Not my problem
Commentary by Chitown Kev
I’m not at all surprised that American politics is experiencing various outbreaks of anti-Blackness as Election Day approaches.
The strains vary, of course, from infectious yet relatively mild (but never asymptomatic) nuisances to full-blown ailments, from barely perceptible dog-whistles to air raid sirens. Of course, this is because the very existence of Blackness is largely perceived to be as much of “a problem” as it was 120 years ago when Dr. W.E.B. DuBois gave voice to the “unasked question.”
The anti-Blackness can be heard from the fashion runways of Paris to city council halls of Los Angeles, it permeates state and local election contests even where there are few Blacks to be found. Even a few Black people utter the sounds of anti-Blackness.
Mainstream media and social media alike traffic in anti-Blackness and why not?
It’s profitable for media organizations to do so. In fact, anti-Blackness has always been profitable on these American shores going all the way back to a time when “these American shores” were British, French, and Spanish colonies.
Anti-Blackness is manifested in all areas of American society.
The categorical imperative of this society, I once called it.
Anti-Blackness is not my problem and I try as best as I can to claim nothing of it.
It’s the exact same approach that I’ve had to take with homophobia or, to be more precise, anti-LGBTQ views.
And it’s not as if Black people have a gene that deflects anti-Blackness; not when it’s in the government, in the media, in school textbooks...I could increase the list.
Anti-Blackness has to be unlearned. Given that it has always involved every aspect of American life and American institutions, that is no easy feat and I am not even going to claim that I have completed the task (just as I don’t think that I have completed the task with anti-LGBTQ views).
To say that anti-Blackness is not my problem does not mean I’m not affected by it or that I can’t call it when I see it.
I can stop taking the blame for it, though.
And continue on to become the person that I would like to be and am as opposed to trying to be someone or something I am not.
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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Why the influential astrophysicist is increasingly worried about scientific ignorance. VOX: Neil deGrasse Tyson gets political
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If there’s an heir to Sagan’s legacy in our time, it’s the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. In addition to reviving Cosmos in 2014, Tyson has become the most influential science communicator in the country. As of this writing, he has nearly 15 million Twitter followers; he’s a constant presence on TV; and he’s the longtime director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.
But his new book, Starry Messenger, represents a kind of shift in his public mission. More than anything else he’s done, it’s an explicitly political — though not exactly partisan — book. Tyson’s goal is to show how science can inform our politics and maybe even assuage some of our deepest divisions.
I’m fascinated by the turn in Tyson’s work, so I invited him to join me for the first episode of my new podcast, The Gray Area, to talk about his ideas — and push him a little bit. I do, after all, think he might be a little naive about how our political world really works.
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This piece was written in August, before Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico. This event has only made more significant the efforts toward food sovereignty discussed below. Foreign Policy: Why Puerto Rico Is Betting Big on Mushrooms
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From the start, Huerto Rico was like no urban farming start-up I’d visited before. When I approached its then-headquarters in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, for the first time in 2019, I became a bit nervous. As an editor at an agriculture-focused magazine in New York, I had seen big money scale up production of hydroponic lettuce, herbs, and—yes—mushrooms, which are Huerto Rico’s focus. But these headquarters looked like a nondescript suburban home, not the warehouses I was accustomed to, with their sleek technology controlling temperature, light, and humidity.
Sebastían Sagardia, Huerto Rico’s founder, answered the door in a baseball cap and T-shirt. He had quit his advertising job a few months earlier, following his dream to bring specialty culinary mushrooms to the Puerto Rican market. Sagardia rented the space from an owner who let him use it rent-free for three months if he fixed it up himself. The incubation room, which sat just beyond the living room, stank of rot. Bags of wood waste, sterilized and inoculated with mushroom spores, showed signs of mycelium growth, the rootlike tangles from which edible matter emerges. They would remain there for around two weeks before moving to the fruiting room. There, audible delight replaced my trepidation: Through cool white fog, I could see yellow oyster mushrooms sprouting.
More than three years later, Puerto Rico’s mushroom business has seen a mini-boom. Huerto Rico is preparing to move into a 4,000-square-foot space in Carolina on the northeast coast. Puerto Rico now has at least two other operations dedicated to specialty mushroom cultivation, and the largest commodity business, Setas de Puerto Rico, has overseen a youthful rebrand of its own products. Although mushrooms, known locally as setas, have never been considered a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine, chefs are now putting them on menus in ways that complement traditional flavors.
According to their advocates, mushrooms could provide one step toward food sovereignty, or the ability of a region or nation to produce all of its own food. Cultivation and foraging are a potential nutritious boon for the 3.1 million Puerto Ricans living on the archipelago. Puerto Rico, which has already warmed by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since the mid-20th century, suffered a catastrophic disaster when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017, and it is experiencing coastal soil erosion due to climate change. This vulnerability has caused destruction, but it also affords an opportunity to show what the future could look like for sustainable agriculture. Puerto Rico’s chefs and entrepreneurs believe that mushrooms’ adaptive nature may hold a key to survival. They want to present a reproducible model—and make it delicious, too.
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Fried rice can be paired with chopped chicken or made into a delicious, breakfast waffle. When you think of the best fried rice recipes, dishes from Asian countries probably come to mind. And it stands to reason because fried rice was created in ancient China as a way not to waste leftover food (per iFoodTV). Nasi goreng is a fried rice meal that Indonesia recognizes as its national dish (via Tasteatlas). However, despite its strong roots and history in the region, fried rice extends far beyond the borders of Asia.
Kitchen Joy claims that in Peru, arrocito is a fried rice dish featuring cumin and garlic that pairs perfectly with the country's honey curry chicken. And Food Network says Spanish fried rice infused with chili pepper and paprika is a delicious side dish. But in the heart of Nigeria lies a recipe for fried rice your taste buds will never forget. Here's why Nigerian fried rice is the perfect answer to the traditional Chinese dish.
Rice is an integral part of the Nigerian diet (per the International Food Policy Research Institute). And while jollof rice and coconut rice (per Food.) are everyday mealtime staples for the country, Nigerian fried rice is known as a special dish that often appears at parties, according to Tasteatlas.
And if someone is set on making a pot of Nigerian rice for a celebration, they have their work cut out for them. According to Food52, Nigerian rice is made with long grain or basmati rice, dried thyme, turmeric powder, curry powder, thyme, pepper, coconut milk, liver, prawns, and a mixture of various hard and soft vegetables. As the website notes, the Nigerian stock, in particular, acts as a crucial ingredient for the recipe. Unlike traditional Western stocks, Nigeria's is filled with chili pepper, curry powder, turmeric powder, and fresh veggies.
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Widespread flooding, caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon, has left 1.4 million Nigerians displaced and claimed 500 lives, according to government officials.
The floods also injured 1,546 people, completely destroyed 70,566 hectares of farmland and “totally damaged” 45,249 homes, said Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, Nigeria’s permanent secretary of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
Floodwaters affected 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states, officials said.
Satellite imagery from Landsat 9 showed major swelling of the Niger and Benue rivers in southern Nigeria, where NASA wrote floodwaters “inundated numerous communities.” Where the rivers converged, the imagery revealed floodwaters overwhelming Lokoja, the capital of the state of Kogi.
“Flooding continued to the south, including a noticeably widespread area spanning southern Kogi and the northern part of Anambra state,” NASA reported.
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