This Is How You Have A Black Thanksgiving
Ever since Black folks were brought to America, we’ve put our own twist on foreign traditions. Thanksgiving Day is no different. And Black Thanksgiving celebrations have historically focused on liberation.
Before Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a federal holiday in 1863, folks all over America celebrated the fall harvest in various ways.
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There’s a myth that Black students are just “bad kids” because they get in trouble more often than white students in school.
Well, that’s not true, and a Louisiana study has the proof.
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Recently, Tulane University’s Education Research Alliance for New Orleans released a policy brief that examined Louisiana’s Department of Education discipline records.
The findings are revealing.
The Alliance found that schools are twice as likely to suspend Black students than white students, whether or not the infraction was violent.
And it happens at all income levels.
The Alliance found that Black students get longer suspensions and harsher punishments than white students for the same infraction. So, a Black student may be sent home for speaking out of turn, while a white student may only receive a warning.
These are staggering statistics, but, unfortunately, this isn’t just happening in Louisiana.
Across the country, Black students are disproportionately punished in schools. The study found that 18 percent of Black boys and 10 percent of Black girls get out-of-school suspension while only 5 percent of white boys and 2 percent of white girls receive the same punishment.
“Education is the civil rights of our generation,” former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said to The New York Times in 2012.
Disciplining Black students for minor offenses and criminalizing behavior is what creates the school-to-prison pipeline.
In a state that houses the largest number of prisoners (Louisiana’s Angola Prison), statistics like these should serve as a call to action.
Black students aren’t more mischievous than other students. At all. They are just treated unfairly.
To learn more about Black students and school discipline, read up on There Is Nothing Wrong With Black Students. 
Surya Bonaly is the most accomplished Black figure skater of all-time, but her greatness has been largely overlooked because she did not fit the stereotypical image of an “Ice Princess.”
Her uncanny style and muscular figure differentiated her from the petite white skaters she competed against who were seen as more elegant and graceful.
It is safe to say that Surya is infamous in the figure skating world for acts of rebellion throughout her career. In the 1994 World Championships, she refused to stand on the podium after skating her heart out and placing second.
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She notoriously made headlines for removing the silver medal off of her neck during the ceremony to express her disbelief in the results.
Four years later at the Olympics, Surya solidified her image as a rebel and risked disqualification by performing an illegal one-foot backflip during the competition.
She wanted to make a bold and loud statement to the world on a national stage about her abilities and to this day is the only skater to ever land this move.
Interestingly enough, Surya had conflicting beliefs about how her race factored into how the judges and public perceived her. On one hand, she simply thought that if she was better than everyone else, they would have to take heed and give her higher scores no matter her race.
On the other hand, she believed if she had been white, she would have received more endorsements and been a bigger name in the sport.
The notion that Black people have to be better just to be seen as equal is a common narrative within our communities and might, in fact, have been the case for Surya.
While it is clear Surya wrestled with these complex race issues, her worldview may have been colored by her upbringing as a Black girl raised by two adoptive white parents in France and participating in two of the predominantly whitest sports, gymnastics and figure skating, throughout her whole life.
In a way, she was also afforded a certain level of privilege given that her mom was her coach and had access to facilities which allowed them to avoid many hefty costs typically associated with the sport.
These expenses have been a hindrance for less advantaged families and a huge reason why few Black kids are able to participate in figure skating.
With the love and support of her family and inspiration from Debi Thomas, the first Black woman to figure skate professionally, Surya glided her way to astronomical heights and captured the hearts of many young Black girls along the way.
After winning the European Championships five times, placing second in the World Championships for 3 consecutive years, and barely missing making the podium by scoring 4th overall at the 1994 Olympics, her impressive record speaks for itself.
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It is important to note that Surya’s contributions to figure skating extend way beyond just her wins and losses. After her signature one-foot backflip stirred controversy, it led to significant discussions about the rigidness of the rules and spawned meaning changes within the sport.
Also, her risky costume and eccentric music choices pushed conventional boundaries and added a new flair that lives on in today’s skaters.
If you want to know more about Surya’s story and rise to prominence, check out ESPN’s short documentary on her called Rebel on Ice.
Cab and Blanche Calloway, simply put, are legends. And it was in their Baltimore childhood home that these jazz icons’ musical talents were fully cultivated and explored. Now, this historic site of Black cultural importance is being demolished...
Unless these preservationists, activists, and fans have their way.
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Though the Druid Heights neighborhood, where Calloway’s home is located, was deemed “historically significant,” Baltimore city officials are still planning to tear down the 2200 block.
In an effort to save and restore the 2216 Druid Hill Ave home and the entire community, Cab Calloway’s grandson, Peter C. Brooks, formed The Calloway Home Preservation group. Their goal is to turn the home into a National Historic Landmark, ideally a historic house museum.
According to Baltimore WJZ News, “[c]urrent plans call for saving 100 bricks and marble steps from the home and incorporating them in the design of a park named after Cab Calloway.”
But with so much whitewashing of history, it’s up to us to preserve Black cultural monuments and tell our stories. By destroying sites like The Calloway Home, our history is being erased.
The block is scheduled for demolition sometime after July 1, 2019. If you’re able to support the effort, check out the project to restore The Calloway Home!
When Maryland regulators conducted a disparity study to determine whether there was adequate diversity in the early stages of their medical marijuana licensing program, the results caused major concern.
A new application process was created to court Black-owned industry players, but white-owned Curio Wellness refuses to let them in.
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Curio’s owner Michael Bronfein - mad that more competition would enter the market that currently generates $96.3 million in sales - filed a lawsuit against Maryland’s licensing program.
The problem is, Curio already had a huge head start.
Regulators had exclusively licensed just 15 companies - including Curio - which holds THREE separate licenses for growing, processing, and dispensing operations - but too few were granted to minority-owned companies.
To correct the disparity, regulators opened up the application process to accept a mere 4 more companies.
Curio’s lawsuit greedily claims that the added suppliers would saturate the market and jeopardize their recent $10 million investment.
Well if only 4 more competitors are bad for business, I don’t know what to tell you bruh.
Nationally, only 1% of all medical cannabis licenses were awarded to Black-owned suppliers. Such a low number is insulting considering how much our community has suffered behind criminal marijuana charges.
Opening the door and stepping aside for us to get a fair cut of the now booming industry is the least Curio can do.
Groups have always organized to suppress the Black vote, but since the 2010 election, it seems Republicans are determined to make the Black vote useless.
Gerrymandering, a method used to gain an advantage for a political party, is an old political tactic that involves redrawing electoral districts.
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Both political parties have used the tactic, and Republicans have taken it to a new level.
REDMAP, the Redistricting Majority Map, is gerrymandering on steroids. It’s a plan devised by Republican strategist Chris Jankowski to secure Republican seats.
Every decade, the country collects a census and during the census year, state legislatures change the electoral maps. Republicans suffered in the 2008 election, but Jankowski saw a way to get those seats back.
He targeted states where the legislature could redraw the lines. In 2010, the Republican Party took seats from Democrats and they were able to redraw the lines, thus having votes swing their way.
While the Democrats won more votes in 2012 and the Republican base was on the decline, they still have a majority of seats in the state houses, as seen in the 2017 Virginia legislative elections.
Along with voter ID laws and sparse polling locations, Republicans had another method of keeping Black votes low: creating majority-minority voting districts.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Republican attorney Ben Ginsberg worked with Black politicians to create these districts in keeping with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
While it spawned the largest Black congressional caucus since the Reconstruction era, it made districts around them more homogenous and white, bolstering votes for Republicans.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that non-Hispanic whites will be less than 50 percent of the population by 2044. Black folks tend to disproportionately vote Democrat, a move that Republicans fear will take away their influence in national politics.
If you’re interested in knowing more about REDMAP, read David Daley’s Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy.
Despite being an author and full-time healthcare professional, Tynesha Evans had fallen on hard times.
Thinking her boyfriend was willing to help her with finances, she agreed to meet him in an Atlanta area bank parking lot, where a disagreement ended in Evans’ death.
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Devastated to learn of their mother’s death, her grieving children frantically tried to pay her $3,200 backed rent balance.
That’s when television and film mogul Tyler Perry stepped in.
Understanding that their matriarch and primary breadwinner was now gone, Perry offered to pay 6 months of the family’s rent, burial costs, and Spelman College tuition fees so that Evans’ daughter, Sharadiant, could remain in school.
The star is no stranger to being charitable to families in need, but this case is one Perry can relate to on a deeply personal level.
His own mother was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of his father. Perry has also shared his experiences being physically, emotionally, and sexually abused as a child.
Evans’ 14-year-old daughter called Perry an “angel,” and we’re glad to see this wealthy celebrity come to the aid of a family in such desperate need of kindness and mercy.