Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 160

Anita Hill's Fight to end Gender-based Violence

'Professor Anita Hill joins The Takeaway's Melissa Harris Perry to discuss about her new book, Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence.'

The Once And Future 'Karen'

'If you've been paying attention to the news over the past couple years, you know what a so-called 'Karen' is: a white woman who uses her race and gender to wield power over someone more vulnerable. But long before most people became familiar with the term Karen, Black folks have been calling out Karen-esque behavior.  So on this episode of Code Switch, we're tracing the lineage of the modern Karen. Where did she come from? What is she like? And who — or what — might she be distracting from? (Hint: Institutional racism. The answer is institutional racism.) Then, we're talking about Karens of the future. What does the next generation of Karens look like, and why might they be harder to spot than the people who are called out on social media?'

MASTERS OF DRAG | Crystal LaBeija: The Queen Who Reinvented Ball Culture

'A proud Black trans woman, a drag mother and, a pageant girl, Crystal LaBeija was the cause of an iconic moment in drag history that paved the way for house culture, voguing, Paris is Burning, and the TV series Pose.' -- American Masters PBS

Successful Black American-Owned Business Leaders Unfairly Targeted by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

Successful Black American-Owned Business Leaders Unfairly Targeted 

by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. | @DrBenChavis | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

(NNPA NEWSWIRE) — There is an old African proverb that captures one of the challenges that too many financially successful Black-owned business leaders face today in America. That proverb is “Your earned riches may engender envy and jealous criticism but be not dismayed by the foolishness of the envious.”

 

Across the nation as business owners are attempting to recover from the COVID-19 global pandemic, African America business leaders who are defying the odds with their financial success are often targeted by “mainstream media” and others who summarily and unfairly castigate Black business leaders economic achievements. Is this syndrome racially-motivated? The simple answer is “Yes.”

 

Former Congressman and past leader of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), The Honorable Parren Mitchell (D-MD), 1922-2007, once said in defense of Black business leaders, “There is a national systematic campaign to unfairly subjugate and to prevent the financial success of Black American businesses.”

 

It appears that business leaders from communities of color in the United States are being held to a different standard of business practice, ethics, and regulation. Such is the case, I believe, with respect to Jack Brown III who was recently targeted for business practice criticisms by the New York Times because of what they state are personal financial profits that Mr. Brown has earned as result of his businesses providing shelters to New York City’s homeless.

 

The Times emphasized, “Since 2017, as homeless has risen to record levels, the city has awarded more than $352 million to a nonprofit run by Mr. Brown to operate shelters. The money is meant to help homeless people regain their footing in life, but it has benefited Mr. Brown, too.”

 

Is the Times implying that there is something wrong or unethical for earning a financial profit from ones work and business? Brown’s CORE Services’ companies, non-profits and for-profits, have worked effectively in New York for over a decade.

 

Both nonprofits and for-profits have to be run as successful businesses in order to be sustainable. Jack Brown has been a national leader in multiple Black-owned businesses not only in NYC, but also in other cities he has been effective in providing much need services to the homeless and to people “returning” back to society after prison incarceration.

 

Investigative journalism has its rightful and respected space in our democracy. But it should always be balanced and non-racially prejudicial. The Times piece on Jack Brown was full of unsubstantiated innuendo and one-sided reporting.

 

Those of us in America’s Black press are fully aware to the double standards and the racial stereotyping that cast unfair dispersions on Black entrepreneurs who dare to strive to own legitimate multi-million dollar businesses.

 

After the Times feature on Brown was published, Rudy Giuliani who is well known for his unprincipled attacks on African American leaders joined in the chorus against Jack Brown. I conclude with the following tweet that I posted: It is questionable to see Rudy Giuliani and The NY Times aligned. But today the Times published an innuendo-filled story targeting successful Black-owned business leader, Jack Brown, who Rudy Giuliani then calls Brown a “poverty pimp.”

 

Sadly, Former President Trump, Giuliani, some in the NY Times, and many others take the position that there are limits and ceilings both politically and economically across the nation that are categorically prescribed by race. We do not agree. We will not submit.

 

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and can be reached at dr.bchavis@nnpa.org

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Trumpeter Lee Morgan Channels Coltrane's Splashy Style in 'Live at the Lighthouse'

'In 1970, Lee Morgan recorded three shows at the Lighthouse jazz club in Hermosa Beach, Calif. A new box set captures Morgan and his band putting their own spin on Coltrane's trance-like repetitions. Fresh Air Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says it finds a great trumpet player in fine form with a band to match.'

Enter the 'Splinternet': How Competing Visions for the Internet Could Shape Cyberspace

'The whistleblower who exposed internal documents from Facebook has gone public. It's since given new fuel to old debates about the nature of the internet, like how should it be regulated and who ultimately should be in charge of how it's run. Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics and the Governance of Cyberspace is a new book tackling these questions. Here & Now host Scott Tong speaks with Kieron O'Hara, one of the authors.'

Cat Brooks discusses the obstacles and complications behind ending domestic violence

'NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Cat Brooks, playwright and anti-police violence activist, about her experience as a survivor of domestic violence and her thoughts on addressing the problem.'

Local Governments Can Lead in Public Safety Movement by Ben Jealous

   

Local Governments Can Lead in Public Safety Movement

by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

 

Negotiations on a federal police reform bill have collapsed because Congressional Republicans are willing to stand in the way of lifesaving changes to policing. It is time for state and local governments to take the lead in reimagining public safety. And it is time for all of us to support local leaders who are willing to show leadership and take risks to make it happen.

 

Change is not going to come from Congress, at least for now. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act earlier this year. It would have been a good first step. Like other good legislation, though, the bill was stopped by Republican obstruction in the Senate.

 

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has spent months negotiating with Republican Sen. Tim Scott on a reform bill. As recently as August, Scott said they were getting close to an agreement. But talks fell apart in September, and Scott dishonestly blamed Democrats for the failure to reach agreement, accusing them of wanting to “defund the police.”

 

Scott’s claim is shameful. New York Magazine recently noted that just last year Scott himself proposed that police departments lose some federal funding if they do not ban deadly practices like choke holds or no-knock warrants. But now he is telling the media that requiring police departments to meet such federal standards in order to receive federal money is the same as “defunding the police.”

 

You can’t make this stuff up. Well, if you’re Sen. Scott, I guess you can. Even two major police groups rejected Scott’s claims, saying in a statement that “at no point did any legislative draft propose ‘defunding the police.’”

 

I don’t know what political calculations led to Sen. Scott’s change of heart or his dishonest spin. And I don’t really care. What I do care about is saving lives by making policing safer and more accountable.

 

Fortunately, there are local leaders who are willing to think creatively and work collaboratively to reimagine public safety.

 

In Ithaca, New York, Mayor Svante Myrick worked with Tompkins County Administrator Jason Molino on a plan designed to deliver accountability, transparency, and excellence in public safety. They came up with a plan that would replace the current police department with a new department of public safety.

 

The new department would be civilian-led, and it would employ both armed officers and unarmed community solution workers trained to respond to situations that do not require an armed response. The proposal won unanimous approval from the Ithaca City Council, which created a task force to develop a plan for implementing it.

 

Ithaca’s plan is meeting resistance from some state Republican leaders. They’re trying to convince the public that you can’t have accountability and safety. That’s a false tradeoff. Making policing more just and accountable will make communities safer for everyone.

 

I believe there is a critical mass of elected officials who are ready and willing to begin the process of transforming policing in this country from the bottom up. Last year, 100 young progressive candidates ran for office as part of a slate committed to ending police killings of unarmed civilians. There are mayors and city council members around the country looking at Ithaca’s plan and making their own.

 

Reimagining public safety has become a movement. Congress can’t stop us.

 

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Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

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Adopting Black Children: An Act of Love—And Self-Love

'What do actors Hill Harper and Viola Davis, and Mayors Kecia Lance-Bottoms and Muriel Bowser, have in common? All have adopted children. Adoption advocate and mother Deborah Olivia Farmer joins Black Enterprise to share the Black Adoption Matters mission of encouraging more Black women and men—regardless of marital status—to adopt Black children.'

How the Coast Guard's 1st Black Woman Pilot Helped Give the Next One Her Wings

'Jeanine Menze was discouraged from pursuing her dream to fly planes when she didn't see any women of color in the field. Then she met La'Shanda Holmes. "When I met you, I saw myself," Menze told her.' -- Weekend Edition Saturday