• Health and Wellness

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

January 21, 2023

Black OB-GYN MD’s to Address Unnecessary Deaths of Black Women in 2023

---

With the overall U.S. maternal mortality rate (MMR) on the rise, the data behind the African American community paints an even more devastating picture, where the CDC and October 2022 GAO report that the Black Maternal Mortality Rate in 2021 was 68.9 deaths per 100,000 (approximately 2,480 women) compared to 26.1 per 100,000 (about 940 women).

The crisis extends past the data, where a direct relationship between these unnecessary deaths and racial concordance has been identified. Black patients often complain that their concerns are not heard nor respected when being seen by a doctor outside of their race, creating a divide between the doctor patient relationship, ultimately preventing the best possible care.

To affect change, Dr. Linda Burke and an online group of 748+ Black OB-GYN female physicians rallied, but attempts to obtain seats on professional decision-making committees proved futile leading Dr. Burke to create WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!), a resource that would address the challenges patients face in connecting with a doctor that they could relate to and bring a more positive outcome to some of the doctor patient exchanges.

WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!) is a growing online database and community of 124 plus passionate OB-GYN physicians who practice across 29 states in the U.S., where 88% are board-certified, according to a press release. “Countless black lives could be saved if women of color knew where to find an OB-GYN that could better understand their challenges,” states Dr. Burke who has been moved by many stories shared by her colleagues about the uphill battle. “The ability to use my network to build this resource in an attempt to make a difference in the lives of others drives me daily, and my greatest hope is that WHYS™ grows to be a trusted community for all in need,” shares Dr. Burke. WHYS™ officially launches in February 2023 in celebration of Black History Month and Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s birthday.

• Business

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

January 21, 2023

ColorComm’s 6th Annual NextGen Fellows Program Will Connect HBCU Students, Graduates With Nation’s Leading Media, Tech, Corporate Firms

---

ColorComm, Inc., the nation’s leading women’s platform addressing diversity and inclusion across the communications, marketing, advertising, and media industries, will host the 6th Annual NextGen Fellows Program with a summit and recruiting day on Friday, February 24, 2023.

The program will connect Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) students with Fortune 500 companies, agencies, brands, and corporations to recruit students for internships and full-time positions, according to a press release.

The year-long program will provide HBCU students and recent graduates with access to decision makers, formal mentorship, professional development workshops, and access to ColorComm’s Network of more than 100,000 multicultural professionals. Participants will meet with executive leaders and will learn hiring strategies and best practices on how to land coveted internships and full-time positions at some of the most desired places to work.

The HBCU Fellows Program is an exclusive program where applicants will be evaluated on academic achievement and how they contribute to their communities. There is no cost associated to apply for the fellowship.

“Our focus is about securing jobs for our HBCU fellows and preparing the next generation of leaders to be successful in the workforce,” said Lauren Wesley Wilson, Founder and CEO, ColorComm.

Participating HBCU Schools Include:

• Alabama A&M University
• Claflin University
• Clark Atlanta University
• Delaware State University
• Elizabeth City State University
• Florida A&M University
• Hampton University
• Howard University
• Jackson State University
• Morgan State University
• North Carolina A&T State University
• North Carolina Central University
• Spelman College
• Tougaloo College
• Tuskegee University

• Entrepreneurship

by Stacy Jackson

January 21, 2023

Oya Femtech Founder Raises $1.3M For Women’s Leggings that Prevent Vaginal Infections

---

Athleisure has become a trending style for women, but the skin-tight leggings that have become a favorite might be causing some health risks.

Product designer and co-founder of Oya Femtech Apparel, Mitchella Gilbert, has secured $1.3 million in funding after extending her love for women’s health and sportswear by creating a line of athletic wear that can be worn to prevent vaginal infections.

According to Forbes, Gilbert began her research for her products after experiencing a yeast infection in the past that sent her to visit her OB-GYN.

“If you want to reduce the frequency of your yeast infections scale back on wearing leggings,” her doctor shared with her.

After learning this information that affects millions of women, Gilbert found a hole in the market for women’s workout clothing. She addressed the issue by creating a legging with a breathable, replaceable pad. The legging also includes panels to make room for ventilation around the inner thigh.

“After some digging, it was clear how many millions of people with vaginas were secretly dealing with sweat and moisture related health issues, either out of shame or because there were no solutions,” the Oya website shares.

Gilbert’s mission to reduce feminine health issues inspired the name Oya for the athletic line.

“Oya is a mother goddess from Nigeria’s Yoruban mythology that symbolizes rebirth, fertility, and storms. I thought Oya was a great name for a sportswear company fighting feminine health issues with patented designs and textiles,” Gilbert said.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Oya Femtech Apparel (@wearoya)

The United States National Library of Medicine reported that women in the U.S. spend around $43.3 billion annually to take care of feminine health issues such as bacterial vaginosis, urinary tract infection, ringworm, folliculitis, and urinary incontinence.

Gilbert has a background in tech, product design, and retail. She also participated in UCLA Anderson’s Venture Accelerator. Oya, co-founded with Patrick Ayers, marked the launch of Gilbert’s fourth company.

In honor of Black History Month, Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) QuickBooks and Mailchimp are hosting a live, virtual fireside chat to highlight the experiences and remarkable courage it takes for Black-owned entrepreneurs and small businesses to overcome the hurdles they encounter on their paths to success.

In a conversation sponsored by Intuit QuickBooks + Mailchimp, the world’s leading small business technology platform, Issa Rae and Nate Burleson will host a live “Conversation about Courage” that will provide personal insights and practical advice for U.S. and Canadian Black-owned small businesses, according to a press release.

Economic and social inequalities continue to challenge Black businesses. Across the U.S. and Canada, new data from QuickBooks shows that more than 75% of black businesses believe that they are judged more critically than non-Black businesses. Additionally, more than 55% have been denied a business loan at least once — compared to 37% of non-Black business owners in the U.S.

Attendees will come away with insights into the entrepreneurial journey, a glimpse into the challenges that Black small business owners encounter, and a better understanding of the courage it takes to be triumphant in the face of adversity. Attendees can register for free at http://intuit.me/BHM2023Chat.

The live, virtual fireside chat will feature:

• Speaker: Issa Rae, actress, writer, producer, and comedian, CEO of HOORAE a multi-faceted entertainment media company
• Moderator: Nate Burleson, television host, former wide receiver in the NFL, CEO of Lionblood Clothing

The event will occur on the first day of North American Black History Month, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET. Register for this free, live, virtual event at http://intuit.me/BHM2023Chat.

QuickBooks  is helping to advocate and empower underserved entrepreneurial communities is central to Intuit’s mission of powering prosperity worldwide. QuickBooks celebrates Black-owned businesses and their courageousness. Through this ongoing event series — featuring discussions with real business owners, policy makers and business leaders — QuickBooks is providing an opportunity for business owners to tell their unique stories of courage, learn from one another, connect and gain access to the insights and resources they need to thrive.

• Women

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

January 21, 2023

Michelle A. Albert Featured in TIME Magazine Special Issue on ‘The Future of Medicine’

---

Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, past president of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) and current president of the American Heart Association, is featured in several articles in TIME Magazine’s recent end-of-year special issue, “The Future of Medicine.”

In “Where Do We Stand” by Janet Lee, in a section on “redefining health,” Dr. Albert explains how social determinants of health play a significant role in chronic conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, and how it can negatively impact our ability to lead healthy lives, according to a press release.

“Traditionally a lot of the focus for heart health has been on things like blood pressure and quitting smoking, but now we’re including social determinants of health as part of our guidelines,” says Dr. Michelle A. Albert, president of the American Heart Association and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “For example, sleep impacts blood pressure and if you live in an environment where you’re under stress, sleep quality is poorer. So you just can’t tell people to get better sleep.”

Dr. Albert is also featured in the article, “Missing Link: Equity” by Janet Lee, in a section on “Training at Schools,” where she identifies workforce diversity as a critical factor in achieving health equity.

Besides teaching medical students about the importance of social determinants of health and how to screen for them (if clinicians can’t collect the data about the determinants, they don’t know what the contributing factors are), medical schools and other training programs should be diverse as well, says Dr. Michelle Albert, president of the American Heart Association and admissions dean at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We need to double down on having a workforce that’s representative of the demographics of the community so they can understand the lived experiences of the population they’re treating,” says Albert. “That’s really important. Having that understanding will engender research, care and the clinical concordance [incorporating the wishes and beliefs of the patient] that’s needed to address equitable health care.”

In the same article in a section on “policy making,” Dr. Albert states that “Health and health equity are not zero-sum games. It’s not about taking from community A and giving to community B. Our challenge in the next few years is to do a better job of communicating that. A lot of awareness has been raised and that gives me optimism.”

As part of the special issue, the magazine’s “Straight Talk” pages shares experts’ thoughts on the future of medicine and health care. Here’s what Dr. Albert has to say about it.

“You can tell people to make healthy lifestyle choices, but one of the root causes of health inequities is economic adversity. We have to focus on this. Within the American Heart Association, we’re addressing economic adversity as a root driver of poor health, especially cardiovascular health.” — Dr. Michelle Albert, president of the American Heart Association

“The Future of Medicine” is Time magazine’s special issue focused on new technology, innovative trends and the incredible breakthroughs that will help people stay healthy in the future. The issue can be purchased online.

Shannon Sharpe and Ja Morant‘s dad, Tee, got into a heated altercation at the Laker game Friday night … with both sides needing to be separated before eventually making amends.

On Friday night, Ex-NFLer and Fox Sports commentator Sharpe who usually gets into verbal fisticuffs on-air with Skip Bayless, got into a heated altercation this time with Ja Morant’s dad at a Lakers game, TMZ reports.

Tempers flared when Sharpe and Tee Morant went toe-to-toe and both had to be restrained during the Memphis Grizzlies vs. Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena when the two got into a shouting match.

Sharpe and Memphis guard Dillon Brooks went back and forth during the game when Morant and another Grizzlies player Steven Adams jumped into the fray and started something with Sharpe.

That’s when things took a turn and testosterone got turned up when the men started yelling and barking at each other. Sharpe was seen yelling, “I bet you won’t” at Tee with a number of staffers trying hard to separate the men and get things under control.

Sharpe who is a strong supporter of LeBron James, Spoke with ESPN afterward about the dust-up before the second half, saying:

“They didn’t want this smoke, Dave,” Sharpe said speaking to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin at halftime.

Shannon Sharpe spent halftime in the tunnel with security before returning to his seat for the third quarter. He granted ESPN a brief interview explaining what happened with the Grizzlies on his way to his seat: pic.twitter.com/XZNw6sQhEG

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 21, 2023

“They do all that talking and jockeying and I ain’t about that jockeying. It started with Dillon Brooks. I said he was too small to guard LeBron. He said, ‘F— me’. I said, ‘F— you’ back. He started to come at me, and I said, ‘You don’t want these problems.’ And then Ja came out of nowhere talking. He definitely didn’t want these problems. Then the dad came and he obviously didn’t want no problems.

“But I wanted anything they had. Don’t let these fools fool you now.”

After all the bravado, the two men ultimately made amends and shook hands

“Shannon didn’t do anything,” Tee Morant told ESPN. “Hey, he was doing like we do in South Carolina. We talk our s—. … South Carolina, stand up!”

Can’t we all just get along?

• Technology

by Atiya Jordan

January 20, 2023

How the Black Metaverse is Changing the Digital Game

---

Since Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and its entities would fall under an entirely new handle in 2021, movers and shakers in all things Black are creating a melting pot of Black excellence within the digital avatar space.

Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn, associate professor at Columbia University School of Social Work, has explored the intersection of Blackness and emerging technologies in her research, defining the metaverse as a “translation of the physical world into the digital space,” often by “people who are not us and who don’t look like us,” according to Penn GSE News.

“If we don’t imagine, who’s doing it for us? Whose imagination and reality are we living in?” she asked during a previous talk.

Today, the Black metaverse is building its legacy upon a platform responsible for disproportionately harming Black users, according to several reports. From overzealous regulations of Facebook posts to racial profiling, people of color are experiencing racism and sexism in the virtual world, too.

Shortly after the launch of the metaverse, several sources have echoed these arguments about this next-generation internet, dubbed the metaverse. One outlet highlights algorithms’ role in “making decisions on who gets to see what content or how images are interpreted,” explaining that they “suffer from racial and gender biases.”

In response, Facebook has taken measures to resolve the “complicated issues” of DEI in technology, including broadening access to the metaverse for users and creators and updating its ad targeting categories to no longer include “ethnic affinities.”

Despite it all, Black entrepreneurs of all calibers have dived into the metaverse, including Slutty Vegan’s founder Aisha “Pinky” Cole, Black-ish star Marsai Martin, and rap legend, Snoop Dogg.

Here are a few examples of how Black visionaries of the metaverse are changing the digital game with their gifts, talents, and passions. 

Black women in the metaverse

It can be argued that Meta has fostered a poor relationship with Black users on its Facebook platform, particularly with Black women.

But boss ladies like the CEO of Sara Belay Inc., Sara “Lovestyle” Hood, are defying the conventions of a system that is arguably correlated with racism. Recently, Hood announced her ownership of the Houston Hyenas in David J. Ortiz’s SimWin Sports, a sports league in the metaverse, BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported.

Reportedly, Ortiz’s digital sports league is the first operation in the world to sell professional sports franchises as NFTs.

Passing on knowledge, cementing roots

A Black professor is taking education to greater heights on a platform riddled with censorship and bias in algorithms.

In the spirit of Black History Month, students at Morehouse College in Atlanta will have the opportunity to enter the virtual 3-D space to experience the lives of enslaved African Americans, as told in a story by BLACK ENTERPRISE. Led by professor Ovell Hamilton, this first-of-its-kind Black history course will be taught entirely in the metaverse.

Preserving culture and entertainment

In a commitment to develop and showcase talent in the Global South, Africa’s largest telco, MTN, has recently pulled off its first-ever African concert in the Metaverse, featuring some of the brightest rising stars from the award-winning TBTM flagship series, The Mic: Africa.

Thanks to TBTM (Take Back the Mic) Studios’ production work, The Mic: Africa in the Metaverse Concert invites audiences on a ride through fantastical and vibrant virtual worlds and soulful live-action performances.

• News

by Diamond Jeune

January 20, 2023

Desperate Measures: Man Miraculously Survives Almost a Month at Sea by Eating Ketchup

---

Imagine going adrift for 24 days with only a ketchup bottle, a few spices, and rainwater to eat.

That was 47-year-old Elvis Francois‘ exact situation when he got lost at sea after repairing his boat outside the Caribbean island of St. Martin in Netherlands Antilles.

According to Colombian officials, the event occurred in December while Francois was inside working on the boat, and the currents pushed it into the middle of the sea. Francois said that he could not return to land because he lacked navigational skills.

During those 24 days, he lived off of a concoction he made with ketchup, garlic powder, and Maggi seasoning cubes. Francois also revealed that he stayed hydrated using a cloth to collect rainwater.

Francois was rescued this week by the Colombian Navy, 120 miles northwest of Cartagena. As they were passing by, Francois used a mirror as a signal to get their attention and had the word help written on the ship’s hull.

While talking about his experience, Francois disclosed that during the first moments of being adrift, he tried to contact his friends and vice versa, but he had lost cell service.

“I called my friends, they tried to contact me, but I lost the signal. There was nothing else to do but sit and wait,” he said in an official video released by the Colombian Navy.

Later, Francois mentioned that he had “lost hope” because his previous attempts to get rescued, including starting a fire, had failed. However, after the Colombian Navy saved him, Francois expressed he couldn’t be more thankful.

“At some point, I lost hope and thought about my family. But I thank the coast guard. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be telling the story,” Francois said.

On January 18, Commander Carlos Urbano Montes told the public that Francois was given a medical exam and had a good bill of health despite losing some weight.The navy also reported that Francois will go back home to Dominica after turning him over to immigration officials.

Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. was in Paris for a team trip and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to propose to his longtime girlfriend.

Jones, 25, popped the big question to his girlfriend, Sherry, during the Bulls’ trip to Paris for the 2023 NBA Paris Game, People reported. On Tuesday, the team shared the proposal on their Instagram page. “Engaged in Paris ❤️💍🇫🇷 Congrats to @therea1djones & his fiancée, Sherry [Shakara Pritchard], on their engagement!” the team captioned the post.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls)

A video clip shows Jones walking over to Pritchard during a group gathering and ask for her hand in marriage. “I just got a question for Shakara Pritchard. Will you make me the luckiest man in the world? Will you marry me?” he asks.

Pritchard looks visibly stunned as she holds her face in surprise before answering, “Hell yea!”

“She said ‘yes’! She said ‘yes’!” Jones shouts in excitement as his teammates cheer him on.

Jones and Pritchard went public with their relationship in 2016. Since then, the happy pair hasn’t shied away from displaying their love for each other on social media.

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day to just a regular day of the week, Jones is not ashamed to show his leading lady love on social media.

“Happy Valentine’s Day my queen 👸🏽 ❤️ love you always ❤️❤️,” he captioned his 2022 Valentine’s Day post.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Derrick Jones Jr. (@therea1djones)

He shared the same photo and others when he celebrated Pritchard on her birthday a few months later.

“Happy birthday my queen glad to be able to spend your special day with you,” he captioned the post. “I hope you have one of the best days of your life I love you 💕 ❤️😍🥰🥳🥳🥳”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Derrick Jones Jr. (@therea1djones)

Jones was drafted in 2016 and is a crucial component of the Bulls. In 2020, he won the NBA’s All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest over Dwight Howard, Aaron Gordon, and Pat Connaughton and secured a deal with Puma.