Wellsraven

MLK is revered today but the real King would make white people uncomfortable

Michael Harriot, writing for The Guardian:

Every year, on the third Monday in January, America hosts a Sadie Hawkins-style role-reversal where the entire country pretends to celebrate a man whose achievements and values they spent the previous 364 days ignoring, demonizing and trying to dismantle. Today, your favorite vote suppressors will take a brief respite from disenfranchising Black voters, denying history and increasing inequality to celebrate a real American hero.

That’s right, it’s MLK Day!

Harriot left The Root for TheGrio not too long ago. Good to see he’s still one of the realest even when guest writing for a national publication.

Although in death he became one of the most revered figures in US history, for the entirety of the 39 years that King lived and breathed, there wasn’t a single day when the majority of white Americans approved of him. […]

One does not have to reach back into the historical archives to explain why King was so despised. The sentiments that made him a villain are still prevalent in America today. When he was alive, King was a walking, talking example of everything this country despises about the quest for Black liberation. He railed against police brutality. He reminded the country of its racist past. He scolded the powers that be for income inequality and systemic racism. Not only did he condemn the openly racist opponents of equality, he reminded the legions of whites who were willing to sit idly by while their fellow countrymen were oppressed that they were also oppressors. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it,” King said. “He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

Remembering André Leon Talley and his unique contributions to fashion

PBS NewsHour:

André Leon Talley, the towering former creative director and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine, has died. He had a front row seat to fashion shows around the world, and provided his readers a lens into that world through his writing.

Whenever I see Talley, I always think of the scene from The September Issue where he visits one of his favorite shops in Paris. His obsession with style, beauty, luxury, and propriety is on full display. And he’s not showing off for the camera, he really cares about these things.

Talley:

I have certain clothes just to go to Karl Lagerfeld’s house for vacation. And they’re kept in trunks until I get there. Then I never wear them again until I go the next time.

Biden’s Black Report Card: A year into the job, he still doesn’t understand the assignment

Jason Johnson, writing for TheGrio:

Biden admits that maybe he’s been skipping class, especially with African American voters. Maybe when he does show up in the future he won’t be empty handed like he was in Georgia last week.

The NFL merry-go-round for Black coaches is an embarrassment that must end

William C. Rhoden for The Undefeated:

I have written about this issue for decades and compared notes with colleagues. The names have changed, but the system has not. Indeed, covering the NFL’s racial blind spot has become an annual ritual, one that highlights the league’s unique ability to compartmentalize: It can support social justice initiatives even as it maintains a strict, predominantly white hierarchy that runs the league.

Although Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin is the only Black head coach in the NFL, Rhoden is optimistic that things will change. The league used quotas to keep Black players out for decades but now nearly 70% are Black.

Louisiana Senate Candidate Gary Chambers smokes Marijuana in Ad Campaign

Kalyn Womack for The Root:

Senate candidate Gary Chambers applied some pressure in his first campaign ad. Sitting back in a leather chair in the middle of a field, he puts a blunt to his lips and lights it. In the voiceover, he says say “Every 37 seconds someone is arrested for possession of marijuana.”

I thought this was just a publicity stunt when I first heard about it but was pleasantly surprised after watching the ad. It’s well done and Chambers drives home some important points.

Chambers:

Since 2010, state and local police have arrested an estimated 7.3 million Americans for violating marijuana laws — over half of all drug arrests. Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana laws than white people. States waste 3.7 billion dollars enforcing marijuana laws every year. Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot. Just like me.

A former federal prosecutor interrogates the inequities of the criminal justice system

Reneé Graham speaks with Laura Coates about her book Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness for The Boston Globe:

Coates says she’s “still processing” all she witnessed as a prosecutor. Prior to joining the US Attorneys office in Washington, D.C., she worked in private practice, then as a trial attorney in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, where she was “regarded as a champion.”

“There was an assumption that I was on the ‘right’ side,” Coates said. “As a criminal prosecutor, there was an assumption that I was on the ‘wrong’ side and I was against the very people I sought to champion for. There was a clear distinction of perception from the public about whose side I was on.”

It wasn’t just public perception. Coates had her own internal struggles working in a sometimes unjust system. There was the car theft victim who was cooperating with authorities when Coates discovered and had to report that he had an active warrant for immediate deportation. There was a murder victim’s family begging a judge to not sentence his killers to lengthy prison sentences because they didn’t want more Black lives destroyed. The judge did not heed their request.

Coates was Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek’s pick to replace him on the show. She’s now a senior legal analyst at CNN and host of The Laura Coates Show on SiriusXM.

Tender Embroidered Portraits by Ruth Miller Are Tinged with Expressive Colors

Grace Ebert, writing for Colossal:

Beginning with a line drawing in pencil, U.S.-based artist Ruth Miller renders hand-embroidered portraits based on photos. Her wool tapestries and thread drawings layer stitches in yarns of both realistic and fanciful colors, creating expressive depictions that use the material’s texture to enhance light and shadow.