June 27, 2021
GREATER HOUSTON EDITION
Vol. 26, Issue 23
who police the police? “Addressing Current & Historical Realties Affecting Our Community”
‘FOR THE PEOPLE’
By: N.L. Preston
BLACK GIRL MAGIC TAKING OVER TOKYO
By: Nevaeh Richardson
We are witnessing a very special moment in history for Black women in the Olympics. While we will always have our FloJo, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Debi Thomas, and so many other Black female Olympians, this new roster of Black women headed to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics is stirring up high levels of pride and anticipation within the Black community. The roster includes both celebrated veterans like Simone Biles and favored newcomers like Sha’Carri Richardson. This year’s Olympics are also shining the spotlight on Texas, which produced a heavy amount of Olympians for the U.S. this year. Here are the 11 Black women who’ve solidified their place as Olympians on the road to Tokyo. Sha’Carri Richardson Richardson has had the Black community in a supportive uproar all over social media on various platforms. She is as authentic as they come and is an unapologetic Dallas, Texas native. She’s a star and she knows it. She dominates the cameras as well as she dominates the track with her signature bright orange hair and larger-than-life personality. The 21-year-old sprinter solidified her place as a competing Olympian and the fastest woman in America after finishing the 100-meter heat in 10.64 seconds last Saturday. But the thing that made her a household name in the Black community was her interview right
after finishing the race, where she expressed her gratitude to her family and shared how she continued to train even after the death of her biological mother just days before the race. “My family has kept me grounded,” Richardson said. “This year has been crazy for me. Going from just last week, losing my biological mother, and I’m still here to make the family that I do still have on this earth proud. I’m highly grateful for them. Without them, there would be no me. Without my grandmother, there would be no Sha’Carri Richardson. My family is my everything, my everything until the day I’m done.” Simone Biles Native Houstonian Biles, is an obvious world favorite. She has conquered the globe with her daring and often dangerous stunts. She is the face of gymnastics and continues to push the boundaries of what the human body can accomplish. She is pushing the boundaries so far that gymnastic officials banned certain moves she performed because it could be dangerous for other gymnasts to attempt. Despite their efforts to limit this Black female athlete’s influence on the future of the sport, Simone Biles continues to be a feared and respected name in gymnastics and in athleticism.
Tokyo cont’d page 2
Voter suppression has run rampant across 48 states with over 300 voter restriction laws and continues to go unchecked by the federal government. These restriction laws primarily target Black and Brown communities, young people, people with low incomes, and people with disabilities. The For the People Act addresses preventing deliberate barriers that affect targeted demographics from voting, making campaign finance transparent, and creating national standards for voter accessibility such as early voting, online voting, preregistration for 16-17 year olds, and protection against voter roll purges. The act also demands ethical reform for the Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches of the federal government. Another major proposed federal legislation is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which ensures that changes made to local and state elections are reviewed by the federal government, otherwise known as a federal pre-clearance, and restores full rights that were included in the original Voting Rights Act of 1965. The weakening of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the sheer number of Republican-led states taking advantage of that fact is why the Republican filibuster was a slap in the face to the American people, but especially to the Black community which has historically labored, suffered, and sacrificed for the right to vote for all. The voting reformation bill would have been the largest change to voting rights in over five decades. It would have ended partisan gerrymandering and provided a new campaign financing system, which means big donors would no longer have the power to buy our elections. - AANI
“OUR VOTE AND OUR MONEY ARE THE TWO MOST POWERFUL THINGS WE HAVE. BE CAREFUL WHO YOU GIVE THEM TO.” - ROY DOUGLAS MALONSON