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Thursday, November 14, 2019
Deval Patrick Declares Presidential Candidacy Seeking To Build “A More Inclusive American Dream”
With less than three months before the start of primary season, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has decided to put his hat in the ring for the 2020 presidential nomination.
In making his announcement, the 63-year-old two-term governor maintained that he was making his bid “with a determination to build a better, more sustainable, more inclusive American dream for the next generation” and told CBS News this morning that he was confident that he would be able to “break through” the pack.
Earlier this year, Patrick, who most recently operated an impact fund as a managing director at Boston-based Bain Capital, told a group of high-powered executives—among others—that he had no intentions of seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, maintaining a position that he has held since December 2018. He was reportedly encouraged to run by his inner circle of advisers and now joins an already crowded field of 17 other presidential contenders, which is also expected to soon include former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. His inclusion comes at a time when a number of Democrats have raised concerns about the viability of the current crop of candidates, including front runners Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg, and whether they have the sharp message and political chops to defeat Donald Trump in next year’s election.
Patrick represents the fourth African American candidate to enter the contest in an election in which the black vote will prove to be critical in the upcoming primaries and general election next fall. So far the campaigns of Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have lost considerable momentum and failed to ignite enthusiasm among large numbers of African American supporters, while many Americans arent even aware of long-shot candidate Wayne Messam, mayor of Miramar, Florida. Biden’s had a vice-like grip on black support—as much as 40% of that voting bloc in recent polls—largely due to his service as former President Barack Obama’s vice president.
A native of Southside Chicago and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Patrick has made his own political history. The first black governor of Massachusetts, he also represents one of two African Americans ever elected to the statehouse. (The other was former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder). During his professional career, he has been an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, held senior executive positions at a couple of the nation’s largest corporations and served a stint as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration. During his term—from 2007-2015—Patrick, a close ally of Obama, implemented health care reform (which had been enacted by his predecessor Mitt Romney in 2006), raised the state’s minimum wage, and increased spending for education, among other achievements.
According to CNBC, Patrick is expected to be challenged by the most progressive Democratic contenders Warren and Sanders, who have focused on income inequality and boosting taxes for the wealthy, about his role with Bain Capital, one of the nation’s leading investment firms.
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Two Colorado cops vindicated after fatally shooting Black teen in the back
A grand jury in Colorado vindicated two cops charged in the fatal shooting of a Black teen in August.
READ MORE: Indiana police officer who fatally shot Black man steps down
Sgt. Alan Van’t Land and Officer Blake Evenson won’t be charged in the death of 19-year-old De’Von Bailey. According to Buzzfeed, Bailey was shot after he ran away from the cops who were investigating a robbery.
Bailey was shot four times by the officers on Aug 3, after being stopped with another young man, identified as Lawrence Stoker, also 19. The two were being questioned as potential suspects in an armed robbery.
Body cam footage was released, appeared to show the cops ordering to young men to put their hands up, which they do. But shortly after, Bailey makes a run for it, and is fatally shot in the back. Officers did later find a weapon on him, but there is no evidence in the video that he ever reached for it.
On Wednesday, the grand jury unanimously decided the officers use of deadly force was justified.
That verdict hit hard for Bailey’s mother Delisha Searcy.
“The officer that murdered my baby will not be held responsible!!! They say it was justified 😡😡😡 PLEASE pray for me!!! My heart is heavy, it’s just not right!!! I just don’t know what to do right now😞,” she said in a Facebook post.
Because I ask myself everyday……WHY?!?! I mean he was such a good kid and just wanted to be a great father to his…
Posted by Delisha Searcy on Friday, October 18, 2019
The family’s attorney, Darold Killmer told the outlet that the decision was based on a “tainted investigation.”
“The refusal to allow an independent investigation doomed the chances of a fair outcome from the outset,” Killmer said. “This is the result that the Colorado Springs DA’s Office and the police wanted, and it’s the decision they caused to happen.”
READ MORE: Ferguson: 5 years after Mike Brown police shooting, racial tension lingers nationally
Dan May, the District Attorney disagreed.
“Everyone in the public can see what happened in this case,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“Colorado law is very carefully crafted,” May said. “If the officer has a reasonable belief that the person has used a deadly weapon in a crime and is still armed, they can use deadly force to prevent that person from being a fleeing felon with that deadly weapon.”
The post Two Colorado cops vindicated after fatally shooting Black teen in the back appeared first on theGrio.
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Troubled rapper Kodak Black gets sentenced to almost four years in jail
The troubled rapper known as Kodak Black was sentenced and racked up nearly four years for charges stemming from his May arrest in Miami.
READ MORE: 5 times Kodak Black forgot that shutting up is free
Black’s lawyer Mohammed Gangat, said he was facing up to 10 years in prison for lying to feds in government paperwork, but was handed down the lighter sentence of three years and 10 months behind bars after he struck a plea deal. Black, known for his singles “ZeZe” and “Roll in Peace,” has already been in the detention center since August.
In May, Black checked a “no” box on the ATF Form 4473, a firearms application, where it asked if he was under indictment for a felony, XXL mag reports. That was was a lie. He was in fact under indictment in South Carolina on charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Prosecutors wanted Black, whose birth name is Bill Kapri, to do at least eight years, not only for that lie but for all kinds of bad behavior. Just recently, while incarcerated, the South Florida rapper was reportedly involved in a prison fight at Miami’s Federal Detention Center. Black was reportedly drunk and allegedly kicked a guard in his privates.
According to the Miami Herald‘s Jack Brook, Black grabbed his testicles so violently that the man was hospitalized and needed to have surgery.
Black was first arrested in May, within hours of a planned performance at a Rolling Loud concert in Miami Gardens. At the time of his arrest, he maintained his innocence, but changed his position and entered a guilty plea in August.
READ MORE: Kodak Black expected to plead guilty in federal weapons case
The judge took it easy on him. In addition to pleading guilty to falsifying information on federal documents that pertained to the purchase of three guns– it has been discovered that one of those guns was found at the scene of a shooting in Pompano Beach, Florida in March.
They can keep him in jail if they wanna.
The post Troubled rapper Kodak Black gets sentenced to almost four years in jail appeared first on theGrio.
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Supreme Court Could Turn Clock Back on Civil Rights With Byron Allen-Comcast Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving Byron Allen’s $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast that has left the civil rights protections of millions hanging in the balance.
In response to yesterday’s proceedings, the NAACP hosted a special tele-town hall featuring presidential candidates Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, along with NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and General Counsel Bradford M. Berry. All stressed the importance of upholding Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which allows people of color the right to bring discrimination cases before a court of law. Moreover, they expressed deep concerns that the constitutionality of the statute is being weighed by a conservative-majority court.
During the call, Harris asserted: “This section of the code was designed to stop racial discrimination in business contracts, regardless of whether discrimination was the sole reason a business contract wasn’t signed. Essentially, it would be against the law if racial discrimination was just a part of the reason a contract was signed. If the Supreme Court narrows this law, it would give corporations cover to cover up racial discrimination and avoid accountability. A bad decision, in this case, could have an impact on everyday businesses of black people across our country.”
The NAACP released highlights of the tele-town hall to BLACK ENTERPRISE and other media.
Will The Supreme Court Turn the Clock Back On Civil Rights?
According to news reports, Allen, who owns Entertainment Studios and The Weather Channel, filed a lawsuit against Comcast—in addition to a $10 million suit against Charter Communications—claiming that the media conglomerate denied to include his array of cable TV channels on their systems due, in part, to racial bias in violation of Section 1981. Comcast argued that its rejection of the channels was a business decision. After the case had been dismissed three times in lower district courts, Allen appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled that plaintiffs had a viable claim under Section 1981 if they can demonstrate discriminatory intent was a factor in the refusal of a contract. Comcast petitioned the Supreme Court to review that decision. By gaining agreement from the high court, the cable carriage dispute turned into a constitutional case.
Following the hour of oral arguments, Johnson stressed on the call that the case is “one of monumental importance to the protection and continuation of black businesses and contractors. The attempt to turn back the clock on one of the most vital civil rights protections is a grave threat to the very fabric of the nation—we will continue to fight so that section 1981 is preserved for generations to come.”
Booker maintained that Comcast is representing itself in a manner that seeks to undermine a critical aspect of civil rights laws that will have “wide-sweeping consequences” on all African Americans. “I still find it just so egregious that this is equivalent to an attack on one of our most durable and oldest civil rights laws,” he said.
He further stated that a ruling, due by the end of June, to strike section 1981 of the Reconstruction-Era law would make it extremely difficult for those facing discrimination to get their cases on court dockets since “it would require plaintiffs to prove that the adverse outcome would not have occurred but for discrimination on the part of the defendant.”
Harris added: “Justice and equality are at stake in this Supreme Court case and I am very concerned about the lasting implications that a bad decision can have on key civil rights laws, and particularly a law that protects against race discrimination throughout our country.”
Bradford M. Berry, NAACP’s General Counsel, raised the issue of the Trump’s administration support of Comcast’s position: “Through the Solicitor General’s Office, the current administration is set on pushing an agenda that will roll back this protection and make it near-impossible to call out racism and discrimination.”
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Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Creating a network of drivers to lift a community
Finding success in a big, informal market of a developing country is a tall task for any new company — which makes Nigerian mobility startup Max NG’s success all the more distinctive. The company is currently disrupting not just one huge market of West Africa, but two.
In the four years since its founding, Max NG has created a network of motorcycle drivers — currently 1,500 and projected to double by year’s end — that perform both package deliveries and transportation services for residents in cities including Ibadan, the Nigerian metropolis with nearly three times as many people as New York City.
By the end of next year, Max NG’s founders hope to be operating in three or four countries, with about 20,000 drivers on their platform. To help realize its ambitious projections, the company has already secured partnerships with the likes of Yamaha, Mastercard, and the e-commerce giant Jumia.
“The mototaxi industry and the tuk tuk industry are extremely popular, but they’re informal in the West Africa region,” co-founder Adetayo Bamiduro MBA ’15 says, referring to the three-wheeled, hooded rickshaws known as tuk tuks that Max NG drivers have also begun using. “Across West Africa, there’s about 12 million to 15 million mototaxi drivers, so Max has a huge opportunity to formalize this industry.”
Max NG is also pushing the delivery and transportation industries forward as it seeks to stand out amid increasing competition. Bamiduro, who founded the company with Chinedu Azodoh Mfin ’15, says Max NG recently developed the first locally assembled electric motorcycle in West Africa and will be deploying 500 such vehicles, along with charging stations, next year.
The initiative to electrify comes on top of the founders’ core commitment to make the industries safer, part of a wider emphasis on looking beyond the business opportunity and focusing on the impact the company has on the tens of thousands of people who benefit from its services.
Bamiduro thinks a lot about the woman working late who is now able to use a vetted, trained driver with an extra helmet to get home. He also thinks a lot about Max NG’s drivers — the company refers to them as champions — who he says experience an improved standing in their communities to go along with a bigger paycheck.
“A huge chunk of the population relies on this industry to get by, so it’s really important just from the sense of jobs,” Bamiduro says. “But it’s also a dangerous industry because of the lack of structure. It’s a big economic opportunity, but also a big opportunity for impact.”
Reshaping transportation
The coastal city of Lagos, Nigeria, with its burgeoning skyline and rapidly growing economy, is home to more than 21 million people. The city is also one of the most congested in the world, with commuters spending an average of 30 hours per week stuck in traffic. Bamiduro says some people spend up to 70 percent of their work hours trapped in the city’s gridlocked, underdeveloped roadways.
In response to this problem, people rely on informal mototaxis that come with their own problems. The vast majority of these informal drivers — Bamiduro says 98 percent — don’t wear helmets or provide them to passengers. Someone getting onto the back of a bike can’t tell if a driver is well-trained or if they will even obey traffic rules. Riders also risk being kidnapped or becoming the victim of some other crime in the city, a large chunk of which is perpetuated by people on motorcycles.
Max NG provides its drivers with a pair of high-quality helmets, distinctive yellow jackets, and new bikes, which it can loan drivers who enter one-year repayment plans. Each driver goes through extensive training on basic traffic rules, strategies for driving in inclement weather, and defensive driving tactics. They also must pass a background check, and every bike is tracked to deter crime and poor driving.
To order a ride, users can go through Max NG’s app, call the company’s service center, or simply flag down a free driver on the street. Cash and credit cards are accepted so people without smartphones or bank accounts can also benefit from the service.
“Max makes it super easy to dash across town very quickly in a safe, affordable, and efficient way,” Bamiduro says.
Finding a business model
Bamiduro and Azodoh, who are both from Nigeria, entered MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2013 and 2014, respectively. They started Max NG as a motorcycle delivery company in the beginning of 2015, participating in MIT’s IDEAS Global Challenge, the MIT $100K pitch competition, and the Venture Mentoring Service. Bamiduro was also a fellow at the Legatum Center at MIT.
“We took full advantage of the MIT entrepreneurship ecosystem and resources that were available while we were there,” Bamiduro recalls.
While still pursuing their degrees, they developed a mobile software tool that let people enter their pickup and drop off points and connect with drivers. Before launching, the founders were able to get three e-commerce companies, including Jumia, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, to commit to using their service.
By the summer of 2017, the company was helping a network of motorcycle drivers complete 500 deliveries per day throughout Lagos, enabling customers to receive same-day delivery. That’s when the company began piloting its transportation solution.
Today, Max NG’s employees are benefiting from the company’s success as much as its customers. Bamiduro says drivers make three times more money driving for Max NG compared to working as independent drivers. They also get access to high quality equipment, accident insurance, and the backing of an organized community.
“In a market like Nigeria, where there are not a lot of protection systems built for the lower class, driving for Max is their ticket out of the wild wild west, where no one is looking out for you and you don’t belong to any organized system,” Bamiduro says. “You also ride a plaid motorcycle and you wear a plaid jacket, and that improves the level of dignity you enjoy out there, because then people know you are part of a formal organization committed to quality. One of the things drivers tell us they like most often is the dignity of the work.”
Earlier this year, Max NG made a splash when it raised $7 million in a funding round that included motorcycle manufacturer Yamaha. But Bamiduro says the company is already in talks to raise another funding round of around $100 million by the middle of next year.
The money will help the company build out charging infrastructure for its new electric fleet and help finance motorcycle purchasing agreements for a growing pool of drivers. The plan is to not only lift up the company, but also to improve West Africa’s infrastructure in the process.
“We’re building infrastructure to provide energy and mobility in West African cities, and we’re also partnering with established players like local banks and Mastercard to build more robust payment infrastructure for that mobility,” Bamiduro says. “We and other startups are at the forefront of building basic infrastructure that’s required to deliver critical services in mobility, financial services, energy, agriculture, health care in the region today.”
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Live Updates: Byron Allen’s Supreme Court case
Today, the Supreme Court begins hearing the civil rights case involving Entertainment Studios CEO and founder Byron Allen‘s attempt to protect the Civil Rights Act of 1866 from cable giant Comcast.
If the Court’s rules in Comcast’s favor, it could erase equal opportunity protections afforded under the Act and have lasting implications for any Black entrepreneurs (or any entrepreneurs of color) who feel like they are victims of racial bias in business practices.
TheGrio’s Deputy Editor, Natasha Alford, is on the ground in Washington D.C. reporting on the action as it happens.
Check back here through out the day for updates, photos, and video.
The post Live Updates: Byron Allen’s Supreme Court case appeared first on theGrio.
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Cause of John Witherspoon’s untimely death revealed
John Witherspoon was so full of life. But a death certificate revealed that he suffered heart problems, that ultimately contributed to his death at the vivacious age of 77.
READ MORE: John Witherspoon leaves one last laugh in hilarious YouTube video
According to TMZ, the comedian suffered a fatal heart attack, likely because of coronary artery disease, which he was fighting.
Witherspoon also was inflicted with hypertension, but the report doesn’t identify it as contributing to his death.
Before his untimely death on Oct. 29, Witherspoon posted a 15-minute video to his YouTube channel on Oct. 28 cooking what he called “Poor Man’ Gumbo.” He wore little more than an apron and a chef’s toque blanche, and discussed how important it was to create a good roux.
Early on in the video, Witherspoon explained the reason why he hadn’t posted to his YouTube page in a year was that he had been working.
“Now I know I haven’t been here for a while, but I’ve been busy doing other things,” Witherspoon said in the clip. “We about to do the Boondocks, and we gonna do another Friday, but I’ve been around working on the road because I’ve been very, very busy and got a big schedule this year.”
He was in fact set to reprise his role as Mr. Jones in the cult classic Friday franchise. He was also due to return to The Boondocks, according to Deadline.
The next day, paramedics were called to his home after he suffered cardiac arrest. According to his death certificate, by 5:30 p.m. that day “Pops,” as he was affectionately known, was reported dead.
Witherspoon died on Tuesday, Oct. 29 in his Sherman Oaks, California home.
Witherspoon’s family has long called the actor and comedian “one of the hardest working men in show business.”
READ MORE: John Witherspoon was more than just an entertainer, he was our Pops
In announcing his death, his wife and sons tweeted: “It is with deep sadness we have to tweet this, but our husband & father John Witherspoon has passed away. He was a Legend in the entertainment industry, and a father figure to all who watched him over the years. We love you “POPS” always & forever.”
It is with deep sadness we have to tweet this, but our husband & father John Witherspoon has passed away. He was a Legend in the entertainment industry, and a father figure to all who watched him over the years. We love you “POPS” always & forever.
– The Witherspoon Family pic.twitter.com/ov9P34kaMn
— John Witherspoon (@John_POPS_Spoon) October 30, 2019
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Stephen A. Smith Reportedly Secures $8 Million Salary in ESPN Deal
According to The New York Post, sports commentator, Stephen A. Smith. has re-upped his contract to the tune of almost $8 million per year.
Smith and ESPN have agreed on a five-year deal worth nearly $8 million per year, which sets him up to become ESPN’s highest-paid on-air personality. This contract will surpass ESPN’s Get Up! host Mike Greenberg, who earns $6.5 million a year.
Smith, along with Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim, is a featured commentator on ESPN’s First Take weekdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, discussing and debating the sports topics of the day. He joined First Take permanently back in 2012. Smith appears on ESPN every day as a commentator on First Take and makes frequent appearances on SportsCenter where he is already hosting the show on Wednesdays, leading into NBA games.
The network is also reportedly trying to fit him in their ESPN+ subscription service while alleviating his duties on his ESPN Radio show next year.
The Omega Psi Phi member attended the Fashion Institute of Technology for one year, then he received a basketball scholarship to attend Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Smith began his career as a journalist in print media. He worked at Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record, New York Daily News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer before embarking to the radio and cable airwaves.
According to the ESPN site, “in September 2014, Smith began hosting the daily The Stephen A. Smith Show on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. In January 2017, The Stephen A. Smith Show moved to ESPN’s SiriusXM channel and simulcast on ESPN’s owned and operated stations in New York (98.7FM) and Los Angeles (710AM), airing 1-3 p.m. In January 2018, the program expanded to the national ESPN Radio network and is available across ESPN Radio stations throughout the country. In August 2018, The Stephen A. Smith Show joined the ESPNEWS weekday ESPN Radio simulcast lineup. Smith also hosts several SportsCenter specials on ESPN throughout the year (since 2018).”
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NFL invites teams to check Colin Kaepernick out in private workout session
Colin Kaepernick got a sweet surprise when he learned that the NFL has opened up an opportunity for him to be evaluated by teams at a private workout over the weekend. During this session, teams will be able to assess his readiness to play professionally once again.
READ MORE: Colin Kaepernick posts video of private workout session with Odell Beckham Jr.
On Tuesday, NFL clubs received two separate memos from the league stating that the free-agent quarterback would be available on this coming Saturday for a workout session in Atlanta. The teams were invited to check him out, and video record Kaepernick to judge whether he’s NFL-fit to hit the field, NFL.com reports.
Kaepernick’s been working out for the past three years to stay in shipshape.
In 2016, as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, he started a kneeling campaign to protest racial injustice throughout the country. During the singing of the National Anthem, he would peacefully take a knee on the field while the song was being sung. When his contract was being renegotiated, he opted out of that particular contract in 2017.
Unable to join another team, for what he believed was a concerted blacklisting because of his actions by league owners, he sued the NFL. After months of back and forth, he later settled an NFL collusion claim and now to his surprise, it seems they are ready to give him another go.
READ MORE: Colin Kaepernick settles collusion case with NFL
“I’m just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can’t wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday,” Kaepernick tweeted.
I’m just getting word from my representatives that the NFL league office reached out to them about a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. I’ve been in shape and ready for this for 3 years, can’t wait to see the head coaches and GMs on Saturday.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) November 13, 2019
According to ESPN, one of the memos sent by the league, it states: “Earlier this year, we discussed some possible steps with his representatives and they recently emphasized his level of preparation and that he is ready to work out for clubs and be interviewed by them. We have therefore arranged this opportunity for him to work out, and for all clubs to have the opportunity to evaluate his current readiness and level of interest in resuming his NFL career.”
On Saturday, only half of the NFL team coaches and managers will be available to assess Kaepernick. Kaepernick’s reps wanted him to attend a Tuesday session when all general managers would be there. But the NFL reportedly said “no” to that request without offering any reason.
Most of the teams will reportedly be traveling on Saturday to games, according to the outlet.
Of the 32 teams that will be available to come and view Kaepernick, they didn’t know about the viewing opportunity until the memo was released, ESPN reports. Kaepernick’s representatives then inquired if there were any particular teams that asked for the workout, but the NFL league office said, “We can’t tell you that.”
READ MORE: Jay-Z defends NFL deal with Roc Nation, talks Kaepernick
Now Kaepernick’s representatives are wondering if the workout session is a mere PR stunt by the league, sources told ESPN.
They also are asking for a list of NFL personnel, executives and coaches, who would be surveying Kaepernick’s workout to assess if it’s a legit opportunity.
The athlete turned activist was seen back in July working out with Odell Beckham Jr. at UCLA’s practice field.
He ready.
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Jamie Foxx is the First Black Lead in a Pixar Movie
For the first time, Pixar is releasing a film with a black lead actor, according to CNN. The name of the movie is Soul and it stars Jamie Foxx alongside Tina Fey, Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs, and Questlove. Soul, which is co-directed by two-time Academy Award winner Pete Doctor and Kemp Powers, is about a middle school band teacher named Joe Gardner, voiced by Foxx, whose real passion is playing jazz. After Gardner falls into a manhole, he ends up in a mystical place and he’s just a soul.
According to The Walt Disney Co. site, Soul introduces Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher whose true passion is playing jazz. “I think Joe is having that crisis that all artists have,” says Powers. “He’s increasingly feeling like his lifelong dream of being a jazz musician is not going to pan out and he’s asking himself ‘Why am I here? What am I meant to be doing?’ Joe personifies those questions.”
The film is set in New York City—inviting filmmakers to capture everything they love about the city of dreams. “I was born and raised in New York,” says Powers. “This is the first time Pixar has gone to my hometown and I’ve been so impressed by the amount of energy that goes into making sure that everything is right. When the character’s in Queens, it looks like he’s in Queens. When he’s in Manhattan, it looks like he’s in Manhattan. It’s pretty incredible.”
Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” is slated to open in theaters on June 19, 2020. The film is produced by Academy Award nominee Dana Murray. Globally renowned musician Jon Batiste is bringing original jazz music for the film, and Oscar winners Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are creating an original score to match.
The studio released the trailer for Soul last week. Watch it below.
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Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Historian of the hinterlands
History can help us face hard truths. The places Kate Brown studies are particularly full of them.
Brown, a historian in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society, has made a career out of studying what she calls “modernist wastelands” — areas suffering after years of warfare, social conflict, and even radioactive fallout from atomic accidents.
Brown has spent years conducting research in the former Soviet Union, often returning to a large region stretching across the Poland-Ukraine border, which has been beset by two world wars, ethnic cleansing, purges, famine, and changes in power. It’s the setting for her acclaimed first book, “A Biography of No Place” (2004), a chronicle of the region’s conflicts and their consequences.
The same region includes the site of the Chernobyl nuclear-reactor explosion, subject of Brown’s fourth and most recent book, “Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future” (2019), which uncovers extensive new evidence about the effects of the disaster on the area and its people.
“Progress [often] occurs in big capitals, but if you go to the hinterlands, you see what’s left in the wake of progress, and it’s usually a lot of destruction,” says Brown, speaking of areas that have suffered due to technological or economic changes.
That does not apply only to the former Soviet Union and its former satellite states, to be sure. Brown, who considers herself an transnational historian, is also the author of 2013’s “Plutopia,” reconstructing life in and around the plutonium-producing plants in Richland, Washington, and Ozersk, Russia, which have both left a legacy of nuclear contamination.
With a record of innovative and award-winning research over more than two decades in academia, Brown joined MIT with tenure, as a professor of science, technology, and society, in early 2019.
When “no place” is like home
The lesson that life can be tough in less-glamorous locales is one Brown says she learned early on. Brown grew up in Elgin, Illinois, once headquarters of the famous Elgin National Watch Company — although that changed.
“The year I was born, 1965, the Elgin watch factory was shuttered, and they blew up the watch tower,” Brown says. “It was a company town, and that was the main business. I grew up watching the supporting businesses close, and then regular clothing stores and grocery stores went bankrupt.”
And while the changes in Elgin were very different (and less severe) than those in the places she has studied professionally, Brown believes her hometown milieu has shaped her work.
“It was nothing near what I describe in wartime Ukraine, or Chernobyl, or one of plutonium plants, but I finally realized I was so interested in modernist wastelands because of my own background,” Brown says.
Indeed, Brown notes, her mother moved four times in her life because of the “deindustrialized landscape,” from places like Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and Detroit. And her parents, she says, “moved to Elgin thinking it was healthy, small-town America. So how many times do they have to jump? … What if you care about your family and community? What if you’re loyal?”
As it happens, part of the direct impetus for Brown’s career came from her mother. One day in the 1980s, Brown recalls, she was talking to her parents and criticizing the superficial culture surrounding U.S.-Soviet relations. To which Brown’s mother responded, “Do something about it. Study Russian, change the world.”
As an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Brown soon “took everything Russian, Russian lit and translation, grammar, history, politics, and I just got hooked. Then I thought I should go study there.” In 1987, she spent a year abroad in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). After graduating, Brown worked for a study-abroad program in the Soviet Union for three more years, helping students troubleshoot “pretty major problems, with housing and food and medical care,” as well as some cases where students had run afoul of Soviet authorities.
Returning to the U.S., Brown entered the graduate program in history at the University of Washington while working as a journalist. She kept returning to the Ukraine borderlands region, collecting archival and observational material, and writing it up, for her dissertation “in the narrative mode of a first-person travelogue.”
That did not fit the model of a typical PhD thesis. But Richard White, a prominent American historian with an openness toward innovative work, who was then at the University of Washington, advocated to keep the form of Brown’s work largely intact. She received her PhD, and more: Her thesis formed the basis of “A Biography of No Place,” which won the George Louis Beer Prize for International European History from the American Historical Association (AHA). Brown joined the faculty at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County before joining MIT.
A treasure island for research
In all of Brown’s books, a significant portion of the work, a bit atypically for academia, has continued to incorporate first-person material about her travels, experiences, and research, something she also regards as crucial.
“Because these places are rarely visited, they’re hard to imagine for the readers,” Brown says. “That puts me in the narrative, though not for all of it.”
Brown’s approach to history is also highly archival: She has unearthed key documents in all manner of local, regional, and national repositories. When she entered the profession, in the 1990s, many Soviet archives were just opening up, providing some rich opportunities for original research.
“It’s amazing,” Brown says. “Over and over again I’ve been one of the first persons to walk into an archive and see what’s there. And that is just sort of a treasure island quality of historical research. Being a Soviet historian in the early 1990s, there was nothing else like it.”
The archives continue to be profitable for Brown, yielding some of her key new insights in “Manual for Survival.” In assessing Chernobyl, Brown shows, local and regional studies of the disaster’s effects were often extensive and candid, but the official record became sanitized as it moved up the Soviet bureaucratic hierarchy.
Brown’s combination of approaches to writing history has certainly produced extensive professional success. “Plutopia” was awarded the AHA’s Albert J. Beveridge and John H. Dunning prizes as the best book in American history and the Organization of American Historians’ Ellis H. Hawley Award, among others. Brown has also received Guggenheim Foundation and Carnegie Foundation fellowships.
Brown is currently working on a new research project, examining overlooked forms of human knowledge about plants and the natural environment. She notes that there are many types of “indigenous knowledge and practices we have missed or rejected,” which could foster a more sustainable relationship between human society and the environment.
It is a different type of topic than Brown’s previous work, although, like her other projects, this one recognizes that we have spent too long mishandling the environment, rather than prioritizing its care — another hard truth to consider.
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John Legend named ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ and Chrissy Teigen reacts
John Legend has been named Sexiest Man Alive by PEOPLE.
The EGOT winner graces the cover of the annual issue that has featured the likes of Idris Elba and Dwayne Johnson in previous years.
Of course, Legend’s wife Chrissy Teigen has thoughts and she shared them on social media shortly after the news broke on Tuesday night.
“My secret is out. I have fulfilled my dream of having boned @people’s sexiest man alive!! an honor!!!!!,” she posted along with a photo of the coveted cover.
my secret is out. I have fulfilled my dream of having boned @people's sexiest man alive!! an honor!!!!! pic.twitter.com/xu7ygnhOZk
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 13, 2019
View this post on Instagram😍 you’ve come a long way, baby
A post shared by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on
“I cannot WAIT for people to get mad about John being the sexiest man alive. it’s my new Starbucks holiday cup,” she added.
I cannot WAIT for people to get mad about John being the sexiest man alive. it's my new Starbucks holiday cup
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 13, 2019
The outspoken star didn’t stop there. She updated her Twitter bio to read “currently sleeping with people’s sexiest man alive,” and poked fun at her man by sharing a post he made with a throwback photo from 1995 next to a photo of last year’s winner, Idris Elba.
yeah but let's see an @idriselba pic from 1995 (prob still very hot) https://t.co/7DtT72InGk
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 13, 2019
“I was excited, but I was a little scared at the same time because it’s a lot of pressure…Everyone’s going to be picking me apart to see if I’m sexy enough to hold this title. I’m [also] following Idris Elba, which is not fair and is not nice to me!” he told PEOPLE.
John Legend’s update of ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ slammed as ‘absurd’
He also revealed what makes him the most proud.
“I’m so proud that I have a wife and two kids I’m so in love with and so connected to. I’m also so proud of my career,” he said. “I love writing songs and performing on stage. I get a lot of joy from it and give a lot of joy to other people. I’m pretty at ease with myself now!”
POLL: Do you think John Legend deserves the title?
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WATCH: Jemele Hill drops EPIC wedding video showing off her big day
Jemele Hill married Ian Wallace in a beachside ceremony in California and she just dropped an EPIC video showing off her big day.
The journalist who hosts the Jemele Hill Is Unbothered podcast shared the video in Instagram on Tuesday night and by the looks of the footage, she and her guests had the time of their lives.
Jemele Hill still speaking her mind, this time on podcast
“It would be impossible to describe what my wedding day felt like, but here’s a taste. Special thank you to @mytouch_weddings — who also shot our dope-ass engagement video — for again dropping the mic. #FromMSUtoIDo,” she captioned the video.
Set to Soul II Soul‘s classic tune “Back To Life,” we see the bride and groom prepare for their big day at the Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California before tying the knot in front of family and friends then getting down on the dance floor with friends like Gabrielle Union.
The couple treated guests to refreshments before the ceremony began, wavering from the standard run of show at a wedding. “The pre-wedding reception served just wine, champagne and beer,” Hill told Essence. “We don’t want them to be too lit for the wedding.”
They also paid homage to their Detroit roots by hiring Detroit-based and Black-owned vendors. “Ian was very focused on having a celebration with great music and vibes. I wanted the food and the ambiance to be great,” she said.
Jemele Hill and fiancé embody Jay-Z and Beyoncé in their engagement video
Musiq Soulchild performed at the reception and the bride wore a custom-made Vera Wang gown fit for a queen. The high-low gown made a perfect transition from day to night and Hill managed to change her look by taking down the updo she had at the ceremony and showing off flowing locks for the reception.
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‘Games People Play’ renewed for second season at BET
After month of keeping fans in suspense, BET has announced that Games People Play will be back for a second season.
The steamy series that stars Sarunas Jackson, Lauren London, Parker McKenna Posey, and Jackie Long delivered major drama in its first season. Bet says we won’t know who is starring in the second season of the show until a later date.
“BET is home for lovers of black content that engages and entertains, and Games People Plays’s first season over-delivered with a plotline that grips from episode one through the finale,” Scott Mills, President of BET Networks, said in a statement. “Tracey Edmonds, Angela Burt-Murray and Vanessa Middleton have been great partners on Games People Play and we’re proud to continue our relationship, bringing our viewers the compelling programming they expect from our brand.”
Tracey Edmonds executive produced the series alongside Angela Burt-Murray, who penned the book Games Divas Play.
“We are thrilled to return and be able to give our fans more of the sexy, twisted, and unique storytelling that they enjoy and expect from every episode of Games People Play,” Edmonds said in a statement. “Our characters will continue to surprise and ignite in season two. I am grateful to Scott Mills for his continued support of our show and its vision.”
Sarunas Jackson and Parker McKenna Posey on shooting those steamy sex scenes on ‘Games People Play’
Last season, we caught up with the veteran producer ahead of the series premiere and learned how excited she was about the project.
WATCH: Tracey Edmonds on snagging the right stars for sexy new series ‘Games People Play’
“I always start off with a wish list and I can tell you that so many of the people that were on our wish list, we got,” says Edmonds. “Casting Marcus King, who is a a NBA ball player and trying to keep that authentic was going to be our most challenging character to cast. Having Sarunas, who is 6’8″ and used to play basketball in real life playing Marcus King was really lucky.”
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Trump’s #MAGAChallenge on Triller causes employees to protest then quit
The social video app Triller made waves online recently when a #MAGAChallenge rap contest went viral thanks to the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Trump on Friday, said he would fly the winner of the contest out to the White House (likely via our tax dollars.) That endorsement of the contest caused an uptick in downloads with some users posting rap videos and spitting pro-Trump lyrics while wearing their red MAGA hats.
Triller staffers were less than thrilled and demanded that management take down the videos or else, according to one individual.
In fact, some Triller employees orchestrated a coup d’état in protest and started removing rap music from the app platform. Unfortunately, once the music was restored, two employees were so upset by the gesture, they both threatened to resign and ultimately did, The Wrap reports.
“Triller’s demo is roughly 13-18 year olds (Gen Y and Z), and predominantly from underserved, underrepresented communities. Given that demographic, one might imagine that both the users of the platform and those who work on the platform might feel uneasy about showcasing a politician who has an unfavorable view within those communities,” said a source according to The Wrap.
READ MORE: Trump launches campaign to win Black support, promising to make 2020 a ‘year of change’
In response, Triller CEO Mike Liu told the outlet, “Triller doesn’t endorse any political parties. Triller is agnostic to politics, religion and does not censor content. We welcome everybody to make Triller videos and enjoy the platform. See you on Triller!”
The Trump-infused challenged ended up helping Triller in the end, which is in competition with other popular social media apps like Tik Tok. The Beijing-based app, which specializes in short-form videos, is reportedly the tenth most-downloaded iPhone app in the photo/video category with about 70 million downloads mostly from teens.
READ MORE: Trump picks Atlanta to unveil his new Black voter drive initiative
After the backlash, Triller scrubbed the #MAGAChallenge hashtag and no results of the contest can currently be found on its platform. We’re guessing they’ve disappeared kind of like records of the President’s taxes from the last two years.
Go figure. Here are a few of the rap battle contestants who made their way onto Twitter.
HERE IT IS! The Donald Trump Supporter RALLY SONG BY HENRY DAVIS!!@JJCarafano pic.twitter.com/RJ6xRnHtdJ
— Henry Davis (@Henryhahadavis) May 5, 2017
@realDonaldTrump what do you think of this remix?? #MAGA #KAGA2020 #USA #MadeInAmerica #BLS2019 pic.twitter.com/39afnqvHys
— Aaron Alexander🎗 (@atAaronIsOnline) October 4, 2019
I hope i made it in time brother#MAGACHALLENGE from the streets of L.A. sanctuary city!!!@SuriusVsVodka pic.twitter.com/G63mJcPsqh
— JLFree (@jl_free1) November 9, 2019
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Chadwick Boseman is unbothered by Martin Scorsese’s remarks
Chadwick Boseman is speaking out regarding the recent criticism that filmmaker Martin Scorsese has hurled out into the world.
Scorsese has made more than a couple remarks about one of Boseman’s studio homes, Marvel. The highly decorated director has stated that the house that produces many of the highest grossing superhero movies in history, makes films that are more of a circus than cinema.
READ MORE: The bold way Mahershala Ali snagged Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot
Scorsese, an Oscar-winning filmmaker threw some shade at Marvel during an interview with Empire, saying “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being,” according to The Wrap.
In a Nov. 4 Op-ed New York Times piece, Scorsese also likened Marvel movies to theme park rides and that when you watch a superhero film, there is nothing emotionally that the viewer risks in the experience, no “spiritual revelation,” and no complexity in character development. He also says that these films are everything negative that Spike Lee films are not.
Those are fighting words for filmmakers who spend their lives crafting stories they hope will connect and hit a nerve with their fans worldwide. Marvel in fact has done that with Black Panther which became “the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time, the third-highest-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada, and the second-highest-grossing film of 2018,” according to reports.
Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige defended his life’s work, disagreeing with Scorsese, saying, “I think that’s not true. I think it’s unfortunate,” Feige says about Scorsese’s “not cinema” comment.
“I think myself and everyone who works on these movies loves cinema, loves movies, loves going to the movies, loves to watch a communal experience in a movie theater full of people.”
According to The Independent, Boseman, who plays the Black Panther character in the Marvel cinematic universe, went on record praising the movie for its cinematic complexity in a recent radio interview with BBC 5 Live.
READ MORE: Tessa Thompson to portray Marvel’s first LGBTQ superhero in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
“The mystery that Scorsese’s talking about, it’s in Black Panther. And I think the funny thing about it is, maybe if he saw Black Panther, he didn’t get that,” Boseman said.
“He didn’t get that there was this feeling of being unsure, there was this feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen, because we never had a superhero like this before. We thought that white people will kill us off. So it’s a possibility that we could be gone. So we felt that angst. We felt that angst that you would feel from cinema when you watched it. That’s cultural. Maybe it’s generational. I don’t know. But I’m secure in what we did, so his statements don’t really bother me.”
Haters gonna hate.
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Prominent Black Leaders Part of New $10 Million Fund to Make Loans to Black Businesses
Black small business owners starting or expanding a business can now perhaps get some fresh capital from the African American Chamber Fund (AACF). The new fund, a program led by Jersey City, New Jersey-based World Business Lenders, will initially offer up to $10 million in loans to black businesses.
Borrowers must seek financing through a U.S. based African American Chamber of Commerce office, a move to help ensure loans are made in black business communities.
World Business Lenders (WBL) has compiled an elite list of “Board of Managers” for the AACF. The list consists of high-profile individuals with political, business, spiritual, and athletic backgrounds who will reach out to local chambers to affiliate with.
Also known as advisory board members, they include U.S. Congressman Ed Towns (D-NY), Washington, D.C. Archbishop David J. Billings III, World Business Lenders CEO/Founder Doug Nadius, as well as Bob Beamon and Jackie Joyner Kersee, both Olympic gold medalists. Derrick Chambers, program manager of AACF/WBL, is a former NFL player for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Organizers report there are currently 2.6 million black-owned businesses in the United States, employing 975,000 workers across the nation and generating $150 billion in annual receipts.
“Clearly, African American entrepreneurs are a driving force in our nation’s economy but, like all minority groups, they have more difficulty getting access to capital,” Bishop Billings, Fund Vice Chairman stated publicly earlier this year. “Our goal is to ensure that the opportunity to thrive is available to every single one of these entrepreneurs who want to create more economic growth for our communities.”
An alternative lender, WBL allows borrowers to use real estate as collateral to get short-term business loans. Its AACF unit can make unsecured loans based on the guidance and insight borrowers receive from a local chamber. The bottom line is borrowers can pursue loans they might not from traditional lenders like banks.
Currently, the AACF has launched the program with the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce in New York, and the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Brooklyn, New York.
The AACF is in talks with other black chambers nationally, including the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce in Chicago and the Mississippi Black Chamber of Commerce in Jackson to affiliate with the fund, Chambers says. He added the AAFC will also determine whether to make loans to black businesses at a local chamber outside of their business location.
AACF borrowers can seek loans ranging from $25,000 to $2 million. Chambers figures the average size of a typical loan will be from $25,000 to $100,000. He added the criteria to receive a loan will be based on an interview about the applicant’s financial background, why they need the loan, and other factors. Loan participants can use the money for business purposes, including buying equipment, inventory, as well as cash flow for payroll.
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Maya Rockeymoore Cummings set Congress
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of late Congressman of Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), has confirmed rumors and announced that she will run for his House seat.
READ MORE: Rep. Elijah Cummings: Politicians and celebrities react to sudden death of Baltimore congressman
“I am, of course, devastated at the loss of my spouse, but his spirit is with me. I’m going to run this race and I’m going to run it hard, as if he’s still right here by my side,” Rockeymoore Cummings, 48, told The Baltimore Sun.
Rockeymoore Cummings, the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party has vowed to continue her husband’s political legacy. Cummings was not only her husband but a well-respected mover and shaker on Capitol Hill who chaired the House Oversight Committee. He was also a powerful Baltimore Democratic Congressman in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. He was also beloved by his city.
Cummings died last month, at Johns Hopkins Hospital from complications from longstanding health challenges, according to a statement provided by his office.
Rockeymoore Cummings resigned as chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party and plans a formal announcement this morning, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.
“I believe very strongly that I have the background, the focus, the commitment and the ability to take the reins and make a good run for this seat,” she told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Her husband, she said, “wanted me to continue this fight.”
READ MORE: Elijah Cummings’ widow rumored to run for his Congressional seat
Rockeymoore Cummings will face contenders such as former congressman and NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume, who plans to run again for a seat he once held before Cummings did in the 7th Congressional district in Maryland.
The 71-year-old Mfume said he wants “to make sure that all he and others fought for is not lost, tossed to the side or forgotten.”
The filing deadline to run is November 20. A special election will be held Feb. 4 followed by the general election April 28. Cummings’ term runs until January 2021.
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