💥 Good glorious afternoon! 💥 

Remember this Toni Morrison quote all day long: “You are your best thing.”  Toni Morrison, writer, philosopher, genius

Concentrate on You!

Never underestimate the importance of breathwork, especially in stressful situations.

Breathwork is easy, it’s backed by science, it’s free, and it’s effective.

Some people consider Buddhism a religion, others view it as a philosophy. Many simply incorporate Buddhist principles into their own religious traditions as an additional component to their spiritual practice. What do you think? Here is an interesting read about wonderful Black Buddhists from different walks of life, including a Christian minister and a Black Panther, for Black History Month.

✨”Being impeccable with your word means using your energy in the direction of truth and love for yourself.” ✨ 

don Miquel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

In the Spotlight

Last year, Boston University appointed accomplished physician/educator, Dr. Melissa Gilliam, as its first Black female president. Her tenure begins this July, 2024. Her dynamic background is an absolute study in what it means to translate one’s scholarship into community impact. Also, she descends from high achieving parents. Check her out!

In the News

Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, proved that she is a fierce and brilliant badass who is not about to bow to the vicious intimidation tactics of a carnival barking, pathological liar, named Donald John Trump. Michael Roman’s legal team, Trump’s attorney, and the legal teams for some of the other defendants indicted in the Fulton County Trump election interference RICO case, seem to have bitten off more than they can chew! Thus far, most legal experts do not believe any evidence was presented that would meet the criteria for removing the DA’s office from the case, so one must ask: What were those lawyers really trying to do? Were they attempting to embarrass Madam DA because they don’t think she should have the power to prosecute Trump and the others? Were they trying to distract (and delay) from the real legal issues at hand? Are they trying to impose a double standard to humiliate Fani? Or what? What do you think?

🔶 “For I know of more than a score of [Black women] who are holding positions of high responsibility, which were at first denied to them as beyond their reach. These positions, so won and held, were never intended for them; to seek them was considered an impertinence, and to hope for them was an absurdity. Nothing daunted these young women. Conscious of their own deserving, [they] would not admit or act upon the presumption that they were not as good and capable as other girls who were not really superior to them.” 🔶 Fannie Barrier Williams, 1905, master educator, co-founder of the National League of Colored Women, human rights activist, suffragette, writer, and national lecturer.

Switching from Fani to Fannie:  

A mere 28 years after the Civil War, Fannie Barrier Williams delivered a stellar lecture on “The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women of the United States Since the Emancipation Proclamation.” This lecture was in conjunction with the 1893 World’s Fair (The Columbian Exposition) in Chicago, and it helped catapult her onto the national lecture circuit.

Fannie was born, raised, and educated in New York, but, eventually, she became a Chi-town (Chicago) girl. Her husband, S. Laing Williams practiced law with Ida B. Wells’ husband, Ferdinand Barnett, in Chicago. Always civic-minded, Fannie assisted Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in his founding of Provident Hospital, which was set up to ensure that Black nurses had a teaching training ground facility. (You will recall that Dr. Williams was the first physician to successfully perform open heart surgery; and he did it at Provident.) Fannie was the first woman and first Black to serve on the Chicago Library Board. Read more about her here.

Back to Fani Willis:

There is this, which is a (small) probative piece of information…

Also, in reference to Fani, one commentator has said maybe she needed a couple vacations because fielding all those racial epithets and death threats is “exhausting.” The commentator, David Feldman, explores other news before he gets to Fani in his podcast episode, “Why Fani Willis will Destroy Trump/News.” So, if you want to jump ahead to hear only about Fani and the Fulton County hearing, go to the 31:49 time point in the podcast.

Also, there really are some really messy ethical cases out there, like this criminal defense lawyer who was representing a man accused of murder and having a sexual affair with the man’s wife. Check out this guy’s short Ohio bar suspension for that atrocious activity in this 2014 article.

Black History Month

Equity and access in the arts

Culture

Documentary

💨This 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary short, The Barber of Little Rock, provokes fascinating thought about financing small businesses in the Black community

Art

🌺 Thelma Golden is a pivotal major player— someone we should know

Music

🎶 Beyonce takes us back to our country roots and shakes up the country. 🎼

Here’s another Beyonce Texas Hold ‘Em video. (The “visualizer” immediately follows.)

Food

🍽️ Food traditions and the Black American experience 🍇

Books

📖 Madness, by prize-winning journalist, Antonia Hylton, portrays the tragic manner in which the concept of “insanity” has been weaponized against Black people.📚

Sports

Are we living in the young Patrick Mahomes football era? (Speaking of the arts and Black people, Patrick likes to be “creative” with his game.)

Parenting

Love the mental strength and self-love this beautiful baby girl exudes, and the way this mom empowers her child. Debrief them daily about the nonsense they encounter in order to reassure them of their beauty, genius, and greatness. 👶🏽

Loving Black boys fiercely, too

Mental Wellness

Sexuality: In 1976, Shere Hite wrote a book that remains the 30th best-selling book of all time: The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality. She and the book were everywhere, including on Oprah, and then all hell broke loose. Now, there is a movie about her.

Sexuality: Ever heard of the bristle reaction?

Humor

Yesterday was a day off for some. How did it go?

Find Peace

Did Whitney put Prince into a peaceful trance?

☮️

Heal Our Community: Group Therapy

Keeping Cash at the Ready in Black Communities Derives from Histories of Terror, too

by Dr. Rhonda Sherrod

My elders, who grew up in the Jim Crow South, had many remembrances of sophisticated plans and labyrinth networks that had to be activated after difficult encounters that demanded that a Black person had to leave town, before the white mob gathered, usually late that night.  Many a parent had to work fast and with high efficiency to get a son out of harm’s way after he had “sassed” a white man by asking a simple question, or looked a white woman in the eye while talking, or neglected to append a servile “ma’am” or “sir” to the end of a response.  If a Black man or woman dared to defend him or herself after a White person’s unprovoked physical attack, they absolutely had to leave. So, cash money had to be extracted out of a pillow case, from a pocket sewn under a mattress, out of a deeply hidden jelly jar, or from under a loose floor board.

In Black communities, keeping cash money at home is deeply rooted, not only in a mistrust for banks and financial institutions, but also in histories of terror.  Listening to Fulton County DA, Fani Willis, during the evidentiary hearing last week, evoked strong collective unconscious memories for many Black people.  Some of the feelings conjured up by her testimony were predicated upon traumatic family and community histories that, no doubt, sprang to mind. 

The baffling racial norms, in both the South and the North, left Black people exposed to the irrational whims, and racist sentiments, of Whites.  Something as benign and simple as a Black man proudly walking around town in his military regalia could trigger a violent response from White people.  Enraged and offended by the Black man’s patriotism and pride, many Whites jealously interpreted the Black man’s behavior as “thinking he was better than” the White man. Such “uppity” behavior incensed many Whites. Indeed, countless benign behaviors engaged in by Black people, as well as normal family occasions, and trivial kerfuffles provoked by White people, could end with Black people’s physical wellbeing getting placed into jeopardy. Simple run-ins with unreasonable White people could set off a chain of events that culminated with Black people having to quickly spirit a loved one out of town. In the blink of an eye, a Black person could be compelled to leave his home, family, community, and everything he was familiar with in order to save his (or, sometimes, her) life.

In this time of aggressive attempts to erase the sordid racial history of this country, this is one of many sorrowful, American ignominies people want to eradicate from our collective memory.  Black people lacked any semblance of equal protection under law, or due process; therefore, many had to bid a tearful farewell to (usually) a son, husband, or father who had inadvertently offended some racial code inscribed in Southern culture. 

Emmett Till’s family lacked the means and resources to get him out of Money, Mississippi before the killers arrived in 1955. Jesse Thornton was lynched for failing to address a White police officer as “mister” in Luverne, Alabama, outside a barber shop in 1940. Richard Wilkerson was lynched, reportedly, for defending a Black woman after a White man assaulted her, in 1934, at a Black community dance in Manchester, Tennessee. These few cases are just a sampling of the racial “infractions” that could result in Black people’s murder—if they lacked the opportunity and immediate resources to get away—right away.

So, effectively, in her testimony, Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, conveyed another traumatic aspect of the American story.  The story her father told—of not having his credit cards accepted at business establishments—is also one that many Blacks can relate to, even now.  Reportedly, Mr. John Floyd, was a member of the Black Panther Party, an organization that was ceaselessly hounded and terrorized by the federal government.  The Panthers, who were trying to form a Rainbow Coalition aimed at social and economic justice—under Illinois Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton—made racial equity demands that put them in the constant crosshairs of the government. These demands for equality and fairness also put them constantly on the run—in one way or another.

Listening to DA Willis tell her story also underscores how important it is for Black people to document their histories through Black newspapers, recordings, newsletters, journals, and various other organs of communication. Otherwise, other people will erase and alter our history, and the painful realities with which we are forced to live. Fani Willis' father, with his experiences as a former Black Panther, a criminal defense lawyer, and a world traveler, has to be well-versed and schooled in the ways anti-Blackness is manifested in America and all over the world. The Panthers came into existence, essentially, because of the need to “police the police,” who were using their state sanctioned power and authority to brutalize, intimidate, and undermine the rights of Black people in Black communities. And they did so with impunity. So, Mr. Floyd knows well what his daughter is up against as she seeks to prosecute a former president who will, seemingly, stop at nothing to elude criminal sanctions.

Since Donald Trump feels compelled to make every examination of his behavior a “deflect and delay” sideshow, there may be more eruptions that demand more lessons in the history of this country.  For now, though, perhaps we can get back to reports of the prosecutions of the many cases filed against Trump in various jurisdictions, including Fulton County, Georgia. For as DA Willis has indicated, investigating Trump’s behaviors and alleged criminal shenanigans is an imperative. As quoted in the New York Times, she said, “It is really not a choice—to me, it’s an obligation. Each DA in the country has a certain jurisdiction that they’re responsible for. If alleged crime happens within their jurisdiction, I think they have a duty to investigate it.” Hopefully, DA Willis can get back to work soon.

“Here you are, Black and Woman, and in love with yourself. You are terrifying. They are terrified (as they should be).” Upile Chisala

SHE (Surviving, Healing, and Evolving)

“Unlocking Healing, Fearlessness, and Freedom”

🤎

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