BOTWC feature, You go Coco!, Diddy did what?
BOTWC feature, You go Coco!, Diddy did what?
Friday, September 8, 2023.
What I’m Reading
William W. Chip is the founder of Black America for Immigration Reform, an effort seeking to advance the argument that more immigration is bad for Black workers. But here’s the thing — he’s not Black. And he has a long history of racist views.
Meet the white Trump official behind the launch of Black America for Immigration Reform, POLITICO
A pre-pandemic report estimates that one-third of American families with loved ones in prison go into debt to pay for phone calls. But, thanks to a group of activists, that could soon change.
Is This the End of Prison Phone Fees?, Mother Jones
Chloe Bailey’s NPR Tiny Desk dropped this week. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter has been criticized incessantly for being “too sexy” — and she talked with me after the recording about how she deals with it all.
Chlöe Bailey Is Ignoring The Haters, HuffPost
What’s In The News
Me! Shoutout to the wonderful folks over at Because of Them We Can for doing a profile on my journalism career. It’s always an honor to be recognized by your own people…
Across America
Alabama: A federal district court declared that Alabama’s new congressional maps discriminate against Black citizens in violation of the Voting Rights Act…
California: The Golden State has promised reparations to survivors of forced sterilization. Few people have gotten them…
Florida: A state judge has struck down North Florida’s congressional districts, finding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ map illegally reduced Black voters’ electoral power. And the governor is already appealing the decision…
Georgia: A detainee at the Fulton County Jail has died, days after filing a civil rights complaint in which he alleged excessive force at the facility.
Maryland: A Prince George's Police officer has been suspended after a social media video went viral of him kissing a woman before they went into the back of a patrol car. And now the woman is speaking out…
Massachusetts: A 14-year-old white boy was indicted Thursday on charges of attempted murder and assault after investigators said he tried to drown a Black boy in a pond on Cape Cod…
Minnesota: A Minnesota prison was placed on emergency lockdown this week after about 100 inmates in one housing unit facing dangerously high temps wouldn't return to their cells…
Nevada: A Los Vegas rapper accused of murdering a man and then writing a song about it has been arrested for homicide…
New York: A new survey aims to document the predominantly Afro-Latino neighborhood of Brooklyn's Little Caribbean's cultural significance beyond physical landmarks...
North Dakota: A white nationalist hate group is being sued in North Dakota, accused of defacing businesses and public property around the city of Fargo…
Ohio: Ta’Kiya Young’s shooting in Ohio highlights a sobering reality for Black pregnant women in America, Daja Henry writes…
Pennsylvania: A man is in custody after pointing a long gun at two women and attempting to enter a predominantly Black church in Ambridge…
Rhode Island: Former White House official Gabe Amo won a special election and is poised to become the first Black person ever to represent Rhode Island in Congress…
Texas: A woman claims she was assaulted and hit in the face with a brick for refusing to give a man her phone number…
Virginia: 60 years ago, a black neighborhood called Shoe Lane was destroyed to create space for a public university. The school has been gobbling up the remaining homes ever since…
Wisconsin: Jay-Z’s Team ROC has hired a legal team for a man wrongfully detained by law enforcement at an Applebee’s restaurant in Kenosha…
Features
ICYMI: Readers are rightfully frustrated with what's being called “Black media.” The Black press, however, is distinctly different. Here’s a new story from me…
For Teen Vogue, Gennette Cordova wrote about the jazz pianist Hazel Scott and how her career was derailed for fighting segregation...
For CNN, Hanna Phifer wrote about the impact of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” on fashion and hip-hop culture…
Errin Haines wrote about the Summer of the Black Woman…
MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles employs midwives to try to improve births for Black women, a practice that hospital officials fear could be difficult to sustain…
A controversy over a Black professor’s hire inflamed campus tensions at Texas A&M University. A DEI ban would only escalate the conflict…
“Celebrating getting to see Beyoncé live on her birthday meant getting to celebrate the wide range of being we do not always get to openly sit with,” Marissa Evans explained in the Los Angeles Times…
Bettina Love argues that Black students in America deserve reparations. “The value of the educational harm inflicted on my generation exceeds $2 trillion”...
Spencer Kornhaber penned a beautiful profile of hip-hop's fiercest critic (and Detroit native!): dream hampton…
Thousands of Airbnbs and other short-term rentals are expected to disappear from rental platforms as New York City begins enforcing tight restrictions…
What’s Happening
Coco Gauff is advancing to her first US Open final, becoming the youngest American to reach the title match since Serena Williams…
Bill Pinkney, the first African American to sail solo around the world, has died. He was 87…
Education has long been hailed as the path to upward mobility in America. But new research points to limits of education as an economic escalator for Black workers…
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe spoke with Morgan State University's chief of police about the challenges facing HBCUs as racially motivated, domestic extremism intensifies in the United States…
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to travel to more than a dozen campuses across eight states for a monthlong college tour…
Nathan Louis Jackson, the playwright, screenwriter and producer who worked on the Netflix superhero series “Luke Cage,” has died. He was 44…
Enrique Tarrio, ex-leader of the violent far-right gang Proud Boys, has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection…
Ruschell Boone, an award-winning reporter and anchor for New York City TV station NY1, has died. She was 48…
Chilling: More than 60 activists were indicted on RICO charges over the ongoing efforts to halt construction of the city of Atlanta’s “Cop City”...
New DNA testing has exonerated 72-year-old Leonard Mack, in what is the longest wrongful conviction overturned by DNA in U.S. history…
Two Morehouse College students, Hugh Douglas and Christion Files Jr., have died in a car accident…
Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer has stepped down, and she was the only Black female CEO currently running an S&P 500 company…
Marla F. Frederick will serve as the next dean of the Harvard Divinity School, becoming the first woman to lead the school in its 207-year history…
Entertainment
Diddy has reassigned his publishing rights back to all the artists and songwriters who helped build Bad Boy Entertainment…
Academy Award-winning director Matthew Cherry sat down with the CBS News Morning Team to discuss his new book "Hair Love ABC's”...
B.G., a founding member of the Hot Boys, has been released from prison after serving 12 years…
NPR host Brittany Luse spoke with Craig Seymour, author of "Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross," to discuss the iconic singer’s impact and why his name isn't often in conversation with other greats…
Diana Ross sang “Happy Birthday” to Beyonce during her Los Angeles stop on her “Renaissance” World Tour…
Meet the Black couple preserving Harriet Tubman’s family farm in the forthcoming short film “The Aunties”...
“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Erica Mena “will not appear in the next season” after calling Spice, her Black co-star, a “monkey”...
Jonathan Majors’ domestic abuse trial has been delayed again in a New York court…
In case you were wondering why the phrase “Tabi swindler” was trending over the weekend, here’s the shocking story of love, lust, betrayal, and high fashion. Vogue tracked down the victim…
“Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” is coming to an end at HBO after 29 years…
In the 90s and 2000s, the “video vixen” was the blueprint. Melyssa Ford, one of the most recognizable faces from that era, spoke with Chinea Rodriguez about her impact…
Legendary sportswriter Bill Rhoden wrote about Deion Sanders and how his unranked Colorado Buffaloes pulled off the first major upset of the college football season…
Tremaine Emory has stepped down as creative director of Supreme due to alleged “systematic racism”...
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 2 minutes…
The Diaspora Solidarities Lab is hosting a talk on “catastrophe's profound impact on Black communities, uncovering its ties to colonial dispossession, indigenous genocide, and trans-Atlantic slavery” on Sept. 14 at 5 pm EST…
The Associated Press is hiring a reporter for its Race & Ethnicity team…
Will you be in D.C. for the famed Congressional Black Caucus week? I curated a list of events…
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) will host its 108th annual meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, from September 19-24…