Benedict College Boosts Women Entrepreneurs With 2nd HBCU Women’s Business Center

Last week Benedict College opened a new Women’s Business Center funded by the Small Business Administration to help women entrepreneurs start and grow businesses, reopen or recover from COVID-19, and create jobs for their local economies.

It’s only the second Women’s Business Center that is affiliated with the SBA at a historically Black college or university (HBCU).

“Benedict College is the perfect location for the new WBC,” Allen Gutierrez, the SBA Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, said in a press release when the center was announced in June. “Founded in 1870 by an African American woman, Bathsheba A. Benedict, this WBC will strive to prepare men and women to be a ‘power of good in society,’ just as Ms. Benedict had intended so many years ago.”

The center’s mandate is to help women entrepreneurs across the state of South Carolina succeed in business. “We will work hard to remove those barriers that have stopped them from pursuing their dreams,” center director Cheryl Salley said at a virtual launch event last week.

Launching the center at the college’s Tyrone A. Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship took more than 18 months of work and a $420,000 federal grant under the CARES Act for pandemic relief, Benedict College President Roslyn Clark Artis said.

Congratulations to @BenedictEDU’s leadership and staff for opening the new women’s business center! As one of the first two #WBCs at #HBCU campuses, we celebrate this landmark achievement. You have a friend and ally in @SBAgov. pic.twitter.com/3eDlkA0NL3

— Jovita Carranza, SBA (@SBAJovita) September 2, 2020

Entrepreneurship uplifts communities! I appreciate Cheryl Salley’s work at @BenedictEDU‘s new #WBC and so look forward to meeting some of the Columbia women impacted by their efforts when I return. pic.twitter.com/eOQGrKjw4G

— Jovita Carranza, SBA (@SBAJovita) September 2, 2020

The SBA’s Women’s Business Center program was established in 1988 to “encourage women’s entrepreneurship in communities through one-on-one counseling, lender referrals, and loan preparation assistance, seminars, and networking, among other services,” according to SC Biz News.

According to the invitation for the virtual launch,

The BCWBC seeks to initiate the leveraging required to support our small business community. Aligning with Benedict College’s mission as a catalyst for economic development, the BCWBC serves as the first gender-focused statewide entrepreneurial initiative for socially and economically disadvantaged small and minority-owned businesses throughout the state of South Carolina. While providing assistance to all businesses, our efforts primarily focus on women, particularly minority women that historically experience more social and economic disparities than their counterparts.

Located in the heart of our state’s capital, the BCWBC will provide:

• • • Customized business one-on-one counseling.
    • Lender referrals and loan package preparation assistance.
    • Seminars and classes (web-based), focused on key business topics.
    • Review and feedback on written business plans.
    • Networking opportunities to find mutual support, access to resources, and business referrals.
    • Certification assistance and review.
    • Local and global business development.

The timing of the center’s launch could be fortunate, as many Black-owned businesses struggle with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Columbia Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin said such efforts are needed “so that the backbone of the American economy is able to weather through this storm,” according to The State.

SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza agreed: “We see many opportunities for up-and-coming women entrepreneurs as their businesses and employees battle back from the damage done to this country by the invisible enemy, COVID-19.”

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Sudan floods: Nile water level threatens ancient pyramids

The record-breaking Nile level could inundate precious relics as the country is hit by heavy rains.

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Mental Health in the US is Suffering—Will It Go Back to Normal?

Covid-19 has left lots of people feeling anxious and depressed. But it’s hard to untangle whether this is a normal response to a difficult situation or actual pathology.

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School in the Age of Covid: A Series of Impossible Decisions

Pandemic pods? Blended learning? What about the digital divide? On this week’s Get WIRED podcast, listeners share their “back” to school struggles.

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How to Escape From a Volcano Eruption

If you had been in Pompeii in 79 AD, you might have tried to hunker down or escape by sea. This would be a mistake. But there is a way to safety.

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Peloton Bike+ and Tread+: Price, Release Date, Details

The long-rumored new bike and treadmill from Peloton arrives as the company doubles down on the home workout trend.

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Why Contact-Tracing Apps Haven’t Slowed Covid-19 in the US

Lack of coordination, test shortages, and mistrust of technology have hobbled what looked like a promising innovation.

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How to Install MongoDB Community Edition on Ubuntu

MongoDB is an open-source, document database based on the cutting edge technology of NoSQL. It supports the development of modern web applications, with features such as strong consistency, flexibility, expressive query languages, and secondary

The post How to Install MongoDB Community Edition on Ubuntu first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.

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Sarah Williams: Applying a data-driven approach to help cities function

Lacking a strong public transit system, residents of Nairobi, Kenya, often get around the city using “matatus” — group taxis following familiar routes. This informal method of transportation is essential to people’s lives: About 3.5 million people in Nairobi regularly use matatus.

Some years ago, around 2012, Sarah Williams became interested in mapping Nairobi’s matatus. Now an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), she helped develop an app that collected data from the vehicles as they circulated around Nairobi, then collaborated with matatu owners and drivers to map the entire network. By 2014, Nairobi’s leaders liked the map so much they started using Williams’ design themselves.

“The city took it on and made it the official [transit] map for the city,” Williams says. Indeed, the Nairobi matatu map is now a common sight — a distant cousin of the London Underground map. “An image has a long life if it’s impactful,” she adds.

That project was a rapid success story — from academic research effort to mass-media use in a couple of years — but for Williams, her work in this area was just getting started. Cities from Amman, Jordan, to Managua, Nicaragua, have been inspired by the project and mapped their own networks, and Williams created a resource center so that even more places could do the same, from the Dominican Republic to Addis Ababa, Ethiopa.

“We’re trying to build a network that supports this work,” says Williams, who is contemplating ways to make the effort its own MIT-based project. “All these people in the network can help each other. But I think it really needs more support. It probably needs to be a full-time nonprofit with a director who is really doing outreach.”

The matatu project hardly exhausts Williams’ interests. As a scholar in DUSP, her forte is conducting data-heavy urban research, which can then be expressed in striking visualizations, ideally generating public interest. Over her career, she has worked with other scholars on an array of topics, including criminal justice, the environment, and housing. 

Notably, Williams was part of the “Million Dollar Blocks” project (along with researchers from Columbia University and the Justice Mapping Center), which mapped the places where residents had been incarcerated, and noted the costs of incarceration. That project helped lend support to the Criminal Justice Reinvestment Act of 2010, which allocated funding for job-training programs for former prisoners; the maps themselves were exhibited at New York’s Musem of Modern Art.

Williams’ “Ghost Cities in China” project shed new light on the country’s urban geography by examining places where the Chinese government had over-developed. By scraping web data and mapping the information, Williams was able to identify areas without amenities — which indicated that they were notably underinhabited. Doing that helped engender new dialogue among international experts about China’s growth and planning practices.

“It is about using data for the public good,” Williams says. “We hear big data is going to change the world, but I don’t believe it will unless we synthesize it into tools with a public benefit. Visualization communicates the insights of data very quickly. The reason I have such a diversity of projects is because I’m interested in how we can bring data into action in multiple areas.”

Williams also has a book coming out in November, “Data Action,” examining these topics as well. “The book brings all these diverse projects into a kind of manifesto for those who want to use data to generate civic change,” Williams says. And she is expanding her teaching portfolio into areas that include ethics and data. For her research and teaching, Williams received tenure from MIT in 2019.

“I was actually doing planning”

Williams grew up in Washington and studied geography and history as an undergraduate at Clark University. That interest has sustained itself throughout her career. It also led to a significant job for her after college, working for one of the pioneering firms developing Geographic Information System (GIS) tools.

“I got them to hire me to pack boxes, and when I left I was a programmer,” Williams recounts.

Still, Williams had other intellectual interests she wanted to pursue as well. “I was always really, really interested in design,” she says. That manifested itself in the form of landscape architecture. Williams initially pursued a master’s degree in the field at the University of Pennsylvania.

Still, there was one problem: A lot of professional opportunities for landscape architects come from private clients, whereas Williams was mostly interested in public-scale projects. She got a job with the city of Philadelphia, in the Office of Watersheds, working on water mitigation designs for public areas — that is, trying to use the landscape to absorb water and prevent harmful runoff on city properties.

Eventually, Williams says, “I realized I was actually doing planning. I realized what planning was, and the impact I wanted to have in communities. So I went to planning school.”

Williams enrolled at MIT, where she received her master’s in city planning from DUSP, and linked together all the elements of her education and work experience.

“I always had this programmer side of me, and the design part of me, and I realized I could have an impact through doing data analysis, and visualizing it and communicating it,” Williams says. “That percolated while I was here.”

After graduation, Williams was hired on the faculty at Columbia University. She joined the MIT faculty in 2014.

Ethics and computing

At MIT, Williams has taught an array of classes about data, design, and planning — and her teaching has branched out recently as well. Last spring, Williams and Eden Medina, an associate professor in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society, team-taught a new course, 11.155J / STS.005J (Data and Society), about the ethics and social implications of data-rich research and business practices.

“I’m really excited about it, because we’re talking about issues of data literacy, privacy, consent, and biases,” Williams says. “Data has a context, always — how you collect it and who you collect it from really tells you what the data is. We want to tell our undergrads that your data, and how you analyze data, has an effect on society.”

That said, Williams has also found that in any course, creating elements about  ethical issues is a crucial part of contemporary pedagogy.

“I try to teach ethics in all my classes,” she says. And with the development of the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, Williams’ research and her teaching might appeal to new students who are receptive to an interdisciplinary, data-driven way of examining urban issues.

“I’m so excited about the College of Computing, because it’s about how you bring computing into different fields,” Williams says. “I’m a geographer, I’m an architect, an urban planner, and I’m a data scientist. I mash up these fields together in order to create new insights and try to create an impact on the world.”

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle repay taxpayers for cottage renovations

The costs had originally been paid by the Sovereign Grant, the U.K. fund for royals.

Prince Harry has repaid the millions in British taxpayers’ money that was used to renovate he and wife Meghan Markle’s home in Windsor. 

Harry is said to have “fully covered”  the costs that had originally been paid by the Sovereign Grant, the U.K. fund for royals courtesy of taxpayers, per PEOPLE. 

“A contribution has been made to the Sovereign Grant by the Duke of Sussex,” a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement. “This contribution as originally offered by Prince Harry has fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage, a property of Her Majesty The Queen, and will remain the U.K. residence of the Duke and his family.”

Read More: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry sign multiyear deal with Netflix

“It is an important step that they have wanted to take,” says a source of the couple’s decision to repay British taxpayers. “It is something they have proactively wanted to do since the word go. They have taken the initiative to do so.”

Members Of The Royal Family Attend Events To Mark The Centenary Of The RAF LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 10: (L-R) Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex on July 10, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Harry and Meghan stepped down from their royal duties earlier this year and fled London to settle in Los Angeles. They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California, and last week announced a deal with Netflix that’s reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars. The partnership will see the couple produce documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows, and children’s programming, theGRIO previously reported.

“Our lives, both independent of each other, and as a couple have allowed us to understand the power of the human spirit: of courage, resilience, and the need for connection,” Meghan and Harry said in a statement. “Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope.”

They added, “As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us, as is powerful storytelling through a truthful and relatable lens. We are pleased to work with Ted and the team at Netflix whose unprecedented reach will help us share impactful content that unlocks action.”

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Teyana Taylor gives birth to second child in her home bathroom

The singer and her husband Iman Shumpert welcomed daughter Rue Rose early Sunday morning.

Teyana Taylor and her husband, NBA star Iman Shumpert, welcomed their second child on Sunday, a baby girl they named Rue Rose. 

“At 3:28 am on Sept 6th 2020 Rue Rose decided that the baby shower thrown for her and mommy was too lit. She didn’t make the party but she managed to make the next day her birthdate!!!,” Shumpert, 30, wrote in the caption of a video of their newborn shared to social media. 

Rue Rose Shumpert was born in the family’s bathroom, as was her older sister, five-year-old daughter Iman Tayla (a.k.a. Junie). Taylor gave birth a day after her baby shower in Atlanta.

Read More: Teyana Taylor announces she’s pregnant with second child in new video

“Now…when we buy homes, we always find a bathroom with great energy… but not in a million years would you be able to tell me we’d deliver both of our daughters in a bathroom without the assistance of a hospital! Our newest edition entered the world in the water and came out looking around and ready to explore,” the basketball player continued.

View this post on Instagram

At 3:28 am on Sept 6th 2020 Rue Rose 🌹 decided that the baby shower thrown for her and mommy was too lit. She didn’t make the party but she managed to make the next day her birthdate!!! Now…when we buy homes, we always find a bathroom with great energy… but not in a million years would you be able to tell me we’d deliver both of our daughters in a bathroom without the assistance of a hospital! Our newest edition entered the world in the water and came out looking around and ready to explore! A healthy child. A little sister. Another daughter. Black love wins….again. Welcome babygirl…we love you! 🌹 @babyruerose

A post shared by Iman. (@imanshumpert) on Sep 7, 2020 at 4:32pm PDT

“A healthy child. A little sister. Another daughter. Black love wins….again. Welcome babygirl…we love you!,” Shumpert added, along with the newborn’s Twitter handle: @babyruerose.

Taylor shared her husband’s message in a separate video of the baby that she shared on her own Instagram page — see below:

View this post on Instagram

We love you Rue, welcome baby girl @babyruerose 😢😍🌹❤️ #Repost @imanshumpert •••••• At 3:28 am on Sept 6th 2020 Rue Rose 🌹 decided that the baby shower thrown for her and mommy was too lit. She didn’t make the party but she managed to make the next day her birthdate!!! Now…when we buy homes, we always find a bathroom with great energy… but not in a million years would you be able to tell me we’d deliver both of our daughters in a bathroom without the assistance of a hospital! Our newest edition entered the world in the water and came out looking around and ready to explore! A healthy child. A little sister. Another daughter. Black love wins….again. Welcome babygirl…we love you! 🌹 @babyruerose

A post shared by Jimmy Neutch- Shumpert (@teyanataylor) on Sep 7, 2020 at 4:57pm PDT

Taylor revealed her second pregnancy in the music video for her song “Wake Up Love,” which she dropped in June. 

“We’re ready, and we’re very excited,” Taylor told PEOPLE at the time. “Iman is super excited. Junie is ecstatic — I’m talking super ecstatic. Everybody is just excited. I can’t wait. I’ve got three more months left until we meet our little princess.”

Taylor also dished about having a home birth during an interview with Nick Cannon in June, theGRIO previously reported. 

“You know what’s crazy, even though the Junie story is crazy, it kind of put me in a comfort zone where I don’t—I  don’t know if I want to go to the hospital for this next baby,” she confessed. 

“Imma make sure it’s not on the toilet or the bathroom floor,” she noted playfully.

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Reporter refuses Trump’s request to remove mask at news conference

Reuters journalist Jeff Mason instead offered to speak louder.

President Donald Trump demanded a reporter remove his mask while asking a question during a Labor Day news conference, but the journalist politely refused. 

Reuters reporter Jeff Mason instead offered to speak louder, New York Post reports.  

“You’re going to have to take that off, please. Just, you can take it off. You’re, how many feet are you away?” Trump said.

“I’ll speak a lot louder,” Mason responded, but Trump wasn’t having it.

“Well, if you don’t take it off, you are very muffled. So if you would take it off, it would be a lot easier,” Trump insisted.

“I’ll just speak a lot louder. Is that better?,” asked Mason, who was wearing a protective mask per CDC guidelines.

Trump, visibly annoyed with an audible sigh, said, “It’s better. Yeah — it’s better.” 

Watch the moment via the Twitter video below:

Read More: Michael Cohen says Trump once leered at his teenager daughter

Trump begins his Labor Day news conference by botching reading the word "projecting" pic.twitter.com/oU9MG8sKsP

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2020

When he later took a question from a reporter who was not wearing a mask, Trump said, “You sound so clear, as opposed to everybody else where they refused.”

"You sound so clear, as opposed to everybody else where they refuse" — Trump praises a reporter for not wearing a mask pic.twitter.com/AA8pz6v4ob

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2020

During the news conference on Monday, Trump defended his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also slammed his Nov. 3 presidential opponent Joe Biden and his VP running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris.

“Biden and his very liberal running mate, the most liberal person in Congress by the way – is not a competent person in my opinion, would destroy this country and would destroy this economy – should immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric that they are talking right now,” said Trump, adding: “It undermines science.”

Harris previously explained why she would reject Trump’s coronavirus vaccine.

“I think that’s going to be an issue for all of us,” Harris said in an interview Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash. “Because he’s looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days and he’s grasping for whatever he can get to pretend that he has been a leader on this issue when he is not.”

She added, “I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about,” Harris said. “If past is prologue [then] they will not. [Scientists] will be muzzled, they’ll be suppressed, they will be sidelined.”

"The faster, the better" — Trump on a coronavirus vaccine pic.twitter.com/Lc83qixbp3

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 7, 2020

She also addressed Trump politicizing the issue of wearing a mask. 

“Nobody likes to wear a mask,” Harris said, adding “we each have to sacrifice for the sake of the nation and the collective.”

Trump first publicly wore a mask on July 11 during his visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, per Wingrove.

During the press conference on Monday, Trump once again rejected the controversial report in The Atlantic that alleges he referred to fallen U.S. soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” 

“The story is a hoax,” Trump said. “Who would say a thing like that? Only an animal would say a thing like that.”

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World Trade Organization: How an African head could make a difference

An African has never been at the helm of the global trade body, but that could soon change.

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Woman calls police on Black man using his phone, falsely claims he had gun

Darren Cooper had arrived early for a meeting, but someone reported to local cops that he was sitting in his car armed.

An Akron, Ohio man recounted the events that led to officers from the Ravenna Police Department pulling guns on him as he sat in a parking lot on Aug. 13.

Darren Cooper (in t-shirt) arrived early in Ravenna, OH for a meeting, but someone reported to police that he was sitting in his car armed.

According to Darren Cooper, he was in Ravenna, a town about 20 miles northeast of Akron, sitting in his Mustang talking on his speaker phone and drinking tea when police pulled into the parking lot and approached his car, yelling, “Put your hands up!” 

Cooper told the Akron Beacon Journal that he was waiting outside of the Portage County Job and Family Services building, where he was expected for a 9 a.m. training session.  

Turns out a woman from a dentist’s office across the street had called police to say a man was sitting in a car with a gun. According to the report, in the 911 call, she is heard saying, “I really believe he was holding a pistol.” 

Read More: Couple removed from ferry over masks, blames Black Lives Matter

The woman continued: “I’m pretty darn sure it’s a pistol.” 

Four police officers arrived with unholstered weapons. Cooper was searched and released, and the police officers apologized. 

Cooper said he was “happy” to share his story “because my wife almost lost a husband, and my kids almost lost their father, over someone who thought I had a gun, but it was my iPhone.” 

Read More: Kamala Harris slams Trump, Barr for denying systemic racism in justice system

Cooper said the woman didn’t identify him by race, nor did she give the correct color of his car. The caller said his Mustang was black; it is dark gray. To him, “attention to detail is of the utmost importance.” 

Captain Jake Smallfield, a spokesman for the Ravenna Police Department, noted that he felt the incident was handled “professionally and civilly.”

Read More: Judge bans Detroit police tactics against protesters

Smallfield said that he doesn’t plan to charge the caller, saying that police rely on tips to help deter crime. However, Cooper disagrees.

“They didn’t come at name with excessive force,” he said, “but the person who filed the false police report should be charged.” 

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Black-Owned Line of Bulletproof Vests For Adults and Children Sees 400% Increase in Sales

Thyk Skynn, a Black-owned line of fashionable bulletproof vests for men, women, and children, has seen a nearly 400 percent increase in sales over the past few weeks as Americans continue to grow concerned about their protection from police shootings and other random acts of violence.

Mike Tyree, the founder and CEO of Thyk Skynn, was a police officer in the city of Atlanta for 9 years. He says he left his career and decided to start the business to give innocent people a safe way to peacefully protect themselves.

Thyk Skynn vests have the same function as others bulletproof vests but are more fashionable and can even be disguised as normal attire. There are several designs available in various colors and sizes, and each vest has a ballistic armor panel carrier where ballistic material can be placed inside. The vests, however, are not cheap. They range from $325 to upwards of $500.

According to TMZ, the increase in sales apparently began following a continuous increase of senseless shootings of African Americans by police officers such as the case of Jacob Blake who was shot in the back 7 times by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

For more information about Thyk Skynn, visit www.thykskynn.com or follow the brand on Instagram @ThykSkynn

This article was originally written by BlackBusiness.com.

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Couple removed from ferry over masks, blames Black Lives Matter

For over an hour, the White man and woman held up the boat after they refused to disembark at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

A couple from Bay Ridge, NY, an enclave in Brooklyn, was pulled from a city ferry and handcuffed after they refused to comply with the New York state mask mandate. 

For more than an hour, the man and woman held up the boat after they refused to disembark at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The pair insisted that they had medical conditions preventing them from using face coverings mandated to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yet they failed to show officers any proof, and the man reportedly smoked a cigarette during much of the encounter. 

This Brooklyn couple, who refused to wear masks on a NY ferry, ended up handcuffed as they ranted against Black Lives Matter and discrimination against white Americans.
(Jake Offenhartz/Twitter)

Jake Offenhartz, a reporter for Gothamist, was on the scene and filmed the events, writing on Twitter that the couple encouraged him to keep filming. 

The couple told police that the ferry captain was “shaming” them and “discriminating against” them. 

“We’re being targeted. We’re being shamed.” (I spoke to the couple prior to this. They’re planning to sue, and encouraged me to film.) pic.twitter.com/SRLG6kqiqM

— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) September 6, 2020

“If we were f**king Black, I can guarantee you that guy would never come out and tell us to put a mask on,” the wife ranted. 

“Right, because Black Lives Matter,” her husband agreed. 

Read More: Kamala Harris slams Trump, Barr for denying systemic racism in justice system

After a long standoff, during which other passengers demanded the couple leave, officers gave the two one last opportunity to voluntarily depart the ferry, citing that the captain had the authority to remove unruly passengers. The man and woman chose instead to be handcuffed and escorted from the boat. They said that they plan to sue. 

“I’m just so fed up, this has been going on since March, and my husband is f**king pissed off,” the woman told Gothamist. “Every time I have to commute to Manhattan, it’s a fu**ing process.”

After being removed from the boat, the couple was given a summons for disorderly conduct. 

Read More: Ben & Jerry’s announces new podcast on systemic racism, White supremacy

New York City was once the epicenter of the coronavirus, where more than 23,000 people have died from it. The COVID-19 infection rate, now, continues to decline in the city, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that the state’s infection rate has been less than 1% for over a month. 

“New Yorkers can help us keep that streak going by wearing masks, socially distancing and washing their hands,” Cuomo said. “Our actions today determine the rate of infection tomorrow.” 

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Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and more attend Chadwick Boseman private memorial

The ‘Black Panther’ star will be laid to rest in his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina.

Just over a week after Chadwick Boseman died of cancer, several of his Black Panther costars gathered in Malibu for a private memorial. 

According to PEOPLE, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, and Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward were among the attendees on Saturday. The Sun obtained photos of the event that also included Winston Duke and music played from a hang drum. 

Read More: Whoopi Goldberg calls for Wakanda theme park as tribute to Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Boseman died on Aug. 28 after a four-year battle with colon cancer. His death stunned fans around the world, especially since very few people were aware he was ill. His rep confirmed the news of his death in a statement. 

(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

“It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman. A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” read the statement. 

“He died in his home, with his wife and family by his side,” the statement continued. “The family thanks you for your love and prayers, and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

Michael B. Jordan was one of many of Boseman’s friends who penned heartfelt tributes after his death. 

“One of the last times we spoke, you said we were forever linked, and now the truth of that means more to me than ever, Since nearly the beginning of my career, starting with All My Children when I was 16 years old you paved the way for me,” Jordan shared in a touching post on social media. 

Actors Michael B. Jordan (L) and Chadwick Boseman attend the Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER Global Junket Press Conference on January 30, 2018 at Montage Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

“You showed me how to be better, honor purpose, and create legacy. And whether you’ve known it or not…I’ve been watching, learning and constantly motivated by your greatness.”

Read More: Michael B. Jordan honors Chadwick Boseman: ‘I wish we had more time’

“You cared about me. You are my big brother, but I never fully got a chance to tell you, or to truly give you your flowers while you were here. I wish we had more time.I’m dedicating the rest of my days to live the way you did. With grace, courage, and no regrets. ‘Is this your king!?’Yes . he is! Rest In Power Brother.”

According to reports, Chadwick Boseman will be laid to rest in his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina. 

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This Woman Created A Wellness App Designed For Black Women

For Mental Health Awareness week, BLACK ENTERPRISE is interviewing numerous individuals within the wellness community to talk about the racial disparities that affect the Black community in the hopes of creating a safe place to talk about mental health. 

Meditation apps have grown more popular as more Americans begin to prioritize their health and wellness needs. Despite their popularity, many of these apps are focused on a predominantly White audience and do not cater to the specific struggles that people of color face, specifically in this politically-charged climate.

After learning to cope with the recent onslaught racial injustice and police brutality, Katara McCarty sought out to create a meditation app for women of color.

McCarty is the founder of EXHALE, the first emotional well-being app designed specifically for Black women and women of color. The content is separated into five categories for daily mindful practice including affirmations, guided visualizations, breathing, and meditations. In light of the police shooting of Jacob Blake and recent protests, McCarty is providing the premium version of the app for free in September.

BE: How did you get the idea to create EXHALE?

McCarty: During the beginning of quarantine, I was proactive and began to amp up my self-care. I did more things to get still daily, find time to rest, commit to moving my body, and meditate more often.

As the news began surfacing about COVID-19 hitting Black and Brown communities disproportionately, my heart became heavy. Almost simultaneously, while that was occurring, the video of Ahmad Arbery went viral. I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness, grief, and hopelessness for my community. The weight I felt was not unfamiliar, as I have felt this before with other tragedies due to systems of oppression my community has experienced. As we were reeling about this, we heard about Breonna Taylor’s murder, and the George Floyd murder was videotaped and going viral.

What we were seeing wasn’t new to me, but it felt incredibly insurmountable. I began to ask myself what I was going to do. How was I going to lean into my community and help? I got still, tuned in to myself, and listened for the answer. After several days, I got it! I would create an emotional well-being app for Black, Indigenous, Women of Color. Putting in the app the practices I’ve adopted in my everyday life that have kept me centered and grounded.

I created this app for BIWOC because most well-being apps are predominantly White-narrated, White-owned, and are overall White spaces. The uniqueness by which BIWOC has to weave through life, I believe, calls for a unique and specific curation that speaks to us and the weight that we carry because of racism, anti-blackness, misogynoir, and all systems of oppression.

Why was creating this kind of service for Black women important to you?

The uniqueness by which BIWOC weave through life, I believe, calls for a unique and specific curation that speaks to us and the weight that we carry because of racism, anti-blackness, misogynoir, and all systems of oppression. BIWOC are some of the most marginalized in our society. I was also raised by two Black women who took me in and adopted me after my biological mother abandoned me. Creating this app feels like a full-circle moment for me as I specifically give back to the community who stepped up, took me in, and raised me.

Your service is free for September. What prompted you to make that decision?

We launched our app on August 25th, two days after the shooting of Jacob Blake. When I heard Jacob’s family speak, specifically his sister, I could feel their pain and grief. I decided that I wanted to make EXHALE completely accessible to be a resource for us as we continue to navigate our collective grief, pain, fear, anxiety, and trauma.

Why is it important for Black people to incorporate mediation into their daily routine?

According to the American Institute of Stress, deep, abdominal breathing reduces stress and anxiety. For just 20 to 30 minutes each day, “deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to your brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes a state of calmness.”

Our parasympathetic nervous system controls the predominant state our bodies should be during downtime, which should be 80% of the time. It’s the natural state we should be living in when not in danger. Our heart rate slows down, our breath is calm and relaxed, our digestive system is stimulated, and our hormones are balanced.

Yet BIPOC are often living in what the body perceives as danger due to racism and other forms of oppression. Our chest is tight. We’re tense. Our breath is short, we’re poised to fight, fly, or freeze, and it is making us sick. It is imperative that we tap into our breath, to reduce stress, to tune into our parasympathetic nervous system, and to heal.

When we experience stress and anxiety, we can use the power of our breath to come back to a state of calm. Tools that provide guided breathing techniques and mediations help individuals harness our breath to inhale calm and exhale stress and anxiety from body.

Taking the time for ourselves and focusing on our breath as BIPOC is both an act of reclaiming our power and an act of resistance. We may not be able to control what’s happening to us outside of our homes, the daily microaggressions and racism we’ll face, but we can control our breath. Our breath is in the moment, now, and we can use that breath to ensure we’re not holding the oppression we experience in our body. Deep breathing becomes an active tool to resist the toll that racism has on our bodies and minds.

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Kamala Harris slams Trump, Barr for denying systemic racism in justice system

‘It does us no good to deny that,’ Harris, the senator and vice-presidential hopeful, told CNN. ‘Let’s just deal with it. Let’s be honest.’

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, slammed President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr for claiming that institutional racism does not exist. 

“I don’t think that most reasonable people who are paying attention to the facts would dispute that there are racial disparities and a system that has engaged in racism, in terms of how the laws have been enforced,” said Harris in a Sunday interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” 

Two trailblazing women in a socially distant conversation @KamalaHarris @DanaBashCNN Enjoyed touring Howard University with Senator Harris as guide, too. #CNNSOTU https://t.co/kUYHa3owvh

— Ellen Charney (@Ellen_Charney) September 6, 2020

An appreciative Twitter user has her say.

“It does us no good to deny that. Let’s just deal with it. Let’s be honest. These might be difficult conversations for some, but they’re not difficult conversations for leaders,” Harris opined. “Not for real leaders.”

In an in-depth CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer earlier in the week, Barr dismissed the idea of “two justice systems,” saying, instead, “I think we have to be a little careful about throwing the idea of racism around. I don’t think it is as common as people suggest.” 

Read More: AG William Barr says Jacob Blake shooting may have been justified

Despite being pressed multiple times on the subject, Trump has also refused to acknowledge that systemic injustice exists in the country, despite the fact that so many peaceful protests have taken place against it. 

Instead, the president told a reporter, “Well, you know, you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places.” Trump was speaking while on a trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he toured businesses that had been burned in the wake of Jacob Blake‘s shooting by a Kenosha Police officer. 

Read More: Trump wants to pull funding from schools that use 1619 Project curriculum

Harris, a former attorney general for California, told CNN she feels that America has to “re-imagine” public safety.

“If we want to create safe communities,” she said, “one of the smartest ways we can do that is investing in the health of those communities because healthy communities are safe communities.”

Read More: The not-so-hidden racism behind mispronouncing Kamala Harris’s name

In the same interview, Harris refuted the Trump’s recent claims that a vaccine for coronavirus would be ready for the American public as early as October.

When asked if she would take such a vaccine, Harris maintained that she would “trust the word of public health experts and scientists,” but not that of the president alone. 

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Trump staffer dragged for mocking Joe Biden as he visits family’s graves

Instead of stopping to engage, the former vice president stayed on path, only to be described as ‘meandering along.’

A Trump staffer attempted to ridicule former vice president and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as he visited the graves of his deceased family members. 

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden waves to journalists as he leaves St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church after attending services Sunday. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Biden was filmed walking alone, his Secret Service detail behind him, through the cemetery at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church. At the time, he was heading through its grounds to where his first wife, Neilia, his young daughter, Naomi, and his son, former Delaware Atty. Gen. Beau Biden, are buried. 

REPORTER: "Mr. Vice President come talk to us."

Joe Biden just keeps meandering along. pic.twitter.com/6tnNQj2Ucg

— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) September 6, 2020

A journalist called out to him, but instead of engaging, Biden waved and continued on his way. 

Read More: Anita Hill pledges to vote for Joe Biden and work with him on gender issues

Francis Brennan, the Trump campaign’s director of strategic response, chose to mock the moment, saying Biden was “meandering along” instead of talking to reporters. 

Brennan was swiftly dragged on Twitter by media personalities, celebrities and others. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote, “It’s a cemetery. Where his son is buried. Are you human?” 

Actress Holly Robinson Peete responded to the tweet with a meme that read, “You’re going straight to hell.” 

Read More: Trump campaign running ads that make Biden look older

Others noted that in July, an RNC spokesman mockingly tweeted a decades-old photo of then-Senator Biden and a young Beau, the now-dead child wearing a knit Redskins cap, curled up in his father’s lap. 

Another Twitter user questioned how the scene outside the church could even upset the Trump base.

“So much of the criticism of Biden from the Trump campaign, I look at and I can’t understand who it’s appealing to,” Michael David Smith, managing editor of Pro Football Talk, wrote. “Biden politely declined to talk to a reporter while at the cemetery visiting his son’s grave. Which voters will dislike Biden for this?

Read More: Biden slams Trump over alleged comments mocking US war dead

Despite the backlash, Brennan did not remove the tweet nor offer any apology. 

He is reportedly one of the staffers behind Trump War Room, the president’s often-controversial re-election campaign leadership. In June, social media companies removed ads from the Trump War Room which contained a symbol used by Nazi Germany. 

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