It's still "The only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace" around here, but you know your elected officials still celebrate that wigga Columbus.
What the Health
To ensure future breast cancer treatments are as effective as possible, there needs to be more racial and sex diversity among those who participate in trials. Are the right people listening?
COVID’s summer peak looks like it’s heading out.
…but do we still care or are we all just cool with COVID now?
Keeping Up with Biden & Harris
$9B in federal student loans were forgiven by the Biden administration last week. Are you one of the lucky 125K people or are you one of the 43M people who got stuck with the bill?
The people hate a lying liar who lies and right about now, that’s looking like Joe Biden. He recently announced continued construction on a section of Donnie’s border wall and while he’s saying his hands are tied, folks are calling BS.
Facing increased criticisms from leaders across both sides of the aisle, Biden & co. will also resume deportation flights to Venezuela.
Congress, What’s Good?
Goofy looking Matt Gaetz got his wish. He successfully dethroned Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House due to McCarthy working with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. Ironically, Gaetz’s motion to remove McCarthy was also widely supported by House Democrats as only 8 Republicans voted for the ouster. Kevin’s embarrassment is allegedly so bad, he’s thinking of going to cry in the car (aka resigning entirely and going back to Bakersfield). For all his hard work, Gaetz may be sent packing as well.
This whole thing has us asking 2 questions: Who will be the next Speaker and what will the rest of us gain–or lose–from a new Speaker? The House is expected to cast votes for its next leader on Wednesday after its observance of Columbus Day (‘cause real colonizers recognize real colonizers…).
BTW, Laphonza Butler is officially a US Senator. She was sworn in by VP Harris last Tuesday. She is the 3rd Black woman to be sworn into the Senate after Carol Moseley Braun and the VP herself.
Oh yeah, there’s only 1 committee meeting this week.
Looking to 2024
Joe & Kamala are already hitting up the Black community for them 2024 votes. What did they deliver on from the last time, though? And before you try to pull a Sexxy Red and say nobody did more than Trump, just stop.
Dr. Cornel West has changed his party affiliation again. He’s now an Independent.
Social Justice Round Up
Last week, there were at least 2 active shooters at Morgan State University, an HBCU in Baltimore. 5 students were injured with non-life threatening injuries and homecoming this past weekend was canceled. So far, the suspects are still at large.
Alabama’s racist map saga is finally over. A panel of federal judges picked a map drawing that would give Black voters in the state two districts in which they can elect their preferred candidates a majority of the time.
Around the Diaspora
The United Nations has approved 1,000 Kenyan police forces to intervene in Haiti. Will that actually give Haitian citizens peace? Also, is Kenya coming in just to do the Western world’s bidding?
The African Union and other leaders across the continent are calling for an end to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Unaware of the longstanding hostility between these 2 countries? Check out this article for historical context and this one for a picture of the apartheid that Palestinians endure day in and out.
Same sex relationships have been decriminalized in Mauritius.
Getting to the Money
Where Are All the Black People is a hybrid career fair that aims to build community and ultimately increase the number of Black people working in the ad industry. If you are interested in attending the October 26 virtual fair or the in-person fair on October 27 in NYC, sign up here.
Students at California community colleges can get up to $5K if they want to transfer to an HBCU.
Culture that Pops
It’s official: Simone Biles is now the most decorated gymnast in history.
Howard University and Google are working to make sure we don’t have to code switch to talk to Siri or Alexa. This feels like a good thing…on the surface at least.
Something else we’re kinda skeptical about: Chris Rock is directing a biopic on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Shout out to this Black computer scientist for creating a toy robot and a book series to help da kids discover passions for coding.