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Top 10 Black-Owned Global Brands You Should Know in 2026

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:43:27 GMT

Across the globe, Black-owned brands are no longer operating quietly on the margins—they are building powerful identities, shaping consumer culture, and redefining excellence in industries ranging from fashion and beauty to home goods and publishing. What makes today’s Black-owned global brands especially compelling is not only their creativity and quality, but their intentional storytelling, cultural authenticity, and commitment to community empowerment. As more consumers seek ethical brands with purpose, Black entrepreneurs are stepping into global markets with confidence, innovation, and vision. This list highlights ten Black-owned global brands you should absolutely know—brands that are proving that Black ownership, global reach, and premium quality are not mutually exclusive but deeply interconnected.

D’IYANU - Fashion Rooted in African Excellence

D’IYANU has emerged as one of the most recognizable Black-owned fashion brands globally, blending contemporary silhouettes with bold African-inspired prints. Known for its striking dresses, stylish tops, and vibrant swimwear, D’IYANU celebrates African heritage while appealing to modern, fashion-forward consumers worldwide. The brand’s success lies in its ability to make traditional patterns wearable for everyday life without diluting their cultural significance. D’IYANU’s collections are frequently seen on global runways, social media influencers, and professionals who want to make a statement through fashion. By producing clothing that is both expressive and accessible, D’IYANU demonstrates how Black-owned fashion brands can honor tradition while competing confidently in the global apparel market. Check out their website

AXUM STORE - Style Meets Heritage

AXUM STORE offers a unique blend of fashion and heritage through its watches, sweatshirts, and polo shirts. Inspired by history and designed for modern lifestyles, this Black-owned brand positions itself at the intersection of identity and sophistication. AXUM STORE’s products appeal to consumers who appreciate subtle branding, quality craftsmanship, and cultural depth. By offering versatile pieces suitable for both casual and professional settings, AXUM STORE showcases how Black-owned brands can compete in global fashion markets without sacrificing authenticity. Check out their website

URBAN HYDRATION - Skincare That Works

URBAN HYDRATION is a globally recognized Black-owned skincare brand offering face washes, night creams, and facial cleansers formulated to deliver real results. Built on the belief that hydration is foundational to healthy skin, the brand emphasizes science-backed ingredients and inclusive skincare solutions. URBAN HYDRATION’s products are designed to address common skin concerns without harsh chemicals, making them accessible and effective for diverse skin types. The brand’s growing international presence reflects the increasing demand for Black-owned beauty brands that combine performance, affordability, and integrity. Check out their website

LOLA ADE - Jewelry That Tells a Story

LOLA ADE is a Black-owned jewelry brand that seamlessly fuses elegance, heritage, and craftsmanship. Specializing in rings, earrings, and necklaces, the brand is known for its refined designs that elevate everyday wear while remaining deeply rooted in African aesthetics. Each piece feels intentional—designed not just as an accessory but as a form of self-expression. LOLA ADE stands out for its commitment to quality materials, timeless styling, and cultural storytelling, making it a favorite among professionals and creatives alike. In a global jewelry market often dominated by mass production, LOLA ADE proves that artisanal excellence and cultural pride can command international respect and demand. Check out their website

MAKEBA - Clean Beauty with Purpose

MAKEBA represents the future of Black-owned beauty brands—clean, conscious, and community-driven. Offering soaps, body scrubs, and facial cleansers, MAKEBA focuses on natural ingredients that nourish the skin while respecting the environment. The brand’s philosophy is rooted in self-care as an act of empowerment, particularly for communities that have historically been overlooked by the mainstream beauty industry. MAKEBA’s formulations prioritize gentle effectiveness, making them suitable for a wide range of skin types. As global demand for clean beauty continues to rise, MAKEBA stands as a powerful example of how Black-owned brands are leading innovation in wellness and personal care. Check out their website

CHIEF’S CULTURE - Streetwear with Identity

LCHIEF’S CULTURE is more than a clothing brand—it is a statement of pride, leadership, and cultural confidence. Known for its tees, hoodies, and swimwear, the brand merges streetwear aesthetics with Afrocentric symbolism. CHIEF’S CULTURE appeals to a global audience that values fashion as a form of identity and expression. Each collection reflects strength, heritage, and modern Black excellence, resonating especially with younger consumers who want their clothing to carry meaning. By positioning itself at the intersection of culture and style, CHIEF’S CULTURE demonstrates how Black-owned streetwear brands can compete globally while staying authentically rooted. Check out their website

THE TRUE PRODUCTS - Redefining Everyday Essentials

THE TRUE PRODUCTS is changing how consumers think about household essentials, starting with its high-performance laundry liquid detergent. This Black-owned brand focuses on transparency, sustainability, and effectiveness—values increasingly important to modern consumers. THE TRUE PRODUCTS stands out by offering clean formulations without unnecessary additives, appealing to families and environmentally conscious households worldwide. In an industry dominated by legacy corporations, this brand proves that Black-owned companies can disrupt even the most established markets by prioritizing trust and innovation. THE TRUE PRODUCTS is a reminder that global impact does not require flashy products—sometimes it starts with doing everyday things better. Check out their website

MAHOGANY BOOKS - Amplifying Black Voices

MAHOGANY BOOKS is a Black-owned bookstore and publishing platform dedicated to amplifying Black voices across fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. In an era where representation matters more than ever, MAHOGANY BOOKS plays a crucial role in shaping cultural narratives and supporting Black authors. The brand has grown beyond a traditional bookstore into a cultural institution that fosters education, dialogue, and community engagement. By making Black stories accessible globally, MAHOGANY BOOKS reinforces the power of ownership in media and storytelling. Check out their website

REFLEKTION DESIGN - Art for Everyday Living

REFLEKTION DESIGN brings African art into everyday spaces through beautifully crafted pillow covers, coasters, and home accessories. This Black-owned brand merges functionality with artistic expression, allowing consumers to incorporate culture into their living environments. REFLEKTION DESIGN’s products are not just décor—they are conversation pieces that reflect history, creativity, and identity. As global consumers increasingly seek meaningful home design, REFLEKTION DESIGN demonstrates how Black-owned brands can lead in cultural interior aesthetics. Check out their website

BÈL FLAME CANDLES - Luxury Home Fragrance

BÈL FLAME CANDLES has carved out a niche in the luxury home décor and fragrance market with its elegant candles and refined room sprays. This Black-owned brand emphasizes craftsmanship, mood, and atmosphere, offering products that transform spaces into experiences. Each candle is thoughtfully designed to balance aesthetics and scent performance, making them popular among consumers who appreciate understated luxury. BÈL FLAME CANDLES reflects a broader trend of Black-owned brands entering premium lifestyle markets and redefining what luxury looks and feels like. Check out their website

Why These Brands Matter Globally

What unites these ten Black-owned global brands is not just ownership, but intention. Each brand reflects a commitment to quality, cultural integrity, and economic empowerment. They challenge outdated narratives about Black entrepreneurship by proving that Black-owned businesses can scale, innovate, and lead internationally. Supporting these brands is not merely an act of solidarity—it is an investment in a more inclusive global economy where creativity and ownership are shared more equitably.

The Future Is Black-Owned and Global

The rise of Black-owned global brands signals a powerful shift in consumer consciousness and economic participation. As more people seek brands with values, stories, and purpose, Black entrepreneurs are uniquely positioned to meet that demand. The ten brands highlighted here are just a snapshot of a much larger movement—one rooted in resilience, innovation, and vision. By supporting and amplifying Black-owned businesses, consumers and communities alike help build a future where Black excellence is not the exception, but the global standard.

Celebrate Black History Beyond Black History Month

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 18:05:55 GMT

It’s the end of February, which means it’s the end of Black History Month. Just as a reminder, we should celebrate and promote the Black history beyond the month of February and we should build it every day and every week. We’ll show you today some t-shirts with beautiful and powerful messages that you can wear anytime you want to teach a lesson or make a statement.

THE BLACK UNIVERSITY ’s Black Matter t-shirt summarizes everything, in case your mind is playing tricks on you. Black families matter. Black children matter. Black history matter. Black businesses matter. Black lives matter. Black votes matter. Black You matter. Your existence matters. YOU make a difference! The tee is 100% cotton and unisex and you can have it for $25. You can get a 10% discount using code ABW10 at checkout.

Black Leaders t-shirt from BLACK PRIDE TEES celebrates the Black historical leaders. Featuring popular African-American leaders and what they are known for, this shirt is perfect for any occasion and a great conversation starter. It’s unisex, 100% cotton and you can find it in white as well. It can be yours for $25.99 but you can get a 10% discount using code ABW10 at checkout.

Black History Shirt from MY BLACK CLOTHING speaks volumes of African Americans that have had an impact on Black history. It breaks down, in chronological order, pivotal achievements by African American men and women in history. It shows a humorous and clever way to tell and summarize Black history in a few short words. It's made of a thicker, heavier cotton, but it's still soft and comfy. The price is $25.59, but it’s on sale right now.

As you can see, these t-shirts are to wear when you want to make a statement. They are not for everybody! The clear and powerful messages will surely attract the attention of the crowd. The three Black-owned apparel brands showcased today have so much more to offer, so definitely will talk about them again.

Y ou can buy these products directly on AfroBiz Marketplace USA which is the fastest growing Black-owned marketplace in the United States. Just try it!

Black Excellence is a Mindset, Not Just a Hashtag

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 00:38:10 GMT

The phrase Black Excellence has been around for quite some time, but what does it really mean? Urban Dictionary defines Black excellence as: “Someone that is Black and portrays great qualities and abilities that make the Black community proud.” Some have argued the term is used too much to praise those that are at the top of the financial structure in the Black community or those that follow only a certain lifestyle that the general society would deem excellent.

I didn’t know exactly what black excellence meant to me. I just knew that it was something that involved Black people doing great things for the community. In a search of a more concrete definition, I revised everything I affiliated with the phrase. And it finally hit me.

The Black Excellence Mindset

Black excellence is the mindset, backed by continuous action, to look within ourselves and act in ways that progress our communities without discrediting the effect of forces outside of our communities. That’s the best way I can describe it.

In other words, Black excellence is the audacity to look at the place where hundreds of years of being exploited and abused, on both the mother land and beyond, has brought us and say we can rise and prosper. Of course, the self-help idea is not new to the Black community (Black Wall Street and Black Panthers are prime examples). It has been believed in and practiced for as long as we have existed. It is just time to bring it to a whole new level.

Notice I didn’t use the word responsibility. I know the infuriating power the word has when used to discuss the state of Black people in America and globally. I am neither foolish nor ignorant to what slavery and European colonization has done and how it continues to affect our communities. But looking within our communities to find a solution to our problems can happen while still acknowledging how our history and the system affects our present and future.

It’s up to us!

We can no longer wait for “them” to fix it for us. It doesn’t matter who caused it, we are the ones who have to live with the effect. We can rebuild our own neighborhoods and keep them clean. We can redefine a notion of beauty that had us hating our faces and bodies for centuries.

Let us open up businesses. Let’s set aside flashiness and build wealth, because one lets you shine for a night and the other for decades. We can go out and vote for causes that advance our interest. If we don’t, who will do it for us?

That is why we often feature people we believe are following up the hashtag Black excellence with action to advance our communities by looking within to find solutions. Chance the Rapper donating money to the Chicago school system. Jay Z preaching about the importance of spending your money on things that build wealth. Akon providing electricity to communities in Africa. Black women embracing their natural beauty and hair. Black Lives Matter taking a stand for all of us. Entrepreneurs creating businesses that stand to benefit themselves and the community. These are all great examples of Black excellence. Or should we say #BlackExcellence.

Black excellence is an acknowledgement that we need to find smart ways to constantly lift ourselves up, until we are out of a place that has put us at a disadvantage for hundreds of years. It’s up to us to put an end to it.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/1lcs30pZrQb

Last Minute Valentine's Day Gifts for Couples

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 01:05:51 GMT

Aha! You forgot about Valentine’s Day AGAIN?? Wow!! Unbelievable!! But with a little help from us, you can still make it. We’ll take a look at some gifts that are for couples, not just for her or for him. We’ll talk about that in a different article. You and your significant other can enjoy these together on Valentine’s Day and after that. We like practical gifts. Needless to say, they are from Black-owned companies. So let’s check them out!

CORNELIA HOME created Serenity candle with natural coconut wax, unique fragrance and essential oil blends for a clean burn. They use crackling wooden wicks to give you an eco-friendly wood burning experience. It radiates positive vibes, creating a happy moment in a Black couple’s life. It is free of phthalates, parabens, petroleum and dyes. The price starts is $34. Get a 10% discount using code ABW10 at checkout.

The Ultimate Gift Basket from CARIBBREW is definitely a gift for coffee lovers. It includes 3 coffee bags (medium and dark roasts and the Caribbean spiced) and a delicious chocolate mix. It also contains a coconut rum coffee body scrub and a mango mandarin facial scrub, infused with raw Haitian coffee beans and mango essential oil, both rich in antioxidants. It’s on sale now for $75 and you can get a 10% discount using code ABW10 at checkout.

The cute Heart-Shaped Teacups from CUP OF TÉ are perfect for your organic teas! The set includes two teacups that are double-walled and insulated, so you can enjoy both hot and cold brews with ease! Not to mention the beautiful and unique inner heart shape! Awwww… If that is not romantic, I don’t know what to say… The price is $29.99 and you can get a 15% discount using code ABW15 at checkout.

In conclusion, it's still your decision if you want to offer a gift to your partner (hopefully you discussed that before to avoid unpleasant surprises). But when you think about it, a gift is a gift. Who doesn't like to receive something from time to time? And the fact that our suggestions are beneficial to both of you, makes it even more fair. Plus, a small Black-owned business is supported and a Black business owner does a little happy dance because of your decision. :)

You can buy these products directly on AfroBiz Marketplace USA which is the fastest growing Black-owned marketplace in the United States. Just try it!

Protect Your Hair with These Head Wraps from 3 Black-Owned Brands

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 04:14:50 GMT

Today it’s about our hair and how to protect the Black hair during these cold winter days while still being fashionable. We’ll talk about three Black-owned brands that offer gorgeous head wraps, turbans, hats and other accessories to cover our hair. They have matching bags or matching masks. Your choice. How amazing is that?

AFRICA ON MY BACK offers Aztec Vibes Boho Slouch Bag + Headwrap that’s vibrant, colorful and assembled in an abstract way. The head wrap adds another layer of sophistication and flair to any wardrobe whether you're hanging out with friends, going to an outdoor concert or date night. The matching bag is made from African textiles by artisans in Ghana, West Africa. It's perfect to be used as a handbag, shopping/market bag or beach bag. The price is $68 for the head wrap and the slouch bag.

Nala Print Turban from GRACE ELEYAE has vibrant Ankara prints paired with a ready-to-wear wrapped look and the protective elements of a bonnet (satin-lining). It allows you to achieve the traditional wrapped look without all the effort. The hidden adjustable drawstrings allow you to tighten and loosen for the perfect fit. The ruched back offers even more stretch for larger hairstyles and hair types. Each turban print is unique, cut from one big piece of fabric but with variations in each head wrap. You can have it for $50.

Queen's Crown from ANEWOW is a colorful and trendy high quality satin-lined head scarf that protects your hair from cold, dust and other harmful things. It is a pre-wrapped head wrap so you don’t have to do the hard work. Just wear it and you are ready to go! It has an elastic cap or elastic edge that makes it easy to be fixed on your head, giving you multiple choices to drape it in a manner that suits all your styles. Every single head wrap is handmade. Each piece is as unique as you, an original work of art! You can get the head wrap and a matching face mask for $18.99.

Head wraps can be worn by everyone, not just by Black women. Historically speaking, they were used by both men and women in different cultures. Get your perfect head wrap and a matching bag or face cover. Take care of your hair while supporting a Black-owned business!

You can buy these products directly on AfroBiz Marketplace USA which is the fastest growing Black-owned marketplace in the United States. Just try it!

Have Some Tea! 3 Black-Owned Tea Companies You Should Try

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 22:40:25 GMT

Baby, it’s COLD outside!! Whether you are in North America or Europe, it’s cold, there’s a lot of snow, there’s a lot of wind and we’ll stop right here ‘cause this is not the Weather Channel! We said it would be very thoughtful to help you stay warm. So… have a hot tea from one of these Black-owned tea companies! It’s on us! :)

NAJA TEA gives you Release - Your Tea for Stress Release . It is a calming blend of rooibos, lemongrass, hibiscus, chamomile, blackberry leaf, licorice root, peppermint, fennel seed, lavender, calendula, cornflower. It will melt your stress away with every sip. Chamomile is among the most well-known stress-soothing flowers. The aroma of peppermint oil has been studied for its deep relaxation for the body and mind and has been known to help reduce migraines. Fennel can relax your muscles, including your digestive muscles. Lavender helps quiet the brain and nervous system activity, reducing agitation, anger, aggression and restlessness. Each box contains 7.5 oz and it’s $16.

One of the teas that HERBAL GOODNESS offers is the Guava Tea , which supports restful sleep, promotes balanced blood sugar and maintains healthy hair regrowth. It is amazingly rich in antioxidants, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. It’s made with 100% organic guava leaves, it’s caffeine-free, cholesterol-free, sugar-free, fat-free and sodium-free. With every box sold, 10% of the profit goes to WAAW Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps educate and empower young girls in Africa and train them to become leaders to contribute to technology, education and economic growth. Each box contains 24 tea bags and it’s $12.95.

With CUP OF TÉ you can take your favorite Peppermint Tea with you everywhere thanks to the biodegradable pyramid tea bags! Cool and refreshing with an unmistakable aroma best describes this herbal favorite. It’s made with organic peppermint leaves and organic spearmint leaves. Naturally caffeine-free, peppermint is known to offer many natural remedies, including calming your stomach and helping you to relax. We just think it’s delicious! One dollar from each Starter Kit goes towards mental health awareness. Each box contains 14 individually wrapped tea bags and it’s $18. Get a 15% discount using code ABW15 at checkout.

You can drink tea to warm up, or socially when your friends visit you, or to support your health, or even better to support these Black-owned businesses. Each reason is perfectly fine. And remember that whatever you’re going through… there’s a tea for that.

You can buy these products directly on AfroBiz Marketplace USA which is the fastest growing Black-owned marketplace in the United States. Just try it!

3 Black-Owned Hoodies To Keep You Warm This Winter

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 02:01:48 GMT

It’s almost mid-January and it's definitely colder than in previous years. Thousands of flights were canceled because of the bad weather, people were waiting in the airports just to find out that their sunny vacation was postponed. I’m sure it happened to you when heading to a hot Caribbean destination to be dressed as if you were there already, despite the cold weather in your city. Here are three American Black-owned clothing brands that offer some good old tracksuits that can keep you warm until you get to your destination.

YOUNG BLACK GENIUS was created to inspire and motivate young Black people to look at themselves beyond what they see on TV and the streets. And whether you're an actor, athlete, doctor, entertainer or anything in between, you are a genius! Power To The People Hoodie has a design created for quality and com fort. Everyone needs a cozy go-to hoodie to curl up in, so go for one that's soft, smooth, and stylish. It's the perfect choice for cooler evenings! You can re present the culture in only one way and that's in style. Get a 15% discount when you use the code ABW at checkout!

BLACK PRIDE TEES is an apparel brand that celebrates Black culture, history and well, everything Black. Through fashion, they want Black people to feel empowered and be proud of who they are. They believe that in order to stand out, you must speak out and they intend to communicate that through their clothing. Nah, Nope, Not Today Hoodie is a unisex hoodie sending a clear and loud message that no matter how they ask, the answer is still no. Show off all your favorite ways to say no and let this hoodie say it for you. Get a 10% discount when you use the code ABW10 at checkout!

TRIBE APPAREL was created based on the belief that everyone has a ‘Tribe’, whether you connect with them for a season or a lifetime. At the core of each ‘Tribe’, you will find determined individuals who love their family and friends. These individuals understand the power of community building. Because they value the texture and the quality, their Men's Cultivator Zip Hoodie is an iconic hoodie sweatshirt easy to wear, easy to style, and still keeping with your organic aesthetics. high quality embroidery is made with 100% cotton. What are you Unashamed of?

Some of these fashionable pro-Black hoodies are on sale right now and you can get an additional discount using our discount code. They keep you warm, they are very comfortable and their designs definitely reflect the Black culture sending positive messages. If you don’t need a hoodie, these Black-owned brands also offer tracksuits, t-shirts or hats, so the decision is yours!

You can also buy these products directly on AfroBiz Marketplace USA which is the fastest growing Black-owned marketplace in the United States. Including an AfroBiz Hoodie ! Just try it!

AfroBiz Marketplace : Shop Black Owned Face Mask Brands & PPE products

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 02:04:46 GMT

Black Culture Fashion trends regardless of Black History Month. One way to support Black businesses is to shop & refer a Black-owned business. AfroBiz Marketplace features African inspired design by Black-owned face mask brands and personal protection equipment (PPE) essentials .

The month of February marks the celebration of Black History Month. For many, every day is a Black History Day to advocate, live and prosper despite the odds of every day life in America.

The trending hashtag in February 2021 Black Futures Month presents itself as a statement by many who embraced the past and are optimistic of the future and progress in the Black community.

Local businesses and small businesses are the heart of community. When a Black-owned business thrives, it enables the community to thrive in many ways.

Fortunately, AfroBiz Marketplace was formed to enable a sustainable ecosystem of Black-owned businesses to be discovered and market their products or services.

There are many categories of products and services, along with its global presence servicing Black-owned businesses all over the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and France.

Here are Black-owned face mask brands featured on AfroBiz Marketplace with amazing African print designs and pandemic readiness products to keep safe and ready for Spring 2021:

C HIEF'S CULTURE

When you are looking for a fashion gift this Valentine's day or a one-stop shopping experience, Chief's Culture has something for men, women and children.

This Black-owned and operated fashion brand is a celebration of the African diaspora. They have essential products like protective face masks, as well as sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets and graphics tees.

You can find masks on Chief's Culture website.

REFLEKTION DESIGN

Reflektion Design began in 2006 in Ghana and their philosophy is that your home is the ultimate canvas for self-expression. From the lighting fixtures to wall color items in your home should reflect who you are, spark memories of past adventures, inspire new ones and be the ultimate statement of your style.

Discover African art, Ankara fabrics, accessories, baskets and also African-inspired face mask in their online store.

DR. SHORTEE'S

Dr. Shortee’s is the family of products developed to help those who suffer from traumatized skin to find relief and comfort with an affordable, all-natural product. So their goal is to be the place you trust to provide your skin needs that won’t burn or further dry your skin.

Let them protect you with their 3-ply masks and KN95 masks. Keep your eyes smiling and let your mask do the rest! :)

Do you love to support Black-owned companies?

Join the revolution and become an Affiliate with AfroBiz. The exciting news is that businesses can also start their own affiliate program , join a network of Black-owned business advertisers and be featured in our global marketplace. This is a triple win model for the businesses, the community and the website to keep the directory free for Black businesses.

Share your feedback or thoughts in the comments below or on social media with hashtag AfroBizWorld

Black Genius is Black Youth empowered by Ashoka ChangeMaker

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 04:54:01 GMT

William Jackson is a Black leader, educator and Founder of Village of Wisdom, an organization with the vision asking the question which drove his purpose “What if the 7.5 million Black youth in American schools were exposed to the affirmation of their Black Genius?”

Across the U.S., school is in full swing — whether it’s happening via classrooms or computers. What are we learning in this moment? And what’s the bigger opportunity to rethink school and how children grow up? In this conversation, four Ashoka Fellows — whose innovations reach millions of American students — reflect on what’s working and what’s next. They are:

Jill Vialet, founder of Playworks and Substantial, in conversation with: Kara Bobroff, founder of Native American Community Academy and NACA Inspired Schools Network in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Will Jackson, founder of Village of Wisdom in Durham, North Carolina; and Dana Mortenson, co-founder of World Savvy in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Here are a few highlights:

Nurturing Black genius

Will Jackson supports Black parents to protect and affirm their child’s Black genius and champion racial equity in schools. Will responds to an audience question: How should a 15 year old in your community think about the next 10 years of her life? What narratives should our society support?

Schools co-created with communities

Navajo/Lakota educator Kara Bobroff shares how her community came together 15 years ago to set up a new kind of school — with well being, community engagement, and Indigenous language and culture at its core. In this moment, what can this Native American school network teach us all?

Interrogate the inertia in education

Dana Mortenson started World Savvy to foster a culture of global citizenship, creative problem-solving, and student changemaking in schools across the country. Dana shares on the moment of “multiple pandemics” — and the opportunity for systemic change. for young ChangeMakers to emerge in youth for a better world.

"Black genius is being able to create new systems of equity and justice or the ability to dismantle systems of oppression. So, I hope our kids grow up with people protecting their Black genius and their ability to do those things."

- Will Jackson, Founder of Village of Wisdom

The next chapter of American life

Jill Vialet created two organizations that partner with thousands of schools across the country: Playworks focused on the power of play (see their new playbook, click below), and Substantial, focused on redesigning the substitute teaching experience. As conversation host, Jill closed by asking her fellow Ashoka Fellows their wish for young people, to which Will Jackson responded the vision for Black Genius and a better world.

Welcome Change is a new web series (link below), powered by Ashoka, where we hear from leading social entrepreneurs about what works, what’s next, and why they’re hopeful. Find videos of this interview on Medium and other platforms.

Source: https://bit.ly/35ot9N0

5 Best Practices to Guard Computer Security for Remote Workers

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 16:49:13 GMT

Scammers show up everywhere and being vigilant with device security is a priority with remote work life and for parents who home school their children during the pandemic. Secure and guard your data.

Keeping your machine secure during these times is critical! Many companies are asking their workers to work remotely. Entrepreneurs also have to think about the security of their business and clients' information. Working remotely can introduce a few new security concerns, especially for people who aren’t accustomed to working away from the office or starting a business at home.

Here are some tips on how you can work from home (WFH) more securely.

1. Make Sure Your WiFi is Secure

Only use encrypted Wi-Fi for business. Wi-Fi encrypted with WPA-2 is more secure than Wi-Fi that is open for all to access. You can contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to determine how secure your home network is. All home routers support encryption.

2. Lock Your Device When Not in Use

When you have to walk away from your device to go to the kitchen or bathroom, lock your device to prevent others from seeing what you’re working on. Press Windows logo key + L on a Windows device, or Control + Command + Q on a Mac, to quickly lock your screen. When you return, you’ll have to do a quick sign-in, and everything should be right where you left it.

3. Keep Your Data Secure

Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access any cloud-based resources. MFA utilizes multiple “factors” such as a PIN sent to your mobile device and a password; MFA makes it much harder for others to sign in as you. Most online services, like banks or social networks, also support MFA. You should enable it on those services too.

Now is also a good time to think about the passwords you use. Length is more important than complexity, but both are important. Ideally, your password should be at least 12 characters long. Consider using a phrase like a favorite song lyric, movie quote, or poem to create a password that’s long and complex but easy to remember.

4. Updates, updates, updates!

Make sure your device is up-to-date on updates. Quite often, Windows or MacOS updates include security patches that help improve the security of your device.

5. Be Mindful of Phishing Rods

Be alert for phishing emails. People try to take advantage of fear and uncertainty by sending email that appears to be from authorities, or company officers, in an attempt to lure you into clicking on malicious links, or providing your private information.

Never click an attachment you weren’t expecting, even when it appears to be from somebody you know. Always best to check back with that person to make sure the attachment is legitimate before you open it.

Should you get an email asking you to sign into a site, open a new tab in your browser and type the URL in yourself (or access it via a trusted bookmark) rather than clicking a link in the email.

Should you have any issues, visit KD Computer repair and "Request Support" for assistance.

Source: https://bit.ly/3mx7Uk5

When will police brutality end? No justice yet for Breonna Taylor

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 03:37:11 GMT

When will we see justice for Breonna Taylor? Is there really a solution to this problem? Defunding the police and taking the bad cops out of the police force is part of the solution to end police brutality. Is the justice system ready to finally do something about the injustices black people face?

Children are back to school amidst a pandemic, the Democratic party has selected a Black woman, Kamala Harris for Vice President, Black Lives Matters protests are erupting all over the country, celebrities like Alicia Keys, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey have amplified their voices for Breonna Taylor, yet little has been done.

Breonna Taylor was an ambitious young Black emergency medical technician. She aspired to achieve her goals to become a nurse and own a property, her dreams were suddenly crushed by police brutality in a raid gone totally wrong. Breonna's killers invaded her home and shot an array of bullets into the room where Breonna was in. She was killed by police even though she posed no threat and was unarmed.

So it's been over FIVE months since Breonna Taylor was murdered. Her mother, Tamika Palmer, continues to grief the loss of her daughter while she exemplified strength and patience for the unclear path ahead. Palmer met with the First Black Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, for what is presumed as the first meeting since the incident. Palmer was left with hope that justice for Breonna will be served with a vague timeline of when that will happen.

In a press conference, Palmer stated: "It's bigger than Breonna. It's bigger than just Black lives. It's about bridging the gaps between us and the police. It's about bringing back the communities. It's about just being able to stand up for each other. And there definitely shouldn't be another Breonna Taylor."

Palmer's message to the community was: "You can't get discouraged about the police still trying to do these things to discourage the community. At this point, we got to figure out how to fix this and how to heal from here."

No charges have been laid on the officers involved in the incident, police reports were said to have been recorded incorrectly and the denial to revoke bond for one officer displays the picture of the reality for Black people in the United States. These ongoing injustices do really make you wonder if Black lives matter.

On the weekend of August 15th, 2020, across many cities in the United States, protesters chanted "Say Her Name" and awareness walks took place to keep the voices amplified in demanding equality for Breonna Taylor, not only an innocent victim killed in her domain, but also the lack of integrity in the police system to apply the law and protect citizens' rights equally.

Justice for Breonna Taylor is one of many examples of neglected cases of innocent killings with little to no consequences for the police officers involved. The pattern has not ceased and the community which continues to stand are now reviving the voices for those who lost them. Black Americans are encouraged to sign petitions, contact local political representatives and vote in November 2020.

The end of the Black Wall Street

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:43:32 GMT

June 1st, 1921 will forever be remembered as a day of great loss and devastation. It was on this day that America experienced the deadliest race riot in the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Almost 100 years later, that neighborhood is still recognized as one of the most prosperous African American towns to date. With hundreds of successful black-owned businesses lining Greenwood Avenue, it became a standard that African Americans are still trying to rebuild. The attack that took place in 1921 tore the community apart, claiming hundreds of lives and sending the once prosperous neighborhood up in smoke.

In the early 1900s, Tulsa, Oklahoma experienced a major oil boom, attracting thousands. Many African Americans migrated from southern states hoping to escape the harsh racial tensions while profiting off of the oil industry. Yet even in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jim Crow laws were at large, causing the town to be vastly segregated with most African Americans settling in the northern section of the town. From that segregation grew a black entrepreneurial mecca that would affectionately be called “Black Wall Street”. The town was established in 1906 by entrepreneur O.W. Gurley, and by 1921 there were over 11,000 residents and hundreds of prosperous businesses, all owned and operated by black Tulsans and patronized by both whites and blacks.

One of the most prominent entrepreneurs was Lola T. Williams who owned The Dreamland Theatre and a small chain across Oklahoma. The theater seated close to 1,000 people for live musicals, films and more. This was only one of four theaters in the area. Not too far from Mrs. Williams’ theater was the Stradford Hotel on Greenwood Avenue. Owned by J.B. Stradford, it was one of the largest and most successful black-owned hotels at the time. Prior to opening the hotel, Stratford bought large tracts of land in Tulsa and sold them exclusively to blacks, subscribing to the belief that they had the best chance at economic success by pooling their resources and supporting one another’s businesses.

Greenwood flourished and became a symbol of black wealth, pride, and unity. At its height, the business center boasted of various grocery stores, nightclubs, drug stores, churches, funeral homes, restaurants, banks, hotels, and the likes. The community was completely self-sufficient and became the home of many black multimillionaire entrepreneurs. With this growth and success came envy from white Tulsans. Many of the businesses in Greenwood (which they referred to as “Little Africa”) were more prosperous than those in the white community. Racial and economic tensions soon came to a boil in May of 1921.

On May 30th, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old shoe shiner at a Main Street parlor took the elevator at nearby building to use the restroom. At the time, the white elevator operator on duty was 17-year-old Sarah Page.

What happened while the two were in the elevator remains unclear, yet it resulted in Page accusing Rowland of sexual assault. Although she never pressed charges, the damage was done. The story made the front page of the Tulsa Tribune with the headline “Nab Negro for attacking girl in elevator”, while rumors began circulating that a white lynch mob was searching for Rowland.

The incident further divided the town with one side believing Rowland raped Page and the other holding on to the belief that he simply tripped as he got onto the elevator and grabbed onto Page’s arm as he tried to catch his balance. Hundreds began to gather outside of the county jail that held Rowland. First, a group of armed whites, followed by a group of armed black men fearful of Rowland’s safety and determined to protect him.

What ensued was one of the most devastating riots in American history. An event that can only be characterized as terrorism.

Before dawn, a mob of angry white men stormed into Greenwood armed with guns, some provided by local officers who also participated in the riot. Hundreds of businesses and homes were ransacked and set afire. Black men, some who served in World War I, rallied together and armed themselves, ready to fight for their families and community. Whites indiscriminately shot and killed men, women, and children on foot and by car. As the number of casualties on both sides escalated, airplanes used in World War I were dispatched, firing rifles at residents and dropping fire bombs on the black community.

Outnumbered and outgunned, the riot grew worse for black Tulsans. Countless families began to flee after being trapped between rampant flames and gunfire. By the end of the attack, close to 300 blacks were murdered, while many others were left injured, homeless and held in internment camps by local law enforcement. By 1942, remaining black Tulsans rebuilt Greenwood without any assistance from the state and saw a resurgence of over 240 businesses.

The story of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street remains one of the most inspirational and devastating parts of our history, yet it is still unknown by many. If you would like to learn more about the Tulsa race riots, you can check out:

Riot and Remembrance: America’s Worst Race Riot and Its Legacy by James Hirsch

The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Tim Madigan

Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District by Hannibal Johnson

Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Scott Ellsworth & John Hope Franklin

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/uQur30pGmWp

How to Heal from Grief Impacted by Racism in 8 Ways

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:16:38 GMT

The cyclical realities of the impact of racism, anti-Black racism and other forms of intersectional violence on our health make breathing seem like a luxury at times. The full blunt impact of racism and other forms of violence echoes heavily in our hearts, our minds, bodies and actions.

Grief is a direct result of racism and intersectional violence and it affects us physically, emotionally,

financially, spiritually, trans-nationally and trans-generationally. More importantly, not being able to fully engage in our grief is a direct outcome of chronic experiences of racist violence.

Two winters ago, the grandmother of the deceased Colten Boushie told the New York Times: “Even to this day…I hold back on crying.”

Insoluble grief, anti-Black racism and other forms of violence that Black, Indigenous and racialized people deal with can result in chronic prolonged traumatic health issues. These issues can include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack, cancer and low birth rates.

Due to anti-Black racism, Black communities’ health issues are often not taken seriously. As a result we are not given adequate and equitable health care services. Often Black community members are re-traumatized as they seek help and support for their health issues.

The cyclical realities of the impact of racism, anti-Black racism and other forms of intersectional violence on our health make breathing seem like a luxury at times. The full blunt impact of racism and other forms of violence echoes heavily in our hearts, our minds, bodies and actions.

Our illnesses are under-researched and under-served. In order to deal with this stress, some opt out of the system entirely, only re-entering during an emergency situation.

Impacts of daily experiences of racism also include depression, anxiety, addictions and post-traumatic stress. But racism is often not discussed in mainstream health circles.

Anti-oppression psychotherapy: A trauma informed model :

As an African/Black woman, anti-violence activist, health researcher, and mental health practitioner, living with a visual disability for over 20 years, I have worked with many community members dealing with health struggles directly related to anti-Black racism and other forms of intersectional violence.

I have discovered that discussions of the daily impact of racism are happening with friends, families, trusted coworkers, in our journals and sometimes in isolation.

To try and help my clients deal with this, I worked with a colleague to develop and practice an innovative model we call anti-oppression psychotherapy (AOP).

AOP addresses the delusion and confusion of trauma in the bodies and minds of the oppressed. It is a resistance and a revolutionary model that grows out of Black feminist and intersectional theories and practices.

AOP examines the impacts and intersections of oppression as they interact together. It interprets issues of racism as acts of trauma and violence to our health and it incorporates resistance strategies and healthy coping mechanisms — to help community members and clients through grief, loss and identity formation.

This model exists because the erasure of our grief, our loss, needs to be known, attended to, cared for and supported — to survive continuous violence, battled daily from generation to generation.

Self and community care is critical to combating the effects of racism and intersectional violence. AOP addresses racism as a health determinant and gives the power to heal back to the communities who are suffering.

How to support your own healing :

Below are eight self-care tips to support you and your loved ones on this cyclical healing journey:

1. Build safe spaces.

Engage in safe spaces within community, and/or individually — to allow the impact of anti-Black racism and other intersectional violence on your health to be voiced, witnessed, unpacked and reconfigured away from the outside “gaze.” This is critical to the healing process. Keeping trauma in your body stresses your physiological and mental health.

2. Make an ongoing healing plan

Understand that healing is cyclical and make a plan for when you experience violence again. Healing is flexible, political and deserved. If you need help, seek community members and professionals who practice from an
intersectional and anti-oppression approach.

3. Create alone time.

Connect spiritually or environmentally (these could be interchangeable for some) in a space of comfort. This allows re-connection to ancestral knowledges and healing. Community healing circles can be important as can critical expressive arts. Coping strategies can be active but should include silence, meditation and relaxation techniques — to ensure you do not internalize violence.

4. Express emotions and have a physical release.

Engage in intimacy (or massage) in a safe space — to reconstruct the power and healing possibilities of safe touch and prevent you holding violent materials in your body, mind and soul. Embracing and addressing anger in a safe supportive place can help you find emancipatory ways to deal with trauma. Self-forgiveness and grief are critical to the healing process.

5. Cook and eat nutritious food regularly.

Eat well to strengthen the immune system, which is needed to fight present and transgenerational trauma. Some form of exercise or movement can also be effective as a tension release.

6. Create community support and information sharing.

Use social media and old school meet-ups — to access anti-oppression health practitioners and equitable, least harm, health services. This can decrease the sometimes detrimental effects of opting out of the system. If you know a community member is suffering, reach out to them.

7. Make space for transgenerational teachings.

Allow space for teaching and strategizing. Always listen to your children and Elders and ask questions about their experiences of violence. Offer children unconditional love and support them in their healing process by initiating active solutions or problem solving.

8. Support local and transnational activism.

Support your local organizers against anti-Black racism and intersectional violence. Actualizing change is empowering and supports the revitalization needed to improve health. However, be aware of the hard work of direct action and address burn out proactively. Take time out or “time in” to do your own healing work. Healing is political.

SOURCE: This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article

Chicken Bone Beach

Tue, 26 May 2020 17:48:17 GMT

New Jersey beach was the only one that allowed black tourists, but they made it a hip place to be.

This article is part of “Unknown New Jersey,” an ongoing series that highlights interesting and little-known stories about our past, present, and future -- all the unusual things that make our great state what is it.

The 16-year-old son of a Philadelphia minister had never been to an ocean resort area lined with businesses willing to serve black people and lodge them in hotels and guesthouses.

“I had never seen anything like it,” he said of Atlantic City and its prosperous African-American neighborhoods and business districts and the oceanfront paradise of Chicken Bone Beach. “I got off the bus and saw tens of thousands of people who looked like me.”

Ralph Hunter said he “went buck wild” in the late 1950s when he first laid eyes on what is now known as Chicken Bone Beach.

Hunter, now 81, eventually retired in the Jersey Shore resort town and started the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey to house up to 12,000 artifacts he collected and other memorabilia to tell the story of the booming black community and how it found a place of its own on the beach in Atlantic City.

But it wasn’t always like that.

In 1928, hotel owners in Atlantic City told city officials they had a problem.

White patrons had begun to complain about black people on the beach and in the ocean in front of their hotels.

“The matter of colored bathers was taken up,” an executive from the Ambassador Hotel wrote a public official according to historical archives at the Atlantic City Free Public Library. “The Georgia Avenue side of the Convention Hall would be a logical place for colored bath houses.”

Never mind that blacks and whites had shared the beach for nearly 80 years since the resort city was founded when railroads finally reached the shore from the north and west. Hotels overflowing with revelers still able to quench thirsts for alcohol in prohibition America kept the good times rolling. And what the new crowds wanted they eventually received.

Jim Crow racial segregation laws were never officially enacted in Atlantic City but local leaders sought “diplomatic measures,” according to a 1931 letter to an official in San Diego, California who had reached out for advice.

“The leading members of our community conferred with leaders of the negro race and advised them it was for the best interest of everyone concerned that the negroes patronize the beach at which the colored lifeguards were placed,” the letter said. “…[T]he word seemed to spread among them…the thing for them to do would be to patronize the aforesaid beach…No strong-arm methods were used…and the matter was amicably adjusted by the use of diplomatic methods.”

It was determined that the north side of town, a place already inhabited by thousands of African-Americans who worked in hotels and other Atlantic City businesses, would be the area for blacks to “patronize” the shore town. An area stretching north from Missouri Avenue, oceanfront property owned by the city and near the Convention Hall, would be the area where “colored” lifeguards would be stationed. Hotels, restaurants and bars quickly sprung up to serve black people and an entertainment district revolving around Club Harlem drew top African-American entertainers, including Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, showgirls and other stars.

Regular folks could rub elbows with stars on the beach during the day and stick around for show-stopping performances at night.

But the majority of the patrons of Chicken Bone Beach were families on day trips who packed hearty lunches and snacks for the day. Fried chicken was a favorite meal, Hunter and other historians said.

Eventually, the beach black vacationers most patronized was dubbed Chicken Bone Beach.

Stories have swirled over the years why the name stuck. One story says revelers often buried their chicken bones in the sand after they ate.

Hunter, and others who are still alive and remember how highly what they called Missouri Avenue Beach was regarded, said the name was a racial epithet.

“Every beach in town is named for the street that leads to it,” Hunter said. “The towns of Ventnor and Longport had large Jewish populations. Do you think they would stand for naming a beach they go to for a type of food they eat? Hell no.”

Heniretta Shelton, 75, agrees with Hunter. She moved to Atlantic City from Florida when she was 10 in the mid-1950s. She said people took pride in their beach and were offended when it came to be known as Chicken Bone Beach.

But Shelton said she eventually made peace with the name and decided to help promote it as a positive symbol of a thriving black community that “made lemonade out of lemons.”

Shelton started the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation in the 1990s.

She said it was “formed and titled in homage to the historical segregation of African-Americans on Atlantic City’s world-famous beaches… [t]urning the memory of an unfortunate chapter of American history into a positive force of good.”

Shelton’s foundation sponsors a series of summer jazz concerts on Chicken Bone Beach and year-round enrichment programs for youths.

On a typical summer day here now, blue, rental beach umbrellas dot the sand in the shoreline leading to the Atlantic Ocean. A wooden proscenium arch leads the way to the beach, which is sandwiched between the Playgound Pier mall and Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall.

Few landmarks of the era of black prosperity remain. But just a few feet to the right of the beach entrance, a wooden-framed plaque provides a peephole to the past.

“This beach was designated the exclusively African American section of the beach in the segregation era,” a narrative on the sign says. “The beach attracted popular black entertainers, local residents and tourist...With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, all Atlantic City beaches were open to everyone.”

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/SA8N30pGCDD

Financial Literacy - How to Live from Savings and Investments

Wed, 20 May 2020 17:57:52 GMT

Former Brand Marketing Strategist demystifies Financial Literacy and shares how he went from a loyal, corporate employee to living off savings and investments - and how you can too!

To be frank, to many the topic of money is taboo in our households, not because of its sacredness but more-so out of ignorance. Who really wants to talk about how broke they are unless they owe someone? Even worse, who wants to be honest about the struggles they face in managing their finances?

According to the 2015 US Census Bureau, the average salary in America is $35,000. If this average were to remain the same throughout the average working career of 40 years, the average American would earn $1,400,000 in their lifetime. For many of us, if we knew this when first entering the market, we’d see this in a few ways:

1. That's a lot of money I'll make! I have time for savings when I'm older

2. How can I leverage this amount to afford me and my (future) family financial sustainability?

If we are being honest, most of us chose the route of #1 rather than #2. And for those who've passed the mid-point of their career, there may be a series of little panic attacks appearing more often. But it's never too late! I was one who unconsciously chose #1, and after losing my job of 12 years in corporate America, I initially faced an increase of those panic attacks—until I realized... again, its never too late! This sudden loss in biweekly checks taught me several grand lessons:

• No employer is obligated to pay you for the rest of your life. Eventually, you will be laid-off, a victim of downsizing, or fired

• The older you get, the closer you are to losing your job. Companies are downsizing as well as outsourcing for labor (including the increased use of AI and robotics). Tenure no longer holds weight.

• Every 30 days we all have living expense bills that are due (mortgage/rent, car notes, credit cards, t-bills, food bill), When the day comes when you no longer have a job, how will you sustain yourself?

From my research I've designed a course that not only shares age-old strategic ways older than the Stock Exchange, but actual methods you can implement to be on the path to living off your savings and investments no matter what age you are!

Joining the Cryptowoke Financial Sustainability Movement (CFSM) is about exposing you to cryptic (or hidden) ways those in the know have been able to create individual and inter generational financial sustainability! I am living proof these methods work and I look to share with you numerous ways you can free yourself from the "Rat Race" and free yourself of the worry of how you and your family will prosper. Using strategies as old as two centuries, you will learn how to diversify your plan in the fields of credit, banking tactics, insurance, ecological and commodity investments, and blockchain technology.

CFSM Overview

I specialize in showing you how to weaponize your finances through my Cryptowoke Financial Sustainability Movement’s Online Master Course (http://cryptowokemovement.com) that will give you an opportunity to sustain 1) yourself and your immediate family, 2) your extended family which will enable inter generational transfer, and 3) communal cooperative economic resuscitation giving the collective purchasing power to rebuild and sustain our neighborhoods domestic and abroad. CFSMs mission is to create financial sustainability for 300 individuals/families to be in position/on the path of inter generational wealth transfer.

CFSMs goal is to take those 300 individuals/families who are now ‘Cryptowoke Ready’, and collectively take on cooperative endeavors to develop inter generational wealth. I’ve been learning about and investing in this space for a few years and recently found an even more important niche that’s been overlooked: understanding how money works and learning how to make your money earn money.

I am sharing my findings particularly with our people (POADUS or People of African Descent in the United States) because we’re the demographic who needs it most — plus, there’s a strong need to reinvest our learning into ourselves as I find we’ve recently re-entered an era in time that mimics the days before the Civil Rights Era and in some cases, before integration! We must take care of ourselves because frankly no one else will! If we are not mindful of how this world is changing, we will find ourselves in social and financial situations our children's children won't even be able to dig themselves out of! Which is why I feel this topic is timely essential. More people with degrees are unable to find work in their field of study.
Employees are overworked and paid less, leaving them to think their financial state is dependent on their Employer. Because the conversation of Financial Literacy is rarely dealt with in the majority of our homes, we haven't learned how to make our money earn money opposed to having to show up at a thankless job that pays you just enough to show up every Monday. We've been conditioned to trade labor, or hours/ decades of our lives for money in the form of a check. The sole purpose of this movement and my course is to address the dire need for POADUS and Global Diaspora Africans to simultaneously learn as well as participate in the and monetary shift not just as consumers but as producers!

Getting #Cryptowoke offers the opportunity to create inter generational wealth in a way a job would never do! As you are looking for a solution for you and your family's financial future, you need to get #Cryptowoke!

Black business owners eliminated by their white competitors

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:43:16 GMT

In June, during the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee hearing about H.R. 40 and reparations, economist, author, political commentator and former president of Bennett College Julianne Malveaux reminded America of the many ways its dark history of racial violence against Black people continues to affect the group’s future.

“In Wilmington North Carolina, Republicans and Black people came together to form a fusion government, and white folks were so frightened that they took all the prominent Black men in that town, arrested them, the next morning gave them tickets to leave town. They had to leave their property, their livelihood, their families, everything. This is why we need reparations,” Malveaux said.

She continued with the toll racial violence took on Black people’s ability to rebound and prosper collectively as a group.

“Democrats were so threatened by the notion of this fusion government that they basically burned people out. They’ve documented 60 deaths. … It was really about economic envy, so absent this economic envy and fear, Black folks, we didn’t get the 40 acres and a mule, but we were still trying to do it, and then folks came in and said, ‘Wait a minute, if we let them do their thing, where is our cheap labor going to come from?’” Malveaux added.

As horrible as Malveaux’s recounting sounds, the truth of it is undeniable. Ironically, those Black men who were given the opportunity to board the train in Wilmington were among the fortunate because they at least kept their lives.

Malveaux also recounted the terror of Black Wall Street and other economic factors during her argument. Whether America wants to acknowledge it or not, the harsh truth is many Black people were lynched by whites for the crime of prosperity in business.

An article printed last year in the LA Times also highlighted this fraught history, including how Black business owners were murdered or had their establishments burned to the ground by jealous white people. One such case was People’s Grocery in Memphis in 1892. The successful Black owner and two of his Black employees were lynched in such a horrific manner it reverberated across the nation.

The phenomenal Ida B. Wells dedicated much of her life to documenting the frequency and voracity of whites lynching Blacks. She cited the rise of Black people competing economically with whites as the cause of many of them.

In Alabama, the national lynching memorial which opened last year has almost 800 monuments with the names of over 4,400 victims engraved in them, reported AL.com. It’s highly likely that some names have been left off due to murders being covered up or forgotten by history.

To those still in denial, this is not the stuff legends are made of. This is quite the contrary. White people lynched Black people to literally kill the competition – period.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/MLvN30pEwpF

The Secret Meaning of the African Cornrows

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 19:11:16 GMT

Take a look at what these hairstyles actually mean to the Africans or even people of colour.

There has always been a lot of discussion and debates concerning the use of African hairstyles by modern celebrities and whether or not it is cultural appropriation.

The major consensus, from those who actually know the history and significance behind these hairstyles would agree that the use of them by other cultures is not correct. That is not to say that no one can have these hairstyles, but merely having them as a ‘fashion statement’ is actually insulting to the painful history behind these hairstyles.

So before you go spouting that ‘now we don’t even have the freedom to have a hairstyle we like’, take a look at what these hairstyles actually mean to the Africans or even people of colour.

What Are Cornrows?

Depictions of women with cornrows have been found in Stone Age paintings in the Tassili Plateau of the Sahara, and have been dated as far back as 3000 B.C. There are also Native American paintings as far back as 1,000 years showing cornrows as a hairstyle. This tradition of female styling in cornrows has remained popular throughout Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa and West Africa.

Cornrows have become a crowd favorite for women of every culture in the last 10 years. Whereas it used to be worn by children, especially young African and African American girls, the style has become widely popular across women of all ages.

But many do not know the deep and rich history of the hairstyle that saved the lives of many. Moreover, they do not know of its role in the freedom struggles which have led to the liberties we now enjoy.

Cornrows have long been a facet of African beauty and life. In many African societies, braid patterns and hairstyles indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. In the Caribbean, the style may be referred to as cane rows to represent “slaves planting sugar cane”, and not corn.

While mainly the cornrows are created in neat linear rows, they can also be formed in a myriad of geometric and curving designs.

Cornrows have major cultural and historic significance for African origin people and misusing them can and has resulted in a major backlash from the community.

Historically, male styling with cornrows can be traced as far back as the early nineteenth century to Ethiopia, where warriors and kings such as Tewodros II and Yohannes IV were depicted wearing cornrows.

Used By Slaves As Maps To Escape?

While travelling its way from Egypt and Africa, cornrows create an immediate connection between people of the community acting almost like a kind of vocabulary.

As per Patrice Grell Yursik, who is the author of the blog AfroBella, “ In Trinidad, we call them ‘cane rows,’ because of slaves planting sugar cane “.

Not only that but cornrows are also indicative of a variety of social concepts like kinship, age, religion, ethnicity, status and more such things related to one’s identity.

During the Middle Passage or the period in the Atlantic Slave Trade when millions of Africans were brutally ripped from their homes and shipped to the New World (America), according to sources, the heads of the captured slaves were shaved not only as a sanitary means but also to take away their own culture and identity from them.

ADOPTING THIS HAIRSTYLE BY SLAVES OVER THEIR TIME IN THE NEW WORLD WAS A SMALL ACT OF REBELLION AND RESISTANCE TO KEEP THEIR HERITAGE CLOSE TO THEM.

The African hair is also quite heavy and according to some sources during the Middle Passage was considered ‘unruly’ so in order to maintain a neat and tidy appearance African people started to wear their hair in tight braids like cornrows and more.

But perhaps the biggest way that cornrows helped the African slave population was by providing a discreet and easy to hide way to transfer and create maps in order to leave their captor’s place.

Enslaved Africans also used cornrows to transfer and create maps to leave plantations and the home of their captors. This act of using hair as a tool for resistance is said to have been evident across South America.

It is most documented in Colombia where Benkos Bioho, a King captured from Africa by the Portuguese who escaped slavery, built San Basilio de Palenque, a village in Northern Colombia around the 17th century. Bioho created his own language as well as intelligence network and also came up with the idea to have women create maps and deliver messages through their cornrows.

The village is a walled city that was meant to be a refuge for escaped slaves and help them get back on their feet. The most fascinating thing is that the city of San Basilio de Palenque still exists and has a population of about 3500 people.

Bioho not only built the village with other escaped slaves but also created their own language, formed an army and even created an intelligence network in order to find, organize and get them to the liberated areas.

Bioho was the person that had the idea to have woman create maps and even deliver messages through their cornrows.

Since slaves were rarely given the privilege of writing material or even if they did have it, such kind of messages or maps getting in the wrong hands could create a lot of trouble for the people in question, cornrows were the perfect way to go about such things.

No one would question or think that one could hide entire maps in their hairstyle, so it was easy to circulate them without anyone finding out about it.

In the time of slavery in Colombia, hair braiding was used to relay messages. For example, to signal that they wanted to escape, women would braid a hairstyle called departes. “It had thick, tight braids, braided closely to the scalp and was tied into buns on the top.

And another style had curved braids, tightly braided on their heads. The curved braids would represent the roads they would [use to] escape. In the braids, they also kept gold and hid seeds which, in the long run, helped them survive after they escaped.

Another thing that Bioho did was have these women use seeds as decoration in their hair, these seeds were then used as a way for the liberated slaves to grow their own crops.

After having such close and intimate meaning for the African people, cornrows were at large considered to be dirty and unbecoming of ‘normal citizen’ look that people wanted.

There has been a resurgence of braided hairstyles in Colombia in recent years. But this reality is not only evident in Colombia but all around the world.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/ceke30pEgdC

Ending slavery in Virginia

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 23:17:02 GMT

Gabriel’s revolt: In 1800, he was savvy, armed and determined to end slavery in Virginia’s capital

More than two centuries ago, an enslaved man named Gabriel was making final preparations to lead a revolt in Richmond that he hoped would spur the end of slavery. He was smart, he was armed and he was bold. Were it not for a fierce rainstorm, he might have succeeded.

As Virginia remembers the first enslaved people brought to the English colony of Jamestown in 1619 this weekend, it is also worth remembering those who resisted their bondage.

Gabriel was born enslaved in 1776 — a year synonymous with freedom — on a plantation north of Richmond owned by Thomas Prosser. (Gabriel is sometimes referred to using “Prosser” as his surname, but historians say this is inaccurate.) The identity of his parents is lost to history, but he was known to have two older brothers.

The plantation he grew up on was “typical” of the day, according to historian Douglas R. Egerton in the book “ Gabriel’s Rebellion ,” but his upbringing was anything but. Only about 5 percent of enslaved people at that time could read. Gabriel was one of them. Most plantation slaves were unskilled laborers. Gabriel was taught to be a blacksmith. This probably meant he was able to dress better than other enslaved people.

Newspaper accounts later described him as “six feet two or three inches high” with a “bony face, well made” and “two or three scars on his head.” He was “a fellow of courage and intellect above his rank in life.”

In 1798, Prosser died, leaving the plantation and its inhabitants to a son the same age as Gabriel. In a letter, a friend of Thomas Jefferson’s wrote to say the younger Prosser “behaved with great barbarity to his slaves.”

By this time, tobacco was drying up as a cash crop. Some plantation owners found themselves with more enslaved labor than they needed, so they would “lease out” some of them for extra income. Gabriel was among them and spent several days each month working in downtown Richmond, where he was allowed to keep a small share of his wages.

“Though no less a slave in the eyes of the law, Gabriel therefore enjoyed a rough form of freedom,” Egerton wrote. “Indeed, his ties to his owner became so tenuous that numerous historians have identified him as a free man.”

In Richmond, he worked alongside working-class white and free black artisans, plus other leased slaves with some degree of autonomy. He was exposed to rhetoric and news of liberty — not only of Jefferson’s dictum that “all men are created equal” but also of the successful slave revolt in Saint-Domingue — what is now Haiti.

In September 1799, Gabriel stole a pig from a plantation owner — a relatively common act among poorly fed enslaved people, Egerton wrote. He was caught by a white overseer, and a struggle ensued, during which Gabriel bit off part of the man’s ear.

The sentence for the crime of a slave attacking a white man was death, but perhaps because of his value to Prosser, he was let off with a brand burned into his hand, a bond paid by his owner and a promise that Gabriel would behave.

Spoiler alert: He didn’t.

The next spring, Gabriel began to plot and enlist co-conspirators.

This was the plan: On the night of Saturday, Aug. 30, 1800, he and his fellow rebels would take up arms and kill Prosser first. Then they would kill the man who got Gabriel branded. The army of rebels would grow as they moved toward Richmond. Gabriel guessed it could be 1,000 strong by the time they arrived.

Once there, they would break up into columns, move through the city, burning bridges, raiding the treasury and taking the governor hostage — at the time, that was future president James Monroe — until they could convince him that all the enslaved people in Virginia should be set free.

If that last part sounds far-fetched, it’s important to understand the political environment of the day. Growing tensions between the first two U.S. political parties — the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans — led many to worry this young country was headed toward civil war.

And there was a presidential election coming in the fall of 1800. Would Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson unseat Federalist incumbent John Adams? If so, would Adams accept the loss and step down?

No one knew, but Gabriel surmised he could use this split among white elites to his advantage. He had come to see merchants, who were mostly Federalists and cheated leased slaves with impunity, as his primary enemy. He thought that if enslaved people rebelled, they would be joined by freed blacks, working-class whites, abolitionists, Quakers and Methodists.

Plus, Federalists were spreading rumors that if Jefferson won, he was going to liberate all enslaved people. Gabriel may have believed that.

Although Jefferson owned slaves throughout his life, his views on the institution underwent several evolutions. In 1783, he submitted a bill to Congress that would free all slaves by 1800, which the Library of Congress marks as the “high point” of his opposition to it. But Jefferson freed only a handful of people upon his death in 1826. The rest, at least 130 people, were sold to pay debts.

Throughout the summer, Gabriel recruited his army until it spread across 11 Virginia counties. They met in slave cabins, blacksmith shops, at a bridge where enslaved people gathered on their day off. They gathered muskets, powder, knives and split harvesting scythes into weapons resembling machetes.

“Most of his contemporaries, white as well as black, believed that his plan stood a good chance of succeeding. Had it done so, it might have changed not only the course of American race relations but also the course of American political history,” Egerton wrote.

But on the day of the revolt, disaster struck. A large summer thunderstorm moved in and drenched the region. A prisoner later said it was the worst he had ever witnessed in the state. It took out bridges, cut off communication and made it impossible for the revolt to begin. Gabriel tried to get word out that they would postpone until the following night.

In the meantime, he was betrayed. Two enslaved men at a neighboring plantation lost their nerve and confessed to the owner.

The storm had cleared by the next morning, and roving white patrols picked up and detained dozens of conspirators. By the time they came for Gabriel, he was gone.

Over the next few weeks, at least 10 conspirators were tried and hanged, including Gabriel’s two older brothers. In the end, 26 were sentenced to death.

Gov. Monroe wrote to Jefferson that dozens more could meet the “hand of the Executioner.” On Sept. 22, 1800, Jefferson responded, advising that “there is strong sentiment that there has been hanging enough.”

The next day, Gabriel was again betrayed by another slave, who told authorities that the man they wanted was on a ship on the James River. Gabriel was arrested in Norfolk — just across the water from where Africans were first enslaved by English colonists 181 years earlier at what is now Fort Monroe.

Gabriel was hanged on Oct. 10, 1800, at the age of 24. Recent scholarship disputes the exact location of his execution, but it is likely he was buried in a slave cemetery at 15th and Broad streets in Richmond, said Ryan K. Smith of Virginia Commonwealth University.

The site of the burial ground later became a white school, then a jail, and then part of it was destroyed by the construction of Interstate 95, according to the Richmond Cemeteries website that Smith maintains. What remains is the African Burial Ground, which is marked with a few plaques and makeshift altars.

A community of activists are rallying for an expansive memorial park that would include the burial ground and other slave sites nearby, Smith said. It’s unclear what the city will ultimately decide, but every year for the past five or six years, local activists have met there on Aug. 30 to remember Gabriel and what he tried to do.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/fM6b30pEevY

Chicago style barbecue history

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 20:43:04 GMT

Chicago is a city divided by barbecue

Garry Kennebrew had fire in his eyes and smoke in his veins since he was very young. He grew up in Gadsden, Alabama, crammed alongside six siblings in a home with no electricity or running water. When he was 6 years old, his mother taught him how to bank the fire that warmed the house in the winter—to take charcoal ash and lay it atop the flames. It kept the embers underneath hot through the night, and the next morning, a quick shake and some kindling brought the fire back up. But it was his grandmother’s skill in the kitchen that stayed with him. Frying chicken is tricky enough with a controlled gas flame, and she had it mastered on the intense and inconsistent heat of a woodburning stove.

A half century later, Kennebrew is still taming fire. As the owner and pitmaster of Uncle John’s Bar-B-Que , 30 minutes outside downtown Chicago, he’s one of the foremost practitioners of a peculiar form of barbecue found only on the South Side of this city. Winters are harsh here and outdoor space is hard to come by, so ribs and sausages are smoked indoors, in custom-made glass-walled contraptions called aquarium smokers. They’re called that because they look like giant fish tanks with meat swimming around inside. These smokers, which can cost more than $10,000, employ no dials, knobs, or even an onboard thermometer; they’re simple boxes that house a live fire and capture the smoke it produces. The primary method of controlling the heat produced by the fire is spraying with a garden hose.

Every region lucky to have its own barbecue style operates with its own conventions and peculiarities. Beef brisket is the state-sanctioned protein of Texas; pork shoulder reigns in the Carolinas; baby back ribs get smoked and sauced from Kansas City to Memphis. But the style of Chicago’s South Side remains a curious footnote in the American barbecue canon. Few barbecue cognoscenti outside Illinois would consider it top-tier. The restaurants in Chicago still cooking in this manner use a cut many butchers throw away. They cook it indoors in smoke-choked kitchens. And there are only a dozen or so left.

I’d argue that South Side barbecue is integral to the Chicago experience, yet it seems half of the city’s residents have never sampled, much less heard of, this kind of barbecue. I spent a decade as a food writer at the Chicago Tribune, and not a week goes by I don’t receive an email asking for the best deep-dish pizza or Italian beef in town. But no one asks about barbecue, and it’s my favorite of our city’s culinary contributions. When cooked right, South Side style is downright wondrous. Pork rib tips, the knobby end of the spare rib, are the favored meat. Chopped into matchbox-size pieces, these tips are paired with bulbous foot-long lengths of hot link sausages, nestled over a bed of French fries, drenched with a viscous tomato-based sauce, and topped with two slices of Wonder Bread. It is a singular, specific combination of textures and flavors, proteins and carbs. People around here know it as a “tip-link combo,” and like the best barbecue, it finds a dozen ways to stay with you, physically and psychically, leaving evidence to discover hours and days later: dots of red sauce splattered on your T-shirt, a sliver of pork stuck between teeth, woodsmoke emanating from your pores despite a thorough scrubbing.

But as a generation of pitmasters passes on, the specter of Chicago South Side barbecue fading into the culinary hereafter is a sadly real possibility. As much as there’s a lack of patronage from more prosperous North Side customers, the larger reason is that few young people are interested in taking over. The handful of South Side pitmasters fighting to preserve the tradition believe they can win over the uninitiated. They believe that they, with people like Garry Kennebrew, can do for Chicago’s South Side what Arthur Bryant did in Kansas City and Rodney Scott did in Charleston. First they need people to know it exists.

On a Friday last fall, hours before his restaurant began its weekend rush, I returned to Kennebrew’s restaurant, Uncle John’s Bar-B-Que—a place I’ve frequented for the last five years. It’s wedged into a strip mall in Homewood, Illinois, a suburb just beyond Chicago’s city limits in the shadow of one of the country’s largest rock quarries.

Before you see the interior of Uncle John’s Bar-B-Que, you smell it. Fifty feet from the front entrance, woodsmoke tinged with some unknowable savory seasoning takes hold in the back of your nose. Once inside, the smoke that envelops you is thick, hot, and meaty. It is intoxicating in small doses, overpowering within minutes, and after a while you don’t even smell it anymore. Kennebrew’s aquarium smoker is 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep, enclosed on four sides with tempered glass and stainless steel, with a roof that slopes to a metal chimney that punches 42 feet up, through the ceiling and extending well above the building.

I watched his right-hand man, Derrick McClinton, tame a flame with a garden hose. He sprayed water into the burning mixture of hickory, pecan, maple, apple, and ash. It hissed. Wisps and then plumes of smoke emerged into view, curling as they rose, appearing somewhere between powder white and translucent. On its way up, the smoke passed through three dozen slabs of glistening, mahogany pork rib tips.

The basic procedure for smoking rib tips can be communicated in a sentence: Season tips overnight, smoke, flipping often, for an hour and a half over fire, move to a cooler zone for another hour, serve. But that only gets you 90 percent of the way, and it’s in inching toward that elusive 100 that separates the pedestrian from the acclaimed. When pitmasters of this caliber smoke meats, there is little fussing or second-guessing. Their fingertips are equipped with X-ray vision that can see through solid hunks of meat.

“I’m still learning that 10 percent,” Kennebrew said. “You can do this a lifetime and still not experience all its variables.”

Which makes finessing the finer points of South Side barbecuing difficult to articulate. It’s about reading the signs and knowing when you know. The way Kennebrew and McClinton teach barbecue sounds less procedural and more like abstract wisdom. For example, how does one tell the temperature in the smoker is between the ideal 220–225°F zone? McClinton invited me to stick my hand into the smoker over the hot zone. I could hold it there without recoiling from the heat. “I know when it’s too hot. Believe me,” said McClinton in a tone suggestive of painful lessons in his past.

Temperature and moisture management are the pitmaster’s primary task, and with the aquarium smoker, you can’t just set it and forget it. Controlling the fire is a manual process using oxygen and water to achieve the desired conditions. Say the fire gets too hot. A spray from the garden hose tempers the heat, stopping the meat’s exterior from scorching and turning into leather. If the temperature gets too low, he might crack open the two doors at the base of the smoker, which helps circulate oxygen and fuels the fire. For Kennebrew, it’s a mastery earned by suffering through less than optimal batches of barbecue—thousands of pounds of it. “After about the third year we gained some level of consistency,” he said. “We were no longer trial and error. We had arrived. We could put out consistently good product that can stand up to anybody.”

Some advice for those about to try Chicago barbecue for the first time: From the moment the cashier hands the tip-link combo over to the customer (and it’s almost always a tip-link combo), the contents are degrading. The dual insulation of a foam container and a paper bag steams fries and softens the ribs’ crusty bark. So upon receiving the order, immediately tear a corner from the Styrofoam box to create a vent for steam to escape. (For that reason, it is necessary to always request sauce on the side.)

The next problem arises: The majority of these barbecue restaurants are takeout only, typically with transactions made through a bulletproof carousel. (Uncle John’s, a rare exception, has a seating area.) Here, one needs to make quick mental calculus involving municipal speed limits and distance-to-destination, then determine whether it’s worth waiting to consume the rib tips after the drive home. The answer is almost certainly no. South Side barbecue is best experienced moments after payment, with a fistful of napkins, on the hood of your car.

Once you unbox the rib tips, cast the two slices of white bread aside. Why waste precious stomach real estate? Opt first for a thick, fatty hunk of rib tip, preferably one studded with cartilage. As with crabs or wings, the high effort-to-food ratio of rib tips is half the point. Don’t delicately nibble; you pop the whole piece in your mouth, then use careful teeth-tongue-jaw cooperation to maneuver and separate cartilage. Now spit the bonelike knobs into the paper bag. It is one of the essential tactile experiences of Chicago dining, alongside dislodging caramel-cheese popcorn from your molars and dripping Italian beef jus down the front of your shirt.

Hot links enjoy a longer shelf life than rib tips. That’s especially the case if this particular establishment flash-fries the smoked sausage. It’s a common practice that creates a crackly casing that’s utterly satisfying when bitten through, a textural counterpoint to the coarse-ground pork and toothsome fat within the chile-spiced link.

With both rib tips and hot links, it’s best to sample sans sauce first to fully appreciate the pitmaster’s control of smoke. Is it subtle? Overbearing? Do the ribs, typically seasoned with a blend that includes paprika and onion and garlic powder, offer a balanced savory character? The purity of smoke-imparted meats acknowledged, venture a dab of sauce. (Unlike ribs from Memphis or Kansas City, brown sugar is rarely used in Chicago barbecue dry rub. The sweetness comes mostly from the tomato-based sauce—typically, one tastes ketchup and molasses first, a host of spices, finally a touch of tang.) Intermittently, break up your meat intake with French fries soggy with the smoky drippings from the ribs nestled above.

When finished, wipe your fingers and the corners of your mouth, then dismount from the hood of your vehicle and be on your way.

Garry Kennebrew’s family moved north from Alabama in 1968, when he was 9, as part of a massive movement of people later named the Great Migration, which saw half a million blacks settle in Chicago between 1916 and 1970 and established the African-American industrial working class. His father found work at a steel mill and provided Kennebrew with a happy, middle-class life on the South Side. He studied accounting and business in college, then made a good living working in corporate America. In 1998, he took a buyout when the hair care company he worked for was purchased and relocated, and started a car wash and detailing business. His shop happened to sit next door to Barbara Ann’s, a renowned South Side barbecue spot. Stopping by several times a week for lunch, Kennebrew developed a friendship with Barbara Ann’s pitmaster—a gentle hulk of a man named Mack Sevier.

If someone were to carve a Mount Rushmore of Chicago barbecue pitmasters, rendered in stone might be the faces of Leon Finney (of the Original Leon’s Bar-B-Que, the first wildly popular South Side barbecue business), Argia B. Collins (creator of Mumbo Bar-B-Q sauce, arguably the most successful retail product to come out of the South Side), the Lemons brothers (the long-running Lem’s Bar-B-Q House), and Sevier himself, the most acclaimed Chicago pitmaster of the last quarter century.

From a block away, Sevier was an unmistakable presence. He was a strapping figure: 6-foot-3 and 300-plus pounds, shaped like a defensive tackle with an ever present Kangol hat. Behind that imposing frame was a man who made the best South Side barbecue I’ve ever tasted. Sevier’s smoked-then-fried hot links in particular were mind-altering, a fatty and coarse pork mix flecked with chile flakes and sage.

Kennebrew still ran his car wash when he asked to apprentice with Sevier at Barbara Ann’s. Over lessons and lunches, they discovered things in common: Both grew up in the South—Sevier in Arkansas, Kennebrew in Alabama. Both were deacons at their church. Both fell hard for barbecue. Their relationship deepened, and eventually Sevier began introducing Kennebrew as his nephew.

“He was the master. He was the man,” Kennebrew said. “There was nobody I could think of that had the full scope of knowledge like Mack. He was the Michael Jordan of Chicago barbecue.”

Kennebrew took over operations at Barbara Ann’s when Sevier opened his own shop, which he named Uncle John’s. In those early years, Sevier struggled. Kennebrew donated equipment and product to thank him for his mentorship. In 2010, when Kennebrew struck out on his own himself, Sevier paid him back by allowing him to use the Uncle John’s name. Kennebrew inherited Sevier’s secrets—the spice blend, the hot link recipe. Kennebrew didn’t even need to offer an invitation: Sevier would stop by the restaurant before it was opened to the public, tasting every item on the menu to ensure his Uncle John’s name wouldn’t be sullied. I asked how Sevier reacted, and Kennebrew sat silent for 30 seconds. “He gave me his blessing,” he said through tears. “He said, ‘Just promise me you won’t change my recipes.’ ”

I surveyed fellow Chicago food writers, pitmasters, and barbecue enthusiasts, and nobody could come up with even one barbecue restaurant with an aquarium smoker on the North Side of Chicago. Put another way: The North Side is predominantly white. South is predominantly black. And South Side barbecue is something cooked by black people, catering to black communities.

There already exists a glut of barbecue restaurants on the North Side, and many of these full-service restaurants have loyal followings, including Smoque, Lillie’s Q, and Green Street Smoked Meats. But all those restaurants serve an amalgam of regional styles, a greatest hits of American barbecue from Memphis to Kansas City to Austin, many cooked in gas-powered Southern Pride smokers or Oyler Pits. And while it’s true that they have comfortable chairs and drinks served in Mason jars, I’ve always found it curious that even my most culinarily adventurous North Side friends have at most a peripheral awareness of South Side barbecue, and almost none have tried it. I don’t believe explicit discrimination on an individual level has anything to do with it. But it may say something about being comfortable living in our social silos.

Natalie Moore, a journalist with WBEZ radio and author of the well-regarded The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation , pointed to Chicago’s history of housing segregation to potentially explain the divide. Real estate commissions as late as the 1940s could write restrictions into deeds blocking white families from leasing or selling their property to black families. After the Supreme Court struck down this practice in 1948, white families on Chicago’s South Side moved out en masse. What were once all-white neighborhoods in Chicago transformed to all-black. The effects linger to this day. In 2014, Brown University’s American Communities Project named Chicago the nation’s most segregated city. White Chicagoans don’t tend to visit places where South Side barbecue shops are located, Moore said. “If you don’t live or have families in those neighborhoods, you’re not going to be exposed to it,” she said. “Those patterns of segregation still exist today. It’s not a relic.”

A challenge to this arrangement was Honey 1 BBQ, founded in 2003 on the western edge of the well-to-do Bucktown neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. Its pitmaster, Robert Adams Sr., garnered acclaim in local press and on food message boards for his aquarium-smoking prowess. But through 12 years at the location, the business was increasingly subject to complaints from neighbors about smoke and smells. Robert Adams Jr., who runs the business with his father, said even after they spent tens of thousands of dollars to mitigate those issues, the city was still regularly issuing tickets prompted by the complaints of nearby residents. He knew barbecue restaurants on the South Side just weren’t experiencing the same level of public scrutiny. The implication was clear: “City fees, lawyers—we had major expenses, and in the end, the neighborhood still didn’t support us,” he said. “There were a lot of people who didn’t want us there.” In 2015, Honey 1 relocated to Bronzeville, a neighborhood on the South Side, where the restaurant has flourished.

Late in Sevier’s life, diabetes took hold and he began to lose feeling in his fingertips. For a pitmaster, it was an irony on the level of Beethoven’s losing his ability to hear. Doctors implored him to retire, and he sold his business in 2014 (today there’s a competing Uncle John’s Barbecue 20 miles north of Kennebrew’s).

One year later, Sevier died at age 70. Six months after, in December 2015, James Lemons, last surviving of the three Lemons brothers who founded Lem’s Bar-B-Q House, died at age 87. It was a one-two punch of Chicago barbecue legends lost within a calendar year. Among my local food-writing colleagues and pitmasters in the know, our best estimate of the number of people proficient with an aquarium smoker today is a dozen, generously 20.

“You don’t see a lot of young guys trying to do this,” said Kennebrew, who is 58. I asked him who was going to take over when he’s done. One of his sons is a doctor, another is in college, a biology major interested in medicine, and his middle son owns a trucking firm. He says it might be the middle son, if he can talk him into running both businesses. But he doesn’t know. It may end with him. It may be that this singular style of barbecue disappears.

“That’ll be a major tragedy,” Kennebrew said of the thought. “But I’m hopeful. There will be young folks that recognize there’s an opportunity and fill it. Nobody could’ve told Mack that I was coming along.”

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/vigp30p48kT

Business grants for black women entrepreneurs

Mon, 20 May 2019 23:39:19 GMT

As women-owned businesses continue to grow, one of the significant obstacles they face is unequal access to funding and venture capital. While most people seek business loans, small business grants provide the capital needed to start or grow a business. Also, grants do not need to be paid back as long as the requirements and obligations are met. The following small business grants for black women entrepreneurs provides them with the capital to take their startup or established business to the next level.

Cartier Women’s Initiative Award

Industry: Any

Grant Amount: $100,000 and $30,000

Cartier Women’s Initiative Award is an annual business grant for early phase (1 to 3 years) for-profit, women-led businesses. Women must have a significant stake in the business in the role of director, general manager, or CEO.

The first place winning package awards seven women entrepreneurs with $100,000 in prize money and one-on-one personalized business mentoring.

The second place winning package, awarded to 14 finalists, includes $30,000 in prize money. The women-owned or women-led business must be designed to generate revenue.

Eligible applicants must be women entrepreneurs 18 years of age or the legal majority age in the country of citizenship at the close date of the application submission.

Application submission opens June 2019 for 2020 award.

The Halstead Grant

Industry: Jewelry Design

Grant Amount: $7,500 cash award and $1,000 in merchandise

The Halstead Grant is for women entrepreneurs in the early phase (less than 3 years) of business in the jewelry industry. This annually awarded grant includes $7,500 for startup capital, $1,000 of Halstead jewelry supplies, and recognition in the jewelry industry.

The grant application process requires applicants to answer a series of questions regarding their business goals and strategies. All applicants receive feedback from the judges about their business plan.

Application deadline is Aug. 1st.

#GIRLBOSS Foundation Grant

Industry: Design, Fashion, Music, the Arts, etc.

Grant Award: $15,000

The #GIRLBOSS Foundation Grant is for individual for-profit women business owners in industries of design, fashion, music, and the arts. The grant of $15,000 is awarded twice a year.

Eligible applicants must be United States citizens and at least 18 years of age or older at the time of the closing date of application submission.

Business entities, organizations, or companies are not eligible.

Application submission is currently open.

Amber Grant

Industry: Any

Grant Amount: $10,000

The Amber Grant was established in honor of a young lady named Amber. Amber passed away before she had an opportunity to fulfill her dream of being an entrepreneur at the age of 19. This grant of $1,000 is awarded to women entrepreneurs in any industry monthly. The 12 grant winners get a chance to win a $10,000 grant funds for their business.

Eligible applicants must be U.S. or Canadian citizens and 18 years of age at the close date of application submission. An application fee of $15 is required.

Application submission is currently open.

Open Meadows Foundation

Industry: Non-Profit programs benefiting Women and Girls

Grant Award: $75,000

The Open Meadows Foundation wants to change the world! The $2,000 grant is awarded twice a year to women-backed organizations with projects focused on “activism, political change, and empowerment directed by and benefiting women and girls.” The organization must have limited access to funding and an operational budget of less than $75,000.

Eligible applicants must have tax-exempt status under 501C3 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) or a fiscal sponsor with this IRC designation. Small and startup organizations are given priority in the application review process.

Deadlines for grant proposals via email are 12:00 midnight EST on Feb. 15 and Aug. 15.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/eien30oMDNQ

The history of food written by 6 black chefs

Mon, 20 May 2019 02:45:02 GMT

6 Black Chefs (and 1 Inventor) Who Changed the History of Food. And oftentimes history, period.

He was the first to bring French fries to the United States. She helped Southern cooking gain recognition nationwide. They organized N.A.A.C.P. meetings at their barbecue restaurant as the civil rights movement gained momentum.

Black chefs, cookbook authors, restaurateurs and inventors have shaped how we eat, and the culture at large. Here are just a few.

James Hemings

* First American to train as a chef in France

* Cooked the historic meal between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson (immortalized in the musical “Hamilton” in the song “The Room Where It Happens”)

* Introduced European-style macaroni and cheese, French fries, crème brûlée and ice cream to America

James Hemings was born in Virginia in 1765; at 8 years old, he became Thomas Jefferson’s slave through an inheritance. (His younger sister Sally was also enslaved by Jefferson and later bore several of Jefferson’s children.)

After Jefferson was appointed commerce minister to France in 1784, he and Hemings, then 19 years old, set sail for Paris, which is where Hemings began his cooking career, becoming the first American trained as a French chef. He studied in prestigious French kitchens and trained with a master pastry chef; his most important experience, however, came from the chef at the Château de Chantilly, which at the time was considered to have better food than Versailles.

In 1787, Hemings became the chef de cuisine at Hôtel de Langeac, Jefferson’s personal residence, where he cooked for politicians and celebrities. He later would make the dinner for the historic meeting between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in Virginia, where the two men engaged in political negotiations despite their longstanding feud.

Hemings was freed in 1796. After some travel, he returned to Monticello, Jefferson’s home in Virginia, to run the kitchen. In 1801, he committed suicide; a letter addressed to Jefferson said that the cause was “drinking too freely.” While his time as a free man was short, his legacy has proved to be long.

George Washington Carver

* One of the most influential agricultural scientists and inventors in history

* Invented cotton crop rotation in the South, a technique where different crops are alternated to rejuvenate nutrient-deprived soil

* President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a national monument built in Carver’s honor

Agricultural scientist, inventor, the peanut man: George Washington Carver is remembered for many things, but his contributions forever changed how modern industries are run. Carver was born into slavery in the early 1860s, and went on to earn a master’s degree in agricultural science at Iowa State Agricultural College (Iowa State University today). In 1896, he moved to Alabama and became the director of agricultural research at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. There, he focused on projects to improve Southern agriculture.

Through his research, he discovered that cultivating only one cropstripped the land of its nutrients and yielded less bountiful harvests. By introducing peanuts and soybeans to the nutrient-deprived soil, crops could thrive again — a discovery that also could feed Southerners. Once farmers integrated crop rotation into their fields, the South became a strong new supplier of agricultural products.

You may have heard Carver’s name associated with peanuts (boy, did he love them). Contrary to popular belief, Carver did not invent peanut butter. But he did develop more than 300 other food, industrial and commercial items with peanuts, such as plastics, dyes, soap, milk and cosmetics. He also invented 118 products from sweet potatoes, including molasses and postage-stamp glue.

After Carver died, in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a national monument built for him, an honor that before then had been reserved only for presidents.

Zephyr Wright

* Personal chef for President Lyndon B. Johnson

* Told her firsthand stories about discrimination to Johnson, which is thought to have influenced his signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Zephyr Wright drew in crowds with her comfort food. But the one person who may have benefited the most was Lyndon B. Johnson.

Wright was born and raised in Marshall, Tex. In 1942, she started working for the Johnsons as a maid and cook to help pay her way through college; she ended up staying with the family until 1969, through the duration of Johnson’s presidency. While Johnson was in Congress, his home quickly became known for its food, as other politicians visited regularly and built relationships over Wright’s chile con queso and peach cobbler. Lady Bird Johnson once wrote, “I have yet to find a great chef whose desserts I like as well as Zephyr’s.”

Wright was known to have told Johnson of her experiences with discrimination. Leonard H. Marks, the director of the United States Information Agency at the time of Johnson’s presidency, was one witness to this. “When Sammy and I drive to Texas and I have to go to the bathroom, like Lady Bird or the girls, I am not allowed to go to the bathroom,” Mr. Marks recounted Wright telling Johnson. (Her husband, Sammy, was Johnson’s driver.) “I have to find a bush and squat. When it comes time to eat, we can’t go into restaurants. We have to eat out of a brown bag.”

When Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Wright was there. After he finished, he gave her a pen he used and said, “You deserve this more than anybody else.”

Wright died in 1988 from heart complications at age 73.

Abby Fisher

* One of the first black cookbook authors

* Her cookbook was originally published in 1881 and reprinted in 1995

Abby Fisher was known for her Southern cooking, particularly her pickles and preserves. In 1880, after winning a bronze medal at a fair in San Francisco, the jurors said, “Her pickles and sauces have a piquancy and flavor seldom equaled, and, when once tasted, not soon forgotten.”

Fisher was born into slavery in South Carolina in 1832. She learned to cook in plantation kitchens in the South, where she developed her distinctive style. After the Civil War, she moved to San Francisco and opened a preserves business. Those close to her encouraged her to publish a cookbook; because she could not read or write, she ended up carefully describing her recipes to writers who assembled them for her. “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking” was published in 1881 and included 160 recipes, corn fritters and okra gumbo among them. You can get lost in it yourself.

Edna Lewis

* One of the most influential figures in modern Southern cooking

* Renowned author and chef

Born in 1916 in Freetown, Va., Edna Lewis grew up on a farm, where she learned to cook. After her father died when she was 16, she moved to Washington, D.C., living there briefly before finally settling in New York. She worked a series of different jobs until she began cooking at Café Nicholson in Midtown Manhattan, offering a simple menu of dishes like biscuits and herbed roast chicken. She soon became a local legend, and cooked for the likes of Salvador Dalí and Eleanor Roosevelt.

She left Café Nicholson in 1954, and started catering and teaching cooking classes in the American Museum of Natural History. About 20 years later, she wrote “The Edna Lewis Cookbook.” She began working with the renowned editor Judith Jones on a second book. After Jones pushed Lewis to find a more distinctive voice, “The Taste of Country Cooking” was born, which would become Lewis’s most significant cookbook, expanding on her Southern roots and how she would grow, harvest and cook what they planted in Freetown. It is celebrated for its focus on the simplicity of Southern food and emphasis of farm-to-table eating.

She went on to publish “In Pursuit of Flavor” in 1988, and “The Gift of Southern Cooking,” written with Scott Peacock, in 2003. Lewis died in 2006, but she is still recognized today for being a leading food voice in America.

Larry and Jereline Bethune

* Their restaurant, Brenda’s Bar-B-Que Pit, became a center for civil rights in Montgomery, Ala.

* The oldest barbecue restaurant in Montgomery that’s still in operation

* Their efforts contributed to the success of the bus boycotts

In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. Shortly after, bus boycotts began around the city. The Brenda’s Bar-B-Que Pit staff helped organize parts of the boycott, which soon propelled the civil rights movement into the national conversation.

Jereline and Larry Bethune first opened the restaurant in 1942; back then it was a nightclub, the Siesta Club, that sold food. It later became Brenda’s, named for one of their daughters. The restaurant became an unofficial center for the local civil rights movement, holding N.A.A.C.P. meetings, printing fliers and planning protests.

But even after the bus boycotts, Ms. Bethune quietly held lessons to teach other African-Americans to read so they could pass the literacy test, which functioned as a way to suppress the black vote during the height of the Jim Crow era. Donetta Bethune, the Bethunes’ granddaughter, described it as: “Let’s learn how to read. Let’s learn how to vote. Let’s go after our own rights so we never have to be treated in a way that we’re not equal to again. In the black community, that’s how they lived back then. Everyone helped each other, or else how could you get by or how could you make it through.”

Brenda’s is family-run to this day, and it still feeds locals its popular ribs, pig ears and chopped pork.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/em5c30oM5vn

10 Books with Wonderfully Nuanced Black Female Protagonists

Sun, 14 Apr 2019 21:16:39 GMT

10 Books with Awesome Black Female Protagonists stereotypes are getting you down, turn to these books featuring realistic, complex, feminist black women

When the reboot of Spike Lee’s 1986 debut “She’s Gotta Have It” came out, I knew I’d watch all ten episodes. I came of age during the 90s, when Lee released a new feature almost every year. His style left an impression on me: the dreamlike frenzy created by dolly shots, the way he tuned dialogue and characters to real ideological rifts in the black community, the stirring musical scores. Those techniques scaffold my work now, frame how I process real events, visualize fictions, and distill them into a story

Nola Darling, the protagonist of the film and series, was played with buoyance by DeWanda Wise in the new version, but how the show handled her sexuality drew mixed reactions from audiences. A self-proclaimed “sex-positive, polyamorous, pan-sexual” who isn’t into labels, the character sometimes felt more tethered to grand statements than to truth. The show’s writers were obviously working to atone for misogynistic errors of the source material. Revisiting something iconic brings the burden of the original subject’s weight.

And Nola Darling is iconic. She is feminist and sexual, proudly black, political and brainy, sometimes brittle and confused. She is spiritual mother to the zany black heroines we now have the privilege of quibbling about. Along with Lee’s films, the ‘90s brought us Family Matters, Hanging With Mr. Cooper, Fresh Prince, Living Single and more. Perhaps for the first time since then, today there are enough varied stories out in the world about black people that we can have preferences and make choices about what to watch when we want to see a depiction of ourselves. There is “Insecure” and “Atlanta” and “Queen Sugar”; “Dear White People,” “The Incredible Jessica James,” “Master of None”; “Moonlight,” “Get Out,” and “Girls Trip” — uniquely different films and shows that come from a distinctly black perspective and don’t apologize for that, explain it, or water it down for white viewers.

Still, viewers remain hungry for unique black women characters with interiority on film and TV, and black writers in those mediums remain rare. Color of Change reports just 4.8 of staff writer jobs in broadcast, cable, and streaming scripted series from the 2016–17 season were held by black writers. For characters that feel feminist and challenging, that trouble stereotypes and expand my imagination with depth and complexity, I often turn to novels. Here are some of my favorites, accumulated over a lifetime of searching.

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Tambu is the main character of this bildungsroman set in Zimbabwe and written by author and filmmaker Dangaremba. She lives in colonial Rhodesia, under the charge of her stern uncle, and attends mission school. She and her cousin Nyasha struggle to build selves under the twin assaults of colonialism and male domination.

Quietly, unobtrusively and extremely fitfully, something in my mind began to assert itself, to question things and refuse to be brainwashed, bringing me to this time when I can set down this story. It was a long and painful process for me, that process of expansion.

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love by Kathleen Collins

In this treat of a short story collection by the late playwright and filmmaker Kathleen Collins, released last year after being discovered in a trunk by her daughter, Nina, the black women characters are portrayed from multiple points of view. My favorite thing about the characters is that none of them fit neat categories. Also, Collins doesn’t shy away from their sexuality, nor their intelligence, nor their loneliness. And yet they aren’t women to be pitied; there is a boldness in these sketches that make you trust the characters and want to go with them, on their journeys.

Sula by Toni Morrison

The relationships between women in the new “She’s Gotta Have It” were compelling to watch. Morrison’s second novel, published in 1973, tells a story of Sula and Nel, two black women who come of age in a post-war community and take diverging paths into adulthood. It is an unsparing account of a friendship of two distinct, bold individuals, a sisterhood that is vital but doesn’t quite make it.

Their evidence against Sula was contrived, but their conclusions about her were not. Sula was distinctly different. Eva’s arrogance and Hannah’s self-indulgence merged in her and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived her days out exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleased her. As willing to feel pain as to give pain, to feel pleasure as to give pleasure, hers was an experimental life — ever since her mother’s remarks sent her flying up those stairs, ever since her one major feeling of responsibility had been exorcised on the bank of a river with a closed place in the middle. The first experience taught her there was no other that you could count on; the second that there was no self to count on either.

She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and could never be — for a woman.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Another novel about an epic friendship follows two biracial dancers who meet as children and come of age in the 80s with a shared love of Hollywood musicals and pop music. They are outcasts in their working class neighborhood in London mostly because they are biracial. The unnamed narrator has been called “unsympathetic.” She goes to work for an MTV-esque network for a Madonna-inspired pop star and in doing so, flees the neighborhood, while her friend, the more talented of the two, stays home. It is a meditation on how one woman can define herself using the contours of another, and the limitations that presents.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

In Jesmyn Ward’s second novel, the National Book Award winning Salvage the Bones, the main character, Esch, is bookish and friendless but tethered to her family as they prepare for Hurricane Katrina. Her passions are sundry and are the lifeblood of the novel.

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemons

What We Lose deserved every bit critical attention it got when it debuted. It’s an intimate tale about the grief that almost undoes its protagonist, Thandi, a young, black South African woman whose family is middle class and live in Pennsylvania. It captures the nourishing relationship Thandi has with her mother while considering the brutal, urgent demands of motherhood. In Thandi, we find a woman reckoning with how to meet and realize her desires even as she is rootless in the world.

Purple Hibiscus and Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adiche

The debut novel of Adiche, Purple Hibiscus is a coming-of-age story of 15-year-old Kamibili. Adiche introduces her feminist consciousness as Kambili must choose between the family she is born into and the one that feels more appropriate for her.

The wide-ranging novel Americanah spans three continents. We follow the protagonist Ifemelu, a woman who finding her way in a world stitched together by unstable racial categories. She goes through several love affairs and makes many mistakes before finally stumbling home.

Mama by Terry McMillan

I think Terry McMillan gets short shrift in the canon, mostly because of the blockbuster level popularity of her third novel Waiting to Exhale and the quotidian sensibility of the terrain she covers. Mama is her masterpiece. It’s a tale of a matriarchal family living in Michigan and the nature of progress through generations. Freda, the oldest daughter of Mildred Peacock, grows into a life that run parallel to her striving mother’s.

The Street by Ann Petry

The Street, Ann Petry’s 1946 novel set in Harlem about protagonist Lutie Johnson, a single black mother trying to make her way, sold a million copies when it came out. Lutie struggles to make a life for her son Pip, but what is generative is how the character makes choices out of a lot of impossible options.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Of course “A Raisin in the Sun” is a play and not a novel, but I think Beneatha Younger may be one of the most memorable black woman characters ever created. She is all hope and passion and angst and muddled, messy ideology. She’s transformed by the play’s end, though, into a person who knows that her political sensibility is nothing without compassion.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/BO0k30oqyxM

Hate In 3 Dimensions: The Challenge Of Being A Black Muslim Woman In America

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 03:47:18 GMT

Black Muslim women are the target of multiple forms of bigotry - and yet they are expected to deal with those instances gracefully.

Scrolling through the headlines and tweet storms earlier this month calling Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) an anti-Semite for comments she tweeted about pro-Israel lobbying efforts, Margari Aziza Hill felt a familiar sense of dread and a twinge of fear. A black Muslim woman like Omar, Hill saw her own experience reflected in the attacks on the freshman representative. But she kept her feelings quiet.

“I have to be so careful in my words when speaking about the oppression that I experienced and also the racism that I’ve experienced,” said Hill, the co-founder and managing director of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, a human rights organization that provides racial justice education and training to various Muslim communities.

Hill knows first hand how hard it is for many Americans to have conversations confronting racism and xenophobia.

Omar’s controversial tweets drew the ire of both Democrats and Republicans as anti-Semitic. The congresswoman has since “unequivocally apologized” for the tweets in a statement posted to Twitter.

“We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity,” Omar wrote.

Hill immediately wanted to speak out against the racist commentary online, but her friends and family discouraged her, fearing the attacks Omar endured would then target her. “It’s very scary. From the doxing [that happens] against black Muslim women who speak out to the physical threats that we face. Those [concerns] are real,” she said.

Omar is the first Somali-American elected to Congress. She is also one of the two first Muslim women elected to Congress and the first hijabi congresswoman. But alongside those milestones, Omar has had to deal with an onslaught of bigotry targeted at her race, religion or gender — and sometimes all three. As a black Muslim woman, and one in the public eye, Omar is a frequent target of xenophobia, racism and sexism ― from conspiracy theoriesabout her Somali family to online harassment by elected representatives.

But others like her say her experience is one they personally know all too well. Speaking to HuffPost, black Muslim women described feeling assaulted by hatred across three dimensions, including anti-black racism, blatant sexism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Hill, who identifies as a black Muslim woman, said seeing the attacks on Omar made her reflect on the many instances in which she has been the target of multiple forms of bigotry in her own life - and the expectation to deal with those instances gracefully.

“We’re supposed to be beacons of diversity, equality and inclusion and carry it all,” Hill said. “But if a black woman doesn’t perform perfectly, we’re the last to get hired and the first to get fired and that’s what it felt like in that moment [watching Omar].”

Black Muslims account for a fifth of the entire American Muslim population. Approximately 92 percent of that community say there is a lot of discrimination against black people, according to a Pew research study published last month. Black Muslims, like black Christians in America, also hold high levels of religious commitment according to the same study.

Hill, who has been doing anti-racism work over the last five years, was concerned at the level of outrage leveled against Omar and not against other politicians who have made similar comments or spewed explicitly racist sentiments.

“I’m still hurt to see that none of the same public figures have come out strongly against racism, xenophobia and Islamophobic vitriol, that’s still allowed to be normalized,” she said.

When President Donald Trump called for Omar to resign, the congresswoman quickly called out his hypocrisy over his history of fueling xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

The challenges many black Muslim women face means navigating “hostile spaces that weren’t designed” for them to be in, said Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, the senior editor at Sapelo Square, an online publication dedicated to celebrating and analyzing the experiences of black Muslims.

Abdul Khabeer is also the author of the book Muslim Cool , which explores the intersection of race, religion and popular culture and how black Muslim youth engage with their identities.

“In intellectual spaces and academic spaces, one of the main challenges [black Muslim women] face is people undercutting, questioning or undermining your authority because you’re black, because you’re Muslim and because you’re female and neither one of those categories are ones that, in the mainstream society, are highly valued intellectual categories,” Abdul Khabeer said.

Black Muslim women like Omar and other women in similar public spaces are particularly vulnerable to malicious attack because of the way these women are both “hyper-visible and invisible” at the same time, explained Abdul Khabeer.

For Omar in particular, that means understanding the various layers of her identities and how those are interpreted by her enemies - whether that’s her Somali ethnic identity, her blackness, her Muslim faith or her gender.

“The challenge in being a black woman is really overcoming the way society sees you and how people are trained to see you navigate power and your emotions. We’re not allowed to make as many mistakes as other people,” Hill agreed. “Your humanity is always in question. Your capabilities and incapabilities are always in question.”

In order to challenge the ways black Muslim women are seen and treated, more communities need to have difficult and nuanced conversations about race, religion and identity, said Hill, and that includes upholding the same standards for everyone.

“If we’re going to raise the bar and talk about anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-black, anti-immigrant tropes, we can’t allow that in our public discourse period,” said Hill. “We really need to start to interrogate the specific ways black Muslim women are silenced and particularly targeted.”

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/cRTO30ocMsw

Meet Inventor Alice Parker: The Woman Behind Central Heating

Wed, 27 Mar 2019 03:16:39 GMT

When it’s cold outside during the winter months, it’s nice to go inside your home or apartment, turn on the central heat and feel all warm and cozy, right? Well, we all have inventor Alice Parker to thank for that. She invented a furnace that supplied central heating for entire homes and buildings.

At the time it was, and still is, much safer than burning firewood. Her heating furnace was different from the other furnaces around at that time. Her design had air ducts that allowed heat to spread throughout the structure. Parker’s invention included a multiple burner system and used natural gas. What made it especially unique is that it was like later zone heating, where the temperature could be moderated in different areas of a building.

Parker’s patented design, which was filed on December 23, 1919, allowed for cool air to be drawn into the furnace, then conveyed through a heat exchanger that delivered warm air through ducts to individual rooms of a house. The concept of central heating was around before Parker was born, but her design was unique because it used natural gas as its fuel instead of coal or wood that had been previously used.

Parker was born in Morristown, New Jersey. She attended Howard University Academy, a high school located in Washington D.C., and was granted a certificate with honors in 1910. Parker is said to have been inspired for her design because she felt her fireplace was not effective enough in warming her home through the cold New Jersey winters. Her invention was convenient because it meant that people did not have to go outside and chop or buy wood. It also decreased the risk of house or building fires that heating units posed by eliminating the need to leave a burning fireplace on throughout the night. Although her initial designs were never used, her idea that natural gas and ducts could be used to heat different areas of a house was a major step towards the heating systems use today.

Parker’s filing a patent was a remarkable milestone, as she was an African American woman in the early 20th century since her filing for a patent preceded both the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Liberation Movement. Both of which helped remove many of the barriers that women of her generation faced. At this time, African American women had very limited opportunities to do anything entrepreneurial on a big scale, but Parker’s patent for her invention during that time not only went pushed through barriers, it was an outstanding achievement that we benefit from today.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/RVHM30ocM1Y

When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 18:25:25 GMT

The value of civility is one of the few things Americans can all agree on — right? That's the common assumption. And yet it's an assumption that depends on everyone thinking they're a full member of the community.

But what about when they aren't?

For many people of color in the United States, civility isn't so much social lubricant as it is a vehicle for containing them, preventing social mobility and preserving the status quo. The furious white pushback at integrating lunch counters in the 1960s wasn't about the grilled cheese sandwiches that sit-in protesters weren't going to be served — it was about their presumption that they could sit at the counter at all. As equals.

That fury is why Alabama Gov. George Wallace could proclaim, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!"

Even after passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, some white people were still pushing back against demands for equality from black and brown communities. James Forman, a principal organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had famously promised the people who wanted to go slow on integration that if blacks didn't have a seat at democracy's table soon, the entire table would be tossed.

A few years later, as the Black Power movement gathered steam, activist H. Rap Brown told black Americans that they could ignore laws that were never meant to include them. "We did not make the laws in this country," he insisted. "We are neither morally or legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up keep us down!"

A "God-ordained" right to civilize others

Such laws and ordinances were designed to contain communities of color, says Gaye Theresa Johnson, who studies the intersection of civility and race at the University of California, Los Angeles. They allowed white citizens to, in effect, civilize people they considered less than.

And many assumed that this civilizing mission came from a higher authority. "It's always been a situation where people assume that civility is something that's sort of God ordained," Johnson says.

That belief would indicate that some people are innately civil, while others need to have civility taught to — or imposed upon — them. Johnson says this is part of the underlying rationale for the enslavement of Africans imported into America and the genocide of Native peoples.

"People of color don't get to orchestrate the terms of civility," she explains. "Instead, we're always responding to what civility is supposed to be."

So the relationship between alleged civilizers and the people they're "gifting" with civility, Johnson points out, is "inherently undemocratic, unequal and racist." (Think of Native American children being forcibly removed from their homes and placed in so-called Indian boarding schools or Mexican children being punished for speaking Spanish in schools or African-Americans being forced to listen to sermons that preached that servants should obey their masters, etc.)

And so, pushing back against the status quo will be seen as inherently uncivil by the people who want to maintain it. And there are always higher standards expected of those people pushing back.

Rutgers professor Brittney Cooper writes about white reaction to black anger in her book Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower . Since the Black Lives Matter movement blossomed, Cooper says, the mere fact that blacks are protesting affects how white society sees those protests.

"Black anger, black rage, black distress over injustice is seen as, one, unreasonable and outsized; and, two, as a thing that must be neutralized and contained quickly." Cooper says this often takes the form of whites "preaching at black people about how they're bad and how they're ungrateful for being angry."

Opening eyes and ears

Former President Bill Clinton illustrated this during a Philadelphia campaign event for his wife, Hillary, in 2016.

As he talked about the ways in which the criminal justice system has evolved in recent years, his recitation was challenged by Black Lives Matter activists. "I listened to them," he told the Hillary Clinton supporters, "and they don't wanna listen to me."

He turned to his challengers and shook his finger at them: "You will never learn anything when you're talking." He was, in effect, telling them they were being uncivil.

But sometimes being uncivil is what gets the job done. Back in the late 1980s, many AIDS activists decided that the only way the country was going to become concerned about the growing human toll that HIV was claiming was to cause disruption.

Steven Petrow writes a column for The Washington Post on LGBT issues called Civilities. Back then, he says, most of the country had to be shocked into caring about AIDS — and trying to find a treatment for it.

A group of AIDS activists called ACT UP, which was dedicated to aggressively pressing for more research and services, infuriated a lot of people whose lives were disrupted by their demonstrations. But, Petrow says, something had to happen: "People were dying. The FDA was doing nothing. The Reagan White House had said nothing about AIDS well into the president's second term. So, yes, that urgency justified that type of action."

Students who are in the country illegally have used the same tactics to press for extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. In the past few years, marches and protests have raised awareness about the students often referred to as Dreamers.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem enraged many people — including President Trump. The upward spiral of unarmed black people (mostly men) who have been killed by (mostly) white policemen was unacceptable to the NFL star. He chose to kneel to bring attention to it, and that, says Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy, made a lot of the white public furious.

Daring to challenge society

"The idea that these athletes were addressing themselves to a burning political issue — that in and of itself made people mad," Kennedy says.

Kaepernick and other athletes who have chosen to protest social issues are angering people who believe they have strayed from their appointed place as athletes, Kennedy argues. These people want a ballgame, not a lecture — even a silent one.

But, Kennedy adds, by kneeling silently, Kaepernick was acting in the same dignified way civil rights demonstrators did in the 1960s: Students sitting quietly at lunchroom counters until they were dragged away, matrons shoved into police wagons, children being fire-hosed: All were quietly resisting what they believed was a societal wrong.

Kaepernick, Kennedy says, "was very vulnerable, and despite his vulnerability, he stood up in kneeling down. And I think in history he will go down as a hero."

As with so much, time changes things. Those students who had to be pulled away from lunch counters throughout the South were vilified back then. Today, many are considered heroes for their civil disobedience.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/SgaE30o9EMI

For a Black Mathematician, What It’s Like to Be the ‘Only One’

Sun, 03 Mar 2019 18:42:54 GMT

Fewer than 1 percent of doctorates in math are awarded to African-Americans. Edray Goins, who earned one of them, found the upper reaches of the math world a challenging place.

It was not an overt incident of racism that prompted Edray Goins, an African-American mathematician in the prime of his career, to abandon his tenured position on the faculty of a major research university last year.

The hostilities he perceived were subtle, the signs of disrespect unspoken.

There was the time he was brushed aside by the leaders of his field when he approached with a math question at a conference. There were the reports from students in his department at Purdue University that a white professor had warned them not to work with him.

One of only perhaps a dozen black mathematicians among nearly 2,000 tenured faculty members in the nation’s top 50 math departments, Dr. Goins frequently asked himself whether he was right to factor race into the challenges he faced.

That question from a senior colleague on his area of expertise, directed to someone else? His department’s disinclination to nominate him to the committee that controls hiring? The presumption, by a famous visiting scholar, that he was another professor’s student?

What about the chorus of chortling that erupted at a lunch with white and Asian colleagues when, in response to his suggestion that they invite underrepresented minorities as seminar speakers, one feigned confusion and asked if Australians qualified.

“I can give you instance after instance,” Dr. Goins, 46, said as he navigated the annual meeting of the nation’s mathematicians in Baltimore last month. “But even for myself I question, ‘Did it really happen that way, or am I blowing it out of proportion? Is this really about race?’”

The ‘leaky pipeline’

Black Americans receive about 7 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded each year across all disciplines, but they have received just 1 percent of those granted over the last decade in mathematics. Like many who see in that disparity a large pool of untapped talent, Dr. Goins has long been preoccupied with fixing what is known as the “leaky pipeline.”

Redress the racial disparities that exist at every level of math education, the logic goes, and racial diversity among those who grapple with math’s biggest problems will follow.

To that end, Dr. Goins delivers guest lectures to underrepresented middle and high school math students, organizes summer research programs for underrepresented math undergraduates, mentors underrepresented math graduate students, and heads an advocacy group that was formed in 1969 after the American Mathematical Society, the professional association for research mathematicians, rejected a proposal to address the dearth of black and Hispanic members.

Dr. Goins’s own journey through the pipeline was propelled by a magnet program that offered Advanced Placement calculus for the first time at his majority-black south Los Angeles high school. In 1990, having aced the A.P. calculus BC exam, he became the first student from the school ever to gain admission to the prestigious California Institute of Technology, just 20 miles away.

The 10 black students in his incoming class were the largest group Caltech had ever enrolled, he learned when he wrote a paper on the little-known history of being black at Caltech for a summer research project. Only three of the others graduated with him four years later.

Most of his classmates, Dr. Goins quickly realized, had arrived with math training that went far beyond his own. In his freshman year, he sometimes called his high school calculus teacher for help with the homework. In his sophomore year, he watched from his dormitory television as the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted a few blocks from his mother’s home. But he also came to excel in applied math, which traffics in real-world problems, and, later, to immerse himself in “pure math,” which seeks to elucidate the questions intrinsic to mathematics itself.

Dr. Goins won two math prizes at Caltech, and in 1999 he received a Ph.D. from Stanford’s math department — one of three African-Americans that have ever done so, according to an informal count by William Massey, a Princeton professor who received the second. In 2004, after holding a visiting scholar position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and another at Harvard, Dr. Goins joined the faculty of Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.

“You are such an inspiration to us all,” Talitha Washington, a black mathematician who is now a tenured professor at Howard University, wrote on his Facebook page when he received tenure in the spring of 2010.

Yet having emerged at the far end of the pipeline, Dr. Goins found himself unwilling to stay. Last fall, in a move almost unheard-of in the academic ecosystem, he traded his full professor post at Purdue, where federal resources are directed at tackling science’s unsolved problems and training a new generation of Ph.D.’s, for a full professorship at Pomona, a liberal arts college outside Los Angeles that prioritizes undergraduate teaching.

“Edray,” he recalled one colleague telling him, “you are throwing your career away.”

“Who do they make eye contact with?”

In an essay that has been widely shared over the last year, Dr. Goins sought to explain himself. He extolled the virtues of teaching undergraduates and vowed to continue his research. But he also gave voice to a lament about the loneliness of being black in a profession marked by extraordinary racial imbalance.

“I am an African-American male,” Dr. Goins wrote in a blog published by the American Mathematical Society. “I have been the only one in most of the universities I’ve been to — the only student or faculty in the mathematics department.”

“To say that I feel isolated,” he continued, “is an understatement.”

Experiences similar to Dr. Goins’s are reflected in recent studies by academic institutions on attrition among underrepresented minorities and women across many disciplines. Interviews with departing faculty of color indicated that “improving the climate” would be key to retaining them, according to a 2016 University of Michigan report.Officials at Columbia, which has spent over $85 million since 2005 to increase faculty diversity, with disappointing results, suggested last fall that progress would hinge partly on majority-group faculty members adjusting their personal behavior.

“In most cases, faculty are not consciously or purposely trying to make colleagues feel unwelcome or excluded,” said Maya Tolstoy, dean of Columbia’s arts and science faculty. “But it happens.”

And at the recent math meeting, where Dr. Goins delivered a keynote address titled “A Dream Deferred: 50 Years of Blacks in Mathematics,” his presence kindled conversations about racial slights in the math world. The presumption of competence and authority that seems to be automatically accorded other mathematicians, for instance, is often not applied to them, several black mathematicians said.

“Who do they make eye contact with? Not you,” said Nathaniel Whitaker, an African-American who heads the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Michael Young, a mathematician at Iowa State University, said he almost gave up on graph theory a few years ago after an encounter with some of the leaders of the field at a math institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“A couple of them were at a board writing something,” he recalled. “I went over and asked, ‘What are you guys working on?’”

“We’re too far in to catch you up,” he said he was told.

The ethos characterized as meritocracy, some said, is often wielded as a seemingly unassailable excuse for screening out promising minority job candidates who lack a name-brand alma mater or an illustrious mentor. Hiring committees that reflect the mostly white and Asian makeup of most math departments say they are compelled to “choose the ‘best,’” said Ryan Hynd, a black mathematician at the University of Pennsylvania, “even though there’s no guideline about what ‘best’ is.”

And Ken Ono, a prominent mathematician in Dr. Goins’s field, number theory, and a vice president of the mathematical society, said that a part of Dr. Goins was always likely to be wondering, “‘Do they see me as the token African-American, or do they see me as a number theorist?’”

“And honestly, to tell the truth, I think that answer would vary from individual to individual,” Dr. Ono said.

Most tenured math faculty members at research institutions do not leave, regardless of their race. “I’ve done well and am really enjoying myself,” wrote Chelsea Walton, a black mathematician at the University of Illinois, in a comment on Dr. Goins’s blog post.

But because role models of the same race are seen as critical to luring talented students from underrepresented minorities into a Ph.D. program, it is a blow to lose even one, Dr. Ono said. For the representation of African-Americans in math departments to reach parity with their 13-percent share of the country’s adult population, their ranks would have to increase more than tenfold. (The number of women, also notoriously low among math faculty, would need to triple.) “It’s a loss to our mathematical community that Edray may never advise graduate students again,” said Dr. Ono, who is Japanese-American.

An ambitious gambit

Dr. Goins’s isolation, he himself was the first to note, was also forged by an early career failure. Near the end of his graduate studies at Stanford, he set out to prove a conjecture using techniques suggested by the solution to a 350-year-old problem, Fermat’s last theorem, which had rocked the mathematical world a few years earlier.

It was an ambitious undertaking whose success would probably have snagged him job offers from the most elite math departments in the country. But the conjecture was grounded in a highly technical area populated by the field’s top talent. And despite guidance from Richard Taylor, a white mathematician then at Harvard who had assisted in solving Fermat’s theorem, Dr. Goins was unable to publish the paper he produced four years later.

Several mathematicians familiar with Dr. Goins’s efforts said they did not see racial discrimination as playing a role. It is not all that unusual, they said, for such an ambitious undertaking to end in an unsatisfying result. But it also can require deep reserves of self-confidence and a professional network to bounce back.

Dr. Goins’s colleagues at Purdue said his receipt of tenure and subsequent promotion to full professor signaled the university’s willingness to overlook a sparse research portfolio in light of his extraordinary work with undergraduates, as well as the summer programs he organized for minority students.

“While these areas are not necessarily ‘traditional’ markers for excellence at major research universities, they were valued,” Greg Buzzard, the head of Purdue’s math department, who is white, said in a statement.

But Dr. Goins said he was looking for something else.

“I just never really felt respected,” he said.

At the math meeting last month, Dr. Goins’s essay was not immune from criticism.

Some black mathematicians questioned the utility of dwelling on perceived slights, many of which are unconscious or made out of ignorance.

Some who know Dr. Goins noted his sensitivity. Insults that others might shrug off, they said, might stick with him.

For Bobby Wilson, a mathematician at the University of Washington, offenses related to race “just start to wash over you.” He added: “That doesn’t mean it’s right or good.”

Over dinner one evening, another black mathematician told Dr. Goins that he was worried that his blog account of the difficulties he faced might discourage black graduate students who hope to pursue careers in academic research.

Maybe, it was suggested, he should have kept it to himself.

Dr. Goins, taking that in, was silent. His reply came only the next day.

“I didn’t write it to tell people what should happen,” he said. “I wrote it to tell people what could happen.”

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/JIzI30nU6dJ

Church to host black business expo

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 17:45:25 GMT

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a sniper on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., but a local minister is continuing to press forward with the slain civil rights leader’s dream.

King’s dream not only called for the end of white racist oppression, but economic opportunities for African-Americans.

In the Twin Counties, Bishop Shelton Daniel, senior pastor at Greater Joy Church at 820 Nashville Road, seeks to help black owned and operated businesses be seen by the masses.

In recent years, Daniel has done so with the annual local African-American Business Expo he established.

Daniel said in less than a few weeks, Greater Joy Church is going to be the scene of more than 80 proprietors and shopkeepers registered to participate in the expo.

The expo traditionally follows a service at the church honoring King’s life and times.

Daniel said he believes King, as an advocate for the masses, had the vision that all people would have the opportunity to succeed in free enterprise.

At the same time, he made clear he is seeking to focus on disparities, such as low-income, poverty-stricken areas, where African-American businesses do not receive as much public exposure than in other areas.

“And we’re just trying to just showcase and make sure everyone gets the same opportunities,” he said.

He said from what he and his fellow organizers can gather, the expo seems to have helped African-American businesses.

“It’s really growing — and I think it is a great excitement for small business. And so we are real excited about what it is doing and then what we hope that it will provide for our community,” he said.

He said most of the participating businesses are from the Rocky Mount area but added, “there are businesses that are coming out of other areas,” such as Halifax, Pitt and Wake counties.

He said admission to the expo is free, but he made clear the expo does not allow the participating businesses to sell items.

Daniel said the plan is for an annual service at 11 a.m. on Jan. 21, which is an annual celebration timed with King’s birthday.

Had King still been alive, he would be turning 90.

The service has been a routine locally for at least a decade.

Daniel said although King was an activist in the political arena, he was a minister, so the focus of the service is on the preacher part of the celebration and is attended by a variety of public officials.

He said the service is going to last approximately an hour and a half and be followed by the expo, which he expects will last until approximately 2 p.m.

As for a long-term vision for the African-American Business Expo, Daniel said he hopes it is going to foster other small businesses.

He said when one looks at impacting the economy, he believes there is going to be some but not a huge amount of major businesses settling down in smaller cities.

“So the infusion into the economy in smaller cities throughout the state is going to be entrepreneurship — and small businesses helping with that,” he said.

Daniel, 54, is in his 11th year with Greater Joy and in his 26th year as a pastor. Originally from the Raleigh-Durham area, he said before he was ordained, he long worked for IBM.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/Ek6X30ndNWL

The story of the funky drummer: the most exploited man in modern music

Mon, 24 Dec 2018 03:16:19 GMT

“Give the drummer some”, said the voice of funk soul pioneer James Brown as it rang out above his band on the 1967 recording of Cold Sweat . The drummer in question was Clyde Stubblefield who was said to be one of the most sampled and exploited musicians of all time .

His playing on Cold Sweat established the rhythmic template for funk and is rightly regarded as being pivotal in the history of popular music. But it was his work on Brown’s Funky Drummer that would echo through the ages. A 20-second drum loop that would go on to be sampled on over 1,300 songs , from Public Enemy and Beastie Boys to George Michael, Britney Spears and Ed Sheeran .

So why did a musician who created one of the most memorable pieces of music of all time end up dying in relative poverty?

Stubblefield’s position in music history is assured. But the fact remains that he was never properly compensated financially for his talent and innovation. He died on February 18 but before the end of his life had unpaid medical bills of $90,000. Before he died, Stubblefield revealed that his bills were settled by the late great Prince in an act of charity. He was one of the drummer’s greatest fans. So questions are now being asked as to what it was that Stubblefield was actually “given” by his employers and by the generation of musicians that seemingly so often took his labour for granted.

Stubblefield worked with James Brown from 1965-1971 having previously been the sticksman for soul legend Otis Redding. He was no newcomer to the music business and it was normal practice for musicians like Stubblefield to be paid a one-off fee for the recording. Despite making a critical contribution to the record, he would not have retained any of the rights to his performance or his compositional contribution. Stubblefield spoke about Brown in the PBS documentary Copyright Criminals (2009) , saying: “He didn’t tell me what to play … I played what I felt but he owned it.”

His story may have gone unnoticed by the wider world were it not for the recording of Funky Drummer on November 20, 1969. It was a minor hit for for The Godfather of Soul. But five minutes and 34 seconds into the song, Stubblefield embarks upon a solo drum feature that launches both him and his drumming into the future, becoming a primary source in hip-hop’s development.

The Funky Drummer Loop

This 20 seconds of music is propelled by a very straight and repetitive semiquaver/16th note hi-hat pattern with the bass drum emphasising the first two quavers/eighth notes of the bar. However, it is in the snare drum part where Stubblefield makes the magic happen. Its roots come from the New Orleans marching band tradition and it blends syncopations, ghost notes and rimshots into a compulsive rhythmic mix. The snare bounces off and against the straighter parts creating an addictively danceable beat that would prove irresistible to legions of hip-hop producers, DJs, rappers and pop artists.

“Breakbeats” (looped two-bar audio snapshots known as samples) from the solo became one of the rhythmic foundations of hip-hop and were used hundreds of times on tracks by artists including Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Ice Cube and Run DMC. The affordable new sampling technology such as the E-mu SP-1200 percussion sampler that emerged in the mid 1980s made this possible, building on the vinyl mixing innovations of hip-hop innovator DJ Kool Herc.

However, in the excitement surrounding the new hip-hop culture and associated technologies, few stopped to think about paying or crediting the artists who were being sampled. Stubblefield said: “People use my drum patterns on a lot of these songs … They never gave me credit, never paid me. It didn’t bug me or disturb me, but I think it’s disrespectful not to pay people for what they use.” It wasn’t long before the sample was being picked up by pop and rock producers – and so Stubblefield’s uncredited influence grew and grew.

In another interview , Stubblefield spoke about how the samplers sometimes tweaked his drum part, adding: “They can change the tone … they’ve got so much technology today they can make the speed go up … whatever they want to do with it, and I won’t even know it’s me … I prefer to get my name on the record saying this is Clyde playing … the money is not the important thing, just to get myself out in the world.”

Stubblefield was not alone in having his work sampled and reassembled into someone else’s creative vision. 1960s funk outfit The Winston’s “Amen” break from their track Amen, Brother, performed by drummer GC Coleman, has been used by acts as varied as NWA and Oasis and has been the basis for many hits. Coleman also died homeless and broke in 2006 without ever having been paid a cent for his efforts.

Unsung heroes

Stubblefield and Colman were working in an era when it was hard for even big name artists to get the money they were owed – so for mere session musicians it would have been impossible. The music business is built upon the exploitation of copyrights and neither musician had any ownership of their most important work.

In some ways, that is still the accepted lot of the session musician. You sell your creativity and instrumental or vocal skills for a one-off fee. But without these musicians’ extraordinary rhythmic imaginations, the records that we have all been dancing to for the last 30 years would have been lacking that crucial funk factor. We should take our hats off to these unsung heroes.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/vyj630n5FLP

25 black-owned businesses in US to support this holiday season

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 17:33:34 GMT

Here are 25 Black-owned businesses that you can support this year

Black Hair and Skin Care

Cajose Natural : After having trouble soothing her kids’ issues with dry and patchy skin, one Black entrepreneur decided to take matters into her own hands - rather literally. Having already been immersing herself into natural ingredients for her own hair and skin, she continued her researching which would best suit the needs of her children.

Elle Johnson Luxury Skincare : Founder LaVonndra "Elle" Johnson became a skincare enthusiast after witnessing so many women struggle with skin conditions, often times leading to lowered self-esteem and confidence, and a reliance on artificial beauty.

Koils By Nature : Dedicated to offering high quality, all natural, hair and skin products, their customers can believe in and feel confident using. They achieve that goal by creating blends that do not contain parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, phthalates, propylene glycol, mineral oil, PBA, petroleum, paraffin DEA, synthetic color, or animal products.

Jewelry and Accessories

KYW Boutique : Online Black-owned boutique that offers unique & trendy accessories to empower women to be bold and feel confident. KYW Boutique stands for "Know Your Worth," and the founder, Nakisha B, wants women to be bold and classy.

Gabby Bows : This company was launched by Gabrielle Goodwin when she was just five years old when she started daily insisting she and her Mom create a barrette that would stay in her hair. Since then, GaBBY Bows have helped families all over the world save time, money and frustration.

Toys and Children's items

Darlyng & Co : This Black-owned lifestyle brand for children let's parents keep their sanity. Their new innovative Teether - The Yummy Mitt® Teething Mitten makes your baby less crabby and more happy! Plus a variety of other cool products.

Toys Like Me : This company was launched in early 2018 by an African American dad who noticed that most toys sold by major retailers do not reflect what children with brown skin look like. He wanted to create backpack dolls and other products that Black children could resonate with, that is, toys that would build character, self-esteem, and most importantly... self-awareness!

Trinity Designs, Inc. : This Black-owned company celebrates black beauty through dolls that endeavor to inspire, captivate and encourage young women and children to love the skin they’re in. They hope to increase self awareness and self confidence by giving them positive options for dolls that they can identify with.

Books and Magazines

Urban Ebooks : More than 25 ebooks that empower African Americans, other minorities, and women of all ethnicities. They are 100% educational, and most of the books are available for $5 or less.

Urban Intellectuals : Black History Flash Cards designed to combat the miseducation and suppression of Black achievements around the globe, and Black History Coloring Books that focus on some of the amazing entrepreneurs in modern history that have excelled via ingenuity, perseverance and drive.

Entrepreneurs Color Too : This Black-owned company presents the first adult coloring book to highlight the beauty of black women and celebrate those women as being successful entrepreneurs. Since launching in May of 2018, the book has been featured in Black Enterprise , Curly Nikki and Madame Noire . This book is for business creatives and CEOs "because we should all feel inspired."

Backpacks and Handbags

Natural & Fit Designs : Workout wear geared toward African American women. The clothing is made from materials that can handle the sweat from an intense workout session, yet leave you looking great throughout your exercises.

Africa On My Back : a social enterprise that funds study abroad opportunities for African American males while simultaneously supporting small businesses in Ghana through the sale of handcrafted, African-print backpacks.

Suakoko Betty : a lifestyle brand inspired by African design. Owner and creative director Charlene Dunbar was born in Liberia and moved to Atlanta when she was 11. She took style lessons from her mom and Liberian church ladies, spliced them with her contemporary point of view, and her fashion line was born.

The Purse Paparazzi : Based in Baltimore, MD, this Black-owned company offers women an assortment of unique, stylish and edgy clutches for every occasion! Their clutches are perfect for date night, brunch or your special event.

Coco'Pie Clothing : Founded in 2011 by Shantae Pelt, Coco’Pie came to life after one of her daughters saw a t-shirt with a little black girl on it. She excitedly exclaimed, “Look, mommy! It’s me on that shirt!” This helped her to realize that there was not enough mainstream apparel that features images of brown girls!

Greeting Cards

Culture Greetings : An Atlanta-based startup that allows customers to pick a culturally relevant physical greeting card and write a personal note using their handwriting fonts. They will print and mail the cards directly to the customer's recipients through an automated integration with their state of the art commercial printing system.

Drinks

Ellis Island Tea : Ellis Infinity Beverage Company was founded in 2008 by Nailah Ellis-Brown. Their specialty is Ellis Island Tropical Tea, an all natural, hibiscus tea with a Jamaican blend. The recipe came from the founder's great grandfather and is now produced in Detroit, Michigan.

Me and the Bees Lemonade : Founded by 10-year old, Mikaila of Austin, Texas, when she was only four years old when she opened her lemonade stand, using her great-grandmother's recipe. She called it Sweet Bee lemonade but has since changed the name to Me and the Bees Lemonade.

Jin+Ja : a revitalizing, anti-inflammatory and metabolism boosting tea brand that was started in the summer of 2009 by entrepreneur Reuben Canada. He initially made the drinks for himself and for friends, but then realized that he had something bigger on his hands. After doing a test at a local retailer, the product kept selling out every 3 days for first three months and the rest is history!

Bee D'Vine : a popular brand of honey wine that was created by entrepreneur Ayele Solomon after he realized that flowering trees in Ethiopia were an ideal source of nectar and pollen that bees use to make valuable honey. This set him on a quest to better understand the art and business of creating honey wine. He evaluated production in Ethiopia and South Africa, but settled on the world-class wine region of Sonoma – not far from where he grew up – using California honey for the first varietals.

Desserts and Snacks

CamiCakes Cupcakes : These yummy cupcakes were the inspiration of African American entrepreneur Andra Hall. She named the cupcakes after her daughter Camille and includes over 25 different varieties like sweet potato, banana cream, salted caramel, red velvet and more. Order online or visit one of her 7 locations in Florida and Georgia.

The Black Cake Company : Caribbean rum cakes are the specialty at this bakery. They use fresh ingredients and recipes that have been handed down for generations. The company has been around since 1987 and ships cakes around the world.

Symphony Chips : Created by an Atlanta-based father and his 2 daughters, this company produces healthy potato chips with all-natural ingredients that are both delightful and memorable.

Southern Culture Foods : This Decatur, Georgia-based company makes pancake and waffle mix, bacon rub and syrup. Owner Erica Barrett starting cooking for her family at the age of 9. Her first break came when she took first place in a food contest being held by The Food Network and Lea & Perrins, winning $10,000 and a trip to New York City. The rest she says is history.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/xb2P30n4Mcj

The healing power of hip hop

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:42:56 GMT

Last year, New York’s then police commissioner Willam Bratton was quick to blame rap music and the culture around it for a fatal backstage shooting at a concert by the rapper T.I . Ignoring wider issues of gun control, Bratton pointed at “ the crazy world of the so-called rap artists” that “basically celebrates the violence”.

Hip Hop culture and rap (a method of vocal delivery popularised through hip hop music) have for more than four decades been bundled with a range of negative connotations, leading many like Bratton to equate them only with profanity, misogyny, violence and crime. Prosecutors in the US have labelled rap lyrics a criminal threat , and numerous studies have been undertaken on the harmful influence of hip hop on kids.

There’s no denying that the lyrical content of hip hop is confronting, and in many instances, it includes the glorification of violence, substance use, and gender discrimination. But while many people struggle to look past the profanity, materialism, and high-risk messages often celebrated within mainstream rap music, hip hop culture at its core, is built on values of social justice, peace, respect, self-worth, community, and having fun. And because of these values, it’s increasingly being used as a therapeutic tool when working with young people.

School counsellors, psychologists, and social workers have helped to normalise the option of integrating hip hop within mental health strategies. Indeed it has become central to the work of one group of psychiatrists at Cambridge University, who under the banner of “ hip hop pysch ”, use it as a tool in promoting mental health. Some have even called rap “ the perfect form for music therapy .”

Born in New York City, hip hop culture is now a worldwide phenomenon. You’d be hard-pressed to find any country that doesn’t have some kind of hip hop scene. This new reality is driven by two factors. One is the commercialisation of the culture as a commodity, which has made it one of the most influential industries in the world with its own Forbes rich list .

The other is that hip hop remains accessible and grassroots. At its simplest, you can make a beat with your mouth – beatboxing – or on a school desk , and create or recite lyrics about anything without singing. The proliferation of cost-friendly, music-creating software and hardware puts more involved participation in reach, and allows flexibility in creativity and even pathways to entrepreneurship.

Marginalised communities the world over resonate with the ethos of resisting exclusion or discrimination and fighting for equity and justice. Others just love the beats and lyrical flow. Beyond beats and rhymes, there’s also something for everyone: B-Girls and B-Boys dance, DJ’s scratch and mix, and graffiti artists draw and write. Combined with emceeing, or rapping, these are the four basic elements of hip hop , with the fifth being Knowledge of Self: the drive for self-awarness and social-consciousness.

This accessibility and inclusivity makes hip hop such an effective therapeutic tool for working with young people. It’s a style most feel comfortable with and it provides a way to build rapport between client and therapist. The lyrical content is a vehicle for building self reflection, learning, and growth. Whether analysing existing songs, or creating new content, the vast array of themes found in hip-hop songs enable therapists to access topics that may otherwise be hard to talk about.

The repetitive, predictable nature of hip hop beats is also said to provide a sense of safety , particularly during song writing, and lyrical and musical improvisation. Therapists suggest this provides a sense of dependability for those with little regularity or safety in their everyday lives; something supported by research linking music engagement and self-regulation .

In his US-based research, Dr Travis has shown that, despite negative associations, many who listen to hip hop find it a strong source of both self and community empowerment . More specifically, the benefits to individual mental health, in areas of coping, emotions, identity and personal growth, can help promote resilience in communities .

In Australian school settings, Dr Crooke has found hip hop to be a positive way for students of diverse backgrounds to engage with their wider community , learning tasks, and schools more generally . In a recent (yet to be published) study, he also explored the benefits of a short-term intensive hip hop and beat making program for young people labelled oppositional, seriously disengaged or at-risk of exclusion.

Results showed students were not only highly engaged in learning through the program, but exhibited positive self-expression, built significant rapport with facilitators, and strengthened social connection amongst each other.

Expressing yourself

Hip hop emerged as a reaction to the gang culture and violence of the South Bronx in the 1970s, and daily experiences of poverty, racism, exclusion, crime, violence, and neglect. It necessarily embodies and values resilience, understanding, community and social justice.

Yet, the hip hop project is not yet free from these difficult circumstances. Many communities around the world still battle the effects of discrimination, segregation, and injustice. Hip hop is often a potent voice to these lived experiences. One of its original, primary strengths was that it allowed young, creative Black and Latino youth to create art that reflected the reality of their lives, of the neighbourhoods around them, and of the wider social circumstances in which they found themselves. In the words of US artists N.W.A. they were making the most out their basic human right to “Express Yourself.”

We may be several decades on, but there are plenty of young people that still need to do the same.

Hip hop is neither a panacea nor a cure all. It is not perfect, but its promise is undeniable. It is a culture with complicated social and historical roots. And it should not be appropriated without acknowledging, respecting and addressing these, because it is precisely these origins that make is so important. Its complicated history enables us to critically reflect on our society, and forces us to face issues of race, privilege, class, and cultural appropriation.

Given the urgency of our need for equity, justice, tolerance and critical civic engagement in today’s society, we need to challenge our preconceptions about hip hop culture. It is perhaps one of the most important and generous movements in our world today.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/apv030n3i30

The rise and fall of Black Owned businesses

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 14:46:30 GMT

nthony Brogdon wants to tell you about the history of Black businesses. The Detroit-based filmmaker recently debuted his latest documentary, Business in the Black: The Rise of Black Business in America 1800 -1960’s . During the Chicago premier of this important film,at The South Side Community Arts Center –the historic house of Black art in Bronzeville, Brogdon shared with the audience details regarding his discoveries of the history of Black businesses.

The film opens with Brogdon asking how did Blacks attend college during the era of American chattel slavery. In a few scenes, the film tells us the history of how some of our ancestors were more privileged than others because they learned how to read and write from their oppressors. Brogden not only acknowledges people like John Chavis (the first black person on record to attend an American college or university), but he goes on to list the founding of historically Black colleges and universities. A memorable point in the film comes by way of a reenactment of a small group of enslaved persons having a conservation about learning how to read and write.

Fortunately, Brogdon provides the much-needed context of racism and white nationalistic violence against Black people as obstacles to economic freedom. Enslaved Africans did not become literate in isolation; they had to be taught. Brogdon enlightens his audience to the privileges some enslaved house servants had opposed to those who worked in the field. Due to their proximity to Whiteness, some Africans who served in plantation homes had more access to education. Sometimes, oppressors took it upon themselves to teach American literacy to the enslaved for varying reasons.

Brogdon briefly explores White nationalistic violence (or what many would deem a “race riot”) and its effect on growing Black communities. The familiar horror stories of Black Wall Street and the riots of Red Summer were the central narratives, and at one point a person reads a long list of communities that were destroyed by visceral racism. The realization that small segregated Black neighborhoods were the focal point of angry White communities for destruction pushes one to question how would those neighborhoods have progressed had they not been interrupted. How would Black businesses looked had they not been systematically targeted for destruction? Where would Black people be amidst striving and prosperous Black businesses?

Black Business in America presents the viewer with a quick glimpse of historical factoids. Clocking in at 75 minutes, this low-budget film (Brogdon says he spent $10,000) primarily relies on Michigan locals reading Black trivia facts about the millionaires of yesteryear. Brogdon’s film will serve as a good educational tool for many of those who are not aware of the many financial accomplishments of African-Americans; it can also build pride amongst a new generation unfamiliar with the times when Black businesses were booming. But, the movie is limited and does not take advantage of some of the most compelling scenes; more stories from the people who experienced the booming season for Black businesses would have made the documentary even better.

“If I had more money, I would’ve traveled and gone to other cities,” says Brogdon. Those who are interviewed–mostly Black elders–share past stories through rose-colored lenses about their Detroit community that once stood tall in the midst of racial oppression. In one scene, Black Detroiters reminisce on the nightclubs they once owned and frequented. Viewers can see the joy in their expressions as they rehash old memories under a utopic vision of the forgotten past. You couldn’t buy the genuineness and familiarity that jumped off the screen nor could you not envision Chicago’s historical businesses perched on the South and West sides during that same era.

Brogdon covers a time period that spans over a century. “I stopped at the 60’s because I didn’t want to get people into a conversation about what’s wrong with Blacks. People make that cry a lot,” says Brogdon. “But I wanted to give a great historical perspective of what was happening during slavery days.”

At the end of the film screening in Chicago, Brogdon took questions and provided further commentary on the film. While he is proud of the history that he covered, he believes that Black business is only getting better. “We’ve expanded what we do. We own 80 McDonald’s. We own sports teams. We’ve expanded all the way around,” says Brogdon. “The only thing we lack is owning the everyday stores in our communities like the gas stations, the grocery stores, and the retail stores. But we’ve grown by leaps and bounds.”

The focus on building Black businesses and economic independence has always been a contentious subject spurring intense debate amongst race leaders. Famed Black businessman Booker T. Washington, featured in Brogdon’s film, has always maintained the position that self-reliance, industrial education, and hard work is the way that Blacks will live harmoniously. Washington advocated for Blacks to learn trades and not so much mingle in race relations. Brogdon’s film carries the same tone.

However, there must be recognition of the counterargument. W.E.B. Du Bois, a forefather of sociology and opponent of Washington, says, “to ask the individual colored man . . . to sell meat, shoes, candy, books, cigars, clothes or fruit in competition with the chain store, is to ask him to commit slow but almost inevitable economic suicide.” Perhaps, there should be a marriage of the two ideologies. Can Black people work hard establishing their own businesses and fully acknowledge the harmful economic system in which they exist? The documentary pushes this question but leans toward Washington’s sentiments. Brogdon would say racism plays little in Black economic progress today.

“We find ways to overcome that. There is still racism in some cases when trying to get loans or bidding for city contracts,” says Brogdon. “There is some underhanded stuff. But I won’t say that is a crutch. We can still overcome that. We have Black venture-capitalists who are willing to invest in local Black businesses.”

It would behoove Black people to support Anthony Brogdon’s effort. Supporting Brogdon is supporting those who make appearances in the film, Black businesses, and the Black historical narrative. His film, Black Business In America, is available for purchase on Amazon.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/LT7B30mU0pr

Police Called on Black Business Owner standing in front of his San Francisco Lemonade Stand

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 13:50:36 GMT

Stevenson says that as a black entrepreneur, these types of incidents just prove that his reality is different from others when out on the streets even in a city as diverse as San Francisco

The owner of a high-end lemonade stand in San Francisco said he was approached by police officers demanding proof that he wasn’t breaking in, all because he is black.

Viktor Stevenson, owner of Gourmonade, says he was talking on the phone when four police officers approached him when figuring out a bug in the security system Thursday, five days after opening up his business in the Mission District.

"The cops approached me, and I say to them, he is about three feet away, I say, 'oh, did the security system go off? If it did, my apologies, I am on the phone with the company now.' They go to say, 'no,' [accusing me that] you are breaking into the store," he said. "The cops approached me, and I say to them, he is about three feet away, I say, 'oh, did the security system go off? If it did, my apologies, I am on the phone with the company now.' They go to say, 'no,' [accusing me that] you are breaking into the store," he said.

Stevenson said he has been getting his store ready for the last six months and people in the area know him. However, he said police immediately asked to see his hands, which were in his pockets and prove it what his store.

"I said, 'yeah absolutely, here is my key,'" Stevenson said. "Took my key out, opened my door, closed my door. 'Are we ok? Are we good to go?' He said, 'no, can I see your ID?'"

Stevenson recorded the aftermath of situation, which follows similar high-profile incident here in the Bay Area, like BBQ Becky and Permit Patty. He was told that a neighbor called police and though he admits officers were correct to ask for his ID to prove ownership, he insists this was motivated by race.

"I am standing here at my business, on the phone, there is no way that looks suspicious. I am sorry. A three year old would be like he is not doing anything," Stevenson said.

Stevenson says that as a black entrepreneur, these types of incidents just prove that his reality is different from others when out on the streets even in a city as diverse as San Francisco.

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According to SFPD, officers were dispatched to the 800 block of Valencia Street around 7:36 a.m. on July 17 "on a call of a possible burglary in progress at a business."

"The caller stated that the person was removing items from a small, open door," SFPD said in a statement.

“Four officers responded to the scene and spoke to the person and determined he was the owner of the business. The entire encounter lasted less than three minutes,” the statement added. “While we have no say over who requests our services, we do have a say over how we respond. The men and women of SFPD are committed to providing safety with respect to all of the people of San Francisco. It is the duty of San Francisco Police to respond to calls for service and we believe our officers responded appropriately and with courtesy to this call.”

The body cam video shows an SFPD officer walking up to Stevenson and asking him, “Do you have something that shows that you own this place? Somebody called us saying that you’re breaking in … We’re just here to figure it out.”

Stevenson, dressed in a big jacket, hands over his ID to the officer, who asks him for the address of the storefront. He responds with the address, and the officer then asks him if he has a California ID, which Stevenson then hands over.

The officer also informs the others, “He has a key.” The officers leave the storefront after this exchange.

Stevenson's wife says this situation has her on alert and that even when her husband goes to work, he is a potential target.

"I’m just sitting at home, just thinking about, would he be home safe? Or will I get a phone call if something happens. You never know. It’s just terrifying for me," Santhia Stevenson said.

Stevenson says he won’t let this rest. He wants to use this as way to get the community to do something to bring about a change in policy. He has already met with members of City Hall and plans to discuss this with Mayor London Breed.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/yaDH30mTWSt

Existing While Black

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 05:08:40 GMT

Jo Etta M. Harris was nursing her child in her car before a family outing. Gil Perkins was talking on the phone outside of his home. Kelly Shepard’s boys were shopping for video games. And in each instance, someone saw them as suspicious or a threat and called the police.

This isn’t new. It happens every day. The experiences of Harris, Perkins, Shepard – and so many others – are reminders that black people don't have the privilege to simply exist in peace.

Whether we’ve been pulled over and mistaken for a suspect, followed in stores or disrupted in our own homes and neighborhoods, many of us have had to go above and beyond to prove that we have the right to occupy common spaces. Many of us have had to prove that we are not criminal, knowing that failing to do so could be fatal. The families of Tamir Rice and John Crawford III know that firsthand.

These aren’t exaggerated situations, but real-life injustices that black people in the United States and beyond have to deal with. Stories of white people using 911 as their personal concierge hotline against black people have dominated the mainstream news this year. These stories are by no means new. And despite the danger these situations put us in, the white people making these calls rarely face repercussions.

A HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 15 percent of black Americans surveyed said they “have had the police called on them because of their race” more than once, compared to five percent of white Americans. Fifty-four percent of black Americans expressed that they’ve felt that “others have been suspicious of them based on the color of their skin,” while only 6 percent of white people said they have felt this way. These results aren’t a surprise considering that black people made up 24 percent of all police killings in 2015, despite comprising only 13 percent of the population, according to figures from The Washington Post .

HuffPost asked black readers to share their stories of being subjected to racial profiling and discrimination. They described moments when someone called the police on them for no apparent reason aside from their race. They recalled scenarios of cops stopping and searching them because their skin color made them look “suspicious.” They also said how maddening it is to live with the constant anxiety of possibly having their presence — and innocence — questioned.

Below, you will find their stories. Due to how deeply racism is woven into society’s DNA, this list is by no means comprehensive. Yet it is a small collection of real anecdotes that underscores the unjust policing of black bodies, according to readers. HuffPost will continue to update this list and highlight the constant burden we face. If you have a story of living while black, tell us. This issue deserves more attention than a few headlines in the news cycle.

EXPLORE THE STORIES OF EXISTING WHILE BLACK: http://ow.ly/RuAN30mNekF

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/RuAN30mNekF

Tourism boosted by surging interest in black history

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 03:53:47 GMT

States are trying to capitalize on the 50th anniversaries of many civil rights milestones.

Black history museums and historic sites are flourishing across the South, riding a wave of interest in African-American history that has made a stunning success of the two-year-old National Museum of African American History and Culture in the nation’s capital.

In the past year, museums documenting the civil rights struggle and memorializing lynching victims have opened in Jackson, Mississippi, and Montgomery, Alabama. In Nashville, a museum focusing on African-American music is scheduled to open next year.

And in Charleston, South Carolina, construction is set to begin next year on a projected $75 million black history museum that will stand on the former site of Gadsden’s Wharf , the disembarkation point for more than 100,000 Africans brought to America and sold into slavery.

At a time when attendance at some large museums is flagging — 12 of the 20 biggest U.S. museums saw flat or lower attendance in 2017 compared with 2016 — the swirl of activity involving black history stands out.

In Church Creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, for example, a year-old, 17-acre state-national park memorializing the place where Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved was expected to draw 75,000 visitors in its first year; it attracted 100,000.

Meanwhile, curators have rewritten exhibits at sites such as Mount Vernon and Monticello, the homes of Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They’ve also added information and buildings to teach visitors about the lives of enslaved people who worked on the plantations.

“Relevant history is inclusive history. Everyone is racing to do that,’’ said John Dichtl, president and CEO of the American Association for State and Local History, based in Nashville. Museums and other institutions “are all working on emphasizing the history of civil rights and the history of race relations and the history of slavery. It’s a priority for everyone.’’

History professionals cite several factors for the increased interest, including the availability of more federal money, Barack Obama’s presidency, and the 50th anniversaries of many civil rights milestones.

The Black Lives Matter movement, controversies over Confederate monuments, protests by NFL players and last year’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, also have prompted more Americans to want to “grapple with these issues of identity, with race, with nationalism and what that means,” according to Brian Carter, president of the Association of African American Museums, based in Washington, D.C.

“The country is changing. It’s looking at itself in different ways than it has historically,” Carter said. “Museums help people make meaning of their own experiences.”

New federal money also has helped. In 2016, the National Park Service began giving grants to African-American historical sites for personnel, programming and research, though not for construction. This year, the park service awarded $12.6 million in grants to 51 projects in 24 states, up from $7.8 million in grants to 39 projects in 2017.

And last summer, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced a $25 million grant campaign to support important African-American sites — including the home of jazz great John Coltrane in Dix Hills, New York.

Raising the Bar

The new museums and historic sites would be happy to achieve a fraction of the success of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. That museum, which occupies a prime location on the National Mall, drew 2.4 million visitors in 2017, making it one of the 10 most-visited museums in the United States.

The museum, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, “raised the bar of awareness around African-American history and museums. It just stimulated wanting to know more,’’ said Michael Boulware Moore, president of Charleston’s International African American Museum. “This history has largely been muted forever and now this history has been coming out. Now African-Americans, and Americans broadly, are just curious about this.’’

When the national museum opened, “we thought that might have the impact of sucking all the air out of the room. Just the opposite,’’ Moore said. Instead, it has been a catalyst for more presentations of black history, rather than the final word on the subject.

“I don’t think there’s going to be an oversaturation of African-American history in this country for quite some time,’’ Moore said. “There are art museums everywhere, and there are history museums everywhere. I see it as really healthy that there will be African-American museums everywhere.’’

The museum on the Mall also has provided concrete help to other African-American museums. It supports paid internships at museums, including some specifically for students at historically black colleges and universities, and subsidizes professional development conferences for museum personnel. And it provides travel grants for museum professionals to attend the annual conference of the Association of African American Museums.

Civil Rights Tourism

States also are investing in campaigns to promote civil rights tourism. Prompted in part by the 50th anniversaries of seminal events of the 1960s, 14 Southern state tourism agencies in January unveiled a joint website detailing stops on what they are calling the U.S. Civil Rights Trail .

It lists about 130 destinations, from the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, that was the site of the first sit-in by black students, to a statue of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in her birthplace of Ruleville, Mississippi.

Obama declared national monuments at civil rights historic sites in Birmingham and Anniston, Alabama, just before leaving office. Now buildings at those sites — the A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham and the Greyhound bus station in Anniston, where Freedom Riders were attacked in 1961 — are being restored with local and federal funds.

President Donald Trump last month designated his first national monument at Camp Nelson, near Lexington, Kentucky, where blacks fled during the Civil War to join the Union Army and where they and their families lived in refugee settlements and sought emancipation. His administration also has been expanding the African American Civil Rights Network of historic sites and started the process to designate the Medgar Evers home in Jackson, Mississippi, as a national monument.

Civil rights landmarks have been “overwhelmed by the response and interest,’’ said Lee Sentell, tourism director for Alabama, which has had its own civil rights trail.

“The idea of grouping them under one umbrella has been very well-received because it helps tell the general public that these landmarks are not one-offs,” Sentell said. Instead, the sites “collectively outline the progression that led to landmark Supreme Court decisions and congressional legislation that dismantled legal white supremacy.”

The South Carolina African American Heritage Commission last year created a “Green Book” mobile app that includes 300 historic African-American sites in the state. The app is named for the Jim Crow-era guides for black travelers that detailed safe places to get food and lodging. North Carolina is planning its own Green Book app that will include sites that were in the original guidebook.

“Cultural tourism, or heritage tourism, is one of the fastest growing markets in the country,’’ said Jannie Harriot, vice chairperson of the South Carolina commission.

“[But] nothing that we do is limited to black people. Sometimes I think white people are more interested in our history than we are. They show up to conferences, they want the information, and sometimes I know it’s for economic reasons — because they know where the trend is now.’’

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/TJD330mKfhs

Facebook's program teaches girls and children of color computer coding

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 01:17:37 GMT

Facebook just announced a new program to provide greater access to girls and children of color to computer coding.

The CodeFWD program is comprised of three steps:

I do: educators learning. CodeFWD prepares educators to introduce the basics of computer programming to their students, even as they may be discovering the concepts themselves.
We do: educators and students learn together. The next set of online activities is designed for educators to use to introduce students to computer programming.
You do: students practice their new skills. During this last set of activities, educators are supporting their students as they take what they’ve learned and apply it to block-based coding exercises.

After completing the program, educators can apply for free, programmable robots to further develop the children’s programming skills. The robots are provided by Sphero, which is partnering with Facebook in this effort.

The program is available in both English and Spanish. It teaches computer programming fundamentals, the power of programming, block-based coding, and basic control structures.

“CodeFWD is a new, free program for teachers and other adults working with 4th through 8th graders in the U.S. that uses videos and other activities to inspire interest in the field of computer programming. Teachers who participate in the program are eligible to receive a free coding robot and a classroom kit to further the learning process,” said Todd Breasseale, a Facebook representative.

“We are working with URM/underserved students so that the next generation of tech innovators better reflects who we all are, incorporating diversity and building a future that benefits us all. We have already worked with the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Chicago Youth Center, Boys & Girls Clubs, Latinitas (Austin & El Paso), and others to pilot this exciting new program.”

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/b4Bv30mKcm5

Africa Travel Summit hosted by Airbnb focused on community-led tourism in Africa

Sat, 24 Nov 2018 22:09:49 GMT

Recently Airbnb hosted the Africa Travel Summit in Langa/Cape Town, South Africa, at Guga S’thebe. It was the first three-day event to discuss how technology will overarchingly help more people to benefit from tourism.

The Summit included over 200 Pan-African founders, CEOs, influencers and politicians to explore how technology and tourism can support greater economic and social empowerment. It opened up to a keynote from Chris Lehane, head of Global Policy and Public Affairs at Airbnb, who revealed a new report on how the Airbnb platform is promoting travel that is local, diverse, and inclusive in South Africa. Other key figures in attendance were Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala, BBC Africa editor Larry Madowo, and the entire event was hosted by the founder of She Leads Africa, Afua Osei. The summit is a part of Airbnb’s $1 million investment to boost community-led tourism projects in Africa.

“We want to discuss how we can learn from what is working so as to best leverage technology and innovation to empower more local families and their communities to benefit from the economics of African travel,” said Lehane. “Long-term, as we become that aspirational and end-to-end platform, [we are trying to figure out], how does that play out in Africa, which I think is really exciting.”

Airbnb’s overarching theme is Tourism for All. Under the moniker, “Healthy Tourism,” the goal is to help tourism deliver economic empowerment in communities across the continent and the tech conglomerate is doing just that by making a massive mark in several African countries, Cape Town included.

AIRBNB EXPERIENCES

Since Airbnb’s inception into the South African community, host and guest activity on the platform has resulted in an economic impact of $678 million in the past year, supporting over 22,000 jobs, which is enormous growth for the community. A part of this growth can be attributed to Airbnb Experiences. Hosts are allowed to create experiences, excursions, and other activities to give guests unique access to places and communities in their city and 30% of those experiences are deemed social impact, which provides nonprofits a way to fundraise and promote their mission.

Myself and several other journalists were offered the opportunity to partake in these excursions and I can vouch for each one of them. Highlight experiences include visiting Mandela’s last prison home, tasting Malay dishes with a home chef and exploring the townships into towns with our host Bongani.

MANDELA’S LAST PRISON HOME

This experience was led by Jack, a warder for the correctional services during the time of apartheid who looked after Nelson Mandela at Victor Verster Prison, cooking his meals on the daily basis. He took us through the entire prison-home where Mandela rested his head until the day he was released.

TASTE MALAY DISHES WITH A HOME CHEF

This experience was led by third-generation Malay cook, Fayruza. She was super accommodating considering I’m a vegetarian and made special dishes in order to meet my dietary restrictions. The food is unique, tasty, and authentically Cape Malay. On the platform, she has accumulated over 100 reviews for her services.

TOWNSHIPS INTO TOWNS

This experience was hosted by Bongani, an art enthusiast, and programme coordinator. He took us around the Langa Township and where we interacted with different artisans and learned historical narratives behind their craft and each of their pieces. He even attempted to teach us the traditional language of the Xhosa people spoken in Langa, which was also the language used in the Blockbuster movie, Black Panther.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/kyOA30mJLVY

African Union Ambassador called for closer collaboration with the African Diaspora in the Americas

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 04:10:05 GMT

African Union Ambassador Calls for closer ties with the African Diaspora in the Americas

In a recent address to the Pan-African Unity Dialogue in New York, the African Union’s Ambassador to the USA, H.E. Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, called for closer collaboration between the countries on the African continent and the growing African Diaspora communities in the Americas.

She argued that a fully engaged diaspora holds the key to the future development and empowerment of Africa which, in turn, will result in the greater development and empowerment of the diaspora. She went on to provide a number of examples of the major opportunities for the Diaspora to engage in productive social and entrepreneurial investments in Africa.

The ambassador strongly encouraged the Diaspora to develop a credit union that could amass $1 billion or more in assets as an instrument to leverage investment in business and economic opportunities in Africa.

SOURCE: http://ow.ly/WsDN30mI5YT

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