Journalism – Page 48

A talkative Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reflects on becoming himself

3Mar

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Journalism

A talkative Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reflects on becoming himself

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been a best-selling author, civil-rights activist, actor, historian and one of the greatest basketball players who ever lived. One thing Abdul-Jabbar has never been — at least not in public — is chatty. “I’m not known for being a blabbermouth, you know?” the soft-spoken Abdul-Jabbar concedes with a smile, something else he was never particularly known for during his playing days. But, he adds, still smiling, his public can expect to see that change — and soon. This fall Abdul-Jabbar will embark on a cross-country tour as part of “Becoming Kareem,” a stage show in which he’ll discuss his life, answer audience questions and talk about the key mentors he says helped him achieve his goals. Among them: civil rights heroes Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, his legendar...

White nationalist is latest to sue over social media ban

28Feb

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Journalism

White nationalist is latest to sue over social media ban

A prominent white nationalist is suing Twitter for banning his accounts at a time when social networks are trying to crack down on hateful and abusive content without appearing to censor unpopular opinions. Jared Taylor filed the lawsuit Tuesday in state court in San Francisco, marking the latest legal challenge filed by right-wing groups and figures banned from social media sites. Taylor is the founder of the Virginia-based New Century Foundation, an IRS-classified charity that operates the American Renaissance online magazine. The magazine touts a philosophy that it’s “entirely normal” for whites to want to be a majority race. Twitter suspended the accounts of well-known white nationalists in December, saying it was enforcing new rules aimed at reducing abusive content. Social media s...

Fewer Americans are working don’t blame immigrants or food stamps

26Feb

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Journalism

Fewer Americans are working don’t blame immigrants or food stamps

Where did all the jobs go? Well, we’re finally starting to find some satisfactory answers to the granddaddy of all economic questions. The share of Americans with jobs dropped 4.5 percentage points from 1999 to 2016 - amounting to about 6.8 million fewer workers in 2016. Between 50 and 70 percent of that decline probably was due to an aging population. Explaining the remainder has been the inspiration for much of the economic research published after the Great Recession. Economists and politicians have pointed at immigration, China, video games, robots, opioids, universities, working spouses - everything up to and including the academic equivalent of shrugging their shoulders and muttering, “Kids these days.” Until recently, there was no good system to untangle it all. University of ...

N.Y. landlord obliterated dozens of graffiti murals. Now he owes the artists $6.7 million.

23Feb

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Journalism

N.Y. landlord obliterated dozens of graffiti murals. Now he owes the artists $6.7 million.

From the elevated 7-train, millions of people passing through Long Island City, Queens, could spot the massive warehouses. Five stories high, the buildings took up most of a city block. But that’s not the only reason the complex was hard to miss. Its bright yellow walls were covered with hundreds of graffiti murals: colorful bubble letters, fantastical creatures, mesmerizing portraits and tributes to legendary musicians. Known as 5Pointz, it was a graffiti mecca. Aerosol artists would travel from around the world to use its walls as canvases - legally. Busloads of tourists or students on field trips would frequent 5Pointz on a daily basis. It was used as a backdrop for movies and music videos, weddings and concerts. 5pointz transformed dilapidated warehouses and a previously crime-infes...

22Feb

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Journalism

Black contributions recognized

Sunday’s Black History Month Extravaganza provided a look back and a path forward. The program was held before a near-capacity crowd at Kewanee’s First Congregational Church and included city leaders, 74th Dist. Rep. Dan Swanson, a representative of U.S. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos and the choirs of Kewanee and Wethersfield high schools. “It’s not just something for black people, but for all of America,” said the Rev. Marshall Jones of the annual month of commemoration, which was started by Carter G. Woodson Association of the Study of Negro Life and History in 1926 and formalized by President Gerald Ford in 1976. February was selected because both Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were born that month. Jones spoke of the “great gains” made by African American people since emancipation ...

Why I Teach a Course Called “White Racism”

16Feb

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Journalism

Why I Teach a Course Called “White Racism”

The need for students to learn about racism in American society existed long before I began teaching a course called “White Racism” at Florida Gulf Coast University earlier this year. I chose to title my course “White Racism” because I thought it was scholarly and succinct, precise and powerful. But others saw it differently. Many White Americans (and some people of color) became upset when they learned about this course. Thousands took to social media and far-right news sites and racist blogs to attack the course and me personally. Some 150 of these individuals sent me hateful and threatening messages. It might be tempting to blame the hostility to my course on the current political climate, in which the president of the United States routinely makes overtly racist statements and rece...

His Traveling Museum Is Bringing Black History to a Town Near You

14Feb

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Journalism

His Traveling Museum Is Bringing Black History to a Town Near You

As a social studies teacher in Detroit in 1994, Khalid el-Hakim used African American artifacts he collected to supplement information about Black history he found lacking in middle school textbooks. It was a charge, el-Hakim says, by Minister Louis Farrakhan at the Million Man March in 1995 to men to go back to their cities and “join a community organization and try to make some type of contribution to our community,” that was the catalyst to start a mobile museum. El-Hakim went from having tabletop displays at meetings of the local organization he joined to setting up exhibits for various organizations and institutions—first throughout the city and then across the state and nationwide. His Black History 101 Mobile Museum travels throughout the year from coast to coast sharing Africa...

6 Tips for White People Who Want to Celebrate Black History

12Feb

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Journalism

6 Tips for White People Who Want to Celebrate Black History

We’ve come a long way from Negro History Week to Black History Month and yet too often the celebrations that are planned in predominantly white spaces are nothing short of lackluster, rarely bringing a modern-day context to the celebration or acknowledgement that Black history is a continually evolving living history in which we all play a role. Part of the problem is that for non-Black people, too often there is a sense of being a passive celebrator. Yet, in this current climate there is immense opportunity. We can make real racial change by moving from passive observation to active engagement if we move past our own internal roadblocks and fears of messing up. Black history is more than just the named activists, agitators and changemakers—it encompasses the full scope of Black humanity...

Driving As A Black Person In America Was So Dangerous Black Folks Had To Publish A How-To Manual For Simply Surviving On The Road

9Feb

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Journalism

Driving As A Black Person In America Was So Dangerous Black Folks Had To Publish A How-To Manual For Simply Surviving On The Road

America was a dangerous place when Jim Crow mandates ruled the land. Laws separated blacks and whites, the KKK was alive and well, and lynchings were far too common. One white woman's lie even started the 1923 Rosewood Massacre - an event that completely destroyed the lives of many black citizens. Racial discrimination after the Civil War was so severe and potentially life-threatening for blacks that Victor Green developed a book that helped navigate the racist waters. Green's original 1936 Negro Motorist Green Book was an annual pamphlet that focused on safe spaces in New York City, but it eventually expanded to include the whole country. The innovative work suggested travel destinations and establishments that weren't racist so that African Americans could avoid the danger and humiliati...

South African government wants to know why Trump thinks its people are ‘undesirable’ immigrants

7Feb

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Journalism

South African government wants to know why Trump thinks its people are ‘undesirable’ immigrants

South Africa is among a growing number of countries taking action against President Donald Trump’s remarks last week that Haiti, El Salvador and African nations are “s---hole countries” whose inhabitants are not desirable for U.S. immigration. South Africa’s government called for a meeting Monday with acting U.S. Ambassador Jessye Lapenn in Pretoria as part of a diplomatic protest of Trump’s “disturbing” comments, the Department of International Relations said in a statement Sunday. While officials acknowledged Trump’s denial of the exact language used, they said the president’s denial was “categorical, referring only to Haiti and not addressing the entirety of the statement attributed to him.” Trump in a tweet Friday appeared to deny using the term “s---hole” to refer to those countrie...