Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Rob Lowry”

Eleven Years Ago Today: Good Black News Was Founded

GOOD BLACK NEWS proudly celebrates its eleventh anniversary today, March 18, 2021. GBN initially launched in 2010 as a Facebook page (read the story behind GBN’s creation here), and in 2012, we created a dedicated website, goodblacknews.org, which has allowed us to provide archives, search functions and easy access to our most popular social media to you, our readers.

The outpouring of appreciation you’ve shown us over the years via follows, likes, comments, shares, reblogs, DMs and e-mails means the world (even when we are overwhelmed and can’t respond to them all), and inspires GBN to keep working to find ways to expand, improve, and offer more content on the main page as well as on FacebookTwitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTubeRSS feed, LinkedIn and Flipboard (new)!

In the past year, we were honored to not only have GBN’s 2016 Editorial “What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege” recirculate across the internet, but also to see the May 2020 editorial, A Letter to Friends Who Really Want to End Racism, spark much-needed conversation on both topics.

Additionally, GBN was featured in the April 2020 New York Times article “The News Is Making People Anxious. You’ll Never Believe What They’re Reading Instead.” and the June 2020 Good Housekeeping piece How To Explain White Privilege to Someone Who Doesn’t Think it Exists.

In July 2020 GBN Founder and Editor-in-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson was interviewed about Good Black News on Barry Shore’s Joy of Living podcast and in Fall 2020 finally spoke with Jason, the high school friend whose Facebook post lead to “What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege” on the premiere episode of the Three Uncanny Four podcast Do The Work:

In 2020, Lori also started a Q&A column entitled “Dear Lori” where she responds to questions about white privilege and race she’s been asked by readers that she intends to resume shortly, because the questions just don’t stop.

And after years of promising in these anniversary posts, we finally launched the GBN newsletter via email. The intention is for it to be weekly but for myriad reasons, it hasn’t been consistent. In the coming months, we aim to make it so.

GBN is super proud to announce that in Fall 2021 Workman Publishing will be offering our first physical product: a Page-A-Day® Calendar entitled A Year of Good Black News for 2022, chock full of history, trivia and fun Black facts to enjoy every day of the year. We will offer more information on the calendar and its availability in the coming months.

Good Black News remains a labor of love for Founder/Editor-In-Chief Lori Lakin Hutcherson and co-editor Lesa Lakin, and we must gratefully acknowledge 2020’s volunteer contributors: Susan Cartsonis, Julie Adelle Bibb, Beck Carpenter, Hanelle Culpepper Meier, Jessie Davis, Dan Evans, Gina Fattore, Julie Fishman, Michael Giltz, Eric Greene, Thaddeus Grimes-Gruczka, Ashanti Hutcherson, Warren Hutcherson, Fred Johnson, Epiphany Jordan, Brenda Lakin, Joyce Lakin, Ray Lancon, Lois Leveen, John Levinson, Rob Lowry, Catherine Metcalf, Lara Olsen, Flynn Richardson, Maeve RichardsonRosanna Rossetto and Becky Schonbrun

Special thanks to Zyda Culpepper Mellon for allowing GBN to share her powerful video testimony on how white friends and family can be allies, to TedX speaker and contributor Dena Crowder for creating and sharing her Power Shot video series on GBN, to incredible Tech Jedi Samer Shenouda for migrating and revamping the GBN website to make us bigger, stronger, faster, and to Jeff Meier, Teddy Tenenbaum and Marlon West for creating incredible Spotify playlists and posts covering a variety of genres, sub-genres and artists celebrating the musical diaspora, past and present. You are all deeply, greatly appreciated.

Please continue to help us spread GBN by sharing, liking, re-tweeting and commenting, and consider following GBN here on the main page, as well as wherever you are on social media.

Please also consider joining our e-mail list via our “Contact Us” tab. We will only use this list to keep you updated on GBN and send you our e-newsletter. And, of course, you may opt out at any time.

GBN believes in bringing you positive news, reviews and stories of interest about black people all over the world, and greatly value your participation in continuing to build our shared vision.

Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to providing you with more Good Black News in the coming year, and beyond!

Warmly,

The Good Black News Team

“Acknowledging Your Privilege and Becoming an Ally”: a Guide to Resources for White Folks

Art by Jane Mount (@janemount)

Music Supervisor Rob Lowry (Twitter: @robertlowry) was recently inspired by Han Martin‘s (Twitter: @hnicolemartin) “Resources for White Family” post to create his own version of a letter and resources to White friends and family and tweet it to anyone who wanted them.

Good Black News requested and was given permission by Lowry to share his document in its entirety, as especially now Black people are being asked for resources from White colleagues, friends and family, and already have way too much to handle. So why not just shortcut it for everybody?

Lowry’s intro, letter and resources below:

** To everyone reading this: Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to begin having necessary conversations. Please note that this is by no means exhaustive, nor is it “One Size Fits All,” and should be used as a template to revise and repurpose as you see fit.

This particular version is in many ways meant as a very simple spoon-fed entry way into this conversation. This was compiled from several templates and resources across the web.

You’ll see that I’ve started my resources with documentaries and movies as that is the easiest and most efficient media that someone is most likely to consume, especially if they can simply click Netflix and the documentary is waiting for them to stream. Please feel free to share, and I hope this proves to be a useful resource for you and your family and friends. **

Hello Family & Friends,

First and foremost, I hope everyone is healthy and safe. As our country goes through this difficult period, I have taken much time to reflect on my own privilege, racism (conscious or unconscious), and my education and evolution on those issues over the years. The last few days and weeks have understandably intensified those thoughts. This reflection has led me to reach out to my loved ones to engage and discuss how we can be better allies to Black and Brown people (especially those in the LGTBQ+ community) moving forward. 

These conversations can be difficult. My hope is that by sending this message and opening up a dialogue among close family members, we can listen and learn together and figure out how each of us can play a role in supporting these communities who need our support now more than ever. 

These unprecedented times are amplified in communities who directly suffer from racism, police brutality, and oppression on a day to day basis. We know the system is broken and the recent murders of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, and Tony McDade are a direct result of the system that inherently promotes white supremacy. Below is a graphic to further illustrate how white supremacy expresses itself in our world and how, whether or not we are aware, we contribute to it:

As we all know, these murders are not an isolated incident but, rather, the results that come from a flawed system designed and built to oppress minorities. While protests rage on across the country, it is an opportunity for people with privilege (like our family) to listen, read, and educate ourselves so that we can play a role in promoting anti-racism. It is easy during times like this to look away and wait for things to settle back down and revert to how they were. But we can no longer do that. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and be proactive in defending and supporting our fellow human beings. We have the ability to take action, invest in anti-racism, support minority communities, condemn racism and oppression and create a better country – for everyone. 

It is not the burden of these communities to educate us; we must educate ourselves. We are lucky enough to live in a time where we have access to a wealth of information that we can use at the click of a button. Below is a list of documentaries, books, and other items readily accessible that we could spend a few hours reading or listening to and thinking about. My hope is that this can lead to a further discussion, as a family, of what we can do to be more supportive of these communities. 

DOCUMENTARIES & FILMS

Here is a list of Social Justice Films & Documentaries to watch. Start with 13th. I would also recommend watching GET OUT, BLINDSPOTTING, DO THE RIGHT THING, 42, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO, OJ: MADE IN AMERICA, A RAISIN IN THE SUN, DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN?, HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING

BOOKS

There is a plethora of literature on this topic – as a quick read and powerful introduction, I recommend Ta-Nehisi Coates “Between The World and Me” (BONUS POINTS FOR ORDERING FROM A LOCAL AND/OR BLACK OWNED BUSINESS RATHER THAN AMAZON). Here are some BLACK OWNED BOOK STORES across the country that could use your help

WHERE TO DONATE:

*Along with these charities, please google local organizations as well as victims’ families GoFundMe accounts that you can donate to and have a huge impact on their lives*

The Ida B. Wells Societynews trade organization dedicated to increasing and retaining reporters and editors of color in the field of investigative reporting

Minnesota Freedom Fundbail funds for those incarcerated in Minnesota 

Black Lives Mattermission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes

Reclaim The Blockorganizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget

Black Visions Collective –  Black, queer, and trans-led Minnesota nonprofit organizes campaigns to cut police budgets, invest in community-driven safety strategies, train activists, and celebrate Black joy

Campaign Zerocalls on lawmakers on every level to end police violence by implementing comprehensive research-based policy solutions

Know Your Rights Campaims to advance Black and Brown youth education and self-empowerment through events and campaigns

Black Youth Project 100dedicated to advancing the Black community’s economic, social, political, and educational freedoms, through a Black queer feminist lens

NAACP Legal Fundlegal organization fighting for racial justice