Honor and Disgust
Commentary by Chitown Kev
I noted the passing of one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Lt. Col. George Hardy, this weekend. He was 100.
Richard Goldstein/The New York Times
George Hardy, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who was one of the last surviving combat veterans of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-Black squadron in the segregated U.S. military during World War II, and who subsequently flew 45 mission in the Korean War and 70 in the Vietnam War, died on Wednesday in Sarasota, Fla. He was 100.
His death, at his home, was announced by the national office of the veterans organization Tuskegee Airmen Inc.
Colonel Hardy, a Philadelphia native, was 19 and had never even driven a car when he began aviation cadet training in September 1944 at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. By early the next year, in the closing months of the war in Europe, then-Second Lieutenant Hardy was assigned to an Army Air Forces base in Italy, from which he flew 21 missions accompanying bombers to their targets over southern Germany in early 1945. [...]
George Edward Hardy, the second oldest of seven children, was born on June 8, 1925, in Philadelphia. His father, Edward Hardy, was a podiatrist, and his mother, Alma (Vargas) Hardy, looked after the home.
Excelling in math, George at first wanted to pursue a career in engineering, but after he graduated from South Philadelphia High School in 1942, he thought he would follow his older brother into the Navy as a mess attendant — one of the few jobs open to Black recruits in the rigidly segregated service. His father, however, “wanted better for me” than being a cook, Colonel Hardy said, and dissuaded him from signing up.
Much gratitude to Mr. Hardy for his extensive service.
I’m not anything like a military type but most of the men in my family (and even a few women) served in the military in peacetime and in various wars.
I thank them for their service as well.
I am pretty sure that Mr. Hardy, my ancestors who served and the veterans that are still living would be and are thoroughly disgusted by the scenes playing out in Washington D.C., Memphis, Portland, OR and now Chicago.
Various types of American military troops in the streets of America’s cities for no good reason.
Authoritarian fools like the bone-spurred tacky shoe salesman who and his totally unqualified “defense secretary” in charge of the most powerful military in the world.
And a plurality of a American voters put them there knowing damn well that a vote for the tacky shoe salesman could very well lead to the situations that we face now.
Utterly spitting on the legacies of most of the dead and living veterans going back 250 years and, probably, poisoning the legacies of those veterans to come.
Although I have never been a fan of the American military and its various wars and “police actions” around the world, at least it could also lay claim to being the true “antifa.”
No more.
And that’s through very little fault of the military leadership. That’s on the civilian leadership and, ultimately the Americans who thought that electing these clowns was a good idea.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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In the ever-changing world of social media, content creation has become one of the most powerful (and profitable) forms of entertainment; thankfully, some of our favorite Black creators are leading the charge! From skits that break the internet to livestreams that draw in millions, these digital stars have turned their personalities into full-fledged business empires.
And thanks to Forbes’ recently released list of the Top 50 Content Creators–we now know just how much cash they’re getting for talents. From people like Druski and Kai Cenat to more niche creators like Nara Smith and Monét McMichael, these folks aren’t just entertainers; they’re entrepreneurs, building brands that reach across platforms and cultures. What started as viral moments on TikTok, YouTube, or Twitch have grown into major sponsorships, partnerships that rival even some of today’s Hollywood paychecks.
Despite the still lingering disparity in pay, Black creators have proven that Black creativity is not only influential — it’s invaluable. So in celebration of their hustle, here’s a look at the top-earning Black content creators dominating the digital space, as noted by Forbes!
Before we get into that list though, let’s get clear on exactly who content creators and streamers are. To put it poetically, they’re the new-age storytellers, entertainers, and influencers who’ve built huge audiences across social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and more. They create everything from comedy sketches, to lifestyle vlogs and live gaming sessions and have somehow figured out how to monetize it properly to provide adequate income and leave their 9 to 5s in pursuit of this instead.
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The Supreme Court will give voting rights opponents a second chance to undermine Black political power in 'Louisiana v. Callais.' Newsone: Black Voter Disenfranchisement Is On The Supreme Court Docket
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Black political power, fair representation, and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act are once again on the Supreme Court’s docket in Louisiana v. Callais. On the heels of the 60th anniversary of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation’s highest court will rehear arguments that could have major implications for fair representation for Black voters and other disenfranchised groups.
In many ways, Callais continues the generational attack on Black political power and fair representation dating back to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Renewed attacks on Black voting rights and political power, and addressing unconstitutional discrimination in exercising the franchise, require intervention like that provided under Section 2 of the VRA.
After hearing oral arguments in March 2025, the Supreme Court punted the case to the upcoming fall term. The Court will rehear oral arguments in Callais on Oct. 15, 2025. Listen to the first oral argument here.
After the 2020 census showed sufficient population growth to warrant the change, voters organized and won a second majority-Black congressional district. When the state released its 2022 map, excluding the second majority-Black district, nine voters joined the NAACP Louisiana State Conference and the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice in a lawsuit to ensure Black voters could elect representatives of their choice. After the Louisiana State Legislature finally passed maps with two majority-Black congressional districts, a group of non-Black voters filed suit.
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On 25 September, Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army, died aged 78 in Havana, Cuba, according to Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cuban officials cited the reason for her death as old age and health conditions. Shakur, a longstanding symbol of resistance and Black liberation, spent several decades exiled in Cuba after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1977 and escaped from prison.
“At approximately 1:15pm on September 25th, my mother, Assata Shakur, took her last earthly breath,” her daughter Kakuya Shakur wrote on Facebook. “Words cannot describe the depth of loss that I’m feeling at this time.”
Born JoAnne Deborah Byron on 16 July 1947, in Queens, New York, she was later raised in Wilmington, North Carolina during a time of racial segregation. She dropped out of high school and moved back to New York to work a low-wage job. Her life changed in 1964 when a conversation with African students about communism and Vietnam challenged her views. “We’re taught at such an early age to be against communists, yet most of us don’t have the faintest idea what communism is,” Shakur wrote in her 1987 memoir, Assata: An Autobiography. “Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is.”
In the 1960s, she attended Borough of Manhattan Community College and then the City College of New York and became involved with Black activist group Golden Drums society, where she advocated for Black studies courses. She married fellow student activist Louis Chesimard in 1967 and divorced in 1970, the same year that she joined the Black Panther party.
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West Africans deported by the US to Ghana are now fending for themselves in Togo after being dumped in the country without documents, according to lawyers and deportees.
The latest chapter in Donald Trump’s deportation program, their saga became public earlier this month when the Ghanaian president, John Mahama, disclosed that his country had struck a deal to accept deportees from the region.
Eight to 10 west African nationals have since been forcibly sent by Ghana to Togo, bypassing a formal border crossing, and then left on the street without passports.
“The situation is terrible,” said Benjamin, a Nigerian national, who said over the weekend he was staying in a hotel room with three other deportees and only one bed, living on money sent from their families in the US.
Benjamin – who is using a pseudonym to protect his identity, as he fears persecution from the Nigerian government – said an immigration judge had ruled in June that he couldn’t be deported to Nigeria, citing risks to his life because of his past involvement in politics. He had expected to be released to his wife and children, who are US citizens.
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