Category: Black Issues

How Michael Jordan and The Last Dance Spoke to a Nation Desperately Missing Sports

May 20, 2020
Over these past few weeks, The Last Dance—the ESPN docuseries about Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls—has offered pundits much-needed talking points for a world mostly devoid of actual sports. Episodes that covered the blood feud between the Bulls and Detroit Pistons, and recalled the time that star Pistons point guard Isaiah Thomas and…

‘We Are In Crisis.’ COVID-19 Exacerbates Problems for People With Disabilities

May 20, 2020
Jeiri Flores is normally a busy, upbeat 29-year-old. But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, her go-to thought has been dark. “If I get this,” she thinks, “I’m gonna die.” This is not an unfounded fear. Flores has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and needs assistance with everyday tasks, including making food and getting dressed. Her disability…

Will Coronavirus Be the Death or Salvation of Big Plastic?

May 18, 2020
It was supposed to be a blockbuster moment for the U.S. plastic industry. With an abundance of cheap natural gas at hand, thanks to the country’s fracking boom, U.S. energy giants were pouring billions of dollars into building new plants to turn that gas into plastic. As the world was poised to slowly turn away…

From ‘COVID Toes’ to Hives, These Are the Skin Conditions Dermatologists Think Could Be Signs of Coronavirus

May 17, 2020
Dermatologists around the world are gathering data on what may be largely overlooked symptoms of COVID-19: skin conditions ranging from rashes to “pseudo-frostbite.” Many viral illnesses—including chickenpox, measles and mononucleosis—are accompanied by telltale skin rashes, often a result of the body’s heightened inflammatory response while fighting off infection. Though more research is needed, a growing…

Beyoncé, Lady Gaga Offer Hope at Star-Studded TV Special Aimed at Combating COVID-19

May 16, 2020
(NEW YORK) — Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Lizzo, Shawn Mendes and others sang classic songs brimmed with messages of hope and change during a TV special aimed at fighting the coronavirus, while Beyoncé and Alicia Keys spoke passionately about how the virus has disproportionately affected black Americans. Beyoncé made a surprise appearance on Saturday’s TV…

Three Days in a Detroit Funeral Home Ravaged by the Coronavirus

May 15, 2020
On April 29, Stephen Kemp arrived at his office just outside Detroit to a perplexing silence. Since COVID-19 hit the city, the phones at his funeral home had been ringing nonstop. Now, nothing. Kemp’s wife and colleague, Jacquie, soon popped into his office with an explanation: Comcast was down. No phones, no Internet. The outage…

The World Health Organization’s Maria Van Kerkhove On Balancing Science, Public Relations and Politics

May 13, 2020
Maria Van Kerkhove had never held a World Health Organization (WHO) press briefing before January. Now, people in countries across the globe tune in almost daily to watch the American epidemiologist—along with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Dr. Mike Ryan—break down the latest updates in the ever-evolving COVID-19…

Here’s How Harvey Gantt Feels, 30 Years Later, About Michael Jordan Refusing to Back Him

May 12, 2020
The fifth episode of The Last Dance, the popular ESPN docu-series examining the impact of Michael Jordan and the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls, touches on one of the more controversial aspects of Jordan’s legendary career: his lack of political engagement during his playing days. Back in 1990 Jordan, who grew up in North Carolina and starred…

Why Coronavirus Could Cause Millions of People Could Go Hungry, Even Though There’s Enough Food to Go Around

May 9, 2020
Jitendra Bangar tried to save his cabbage crop. The farmer, who lives in Bhiwandi, India, on the northeastern outskirts of Mumbai, spent the first few weeks of April spraying water on the vegetables he had harvested and stored, hoping that it would keep them fresh until he could sell them. But with strict lockdown measures…

Filling Out a Census Has Always Been a Political Act

May 7, 2020
There are seven individual questions on the 2020 U.S. Census: name, usual abode, relationship (to the household’s “Person 1”), sex, age, ethnicity and race. Most people will need just a few minutes to answer them. As of April 15, around 49% of households have already done so. But don’t mistake this for a simple, forgettable,…

Outrage Mounts After Cell Phone Footage Surfaces of Ahmaud Arbery’s Fatal Shooting in Georgia, But No Suspects Have Been Charged. Here’s What to Know

May 7, 2020
A Georgia prosecutor has called for a grand jury investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was killed after being chased by two white men in February while out running in a residential neighborhood outside Brunswick, a city on the state’s southeast coast. “After careful review of the evidence…

How Nancy Pelosi Saved the Affordable Care Act

May 6, 2020
As she pleaded with her Democratic sisters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had tears in her eyes. She knew they hated what they were being asked to do. She hated it, too. But if they didn’t relent, the whole thing could fall apart. They had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to accomplish something truly monumental, a goal that…

Trump Told America’s Governors They Were On Their Own. So Maryland’s Larry Hogan Is Taking Charge

May 5, 2020
Larry Hogan has got another of his ideas, and this one cracks him up. “I’m gonna call Pence!” says Hogan, startling his chief of staff, Matthew Clark, who sits across a large, round faux-wood table. Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, is meeting with his coronavirus command team, a skeleton crew of state officials still…

Africa Dangerously Behind in Global Race for Medical Equipment Amid Coronavirus

May 5, 2020
(JOHANNESBURG) — As Africa braces for a surge in coronavirus cases, its countries are dangerously behind in the global race for scarce medical equipment. Ten nations have no ventilators at all. Outbid by richer countries, and not receiving medical gear from top aid donor the United States, African officials scramble for solutions as virus cases…

‘It Conjures Up Every Racial Stereotype.’ For Black Men, Homemade Masks May Be a Risk All Their Own

May 3, 2020
For 24-year-old Quinten Hoskins, new federal guidelines suggesting that people wear homemade face coverings in public to fight the coronavirus outbreak seemed like a joke, and not a very funny one at that. “Can y’all imagine me walking in here with a bandana on my face?,” he asked a group of colleagues at the Milwaukee…

They Were There as the Modern Environmental Movement Began. As Earth Day Turns 50, They Say the Planet’s Problems Have Gotten Worse

May 3, 2020
Dorothy Bradley was 23 when she decided to run for the Montana House of Representatives. Her decision was made on the first Earth Day — April 22, 1970 — when she was one of roughly 20 million Americans who participated in some of the day’s 12,000 events raising awareness of environmental problems in society. At…

Trump to Order U.S. Meat Plants to Stay Open Amid Supply Fears

April 30, 2020
President Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and…

‘We’re Catching It Double.’ Amid Coronavirus Lockdowns, Gun Violence Continues to Plague Chicago

April 28, 2020
Despite a statewide shelter-in-place order to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, the city of Chicago is still facing high levels of gun violence. “It’s like a double whammy. We are catching it double. We have the virus and the violence to worry about,” Rodney Phillips, a violence prevention outreach worker in Chicago…

New York City Exposes the Stark Disparity in How COVID-19 Affects Low-Income Communities

April 27, 2020
Consider this for perspective: with 107,263 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the five boroughs as of April 14., if New York City were a sovereign nation, it would be the sixth worst-hit country by the coronavirus. The city accounts for nearly 18% of all cases in the United States, which leads the world in infections…

How the Civil War Changed the Way Americans Thought About Economic Inequality

April 24, 2020
In the run-up to the 2020 election, some Americans are increasingly worried about the immense power that wealth plays in the country’s democracy. Those concerns would not have surprised Americans in 1776 — they assumed that property and political power were intertwined. Indeed, one had to own property to vote, although in America (unlike England)…

Republicans Could Use the Coronavirus to Suppress Votes Across the Country. This Week We Got a Preview

April 24, 2020
In 1946, Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo instructed his followers that the way to keep black people from voting was to get “the tar and feathers and don’t forget the match.” In the Jim Crow South, African Americans faced bullets, beatings, lynching and more for trying to cast a ballot. Over the years the weapon has…

Sundar Pichai on Big Tech’s Role During Coronavirus Crisis

April 20, 2020
In recent weeks, governments and citizens alike have turned to Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, for help with the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rare partnership with Apple, the company is working to turn smartphones into contact-tracing devices, on an opt-in basis, to help notify people if they’ve been exposed to the virus.…

ESPN’s New Michael Jordan Documentary Is Exactly What We Need Right Now. Here’s How They Made It

April 18, 2020
ESPN has taken noble swings at programming a sports network with no sports. But there are only so many airings of marbles races, old games and gabfests about the April 23–25 NFL draft—an event that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, feels as significant as a speck of sand—that viewers can take. That’s why fans clamored so…

How New Efforts Are Recovering the Stories of People Who Were Deleted From History

April 15, 2020
There are holes in the stories we tell ourselves about history, gaping blanks that stand out like missing teeth in a broken smile. Certain types of people are often relegated to the background, or have been deleted altogether. Recently, a doctoral student at Duke University discovered that the oldest known copy of the Bible’s Gospel…

We Need to Rethink Our Food System to Prevent the Next Pandemic

April 13, 2020
Once a dangerous new pathogen is out, as we are seeing, it can be difficult if not impossible to prevent it going global. One as contagious as SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to infect the whole of humanity. Eighty per cent of cases may be benign, but with such a large pool of susceptible hosts, the…

‘I’ve Been Missing Caring for People.’ Thousands of Retired Health Care Workers Are Volunteering to Help Areas Overwhelmed By Coronavirus

April 11, 2020
Dr. Jane Bedell was less than a month into her retirement and was looking forward to hiking and visiting her son. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on retired health care professionals and students to help care for the state’s rapidly rising confirmed COVID-19 cases, the 63-year-old New…

Bill Withers, Writer and Singer of ‘Lean On Me,’ Dies at 81

April 9, 2020
Bill Withers, who wrote and sang a string of soulful songs in the 1970s that have stood the test of time, including “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” has died from heart complications, his family said in a statement to The Associated Press. He was 81. The three-time Grammy Award winner, who…

The Future of Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Could Depend on Michigan

April 7, 2020
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has a critical mission on Tuesday: beating former Vice President Joe Biden in Michigan. On a day when 352 of the remaining delegates in the Democratic presidential primary will be awarded, Michigan is the biggest prize, allocating 125 pledged delegates. But that’s not the only reason the Midwest state is crucial…

Joseph Lowery, Veteran Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 98

April 6, 2020
(ATLANTA) — The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a veteran civil rights leader who helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and fought against racial discrimination, died Friday, a family statement said. He was 98. A charismatic and fiery preacher, Lowery led the SCLC for two decades — restoring the…

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett Enshrined Into the Basketball Hall of Fame

April 6, 2020
Kobe Bryant was already immortal. Now he’s officially a Hall of Famer as well. And he’s got plenty of elite company in the 2020 class. Bryant and fellow NBA greats Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett headlined a nine-person group announced Saturday as this year’s class of enshrinees into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.…