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Black Kos Tuesday: How did they (and do we) do it? [1]
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Date: 2025-02-11
How did they (and do we) do it?
Commentary by Chitown Kev
So...I utterly refuse to give a half-ass “book report” about one of the greatest personal finds that I have ever made while rummaging through physical and digital libraries; all 591 pages of Irvine Garland Penn’s 1891 anthology of Black journalism, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, so it will have to be done two weeks from now.
I will note Wesley Lowrey’s statement that it was an anthology that came out at a time when Black journalists were “newly emerging to document Jim Crow’s horrors.” This was a time prior to the founding of the great Black newspapers of the early 20th century like the Chicago Defender, the Amsterdam News, and the Pittsburgh Courier.
I know that as a GenXer born in the 1960’s, I haven’t really gone through much of anything. I’ve only seen physical Jim Crow signs in museums. I’ve always been able to walk into libraries and restaurants and other places that serve the public. I’ve always been able to read anything that I want, say what I damn well please without fear of any type of retribution (granted I’ve said my share of stupid, selfish sh*t like any other human being and I have always been aware that what I say could have consequences).
In so many ways, my life and the lives of my peers and, more importantly, those generations that followed, are so much better because of what my ancestors survived.
Like many Black families, for example, mine’s migrated to Detroit because they were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan. My grandfather (Granny’s husband, that is) knew a couple of people that were lynched. One of the most haunting statements that I have ever read was by author Alice Walker when she described not being able to go into the library in her hometown of Eatonton, Georgia because of the color of her skin and because of that, she still doesn’t like libraries.
I can’t...imagine a life like that even though it’s written down in our history many times over.
I look at the wreck list and then I look at the news and so much of everything seems to be on fire, burning brighter than ancient Rome’s or Chicago’s.
I’m a little disoriented by it all, actually (hence, the late start today). I am behind the eight-ball on everything. And I have to pull it together in order to live and function in a world like this?
I’m going through a First World problem.
So today for Black History Month, I’m not even thinking much about luminaries like Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells (one of the 19 women journalists/editors reached for commentary in Penn’s anthology), Dr. King, among so many others.
I woke up this afternoon (very late!) thinking of what those of us that aren’t mentioned when we discuss Black History Month must have gone through and remembering that Black History is made by all of us.
As for myself, I’ll only say that I may have 99 problems right now but I only have maybe a few of the problems that my ancestors were faced with.
And for that I am grateful.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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HBCUs are 200 year old institutions that are one of the largest segments of this nation to create the Black middle class. Adams passionately expressed, “he’s [President Trump] jeopardizing the futures of countless students.” NATIONAL Black Press USA: HBCUs In Jeopardy of Losing Funding for Black Cultural Studies
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This is only the beginning of a long fight,” according to Democratic North Carolina Congresswoman Alma Adams. She is addressing the Executive Order to pause federal loans and grants. There is an overwhelming concern in the Historically Black College and University community that many key programs focused on race and equity will be impacted. Adams, a ranking member of a House Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Founder and Co-Chair of the Bicameral HBCU Caucus, issued a statement to Black Press USA once a federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s funding freeze. Adams, whose state houses 11 HBCUs, the largest number in any given state, believes, “President Trump is dismantling equity in education with the stroke of a pen by rescinding federal initiatives for MSIs.” HBCUs are two hundred year old institutions that are one of the largest segments of this nation to create the Black middle class. Adams passionately expressed, “he’s [President Trump] jeopardizing the futures of countless students.”
According to the Trump White House, the pause is meant as a review period for federal loans and grants to organizations and agencies. A White House official told this reporter Historically Black Colleges and Universities are fine. However, if African American History and or Woke programs are taught with federal funds, those monies will be extracted from the school and or program. Walter Kimbrough, the Interim President of Talladega College exclusively told Black Press USA the initial announcement of the funding freeze “was a shock to the HBCU community, which has continued to enjoy broad, bipartisan support.” However he sharply questioned, “how can you be an HBCU without African American history?” “The terms of the executive order is 90 days… It is a review process to say that there is discretionary spending…. to a contract, to a non governmental organization.” Trump White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller also gave the press an example of teaching “critical race theory” which he says would lose the federal funding. “The pause on the federal loans and grants will involve “a politically appointed individual… who simply reviews and approves the expenditure so that we have democratic control over the operations of government,” emphasized Miller who further acknowledge “this doesn’t impact any programs that Americans rely on.”
Adams, a former alumna of North Carolina A and T and a former professor of an HBCU believes this examination of federal funding is ”putting HBCUs, which are already underfunded but vital to our communities, directly in harm’s way.” Meanwhile, Kimbrough wants the 111 Presidents of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities to meet with President Trump detailing, “we are eager to meet with the new administration to remind them of the consequential role HBCUs make to our nation, and to solicit their support and further investment.”
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Death row cases in America have always been tainted by racism Newsone: N.C. Judge Finds Racial Discrimination Occurred During Jury Selection In Black Death Row Inmate’s Case
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It often seems that no matter how much evidence there is that the justice system is systemically biased against Black people, the bar for proving racial discrimination in said system only ever gets higher. And it’s even more of an uphill battle to prove racial discrimination happened when the alleged victim of that discrimination actually is a criminal who committed a horrible crime.
Well, on Friday, a North Carolina judge ruled that racial discrimination during jury selection played a role in the trial of a Black man who had been sentenced to death for capital murder after being convicted by a nearly all-white jury.
38-year-old Hasson Bacote, who was 20 when he was charged with murder along with two others in 2007, was sentenced to die in 2009 by 10 white jurors and two Black jurors for his role in a felony murder of 18-year-old Anthony Surles, who was shot to death during an attempted home robbery. (The two other defendants were ultimately convicted on lesser charges and have since been released from prison.) His case has now been used to test the scope of the Racial Justice Act of 2009, an N.C. state law that allows convicted inmates to seek resentencing if they can show racial bias played a role in their cases.
x A North Carolina trial judge has ruled in favor of former death-row prisoner Hassan Bacote's challenge to his death sentence under the state's Racial Justice Act. More details to follow. @NCCADP @NAACP_LDF @ACLU @HHill3663 @CassyStubbsNC #deathpenalty pic.twitter.com/K0HkPZyuJt — Robert Dunham (@RDunhamDP) February 7, 2025
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A historic Black community near Cincinnati is calling for more accountability after a group of white supremacists staged a protest on an overpass near their town. On Friday, Feb. 7, a group of masked men claiming to be Neo-Nazis while waving large black flags with red swastikas near Cincinnati clashed with community members from the Village of Lincoln Heights, the first all-Black self-governing city north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The demonstrators had also pinned red swastika banners on the fence of the overpass along with a sign that read “America for the White Man,” according to CNN and Fox 19. According to multiple outlets, including CNN affiliate WLWT, the incident was over nearly as quickly as it started, but not before the masked protestors fired off racial slurs and other derogatory language at the community members. Officers from the Evendale Police Department arrived on the scene around 2 p.m. as community members approached the group. As the officers remained between the two opposing parties, the masked demonstrators hopped into a U-Haul box truck and drove off, leaving the scene. The community members managed to grab one of the protester’s flags, throw it to the ground, and set it on fire. The counter-protestors also may have slashed the tires of a Jeep believed to belong to someone in the hate group. x ‼️NAZI’s Threaten a Black Man and he Exercises his 2nd Amendment right
FIGHT THE POWER
NAZI’s - “What’s Up N*gger”
📍Lincoln Heights | Cincinnati pic.twitter.com/X3Rm9Rjnm0 — Tazaryach (@Tazaryach) February 9, 2025
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In the heart of the Ethiopian capital is a relic of the French-built railway but the government’s grandiose redevelopment plans threaten this friendly club. The Guardian Last throw of the boule for Addis Ababa’s historic pétanque club as developers turn city into hi-tech hub
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It’s a quiet Saturday afternoon at the Club des Cheminots in downtown Addis Ababa, where Chebude Gobeza plays pétanque with a friend as groups of patrons sit around yellow plastic tables, chatting and sipping coffee and beer.
Chebude comes to the Railway Workers’ Club every day, he says, after wrapping up a win. “It’s how I relax and keep fit. I’ve made a lot of friendships here over the years with others who come to enjoy it.”
This small, Francophone corner of Ethiopia’s capital is a legacy of the French-built Ethio-Djibouti Railway, a once-vital trade artery that linked Addis Ababa to the Red Sea for a century before most of it closed in disrepair in 2008.
The majority of the club’s 150 members are pensioners who worked on the line and learned French after being sent to classes at Addis Ababa’s Lycée Guebre-Mariam. The line’s French workers popularised pétanque, also known as boules, by teaching it to their Ethiopian colleagues more than 100 years ago.
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The Compton MC delivered a Super Bowl halftime show that was exactly what it needed to be to keep us talking about what it was or wasn’t. The Grio: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show was perfect
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It’s been said but I’ll say it one more time for the cheap seats: Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, better known as Kendrick Lamar, has had (and technically I suppose it’s ongoing?) one of the best calendar years on record for any hip-hop artist. Since March 2024, he’s been on the winning end of a long-running feud that saw him topple his (perhaps self-imposed) Canadian nemesis in song, at an awards ceremony, and on multiple stages, the latest being the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in New Orleans. The halftime show was about the most entertaining part of the game unless you’re a Philadelphia Eagles fan (I am not).
When it was announced that Kendrick would be the halftime show performer, the questions about whether he had enough songs to justify a halftime show started. Or whether New Orleans owed it to Lil Wayne or another artist from New Orleans to do the show. Or if he was even a big enough artist to justify that slot. All bad questions, by the way; you could argue what type of artist is best suited for that kind of stage, but to imply that Kendrick might not be worthy of it in the first place is asinine. But it matters not; he got the nod and on Sunday, February 9, put on a perfect show.
Yes, I said it; a perfect show.
Kendrick seems to have built that show around a few tentpoles, the most obvious being his long-running feud with Drake, one that I suppose should be over(?) now unless or until Drake decides to release music that speaks directly about it or to Kendrick about it. But the show also had a million Easter eggs, smaller references, or things that needed to be looked up. For all of those people who suggest that the show wasn’t good, how often do you have to revisit a Super Bowl halftime show to discern just how many references you missed the first time or look up information to see what was happening in real time?
I’d say not often. But that’s part of the charm of Kendrick; his level of intention is very specific. I’m not trying to make a parallel here, but the way we dissect Jordan Peele films is how we engage with Kendrick’s art now, trying to see what the hidden messages are and sometimes making them up for ourselves as we go. I don’t think that’s the normal Super Bowl Halftime show modus operandi.
Kendrick Lamar
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