Do The Golden Arches Bend Toward Justice?
Can investing in Black businesses help mitigate racism? NPR’s Code Switch podcast explores the topic:
CHATELAIN: So you see this incredible shift in what McDonald’s did in understanding that there was money to be made by going into Black communities.
MERAJI: That’s a big deal, Gene. It’s a moment when a lot of white companies realized that they were leaving millions and millions of Black dollars on the table. And that’s also when they probably started to realize that, you know, this whole civil rights movement wasn’t going to go away, and they would eventually have to acknowledge it in some way.
Minneapolis Had This Coming
Justin Ellis for The Atlantic:
James T. Wardlaw, a former head of the Minneapolis Urban League, predicted the future back in 1944 in a letter to the Minneapolis Star. Writing of systematic prejudice in Twin Cities real estate, he said: “These are the practices which during the past decade have come to be regarded as expedient and profitable. These are also the practices which if endured for another decade will reap for Minneapolis a sorry harvest.”
The Difference Between First-Degree Racism and Third-Degree Racism
John Rice for The Atlantic:
Rooting out third-degree racism is what will ultimately change the narrative about race. When white people see more black people on the same path as they are, when white people are working in diverse organizations, and when they are proximate to black leaders beyond athletes and entertainers, only then will they stop fearing and feeling superior to the black people they don’t know.
The Brief, Brilliant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
Parul Sehgal reviews a new biography of the A Raisin in the Sun playwright for the Times:
Hansberry died in 1965, at 34, of cancer. The fact still feels intolerable, almost unassimilable — her death not merely tragedy but a kind of theft. “Look at the work that awaits you!” she said in a speech to young writers, calling them “young, gifted and Black” — inspiring the Nina Simone song of the same name. Look at the work that awaited her. She goaded herself on, even in the hospital: “Comfort has come to be its own corruption.”
Bolu Babalola’s Stories Reset the Idea of Who Sees and Who Is Seen
Alyssa Cole’s New York Times review of Babalola’s collection of short stories about love:
In “Love in Color,” Babalola leans twice over into the particular appeal of love stories by and about marginalized women, who are generally denied romantic agency in pop culture if our existence is acknowledged at all: In these stories, our sense of self is never supplanted by anyone else’s idea of us. The heroines are strong and sure, even if they’re not always listening to their inner truth.
‘Them’ Is Pure Degradation Porn
Angelica Jade Bastién for Vulture:
Them — showrun and created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe — isn’t just rote, flagrantly biting the aesthetics of other filmmakers. It isn’t just morally bankrupt. It isn’t just grating in its empty platitudes and kiddie-pool-deep proclamations. I am comfortable calling it one of the most anti-Black pieces of pop culture I’ve seen in the last few years, one that left me spent after the grueling process of watching its virulent imagery.
‘Belly’ Is the FUBU of American Cinema, and That’s Why I Love It
Jordan Coley, writing for Vulture:
In his 2000 review of the Ruff Ryders/Cash Money tour for the New York Times, Jon Pareles said of DMX, “In his raps, the gangsta life is a living hell, a constant test of loyalty and resolve.” He could’ve just as easily been writing about X’s performance in Belly. Throughout the film, Buns is running (figuratively and literally) for his life, leaving a trail of death and disorder in his wake.
‘I’m sorry, you don’t do gospel.’
Queen Bey rides with Donnie.
Thanks for reading. See you next week.