Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
I was watching CNN the other day (yes, yet again), and, of course, the powers-that-be at that media house thought that I needed — that their viewers desperately needed — another update on Gabby Petito. This time they solemnly informed me Gabby’s parents had given an interview in which they made clear that not only did they want justice, but that they were most definitely seeking vengeance.
Gabby Petito’s family said they want “vengeance and justice” in their daughter’s death and called on her boyfriend Brian Laundrie to turn himself in.
“We want vengeance and justice and for him to pay for his crimes and to spend it in a prison for the rest of his life,” Gabby Petito’s stepdad James Schmidt said in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia.”
My initial reaction was, “Good for them! I hope they get it.” And then, that should have been it, right? The statement had nothing — nothing at all — to do with race...indeed, I could have just empathized with them and kept it moving. Ah, but we live in a very racist society and I see everything through my very black eyes and hear everything through my very black ears and so in the very next second it struck my black self, “Wait… where are the questions about forgiveness?” After all, the two young people who are now both dead (the parents didn’t know that Brian was dead at the time of the interview), grew up together. Both sets of Gabby’s parents knew and, from all indications, loved her boyfriend. They would have thought about him as a son and it would not be outside the realm of possibilities for them to entertain the thought of forgiveness.
In fairness to Gabby’s grief-stricken parents, they did not have to talk about forgiveness because they were never prompted to address that issue. I’m not going to say it has never happened; what I will say is that I have never, ever heard an interviewer ask a grieving white person about forgiving someone who had perpetrated a crime against them or their loved ones… whether the perpetrator was black or white. I know of cases where white people have voluntarily spoken about forgiveness, but have never heard a media personality prompt them to even consider the possibility. Historically, they have only ever asked marginalized and oppressed communities to exercise forgiveness for atrocities committed against us… even when nobody has apologized or even acknowledged that they’ve transgressed!
What I am sick and tired of is the demand that American white supremacy makes of black people in these situations that such a personal act as forgiving someone for an egregious harm that was inflicted has to be made into a public spectacle to soothe the consciousness of white folks.
But back to the media. To further illustrate the uneven treatment, let’s go way back: I am old enough to remember (totally-not-racist) Charlie Gibson of Good Morning American (ABC) fame having the Goldmans and the Browns on his show many times during the OJ Simpson trial. The Goldmans hated/hate Simpson and wanted the universe to know. Gibson and his fellow media personalities were only too happy to help them achieve their objective; they were given full rein to express their righteous hatred. Never a question about forgiveness. Legal types spoke about how impactful their emotional testimony would be and how important it was for the jury to see them and their obvious suffering in the courtroom. Fast forward a couple of years and contrast the treatment of the Goldmans with that of the mother of Amadou Diallo. NYC cops murdered that young man and that same (totally-not-racist) Charlie Gibson invited his mother, the regal Mrs. Kadiatou Diallo, on his program. See how racism affects us when these many years later I can still clearly recall Gibson asking the grieving mother why she thought it important to be in the courtroom. “But why is it important that you be there? Do you want to influence the jury?” he asked her.
In Tuesday’s diary, Sister Denise reported that New York City had declared racism a public health crisis. "The resolution recognizes the impact of racism on health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond...”
From Medical News Today:
Racism can be a key factor in the onset of physical and mental health issues in BIPOC.
Research suggests that the stress that develops due to experiencing or witnessing racism can have long lasting effects, increasing the risk of chronic disease and mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression in both children and adults.
Racism attacks you from every angle and messes with your head… even while you are in your kitchen watching your television set and trying your darnedest to fool yourself into believing that you are just another viewer and that content was created with you in mind. Then, you are cruelly reminded that the media’s job is to protect and promote whiteness… as is shown by them still giving the breaking news treatment to the no longer missing young woman while ignoring all those other cases that were forcefully brought to their attention… still, and even after the public outcry against their obvious bias. Journalists, producers, and on-air personalities understand their assignments and show they do by steadfastly focusing on white parents’ pain and on their expressions of grief and on nothing else. Thus the acceptance of their word choices without pushback and the conscious decision not to further traumatize them with questions about forgiveness.
Gabby’s parents wanted justice and vengeance and they are allowed the luxury to say it out loud. Can you just imagine if family members of George Floyd or Andrew Brown Jr had ever rounded up their mouths to call for vengeance? Think about it for a minute. Think about the apoplectic debates the MSM, not only Fox, but the “liberal” mainstream media would be having about the definition of the word “vengeance.”
Vengeance is for white people, forgiveness is for Black folks, thus saith the code of white supremacy.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The 57-year-old host has been rattling off her opinions into millions of American living rooms since 2008. The Wendy Williams Show kicks off its 13th season this month. After several delays due to medical complications from Williams’s ongoing thyroid condition and a Covid-19 infection, guest hosts and panelists will occupy Williams’s seat for the foreseeable future.
Season 13 was scheduled to begin on September 20, then was suddenly pushed back to October 4. In an Instagram statement, it was announced that Williams had tested positive for a “breakthrough case” of Covid-19. This came as a surprise to many of her fans, since she had previously been outspoken about not wanting to get vaccinated. (Even the controversial Dr. Oz tried to convince her to get the shot.) Then, the premiere got pushed back again to October 18, but by October 12, her team released another statement announcing that Williams would not be returning, as she remains under daily medical supervision. The Wendy Williams Show did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
However necessary, the guest hosts are an attempt to replace the irreplaceable — Williams’s ranking as a top daytime host has long been solid, competing only with the soon-to-depart Ellen DeGeneres and the women of The View. The guests who will take over her airtime are merely a stopgap, and are being met with mixed feelings in Williams’s Instagram comments, where her loyal fans have been vocal throughout her latest bout of health issues.
For over a decade between smirking laughter and sips from her mug, Williams has calmly eviscerated celebrity goings-on, razing their mishaps to the ground to lay at the feet of her live studio audience. She has kept her original mission through changing times and through her own struggles. Even early on, her penchant for showing no mercy was documented by the New York Times, in a 2008 article that described her as capable of being “startlingly mean-spirited.” This is what helped her amass a legion of fans, and also what has irritated her critics for so long; of late, the infractions have piled up.
The tide has turned on the kind of lurid gossip Williams traffics in; just look at the way the pop culture news cycle of the early aughts is being reevaluated. Still, her mix of bravado and vulnerability keeps her on our screens. Who is this woman anyway, and who let her onstage?
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“I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to,” said Porter (h/t Rolling Stone). “I’m not necessarily convinced and here is why. I created the conversation [about non-binary fashion] and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time.”
Porter’s comments were in reference to Styles’ appearance on the December 2020 cover of the famed fashion magazine—the first man to do so solo—for which the singer memorably wore a Gucci gown and sported a series of skirts for the accompanying cover story. (In all fairness, Porter was the first man to cover fellow Condé Nast imprint Allure in January 2020, as reported by The Root.)
“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” Porter continued. “He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned [down]. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Undoubtedly, Porter—like late singer Sylvester before him—has paved the way for artists like Lil Nas X to express themselves stylistically and beyond the binary—which Nas X has readily acknowledged. However, while Porter will always deserve his due, it’s also fair to note that Styles’—well, style has clearly also been heavily influenced by glam rock era stars like David Bowie and, a generation later, Boy George, both of whom also played with fluidity, professionally, sartorially and personally.
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Governments and donors must stop focusing solely on skills development and entrepreneurship—or risk more youth migration, unrest, and terrorism. Foreign Policy: Africa’s Youth Unemployment Crisis Is a Global Problem
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Africa has the world’s youngest population, with a median age of 19.7 years. Such a large youthful population might ordinarily symbolize an ample and energetic workforce, a boon for the development prospects of any region. But the dire employment situation for young people across Africa continues to snuff out their potential. According to the African Development Bank, in 2015, one-third of Africa’s then 420 million young people between 15 and 35 years old were unemployed, another third were vulnerably employed, and only 1 in 6 was in wage employment.
Although Africa has the lowest unemployment rate globally on paper among youth ages 15 to 24 (10.6 percent in 2021, according to the International Labor Organization), the majority of Africa’s youth work informally, and many are underemployed or remain in poverty despite working due to low wages and the lack of a social safety net, making it difficult to compare African countries to more advanced economies.
The African Development bank reports that while 10 million to 12 million youth enter the workforce in Africa each year, only 3 million formal jobs are created annually. African youth have no choice but to work, because most countries on the continent have little or no social protection. According to the African Development Bank, it is therefore common to see humanities and social sciences graduates driving taxis in Algiers and Cameroonian engineers ferrying passengers on commercial motorcycles in Douala.
Africa’s youth employment problem is a global problem. The world can’t achieve and sustain global development with a large segment of youth alienated and unprepared to lead their continent and the world. Hordes of struggling African youth will continue to migrate en masse to developed countries. And foreign investors can’t be assured of peaceful business climates in Africa, as poverty and inequality fuel looting, insurgencies, and terrorist activity on the continent.
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ONE EVENING in March Emmanuel was in bed, about to doze off. The next moment, armed men burst into his college dormitory in north-west Nigeria and dragged him and 38 other panicked, half-dressed students outside and deep into a forest. “We were tortured,” says Emmanuel. One bandit would film as others beat the screaming students, who were forced to call their parents to demand a total ransom of 500m naira ($1.2m). Emmanuel’s father sold his car to find the cash.
“Security [in Nigeria] is at its worst since the civil war,” says Cheta Nwanze of SBM Intelligence, a consultancy in Lagos. This is a startling claim. The Biafran war of 1967-70, when the Igbos of the oil-rich south-east tried but failed to secede from Nigeria, claimed an estimated 1m lives. Since then, Nigeria has held together. The country of 200m people has had mountains of problems, from corruption and ethnic strife to a series of military dictators. But it has been democratic since 1999. And parts of it are thriving, especially in the south-west. Lagos, the commercial capital, is home to vigorous banks, a hip technology scene and a flourishing film industry, Nollywood.
Yet Mr Nwanze is right. Much of the country is sliding towards ungovernability. A jihadist insurgency in the north-east is spreading. Rebellion is brewing once more in the south-east. And across most of the country rich and poor alike live in fear of kidnappers, warlords or cattle rustlers. Even the sea provides no haven: the Gulf of Guinea is the world’s hotspot for piracy.
The country is growing ever harder to live or work in. The share of adults who tell Gallup that they want to emigrate permanently has risen from 41% in 2012 to 48% in 2018. Among the young, a clear majority wish to leave. Shell, an oil giant that was long Nigeria’s biggest foreign investor, and which stuck around during the grimmest years of military rule, recently said it would pull out, citing the threat of violence. The army has now been deployed to every one of Nigeria’s 36 states, says Mr Nwanze.
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After four people were murdered in one week in early September — all in the same Washington, D.C., neighborhood — residents made a plea for help.
“We’ve been at funerals all week,” said Janeese Lewis George, a City Council member who represents the neighborhood. “What can we do as a community?”
She was speaking to dozens of people at a vigil site, a tree adorned with teddy bears and candles along a street lined with rowhouses. According to police, the area, known as Brightwood Park, has been plagued by several dozen violent, gun-related crimes over the past year. When Lewis George asked whether the crowd had known anyone who’d been shot, most people raised their hands.
Earlier that day, five council members joined Lewis George in asking Mayor Muriel Bowser for assistance — not in the form of more police — but from the city’s first-ever gun violence prevention director, Linda Harllee Harper.
Harllee Harper knows Brightwood Park, having grown up near the heavily Black and Latino neighborhood that has recently begun to attract white residents, too. She knows the local stories, both good and bad. Some families have lived there for decades, witnessing generational poverty and government neglect.
During the 1990s, parts of the neighborhood were considered a “war zone” because of rampant drug and gang-related activity. She still lives in the same ward with her husband and son, who plays basketball at the local recreation center with the children of a recent murder victim.
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Before President Biden entered the White House, he had an impressive list of to-dos on his agenda, including but not limited to: passing federal voting rights legislation, restructuring policing following the murder of George Floyd and creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
But these three agenda items have another thing in common: None have passed Congress yet.
Today, Democrats (again) attempted to pass a compromise version of a voting rights bill, and Republicans rejected it (again). Police reform met a similar fate in September. And earlier that month, Democrats faced another setback after the Senate parliamentarian excluded a pathway for citizenship for immigrants from the upcoming reconciliation bill.
Of course, in a highly polarized Congress, it was always likely that not all of Biden’s priorities would pass. But the current failure of these three measures in particular — all of which disproportionately affect people of color — poses a real problem for the Biden administration, especially given that part of his political strategy has been to pass popular legislation. It raises the question: popular for whom?
All three of these bills that failed Congress are at least somewhat popular with American voters, but they’re also the Democrats’ agenda items that most explicitly tackle race. As such, their fate hangs in limbo, in part, because some Democrats — including Biden — have long struggled to meaningfully address race-related issues for fear of alienating white voters. Some reporting already suggests that Black voters in Georgia aren’t pleased with Biden’s presidency, and because polls show his approval rating slipping among key Democratic constituencies, Democrats face a big risk if they don’t deliver on promises they made, particularly those to voters of color.
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