The National Basketball Association (NBA) and its players’ association announced a three-point plan to promote social justice and racial equality, including turning NBA arenas into polling locations.

According to a release by the NBA on Twitter, in every city where a league franchise owns and controls its arena, team officials will work with local election officials to convert the area into a polling location for the 2020 general election.

This will “allow for safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to the coronavirus,” the statement said. If the arena cannot be used as a polling location, the team will work with election officials to find another elections-related use for the arena.

Additionally, the NBA and its players will create a social justice coalition made up of players, coaches, and league governors that will focus on a broad range of issues including voting access, promoting civic engagement, and criminal justice reform.

The NBA will also work with players and network partners to create advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.

The initiatives were agreed to Thursday night after representatives from the NBA and the players’ association met to discuss solutions.

The Milwaukee Bucks conducted a wildcat boycott of its playoff game Wednesday after Jacob Blake, a Black man and father was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer as he walked toward his car. After the Bucks refused to take the court for their game, players from other games Wednesday agreed to take the same action.

Several games in MLB and MLS have also been canceled in recent days. The NHL did not postpone its games Wednesday, but hasn’t played since at the request of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

Players have demanded league officials and owners speak up about the racial injustices happening across the country recently. Before the NBA restarted its season, there was a heated debate among players whether to return.

There were a group of players who felt returning to finish the season would step on the Black Lives Matter movement and protests going on across the country. Before committing to finishing the season, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, allowed players to wear slogans on their jerseys promoting unity and painted the phrase Black Lives Matter on the courts, something not every owner was OK with.

President Donald Trump has called for himself and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to submit to drug tests before their first debate next month.

Trump told the Washington Examiner, a conservative news company, he noticed a sudden improvement in Biden’s performances during Democratic debates on TV. However, Trump did not offer any evidence as to how he reached this conclusion or what Biden might have been using.

When asked what made him believe Biden was taking something, Trump only said: “I’m pretty good at this stuff.”

On Wednesday Trump said Biden “wasn’t even coherent” in some of the 11 live TV debates during the Democratic primary season last summer.

However, by March 15, when Biden debated Bernie Sanders, the only candidate left, he appeared to have more energy and fight.

“I don’t know how he [Mr Biden] could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie,” Trump told the Examiner.

The three presidential debates will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 29; in Miami, Florida, on Oct.15; and Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22.

Trump did the same to Hillary Clinton in 2016 saying she had been “getting pumped up” before their debates and challenged her to take a drug test ahead of their final live TV encounter. The Clinton campaign largely ignored his challenge.

“It wasn’t that he was Winston Churchill because he wasn’t, but it was a normal, boring debate, Trump added. “You know, nothing amazing happened. And we are going to call for a drug test because there’s no way—you can’t do that.”

Trump also compared the debates to a boxing match.

“Well, it is a prizefight. It’s no different from the gladiators, except we have to use our brain and our mouth. And our body to stand. I want all standing—they want to sit down.”

Trump asked to have more debates but the Commission on Presidential Debates declined. He then asked for the first debate to be held earlier for the benefit of early voters, but was again rebuffed.

Biden and Trump, both in their 70s, have recently traded barbs saying the other has dementia and their mental capacity has slowed.

• Entrepreneurship

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

August 28, 2020

Black Nurse Turned Entrepreneur Launches ID Badges For Essential Healthcare Workers of Color

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Reflections By Zana is launching a unique line of workplace accessories for underrepresented front line health care professionals required to work during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Creator Aneesha Smith, a nurse with 19 years of experience, says the badges are necessary because hospital workers are repeatedly questioned by patients to clarify their titles, and are often mistaken with one another—even more now during a face-covering pandemic.

“We are one of the few disciplines that have to work during this crisis,” Smith says. “We don’t have a choice when it comes to working from home, but these badges do provide the opportunity for us to choose how we’re being represented, seen, and acknowledged on the job.”

Her distinctive ID badge reels include hand-painted wooden, enamel, and PVC badges featuring images and titles of Black professionals.

Smith’s two daughters inspired her to create these ID badges. Both are digital artists, who are in love with the anime art style. However, in showcasing their creations, Smith noticed their digital art pieces didn’t usually depict characters that mirrored them.

She comments, “I set out to show them how we could be our own muses—which is something that our generation grew up watching on TV and seeing in movies. The positive representation now seems to be limited or even recycled imagery, rather than regular, mainstream depictions of our creative, cultural, and career-minded diversity.

“When I created the first set of wooden badges mostly for nurses, I discovered that meaningful, personalized representation of us in the workplace was missing. My creations were welcomed with open arms and I’ve personally hand-painted over 12K wooden badges covering a myriad of professions—the largest one being healthcare workers.”

Learn more or place an order today at http://reflectionsbyzana.etsy.com.

Reflections By Zana got its start on Etsy in 2016 and has since expanded to a second online store, RBZExpressions.com. Smith operates the business with her husband of over 15 years. Their goal is simple: become known as the go-to provider of numerous and much-needed items representative of professionals of color.

Their growing line of badges feature images for all careers, ranging from health care to activism, and have expanded into other professions including social work and law.

The full work-related product line features melanin-inspired items, such as retractable badge ID holders, stethoscopes and stethoscope charms, work bags, face coverings, and classy compression socks. Travel items include passport covers, luggage straps/tags, and travel bags. Reflections By Zana also offers umbrellas, cell phone cases, and items inspired by Greek fraternities and sororities.

Collections include Queens Stand Up! Loc’d Goddess, #blackout, Mommy & Me, BNR (Black Nurses Rock!), Graduation Station, and Throwback—an homage to movie culture.

Smith says sales of her products are already growing organically. “Customers are buying badges and then leveling up with new badges when they receive new degrees,” she says. “This has really become a badge of honor for professionals, something I’m so proud to be a part of.”

This article was originally written by BlackBusiness.com.

Alice Johnson, who had her sentence commuted by President Donald Trump after serving more than 20 years for a nonviolent drug offense, gave a passionate speech on criminal justice reform at the Republican National Convention Thursday night.

“I was once told that the only way I would ever be reunited with my family would be as a corpse,” Johnson said according to BuzzFeed. “But by the grace of God and the compassion of President Donald John Trump, I stand before you tonight, and I assure you, I’m not a ghost! I am alive, I am well, and most importantly, I am free.”

Johnson was granted clemency by President Trump in June 2018 after he spoke to Kim Kardashian West, who lobbied for Johnson’s release after becoming aware of her case and retweeting a Mic video on it.

This is so unfair… https://t.co/W3lPINbQuy

— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) October 26, 2017

Johnson was sentenced to life in prison for her involvement in a drug trafficking ring in Memphis, Tennessee. At the time of her arrest, Johnson had no prior offenses and was dealing with the death of her son.

“Some say, ‘You do the crime. You do the time.’ However, that time should be fair and just,” she said. “We’ve all made mistakes, and none of us want to be defined forever based on our worst decision.”

Johnson served 22 years behind bars before her 2018 release. During her time in prison, Johnson became a playwright, an ordained minister, a certified hospice volunteer, and a mentor to her fellow inmates.

After her release, Johnson became a criminal justice reform advocate, fighting for the release of others like her. Johnson was at the White House when Trump signed the First Step Act into law. The Act is a bipartisan bill expanding early release programs and loosening mandatory minimum sentences, including those for nonviolent drug offenders.

The 65-year-old called the First Step Act real criminal justice reform.

“It was REAL justice reform. And it brought joy, hope, and freedom to thousands of well-deserving people,” Johnson said. “I hollered, ‘Hallelujah!’ My faith in justice and mercy was rewarded.

“The nearly 22 years I spent in prison were not wasted,” she said. “God had a purpose and plan for my life. I was not delayed or denied; I was destined for such a time as this!”

The field of urban planning, architecture, and development is known for being a predominantly White field with little diverse representation. According to a 2019 study, only 2% of licensed architects are Black. One nonprofit design collective wants to change the face of urban development and the way cities are built with the Black community in mind.

BlackSpace is compromised of 200 Black designers, artists, urban planners, and architects committed to creating more resources for Black professionals within the field. It also strives to provide a way to bring Black voices in critical meetings that can decide how their communities will be shaped.

“Our private homes are not safe. Our public spaces are not safe,” the design collective writes on its website. “No landscape is neutral. Urbanists design and plan the built environments where these tragedies occur. The disciplines impacting our built environments are steeped in racism and anti-Blackness.”

As such, BlackSpace challenges “all curators of built spaces to unlearn traditional values” and to adopt the ideals of its manifesto, such as:

• Seek people at the margins. Acknowledge the structures that create, maintain and uphold inequity. Learn and practice new ways of intentionally making space for marginalized voices, stories, and bodies.
• Reckon with the past to build the future. Meaningfully acknowledge the histories, injustice, innovations, and victories of spaces and places before new work begins. Reckon with the past as a means of healing, building trust, and deepening understanding of self and others.

They do this through their work in historically Black neighborhoods and by hosting cross-disciplinary convenings.

“As folks from disparate fields, we weren’t used to seeing this interdisciplinary group focused on various ideas of Blackness across time and space,” Emma Osore, cofounder of BlackSpace and the director of community at the New Museum’s cultural incubator, New Inc., told Fast Company. 

“We were so enamored by the ways we were learning, the types of things we were learning, and the people in the room. And we realized we want more of this. We want to get together across disciplines to center Blackness in public space or in space.”

“Unfortunately most people who work on this day-to-day aren’t necessarily thinking about ‘How do I work, why do I work the way that I work?’ And it has grave consequences actually for Black presence in public space and Black people generally that people are not interrogating the practice of how they work,” she added.

“It’s important what we do, but I think one of our messages is the process by which you do them is as important as whatever the outcome is.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

BlackSpace Manifesto demands we protect and strengthen Black culture by making visible spaces to honor their sacredness and prevent their erasure. Amplify and support Black assets of all forms, from leaders, institutions, and businesses, to arts, cultures, and histories.⠀ ⠀ #blackurbanist #blackspace #blackhistorymatters #blackhistoricpreservation #blackculture

A post shared by BlackSpace (@blackspaceorg) on Jul 10, 2020 at 7:32am PDT

by Derek Major

August 28, 2020

Kamala Harris Blasts Trumps Coronavirus Response: ‘All We Needed Was A Competent President’

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Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris slammed President Trump for his lackluster coronavirus response that has killed more than 180,000 Americans.

“All we needed was a competent president. One who was willing to listen, willing to lead, take responsibility, have a plan, do their job,” the former attorney general told CNBC. “But Donald Trump has failed at the most basic and important job of a president of the United States,” Harris said. “It’s his obligation to protect us. Yet, he has failed miserably.”

There have been more than 6 million reported cases of coronavirus in the United States as of Thursday, with at least 180,380 Americans dead of the virus. Additionally, the U.S. accounts for more than 25% of coronavirus cases and 20% of related deaths across the world.

The California senator did not stop there.

Trump’s coronavirus ‘reckless disregard’

“Trump showed what we in the legal profession would call a reckless disregard for the well-being of the American people,” Harris added. “A reckless disregard for the danger a pandemic would pose to American lives.

“For the devastation it would do to our economy, for the damage it would do to communities of color who have been subjected to structural racism for generations. For the chaos that would upend our daily lives, make it impossible for many of our children to go to school, make it impossible to live normally and with a sense of certainty.”

Harris also praised Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, who she said “sounded the alarm” about the coronavirus while Trump continued to dismiss it.

Harris said Trump’s lack of a plan to address the outbreak in the United States literally killed thousands and his lies about medications that helped against the virus killed thousands more,  while at the same time, Biden was calling for a national strategy.

“Here’s what you have to understand about the nature of a pandemic: It’s relentless,” Harris said. “You can’t stop it with a tweet. You can’t create a distraction and hope it will go away. It doesn’t go away. By its nature, a pandemic is unforgiving. If you get it wrong at the beginning, the consequences are catastrophic. It’s very hard to catch up. You don’t get a second chance at getting it right.”

Harris Attacks Trump On China

Harris also attacked Trump on his foreign policy, noting that on Jan. 24 Trump “praised the transparency of the Chinese government.”

The Howard graduate added Trump “caved” when he needed “to be tough” with the Chinese government over its refusal to share information about the virus months ago.

“He said, quote, ‘China has been working hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciated their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well.’”

Harris added the Chinese government played a hand in the situation as well because they “weren’t being transparent.”

According to Harris, the Chinese government blocked officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “from getting access and information that they needed to protect American lives.”

“Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, Donald Trump froze. He was scared and he was petty and vindictive,” she added.

Harris also pointed out the March 16 phone call with U.S. governors where Trump “told them it wasn’t his job to get personal protective equipment to frontline workers.”

“He said ‘respirators, ventilators, all the equipment, try getting it yourselves,’” Harris said. “On that day we had about 5,000 cases as a nation. Today we have nearly 6 million. Even now, some eight months into the crisis, Donald Trump still won’t take responsibility,” she said.

Tim Murtaugh, Trump’s campaign spokesperson said in an email to CNBC “Americans have seen President Trump out front and leading the nation in the fight against the coronavirus.”

“The President’s task force began meeting in January and he restricted travel from China, and then Europe, early on. At the time, Joe Biden criticized the decision, calling it ‘hysterical xenophobia’ and ‘fear-mongering,’ so we know Biden would not have done it. We would be in far worse position today if Joe Biden had been president in January,” Murtaugh wrote.

Sotheby’s will hold its first hip-hop auction on September 15 in New York City, the first-ever dedicated hip-hop auction held at a major auction house.

The auction itself will reflect the impact that the hip-hop culture has had from the late 1970s through the “Golden Age” of the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, through present day.

“Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip-hop has become a global cultural force, whose massive influence continues to shape all realms of culture: music, fashion, design, art, film, social attitudes, language, and more. This sale is a celebration of the origins and early eras of that influence,” Cassandra Hatton, vice president and senior specialist in Sotheby’s books and manuscripts department,” said in a release.

“We are pleased to announce the auction with two renowned and beloved icons whose lives and lyricism continue to resonate—Biggie and Tupac—with lots that offer an introspective look, in their own way, at the personalities behind their respective public personas.”

Featuring more than 120 lots, the auction is comprised of artifacts, contemporary art, one-of-a-kind experiences, photography, vintage and modern fashion, historic and newly designed jewelry and luxury items, various ephemera.

The main attraction: two of the integral figures in hip-hop’s history, friends turned rivals who were gunned down long before their legends were fully written

“Leading the auction,” Sotheby’s boasted, “is the crown worn by Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie/Biggie Smalls and Notorious B.I.G.) during the 1997 ‘K.O.N.Y. (King of New York)’ portrait session, the rapper’s last recorded photoshoot before he was killed in Los Angeles three days later.”

Tupac fans will not be left out. Sotheby’s will auction off “a deeply personal archive of 22 autographed love letters written by a 16-year-old Tupac Shakur to Kathy Loy, a high school sweetheart and fellow student at the Baltimore School for the Arts.”

A portion of Sotheby’s proceeds will benefit the Queens Public Library Foundation, to support the Hip-Hop Programs which is coordinated by “Uncle” Ralph McDaniels, as well as Building Beats, a nonprofit community organization that teaches tech, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills to underserved youth through DJ and music programs.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

August 28, 2020

White Florida Woman Slaps Black Boy While Calling Him the N-Word

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A 30-year-old White Florida woman has been arrested after she reportedly slapped an 11-year-old Black boy in the face and called him the N-word, according to The Palm Beach Post. 

At Boomers, an entertainment center in Boca Raton, last weekend, Haley Zager, 30, took umbrage when a young Black boy bumped her car at a go-kart track. Angry that the little boy didn’t apologize, Zager slapped him in the face while calling him a n*****.

Zager who resides in Lantana, Florida, was initially charged with child abuse. Due to the racial element in the words she spewed, the charge was bumped up to a second-degree felony. Police also charged her with four counts of drug possession after finding prescription pills in her pocket.

According to NBC News, “At the conclusion of the go-kart ride, Zager got out of her go-kart, approached (the boy), and slapped him in the face,” Boca Raton police officer Ricky Clinard wrote in a complaint, citing the accounts of three employees who witnessed the incident.

“After the incident, Zager stated to a Boomers employee, ‘The f—— n—– hit me in the back.'”

“At Boomers parks, we value being a family fun center inclusive to guests of all backgrounds. We are saddened that one of our guests did not possess these same values and we do not condone physical or verbal abuse amongst guests,” the venue said in a prepared statement. “We are appreciative of our staff and the police and fire rescue officers who acted swiftly to diffuse the situation.”

Boomers said it had invited the child and his family to a free day at the park.

After a court hearing on Sunday at the Palm Beach County Jail, Circuit Judge Ted Booras allowed Zager to leave on her own recognizance. She left jail Monday afternoon.

Court records also show one other Palm Beach County felony case for Zager, aggravated domestic battery in 2018. Prosecutors chose not to pursue charges.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

August 28, 2020

Kenosha Shooting Victim Jacob Blake Handcuffed To Hospital Bed Despite Not Being Charged With a Crime

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Jacob Blake, the police shooting victim who is the subject of the latest outrage of unarmed Black people being shot by police officers, is laying in a hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. Yet, he is handcuffed to his bed, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

Blake, who was seen on video being shot in the back multiple times by white police officers in front of his children in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is handcuffed to his bed, according to his father, Jacob Blake Sr.

“I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed,” his father said Thursday. “He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?”

After being shot point-blank seven times in his back and being handcuffed to his bed, authorities have not announced any charges against Blake.

Former Democratic presidential challenger Andrew Yang posted that he spoke to Jacob Blake Sr.

I just spoke to #JacobBlake Sr. – his son is conscious. His first question after he woke up was “Daddy, why did they shoot me so many times?” He wept to his father. He has restraints on even though he can’t move his legs.

— Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) August 27, 2020

Blake’s father has said that he hasn’t heard from the police department or Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian. He did state that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has reached out.

At a news conference later Thursday, Evers was asked if he’s concerned about Blake being handcuffed.

“Hell yes,” Evers said.

“I would have no personal understanding why that would be necessary,” the governor said. ‘”I can’t imagine why that’s happening and I would hope that we would be able to find a … better way to have him get better and recover.”

The family’s attorney is hoping that Blake can go home once he’s released from the hospital, his father said.

After NBA players chose to take action by not playing a basketball game due to the constant systemic racism shown toward Blacks in the United States, Jared Kushner stated in a CNBC interview that the players “are very fortunate” that they “have that luxury,” according to CNBC.

The White House senior adviser, who is also married to President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, said on Thursday that the professional basketball players protesting the racial injustices Blacks face daily are fortunate enough to be “able to take a night off from work.”

“Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially,” Kushner said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “So they have that luxury, which is great.”

The Milwaukee Bucks decided not to take the court Wednesday due to the police shooting of Jacob Blake. As a result, the National Basketball Association (NBA) canceled the remaining games of the day.

The White House adviser also said, “Look, I think with the NBA, there’s a lot of activism, and I think that they’ve put a lot of slogans out. But I think what we need to do is turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that’’ going to solve the problem.”

Politico had reported that when told that LeBron James has made significant contributions, Kushner then stated that the Trump administration was open to starting a dialogue with him.

“If LeBron James reached out to the White House, or we could reach out to him, we’re happy to talk with him and say, ‘Look, let’s both agree on what we want to accomplish and let’s come up with a common pathway to get there,'” Kushner said.

Kushner told Politico that he has not yet contacted James, but added, “I’ll reach out to him today.”