Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 446

Getting Past White Defensiveness

' Robin DiAngelo , antiracist educator and author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Beacon Press, 2018), explains how the fear of being challenged racially in America fosters inequality and shuts down cross-racial dialogue.' -- The Brian Lehrer Show
         
        

How to Poison a City: Inside the Managed Crisis of Flint, Michigan.

'Journalist Anna Clark traces the toxic politics that poisoned the people of Flint - from the actions of state and local officials under financial emergency management, to the large-scale structural problems deep within American society - of racialized, strategic inequality, and the corrosion of the notion of a universal, public good. Clark is author of The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy from Metropolitan Books.' -- This Is Hell! Radio

If God Invented Baseball: A Conversation with Poet E. Ethelbert Miller

'On the Marc Steiner Show,  the host talks with poet E. Ethelbert Miller about his new book If God Invented Baseball, and what America’s classic sport has to do with the nation’s fight for justice.' -- TheRealNews

How Giving Black Women Time for Self-Care Benefits the Whole Community

'Black women carry the trauma of systemic racism and serving other people before taking care of themselves, and it's killing them, say GirlTrek founders Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison. Dixon and Garrison give their Brief but Spectacular take on mobilizing black women to save their own lives.' 

50 Years Ago, 1968's Radical Protests Changed The World

'Photographer Harry Benson called 1968 “the year America had a nervous breakdown.” There were the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, protesters clubbed at the Democratic National Convention and a civil rights movement that exploded into marches against the Vietnam War. Historian Richard Vinen writes about the defining year in his new book 1968: Radical Protest and Its Enemies , and joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to discuss.'

CFP: Africology’s Special Issue on the Life, Artistry, and Legacy of Prince [Deadline Extended]

CFP: Africology’s Special Issue on the Life, Artistry, and Legacy of Prince
C. Liegh McInnis has been asked to replace the former guest editor of Africology ’s special issue on the life, artistry, and legacy of Prince.  With this change, we are extending the deadline for abstracts and final papers as we are seeking papers on a wide array of Prince’s work and legacy.  
The entire work should be in Times New Roman (10 – 12 point font) and not exceed 25 double-spaced pages, which includes a concise title, abstract, and current standard citations and references.  
The deadline to submit abstracts is September 30, and the deadline for final papers is December 30.  Please send abstracts and final papers as Word attachments to clieghmcinnis@bellsout.net with “Africology’s Re-call for Its Special Issue on Prince” in the subject heading.  Also, any and all questions can be emailed to McInnis as well.  
For more information about Africology:  The Journal of Pan African Studies go to http://www.jpanafrican.org/.  
Along with being the author of The Lyrics of Prince:  A Literary Look at a Creative, Musical Poet, Philosopher, and Storyteller (1996), McInnis has published and lectured widely on Prince since 1996, his book is used in several courses on Prince across the country and in the UK, and he was one of the presenters at the Prince from Minneapolis Symposium.  For more information about McInnis, go to www.psychedelicliterature.com. Please share with anyone you think may be interested.

Black Workers Need "Real" Not "Fake" Paid Family Leave

Black Workers Need "Real" Not "Fake" Paid Family Leaveby Melanie L. Campbell and Jennifer Tucker | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
When Dorcas, a home health aide living in New York, learned of her mother's illness, she used most of her vacation time to fly home and care for her. After a few weeks her leave was exhausted and tragically she could no longer afford to be with her mother in the final days of her illness. In the end, Dorcas was forced to take unpaid leave, and return to Florida, arriving just hours before her mother passed away. Dorcas counts every penny and the unpaid time resulted in a mountain of unpaid bills and financial challenges that lingered well into the following year. Dorcas weathered that storm. But she says, "it still pains me that I wasn't able to be with my mom during her last days."
Dorcas' story is one of many shared in the Family Values@Work story collection.
Dorcas' story exemplifies a crushing dilemma that many Black women workers face every day when caring for themselves or a family member. Life shouldn't be this way but it is the reality for far too many in the United States.
On July 11, the Senate Finance Committee's Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy Subcommittee held a hearing on paid family leave that featured two very different policy options.
The "real" policy is the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act that creates a national insurance program to fund the time needed to welcome a new baby, address one's own health issue, or the serious health issue of a family member. It also includes time for certain military families' caregiving purposes.
Employees, employers and self-employed workers would fund both the benefits and the administrative costs of the program by contributing a small amount in each pay period to a self-sustaining fund.
The FAMILY Act builds on programs in California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island and with the newest programs being implemented in New York, Washington, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts.
The "fake" paid family leave option, restricts participation to only maternity leave and diverts social security funds to pay for the program. U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (Iowa), Mike Lee (Utah) and Marco Rubio (Florida) plan to introduce legislation covering only the birth or adoption of a child.
This deeply flawed proposal will require people to borrow against their social security accounts, delaying their retirement date or receiving a decreased retirement benefit. For most Black women, social security makes up at least half of their income stream during retirement, according to the 2014 Black Women in the United States report by the Black Women's Roundtable.
This proposal would result in even smaller social security, death or disability benefits, making the retirement security of older Black women, even more, precarious than it is currently.
Any paid family leave proposal that ignores the caregiving responsibilities that families are facing for older relatives is outdated. According to the AARP Policy Institute, each year, 40 million American adults assist loved ones with tasks of daily living.
Family members are helping with eating and bathing; household chores; and nursing tasks so people can age in place. Surprisingly, of these 40 million family caregivers, about 25 percent are millennials, between the ages of 18 -34 years old. One in three employed millennial family caregivers earn less than $30,000 per year - that includes nearly 30 percent of Black family caregivers.
We urge policymakers to deliver paid family leave programs that fit the times and their constituents' diverse needs. Black workers and their families need and deserve #RealPaidLeave. Our nation deserves nothing less.
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Melanie Campbell is president/CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, convener, Black Women's Roundtable. Campbell is one of the hardest working leaders in today's Civil Rights, Women's Rights and Social Justice Movements. Campbell brings together Black women nationally and in key states to build power for black women and girls, families and communities.
Jennifer Tucker is senior policy advisor, Black Women's Roundtable. While in her early forties, Tucker shared caregiving responsibilities for her mother, who was living with Parkinson's disease, with her young sibling, while being the parent to an elementary age child and working full-time. A few years later, she was back in the caregiving role to her sibling for eighteen months.
The Black Women's Roundtable (BWR) was established in 1983 as the women and girls empowerment arm of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, BWR is comprised of a diverse group of Black women civic leaders representing national, regional, state-based and international organizations and institutions.

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal Talk Blindspotting

'Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal talk about their new film, Blindspotting, which follows the final three days of an Oakland man's probation and deals with friendship, gentrification, and the intersection of race and class. ' -- NPR         
        

Black Lives Matter: Five Years On

'Five years ago, activists across the country rallied around the Black Lives Matter hashtag to form a social and racial justice movement. But after seizing the national spotlight, the movement has had trouble maintaining the momentum needed to realize its ambitious, and often nebulous goals. Without a traditional leadership structure, Black Lives Matter often faces existential questions, like what is the overall strategy? And how specifically will the group advance its agenda? As protesters in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood take to the streets to confront the police shooting of 37-year-old Harith Augustus, The Takeaway talk with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors  about the group's trajectory and continuing influence in the modern struggle for civil rights.'

The Tuskegee Airmen | Silent Footage of the Red Tails in Italy

'This film documents the activities of the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, also known as the Red Tails, ca. 1939 - ca. 1945 Some of this footage was used in the documentary Wings of This Man (1945), narrated by Ronald Reagan. This film footage is silent. From the US National Archives.'  -- reelblack