Relaunched Fund By NBA Legends Investing $23OK To Propel Black Youth And Entrepreneurs
The fund is led by NBA legends Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade.
Led by NBA legends Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade, the Social Change Fund United (SCFU) is investing $230,000 into two new initiatives to help uplift the Black community.
The latest effort by the trio—also philanthropists and entrepreneurs—is part of a strategic focus to economically empower historically marginalized U.S. communities as well as bolster Black youth and entrepreneurs.
Founded in 2020 to counter pervasive racial injustices nationwide, SCFU focuses on backing organizations that advocate for communities of color. The fund claims its work has impacted over 130,000 individuals through efforts like the George Floyd Memorial Foundation, scholarship distributions, and partnerships with nonprofits.
SCFU says it has distributed nearly $1 million in grants, including over $60,000 to small business owners in cities including New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Now as part of a revived vision, SCFU maintains its plans to play a vital role in narrowing the racial wealth gap by fighting for entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation for Black and brown communities.
With that, SCFU shared how it plans to invest the $230,000 into SCFU We Got Next and SCFU Legacy:
SCFU We Got Next is an initiative aiming to provide youth with access to build entrepreneurial skills to become future business leaders. SCFU will invest a combined $125,000 into its partners Gray Matter Experience, AllStar Code, and Rapunzl.
The SCFU Legacy initiative, in partnership with Stackwell Capital, will supply six grants to minority-owned, Los Angeles-based small businesses. The program will start this summer with its inaugural 2024 cohort. SCFU will put $105,000 toward the legacy initiative.
SCFU Executive Director Aida Morrow said of the fund, “We’re excited to launch a new dimension of SCFU and to clarify our purpose of empowering underrepresented communities. Through this redirection, we hope to light the way for a more inclusive future to unlock potential, bring on new partners, and authentically uplift the communities in which we serve.”
SCFU co-founder Chris Paul, now with Golden State Warriors, added, “Our engagement within communities of color is critical to producing the impact and results of our mission.” His co-founders, Wade and Anthony, respectively retired from the NBA in 2019 and 2023.
Callie Curry ,SCFU Advisory Board Member and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Executive, reflected on the the fund’s new focus.
“We are proud of the progress we’ve made over the last three years and are confident that this next phase of our work will scale our efforts, gain new partners with a similar vision and capital, and impact more lives.”
Summit Highlights Black Women’s Impact In Food Industry, Features Pitch Competition
The Black Women In Food Awards represents a chance for Black women to receive recognition in an industry that often doesn't give them any.
Black Women In Food, an organization that emerged out of the Dine Diaspora in 2017, will host its Seventh Annual Black Women in Food Awards and its Second Annual Black Women In Food Summit in Washington, D.C., April 26 and 27.
As Forbes reports, the group announced its award nominees in March and honored the winners on April 4, but wanted to give the 31 honorees a chance to be celebrated by their peers in person.
This one's for the girls working towards their goals, pushing through when it gets hard, & leaving their mark through #food and beyond.
Nina Oduro, the co-founder of Dine Diaspora and Black Women in Food, told Forbes that she is most excited about the opportunities that the summit affords the attendees. “The summit is not only a place to network and learn. It’s a place where Black women across the food industry can forge connections and brainstorm solutions to overcome obstacles.”
“This year, we’ve introduced innovative components aimed at tackling the systemic issues of access to capital and market entry challenges faced by these women,” she added. “Our new marketplace shines a spotlight on their food businesses, while the pitch competition, courtesy of the New Voices Foundation, offers a vital avenue for accessing capital—a hurdle that often looms largest on their path to expansion.”
The pitch competition, which is only open to the attendees of the summit, is designed for businesses to pitch their ideas directly to a panel of judges composed of industry experts. The first prize winner will receive $10,000 and the second prize winner will get $5,000.
According to Oduro, the BWIF Awards represents a chance for Black women to receive recognition in an industry that often doesn’t give them any. In 2023, Oduro and her business partner, Maame Boakye, told Food and Beverage Insider that they wanted to spotlight more than just the visible aspects of the food industry because workers are often rendered invisible but deserved to be recognized by their peers.
“The food industry around the world is entrenched with racism and sexism that manifests in different ways. By centering Black women’s contributions to the global food system, we are combating narratives that seek to diminish their historic, current and future impact,” the pair said. “Black women in the industry around the world need to see their efforts recognized and amplified as they continue to shape the way food is experienced at all levels of society.”
The summit, taking place at the Eaton Hotel in D.C., will be hosted by Vicky V, a Houston-based chef consultant, influencer, and media producer. The editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit and Epicurious, Jamila Robinson, will serve as the keynote speaker at the event.
Understanding Resenteeism: The Unseen Struggle Of Staying Unhappy At Work
Some employees are fed up with their jobs but refuse to quit.
Resenteeism is the concept of being unhappy at a job but continuing to stay because of financial obligations or a lack of better options. Employees who feel overworked or underappreciated begin to resent the job, which often leads to low morale and low productivity. Similar to quiet quitting, employees come to work but are often disengaged and do the bare minimum.
Jennifer Libby, a district manager with Insperity in Kansas City, Missouri, said several factors can lead to resenteeism, including a toxic corporate culture, overwhelming workloads, and limited opportunities for advancement.
She said employees may try to seek new opportunities, but they are often unable to find employment that meets their needs, which may include salary, benefits, and work-life balance.
“Over time, they begin to resent their employer because they feel trapped in a job they do not want,” Libby told Fox Business.
Dominic, a 46-year old senior manager, told Fox Business that he has received more job responsibilities without additional compensation. He feels overwhelmed with his day-to-day tasks, which include managing employees, tracking inventory, and handling logistical issues. Although he aspires to change jobs, several factors prevent him from doing so. The father of two lives close to his job, which allows him to have more time to spend with his family.
“I have learned to accept the fact that I have to make the best of a somewhat bad situation,” he told Fox Business.
“Employers also have an impact, with resenteeism being more likely in organizations that do not promote psychological safety, employee wellbeing, and talent development,” Chloe Angus, leadership coach and trainer, told People Management.
Sima Sajjadiani, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, suggests that employers have to be willing to adjust to changing trends in corporate culture which include the normalization of working from home and hybrid job opportunities, which provide more flexibility and better work-life balance.
Mother’s Day Performance Featuring Kori Withers And Valerie Simpson To Honor Bill Withers And ‘Grandma’s Hands’
The special Mother's Day event will take place in New York City.
Bill Withers’ iconic song “Grandma’s Hands” has been released as an illustrated book and an animated music video to celebrate the iconic artist’s song.
His daughter, Kori Withers, and his wife, Marcia Withers, have been promoting the children’s book with special readings across California. Now, Kori, a singer and songwriter, is set to do a special musical performance in New York City, during which she will be joined by music legend Valerie Simpson, according to the official Bill Withers website.
The “Mother’s Day Brunch With the Music of Bill Withers” will take place at Manhattan’s City Vineyard (233 West St. at Pier 26) on May 12 at 12 p.m. Withers and Simpson will be joined by Marcus Machado and Everett Bradley. The book Grandma’s Hands will be available at the event for a special price.
The 32-page illustrated book brings Withers’ song to life on the page with vivid and colorful pictures. The illustrations were painted by multiple award-winning artist R. Gregory Christie, and published by Joel Harper’s Freedom Three Publishing in collaboration with the Withers Family’s Mattie Music Group in July 2023.
The book centers on a young Bill Withers being uplifted and comforted by his grandma and her unconditional love. It features themes of love, family, and relationships while discussing the resonating impact our elders have on shaping who we become.
In addition to the illustrated books, Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings enlisted Martian Blueberry to create a music video. Blueberry, an award-winning creative agency that specializes in vivid animation and art rendition, was co-founded by Carl Jones, who has produced popular shows like Adult Swim’s The Boondocks and Black Dynamite.
The animated video features Kori singing with Bill Withers in a new version of of “Grandma’s Hands.”
Bill Withers died on March 30, 2020, at the age of 81.
Withers, a former Navy aircraft mechanic, who taught himself to play guitar and went on to write iconic songs of the 1970s like “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Use Me.” Withers, with his evocative and gritty R&B voice, released his debut album, Just as I Am, in 1971 when he was in his 30s. The multiple Grammy Award winner became disillusioned with the music industry after his 1985 album Watching You Watching Me and ceased recording and performing.
Withers was known for his conversational singing style, allowing his songs to speak for themselves. Leo Sacks, who oversaw the re-release of Withers’s catalog, described him as “a mystical man, like a Greek oracle,” according to The New York Times.
How ‘Earn Your Leisure’ Is Transforming Financial Literacy For The Culture
Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings open up how Earn Your Leisure ignited a new financial literacy movement for the culture.
Originally Published Apr. 14, 2021.
Earn Your Leisure is leading the movement to educate urban communities on finance, business, and entrepreneurship.
Financial literacy has become a hot topic on social media, but for years, the topic was reserved for MBA graduates, Ivy Leaguers, and the white middle class. Although well-intentioned, many Black parents weren’t equipped to school their children about stock options, real estate investments, debt management, and the importance of ownership or life insurance simply because they, themselves, did not have access to that information. Even today, many working-class communities of color still don’t have access to the economic resources shared by prestigious business institutions and outlets. Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, however, are changing the narrative through Earn Your Leisure, a financial podcast that has ballooned into a wildly popular, multifaceted platform that is changing the face of wealth.
The Genesis
Before launching Earn Your Leisure (EYL) in 2019, Bilal and Millings taught financial literacy to public school students in the Bronx, New York. While working as an elementary school physical education educator, Millings incorporated financial literacy into his lesson plans during summer school classes. At one point, he asked Bilal, a financial advisor, to lecture his students about money. Eventually, the longtime friends built a complete curriculum on finance for the students. Meanwhile, Bilal also started building a robust social media presence by sharing financial information and wanted to expand his reach by starting a podcast. Naturally, he asked Millings to co-host, and the two launched Earn Your Leisure to discuss the money plays behind sports, entertainment, and business, along with the latest economic trends. On the show, Bilal and Millings dig into the backstories of celebrity entrepreneurs and renowned business owners like billionaire Mark Cuban, NBA legend and business titan Shaquille O’Neal, and social entrepreneur John Henry.
“There were a lot of business podcasts or business platforms [that gave] a lot of fluff, a lot of motivational stuff,” Bilal told BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I don’t really want to hear that. I want to know exactly what’s going on, and how did you do it?”
During the first few episodes of Earn Your Leisure, Bilal says he and Millings took “deep dives into case studies. That was the original premise of Earn Your Leisure. It was like pop culture mixed with Harvard Business School.” He added, we were “taking case studies of like Airbnb and breaking them down.”
Empowering The Culture
Their formula worked. Just seven months after its launch, EYL accumulated more than 6,500 subscribers and an average of 20,000 plays per episode by July 2019. Today, the show has amassed more than 5 million downloads as well as a whopping 422,000 YouTube subscribers and 702,000 Instagram followers. The hosts believe their following has grown because they’ve been consistently serving disenfranchised urban markets with content that’s authentic, palatable, and economically empowering.
“We created our own niche as far as in the financial literacy space. We took a different approach to it,” said Bilal. “For years, you had to wear a suit and tie in order to really be taken seriously and speak about business. And you had to shave your face, [but] we come in with beards, hoodies, and sneakers and hip-hop lyrics.” He asserts, “the best marketing tool was us just being ourselves.”
Millings says the key to scaling their audience was intentionally targeting underserved communities that historically lacked access to financial tools and resources.
“We added value to a community that needed it,” says Millings. “We mixed our barbershop conversations with Wall Street, and it just took off.”
In addition to the podcast, Bilal and Millings created Earn Your Leisure University, an online education platform offering dozens of courses across 35 different industries. They also launched the EYL podcast network, which currently produces and distributes shows like Inside The Vault with Ash Cash and Market Mondays with investor Ian Dunlap. Furthermore, the duo secured a deal with iHeartMedia and Charlamagne Tha God’s groundbreaking The Black Effect Podcast Network earlier this year.
Putting Plays Into Practice
Bilal and Millings aren’t just empowering a new generation with economic gems and exclusive interviews; they’re also applying the lessons to their own lives. For instance, Millings says Dunlap changed the way he saves money.
“When we sat down with Ian (Dunlap), I remember him telling us ‘listen, we used to tell you that you needed six to eight months savings to be secure.’ And I remember, he was like, ‘nah, my new theory is we need 60 months.’ And it took me off guard,” Millings recalled. “I said, ‘60 months? That’s almost five years of savings!’” Dunlap, however, explained that creating a bigger savings fund is the foundation for generational wealth.
“When you accumulate a certain level of wealth, it won’t be about you anymore, it will be about your family and your generations that will live on without you. And so that became my mindset now,” says the educator.
Similarly, Bilal says their interview with Wallstreet Trapper, a stock trader and YouTuber, moved him to open a custodial account for his son.
“That’s something I didn’t have for my son. I already knew about it, but just him talking about how much money he had for his daughter really encouraged me to really go forward and put money into my son’s account,” he said.
“I utilize everybody that we have brought on the platform that actually has anything to do with stocks,” says Bilal. “I pick their brain, I ask them different questions, and I learn from them as much as I possibly can offline.”
The Future of The Movement
From scaling their online university to opening a private equity firm, the sky’s the limit for the EYL brand, and the hosts are aiming big.
“We want to grow in the online education space and be the biggest online university like rivaling a Phoenix University,” says Bilal. “I think we have over like 9,000 members in EYL University. So, we want to get that up to like 50,000 or 100,000 members.”
He went on to reveal that he and Millings aspire to own a fleet of trucks and 100 real estate properties, open a private equity firm, and create a financial literacy curriculum for multiple schools.
“I feel like there’s nothing that we can’t do,” added Millings. “We’re just ambitious enough to believe that we can do anything. And so, you might see us in some films, you might see us in some short TV slots. It’s really limitless.”
Ultimately, he says they’re on a mission to bring EYL back to its roots in education. “One of my passions is to get back to that and sprinkle these seeds throughout communities that need us.”
Earn Your Leisure has now added Invest Fest to its portfolio. Invest Fest is a three-day conference in Atlanta aimed at providing growth and networking opportunities to entrepreneurs. You can learn more about Invest Fest here.
Black Father And Son Offer Online Summer Camp To Teach Financial Literacy And Investing
Junior Wallstreeters, Inc. a nonprofit, is excited to provide an online youth summer camp.
Originally Published May. 17, 2022
Junior Wallstreeters, Inc. a nonprofit, is excited to provide an online youth summer camp. The camp is great for preventing learning loss and offers a fun environment for students to learn financial and investing concepts.
The camps will teach students lifelong financial education skills and discipline, with an emphasis on African American history and culture, according to a press release. Kevon Chisolm, executive director of Junior Wallstreeters, Inc. said, “In addition to topics like budgeting, banking, and investing in the stock market, our camp goes beyond others by exploring community wealth building through investment clubs.”
“Simply put,” Chisolm says, “our goal is to teach financial knowledge to eliminate the wealth gap by showing young people how to properly use money as a tool.”
The program will also offer an Introduction to Cryptocurrency course and an Introduction To Real Estate Investment course.
“In conjunction with Financial Literacy Month, Junior Wallstreeters, Inc. launched our new website, which provides a better overview of our mission, impact and programs.”
Junior Wallstreeters has secured several scholarships for underserved students to attend the camp. Chisolm asserts, “We want to give as many students the opportunity to obtain a financial education regardless of their family’s financial situation.” Scholarships are only available to students who attend for the length of the course, either one or two weeks.
Families interested in obtaining a scholarship to attend the camp should visit its website for an application. Those interested in supporting Junior Wallstreeters can sponsor a camper or make a donation here.
Faith Ringgold, Famed Multimedia Artist, Dies At 93
In addition to her quilts, Ringgold used painting, sculpture, masks, dolls, textiles, and performance art to explore race, gender, class, family, and community related themes in her art.
Faith Ringgold, a multimedia artist whose canvas was often a quilt exploring the tapestry of Black American life, passed away at the age of 93 on April 13 at her New Jersey home. In addition to her quilts, Ringgold used painting, sculpture, masks, dolls, textiles, and performance art to explore race, gender, class, family, and community-related themes in her art.
As the New York Times reports, Ringgold’s death was confirmed to the outlet by her daughter, Barbara Wallace. Ringgold was a classically trained painter and sculptor who began her career in the arts by painting political works exploring subjects like race and gender relations in America during the 1960s and ’70s.
When I visit schools, the most common question children ask me is “What’s your favorite picture book?” My answer, without hesitation, is always Tar Beach. Rest well, Faith Ringgold 💐 pic.twitter.com/ukB5by3HMY
Although her work received praise right from the beginning of her career, she did not receive placement in the country’s most prestigious art museums until well into her career, something Ringgold regarded as a consequence of both her commitment to exploring themes of social justice through her art and the intersection of her race and gender.
Ringgold, however, believed that art was for everyone and should be accessible to everyone. As she told the Orlando Sentinel in 1992, “In a world where having the power to express oneself or to do something is limited to a very few, art appeared to me to be an area where anyone could do that. Of course, I didn’t realize at the time that you could do it and not have anyone know you were doing it.”
One of her most acclaimed “story quilts” was a piece she called “Tar Beach,” which she finished in 1988. That piece led Ringgold to create a children’s book by the same name in 1991. In symmetry with the quilt, the book tells the story of a Black family picnicking and sleeping on the roof of their Harlem apartment on a hot summer night.
Tar Beach was named a Caldecott Honor Book by the American Library Association, became a staple of children’s reading lives, and picked up a Coretta Scott King Award, awarded by the ALA to books depicting Black American life for children or teenagers with distinction.
Ringgold’s early art style drew inspiration from James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, African art, and the jazz rhythms of Duke Ellington and other musicians she listened to as a young child. She even led protests, first focusing on the marginalization of Black artists, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1968. In 1970, Ringgold helped organize another protest, this one focusing on the exclusion of women artists, which occurred at the Museum of Modern Art. During this decade, Ringgold’s work took on a more overtly feminist tone.
In 1980, Ringgold produced her first full-sized quilt alongside her mother, titled “Echoes of Harlem.” “I think of quilts as the classic art form of Black people in America,” Ringgold told The Morning Call in 2005. “When African slaves came to America, they couldn’t do their sculpture anymore. They were divorced from their religion. So they would take scraps of fabric and make them into coverlets for the master and for themselves.”
Over the next 40 years, Ringgold’s work would be collected and acquired by private art collectors, the late Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey among the most prominent. Ringgold’s work also eventually found its way into prominent museums like the National Museum of Women in the Arts and was commissioned for public spaces, both physically and digitally. In 2022, Ringgold’s work received a retrospective at the New Museum in Manhattan.
That show, which filled three stories, prompted critic Holland Cotter to write in his review for the New York Times that he believed the acceptance of Ringgold’s work represented a full circle moment for the artist. Cotter wrote that the exhibition “makes clear that what consigned Ringgold to an outlier track half a century ago puts her front and center now.”
Ringgold is survived by her daughters, Barbara and Michelle Wallace, a prominent feminist writer and cultural critic, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Her husband, Burdette Ringgold, preceded her in death in 2020.
Fisk University Gymnast Morgan Price Named First-Ever National Champion From An HBCU
She joined Fisk's gymnastics team two years ago, the first-ever program established at an HBCU.
HBCU “HERstory” has been made. Representing Fisk University, Morgan Price is now USA Gymnastics’s first All-Around National Champion from an HBCU.
Price emerged as a national champion at the USAG’s competition on April 12. She joined Fisk’s gymnastics team two years ago, the first-ever program established at an HBCU. The Tennessee school’s athletic program shared the barrier-breaking news on its Instagram.
Price scored above 9.8 on her floor exercise, balance beams, uneven bars, and vault. For her performances at the events, she received 39.225 in total. Her high achievement cemented her status as a national champion.
While Black women, from Dominique Dawes to Simone Biles, have dominated gymnastics before Price, her inclusion sheds light on HBCUs taking part in the sport. Talladega College is the only other HBCU that hosts a gymnastics program. However, Wilberforce University in Ohio will soon be the third to join the ranks.
To get their programs off the ground, all three institutions partnered with Brown Girls Do Gymnastics to help aspiring Black gymnasts fulfill their journeys at HBCUs. Through this HBCU gymnastics alliance, more schools are working toward establishing their own teams for students. Fisk, which started their program in 2022, shared that this mission will help diversify women’s gymnastics at a collegiate level.
“We could not be more excited to launch the first HBCU Intercollegiate Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team,” explained the school’s then-president, Dr. Vann Newkirk. “Fisk University has always been an educational leader and this women’s gymnastics program will embody all the qualities that define the Fisk experience: excellence, determination, and a commitment to a better tomorrow.”
In the meantime, Price’s road to nationals is not over yet. On April 14, she will continue performing in individual events for the vault, bars, and floor. She will be able to receive even more medals to add to her latest accolade.
Cleveland Assistant Safety Director Fired For Misleading Officials About Car Crash And Transporting Minors In City Vehicle
Dye faced criticism after her city vehicle crashed with four children in it.
Jakimah Dye, the former assistant director of Safety for the City of Cleveland, was relieved of her duties on April 12 after an investigation revealed that she misled officials investigating a February car crash.
As WKYC reports, the crash involved Dye’s city vehicle and minors. According to a letter from Interim Safety Director Wayne Drummond, those factors were considered when Dye was fired following a pre-disciplinary hearing in March.
NEW on cleveland assistant safety director facing discipline for crashing a City car w kids on board: Jakimah Dye facing internal discipline for using the car for non-work purposes, transporting minors and not having valid car insurance to cover the damages
News 5 investigators uncover email chain.. showing Assistant Safety Director Jakimah Dye, didn't initially report kids were in the car when she crashed her take-home vehicle. Later, she revealed there were four. #WEWS@WEWS More to come on News 5
“During the course of the investigation, you admitted you were utilizing the City vehicle for non-work-related purposes,” Drummond wrote in the letter. “It was also discovered that you were transporting several minors and did not possess valid motor vehicle insurance to cover the damages incurred in the accident. Additionally, it is alleged that you made untruthful, misleading, and/or deceptive statements during the investigation of this matter.”
Drummond continued, “As Assistant Director of Budget and Operations in the Department of Public Safety, the expectation of professionalism and honesty is uncompromising. We serve the public, therefore we must be good stewards of community trust.”
In addition to the violations enumerated by Drummond in the letter, Dye violated several City of Cleveland workplace policies and civil service commission rules.
As Cleveland.com reports, Dye faced criticism after her city vehicle crashed with four children in it after she left a basketball game. A few days before, a similar occurrence forced now-former Safety Director Karrie Howard to resign from his position.
Dye did not disclose that there were children in the car when she made her original report but later communicated via an email to officials that she did not know that having children in the car was a violation of city policy. “I was not aware of the policy regarding children in the car, but the fact remains, there were children in the car,” Dye wrote. “The policy is clear. No children or non-city workers are allowed in the vehicles, I now know this to be true and am disappointed in myself for not being familiar with policy(ies) as a whole.”
In the termination letter, Drummond determined that Dye’s actions could reasonably be assumed to have a negative reflection on the Cleveland Department of Public Safety.
“A thorough review was conducted by the Department of Human Resources. I have carefully reviewed the evidence incorporated into the record by reference, statements made at the hearing, and pertinent rules, policies, and procedures. I adopt the findings and recommendations of the hearing officer.” Drummond concluded. “I have determined that you, Assistant Director Jakimah Dye violated numerous CoC Human Resources Policies and Procedures, and Civil Service Commission Rules.”
Drummond concluded, “As such, policy is in place to ensure honesty and accountability of members charged with a duty to be present in the community. The Department of Public Safety cannot operate and professionally meet its objectives while tolerating a failure to comply with professional expectations or being subject to utter disregard for policy. Not only does the aforementioned conduct reasonably tend to diminish the esteem of the Department of Public Safety in the eyes of the public, it violates public trust in the Department and has no place in any Department or Division within the City of Cleveland.”
Indiana State University Condemns Student Who Made Viral Racist TikTok About Beyoncé
In the TikTok video, the Indiana State University student claimed Black people can't be country because their ancestors were slaves.
Indiana State University (ISU) has released an official statement condemning a racist TikTok made by one of its students. The video critiqued Beyoncé and her country music-inspired album, Cowboy Carter.
The student started off the now-deleted video by telling Black people that they are not country. In her view, Beyoncé’s latest project was not part of the genre for “historical” reasons.
“I’m sorry, if you’re Black, you’re not country,” she boldly stated, as reported by Newsweek. She continued to let Black viewers know that they could not identify as country, even if from those areas, because their ancestors were “picking,” referring to sharecropping, picking cotton, and slavery.
“I know you were raised in the country, or your grandparents were, but they was picking,” she explained. “They wasn’t planting. Keep that in mind. They wasn’t making money. They was getting sold for money.”
In response to the viral TikTok, ISU President Dr. Deborah J. Curtis issued an apology to the student body for the racist words.
“Racism, hate speech, and discrimination of any kind is deplorable and in direct contradiction of Indiana State’s mission, vision, and values,” wrote Dr. Curtis. “The student’s comments in the video in no way represent the ideals and goals of Indiana State University. We are appalled by the sentiments expressed in the video and condemn those comments in the strongest terms.”
As for the student’s current status at ISU, the educational leader emphasized the matter must remain confidential due to legal reasons.
However, the woman’s sentiments are a callback to Beyoncé’s reasons for embarking on the project. Ahead of its release, the “16 Carriages” singer shared on Instagram how the idea stemmed from an unwelcoming experience.
“[The album] was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive,” she revealed. “The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me…This ain’t a Country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album.”
The album has now spent two weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and garnered critical acclaim. Despite the criticisms on her journey in country music, Beyoncé continues to make waves of inclusivity.
