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Insight News

December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020

Vol. 47 No. 49• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

BUILDING

WEALTH

BEE Marketplace elevates community businesses for holiday retail opportunity.

Kenya McKnight-Ahad pictured with (from left to right) Valerie Fleurantin, Chaz Sandifer, Nicole Pachinni, Marie Chante, and Angelique Kingsbury at a Black Women’s Wealth Aliance (BWWA) Wealth Academy celebration.

Photo courtesy of BWWA STORY ON PAGE 2

Page 2 • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Insight News

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WINNER: 2020 T YPOGRAPHY & DESIGN, 1ST PLACE, PHOTOGRAPHY (PORTRAIT & PERSONALIT Y), 1ST PLACE, WEBSITE, 3RD PLACE

Insight News December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020

Vol. 47 No. 49• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

Dr. B: Psychological support long-overdue

By Brenda Lyle-Gray Columnist

finance-commerce.com/

Kenya McKnight-Ahad

The BEE Marketplace In 2014, Kenya McKnightAhad interested and then organized a group of 20 women to discuss their financial affairs and business goals. They met for six months, sometimes at McDonald’s on West Broadway in North Minneapolis, and other times at Kenya’s apartment.

All agreed that after attending numerous entrepreneurial workshops and trainings aimed at helping people of color succeed on more of an equal playing field, the growing gaps and roadblocks remained. Their focus would be to leverage real opportunities with each other as they discover innovative and prosperous ways to scale up their businesses and build generational wealth.

Black Women’s Business Alliance (BWBA) was created.

Unfortunately, and not long after, the group admitted they were stuck in just talking but had little knowledge of resources

and support that could move their personal and professional needs and the organization forward.

Kenya would not give up on her vision to empower black women and younger black girls to believe in themselves . . . to step out on faith, and work for themselves if they found the possibilities of success feasible.

The need was too critical for the founding members and other women who wore so many hats.

Kenya found ways to provide information in wealth literacy; business support strategy and leadership; social networking; and a loan and grant fund.

More often than acknowledged, women are the glue to keeping their family, and often extended families, afloat . . . especially is such stressful and uncertain times in our world. Most black women’s stories follow a totally different and more difficult narrative, but their warriors and

most survive and ‘rise up’.

In 2016, BWWA (Black Women’s Wealth Alliance) held its first conference – “Gold Diggers” as a relaunch with more targeted goals and services aligned with generational wealth building.

To date, BWWA has served over 4,000 black women; has awarded close to $500,000 in small capacity grants; assisted with new home buyers down payments; and helped to open new businesses owned and operated by black women.

Amid one of the deadliest pandemics to attack the citizens of the U.S. and around the world, BWWA announces their sponsorship of the virtual BEE MARKETPLACE that will open November 30th and run through December 31st. “It’s all about funding and purchasing gifts and services created by our own community entrepreneurs . . . about using our pretty

impressive black buying power . . . assuming responsibility and being accountable for making ourselves and the future for generations to come more meaningful despite the damage inflicted this year with the virus, racial conflict and division, and corrupt national politics,” explained McKnight-Ahad.

33 black female vendors will be displaying their products via Zoom during this holiday season. Three participants of this innovative access to black owned women businesses were featured on “Conversations with Al McFarlane” (Insight Media) on Thursday, November 25th. Other business owners and their products/services will be featured every Wednesday until the end of the year.

1.

For Latoya J. Burrell (and like so many others across 6 continents), the murder of

To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life, but to feel affection that comes from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses – that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things. Pablo Neruda from “Childhood and Poetry” On the night of her college graduation (with honors), BraVada Garrett headed to the designated area where she would meet her family. There would be no celebration on this evening as proud as everyone was – as she was also – of having taken that first academic step - upward bound. Their sad faces immediately told the story. The news of her father’s transitioning while she was receiving her degree on stage pierced her heart yet made her more determined to go all the way. Before being silenced, Austin Garrett would get the chance to see his only daughter (she has 5 brothers) in her cap and gown; to tell ‘Chocolate Drop’ (his nickname for her) how proud he was because she did what she said she was going to do years ago; that she should never doubt herself or her faith; and that she was indeed a beautiful young woman.

It was the psychologist girlfriend of Dr. Gannon (played by actor, Chad Everett) on a popular 1969 award-winning

Dr. BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya t.v. series, “Medical Center” who first convinced BraVada she wanted to be just like her, seemingly able to heal people and change their lives for good.

Then there was the psychologist who just so happened to have been in the same suite of her mother’s ophthalmologist . . . the burly, red-hair gentleman doctor who told her everything she had to do to become the kind of doctor he was. Surprisingly, he would say to her, “Hurry up! We really need you out here!” Dr. B. would refer to her adamancy as “vocational fantasy”. But what might have appeared to be impossible for some people of color with little money, the thought of giving up her dream never crossed her mind. BraVada promised her father she would go all the way and she intended to do just that.

The Garrett legacy would be forever honored, that too, of her grandfather, Simon, who was still owned at the time Kentucky eventually ended slavery. In 1990, BraVada became the first African American woman to receive a Doctorate in Clinical

DR. BRAVADA 5

BEE 4

‘My vote will be Black’ – A wave of Afro-Brazilian women ran for office in 2020 but found glass ceiling hard to break The Lighthouse of the Community:

spokesman-recorder.com/

Jonathan Palmer

By Gladys MitchellWalthour, Associate Professor of Public Policy & Political Economy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Messages urging AfroBrazilians to support Black candidates filled social media in the days before Brazil’s Nov. 15, 2020 elections.

“Do not forget your masks, your identification, a pen and that you are BLACK!!!”

“This Sunday my vote will be Black.”

People of African descent make up 56% of Brazil’s population and just 17.8% of its Congress. But Black political participation is surging in Brazil, especially in local government.

Some 250,840 Black Brazilians ran for city council this year, up from 235,105 in 2016. When the winners take office, Afro-Brazilians will make up 44% of city councils nationwide.

Afro-Brazilian women also saw significant firsts in the 2020 election, winning 14% of city council seats nationwide.

In the 2016 election, AfroBrazilian women won just 3.9%

of city council seats.

Black women still hit a hard glass ceiling when aiming for higher office, though. Just 13 of the 513 representatives in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress are Afro-Brazilian women, and the 81-member Senate has only one Black woman, Eliziane Gama. The first Black woman to have served as governor in Brazil, Benedita da Silva, this year lost her race to be mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

But winning isn’t necessarily the only reason Afro-Brazilian women hit the campaign trail.

The Marielle effect Black women’s political participation has soared in Brazil since the 2018 assassination of Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro. Franco was a Black lesbian city councilwoman who advocated for the city’s poor Black slum communities, in what Brazilian media dubbed the “the Marielle Effect.”

“Marielle’s murder could have had a chilling effect upon Black candidates, [but] it instead inspired a wave of Black candidacies,” writes the Afro-Brazilian scholar Dalila Negreiros in the leftist publication NACLA Report on the Americas.

Hallie Q. Brown Community Center

By Brenda Lyle-Gray Columnist

photo/Carl de Souza_AFP via Getty Images

Art featuring the slain Rio politician Marielle Franco, whose 2018 murder remains unsolved.

Even before Franco’s killing, there were many Black women politicians – and my research shows how they opened the door for groundbreaking candidacies like Franco’s.

Trailblazers include Benedita da Silva as well as Janete Pietá, who represented São Paulo in Congress from 2007 to 2015.

I interviewed Pietá and many other Black female politicians in Brazil between 2004 and 2007. This was during Brazil’s economic boom under the leftist president Inacio Lula da Silva. Most of the women whose campaigns I studied were from Lula’s Workers Party, but

News

COVID-19 exposure notification mobile app now available in Minnesota

PAGE 4

one, Eronildes Carvalho, was a right-leaning evangelical.

I found that the women often used race and gender in their campaigns to mobilize voters, especially in predominantly Black cities.

When running for Congress, Pietá told me she wore bright colors and did her hair in interesting styles, with short braids in the front, like bangs, and longer braids in the back, to show pride in her African ancestry – “even though it looks like a joke” to some.

“A large part of the Brazilian population…have

BLACK VOTE 4

For the month of December, “Conversations with Al McFarlane – a Town Hall” will be podcast at 12 o’clock (7 days a week), an hour before our regular Monday thru Friday programming at 1 o’clock. With the COVID 19 death rate for African Americans twice that of whites, and cases of infection three times with a population of approximately 15%, the critical health crisis in our communities requires “lighthouses” – those places housing leaders, elders, organizers, directors of social service agencies . . . those concerned and committed to addressing feasible solutions to aid in combatting the disastrous effects of the yearlong COVID19 pandemic, especially on our children.

Since February, 1 in every 1,000 Black Americans with coronavirus have died from the virus – about 40,000. 1 in every 2,150 whites have perished in comparison. This disparity is unacceptable. When we “unite” around a collaborative and coordinated crusade tapping into existing resources, we

have an opportunity to lessen the enemy’s physical, mental, economic, and emotional wrath.

Our daily guests will provide information and resources to help our communities navigate this unprecedented pandemic that caught everyone off guard and unprepared.

At some time, often when we least expect it, we all have to face overwhelming challenges.

When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we find it, we must cling to it with absolute determination. When we have hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known - the power to make sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose hope, everything is possible. - Christopher Reeve On December 1, Jonathan Palmer, Executive Director for Hallie Q. Brown Community Center was the lead interview for the launch of the Conversations with Al McFarlane for the COVID-19 Town Hall series. The Town Hall series is sponsored by MN Department of Health.

More story next week.

For full story, go online at Insight News.com

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PCYC’s Annual Children’s Gift Sale in the Year of Doing Things Differently

PAGE 6

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Insight News • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Page 3

Our Doors Are Open for the Lake Street Community.

We are proud to be back to build together with our neighbors.

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Page 4 • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Insight News

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Walz to call special session to approve new relief package to aid businesses Last week, Governor Tim Walz wrote a letter urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to act quickly to provide assistance for workers, families, businesses, and states.

This week, he wrote another letter to state legislative leaders emphasizing the need for immediate action to provide relief to small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Governor stated his eagerness to partner with legislators on both sides of the

aisle to get it done, and said he stands ready to call a special session as soon as the legislature agrees on a package to provide this much-needed relief.

“As cases skyrocket and hospital capacity is pushed to the brink, the COVID-19 pandemic demands immediate action to save lives. Necessary public health measures bring hardship for all Minnesotans— but this hardship falls disproportionately hard on our small businesses and workers,” Walz wrote.

“This is not fair,” Walz continued. “The pandemic is not fair, and it is our job as leaders to make it more just.

The Governor stated his eagerness to partner with legislators on both sides of the aisle to get it done, and said he stands ready to call a special session as soon as the legislature agrees on a package to provide this much-needed relief. state are in dire need of relief.

Small businesses across our

Many workers are struggling to make ends meet. As we take action to protect the health of our neighbors, we must also take action to support the people who are sacrificing so much.”

“That’s why I directed my team to begin work on a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package for our small businesses and communities,” Walz said later in the letter.

“We have laid out the principles around which a package should be structured. I know legislators on both sides of the aisle have engaged on this issue and been working tirelessly to find common ground, and I will continue working with you to

get a deal done.”

To support small businesses that are struggling as they do their part to combat the spread of COVID-19, Walz recently announced an additional $10 million in Small Business Relief Grants.

This funding will support an additional 1,000 businesses that have applied for the grant program.

It supplements hundreds of millions of dollars in small business support that Minnesota has allocated since the beginning of the pandemic.

Minnesotans with questions about unemployment insurance are encouraged to visit uimn.org.

COVID-19 exposure notification mobile app now available in Minnesota Minnesota joins more than 20 states and territories, including Washington, D.C., using secure, anonymous technology to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Governor Tim Walz announced today the availability of a new COVID-19 exposure notification mobile application, COVIDaware MN, which hopes to slow the spread of COVID-19 by helping Minnesotans protect themselves and their loved ones. The voluntary, anonymous application will alert a user if another user with whom they have had close contact during the virus’ infectious period tests positive for COVID-19.

“As we see a dangerous surge in cases

BEE From 2 George Floyd was a wake-up call. “As a mother of two young boys, a wife, an educator, and a writer, I was reminded of ‘who I was’ . . . a learner, disciplined, and always seeking harmony in all things. I was also made more aware of to ‘whom’ I belonged. I had to ask myself that old adage. “If not me, then who; if not now, then when.” It was time! As he was, and as he encouraged us to be also Gandhi challenged, “Be the change you

Black vote From 2

across the state, we need to use every tool possible to cut off the spread of the virus,” said Governor Walz. “COVIDaware MN gives our state a powerful and anonymous new tool to alert others we’ve had close contact with – even people we don’t know – and slow the spread of COVID-19.”

COVIDaware MN uses a COVID-19 exposure notification technology developed by Apple and Google. More than 20 states and territories have launched contact-tracing apps based on Google and Apple’s exposure notification technology, including Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut,

Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming. More states are expected to adopt this technology as part of their COVID-19 response efforts.

Minnesota’s CIO and Commissioner of Minnesota IT Services, Tarek Tomes, said, “This innovative technology protects the privacy of Minnesotans and collects no data about a user.”

Tomes added, “If Minnesotans opt in and follow health recommendations when notified of an exposure, we will slow the spread of COVID-19

and be one step closer to returning to many of the activities we miss so much.”

The app was built with open-source software from PathCheck Foundation, a nonprofit founded at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dedicated to containing COVID-19, revitalizing the economy, and protecting individual privacy and liberty.

Minnesotans can learn more about the app on the COVIDaware MN website, and download it today from the Google Play or Apple Store.

want to see in the world.” I knew I had to make a contribution, while also emboldening others to do so, as well. BE BOLD: How to Prepare Your Heart and Mind for Racial Reconciliation.

Her need for safe conversations made Burrell realize she could bring more to the table. So, she wrote a book. As both LaToya and Al McFarlane (“Insight News” publisher and media commentator) acknowledged, “Minnesota could be an ‘incubator for change’. We’re at Ground Zero with an opportunity to speak the truth.”

For more information regarding the purchase of Ms. Burrell’s book: www.THEBOLDLatoya. com

2.

When TaMeka was a young girl, she was always teased about her full lips. Some people thought they looked funny and teased her quite frequently. The mounting insecurities haunted her. She grew up in St. Paul under the loving guidance of her grandmother. She was a preacher’s kid and made the decision to do life her way. After losing her 3-week old daughter, she was determined to re-direct her pain and loss of purpose in a more meaningful direction.

The loss of her baby would not be in vain. LIP ESTEEM was born from that pain and recalling her trips to California and falling in love with makeup. She wanted black women

to lift up themselves up . . . feel good about themselves and their potential . . . to recognize their beauty, and yes, including their gorgeous, full lips. Our ancestors spirits smile. The well-known makeup artist not only creates new products for her plant-based cosmetic line – LIP ESTEEM - but she is also focused on helping young black girls to incorporate ‘esteem’, wellness, and self-care in their daily routines. Visit TaMeka’s website for further information. www.lipesteem.com 3.

With small businesses struggling or having to permanently close, black owned businesses have been hit the hardest.

Educator, former

hoops star, poet, and creator of MINNESOTA BLACK BOX, Jessica Winnie, the proud wife and mother of six was always fascinated by black entrepreneurs who defied the odds and stayed buoyant . . . that was until COVID19.

With help from her daughter, the collective introduces local Minnesotans to Minnesota’s black-owned businesses (5-7 in each box). “What I wanted to do was show how our talented community entrepreneurs could create and market the same kind of products sold in Target and Walmart. I’ve always been a serial entrepreneur selling Tupperware and Avon when I was young. Now I’m bring

others along, and that’s a good thing!! For further information on this unique holiday gift concept, contact Jessica at w w w. m i n n e s o t a b l a c k b o x . com SUPPORTING BLACK BUSINESSES, ONE BOX AT A TIME!!

The BEE (virtual) Marketplace, sponsored by the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance, offers a unique onestop shopping experience during this holiday season for consumers (not just from Minnesota, but nationally and globally) provided by Black women owned businesses.

BEEMARKET@bwwa-us.com

origins of African-descent.

Nevertheless, some of them are not conscious of this,” Pietá told me.

Olivia Santana also put her race and gender up front when running for city council in the northeastern city of Salvador in 2004. She proudly announced herself as the “Negona da cidade,” the big Black woman of the city.

“It was a slogan that was more about the history of elections, of Black participation in elections,” Santana told me in 2006. “My campaign made the Black racial question visible.”

While city council members may see their race and gender as an asset, I found AfroBrazilians running for federal office did not believe racial appeals would be helpful.

is fraught – and that fact is well documented.

Though long mythologized as a mixed-race “racial democracy,” the reality in Brazil is more black and white.

As in the United States, Black people in Brazil have generally worse health, employment and economic outcomes than white people.

They are 40% more likely to die of COVID-19 than whites and despite some affirmative action policies face higher unemployment. Black men are killed daily by the military police who patrol the streets of many poor – and heavily Black – neighborhoods in Brazil.

[Deep knowledge, daily.

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Inequality continues even for Afro-Brazilians who climb the social ladder. White college graduates earn 45%

more than their Afro-Brazilian peers.

When a Black man, João Freitas, was beaten and killed by two white security guards at a supermarket in Porto Alegre on Nov. 19, 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismissive comment was “everyone has the same color.”

“In Brazil, racism doesn’t exist,” was the vice president’s response.

office is more than a political campaign for Afro-Brazilian women, my research finds.

As they drive around blaring messages from cars, hold town halls and run social media ads, they raise the racial consciousness of their constituents and expand their party’s political agenda.

This year, 16 years after I first followed her campaign, Olivia Santana again asked voters to entrust their vote to Black women. On Facebook and Twitter, she posted catchy political jingles with lyrics like, “Preta prefeita, respeita a preta” – “The Black woman mayor, respect the Black woman” – done in a musical style popular in Brazil’s heavily Black northeast.

In that campaign video, young Afro-Brazilians wearing face masks dance alongside Santana, who is also masked.

“It is not only the people of the United States that can elect a woman like Kamala Harris,” she tweeted on Nov. 13, 2020. “We also can make a difference for this city.”

Olivia Santana lost her 2020 mayoral bid, one of several veteran Black women politicians to come up short.

Progress is slow. But win or lose, Black Brazilian women are opening doors for the future.

Gladys MitchellWalthour was the 2018-2020 Brazil Studies Association president and author of The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil (Cambridge University Press).

She has published articles in Latin American Politics & Society, The National Political Science Review, Journal of Identity, Groups, and Politics, the Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies journal, and the Journal of Black Studies. She is currently the National Co-Coordinator for the United States Network for Democracy in Brazil.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation and is reprinted under a under a Creative Commons license.

INSIGHT NEWS www.insightnews.com

Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests.

Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Associate Editor Culture & Education Dr. Irma McClaurin Associate Editor Afrodescendientes Carmen Robles Associate Editor Nigeria & West Africa Chief Folarin Ero-Phillips Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray Director of Content & Production Patricia Weaver Content & Production Coordinator Sunny Thongthi Yang Distribution/Facilities Manager Jamal Mohamed Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Intern Kelvin Kuria

Contributing Writers Maya Beecham Nadvia Davis Fred Easter Abeni Hill Inell Rosario Latisha Townsend Artika Tyner Toki Wright Photography V. Rivera Garcia Uchechukwu Iroegbu Rebecca Rabb Artist Donald Walker Contact Us: Insight News, Inc. Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis., MN 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313 Fax: (612) 588-2031 Member: Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC), Midwest Black Publishers Coalition, Inc. (MBPCI), National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue North, Minneapolis,

More than a campaign I could not find polling on national perceptions of Black women to verify whether the candidates’ perceptions were backed up by data. But Brazil’s relationship with race

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Black woman mayor As politicians and activists, Afro-Brazilian women have made racism a campaign issue. They discuss why budget cuts to the public health system would disproportionately hurt Black Brazilians and promote paid family leave, educating Afro-Brazilian citizens of how racism, sexism and classism – alone and in combination – affect their lives.

That’s why running for

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Dr. BraVada From 2 Psychology (with honors) in an edifice (Texas Tech coliseum) her father helped to build during segregation . . . a place his children were not allowed to attend.

If ever there was an urgency for Dr. B.’s mission to help black communities (e.g. families, educators, police departments, local, state, and federal level government officials) understand the need for long-overdue psychological support and mentoring for children and their families, the time is NOW . .. especially in the age of Corona and the angry aftermath of George Floyd’s cement lynching on May 25th. We have become that metaphorical silver ball being launched inside a strange pin ball machine (our current state-of-affairs) where the silver levers are pounding us from every angle.

Our world . . . our children’s confusing world . . . is clouded with mental stress caused by isolation; physical, emotional, and financial pressures; a loss of patience with on-line learning; and a weakening of faith and spirituality . . . a condition only gratitude and not being ashamed to seek help can begin to remedy.

“The waiting to exhale moment” from the recent election results that kept us from a disastrous dictatorship only added to our angst.

“We are establishing a new voice and a new narrative around mental health and wellness awareness,’’ Dr. B. explained. “The way we begin is by changing our views about mental therapy and how we should treat our bodies, internally and externally.

Psychologists have this construct called cognitive reframing. It’s like the person who sees the glass half-empty, but another person sees it as half full.

Those of us in the profession understand the hesitancy to feel comfortable or to trust spilling one’s personal beans to a stranger who is probably white and could never comprehend walking in our ‘black’ shoes.

Not too many professionals of color have explored the study of psychology mental health.

“It’s historical,”

Insight News • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Page 5 explains Dr. B. - part of it is a legacy of slavery. When we were enslaved, what they taught us was we didn’t own our bodies. We could be sold. We could be killed (like today). We could be whipped at the whim of a master. Because we didn’t learn to own our bodies, we’re psychologically in the process of overturning the trauma of being objectified.” The experimental systems assumed intention to help blacks ended in abuse (the Tuskegee Study); some still held to their belief they could only be healed through prayer and doing otherwise would be like turning their back on God; and the inequities in health care insurance (affording the deductibles or co-pays) have crippled the efforts of community residents to ride out the high winds of fear and danger, especially in the Age of Corona and the angry and rebellious aftermath of the George Floyd cement lynching shockingly witnessed on worldwide t.v.

We also understand the need for resilience if we are to address our own problems.

I dare say it is not worth the risk not to care for ourselves so that we can assume the responsibility to care for others who depend upon us. Adopting strong and consistent behavioral patterns will help us as well.

If black lives matter, then we need to save our own by first using a mask properly – social distancing – and washing our hands frequently.

We must use each other as a resource, emotionally and spiritually connecting if only through a phone call to say . . . “Just checking in to make sure you’re okay and if there is anything you might need?” Finding ways to gain clarification and strength to map out a positive direction for the future is imperative in today’s unpredictable societal climate. A plethora of resources and tools are available if we simply take the time to research and learn how to tap into them.

There’s this special, innate, creative, and intellectual genius that our ancestors have passed on from generation to generation that can keep us attune, aware, and intentional . . . wisdom and actions we can replicate.

“This is a design appointment at this appointed time . . . taking negative events like this psychology of

killing off black humanity that appears to be the mindset of this country and reconstructing our thoughts and actions in positive outcomes. I will hold on to this ‘legacy of hope’ left to me by my father and so many others whose shoulders I stand on. We can’t drop our proud heritage no matter how many obstacles attempt to block our way or what others might say.

As a people, we must ‘actualize’ this inherent toughness and self-determination calling for us to move to the next safe and progressive pathway in our lives. So many times, I think we have amnesia, forgetting where we came from and where we are today. When we learn that knowledge, our stamina roots become deeply buried in our hearts and souls. We might bend all the way to the ground, but in most cases we will not break.

We must begin to position our lives in learning the “art of loving oneself” . . . realizing we are empowered and worthy of being respected and counted in our impending “new normal.”

We are individually and collectively challenged to elucidate, shape, and strengthen a better life ahead, maybe with a little help from our therapist friends. We must give ourselves permission to ask for help as we have certainly paid a huge personal price as people of color to do so. I believe everyone has a right to wellness and the use of strategies that promote humor, hard work, experiential learning, and resilience. He or she who recovers . . . who reclaims their strength and power can take that walk into a world merging and melting of streams into infinite possibilities.”

Dr. B. reminds us that the Present is right NOW . . . that we can fix the NOW! Perhaps in 7 or 8 months, we can follow the simple instructions found in a card a dear friend sent me recently. Sometimes you just gotta say, “Damn, that was a lot”! . . . (opening) then keep it moving. (Hallmark - Mahogany – Soulful. True. You.) Keeping it moving means finding new ways and resources that will aid in our finding that better person within our own being leading to a more meaningful and happier person, who if survived the deadly pandemic, has been given a second chance.

(Part 2 – The Healing Circle)

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The funds you need.

VARIABLE APR FOR THE FIRST 12 MONTHS DURING DRAW PERIOD AS LOW AS

Apply for an Old National Home Equity Line, with amounts from $10,000 to $1,000,000.

• Introductory rate discount for the first 12 months • 10-year draw period, 20-year repayment period

VARIABLE APR THEREAFTER DURING DRAW PERIOD AS LOW AS

• Multiple draw methods including transfers, Home Equity checks, Home Equity Access Card1

Talk with an Old National associate today or visit oldnational.com/heloc to learn how a Home Equity Line can help you.

Serving you with over 30 locations across the Twin Cities | 877-427-7220 Rates, terms & conditions effective as of 3/19/2020 for applications received 3/19/2020 to 12/31/2020. Subject to credit approval. Property insurance required. Other restrictions may apply, see bank for details. The line of credit has a draw period of 10 years, after which you will no longer have access to borrow funds and will be required to repay the borrowed balance within a 20-year term. During the draw period there is an introductory discounted variable rate in effect for the first 12 billing cycles, based on a 1.25% discount resulting in an APR of 1.51% below prime rate as published in the Wall Street Journal. Thereafter, variable rate based on The Wall Street Journal prime rate plus or minus a margin, currently 2.99%. During the repayment period the rate will be fixed based on the rate at the end of the draw period plus a margin currently 3.00%. APRs based on highest credit tier, line amount of $100,000 with an LTV of 80% or less and includes a .25% rate reduction at origination for automatic payment from an ONB checking account. ONB associates may select the associate discount or Private Select discount, not both in addition to the promo rate. Max APR is 21%, minimum APR is 0.99%. Initial $50 annual fee waived. During the draw period the minimum monthly payment equal to the interest that accrued on the outstanding balance during the preceding billing cycle or $50, whichever is greater. During the repayment period the minimum monthly payment based on the balance at the end of the draw period amortized over 20 years or $50, whichever is greater. If you close or refinance your line within 3 years, a Recoupment fee will be assessed for the lesser of $300 or the amount paid to third parties to recover the closing costs paid on your behalf plus in MN, the Mortgage Registry Tax (MRT) paid on your behalf. Old National reserves the right to discontinue this offer at any time. 1Equity Access Cards are not available to Kentucky residents. Member FDIC. 0420-001

Page 6 • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Insight News

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PCYC’s Annual Children’s Gift Sale in the Year of Doing Things Differently Our efforts this year come with our fervent hope for the good health and safety of everyone this holiday season. We look

forward to December 2021, when we can imagine safely welcoming hundreds of children and families to PCYC’s 57th

Annual Children’s Gift Sale in the new Capri.

Learn more: https:// pcyc-mpls.org/gift-sale-2020/

COMMUNITY ENERGY CENTER

WELCOME

TO OUR NEW SITE

CommunityEnergyCenter.org will Educate the Public about Energy Empowerment among Diverse Communities Diverse communities not only will be shaped by an evolving energy sector, they will shape it. Our new website – CommunityEnergyCenter.org – welcomes perspectives from commentators and journalists from publications in diverse communities to promote a deeper understanding of how energy and economic matters play a role in daily life. This new content hub will educate diverse communities to explore job opportunities and participate in the energy sector’s growth and vitality.

Visit www.communityenergycenter.org to learn more.

The Community Energy Center, a cooperative with the National Newspaper Publishers Association and National Association of Hispanic Publications Media, will provide information and perspectives on the integral role of the energy sector in daily life for American families in a wide range of communities.

insightnews.com

Insight News • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Page 7

Shop At The BEE Marketplace Today Through December 31st!

WWW.BEEMARKETPLACE-US.COM About The BEE Marketplace During a pivotal time where Black businesses have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 and the Civil Uprisings, the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance created the BEE Marketplace with the intent to help generate wealth, recognition and knowledge to MN local Black Women- owned businesses. Please visit the website to learn more!

MEET THE BEE MARKETPLACE VENDORS! Leslie Redmond Alice Olagbaju Edrence Yalley Brooke Roper & Brittany Alexander Aisha Wadud Brittani Carter Crystal Lerma Roseline Tsopfack

RaNetta Penland LaToya Burrell Patricia Cosey Kobi Gregory

Idalis Riley Clara Sharp Akbar-Bey Syreeta Seve Seione Monique

Ahavah Birth Works

Nails by Seione

Lynette Commodore Shanetta Williams Araina Loscheider Danielle Tucker

Tanina Henry Opal Mixologist Shanee O'Nel Zeanna Robinson

Shaneka Greer Christina Quinn Ayana Shakir Jessica Winnie Imani Mansfield Tameka Jones Arlene El-Amin Holly Smith

Chaz Sandifer

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BLACK WOMEN'S WEALTH ALLIANCE, SBC PLEASE VISIT WWW.BWWA-US.COM

Page 8 • December 7, 2020 - December 13, 2020 • Insight News

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By Titilayo Bediako