According to the Associated Press, Juneteenth has officially become a state holiday in Virginia after lawmakers unanimously approved legislation during the Virginia General Assembly special session.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation and the abolition of slavery reached Texas via a Union Army general Gordon Granger, setting off celebrations among the newly freed.
Governor Ralph Northam proposed making Juneteenth a state holiday in June during a press conference that included musician and Virginia native Pharrell Williams, and issued an executive order that gave executive branch employees and state colleges the day off. Northam signed the statewide legislation on Oct. 13.
The world got a happy surprise when Stevie Wonder released two brand new songs earlier this week, his first new songs as lead artist in years.
Wonder held a virtual press conference Tuesday with reporters to reveal his latest news, in addition to the new tunes. Wonder, who turned 70 earlier this year, reported he “feels great” after a kidney transplant last December.
Most shockingly, nearly 60 years after he first signed with Motown at the age of 11, Wonder announced that he has left what had previously been his lifetime record label for his own What the Fuss Records, to be distributed through Republic Records (a sister label to Motown in the Universal Music Group family).
The label is named after the Prince-assisted single “So What the Fuss,” which was included on Wonder’s last full-length album, A Time to Love from 2005.
The new songs “Where Is Our Love Song” (featuring blues/rock guitar maestro Gary Clark Jr.) and “Can’t Put It In the Hands of Fate” (with Busta Rhymes, Rapsody, Cordae & Chika) are both based on musical elements Wonder had started composing years ago (the former song was started when Wonder was 18), but were completed this year with lyrics and messages inspired by Wonder’s take on the news of today.
Wonder indicated that both songs would be potentially included in an upcoming EP or full-length album. Proceeds from “Where Is Our Love Song” will be donated to the charity Feeding America.
[Me Too Founder Tarana Burke photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images]
The Me Too Movement against sexual violence and sexual harassment gained widespread attention three years ago. In 2020, the movements against racial violence, police brutality and the ongoing struggle with the coronavirus pandemic have also emerged as dominating issues of our times.
According to the Huffington Post, Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too Movement and a longtime activist, knows people are outraged ― and overwhelmed. So Burke and the Me Too organization, in collaboration with creative data marketing agency FCB/SIX, are launching a new digital platform called “Me Too Act Too” that allows activists, experienced and new, to educate themselves and get involved.
“I think one of the mistakes that we make on the movement side is that there’s so much judgment around what it means to be an activist or what it means to be active. And if you’re not doing it a certain way, then you’re not really contributing. And that’s not true,” Burke told HuffPost.
Me Too Act Too is a crowd-sourced digital platform that gives “survivors, advocates and allies tools to work toward a world free of sexual violence,” according to the organization. The website is meant to be an accessible tool for people who may not see themselves as career activists or who do not have the ability to devote a large amount of time to this work.
“The one thing this President is really, really good at is using fear and confusion and spreading lies to win.”
Released today, in a blistering, no-nonsense, direct video to the American people, former First Lady Michelle Obama spends 24 minutes and 12 records clearly, concisely and directly laying out why it’s so important to vote in the November election.
While Obama offers empathy for those suffering from Covid-19, including those in the White House, she also points out how “the President” has provided little to know direction or leadership during the crisis and how he continues to downplay the severity of the issue.
She also offers real talk to voters on the racial divisiveness afoot from the top:
You’ve worked hard all your life and for too long you’ve watched the rich get richer. You’ve lost your farm and your livelihoods to corporate greed. You’ve seen your beloved towns shattered by joblessness. You’ve watched families destroyed by drug addiction and mental health challenges – all of this long before this virus hit. And it is frustrating to hear some folks say that you’ve been the beneficiary of white privilege, that the color of your skin gives you a head start. That is the reality for far too many hardworking, decent Americans.
But right now, the President and his allies are trying to tap into that frustration and distract from his breathtaking failures by giving folks someone to blame other than them. They’re stoking fears about Black and brown Americans, lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs, whipping up violence and intimidation. And they’re pinning it all on what’s been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity. It’s true. Research backs it up. Only a tiny fraction of demonstrations have had any violence at all. So what the President is doing once again is patently false. It’s morally wrong and yes, it is racist.”
Obama also offers words of support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and then breaks it down even further:
As a Black woman who has — like the overwhelming majority of people of color in this nation — done everything in my power to live a life of dignity, and service, and honesty, the knowledge that any of my fellow Americans is more afraid of me than the chaos we are living through right now, well, that hurts. It hurts us all… So I want to appeal for some empathy here, too. I want everyone who is still undecided to think about all those folks like me and my ancestors…
The millions of folks who look like me and fought and died and toiled as slaves and soldiers and laborers to help build this country. Put yourselves in our shoes for just a moment. Imagine how it feels to wake up every day and do your very best to uphold the values that this country claims to holds dear — truth, honor, decency — only to have those efforts met by scorn, not just by your fellow citizens, but by a sitting president.”
Obama continues to lay out the way racism is being used to destroy the nation and appeals to everyone, conservative and liberal alike to search their hearts and figure out what they truly value. Then go to iwillvote.com to save democracy and “get the job done.”
Watch every minute and share. The message is worth it.
[Justice Martin Jenkins. Photo Credit: Jason Doiy / ALM]
According to latimes.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Martin Jenkins to the State Supreme Court.
Currently serving as Newsom’s Judicial Appointments secretary, Jenkins, 66 would become the first openly gay man on the California Supreme Court, and only the third Black man ever to serve on the state’s highest court.
“Justice Jenkins is widely respected among lawyers and jurists, active in his Oakland community and his faith, and is a decent man to his core,” Newsom said in a statement. “As a critical member of my senior leadership team, I’ve seen firsthand that Justice Jenkins possesses brilliance and humility in equal measure. The people of California could not ask for a better jurist or kinder person to take on this important responsibility.”
Jenkins was leading the search to fill a vacancy on the court left by the Aug. 31 retirement of Justice Ming W. Chin, a Republican appointee who was the court’s most conservative member.
Jenkins is viewed as generally less liberal than the four justices Brown appointed to the court. From Alameda County prosecutor, to federal judge to the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals, Jenkins did not publicly discuss his sexual orientation.
After his confirmation, the court will have two Black justices, two Asian Americans, one Latino, one white woman and one white man.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by the governor to continue serving the people of California on the Supreme Court,” Jenkins said in a statement. “If confirmed, I will serve with the highest ethical standards that have guided me throughout my career, informed by the law and what I understand to be fair and just.”
A San Francisco native, Jenkins earned his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University and at one point had a contract to play NFL football for the Seattle Seahawks, but chose instead to become an attorney and got his Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
According to nytimes.com, the collective of athletes headlined by NBA superstar LeBron James called More Than a Vote, announced Wednesday that its mission to increase the number of poll workers in Black electoral districts has already amassed 10,000 volunteers.
The effort, which is called “We Got Next” and is a collaboration with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, will be highlighted during the first game of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers, the team featuring Mr. James.
During the game, first-time poll workers will be among the virtual fans, seated alongside basketball legends including Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal and Julius Erving.
In a release provided to The New York Times, More Than a Vote and the Legal Defense Fund said the second phase of their push would be more targeted, aimed at 11 cities “where significant poll worker shortages remain,” the release said.
Those cities include Black voter hubs in the South, like Birmingham, Jackson, Houston, San Antonio and Montgomery, as well as cities with significant Black populations in critical battleground states: Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Flint, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
There has been a shortage of volunteer poll workers for in-person voting sites across the nation, due to COVID-19 and other factors. The dearth is particularly felt in Black communities, which have historically experienced longer wait times and have had fewer polling locations than many white communities.
[Photo: Reparations bill author and CA Assembly member Shirley Weber (D-San Diego)]
According to latimes.com, California Governor Gavin Newsom today signed Assembly Bill 3121, which makes the Golden State the first in the U.S. to formally adopt a law to study and develop proposals for potential reparations to descendants of enslaved people and those impacted by slavery.
Newsom said the new law, authored by CA Assembly memberShirley Weber (D-San Diego), and the bipartisan support for its passage are proving “a paradigm that we hope will be resonant all across the United States.”
In a year of national protests against racial injustice, state lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 3121 to force the state to begin to confront its racist history and systemic disparities that persist today.
Although California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, slavery continued there after the state Constitution outlawed it the previous year. Slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865.
The new law creates a task force to recommend appropriate remedies to the state Legislature and determine who should be eligible to receive compensation, which advocates hope will become a model in a country where movements to make amends for centuries of slavery have failed to gain traction at the federal level.
“California has come to terms with many of its issues, but it has yet to come to terms with its role in slavery,” said Weber. “We’re talking about really addressing the issues of justice and fairness in this country that we have to address.”
According to thehill.com, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) will take over as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee‘s subcommittee on cybersecurity, infrastructure protection and innovation.
Underwood, who serves as vice chair of the full Homeland Security panel, will take over the subcommittee chair position from Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.). Richmond in turn is taking a position on the House Ways and Means Committee, to fill the seat previously held by the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Each time my white privilege piece circulates, I get a rush of emails, posts, messages, comments, tweets and DMs from new readers. Most are positive, some negative, some hilarious (between “laugh or cry,” I choose “laugh”) and inevitably, some questioning. I try my best to respond individually, but sometimes it’s way too overwhelming a task. Like during the last rush right after Christian Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and the nationwide protests.
I did find the energy in late May to write “A Letter to Friends Who Really Want to End Racism” on my personal Facebook page in an attempt to share my thoughts on how to move forward pro-actively. My sister (and GBN co-editor) Lesa encouraged me to publish it on GBN as well. I did, and that piece had its own extra flutter of internet life, too.
I texted Lesa to say her instincts were right again (in 2016 she predicted “What I Said…” would go viral before I posted it) and she responded in spotty text talk: You speak super Black pride and really wanna be woke white — needs to be shared!
Her words gave me a much-needed chuckle during a fraught pandemic shopping trip in a bare-shelved Whole Foods. They also helped crystallize my thoughts on what I might be able to uniquely contribute to the movement for equity and justice.
Author and award-winning journalist Farai Chideya has created and will host Our Body Politic, a weekly podcast debuting this weekend that is “unapologetically centered on reporting not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those issues.”
Farai Chideya (photo: Twitter)
Our Body Politic will focus on women of color as a super-demographic in American politics and ask how we can save and improve our own lives and that of our nation. Episodes will feature in-depth conversations about the economy, healthcare, politics, the environment and education every Friday. To listen to the trailer below:
The podcast will be available through a host of sponsor stations including KCRW, KPCC, KQED and WITF among others. You can also subscribe by clicking here.
For anyone who want to call in with questions or to tell the show what’s on your mind, you can leave a message at the number Chideya is posting on Twitter: 929-353-7006.
