RIP Richard Roundtree, Tyler Perry dishes on BET, Scholastic backtracks
Friday, October 27, 2023.
What I’m Reading
Richard Roundtree, whose signature role in the “Shaft” movie franchise cemented him as a Black film icon, has died. He was 81. Several stars, from Gabrielle Union to Samuel L. Jackson, paid homage to the late actor.
Richard Roundtree, Star of ‘Shaft,’ Is Dead at 81, The New York Times
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor wrote about the crisis unfolding at Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research, and the broader implications for the movement against racism.
“Kendi’s focus on personal awakening and transformation puts him outside an anti-racist tradition that includes W. E. B. DuBois; James Baldwin; Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Angela Davis. These architects of anti-racist thought understood racism as a manifestation of capitalism, and they believed that reality necessitated a mass movement.”
Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racism, The New Yorker
At 18, Bobby Bostic was sentenced to 241 years in prison. Now out on parole, he’s sharing the healing power of writing in juvenile detention centers.
“Why should I write about changing the world when the world doesn’t care about me?,” a student asked him while he was teaching at a juvenile lockup. “You should write about changing the world so that the world can start caring about you,” he told the teen.
Here’s How I Use My Story to Teach Incarcerated Kids That Writing Matters, The Marshall Project
Horrible: A Mississippi mother who spent seven months searching for her son discovered that an off-duty officer struck him with his car less than an hour after he left the house. Authorities then buried him in a pauper’s field without notifying his family.
A mother reported her son missing in March. Police kept the truth from her for months, NBC News
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: Taylor Howard, a World War II veteran, Buffalo soldier and civil rights advocate, recently celebrated his 105th birthday…
Florida: A federal judge sentenced a white man convicted of attempting to run down six Black men at the site of the Rosewood massacre last year to a year in prison…
Georgia: A federal judge has ruled that Georgia’s congressional and legislative districts are racially discriminatory and ordered that they be redrawn…
Kentucky: The ex-Louisville police officer who shot and killed Breonna Taylor and was later hired as a sheriff’s deputy rammed someone’s truck with his cruiser and then pointed a gun at the owner and several bystanders, according to witnesses…
Maryland: Gov. Wes Moore backed a candidate who could become one of the few Black women ever elected to the U.S. Senate…
Minnesota: A county commissioner wants to help other women, particularly younger Black women, learn more about heart disease and receive access to more comprehensive mental health care during recovery from a heart attack…
New York: A white judge in upstate New York has been removed from his position, eight years after pointing a loaded gun at a Black man in his courtroom…
North Carolina: 41 years after protestors marched for six weeks to oppose what they saw as environmental racism, Warren County activists look to take a leading role in the evolving environmental justice movement…
Ohio: A police dog attacked a Black trucker on his knees. An Ohio city is grappling with the aftermath…
Oklahoma: More than 100 years after many of Tulsa's Black residents were killed and their businesses were destroyed by white rioters, the community is still finding ways to rebuild and seek justice…
South Carolina: Tyler Perry has pledged to build a five-bedroom home for a 93-year-old woman fighting developers over a home that's been in her family since the end of the Civil War. I wrote about this a while back…
Tennessee: Voters in Franklin have resoundingly rejected a candidate for mayor who openly embraced white supremacists and Christian nationalism…
Texas: A Black security guard is suing several Dallas police officers for a 2021 arrest in which he says they used excessive force after mistaking him for a violent crime suspect with a similar name…
Virginia: A 14-year-old from Virginia was crowned America’s Top Young Scientist for developing a soap that treats skin cancer…
What’s Happening
The Scholastic Book Fair will discontinue its separate selection of books on race and gender following criticism that segregating the titles caters to the right-wing censorship spreading across the country…
A new study found that high-stress, low-reward jobs are not only bad for your financial bottom line, they are literally deadly, especially for Black men…
Aallyah Wright of Capital B spoke with Luana Graves Sellars of the Lowcountry Gullah Foundation, who shared resources for Black families fighting to protect their land…
Shaun King clashed with the family of American hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan after he claimed he “worked frantically behind the scenes to help make [their release] possible”...
The Debt Collective announced it is erasing student debt for 3,000 former Morehouse College students…
AP: Few transplant surgeons are Black. Giving medical students a rare peek at organ donation may help…
Amber Wilsondebriano, a senior at Porter-Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina, was elected her school's first Black homecoming queen in its 155-year history…
Dwight Howard has denied accusations by a Georgia man who says he was sexually assaulted by the former NBA star and another person, describing the encounter as consensual and requesting that the case be dismissed…
A former Towson University golfer launched a scholarship to support student golfers of color, and has awarded nine $2,000 scholarships so far…
Here’s everything you need to know about “The Breakfast Club” host DJ Envy’s alleged involvement in a real estate Ponzi scheme…
Ameris Bank, which is accused of “redlining” Black and Hispanic residents in Florida, has settled with the Justice Department…
A new study cautions that popular chatbots are perpetuating racist, debunked medical ideas, prompting concerns that the tools could worsen health disparities for Black patients…
Entertainment
Diddy returned to Howard University to fulfill the $1 million pledge he made during the 2022 BET Awards…
Dave Chappelle waded briefly into the Israel-Hamas conflict at a show in Boston, drawing cheers from some audience members and causing others to walk out…
The stars of “The Color Purple’s” most recent revival graced the cover of Essence Magazine…
Prosecutors in the Jonathan Majors case have revealed a previously unreported incident involving London police, and are alleging his legal team has leaked and misrepresented court evidence…
Larenz Tate says he's "tired of people asking" him about "Love Jones 2," but doesn't rule it out...
Jemele Hill wrote about how Jada Pinkett Smith “has unfairly become the villain in her own story”...
Reports that singer Rihanna has inked a multi-year contract with Live Nation are “bogus,” and noted that “no tour has been confirmed for Rihanna,” a source told Billboard…
Tyler Perry says Paramount’s bidding process for BET was “disrespectful,” and he wouldn’t consider buying again…
Jay-Z settles the viral debate over whether you should take $500K or lunch with him: “You gotta take the money”...
Lil Wayne has responded to an image of a peculiar-looking wax museum figure of himself…
For ELLE, Jaelani Turner-Williams sat down with the City Girls about their new album, paving respective lanes in fashion and media and getting the respect they deserve…
More media cuts: Sam Sanders's podcast "Into It" is coming to an end...
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 34 seconds…
Interested in photography and photojournalism? Here are free online classes presented by The Everyday Projects, Black Women Photographers, and PhotoWings! The classes take place this weekend…
USC Annenberg's Center for Health Journalism is hosting a webinar titled "Reporting on Alzheimer's Unequal Toll in Communities of Color" on Nov. 1…
HBCUs on TV: Stephen A. Smith will join Shannon Sharpe at his alma mater, Savannah State University in Georgia, on Nov. 6 for ESPN’s “First Take.” They’ll head to Winston-Salem State University the next day…
“Silver Dollar Road,” the latest from documentarian Raoul Peck, tells the story of the dispossession faced by Black landowners in the United States…
re: this newsletter, on substack app at least, it confuses me to have the link/headline after the summary, i think it’d flow better before, because it’s a bigger font size and looks like a header, just my 2 cents - thanks for this great info
that Mississippi death is so wrong