were problems in Flint’s schools before the water crisis made headlines. A decade ago, in 2014, roughly 56 percent of Flint’s population was Black and 37 percent was White, but four schools had fewer than 10 percent White students — meeting the threshold of “intensely segregated,” according to UCLA’s Civil Rights Project.

“It tells me about an exodus of the White population,” retired principal Willa Hawkins said at the time.

A 2017 report on the Flint Water Crisis from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission found that in Flint, “White students’ needs were almost always addressed first, including placement in the newer and better schools, while all but a very few black students were denied access to programs that would open the door to higher education and greater opportunity.”

In addition to experiencing these harms related to racial and educational segregation, just over 42 percent of Black people in Flint were living in poverty in 2014. 

Poverty had a disproportionately negative impact on the Black community in Flint, particularly for children. Previous studies have shown that children from low-income households nationwide typically struggle in the classroom compared to their more affluent peers, due to factors ranging from hunger to homelessness. And schools in poorer neighborhoods are usually under-resourced compared to schools in wealthier districts.

But the water crisis made a bad situation in Flint even worse.

People complained about the look, foul smell, and taste of the water, but city officials repeatedly assured them it was safe. As the crisis wore on, however, adults and children using water from the tap began coming down with strange rashes and other illnesses. Detailed tests on the water found it had been contaminated with dangerous levels of bacteria and lead from aging pipes in the city’s water system. 

“In light of what high levels of lead can do to our children’s cognitive and emotional well-being, we clearly need a long-term solution to ensure our children have access to clean, safe drinking water,” then-Flint Community Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab said in fall 2015. 

Outraged residents demanded action, but the city, state, and federal governments were at odds on how to proceed and who was to blame.

‘How did we get so lucky?’

Meanwhile, the effects of the water crisis began showing up in the classroom — and not just among children exposed to lead in water at home. Math scores plunged, particularly among boys, and the city’s school system saw an 8 percent increase in the number of students referred for special education.

Green, the former Flint teacher, was working at Durant-Tuuri-Mott Elementary School as a classroom teacher and saw what was happening to her students in real time, long before academic studies caught up to them. She recalls a meeting in which the Flint school board waved away concerns about lead pipes in her school’s water system.

“I remember asking about the pipe, and they said that our pipes did not need to be replaced in the school, and I said, ‘Why?’” Green says. “How did we get so lucky? So everything around us, everything in front of us, in the back of us to the left, and to the right of us needs to be replaced, but we don’t?’ 

In 2020, Flint’s public school system saw more than 1 in 4 kids receive special education services, as previously reported by Word In Black. The overdiagnosis of Black students for special education is real, but there’s no safe amount of lead to consume. 

Lead exposure in early childhood is associated with a host of negative outcomes aside from the decline in scores, including “increased anxiety, increased behavioral problems, decreased executive functioning, decreased academic achievement, decreased brain volume, higher rates of criminal offending, and decreased social mobility,” according to the Science Advances study. 

“While lead exposure in Flint children increased modestly on average, some children were exposed to high lead levels,” the authors wrote. “We find decreases in math achievement and increases in special needs classification, even among children living in homes with copper (rather than lead) water service lines.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, “Low socioeconomic status students and younger students experienced the largest effects on math achievement, and boys experienced the largest effects on special needs classification,” according to the study. “Our results point toward the broad negative effects of the crisis on children and suggest that existing estimates may substantially underestimate the overall societal cost of the crisis.”

Teachers called child protective services

Beyond the academic toll she saw, Green also witnessed the horror of students suffering from the health effects of consuming the toxic water. 

“I would do one-on-ones with children, and I would start to see a lack of hair, bald spots, patches,” Green says.

In addition, teachers themselves sometimes ignored what was going on with their students. Green notes that many of the teachers who worked at her school and others in the city didn’t live in Flint. 

“A lot of the educators are not Flint teachers,” she says. So, while the city’s children quite literally had their futures poisoned, the very educators entrusted with their care and development proved unwilling to help — and sometimes made things worse.

“They didn’t concern themselves with as much as I think they needed to,” Green says. “So it was to the point where there were conversations being had on calling child protective services on parents because they weren’t bathing their children.”

All children living in Flint

Researchers also found that children who weren’t directly exposed to the contaminated water, whose homes didn’t have contaminated pipes, still face academic challenges. They study authors wrote that the Flint Water Crisis “affected all children living in Flint, not only those children who experienced elevated lead exposure (just as the COVID-19 pandemic affected children who never contracted the virus).”

That may be due “to the psychosocial impacts of a child experiencing a crisis or may have operated through other non-lead pathways.”

In other words, a constant backdrop of racial trauma and upheaval, of scared parents and oblivious teachers failing to grasp the crisis. The anxiety of watching friends get sick while adults debate what to do. The fraying of communal trust and the looming threat of invisible toxins casting a shadow on their lives.

Or maybe the children understood the racial subtext of a predominantly Black city being poisoned by its own government, sacrificed in the name of austerity. The realization that their lives had so little value to those in power. A new generational scar tissue forming over the open wound of structural racism.

And it was all preventable.

Hey Super Girl

Green now devotes her time to “things to make sure children fall in love with reading” and boost their self-esteem. Over the past few years, she developed several children’s book series—”Sky’s the Limit” for little boys and the “Hey Girl” collection, with titles like “Hey Pretty Girl,” “Hey Smart Girl,” and “Hey Super Girl.”

Green says she wants Flint’s kids to be able to say, “Oh, that looks like me, I can relate to this.” And she wanted them to know there’s still hope in the world and they can change Flint for the better. In “Super Girl,” Green says “the main character name is Michaela, and it’s about a little girl who helps with the water crisis.”

But her heart still breaks over what’s happened in Flint, and she’s still angry at the willingness to let children get sick and suffer.

“I’m not sure what the angle on any of those things was,” Green says, “where people just decided we’re not gonna get these babies’ pipes replaced or clean water.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Joseph Williams
Word In Black

It’s been one thing after another with the new-but-not-necessarily-improved Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA), a form that helps students pay for college. 

First, the long-anticipated rollout of the redesigned online application was delayed for three months because it just wasn’t ready. Then, when it finally did appear, a variety of bugs and glitches, including some that could reduce the amount of federal tuition aid, kept students and their families from completing it. Now, Chronicle of Higher Education reports that schools are receiving FAFSA applications with incorrect tax information from families.  

None of this is good news for Black students, some 80 percent of whom depend on FAFSA to help pay for ballooning college costs.

According to the nonprofit National College Attainment Network, roughly 34 percent of all eligible high school seniors have submitted FAFSA applications through March 22, an overall decline of nearly 29 percent since last year. But the problem is most acute, according to NCAN data, among low-income schools and schools with high concentrations of minority students. There, the percentage decline in 2024 FAFSA applications is slightly more than 35 percent.

Besides worsening an already-bad time crunch for colleges and students who needed the financial information weeks ago, the FAFSA fiasco could keep Black students — an outsized number of whom rely on federal aid — out of college classrooms this fall. 

“Because Black students are disproportionately FAFSA filers, this has a huge impact on their ability to make a decision about both where, and if, they go to college,” says Bryan Cook, director of higher education policy at the Urban Institute Center on Education Data and Policy. 

Cook worries that some frustrated Black students, worried that they can’t pay for college without federal assistance, may downgrade their college choice or give up on college completely. Either option, he says, would have negative, long-term effects on their earning power in the job marketplace.

The FAFSA process, which colleges use to calculate their share of financial aid for a student, is already months behind schedule, Cook says. Unless the problems get resolved quickly, he says, ”Black students are going to have to make some really tough decisions about whether or not they continue to stay in this process.” 

The unequal impact on Black college-bound seniors is the latest headache for the federal Ed Department’s FAFSA reboot, which stumbled out of the gate late last year.  

Instead of the FAFSA application being open Oct. 1, enough time for students and colleges to prepare for the fall 2024 semester, the form didn’t launch until Dec. 31, setting off a scramble. The subsequent series of errors and submission problems didn’t help; at last count, only around 20 percent of applications have been processed, resulting in a nationwide backlog of some 6 million applications. 

Even though the Ed Department delayed the rollout to fix problems it knew about, a technicality it overlooked could end up costing students almost $2 billion in aid. And that’s before the cascade of issues that have surfaced in recent months.

Cook says those numbers are exacerbated by the fact that low-income, high-minority schools have fewer guidance counselors who can help guide students through the process. That can be important, experts say, because heads of low-income minority households tend to have lower rates of college degree attainment.

“We know that Black and Hispanic students disproportionately attend high-poverty schools, where their ratio of guidance counselors to students is double what that what they are in more wealthy schools,” he says. “So the combination of Black students disproportionately filing FAFSAs and disproportionately having less access to guidance counselor’s means that this issue with the rollout of the new FAFSA is having a much harder impact on Black students.”

Indeed, studies have found that Black students are 1.2 times more likely than White students to attend a school with a law-enforcement officer but without a guidance counselor. The counselors can be critical to completing the FAFSA. 

And every bit of financing helps: According to a study by College Board, for the 2022-23 academic year, average tuition and fees for a public four-year school averaged $10,940 for in-state students and $28,240 for out-of-state students, according to the latest data from College Board. Private nonprofit four-year schools amassed a much higher $39,400 average. Add room and board, books and other expenses to the mix, and that bill goes up several thousand dollars more.

Given those hurdles, Cook worries that Black student enrollment in college — already on the decline in part because of skyrocketing tuition and the Supreme Court dismantling of affirmative action in school admission decisions — is about to take another hit because of the FAFSA snafu. 

Students depend on the financial aid form to get “a better sense of what schools they can afford,” he says. That matters, he says, because a degree from a more selective college tends to bring higher wages after graduation. 

Without knowing how much federal aid they’ll get for tuition, “high school students may decide  to now go to maybe a regional, public school that’s more affordable, or even a community college that they can afford,” Cook says. “Or — worst case scenario — opting out of pursuing a college education this year, altogether. And we know any sorts of delay for low income students could ultimately mean they choose not to go on to college.”

Fortunately, Cook says, many colleges are doing what they can to help, pushing back deadlines and trying to work with students. But the ripple effects of the FAFSA revamp, Cook says, spotlights the bigger, thornier problem of college affordability.

“I think it just underscores how much of a reliance students have on federal financial aid,” he says. Unfortunately, “there is no silver bullet.”

“My biggest fear,” Cook says, “is that we may have already lost some students.”

The article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Bria Overs,
Word in Black

Will Edmond, vegan chef and travel content creator, had had enough. After spending 13 years living in Atlanta and a couple of years in Louisiana, he decided it was time for a change. It was time to return to his roots.

“Cities are becoming more stressful,”said Edmond, 39, to Word In Black. The appeal of urban living has declined for some due to the traffic, crime and the rising cost of living. 

“I know my family has land back in East Texas. I can go back, clean it up, get it together, and build some unique structures on it. And that’s what led me here,” he said. 

In 2022, Edmond and his partner, Austyn Rich, moved back to Edmond’s ancestral hometown in East Texas, also known as Piney Woods. It’s a rural area known for its beauty, pine trees, lakes, and nature trails. And it’s here that Edmond’s family land — a whole 45-acres passed down through generations — is located.

But this experience, where Black folks keep land in the family, is rare.

Financial experts frequently laud homeownership as the key to wealth building. Yet, the Black homeownership rate has never been above 50 percent — a level other ethnic and racial groups have reached and surpassed. For the Black community, the loss of land and property contributes to the widening homeownership gap and the even wider racial wealth gap.

“The immediate cause of home loss is the lack of estate planning,” says Nketiah “Ink” Berko, an Equal Justice Works fellow at the National Consumer Law Center. “Either someone didn’t write a will, or maybe they did, but in the will, they left the home to five or six people. And by doing that, they’ve fractured the homeownership interests in the property.”

According to a 2022 Consumer Reports survey, one in three Americans has a will, but 77 percent of Black Americans lack one.

Estimates vary on the exact amount of Black-owned land lost. The Land Trust Alliance, a land conservation advocacy organization, estimates that between 1865 and 1919, Black folks in the South owned 15 million acres of land. By 2015, Black Americans had lost 97 percent of their land.

The American Bar Association offers a similar statistic: between 1910 and 1997, Black farmers and families lost more than 90 percent of the 16 million acres they owned — and the organization considers that to be a conservative estimate.

Splitting land between family

Berko says that land initially divided by a few children can become further divided by several grandchildren and even more so by subsequent generations. This division, known as “heirs property” or “tangled title,” creates challenges and difficulties in maintaining and keeping the property within the family.

This phenomenon also affected Edmond’s family. “My family, we own about six acres, and then my cousins up the street own some of the land as well,” he says. “We have all of the land still in our family to this day.”

On his father’s side of the family — which also owns a lot of land — a relative sold off their portion. Selling is one way to lose land, but other ways are incredibly burdensome to families.

A National Consumer Law Center report co-authored by Berko highlights laws and policies that could protect, resolve, or prevent heirs property. According to the report, heirs property owners are at greater risk of property tax lien foreclosure and frequently miss out on benefits or disaster relief.

Or, mortgage companies may refuse payments from “people who are not the borrower, refuse to provide information about how much is owed, and refuse to consider heirs for loan modifications or other foreclosure avoidance options,” according to the report.

“A lot of people lose their land for $4,000 because nobody in the family can agree to even pay anything on it, and then they lose it,” Edmond says. “Well, you only owe that much on it, and the land was worth $100,000. Now somebody else has it. I see that a lot around here.”

Tax and mortgage foreclosures leave families vulnerable to investors who offer to purchase the property for much less than it is worth, adding to the racial wealth gap.

Keeping it in the Family

In 2023, Edmond, Rich, and their family members turned the abandoned land into a homestead and “glamping” destination called Glamping Remote. When the project was complete, they shared their story publicly.

Edmond says it was important for him to share his journey and his family’s story because it can serve as an example of what’s possible for Black people. With it being unlikely that houses and property will get cheaper, Edmond believes if people can work with the property in their family or help pay the property taxes, they should.

“If people want to have any type of wealth or to hold on to land that’s been passed down from generation to generation, they need to come back to their grandfather’s and uncle’s land,” he says. “Land is something that’s only made one time.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Bria Overs
Word In Black

On this year’s Equal Pay Day, observed March 12, there was little to celebrate. Although women now earn more than ever have, the gender wage gap persists. And they’re feeling the pain in this current economy and political climate.

In 2023, women earned, on average, 21.8 percent less than men, according to the Economic Policy Institute. While that’s better than 2022, where women made 22.9 percent less, it’s not necessarily because jobs are starting to pay better — and higher education and self-advocacy only improved wages so much. The EPI found that the pay improvement is likely because men’s wages have stagnated.

Research from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women lose $1.6 trillion yearly because of the wage gap. “That’s a lot of money that we want in the pockets of women and their families,” Jocelyn Frye, president of the organization, says.

For Black, Latina, and Indigenous women, the wage gap problem is compounded by racial and gender discrimination, along with occupational segregation. These factors not only contribute to pay disparity with White men, but also Asian women and White women. Because of the type of jobs these women work, many of which are hourly positions with little to no options for retirement savings, health insurance and other benefits, this pay discrepancy adds to the racial wealth gap for each racial and ethnic group.

Frye adds that Black and Latina mothers, in particular, are more often the primary or sole breadwinners of their families, making them the “key to economic stability for their families.”

“When you ensure that they can participate in the economy equally, then they will do better, and their families will do better,” she says. “We know that centering women of color and the economic narrative is really critical to the economic growth of our families and our nation.”

The wage gap and reproductive justice

When women enter motherhood, they are hit with the “motherhood penalty” — a unique phenomenon where women see a decline in their earnings that can last the rest of their working years.

But beyond that, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, several states have made women’s reproductive health a legislative target. So far, 14 states have banned abortions, while 11 states have gestational limits between six and 22 weeks, according to KFF.

“Many of the attacks we see, we believe, have multiple effects as we’ve seen across the board,” Frye says. “It’s not just about abortion, it’s access to IVF, access to OBGYN care writ large, it’s maternal health. All of those things affect the economic stability of families.”

Businesses could help solve the gap

Both Frye and the Economic Policy Institute believe federal and state policymakers should do more to close the pay gap. In 2017, the Trump administration suspended an Obama-era wage gap initiative that required companies with 100 or more employees to confidentially report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) what they pay employees, categorized by job type, sex, race and ethnicity.

The Salary Transparency Act and Pay Equity for All Act were introduced in Congress in March 2023, but there has been no movement in the year since. States like California, Maryland and New York have passed laws requiring salary ranges on job postings.

However state efforts only partially solve the pay gap issue because women could easily fall on the lower end of the salary range. Besides, some employers still ask for previous pay history, making it more challenging for women to negotiate pay that reflects their worth.

While the nation waits for legislation, business owners can help with this issue by examining and addressing how they pay women in their workplaces.

“We really have to rely on employers to do their own due diligence and to include race and gender into the analysis they do because many will say they are looking at their gender pay gap, but then won’t look deeper,” Frye says. They should “look at how they’re enforcing and ensuring they’re looking at their workforce on a regular basis to minimize inequality.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Bria Overs,
Word In Black

Parents want the best for their children — to see them thrive, graduate college, get a good job and start a family of their own. Young adults turn to their parents for advice and, on occasion, financial assistance to achieve these key milestones of adulthood.

Texas resident Kayla G., 28, is one of those young people. She used a full-ride scholarship to get through college, but her parents provided support — filling out her FAFSA and paying for groceries — while she completed her undergraduate degree. After graduation, she moved home rent-free, got a marketing job, earned a master’s degree and paid off her car. 

While rent is not something she worries about, she does cover other expenses, including her phone bill, car insurance and health insurance.

“They definitely don’t just pay for everything, and I’m not living a complete ‘princess life’ over here,” she tells Word In Black. “But it is helpful. For all of my 20s, I’ve been able to save.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 23 percent of young adults in America say they are mostly financially independent, while 45 percent say they are completely independent from their parents. The study doesn’t break things down by race, but other research gives insights into the Black parent and Black young adulthood experience.

Links to the racial wealth gap

A 2021 study exploring the intersection of the Black-White wealth gap and parental financial assistance by researchers and professors at The New School and the State University of New York at Buffalo found that for some Black parents, giving money to their young adult children is quite difficult — through no fault of their own. Their ability to financially assist is not only affected by the long-standing racial wealth gap, but it can also contribute to its widening as well.

“The racial wealth gap is largely linked in an intergenerational way to policies and structures in which Black people have been excluded from,” says Darrick Hamilton, Henry Cohen professor of economics and urban policy and founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. In other words, it may be easier for White people to build and maintain wealth than it is for Black people because of government policies, for example, such as ineligibility for benefits from the G.I. Bill after World War II.

Black young adults are less likely to receive financial assistance from parents for education, homeownership, and other things than their White counterparts. 14 percent of Black people surveyed for the study reported receiving parental aid for college, 2 percent for homeownership, and nearly 20 percent for other reasons.

The researchers wrote these numbers are low in comparison to White survey takers, not because Black parents don’t want to help their children. The inability to give has more to do with the “socioeconomic position of Black parents,” and “in turn, translates into the intergenerational reproduction of the racial wealth gap.”

Effects of financial assistance for parents and their children

Low-income parents, especially, face trouble by providing aid. Nearly half of lower-income parents and 37 percent of middle-income parents said helping their young adult children financially hurt their own finances. In the reverse, though, a third of young adults said they were helping their parents and those with lower incomes were more likely to help.

Kayla’s three other siblings, who are in their 30s and mid-20s, also live at home. She says, in the past, her parents hadn’t expressed any issues with all six family members living under one roof. That is, until recently. 

“Those conversations are happening, and there may be some shifts,” she says. “I can’t say they ever said they felt like we were taking money out of their pocket — not verbatim, at least — but I definitely feel like there’s starting to be a bit of financial strain because we’re all grown.”

On the flip side, that same 2021 study noted Black young adults fare better in terms of income and net worth when they have assistance from their parents. This has been the case for Kayla. She says thanks to her parents, she’s been able to “grow up slowly” and prepare for her 30s by learning how to budget, save and invest.

“I think that’s a really undervalued thing in our society because everyone’s so quick to grow up fast and jump right into the world,” she says. “Being home has allowed me to mature slowly. I feel like I’m much wiser about things like how I view money. I’m better prepared to kind of go out there, and when I’m ready because I’ve been able to save up, I can purchase my own place.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Anissa Durham,
Word in Black

Sanieqwa Wilson has lived with Type 1 diabetes since she was 11. One of the challenges she has faced is getting an insulin pump. She first requested it when she was 25. Now, at 40, the Columbus, Ohio, resident finally got a new endocrinologist who approved it two months ago.  

It took 15 years. 

Part of the problem was the constant switch in doctors, Wilson says. Every few months or years, she was assigned a new endocrinologist. But it’s not just diabetes that she has to worry about.  

In June 2017, she had a heart attack. And 10 months later, on March 31, 2018, she had a sudden cardiac arrest — which subsequently left her in a coma for eight days. Wilson lives with kidney disease and congestive heart failure. 

“I have a lot of anxiety with my diabetes…it’s extremely traumatic,” she says. “I have PTSD from the sudden cardiac arrest.” 

Adults like Wilson who live with a disability report higher rates of delayed access to medical equipment and supplies than adults without a disability, a new Urban Institute report finds. This contributes to worsening health outcomes, chronic pain, and mental health issues.  

The analysis comes from the Institute’s June 2022 Health Reform Monitoring Survey of nearly 10,000 adults ages 18-64. And researchers who spearheaded the report told Word In Black the findings are not surprising.  

“What is surprising…there’s not a lot of national data on barriers adults with disabilities face to get medical equipment, supplies and other home and community-based services,” Michael Karpman, principal research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, says. “This is filling an important data gap that is really not covered by federal surveys.” 

Some of the most common types of equipment and supplies that were delayed or not received included eyeglasses, breathing equipment, mobility equipment, diabetes supplies, and hearing aids. And adults with a disability were six times more likely than non-disabled adults to say they experienced delayed physical and occupational therapy.  

Beyond the data are the people living with and experiencing first hand complications and delays in the health care system.   

With multiple health conditions to manage, Wilson, like many Americans, is left to navigate a complicated health care system. And as a Black woman, she faces additional inequities. For example, when she explains to physicians that she’s in pain, they assume she can handle it since she’s lived with diabetes since childhood. And Wilson says anytime she goes to the hospital, even if it’s not related to her diabetes, it’s automatically blamed on the autoimmune disease. 

“It’s a whole ball of frustration that comes along with diabetes,” she says.  

After the sudden cardiac arrest, she was put on disability and assigned Medicaid insurance. Three years ago, she got married and was put on her husband’s UnitedHealthcare insurance. 

A tale of two insurances 

“Medicaid is like a catch-22,” she says. “I can see the difference between having Medicaid and having UnitedHealthcare. It’s sad, but you’re literally treated two different ways.” 

Prior to getting UnitedHealthcare, Wilson had ongoing issues getting insulin. And she faced similar problems when accessing her prescription heart medication. Medicaid refused to refill her heart medication even though she ran out. However, a CVS program refilled it for 10 days until her insurance company would refill the prescription. 

“It’s almost like the insurance company was deciding what I needed and what I didn’t need,” Wilson says. “But the insurance company is not here with this diagnosis with me.” 

Adults living with a disability and insured with Medicare or Medicaid were more likely to report delayed or unmet needs for medical supplies, like prescription drugs, than those with private insurance, the Urban Institute report states.  

“Medicaid is the payer of last resort,” Karpman says. But he says having insurance is better than having nothing. 

“There’s no question that having health insurance is helpful. People gain much more protection from having insurance than being uninsured,” Karpman says. “The problem is there is still a large number of gaps in coverage. Too much complexity in health insurance. And there’s often a lack of transparency.” 

With so much convoluted information about insurance plans and the health care system, it can be difficult to know where to start. Jackie Pilgrim, a representative of the National Black Disability Coalition, has spent more than two decades navigating the health care system for her son.  

Pilgrims’ son Hunter, now 24, was born seven months prematurely. When he was one week old, he had one-third of his small intestine removed. Months later, he developed lung disease after being intubated in the NICU. She says he came home with a colostomy bag and now lives with autism and other intellectual disabilities.  

When Hunter was four months old, Pilgrim found out her existing insurance didn’t pay for anything. But she was able to get emergency Medicaid — which paid for those initial months of hospital bills. Medicaid continues to cover his medical bills. 

Despite all the challenges, she says she never went into medical debt. Additionally, having a good support system has significantly helped her navigate and access everything from insurance coverage to prescription drugs to specialized physicians.  

“I know my situation is probably different from a lot of people,” Pilgrim says. “But because I’m deep into the disability world, I’ve been very informed and savvy about getting things done.” 

The power of informed advocacy 

As a child, Wilson was constantly told her diabetes diagnosis was a death sentence. With doctors putting an expiration date on her life — telling her she wouldn’t live past 15, then 18, then 21. Now as an advocate for people living with diabetes and chronic disease, she’s adamant that “diabetes is not a death sentence.” 

“Give yourself some grace,” she says when asked what she would tell a parent or a child living with diabetes. Wilson recognizes that it’s not easy and it is a life-changing diagnosis, but she emphasizes that it’s important to live and not just survive.  

Pilgrim, whose son is nonverbal, encourages parents not to take no for an answer. Something that helped her navigate the health care system, after her husband left when Hunter was 9-months old, was being assigned a social worker. Now, she encourages parents to seek out other parents who have gone through the system. And she emphasizes to parents the importance of being well informed about their child’s diagnosis. 

“Initially, we have to get past the pain of discovering that our children are going to be disabled,” Pilgrim says. “You need to go into this with a healthy mind.” 

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

The post Black, disabled and dealing with the maze of health care appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

In a country growing more diverse by the day, we have the power to stop book bans and other attempts to erase Black history.

By Ameshia Cross
Word in  Black

No matter how much the right derides the word, the Black community needs to stay woke. In recent years, we’ve witnessed a disturbing trend that threatens the foundations of our democratic society: the rise of book bans, curriculum censorship and attacks on historical narratives in our educational institutions.

These actions not only threaten the principles of academic freedom and undermine the integrity of our education system, but they also position America as a democracy on the brink of collapse. 

Education is meant to be a journey of unlocking the unknown, expanding critical thinking, and advancing intellectual growth. Central to this journey is the freedom to engage with a diverse range of ideas, perspectives and honest history.

When politicians and officials censor books, sanitize curricula or suppress truths like the harsh effects of slavery, Jim Crow, Reconstruction and various civil rights movements, they are robbing students of the opportunity to grapple with complex issues of the past and design a future that embraces a more just society.

In a country growing more diverse by the day, we cannot let the right whitewash our history or dilute cultures that ignore the multicultural America and world our young people reside in. To do anything other than teach both historic and modern realities is erasure.  

Education should encourage dialogue, debate and the exploration of diverse viewpoints, not shield them from various ideas, uncomfortable truths or controversial topics. And yet, more than 4,200 books were targeted for censorship in 2023 — a 65 percent increase than the previous year,  according to the  American Library Association (ALA) — with 47 percent of them centering the lived experiences of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.

This isn’t by mistake; it is a deliberate effort to propagate (cis-hetero) White supremacy. As a result, there has been a dangerous domino effect with the rollback of hard-earned civil rights progress. The so-called anti-CRT (critical race theory) and anti-DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) culture wars have coincided with the downfall of affirmative action in college admissions, the decimation of voting rights, along with amplified White grievance politics and claims of reverse racism. Schools have always been battlegrounds for civil rights…today is no different. 

Black and Latino students are particularly impacted by the erasure of their history and culture. With the majority of students in the U.S. being students of color, they deserve a rich and rigorous education that is culturally relevant to them. Not only is it just, but it has positive effects: Research shows that children are more engaged and have better academic outcomes when they can see themselves in books, learning materials and teachers. In other words, representation matters. 

Similarly, curriculum censorship stifles academic inquiry and hampers educators’ ability to provide a comprehensive and well-rounded education. The right’s attacks on history are particularly insidious, as they seek to rewrite or erase the past to fit a memory of America that no longer represents who we are or where we are going.

History is not static; it is a dynamic and ongoing process of inquiry, interpretation and revision, and it should not be diluted or distorted. And Whiteness should no longer be the default perspective. 

Moreover, book bans, curriculum censorship and attacks on history disproportionately impact marginalized communities and perpetuate systemic inequalities. By silencing voices and perspectives that challenge the status quo or highlight the experiences of marginalized groups, we perpetuate a narrative of exclusion and erasure. Our histories, our heroes, and our experiences cannot be erased.  

That’s why EdTrust and renowned leaders in education and civil rights are hosting Can’t Be Erased: An Event to Rally Against Book Bans and Curriculum Censorship on April 17 at 6 p.m. E.T. Attendees of this free virtual event can learn how to push back against efforts to suppress the teaching of honest history and the diversity of identities and ideas in your community.  

The call to provide every student with a culturally relevant curriculum in a safe, inclusive environment has never been more pressing. Book bans and policies that restrict discussions of race, gender and identity not only stifle academic growth but also obscure students’ understanding of diverse cultures both in the U.S. and the world around them. 

This article was originally published on WordinBlack.com.

The post The whitewashing of education – and how to stop it appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Aziah Siid,
Word in Black

Career days happen nationwide at schools, giving students a dose of “if you can see it you can be it” realness. Sure, some kids may see the day as an escape from the academic side of school, but it’s easier to be enthusiastic about career day when the people offering insights into their professions, the hurdles they’ve leaped over, and the milestones they’ve celebrated are actually relatable.

So picture this: Black folks from a range of professions packing a majority-Black school to tell students about their careers — and the skills and education they needed to get there. 

That’s what I witnessed when I participated as a speaker for career day at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, a sixth to 12th-grade school in Brooklyn. The school’s second annual “Success Looks Like Me” event saw over 70 professionals from a variety of backgrounds show up to campus with the hopes of inspiring students to pursue jobs they may never have heard of.

“I’ve never seen an event that has captivated the attention of scholars like Success Looks Like Me,” Chuck Jones, the principal for Brooklyn Lab’s high school told me. “We were able to host 70 Black and Brown professionals from across the country, some that come from big social nonprofits like The Black Man Can, handbag buyers from Chanel, marketing professionals, tailors, even a federal judge.” 

Exposure to various careers and the education needed to get there matters for students’ future ability to participate in the workforce or become an entrepreneur. As a recent report from Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce puts it, to ensure students have good jobs in the future, we need to “help young people pursue and attain their education and career goals simultaneously using career exposure and work-based learning.”

In addition, a 2021 report, “Preparing Students of Color for the Future Workforce” from the Center for American Progress recommended partnerships between local employers and schools to “help students build knowledge on various career options.” Ideally those would be long-term partnerships that create a pipeline for students from school to the workplace, but in the meantime, career day creates a vision of success in the minds of kids. 

Brooklyn Lab’s CEO, Garland Thomas-McDavid, who was born and raised in one of Brooklyn’s toughest neighborhoods in the 1980s, is all about vision.

“I really want it to expose children to success that looks like them, success that was tangible to them,” Thomas-McDavid previously told Word In Black. “I just like to think that I’m going back for my people. Like, it’s not just about my success, where I am, or me being a woman and arriving somewhere, but how am I widening the path and creating access, and showing even the adults around me how to get there and how to develop in order to be successful.”

Representation makes a difference

Brooklyn LAB is nearly 92 percent  Black, and according to data from New York City Public Schools economic need index, nearly 80 percent of Brooklyn Lab students come from families facing economic hardship, in turn many of them qualify for reduced or free lunch. 

In looking at Thomas-McDavid’s ideology about all students believing they can reach the highest level of success, Jones agrees their career day touched the LAB community, “in a way that was transformative.” He says that after talking to a marketing professional from George P. Johnson, one of the world’s leading experience marketing agencies, the student said that he “never realized that the experiences that I saw on TV were made by people that look like me.” 

Another high school student told Jones how enthusiastic she was about not only hearing about Historically Black Colleges and Universities, but also learning about themes from a person who attended and could explain how much the experience impacted their life.

Career days like this one signify the need for students to have first-hand exposure to opportunities — , like knowing they can attend an HBCU rather than settling for an in-state college or university.

“The thing that made it so transformational is because, at the end of the day, you want to be able to build bridges across lines of adversity, and oftentimes, adversity at an all-Black school can be just a thought, right?” Jones tells Word In Black. He says events like their annual career days help teachers distinguish between students who believe they can overcome adversities they face, and ones who need a bit of help achieving their goals

Although the number of participants doubled in just one year, Jones is looking forward to building partnerships with the companies who sent representatives and getting even more folks from a wide range of careers.  

“I would love for us to have a chef that comes on-site, and the portion of the mini-lesson is actually a mini cooking class,” Jones says. “I think the sky is really the limit, and the possibilities are endless.” 

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Aziah Siid,
Word In Black

In education, it’s an uncomfortable fact: the teaching workforce is overwhelmingly White and female, particularly in grades K-12. Black men in an elementary school classroom, statistics show, are few and far between.

At the same time, studies show, Black boys make up a disproportionate number of children assigned to special-education classes – a component, experts say, in the schools-to-prison pipeline.

Now, a new study has found that Black male elementary school students matched to Black teachers are less likely to be identified for special education services. 

The study, conducted jointly by researchers from the University of North Carolina and the University of California-Davis, shed new light on the persistent problem of Black students misidentified as learning disabled or disciplinary problems. But it also underscores the need to increase recruitment of Black male teachers, who make up just 1.3 percent of the 3.8 million public school teachers in the U.S. 

“Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that having access to Black teachers matters to Black children’s educational journeys,” said Cassandra M.D. Hart, an education professor at UC-Davis and the study’s lead author. “We show that access to Black teachers most strongly affects precisely the types of special disability placements that are more subject to teacher discretion, and therefore where the need for services is more questionable.”

The researchers based their study on data drawn from North Carolina, a state with a relatively high number of Black teachers — roughly 15 percent, compared to 7 percent nationally.  

At the same time, the state’s Black students are overrepresented in special education programs: 17 percent of Black fifth graders in North Carolina are in special education services, compared to 13 percent of White fifth graders. 

The data comes from more than 540,000 observations of Black children in grades 1 to 4 and their assigned teachers from 2008 through 2013.

The analysis found that “Black students matched to Black teachers had a reduced likelihood of being newly identified with disabilities,” according to the study. The effect, the study found, was especially pronounced among Black boys —  particularly those who were economically disadvantaged.

Compared to their White peers, however, Black students are far less likely to be taught by teachers who look like them, according to the study.

That’s a problem because identifying students who need special educational help “generally (relies) on teacher or administrator discretion” rather than expert medical analysis, according to the study. “These disabilities may be most prone to subjectivity and ultimately, misclassification.” 

Importance of same-race teachers 

Historically, the lack of representation is problematic because Black teachers hold higher expectations for Black students, they are associated with better outcomes for Black students, higher scores on tests, increased attendance, and even high school graduation and college enrollment, according to the study.

With innovative programs like the Center for Black Educator Development, and the Black Mother’s Forum consistently recruiting teachers, and attempting to shift traditional classroom structure, the need for more Black teachers continues to be evident through research like this latest study. 

The need to look at how the matching of same-race teachers impact student placement is partially due to substantial research on the gaps that emerge between Black students and other races. That includes differences between enrollment into discretionary educational settings like gifted programs or for special education services. 

In looking at the special education-to-prison and foster care-to-prison pipeline – which both stem from fundamental structures in all school types – this research spotlights the need for  Black students being taught by teachers who understand their experiences.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Joseph Williams
Word in Black 

America’s anti-DEI crusaders — or, more accurately, the nation’s shameless racists and unabashed White supremacists who want to say the N-word publicly but don’t have the guts — are at it again. 

Hours after the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster unfolded in his city, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott appeared with fire department and rescue squad commanders for a press conference. As rescue divers continued searching the frigid Patapsco River for possible survivors, Scott appeared shaken as he began his remarks, carried on live television nationwide. 

“This is an unthinkable tragedy,” Scott, only 39 years old and the youngest Black mayor in Baltimore history, told reporters. “We have to first and foremost pray for all of those who are impacted, those families, pray for our first responders and thank them. We have to be thinking about the families and people impacted. We have to try to find them safe.” 

Maybe it was the fact that Scott is a young Black man with a neatly trimmed beard and modest afro. Perhaps it was the fact that he was wearing a baseball jacket with the seal of Baltimore and his name embroidered on it. It could have been Scott’s unscripted, heart-on-his-sleeve concern for the road repair crew that vanished into dark, cold waters when a cargo ship veered into and knocked down the bridge.

Regardless of the reason, Scott’s television appearance triggered multiple bigots on X, formerly known as Twitter, who decided to drag the mayor for no clear reason. One of the most popular posts declared that the Black man leading Charm City through the crisis is, in their opinion, a “DEI Mayor,” whatever that means.

The nonsensical tweet by @iamyesyouareno incited many questions— what is a DEI mayor anyway? Why are things going to get worse? What’s up with that X handle? — immediately began trending, racking up nearly 10,000 likes and more than 7,000 shares at last count. 

Other like-minded people put on their tinfoil hats and quickly jumped in, drawing imaginary lines between DEI programs and the Key Bridge disaster, the company that owns the ship that hit the bridge, Baltimore’s crime rate, and even how well the Port of Baltimore is managed. 

It’s clear from the thousands of angry responses to those tweets that those on the left see DEI as the new “woke,” which became shorthand for efforts in schools or the workplace to eliminate racism and level the playing field for Black people. 

To their credit, dozens of respondents called out the writers of those tweets as racists, while dozens more suggested they get real with themselves and use the “N-word” next time. 

At this moment, authorities don’t know exactly why the massive cargo ship Dali lost control and slammed into the Key Bridge, sending six workers to all but certain death. But it’s safe to say that DEI didn’t build the bridge, didn’t load the ship, and wasn’t steering it when it veered into the Key Bridge support pillar at 1:30 EDT Tuesday morning. DEI didn’t even elect Scott, a native Baltimorean, in the 2020 mayoral race: more than 70% of Baltimore voters did. 

DEI tweets aside, Scott — who went to high school in Baltimore and returned after college to become one of the youngest members of the city council in history — has checked all the right boxes for a big-city mayor managing a catastrophe so far. In public and written statements, he has shown leadership, empathy, and concern for the victims as well as first responders. He has also kept the city informed through his social media accounts. 

And his love for the city has come through. 

“My heart is with those families tonight and in the days ahead,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to those who lost loved ones in the bridge collapse. “Let us wrap our arms around them and our entire community. Baltimore, we will get through this together.”  

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

For years, as test scores fell and teachers fretted, educators and analysts rang the alarm: the U.S. is facing a grade-school reading crisis. If left unaddressed, they say, Black children could fall even further behind. 

Now, college professors are sounding an alarm of their own. They say college students are entering college unprepared to read anything more than a few pages, and struggle to understand and interpret what they’ve read. 

“Professors are also discussing the issue in academic trade publications, from a variety of perspectives,” Adam Kotsko, a humanities and theology professor, wrote in an essay in Slate, an online magazine. “What we almost all seem to agree on is that we are facing new obstacles in structuring and delivering our courses, requiring us to ratchet down expectations in the face of a ratcheting down of preparation.”

But along with COVID-19 learning loss, social media addiction, and attention-draining cell phone scrolling, researchers and educators have identified a new culprit: state and school officials who are stripping diverse books from library shelves and curbing the teaching of Black history.

“This is actually a very preventable problem,” says Allison Rose Socol, vice president for P-12 policy, research and practice at Education Trust. Studies show that “if (students) are given access to texts in which they see themselves reflected, that they will not only want to read, but they will develop a love of reading.” 

But “the access and availability of culturally relevant, rich texts are not happening in a lot of schools,” Socol says. “And that is disproportionately affecting the fundamental reading skills of many students of color.”

Data tells part of the story. 

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, in 2022, average scores decreased for both literary and informational texts at both the fourth- and eighth grade level, compared to 2019. 

Eighteen states or jurisdictions scored lower on literary reading in 2022 than in 2019, according to NAEP, while 29 states scored lower on informational reading at grade 4. In eighth grade, 22 states scored lower in 2022 on literary reading, and 30 states scored lower for informational reading.

“And when you look at the data for certain groups of students — particularly marginalized students — the numbers are so much more concerning,” Socol says. 

The data shows “just 17 percent of Black students, 21 percent of Latino students, 11 percent of students with disabilities, and 10 percent of multilingual learners in fourth grade are found to be proficient” in reading, she says. “Those numbers are just unacceptable.”

And yet, despite research that should encourage reading diverse texts, “there are states and districts that are putting in place legislation and regulation and policy that removes or penalizes teachers, for teaching honest, accurate history, for using books that represent the diversity of our country and for doing things that we know are important for opening up students,” Socol says. 

Those books are key to “engaging hearts and minds and creating critical thinkers and engaged citizens,” Socol says. 

Kotsco, the humanities professor, agrees the book bans are doing damage to the students he’ll eventually have to teach, depriving them of the ability to read long texts and think for themselves. 

“Motivated by bigotry, it has already done demonstrable harm and promises to do more,” he wrote. “But at the same time, the appropriate response is, in principle, simple. Named individuals have advanced explicit policies with clear goals and outcomes, and we can replace those individuals with people who want to reverse those policies.”

“That is already beginning to happen in many places,” he wrote, “and I hope those successes will continue until every banned book is restored.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Roger House
Word in Black

James Pierson Beckwourth is a pioneer of the American West largely erased from history lessons. Recovering his story, however, can help us to better understand current debates over historical revision versus woke education — which is to say that, if he had been White, people likely would have learned about him in school.

Beckwourth was an American original, at times a slave, miner, fur trapper, leader of the Crow Indians, Army scout and guide to the California gold mines in the 1800s. He opened a vital trading post and hotel in the Sierra Nevada mountains that became Beckwourth, Calif.

Historians have enshrined White “mountain men” like Kit Carson, Thomas Fitzpatrick and William Sublette in American folklore, but not so with Beckwourth. Because of racism, writers disparaged his feats and ridiculed his name. However, his keen observations of frontier life could spark discussions on colonial ideologies of ethnic displacement like manifest destiny, slavery and miscegenation, White settler violence against Indigenous people, and commercial exploitation of the land.

His controversial exploits were investigated by historian Elinor Wilson in 1976 in “Jim Beckwourth: Mountain Man and War Chief of the Crows.” She argued that he “was a figure suited to the making of Western legend” had it not been for his race. She found that “racial prejudice inspired much of what early writers said about his life,” and that he was branded a “gaudy liar” — even in a culture that valued the tall tale — an unfair indictment that has been recycled in contemporary times.

His accomplishments were preserved in a memoir, as well as physical landmarks, on websites, and in documentary treatments. Central is his colorful autobiography, but unlike the frontiersman Davy Crockett, students don’t learn about the “Black King of the Wild Frontier.”

Yet, his story would seem appropriate for educators today. For example, it fits with several of the topic sections in the revamped AP African American history framework issued by the College Board. The “Unit 2” sections on Black identity, freedom, autonomy and living in Indigenous territory would seem particularly relevant.

And the Beckwourth story could be a vehicle for an action movie or television treatment. In fact, his name is used teasingly for a character in the 2021 Netflix Western, “The Harder They Fall.” And there is a documentary, “Jim Beckwourth: War Chief of the Crow,” in the 2022 Apple TV series, “Into the Wild Frontier.” Surely, his story could be relevant to controversies over racial representation in Hollywood.

Beckwourth’s wild frontier  

Born into slavery in about 1798 in Fredericks County, Va., Beckwourth was a product of rape and the legal property of a tobacco plantation owner. The violence shaped his racial identity in conflicting and accommodating ways. His pioneer outlook was fueled by the opportunities of the Louisiana Purchase. About 1805, his master took him to work at a St. Louis fur trading post; he was later hired out for a lead-mining expedition to Illinois on the Mississippi River.

With money earned from the mines, he returned to St. Louis to buy his freedom. His story from that point sheds light on the incorporation of the wild frontier into Western capitalism. His work as a trapper in the dangerous but lucrative fur trade is a window into the diverse people, places and cultures of the old west, and the systems of colonization and slavery that made America an economic power.

For instance, he was hired by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to supply animal pelts for fashionable wear. At the same time, as he trekked about the frontier, his freedom was subject to challenge under the fugitive slave laws of 1793 and 1850. Like other free Black people, he lived at risk of kidnapping and enslavement; his former master testified to his legal emancipation in courts several times.

Over the years, Beckwourth gained a reputation as a skilled hunter, fur trapper and courageous mountaineer. His assignments took him to Iowa, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. He witnessed — and participated in — skirmishes among indigenous nations and with White settlers. About 1828, he was captured by warriors of the Crow Nation in Montana.

Tribal leaders evidently saw value in his understanding of White culture, fluency in English, and bravery in combat. In the tribe, he rose to the position of a war chief. Today, his observations of their way of life before displacement by White settlers are valued as precious anthropology.

Witness to continental expansion

Beckwourth was a rare Black witness to the Seminole Nation and runaway slaves in Florida. He participated in the second of three wars from 1835 to 1842. During the conflicts, he served as a messenger delivering instructions between army forts. He observed the deadly Battle of Okeechobee on Christmas Day 1837, involving about 800 troops under the command of Col. Zachary Taylor.

Though Taylor, who later became president, proclaimed the battle a victory, many historians tend to agree with Beckwourth’s assessment that the Seminoles got the better of the fight. He recounted: “I could not see that Ok-ke-cho-be was much of a victory; indeed, I shrewdly suspected that the enemy had the advantage; but it was called a victory by the soldier, and they were the best qualified to decide.”

Beckwourth also provided insights into the opening of California during the gold rush. In 1850, he located a passage through the Sierra Nevada mountains known as Beckwourth Pass. Then, he organized a team to prepare a road for wagon trains between Reno and northern California, known as the Beckwourth Trail, which enabled thousands of settlers to reach the fertile central valley in safety — and allowed Beckwourth to achieve a measure of commercial success.  

This fascinating pioneer lived to see the end of slavery; he died around 1866, shortly after the Civil War. But he never enjoyed the rights of citizenship, even though he was an authentic product of the American experience. As such, the rediscovery of his story can provide an engaging springboard for re-envisioning the wild frontier.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Anissa Durham
Word In Black

If you’re feeling suicidal or concerned that someone you know may be in danger of hurting themselves, call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. The lifeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is staffed by trained counselors

“Within the Black community, we’ve had a narrative that we don’t die by suicide, that we’re resilient people who survived slavery. And that suicide was really a white problem.” 

That’s what Vic Armstrong, vice president for health equity at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, says. With more than 35 years of experience working towards equitable access to mental health care, Armstrong knows the importance of starting those tough conversations. 

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, suicide was the third leading cause of death in 2020 for Black Americans ages 15 to 24. The suicide rates for Black youth increased nearly 37 percent between 2018 and 2021. 

On Feb. 5, AFSP launched a new initiative to support mental health equity for Black communities. Listening, Empathy, Trust and Support or L.E.T.S Save Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention for Black and African American Communities is a free presentation aimed at fostering dialogue around mental health and providing suicide prevention resources.

The presentation will be shared through the chapters the organization has in each state, its media partners, and HBCUs. It is also available virtually. Word In Black sat down with Armstrong, who shared more about this program and its importance for the mental health of Black people.  

Word In Black: Tell me about the L.E.T.S Save Lives program. Why did AFSP decide to create this initiative? What’s the goal? 

Vic Armstrong: It’s part of an ongoing initiative by AFSP on how we can reach historically marginalized communities. Our goal was to create a resource by Black people for Black people — that could address the issues around suicide.  

We wanted something that would help educate the community about the prevalence of suicide in the Black community. And something that would create avenues to open conversation. We engaged a marketing team, The House of Joy, a Black female-led organization to create Black imagery. Everything speaks to the Black experience. 

Ultimately, the goal is always to reduce suicide rates. Specifically, we want to think about how we can get upstream in suicide prevention. Suicide itself is not a disease, it is the worst possible outcome of a combination of a lot of complex things that often include mental health challenges.  

That means we need to create culturally relevant resources. And raise awareness that suicide is relevant to the Black community and is happening in our community. So that we don’t ignore people around us that are hurting.  

WIB: Why was it important to create this program by Black people and for Black people? 

VA: Historically, when we look at suicide prevention, it’s not a conversation that we typically have. In the last few years, we’ve been more open to trying to have that conversation. But, when you look around, there were very few resources for Black people, that speak to the Black experience. 

For AFSP, when the mission is to save lives and bring hope — that’s for everybody. But traditionally, we’ve created resources that were not specific to any community, like painting with broad strokes.  

Suicide doesn’t discriminate. Suicide is not exclusive to any one race or ethnicity. Neither is hope. 

WIB: You’ve been working in the mental health space for more than three decades. What has kept you going in a space that can be dark and heavy? 

VA: I grew up in rural North Carolina— my world was really small. I didn’t know a lot about what happened outside of my community. Once I got into the field of social work, my perspective broadened over time. 

I started my career as a therapist. At one point, I was the only clinician in three counties. I saw adults. I saw kids. I saw men reported for domestic violence. I saw the women that they abused. I really saw some of the generational challenges — and that made me really fall in love with community mental health. 

I think the suicide piece that really hit home for me was when I was the vice president of behavioral health for a large hospital system. In looking at all these resources as a hospital system, your primary goal is to avoid preventable deaths — we weren’t focusing enough on efforts around suicide prevention, especially in historically marginalized communities.  

Now, I really focus on health equity in the suicide prevention and awareness space. 

WIB: Thinking about the narrative that as Black people we don’t die by suicide or have depression. How does that then change the way we experience suicidality?  

VA: Black people are more likely to go to a faith leader than a psychiatrist or psychologist. One of the things that happens is we look inwardly, into our community. The other thing that makes it difficult is when we tell ourselves a narrative that we should not be experiencing depression or anxiety. 

We tell ourselves we don’t have the right to have those feelings, and that we should be able to manage it on our own. What ends up happening is that we don’t seek help.  

So, part of what we want to do is be able to change that conversation. We are changing the message to our community. Letting them know that it’s OK to not be OK, it’s OK to feel vulnerable, and it’s OK to ask for help. 

There are nuances in the way that communities internalize things that have happened to them. In the Black community, where we’ve seen racial discrimination and segregation — we have internalized that as just being part of the Black experience. What we’ve also done is not allow ourselves to talk about those things and how they impact us.  

Some of these things are unique to the Black experience. We now want to create avenues for people to talk about it — and come into a space to acknowledge those challenges and talk about resources to provide healing. 

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By John Celestand
Word In Black

It’s not breaking news that there was a time when the greatest Black athletes were steered away from playing the quarterback position in the NFL. With quick feet, the ability to cut back on a dime, solid hands, and blistering speed to blow past defenders, you would undoubtedly be led to the running back and wide receiver position as soon as you step foot on an NFL field.

It didn’t matter if you played QB at the Blackest high school or college in your state or could throw the ball 75 yards on target. It was mistakenly assumed that Black players didn’t possess the “leadership qualities,” quick decision-making skills, ability to read and digest a playbook, or discipline to throw from the pocket to lead a group of men at the NFL level. 

The thinking has changed over the years as Black quarterbacks such as Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Rodney Peete, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, and Randall Cunningham, just to name a few, have shown how asinine, foolish, and downright racist those thoughts were. Now, mobile, quick, and innovative QBs are coveted for their ability to put pressure on the defense with both their arms and legs. 

Last year’s Super Bowl was the first time the game featured two Black starting quarterbacks, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts going head-to-head. On the heels of that matchup, I was just as excited last Sunday to watch two Black quarterbacks — Mahomes and the Baltimore Ravens’s Lamar Jackson — go head-to-head with a berth in Super Bowl LVIII on the line. 

As I surfed social media and spoke to my Black friends, it dawned on me that most of them were rooting for Lamar Jackson to take down Patrick Mahomes. My first thought was that it was their instinct to root for the underdog, but Mahomes and the Chiefs were the underdogs in this matchup, with the Baltimore Ravens being the most dominant team in the league during the regular season.

Maybe folks were just tired of Patrick Mahomes winning, as he had already hoisted the Lombardy Trophy twice in his career. Maybe folks just felt that it was Lamar’s time and that he deserved his shot. But in talking to folks a little more, I realized it went much deeper than that. 

Many Black folks looked at Lamar Jackson as more anti-establishment. Lamar was the exact opposite of everything “the establishment” always tried to say a quarterback should be. The establishment said Black people were too athletic to play the position and always used their “legs” to scramble instead of the “discipline” to stay in the pocket and make the designed throws. 

Lamar Jackson is also a dark-skinned dude from South Florida with braids in his hair who doesn’t quite speak with the same intonation, cadence, and diction as successful white quarterbacks from yesteryear. Jackson is a man who plays the QB position in one of the blackest cities in the nation (Baltimore is 64 percent Black at the last U.S. census count). Jackson is a man who, instead of hiring an agent in an industry dominated by white men, retained the services of his mother, Felicia Jones, as his manager and represented himself, leading to a five-year $260 million contract with $185 million guaranteed. 

To many Black folks, Jackson represents a slap in the face to the establishment, someone who doesn’t have to code switch or dial back his “blackness” to be accepted as a leader at the quarterback position in the NFL. Jackson is a man, to many, who has received unfair criticism for not being able to get it done in the playoffs. Many felt that some of the criticism was racially motivated and that if Jackson were White, he wouldn’t have received the same amount of backlash. 

And then I thought about Patrick Mahomes and how, in this country, Mahomes is considered Black. Although Mahomes’s mother is White and his father is Black, Mahomes is widely considered the most successful Black quarterback of all time. Mahomes has repeatedly expressed pride in his Black heritage.  

“I’ve always just had confidence and believed in who I am,” Mahomes told GQ in 2020. “And I’ve known that I’m Black. And I’m proud to be Black. And I’m proud to have a White mom too. I’m just proud of who I am. And I’ve always had that confidence in myself.”  

Although not the dynamic scrambler Jackson is, Mahomes uses his mobility to avoid sacks and make plays that almost no other quarterback in history could make. He is the ultimate definition of the mobile Black quarterback — hated by the old-school bigots of yesteryear who felt that any quarterback with too much melanin wouldn’t have the discipline to play the most important position in football. 

Because of this, you would think that some Black folks were rooting for Mahomes, while others were siding with Lamar Jackson, two great quarterbacks who decades earlier would have been whisked away to another skill position because of their athleticism. But overwhelmingly, in my informal research, it seemed one-sided. Almost every Black person I talked to wanted to see Lamar move on to the Super Bowl. 

My hypothesis? For Black folks, it’s not enough just to be Black. Many times, it’s about culture. Although many Black folks voted for President Obama, it was not just because he was Black, as so many believed. It was because he was down with the culture. He moved like us, spoke like us, and walked like us. Let’s be honest: Ben Carson is Black, and so is Herschel Walker, but they just ain’t down. 

I also wonder if White America’s acceptance of Mahomes’ greatness is a subliminal catalyst for some Black folks’ support of Jackson. Do we, as Black folks, unconsciously wonder that if Mahomes spoke a little differently, wore his hair in cornrows, and grew up on the Southside of Chicago vs. Tyler, Texas, he’d be viewed differently? 

I hope this doesn’t come off as a slight to Patrick Mahomes, a guy the great sports analyst Shannon Sharpe calls Patrick “Mahome-Boy,” an ode to Mahomes’ greatness as well as his blackness. It’s nothing that Mahomes did or didn’t do. I think Mahomes is already the greatest quarterback of all time.

But in the end, Black folks rooting for Jackson over Mahomes isn’t just about football. It’s about the ongoing dialogue within the community over what it is to be Black in America, and seeing our collective and individual experiences in a QB. There’s just something about Lamar Jackson that Black folks connect with a little more. I can’t explain it. You’ve got to grow up around it. It can’t be taught. You just have to be immersed in it to understand.  

It’s the culture. 

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

The post Mahomes or Jackson? Black America rooted for a Black QB appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Aziah Siid
Word In Black

In the spring of 2018, Los Angeles two mothers, Kawanna Brown and Lisa Johnson, sparked a transformative movement. Frustrated by the racial isolation their children faced in private schools, they dreamed of a community where Black private school kids could connect and families could support each other. 

Johnson, having experienced being one of the few Black students in her Atlanta independent school, was dismayed to find little progress decades for her own children. 

“As a parent of two children, who are also in an independent school here in California, they were living the same experience that I lived as a student, many decades ago,” Johnson tells Word In Black. “It is this experience of isolation. It is an experience of being the only one or one of a few. It’s an experience of a lot of ‘othering.’”

Determined to break this cycle, Johnson and Brown organized a casual park playdate, inviting Black families from various schools across L.A. What started off as a simple electronic invite to Black and Brown families as a way to connect, turned into a movement.

“We booked this park that had a capacity of only 50 people. I asked four other friends of mine who are in other private schools if I put their name on an Evite, and we sent this thing around, and it went around to 75 people,” Johnson says. “By the time the event rolled around, the RSVP was at 500.”

The overwhelming response marked the birth of Private School Village.

This grassroots effort, formalized as a nonprofit in September 2018, goes beyond mere social gatherings. PSV aims to transform the private school experience for Black families into one of inclusivity and empowerment. Recognizing the unique challenges Black students face, including heightened anxiety, depression, and feelings of alienation, PSV works towards creating a supportive and racially literate community.

PSV’s mission is broad and profound: to foster parental engagement, advocate for equitable policies, and build a network where Black students see themselves reflected and supported. The organization underscores the necessity of a communal approach to counter the often-isolating private school environment for Black families, emphasizing the power of unity in shaping a more inclusive future.

Private school truths

“What I’ve found in the past five years is people make a lot of assumptions about private school families and kids,” Johnson says.

Like most establishments in the United States, private schools — often called independent schools — were not initially designed for Black students. In the South, private schools were “established, expanded and supported to preserve the Southern tradition of racial segregation despite federal courts’ dismantling of “separate but equal,” according to the Southern Education Foundation. White students left public schools in droves to both traditional and newly formed private schools, and from 1950 to 1965, private school enrollment grew at unprecedented rates all over the nation. 

As recent as 2018, an elite school in New York City, Little Red Schoolhouse, came under fire after students were segregated by race as a means of self-exploration and self-affirmation. 

Federal data shows that in Fall 2019, the most recent year available, about 49.2 million kindergarten through grade 12 (K–12) students were enrolled in public schools. Significantly fewer students — 4.7 million — were enrolled in private schools, with Black students representing 6 percent of the enrollment. 

According to the National Association of Independent Schools, during the 2019-2020 school year, the median private school tuition was $26,866, and the average financial aid award was $11,500. 

Part of the ongoing discussion between private and public school supporters are controversial school vouchers and educational savings account programs that allow families to use public taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools. 

With vouchers, this money goes directly from the government to a school. Federal data shows 15 states and the District of Columbia  have adopted school voucher programs.

Educational savings accounts are a newer phenomenon, where taxpayer funds go directly to parents, who can use them to pay for tuition to private schools, homeschooling supplies, curriculum materials, educational therapy services, and more. In Arizona, for example, the universal ESA program puts $7,000 per student into a family’s bank account.

“In the short term, mostly it’s just going to be a funding giveaway to families that were already sending their kids to private schools,” Douglas Harris, an economist at Tulane University who studies education policy, told Vox. 

Changing the system

The realization Johnson came to was that instead of trying to change the entire system, she’d work with what she and the parents around them could control, which was the quality of education, getting students proper mental health resources and increasing parent engagement. 

“I was raising my children saying, well, you’re there for the education, and I keep you rooted and grounded in the Black community outside of school,” Johnson says. “But what I realized as a parent, which was different from my parents, was that we spend so much time in school. These are the most important developmental years of your life, when your identity development is most impressionable.” 

Johnson says the first step in shifting the private school experience for Black kids is getting parents together to figure out what their students and environments need. One way Johnson is doing so at her organization is “primarily focusing on racial socialization, increasing racial socialization, racial literacy, representation and research.” 

“I think the American education system is hugely flawed, and in my dream world, we would start over from scratch tomorrow,” Johnson says. “So to me, there’s really no one fit or solution. I believe that the strongest indicators for a child’s success have nothing to do with whether or not they’re in public charter or private. It is parent engagement.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post Moms ignite movement for Black kids in private schools appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

by Aziah Siid February 2, 2024

They’ve shaped generations of Black professionals. Now HBCUs are working to educate students K-12, particularly in STEM fields.

What do Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Vice President Kamala Harris have in common? They’re all graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

The schools saw a surge in applications from high school seniors after the murder of George Floyd. And along with increasingly being seen by Black high school students and families as havens of safety — both physically and culturally — HBCUs produce nearly 13% of all Black graduates, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. 

RELATED: HBCU or PWI: What Should High School Seniors Consider?  

I’m a Morgan State graduate, so I know first-hand these schools aren’t just academic institutions. They’re a testament to the determination of Black Americans to create spaces of excellence, empowerment, and cultural affirmation in the face of racism. And in the nearly 187 years since the first HBCU — the African Institute, later renamed Cheyney University of Pennsylvania — opened its doors, they’ve become incubators of Black intellectuals, activists, and professionals.

 2022 proclamation from President Biden for National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week pointed out their incredible contributions to society: “HBCUs have produced 40 percent of all Black engineers and 50 percent of all Black lawyers in America. Seventy percent of Black doctors in our country attended an HBCU, and 80 percent of Black judges are alumni of these schools.” 

The institutions also play a prominent role in maintaining the Black teacher pipeline. They produce 50% of Black teachers, thus boosting the number of Black men entering classrooms and introducing students to the love of learning.

So, this Black History Month, let’s look at the contributions five HBCUs have made, and how their current impact on K-12 education makes a difference. 

1. Howard University

Listen, when the school is the alma mater of Carter G. Woodson, the creator of Black History Month, you know it has to be No. 1 on the list. Founded 150 years ago by Army General Oliver Otis Howard, Howard University has also long been a pioneer in educating Black women at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our first black vice president, Kamala Harris, graduated in 1986. Charlotte Ray, the nation’s first Black woman lawyer — and the first woman admitted to the Washington D.C. bar —  graduated from Howard’s law school in 1872. 

HU continues to make modern-day strides as it competes directly with schools in underserved communities through its dual enrollment courses. 

2. Spelman College  

Voted as the #1 HBCU in the country for 17 consecutive years by U.S News & World Report, Spelman College has earned its distinction for more reasons than one. Founded in 1881 as Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, the all-women’s campus has been a beacon of education and hope for Black women nationwide. Spelman College was home to visionaries like Martin Luther King Jr’s daughter, peace advocate and CEO of the King Center, Dr Bernice King, politician and activist Stacey Abrams, and the legendary novelist Alice Walker. Walker’s Pulitzer Prize novel, “The Color Purple,” is one of the most frequently banned books in the United States and continues to serve as a staple in Black history and culture. 

Spelman continues to serve the greater Black education community through partnerships like their initiative with the National Education Equity Lab, a nonprofit that works to boost economic and social mobility for high school students. The program provides free college-level courses to low-income high school students to make them confident they can succeed in college and prepare them for higher education. In addition, alumnae of the college are working to make attending the institution more affordable for incoming freshmen and current students. 

3. Florida A&M University

Through rhythm and song, FAMU alumni, like musical artist Common, have spoken life into the Black community.  In 2018, Common helped launch  Art in Motion Charter School in his hometown as a way to, as he told Ebony magazine last year, “bring academics but also artistic expression and holistic living to children that are from Chicago.”

As for Common’s alma mater, the 140-year-old university — which began with only 15 students and two instructors — is currently ranked as the No. 1 HBCU for research and development by the National Science Foundation. The university continues to make immense strides in law, pharmaceutical sciences, and more. 

To encourage more young people to pursue STEM, FAMU hosts an annual STEM Day for students in grades 6-12. The event features academic speakers, hands-on activities, and science demonstrations to give participants a realistic look at what the future holds.

Additionally, the university holds a “Women and Girls in STEM Mentoring Event” each year, introducing nearly 200 K-12 girls to female engineers, scientists, and academics. In 2022, FAMU expanded its STEM Day to include third, fourth, and fifth graders, broadening the event traditionally aimed at girls in grades 6-12.

4. Morgan State University 

Morgan State University President David K. Wilson recently became the first HBCU president to win the national Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education, presented by the McGraw Family Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. His efforts to improve retention, graduation rates, and support for degree completion for Black students underscore MSU’s commitment to advancing Black leadership and success.

The university is committed to increasing representation in fields such as STEM and communications by recruiting students as early as their junior year of high school. Since 2021, Morgan has had a partnership with NASA designed to foster interest and retention in STEM among K-12 students. They also have a summer program for rising high school seniors and incoming freshmen interested in actuarial and mathematical sciences. The free, six-week program allows students to take pre-calculus, go on field trips, and participate in professional development seminars. 

5. Prairie View A&M University

One thing Prairie View A&M University has said is her name. Sandra Bland. As a 2009 graduate, member of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, civil rights activist, and summer school counselor, Bland’s name echoed throughout the university and the Black Lives Matter movement after her death in 2015. 

Founded in 1876 as the Alta Vista Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, the second public institution of higher learning in the state initially admitted only men. Recognizing the need for all Black people to be educated, it soon welcomed women.

PVAMU carries the legacy of inclusivity into its STEM Mobile Road Show. On-board technology allows Prairie View to bring hands-on demonstrations to high schools across the state and enable students to engage in activities. 

Leaders of the program hope the mobile show will “play a role in exciting and engaging young minds, in particular under-represented minorities, in STEM education.” 

The university also has a shadowing program where secondary students can sign up to follow a College of Engineering student around for a day to get a feel for what the school’s STEM programs are like.

The post 5 HBCUs Leading the Charge in Creating Black Excellence appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Holly Edgell 
The Midwest Newsroom

Antonio Lewis was surprised to see an email from Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey in his inbox on the morning of Jan. 8. Lewis, president of the Atlanta chapter of the Lincoln University Alumni Association, had never met Candia-Bailey, but knew she was the university’s vice president for student affairs and an alumna.

After scanning the first few lines of the email, his surprise turned to alarm.

“The first paragraph says, ‘Lincoln, where it all started and where it all ends.’ That paragraph made me alert to what could happen,” said Lewis, who said he immediately sent Candia-Bailey a message via Facebook.

“I said, ‘Whatever you’re doing, please don’t do it. Give me a call.’”

The email came in the form of a letter addressed to Lincoln University President John B. Moseley. Candia-Bailey sent the message from her personal account to family, friends and Lincoln alumni, hours before she died by suicide.

Running more than 10 pages and nearly 6,000 words, the email called out Moseley for a litany of actions that Candia-Bailey said exacerbated her existing mental health condition, which she did not explicitly describe.

“It was a manifesto,” Lewis said. “She was very direct with what she wanted to happen and what had happened to her. She didn’t mince any words.”

In the email, which the Midwest Newsroom has reviewed, Candia-Bailey gives Moseley 18 recommendations for how to improve his job performance as university president. She includes accusations of micromanagement, failure to provide clear directions, inconsistency and arrogance.

She also pointed to jail time, DWI offenses and criminal charges by a key leader on Moseley’s staff–citing case numbers and other details from public records. She said the leader was disruptive and created a toxic work environment.

She outlined several occasions when she talked about her mental health struggles with Moseley and asked for help, only to be rebuffed.

“I think the entire email shows the culture of bullying and go-along-to-get-along, and it is sickening,” Lewis said. 

As word of Candia-Bailey’s death and her email spread, blame and criticism grew among alumni and students–most of it directed at Moseley, who fired Candia-Bailey the week before she died. Her termination letter read, in part, that she “was being fired ‘due to your continued failure to appropriately supervise your staff and continued failure to properly supervise the area of student affairs at Lincoln University.’”

Candia-Bailey’s email addresses her firing, admits to mistakes and details the times she tried to work within the university’s processes and seek ways to improve.

Moseley took voluntary paid leave within days of Candia-Bailey’s death, and on Jan. 12, Lincoln University’s Board of Curators announced it would “engage a third-party expert to fully review potential personnel issues and concerns recently raised regarding compliance with the university’s established policies and procedures.”

In response to requests to interview Moseley as well as a representative of the Lincoln University Board of Curators, the Midwest Newsroom received two statements from the university’s marketing and communications department. One is the same statement released on Jan. 12. The second, dated Jan. 18, provided more details about the review. It said the university has hired attorneys led by Ronald Norwood and Jerina Phillips in the Higher Education Practice Group of Lewis Rice in St. Louis to conduct the independent review “of recent issues raised regarding compliance with the University’s established policies and procedures.”

Lewis, a 2011 graduate of Lincoln, is eager to learn what the review reveals. Regardless of the findings, however, he thinks Moseley’s voluntary leave is not sufficient and that he should resign immediately.

He referred to Claudine Gay, who stepped away from the Harvard University presidency in early January amid criticism about her remarks about anti-Semitism and accusations of plagiarism.

“I saw the grace that Dr. Gay showed. She showed a different level of maturity,” Lewis said. “And to see the way that our president is acting shows me the privilege that he thinks he has. I hope he steps down for the betterment of the university.”

Sherman Bonds, national president of the Lincoln University Alumni Association, asked for even more definitive action in a letter he wrote to the Board of Curators president.

“The university’s institutional care has been breached,” he wrote to Victor Pasley. “The present administration has become a liability to the mission and health of the institution. I have become compelled to demand a change to the Office of the Presidency of the university effective immediately.”

Bonds, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln in 1980 and a master’s degree from the school a year later, told the Midwest Newsroom neither Pasley nor anyone else from the Board of Curators has responded to his letter.

Pasley did not respond to Midwest Newsroom requests for an interview.

On Moseley’s watch

Lincoln University, one of two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in Missouri, has struggled with funding shortfalls and declining enrollment. In late 2023, federal officials estimated Missouri had underfunded the college, located in Jefferson City, by almost $361.6 million for three decades.

The Missouri Independent reported that Lincoln University’s funding woes grew “over years of the state not meeting its obligation to match federal funds and school administrators dipping into the university’s other revenue streams.”

Lewis said he was dismayed by the way Moseley responded to his questions about securing money for Lincoln University shortly after he took office.

“I immediately gave him a call,” Lewis said. “I said, ‘Congratulations, President Moseley. Now can we work on getting that Lincoln University funding?’”

Lewis said Moseley made a remark that caught him off guard.

“He told me asking for that funding is like asking for reparations.”

Moseley’s university biography touts the securing of the much-needed funding: “For the first time since it was federally mandated in 2000, the University received nearly $10 million, the full state match for its federal land grant funding, in May 2022 and maintained the full funding following the 2023 legislative session.”

Bonds said it’s no accident that Moseley, who is white, was able to do what Black Lincoln University presidents over decades could not.

“African American presidents came through this era where we did not receive this funding,” he said. “The entitlement to the funding was always there. The state just decided to release it on Moseley’s watch.”

Moseley’s biography says he has more than 20 years of higher education experience, “including 14 years on HBCU campuses.” His LinkedIn profile shows few examples of university administration experience, however. It lists an assistant head basketball coach position at North Carolina Central University, followed by the head basketball coach role at Lincoln. From there, Moseley was the school’s athletic director for nearly six years. After nine months as interim president, Moseley officially got the job in 2022.

“He just walked out of the gym and into the president’s office,” Bonds said.

Lewis did not discount Moseley’s experience as a basketball coach or athletic director, but he did question why the Board of Curators selected him for the position in the absence of academic and administrative leadership roles.

“Dr. James Franks was our basketball coach, became our athletic director, became our president,” Lewis said. “He went on to become the first Black man to be the president of the NCAA. And so I’ve seen a basketball coach become a president, and I understand and respect it.”

Lewis said that Moseley’s race was not a key factor in his concerns, pointing out that Lincoln University’s founding president, Richard Baxter Foster, was white. Lewis called Moseley a novice, based on his resume.

Bonds also called Moseley a novice and said the Board of Curators tapped him to lead Lincoln University because he had strong relationships with lawmakers and officials in Jefferson City.

“There was always concern about his ability to mentor faculty and students, to provide direction to others,” Bonds said. “His ability to provide scholarly leadership is limited.”

In her email, Candia-Bailey urged Moseley to get to know the alumni and partner with them for the good of the university. Bonds said that, unlike previous presidents, Moseley seemed uninterested in connecting with alumni, who number thousands around the country and actively fundraise and recruit on behalf of their alma mater.

“Our feedback was not received with any value,” said Bonds, who’s been active in the alumni association for decades. “So we’ve always, from the time that Moseley’s been in the position, been at a position of, you know, feeling that indifference toward what we believe and our input.”

Bonds said the indifference has continued in the wake of Candia-Bailey’s death.

“It would be interesting if the Board of Curators would want to have a listening session with us,” he said. “They said they want a listening session with the faculty and a listening session with the students, but they didn’t say they want a listening session with the alumni.”

A student speaks

On Jan. 12, the day Lincoln University announced the independent review, a group of students gathered outside a Board of Curators meeting, hoping to question leaders about the university’s response and plans.

“We were just trying to have a conversation just to get some type of answers or just to be heard,” Kenlyn Washington, Lincoln’s Student Government Association president, told local television station KRCG. “When they said, ‘OK, we’re having a closed meeting now,’ it was very frustrating.”

Washington, a political science major from St. Louis, told the Midwest Newsroom she became acquainted with Candia-Bailey through her work in student government.

“She was a great woman,” she said. “She was about her business. She made a significant impact on campus, and she impacted many lives.”

As for Moseley, Washington said he maintained close relationships with student-athletes and athletic department staff but was perceived as “distant,” by the wider student body.

She said a reckoning at Lincoln University is the last thing she expected going into her senior year.

“For everything to happen in such a short period of time and to have this much attention and the spotlight, it’s really been an eye-opener,” Washington said. “But we students continue with the things that we need to get done.”

Among those things, Washington said, is pressing the Board of Curators for information about how Candia-Bailey was treated and her firing.

The Jan. 18 statement from the Board of Curators said, “…we want to prioritize the mental health of everyone here and make sure each employee and student is treated with dignity and respect.”

Like Bonds and Lewis, Washington is ready to see Moseley gone–whether by termination or resignation.

“We should hold everyone accountable on behalf of the student body,” she said.

‘Our university is suffering’

Stevie Lawrence II, Lincoln University’s provost and vice president of academic affairs, is now acting as interim president of Lincoln University. DeNeia Thomas, dean of professional studies, now serves as acting vice president for student affairs, the position Candia-Bailey held until her firing.

The next Board of Curators meeting is scheduled for Feb. 8. Students will be there, Washington said, to take a stand for the university they love.

“For me, coming to Lincoln made me who I am,” she said.

Lewis, who has not visited the Lincoln campus for two years, said he will also be at the meeting in Jefferson City. He’s eager to resume the fundraising and recruiting efforts he suspended during Moseley’s tenure.

“The person I became at Lincoln University is the person I am now,” he said. “I was taught how to speak up in times like this. Our university is suffering.”

Bonds, a special education teacher in Georgia, said he will not attend the Feb. 8 meeting, but he and other alumni will gather in Jefferson City for their annual meeting later in the month. He said the occasion could be an opportunity for university leaders to engage with alumni.

Bonds, born and raised in Sikeston, in Missouri’s rural “Bootheel,” said Lincoln University has long served as a beacon for Black students, and he worries that the school’s current troubles are detracting from its brand and reputation.

“What the whole underpinning of the institution is about is bringing individual students and faculty to a platform that engages them and uplifts them,” Bonds said.

If you’re having thoughts of suicide or self-harm or know someone who is, the 988 Lifeline provides free and confidential support all hours, seven days a week.

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including IPR, KCUR 89.3, Nebraska Public Media News, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR.

This article was originally published by Word In Black. 

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The co-anchor of CNN News Central announced her stage 3 diagnosis on-air, emphasizing how the disease impacts Black women.

By Alexa Spencer
Word In Black

CNN anchor Sara Sidner announced on Jan. 8 that she is undergoing treatment for stage 3 breast cancer. During an emotional segment on CNN News Central, she told viewers she is in her second month of chemotherapy and will receive radiation and a double mastectomy. 

“I have never been sick a day of my life. I don’t smoke. I rarely drink. Breast cancer does not run in my family. And yet, here I am with stage three breast cancer,”  Sidner, 51, said on air.

FACT: Black women get breast cancer less, but die more often

As Sidner explained, “stage 3 is not a death sentence anymore for the vast majority of women.” But as she researched the condition, she learned about a harrowing disparity.

“If you happen to be a Black woman, you are 41 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than your white counterparts,” she said. 

An estimated 13 percent of women in the United States develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and about 2.5 percent die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. Further, the organization reports that Black women have a 4 percent lower incidence rate compared to White women but a 40 percent higher death rate.

Black women are also more likely to develop breast cancer before age 40, but when diagnosed at any age, it’s often more advanced and aggressive forms of the disease, such as triple-negative and inflammatory breast cancers. 

FACT: Breast cancer is a mental battle too. Community can help

Living with breast cancer impacts the mind, just as it does the body. Sidner told viewers that every single day that she “breathes another breath,” she celebrates because she’s still here with others. 

“I am here with my co-anchors, my colleagues, my family. And I can love and cry, and laugh, and hope. And that, my dear friends, is enough,” she said.

One-in-four women with breast cancer experience depression and are more likely to experience one or more of the following conditions: addiction, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, mood swings or post-traumatic stress disorder. 

The mental illnesses can be more severe if a person was diagnosed at a younger age, had prior traumatic experiences of mental illness diagnoses, lacked access to higher education, or had a lower income. 

Lacking social support from family, friends, or community could also contribute to mental challenges among women living with breast cancer. On the contrary, those who complete treatment and survive breast cancer could have a better quality of life if they’re supported socially. 

RESOURCES: Where to get a free exam 

Sidner urged women to get examined annually to prevent advanced diagnoses. “To all my sisters — Black and White and Brown — out there, please, for the love of God, get your mammograms every single year. Do your self-exams. Try to catch it before I did,” she said.

Whether performed at home or a clinic, breast examinations are accessible. Here are two free resources for preventative care: 

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sponsors free breast cancer screenings and diagnostic services for low-income, uninsured, or underinsured women. To find out if you’re eligible for care at a location near you, visit the program’s website.
• According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc., adult women of all ages should perform self-exams at least once a month. Visit their website to learn three techniques for self-examination.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

The post CNN’s Sara Sidner sheds light on breast cancer disparities appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

Some of the biggest stories for Black people in the past year include issues much closer to home and our daily lives

Hiram Jackson

Retrospectives of the preceding year are not simply a recap. They are, in many ways, a forecast for what’s to come. If we don’t take the time to reflect on what’s gone before, we’re more likely to make the same mistakes and less able to apply what we’ve learned going forward — case in point, the strange case(s) of Donald Trump.

Trump is the story that keeps giving. The former president – the only president in the nation’s history to be indicted on federal charges – faces a litany of criminal charges after being impeached twice. The fact that he remains a frontrunner in the 2024 election and is still a Republican party favorite is a national tragedy.

But the upside: three Black women law officials — New York Attorney General Letitia James, Atlanta-based District Attorney Fani Willis, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan — continue to hold his feet to the fire for crimes ranging from fraud and sexual harassment to election tampering and inciting a riot. 

That these three Black women are in a position to hold and preside over such high-profile cases underscores this nation’s progress on the judicial front and moves the jurisprudence system closer to the promise: “No one is above the law.”

Some of the biggest stories for Black people in the past year include issues much closer to home and our daily lives. Battles for racial justice and equity continue with greater and greater zeal. 

Two Black quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, faced off against each other in the Super Bowl, while 14 Black quarterbacks started for NFL teams during the 2023 season. Brittney Griner returned to the U.S. after 10 months of imprisonment in Russia, and Damar Hamlin returned from a near-death experience on the gridiron.

Black entrepreneurs are emerging in spaces once considered the domain of the ethnically privileged, and initiatives to increase access to quality education for underserved communities are working. Arian Simone, co-founder and CEO of Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, made major waves in the venture capital space where only 3 percent of investors are Black. Morgan DeBaun, the founder, chairman and CEO of Blavity, continues to expand the media company’s reach, popularity, and size.

The Bruce family’s descendants sold oceanfront property that was stolen through a Jim Crow application of eminent domain in 1912. They won the property back in 2002, and in 2023, they sold it back to Los Angeles County for $20 million.

And although local and national calls for reparations have yet to produce a national policy to compensate for slavery, a Black woman in Denver, Colorado, who worked seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for $30,000, sued her employer for underpayment and was awarded a judgment of $830,737.68, plus attorney’s fees that are estimated to be about $250,000.

Hakeem Jeffries became the U.S. House of Representatives minority leader and made history as the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress. And two Black lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson of Tennessee, were reinstated to the state legislature after expulsion when they called for gun reform in the wake of the Nashville school shooting.

Cherelle Parker became the first woman mayor of Philadelphia, and artificial intelligence caused a Hollywood shutdown.

A lot happened this year, and many of the key actors in the events that made history in the past 12 months will bring much of what they started in 2023 into 2024. But the best way to close out this year and every year is to take what we learned over the preceding months, including the impact that the year’s events have had on our individual lives and communities, and be vigilant but hopeful about our futures.

Although we don’t expect the 2024 presidential election to be as fraught with false claims of fraud, we know that at least one candidate for the office will continue to disrupt the political process with lies and insidious inventions. But since past behavior is a predictor of future behavior, expect an eventful ride in 2024.

Hiram Jackson is the CEO and publisher of Real Times Media, which includes The Michigan Chronicle, a partner in the Word In Black collaborative.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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Black homeowners and prospective buyers faced serious headwinds in 2023, but 2024 and beyond could provide hope.

By Bria Overs
Word in Black

“Challenging.” That is how Courtney Johnson Rose describes the state of housing in Black America in 2023. Rose is the president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), a minority professional trade organization serving real estate workers. 

The rate of Black homeownership in America has never reached 50 percent, a level other racial and ethnic groups hit in years past. The closest the Black community has ever come to it was in early 2004 when it hit 49.7 percent. It has been rapidly declining in the nearly 20 years since, hitting its lowest point in early 2019 at 40.6 percent.

“It’s a challenge to sell real estate and to inspire people to buy real estate in this type of market,” Rose says. “Rates are high, prices are high. We’ve had buyers in my office that we’ve been looking for six months to find the right house.”

According to NAREB’s annual “State of Housing in Black America,” blaming a lack of desire for homeownership would be unfair. The current process for purchasing has created systemic barriers and obstacles that, for some, are nearly impossible to jump over.

“We need to figure out new ways for Black Americans to build wealth because, in many markets, it’s very difficult to become a homeowner because of the wealth profile of Black Americans,” Andre M. Perry, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, says. “We certainly need homeownership as a vehicle to build wealth, but we need other as well.”

All is not lost, though. Rose says educating, preparing, and reforming systems to be more inclusive for potential and existing Black homeowners can help the community get there.

What Black homeowners and homebuyers face

The list of obstacles is  long, including several that remain out of the control of Black people. The list includes low wages and wealth, housing unaffordability, lack of housing supply, discriminatory property tax systems, and even vulnerability to the effects of climate change.

Black net worth has increased by 61 percent since 2019, from a median of $28,000 to $45,000. However, more money is needed to purchase a home. Providers of conventional home loans denied Black applicants three times more than White applicants. The report found that “unfavorable debt-to-income ratio, poor credit history, and inadequate collateral were the top three reasons for loan denial among Black and white prospective borrowers.”

Then there’s the housing affordability problem. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), 37.4 percent of homes sold this summer were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $96,300. Most Black families do not make half of that. 

Contributing to this problem are interest rates, which were raised by the Federal Reserve 11 times since March 2020 in an attempt to recover from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately for borrowers, as inflation holds steady at 3.1 percent, the year will end with no new increases, and some reports claim the Fed may cut interest rates three or more times in the coming year. Rose hopes this news will encourage more Black Americans to enter the housing market.

In addition to housing unaffordability, property tax systems have made it harder for Black folks to keep their homes. A report from the Brookings Institute found that Black-owned home values were “over-assessed” by tax collectors at 10 percent to 13 percent higher than White-owned homes. At the same time, Black homes are undervalued by 21 percent to 23 percent by appraisers, lowering their homes’ selling price.

Recommendations for addressing these concerns include finding new ways to tax people based on levels of wealth to account for the profiles of different racial and ethnic groups. But more importantly, guards are needed to stop racial bias, Perry says.

“We need data to examine the differences across neighborhoods, and we need systems to hold tax assessors and cities accountable,” he adds.

What’s Next?

Black millennials are the future of homeownership. The NAREB reported the group accounting for the most significant generational share of mortgage loans in 2022. Yet, their homeownership rate is only half that of white millennials, and is at risk of declining because of systemic obstacles and the economy.

“Student loan debt is one of the biggest impediments they have for being able to purchase real estate,” Rose says. “A lot of them went to college, which was the right thing to do, but for the first 15 years out of college, they’re paying off the debt they spent to get their education.”

To provide opportunities for education and advancement, NAREB kicked off its multi-city Black Wealth Tour, making stops in Houston and Birmingham earlier this year. The tour will visit Atlanta, Little Rock, Los Angeles, and other cities in 2024.

“If you have a community that’s active, and that wants it, we can get to the finish line,” Rose says. “I don’t think we have an apathetic community. I think the Black community wants to build wealth, they want to understand, they want to learn and grow. If that desire is there, the NAREB is here to keep on pushing to try to open the door for them.”

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

The post The State of Black homeownership is difficult but promising appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

Since the 1800s, Black folks have used Christmas to resist racial violence and oppression. Here are some social justice organizations to support this holiday season.

By Nadira Jamerson
Word in  Black

For many of us, Christmas is a time to exchange gifts, indulge in slices of sweet potato pie, and binge-watch movies like “This Christmas” and “Best Man Holiday” with family. But for Black Americans, spreading holiday cheer has also meant reflecting on the injustices in our society and actively working to do something about them.

Historically, Christmas was one of the only times when some enslaved Black folks were given time off from the grueling work of plantation life. In the 1830s, the large slaveholding states of Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas became the first in the United States to declare Christmas a state holiday.

As Solomon Northup wrote in his memoir “Twelve Years a Slave,” Christmas was “the time of feasting, and frolicking, and fiddling — the carnival season with the children of bondage. They are the only days when they are allowed a little restricted liberty, and heartily indeed do they enjoy it.” 

During the holiday season, some enslaved Black folks used their “little restricted liberty” to resist the atrocities of slavery by enjoying rest that was otherwise seldom afforded to them, while some traveled to nearby relatives to strengthen family bonds that slaveholders worked tirelessly to break.

For others, Christmas was an ideal time to plan their escapes to freedom. In fact, icon and leader of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, used Christmas Eve, 1854, to lead her three brothers to freedom in Philadelphia. And Ellen Craft disguised herself as a White man to help her and her husband escape enslavement on Christmas day, 1848. 

Today, resistance may look a little different — but it’s still a strong Black tradition. According to a joint study from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, nearly two-thirds of Black households donate to community-based organizations and causes, totaling roughly $11 billion each year.

Despite having a lower net worth, Black households, on average, give away 25 percent more of their income per year than their White counterparts. Outside of financial contributions, Black Americans have taken charge of facilitating some of the most influential protests in the United States, from the 1963 March on Washington to the Summer of George Floyd in 2020. 

If you want to make a meaningful change in your community this Christmas, support these Black-led organizations to help you get in the holiday spirit.

Five social justice organizations to support this holiday season: 

1. Black Women For Wellness: This Black-women-led organization promotes health and well-being among Black women and girls through health education, empowerment and advocacy. You can support their mission by making a donation. 

2. Black Male Voter Project: BMVP directly engages Black male voters in their 17 priority states to increase civic engagement and voter participation and ensure the needs of Black male voters are heard. You can support their mission by making a donation. 

3. H.O.P.E.: Through counseling, success coaching and financial assistance for housing and childcare, H.O.P.E empowers Black single parents in Atlanta. Learn more about this organization in our interview with founder Kenita Smith, and support their work by volunteering at their next event.

4. Black and Pink National: A prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating Black LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS. You can volunteer to support one of their programs or make a donation. 

5. The National Coalition for the Homeless: Building a movement to end homelessness. This organization uses an advocacy-based approach to prevent homelessness for those at risk, provide resources for the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness, and ensure their civil rights are respected and protected. Get involved by volunteering or making a donation.

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

The post Why Black Christmas means resistance appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Tonya Calhoun

The power of a “people-first” approach drives authentic community engagement while citing statistical data as a key pillar in addressing climate.

Milwaukee is witnessing a transformation — a journey fueled by data, collaboration, and a fervent commitment to justice. 

Playing a crucial role in this endeavor is Data You Can Use, a diverse coalition of local professionals committed to providing accessible data for addressing community concerns. For instance, Walnut Way, a local community-based organization, serves as an exemplary community organization harnessing data for empowerment and showcasing the tangible impact of leveraging information for positive change.

Milwaukee’s recent 9th Annual Data Day, themed ‘Journey to Justice,’ resonated with the collective desire to dismantle silos, democratize data, and catalyze systemic change. This convergence of minds, comprising residents, professionals, government officials and academics, marked a pivotal moment in the pursuit of equitable solutions.

As the director of the Office of Community Collaboration and Engagement at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), I was delighted to be at the core of this journey, igniting discussions on climate injustice. My goal for the event was to illuminate the power of a people-first approach in driving authentic community engagement while citing statistical data as a key pillar in addressing climate inequity.

Walnut Way’s community work is a testament to the marriage of data-driven strategies and grassroots climate action. Their work aims to reduce disparities among African Americans, increase community wealth, enhance residents’ well-being, and create a resilient, self-sustaining neighborhood. Their collaboration with institutions like the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute underscores the potency of data in shaping environmental justice initiatives.

Their approach to community-led, comprehensive development allows residents to lead important initiatives that support the unique needs of their community, fostering economic mobility, supporting small businesses and advocating for issues like energy burden, the portion of your total household income that goes specifically toward paying for energy-related expenses like electricity, heating, and other similar costs, broadband access, and water rights. 

Broad-based collaboration is core to Walnut Way’s efforts to create healthier community environments. To help residents, policymakers, and businesses make informed decisions related to protecting the health and well-being of communities, Walnut Way collaborates with MKE FreshAir Collection, a local non-profit air quality monitoring and advocacy organization. 

With support from Walnut Way, MKE FreshAir Collective relies on the Air Visual App by IQAir as a primary platform for helping residents receive real-time, neighborhood-level air quality notifications, empowering them to make informed decisions about their well-being. Their meticulous deployment of air quality sensors, guided by health data, not only educates nearly 10,000 Milwaukeeans, but also serves as a blaring call for policy reforms. 

The tapestry of these initiatives spotlights the critical role of the historic Inflation Reduction Act in fostering sustainable infrastructure and incentivizing climate projects, like Walnut Way’s community bioswales and healthy home projects, which leverage tax incentives on construction and sustainable supplies for affordable homeownership projects. It’s a testament to how informed funding propels impactful community-driven solutions.

The real marvel lies in the potential—a potential propelled by tools like EDF’s Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI). This instrument isn’t just a map; it’s a compass guiding investments and empowering Black communities to confront climate risks head-on.

The CVI presents the opportunity for local governments to leverage the tool as a resource to not only show where the risks lie, but to help steer new investment in solutions. Supporting groups like Walnut Way — and ensuring the right investments flow to the right places for the biggest impact — is critical to the advancement of climate progress. 

Walnut Way’s unwavering commitment to fostering economic and climate equity within Milwaukee’s historically marginalized communities stands as a testament to their dedication in redefining the parameters of success. Their efforts serve as an exceptional model for other communities seeking to address similar challenges by using data to inspire action. And utilizing tools like the CVI that doesn’t just showcase climate risks — but offers a roadmap for equitable investments, leveraging the IRA’s transformative funding — can add to this momentum.

Milwaukee stands at the cusp of a transformative era, armed with data as a catalyst for justice. Let their journey, while ongoing, exemplify the potency of collaborative efforts, data-driven strategies and equitable funding in sculpting a future where justice isn’t a distant dream but a tangible reality.

Together, we champion a call to leverage data for community empowerment, a journey where justice isn’t a destination but a path we pave together.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

The post Paving the path to justice: Harnessing data for community empowerment appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Roger House,
Word in Black

The campaign of Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks for the U.S. Senate may be the most consequential election facing Black Democrats in 2024. That’s because her candidacy can serve as a springboard to a more inclusive Senate chamber and to the consolidation of Black political power in a Southern state.

Alsobrooks is the county executive of Prince George’s County, a suburban powerbase for affluent Black families in Maryland. She is a former state’s attorney for “PG County” as well. A lifelong resident of Maryland, she announced her candidacy to fill the seat of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who will retire in 2024. If elected, she promises to focus on legislation aimed at bolstering the economy and reducing crime, among other priorities.

There are six candidates in the state’s Democratic primary, including Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), a three-term member of the House of Representatives. Also trending is Will Jawando, a progressive member of the Montgomery County Council. Alsobrooks and Trone are considered the leading candidates, but Trone holds a financial advantage as the founder of alcohol retailer Total Wine & More. He has put nearly $10 million of his own money into the campaign.

Alsobrooks has raised about $1.7 million in recent months. It is an overall strong fundraising performance, but her campaign is at a stark financial disadvantage. This should raise alarm bells with supporters on a number of levels.

The Senate Glass Ceiling

Black women have decried their lack of representation in the Senate since the departure of Kamala Harris, who made history as the first Afro-Asian woman elected from California but opted to leave for the historically symbolic — but relatively unimportant — vice presidency. Since then, advocates like Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) have called on party leaders to help a Black woman get elected to the Senate. That’s because across history, only two Black women have made it to the chamber: Harris (2017-2021) and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois (1993-1999).

Advocates urged action after the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). California Gov. Gavin Newsom attempted to quell the stir with the one-year appointment of Laphonza Butler, a former president of the political action group Emily’s List. The appointment did little to placate the hopes of Black women for a full-term senator.

Some have looked to the Senate campaign of Rep. Lee, who announced her candidacy after Feinstein’s death. Lee has been a dedicated representative of the Oakland community since 1998. However, the voting power of Black people in California has been in decline for years with the loss of population. To date, Lee polls far behind the better-funded campaigns of Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who earned a national profile as the leader of the Donald Trump impeachment hearings.

Then there is the senate campaign of Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, the sole House member of the small blue state of Delaware. She is the handpicked replacement of the retiring Sen. Thomas R. Carper. Rochester may very well cruise into the Senate as an overall favorite of Black voters and White liberal Democrats. While she may benefit, however, one can question whether the role of the statewide Black community will be enhanced as well.

Delaware, like Maryland, can fly under the radar as a state with a sizable Black population of about 23 percent. Yet, the community lacks the organization and talent pool of professionals that fuel the larger Maryland. Her campaign could further the cause of a more inclusive Senate chamber but little more. 

It means that the national Black leadership must be conscious of putting its limited resources into a campaign with both good odds and the chance to forge a strong statewide organization. That’s where the Senate candidacy of Angela Alsobrooks is worth a look.

The New Capital of Black America

The politics of Maryland is a game-changer in the American political experience. Black people comprise about 30 percent of the 6 million population and more than half of the Democratic base. They are organized in a suburban-urban coalition that can exercise influence in the state, unlike in other Southern states.

The drivers of the coalition are the affluent suburban counties that border Washington, foremost Prince George’s County with a population of 900,000, of which about 60 percent is Black. The engine of the coalition is the rough-and-tumble city of Baltimore, which can bring to bear about 600,000 voters for candidates seeking statewide office.

As such, Maryland stands out as a symbol of the rise of a Black-led democracy with a fair chance of sustainability. Voters made history in 2022 with the elections of Wes Moore as governor and Anthony Brown as attorney general. Their confidence in a strong Black voter base provides leeway for shaping an agenda of equity in state policy. 

Maryland has the favorable condition of a large pool of educated, middle-class Blacks drawn to the Washington job market. Gov. Moore, an example of this class, has the background to mobilize a large Black voting bloc and build alliances across race and ethnic lines.

As such, the Free State offers an opportunity for Black professionals to forge a statewide power base — and, by extension, to gain experience in how the state can be an instrument for negotiations with other states and the federal government, and how it can provide a pathway for relations with African countries under initiatives such as President Biden’s summit on trade.

The Angela Alsobrooks campaign will build on the Moore and Brown elections; her victory would be a “triple crown” for the Black community. And it may encourage young people to consider work in the unglamorous but critical field of state governance.

Under Moore, for example, Maryland is one of the few states to prioritize the inclusion of historically under-represented Black labor in civil construction. It is promoting the equity provisions in President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law for the Frederick Douglass Tunnel project to rebuild the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.

The project is expected to generate 30,000 skilled jobs, most of which do not require a college degree. The state has identified nine associated projects, which encompass $9 billion in investment and 11,000 jobs, for “pre-hire collective bargaining agreements (PLAs) between labor unions and employers.” In addition, Baltimore pledged to require PLAs on six projects, valued at $30 million, that will create more than 100 skilled jobs.  

A Model for Moderate Southern States

Maryland can serve as a model for the emerging Black political class in other moderate southern states with strong economies — Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. As I have suggested, Democratic and community strategists should consider a “Four State Project” to accelerate racial democracy in the South. It would entail the recruitment of middle-class voters from the politically repugnant states of Texas, Florida and the Mississippi Delta region.

Just like recruiters are doing in border states and “sanctuary cities” for immigrants both legal and undocumented, Black political recruitment should include assistance with relocation expenses and information on jobs and housing.

Roger House is associate professor of American Studies at Emerson College and the author of “Blue Smoke: The Recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy” and “South End Shout: Boston’s Forgotten Music Scene in the Jazz Age.” His forthcoming book is “Five Hundred Years of Black Self Governance” by Louisiana State University Press. A version of the commentary appeared in The Messenger.

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

The post Opinion: Angela Alsobrooks – A Senate bid and Black Power springboard appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Bria Overs,
Word in Black

Black people have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no lack of desire or motivation that stops them from pursuing the path.

According to the most recent official numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are nearly 3.6 million Black-owned businesses. An estimated 1.3 million people are employed by 4 percent of those companies.

Despite having millions of businesses, there are still long-standing hurdles to entrepreneurship. Lack of access to capital, education, networking and mentoring opportunities keeps potential founders from taking the steps needed to build something great.

A partnership between the Black Economic Alliance Foundation and two distinguished Historically Black Colleges and Universities seeks to solve this for the next generation of Black entrepreneurs. 

Their solution: the Center for Black Entrepreneurship.

Launched in 2021 with a $10 million grant from Bank of America, the CBE builds on Atlanta’s Morehouse College and Spelman College’s respective entrepreneurship programs and initiatives. Since its start, the program has received $5 million from Mastercard’s Impact Fund, $5 million from the Visa Foundation and $4 million from Cisco.

“Aspirationally, the Center is not just standing up academic programs,” Grant Warner, director of the CBE, tells Word In Black, adding that it’s also about creating historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that can stand as an “economic development engine for their surrounding communities” wherever they are located. Werner said that part is critical, as Black communities need institutions to help “create economic transformation without gentrification.” 

Warner said the HBCUs operating as economic development engines in their respective communities increases the “impact across the board, in terms of quality of life and length of life.”

With a background in mechanical engineering and entrepreneurship, Werner has led business ventures, including Black Star Technologies, ConnectYard and XediaLabs. 

He spent nearly two decades on the HBCU campus of Howard University, where he was the director of innovation, a professor and initiator of HowU Innovate programming, “an interdisciplinary initiative that provides campus-wide innovation programming in which students are guided through the process of founding technology startups.”

Warner has his finger on the pulse of small businesses and startups. Word In Black spoke with him about the future of the CBE, how to prepare future Black business owners and leaders, and his outlook on the future of Black entrepreneurship.

Bria Overs: This sounds like a large effort to fill a gap that exists around Black entrepreneurship. Both that there aren’t enough Black entrepreneurs, but also the gap in access to pursue entrepreneurship.

Grant Warner: I think that’s absolutely accurate. We completed a study on entrepreneurs who are looking at federal opportunities, but I think the results of it speak largely to the Black experience in entrepreneurship. What you find is things like a lack of access to funding. 

You look at things like the SBIR program, which is called America’s Seed Fund, and you look at who’s funded. Oftentimes, it doesn’t look like America. The statistics around Black startups that are funded by venture capital is around 1 percent. It’s not representative of our slice of the population. These are all dynamics that need to change.

BO: We haven’t seen an investment or this kind of widespread care in Black businesses before. I feel like I’m seeing it for the first time. What makes now so special? Why invest in young Black entrepreneurs and talent at this time?

GW: The “now” part of it was because of George Floyd and the racial reckoning that had everybody step back and look at what they were doing or not doing. It provided a unique opportunity for investments to come into HBCUs, some of which landed in entrepreneurship like we have here.

Most jobs are created by small businesses and startups. That’s just the reality of it. So, if you want to have a thriving U.S. economy, then we have to figure out how we engage larger parts of the society in those activities. That’s just for the health of the country, period. 

Given the demographic changes, I think it becomes a national imperative to make sure that we invest in institutions that have been underinvested, in communities that have been underinvested — and create pathways so that people get an education that is tied to opportunities, and those opportunities are tied to dollars so that we can have people who launch ventures who employ people who transform communities.

BO: I would love to talk about the minor in entrepreneurship, as well as the certificate programs going on at Morehouse and Spelman. Can you tell me more about the thinking behind creating those?

GW: The creation of the center really instigated the formation and introduction of the minor. I think the big part of it was really providing an on-ramp for people to participate in entrepreneurship. 

It’s really about providing a 21st-century skill set — active partnering, opportunity assessment, risk reduction, experimentation — to our students that they can then leverage however they want. Some will choose to go to a company, some will choose to go and be an entrepreneur, and some will choose to go into academia. But in all of those cases, being able to really understand user needs — do the opportunity identification, experiment with solutions, take feedback, and iterate — all of those are critical skills that you would want to have in those jobs.

Equipping a 21st-century skilled Black workforce and then connecting them with opportunities that allow them to explore entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

BO: One of the issues entrepreneurs have expressed is that they don’t feel supported enough by society as a whole and sometimes by their own community. So what can we all be doing to support entrepreneurs and even the talent coming out of the minor, out of colleges, and the certificate program?

GW: There are a number of different things. When we talk about access to capital, that means a couple of things.

One, it does mean investment. We have institutions that are the leading producers of Black doctors, Black investors, people in finance, etc. Activating them to support and invest in burgeoning Black businesses is important. We need us invested in that asset class to help change the investment targets so that more money goes to Black startups. And I think that will be a virtuous cycle. We’ll have more Black startups that are successful; we’ll have more Black people who have investments that turn a profit.

But the other part is customers. The other way you get capital is through customers. To the extent that there are ventures that are B2C, I think we need to be open as a community. And I think that happens, right? There’s a whole Buy Black initiative, and sites have popped up that really try to aggregate Black vendors. Being conscious about how we spend our dollars will be helpful.

Then, look at the companies we’re working for. What do their supply chains look like right now? Are you making sure your company has a diverse set of suppliers because that’s another access to capital?

There are multiple things to do. But we have to be advocates for ourselves across the board.

BO: You touched on some of the challenges that Black business owners face when they start their own companies. Some of these hurdles come as a surprise to owners. How does the center help prepare students for facing these challenges? 

GW: What we try to do is evidence-based action. The reality of it is that as recently as the first half of 2021, 1 percent of venture funding went to Black people — that’s just the reality. You should be armed with that knowledge. But then, looking under the hood, what drives some of that differentiation? It really is the behavior that investors have when they look at Black companies.

We look at the behavior of venture investors. What you’ll notice is that they tend to scrutinize teams from underrepresented groups, including Black, more heavily, indicating that they don’t believe the facts or statements they’re making.

So when we think about how we go about building curriculum and preparation, we have to take that into account and then arm our students with the knowledge that strengthens them.

BO: As the CBE is going into its second year and the end of your first year as Director, you’ve had some time to see the potential of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship. What does the future look like?

GW: It’s something that we’re actively thinking about now. For example, how we can take some of the curricula, whether it’s the whole thing or modularized, and share it with the HBCU network or the PWI network. Tell them how they might better access students on their campuses and better support Black students. 

We’re thinking about bringing additional Black leaders into the ecosystem and then creating digital assets around that interaction. Something that can be shared across HBCUs.

There are also some discussions about how you might instantiate the CBE and other places, but those are all still conversations happening. We’re continuing to build out the program.

BO: My last question is similar to the previous one. What does the future of Black entrepreneurship look like?

GW: It has to be bright because we’re producing new entrants into that market equipped with new skills and relationships that we think will help them be successful. But they’re also entering a landscape that’s very different. A lot of new funds with Black fund managers, and data shows that Black fund managers do invest their money differently.

Again, now the economic landscape has changed a little bit — interest rates, inflation — but I’m hopeful that we reach a state where some of the gains we’ve seen in the past will continue.

At one point, you could count the number of Black people who raised $1 million. If we go back even five years, the number was somewhere around a couple of hundred — ever. Then in 2021 to 2022 and 2023, Black people raised over $1 million, and the average raised was much higher. That number has grown tremendously, so I think the trajectory is there.

We have a bunch of enthusiastic and skilled participants that we’re going to release into the ecosystem. I’m hopeful. And we need it. This is the next civil rights issue. How do we close the wealth gap? This is not something where we can be dejected or something that we can stop. We need to actually attack this and win.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

The post Meet Grant Warner, the leader helping train future Black business owners appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier,
Word In Black

The holiday season is officially here, which means it’s time to make gift lists and start shopping for friends and family. But listen, do folks really need another scented candle, pair of socks, or pricey electronic gadget? Perhaps it’s time to consider a more radical act of giving: books by Black women.

Why Black women specifically? Well, consider all the ways racism and sexism make being a published author more difficult. In the literary world, Black representation among publishing staff and literary agents is notably sparse, especially in roles with decision-making power.

A recent survey by Lee & Low found that publishing as a whole is 76 percent White, and marketing departments in the industry are, on average, 74 percent White. That means although Black women authors release plenty of excellent books every year, they may not get the marketing budget their White peers do.

As Cherise Fisher, a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates, told the New York Times in 2021, “There is an engine in publishing houses. Not every book gets the same amount of gas. Some books get premium. Some get regular.”

And at a time when book bans are yanking the poetry of Amanda Gorman and novels by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker out of classrooms and libraries, giving the gift of a book written by a Black woman is akin to gifting revolution.

So have your local Black-owned bookstore wrap up Jesmyn Ward’s latest for mom or dad, hand your siblings a juicy Beverly Jenkins or Jasmine Guillory romance, and gift Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” to folks so they can read it and see the film on Christmas Day. Oh, and somebody you know is going to like Viola Davis’ memoir (and Jada Pinkett Smith’s), too.

Need more book ideas? Here are five recommendations from Team Word In Black:

1. “Ghost Summer: Stories” by Tananarive Due

Published in 2015, Tananarive Due’s debut collection of short stories was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and named one of the Best Books of 2015 by the Los Angeles Times. As digital editor Nadira Jamerson explains, the tales included “made me fall in love with Black horror. If you’re looking for a thrilling read that mixes Black history with horror and fantasy, you’ll love this collection.”

2. “My Sister, The Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite

This 2019 page-turner is a Booker Prize nominee and was also named the best mystery/thriller by the Los Angeles Times. Health data reporter Anissa Durham says this “thriller novel tells the tale of an older sister who cleans up after her younger, beautiful sister who continues to ‘dispose’ of her boyfriends. But, when her younger sister starts dating the doctor where she works as a nurse, does she continue to stand by her sister or warn the doctor she’s had eyes on for years?”

3. “Black Women Will Save the World,” by April Ryan

“The trailblazing White House correspondent narrated the power and impact Black women continue to carry across generational lines,” education reporter Aziah Siid says about Ryan’s 2022 book. “She explores the adversities Black women endure and the ways they’ve turned pain into progress — all while chronicling her own personal journey. The book is a reminder of why the slogan, Black Girl Magic, is perfectly put.

4. “Kindred” by Octavia Butler

If you don’t have this 1979 science fiction masterpiece on your bookshelf, buy one for yourself and one for a friend. Health reporter Alexa Spencer says “plot will keep any thrill-seeking reader on their toes: Jumping back and forth between 1970s Los Angeles and the Antebellum South with the main character, Dana. ‘Kindred’ is the perfect mix of history and compelling fiction.”

5. “One Blood” by Denene Millner

Give me a novel about identity, family secrets, and personal discovery, and I’m hooked. Published in September, “One Blood” is the latest from Millner, a six-time New York Times bestselling author. The book takes us through the stories of three generations of Black women, the challenges of motherhood, and the intergenerational traumas that break us — and bind us together.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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#education

By Cedric Jones,
Word In Black

I remember sitting in a small classroom in Barrows Hall at U.C. Berkeley when I learned of my acceptance into Teach For America, a national education nonprofit that supports public school systems by sourcing talent to lead as anti-racist educators within the classroom.

Then — as is the case today — only about 2 percent of teachers nationally are Black men. I was both charged to make an impact and also curious if there was infrastructure to nurture my presence as I entered TFA as one of 22 Black educators in the 2014 Bay Area cohort — about 11 of the entire Bay Area class of new TFA teachers that year. 

I remember sitting in a small classroom in Barrows Hall at U.C. Berkeley when I learned of my acceptance into Teach For America, a national education nonprofit that supports public school systems by sourcing talent to lead as anti-racist educators within the classroom.

Then — as is the case today — only about 2 percent of teachers nationally are Black men. I was both charged to make an impact and also curious if there was infrastructure to nurture my presence as I entered TFA as one of 22 Black educators in the 2014 Bay Area cohort — about 11 of the entire Bay Area class of new TFA teachers that year. 

Nearly a decade later, it’s clear that my time in the classroom was one of the most profound professional experiences I could have chosen. Now, as the Director of Southern California Recruitment and Retention at TFA Los Angeles, I often reflect on what drew me to the classroom and what about the recruitment process engaged me — and I use those learnings to help me recruit more teachers that reflect the students we serve in L.A. and across the country. 

Building relationships

I met my recruiter, Raquel Lucente, for the first time at a Black Community event on campus. Seeing folks I looked up to engaging with her authentically and seeing her meet with folks for coffee on my way to classes, it was clear her focus was on creating relationships and going into the spaces where Black students felt most comfortable. While career fairs, resume workshops, and club meetings can be a fine way to meet prospective teachers, I’ve observed that recruiting Black folks into the field requires a more genuine connection, transparency, and support that feels equitable. 

Following in Raquel’s footsteps, so much of my time in my current role is dedicated to hosting both one-on-one sessions with Black folks who are interested in joining TFA, as well as those who have already applied. I also hold space for weekly office hours, where folks can pop in to receive specific support or simply process what an offer from TFA might look like for them uniquely. 

Addressing financial barriers

When candidates are offered admission to the corps, I always like to address the challenges and barriers to joining TFA head-on. Finances, an area of concern for many, including myself, come up often. Many Black applicants are financially supporting family members or are burdened by student loan debt. In fact, the average student loan debt is more than $37,000, almost the same as the average starting teacher salary. Given the racial wealth gap, Black applicants, as a whole, want to make sure they can sustain themselves and avoid entering — or reentering — a cycle of poverty.  

Though, as an organization, we’ve been able to provide more than $12 million annually in transitional support grants, as well as emergency and need-based financial aid, the average entry-level salary of teachers can still leave recent college graduates anxious about their future. 

In many states, credentialing exams for subject matter and basic skills competency exacerbate the financial barriers to entering the profession. I’m proud of the efforts TFA has made to address these concerns in the short term through grants, as well as our work to advocate for legislation that improves teacher pay, reduces educator student loan debt, and investigates innovative ways to make teacher housing more affordable. 

Listening and integrating the community

Nationwide, actively listening to the needs of our Black applicants has resulted in salary negotiations with our school districts and charter management organizations, clustering corps members at sites with strong retention of Black teachers, and placing folks where pro-Black programming is on-site.

In 2022, I launched our School Partner Pipeline initiative, which supports instructional aides and paraprofessionals who already have a bachelor’s degree and work in one of our partner schools to earn their teaching credentials. These folks, who often come from the community, are then able to continue as classroom teachers in a setting where they already have deep relationships with students and their families.

Black perspectives must inform the evolution of the teaching profession to make it a more inclusive and sustainable career path for us.

By taking an individualized approach to recruiting Black educators, I’m positioned to invest in those ready to inspire — and educate — our youth.  I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is for those closest to the communities we serve to be at the forefront of educational change and accountability. 

The country’s schools, classrooms, and students need more Black educators. To make that possible, Black perspectives must inform the evolution of the teaching profession to make it a more inclusive and sustainable career path for us. I’m proud to have not only followed in my grandfather’s footsteps, but also built upon his legacy by working with TFA and our school partners to create a pathway for more Black educators to thrive.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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#education

By Aziah Siid,
Word in Black

Here’s what you probably know about school segregation in the United States: On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Many cities across the Jim Crow South refused to comply with the ruling, and so six years later, on Nov. 14, 1960, a brave 6-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges needed U.S. marshals to escort her to her first day of class at all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. At the same time, 6-year-olds Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost, and Leona Tate integrated nearby McDonogh 19 Elementary School.  

Norman Rockwell immortalized Bridges being escorted into the school in his famous 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” In the decades since, de jure segregation mandated by law has disappeared, but de facto segregation — what actually happens in practice — persists, and it continues to impact Black students today. How? Well, here’s what you may not know about modern-day school segregation. 

1. Not much has happened since the 1970s

Experts at The Civil Rights Project at UCLA say school desegregation “peaked in 1988,” and there have been no major legal or policy advances since that time. It’s been almost 70 years since the high court struck down the“separate but equal” doctrine, but as researchers Gary Orfield and Danielle Jarvie wrote in a recent report, the legal effort to integrate schools has been abandoned and led to increased “isolation of Black students in all sectors of American education.” They go on to note that “New policies are needed, and legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives, the Strength in Diversity Act, could be a positive beginning.”

2. School segregation is getting worse

White-Black segregation increased by 35 percent from 1991 to 2020 in the 100 largest school districts. Black students have the least amount of contact with White students in Chicago, followed by Dallas, Miami, and Prince George’s County, Maryland,” according to the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

3. Other racial or ethnic groups are now counted

Black students are far more segregated from White students now than in the civil rights era, but schools are also more racially and ethnically diverse. Black kids, particularly in the western states and in the South, attend school with many more Latinos. 

4. Schools in blue states are segregated, too.

New York is the most segregated state in the country for Black students, followed by Illinois, California, and Maryland. In the seven-episode Serial podcast series, “Nice White Parents,” Chana Joffe-Walt takes listeners through the influence White parents wield in private and public education and their direct contribution to keeping schools segregated in New York City schools. In-depth reporting on funding allocation, the power of parent-teacher associations, and the ways Black voices are kept out of decision-making in the nation’s largest school district are explored as well.

5. Nearly a quarter of Black students attend predominantly Black schools 

A recent analysis by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that although Black students are 15 percent of the U.S. public school population, 23 percent of them attend schools that are more than three-quarters Black.

6. Charter schools also struggle with segregation 

School segregation is not just prevalent in traditional public schools. It’s spread across all school types, including charter schools, private, and magnet schools. The Government Accountability Office found more than 41 percent of charter schools and about 26 percent of magnet schools were predominantly same race/ethnicity, And although “magnet schools were established to assist in the desegregation, about one in four magnet schools are predominantly same-race/ethnicity schools.”

7. A lack of Black teachers is tied to desegregation

Research compiled by the National Institutes of Health shows after the Brown v. Board decision, “38,000 black teachers and administrators in twenty-one Southern and Southern-bordering states lost their jobs.” In addition, “Official language concerning black-teacher retention was included in neither the Civil Rights Act of 1964 nor the subsequent federal desegregation guidelines of 1966.” 

Fast forward to today, and Black teachers make up only 6 percent of the profession in public schools, yet Black people comprise 14 percent of the U.S. population and 15 percent of the K-12 public school student population, according to the 2022 data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Black male educators, in particular, openly speak on how the lack of representation in the classroom from as early as elementary school through the collegiate level impacted their journey through schooling, but also how the disproportionately low numbers of Black teachers have an effect on today’s students. 

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

From disproportionately high rates of chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes to women being three times more likely to die during childbirth than Whites, the data confirms a simple, indisputable, alarming fact: Being Black in America is hazardous to your health. 

Multiple studies have shown that structural racism — from Jim Crow laws that institutionalized second-class citizenship to microaggressions from coworkers at the office — is a key contributor to poor health outcomes among Black people. It’s why some 300 jurisdictions, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have declared racism a public health threat.

That’s why Dr. Gail Christopher, a researcher and public health specialist, believes that the path towards improving the health of Black people begins by ending the story the U.S. tells itself about race.

“After decades of working on this idea of ending health inequities and moving toward healing (from) racism, I realized that we had to have a comprehensive approach,” says Christopher, executive director of the National Collaborative for Health Equity (NCHE), which focuses on the grassroots factors that contribute to health inequities.

She concluded that a common factor — America’s White supremacist racial hierarchy — is the root cause. 

“The mission is to eliminate health inequities, but we know that we can’t do that without ultimately eliminating racism in this country. So there’s a beautiful intersection there,” Christopher says.

That theory, she says, led her to work with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to create the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) framework, a program aimed at helping communities achieve lasting change through dialogue and workshops. 

“The first pillar of the truth, racial healing, and transformation framework is narrative change,” Christopher says. “We’re wired as human beings to believe stories,”  she says, citing a famous quote from 17th-century philosopher René Descartes, “I think, therefore, I am.”

And “in America,” says Christopher, “we really believe in racial hierarchy.”

Change that paradigm by embracing the TRHT framework, she says, and Black health outcomes will improve.

Racial healing, and improving health outcomes for Black people, “begins with creating a new narrative of who we are, how we became who we are,” Christopher says. “And that has to be done at the individual level and at the collective level.” 

Both take place at the NCHE, which trains community leaders and clinicians to tackle on-the-ground issues linked to health problems, such as the relocation of an industrial waste facility to a Black community or reframing data to identify and address inequities. The organization also sponsors 18-month fellowships for select professionals.

NCHE has partnered with the American Public Health Association and produced a series of briefs called “Healing through Policy,” which identifies policies and practices that align with the TRHT framework, Christopher says. “And you can download that from our website, you can download it from the (American Public Health Association) website, or the de Beaumont Foundation website. But it lists all kinds of practical policies that relate to all of those (TRHT) pillars.”

Eliminating structural racism to improve Black health outcomes seems like an ambitious goal, particularly in an era when politicians in states from Texas to Idaho have banned the teaching of subjects and books that relate to race. But Christopher believes her mission is a marathon, not a sprint. And she’s seen times change before. 

“I say to people all the time: there are some advantages to growing older and living a long time.  Very few of them are physical, but it allows you to live through cycles,” she says. There are decades of progress followed by decades of backlash, Christopher says, but when the dust settles, more progress than regression has been made. 

“And, eventually, it dies down, and it dissipates,” Christopher says. “People stay the course.”

This story was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word in Black

As George Mason University’s “chief wellbeing officer,” Dr. Nance Lucas wanted to create a positive, healthy environment for stressed-out students. Along with classes on mental and physical health, Lucas’ Center for the Advancement of Wellbeing offered students specialized learning dorms and cultural enrichment programs on art and music. 

But she was puzzled to notice Black students — who make up 11 percent of the student body at George Mason, a liberal arts school in the Northern Virginia suburbs — didn’t seem interested.

“One of the comments from some of our students of color — this was probably around 2015 — was, ‘This wellbeing stuff at Mason is for White, rich people who can afford yoga studios and gym memberships,’” Lucas says. “And so my first response — and again, this is showing my White woman naivete — was, ‘Ok, we need to do a better job of educating our students about what we mean around wellbeing.’” 

But the education campaign flopped, too: “It didn’t work. Same thing,” she says. 

So, Nance “got together a couple of my colleagues, two vice presidents who were over overseeing those strategic goals at that level, and said, ‘You know, let’s start working at the intersections of diversity, inclusion, and well-being. On the well-being side, I think we can learn quite a bit there.”

That conversation led to a university-wide summit in 2018, focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion; participants for the highly-anticipated meeting ranged from students and faculty to the school’s leadership, Nance says. Out of that meeting came a number of recommendations — including adopting the Truth, Racial Healing and Reconciliation framework created by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. They also invited Dr. Gail Christopher, author of the TRHT curriculum, on campus to train staff. 

With that foundation, “We started to create special programs that were designed and targeted at BIPOC student audiences,” Lucas says.

Since then, George Mason has held racial healing circles, convened specialized workshops aimed at empowering Black students, and set aside an entire week for the wellbeing of students of color. That included a “Black author talking about the stigma of mental health among Black individuals and people of color in general,” she says. 

The center even promoted proper rest: in a post on the Center’s web page, an article promotes the book, “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto,” by Tricia Hersey. 

“Hersey posits, as racialized people, we often feel we’re running against the current, trying to travel upstream while being met with resistance on all sides,” according to the post by Shekila Melchior, director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at George Mason’s Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

“For hundreds of years, racialized people in the United States have labored in body, mind, and soul. We can find racial justice healing in our collective spaces — the laughter from the belly, the celebration of our community, the successes of the generation to come, and the rejuvenating power of rest.”

While George Mason’s campus writ large has adopted a theme of kindness, Black, Asian, and Latino students “are suffering alone — whether it’s from a microaggression in the classroom or they don’t feel like they belong,” Nance says. The mission to advance racial healing, she says, starts with “connecting them to a larger community and making them aware of resources” and educational opportunities. 

The key to reversing Black students’ sense that they didn’t belong was to be intentional about helping them see themselves as part of George Mason and the Wellbeing Center, Nance says. “Part of that was due to this perception of who it was for, and they didn’t see themselves in it.” 

Although the THRT healing circles have been paused for now, the campus still considers itself a participant in the mission of racial reconciliation and recovery. Too often on college campuses, she says, stories told around campus as well as in the classroom don’t center people of color. 

To avoid repeating that paradigm, she says, the Center for the Advancement of Wellbeing had to be intentional to avoid making the same mistake. 

Healing is “having them see the power of stories — connecting their stories to common humanity,” she says. “Things like love and kindness and wholeness are part of the racial healing process. That’s what the circles really are designed to do — debunk the myth that there is a hierarchy of human value. And that’s the very beginning part of the journey to racial healing.”

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By Joseph Williams,
Word in Black

Growing up, riding a bicycle was one of Monica Garrison’s favorite summertime activities. The sense of excitement and freedom she felt on two wheels stayed with her into young adulthood when she commuted to and from work on her bike. 

Then, life happened — her career, a family — and Garrison had less and less time for cycling. Eventually, she put down the kickstand and parked her bike.

During a particularly rough stretch of 2013, however, Garrison found herself feeling low, badly in need of some joy and a weight-loss routine. Her bicycle beckoned, she hopped back on and hasn’t stopped since then. 

“I got what I was looking for, and I wanted to share that with other women who looked like me and perhaps shared similar struggles,” says Garrison, who lives and rides in Pittsburgh. “I was surprised that I rarely saw women of color on bikes while riding through my town.”

So she decided to be the change she wanted to see and started a Facebook page, looking for other women like her. She didn’t know it then, but Garrison’s page would lead to Black Girls Do Bike, a nonprofit dedicated to recruiting and celebrating Black women cyclists with more than 100 chapters worldwide — and counting. 

The mission is “to introduce the joy of cycling to all women, but especially, women and girls of color,” according to BGDB’s website. But it’s as much a safety organization and a support group as it is a cycling club.  

“We are establishing a comfortable place where lady cyclists can support and advise one another, organize rides, and promote skill-sharing,” according to the website. 

By “demystifying” a largely White, predominantly male sport, according to the website, BGDB hopes to “be a liaison to help usher new riders past barriers to entry and into the larger cycling community. We rejoice when women choose cycling as a tool for function, fitness, freedom, and fun!”

That fits the definition of Garrison’s relationship to cycling, who considers the sport “a positive recurring theme” in her life.

“I have always loved the feeling cycling gives me,” she says. “In my twenties, I used commuting by bike as a stress reliever. Later in life, cycling became a way to find mental peace and connect with my body. I’d say cycling brings me back to my center and has been very good to me.”

The rapid growth of BGDB shows other Black women crave those feelings, too, Garrison says. The liberation and joy of riding a bike, she says, can be a powerful antidote to racism by reducing stress and providing an environment in which healing can take place. 

“Our mission resonates with women who are eager to be a part of a movement that fosters positive change, both in cycling and in society as a whole,” Garrison says. Women of color, she says, hunger for a space “where we can come together to embrace cycling and empower one another. Women riding with us enter a space free of the microaggressions we encounter interacting daily with a society that was not built for us to succeed as our authentic selves.”

But the explosive growth of BGDB is also looking to change the complexion of the sport. 

“Historically, Black women have been underrepresented in the world of cycling,” Garrison says. “One of my primary goals was to create a platform where Black women and girls could be seen and celebrated as cyclists. By being visible on the roads, trails, and in the cycling community, we shatter stereotypes and demonstrate that cycling is not limited by race, gender, body size, or background.” 

When others see Black women on two wheels, “they can envision themselves doing the same, nurturing a sense of possibility,” Garrison says. “It may sound cliche, but we are actively being the change we want to see.”

“Hopefully,” she says, “we are moving the needle — one ride at a time.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black. 

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By John Celestand,
Word In Black

It’s safe to say that in my days as an athlete, I’ve seen my fair share of scuffles, dustups, and physical altercations. With so much adrenaline, testosterone, and just macho chest-thumping behavior in team sports, it’s a given that tempers will flare, manhood will be tested, and competition will sometimes boil over into a fracas.  

And if the Golden State Warriors are playing, the person in the middle of any melee, upheaval, or ruckus will almost certainly be Draymond Green. He’s a player who seems to thrive off of getting under opponents’ skin, a competitor often looking for a reason to motivate himself to be even more physical of a player than he already is.  

Are we now supposed to excuse a chokehold? A choke where he drags another Black man by the neck across the court in a 0-0 game where nobody has even scored a basket yet? 

I must admit, many times, I even tune in to see this type of behavior. Sometimes, to see some internal fight is a sight for sore eyes. Especially with today’s NBA players who make such an extraordinary amount of money, finding so many reasons to take a day off, to sit out, not compete, and perform for the fans that are somewhat responsible for the game’s rising global popularity. 

But even the nosy schoolyard kid that still lives inside of me, that nosy kid who couldn’t wait to stand outside in a circle to watch the two elementary school kids rumble after school, even that snarky kid’s soul that is still alive somewhere deep inside me couldn’t stomach seeing Draymond Green be involved in another incident on Tuesday as he inserted himself into a fracas that he wasn’t even a part of in the first place.  

Maybe it was the chokehold that I witnessed Green put Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert in that gave me such a traumatic feeling.  Sports talking heads can dance around the situation all they want and try to label it as a “headlock,” but I know the difference between a headlock when someone’s head is bent forward and a chokehold when someone is restraining you from behind around the neck.  

Or maybe it is the 80s baby in me who grew up on WWF wrestling and watched Rowdy Roddy Piper use the “Sleeper Hold,” which looked eerily similar to Draymond’s move, to put his opponents to sleep or force them into submission. Whether theatre or not, as kids, we used these wrestling moves in real life, and sometimes really hurt each other in the process. 

Or maybe it’s the number of times Draymond has been involved in questionable basketball dustups, such as the multiple times he kicked Steve Adams from OKC in the groin in the same game, or when he stomped on the chest of Domantas Sabonis, or when got suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 Finals in a tussle with LeBron James, costing his team the series. Or the time he was caught on camera furiously arguing with his former teammate Kevin Durant in their huddle, an argument that was said to be the icing on the cake leading to Durant’s future departure.  

Or how about the time when Green was caught on camera sucker punching and knocking out his former teammate Jordan Poole in practice. Green is 6’6, 230 lbs, while Poole is 6’4, 194 lbs.  Poole is now playing for the Washington Wizards. It is believed that neither their relationship nor the camaraderie of the team was ever the same after that incident. 

Green is not the first agitator to ever compete in the National Basketball Association. There is a long list of agitators and enforcers known for getting into altercations. Dennis Rodman, maybe the best rebounder the league’s ever seen, spent a considerable amount of time being suspended for his on-court antics and questionable decisions, once even kicking a camera operator on the sideline. Rasheed Wallace was known for his fiery temperament and is third all-time in technical fouls. 

Ron Artest, later known as Metta World Peace, was an elite defender and rebounder who was suspended for running in the stands in Detroit and punching multiple fans, leading to an all-out riot that would later be coined “The Malice in the Palace.”  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the deplorable behavior of the Detriot fans, who started the situation by throwing a beer at Artest while he lay on the scorer’s table.  

RELATED: NFL Has Been Slow to Embrace Mental Health Support for Players

Vernon Maxwell, aka Mad Max, a guard on the Houston Rockets 1994 and 1995 NBA championship squad, was another that sometimes became unhinged — one time running into the stands and punching a fan, and another time getting into a brawl with then-teammate Gary Payton in 2000 leaving two of their teammates, who tried to play peacemakers, hurt.  

I mention these former players to not leave Green on an island, single him out, and label him as the originator of these bad boy antics. He is simply the latest in a long line of physical, tough, defensive-minded players who thrive off altercation and agitation.  

But for some reason, I’ve reached the end of the line. And I keep trying to go deep inside to understand why I’ve finally drawn the line with Green. Folks can say he didn’t throw a punch, he didn’t throw a kick, but are we now supposed to excuse a chokehold? A choke where he drags another Black man by the neck across the court in a 0-0 game where nobody has even scored a basket yet? 

Green has his own podcast and is very smart and thoughtful in his own right. Maybe this is why I now expect more of the potential future Hall of Famer.

He’s a four-time champion who has been through the fire. When do the antics end?

In the end a five-game suspension, in my opinion, is not enough. Honestly, who else does Draymond Green have to put in the “sleeper hold” for the NBA to finally wake up?

John Celestand is the program director of the Knight x LMA BloomLab, a $3.2 million initiative that supports the advancement and sustainability of local Black-owned news publications. He is a former freelance sports broadcaster and writer who covered the NBA and college basketball for multiple networks such as ESPN Regional Television, SNY, and Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia. John was a member of the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers NBA Championship Team, playing alongside the late great Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife and son. 

The opinions on this page are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the AFRO. Send letters to The Afro-American • 233 E. Redwood Street Suite 600G
Baltimore, MD 21202 or fax to 1-877-570-9297 or e-mail to editor@afro.com

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By Gwen McKinney,
Word in Black

Meet our silent killers. They lurk. They creep. Like assailants in the dark, they can quickly swoop down and consume us in a deadly clutch. They are sinister and sometimes strike without warning. For Black women, they exact incalculable harm to our bodies, our families, and our life chances.

The most far-reaching silent killer across generations, geography, and economic status is racism and inequality that denies us access, opportunity, and a fair chance. Their first cousin is bias — sometimes intentional but often implicit — reflected in cues and missteps of health care providers, baked into the very medical system that should save us. 

For Tara Robinson, that outright bias doomed her to one hellish week in which she suffered three heart attacks over three days. Sent home twice and repeatedly dismissed, she said the third coronary crisis sent her to heaven and back. 

“I had actually gone into sudden death,” remembers Robinson, then a 40-year-old Houston school counselor. 

Ten years later, Robinson, the founder of the Black Heart Association, insists Black women’s safety net is being seen and heard.  The BHA mission: to eliminate heart-health disparity in the Black community through advocacy, education, and empowerment. 

Heart disease and stroke are the leading killers of Black people. According to the American Heart Association, black women have almost twice the risk of stroke than their White counterparts and are more likely to die at an earlier age than women of other ethnic groups.  

Alarming data estimates that half of Black women aged 20 and older will have heart disease, but more than one-third of them are unaware of the signs or risk factors. 

Silence is a killer, especially when held within. So says Tanja Thompson, a two-time breast cancer survivor and the founder of Breast Cancer Move Foundation. The Air Force veteran and motivational speaker says her second stint with breast cancer five years after her initial diagnosis convinced her that activism was her lifeline. 

“There are other women who look like me who are going through this kind of ordeal,” Thompson recalls. “I realized I could no longer hide in silence. I could no longer hide in fear.”

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer fatalities for Black women, with colorectal and cervical cancer vying for second and third place, respectively. Black women are struck younger, diagnosed later, die quicker, and suffer the most virulent forms. Black women under 35 experience twice the rate of White women, with 39 percent  higher recurrence and 71 percent higher risk of death.

Endometriosis, another deadly affliction for Black women, is deemed a “silent epidemic globally” by the World Health Organization (WHO). Affecting an estimated 10 percent of reproductive-age women worldwide, African American women, notably affected with disproportionate death rates, often have a late diagnosis or the condition is misdiagnosed as fibroid tumors. According to WHO, a staggering 90 percent of women with endometriosis report being dismissed or disbelieved by healthcare professionals. 

Maternal mortality is another fatal but preventable condition at crisis proportions for Black women who are not seen, heard, or cared for. The astronomical rate of maternal mortality affecting African Americans contributes to this country’s status as the worst place to give birth among high-income nations. 

In Maryland, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs reports Black women are four times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than White women. This disparity persists even when controlling for education, body mass index, and socio-economic status.

Diabetes and kidney disease are also pernicious silent killers that disproportionately strike Black people. In fact, diabetes-triggered end-stage renal disease is nearly three times more prevalent in African Americans.   

Bernadine Watson, author of a newly-released book Transplant: A Memoir, shares her nearly 40-year journey with kidney disease that included two transplants and two lingering encounters with dialysis. Hers is a story of blood, tears, and triumph. But during most of her illness, Watson suffered in silence, keeping her kidney disease a secret even from her family. 

Like most survivors in this story, Watson is a striver who forged a transformational path to life and living by confronting her illness free of shame, silence, or submission. Always wanting to write a book, at 70, she did it, sharing her story with the world.

“Don’t wait until you’re on dialysis or your kidneys are failing,” Watson advises. She urges that during your annual physical, insist that your kidney functions be checked.

Her parting shot: “Develop a spiritual practice and talk to yourself about how you want to live — sick or healthy.” 

Tara Robinson, of the Black Heart Association, is a thriver who transformed adversity into activism and illness into empowerment. She issued a clarion call to action. “Dear Black women, find balance in your lives. Know your stressor. Know your triggers. And take time to breathe.” 

Gwen McKinney is creator of Unerased | Black Women Speak. This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word in Black

It’s easy to imagine that, for a Black teenager navigating a turbulent life — in juvenile detention, say, or attending a school for students with discipline, learning or behavior issues — racial healing might be the next to last thing on their mind. 

It’s easier still to think that the very last thing on their mind would be sitting in a circle with other students inside a library, sharing thoughts and feelings about a book they just read. 

Yet the Great Stories Club, a long-running program sponsored by the American Library Association, has met both goals, and then some. For nearly two decades, the GSC, as it’s known, has enticed troubled young people to put their noses in books that can help them see themselves in the pages, make sense of their lives, and tell their own stories. 

“The goal here is to reach populations that are not typically reached by the library — or, if they are already being reached– to be able to engage them in a deeper way that’s beyond a classroom,” says Brian Russell, project director for the ALA’s public programs office. The group discussions, he says, can “really give them a sense of community.” 

Launched in 2006, the program “gives underserved youth the opportunity to read, reflect, and share ideas on topics that resonate with them,” according to the ALA’s website. Funded by public and private grants, the site says, the ALA “has made 1,400 Great Stories Club grants to libraries, reaching more than 42,000 young adults in 49 states and 2 U.S. territories.”

Under the program, libraries at juvenile detention centers or alternative schools that win GSC grants receive young-adult books and literature as well as promotional material linked to a broader theme, such as “finding your voice,” or delving “deeper than our skins,” Russell says. Librarians hand out the books to interested readers, he says, then facilitate group discussions on the theme.

“All of the themes have always been about the kind of issues pertinent to teens’ realities,” including racism, poverty, suicide, parental conflicts, peer pressure, or unstable households, Russell says. The books, he says, “have to be gifted to the teen readers — they can’t remain in the collection. Sometimes, this is the first book that a lot of these teens have ever owned on their own.”

Besides encouraging teens to read and build relationships with a library, the discussions can be powerful, centered on ideas and themes like universal humanity, according to the ALA website. The prompts can also provide important steps towards racial healing: suggested discussion points can help young people reflect on past actions and present circumstances, reduce feelings of isolation and depression, and inspire changes in behavior. 

In-depth discussions on works like “Between the World and Me,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and “Mother of the Sea,” by Zetta Elliott encourage young readers to “consider ‘big questions’ about the world around them and their place in it, according to the website. Besides “affecting how they view themselves as thinkers and creators,” according to the website, the group discussions can “facilitate reflection and discussion of past actions and future opportunities for positive change” inspired by the literature.

Russell says it’s not a coincidence that the list of authors includes Black, Asian, Latino and Native American writers.

“Teens can see themselves reflected in these stories — someone who lives a life that looks like their life, and who looks like them,” Russell says. “You read a story about someone whose life is similar to yours, and then you’re in this space where you feel safe and comfortable with the other people there. And then you can tell your story.”

That experience can be transformative, Russell says, and not just for the Great Stories Club participants. 

“I think there is healing. A lot of learning comes from that too, especially in groups,” Russell says. “It’s powerful for me on a personal level. You know, teenagers are a really tricky demographic. But some of the librarians have already been posting that their titles have been so relevant, they can’t believe how engaged the teens have been.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

It happens for Darrell Wade when he goes hiking in green spaces in and around Portland, Oregon, remembering to breathe. For Dr. Joy DeGruy, an internationally renowned researcher and educator and the founder of the Be The Healing movement, it can be spontaneous, like when other Black people “see” her and interact — especially if both of them are navigating mostly-White spaces. 

And for Rahkii “Hyp” Holman, racial healing occurs when he gets to take off his mask in culturally Black spaces: the beauty shop, talking with people from the African diaspora in Ghana, or joining the circles he convenes with other Black men. Even if removing that mask can take a minute sometimes. 

After all, “I’m still a Black dude who has to maneuver through the streets,” Holman said, recalling how a Black stylist chided him to say “hi” when he sees her in the salon. “I’m coming in from the world with my ‘ice grill’ on. And I have to remember to snap out of it.”

Those were some of the answers to the question about racial healing in real time during “Wellness Wednesday,” a livestream hosted by Dr. DeGruy and Dr. Bahia (Cross) Overton, executive director of Black Parent Initiative The organization’s mission is to “educate and mobilize” parents of Black children to become better caregivers and push back against systemic racism affecting their children. 

Joining the conversation with DeGruy, Overton,and Holman, was Ashanti Branch, founder and executive director of the Ever Forward Club, an organization uplifting troubled Black boys in public school; Patrick Shaw, founder and CEO of For Fathers, a support group for Black men; and Malachi Scott, who with Holman founded the Atunse Justice League, a group that supports Black men returning from incarceration. Wade, meanwhile, is the founder of Black Men’s Wellness, a grassroots organization that helps members address chronic health issues. 

Also on the livestream was Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier, managing director for Word In Black. Courquet-Lesaulnier explained that the news collaborative founded by 10 leading Black publishers is completing a months-long series examining how artists, educators, activists, physicians, musicians, and others are helping themselves and their communities repair racial trauma.

The methods range from the ancient — Zee Clarke’s adaptation of venerable breathing techniques taught in India for thousands of years — to the futuristic, such as Dr. Fallon Wilson’s vision of a Black technology utopia. Many of the subjects featured in the series have adopted The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation curriculum. 

While racial healing involves reconciling past injustices, Courquet-Lesaulnier said the vignettes appearing in Word In Black are focused on amplifying solutions as well as transforming the pain of racism to hope and joy. And It places Black people as the subject of the experience.

“When we think about racial healing, so often it is not framed through the lens of the healing of Black folk,” she said. “Obviously, White folks need to heal, but centering the experience of Black folks is not always what happens.” 

Furthermore, “We need these models to encourage us to show us what is possible, and that things are happening,” Courquet-Lesalnier said. “Because this society will have you out here thinking, as you all know, it’s all doom and gloom, there is nothing good happening for us.”

On the Wellness Wednesday podcast, participants shared examples of what real-time racial healing looks like. 

Branch, of the Ever Forward Club, shared that his Million Mask project — in which participants write the image they want to project to society on the outside of a paper mask but write their real feelings on the inside — can help young people express their feelings. Shaw, of For Fathers, said it happens when he gives Black men a safe space to explore their feelings and get to the root of their challenges dealing with their family. And Scott, who works with Holman at the Atunse Justice League, said the healing circles with other Black men — out in the open, in a public park — has the power to heal an entire community. 

“That visibility was promoting healing of itself,” he said. “Black men and women used to walk by our circle and get interested in joining. We had circles where somebody just lost a loved one, and they wanted revenge. We were able to hold that and talk them down.”

Ultimately, the group agreed that racial healing programs and concepts have several commonalities. They usually involve individuals or groups changing racist narratives around Black people; engaging in self-care practices or routines; building or joining a community; and creating safe spaces for Black people to relax, decompress, and be themselves. But the practice has to be intentional, and it will take time. 

Still, a growing number of people are thinking about racial healing, said Wade, the Black Men’s Wellness founder. And it’s coming from grassroots organizations. 

“Whether it’s yoga retreats, or Black Men Heal on the East Coast, or Black Girls Ride, I think you’re seeing a ton of things like that,” he said. “It’s like the Harlem Renaissance. I think in that way, what we’re seeing is a renaissance in the space of Black wellness.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Willy Blackmore,
Word in Black

Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency said something that many have long suspected to be true: an investigation of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality found “significant evidence suggesting that the Departments’ actions or inactions” have harmed the majority-Black communities in Cancer Alley, as the refinery- and petrochemical factory-laden stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is widely known.

The investigation was dropped in June, however, after the state filed a lawsuit against the EPA. And now a draft copy of the agreement that EPA was negotiating with Louisiana, published by the Associated Press on Nov. 1, shows what might have been: an updated system for reviewing industrial emissions and approving new permits that would have required analysis of how pollution would impact people from different socioeconomic backgrounds who live nearby.

The EPA investigation was a rare application of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which is most often used to address discrimination in housing and transportation, but not environmental issues.

But the Biden administration had planned to expand the use of such Title XI investigations and “prioritize states where there are decades of civil rights complaints by Black and other communities of color against permitted pollution in their communities, such as Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and the Houston Ship Channel,” according to the recommendations from the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Now, the future of that strategy is unclear after Louisiana argued in its lawsuit that the new approach will “effectively transform the agency from one purely or largely concerned with environmental protection into a free-ranging, social-justice-warrior,” and that Title XI only applies to deliberate discrimination, not decisions that (as the state argued) inadvertently affect Black residents more than White residents.

But the reason why both the factories and the Black communities that live and suffer alongside them are there shows that none of this is by chance: the land that some of the facilities sit on, like the neoprene factory in Revere, Louisiana, were formerly plantations.

And, many of the communities in Cancer Alley were established by formerly enslaved people who were forced to work on those plantations. Today, Black residents in Cancer Alley are all but shut out from jobs at the refineries and other factories that pollute the air they breathe, but cancer rates are 12 to 16 percent higher in Black communities along that stretch of the river compared to White ones.

The draft document published by AP was just that — a working draft that would need to be agreed upon by both parties. And, the state had struck a number of provisions, such as appointing a new “scientific integrity official,” and the state agreeing to use “the best available science” to inform decisions around pollution permitting.

So while it likely wouldn’t shut down the neoprene factory in Revere — which is the last remaining one in the country after a similar plant in Kentucky was shuttered in 2008 due to concerns that it was polluting the nearby communities — any agreement would have been better than the current status quo.

An Oct. 16 letter to the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice signed by dozens of individuals and organizations urged “the EPA and DOJ to follow through on the Biden-Harris Administration’s stated commitment to advance racial equity throughout the federal government.”

The letter points out the “Biden-Harris Administration has committed to advancing civil rights for communities long bearing the brunt of the cumulative impacts of racial segregation and extractive polluting,” and the EPA and DOJ have made similar commitments.

In practice, however, the letter’s authors wrote, EPA and DOJ are sending “a message to state and local agencies and other recipients of federal funds that they can continue to ignore their obligations under Title VI and avoid accountability for their discriminatory actions.” Indeed, since the EPA backed off of the Cancer Alley investigation, there was a gubernatorial election in Louisiana: the incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards was defeated by Republican Jeff Landry, who was the state attorney general when Louisiana sued the EPA.

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By Bria Overs,
Word In Black

HBCU students win again. Over 2,700 former students of Morehouse College had their debts canceled by the Debt Collective recently, totaling nearly $10 million in student debt. 

Thousands of accounts from the fall 2022 semester and years prior owed $9.7 million to the historically Black college. Morehouse College transferred the entire balance in collections to the Collective and its sister organization, the Rolling Jubilee Fund, after which they canceled the debts as a “no-strings-attached gift.”

“Now, thousands of Black men can receive their diplomas, access their transcript, pursue further education, and move on with their lives,” reads a statement from Morehouse.

The Debt Collective is “the nation’s first debtors’ union,” they proclaim on their website. They are organizing to have debts canceled and abolished. 

“Our nation is defaulting on the promise of education when we burden communities, especially Black HBCU graduates, with crushing amounts of student debt,” said Braxton Brewington, spokesperson for the Debt Collective, in a statement. “This nearly $10M of student debt cancellation will put thousands of Black folks in a better position to be able to save for retirement, purchase a home or start a small business.”

According to the Legal Defense Fund, in 2019, 86 percent of Black students used student loans to pay for their education, with an average of $39,500 taken out. And in 2022, 57 percent of Black student loan borrowers had at least $25,000 of debt from their education, the Federal Reserve found. 

This is not the Collective’s first time aiding Black students and graduates. In May 2022, the group purchased $1.7 million of unpaid student debt for 462 women who attended Bennett College, a women’s HBCU. Some of the bills went as far back as 1996, Insider reported. 

While some have reason to rejoice, the debts forgiven were not federal loans, the group noted in a post, it was money owed directly to Morehouse. The Collective said they were “doing their part” because President Joe Biden had not held up his end of the deal.

During his 2020 campaign, Biden proposed he would forgive “all undergraduate tuition-related federal student debt from two- and four-year public colleges and universities for debt-holders earning up to $125,000.” This benefit would also apply to federal loans for private HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s broad forgiveness plan that would have fulfilled this campaign promise and removed over $400 billion in federal student loans. Since the decision, interest and loan payments have restarted, and the administration rolled out the Saving on an Affordable Education (SAVE) plan, formerly known as the Revised Pay as You Earn income-driven repayment plan.

On Oct. 4, the administration announced they had forgiven over $127 billion for an estimated 3.6 million borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, who have disabilities, or were misled by their school.

President Biden is not giving up on achieving forgiveness. The administration and Department of Education are moving forward with a new path to debt relief for student loan borrowers, including policy considerations, through the Higher Education Act of 1965.

In its statement, Morehouse College hinted at these recent moves and Biden’s promises.

“The fact that a small group of activists can eliminate $10 million in a split second is a reminder of the amazing power the executive branch has to eliminate the crushing weight of student loans for the public writ large.”

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

If you’re Black, chances are you’ve experienced it. 

You’re in a mostly White space, maybe your workplace, a school classroom or perhaps a social event. A White person with whom you’re interacting will do or say something seemingly innocuous — a joke about your hair, a compliment on how articulate you are, or asking if you really wrote that report the boss loved — that can trigger a stress response. Some describe it as a block of ice in their stomach; others experience sweaty palms, a racing heartbeat, or a mouth drier than paper.

The feeling prompts an inevitable question: Was that racist? But when confronted, that person is offended, becomes defensive, or dismisses the allegation outright. They might accuse you of being overly sensitive or even racist, transforming your insecurity or anger into self-doubt.

If this scenario is familiar, then you’ve encountered what Dr. J. Luke Wood, a sociologist and the new president of California State University, Sacramento, calls “racelighting” — an insidious form of racism that can trigger not only psychological but physical issues in its victims. 

The term comes from the word “gaslighting,” defined as a form of emotional abuse in which the abuser intentionally manipulates the physical environment or mental state of the abused. The abuser then deflects responsibility, and insists that the changes are products of the abused’s imagination, weakening their perception of reality. 

Wood said the racism-based manipulation is intended to cause Black people to second-guess their own experiences, their judgment, their memories and, ultimately, their humanity. 

While it parallels other racist behaviors, like implicit bias or microaggression, Wood said racelighting identifies a specific pattern of behavior that leads the target to question reality. Putting a name to that behavior, he said, is similar to a doctor making a medical diagnosis: When the condition is identified, the healing can begin. 

“What we’ve tried to do with racelighting is to create a set of concepts and terms that help people to explain the nature and condition of their oppression,” he said. “It’s important because it allows you to have a better understanding of what’s going on — to examine it almost like an artifact so that you can see what’s taking place: ‘This is what I’m experiencing.’”

As with other aspects of racism, there is evidence that the internal conflicts triggered by racelighting do physical and emotional damage “very similar to how Combat Stress Syndrome impacts those who are in war zones,” Wood said.

“It impacts you cognitively — an inability to process information, retain information, manage attention control,” he said. “Then, constant anxiety and worrying: anger, resentment, emotional and social withdrawal. And then it impacts you physiologically: tension headaches, backaches, elevated heartbeat, upset stomach, extreme fatigue due to elevated cortisol levels within your body that are directly related to racialized stress.”

And it can take different forms, ranging from advancing stereotypes about Black people (“Criminality, being overly emotional,” Wood said) to false allyship (“People say and pretend like they’re doing something to support you or protect you, but really aren’t”) to misrepresenting the past by discounting Black history or pretending systemic racism doesn’t exist. 

Exhibit A, Wood said: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on “woke culture,” including revising school history standards to include positive outcomes from slavery and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs for state employees. Wood said DeSantis’s December 2021 statement supporting his state’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act is textbook racelighting:  

“In Florida we’re taking a stand against state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory… We will not allow for your tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other… We must protect Florida workers against a hostile work environment” that forces them to acknowledge racism.

While it identifies harmful behavior, racelighting also presents an opportunity to begin racial healing, Wood said. 

“Being able to name something gives you more power over it. I don’t think we can downplay how important that is,” Wood said. When presenting his findings before Black audiences, “the number one thing I hear someone say afterwards is, ‘I’m so glad you gave me language to explain what I’ve always felt but didn’t know how to describe.’”

“It is humbling, because we recognize that this work is about trying to help people who come from our community who oftentimes are in a (hostile) environment,” he said.

The most effective antidote to racelighting is for Black people to immerse themselves in Black spaces that are welcoming, validating, or supportive — “a club or organization, maybe a historically black fraternity, maybe a cultural club,” Wood said. “You’ve got to be in a place where you can see yourself through distress, disdain, and disregard. Where someone is instead going to extol your brilliance, your dignity.”

Otherwise, he said, “If you continue to sit in this, it may kill you slowly, but it’s going to kill you.”

This story was originally published by Word In Black and produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

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By Aziah Siid,
Word in Black

At least once a year, students come to school with money they saved up, or a sealed envelope sent by their parents or guardian, for the annual Scholastic Book Fair. It’s an integral part of students’ yearly calendar festivities, giving them an opportunity to pick whatever their heart desires.

The nationwide book fairs allow students to discover books of their interest and pick what reads they want. It can be the latest book from a popular comic series like “Captain Underpants,” or the newest shiny pencil on display, but for over 40 years, Scholastic has tried to “empower” kids to choose their own books and school supplies, which it calls a “milestone opportunity” for students “to identify and express their own voice.”

But earlier this month, the organization announced a plan to segregate books on race, gender, and sexuality, leaving authors, education professionals, and parents criticizing the decision, especially when censorship and book bans through education facilities are at a high. That decision has now been reversed.

The decision to create the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” collection, which included 64 controversial titles that elementary schools could choose to include or exclude from their book fairs, was made earlier this year. In the official statement, Scholastic said the decision to segregate the books was made to reduce the risk of “teachers, librarians, and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted” for hosting these books in a district that has banned them.

In creating the sentiment that including this collection of books in an elementary school book fair was optional, Scholastic caused an uproar across social media and within those very librarians’ walls they were trying to keep out of harm’s way.

Scholastic clarified in the original statement that the separate collection was intended to ensure kids can access books that are targeted by book bans across the country.

“We don’t pretend this solution is perfect — but the other option would be to not offer these books at all — which is not something we’d consider,” the organization said.

In the latest update, Scholastic apologized for the harm caused by its separate catalog and said it would be discontinued beginning in January when their next book fair season begins. Scholastic also pledged to “redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children’s access to books.”

Youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman, who read one of her poems at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, was one of the authors whose book “Change Sings” was listed for schools to opt in or opt out of including in their book fair. A book fair, she said, would never “censor her words.”

“It honestly feels like a betrayal,” Gorman wrote on Twitter  about Scholastic’s initial decision to create a separate catalog of diverse books. “As an elementary student, for weeks, I’d save every single penny I had for the Scholastic Book Fair, because it felt like a safe place to explore and choose for myself what books I wanted to read, what stories I wanted to find representations of myself in.”

“The Scholastic book fair and catalogue opened the world to me and made me excited to read and own books,” author Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote on Instagram. “Imagine children now made to feel that stories of children like them are optional or shameful.”

The nonprofit organization We Need Diverse Books condemned Scholastic for the decision, stating that “Diversity is not a choice,” and demanded Scholastic desegregate its books fairs, which it described as an “institution that fostered a love of reading for generations of American children.”

“Scholastic must not treat history and the lived experiences of readers’ and authors’ diverse identities as something that may be ignored or opted out of,” WNDB wrote in a statement. “Scholastic may choose to either support diverse books completely or submit to bigotry and fascism…Scholastic’s recent misguided decision prioritizes profit over diversity and the welfare of students everywhere.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

The way Jourdan Sorrell sees it, between microaggressions at the office, the threat of getting stopped or shot by police, and societal definitions of masculinity, Black men in America are in a constant existential struggle. With the stress of moving through a world that often sees them as a threat, there isn’t much time to decompress, let alone heal. 

Coincidentally, the same thoughts were on the mind of his friend Darrious Hillman, when the two met for lunch in Chicago in April. As they dined, Sorrell, a Comcast senior manager, and Hillman, executive director for CAN TV, a local public access channel, found themselves talking about the lack of a safe space for Black men to truthfully answer the question, “How’s it going?” 

That conversation led the two to create “Brothers Talking,” a monthly, hour-long program on CAN TV, the Chicago-based public access TV channel Hillman leads. Hosted by Dr. Obari Cartman, a professional psychologist, the show features a multigenerational group of Black men tackling topics from Black sexuality to toxic masculinity and the schools-to-prison pipeline.

“We’re all just trying to eat, live, and do what we need to do daily,” says Sorrell, talking with Hillman in a YouTube video about the show’s origin, and how difficult it can be for Black men to breathe. “Vulnerability is not necessarily on the top of the list of things we need to do when we get up and when you go to sleep every night.”

The simplicity of its format — six Black of different generations, men sitting in a circle, talking to one another — belies the significance of its mission: centering “the lived experiences of 

Black men — the pain, joy, success, failure, and the resulting opportunities for growth and self-discovery,” according to the show’s website.

In an interview with Word In Black, Cartman says the program’s goal is to create a safe space for honesty and vulnerability, which in turn can lead to healing from racial trauma.

Men talking to one another in male spaces, like barber shops and locker rooms, is nothing new, “but sometimes we do it in ways that can be superficial and miss the point,” Cartman says. “In my experience, men are good at ‘barbershop talk’ — trading opinions, theories, talking about celebrities, talking about women. Sometimes we posture a little bit,” all the while avoiding conversations about what’s going on in their lives. 

The point of Black Men Talking is to “redirect the theoretical talk into their own personal experiences,” he says. “Not ‘This is what I think about it,’ but ‘This is what I feel. This is what I learned from my trials and tribulations.’” 

Besides representing Black men of different generations, each of the regular panelists comes from different socioeconomic backgrounds, political perspectives, and sexual orientations. At the top of every show, they take a few minutes to discuss their progress on a life goal they’ve set for themselves before digging into the main topic of conversation. 

Even the manner in which they sit contributes to the goal of honesty and healing, Cartman says.  

“It’s a roundtable, but there is no table — it’s like a peace circle,” he says. “The goal is to connect to ancient Indigenous formats of problem-solving and connections, looking eye-to-eye. The circle itself represents a sort of sacred space.” 

Although his job is to keep the conversation going, “I support them to the extent that I can, as another Black man that ‘s trying to figure it out myself,” says Cartman, whose expertise includes Black masculinity, restorative justice, and trauma-informed care. “The mission is to help Black men and boys be our best selves, be aware of the strengths we have.”

Cartman says racial healing is at the center of the program, and not just for the men on camera. 

“When I think about the diagnosis, the analysis of the harm, a lot of it has to do with long harm — racial trauma, generations of a system in place that brought our ancestors to this country,” Cartman says. Black people in America, he says, are subject to “a lot of spiritual, emotional, psychological warfare. I think we are still unpacking and undoing some of the damage.” 

The repair, “includes bringing (people) back into a community space to remember who we are,” Cartman says. “Restoration includes community. ‘I believe there is healing in just gathering. We’re doing that on the air. We’re creating space to gather and demonstrate it for other men.” 

“The power,” he says, “is in the simplicity of the conversation.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black and produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

Jenn Roberts had done everything right. But it all felt wrong.

“I was one of the first in my family to go off to college,” she said. “I found a good guy in college, got married really early — did all the things I was supposed to do. And then I woke up one day: ‘This doesn’t feel good. I’m not happy, my (soon to be former) husband is not happy, now we have kids. Everything just started crumbling, everything that I had worked so hard for.”

So she started dancing — something she’d done throughout school but gave up when she became an adult. That reinvigorated a feeling, she said, “When I used to not care what people thought, when I used to just do the things that feel good. And then, my friends were watching, and they were like, ‘We want to do it, too! You look peaceful, You look happy, you look free.’”

That feeling of freedom inspired Roberts to start holding gatherings for friends and friends of friends, creating a space where they could talk, share and be themselves. Those gatherings soon evolved into the Colored Girls Liberation Lab, a creativity, education and self-care community designed to allow Black women to shake off the twin shackles of racism and patriarchy, in a supportive environment. 

“Black women can come in and say, ‘Hey, I just need a space to fall apart a little bit with people who are going to care and hold me and help me and pick me back up,’” she said. “‘And once I get to that space, I need some people who are going to tell me that whatever I dream up for my life is possible and be there to cheer me on.’ And so that’s really what the lab is about: helping women be OK and free in life.”

While space to breathe and heal is its primary mission, Roberts emphasizes the “lab” element of her organization’s title. Along with self-care lessons, she encourages members to “play” with their lives — be imaginative, think big, envision a limitless future and dream of what they can do with nothing holding them back.

“This lab became a space for me to combine all of those things: art, creativity, sisterhood, Afrofuturism and design,” she said. In the laboratory, she said, she encourages participants to “really play around with the idea of what it looks like to have my own toolkit of liberation.”

For example, “every Monday at noon, we meet — it’s called ‘Dreams and Schemes,” Roberts said. “It’s a place that’s patterned after bell hooks’ ‘Sisters of the Yam’ space, where it really is a time to tell the truth of your life, to share your story: ‘OK, this thing is not working like I thought I wanted it to,’ and no one’s going to shame you for it.”

Rather than a set curriculum, Roberts said, the lessons and gatherings vary; so does leadership of the group discussions.  

“Right now we’re doing one around [hooks’] ‘All About Love’: New Visions,’” Roberts said. “We’ve done ones on pleasure, we’ve done ones around plant medicine. And we come in for three to four weeks, every week. And whether it’s me or another woman from our community that has that knowledge to give, they’re able to bring us together and have us explore that topic in a way that doesn’t feel like they’re trying to tell us what to do, but in a way that we get to discover how we want to incorporate it ourselves.”

Living at the intersection of two major “-isms” — racism and sexism — is a unique, traumatizing burden Black women must carry, whether they want to or not, Roberts said. The Colored Girls Liberation Lab, she said, can help heal that trauma. 

“One of my beliefs is that sometimes we don’t know what freedom looks like until we feel it,” she said. “I like to create spaces that feel good and that make Black women feel like, ‘Oh — this is what freedom feels like, this is what joy feels like. Let me recreate that at home.”

She goes on: “I really do think our liberation lies in our imagination and our ability to reimagine what systems look like, what our communities look like, what our personal care and love looks like. I think sometimes we don’t realize that just stopping and pausing and thinking is also doing. And I think that what we’re learning in this space is that the pause and the reflection in the healing part of it is action.”

This story was produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word In Black

It’s something we do from our first moments of life until the moment we die. We do it some 17,000 times a day, without having to think about it. In fact, you’re doing it — breathing — right now, while reading this very sentence. 

Yet wellness expert Zee Clarke believes that this simple act, when done intentionally using specific rhythms and techniques, holds the key to relieving stress, lowering anxiety and promoting healing from racial trauma — especially the invisible, day-to-day strain of being Black in America.  

Clarke is such a believer in the power of breathing techniques that, years ago, after returning from an eye-opening vacation in India, she quit her fast-paced, stress-filled job in the corporate world to immerse herself in ancient practices and rituals that slow life down. Now, she is encouraging Black people to adopt those methods, borrowed from yoga and meditation, to improve their own physical and mental health. 

“It’s so important for Black people to use these tools in our daily lives,” said Clarke, a Harvard University-educated MBA who has worked in the high-pressure world of Silicon Valley alongside tech CEOs. She preaches the gospel of “mindfulness and breathwork for BIPOC communities to reclaim our flow at work and in life,” according to her website.

Indeed, science backs up her faith in mindfulness and breathing as a health-giving superpower that can counter the insidious effects of systemic racism.  

“Researchers at leading institutions like Harvard and Columbia University found that racism causes chronic stress, resulting in higher rates of both heart disease and high blood pressure in African-Americans,” Clarke said. “It also causes mental health issues like anxiety and depression. Every time we face a moment of racial trauma, whether it’s a big or small event, our fight or flight response kicks in. Stress hormones run through the body, affecting both our mental and physical well-being.”

Studies show that taking a few moments for deep breathing “can lower your blood pressure, reduce stress, lower anxiety levels, and improve mental health,” she said. “When we breathe, it stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system, which counters that fight or flight response.” 

And there’s an additional benefit: unlike prescription drugs or doctor copays, the health benefits of what Clarke calls “slow living” cost just a few minutes of time. 

“These practices, which are free, and can be done anytime, anywhere, can be so powerful in helping our community,” she said. They provide the tools to “not just cope with [racist harm] in the moment when they happen, but also heal from them afterwards,” Clarke said. “Yet, most folks in our community have never heard of it.” 

She aims to change it through her new book, “Black People Breathe: A Mindfulness Guide to Racial Healing,” which focuses on breathwork and mindfulness for people of color. This spring, Clarke launched an online course called Breathing Through Microaggressions and Racism.

For Clarke, adopting a lifestyle centered on mindfulness and breathing was a matter of survival.

The persistent sexism and racism in the mostly-white corporate world put “my mental and physical health in the gutter,” Clarke said, to the degree that her doctor all but ordered a vacation. Research on the health effects of chronic stress led her to consider meditation, which in turn led her to India and the mindfulness community. 

Not long after returning to the U.S., Clarke quit her job and began studying mindfulness full-time. During her studies, she said, “I couldn’t help but notice the connections with the health conditions in the Black community,” including studies linking institutional racism to chronic ailments like hypertension, heart disease, depression and obesity. 

“The way Black people are treated in this country is killing us slowly — death by a thousand cuts,” she said. “Dr. Martin Luther King was 39 when he passed, but the autopsy said he had the heart of a 60-year-old. And recent studies show that Black women are aging at a much faster rate than white women.”

​​While mindfulness can conjure up images of mostly-white spaces — tie-dyed hippies in a commune, or white women in a yoga studio, sitting cross-legged on a mat — Clarke said the practice is for everyone, and doesn’t take more than a few minutes a day. Deep breathing for just a few minutes, or taking a stroll outside in pleasant weather, is enough to make a measurable difference in one’s frame of mind and, in turn, their health.

“These micro-self-care moments can be super powerful, and can change your whole day,” Clarke said. “You’ll be more productive, and you’ll be in a better mood.” 

Ultimately, “racism is a public health issue,” Clarke said, noting that healing from racism begins with defining the problem. “Rather than wait for the world to change, we need to take our health into our own hands. I believe the breath can help us do just that!”

This story was produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Anissa Durham,
Word In Black

This story is part of “Love Don’t Live Here” Word In Black’s series about how domestic violence impacts our community and what we can do about it. Trigger Warning: These stories contain mention of domestic violence and abuse.

Christy White worked as an immigration attorney because she wanted to save everyone. But, she quit when she realized she could only save herself. 

“I became a lawyer because of my trauma, because of my domestic abuse and I wanted to save all the people who were going through the same things that I went through,” White says. “Once I recognized that I didn’t have to fight that anymore, I decided to get to know myself.” 

She grew up with a father with alcoholism who was violent and verbally abusive toward the family and a mother who was physically violent as well. 

While in college and law school, White was in a 12-year on-and-off relationship with her ex-fiancé. Over the years, she says he manipulated, threatened, and verbally abused her. After getting engaged, she started going to therapy. 

“I was able to discern that it was a repeating relationship that I had been in several times,” she says. “It was just familiarity instead of something healthy.” 

But her ex-fiancé wasn’t the only person abusing her at that time. In 2019, when she was trying to leave him, White realized her best friend was also manipulative. They worked together when she learned that “unethical things” were going on. As a result, White had to get the police involved. 

“It didn’t really end well,” she says. “It also ended with nothing being harmed to my body, so I felt like that was a plus.”  

Safely leaving abusive partners 

Kiva Harper, a psychotherapist in Arlington, Texas, says safety is a huge concern for those in abusive relationships. It’s not enough to tell a woman to leave — it’s about helping them to leave with a safety plan. 

“Domestic violence is about power and control,” she says. “When they lose their power and control, they become very desperate.” 

According to research, “75 percent of women who are killed by their batterers are murdered when they attempt to leave or after they have left an abusive relationship.” One of the reasons domestic violence emergency shelters exist is to keep women safe during this dangerous time. 

Women are 70 times more likely to be killed in the two weeks after leaving. And on average, a woman will leave an abusive relationship seven times before leaving for good.  

Every minute, about 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner in the U.S., according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In one day, that’s nearly 30,000 people. In one week, it’s a little more than 200,000 people. 

Whether you are family, friends, or acquaintances with someone in an abusive relationship, Harper says it’s imperative to help them find professional help. “We see so many cases of murder suicide in the news because of people just leaving.” Harper recommends domestic violence victims develop a comprehensive safety plan when they leave.  

That plan could look like a woman or man in an abusive relationship forming a plan to remain safe if they decide to stay, another plan if they decide to leave, and a plan to stay safe after leaving. Harper says each plan varies by person and circumstance — and some may need to seek refuge at an emergency shelter or an anonymous location.

It can also include getting a protective order, which typically offers more protection than a restraining order. Depending on the state, if an abuser violates a protective order they can be immediately arrested.

“We also have to respect that women and men who are in these abusive relationships know their partner better than we do,” Harper says. “If they say, ‘he’ll kill me’ and they choose to stay to protect themselves and their kids … we have to know that helping someone is not about getting them to leave. It’s about keeping them safe.” 

A safety plan is self-care 

If and when someone leaves an abusive relationship, Harper says there are things survivors can do to take care of their mental health. A big part of a safety plan includes self-care. Oftentimes, selfcare is touted as long baths, nature walks, and drinking water — but there’s more to it for domestic violence survivors.  

Self-care involves empowerment, validation, and support. With nearly 20 years of experience treating Black women in abusive relationships, Harper offers four pieces of advice. 

1. Boundaries 

Set boundaries and limits with people who are not supportive in that moment. Prioritize protecting your mental and emotional health. Learn to eliminate toxic relationships.  

2. Social media safety 

Look at your digital footprint. Deactivate your social media accounts periodically. When using the internet, use an incognito browser.  

3. Spiritual health 

Many clergy members still advise women to stay in a relationship with an abusive partner. Take care of your spiritual needs by keeping yourself safe — even if your church is not supportive of it.  

4. Intentionality  

Be intentional about what you are consuming and putting into your body. Take some time to move your body. And prioritize rest. Part of being intentional means knowing where to get professional help. 

Healing is possible 

Chloe Panta, a mindset expert in Los Angeles, knows what it’s like to heal from a domestic violence relationship. Initially, she didn’t tell anyone around her what was going on with her relationship. This deprived her of a support network. 

“I know what it’s like to hit rock bottom,” Panta says. “I know what it’s like to be in a rut where you feel as if there is no way out. Or you don’t know how to get out.”

Her self-worth was low at the time, and she says she was ashamed and embarrassed to disclose her struggle to people who loved her. But she knew she needed to get out. One day, she reached out to a friend who told Panta not only can she leave but she can take control of her life. Now, as a transformational coach she helps others to heal from the same traumas she experienced.  

For Panta self-care was at the bottom of the list; it was nonexistent. Her abusive ex-partner convinced her that she was not deserving or worthy of caring for herself, so she had to unlearn the cycle of putting other people first.  

“We are not deserving of abuse, or hate, or punishment,” she says. 

Once she realized how important self-care was to her mental health, she made that a priority. Panta says many women don’t understand the price paid when you don’t take care of yourself and uplift yourself.  

“We are worthy of having love, and abundance and joy. We have to accept that ourselves and allow that in,” she says. “Now I romanticize my life by wearing perfume, getting dressed up every single day … getting a massage once a week. That’s making myself feel loved and beautiful and know that I am worthy of that.” 

Supporting survivors of domestic violence 

After surviving years of abuse, White has learned to prioritize her mental health. In doing so, she leaned on close friends who supported her and didn’t bombard her with questions. Part of what helped her heal was having people around her who didn’t blame her for experiencing abuse.

“I couldn’t really talk much,” White says about the time when she left her abusive fiancé. “It was really just love and silence.” 

To reclaim her power and control, the 35-year-old moved from Dallas to Barcelona. Before moving, she worked on breathing techniques to reconnect with her body. And now she actively prioritizes her mental health and wellbeing.  

“I did get the opportunity to heal there,” she says. “Now I’m getting the opportunity to grow, just from a different place. It feels like a second start. It feels really good.” 

If you or someone you know is being affected by intimate partner violence, please consider making an anonymous, confidential call to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Chat at http://thehotline.org | Text “START” to 88788. There are people waiting to help you heal 24/7/365.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Alexa Spencer,
Word in Black

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a ban on hair-straightening and smoothing products that contain cancer-causing chemicals. Black women, who are historic consumers of the hair “relaxers,” may benefit most from the new rule if it’s adopted.

The ban forbids the use of formaldehyde and other formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in the products. Formaldehyde is a colorless, flammable gas used in a variety of household products, including detergents and cosmetics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The gas is highly toxic and irritable to the eyes, skin, lungs, and throat — even in small amounts. Repeated exposure has been linked to long-term adverse health effects, including myeloid leukemia, a rare blood cancer.

Before the proposed rule can become official, the FDA listens to public comments and then decides to “end the rulemaking process, to issue a new proposed rule, or to issue a final rule,” the agency wrote on its website.

Black Women and Cancer

Recent research has linked relaxers to various cancers in women.

A study published in October 2022 by the National Institutes of Health examined usage among 33,947 women. Researchers found that women who applied the products to their hair were two times more likely to have uterine cancer than women who didn’t. For women who used chemical hair straighteners more than four times a year, the risk was even greater.

Nearly 60 percent of the women who reported using relaxers in the past year were Black.

Black women also are more likely than White women to receive a breast, ovarian, or uterine cancer diagnosis at an advanced stage and are less likely to receive treatment or survive.

“Hair products may contain hazardous chemicals with endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic properties,” the authors wrote. “Previous studies have found hair product use to be associated with a higher risk of hormone-sensitive cancers including breast and ovarian cancer.”

Black women have long raised concerns about possible links between chemical hair straighteners and cancer rates among them. Only now is science confirming their theories. With data backing their claims, many are pursuing lawsuits against companies who make the products.

Congress Calls for an Investigation

The FDA’s proposed ban comes months after Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Shontel Brown, (D-Ohio) penned an open letter in March to the agency requesting an investigation into chemical hair straighteners. Pressley and Brown noted that Black women are pressured to opt-in to the products due to an anti-Black beauty standard in America.

“As a result of anti-Black hair sentiment, Black women have been unfairly subjected to scrutiny and forced to navigate the extreme politicization of hair. Hence, generations of Black women have adapted by straightening hair in an attempt to achieve social and economic advancement,” they wrote. “Manufacturers of chemical straighteners have gained enormous profits, but recent findings unveil potentially significant negative health consequences associated with these products.”

Pressley, who previously combatted hair discrimination through the CROWN Act, says the FDA’s proposal is a win for Black women’s health.  “Regardless of how we wear our hair, we should be allowed to show up in the world without putting our health at risk,” she said in a statement.

Brown is committed to helping the proposal become an official rule. “We must ensure the products American consumers buy and use are safe, and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Administration to implement this proposed rule,” she said.

This article was originally published  by Word in Black.

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By Hiram Jackson,
Word in Black

America’s love affair with incarceration unnecessarily deprives people of their freedom. It also comes with enormous social and economic costs for formerly incarcerated individuals, their families and their communities.

More than 10.2 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees, remand prisoners or sentenced prisoners. Although the United States is home to just 5 percent of the world’s population, the nation has 25 percent of the world’s imprisoned population.

Data compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative shows roughly 1.9 million people are incarcerated in the U.S. in 2023 — in state prisons, federal prisons or local jails — the highest rate in the Western world. Another 803,000 Americans are on parole, and 2.9 million are on probation.

The prison and jail incarceration rate in the United States remains between five and eight times that of France, Canada and Germany, and imprisonment rates in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahomaare nearly 50 percent above the national average.

But before delving into the racial disparities that run rampant in the penal system — like how one in fiveBlack men born in 2001 is likely to experience imprisonment within their lifetime, which is a decline from one in three for those born in 1981 — we must address what is an even larger issue.

Why does the justice system, like a game of Monopoly, dole out the “go straight to jail, do not pass go” card so readily?

Most incarcerated people, approximately 96 percent in 2021 and 2022, had sentences of over a year. The demographic distribution of incarcerated people remained consistent over the two years, with 32 percent being Black, 31 percent White, 23 percent Hispanic, 10 percent multiracial or of another race, 2 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, and 1 percent Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

According to the experts, the main drivers are: (1) changes in laws leading to longer, often mandatory sentences; (2) “truth-in-sentencing” legislation requiring individuals convicted of violent crimes to serve at least 80 percent of their sentences; (3) increased use of incarceration for non-violent crimes; (4) prison privatization.

Behind that legal lingo lies a deep-rooted and much more intrinsic reason, layered in unnecessary and discretionary punishment and a system’s unwavering resolve to make the least capable pay. Cash Rules Everything Around Incarceration“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones,” Nelson Mandela said.

But many people who are arrested are trapped in dismal local jail conditions waiting, no, hoping for deliverance.

Local jails have become modern-day quasi-debtors’ prisons because many of those being held are there simply because they cannot afford cash bail. So they languish and wait for a day in court, which, depending on where you live, might be a months- or years-long process. The wheels of justice grind to a near halt for those without the funds to make them turn more quickly.

Consider the profitability side of the prison equation, and things get clearer. Thousands of private corporations rake in $80 billion a year in profits from America’s carceral system. Bail bond businesses alone make $1.4 billion a year from folks who can pony up the cash to get their loved ones out of jail.

Some of the biggest winners in the mass incarceration scheme are the for-profit prison companies whose business models essentially depend on the number of inmates held in these private institutions.

Currently, the government sends $3.8 billion in federal grants to states and cities for criminal justice purposes. Unfortunately, these grants largely go out on autopilot, pressuring states to increase the number of arrests, prosecutions, and people in prison without requiring a public safety reason.

The reluctance evident in correcting sentencing excesses, particularly for violent crimes as supported by criminological evidence, prolongs the harm and futility of mass incarceration.

The Jobs Opportunity Task Force, a nonprofit advocating for improved skills, jobs and incomes, recently drew attention to the wide-reaching effects of incarceration. They revealed that approximately 113 million adults in the U.S., or roughly 45 percent, have a family member with a history of imprisonment, and 79 million individuals possess a criminal record — greatly impacting opportunities for meaningful employment for the formerly incarcerated, regardless of guilt or innocence.

An even sadder reality, though, is that one year of housing a prisoner is comparable to the cost of a year of college.

Black and Behind Bars, Possibly for Life

But back to the racial disparities, another scourge of mass incarceration. In 2021, Black adults were five times as likely to be incarcerated as White adults, and Black youth were just over four times as likely to be locked up in the juvenile justice system as their White peers. In seven states — California, Iowa, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maine and Wisconsin — Black adults are incarcerated nine times more often than their White peers. Twenty-eight states exercise some form of a “three strikes” law, which automatically sentences individuals convicted of a third offense to harsher penalties and, in some cases, life sentences.

Yes, life in prison for offenses ranging from an indiscretion as marginal as failed custody cases, low-level drug possession, and non-violent misdemeanors.

In California, which has had a three-strikes law since 1994, more than half of the people incarcerated by the law are doing time for nonviolent crimes. Due to the work of activists, in 2012 Californians voted to amend the law, eliminating life sentences for nonviolent crimes. It’s estimated the change will save the Golden State $1 billion over the next decade.

The three strikes you’re out rule should be for baseball, not life-long deprivation of freedom. The bottom line is that the American penal system doesn’t value human life. Instead, our courts prefer to address individual transgressions and crimes by imposing bigger and more brutal infringements on hapless citizens who encounter the criminal justice system’s peculiarly punitive measures. These measures operate as intended: to cause long-term suffering and pain.

In this country, the punishment rarely really fits the crime. Meanwhile, Black people keep suffering whileprison profiteers laugh all the way to the bank.

Hiram Jackson is the CEO and publisher of Real Times Media, which includes The Michigan Chronicle, a partner in the Word In Black collaborative.

This article was originally published in Word in Black.

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By Sarah Kwon,
Word In Black

When Selam Solomon Caldwell and her husband learned she was pregnant last year, the stakes for finding the right OB-GYN felt high. Caldwell, a Black woman, had heard stories from family and friends of maternity care providers who ignored their requests or pressured them into cesarean sections without clear medical justification.

As a relative newcomer to Los Angeles, the recruiter, now 31, knew few Black people who could recommend doctors who had treated them with respect. She combed review sites, including Google reviews and Healthgrades, but couldn’t find how nearby physicians and hospitals might treat a Black woman like her.

“It’s hard to tell if it’s a fellow Black person who’s giving the review,” Caldwell said.

Consumer ratings sites rarely identify patient experiences by race or ethnicity and hospitals are under no obligation to reveal the racial and ethnic breakdowns of their patient satisfaction scores. Yet that information could be instrumental in holding maternity care providers and hospitals accountable for treating patients inequitably and could empower expectant mothers like Caldwell in finding quality obstetric care.

“You can’t change what you don’t see,” said Kimberly Seals Allers, founder of Irth, an app allowing Black and brown women to find and leave reviews of maternity care providers. She’s one of a few entrepreneurs developing new tools for collecting feedback from mothers of color.

A steady drip of new research over the past several years has spotlighted racial discrimination by maternity care providers and the role it may play in one of the country’s most vexing health disparities: Black women experience the worst birthing outcomes, a gap not explained by income or education, according to a KFF analysis. In 2021, they were nearly three times as likely to die of pregnancy-related causes as White women.

Mothers of color, especially Black women, report that they do in fact experience discrimination. They are more likely than White women to say that their care providers ignored them, scolded them, or pressured them into treatments they didn’t want. The extent to which discrimination is reported varies widely by survey, but one recently published report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found roughly 30 percent of Black, Hispanic and multiracial women reported mistreatment during maternity care, compared with 20 percent of women overall.

It’s unclear how many hospitals track survey responses by race, and, even if they do, they rarely reveal that information. And the federal government requires generic reporting on how patients say they were treated, making it difficult to pin down and address incidents of bias in maternity care.

Funding and regulations lag

Currently, the results of the industry’s standard patient experience survey, known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, are made publicly available by the federal government to help patients compare hospitals. They incentivize hospitals to improve care and are included in the rankings of many hospital ratings sites, such as U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals. But it doesn’t ask about maternity care or discrimination and has low response rates, particularly among people of color.

These flaws can also make the survey inadequate for improving birth equity. “We know it’s insufficient,” said Amanda P. Williams, an OB-GYN and clinical innovation adviser to the nonprofit California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative. Hospitals, she said, could fill in the gaps by collecting feedback from maternity care surveys and breaking the results out by race and other demographic information; they could also talk to patients through forums such as town halls or focus groups.

Joy Lewis, senior vice president for health equity strategies at the American Hospital Association, said many hospitals do this work, both generally and in obstetrics.

However, Williams believes it isn’t happening enough in maternity care.

She said there are some pockets where people are doing these activities but that they are not yet widespread. At a national conference of 200 hospital executives this year, Williams said, only a few raised their hands when asked if they break out their maternity outcomes data. “If your overall C-section rate is fine, you might think everything’s hunky-dory,” she said. “But if you see that your Black people are having 50 percent higher C-section rates than your white and Asian patients, there’s very important work to be done.”

Then there are barriers to participation. Studies have found many in the Black community distrust the health care system.

Fearing retaliation and being seen as an “angry Black woman,” Ta-She-Ra Manning, a maternal health program coordinator in Fresno, California, said she didn’t provide any critical feedback when her OB-GYN dismissed her concerns about unusual symptoms during her 2021 pregnancy.

Meanwhile, new funding to measure disparities has been slow in coming. President Biden’s 2023 budget proposed $7.4 million to develop a supplemental survey aimed at reducing maternal health disparities, among other steps. But Congress did not fund the item. Instead, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services is developing it with its own funding and estimates the work will take less than five years, according to a statement from Caren Ginsberg, who directs the agency’s surveys.

Still, the public likely won’t see changes anytime soon. After a survey’s measures are created, it can take several years for the results to be publicly reported or tied to payment, said Carol Sakala, senior director for maternal health at the National Partnership for Women & Families, an advocacy organization.

“This molasses level of movement contrasts acutely with all the things hitting the news about people not getting the right care and attention and respect,” Sakala said.

Amid growing interest in health equity, traditional ratings sites are grappling with how much to share with the public. For its birthing hospital ratings, U.S. News & World Report recently started assessing whether hospitals tracked racial disparities in maternity outcomes measures, but it withholds actual results. Healthgrades is taking time to think through how to collect and display sensitive information publicly, said spokesperson Sarah Javors in a statement.

Black innovators fight for better data

Some Black women are trying to fill the void by creating new feedback mechanisms that could be more trusted by the community. Allers said she created Irth after a traumatic birth experience as a Black mother at a highly rated hospital left her feeling failed by mainstream ratings. On the app, verified users answer questions, from whether they felt respected by their doctor to if they experienced certain types of mistreatment such as dismissal of pain. Irth currently has 10,000 reviews of hospitals, OB-GYNs and pediatricians nationally, according to Allers.

“Our data is for the community,” said Allers. “They know their feedback has value to another mom or family.”

Irth also offers analysis of the reviews to hospitals and leads campaigns to collect more reviews for them. But Allers said many hospitals have expressed little interest.

Karen Scott, an OB-GYN who created PREM-OB, a scientifically validated survey that measures racism in Black birthing experiences, said she has met hospital leaders who don’t think their providers could mistreat patients or who worry that documenting responses could carry legal risk.

The American Hospital Association’s Lewis declined to comment specifically on Irth and PREM-OB but acknowledged the Black community’s long-standing mistrust of health care providers. She said hospitals want to hear more from patients in historically marginalized groups.

Early signs of progress are emerging in parts of the country.

California hospitals will likely report disparities in birth outcomes and patient satisfaction measures. Hospitals are expected to start posting data broken out by race and other demographics on their websites in 2026, though the state hasn’t finalized the measures that will be required, said Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesperson for the state’s health data agency. At least two states, Washington and New Jersey, have disclosed rates of C-sections among low-risk patients by race for individual hospitals.

Scott founded Birthing Cultural Rigor to increase uptake of her survey. The firm has partnered with birth equity groups to recruit respondents in select counties in Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Scott said results will be used to train local health professionals on how to reduce racism in maternity care.

Separately, Irth will collect and analyze reviews for three hospitals or health systems in California, said Allers. One of them, MemorialCare Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Long Beach, will work with Irth to better understand the impact of birth equity efforts such as implicit bias training.

“We’ll get to see if what we’re doing is actually working,” said Sharilyn Kelly, executive director of the hospital’s perinatal services.

Caldwell, the recruiter, eventually found a doctor she trusted and went on to have a smooth pregnancy and delivery. Her son is now 8 months old. But with so little information available on how she might be treated, she said, she felt anxious until she met her doctor, when “a lot of that stress and anxiety melted away.”

Digital strategy and audience engagement editor Chaseedaw Giles contributed to this report.

[Editor’s note: California Healthline is an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation, which has contributed funding to PREM-OB and the birth equity nonprofit Narrative Nation, which developed Irth.]

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. This article was published from Word In Black.

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By Bria Overs,
Word in Black

The Biden-Harris administration continues on its path of debt forgiveness, adding 125,000 student loan borrowers to its growing list of those who have received relief since President Biden took office.

This decision comes mere weeks after the Department of Education announced forgiveness for 2,300 University of Phoenix students. The new round of loan forgiveness focuses on borrowers enrolled in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, and those with disabilities. The new initiatives bring the administration’s total debt canceled and forgiven to $127 billion for an estimated 3.6 million Americans. But more aid and relief is still to come.

Debt cancellation particularly impacts Black Americans, who borrow more on average, hold their debt longer, and often struggle financially due to their student loans, according to the Education Data Initiative. 

The PSLF program puts borrowers employed by the government or nonprofit organizations with Federal Direct Loans on track to have their loans forgiven after 120 qualifying monthly payments, the equivalent of 10 years. 

“Because of red tape, only 7,000 borrowers had been helped,” President Joe Biden said at a recent press conference. “Well, today, thanks to reforms, more than 700,000 borrowers had their debt forgiven.”  

According to the White House, nearly 715,000 public servants have had $51 billion in student debt forgiven.

Income-Driven Repayment plans, including the Pay As You Earn Repayment (PAYE) plan or the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) plan, offer another form of payment assistance and a route for forgiveness. These plans can help borrowers lower their monthly payments based on their income, with forgiveness applied to any remaining balance after 20 years of payments or 240 qualifying monthly payments.

The administration estimates 855,000 borrowers on IDR plans have received $42 billion in relief and an additional 513,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities received $11.7 billion in relief.

After the Supreme Court rejected the president’s attempt to implement a broader and more sweeping forgiveness plan in June, he announced adjustments to the Revised Pay As You Earn Plan, which became the Saving on a Valuable Education plan.

Under SAVE, borrowers could see significantly lower payments. Monthly payment amounts, with SAVE, are based on discretionary income which is the difference between the adjusted gross income and 225 percent of the Department of Health and Human Services’ poverty guidelines.

Additionally, the plan helps prevent balances from growing each month by eliminating the remaining interest accrued after a monthly payment. 

A borrower on the SAVE plan making less than $30,000 a year could have a monthly payment of $0. A $0 monthly payment could apply to a household of four people making less than $60,000 a year.

By July 2024, the Biden-Harris administration plans to add more benefits to the program, including reducing the wait time for loan forgiveness eligibility to 10 years for borrowers with original balances of $12,000 or less. They also want to add forgiveness credit during periods of forbearance and deferments, and automatic enrollment in the plan after missed payments.

“By freeing millions of Americans from the crushing burden of student debt, it means they can go and get their lives in order,” Biden said. “They can think about buying a house, they can start a business, they can start a family. This matters. It matters in their daily lives.”

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

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By Alexa Spencer,
Word In Black

When Pflugerville, Texas, resident Melissa Bensouda gave birth to her third child in 2002 at age 27, she dreamed of dressing her baby in cute outfits and documenting all the usual first-year milestones. Instead, she soon found herself worrying about staying alive. 

“I definitely did not expect to see my children graduate from high school,” she says.

Six months after giving birth, a lab test revealed that Bensouda’s kidneys were functioning at half-strength. She was diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney disease. 

Twenty-one years later, Bensouda, now 48, has one kid in high school but has seen her other two children graduate.

“I wanted to see them in their life journey, and they’re reaching milestones,” Bensouda says. “Some that I never met.”

The tech that sustained her physically and emotionally? Home dialysis.

Black Americans are most at risk 

An estimated 37 million Americans live with kidney disease, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. But Black Americans are four times more likely than White Americans to develop the disease due to high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, the most common causes of kidney failure.

Chronic kidney disease occurs when the kidneys — two fist-sized organs located below the rib cage — fail to clean the blood and filter out extra water. This can cause waste and fluid to build up in the blood, and may lead to heart disease or stroke. 

There is no known cure for chronic kidney disease, though the symptoms are often managed with medication.

If the condition progresses to end-stage kidney disease (also called end-stage renal disease or kidney failure), a kidney transplant or dialysis — when an artificial kidney machine cleans the blood — is required to stay alive.

The average life expectancy with dialysis is five to 10 years — although some people live 30 years longer. 

The dialysis clinic experience

Bensouda began dialysis at clinics after her diagnosis. She went in multiple times a week — like most patients. After a while, she noticed a decline in her mental health. Research shows depression is common among people being treated for kidney disease due to isolation, fatigue, and an overall major life change. 

“It was depressing and scary because I was pretty much the youngest person that was going into the clinic to do treatment,” Bensouda recalls.

She says she regularly saw older patients “hurting,” “lashing out,” and “incoherent” as they suffered from low blood pressure during treatment, a common side effect of dialysis due to a drop in fluid levels.

“It was very difficult for me to reconcile that when I would go into the clinic, so I would basically just go to sleep until my treatment was over,” Bensouda says.

She found relief when a nurse recommended she join a home dialysis program. After accepting, she completed six weeks of training, where she learned to insert needles, set up and clean the machine, and diagnose any warnings or alarms.

The switch helped her mentally because she could do it from the comfort of her house, on her own time, while also being present for her children.

The realities of at-home dialysis

Home dialysis offers a range of advantages: More time for family, work, and travel. Patients can also dialyze on their own schedule instead of traveling to a clinic three times a week for four-hour sessions. 

Jenny Shen, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, says her patients who dialyze at home appreciate its flexibility.

“They seem to be a lot more independent, a lot more free, and a lot less burdened by it,” she says.

Despite the perks, home dialysis is less popular than clinic- or hospital-based care, but that’s changing. Between 2010 and 2020, home dialysis use among newly-diagnosed patients with kidney failure grew from 9.1 percent to 13.7 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health. 

Black patients, however, remain less likely to use home dialysis at 7.3 percent, compared to 9.3 percent of White patients. 

Previous research by Shen and Katherine Rizzolo, a nephrologist at Boston University, found that certain socioeconomic conditions, such as unstable housing, cause less access among Black people. 

Despite the perks, home dialysis is less popular than clinic- or hospital-based care, but that’s changing. Between 2010 and 2020, home dialysis use among newly-diagnosed patients with kidney failure grew from 9.1 percent to 13.7 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health. 

Black patients, however, remain less likely to use home dialysis at 7.3 percent, compared to 9.3 percent of White patients. 

Previous research by Shen and Katherine Rizzolo, a nephrologist at Boston University, found that certain socioeconomic conditions, such as unstable housing, cause less access among Black people. 

“[Home dialysis requires] a lot of boxes. You have to get a certain amount of backup materials. You have to have a space for the machine,” Rozzolo says. “So, if you don’t have a space for that because you have unstable housing, a lot of places won’t feel safe putting you on this machine because you’re prone to get infections.”

Shen adds that more research needs to be done around potential bias among practitioners, considering that dialysis facilities that serve high rates of Black patients have lower rates of home dialysis referral and initiation.

“Another issue is just fewer home dialysis programs are available in communities where Black patients tend to dialyze,” she says. 

While insurance covers much of the expenses for home dialysis, there can be hidden costs. Unpaid time off from work for training can make it unaffordable, as well as money for a caregiver when additional help is required.  

“In addition, the amount of time it takes for a patient to set up the machine, to be on the machine, all of that is time that they can’t work,” Rozzolo says. 

Dialysis, in general, is costly. Depending on a patient’s insurance status and type of dialysis, expenses can range from $10,000 to $90,000 annually.

Bensouda says it’s a lifelong debt that she’ll never be able to pay fully. 

“There’s never a year that I don’t have expenses related to either dialysis or hospitalization or medication or taking time off because I’m not feeling that great…that’s just my reality,” she says. 

At home, Bensouda dialyzes three times a week for eight hours each, with the option to perform an additional treatment, if needed. The process requires inserting large needles into her body, a task she believes keeps some patients from giving home dialysis a try.

“There is responsibility here. It’s not like it’s just the easiest thing in the world. It takes time. It takes commitment,” she says. 

Hope and a kidney transplant

Bensouda remained on home-based dialysis for a decade while on a kidney transplant list. She was matched with a donor but encountered complications five years after the surgery.

“I got really sick one holiday season and went into the emergency room and found out that my kidney had been fully rejected,” she says.

With no choice but to return to dialysis, she once again chose the type that brought her the most comfort. 

“I knew that if I was going to survive emotionally this experience and continue with my life goals for my family, I would have to go back to home dialysis,” Bensouda says. 

A 100-pound portable hemodialysis machine allowed her to reclaim her love for traveling. She’s comfortably visited Kansas City, Missouri, and Cabo, Mexico. 

“I needed that machine in order to continue living my life the way that I need to,” Bensouda says.

Part of living her life is pursuing a master’s degree in public health and advocating for home dialysis accessibility in her community. 

“We need to push to make these types of therapies available to more people,” she says. “It really was a lifesaver and a game changer for me.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Alexa Spencer,
Word In Black

When Quavo headed to the White House on Sept. 22, there’s no doubt the Migos rapper wished he was there for a happier reason.

But in Nov. 2022, Takeoff — his nephew and fellow group member — was shot and killed during an altercation at a Houston bowling alley. Now Quavo, who witnessed the shooting, is putting his efforts into supporting the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to address the nation’s gun violence epidemic.

Accompanied by his mom and his sister Titania Davenport, Takeoff’s mother, Quavo talked about dealing with the pain of losing his nephew, and the pressure on young Black men to buy into gun culture.

“I feel like it’s just so hard for us to say we hurting, or to say I want change, or to say I am coming to the White House and trying to get a gun law act,” he told Vice President Kamala Harris.

There’s no freedom without safety

The new federal office, announced on Sept. 22 by President Joe Biden, will be overseen by Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general who’s been vocal about banning assault weapons and implementing universal background checks.

“We know true freedom is not possible if people are not safe,” Harris said in a statement. “This epidemic of gun violence requires urgent leadership to end the fear and trauma that Americans experience every day.”

Harris’ vision where “every community” has the “freedom to live and to thrive” is not yet a reality for Americans — especially Black Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by gun violence.

Compared to White Americans, Black Americans experience 12 times the gun homicides, 18 times the gun assault injuries, and nearly three times the fatal shootings by police, according to Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund.
Targeted by White Supremacist Terrorism

The community has also been a target for racially-motivated mass shootings in recent years: leaving nine dead at a church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, 10 at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, and three at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida in August.

“Gun violence has no boundaries,” Lucy McBath, a congresswoman for Georgia’s 7th congressional district, said at the White House on Sept. 22.

McBath’s son, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was fatally shot by a White man at a Jacksonville gas station in 2012 after an argument about loud music.

“The historic creation of the office of gun violence prevention marks a new era in the fight to keep us all safe,” McBath said. “The office will increase coordination between states and ensure proper implementation of the gun safety legislation that we have already passed in Congress.”

Guns are killing American children

Firearms have risen to a leading cause of death for children, a reality that Justin Jones, a Tennessee House representative, knows all too well.

Jones was expelled by the state legislature in March for protesting gun violence on the House floor after a Nashville school shooting took the lives of three elementary students and three adults.

He calls the Office of Gun Violence Prevention a “great victory.”

“We know that in our nation, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children,” Jones said in a video on X. “Just like FEMA responds to natural emergencies like hurricanes and tornadoes, this office is an emergency response to a crisis of gun violence that we are facing as a nation where we’ve had more mass shootings than days this year.”

The Office comes on the heels of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a federal bill passed in June 2022 that enhanced gun control and access to school-based mental health care.

Biden said he’ll continue to urge Congress to take “commonsense actions that the majority of Americans support,” such as banning assault weapons.

“But in the absence of that sorely-needed action,” he said, “the Office of Gun Violence Prevention along with the rest of my Administration will continue to do everything it can to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart,” he said.

As for Quavo, he’s fully committed to solutions.

“We need to do better with the control of guns,” he told the Congressional Black Caucus. “We need to figure out how do we keep these types of incidents from happening to people going anywhere and thinking they can hurt somebody where it shouldn’t happen.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Ariama C. Long,
Word In Black

With the average graduate grappling with high inflation and housing costs, it turns out the real boogeyman haunting October is student loan repayments (with interest) — which are due to restart next month because of legislation passed by Congress.

According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), borrowers will receive a billing statement from a loan service provider containing a monthly payment amount in September or October, at least 21 days before the payment’s due date.

Onyekachi Okeke, 24, graduated from City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College this Spring with over $25,000 in student loan debt. She studied human biology and sociology with hopes of enrolling in nursing school in New York City. Currently, she lives at home with her Nigerian family in the Bronx. For now, she is looking for a job to save up money for nursing school and for scholarships to help with costs. She thinks that realistically higher education and the cost of living is much more expensive than for previous generations, so just “working harder” isn’t going to cut it.

“College is seen as the time in our lives where we’re supposed to prepare ourselves to be able to enter the working field,” said Okeke. “I don’t understand why there’s not an emphasis on trying to help students so they can successfully [do that]. Many students when they graduate college, it’s very difficult to find jobs. Jobs now they want you to get a master’s or even higher to employ you [and] you have to deal with paying back your student loans. I think that’s insane.”

Okeke, who has been involved in political groups on campus, believes it’s doable to make at least CUNY college and universities tuition free and reinvest higher education funding into schools. “It just takes political will,” said Okeke. “When it comes to funding the military and wars and foreign affairs, they will find money for that.”

Unfortunately, President Joe Biden’s hail mary plan to cancel student debt was categorically blocked in courts and with legislation fueled by conservatives. 

As a cursory backup, Biden announced the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which is the newest income-driven repayment (IDR) plan that is supposed to dramatically decrease monthly payments by increasing the income exemption from 150 percent to 225 percent of the poverty line. The SAVE Plan replaced the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) Plan. Other plan options include the default Standard Repayment Plan, if you don’t pick a plan, the Extended Repayment Plan, Graduated Repayment Plan, and Income-Sensitive Repayment Plan.

A borrower can enroll in auto pay on a loan servicer’s website to save 0.25 percent on their interest rate. And the DOE advises borrowers to check if you qualify for loan forgiveness for public service employment, disability, or college wrongdoing.

“Every American deserves the opportunity to pursue a college education without the burden of unmanageable student loan debt. President Joe Biden and I are committed to delivering relief to student loan borrowers,” said Vice President Kamala Harris in a statement put out in August.

Harris said the SAVE plan upholds the “promise” the administration made to voters and they are “continuing to pursue an alternative path to deliver student debt relief to as many Americans as possible [and] as quickly as possible.”

Satra D. Taylor, 28, director of higher education and workforce policy & advocacy at Young Invincibles, said that she’s heard first-hand accounts about people panicking over budgeting for upcoming repayments from friends, family, and their 50 Borrowers 50 States project. Some people are considering forbearance or just not making payments altogether, she said.

“Many expected to have their student debt relieved so I’m concerned about what this means for the housing market, for young borrowers in general who may have already been struggling to meet their basic needs,” said Taylor. “I’m really thinking about all these compounded factors and what it will mean for our economy.”

It’s especially concerning considering the racial wealth gap among Black and Brown borrowers, said Taylor. Black college graduates more often have higher student loan debt than primarily White counterparts, an average of $52,726 compared to $28,006 for the typical White bachelor’s graduate, reported the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. 

Additionally, in the Young Invincibles Reimagining Federal Pell Grants report, Taylor said that more than 20 percent of Black young adult women occupy low-skill jobs—meaning positions like customer service representatives, cashiers, or retail salespersons. The report indicates that young adult workers from historically marginalized communities, especially women, hold these kinds of jobs at higher percentages than White men, necessitating a need for affordable higher education and accessible workforce development for students as a pathway to higher lifelong earnings.

Many borrowers are pessimistic at best about the repayments. 

A Queens native, Jessica K., 29, works as a program and evaluation coordinator at a nonprofit in the city. She has about $40,000 in student loan debt and currently makes $70,000 for her salary. Her debt is a combination of undergraduate and graduate school loans. At the moment, she has no dependents and rents in Astoria. 

“It’s doable but I’m weary about planning for my future. Retirement-wise,” said K. She feels that her future is more “unclear” and hasn’t really been planning for the upcoming payments.

Romy Enriquez, 39, was born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Enriquez, a local social studies teacher for the last ten years, has two kids and owns his own home. He’s been paying down his loans since his graduation, has received about $10,000 from the public service forgiveness program, and has at least $20,000 in student loan debt left. He said he feels “absolutely” no relief about the amount left he has to pay with other expenses like groceries, after school care, and his mortgage. 

“I wish that Biden’s plan had gone through,” said Enriquez. “[I feel] unexcited. Again, disappointed. All the negative emotions you can think of.”

Taylor, who’s from Cincinnati but resides in D.C., is also a third year doctoral student at the University of Maryland herself with over $100,000 of student loan debt. Since she’s currently in school she doesn’t have to pay at the moment but she is not excited about repayments after 2026. She said her debt-to-income ratio is not sustainable with two more years of schooling left.

“I have a Ph.D.,” said Taylor. “I’m still a Black woman. And so there’s still barriers within the workplace that will impact my salary unfortunately and it’s just what it is, which is why I also went back to school because I realized that not having a Ph.D. stopped me from certain promotions.”

Check out StudentAid.gov/restart for more info about repayments.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. 

This story was published by Word In Black.

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By Alexa Spencer,
Word in Black

Black patients are more likely than other racial groups to be restrained during emergency department (ED) visits, according to a new study by Baylor University College of Medicine. The findings  — released in JAMA Internal Medicine on Sept. 25 — are based on a systematic review of 10 studies published through February 2022. 

Physical restraint in EDs is used to protect patients and staff from harm, but may have negative consequences, such as aspiration, physical trauma and psychological harm for those being treated. 

The team of researchers found that physical restraint was a rare occurrence during ED visits. However, of the 24,030 events of physical restraint represented in the review, Black adults were disproportionately impacted.

“The absolute event rate for restraint use was relatively low, less than 1 percent, but our results suggest that Black patients have a higher risk of restraint than patients of other racial groups,” said Dr. Vidya Eswaran, corresponding author of the paper and assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor. 

Physical restraint includes belts, vests, jackets, mitts, and other devices that confine the body and prevent movement. 

Abrasions and bruises are the most common complications. Asphyxia, in which a person loses consciousness due to lack of oxygen, can also occur. And physical restraints can lead to death if patients are not continually monitored by staff.

The American College of Emergency Physicians says using restraints can be dangerous to patients and staff and may raise civil rights and liberty issues, “including the right to refuse care, freedom from imprisonment, and freedom of association.” 

“However, there are circumstances when the use of restraints is in the best interest of the patient, staff, or the public,” the organization said in a policy statement.

Similarly, the American Medical Association says individuals have a fundamental right to be free from unreasonable bodily restraint, however, restraint may be justified if patients are at risk of harming themselves. 

“Except in emergencies, patients should be restrained only on a physician’s explicit order. Patients should never be restrained punitively, for convenience, or as an alternate to reasonable staffing,” the association stated.

The researchers at Baylor note that their analysis had limitations, though, past studies reveal the same disparity among Black patients.

Research by Yale University found that Black children were more likely than White children to be physically restrained during ED visits. Further research by the university discovered that Black uninsured males bore the brunt of restraints among adults.

“The small number of studies included in this review are of mixed quality and reveal that the assessment of race-based disparities in physical restraint use in the ED is understudied,” Eswaran said. 

Overall, she said more research needs to be conducted on this topic. 

“Showing that differences in restraint use exist is not enough,” she said.  “We must now further assess the mechanism for why these differences occur and what can be done to prevent them from persisting.”
This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word in Black

Not long after starting work as a practicing physician, Dr. Paula Braveman reached an important diagnosis: many of the Black patients she treated for things like hypertension or diabetes had something in common. She later confirmed the observation as a public health researcher in San Francisco. 

Being Black in America, she concluded, is hazardous to your health. 

“Once you are sick, you definitely want medical care, but it is the conditions of your life that largely determine whether you get sick in the first place,” said Braveman, founding director of the Center for Health Equity and professor of family and community medicine at the University of California-San Francisco. 

“Structural racism systematically exposes Black people to health-harming conditions and obstructs their progress to health-promoting conditions,” Braveman said. “These factors did not just suddenly emerge. They have always been there, from slavery on.” 

There is, however, an interim prescription, Braveman says: Black people connecting to talk about their experiences in an atmosphere designed to heal, not hurt. 

“I think that seeking opportunities for Black people to come together and discuss with each other their experiences of racism, and how they deal with it, could have healing effects, but only if sustained over time,” Braveman said. “Racial healing is absolutely part of the equation.”

Until recently, the notion that things as disparate as housing or education can influence a person’s health outcomes was a radical idea with little scientific support. But researchers like Braverman and others found solid evidence that social determinants — the conditions and circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age — can shape their well-being. 

Factors driving health inequity are “disparities in the conditions that people experience, including racism in its many forms,” such as economic insecurity, unsafe or insecure housing, and poor nutrition, to name a few, Braveman said. “It’s important to understand that for Black people, racism, particularly structural and systemic racism, is actually the cause of almost all the other causes on this list and longer lists.”

Those conditions, she says, confirmed what she’d seen when she was a young doctor. 

“So many of my patients needed changes in the circumstances of their lives that could only be accomplished” through broad societal changes and public policy, Braveman said. “I see it all the time in my and others’ research findings.” 

For example, a study Braveman did with colleagues, she says, found that “among Black women, those who often or very often worried about being treated unfairly because of their race, were far more likely to give birth prematurely than Black women who were comparable in many other ways but who did not often worry about being treated unfairly because of their race.”

While it wasn’t until the last decade that social determinants of health became a field of study, “a light is at last being shone on them, with an understanding that they are direct products of racism,” Braveman said. “They operate whether or not any particular individual is identified who intends to discriminate; they operate because they are built into structures and systems, e.g., policies, laws, entrenched practices.”

For solutions, however, Braveman believes there must be racial healing on a broad scale. 

“I think that seeking opportunities for Black people to come together and discuss with each other their experiences of racism (and how they deal with it) could have healing effects, but only if sustained over time,” she said. “At least in the beginning, a skilled facilitator is probably needed, so this is not a super-cheap intervention.”

Braveman also points to the California Department of Public Health’s Black Infant Health Program, a series of classes specifically designed to address racial trauma among pregnant and parenting Black women. 

Along with providing long-term planning and a support network of other Black birthing people, the BIH program addresses internalized racism “by including a discussion of a ‘Black icon’—a Black individual who has made significant contributions to society,” according to a program description.  

While support for new parents and racial healing can help, reversing social determinants of health and creating health equity has to happen at a higher level, Braveman said. 

“The primary focus needs to be on changing the laws and policies (e.g. on voter suppression; on funding for schools; on environmental injustice) that are the fundamental instruments for racism’s effects,” she said. 

This story was produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and originally published by Word in Black. 

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By John Celestand,
Word in Black

Being a lover of sports since I was a toddler and later becoming a professional basketball player in the NBA, it is safe to say I’ve had my share of disappointing moments in sports over the years. I remember missing the final shot at the buzzer of the Edison Boys Basketball League in New Jersey when I was in sixth grade. I must’ve cried into the wee hours of the morning, replaying how the ball rimmed out right as time expired.  

I remember when the Fab Five’s Chris Webber called the timeout in the waning seconds of the 1993 NCAA Championship game vs. North Carolina.  I still remember the look on his face, the sheer embarrassment and disappointment.  I can still see the cameras focusing in on him as he sat there, head down, dejected. I still can’t watch the replay of that game. 

I remember losing to Shawnee High School by 50 points in the New Jersey Group IV state semifinals in 1995, a game that would prove to be the final high school basketball game of my career.  A game in which my team didn’t score a basket in the entire third quarter. 

As I sat in the stands with my 10-year-old son at his first NFL football game on a rainy Sunday afternoon at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, I just could not have predicted what I was going to see two days later. On Tuesday, I came across this headline:  “J. Cole shared Colin Kaepernick’s letter to the Jets.  He’s looking to join the Jets practice squad.” 

“Letter to the Jets?” I thought to myself, “But Kap hasn’t played in years! Practice squad?” 

Add this to the list of my most disappointing moments in sports.  For Kaepernick to sacrifice his career; to not stand for the National Anthem but yet stand up for disenfranchised folks of color who have been violated, mauled, and sometimes murdered in America’s streets by those selected to serve and protect them; to be a martyr and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with great legendary athletes turned activists such as Muhammad Ali, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Jim Brown, Bill Russell and others; and to then be begging for a “practice spot” with the New York Jets would make even the great Allen Iverson relive his famous quote: “We talking about practice? Not a game.”

How could he do this to us? After all, we had all been through this pain with him, right?  We had all stood behind him and taken this journey with him, right? Some of us refused to watch NFL games until we saw Kap back on the sideline where he belonged.  Many of us engaged in conversations or, better yet, flat-out arguments in barbershops, on street corners, in alleys and at backyard barbecues on how the NFL had now proven to us that it was the greatest plantation in sports. It was a league that would always try to beat you into submission, forcing you to show your respect for the shield, especially if you were a descendant of the Motherland.  

But this had to be a publicity stunt, right?  By no means would Colin Kaepernick, after being shunned, blackballed, forced out of America’s most popular sports league, now beg, resort to groveling and crawl back for a “chance” to run a damn practice squad after being out of the league for seven years. Not after having a Netflix series about his life.  Not after refusing to buckle, kneel and cave in to the demands of the NFL, White America, and true “American patriots.” 

Publicity stunt or not, it will go down as one of the most embarrassing moments╾not just for Kaepernick, but for those of us who walked a little taller because he never succumbed; for those of us who finally saw an athlete of this generation stand up and lay it all on the line while mirroring the purpose and gumption of athletes from past generations.  What the hell would Tupac say now?   

Maybe this is deeper than the surface thinkers among us can fathom.  Maybe J. Cole, being the intelligent wordsmith that he is, has already strategized with Kaepernick about how this will all play out.  Maybe one of the greatest rappers of this generation and Kaepernick, one of the most polarizing NFL players of our time, can see the forest for the trees.  

Or maybe, just maybe, we should stop questioning Kaepernick’s dedication to the cause.  Maybe we should stop questioning if he’s lost all his dignity and start looking at ourselves in the mirror.  As I reflected on my own actions, I realized that I read Kaepernick’s letter on my cell phone after spending a rainy NFL Sunday in an NFL stadium draped in Washington Commanders gear — after already dropping my hard-earned money on overpriced tickets, hot dogs and parking. All things I swore I’d boycott because of what they did to Kap back in 2016. But I just couldn’t stop watching my NFL, could I? My boycott lasted about three weeks.

How long did yours last?

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

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By Joseph Williams,
Word in Black

Dr. Fallon Wilson has seen the future, and it is Black.  

A technology maven and self-described prophet, her visions are of Black Americans thriving in a society that’s equal parts Black Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Wakanda. Every Black school and household will have broadband internet access. Well-funded historically Black colleges and universities will be at the vanguard of the nation’s technological innovation and research. 

In this world, Black girls code, artificial intelligence doesn’t discriminate, and Black people are driving change in America — just like our enslaved ancestors envisioned. 

“I believe Black people are future. We have always thought of ourselves as future,” says Wilson, a renowned social scientist, tech equity advocate and vice president of tech policy at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.

“We have always dreamed. ‘Freedom Dreams’ is one of my favorite books, because (author) Robin D.G. Kelly chronicles how Black people have always imagined freedom,” even if that future didn’t seem attainable. 

“We have always had to think of ourselves beyond the current moment,” she says, “because if we stood only in the moment, it would look devastating and demoralizing.”

Described as the Fannie Lou Hamer of tech, Wilson has spent her career working to bring sorely-needed equity to the fast-moving digital world, working with colleges, tech companies, nonprofits, and the White House to make it happen. At the same time, however, she’s an outspoken evangelist for a grassroots Black tech movement “aligned in a vision of freedom.”

That vision emerges in Wilson’s 2019 TEDx-Nashville talk, titled, “Stop Ignoring Black Women and Hear of Our Tech Prophecies.”

In the 15-minute talk, she references civil rights pioneers, scriptures, and Black Joy to upend misconceptions about Black people in the digital landscape — and Black people’s misconceptions about technology. 

But she also reminds listeners that the tech divide is real, and that the Black tech future she sees is more realistic than it seems. After all, she says, enslaved Black people had to first imagine freedom before it could even become a realistic possibility. 

“I dream of a national unified Black tech ecosystem reminiscent of Black Wall Street before White supremacy annihilated it,” she told the TEDx audience, referring to the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a flourishing Black community that an angry White mob burned to the ground in 1921. “I dream of a flesh and blood Wakanda-like ecosystem.”

That ecosystem, she says, is centered in bringing broadband internet access to churches and public schools — encouraging legacy organizations like the NAACP to adopt a tech agenda, and standing up organizations like the Algorithmic Justice League and Data for Black Lives. 

It sweeps in racial healing, including an acknowledgment of trauma. It speaks truth to powerful tech companies, particularly how lack of diversity results in discriminatory algorithms and biased A.I. And it includes Black Joy as a fundamental principle.  

“We have to build a future and have to get black people ready for the world that is currently being built,” she says. “And so the model that we developed for the #BlackTechFutures Research Institute is that it takes an ecosystem to address the main structural challenges that keep Black people from living and thriving in a world where machines are everywhere.”

That future has arrived, Wilson says, with the advent of A.I. and self-driving cars, among other things. But the moment, she says, is also “an opportunity to (destroy) the structural constraints of racial equity for tech futures in this country.”

Smashing those barriers, and realizing the Black community can write its own future, is essential to racial healing, she says. 

But the challenge is real: According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 34 percent of Black adults do not have home broadband, and 30.6 percent of Black households with one or more children aged 17 or younger lack high-speed home internet. Wilson, however, is bullish on Black future, driven by self-empowerment and overcoming present-day obstacles.  

“This is the thing about White supremacy: It keeps you always looking down so that you can never look up and look around and see how everything you need is right there,” Wilson says. “My money’s on us — that’s it.” 

“I tell people all the time: We are who we have been waiting for,” she says.

This story was produced in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and originally published by Word in Black.

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By Bria Overs,
Word In Black

Working for a lifetime is rarely any person’s dream. As people get closer to age 65, they start putting together their plans for living out the rest of their lives in a well-deserved retirement. 

However, too many Americans lack the “longevity literacy” to prepare for retirement properly. 

In a study of the TIAA-Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center’s Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index), only 12 percent of adults had “strong longevity literacy.” These adults understood how long 65-year-olds live and the likelihood of living well past that age.

An estimate for 2021 from health policy research organization KFF showed the average life expectancy for Americans has declined since 2019 from 78.8 years to 76.1. Black people are down to 70.8 years from 74.8.

Still, people live longer than they ever have, often unexpectedly. And their retirement savings and preparedness must match that, if not surpass it. 

The National Council on Aging found that 20 percent of older households have no assets to pull from as they age, and 80 percent do not have the financial resources to cover long-term care or financial strain.

“If they underestimate life expectancy and end up living longer, and did not plan for income, they are short on funds,” Surya P. Kolluri, head of the TIAA Institute, says. “So, correcting the notion of how long people live will help them plan better.”

Longevity literacy is part of the foundation of retirement readiness. 

“Longevity literacy should lead to longevity fitness,” he says. “Ask yourself: ‘What are the components that make me feel fit in my longer years?’”

The factors Kolluri refers to are questions to ask as you age. These questions should help evaluate your longevity fitness level and clarify the next steps.

1. Do you have enough income to last so you won’t outlive it?
2. Have you taken care of your mental and physical health?
3. How are your social connections with family, friends, and the greater community?

Black folks are at high risk of economic insecurity without understanding what it takes to retire and maintain comfort over several years. They could have to re-enter the workforce or live in poverty. 

But, improving financial literacy is only one piece of this puzzle.

How to save for retirement

While social security is one way to keep an income in retirement, it doesn’t cover nearly enough. In fact, the administration found that benefits represent about 30 percent of the income for older adults.

To keep an income after leaving the workforce, retirees must turn to other assets and savings, Kolluri says.

There are several tools for saving for retirement, like general high-yield savings accounts, pensions, or other investment vehicles. People often start with an employee-sponsored 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), 457 plans, and IRAs to begin saving.

If an adequate amount of money has not been saved or invested — a common issue — it’s not enough to be ready for retirement. Studies from Northwestern Mutual and Charles Schwab found that Americans feel they will need at least $1.27 million to $1.9 million to retire. 

People need to earn decent money to contribute to their retirement accounts, but before that, they need to be able to cover their monthly expenses, invest, and save. Occupational segregation is a unique barrier to wealth-building and retirement preparedness for Black women. 

“The caregiving industry, for example, which may not have specific retirement plans available, that’s [a job] where Black women have been historically very active in the labor force,” says Angelino Viceisza, professor of economics at Spelman College and president of the National Economic Association.

In his research with the Urban Institute, Viceisza found that Black people had the “second-lowest retirement wealth” at $11,157 for women and $19,382 for men.

This institutional racism has serious multigenerational consequences. Retirees may rely on younger family members to help cover costs. As a result, younger generations have reduced the ability to create generational wealth.

Access to better jobs with higher pay and better benefits could make a significant difference.

Finding more ways to prepare

As people age, they should reassess their retirement savings and other investments to ensure they’re on the right track to have what they expect to need. There are also “catch-up contributions,” allowing those over age 50 to make additions yearly.

Not everyone will have access to employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Fortunately, alternatives are out there. Some states offer automated savings programs to increase access to retirement preparedness, including California, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.

While these alternatives can help, Viceisza says, reparations would have the most considerable impact in getting Black people the wealth and preparedness they need for retirement. The next best way, in his opinion, would be eliminating occupational segregation and glass ceilings.

“There is, in my mind, no other way to really inject enough wealth back [into the Black community],” he says. Without it, Black folks will continue to be generations behind, with an increasingly entrenched racial wealth gap.

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Bria Overs,
Word In Black

Before “Hot Strike Summer,” there was the “Union Boom.” Workers at Amazon, Trader Joe’s, REI, Starbucks and other corporations banded with their fellow workers to improve working conditions.

This drive, led by the workers, is shaking up workplaces and industries nationwide — a welcomed reversal to the decades-long decline of unionization rates for advocates of worker’s rights.

Union membership rates peaked at 35 percent in the 1950s, a report from the U.S. Department of Treasury found, and have steadily declined since the 1970s. 

And membership is still declining, with a recent dip from 10.3 percent in 2021 to 10.1 percent in 2022. Along with it, the number of workers represented by unions dipped from 11.6 percent to 11.3 percent at the same time, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Unionization is most common among public-sector workers, protective service occupations, education, training, library occupations, and transportation and utilities industries.

And Black folks have higher rates of unionization or union membership than any other racial and ethnic group. That’s not without cause or history.

Unions provide better working conditions with higher wages, good benefits and less discriminatory retaliation from employers. 

But those who oppose unions, like the Heritage Foundation, argue that they cause layoffs, obstruct market competition, and drive up prices.

There’s also the case against unions from “right-to-work” states, which allow workers to choose whether to join a labor union and make union dues optional. Critics of this law say it favors corporations and worsens conditions for workers.

“The union movement is the equalizer,” Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said. The AFL-CIO represents 12.5 million workers internationally.

Union participation creates conditions that can move the Black community closer to parity for the ever-growing racial wealth gap. 

“The legacy of not having access to wealth-building opportunities that Black families have faced over decades, those things are labor market independent,” said Kyle K. Moore, economist for the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy. 

“But there is a component of the racial wealth gap that comes from the labor market, and being in a union allows [people] to mitigate that.”

Moving on up: from poverty to the middle-class

Black people are not new to unions; they are true to unions — and have been since the early 1900s.

The Black male porters working for the Pullman Company founded the first all-Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, in 1925. At that time, 20,224 Black Americans were working as Pullman Porters.

Their pay was low, and according to the Chicago History Museum, workers would need to work “at least 400 hours each month to earn their full monthly pay.” They faced long hours, constant racism at work, and threats of firing for unionizing.

After 12 years of negotiating, the BSCP collectively bargained a contract with the Pullman Company under union president A. Philip Randolph. This contract gave workers at the company increased wages and a maximum of 240 working hours per month.

The National A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum notes that the union made the Pullman Porter job one of “economic stability,” holding “high social prestige in the African-American community.”

The BSCP merged with the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks in 1978. But the labor movement continues to play the same vital role for the Black community. 

Union households have at least one person covered by a union contract and have more wealth than their non-union counterparts. Within Black union households, the median wealth has been around $101,000 compared to $29,000 for non-union households.

“The fact of the matter is that the Black middle class was essentially built by the labor movement,” Redmond said. “What we see is that people are fed up, including Black workers, by not being able to share in the wealth they help create on these jobs every day.”

Sustaining the ‘union boom’

The unionization rate is far from what it used to be because of obstacles from companies and politicians. 

Nevertheless, union advocates persist and recommend steps to take as a nation to increase the number of unions and unionized workers.

The National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency created to enforce the National Labor Relations Act, recently announced a new framework for union representation proceedings.

Under the framework, employers must promptly recognize and bargain with the union or file a petition for an election. However, if the employer commits unfair labor practices, the election petition will be dismissed, and the NLRB will order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union.

From the perspective of Moore and Redmond, this recent move from the NLRB is a step in the right direction, but Congress needs to act further. 

Both EPI and the AFL-CIO believe in the power of the bipartisan Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would protect workers’ right to unionize and bargain for better pay and benefits. The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act also provides public employees collective bargaining rights and procedures.

When employers and the government make it difficult for workers to unionize, Moore said it goes against the democratic representation that was a pillar in the nation’s founding. 

“If we live in a democracy, then it should be up to the folks who live there to decide how they want to be represented and if they want to get to the table and negotiate,” he said. “And they should be able to do that without being impeded in their effort to even get to the table in the first place.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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By Willy Blackmore

(WordinBlack) – For the first time ever, the United Auto Workers is striking against all of the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which manufactures Chrysler, Dodge and Ram, among other brands. The strike is unlike others in the past for a number of other reasons too.

Rather than shutting down all union shops, the UAW’s so-called standup strike (a nod to the historic sit-down strikes in Flint, Mich., that gave birth to the union) will close plants on a rolling basis. On Sept. 15, thousands of workers walked off the job at three plants, one from each of the Big Three.

The stakes are different too because in addition to the usual contract issues like pay and benefits, the union is pushing to get workers at electric-vehicle battery factories – which tend to be joint ventures between automakers and battery manufacturers – included in the UAW’s master contract. This is a strike aimed to ensure that the auto industry of the future is not only green, but union too.

While UAW doesn’t keep demographic info, Black workers are the most likely to be represented by a union, and it’s estimated that the majority of U.S. factory jobs will be held by minorities as early as 2029.

Meanwhile, electric vehicle sales broke a record in the first quarter of 2023, accounting for over 7 percent of the total number of cars sold for the first time ever, and that’s only expected to rise in the years to come. In a report, Bank of America said that internal combustion engine dominance is over.

But the shift, driven in part by the generous tax credits offered through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), represents something of an existential crisis to autoworkers: EVs have about 30 percent fewer parts than traditional cars and trucks, and some 35,000 jobs at engine and transmission plants could be lost because electric cars simply do not need those components.

But rather than resist the inevitable shift to electric vehicles, the union is instead looking to the new battery factories that are being built both in the Midwest — a UAW stronghold — and the far less union-friendly South as organizing opportunities.

The IRA includes the stipulation that, in 2024, 60 percent of battery components must be made in North America for a car to qualify for tax credits; come 2029, that will rise to 100 percent. That requirement has sparked a surge of onshoring in battery manufacturing: in 2019, there were just two EV battery plants in the U.S., while today, there are 30 in some stage of planning, construction or operation. Not only are the automakers set to benefit from the tax credits available to consumers, but they are also receiving huge amounts in low-cost government loans to help jump-start domestic production.

In June, Biden’s Energy Department gave $9.2 billion to help fund three plants jointly owned by Ford and the South Korean battery maker SK that will be built in Kentucky and Tennessee. Because such factories are only partly owned by an automaker, they aren’t included under the UAW’s contract.

Shawn Fain, the newly elected UAW president, was furious about the loans, saying they were made with “no consideration for wages, working conditions, union rights or retirement security.”

The loans have hurt President Biden’s relationship with the union; UAW is currently withholding its endorsement for his reelection over the administration’s EV policies.

In another battery factory in Ohio that is jointly owned by General Motors, wages start at $16.50 and rise to $20 over seven years; at a nearby GM plant that was shuttered in 2019, UAW workers earned upward of $32 an hour. Currently, UAW represents one Ohio battery factory, which voted overwhelmingly to join the union.

With battery jobs set to grow as all these new factories come online, the question is if they will be good-paying union jobs for the many non-White workers who are likely to be hired there, or if they will be low-paying ones. With this strike, UAW is making a strong case for the answer that it wants to see.

Willy Blackmore is a freelance writer and editor covering food, culture, and the environment. He lives in Brooklyn.

This article was originally published by WordinBlack.

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By Bria Overs,
Word in Black

It’s hard to know where to turn when seeking guidance on budgets, investments, purchasing a home, or even starting a business. The internet is a great and vast resource, but it has one major flaw — it’s unable to get a complete view of your finances.

Passing down financial knowledge is common in the Black community, yet there’s a potential danger in sharing incorrect financial advice that could put someone on the wrong path.

Certified financial professionals have the education, training, guidelines, and standards needed to give reasonable financial advice on various financial topics.

“When we think about that educational component, being able to instill the knowledge, tools, and habits that may not have come from prior generations allows us to change the trajectory of where we’re going,” says Gerald Grant III, a certified financial professional (CFP) at G Financial Group in alliance with Equitable Advisors.

With this in mind, the apparent differences between professionals, financial influencers, or “influencers,” and financial coaches become clearer. And it’s an important distinction: Influencers and coaches are not required to have credentials or the subsequent knowledge that comes with it.

“The reason there are licenses and regulations to get into this industry, as well as certain tests and designations, is because you’re governed ,” Grant says. “And there are rules you must follow when you’re on this side of the playing field.”

The consequences are severe if they don’t follow the rules and laws. 

Proper financial advice is vital for increasing financial literacy, boosting generational wealth, and being more prepared for retirement.

CFPs, CPAs, and CFAs — what are they?

Certified Financial Planners (CFP), on the other hand, can get a “holistic” view and are meant to “bring all the pieces of your financial life together,” according to the CFP Board, which upholds the standards for planners. 

Certified Public Accountants (CPA) can help individuals or business owners with all things related to taxes. Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) are advanced investing and wealth management experts.

“Normally, people look for a CPA when they want tax advice or if they want something, like their nonprofit, audited,” she says. 

Davis notes that CPAs are an excellent option for small business owners looking for assistance with accounting and taxes. Clients could be partnerships, sole proprietorships, C and S corporations, estates, and trusts.

It’s possible to find a professional with all of these designations, but deciding who to work with depends on your individual financial needs.

A cost-effective alternative: financial coaching

Relying on financial influencers and financial coaches is tricky because many don’t have the certifications and professional expertise that a CFP® has. However, CFP®s occasionally recommend them for folks who don’t meet the firm’s client requirements or can’t afford their services.

Coaches have limitations in what they can do and provide because of the regulations and licensing requirements. However, some Accredited Financial Counselors have a certification through the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education.

Davis says there are scammers on TikTok and Instagram who offer bad financial advice and encourage their audience to engage in illegal practices. 

Earlier this year, ABC News reported France became the first country to regulate influencer marketing, making it unlawful to create paid content promoting financial products, including cryptocurrencies.

Researching what “influencers” recommend before acting on it or speaking with a certified finance expert can combat taking lousy advice.

What to look for in a finance professional

Finding a financial planner or professional to work with is easy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States has about 327,600 personal financial advisors.

Their services often come at a price, and as such, many offer free consultations or introductory calls to see if your needs are a good fit for their services.

Grant and Davis recommend asking the potential financial planner or coach some of these questions when considering working with one.

• Who is your typical client?
• How and why did you get into this field?
• What are your personal finances like?
• What is your money story?
• What is the mission and purpose of your firm or business?
• What are things we’re not thinking about or doing that we should be?

Grant also has things he recommends looking out for.

• Are they asking you questions about your household? 
• Are they asking you questions about your particular financial landscape?
• Are they recommending different strategies without proper information?
• Is this somebody who will have my best interest in mind? Or are they telling my what I want to hear?
• Are they going to educate me on the options available?

“I would say it’s like going to the doctor,” he says. “I can’t give you a full prescription if I don’t know your needs.”

There needs to be a process for your financial professional to get to know you, where your finances stand, and where you want to go.

This article was originally published by Word in Black. 

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By Bria Overs,
Word in Black

There’s an underappreciated power in Black businesses. A power that goes beyond their ability to boost the United States economy. From cultural-changing fashion brands to construction companies to hair salons, Black-owned businesses have a profound impact on the Black community. 

The heart of that impact? The ability to generate prosperity that could help close the racial wealth gap.

And Black-women business owners are leading the charge, increasing their numbers to 52,374 businesses in just three years, according to a report from the Brookings Institute.

This boost is despite a lack of access to capital, expensive student loan debt, the COVID-19 pandemic and historical traumas around Black business ownership.

Most Black-owned businesses are solo endeavors and are 12.7 percent of all non-employer companies, $83.6 billion in revenue. Zooming in, the Pew Research Center found that men owned 55 percent of Black businesses, while Black women owned 37 percent, and 8 percent had equal male-female ownership.

“We know that Black people aren’t lower in their entrepreneurial spirit,” Andre Perry, senior fellow at Brookings Metro and a co-author of the report, said. “We have people who want to start businesses, but they’re certainly not capitalized or incentivized to do so.”

While the entrepreneurial spirit is alive in Black communities, only 3 percent of those owned by Black women maturate or last beyond five years. But Black folks need these businesses to survive and thrive.

If growth stays at its current rate and significant gaps in established businesses persist, reaching equality with the number of Black people will take about 256 years. Brookings’s report claims this will leave the racial wealth gap entrenched.

For example, in Atlanta there are about 8,663 Black businesses, accounting for 7.4 percent of employer businesses. If Black businesses accounted for 36.3 percent of companies with employees, which is equivalent to the Black population, there would be 57,796 more Black businesses for a total of 66,459.

“The goal of our report is not just to point to the economic benefits of business ownership,” Perry said. “It’s about self-determination, agency, and community development, not just building more capitalists. It’s to give agency to people who were historically denied opportunities.”

State of the Black women-owned businesses

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the murder of George Floyd within that, certainly affected Black business owners. This chain of events caused an unexpected boom in business says Nikki Porcher, founder of the non-profit Buy From A Black Woman. Though significant support flowed in, Black business owners say it didn’t last.

“Because there was such an influx in the last part of [2020], they were starting to prepare thinking that would be the norm and now it’s dwindling,” said Porcher. “The people who were excited to buy Black and support Black women and businesses are now getting ally fatigue.”

With a shift like this, it’s difficult for their companies to maintain operations and achieve goals. And that’s necessary, if Black businesses are to have the kind of impact on their families and communities that they hope to have.

The Brookings report found that in 2020, Black business owners employed 1.3 million people, created 48,549 new jobs and added $1.7 billion in aggregate payroll to the economy.

Going from being a solopreneur to an official business that can afford employees is a wall to get over for Black businesses– especially for Black women.

Black women and their companies account for slightly less than 1 percent of all American employer businesses, bringing in 0.3 percent of overall revenue in the U.S., according to Brookings. This means there aren’t enough Black women offering employment opportunities.

Part of the problem is most of these companies are stuck in certain revenue brackets. The largest share of Black women’s businesses have mid-level revenues between $100,000 and $250,000 per year. Less than 15 percent make more than $1 million each year.

The report also found that Black women are “over-represented in the lowest earning categories” of $50,000 or less annually.

Porcher said the rapid change in revenue and transactions over the years is a new challenge for founders and owners.

Pushing Black women further

Black women do and continue to face a lot of adversity on their path to reaching entrepreneurial goals. High-interest rates, inflation, and the restarting of student loan payments will affect owners and consumers alike.

“Anything which is constraining the wealth, or creating additional debt is going to have a negative outcome on those individuals, households, and communities they’re part of, which includes all of those businesses,” Manann Donoghoe, senior research associate at Brookings Metro and fellow report co-author, said.

Porcher said there are still easy ways to support these businesses and their founders, including swapping out everyday items to Black-owned or supporting organizations that help these companies.

For owners and founders, she said, consider starting businesses with unique ideas and customers. Because while there might be room at the table, it’s also beneficial to uplift existing companies and firms.

“Whenever you see one Black woman, you’re not just seeing ,” Porcher said. “She has a whole community that she’s standing in for, standing up for, and standing with. It doesn’t just stop with her.”

This article was originally published by Word In Black.

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Delaying the start of kindergarten has proven short-term benefits. But is it harmful in the long run?

by Maya Pottiger. August 29, 2023

As the 2023-2024 school year starts across the country, not all kindergarten-aged children will be starting their academic careers.

This is due to academic redshirting. 

Redshirting is a common practice in college sports, where an athlete is part of the team but sits out of gameplay, padding out their four years of eligibility. 

But what does it mean for kindergarteners?

“It’s a parental decision basically deciding that a child will do another year of pre-K, and then enter kindergarten as an older student,” says Eric Duncan, the director of P-12 policy at The Education Trust. 

Duncan says the practice in kindergarten gained popularity from sports as a way for parents to give their children a leg up academically. But it’s also evolved past academic considerations, including maturity and behavioral and emotional development. 

How do you know if redshirting is right for your family?

Benefits Are Immediate, But Wane

The limited research on redshirting shows that, while it provides initial benefits to students in the first year or two, it’s short-lived.

“When there’s academic challenges for students, they see them either catch up or outpace their peers in academics,” Duncan says of redshirted students. “But the majority of the research that we’ve looked at shows that the benefits wane over time.”

This is because of how quickly children are developing. 

“The quicker students mature, they have the ability to sit in classes and do their homework and are more emotionally regulated,” Duncan says. “By the time you get late in elementary and early middle school, kids are at that point.”

But is it harmful?

While there isn’t data that proves any lasting advantages for redshirted students, there are a handful of studies that show students who start school late, as opposed to on-time, face a variety of other challenges: Higher rates of going into special education programs, higher likelihood of behavioral problems and substance abuse, higher dropout rates, lower rates of homework completion, and were more disengaged students.

And, Duncan says, research suggests there are more retention issues in early grades among redshirted students, largely due to social aspects, like bullying.

“A year makes a big difference,” Duncan says. “If you’re bigger in the class, or it’s very clear that you’re older, it’s shown that those students become a little bit less engaged or subjected to more bullying and end up not getting the same academic benefits.”

Redshirting is Most Common Among Affluent, Educated White Families

Along with academic and behavioral considerations, redshirting also requires a lot of resources. Instead of enrolling their child in school, parents have to find alternative care, either in the form of a sitter, daycare, or tutor. And those things come with a cost.

A 2023 Care.com survey found that child care is not affordable for most parents, with 67% saying they spend at least 20% of their annual household income on child care. Child care is considered affordable when it costs 7% or less of the household income, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

And, even if you can afford it, daycare is increasingly inaccessible. Aside from being put on long waitlists for limited spots, about 75% of parents reported fewer than six daycare centers within a 20-minute drive of their home.

Will More COVID-19 Babies Be Redshirted?

It’s difficult to track rates of redshirting over time, as states have established varying rules, from whether kindergarten is mandatory to the minimum age to enter, to the maximum age children can no longer be in school. But the National Bureau of Economic Research estimates the average rate of redshirting is between 9% and 10%.

But we’re getting close to children born during the COVID-19 pandemic approaching kindergarten age. Those children, who have already shown slower development, but Duncan says there hasn’t been anything that suggests a boom in redshirting.

“I can imagine that may be wanting to potentially do that, or might have some incentive to do that to make up for some of the unfinished learning that’s happened,” Duncan says, “but we haven’t seen anything from a data perspective that substantiates that.”

Making an Informed Decision

Parents considering redshirting their child should consider both the benefits and drawbacks, as well as the resources required for either decision.

And it’s essential to “understand the academic outcomes and the benefits wane over time,” Duncan says.

For example, if reading is the concern, it could make sense to give your student an extra year of reading instruction before they get to third grade, which is considered the pivot point when students are reading to learn.

I don’t think there’s a compelling enough research base to say that this is a foolproof strategy.ERIC DUNCAN, DIRECTOR OF P-12 POLICY AT THE EDUCATION TRUST

But Ducan cautions against how proven redshirting is.

“I don’t think there’s a compelling enough research base to say that this is a foolproof strategy,” he says.

However, for Black parents who do decide to redshirt due to behavioral challenges, Duncan says they should also consider screening for learning disabilities. 

“Black boys are misidentified as having behavioral issues when they’re not necessarily screened for things like dyslexia or any other sort of learning disability,” Duncan says. “Make sure there’s a real intentionality around the hindrance or barrier to academic outcomes that may show up as behavioral challenges but are actually more about development.”

Maya Pottiger is a data journalist for Word in Black. She was previously a data journalist for the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she earned both her BA and Master of Journalism. 

The post Should You Delay Your Child Starting Kindergarten? appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

We’re celebrating all of the good news happening and the inspiring Black folk creating positive change in our communities.

by Word In Black

2022 was a *wild* year. Book bans swept the country, the U.S. The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, and 10 Black people were tragically gunned down in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. 

But there was also plenty to celebrate in the Black community. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Brittney Griner came home to her family, and the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act finally passed. 

Knowing that, even in hard times, our community members were fighting — and winning! — battles for racial justice and equity gives us hope. That’s why we’ll keep turning the spotlight on the organizations and people working to create positive change. We’ll update this list periodically with all the good news happening to Black folks in 2023. 

1. Family Sells Bruce’s Beach for $20M. After being stolen in 1924, a Manhattan beachfront property was returned to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce as an act of reparations in 2022. Now, they are selling the property back to Los Angeles County. 

2. You can stream The 1619 Project. The Pulitzer Prize-winning work The 1619 Project exists as a news series, a book, and now a show on Hulu. Nikole Hannah-Jones’ longform work will be told in a six-part docu-series of the same name.

3. A historic deal and better food in Houston’s airport. LaTrelle’s, a Black-owned and family-led restaurateur firm, recently inked a $334 million contract for a space in the William P. Hobby Airport. The funds go toward the renovation and revitalization of the airport’s dining hub. 

4. Sticking the landing. Fisk University made history as the first HBCU to compete in NCAA gymnastics. Morgan Price, their five-star recruit, was the team’s strongest performer in all four events.

5. Well-deserved flowers. The Recording Academy announced The Supremes and Slick Rick will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year’s GRAMMYs ceremony in February.

6. A sweet reunion. Cleveland Cavalier guard Donovan Mitchell reunited with a special fan. Before he was traded and played in Louisville, Josh waited for Mitchell outside the arena after every game for five years. The two got to hug again for the first time since Mitchell was traded.

7. A one stop Black-owned business shop. The D.C. area is now home to a strip mall made of entirely Black-owned businesses. When Angel Gregorio opened her new spice shop, she invited others to join her, ultimately transforming a 7,500 square foot space into a one-stop-shop for local Black-owned businesses, called Black And Forth.

8. Doctors in the making. Morgan State University is the first HBCU in 45 years to open a medical school. The new school will be in partnership with Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, and it aims to open doors in 2024.

9. Puzzle practice. Test your knowledge of the Black diaspora with Black Crossword, a free mini crossword puzzle made of terms and clues from the diaspora. New puzzles are released daily.

Play today’s puzzle here:

http://blackcrossword.com

10. Never stop exploring. Now 78, J.R. Harris hasn’t stopped exploring since 1966. He hikes mountains, goes river rafting, travels to remote villages across the globe — and he visits elementary schools to encourage kids to follow their dreams.

11. Need renovations. After years of walking past a portrait of likely enslaver Cecilus Calvert in Maryland’s Senate building in Annapolis, Sen. William C. Smith Jr. had enough. He began a project to get that painting taken down, and it was replaced by a painting of Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall, created by West Baltimore artist Ernest Shaw Jr.

12. Mayoral power. For the first time in history, four of the largest cities in the United States are being led by Black mayors. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston all have Black leaders in the mayoral office.

13. The kids are alright. National Spelling Bee champion Zaila Avant-garde won our hearts in 2021, and this year she plans to publish two children’s books. The first is a non-fiction title called “It’s Not Bragging If It’s True: How to Be Awesome in Life,” which is due May 2, and the second is a second picture book called “Words of Wonder from Z to A,” which is set for a June publication.

14. It’s time to spout off. Entrepreneur Christopher Bouzy announced the next evolution of social media, which is set to launch on the first day of Black History Month. Called Spoutible, it will be a Black-owned alternative to Twitter.

15. A shining star. Figure skater Starr Andrews, 21, became the first Black woman to medal at the U.S. nationals in 35 years. She earned fourth place — the pewter medal — and stood on the podium, flowers in hand, with the other top finishers. 

16. A future scientist. Bobbi Wilson, 9, was honored by Yale University for her efforts to eradicate the invasive spotted lanternfly species from her neighborhood. In October 2022, Bobbi was racially profiled while collecting lanternflies with a homemade repellent. The incident garnered national news attention, and Bobbi was invited to Yale to meet with other Black women scientists. 

17. The future of STEM. David Balogun, a 9-year-old in Pennsylvania, graduated high school. He loves science and computer programming, and he wants to be an astrophysicist to study black holes and supernovas.

18. In the record books. During this year’s Super Bowl, ASL interpreter Justina Miles became the first Black deaf woman to perform at the big game. She performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” with Sheryl Lee Ralph during the pre-game, and, of course, with Rihanna during the halftime show.

19. It’s all going swimmingly. The Howard University men’s swimming and diving team, the nation’s only all-Black swim team, won the Northeast Conference championship, which was the team’s first conference title in 34 years. Separately, the team was also the first from an HBCU to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. 

20. College bound! Amir Staten found out he was accepted to Morehouse College — and he couldn’t contain his excitement. His mother, Karlynne Staten, took a video of him running up and down a street in his native Philadelphia, cheering and jumping in celebration. The video quickly went viral. Congratulations, Amir!

21. Electing history. Dawanna Witt was elected as the Hennepin County sheriff, making her the first Black woman to ever hold the position. Witt campaigned on her 22 years of experience in law enforcement. 

22. Recognizing a superhero. Ruth Carter won an Oscar for costume design for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” She is the first Black woman to win multiple Oscars. Congratulations, Ruth!

23. Get reading! California’s Pasadena got its first Black-owned bookstore. Octavia’s Bookshelf opened in February 2023, and the Black- and woman-owned independent shop will highlight BIPOC authors.

24. Queen Brandy. Now 26 years after her groundbreaking performance as the first Black Cinderella, singer and actress Brandy is reprising her role. This time, though, she’ll be Queen Cinderella in the new Disney movie “Descendants: The Rise of Red.”

25. Writing history. Leroy Chapman Jr. was named editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, making him the first Black person to head the paper in its 155-year history. Congratulations, Editor Leroy!

26. 50 and counting! Atlanta-area senior Daya Brown has been accepted to more than 50 colleges, wracking up over $1.3 million in scholarships. The Westlake High School Student Body President will attend Duke University in the fall. Congratulations, Daya!

27. Proving the impossible. Two New Orleans-area teens made an “impossible” math discovery, outsmarting all mathematicians from the last 2,000 years. During a presentation at the American Mathematical Society’s Annual Southeastern Conference, high school students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson proved the Pythagorean Theorem does not require circular logic.

28. Honoring a legend. Maryland’s Bowie State University unveiled the Dionne Warwick Theater, and the namesake was in attendance for the event. It was the first performing arts venue named in her honor.   

29. Out of this world! NASA announced its group of astronauts that will head to the moon late next year, the first group to do so in 50 years — and Victor Glover, a Black naval aviator, will be in the crew. Glover will be making a return to outer space, as he previously lived on the International Space Station.

30. Put on your dancing shoes. TODAY Show anchor Sheinelle Jones rang in her 45th birthday by fulfilling a childhood dream of being a backup dancer for Janet Jackson. Jones previously dressed up as Jackson for Halloween in 2019.

31. Marvel-ous to meet you. During a trip to Disneyland, a young boy couldn’t contain his excitement when he saw Captain America, who then descended Avengers Headquarters to meet the young fan and teach him some powerful poses. 

32. Rolling in acceptances. Dennis Barnes, a New Orleans-area senior, broke U.S. records when he was accepted to 125 colleges and received more than $9 million in scholarships. Your future is bright, Dennis!

33. Books can change lives. Mahogany Bookstore, a Black owned bookstore located in Washington, D.C., donated over a 100 new books to detainees in Maryland — because “Those behind bars deserve access to books too.”

34. Missy Elliott will officially be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! The Virginia-native MC will be the first woman in rap to be included. Congrats, Missy!

35. Break out the dictionary — the new one. Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. is editing the first ever Oxford Dictionary of African American English, set to publish in March 2025. The full list of 1,000 definitions is still under wraps, but 10 entries were released, including bussin, kitchen, and pat. 

36. Game on! Tiana is a 12-year-old aspiring sports reporter. Business card in hand, the budding journalist watched a WNBA game court side with her future colleagues. Great work, Tiana!

37. Funding futures. Late philanthropist Jacqueline Avant has a new piece to her legacy: The Jacqueline Avant Children and Family Center. The Los Angeles center provides physical and mental health services to underserved youth. Thank you, Jacqueline!

38. For the culture. Want to see more Black-made and Black-featured TV shows and movies? Enter Mansa, a free-streaming service that offers a curated selection of global Black culture. Get the popcorn ready!

39. Professor Abrams. Activist, author, former gubernatorial candidate — and now professor. Stacey Abrams will join Howard University in fall 2023 as the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics. Where do we sign up?

40. Archiving history. A partnership between the HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard University will help HBCUs digitize their libraries, ultimately preserving massive African American history collections held in HBCU libraries and archives nationwide. 

41. Way to go, Alexis! Serena Williams’ daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr, is now the youngest owner of two sports teams. At just five years old, Oymipia is reportedly a part-owner of the women’s soccer team Angel City FC and The Los Angeles Golf Club.

42. If it’s Sunday… Kristen Welker, a prominent NBC News journalist, will soon be the host of the popular Sunday show “Meet the Press.” Welker will be the second woman and first Black journalist to moderate the show. Congratulations, Kristen!

43. Cemented in history. Long overdue, Tupac Shakur finally got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur accepted the star on his behalf.

44. Big moves. Maj. Gen. Janeen Birckhead became the sole Black woman National Guard leader. Maj. Gen. Birckhead is now the top military official in Maryland and was appointed by the country’s only Black governor, Wes Moore. Thank you for your service!

45. Reading hero. LeVar Burton is celebrating 40 years of Reading Rainbow. The iconic PBS show first aired in June 1983, and filmed 155 episodes across 21 seasons. Thank you, LeVar!

46. Visibility matters. The Recording Academy announced three new categories for the 66th GRAMMY Awards, and one is Best African Music Performance. We’re so excited to see, hear, and celebrate all of the nominees.

47. Something’s cookin’. Ebony magazine’s vintage test kitchen just found its new permanent home: The National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was at risk of demolition in 2018, and now museum-goers will be able to see (and almost taste) the iconic set.

48. Unvarnished history. The first International African American History Museum opened its doors in Charleston, South Carolina. The museum is built on sacred ground — Gadsden’s Wharf, where an estimated 45% of enslaved Africans entered the United States. Plan your visit soon!

49. Lifesavers. Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills football player who went into cardiac arrest during a game, presented the team’s training staff with the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the 2023 ESPYS for their life-saving actions.

50. Funding clean futures. Through her firm Public Ventures, Zoey Dash McKenzie launched a $100 million impact fund to invest in founders who want to save Black communities from climate change.

51. Better, not back. Two years after being suspended for a violation — and losing the chance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics — track star Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100-meter title at the U.S. championships. In a post-race interview, Richardson said, “I’m not back, I’m better.”

52. Record-setter. Tennis player Christopher Eubanks didn’t win at Wimbledon, but he did set a record. He hit 321 winners in a single championship, breaking a record from the 90’s. The future is bright for the 27-year-old tennis star!

53. Money moves. Sean Tresvant is now the CEO of Taco Bell, the first Black man to hold the position in the company’s 61-year history. And we can thank him for bringing back the Mexican pizza.

55. No (re)introduction needed. The Brooklyn Public Library unveiled a surprise exhibit honoring the life and legacy of Jay-Z. It features images, art, and other artifacts from throughout his life. The exhibit coincides with the ongoing celebration for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

56. GOAT behavior. In her first competition two years after withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics, Simone Biles earned first place at the Core Hydration Classic (formerly the U.S. Classic). Her score qualified her for the U.S. Championships. Welcome back, Simone!

57. Limitless. Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers are living their dreams — and breaking barriers. As members of the Virgin Galactic civilian crew heading to space, the two women will be both the first mother-daughter duo to leave the Earth’s atmosphere together and the first Caribbean astronauts in space. Turns out the sky isn’t the limit!

The post The Best Things to Happen to Black People in 2023 (So Far) appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

From pencils and notebooks to tables and chairs, low-paid teachers are shelling out big bucks for necessities their schools won’t provide.

by Maya Pottiger  August 21, 2023
Word In Black
maya.pottiger@localmedia.org

When she graduated from college, Kayla Gamble had a typical request: Money.

But Gamble, who had just earned her teaching degree, wasn’t putting the money toward a well-deserved trip or new apartment furniture or even saving it for bills. Instead, she needed it to fund her classroom. 

“You’re starting from scratch,” Gamble, a fourth-grade teacher in the Atlanta area, says. 

She started out putting the funds toward the “bare necessities,” like storage and other bigger items she’ll need year after year. But, she says, “that money goes away pretty quickly.”

“I slowly stocked up, even trying to be creative and using, basically, colored paper to decorate my room,” Gamble says. “I wasn’t necessarily going super hard trying to be like the Pinterest or Instagram teachers. I’m not spending all of my money.”

What Teachers Are Buying

So what are teachers buying for their classrooms?

For Gamble, it’s “basically everything that you see:” Tables and chairs, flexible seating (cushions and soft surfaces), and even basics like pencils, glue sticks, and cleaning supplies. Gamble says she’s spent at least $200 on Clorox wipes. 

This holds up with the experience of teachers nationwide. The most common request among teachers is basic classroom supplies, according to a 2023 DonorsChoose survey. This means things like paper, pencils, and cleaning supplies. They also request things that address students’ basic needs: Personal items like snacks, warm clothing, and hygiene products.

Teachers were least likely to report needing technology.

And, though she asks for parents to help out, Gamble works in a Title I school, which means low-income students are at least 40% of the enrollment. “Parents are more working class, so it’s a little bit harder to get them to participate, especially donating,” she says.

Kandice Taylor, an eighth-grade science teacher in Jackson, Mississippi, also works at a Title I school, but she has a different shopping list. 

Every year, Taylor has to not only purchase new lab materials with a limited shelf life, like chemicals and food materials, but also replace easily broken supplies, like ramekin cups. 

Not only does Taylor purchase all of the lab supplies her students need, she’s also had to buy tables and chairs for her classroom. Her school only provided desks for her classroom, “and I do not feel that you can do science in a desk,” Taylor says.

“Science is not something that you can do with pencil and paper, and that’s how they expect you to teach it,” Taylor says. “But that’s not the type of teacher that I am. And that’s not how you can actually learn.”

Teachers Annually Spend Hundreds on Classroom Supplies

On average, teachers spend $687 of their pocket money on classroom supplies, and the number rises to $714 for teachers of color, according to the DonorsChoose survey. And, the survey found, teachers are spending more post-pandemic. 

But Gamble and Taylor have far exceeded that heading into the 2023-2024 school year. 

Though Gamble has gotten lucky this year with internet-goers purchasing between $1,000-$2,000 worth of items off her wishlist, she’s still spent money on snacks and smaller things. And Taylor has already spent $4,200 before school even started — far exceeding her usual $3,000 due to needing to replace larger classroom items.

In terms of items on Gamble’s wishlist, people are helping out by buying necessities, like extra paper and composition notebooks.

“All those things just add up and eat away at our salary,” Gamble says.

‘We’re Just Doing Our Best to Make Sure Every Kid Has Enough’

When it comes to out-of-pocket spending, it’s about “how truly committed you are to a child’s education,” Taylor says. 

For Taylor, it’s important to get the materials to help with a student’s critical thinking, help facilitate learning with them, and help them be accountable for their own learning. 

“I believe in giving a child my best,” Taylor says. “So it’s not unusual , but it’s not a typical thing, either.”

Teachers try to do memorable things throughout the year and make sure kids feel special and seen. One of the ways Gamble shows her students she cares is by putting together birthday bags, which are filled with candies, fidget toys, and other things she knows they like. 

“A lot of my kids, their parents are immigrants, they’re working class. A lot of them don’t do a lot for their birthday,” Gamble says. “They come into class in the morning, and they have a cute little bag just for them. I feel like it’s the least I can do.”

“We’re just trying to do our best with what we have,” Gamble says, “and to make sure that every kid has enough.”

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The post Why This Teacher Spent $4,200 on Classroom Supplies appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.

By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier,
Word in Black

The memes, the reenactments, the folding chair earrings! 

In the aftermath of the ‘Alabama Brawl,’ Black America has had a lighthearted few days. Folks have been playing the Crime Mob classic “Knuck If You Buck,” making fun of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” finding out that the man who invented the folding chair — Nathaniel Alexander — is Black, and celebrating 16-year-old “Aquamayne,” the teen who swam to the rescue of the Black ship co-captain. 

The minute you saw those brothas SKIPPING along the dock toward the altercation, you already knew those White guys were going to be getting to the “find out” part of life with a quickness. 

We definitely know how to channel our trauma into comedy like no one else. By telling jokes about what happened in Montgomery, staging reenactments, laughing about how folding chairs are going to be sold out on Amazon, we process our pain — because we know what would have happened if those Black men had not come to that brotha’s rescue. He may not even be alive today. 

But at the same time that I fell out laughing over the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., being digitally altered to feature Dr. King clutching a folding chair, I found myself giving a side-eye to another byproduct of the Montgomery Mollywop:  The “I am not my ancestors” t-shirts.

I want to assume the best of the creators of these t-shirts. I want to believe that what they mean is that they’re celebrating that we are no longer enslaved people subjected to the brutality of plantations. Maybe they’re grateful we no longer exist under the yoke of Jim Crow with its “Whites only” drinking fountains and lunch counters, and they’re glad it’s not a lynchable offense for us to defend ourselves. (At least, not officially, right?)

On the other hand? Not today, Satan.

Given the enduring narratives about Black folks’ “laziness, as well as characteristics of submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness, treachery, and dishonesty,” as the Blacksonian puts it, to even jokingly give credence to the idea that we didn’t resist oppression and racial violence is both foolish and irresponsible.

Make no mistake, our ancestors did fight back, from Day One, and to even hint that they didn’t plays into White supremacist-based beliefs and attitudes. 

Seriously, have these t-shirt makers never heard of Nat Turner? Granted, even before Florida’s most recent “anti-woke” efforts, Black history hasn’t exactly been taught well in the nation’s public schools. But at the very least, most of us learned about the 1831 slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia, that resulted in as many as 65 White people being killed. 

That’s not folks sitting around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for benevolent abolitionists to decide that they deserved to be free.

Even before that, the first recorded revolt of enslaved Black people happened in 1521 on Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic. And in the American Colonies? One of the earliest recorded was the Gloucester County, Virginia, revolt in 1663. 

One of the main reasons the United States refused to diplomatically recognize Haiti after the Haitian Revolution, which ended in 1804, was the widespread fear that our ancestors – the folks being worked to death on plantations – would follow suit. 

As National Geographic wrote about the ongoing push for freedom: “Enslaved people didn’t just engage in passive resistance against slaveholders—they planned and participated in armed revolts. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, enslaved Africans and African Americans in British North America and the United States staged hundreds of revolts.”

Need a post-Emancipation “knuck if you buck” example?  

I grew up in Chicagoland, and no public school I ever attended taught me about the 1919 Race Riot, which took place from June 27 – Aug. 3. The story goes that the riot began after a White mob murdered 17-year-old Eugene Williams, a teen who floated on a raft across an invisible line in Lake Michigan to the so-called White side of the beach.

Williams’ murder was a response by White people to Black resistance. Zinn Education Project breaks down what was happening in the vicinity prior to Williams’ murder:

“When a group of Black men and women defied custom and tried to swim at the white beach on 29th Street, they were driven off by a white mob throwing rocks. They returned with larger numbers. The white mob also grew.”

Williams was unaware of what was happening. A White man on the shore began throwing rocks at him as he floated in the water. One of the rocks hit Williams on the head, and the teen drowned. 

ZEP points out that “a thousand Black Chicagoans assembled” at the beach demanding the arrest of the White man for murder. When the cops refused, “A Black man named James Crawford, opened fire on a group of police officers. Crawford was immediately shot and killed, but the crowd did not disperse and other Black individuals began to attack Whites. By nightfall, rumors of ‘race war’ in white neighborhoods were running rampant, and the rioting began.”

No one wins when 23 Black folks and 15 White folks end up dead, when hundreds of people are injured, and thousands of homes are destroyed, as was the case in Chicago. But again, our ancestors were not standing around passively, letting mobs of White folks beat on them. 

We can only hope to be our ancestors.

Black folks have a long history of fighting back in this country against racism, period.