Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 42

Balancing A.I. And Creativity With Picsart Founder Hovhannes Avoyan

'Forbes’ Steve Bertoni sits down with Hovannes Avoyan, the Founder & CEO of Picsart, to talk about his company’s founding story, the crossroad of A.I. and creativity, and the importance of a balanced workforce.'

Fred Gray was 'Chief Counsel' of the Civil Rights Era. At 91, He's Still in the Fight

'On a summer day in 2022, President Joe Biden awarded the nation's highest civilian honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — to civil rights lawyer Fred Gray. While Gray may not be as well known as other giants of the civil rights movement — names like John Lewis, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — his legacy is no less vital. Gray, now 91 and still practicing law, recently sat down to speak with NPR about his work. Here are excerpts from that conversation, edited in parts for clarity and length.'

I Call It Dan: Music of Adama Yalomba Traoré

Master musician Adama Yalomba Traoré discusses a rare instrument known as the "Dan".

Redistricting is Voter Suppression Too by Ben Jealous

Redistricting is Voter Suppression Too

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



When Charles Diggs, Jr., won election to Congress in Michigan’s 13th District in 1954, he launched nearly seven decades in which the city of Detroit had at least one Black member of Congress. That’s likely to change this year. Because of redistricting, Detroit no longer has majority-Black congressional districts. And in the first primary election with newly drawn district lines, a Black candidate did not win the Democratic contest in the heavily Democratic 13th. That means the city is likely to lack Black representation in Congress for the first time in decades.

 

Redistricting is robbing Black candidates and voters of hard fought for opportunities they have had for years. In Detroit, new districts merged Black areas of the city with white neighborhoods across 8 Mile Road. The city stands to lose Black representation in Congress and have less representation in the state legislature. Knowing what the impact could be, voters have spoken out forcefully against the new redistricting maps from pulpits to street corners to the state capitol and even before the state courts.

 

Sadly, Michigan is not alone. The New York Times reported in August that this year, “judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republican legislators illegally drew those states’ congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did.” But elections are moving forward anyway.  

 

We’ve all heard about the restrictive voter suppression laws that far-right state legislatures are passing. We’ve heard about the crackdowns on voting hours and mail-in voting, and even on giving food and water to voters in long lines. But we don’t hear enough about redistricting as another weapon being used to intimidate voters and keep us from exercising our constitutional rights. It is erasing us from Congress and state legislatures. We need to call it out and challenge it where we see it.

 

Calling out and challenging means organizing, litigating, and legislating. It means supporting national and local organizations that unite communities against racist gerrymandering and seek justice in the courts. They might not win every case, but advocacy and activism are essential to righting this wrong.

 

We must also keep voting, running for office, and educating. My organization, People For the American Way, houses an African American Religious Affairs network that has reaffirmed for more than a decade that “every election matters and every vote counts” --and that includes primaries. For Black ministers in our network, voting and civic participation are acts of faith and so much more. As Reverend Dr. Steve Bland, Jr., pastor of Liberty Temple Baptist Church in Detroit said, “It’s not about left or right. Splitting Detroit into two districts was an insult. But we have faith and must “deal with our self-interest by voting in every election!”

 

I know that a lot of media coverage of this summer’s primaries has focused on one big question: will Trump-style, MAGA candidates win or lose? But there’s another question that needs to be asked: how harmful are the impacts of redistricting on our communities in this year’s elections and those to come? The current reality dictates that we do not sit out any election. We need to resolutely register, educate, motivate and turn out voters. In every election. Every time. 

 

***

 

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book Never Forget Our People Were Always Free" will be published by Harper Collins in December 2022.

 

 

@font-face {font-family:Helvetica; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342208091 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

Algernon Austin: Jobs Disparity, Mass Incarceration, and Crypto in Black America

'Algernon Austin, Director for Race and Economic Jusice at the Center for Economic and Policy research joins This Is Hell! to discuss his recent writing including, "Black People Need Better Options than the Morgue or Mass Incarceration," "Black People (And Everyone Else) Should Avoid Crypto," "Only Radical Changes Will Make Rents Affordable," and "Black Children are Disproportionately Harmed by Extremist Gun Rights Policies in the US".'

This Is Hell! · Jobs Disparity, Mass Incarceration, and Crypto in Black America / Algernon Austin

Millennials Are Killing Capitalism | "This Is People's History": Claude Marks on The Freedom Archives, Black August and Liberation Struggles

'In this episode of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism  an interview with Claude Marks the co-director the Freedom Archives. The Freedom Archives the best archive we know of documenting the history of revolutionary, radical and progressive movements of the 1960’s through the 1990’s.'

Afropop Worldwide: The Rise of Hip-Hop in Malawi

'As in so many African countries, Malawian hip-hop evolved from a marginalized and often disparaged form of music, to an underground sensation, to a mainstream phenomenon. In Malawi, it has also come to play a role in the nation’s quickly evolving politics, serving as the voice of a burgeoning youth population. Ethnomusicologist Kenneth Lipanga unpacks the story, which he has studied deeply and experienced first-hand. Narrated and produced by Banning Eyre for Afropop Worldwide.'

Afropop Worldwide · The Rise of Hip-Hop in Malawi

Heather Berg / The Stripper in the Coal Mine: Sex Work and Labor Rights

'Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Washington University St. Louis talks about her Boston Review article "Freedom, not Benefits: Sex Workers are the Vanguard of Labor. The Left ignores them at its own Peril" on This Is Hell! Is Hell!'

This Is Hell! · Heather Berg / The Stripper in the Coal Mine: Sex Work and Labor Rights

Insensitive Lyrics Are Only Part of the Problem for This Black, Disabled Activist

'Leroy Moore Jr. is cofounder of Krip-Hop Nation, a movement that uses hip-hop as a means of expression for people with disabilities. Moore joined The Takeaway and addressed the problematic nature of both policing Black language while erasing Black disabled voices, shining a light on the ways Krip-Hop Nation is working to make this change.' 

Black Ephemera: Robert Glaspar 'Covers' Kendrick Lamar

"Using music and sound as its primary texts, Black Ephemera argues that the cultural DNA of Black America has become obscured in the transformation from analog to digital. Through a cross-reading of the relationship between the digital era and culture produced in the pre-digital era, Neal argues that Black music has itself been reduced to ephemera, at best, and at worst to the background sounds of the continued exploitation and commodification of Black culture. The crisis and challenges of Black archives are not simply questions of knowledge, but of how knowledge moves and manifests itself within Blackness that is obscure, ephemeral, fugitive, precarious, fluid, and increasingly digital." -- NYU Press