Hope for the future
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
There are times when open, naked, white supremacy backfires in the faces of the bigots who perpetrate it. We are witnessing it happening now. Many of us who have been fighting for justice for decades are reinvigorated by the sight of young people, standing up, carrying the message and fighting back. The trio now dubbed the “Tennessee Three” — two young Black men; Justin Pearson, and Justin Jones, and their white comrade sister Gloria Johnson symbolize more than just an ugly incident in Nashville. They represent every single one of us across the U.S. who knows that white supremacy is a vile cancer that will take us all down — not just Black folks. It will kill democracy.
Now that POTUS Biden and VP Harris have formally announced their reelection bid for 2024, scenes like the one above are key to establishing the White House connection to the challenges we are going to be facing in the years ahead — to our rights to vote, to our right to stay alive free of fear of mass shootings, to our ongoing struggle against virulent white supremacy.
Give them a listen — guaranteed to lift your spirits.
And BTW — time to get started ensuring we put POTUS Joe Biden and MVP Harris back in the White House
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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So many residents of northern Texas cross the border into McCurtain County in far southeast Oklahoma each week that the area has earned the nickname of the “Dallas-Fort Worth Hamptons.”
With its clean rivers and lakes, these forested foothills of the Ouchita Mountains have become dotted with luxury cabins, and a tourism boom over the last two decades has fueled a renaissance in the region. Jobs are no longer limited to the timber industry or the chicken processing plant, and parents are more optimistic that their children won’t have to leave the community to find work.
But the growing optimism about the county’s future took a gut punch last week when the local newspaper identified several county officials, including Sheriff Kevin Clardy and a county commissioner, who were caught on tape discussing killing journalists and lynching Black people. One commissioner has already resigned, and elected officials, including the mayor of Idabel and Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, have called for the others to step down.
“Just hearing it on audio and coming from our elected officials’ mouths in a meeting, it made my stomach turn,” said Lonnie Watson, a lifelong county resident and 7th grade teacher and coach who is Black. “It was shocking. It was sad. It was hurtful. Just to hear the hate … was just gut-wrenching.”
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In a concert Friday night in Knoxville, Tennessee, Lizzo filled the stage with drag queens in a glittery protest against the state’s legislation designed to restrict drag performances in public.
While performing at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Grammy-winning “Juice” singer brought out a number of drag performers, including Aquaria, Kandy Muse, Asia O’Hara and Vanessa Vanji. On Saturday, Lizzo posted videos on Instagram from the show, including comments to the crowd that referenced the pending law.
In February, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the legislation against “adult cabaret” in public or in front of minors. A federal judge temporarily blocked the law in late March, saying it was too vaguely written. Civil rights groups have criticized the law as a violation of free speech.
The Tennessee law is part of a wider Republican effort to restrict drag shows and other LGBTQ+ public gatherings.
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He was one of the organizers for "We Are the World," and was involved in the anti-apartheid movement and many other humanitarian efforts in Africa. Associated Press: Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer, dies at 96
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Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.
Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said publicist Ken Sunshine.
With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”
Belafonte stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with his time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.
Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay-Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film “BlacKkKlansman,” he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.
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In most African countries citizens tell pollsters that graft is getting worse. High-profile scandals among bigwigs are one reason for that, though it may also be that dodgy deals are being uncovered more often, rather than becoming more common. For most people, though, it is because they still face regular shakedowns from officials and the police. Fully one in four Africans who used public services or interacted with police told pollsters they had paid a bribe in the previous year, according to a report in 2019 by Transparency International, a Berlin-based ngo. Still, widespread anti-corruption efforts do at least pose awkward questions to the determinedly unscrupulous. For example, how do you best ask for a bribe when you are sitting under an anti-corruption poster?
Some still trust in impunity. “Give me something,” demands a woman X-raying bags at Enugu airport in Nigeria, conceding impressively little to anti-graft efforts. Others make small concessions to subtlety. “Can you help me?” asks an immigration officer in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Others seem to have grown wary of making blunt demands amid the campaigns against graft. One approach is to talk about something other than money. Some officials, for example, like to keep citizens well abreast of their food and drink preferences. “I really want to drink a Nescafe,” declares an airport security guard six times as he frisks your correspondent in Burkina Faso. In Uganda traffic police find ways to mention their favourite soda. In South Africa such requests are so common that bribes for driving offences are known as “cold drink money”.
Those wishing for a little more deniability like to imply the drink might not be for them. In Kenya police sometimes ask for chai ya wazee (“tea for the elders”). In Nigeria police officers might suggest that they are simply trying to do their job by saying they need fuel for their patrol vehicle. All still expect cash.
Skilled exponents of extortion often approach their targets with an amiable air. “Are you my friend?” asks a smiling traffic cop in Nigeria. Having elicited a solicitous “Yes, sir”, he swiftly delivers his demand for a bung. Others mix a measure of concern with a pinch of menace. “We are here for you,” says a policeman to a motorist, even as he prevents him from moving on.
Religion can be surprisingly useful to those looking to subtly request a sweetener. Some might invoke Christian charity with an innocent-sounding inquiry: “Anything for Sunday?” Others cloak their extortion as a request to ”bless the table.”
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Haiti’s tailspin into humanitarian crisis and bloodshed has racked up its latest moment of horror after at least a dozen suspected criminals were beaten to death and burned in broad daylight on the streets of its capital, Port-au-Prince.
Horrifying footage of the incident showed the bloodied men being forced to lie on the asphalt by rifle-wielding police before bystanders piled tyres on top of them, doused them with petrol and set them alight.
One eyewitness told the Associated Press the lynch mob seized the victims from police after they were detained in Port-au-Prince’s Canapé-Vert neighbourhood and proceeded to beat and stone them before burning their bodies.
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