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Althea Gibson, U.S. and Wimbledon tennis champion and the first African-American to win these tournaments, gives some pointers on the game to students attending a tennis clinic at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, 1957.
Photo: Ed Ford via Fine Art America
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gwydionmisha · 2 months
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tomorrowusa · 28 days
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We shouldn't be surprised by Trump depicting himself as a "person of color". 🟠
ABC News president: Trump comments about Black people ‘as racist as they come’
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mettaworld · 6 months
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jbfly46 · 7 months
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xtruss · 8 months
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I Lost White Friends When I Finally Spoke Out
— Leron L. Barton | Wednesday July 26, 2023
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LeRon L. Barton (Pictured) tells Newsweek about the racist experiences he has had with his white friends over the years. Courtesy: LeRon L. Barton
Having friendships with different types of people is a wonderful concept. To learn, trade ideas, have great experiences, and grow with folks from all kinds of backgrounds is a goal that I have always wanted to achieve.
As someone who loves gaining knowledge and immersing myself in various customs, it's essential for me to expand my social circle. I have friends who are Black like myself, Chinese, Filipino, Mexican, Italian, Salvadoran, Irish, Indigenous, and Arab. We discuss politics, food, sports, music, traveling, film, and life. I love having a wealth of friends that will bring different perspectives in life, and that I can impart wisdom to as well.
However, race and racism have always been difficult to discuss with white people due to the possibility that they may deflect, or be in denial—which is why the subject of race has been the hardest to broach.
Remembering back as a young kid, my family did not have a lot of white friends. It is not because they didn't like them; my cousin married a white woman. It's just that in Kansas City, Missouri, our social circles did not cross.
My grandparents, mother, and father instilled a lot of Black pride in us. We were taught that everyone is the same, but also that Black is beautiful. For me, that was necessary living in a time that told you that you were the opposite.
My brother and I went to a predominately white school and mostly played with Black kids. Still, like many African-Americans, we welcomed white people and held no malice toward them.
I did not make any white friends until my junior year in high school. We all played sports together, listened to hip-hop, and ate the same food. Plenty of friend groups were integrated, including mine. We had Black, white, Asian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Indigenous folks in our clique.
It was dope to be able to learn, build, and enjoy other cultures. However, I always noticed there was a difference in how people of color interacted with each other and how my white friends did. There was a warmth in how we hung out. My family welcomed them and vice versa.
But when it came to my white friends, I felt there was a ceiling, a stopping point. A lot of the interactions were surface-level and not deep.
I was always race conscious; being in Kansas City does that to you. It was, and continues to be, a very segregated city. Still, I would try to laugh off racist jokes I heard at work and amongst people in social situations.
I can recall during an offsite lunch event, police entered the restaurant and a coworker joked: "Oh they must be looking for you LeRon." They all laughed, and me being the only Black person at the table, brushed it off and tried to laugh along with it.
My white friends and associates would ask me things like: "Do you play basketball? Do you know anyone that sells drugs? Have you ever been in a gang?"
And they even asked if it was okay for them to say the N-word in a rap song.
These were my day-to-day interactions with white people. I am not trying to paint them all as being harmful and bad, but I have to be honest.
Things began to change for me in 2012. Trayvon Martin was murdered and there was this national conversation about race. Many people had been arguing both sides of the incident.
When I would talk to my white friends about the shooting, the protests, and the uprisings that followed, they would say things like: "What was he doing out there that late? Do we know for sure if he attacked Zimmerman? Why protest and destroy property?"
It was almost as if the rose-colored glasses I had were flung off. When unarmed Black men such as Mike Brown and Alton Sterling were killed by the police, I would see negative comments on social media from friends.
Someone that I had known for years had complained about the protests destroying their quiet neighborhood. Other folks would say "All Lives Matter" or "What about Black-on-Black crime?"
These were the same people that loved Michael Jordan, listened to Snoop Dogg, and cheered Ray Lewis as they watched the Super Bowl. It was as if they only consumed Blackness as entertainment, not as people.
Soon after, I began to write about being Black in America. I would call out racism white explicitly and highlight the inequities of police arrests and shootings, employment, health disparities, and home ownership.
Some white friends noticed my shift in tone and faded away. My televised interviews and podcast appearances became too much for some. I was known as "militant" to a few folks and angry to others.
One friend in particular could not understand why I was so mad. I explained to him it was because as a Black man, if I scare a white woman or make a white law enforcement officer nervous, that could be my life.
He then said: "I don't see you as Black, just as a man." I replied: "That is the problem, you don't want to acknowledge the issue here, racism." He and I stopped talking shortly after.
I was the cool guy when we were going drinking, clubbing, and talking about non-serious things, but when I discuss "The Talk", a conversation that Black parents have with their children on how to survive when they reach a certain age, I am too serious or divisive.
I realized the ceiling I have with many white people and have accepted it.
I've met other Black people that do not have white friends. While I do not subscribe to nor agree with that thought, I do not judge them. Being Black, or being any racialized person in a world that tells you you are less than, is hard. Having to justify your existence every day to people you are close to is even harder.
I think back to this quote I read from Stud Terkel's masterful book Race. Terkel is interviewing a young African-American man who does not have white friends. He asks the guy: "Why do you only hang out with Black people?" The young man laughs and says: "I don't have to worry about them being racist." I think about that sometimes.
Today, I have a few white friends that are "grandfathered" in. Seriously, they are people, such as one of my best friends "Frosty," that I can have serious discussions about racism and how we can change the system. New friends are "vetted."
Writing and discussing race is a very important part of my life. If I have to argue with you about why we are upset when another unarmed Black man is shot by the police, this is not going to work. If I have to explain to you why saying the "N-word" is wrong, cultural appropriation is bad, something innocuous as the slogan "Black Lives Matter" is a positive thing, or why Malcolm X is my personal hero, then this friendship will not work out. I am not teaching "Intro to Blackness 101."
Some reading this may say: "Well LeRon, what if people don't know? We have to teach them."
To that, I say no.
I believe that Black people live in a country that constantly tries to strangle every bit of self-respect, pride, individuality, love, and life out of them. It is an everyday challenge for us to maintain our mental health.
I ask white people who are well-meaning to practice self-reflection. Interrogate your racist blind spots. Educate yourselves. Fight against the system that oppresses us and others.
Black people do not have enough time in the day to survive and help you become not racist. Being a friend is about accountability and work.
— LeRon L. Barton is a Writer, Author, and Speaker.
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smcclintonjr · 23 days
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Black History Month 2024: Under Review
It appears that the 98th Edition of Black History Month is over. But guess what? Like years past the occasion is once a year, but the references to Black History in general will continue to tell the truth, expose lies, and expose those who feel that it should not be taught. All the time, folks still say, well, Black History is American History……” That is a lie. It is a lie just to make those feel…
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filosofablogger · 1 month
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On Black History Month
I wrote this post at the beginning of Black History Month in the year 2018, explaining the reasons for Black History Month and my reasons for highlighting it.  That was then … and today, some six years later, there is even more reason to bring this post back into the spotlight.  In the last year or two, we have seen numerous efforts to stifle or halt the teaching of Black history in our schools,…
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watercress-words · 1 month
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King, Obama, and Healthcare
Sharing this post as part of Black History Month, a preacher and a politician who advanced civil rights and healthcare equity for African Americans
updated February 8, 2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Reverend Dr. King led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  “In 1963, Dr. King helped lead the March for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known…
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musiqjukebox · 4 months
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Tiffany Heard, Founder of Hues of Africa: Journey Between the Lines & Hues of HBCUs
Tiffany Heard is from Los Angeles, California and is a proud graduate of Howard University, where she obtained a Masters of Social Work. She has currently traveled the world to over 20 countries and gives back selflessly by volunteering abroad. Ms. Heard is a content creator who discusses and documents her solo vacations on the travel blog. Tiffany is the author of Hues of Africa: Journey Between…
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newyorkthegoldenage · 10 months
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Guests cheer as the brides and grooms kiss at a double wedding, 1940.
Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images/BuzzFeed News
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mapsontheweb · 5 days
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U.S. Counties where the African American population is 25% or more
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tomorrowusa · 10 months
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The US Department of State issues travel advisories regarding how safe it is for Americans to travel various countries. In a number of cases, the Level 4 “Do not travel” advisories are used to designate countries whose governments are openly hostile to the Americans such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan.
So the NAACP, one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the US, issued a formal travel advisory advising African-Americans of the dangers of visiting Florida.
It says in part...
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The travel advisory from the NAACP comes several days after The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) issued its own Florida advisory for Hispanics.
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Last month, the group Equality Florida issued a memorandum with the title TRAVEL ADVISORY: FLORIDA MAY NOT BE A SAFE PLACE TO MOVE OR VISIT for people in the LGBTQ+ community. An excerpt...
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And of course there’s Florida’s extremist war on reproductive rights.
Florida Passes Extreme 6-Week Abortion Ban
The DeSantis régime with its rubber-stamp legislature have declared war on anybody who is not a straight white male Christian fundamentalist Republican. It may not be a safe place for many Americans to visit or move to.
This is the DeSantis blueprint for the US if he becomes president.
The only way to defeat neo-fascists like DeSantis is to Vote Democratic and to never miss an election. A divided opposition is what let Hitler come to power after getting just 33.1% of the vote in the November 1932 Reichstag elections.
Fascists don’t grow out of fascism, they just keep piling it on. Look no further than Trump and Putin.
Complacency and fleeting crushes on third party candidates are what led to Trump in 2016. We don’t need a rerun – or a re-Ron – in our future.
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mettaworld · 11 months
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❤️
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jbfly46 · 9 months
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The founding fathers would of stopped slavery if they could of, but African-Americans are still physically and emotionally traumatized by slavery, mainly because they still live in the country that profited from it and used them to build their state and federal capitols and there has yet to be any apology or form of reparations. I’m a white boy from Tennessee but my father was educated and he educated me and I see discrimination towards blacks everywhere I go from coast to coast, it just looks different depending on the state, while white people do their best to blame anyone but themselves, to the degree of white children starting to blame themselves and their own gender and shit instead of being proud of themselves, while the original slave owner families are just practicing slavery by another name and enslaving more and more people regardless of race. As long as no one owns up for slavery the negative psychological feedback loops will continue and slave owning families and foreign nations will continue taking advantage of the United States. I’m unaware of my ancestors owning slaves but they still benefited from being white so I asked God what I could do to earn my forgiveness. Y’all should of marched on the state capitols of Tennessee, as that’s where the most powerful slave owning family politicians live and are continuing to divert the blame and disseminate false information, going to great lengths such as forming agreements with enemy nations just to hold onto their ill gotten wealth. Most black people despise the Democrats but the Republicans are whiter than hell and often making fools of themselves. The citizens don’t have to pay reparations, the government does. Petition your politicians to pay up so we can end the criminal mess our nation has devolved into, and if they won’t march on the state capitols with firearms with blacks as is your constitutional right. If this doesn’t happen the United States will get more and more authoritarian until other nations have no choice but to go to war with us.
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longliveblackness · 5 months
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Congo is silently going through a silent genocide. Millions of people are being killed so that the western world can benefit from its natural resources.
More than 60% of the world's cobalt reserves are found in Congo, used in the production of smartphones.
Western countries are providing financial military aid to invade regions filled with reserves and in the process millions are getting killed and millions homeless.
Multinational mining companies are enslaving people especially children to mine.
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La República Democrática del Congo vive un genocidio silencioso. Millones de personas están siendo asesinadas para que la parte occidental del mundo pueda beneficiarse de sus recursos naturales.
Más del 60% de las reservas mundiales de cobalto se encuentran en el Congo, y se utiliza en la producción de teléfonos inteligentes.
Los países occidentales están proporcionando asistencia financiera militar para invadir regiones llenas de reservas y en el proceso millones de personas mueren y millones se quedan sin hogar.
Las empresas mineras multinacionales están esclavizando a la gente, especialmente a los niños, para trabajar en las minas.
Street Art and Photo by Artist Eduardo Relero
(https://eduardorelero.com)
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