25,000 subscribers!, RIP Cissy Houston, more layoffs at The Grio
Friday, October 11, 2024.
My newsletter has reached 25,000 subscribers! Thank you to everyone who reads, shares, comments, and more. This newsletter serves as a resource for you, and it is only able to grow because of you.
What I’m Reading
What Does Utopia Look Like for Black Americans?, The New York Times
The New York Times reviewed “THE BLACK UTOPIANS: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America,” a new book by Aaron Robertson that explores “the diverse dreams, migrations and collective social experiments of African Americans.”
Crenshaw at the Crossroads, Alta Online
Lynell George interviewed Jason Foster, the president and chief operating officer of Destination Crenshaw, an ambitious civic project that aims to revitalize the historic Black neighborhood by providing a boost for longtime residents and business owners without leaving behind its past.
Black women say dating apps like Hinge are biased. Now some are testing it, The Washington Post
After one Black woman set up two profiles — one Black and one white — on Hinge to test the dating app’s algorithm, others are now changing their racial data on similar apps in hopes to find better matches.
What’s In The News
Across America
Alabama: Dennoriss Richardson, who was found hanging by a rope at an abandoned house in Colbert County, had filed a federal lawsuit against officers alleging police brutality earlier this year…
California: Multiple sheriff SUVs were called to an event hosted by the CA Legislative Black Caucus and CA Black Freedom Fund to confront demonstrators protesting the CLBC’s decision to block reparations bills…
Georgia: The state’s Board of Public Health canceled its monthly meeting for the fifth month in a row with no explanation given — despite the recent BioLab fire, Hurricane Helene, and a COVID surge…Kenny Johnson, the Rockdale County soil and water supervisor, collapsed and died following his testimony about the BioLab fire…
Louisiana: Congrats! Southern University's School of Nursing is celebrating a milestone with the largest class of Black male nurses in the school's history…
Maryland: Really interesting that this story about a racist AI deepfake which fooled a suburb outside of Baltimore caught the attention of the BBC…
Michigan: Brakkton Booker’s story in POLITICO — “Democrats are deploying prominent Black surrogates to Michigan to deliver an urgent plea: Black men, we need you”...
New Jersey: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was profiled by the New Yorker, where they call him a “reasonable radical”...
New York: A new book examines the history of free Black Brooklyn, and how it shaped the former slaveholding capital…
Texas: A judge rejected a request by a Black high school student punished over his hairstyle for an order that the student's lawyers say would have helped him return to his school…
What’s Happening
I’m told there were more layoffs at The Grio this week, though it’s unclear if they were related to the layoffs in April at the Black-owned media outlet. Allen Media Group did not respond to my request for comment…
Vice President Kamala Harris announced on "The View" that she plans to expand Medicare services to include at-home elder care as a benefit. The Grio’s Gerren Keith Gaynor wrote about how the proposal could be a gamechanger for Black Americans…Here’s what the latest polling shows on Black voters’ views of Harris and Donald Trump…
Former President Barack Obama urged Black men to rally behind Harris at a campaign stop in Pittsburgh…More: A new voter initiative aimed at engaging Black male voters in battleground states launched this week…
A consequence of Hurricane Helene's devastation: A long lasting impact on children…A mother and her month-old twin boys were killed by Hurricane Helene, and they are believed to be the storm’s youngest known victims…Here’s how Waffle House helps Southerners — and FEMA — judge a storm’s severity…Florida evacuated over 4,000 prisoners ahead of Hurricane Milton, but some officials chose not to…
More Black and Latina women have been landing top positions at some of the biggest unions in the country…
President Joe Biden announced a 10-year deadline for cities across the country to replace their lead pipes, a decade after the Flint Water Crisis…
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers who were harassed in 2020, settled their defamation lawsuit against a far-right news website…
Trump took a jab at Detroit while speaking in Detroit, claiming a Harris presidency would turn the United States into Detroit. It’s his latest attack on a majority Black city…
From : Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks faced off against former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in the Maryland Senate debate last night…
PhD student Adam McNeil is helping collect local stories of Black people in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park…
I am sending prayers and well wishes to Cleveland 19 News reporter Winnie Dortch, who was shot this week in a “domestic incident”…
A Black woman in San Antonio said she will not be sleeping in her home after someone spray painted racist slurs on her property…
A new U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that Black girls in public schools “face more and harsher forms of discipline when compared to other girls”...
Entertainment News
The New York Times mapped the queer Black artists, musicians, authors and socialites that transformed Harlem during its Renaissance with this really cool interactive…
RZA sat down with The Associated Press to talk about his traditional classical music album “A Ballet Through Mud”...
Detroit Metro Times: “A century’s worth of Black film, art, literature, music, and cultural history tucked away in a warehouse just outside of Detroit will soon be shared with the public”...
The late Otis Redding has received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…
Scarface recently underwent open-heart surgery, and he told fans that he is doing fine…
From NBC BLK’s Char Adams: “The nation is finally beginning to see that ‘country music is for everyone,’ and Mickey Guyton loves it”…
HBO has finally found its John Stewart. Aaron Pierre of “Rebel Ridge” fame has been tapped to play the beloved Green Lantern. However, the casting has sparked discussion of colorism…
Sean Combs is set to stand trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges on May 5, 2025…
Bloomberg reports that Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna both passed on headlining Coachella in 2025, and the music festival is scrambling to find a headliner…
J. Cole just dropped a new track called "Port Antonio,” where he addressed his decision to back away from the Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud…
The New York Times talked with GloRilla, “hip-hop’s master motivator,” who just dropped her debut studio album “Glorious”...
Media news: Desus Nice has a travel series for Amazon in the works…Jemele Hill is launching a weekly podcast called “Spolitics,” that will delve into sports, race, culture and more…
W Magazine profiled the always viral Zack Fox, and discussed his journey from an art school dropout to appearing on “Abbott Elementary”...
Vanity Fair spent some time with the very quotable Spike Lee at his studio, talking politics, movies and sports…
Beloved ABC11 anchor Anthony Wilson is retiring after over 30 years on the weekend morning show in Raleigh…
Obituaries
Cissy Houston, a Grammy winning gospel singer and mother of Whitney Houston, has died. She was 91…
For Andscape, Keith Murphy wrote about how celebrity death at times can feel heartbreakingly personal…
Don’t Miss
Can you beat my time on Black Crossword? 1 minute, 57 seconds…
The Sacramento Observer is hosting an election education symposium in Sacramento this Saturday, and I am doing a presentation on misinformation!...
Kamala Harris is headed to Detroit on Tuesday to participate in a radio town hall hosted by Charlamagne Tha God, the host just announced. She will "address and identify obstacles to creating intergenerational wealth for Black Americans”…
Black Perspectives is hosting an online forum on the legacy of the urban rebellions that occurred throughout the U.S. in the 1960s on October 14-16…
For Essence, Kimberly Wilson wrote about what Black homebuyers need to consider in the wake of the latest rate cut…
Tell everyone! The Washington Association of Black Journalists is now accepting applications from DMV-based high school students for our 2025 Urban Journalism Workshop…