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I was outside!

July 1, 2025 //
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One of my favorite girls came to LA from the DC area and I got to do something I don’t do very often. I got to play tourist. And I’m not gonna lie to you. I LOVE being a tourist in LA. And because I love it (AND she had some very specific LA things she wanted to do), I stuffed as much stuff as we could do in a long weekend (It was Juneteenth and I took the day AND the day after, off. You know this place wasn’t gonna give it to me).

A short list of things we did in 3ish days: We went to a flower shop*, to Porto’s, Warner Bros. studio tour!, a dodgers game, we took beach walks AND then we did Very Vanderpump Things™:

Sexy Unique Restaurant, or SUR – I never shoulda found out that’s what it stands for

Took pics in front of Something about Her sandwich shop – which is also a weirdly named to get a BLT (and pisses me off almost as much as Met Her at a bar as a name for a café. Why is that your name when you don’t serve booze?! Why are you tricking people?)

Dinner and drinks at TomTom’s – not weird. Two of the investors are named Tom so I see what they did there).

ALL of that was in WeHo and if my favorite lesbian is gonna do all of that, I OBVIOUSLY had to take her to the Abbey (we did NOT drink there. I would like to stay roofie free.IYKYK).

She had a great time, she said she’ll be back and next time she’s bringing the wifey and EYE said, I wanna come visit her and do touristy things because I have NEVER BEEN TO DC. And the number one thing on that my list is the Natural History Museum of African American History and Culture (while it’s still here to enjoy).

BUT HERE IS MY DILEMMA YOU GUYS. I only have two settings for this kinda thing and it is mad and sad. And NOBODY who has gone has told me that I won’t feel both of those things and maybe both at once. But also, what is the point of being a person who likes to share history if I am actively avoiding a place that even in my anger in sadness, I will probably still love because I love learning sh*t, AND I know if you don’t learn it you’re probably gonna repeat it.

LIKE FOR INSTANCE did you know that the NHMAAHC has an exhibit called “Freedom Papers” from 1852? They belong to a man named Joseph Trammel and IN THEORY, his “papers” guarded him against being enslaved as someone’s property. The exhibit’s title comes from the antebellum South.  There, free Black people produced “freedom papers” as proof of their right to move and remain safe from enslavement. But. Because these documents could be withdrawn on a whim or even ignored, Black people lived a precarious kind of freedom that was often set by others.

*looks off into the distance*

Anyway, I guess I need to gon’ and hurry up and look at some travel if I want to learn some MORE history so I can share some history. I am once again reminding all y’all that I’m just here to tell you about BLACK HISTORY** and I’m ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that it’s just an interesting coincidence that if you tilt your head and squint your eyes, history is looking real present day these days. Just kidding you do not need to tilt or squint all you really need is eyes.

That’s my time! It’s not February and honestly, I have a crapload of work to do, but I wanted to avoid my work say hi while I was thinking of you. I’m feeling like flexing my fingers these days so the possibility of you hearing from me before February is high if I don’t get “mistaken for being Haitian and deported.

*No. I did not take her to a flower shop. Use your brain. This is a work email.

** Also gonna remind you that Black History is just HISTORY and that it seems fairly important to ALSO remind you that if one person(race/class) ain’t free, NOBODY is free.

Okay. Back to work for reals. byeeeee

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It ALMOST feels like a flashback

March 6, 2025 //
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I write SO! MANY! FACTS! that sometimes I’ll see a person in the news and I’ll ask myself how did I get here*? “Did I write a fact about this person already?”

And while I’m slightly (ha!) disorganized, my memory is pretty decent. Which is why I always have so many ridiculous stories to tell y’all.

So, when I saw a post that said I approve of both Al Greens, I thought…BOTH?!

And then I was like, I feel like I wrote about Al Green. BUT WHICH ONE?!

The answer was actually both. Sort of.

Because REALLY, I was writing a post about Alpha Phi Alpha’s Founder’s Day.

And Al Green, activist, previous President of the Houston branch of the NAACP, the US Representative from Texas’s 9th congressional district AND my mama’s hometown, who was arrested in 2012 protesting outside of the Sudanese embassy in DC with activist Martin Luther King III** (isn’t it FUNNY how protest is a first amendment right that people get arrested for when the government don’t like it? ), who presented the first articles of impeachment of 45 in 2017, and again asked to ITMFA in 2019 AND has already stated he’ll be filing articles of impeachment AGAIN (this time for suggesting the us take over the Gaza Strip) is the first lawmaker (y’all know I love a good FIRST) in modern history to be thrown out of a joint session of Congress of State of the Union address, AND a member of A phi A.

Yes. It’s March. But a) I do what I want! b) I was definitely busier this February than I expected to be and c) Black History is every day! Somebody gotta tell it to y’all since 47 is definitely tryna keep it from you!

See you next time!

*Fun Fact! I LOVE the Talking Heads because of course I do. But they were popular when I was a kid and I wasn’t really allowed to go to concerts as a kid, but seeing up and coming rappers at my local roller rink in Compton was perfectly –maybe not perfectly. we definitely had to leave early to avoid trouble *cough*gangs*cough* – okay? Anyway. I never did get to see the Talking Heads, but I DID see David Byrne who played all the old stuff at a festival with The Boy and I didn’t get to see the whole set because of conflicts, but I wouldn’t leave until after they played Burning Down the House. And YES, I am providing a random ass song that somehow seems VERY APPROPRIATE to the current events. OR, maybe I just wanted to share a couple of fun songs with y’all. MY job is just to share facts and sometimes music. YOUR job is pick up what I put down.

** I ALMOST put REVEREND in front of Martin Luther King III because I heard him speak here at the jobby job (this was the ONLY time that I was ever interested in my job’s Reverend Doctor Martin Luther (the) King, Jr day because if you want me to celebrate ML(t)K, Jr day, give me the day off or give me money!. But if you think I was going to miss hearing what ML(t)K, Jr’s middle child, you don’t know me like you think you do). I clearly remember him saying, “I am Not A Minister” but then he proceeded to PREACH DOWN, okay?!

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The Best Thing About the Super Bowl

February 18, 2025 //
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Is that even though there are a sh*t ton of Black people on the field playing every year, including BOTH quarterbacks (don’t worry! That is NOT the fact. That fact was 2 years ago, I wrote about that already, AND it was the same damn quarterbacks!), I can always find a new fact.

I didn’t watch the game because instead I was driving to the Bay Area to meet a new friend.

My team ain’t make it, so I really didn’t have a dog in this fight because technically I’m rooting for everybody black, but realistically, I’m rooting for the QB whose family does not support #47 because WTAF are you even doing?

And please miss me with everything doesn’t need to be political because it may not need to be, but it is! Especially THIS Super Bowl under THIS “president” (who does not like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and uses the acronym DEI to mean Black people that he does not want to have D, E, OR I). Like, the Superdome even replaced “End Racism” from the end zones with a more “neutral” CHOOSE LOVE and I don’t know how these are different (yes I do. But WTF do it matter if they’re not choosing love either), but who are ME? I’m just a Black woman living in america (still does not deserve to be capitalized, in case you were wondering. That is not a typo).

THEN Pulitzer prize winner/FIRST solo rap artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, Kendrick Lamar and Uncle Sam(uel Jackson) came out and made political statement after political statement, then added a little razzle dazzle to another political statement by combining it with a diss* [Fun fact: “A MINOR” is both a child and a musical chord on the piano. The musical chord is all white keys] I’m only here to talk about Black History, BUT I’d like to point out that while Aubrey is, in fact, not like us – HE. SAID. THEY. He also said THEY like to sue, and I have a sneaky suspicion that again, YES, while Aubrey IS suing his label, there is a certain subset of the population who is infinitely more litigious and more likely to act fool when THEY don’t get their way, and it’s not Black people.

Anyway. While all of these are black history facts, these are not THEE Black History fact. Neither is the fact that Jalen Hurts management team is all women (they’re not all black, but 3/5ths of them are so does that make them… you know what? NEVERMIND. That’s a completely different Black History Fact.

This is a Super Bowl BHFOTD, so instead of talking about women who did NOT win a Super Bowl ring, we can talk a woman that did. No! That’s also not a typo. That’s me getting to the point of this long-ass-email (still working harder than my work filters!)

Assistant Sports Performance Coach Autumn Lockwood, who originally hails from Morgantown, W.Va** represented her home state better than they represent her as she became the first-ever black woman to win a Super Bowl ring.

Lockwood, started her athletic career as a soccer player. At University, she became a multi-time All-State selection and was named Co-Defender of the Year for the state of West Virginia in 2012 — the Hawks also captured a pair of Class AAA State Championships in girls’ soccer during her time with the program.

She followed her father to Arizona in 2012, playing soccer for the Wildcats for multiple seasons. After obtaining her undergraduate degree in Tucson and then grabbing a master’s degree at East Tennessee State, Lockwood earned multiple different jobs at the Division 1 level in numerous strength and conditioning roles.

She earned an NFL opportunity with the Atlanta Falcons after completing the Bill Walsh Diversity (there’s that pesky diversity where they wouldn’t need it if they had just been INCLUDING [black] women in the first place!) Coaching Fellowship in 2019. She interned in Atlanta while still working in collegiate sports and accepted an opportunity with the Eagles that arose while she was working with the University of Houston.

The move paid off because Autum has been on staff with the Eagles since 2022, holding multiple titles inside the organization’s strength and conditioning department. Now Lockwood has etched her name in history, forever to be acknowledged as a trailblazer amongst black women both inside her field and across the globe. It goes to show that Country Roads do indeed take you “to the place where you belong” — even if it’s not always inside these rivers and lakes that she’s used to hollers and hills.

*  Can you imagine an ENTIRE FOOTBALL STADIUM of people calling you a pdf file (sound it out, olds. Ain’t that what the kids say to avoid getting reported on social media?) since you threatened to sue if the artist did it? I don’t think that’s what he meant when he said, you better not say it.

** I woulda found this fact on my own, but I didn’t have to because , my BFF, who is ALSO a W.Va native was ready with this one while I was playing kissy face with a new baby. Additionally, I love when my facts are dropped in my lap. Because I’m lazy.

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A belated birthday!

February 12, 2025 //
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So! My oldest child (The Boy!) got married last year. He TOLD me he was eloping (like father, like son?) but I LOOKED UP the definition of eloping and the definition says: run away SECRETLY in order to get married, especially without parental consent. And first of all, he’s a grown ass man, even if I do call him “The Boy” and second of all, he didn’t NEED my consent and 17th of all, I love her and The Boy loves her so why wouldn’t I be happy for them?

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, he called me up to tell me that he was gonna get hitched AND made me guess the date. And lemme just say, that’s significantly harder to do when you have zero context! Is it the day you guys met? Is it between your birthdays? Is it an anniversary?

Him: Those are good guesses, mom! But no. To all of them.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GUESS?!

BUT I DID GUESS because I’m VERY good, but also he is VERY ridiculous and I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll give you a hint because it DOES have to do with today’s late birthday BHFOTD which is gonna be short and sweet because today’s belated birthday is about NOLA native (this is always important when yesterday the biggest sportsball game of the year was played in your hometown. YES this is me saying imma get around to a super bowl fact but it ain’t happening today, BUT ALSO it looks like the Louisiana – California pipeline works both ways ‘cause the halftime show was put on by a Cali native in NOLA) famous left-handed guitarist, songwriter and former member of The Watts 103 Rhythm Street Band AND Earth, Wind & Fire ( ß here it is you guys! There’s your hint*) with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, leader of the Al McKay All Stars band,  Albert (Al) Phillip McKay who was born on February 2, 1948.

McKay is listed in Spin in their list of the 30 most famous left-handed guitarists of all time, and he’s listed in Guitar Player at 25 on their list of the 50 greatest rhythm guitarists of all time.

This fact is brought to you by The Boy, MY favorite left-handed guitarist, who called me on February 2nd to tell me this birthday BHFOTD instead of “Hi mom, we finally had your grandbaby!” who, at this time, was already late, exactly like this fact. [Hey y’all, I’m a gigi! They finally evicted my grandson on Saturday!]

So happy birthday to that man! And my new little friend [sorry, guys. no pics until I get permission. But he is a perfect baby. No notes.]

*did you need another hint? September, by EWF was based on a music sequence developed by birthday boy, Al McKay. I promise you that I didn’t know that fact when I started writing.

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Me and Spank finally finished watching Vanderpump Rules

February 6, 2025 //
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Or at least. We finally got to Scandoval. Don’t worry. It’s unimportant, complete fluff TV, but we were determined to find out what everybody was in an uproar about.

Usually when I’m watching random TV with Spank, I’m watching reality TV. But for some reason, she chose Josie and the Pussycats [Hey! Did you know that Valerie was the 1st regularly appearing female Black character in a Saturday morning cartoon show? Now you do!]

While I was doing very light research (y’all know I continue to fly by the seat of my pants. Ish. I will sometimes write down inspiration although, how do I even know it’s gonna be inspiration because even I don’t always know where my stories are going when I start them lol), I found out this show is older than me by a couple of years! I remember watching it as a little girl and loving it, but obviously I don’t remember details because WHY does Josie’s boyfriend Alan look like Fred from Scooby Doo? And is that…Shaggy (it wasn’t him! Or at least it wasn’t until it was. There are crossover episodes because both groups were Hannah Barbera characters)? What is going on?!

I was talking to a fellow old about it and he said especially back in the day, cartoonists would recycle characters. So the characters would be generally identical in appearance, with only small cosmetic changes, like hair color etc. Like, Josie and the Pussycats’ manager Alex was just a dark haired Josie’s boyfriend.

Me: That makes sense. Because Valerie looks exactly like Josie. Just, black.

Anyway. This year has been a LOT for all sorts of reasons that are not in the news (and the ones that have been in the news? JFC), and I needed a pick me up, so I decided to watch Barbie. Because I love it. It’s the girliest girl movie that ever girled. It’s PINK! Every girl is a Barbie! And every Barbie is DIFFERENT. AND DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING? Because now I want to know: When did Mattel create a Black Barbie?

WELL. In 1968, Christie, Barbie’s best friend, arrived on shelves, and she is widely regarded as the company’s first original Black doll. AND they released a black version of Francie, Barbie’s cousin. But Francie and Christie merely cemented the idea that they were the sidekicks to the white and blonde Barbie. “This provoked the question that if Barbie is the ideal and the norm, what about the people who don’t look like that and who can’t dream and imagine themselves as Barbie?” At the time it felt very progressive to give Barbie a sassy Black friend. But when you speak to the people who wanted a Black Barbie at the time, all they got was a friend of Barbie.

It was these concerns that led to the founding of Shindana Toys in South Central Los Angeles. As one of the first toy companies to create and market Black dolls that looked like Black people, not just dolls that had been painted black instead of white, its goal was to improve representation in dolls and the self-image of Black children. In 1968, Shindana released Baby Nancy, a doll that became hugely popular in Los Angeles and was eventually sold across the country. Baby Nancy’s success only highlighted what Mattel was missing.

Mattel had debuted Barbie’s Dreamhouse and car in 1962. The accessories allowed the imaginations of those playing with the dolls to expand even further. You can drive Barbie to places and put her in her own home, all of which just allowed kids to think even more about where and who they could be (yannow. As long as they were white).

Kitty Black Perkins, who arrived at Mattel in 1976 and then became principal designer for Barbie in 1978, headed the push to diversify the doll line. Having never owned a Barbie doll until she bought one to prepare for her interview with Mattel, Perkins knew of the negative impact that the toy industry’s lack of representation had on children. She explains, “There was a need for the little Black girl to really have something she could play with that looked like her. I wanted her to reflect the total look of a Black woman.” When the first official Black Barbie doll was finally released by Mattel in 1980, her box read, “She’s Black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!” She was specifically a Black Barbie, unlike the other Black dolls from the company that either had a different name or the same design as Barbie just with a darker skin tone.

Over the decades, Mattel took steps to ensure that Barbie would be “the most diverse doll line on the market,” according to a statement from the company. Dolls and toys have finally started to mirror “the diverse human experience.” But there is still progress to be made in helping young people see themselves in the toys that they play with, in any color AND any size (Barbie also comes in petite, “curvy”, tall and the original, Basic Barbie™)

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I’m never paying attention when I should be

February 4, 2025 //
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I have so many stories of being places I shouldn’t be because I was just not paying attention.

I’ve ended up in VIP sections (this one, I blame security for because they shoulda been asking themselves what random black women were doing in the VIP section with rock stars, but MY GUESS is that they decided if we were back there, we probably belonged there because WHY ELSE WOULD WE BE THERE? The answer is we were lost!)

I ended up in the Tenderloin and honestly “There but for the Grace of God go I”, because I stepped over people shooting up on the sidewalk and hid between two cars waiting for my rideshare that told me to walk there and wait for a car to pick me up and I am STILL mad about that because the fucking rideshare shoulda known that I was NOT LOCAL since it had all my damn information and honestly WHAT THE FUCK.

Of these two stories, the first one where I wasn’t worried I was gonna get murdered is my favorite.

BUT I have another one to add: the kind where I find a random Black History fact!

For the end of my birth month last year I went to New Orleans. Because I went for a quick day trip when I went on a cruise a few years ago, and I promised myself that I’d come back and spend some real time exploring the city. If you don’t know me, that means walking. I walked ALL over the French Quarter, and the Garden District. Got off the trolley somewhere in between just because I saw a band playing and when I’m on vacation I will absolutely let my curiosity lead.

I also met up with one of my internet pals because of course I did. We went to one of her local watering holes where I definitely drank too much (it was Halloween and still my birth month) and had so many regerts the next day. But the one thing I do NOT regret is going to one of the places that she recommended for breakfast. I went to the Buttermilk Drop Bakery! No this is not an ad, I’m just greedy and I wanna put y’all on.

Breakfast rice, bacon and a biscuit so good I’d slap a Georgia white woman. TWICE. [this may be a terrible photo but when I tell you this breffis was fie?!]

Anyway. We’d walked every place that we’d been eating this whole trip, but I didn’t know where this was, and it LOOKED too far to walk. So I decided we could rideshare there and if was close enough, we could just walk back after breakfast. But what had happened was as we were driving farther away from the French Quarter, I realized that we were much farther than I thought we were, and we were not going to be able to walk back because where even WERE we? My sissie: WTH were you doing in the 6th ward?! The answer was being greedy, tbh.

But the other answer was I was standing on Black History guys! Welcome to the first fact of Black History Month about the Oldest African American neighborhood in America. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, free persons of color and eventually enslaved Africans who obtained, bought or bargained for their freedom were able to acquire and own property in Tremé. The ability to acquire, purchase and own real property during an era when America was still immersed in slavery was remarkable and only in New Orleans did this occur with any regularity and consistency.

The Tremé neighborhood began as the Morand Plantation and two forts—St. Ferdinand and St. John. Near the end of the 18th century, Claude Tremé purchased the land from the original plantation owner. By 1794 the Carondelet Canal was built from the French Quarter to Bayou St. John, splitting the land. Developers began building subdivisions throughout the area to house a diverse population that included Caucasians and free persons of color. Tremé abuts the north, or lake, side of the French Quarter, away from the Mississippi River—”back of town” as earlier generations of New Orleanians used to say. Its traditional borders were Rampart Street on the south, Canal Street on the west, Esplanade Avenue on the east, and Broad Street on the north. Claiborne Avenue is a primary thoroughfare through the neighborhood. At the end of the 19th century, the Storyville red-light district was carved out of the upper part of Tremé; in the 1940s this was torn down and made into a public housing project. This area is no longer considered part of the neighborhood. The “town square” of Tremé was Congo Square—originally known as “Place des Nègres”—where the enslaved gathered on Sundays to dance. This tradition flourished until the United States took control, and officials grew more anxious about unsupervised gatherings of slaves in the years before the Civil War. [Hey did you know that there was a Jim Crow law that stated it was illegal for Black people to gather in groups of more than 5? That law no longer exists, but lemme just say that when you’re black, you’re never really lonely, because there will always be a white person. all up in your business. ]

The square was also an important place of business for slaves, enabling some to purchase their freedom from selling crafts and goods there. For much of the rest of the 19th century, the square was an open-air market. “Creoles of color” brass and symphonic bands gave concerts, providing the foundation for a more improvisational style that would come to be known as “Jazz”. At the end of the 19th century, the city officially renamed the square “Beauregard Square” after the French Créole Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, but the neighborhood people seldom used that name. Late in the 20th century, the city restored the traditional name of “Congo Square”.

In the early 1960s, in an urban renewal project later considered a mistake (that probably happened on purpose) by most analysts, a large portion of central Tremé was torn down. The land stood vacant for some time, then in the 1970s the city created Louis Armstrong Park in the area and named Congo Square within Armstrong Park. In 1994, the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park was established here.

The neighborhood is viewed by many as ground zero for New Orleans culture. It’s the site of many major events that have shaped the course of Black America in the past two centuries. Filled with incredible history in terms of culture, music, and more, Tremé is arguably the most significant neighborhood in the whole city.

:::closes up all the websites I popped open to give y’all this information:::

Also. The buttermilk bakery is not a sit down restaurant and I didn’t know that until I got there, so I had to once again stand awkwardly on a corner while I waited for my rideshare to come pick me and my friend up and this is really why people don’t like to let me roam around the country without supervision. Yes, I know I said I was with a friend but that changes nothing because she also just stood there when I opened the door for a grown ass man, and said “get on in here, princess” so I’m not sure she counts as supervision.

ANYWAY.

Happy Monday! Happy February! Happy Black History Month! Please know that I’m keeping this month aggressively Black because every time somebody shares a Black History fact, a Black girl’s edges lay a little smoother.

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Why I love summer time

August 2, 2016 //
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There is so much to do in LA*. SO MUCH!

But I don’t get to do any of it this weekend.
Because I’m going to get drunk have a mini-reunion in Vegas with my cousins.
Which is awesome ‘cause I don’t know if you know this but my family is sofa king awesome. (woo! Work filters gonna have to WORK to catch them curse words today)
This shouldn’t be a surprise at all because…have we met? I had to get it from somewhere
OK. I haven’t really met ALL of y’all, but MOST of y’all. But you must’ve heard about me ‘cause how did you get here? (Not sorry!)
Also, I’m kiddin’. I’m glad you’re here. And you better be too. ‘Cause you don’t get to quit me.

ANYWAYS.

Because I care (AND because you don’t get to choose the lead ins) lemme tell y’all ‘bout some stuff you can do in LA If you’re around this weekend and don’t have stuff to get into:

Friday: You can go to the Music Center and they have dance lessons and DJs for freeeee!
Saturday: Cinespia is showing Sabrina (one of my faves) at Hollywood Forever. I mean, yeah, it’s at a Cemetery, AND now that the hipsters know about it you gotta deal with a bunch of kids with weird mustaches eating fancy food/drinking PBR while talking about their fixie bikes. BUT. YOU get to bring in your own food and booze and with enough liquor even hipsters are tolerable, so there’s that.
Sunday: MLK Sit-In. Also free.

Why am I talking about a protest on this lovely summer afternoon?
(And here y’all were thinkin’ that it’s not February and there’s no BHFOTD but in typical “I have lots of work to do, so lemme take this time to drop some history on y’all” fashion, HERE I AM)

I wanted to tell you that TODAY in 1917, Between 8,000 and 10,000 African-Americans marched down 5th Avenue in New York City in a protest known as The Silent Parade.

*CLEARS THROAT*

The purpose of the parade was to protest lynching and anti-black violence. The parade was precipitated by the East St. Louis Riots in May and July 1917, when between 40 and 250 blacks were killed by white mobs.
The ferocious brutality of the attacks and the failure of the authorities to protect innocent lives contributed to the radicalization of many blacks in St. Louis and the nation.

Men, women, and children carried placards that read:
“MOTHER, DO LYNCHERS GO TO HEAVEN?; “GIVE ME A CHANCE TO LIVE”; “TREAT US SO THAT WE MAY LOVE OUR COUNTRY”; “MR. PRESIDENT, WHY NOT MAKE AMERICA SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY?; AND “YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD.”

July 28

My bad. THESE are the photos from 1917.

Silent Protest

The march was organized by an ad-hoc group formed at St. Philip’s Church in Harlem. James Weldon Johnson was a key organizer of the “Negro Silent Protest Parade.”
As the protesters marched silently down 5th Avenue, Boy scouts distributed fliers from the NAACP.

NAACP literature outlined the objectives and goals of the march:
We march because by the Grace of God and the force of truth, the dangerous, hampering walls of prejudice and inhuman injustices must fall.
We march because we want to make impossible a repetition of Waco, Memphis, and East St. Louis, by arousing the conscience of the country and bringing the murders of our brothers, sisters, and innocent children to justice.
We march because we deem it a crime to be silent in the face of such barbaric acts.
We march because we are thoroughly opposed to Jim-Crow Cars, Segregation, Discrimination, Disfranchisement, Lynching, and the host of evils that are forced on us. It is time that the Spirit of Christ should be manifested in the making and execution of laws.
We march because we want our children to live in a better land and enjoy fairer conditions than have fallen to our lot.

If I were into commentary (and I’m not, OBVIOUSLY) I’d talk about how in June of 2012, there was AGAIN a somewhat silent protest on 5th Ave to protest NYPD’s stop and frisk policies, which the organizers say single out minority groups and create an atmosphere of martial law for the city’s black and Latino residents. OR I’d talk about how many protests, and marches there have been after every murder of black people that basically state the same thing but almost 100 (99, if we’re gonna get exact) years later.

But yannow. I’m not. I’m just here so y’all learn some stuff about black history.

BLM

Nah. This one isn’t from 1917 either. But I guess it coulda been.

 

*note: I occasionally send BHFOTD emails randomly throughout the year. This one was originally sent on 7/28, but I got enough requests to blog it that I gave in to the harassment. HERE Y’ALL GO. Just be aware you missed all the fun stuff I mentioned because it was all last week.

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It’s been a while since I poked at my sissie

February 6, 2016 //
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Hi Guys!

Most of you know that in previous years, I bullied my sister into writing some of these BHFOTDs with me.
Because I’m lazy.
But this year my sissie got a BIG! FANCY! PROMOTION!
So she’s busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Or so she says.
I thought supervisors just sat around telling other people what to do?
No? Fine.
This year I’m gonna give her a pass, but I’m gonna “respectfully” suggest that she figure out a way to get it together for next year.

THIS IS MY SISSIE NEW PEOPLE.

seesters
[She cute]

If you see her in the street, leave her alone! Because she knows ju jitsu and will probably kick your ass, Stranger Danger.
Or say hi and ask for a BHFOTD. Choose your own adventure and all that.

MOVING ON.
I was ALLLL set to write about something else entirely when my sissie’s birthday twin passed away yesterday.
Did you guys know that Nisha shared a birthday with Maurice White, lead singer of Earth Wind & Fire?

nisha bday
You can see what a joy it is to be related to me.

ANYWAYS.
Back to Maurice. He was the founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. He was also the older brother of current Earth, Wind & Fire member Verdine (VERDINE!) White, and former member Fred White.
With Maurice as the bandleader and producer of most of the band’s albums, EWF earned legendary status winning six Grammy Awards out of 14 nominations, an NAACP Hall of Fame Award, a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and four American Music Awards and the sale of over 90 million of the group’s albums worldwide.

As a member of the band, Maurice was bestowed with such honors of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Songwriters Hall of Fame and The NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame.

Maurice White and EWF will also go down in Black history as the first African American band to sell out Madison Square Garden.

White has been called “an innovator” and “someone who has had a profound impact upon the music industry as a whole” by Chaka Khan, and has been cited as a main influence by artists such as Bilal and Lenny Kravitz (NSFW. NOT SORRY).

Lest you think this is some doom & gloom obituary type fact of the day, I have a fun fact!
Nisha & Maurice were not only birthday twins.
Nisha was only a few degrees of separation from Maurice White.

Maurice White composed As One which was performed by Memphis Bleek (Jay-Z’s The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse)
Memphis Bleek recorded Hood to Hood with Ras Kass.
Ras Kass used to date … YOU GUESSED IT! My Sissie!
That’s all for this week folks. I get weekends off!
Stay tuned next week for “What does Briya have to say about Black People?”

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Birthday Twinsies!

July 16, 2015 //
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So a couple of years ago, I wrote this for my Dad’s birthday.
Happy Birthday Daddy!
(And Nisha Bisha – tomorrow!)
(And Mommy – Sunday!)

But. This morning I was told that today’s Google Doodle was a BHFOTD.
And WHAT A COINCIDENCE, I had this one about this self same person laying around.

SO.
How about a look into my family tree?

My Dad has 2 girls and 2 boys.
And only the girls had boys.
And the boys (BOY, actually. Only one of my brothers has kids) have girls.
Also, the girls are done having kids.
So I guess it’s on the boys to make us sommore McDuels.

Really, just my baby brother. Because I’m pretty sure that if my little brother tries again for a boy he’ll probably have TWINS that will also be girls for his trouble.

This has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that today’s my Daddy’s Birthday!

And what better way to commemorate my Dad’s birthday than with a Black History Fact of The Day (BHFOTD)?
*AHEM*

On THIS day in 1862, Ida B Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi just before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Wells-Barnett became a prolific social activist and champion for the right of African-Americans. She was also a founding member of the NAACP.

In March 1892 a white mob invaded her friends’ (Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Henry Stewart) store because was seen as competitive with a white-owned grocery store across the street. During the altercation, three white men were shot and injured. Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were arrested and jailed. A large lynch mob stormed the jail and killed the three men.

The murder drove Wells to research and document lynchings and their causes. She began investigative journalism, looking at the charges given for the murders. She officially started her anti-lynching campaign. She spoke on the issue at various black women’s clubs, and raised more than $500 to investigate lynchings and publish her results. Wells found that blacks were lynched for such reasons as failing to pay debts, not appearing to give way to whites, competing with whites economically, being drunk in public, walking down the street with a pack of skittles and an iced tea, jaywalking, switching lanes without using a blinker (WAIT. WHAT?). She published her findings in a pamphlet entitled “Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases.”

Wells received much support from other social activists and her fellow clubwomen. In his response to her article in the Free Speech, Frederick Douglass expressed approval of her work: “You have done your people and mine a service…What a revelation of existing conditions your writing has been for me.” (Freedman, 1994). Wells took her anti-lynching campaign to Europe with the help of many supporters. In 1896, Wells founded the National Association of Colored Women, and also founded the National Afro-American Council. Wells formed the Women’s Era Club, the first civic organization for African-American women. This later was named the Ida B. Wells Club, in honor of its founder.

Wells spent the latter thirty years of her life in Chicago working on urban reform. She also raised her family and worked on her autobiography. After her retirement, Wells wrote her autobiography, Crusade for Justice (1928).

She never finished it; the book ends in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a word. Wells died of uremia (kidney failure) in Chicago on March 25, 1931, at the age of sixty-eight.

An aside: I don’t usually post my random BHFOTDs because y’all get a solid month of black people shit in February. And these are the ones I send when I feel like it. Because it’s Tuesday. Or I am avoiding doing work stuff. Or maybe I have something to say and you just have to be paying attention. But NOT TODAY! Today, we’re talking about a lady who chose to expose lynchings of her people in a time where it was pretty much acceptable to do to people whatever they wanted because even though black people were free they were still considered insignificant and not really people, so what’s the big damn deal because it’s not like people are still killing black folks with no consequence, right? has the same birthday as my Daddy.

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Categories BHFOTD

It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, oh Lordt!

February 10, 2015 //
0

(standing in the need of prayer!)

So! Are we still talking about the Grammys?
YES WE ARE.

Because DAMN. There was so much Jesus!
Madonna brought her trusty gospel choir while she cavorted around with a bunch of horny whatever those were
Pharrell pulled out a gospel choir ‘cause he’s happy that song is still relevant.
(Hint: It isn’t)
Katy Perry was singin’ bout the Grace of God
Beyonce was there so that the Precious Lord could take her hand.
Looks like everybody was sangin’ ‘bout the Lord.
‘cept Kanye. Who really needed to have Jesus walk with him to the nearest seat.
Sir. You can decide who wins the MFing awards
When you have YOUR OWN AWARD SHOW.
Beyonce has the WHOLE ENTIRE BEYHIVE to keep her ego on 100.
Worry ‘bout yourself!

ALSO: Any of y’all up on the chisme with that whole Beyonce/Ledisi thing?
I mean…listen. Yes. Beyonce has a great voice. AND she’s hugely popular.
BUT. In my probably unpopular opinion, she coulda let Ledisi gon’ and sang that song.
1. She IS ALREADY SINGING THE SONG.
2. She woulda tore the house down.
a. Have you heard her sing it?
b. Here you go!
c. GIRL. YOU BETTA SANG THAT SONG.
3. Beyonce, you’ve got plenty of exposure.
a. Go ahead and share your spotlight, boo.
b. WE GOT IT OKAY. YOU DA QUEEN BEY.
4. Still though, everything isn’t about you.

Anyways, Ledisi handled it beautifully.
“What I will say and what I’m excited about is that I had the pleasure of playing an iconic figure in Selma, and the song, ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord,’ it’s been going on forever—starting with the queen Mahalia [Jackson], the queen of soul Aretha Franklin
“Then, I was able to portray and sing my version of the song, and now we have Beyoncé (interjection: I’m imagining side eye. Because I want there to be side eye). Her generation will now know the song, so I’m a part of history.”

I guess.

I mean…she got to play Mahalia Jackson. So I guess she still wins. Because DO YOU KNOW WHO MAHALA* JACKSON IS?
(look at me workin’ in this here black history fact!)

The Queen of Gospel. The first gospel singer to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
She was also, Martin Luther (the) King Jr’s theme music. I’m kiddin’, sorta.
Ms. Jackson (‘cause I’m nasty) played an important role during the civil rights movement. In August 1956, she met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Baptist Convention.
A few months later, both King and Abernathy contacted her about coming to Montgomery, Alabama, to sing at a rally to raise money for the bus boycott. They also hoped she would inspire the people who were getting discouraged with the boycott.
And she did. In fact, Ms. Jackson appeared often with King, singing before his speeches and for SCLC fundraisers. In a 1962 SCLC press release, he wrote she had “appeared on numerous programs that helped the struggle in the South, but now she has indicated that she wants to be involved on a regular basis”. She said that she hoped her music could “break down some of the hate and fear that divide the white and black people in this country”

She also sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at The Reverend Doctor King’s funeral after he was assassinated.
And when she passed on in 1972, Coretta Scott King eulogized her during the Chicago funeral as “a friend – proud, black and beautiful” with Aretha Franklin closing the Chicago rites with that very song.

So there you go. A story about the Grammys and how EVERYBODY there needs Jesus.
Especially Beyonce.
Jesus be some humility. JAYSUS.

Happy Monday!

* Not a typo! She ain’t add the “I” to her name until 1931.

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