• News

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

July 6, 2021

Chicago Community Questions Inspiration Behind New Ida B. Wells Monument

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Famed investigative journalist and activist Ida B. Wells is being honored in the city of Chicago with her own monument.

On Wednesday, a new monument commemorating her memory was unveiled in her hometown in the South Side Chicago, NPR reports. Named The Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument, sculptor Richard Hunt crafted the piece using one of Wells’ most famous quotes.

The monument features three bronze columns that are intertwined with bronze sheets. The abstract coils and spirals were compared to that of a hat or crown.

Her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster requested something more interpretive in form rather than the traditional statues and busts of Wells throughout the country. She took to Twitter to praise the new monument.

Goal achieved. My great-grandmother #IdaBWells was a complex, multi-faceted woman who people regarded in different ways during her lifetime. The abstract #IdaBWellsMonument allows people to bring themselves into the work by Richard Hunt. https://t.co/Iycrs6iBlI

— MLDwrites (@MichelleDuster) July 1, 2021

As the community comes together to marvel over the new art piece, some are wondering what the inspiration was behind the design.

“It’s that I’m curious,” spectator Roberta Trotter told the Chicago Tribune. “On top, is that a hat? A crown of thorns? It is interesting. I just want to know what the artist thinks before I say more. But I do see a strong base. That, I understand — Ida was a strong woman.”

The monument came by way of funds from 4,300 donors and was made during a fundraising campaign held over several years. It’s housed on the site of where the Ida B. Wells Homes once stood. The housing project was constructed back in the 1930s but was demolished in 2011 and turned into an area for market-rate and subsidized housing.

#IdaBWellsMonument in #Chicago
Made possible by over 4300 donors.
It is the people's monument created by world-renowned Chicago-based Richard Hunt pic.twitter.com/bN0QiFjyld

— MLDwrites (@MichelleDuster) July 2, 2021

“Hopefully it becomes a point of pride to Bronzeville, the kind of thing people want to serve as a backdrop to their lives here,” Duster said. “That’s what I want — a gathering spot.”

The monument comes two years after the Congress Parkway was renamed in Wells honor and one year after Wells was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the lynching of African Americans. Now the monument further solidifies Wells’s legacy in the America.

There is drama over at ESPN and it has nothing to do with NBA players or Paul Pierce partying with strippers. This time around, reporter Rachel Nichols is under fire after leaked audio revealed her unfavorable view of fellow reporter Maria Taylor.

Just days before the NBA Finals is set to air, Nichols has been axed as a sideline reporter after she was caught questioning how Taylor became a reporter, NBC News reports. The revelations were made in Sunday’s New York Times where Kevin Draper unveiled comments Nichols made privately about Taylor being picked to host the network’s 2020 NBA Finals coverage.

With last year’s finals taking place on the heels of nationwide protests against racial injustice, ESPN seemingly found it appropriate to switch things up and let Taylor cover the games instead of Nichols.

A recording of Nichols’ conversation revealed her belief that ESPN only picked Taylor because they were “feeling pressure” about its “crappy longtime record on diversity,” as noted by UpRoxx.

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said in July 2020.

“If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.”

Once the controversial comments were made public, Nichols took to the airwaves to apologize on Monday.

https://twitter.com/Snd1129/status/1412140622354464773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1412140622354464773%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.https%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2021%2F07%2F05%2Frachel-nichols-apologizes-to-maria-taylor-on-espn-after-video-caused-firestorm%2F

“So the first thing they teach you in journalism school is don’t be the story. And I don’t plan to break that rule today or distract from a fantastic Finals,” Nichols said at the opening of “The Jump”.

“But I also don’t want to let this moment pass without saying how much I respect, how much I value our colleagues here at ESPN. How deeply, deeply sorry I am for disappointing those I hurt, particularly Maria Taylor, and how grateful I am to be part of this outstanding team.”

But with the heightened public scrutiny Nichols is under, ESPN decided to remove her as the sideline reporter for the upcoming NBA Finals. The job will instead go to reporter Malika Andrews. Nichols will continue to host The Jump, and Taylor will continue her pre-game and halftime hosting.

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• Entertainment

by Derek Major

July 6, 2021

Director and Filmmaker Spike Lee Denounces Race Relations In America At The Cannes Film Festival

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Reuters – Director Spike Lee on Tuesday denounced the state of race relations in the United States three decades after he first shook audiences in Cannes with films on bigotry and violence, drawing parallels with the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

Lee, the first Black person to head up the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, said little had progressed since ‘Do The Right Thing’ premiered on the French Riviera in 1989 – a Brooklyn-based tale of spiraling racial tensions and police brutality with a startling resonance now.

“When you see brother Eric Garner, when you see king George Floyd, murdered, lynched… you would think, you would hope that thirty-some motherfucking years later Black people would stop being hunted down like animals,” Lee told a news conference in Cannes, where the world’s biggest cinema showcase is due to kick off.

A judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22-1/2 years in prison in June for Floyd’s murder during an arrest in May 2020.

Video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd for more than nine minutes caused outrage around the world, and the verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.

Eric Garner was killed in a deadly chokehold by a white police officer during a 2014 arrest. His dying words, “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Lee’s darkly funny ‘Do The Right Thing‘ – in which tempers fray and led to a deadly outcome over the course of boiling hot day in Brooklyn – outraged some critics when it was first released, with some claiming it would encourage riots.

Lee has directed and produced more than 35 films since 1983 through his production company 40 Acres And A Mule. His movies include Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020).

(Reporting by Sarah White and Michaela Cabera, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

• Women

by Derek Major

July 6, 2021

Caster Semenya Banned from Olympics, Promises To Continue Fight

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Reuters – Caster Semenya vowed to continue her fight against the ban that prevents her from competing in her preferred 800m event after she failed in a bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics at alternative distances.

The 30-year-old South African, who is two-time defending Olympic champion at 800m, is banned from competing in any race from 400m to a mile after World Athletics ruled in 2018 that to ensure fair competition, women with high natural testosterone levels must take medication to reduce them to compete in middle-distance races.

But Semenya, who refuses to take any medication to alter her testosterone levels, will continue to battle against the ruling despite losing several appeals over the last two years.

“The ban doesn’t make sense at all. But hey, that’s none of my business. I’ll leave it up to the right people to handle the situation, I’ll keep fighting for my rights,” she told Belgian television after finishing fourth in a 5000m race in Liege on Wednesday.

Four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles expressed support for Semenya after she was banned. Semenya has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights but that process is unlikely to be completed for months.

In the meantime, she failed in a long shot bid to go to the games, first in the 200m and then at 5000m.

She began last year trying the 200m as an alternative, and lowered her personal best from 24.26 to 23.49, but was still well outside of the Olympic qualifying mark of 22.80.

Semenya then abandoned those plans in favor of the much longer distance as she said she feared injury.

But at 5000m she proved unable, despite several efforts over the last three months, to finish inside the qualifying mark of 15:10.00 and missed out. Her last effort in Liege on Wednesday would not have counted anyway as it was after the deadline for Olympic entries.

Semenya’s future is now distinctly unclear.

“Of course I hope the rule changes. I’m an 800m runner. There’s no doubt about that. I keep hoping that I can run my preferred number. But right now my focus is on being healthy. To be an inspiration for young athletes. I will continue to fight for my rights,” she added.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Johannesburg; Editing by Toby Chopra)