Sunday Digest

Dear Community,

Welcome to Sunday Digest, a weekly email with updates in the movement space and more.

As the daughter of an immigrant father and Black American mother, the duality and importance of Juneteenth has informed my advocacy development. As a Texan, I was never taught about Juneteenth in my schools and it wasn’t until Opal Lee became an adopted member of my family that I really understood and wanted to learn more.

Juneteenth is more than a holiday, it’s a launching point. In the same way that DC Emancipation Day raises awareness to the fact that freedom has always come to people at different times, and is still not fully available to all, Juneteenth is a reminder than when we do this work we must look back behind us at every step to make sure no one is being left behind.

Without retrospect, without conscientious intentional inclusion, and without the care for Black and Indigenous Liberation true advocacy falls short. And I don’t intend on missing the opportunity to save people by a few careless inches.

Please enjoy the stories we have cultivated below.

- Abiola Agoro, Executive Director

Disruptor Institute:

Today we will host Beyond Juneteenth: The Progression of Black Joy and Political Power, a virtual lecture/round table with Abiola Agoro, Channing Hill, and

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community elders.

The event will be a continuation of our educational lectures, and you can RSVP here. We will have additional webinars upcoming. Stay tuned.

Disruptor of the Week

Highlighting the People Making a Change

Every Monday, we will be highlighting disruptors in or communities across various disciplines.

This week, we are recognizing Opal Lee, known for helping bring national

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awareness to Juneteenth. Her work has been essential to uplifting the stories of the initially lesser known holiday.

Submit a nomination now.

Standout Pieces from the Week

Celebrate Juneteenth by promoting Black health, wealth and joy

Although Juneteenth has recently become more widely recognized, the date has long been a deeply spiritual time of remembrance and celebration for the Black community.

Across the country, African Americans have rejoiced with fireworks and cookouts, sipping red drinks – a nod to ancestors’ bloodshed and endurance. “We know the horrors that we went through,” explained Kleaver Cruz, writer of the forthcoming book “The Black Joy Project” and creator of a digital initiative of the same name. “It’s always concurrent: the joy and the pain. We use one to get through the other.”

Read More

A 1923 massacre wiped out a vibrant Black town. New Florida laws make it hard for kids to learn about it

Though the Rosewood massacre is an instructive part of Florida’s history, it’s not widely known, or taught in most schools. But this year marks the 100th anniversary of the racist violence against Black residents of a small, rural town. As anti-Black racism continues to plague America today, from police brutality to the arrests of Black voters, Rosewood’s descendants and researchers believe Floridians should learn about the event in order to better understand persistent racial disparities.

In the early 20th Century, Rosewood was a small and quiet town, a railroad “whistle stop” about an hour southwest of Gainesville. The population of 638 was majority Black, and relatively prosperous, built principally around two Black families who

owned turpentine mills. The town had schools, churches, two general stores, and a baseball team, the Rosewood Stars.

In January 1923, a Black drifter was accused of assaulting a white woman in Sumner, a mile away. In response, a mob of white vigilantes lynched a Rosewood blacksmith who was supposedly hiding the drifter. As people attempted to flee and hide in nearby swamps,the crowd—now between 200 and 300 people—stormed and ransacked Rosewood. Despite some resistance, they shot at people fleeing, and burned down homes, churches, and eventually the whole town… but Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing restrictions that make it hard to teach about the state’s racist history.

Read More

Google Got More Than $10 Million for Ads That Misled People Seeking Abortions

Google has directed hundreds of thousands of people searching for information about abortions and pregnancy in the U.S. to the websites of misleading, fake clinics that don’t actually provide abortion or medical services—and made millions of dollars in the process, a new study says.

A report published Thursday from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit that researches misinformation, found that Google’s search engine directs users who search terms related to abortion towards paid advertisements from so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” which do not provide the procedure and instead aim to prevent people from undergoing it.

“This report demonstrates the scale of deceptive advertising by anti-choice groups, fake healthcare clinics and the marketing infrastructure that underpins the spread of their medical misinformation, in a post-Dobbs digital environment,” CCDH’s CEO Imran Ahmed said in the report’s introduction.

Read More.

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Black Americans are getting support for reparations from other multiracial groups

Deep blue, liberal California – and separately the city of San Francisco – has formed panels to examine reparations as a way for these governments to contend with systemic discrimination that historically held Black people down and pushed them out.

More than 200 multiracial organizations have signed on to show support for California’s reparation proposals, including bar associations, philanthropies, academic organizations, and social services and civil rights groups, said Don Tamaki, a member of the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

Read More

Additional Stories

I Am Queer, Latine, Disabled & Finally Not Alone | “Having a safe space to express your frustrations, your joy, and all the emotions in between with people that you truly believe care, is essential in healing. I thought I was alone in my pain, thinking no one else could possible understand or care. I was afraid of being vulnerable, opening myself up to them, and getting rejected — so, I dealt with it on my own. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. As soon as I learned to believe that other people cared for me, everything changed. I decided to believe my chosen family when they said they loved me, after years of not doing so. I didn’t heal right away, and sometimes I still fall back to old habits, but now I know they really are interested in what I have to say, they don’t think I’m dramatic, they don’t entertain my intrusive thoughts and, more importantly, they believe me. I don’t have to prove anything. That’s what la collectiva should work toward.”

We are a force for life’: how Indigenous wisdom helped rescue children lost in the Amazon | “President Gustavo Petro appealed to Colombia’s

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Indigenous communities to help find the children, aged between one and 13 years old, who were rescued a week ago after 40 days in the jungle. Ninety-three people from Indigenous communities across the country –including members of the Siona, Nasa, Huitoto, Sikuani, Misak, Murui and Koreguaje peoples – were flown into the southern jungles to assist the 120 soldiers in searching for the children … ‘It was the combination of our Indigenous knowledge with western knowhow, that’s how we [were able to save the children]’”

U.S. Startup Advocate Poised To Revolutionize Disability Benefits

Applications Process | Brand new tech startup Advocate is not only planning to [prevent algorithms tools that alienate disabled people,] but to achieve this through using a sophisticated mixture of AI and human expertise to address one of the most significant historic pain points afflicting the disability community. Namely, the unbearable delays and complexities involved in navigating America’s burdensome Social Security Disability Insurance system. Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Tools to Lower Prescription Drug Costs for Low-Income Seniors and People with Disabilities | The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new tools to lower prescription drug costs for low-income people with Medicare through the Extra Help program, which provides eligible seniors and disabled people with help paying for their Medicare Part D premiums and cost-sharing. These resources complement forthcoming expansions in Extra Help benefits and will ensure more people eligible for benefits are enrolled in this vital program.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott buses 42 migrants to Los Angeles

Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum Is Reviewing Its Collection of Human Remains. Here’s Why That Matters for Disability Representation.

What Emma Lazarus Got Wrong About Immigration

Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum Is Reviewing Its Collection of Human Remains. Here’s Why That Matters for Disability Representation.

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