Engagements
Commentary by Chitown Kev
Given that I am a) working increased hours on the job that will not be stopping any time soon and b) gathering a lot of material for a feature that I want to do based on one of Miss Denise’s “nudges” (about this black scholar) for my next Black Kos commentary, I feel that I am at kind of a loss of subject matter this week but...The Porch must remain open and welcoming sooooooo…
There is a question or series of questions that gets asked here periodically which I haven’t seen in some time so...here it goes…
A lot of times when I read threads about black political life and black culture here at The Great Orange Satan, it seems...well, a little obvious...that the majority of people at this (majority white) liberal blog have very little day-to-day interaction outside of Daily Kos with black people and black culture.
More of that is really by the structural design of society than we realize sometimes; after all, racial segregation still exists (even if its more overt forms are illegal) and even within black communities, there’s a lot of diversity and nuance about any number of issues.
[A personal example: I’m a old GenXer born (in 1967) and raised in Detroit, Michigan. I have lived in Chicagoland for almost 30 years.
I can accurately describe myself as being among the nation’s poor (I can tell you quite a bit about “economic anxiety”, OK?). But to be truthful about it, other than a few bouts that I’ve had with homelessness, I really have never lived in a community that I would describe as “impoverished.” I have always been considered to be “educated” or maybe even a little “bourgie.”
I’ve always known of the concentrations of black poverty and its’ various manifestations that frequently gets shorthanded into the word “ghetto” but that doesn’t much describe my background or my day-to-day existence...which doesn’t make me any better or “not-black” or anything like that at all...Lord knows I have problems and issues]
One of my own missions in doing this bi-weekly commentary here at Black Kos is to accurately depict the kaleidoscopic diversities and nuances of black life and culture in these United States and to spark the interests of readers in looking deeper into African American life and culture.
And now...the questions...
Do you read African American owned/oriented newspapers and/or blogs like The Root or The Grio or even “gossip” blogs like Lipstick Alley or Bossip (I won’t link to some of the raunchier black gossip blogs, lol)?
Do you read or have you read the works of black authors or black academics (in any number of fields)?
Have you looked at or listen to or do you admire the work of African American artists, dancers, musicians? (The more obscure, the better!)
Have you ever been to or do you attend a predominately African American church (if religious services is your thing)?
Generally speaking, tell me (and the rest of The Porch) about your engagement with African American life and culture.
And...let me be honest, here…
I am asking this more so to learn and expose myself to things that I don’t know than anything else.
Chicagoland is as rich in African American culture as any place in the country yet, for example, I’ve never been to the DuSable Museum of African American History. I live near a Big 10 university with a wealth of archival material about African Americans and I have only scratched the surface of the contents there...when I moved to Chicago in 1990, I was struck by the number and traditions of African American Catholics in Chicago, as of late, those numbers have been dwindling...and I could increase the list.
So, yeah...I’ll cop to “selfish” reasons for asking these questions.
But, most importantly, I think that it is so important to break down mental and spiritual barriers of the American culture of segregation; barriers that are every bit as acute as, say, the colored water fountains of the Jim Crow era.
Mental and spiritual barriers that are far more insidious than those colored water fountains ever were (I would argue) because...they still exist...as strong as they have ever been.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Music megastar Beyoncé and adidas announced their upcoming Ivy Park collaboration this week. The Houston native is set to release athleisurewear and sneakers with the brand after reportedly taking several meetings with competitors, including Under Armour, Jordan Brand and Reebok.
According to ESPN writer Nick DePaula, the Lemonade singer took staff diversity into strong consideration when deciding whom to work with, saying on a recent episode of The Jump, “I had heard a great story about how, throughout this process, in the last year or two, she had discussed with Under Armour, Reebok as well. Jordan, at one point, was interested in maybe partnering with her. She had a meeting at Reebok and they had a whole presentation of everything, potential products, how this could all look. And she kind took a step back and said, ‘Is this the team that will be working on my product?’
“Somebody said ‘yes.’ And she said, ‘Nobody in this room, reflects my background, my skin color and where I’m from and what I want to do.’ So she kind of took a step back and left. And then it did not come to terms.”
Fellow panelist and television host Rachel Nichols observed how unprepared Reebok reportedly was considering Bey’s background.
“I love…that’s an amazing story. Because it’s one thing to talk about ‘Oh, I want diversity. I want representation.’ But for a company not to realize, with Beyoncé’s track record, we better put people in the room, we better be able to elevate people who can do the job and to be able to do the job, you have to come from where she’s coming from.”
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Even in death the haggling went on.
Christian Esmério was going to be the one — his family had been sure of it.
He was 15 and towering, a soccer player with an easy smile that belied his prowess between the goal posts. Already there was talk of contracts, and of buying a home for his parents, who had poured all their savings into the dream that their son might be the next great Brazilian soccer export — the next Ronaldo, Ronaldinho or Neymar.
Now, his father stood in a daze of grief outside a Rio office building, surrounded by lawyers. Just days earlier, Christian had burned to death in a fire at the youth academy of one of South America’s most famous soccer clubs, Flamengo. He was one of 10 players killed.
The deaths lifted the veil over international soccer’s biggest production line, and raised sweeping questions about a brutal apparatus that chews up untold numbers of young Brazilian boys for every star it mints.
But for the moment, as lawyers sparred over how much money families of the players killed in the blaze should get, there was just one simple question: What was Christian worth?
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Eritreans in exile have launched legal proceedings against the EU, accusing it of financing a scheme in Eritrea that uses “forced labour”.
The Netherlands-based Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans (FHRE) has called on the EU to immediately stop a €20m (£17m) road construction project, which it says violates human rights law as well as the EU’s own charter, since it uses national service recruits.
Eritrea’s system of compulsory national service can last for 20 years or more, and has been likened by both the UN and the European Parliament to mass enslavement. Conscripts often work 72-hour weeks in extremely harsh conditions with inadequate food and low pay. It is the major cause of mass migration from Eritrea, which has been called the world’s “fastest emptying country”.
The road rehabilitation scheme, which launched in February and will help connect Eritrea’s ports to the border with neighbouring Ethiopia, is financed by the EU’s new Emergency Trust Fund for Africa and was described by an EU spokesman as indicative of “a new approach to engaging with Eritrea, which has the improvement of the lives and rights of Eritreans at its core”.
It is part of a package of support to Eritrea and the Horn of Africa designed to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.
It is also a measure of Eritrea’s gradual emergence from international isolation in recent years, which has seen it grow closer to Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular.
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Like shoe polish”, is how one oilman describes Uganda’s black stuff. It is waxy when heated and solid at room temperature. Some 6bn barrels lie in the western region around Lake Albert, of which 1.4bn may be recoverable. Commercial discoveries were first made in 2006—the biggest onshore oil finds in sub-Saharan Africa for two decades. But if the oil moves slowly, so too does oil development. Production is not expected to begin until 2022 at the earliest.
Waiting is hard. Researchers have long worried about a “resource curse”, as oil distorts economies, corrupts politics and fuels wars. Now some warn of a “presource curse”, which strikes even before the first drop is pumped. Ghana and Mozambique found large reserves, of oil and gas respectively, at around the time that Uganda did. Both lurched into economic crises. Uganda is trying to learn lessons.
The main one is patience. Ghana borrowed heavily, eager to cash in on future oil revenues. By 2012, even with the oil flowing, the government was racking up big deficits; in 2015 it needed the imf to bail it out. Mozambique sold bonds and took out hidden loans, then plunged into a debt crisis when they were exposed. As part of a restructuring deal the government has promised bondholders a share of gas revenues, which are still four years away. Its former finance minister is now in a South African jail, fighting extradition to America.
Borrowing binges are often based on inflated expectations. In a paper from 2017, James Cust of the World Bank and David Mihalyi of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a think-tank, analysed 236 oil discoveries around the world between 1988 and 2010. They looked at imf growth forecasts made after oil was found, then checked to see if the predictions were right. On average, countries grew slower than anticipated, even before any oil was pumped: in the six years after a discovery, forecasts fell short by 0.8 percentage points per year. In places with especially weak institutions the gap was 1.4 percentage points.
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Pope Francis named Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta as the new Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Pope Francis named Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta as the new Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
According to The New York Times, the announcement was made in connection with the 51st anniversary of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Gregory, 71, who has led the Archdiocese of Atlanta for the last 14 years, became the first African-American bishop to appointed to the position. The historic feat also placed him on the path to become the United States’ first African-American cardinal.
The 71-year-old replaced Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who resigned in October 2018 after being implicated by a Pennsylvania grand jury for helping to cover up sex abuse of 1,000 children by Catholic priests. Wuerl was named the archbishop of Washington in 2006.
Due to the sex clergy crisis sweeping the U.S., the Archdiocese of Washington did not have an official leader for almost six months before Gregory was chosen. The decision fits with Pope Francis’ more progressive vision of the church.
In 2002, Gregory was a prominent part of the U.S. bishops conference, which adopted a “zero tolerance” abuse policy after the first wave of sexual abuse allegations, according to FOX 5 DC.
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