‘The Michelle Obama Podcast’ debuts July 29 on Spotify
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 17, 2020

‘The Michelle Obama Podcast’ debuts July 29 on Spotify

For all those who wanted to hear more from former First Lady Michelle Obama, you will finally get your chance! Spotify has announced that Obama will debut her podcast, The Michelle Obama Podcast on July 29.

Last year, Spotify cemented a partnership with her and President Barack Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. The Michelle Obama Podcast is the first in the exclusive deal to produce podcasts for the platform.

Check out the teaser:

“My hope is that this series can be a place to explore meaningful topics together and sort through so many of the questions we’re all trying to answer in our own lives,” Obama said. “Perhaps most of all, I hope this podcast will help listeners open up new conversations—and hard conversations—with the people who matter most to them. That’s how we can build more understanding and empathy for one another.”

Higher Ground, was created to produce powerful stories to “entertain, inform, inspire, and to lift up new, diverse voices in the entertainment industry.”

“At Spotify, we seek to connect listeners with the world’s most authentic and compelling voices,” said Spotify’s Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff. “We believe that audiences across the globe will be inspired by these most candid, most human, and most personal conversations between First Lady Michelle Obama and her guests.”

Topics will range from sibling relationships and raising children to girlfriends, women’s health, mentorship, and marriage. There is already an array of special guests planned: Dr. Sharon Malone, Craig Robinson (Obama’s brother and former Oregon State University men’s basketball coach), Valerie Jarrett, talk show host Conan O’Brien, and Michele Norris, will join the former First Lady and best-selling author for each conversation.

For anything Obama-related, including playlists from the couple on the Spotify platform, you can visit the Higher Ground hub.

Oregon State Legislators Approve $62 Million Fund For Black Businesses & Organizations
by Derek Major

July 17, 2020

Oregon State Legislators Approve $62 Million Fund For Black Businesses & Organizations

The Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board designated $62 million to a fund providing direct assistance to Black businesses, individuals, and families.

According to We Buy Black, the Oregon Cares Fund will give grants of up to $3,000 to families and up to $100,000 to Black-owned businesses. The money was allocated by the Oregon Legislature Emergency Board.

“The Oregon Cares Fund is a targeted investment in the Black community from the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund,” the website states. “This fund is meant to provide the Black community with the resources it needs to weather the global health pandemic and consequent recession. The Oregon Cares Fund is for Black people, Black-owned businesses and Black community based organizations.”

The fund’s critics question the constitutionality of earmarking funds for a specific racial group. Oregon Senate Minority Leader Fred Girod cited a July 13 opinion by the Legislative Counsel’s Office, which indicates unless the state specifically cites detailed evidence of past wrongs against Black families and businesses, the fund could violate equal protection laws.

“We think the program may potentially, but would not necessarily, violate the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution and the privileges and immunities clause of the Oregon Constitution,” wrote deputy legislative counsel David Fan-Yeng in the opinion.

“We are not aware of any evidentiary findings by the Legislature or the Emergency Board in support of the [Cares Fund],” Fan-Yeng continued. “Without any such findings, the program would almost certainly be unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The Oregon Cares Fund will be managed by the Portland-based nonprofit organization The Contingent. The state of Oregon has more than 13,000 coronavirus cases in the state and more than 250 deaths as a result.

Last week, Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Steve Daines (R-MT) created a $50 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief fund proposal for Black businesses.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 17, 2020

Live Nation Aims to Double Number of Black Leaders by 2025

Live Nation has announced that it is working on bringing diversity to its ranks and will take part in the conversation when it comes to racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a letter posted to employees on the Live Nation website, Michael Rapino, president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, states that “our mission has always been about bringing people together to share experiences and to unify them through the universal language of music. Despite the fact that we remain physically distant, this fundamental part of who we are is as important as it has ever been. We can only be successful in this mission if we address inequality and injustice at every level of our organization.”

He goes on to state that recent events around police brutality against Blacks and racial injustice in the U.S. and around the world have made them recognize they have to expand their “efforts across race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other underrepresented groups.’

He stated several initiatives that Live Nation will implement in the coming years.

“We commit to increasing diversity at every level of our company”

Starting with its board of directors, Live Nation will nominate more Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and women candidates to have at least 30% of the board be diverse by 2025. It will be investing at least $10 million globally over the next two years to expand and launch new programs “focused on developing, promoting and hiring Black and underrepresented talent” as it tries to bring the overall employee population “to parity across race and gender in every country.” In the United States, it plans to “have doubled our Black leadership representation.”

“We commit to putting diversity center stage at our events around the world”

Over the past decade, Live Nation has invested more than $300 million in music business ventures “that empower Black artists and entrepreneurs.” Its 100+ festivals will strive to present more diverse lineups from underrepresented races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and genders. 

“We commit to increasing our spend with Black and minority-owned vendors“

While spending more than $2 billion each year on staging and sourcing for shows, it will focus on making opportunities to support minority-owned business “wherever possible, from stage lighting companies to our 401k investment managers, and more.”

“We commit to amplifying social justice causes” 

Once it is feasible to do so, Live Nation will develop programs and initiatives that “artists, brands, and fans can tap into, including championing voter registration on-site at venues and online as part of the ticket-purchase experience.”

“We commit to holding ourselves accountable”

It plans on providing “anti-bias education training, tracking our diversity data globally, facilitating ongoing pay equity analysis, tying goals to leadership compensation, and establishing an Equity Accountability Board.”

Live Nation
(Image: Live Nation)
Kiva Joins Forces With Esusu on National Rent Relief Effort to Support Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19
by Dana Givens

July 17, 2020

Kiva Joins Forces With Esusu on National Rent Relief Effort to Support Small Businesses Impacted by COVID-19

The spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus pandemic, has caused many across the country to lose their jobs as results of closure to contain the outbreak. Due to the sudden rise in unemployment, many business owners are afraid of what this means when the rent is due to their landlords. To protect small businesses from losing their brick-and-mortar storefronts, nonprofit lending platform Kiva is teaming Esusu to provide rent relief for those affected by COVID-19.

To provide rent relief for Black and Latinx business owners, Esusu and Kiva have created the national Rent Relief Fund to provide aid for renters who have become behind on their rent payments. The newly established fund has been able to raise $180,000 while also ensuring that participants can also apply for additional funds through Kiva at zero-interest.

“We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has global impact, and we’ll continue to explore ways to help as many people affected by this crisis as possible. Currently, the U.S. market is the place we have the most agility to deploy financial assistance,” the company wrote on its website. The goal of the fund was to give renters more options without creating more debt for themselves.

“Kiva is incredibly excited to partner with a mission-driven organization such as Esusu,” said Rohit Agarwal, Head of Kiva US in a press statement. “We are excited that our partnership will help hundreds of small businesses get back on their feet with affordable capital in the near term and build credit in the long term.”

 

Hate Groups Received PPP Loans As Black Businesses Struggle To Stay Afloat
by Derek Major

July 16, 2020

Hate Groups Received PPP Loans As Black Businesses Struggle To Stay Afloat

A report listing the companies that have received funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) shows hate groups have received a litany of funds from it.

According to the Center For Media And Democracy, the Small Business Administration released the names of more than 650,000 PPP beneficiaries receiving $150,000 or more in forgivable loans from the agency. The list contained the names of several anti-immigration hate groups including the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and anti-Muslim hate group the Center for Security Policy.


Anti-LGBTQ hate groups also received funds, including the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel, and the Pacific Justice Institute. The six nonprofit hate groups received between $2.3 million and $5.7 million in PPP loans.

The PPP was designed to help small businesses make it through the coronavirus pandemic and help employers retain their workers. In turn, the loans would be forgiven, essentially turning into a grant.

More than 4.8 million small business owners have used the program, taking more than $520 billion from the program. The loans will be fully forgiven if those who take the loans spend the majority of the money paying their employees.

“Many of these groups that traffic in hate are already well-resourced, with a constant injection of funding from far-right mega-donors and dark money foundations,” Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of the Arizona branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Center. “This just highlights more cases of vital funding getting into the hands of those who didn’t need it, while many small businesses in our communities came up empty and are having to fold.”

The American Family Association received the bulk of the PPP funds, getting between $1 million and $2 million in loans from Regions Bank in April to retain 124 workers. A recent post on its website by activist David Lane compares Antifa and Black Lives Matter to an “alliance between the two devils of Nazism and Communism” that hates “good and God.”

Another post by Lane called Antifa and Black Lives Matter more dangerous than ISIS.

Antifa and Black Lives Matter “work together in pillaging and marauding targeted cities of America,” the entry claims. “In their duplicity and subterfuge they come close to or may even top the heinous terror outfit ISIS, which ransacked northern Iraq’s historic Christian and Muslim shrines.”

In April, several large chain restaurants and even the Los Angeles Lakers applied for and received PPP funds before being shamed into returning the funds.

by Selena Hill

July 16, 2020

CNN Host and Comedian W. Kamau Bell on His Shifting View of White Supremacy and Defunding Police

Season 5 of the United Shades of America couldn’t arrive at a better time.

The CNN original series hosted by comedian W. Kamau Bell kicks off its new season Sunday as the country opines on how to rectify centuries of systemic racism—a topic that’s been at the center of national discourse following the police killing of George Floyd.

Bell, a sociopolitical comic and activist, has been traveling the country and tackling issues of race, justice, and equality on the show since its debut in 2016. However, he says his views on race have evolved over the past five years. For instance, in the first season, Bell addressed white supremacy through the lens of Ku Klux Klan members in Kentucky. The new season revisits this issue by exploring how white supremacy has been woven into the fabric of American life.

United Shades of America
“United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell” [photo courtesy of CNN]
“The first season is sort of like baby pictures,” Bell tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I’m always just trying to make the show better,” he continues. “It’s just about making the work deeper, more resonant. So, the way we talked about white supremacy in the very first episode of the show, where I talk to the Klan is very different than how the show talks about white supremacy now.” He adds, “I want to always be challenging myself and learning more and then putting that on screen. So, I learned things in this episode that I don’t know that I would have understood in the first episode, but because I’ve traveled the country now for five years, I’ve just seen a lot.”

Back then, he had a more optimistic perspective on race relations in America. “When the show started in 2016, Obama was still in office. We sort of thought things were sort of headed in a good direction,” he explains. Now in 2020, the host and executive producer says his views have shifted to support solutions like defunding the police, an approach many considered radical a few years ago.

“The difference between police reform and defending the police is, I think, a big conversation,” said the 47-year-old comedian. “In 2016, I remember being like, ‘oh, if police wore cameras, that’ll make everything OK,’” he says. “I wasn’t ready to have the defund the police conversation in 2016 in a way that I’m certainly ready to have it now.”

During the Sunday opener, titled “Where Do I Even Start with White Supremacy?,” Bell travels to Pittsburgh to explore racism and anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.

“Our first episode is about white supremacy. So we’re coming out of the gate pretty hot. And because it was the last episode we worked on, there’s footage of protests in it, there’s footage talking about COVID in it.”

Other episodes in the Emmy Award-winning docuseries examine reparations, the homeless crisis in LA, public education, the gig economy, and the experiences of Iranian Americans in New York City.

The season 5 debut of CNN’s United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell premieres Sunday, July 19 at 10 EDT/PDT.

Watch W. Kamau Bell’s full interview on The New Norm With Selena Hill below.

 


Protesters Sue The City of Philadelphia For Military-Force Police Violence During Protests
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 16, 2020

Protesters Sue The City of Philadelphia For Military-Force Police Violence During Protests

The city of Philadelphia has been hit with multiple lawsuits alleging that the police department instigated the violence against people marching during recent protests over several police killings of Black victims, according to CBS News. 

There were three civil rights lawsuits filed in Philadelphia earlier this week accusing the city of using military-level force that injured people protesting and innocent bystanders amid peaceful protests against racial inequality and police brutality.

“They were just opening fire on anybody they saw, for hours and hours, regardless of any conduct or justification,” said Bret Grote, legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center, who called the police response reckless.

“They were shooting children. They were shooting old people. They were shooting residents on their own street. They were gassing the firefighters,” he said.

Three separate federal lawsuits were filed by the Abolitionist Law Center, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and civil rights lawyers. In the suits, 145 plaintiffs allege police and city officials violated their constitutional rights to free expression and freedom from excessive force with heavy-handed tactics deployed to disperse crowds of largely peaceful protesters and bystanders.

Mayor Jim Kenney stated that they are looking into the specifics of the incidents and will hold police officers accountable.

“I am highly concerned about what transpired on both I-676 and 52nd Street and I fully regret the use of tear gas and some other use of force in those incidents,” Kenney said.

“In response to protests and a national conversation about police accountability and an end to a long history of police brutality, the Philadelphia Police Department reacted with more brutality,” said lawyer Jonathan Feinberg, who is involved in this lawsuit and works for Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg and Lin L.L.P.

“Our firm dates back to 1971. We cannot recall a single episode in which the Philadelphia police used munitions like this in a peaceful protest,” Feinberg said.

Walmart, Kroger To Require Face Masks In All Stores
by Derek Major

July 16, 2020

Walmart, Kroger To Require Face Masks In All Stores

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, and Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain, will require customers to wear a mask or face covering to shop in its stores.

According to CNBC, both retailers made separate announcements Wednesday saying the policy will begin next Monday. The announcements come as coronavirus cases continue to rise, putting the U.S. economy at risk, while countries who were quick to use masks enjoy watching sports and other social activities.


The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies recommend wearing face masks as one of the best methods to protect yourself and others from contracting the coronavirus. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Tuesday the country can put a major dent in the virus in two to three weeks if everyone wears a mask and socially distances.

Walmart, Kroger, and other national retailers have had to deal with different regulations in different states and localities. This has led to a string of incidents between customers who refuse to wear masks and employees who have had to enforce store regulations.

Walmart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Dacona Smith and Sam’s Club Chief Operating Officer Lance de la Rosa said in a statement the majority of its 5,000 plus locations are in areas where there’s already some form of a government requirement for face coverings.

“While we’re certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities,”  said de la Rosa and Smith in a statement.

Smith and de la Rosa added each Walmart will have signs in front of the entrances and in stores.

Smith and de la Rosa said Walmart will post signs, train employees, and create a new role to enforce the policy. The designated employees, called health ambassadors, will get special training and will stand near the entrance wearing black polos. Ambassadors will remind customers about the mask requirement when they walk to the entrance. All stores will use a single entrance.

Black Guns Matter Group Is Teaching Black Americans How To Use Firearms
by Derek Major

July 16, 2020

Black Guns Matter Group Is Teaching Black Americans How To Use Firearms

A group called Black Guns Matter is teaching Black Americans how to handle and use firearms in the wake of protests and increased racial tensions.

According to Business Insider, Maj Toure, the founder of the group, has been advocating for Black Americans to take up arms for self-defense.

“I believe that more Black people would be alive if they were armed,” Toure told Business Insider Weekly. “So when I hear ‘unarmed Black man,’ I’m sad, because there should be no such thing.”


When protests began in late May after the death of George Floyd, Toure flew to Minneapolis and began teaching protest crowds proper firearm technique and safety, blocks away from Floyd’s memorial.

“If you would like a free basic firearm safety class, you can get it right here,” Toure told a group of passers-by, setting up a table with replica handguns. “The police, as we see, will leave. They will not come to save you. They will not save our businesses. So if you want that, I’ll do that here. Anyone can come. It is completely free.”

Toure said he started the Black Guns Matter in 2016 to help Black Americans navigate gun ownership laws and protect themselves.

“We saw so much ignorance going on,” Toure said. “Guys that lived in rough neighborhoods may have been missing some information in order to carry a firearm on their person. So what we in essence did was we created the space to let people know what was their process and what process it was of getting a firearm, lawfully carrying it on their person if they chose to, while being safe and responsible.”

While Toure believes every Black American should own a gun, his critics point to the fact Black Americans are treated differently in a criminal justice system that’s systemically racist.

“What we do know is that when Black people do have guns, they are still shot and killed by police or by other bystanders,” Amber Goodwin, founder and executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund told Business Insider.

Toure also knows systemic racism has stacked the rules around gun control against Black Americans.

“I pick my words very carefully: All gun control is racist,” Toure said. “Whether they change it to make it look like, you know, you got to pay a fee, you got to do this, you do that. Gun control in America was initially created to stop melanated beings from having arms.”

by Dana Givens

July 16, 2020

Target Just Rolled Out a New Badge to Help You Identify Black-Owned or -Founded Brands

The protests erupting all over the country in light of a recent string of Black people dying at the hands of police officers has created new dialogue around race relations in the U.S. and various other countries. As a result, many institutions, public figures, and major corporations have taken major steps to promote Black voices and brands through numerous business funds and initiatives. This week, Target announced that it will be implementing a new digital badge to help shoppers identify Black-owned brands.

Target made the announcement on its Instagram as a part of its initiative to help Black-owned brands within the store thrive. The new feature shows a small beige badge decorated with multiple shades of brown and beige hearts to identify all Black-owned businesses in its online store. Customers will be able to locate the badge within the product details section and the “at a glance category.”


The company decided to make the badge after reviewing a recent customer survey. The current names they carry from Black entrepreneurs include Cantu, Shea Moisture, The Honey Pot, The Lip Bar, and Black Girl Sunscreen.

“We have carried a number of Black-owned brands for years and continue to listen to guests to ensure we offer a compelling and relevant assortment that supports our guests’ needs,” said the company in a statement according to Allure. “Based on what our guests are searching for, we have started to implement icons online to help our guests find and support Black-owned brands and founders when they shop online.”

 

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