Month: March 2017

Black queer love between two women often goes underrepresented in any medium. 

Writer Tee Franklin wants to help change this with her forthcoming comic “Bingo Love.” It follows the fictional story of Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray, beginning from the time they fall in love as teenagers in 1963.

Their parents find out and forbid them from seeing each other again. The women lead separate lives, marrying men whom neither of them love. Hazel and Mari reunite at a bingo hall and old feelings surface. They divorce their husbands and live out their truth as a married couple, a light in which audiences rarely see elderly black women. Their love story extends all the way to 2030. 

The 80-page graphic novella is one of the first of its kind.

Franklin told The Huffington Post that some of her experiences as a queer woman of color helped inform her writing in “Bingo Love.” She said that she’s kept her sexual identity a secret out of fear and that she’s inadvertently coming out to her extended family as bisexual with this novella.  

“I know that there are black women and men who have had to hide their sexuality due to the time era and I know that there are some that are still hiding it,” she said. “As someone who’s been married, sometimes you stay for the kids ― even though you know that the love is gone. Hiding your sexual orientation for decades and not truly being happy inside is what I wanted to touch on with this story.”

Franklin, who created #BlackComicsMonth in 2015 to promote diversity in the straight white male-dominated industry, said inclusive stories like “Bingo Love” are crucial. She said that sometimes white superheroes aren’t as exciting as representation in comics.  

“It’s rare in the comic industry to have two black women leads, especially written by a disabled, queer black woman,” she said. “Now to have these protagonists queer and older? This will never happen in the comics industry unless someone does it on their own.”

The only superpowers Hazel and Mari have is the confidence to leave their past lives in their 60s and spend the rest of them together living their life to the fullest.
Tee Franklin, writer

With her Kickstarter campaign, Franklin wants to raise at least $19,999 to pay for her small, diverse creative team ― artist Jenn St-Onge, colorist Joy San, letterer Cardinal Rae and editor Erica Schultz ― printing and shipping. The writer said the response to her novella has been overwhelmingly positive. Her campaign has already raised more than $16,500 in only five days.

Franklin said she’s aiming to have the comic distributed before the end of the year. She said she hopes the novella shows readers that love is love, no matter what it looks like.

“Love has no boundaries and it lasts forever. If there can be an Ellie and Carl from Disney’s ‘Up,’ there can be a Hazel and Mari in ‘Bingo Love,’” she said. “Once again, these topics aren’t discussed in comics and there definitely aren’t older queer black women around. But, you can have a Magneto who’s in his, what, 60s? 70s? The only superpowers Hazel and Mari have is the confidence to leave their past lives in their 60s and spend the rest of them together living their life to the fullest.”

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

(Reuters Health) – Neighborhoods with a high proportion of black residents or high poverty tend to have the greatest density of stores selling cigarettes and tobacco products, U.S. researchers say. 

Poverty explained some of the association, but an urban planning concept, neighborhood “stability” – including the proportion of homes that are rented versus owned – accounted for most of the link, the study team reports in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“The neighborhood you live in shouldn’t determine how much cancer-causing product is present in your day-to-day life,” said lead study author Joseph Lee of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

“The tobacco industry spends a large portion of its advertising budget at retailers, so when we see differences by neighborhood, that’s a big investment by the tobacco industry,” he told Reuters Health.

There are about 375,000 stores in the U.S. that sell tobacco products, Lee’s team writes. In 2014, U.S. stores contained an average of 30 tobacco ads, they add. Cigarette smoking causes about 480,000 deaths each year in the U.S., which is about one of every five deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previous studies looking at the density of tobacco stores have mostly focused on small geographic areas, so it’s difficult to tell if the patterns are widespread the authors write.

They calculated the density of 90,400 tobacco outlets in 97 counties across the nation to get a broader picture. These 97 counties contain 79 million people, or about a quarter of the population, the authors note.

Across all counties, the average density of tobacco shops was 1.3 per 1,000 people. But as neighborhood income fell, density of tobacco shops rose. It also rose as the proportion of the neighborhood’s residents who were African American increased.

In addition, a high proportion of vacant housing units or a high proportion of rental units were tied to sharp rises in the density of stores selling tobacco.

Neighborhoods with a high proportion of Hispanic, white or Asian/Pacific Islander residents did not display changes in tobacco store density relative to race or ethnicity. 

“Environmental factors, including the location and density of tobacco retailers, have an influence on behaviors,” said Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“The more accessible a product is, the more likely consumers are to purchase it,” she told Reuters Health by email. “This further contributes to the high toll of tobacco on racial and socioeconomic health disparities.”

Plus, Lee said, in neighborhoods with more tobacco outlets, stores are more likely to run price discounts and promotions, which boosts the advertising exposure and often prompts smokers who are thinking about quitting to buy another pack.

“Each time kids go to the store for a snack, to pay for gas, or to pick up bread and milk, they’re getting a dose of advertising,” Lee added. “Any gas station has a wall of tobacco products behind the register, and that makes them present, visible and normalized.”

One limitation of the study is that it doesn’t differentiate between types and sizes of stores, such as gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacy chains, alcohol stores, convenience stores, newsstands and the discount department store Walmart, which could affect density, the authors write.

In recent years, policy changes have aimed to prevent the sale of menthol and flavored cigarettes near schools in Chicago, San Francisco and Baltimore. Other policies have suggested removing cigarettes from pharmacies and selling little cigars and cigarillos in bundles rather than singles to increase cost, said Phillip Gardiner of the University of California in Oakland, who wasn’t involved in the current study.

“Smokers – especially young kids – are price sensitive,” he said. “We know that as price goes up, consumption goes down.”

“When used as advertised, smoking kills,” Gardiner said. “The tobacco industry is promoting it, and that’s not right.”

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Just when you thought nothing could have you rolling the way a good meme does, Afro-surrealist artist Alim Smith turned all your fave faces into fine art. 

From the timeless images of a teary-eyed Michael Jordan to the face of a confused Nick Young, Smith uses surrealism to exaggerate the hilarity of these folks.

Based in Delaware, Smith ― who derives inspiration from black popular culture in his artwork ― began posting these images in homage to what he refers to as “Black Meme History Month.”

Check out some of Smith’s brilliant creations below:

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

From the early 1900s to the late 1930s, African American sociologist Monroe Nathan Work researched every known lynching in the United States. Now, his tireless work has become the inspiration for an interactive map that offers a striking visualization of racist domestic terrorism spanning decades. 

The Monroe Work Today research group launched a map earlier this year that allows users to discover the roughly 4,770 people of color lynched in the United States from the 1830s to the 1960s. By clicking on each colored point on the map, users can read information about each known individual, including their name and the circumstances of their lynching.

“Before this website, it was impossible to search the web and find an accurate scope of the history of American lynching. The names have always been kept safe, but distant, in old archives and scholarly books and dissertations,” the website explains. “This site leaves the record open for all Americans, especially high school students who want to learn more than what their textbook has to say.” 

The data reveals that black men were the most lynched group of people among the documented victims, usually due to mob violence after criminal accusations. The map, which users can view based on region, also reveals the lynchings of Latinx people, Asians, Italians and Native Americans. 

View the entire interactive map here.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

We’re all familiar with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but did you know there’s also a National Single Parent Day? 

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan officially designated March 21 as a day of acknowledgement for the hard work of single parents nationwide. 

Three decades later, too few of us are aware of the holiday, including most single parents themselves. In a new heartwarming ad from Angel Soft, single dads and moms are told about the holiday and share what it’s like to raise their kids without any additional help. 

“He is the coolest kid ever,” a single dad named Jonathon says of his three-year-old son. “[But] it was a new world to me: the teething, the crying at night, the unexplained rashes.” 

All three parents say rent and childcare are expenses that weigh heavily on them. Midway through the ad, Angel Soft presents each parent with a surprise that will definitely lighten their loads. Watch the video above to see how it all plays out. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

A man accidentally shot himself in the stomach and decided to blame it on a black man who didn’t exist. 

Arthur Palombo, 20, told police that he went to Williamsbridge Oval Park in the Bronx on Wednesday to sell an old revolver to someone he had met a few weeks earlier, according to the New York Daily News. Palombo reported that the potential buyer, a bald black man, refused to pay the $100 asking price and shot him.

After Palombo, who is Hispanic, was taken to the hospital, NYPD searched the park and found his revolver.

Investigators questioned the man again when he was released from the hospital on Thursday. Palombo recanted his story and admitted that his gun went off while it was in his jacket pocket.

Cops arrested Palombo and he was charged with weapons possession and filing a false report.

He was released Friday on $10,000 bail, according to the city’s Department of Correction.

In November, an Ohio woman and her passenger, both attorneys, used a similar lie to blame a car crash on a nonexistent “black male who lost control of the vehicle” and fled the scene, according to WKYC. Surveillance footage outside of a bar less than a mile away from the collision showed that the two were actually drunk. Both were charged with obstruction and sentenced to 10 days in jail. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Before my mother was a King, she was a Scott from Marion, Alabama, the daughter of resilient, righteous parents, Obadiah and Bernice, who drove the bus that transported my mother and other black students to school. Coretta Scott was born to a woman who supported community.

Before my mother was a King, she climbed trees and wrestled with boys. And won. Even as a child, Coretta Scott demonstrated that her gender would not deter her success, nor did it detract from her strength.

Before she was a King, my mother was a civil rights activist, a member of the NAACP and the Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees at Antioch College. Coretta Scott was determined that her life would serve to lift others. She was already a woman of great character.

Before my mother was a King, she was a gifted vocalist and musician, whose skill and academia garnered her a scholarship to the prestigious New England Conservatory for Music in Boston. Coretta Scott’s path to Boston exemplified her commitment to being a woman of excellence.

Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader and an accomplished artist. When my father, Martin Luther King, Jr., encountered her in Boston, he encountered a whole woman, a woman of substance, a woman who, as the traditional black Baptist church still sings, had “a charge to keep, a God to glorify.”

Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader and an accomplished artist.

Before she was a King, my mother had a purpose; and her marriage to a man who would become one of the most celebrated leaders in history further propelled her toward that purpose.

As we commemorate Women’s History Month, my mother’s life continues to be an extraordinary example of how to live for something larger than ourselves and of how women carry purpose, power and progress. Her life before she met my father contributed to the foundation for them to build a life and co-labor in the movement together. Of her, he said “She saw the greatness of the movement and had a unique willingness to sacrifice herself for its continuation.”

Her life with my father was a remarkable display of consistency to purpose, as Coretta Scott King not only excelled as a wife and mother, but also utilized her diplomacy and gift as a singer to advance the movement. My parents were partners and she was a woman at the forefront of activism for civil and human rights.

After my father’s assassination in 1968, my mother’s life without my father would become the clearest and most prevailing testament to the wisdom and fortitude which had been cultivated in her since birth. That same year, she founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in my father’s birth city, Atlanta. More than a monument, it is the official living memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. and was established to provide education and training on his nonviolent philosophy and strategy.

With The King Center as her base, my mother pressed on to fulfill a role that changed lives and legislation. She was a woman who refused to surrender the reigns of what she knew to be her assignment, even when male civil rights and business leaders tried to convince her that she should leave the work of building her husband’s legacy to them. She began her journey as the Architect of the King Legacy.

This woman’s work continued. As founding President, Chair, and CEO of The King Center, Coretta Scott King tirelessly carried the message of nonviolence and the dream of the Beloved Community throughout the globe. She, along with other dedicated workers, committed herself to the dream of a MLK Holiday becoming a reality. The dream was realized. The Holiday solidified my father’s worldwide influence and increased the desire of many to learn more about his life and teachings. Consider that at the time of my father’s death, a poll found him to be “the most hated man in America.” My mother’s efforts as the Architect of the King Legacy changed the way the masses viewed Dr. King.

Imagine where Dr. King’s legacy would be had Coretta Scott not been purposed to be a King.

Imagine where the King Legacy would be had Coretta Scott not been purposed to be a King.

Imagine if she had not been a woman on fire for social justice and for nonviolent social change.

Imagine if she had listened to those who wanted to put her in a gender box and limit her ability to lead as a legacy-builder.

Imagine if she had not been willing to be arrested by and for something greater than herself.

She left her mark. Women and girls, and all of humanity, are better for it. The best way to express our gratitude, during Women’s History Month and beyond, is by embracing the philosophy that my mother believed was the path to building the Beloved Community.

In this critical moment for our global community, let us live nonviolence. The principles and steps of nonviolence, which The King Center calls Nonviolence365™, will help us build a more peaceful, just, humane world, beginning with each of us. As my mother stated, “People who think nonviolence is easy don’t realize that it’s a spiritual discipline that requires a great deal of strength, growth, and purging of the self so that one can overcome almost any obstacle for the good of all without being concerned about one’s own welfare.” In her honor and for the holistic health of our global community, I encourage humanity to choose nonviolence. 

Read Coretta Scott King’s memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, to learn more about this extraordinary woman during Woman’s History Month.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Racial issues continue to fester in America, but this has not instilled a sense of despair or hopelessness among black millennials, a new study finds. In fact, researchers say they have found the opposite.

Data from a collaborative study conducted by the University of Texas and Hispanic advertising agency Richards/Lerma released on Monday reveals that black millennials are most optimistic about their future when compared to Hispanic, Asian and white millennials. The study, titled “Millennials Deconstructed,” also has other fascinating findings about where millennials ― young adults between the ages of 18-34 ― who make up America’s most racially diverse generation in history, stand when it comes to having faith in the American dream and their ability to succeed in the future. 

Researchers ― who say the study was designed to decode the relationship millennials have with America ― say some of the results were surprising, even noting in the report that “the data reached out and smacked us with untold cultural stories that challenge popular notions about each race and ethnicity.”

Researchers, who looked at over 1,000 respondents, say that black millennials in particular show some of the study’s most interesting and counterintuitive discoveries, writing: “A reasonable person may expect to uncover a sense of despair, apathy, or hopelessness. In this case, a reasonable person would be wrong.”

“We found the opposite,” it continues. “With a heightened sense of control over their future, [black millennials] have the most faith that their hard work will pay off.”  

Pointing to the role of black activists in calling out systemic racism and white privilege, researchers say some may interpret this as “showing disrespect for America, apathy, playing the victim [and/or] asking for handouts.” Instead, rather than reporting feelings of neglect or disrespect, 83 percent of black millennials say they are proud to be an American. And although black millennials (67 percent) are closely tied with Hispanic millennials (66 percent) in being less likely to say they are satisfied with life when compared to Asian (71 percent) and white (71 percent) millennials, most black millennials (61 percent) hold on to a sense of hope and optimism rather than feelings of apathy.

“This suggests their vocalization of injustice isn’t at odds with respect for their nation,” the study says of black millennials. “In fact, it’s possible their motivation to speak up is because of their national pride, because they hold their country to a high standard.”

“Our communities are resilient and innovative, often making a way out of no way.”
Dante Barry, co-founder of Million Hoodies

Researchers say that they expected black millennials to be the most likely group to reject the concept of the American dream, which is traditionally defined in the study as “the ability to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” However, the study showed that, although 55 percent admit their race has made it more difficult to attain the American dream, black millennials (49 percent) are more likely than any other segment to say they still strive for it.  

The study also showed that, compared to other groups, black millennials have the strongest sense of control over their future (56 percent), place more value in hard work (59 percent) and are more likely to believe that people can achieve their dreams if they work hard enough (59 percent).

This doesn’t come as a total surprise to 28-year-old Dante Barry, a black millennial activist and co-founder of the social justice organization Million Hoodies, whose unrelenting work with black millennials around the country has show him the resilience that any of them possess. He says this strengthens his faith in their collective ability to effect positive change.

“At Million Hoodies, I get to work with hundreds of young Black people around the country, and I am reminded every day about what our communities have to do in order to live a decent life,” he told The Huffington Post. “Our communities are resilient and innovative, often making a way out of no way. Black people can combat systemic racism in community with other black people.”

Another notable finding shows that it is Hispanic millennials who, despite feeling misrepresented and blamed as cultural intruders, are reported to “be the most traditionally American Millennial segment, adherents of classic American virtues with a high level of energy to build a better future for the country.” The study shows that Hispanic millennials have the greatest sense of American pride (54 percent), which stands in strong contrast to white millennials, who were reported as having the least (40 percent).

“[Hispanic millennials] are perhaps the most traditional keepers and seekers of the American dream,” Chaille Alcorn, the brand planning director for Richards/Lerma, told HuffPos. “In other words, ‘making America great again’ requires Hispanics.” 

While white millennials are tied with Asian millennials in being most likely to say they are satisfied with life (71 percent) than black or Hispanic millennials, they rank the least optimistic about the future. They also report the lowest levels of enthusiasm or interest about their future, the American dream, achieving financial comfortability, owning a home, getting a college or advanced degree, traveling, helping others, and experiencing and learning new things.

“This lower-grade energy and excitement about the future and decreased faith in the American dream suggests that it will be the ethnic minority segments who contribute the most energy and optimism toward America’s future,” Alcorn says. “Without minority millennials influencing the future of the country, the outlook appears bleak.”  

The importance of young people of color, especially at a time when overt racism and xenophobia run rampant, is certainly not lost on 27-year-old Rhonesha Byng, a businesswoman and founder of HerAgenda, a digital media platform for millennial women. She, like Barry, wasn’t taken aback by the study’s findings because she knows black millennials have “no other choice” but to persevere, place value in hard work and push for change. 

“If we give in and feel despair on a daily basis, that won’t solve anything,” she told HuffPost. “These systems were not built with us in mind, they weren’t built for us to succeed, so when there’s another black person excelling we have to champion them, and if you’re that black person succeeding you have to keep going.” 

“Nothing is handed to us,” she added. “We are already taught from a young age that we have to work twice as hard, and I believe now more than ever we have access to more examples of black success and black excellence.”

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Actress Nathalie Emmanuel recently opened up about the damaging nature of seeing predominantly white casts on television while growing up. 

In an interview with Hunger magazine, the “Game of Thrones” star, who is half Dominican said that she didn’t see people who reflected her racial identity during her childhood.

“For me, when I was growing up, not seeing anyone on television that looked like me or that I could identify with was really hard, and that can affect someone’s self-esteem hugely,” Emmanuel — who plays Missandei, a translator on “Game of Thrones” — told Hunger. 

Emmanuel, who also played Ramsey, a computer hacker in “Fast and Furious 7” lauded the movie’s casting for its exemplary diversity. But where the rest of the Hollywood ― whose diversity issue was bought to light in 2016 during the #OscarsSoWhite controversy ― is concerned, she said that despite the attempts at diverse casting, she doesn’t know how long-standing these efforts will be. 

“Will it be that they just do the one film and then it goes back?” she questioned. “If you go up for anything, you know there is always a cast of people and a small number of them are [from] a minority.

“The majority of the cast will be white with a few roles from a different ethnicity. Ultimately that’s not the world we live in,” she said. 

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

In 2014, photographer Émilie Régnier photographed women in the beauty salons of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Her goal was simple: to give her subjects space to flaunt their fabulous hair. 

The images’ impressions, however, aren’t quite so unambiguous. “For black women, hair is political,” Régnier told The Huffington Post. With her series, dubbed “Hair,” the photographer hoped to explore the influence of African-American culture and media on West African women, as expressed through the aesthetic ritual of getting dolled up.

“There has been a big movement toward natural black hair, and away from wigs or anything artificial,” the photographer expressed. “But personally, I don’t think these women are thinking about the political aspect, they just want to look good.” 

When Régnier first entered a local salon, she expected to embark on a photo project revolving around black women who used products to bleach their skin. However, her vision changed course after she flipped through the look books on-site, which flaunted various ‘dos for customers to adopt and improve upon. 

“I’ve been in West Africa for almost eight years,” Régnier explained. “Once a place becomes familiar, you don’t see everything you used to. But I suddenly noticed, these women had amazing hair.” Beyond pure style, the hairstyles illuminated the myriad cultural influences shaping the dominant trends, as well as the physical standards of beauty women around the world feel compelled to embody.

In Ivory Coast, women undergo a variety of treatments and procedures to qualify as a “go” ― or a good-looking girl ― Régnier explained. “Hairstyle is the privilege of the ‘go-choc,’” she said in an artist statement. As a result, women often invest their savings in revamping their tresses, through highlights, extensions, dye, and wigs. 

Régnier saw hair as a vehicle of communication, expressing unspoken understandings of identity, beauty and power for many local women. As the artist put it: “I tried to demystify the direct African-American influence, the part owed to globalization, and the part relating to the African decoding of information seen on television.” 

Régnier was inspired by iconic Nigerian photographer Okhai Ojeikere ― who chronicled Nigerian women’s serpentine braided styles ― as well as Ivory Coast’s local look book photographers, who had created their own brand of glamour shot. She reached out to one of said professional photographers and asked to become his assistant.

In the style of most Ivorian street photographers, Régnier traversed the city with a camera around her neck, snapping the daring styles that women might later want to don for themselves. Such photos are usually then sold for around one dollar each, to hairdressers who put them into their look books for future clients to peruse and select.

Although the series is not overtly political, Régnier captures moments of freedom, confidence, creative expression and self-love for women of color. Given the beauty industry’s proclivity toward aesthetic standards of whiteness, the series can’t help but take a political stance. “As a woman of color myself, I can’t help but think of colonialism,” Régnier said. “The way women were made to want to have blonde hair.”

Today, however, Régnier observed that her clients seem somewhat removed from the political underpinnings of their style choices. “Women of West Africa aren’t thinking about white colonization that occurred 60 years ago when they wear a wig. They reclaim it,” she said.

The series frames women of color’s hairstyles as existing somewhere between frivolous style and political statement. Political influence, personal taste, cultural trends, and social status often converge to yield a chic bob, mohawk or weave. As the artist said: “All the hairstyles represent a fusion between African-American influence and African interpretations.”

Although Régnier’s photos speak volumes about the relationship between black women and hair, when the artist asked her subjects about why they chose certain styles, the responses were relatively straightforward. “They wanted to look like Rihanna or Beyoncé,” Régnier said. “Even that was a bit too plain for them.”

“From Mobutu to Beyoncé” by Émilie Régnier is at the Bronx Documentary Center from April 15 through June 4.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices