Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 163

Terence Blanchard Makes History At The Metropolitan Opera

'History is being made New York's Metropolitan Opera: For the first time in 138 years, the eminent company will present an opera by a Black composer. After 18 months of pandemic-canceled performances, the nation's premier opera house will open its new season with Fire Shut Up in My Bones, composed by Terence Blanchard. As a trumpeter, Blanchard has played with jazz legends like Lionel Hampton and Art Blakey. He's been nominated for two Academy Awards for his film scores, and has won five Grammys for his jazz records. But at a recent Metropolitan Opera rehearsal for Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Blanchard was humbled by the scale of the production. "I never thought I'd be in a situation like this, to walk in a room and there's like 40 singers singing something that I'd written, and they're rehearsing it," he tells Morning Edition.'

What Kneeling in Protest Means To a New Generation of Athletes

'Dave Zirin, Sports Editor for The Nation, talks to The Takeaway about his new book, The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World.  Zirin interviewed dozens of brave young athletes across the country who courageously took a knee to protest police brutality and racist violence during the last five years. The Takeaway talked with Zirin about a long history of activism by athletes and what this new generation risked as they stood up for equality by taking a knee.'

Biden’s Promise for Diverse Judges and Federal Court Diversity by Ben Jealous

Biden’s Promise for Diverse Judges and Federal Court Diversity

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

 

One of the most important reasons to vote Donald Trump out of the White House was to stop him from packing our federal courts with even more anti-voting-rights, anti-equality, pro-corporate judges.  

 

Stopping the flood of bad Trump judges was a huge accomplishment for every organizer and voter who helped elect Joe Biden as president. And that’s only part of the good news. President Biden is making history with the most diverse set of judicial nominees ever. 

 

President Trump’s judicial nominees were overwhelmingly white men, often young and unqualified. They were almost always picked for their commitment to a right-wing judicial ideology that makes it harder for millions of Americans to count on the courts for justice. Thanks to Trump and his Republican enablers in the Senate, we will be dealing with hundreds of those judges for years to come. 

 

Elections matter. Right now, instead of more judges hand-picked by right-wing legal activists and their corporate allies, President Biden is making good on his promise to bring greater diversity to our federal courts. Biden is naming far more brilliant Black judges and women judges than any other president – including Barack Obama. 

 

Let’s look at some numbers. Because they are impressive. 

 

More than 30 percent of Biden’s judicial nominees so far have been Black. Fewer than 5 percent of Trump’s judicial picks were Black.  

 

More than a quarter of Biden’s judicial nominees have been Black women. Under Trump, it was less than one percent. In fact, almost half of President Biden’s judicial nominees are women of color.  



Biden has been in office for less than a year, and he has already doubled the number of Black women judges on the circuit courts – the highest level of federal courts below the Supreme Court. Trump named zero Black judges to the circuit courts; nearly 40 percent of Biden’s circuit court nominees have been Black. 

 

There’s also a lot more diversity in Biden nominees’ life experiences and professional backgrounds. They aren’t all corporate lawyers and law professors. Almost one-third of them have had experience as public defenders. Some of them have worked at respected civil rights organizations. Some have devoted their legal careers to protecting and representing workers. One started her career at the Legal Aid Society. 

 

This is how we get federal courts that represent all of us, not just the most privileged and powerful. 

 

And that brings us back to elections. President Biden has been able to get his nominees confirmed—more lifetime judges at this point in his term in office since Gerald Ford—because 

voters in Georgia elected Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. 

 

If Republicans still held a Senate majority, Mitch McConnell would be slow-walking and stopping Biden’s judicial nominees. When Trump was in power, McConnell laughed and bragged about how he kept so many of President Obama’s nominees from getting confirmed so that Trump would have lots of vacancies to fill. 

 

McConnell would love to regain the power to block Biden’s judicial nominees. He would love to return to his practice of refusing to schedule hearings and votes on even the most qualified judges. He would love to abuse his power to keep hundreds of judicial seats vacant in the hopes that Trump or some other Republican will take back the White House in 2024. And bring back the flood of white, right-wing men determined to impose their ideology on the federal courts and on all of us. 

 

We can’t let that happen.  

 

Let’s praise the good work being done by the Biden White House and Senate Democrats. Let’s thank them for bringing balance and diversity and a commitment to equal justice for all to the federal courts. And let’s work as hard as we can to keep the Senate and White House in Democratic hands in 2022 and 2024.  

 

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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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Anthony Hamilton On Being Vulnerable And His New Album 'Love Is The New Black'

'Multi-platinum singer-songwriter Anthony Hamilton is back with a new album. Love Is The New Black is his first full length album in five years — one fans have been anxiously awaiting. All Things Considered's Michel Martin welcomed Hamilton back to NPR to talk about his latest album, and about his creative process during the pandemic.'

How A North Carolina Community Came Together to Fight Environmental Racism

'Fighting environmental racism is never easy. The communities often targeted lack the resources and political power to fight off big polluters. When Warren County, North Carolina was designated by the state as a dumpsite for soil contaminated by highly toxic chemicals, the community took a stand. Matter of Fact special contributor Joie Chen shows us how Warren County came together to battle for environmental justice.'

A Hue Named Blue: Two Creatives Explore Adidas Originals’ iconic Color for the Launch of the FW21 Blue Version Collection

 

'The color at the heart of adidas Originals gets a new platform in luxe sports fashion with the launch of the Blue Version Fall/Winter 2021 collection. Blue Version pays homage to adidas Originals’ rich heritage by recoding and revamping classic athleisure designs. In this film directed by Danny Sangra, two creatives come together to explore what the color blue means to them. Seen wearing adidas Originals Blue Verion collection slim fit track joggers, blue track top, and bicolor trench coat, Anita Chhiba is a New Zealand-born Londoner who founded a community platform that celebrates underrepresented South Asian talent in industries such as fashion and beauty. Sporting the adidas Originals Blue Version collection trefoil “Quality” track top, black jacket, coat, and trousers, Aki Omoshaybi is an actor and filmmaker whose directorial debut last year was inspired by his desire to foreground Black British experiences in cinema and thereby create new role models for the upcoming generation.'

Gabrielle Union on Feeling Like a Failure Around Fertility: “It was ugly”

'Actor Gabrielle Union is talking about the painful side of trying to have a baby with husband Dwyane Wade. She candidly shared her surrogacy journey during a conversation about her memoir “You Got Anything Stronger?” with Salon’s D. Watkins. Union wants to show that fertility stories aren’t “all moonlight and roses” as celebrity stories often go. “Those stories and those truncated truths make people feel a lot more comfortable about receiving your news. But the reality is that’s not the full story”.'

Shelby Ivey Christie | A Legacy of Looks: The Role of Black Fashion in Music

'Shelby Ivey Christie explores the history of how the music industry has influenced Black fashion, how Black artists and costume designers influenced style for musical artists worldwide and how Black fashion became and continues to be mainstream culture today. An ardent Fashion & Costume historian, Christie has a passion for articulating how Black History intersects and affects the cultural climate, economics, and most importantly fashion. Her expertise has frequently been called upon to examine fashion through the lens of race, class & culture.'

One Hundred: The Ed Gordon Podcast withAnthony Hamilton

'In this episode One Hundred, host Ed Gordon talks with Grammy winning singer/songwriter Anthony Hamilton. From the start of his career Hamilton has been compared to R&B greats including, Bill Withers and Bobby Womack, now after multiple platinum & gold albums others are being compared to Hamilton. Hamilton talks about how the pandemic influenced his new album and why he titled the work Love is the New Black.'

Reunited & Reconsidered: the Chick Corea Akoustic Band Deepens a Legacy with 'Live'

'The first posthumous album by Chick Corea — Live, a 2018 concert recording with John Patitucci and Dave Weckl — provides a fresh opportunity to reconsider the precision and cohesion forged by the group he called the Akoustic Band. From the late 1980s into the ‘90s, this ensemble enjoyed a popular success that largely stood in contrast to its critical reception. With Corea on piano, Patitucci on bass and Weckl on drums, the trio tackled both original tunes and jazz standards with the same intricate intensity that they’d brought to their work in a fusion context, as part of the Elektric Band.' -- Jazz United