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Black Kos, New Year - Choosing Unity AND Letting Your Voice Be Heard [1]
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Date: 2023-01-13
Commentary 2023: Choosing Unity AND Letting Your Voice Be Heard, Is Not An “Either — Or” Proposition, We Can Do Both
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The hardest part of being part of a wide coalition is finding balance. I’ve long felt the largest cause for conflict in the Democratic Party isn’t between the center and left, but between the evolutionaries and the revolutionaries. How fast to push change, supporting what can pass versus pushing for more, reform versus restructuring, so forth and so on.
Our political system makes big changes hard. Our political system also makes it hard to change that very same political system to bring quicker changes. That’s not an excuse for inaction, it’s a statement of political reality. Progress and pragmatism are needed in equal measure.
With a crazed filled Republican controlled House and a Rightwing Supreme Court further progress will be difficult for the next two years. That is why spirited debates but also unity will be important.
No one has a political crystal ball. But looking forward to a US House controlled by a 15 rounds needed to elect House Speaker indebted to a bunch or crazed political arsonist doesn’t fill anyone with hope. Forget big bills being passed will the government be able to pay its bills to keep the lights on? The US Senate at least will function and confirmations of judges will continue. But we need to not let this frustration at inaction become a wedge that tear the left apart.
Without the ability to push big changes it it a good time for spirited debates on the future. Both the direction and pace of change. But beware political bad faith actors, who will claim to be “on the left”, but will spin every delay and setback into a attack on Democratic leadership. Outward facing unity in the face of detrimental opposition is just as important, as reform inside the Democratic party.
In the US House the next generation of party leaders have taken the reign, the in states new governors and legislators will now have their time to shine. I for one am looking forward to our bright future leaders.
2023 will be a year of challenges but also opportunities. I’m looking forward to seeing where the year will take us.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Last Saturday morning, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries officially made history as the first African American to lead a major party in Congress. The Grio: Hakeem Jeffries commences historic role as House minority leader with stirring speech
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Hours after Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy came out victorious in a chaotic, yet historic election to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 118th Congress, Democrats are saluting the new minority leader in the chamber: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
During the early hours of Saturday after McCarthy won the speakership, Jeffries officially became the first African American in history to lead a major party in Congress. The Brooklyn native delivered a stirring floor speech on behalf of House Democrats before handing the gavel to McCarthy symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.
In his remarks, Jeffries listed his party’s accomplishments when it controlled both chambers in the 117th Congress, highlighting a COVID-19 pandemic recovery bill and sweeping economic legislation designed to lower medical and energy costs, create millions of jobs and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
“It was one of the most consequential Congresses in American history,” Jeffries noted while standing on the House Dais. “President [Joe] Biden gets the job done, and the ‘D’ in Democrat stands for ‘deliver’.”
Jeffries gave his remarks around the 1 a.m. hour in Washington, D.C. The New York congressman acknowledged his historic rise to leadership in a country he described as a “land of opportunity.”
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President Biden's Jan. 15 visit to Ebenezer Baptist Church comes on the eve of Martin Luther King Day and what would have been the civil rights icon's 94th birthday. The Grio: Biden will head to Warnock’s Atlanta church for MLK Day speech
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President Joe Biden will attend Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s church in Atlanta on Sunday, delivering a Martin Luther King Day speech on the eve of the federal holiday honoring the late civil rights leader.
Warnock serves as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also served as preacher from 1960 until his death. As reported by Bloomberg, Warnock defeated former NFL star Herschel Walker in December, in Georgia’s Senate runoff election, solidifying Democratic control of the Senate until at least 2024.
Biden’s Jan. 15 visit will come on the day King was born in 1929; MLK Day commemorates the birthday of the inspirational Black activist-icon, who would have turned 94 this year.
As noted by The Jerusalem Post, King’s funeral was also held at Ebenezer Baptist following his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.
The church has a long history of civil rights activity. Over the years, several United States presidents and other influential U.S. leaders have made the journey there.
In this January 2021 photo, President-elect Joe Biden, (right) is shown campaigning for then-Senate candidate Raphael Warnock (left) in Atlanta. Biden will attend Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached and now-Senator Warnock currently serves as senior pastor, on Sunday, Jan. 15 in honor of MLK Day. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)
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Don’t let “tools” become the excuse for racism. Associated Press: Facial recognition tool led to mistaken arrest, lawyer says
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Louisiana authorities’ use of facial recognition technology led to the mistaken-identity arrest of a Georgia man on a fugitive warrant, an attorney said in a case that renews attention to racial disparities in the use of the digital tool.
Randall Reid, 28, was jailed in late November in DeKalb County, Georgia, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
His attorney, Tommy Calogero, said authorities erroneously linked Reid to purse thefts in Jefferson Parish and Baton Rouge. Reid, arrested on Nov. 25, was released Dec. 1.
Reid is Black, and his arrest brings new attention to the use of a technology critics say results in a higher rate of misidentification of people of color than of white people.
“They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, ‘What is Jefferson Parish?’” Reid said. “I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life. Then they told me it was for theft. So not only have I not been to Louisiana, I also don’t steal.”
Calogero said Reid was falsely linked to the June theft of luxury purses from a consignment shop in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb in Jefferson Parish.
A Baton Rouge Police Department detective then adopted the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s identification of Reid to secure an arrest warrant alleging he was among three men involved in another luxury purse theft the same week, court records show, according to the newspaper.
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Think luxury fashion is exclusive to Europe and the U.S.? Here is a list of brands and designers to shop, admire and follow, straight from the motherland. is exclusive to Europe and the U.S.? Here is a list of brands and designers to shop, admire and follow, straight from the motherland. The Grio: Style Guide: A glimpse into the robust African fashion industry
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Guess what? African fashion is more than just dashikis and kente cloth. While both have significant and historical meanings in West Africa, hundreds of designers from across the continent showcase the motherland’s beauty through other forms of fashion. However, as Ghanian writer and creative producer Ekow Barnes highlighted on his panel at the 2022 Business of Fashion Voices conference, Africa is often excluded when discussing inclusion.
“Whenever the West tells our story, it’s always a bit one-sided,” Barnes shared.
Today, there are plenty of designers, authors, photographers, and entrepreneurs actively participating in telling the rich stories of African countries. In fact, there is a robust African fashion scene. Taking a modern twist on traditional silhouettes and designs, African fashion ranges from luxury to streetwear with an emphasis on remaining sustainable. So, next time you’re in a heated fashion debate or simply looking to splurge on yourself, consider these brands and designers.
Designed and produced in Dakar, Senegal, Tongoro brings playful and unique designs to the forefront of fashion. Founded by Sarah Diouf, the brand has gained international recognition and has been worn by Beyonce, Burna Boy, Naomi Campbell, and more.
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Lands remain occupied and Eritrean troops have not left The Economist: Ethiopia’s war in Tigray has ended, but deep faultlines remain
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Inside his makeshift hut, Fisseha Gebreselassie contemplates all he has lost. Days after Ethiopia’s civil war began in November 2020, Ethiopian soldiers killed his 12-year-old son in front of him. Fearing for his life, he fled Tigray, the northern region at the centre of the fighting, for Sudan, leaving behind his wife and three remaining children, hoping they would be safe. But militiamen from the neighbouring Amhara region soon seized their home, forced them onto a truck and drove them across the river to central Tigray.
More than two years later, the family is still separated. A peace deal signed in November has raised hopes that Fisseha and thousands like him might be able to go home. It has stopped both the fighting and a blockade of Tigray by federal forces that led to probably hundreds of thousands of deaths from bombs, bullets or war-induced famine and disease. By resetting relations between the two main belligerents—Ethiopia’s government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (tplf)—the deal is also reshaping alliances inside Ethiopia and perhaps the wider region.
This rapprochement seemed fanciful just months ago. Leaders from the tplf and the government smile while posing for photographs. Food and medicine are being delivered to starving civilians. Internet and phone networks to Tigray that have been cut for much of the war are being partially switched back on. For the first time in two years, Fisseha can call his wife.
But it is a fragile and uncertain peace. That much is evident in the Um Rakuba refugee camp in eastern Sudan, which shelters some 16,000 Tigrayans. Most are from the contested area known officially as Western Tigray. Refugees there say they cannot return home because their land is occupied by Amhara militias and settlers, or by soldiers from Eritrea, who fought alongside the Ethiopian government and are implicated in some of the war’s worst atrocities. “If there is peace, why are Eritreans still on our land?” asks Fisseha.
The peace agreement did not explicitly make any mention Eritrea, which was part of Ethiopia until seceding in 1993. A subsequent “road map” drawn up by military commanders says the demobilisation of Tigray’s forces should take place alongside “the withdrawal of foreign and non-endf [federal Ethiopian] forces”, suggesting Eritrean and Amhara troops would leave.
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While Black people say that structural racism is worse for them, other groups are more focused on the attention-grabbing, viral Karen moments, according to a recent study.
The survey, done by the Pew Research Center, revealed that more than half of Black U.S. citizens find structural racism (or discrimination in U.S. laws) as a bigger issue more detrimental than the incessant, one-off racist incidents that happen between people.
Around 65% of adults in America find that individual racist actions against Black people are a bigger problem than any extensive discriminatory laws and institutions. White, Asian and Hispanic adults mostly believe that individual racism is a more important issue.
According to the study, examples of areas in need of an “institutional overhaul” include policing, health care, prisons, politics, the courts and housing. These large-scale, systemic issues have garnered more attention since the racial reckoning of 2020, but the country struggles to address them.
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