It has to be done
A comment by Chitown Kev
Look, I still haven’t watched any of the cable news shows (or any other news) since the Wednesday after the election. And I read as little of the news as possible; granted, I have to read some news in order to be able to work. I don’t feel as if I need to keep up a blow-by-blow description of the shoe salesman’s cabinet picks, his statements, the treachery of certain members of the news media, etc.
I can keep up a blow-by-blow description and at some point in the not-so-distant future, I will have to but for right now I will allow myself the time and the space to enjoy my true crime podcasts, the end of the college football season, and everything else because I will need that reservoir of good and thoughtful times for the road ahead.
Have a happy Holiday season everyone, have a Happy New Year, and last but definitely not least...Go Blue!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For over two years, Ebonie Vazquez searched to find a mentor of color for her son, Giovanni, now 11 and passionate about playing the violin. She has now found that space at a local church.
New Hope Presbyterian Church, a multiethnic congregation led by a Black female pastor in Anaheim, California, started a string orchestra in April, welcoming students, including those who may have trouble getting into and paying for music programs. It’s located in Orange County, which is largely affluent.
The Rev. Chineta Goodjoin said her church had a smaller strings program for several years. When Goodjoin’s daughter Nyla started playing violin with the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, founded in June 2009 by renowned conductor Charles Dickerson, the pastor grew determined to replicate the concept in Orange County with Dickerson taking the lead.
The church’s orchestra now has about 18 members ranging in age from 9 to 20, playing violin, viola, bass and cello. The orchestra accepts all students without auditions, and it’s free. Like the Los Angeles group, the orchestra is also powered by mentors who look like the young musicians they help guide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At Red Onion State Prison in Virginia, where 12 Black prisoners reportedly set themselves on fire in a terrible two-week span this fall, attorney Miriam Nemeth was likely horrified — but probably not shocked.
Speaking with truthout.org in February, Nemeth said the only water her client – Kevin Rashid Johnson, 53, who is also a journalist confined at Red Onion who underwent a two-and-a-half-month hunger strike at the beginning of the year – was allowed to drink was his cell’s own toilet water.
It was alleged treatment like that and more reported by Business Insider, the Appeal and other outlets – only giving prisoners food that had maggots crawling in it; handing out severe beatings; subjecting them to electroshocks; denying them critical medical care; keeping them locked in solitary confinement for as long as 15 years – that led to the unimaginable choice to self-immolate in September, Rashid Johnson said.
The men weren’t insane, according to Rashid Johnson, who has long told the world about the alleged torture prisoners were subjected to at the hands of the state of Virginia, where the shift toward hate has been upticking harshly for at least a decade. They were desperate, he said. Setting themselves on fire seemed the only way to make it out of Red Onion, Rashid Johnson explained.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Biram Senghor regularly pays his respects at a military cemetery in Thiaroye, a fishing village near Senegal’s capital Dakar, bowing in front of a different grave each time.
The 86-year-old has no way of knowing which grave belongs to his father, M’Bap Senghor, one of the hundreds of West African riflemen who fought for France during World War II but were likely killed on Dec. 1, 1944, by the French army after demanding unpaid wages.
In this cemetery, where they are supposedly buried, all the graves are anonymous and the exact location of the remains is unknown, as is the number of victims. The true scale and circumstances of the killings remain unclear as Senegal commemorates the 80th anniversary of the massacre on Sunday, threatening to reignite smoldering tensions between France and the former colony.
“I have been fighting to get answers for over 80 years,” says Biram Senghor. “(French President Emmanuel) Macron cannot do what the other French presidents before him did; France has to repent.”
The West Africans were members of the unit called “Tirailleurs Sénégalais,” a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army that fought in both World Wars. According to historians, there were disputes over unpaid wages in the days before the massacre and on Dec. 1, French troops turned on the unarmed African soldiers and shot them dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Biden will address America’s history of enslavement in a speech on Tuesday at Angola’s National Museum of Slavery, during a trip in which he is also expected to laud recent US investment in the region.
Biden’s visit to the museum will take in the 17th-century Capela da Casa Grande, where enslaved people were forcibly baptised before being trafficked across the Atlantic. About 4 million Angolans were enslaved in the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century, most in Brazil.
The first African slaves in the US were shipped to Hampton, in the then British colony of Virginia, from Angola in 1619. Almost a quarter of the 472,000 people forced into slavery in the US came from the west and central region of Africa that includes Angola, according to the Slave Voyages database.
Angola’s National Museum of Slavery was founded in 1977 on the former estate of Álvaro de Carvalho Matoso, one of the biggest traders of enslaved people from Africa in the 18th century.
The US announced a grant of $229,000 to support the museum’s restoration and conservation on Monday, the day Biden landed in Angola. It also said it supported Angola’s bid to have the Kwanza corridor, a route of more than 100 miles that captured slaves were marched along from the interior to the coast, declared a Unesco world heritage site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH
IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, GRAB A SEAT, SOME CYBER EATS, RELAX, AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
