PSA
Commentary by Chitown Kev
Perhaps it is for the best that I will give my current project another two weeks (and no more!) for marinating; I do have a public service announcement.
As we all know, The United States is currently undergoing sustained and constant attacks on its Constitution and institutions by a damn dangerous fool that currently occupies the Oval Office.
That includes two institutions that are explicitly mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
First, the 2020 Census.
NPR:
The U.S. Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month sooner than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in a statement. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail.
The latest updates to the bureau's plans are part of efforts to "accelerate the completion of data collection and apportionment counts by our statutory deadline of December 31, 2020, as required by law and directed by the Secretary of Commerce" who oversees the bureau, Director Steven Dillingham said in the written statement posted on the bureau's website.
These last-minute changes to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the U.S. threaten the accuracy of population numbers used to determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade.
With roughly 4 out of 10 households nationwide yet to be counted, and already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, the bureau now has less than two months left to try to reach people of color, immigrants, renters, rural residents and other members of historically undercounted groups who are not likely to fill out a census form on their own.
As Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Karen Bass and former minority leader of the Georgia House Stacey Abrams say in the Washington Post, The United States Census is an important snapshot of who and what the United States is at a critical juncture in our history.
Karen Bass and Stacey Abrams/Washington Post
Undercounted communities will get less than their real need. This will be particularly felt in communities of color which have been disproportionately ravaged by covid-19. Make no mistake, the ramifications will be felt nationwide as it would guarantee a crippled systematic response that would underfund schools, hospitals and disaster recovery for years. If the administration’s ploy works, and the undocumented as well as their mixed-documentation status families are silent, this would drain billions annually from states such as California, Texas, Florida and Georgia, just to name a few.
But there’s more. The 2020 Census will also guide the distribution of political power. With an inaccurate count, under Trump’s scheme, congressional districts, apportioned by Congress every 10 years, will become whiter and more Republican, despite population trends that run the exact opposite direction. The electoral college will be further weighted against the will of the people. District maps from the state house to the school board will be inaccurate, silencing entire communities from being seen and heard.
Simply put: there can be no dismantling of systemic racism in any American institution if communities of color are undercounted.
Please complete and submit your United States 2020 Census Form if you have not already done so.
(Also note that the Census Form can be completed online; I did the census online a few months ago.)
Spread the word!
Another constitutionally mandated institution under withering attack from the Trump Administration is the United States Postal Service.
Los Angeles Times Editorial Board:
To hobble the U.S. Postal Service under the guise of “treating it like a business” is to undermine public confidence in yet another vital American institution at exactly the time when confidence is most needed, as much of the nation prepares to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 election. Such an attack would be an obvious strategy of a terrorist group or a foreign adversary. It also appears to be the strategy of the president of the United States.
President Trump has long railed against the Postal Service as a money-losing operation, and it’s quite true: Public mail delivery isn’t a profit-making business. Nor should it be. It’s a government service that should no more be expected to produce profits than, say, the Food and Drug Administration.
Trump also reportedly dislikes the Postal Service because it delivers packages for Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, which is critical of Trump in its coverage. That may be a stretch, or it may be right on the money; Trump has indeed criticized the Postal Service for charging Amazon rates that he says are too low.
Of more concern, though, is Trump’s constant harangue against voting by mail, which he says — without evidence — is a hotbed of fraud. Many states plan to conduct their balloting by mail, so making sure the Postal Service has a hard time delivering election-related material in a timely fashion — or even appearing to do so — gives him ammunition to attack the validity of election results that don’t go his way.
I did a little background reading on the history of the United States Postal Service and, to my mind, nothing better illustrates the importance of a functioning postal service to a democratic republic (or any other form of government, for that matter) more than the fact that the Confederacy began the recruitment of personnel for a set-up of its own postal service two months before the Civil War began.
The Confederacy established its own Post Office Department in February 1861, two months before the start of the war, with former U.S. Congressman John Henninger Reagan appointed Postmaster General in March. Reagan sent job offers to southern men in the Post Office Department in Washington; many accepted and brought along their expertise, as well as copies of postal reports, forms in use, postal maps, and other supplies. Prior to the war the cost of mail service in the South was more than three times its revenue. By raising postage rates, reducing service, and practicing strict economy, Reagan made the Confederate Post Office Department self-sustaining by the end of 1863. But blockades and the invading Northern army, as well as a scarcity of postage stamps, severely hampered operations.
Funding for the continued operations of the United States Postal Service is currently being negotiated in the COVID-19 relief package.
Pema Levy/Mother Jones
Other parts of the stalled negotiations have received more attention, including payments to the unemployed, aid to states and cities, and money for schools. But Democrats have also pushed for new funding to ensure that people are not disenfranchised in the 2020 elections by funding the Postal Service as well as providing money to local election administrators. This is especially crucial as growing numbers of voters turn to absentee ballots to preserve their health during the pandemic.
The Postal Service is a lifeline for so many rural locations (including many majority-minority communities located in the South). The USPS is the primary shipper to many that need vital medications. And the USPS will play a critical role in the upcoming 2020 elections.
The workforce of the United States Postal Service is also a model of American workforce diversity.
The Postal Service is one of the leading employers of minorities and women, with minorities comprising 39 percent and women comprising 40 percent of the workforce. 21 percent of employees are African-American; 8 percent are Hispanic; 8 percent are Asian-American/Pacific Islander; and 0.67 percent are American Indian or Alaska Native.
The Postal Service participates in a number of events and conferences to reinforce the value of diversity. These events make customers, suppliers, and employees aware of the deep roots of the Postal Service in every American community. Participation in national events included the Diversity Military World Expo (Washington, DC), NAACP National Convention (New York), National Urban League (Chicago), National Council of La Raza Conference (Chicago), U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce National Convention (Denver), Federal Hispanic Career Advancement Summit (Washington, DC), Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Expo (New York), and the Organization of Chinese Americans National Convention (San Francisco).
Yes, there have been a number of diaries here at Daily Kos about the existential threats to both the 2020 Census and the United States Postal Service posed by the Trump (Mal)administration.
I will acknowledge that in the past I have taken both of these institutions of American life for granted.
Like all other American institutions, the continued maladministration of the Census and the United States Postal Service is under such a threat that it bears repeating.
(And now we return you to your regularly scheduled programming.)
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NEWS ROUND UP BY DOPPER0189, BLACK KOS MANAGING EDITOR
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African-Americans are 75 percent more likely than others to live near facilities that produce hazardous waste. Can a grass-roots environmental-justice movement make a difference? New York Times: Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back.
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Black communities like Grays Ferry shoulder a disproportionate burden of the nation’s pollution — from foul water in Flint, Mich., to dangerous chemicals that have poisoned a corridor of Louisiana known as Cancer Alley — which scientists and policymakers have known for decades. A 2017 report from the N.A.A.C.P. and the Clean Air Task Force provided more evidence. It showed that African-Americans are 75 percent more likely than other Americans to live in so-called fence-line communities, defined as areas situated near facilities that produce hazardous waste.
A study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Environmental Assessment and published in 2018 in the American Journal of Public Health examined facilities emitting air pollution along with the racial and economic profiles of surrounding communities. It found that Black Americans are subjected to higher levels of air pollution than white Americans — regardless of their income level. Black Americans are exposed to 1.5 times as much of the sooty pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels as the population at large. This dirty air is associated with lung disease, including asthma, as well as heart disease, premature death and now Covid-19.
Philadelphia, which is 44 percent Black, received a warning from the American Lung Association in 2019: “If you live in Philadelphia County, the air you breathe may put your health at risk.” According to 2016 E.P.A. data, the refinery that looms over Grays Ferry was responsible for the bulk of toxic air emissions in the city. The E.P.A. found that the refinery had been out of compliance with the Clean Air Act nine of the past 12 quarters through 2019 with little recourse. From 2014 to 2019, P.E.S. was fined almost $650,000 for violating air, water and waste-disposal rules.
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Joe Biden is leading the polls, thanks in part to a diverse campaign staff consisting of women of color who are HBCU educated.
With a staff embodying 35% people of color, 36% minority senior staffers, 53% women and 58% female senior staffers, Biden is relying on Black women to guide him in his campaign against the incumbent president Donald Trump.
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Symone Sanders and Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden senior advisors, Ashley Allison, Biden national coalitions director, Ashley Williams, the national trip director, and Paige Hill, the Biden national surrogates communications director, all of whom are Black women, are effectively helping Biden to victory.
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How did Herman Cain die? Tweets commemorating the former presidential candidate and pizza magnate, including from President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, didn’t mention a cause of death. They said he was an “American success story” and a “great friend” who just happened to die of … something.
As someone who briefly led the Republican presidential primary in 2012, Cain is arguably the most famous American to die of Covid-19. He was also an inveterate culture warrior who opposed mask mandates and amplified skepticism of the dangers of coronavirus. Nine days before he tested positive for the virus, he was filmed without a mask in a tight crowd at Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally. (At least eight White House staffers involved in the rally have tested positive for the virus.) It is entirely reasonable to propose that Trump, as well as the entire Republican industry built around resisting basic anti-virus safety protocols, bear some responsibility for his preventable death.
But that is a bridge that gets a little too close to reality for Republican politicians and their allies in conservative media, which have claimed that liberals have been polluting Cain’s memory by politicizing it. As usual, they got it backwards.
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Sherine Virgo the mother of the seven-year-old at the center of the controversy is reported as saying she will not cut her daughter’s hair despite yesterday’s court ruling that Kensington Primary School did not breach her daughter’s constitutional rights when it denied her access in 2018 for wearing dreadlocks.
“I will not be cutting her hair! That was never an option on the table. As it is right now, it seems that everything is going the homeschool direction anyways,” Virgo told The Gleaner after the Supreme Court ruling.
The mother was told that her then five-year-old daughter would need to cut her hair before she could attend the school, which is one of the top-performing institutions in Portmore, St Catherine. The school stated that the wearing of dreadlocks was against its policy.
The Supreme Court had granted an injunction for the child to attend school after Jamaicans for Justice filed a motion on behalf of the child and her parents in August 2019. Her mother said that her daughter has performed exceptionally in the two years she has been at the institution, despite the controversy surrounding her hairstyle. Virgo said that her daughter topped her class for both the first and second year and was looking forward to going into grade three this September.
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Those of use who are regular Black Kos readers, may recognize Oshun from this year’s Valentine’s Day Black Kos, Week In Review - Oshun West Africa's Goddess of Love. Oshun is a West African, Afro-Latino, and Afro-Caribbean, Love Goddess who is having a moment in popular culture.
“I am Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter,” sings Beyoncé in “Mood 4 Eva,” one of the tracks on her just-released visual album Black Is King. But that’s not all she is: “I am the Nala, sister of Naruba, Osun, Queen Sheba, I am the mother.”
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In the Yoruba cosmology of southwestern Nigeria and Benin, Oshun is the goddess, or orisha, of love, sensuality, and femininity. She is a river goddess, and one of her attributes is to bring forth sweet and fertile waters. Oshun is a mother: Her waters were central to the creation of humanity, and she looks after small children before they can speak. She’s also associated with wealth and is said to love shiny things. She’s often represented draped in yellow.
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In Lemonade (not so coincidentally, a form of sweet water), Beyoncé spends a long interlude submerged in a dreamlike state underwater. As “Hold Up” starts playing, she pushes open a set of doors and emerges in a great flood of water, dressed in a flowing yellow gown, and starts to wreak her vengeance on her cheating man. This moment, Africana studies professor Amy Yeboah told PBS in 2016, is “her emergence as an orisha.” It’s the point where Beyoncé is reborn as Oshun.
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"We are scared to death. It is not safe. The cases are rising. I am worried sick. I have not had a good night's sleep since March," Benedict College's president said. NBC News: Pandemic ushers in 'new normal' for historically underfunded HBCUs
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In early March Gov. Henry McMaster, issued an order to close all public schools in South Carolina to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
[Rosyln] Artis, the president of Benedict College — a private, historically Black liberal arts school in Columbia — knew she had to evacuate roughly 2,000 students from campus, which she described as a "herculean effort."
"I put out a bat signal, a call for help, and sent a letter to my board of trustees and within 24 hours they raised $54,000 and we set up a travel agency in my office," Artis told NBC News in a phone interview.
The school ended up buying more than 100 plane, bus and train tickets to get the students with greatest need home, started a 24-hour shuttle service from the campus to local airports, bought luggage for students, paid baggage fees and provided a small meal stipend for students who had long layovers and needed to eat in the airport.
That was just the beginning. Now, Artis is preparing for the fall with her bat signal still on.
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When micro aggression and systematic racism by so called Christians is ignore athletes like Tayvion “Tank” Land took matters into their own hands. “We just walked out of class,” Land said of him and a few of his teammates. “It was over with.”
One Thursday morning, class was partway through when the instructor told one of Land’s teammates that he needed a tutor. Sensing some reticence, Land said, the instructor followed up with an attempt at a joke. “Don’t be scared,” he allegedly told the player. “I’m not going to pull out my whip and hit you with it.”
Land and his teammate are Black, the instructor is white, and the joke came during a period of intense scrutiny of the way Black people are treated in this country, and of the unwelcoming atmosphere Black students face at Liberty in particular. In fact, Asia Todd, a top freshman on Liberty’s women’s basketball team, had announced earlier that month that she was transferring “due to the racial insensitivities shown within the leadership and culture” at the school.
Land had finally had enough, too. When I talked to him recently, he told me it was that moment in class that convinced him he had no choice but to transfer. He was done with the slights and general discomfort of being a young Black man on a campus where the student body, not to mention the population of professors and senior leadership, is overwhelmingly white.
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On Wall Street, being Black often means being alone, held back, deprived of the best opportunities. Here, Black men and women tell their stories. Bloomberg: The Only One in the Room
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Almost every black professional has a story about being the only black person in the room, when an awkward conversation or moment happens.
It might seem impossible to tell the history of Black people on Wall Street. That’s because the finance industry shut African Americans out of its executive suites and banking partnerships and off trading floors for decades. Even now, despite diversity programs and pledges to do better, Wall Street’s highest echelons lack Black faces, with rare exceptions.
Another challenge to telling the story of African Americans in finance is that the people who’ve lived it blazed wildly different paths. There is no one definitive experience.
But all their stories matter. What happens inside this industry ripples out into American wallets, homes, neighborhoods, corporations, and government. Outright racism and institutional failings on Wall Street have limited Black wealth and dreams. But African-American bankers have also sometimes helped pave the way for others to succeed.
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