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Showing posts with the label #BlackAmerican

What Your Black Employees Wish You Would and Wouldn’t Do for Black History Month

#African-American #BlackAmerican #BlackHistorymonth #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory #BlackMaleTherapist #Triple5LightTherapy During the month of February, Black employees across industries face a heightened awareness of our double consciousness. We are both bolstered by the prospect of positive recognition while we brace for the inevitable disappointment brought on by an endless barrage of the perfunctory and the performative. Still, each year is a fresh opportunity for improvement that starts with a listening ear. During Black History Month please, consider what Black employees wish you would and wouldn’t do. Do invest Don’t oversee and ’empower’ When I asked members of the  Black Girl Magic  space on  Fishbowl  for Black History Month dos and don’ts, each response noted the challenges of management failing to get out of the way. From delayed content approvals to fear-driven “concerns” about programming ideas, the enthusiasm that should be met with resources is all too often met with r

Maya Angelou, We Wear The Mask [VIDEO]

#MayaAngelou #TheMask  #BlackHistory #BlackAmerican  The Mask by Maya Angelou We wear the mask that grins and lies. It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes. This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties. Why should the world think otherwise In counting all our tears and sighs. Nay let them only see us while We wear the mask. We smile but oh my God Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing… The clay is vile beneath our feet And long the mile But let the world think otherwise. We wear the mask. When I think about myself I almost laugh myself to death. My life has been one great big joke! A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke. I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke When I think about myself. Seventy years in these folks’ world The child I works for calls me girl I say “HA! HA! HA! Yes ma’am!” For workin’s sake I’m too proud to bend and Too poor to bre

Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin.

#BlackAmerican #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory  #BlackHistorymonth #ClaudetteColvin Most people think of Rosa Parks as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. There were actually several women who came before her; one of whom was Claudette Colvin. It was March 2, 1955, when the fifteen-year-old schoolgirl refused to move to the back of the bus, nine months before Rosa Parks’ stand that launched the Montgomery bus boycott. Claudette had been studying Black leaders like Harriet Tubman in her segregated school, those conversations had led to discussions around the current day Jim Crow laws they were all experiencing. When the bus driver ordered Claudette to get up, she refused, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up." Claudette Colvin’s stand didn’t stop there. Arrested and thrown in jail, she was one of four women who challenged the s

Black History Month is an annual observance in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States

#BlackHistorymonth #BlackHistory #African-American #BlackAmerican Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month in the U.S., is an annual observance in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  It began as a way for remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925. The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The response was overwhelming: Black history clubs sprang up; teachers demanded

When White People Call the Police on Black People

Clockwise from top left: Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, via Instagram; Dave Sanders for The New York Times; Melissa DePino, via Twitter; Myneca Ojo, via Facebook #African-American #BlackAmerican #Police #whitePrivilege #WhitePeople By Daniel Victor  -nytimes.com What makes the police encounters chilling is  how routine they are . They happen while black people are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for the thinnest of suspicions. In the past month, more than a handful of such interactions have attracted widespread attention on social media — and, in turn, in national outlets like The Times, CNN and The Washington Post. “It happens so frequently to people of color that we don’t often think of it as a big deal or as particularly newsworthy,” said Paul Butler, a Georgetown University law professor who is the author of “ Chokehold: Policing Black Men .” He added, “It’s humiliating and aggravating and upsetting, but the idea tha

America's racial reckoning is putting a spotlight on Black mental health

  #BlackMentalHealth #African-American #BlackAmericanTherapy #Triple5LightTherapy # TripleLight.com   The pandemic, economic anxiety, and reignited fights on racist structures have created a “mental health tsunami” in the Black community. By   Doha Madani As a child, Reginald Howard struggled with destructive visions, moments where he imagined destroying the shelves at the corner store or pushing another child down, but when he tried to identify what was happening, his mother attributed it to his “Howard blood.” “At that point, I probably should have been in therapy but because there’s such a stigma behind therapy in the Black community, and around the world but I’ll start within my community, I really didn’t get the help that I needed,” Howard said. His father also struggled with mental illness, a situation that led Howard’s grandmother to refer to him and his sister as “demon children.” Howard’s mental health went unaddressed as a child and he continued to struggle wit

Family demands release of evidence in Breonna Taylor’s case

#BreonnaTaylor #GrandJury #Police #BlackWoman #BlackAmerican #Justice4Breonna By CLAIRE GALOFARO, PIPER HUDSPETH BLACKBURN and ANGIE WANG LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Breonna Taylor’s family demanded Friday that Kentucky authorities release all body camera footage, police files and the transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to no charges being brought against police officers who killed the Black woman during a raid at her apartment. The decision disappointed and angered those who have been calling for justice for Taylor for six months, and protesters vowed to stay in the streets until all the officers involved are fired or someone is charged with her killing. A diverse group, including Taylor’s mother, marched through Louisville on Friday evening. The protests were peaceful, though at one point, police in riot gear fired flash bang devices to turn back a crowd on a street. Two were arrested, authorities said. About a dozen people who were out past the city’s 9 p.m. curfew were ar

Maya Angelou, We Wear The Mask [Watch]

#MayaAngelou #TheMask  #BlackHistory #BlackAmerican  T he Mask by Maya Angelou We wear the mask that grins and lies. It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes. This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties. Why should the world think otherwise In counting all our tears and sighs. Nay let them only see us while We wear the mask. We smile but oh my God Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing… The clay is vile beneath our feet And long the mile But let the world think otherwise. We wear the mask. When I think about myself I almost laugh myself to death. My life has been one great big joke! A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke. I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke When I think about myself. Seventy years in these folks’ world The child I works for calls me girl I say “HA! HA! HA! Yes ma’am!” For workin’s sake I’m too proud to bend and Too poor