Insight ::: 01.31.2022

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Insight News

January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022

Alfred Babington-Johnson, Stair Step Foundation

By Al McFarlane, Editor David McGee, is the leader of Build Wealth Minnesota.

Alfred Babington Johnson, leads the Stairstep Initiative, the Stairstep Foundation, and His Works United, an affiliation of Twin Cities church leaders.

Babington and McGee late last year created a collaboration which purchased the Regional Acceleration Center (RAC), the anchor for business development for the Plymouth-Penn intersection in North Minneapolis.

Most Northsiders refer to the facility as the Thor Building. It was built and originally owned by Thor Construction and the Thor Companies. The community calls it the Thor Building as a matter of pride, holding it as a monument to progress toward economic development and collaboration in our community I drive by this building four or five times a day. I live in the neighborhood.

This is my neighborhood.

Early on in the construction phase of the building, a friend on a bicycle, chatted with me as we both waited for the light to change. This was in the early days of construction and he was looking at the massive hole in the ground.

My friend leaned toward me and said, “Al, look at that! Look at that!”

“What do you mean? I look at it every day,” I responded.

“This,” he said with a gravity that summoned Kemetic vibrations, “is the pyramid for our community.”

His voice beamed like indefatigable sunlight, radiating an ancient confidence, reflecting brilliant early rays of the dawning of a new day.

Not only did his words evoke the image of the builders of antiquity, the creators of the

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Vol. 49 No. 5• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

OWNERSHIP MATTERS

Thor building remains in community hands

C Photos by Uchechukwu Iroegbu

Page 2 • January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022 • Insight News

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January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022

Vol. 49 No. 5• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

The memory of Emmett Till

An eternal flame Columnist

By Brenda Lyle-Gray

Uchechukwu Iroegbu

David McGee and Alfred Babington-Johnson create $10 million collaboration that keeps ownership of the Regional Acceleration Center (RAC), better known as the Thor Building, in the hands of the community.

Thor building remains in community hands From 1 great African pyramids and monuments, but they reminded me of more recent but kindred comments by Northside-based environmentalist, Michael Chaney, who in an interview some years earlier described Plymouth Avenue as “the Nile Valley of North Minneapolis.”

Chaney was referring to the movement he was nurturing, community food gardens on vacant lots along the Avenue.

And though the first stone had not been laid, my friend’s words captured the hope and aspiration of our community, envisioning and awaiting the emergence of a new symbol of progress for our neighborhood and our people.

Following are excerpts from our Conversations with Al McFarlane broadcast on KFAI and on Black Press USA/ Facebook.

Al McFarlane: Congratulations to you both for bringing your two organizations together to purchase, and operate the Regional Acceleration Center. How did the deal happen?

Alfred Babington -Johnson: David and I share more than this space on Penn and Plymouth. We also share a faith, a faith in God, and a belief that He orchestrates all things.

And that He, in fact, was the one that put this together and allowed it to be so. This as a very, very important thing for our community on several levels.

I loved to hear the story that you told about driving by the construction site, able to look on this with asense of pride, because we feel that’s what Richard Copeland did when he moved his headquarters, chose to move his headquarters to Penn and Plymouth. I’m sure Richard had other options, perhaps much more lucrative

than this, but he chose to come to Penn and Plymouth and make a mark and take a stand.

David and I share a real sense of the importance of reclaiming the narrative of what he began when he came and put this stake in the ground. And so, we are just delighted to be able to help to reclaim a very, very important narrative.

McFarlane: David how were you and Babington able to collaborate purchase this important piece of real estate?

David McGee: Build Wealth was one of the smaller anchor tenants that Richard invited to be a part of this from the beginning. We were one of the first tenants that said, “Yes, we want to move into the space.”

As you know, we work with families to help them build sustainable social and economic wealth, and we’ve been doing that effectively for about 17 years with 13 years

located on this corner as we were located the Urban League across the street for 10 years.

We’ve been trying to bring a bank to this corner.

I went to Babington to ask him about a bank opportunity here in the building.

Babington told me that the building was getting ready to be sold, and it may leave the ownership of this community.

He said there may be an opportunity for us to put something together to actually acquire this.

I’m a banker. I have been a banker most of my natural life. I’m familiar with new market tax credits. We decided we could make a viable offer to purchase the building with the help of LISC (Local Initiative Support Corporation) and some really sharp attorneys over at Fredrickson & Byron.

U.S. Bank and Old National

THOR 3

Perspectives of an African

Black Lives Matter and the Removal of Racist Statues

By Caesar Alimsinya Atuire Final in a series IV. Black Lives Matter as a Kairos When we look at the timeline (chronos) of slavery and racism, the current Black Lives Matter movement could be a kairos, a propitious moment for decision and action.

Much has been achieved, and the condition of Africans in Europe and America today is much better than it was 300 years ago or even sixty years ago. The North Atlantic slave trade, which was unique because it used race as the deciding element in who was to become a slave and who was not, has been abolished. The United States of America can boast of even having elected a man of African descent to the highest office in the nation. As an African, I have studied and worked in some of the most prestigious institutions in Europe, where a few centuries ago I would only have been admitted as a janitor or a domestic servant.

Nevertheless, it is also

true that racism and white male supremacy are still present in many parts of the world. We are a long way from achieving equal opportunities for all. The current COVID-19 pandemic has raised a curtain on some of the underlying inequalities. At the end of April, COVID-19-related deaths were almost twice as high in the Bronx, as in Manhattan (224 versus 122 per 100,000 residents).21 Life expectancy across geographic, income and racial groups can vary by up to thirty years. For example, innercity residents of Chicago, who are more likely to be black, can expect to live to sixty years, a lower age than countries like Zimbabwe, Burundi and Mali.

Yet, in suburban areas, persons who are typically white, live to ninety.22 The list of prolonged and systemic deprivations of equal opportunities for persons of African descent is endless.

At Oxford University’s Oriel College, which has benefitted from the generosity of Cecil Rhodes and whose statue towers over the entrance to the college from the High Street, a mere six black students were admitted from 2017 to 2019.23 The Black Lives

Twas’ down in Mississippi not so long ago, when a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door. This boy’s dreadful tragedy I can still remember well, the color of his skin was black, and his name was Emmett Till. Bob Dylan, ‘The Death of Emmett Till’ On August 28, 1955, a 14-year-old had traveled to visit relatives during his summer vacation from Chicago, Illinois, to a small Mississippi Delta town called Money.

Al McFarlane and I would have been 8 years old or close to it. Quite a few of us growing up in the segregated neighborhoods of Santa Fe Place in Kansas City were firmly instructed by our parents not to look at the Jet Magazine bearing the shocking, painful, and frightening picture of his disfigured body lying in a glass shielded open coffin. I stayed on punishment for months for disobeying Daddy’s very wise advice, but I was determined to find a copy of the one of two Black magazines Black folks had thanks, to Johnson Publications out of Chicago.

I did see the horrible

Matter movement is not a debate about statues. Neither is it about George Floyd or Derek Chauvin. It is about the conditions that allow events like the killing of George Floyd to happen. The famous words of George Floyd as he struggled under the knee of Derek Chauvin, ‘I can’t breathe’, are a symbolic cry of black persons who live with the weights I alluded to at the beginning of this paper. Black Lives Matter is a call to lift those weights so that persons of African descent may breathe freely and have the same opportunities that are available to white citizens.

I2H

Is my cloth mask good enough?

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Even though the issues to be resolved deal with the present and the future, the roots of inequality and racism can be traced back to the past, to slavery and to colonialism. The structural and individual racisms of today are mainly residual effects and a continuation of historical slavery and colonialism.

Unfortunately, neither the European nations nor the USA have ever really made a concerted effort to deal with this past by carefully examining its impact on the present. Discourses on racism

BLM 6

Wikipedia

picture, and the off and on nightmares lasted for years.

Like the image of George Floyd on that dreadful May 25, 2020 day, that picture of Emmett Till seldom disappeared.

Unsuspectingly, Till had violated an unwritten code for a Black male interacting with a white female in her family’s grocery store. Several nights later, the woman’s husband and half-brother, armed, came to Till’s great uncle’s house and kidnapped Till. He was beaten and mutilated before they shot him in the head and sank his body in the Tallahatchie River.

The body was anchored by an old industrial fan.

In September of 1955, Roy Bryant and J. Milam were acquitted of the murder.

The next year, the two publicly admitted in an interview with Look Magazine that they killed Till. Double jeopardy laws

FLAME 6

1

Justice Stephen Breyer

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring Hobb servation Point

By Chuck Hobbs

photoNicole Pacini via Instagram

Emmett Till

“Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” Dr. Carter G. Woodson, legendary historian and activist ***Count me among those ECSTATIC about the breaking news that United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring!

Breyer, 83, has served since being appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1994 and still possesses a fecund mind, but the truth is that his pending retirement will allow President Joe Biden a chance to appoint a progressive; here’s betting that a Black woman, at long last, will get the nod!

Stay tuned... ***On the opposite end of the spectrum, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced yesterday that she

will run for reelection in 2022.

Pelosi, 81, also still possesses a fecund mind and a passion for politics and, unlike the Supreme Court seat, when she finally steps down, her Democratic district will send another Democrat to Washington, thus making her retirement far less necessary than Justice Breyer’s! ***Yes, I am aware that President Biden was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch” during an event at the White House earlier this week and yes, I do believe that his comments were in poor taste.

Yes, I also know that former President Donald Trump called folks that (and worse) seemingly on a daily basis and, yes, I, too, have been known to turn a cuss phrase (or several) in my private settings.

But that’s private; I have never cursed out a judge, an editor, or a student during my legal, writing, or teaching careers because there’s a time and place for everything under the sun. Plus, I would be a hypocrite for calling Trump out on his deplorable official

BREYER 7

News

How to end toxic relationships, set healthy boundaries, and reach God’s purpose

PAGE 7

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Thor From 2 Bank were instrumental in making the deal happen.

We all got together over multiple meetings chipping away at opportunities to acquire this and not let it leave the hands and the ownership of this community. It worked out in our favor.

McFarlane: So, you found problematic situation that, because of the turns in the market and other challenges, put the original builders in default.

You created…you became a solution.

Babington-Johnson: I think I first met David some 20 years ago or more. Over the period of years, you get a chance to see people, understand them, find out whether or not you share values. From the beginning, it was clear to me that we did in fact, share values.

He was absolutely committed to the advance of our people and really clear that wealth building was a major part of that.

In United States you can talk a great game, but if you can’t operate in some way in the capitalistic system, people don’t really want to hear very much of what you have to say. David had committed himself both to helping people individually build wealth but then, also, he had this dream aspiration, which I share with him and support him in, of actually developing a bank that was ours. meaningfully, not just in some superficial way.

So I think the collaboration ultimately, Al, as I think the collaboration that you and I have shared is a collaboration of values… a collaboration that is about commitment that is demonstrated by consistency and persistence.

McGee: Richard Copeland and his family have done miraculous things here in Minnesota, in Las Vegas, in Haiti, and around the world.

He set the stage for legacy.

The collaboration with LISC and the banks was critical. I’m a banker and we really go by numbers. It’s cut and dry. It’s either two and two adds up to four, or you don’t get the deal done. We had some banks really look beyond that at some of the value propositions for this community. National Bank and U.S. Bank looked at the value of collaborating to bring this deal with us as owners.

McFarlane: I call this the post-George Floyd era. Everybody and everything is influenced by the horrific display of how inhumane we are capable of being. We can see that institutions of business and government have consistently turned a deaf ear when it comes to mobilizing resources to build our capacity to serve aspirations of Black people.

A consequence of market and policy intransigence reinforced that idea that doing business while Black in Minnesota was doomed to fail.

They call it Minnesota nice. I call it white supremacy.

Does this project signal a change in the economic landscape? A reckoning?

Babington-Johnson: We are living in an extraordinary time. I think the intensity of the current that we are met with shows the compounding impact of two major events: the George Floyd, the witnessing of the murder, the witnessing of the inhumanity of that moment, and, this pandemic, which is the backdrop to everything for two years and counting.

“Haitians have an expression that is apropos: “after the mountains, more mountains.”

Al, what I have come to believe, and I think your life personifies this as well, is that challenges really are disguises for opportunity.

In the midst of however difficult situations might be, the ability to look in and see what the opportunities there are for advancement are part of the blessing of the moment. And again, I think with both David and I, this issue of as bad as it is, God is in control, carries me through a lot of things, and allows me a continuous sense of optimism.

Insight News • January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022 • Page 3 And so the question gets to be, what are you about?

What are your values? What are your aspirations, and are you able to bring those to fruition in the season of challenge? The thing that you and I have shared from back when we started Stairstep… the goal of Stairstep, is rebuilding community.

Community, I believe, is the challenge of our times.

We talk about community as the way people behave when they believe they belong together.

Well, a lot of good comes with that. The question is, are there opportunities here to revitalize and energize the spirit of community in the midst of the challenge?

My experience in these past two years is that in some ways we’ve had a greater opportunity than ever to show the efficacy of collaboration.

McFarlane: David, let me have you jump in here.

So I’m impressed that your education initiative affects individuals and families. You are building wealth in the community, one household, one person at a time. You’re teaching the principles of equity, of acquisition, of self-reliance, of understanding money, and of understanding credit. As you do that, what expectations are you creating? I’m thinking you’re creating a sea of people, a fabric of community energy that is both capable and self aware, and that is prepared to knit itself into new possibilities, new manifestations of the power of community, of culture, of things that reflect both our history, the historicity of our presence, but also the futures that we can imagine.

McGee We work on generational wealth creation through education and teaching folks about systems, good and bad systems, and the conditioning that we’ve gone through all the way back since slavery. There’s some conditioning that’s been going on that we’re starting to unlock and reveal and help families understand how systems operate intricately so they can see themselves in them and see where they’re not in them. We teach how they can use systems to help their families build wealth and to literally build their selves away from the stripping of wealth.

There’s systems that have been set up for generations that have stripped our wealth. We’ve been locked in generational poverty. We’re starting to see families start to understand systems and opportunities for growth and ownership. And we’re working on an initiative now to try to get 9,000 Black families in home ownership over the next five years called 9,000 Equities.

Minneapolis has among the worst wealth disparities in the country. 19% home ownership rate for Black families and near 77% for White families.

McFarlane: How do you explain that? I mean, why and how does that exist?

McGee: A number of things: red lining, deed restrictions, a lack of education, the gap in income and employment. There’s a host of different things that all been a part of the gap, and there’s also some systems that have been in place that are not trying to address closing the gap.

Some underwriting criteria was created for white families. So you almost have to reexamine and create a new systemic opportunity for our families to get into home ownership. We’re working with Bremer and some others to help us open up opportunities to put more families in to home ownership. But it’s going to take a whole bunch of people. You mentioned collaboration earlier.

In the city, I’ve been working with the City of Minneapolis and they’ve been working aggressively here lately.

Because to own a home is just not to own a house. It is the ability to set the legacy for your family, if trained properly on how to leverage that equity in order to never look back and begin to replicate that for generations to come, which begins to start getting at that disparity gap.

We hope to set the pathway for it to close.

Uchechukwu Iroegbu

David McGee, Executive Director at Build Wealth, MN

Extended one week

Page 4 • January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022 • Insight News

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Mary McLeod Bethune: A Role Model Revisited Mary Jane McLeod was born in1875 in South Carolina. She was the 15th out of 17 children.

She attended Scotia Seminary, now Barber-Scotia College in Concord, North Carolina, in 1893 and Moody Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, IL in 1895. But with no church willing to sponsor her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching in South Carolina, she married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune.

In Daytona, Florida, in 1904 she scraped together $1.50 to begin a school with just five pupils. She called it the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Black Girls.

In 1923, the school was merged with the Cookman Institute for Men, then in Jacksonville,

Florida, to form what was known from 1929 as BethuneCookman College, a Historical Black College and University (HBCU) in Daytona Beach.

Bethune remained president of the college until 1942 and from 1946 to 1947. A gifted teacher and leader, Mrs. Bethune ran her school with a combination of unshakable faith and remarkable organizational skills. Under her administration the college won full accreditation and grew to an enrollment of more than 1,000.

She was a brilliant speaker and an astute fundraiser. She expanded the school to a high school, then a junior college, and then a college. Today her legacy still strives as BethuneCookman University has nearly 3000 students and offers 45 degree programs.

Mary McLeod Bethune Continuing to direct the school, she turned her attention to the national scene, where she became a forceful

and inspiring representative of her people. In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, of which she

remained president until 1949 and she was vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1940 to 1955. In 1936, President Roosevelt appointed her administrative assistant, then Director for Negro affairs of the National Youth Administration in his New Deal Administration.

There she worked to attack discrimination and increase opportunities for Blacks until 1944. Behind the scenes as a member of the “Black Cabinet,” and in hundreds of public appearances, she worked to improve the status of her people.

She passed away in 1955, a year after the passage of the 1954 Brown v. Board school desegregation ruling.

Locally in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Public Schools

named a northside school after our great ancestor called Bethune Arts Elementary. There is also a Bethune Park in north Minneapolis and the former Bethune Recreation Center is now operated by the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (PWCC). In the mid-1970’s, there was a Mary McLeod Bethune Montessori School Day Care Center in St. Paul. In 1966, the Twin Cities Council of the National Council of Negro Women (which Bethune founded) was started and its first president was our community matriarch Dr. Josie R. Johnson.

Mary Mcleod Bethune leaves behind a loving and caring legacy and her faith and commitment to her community are model values for us all.

Mary McLeod Bethune: The Emergency of Now!

By Mahmoud El-Kati Once again in our long and noble struggle, Martin Luther King’s dictum “The Urgency of Now!” is upon us. This reckoning with America’s latest racial nightmare, “The Souls of Black Folk” must emerge to save America from itself.

In the midst of the current challenges to our steadfast and evolving progress towards moral clarity and a more just society, we need resources beyond the conventional or visible ones. We need a special kind of resource to arrest the rising tide and fanatical cries to “Make America Great Again.” We, above all people in America, know exactly what this sinister slogan means. In short, in some form, it means the resurgence of the doctrine of “White supremacy.” This has happened before. After the Civil War and the failure of the Reconstruction period. The Republican party, the victors of the Civil War abandoned nearly four million ex-enslaved people.

The political elite and business leaders of America allowed African Americans to be reenslaved under the banner of segregation, under the leadership of White supremacists, many who were law makers in the United States Congress. Then Republicans sold Black people out to a reign of terror, which lasted 50 years until execution of Emmert Till.

Today, we still live under the aftermath of enslavement and a failed Reconstruction.

Both our enslavement and Jim Crow were systems committed to

dehumanizing Black people. We are now 157 years removed from our formal enslavement. We are now some 61 years removed from legal segregation, since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned public discrimination against Black people in public spaces, largely focusing on the blatant and visible forms of racism by which we mean White supremacy. We should drop from our verbal usage or vocabulary the mild terms referring to racism such as prejudice, bigotry, bias and go for the main vein, which feeds other veins and that is the doctrine of White supremacy. Let us boldly and rightly point to the source of the “race problem” or the “Colored question,” and call out what has become the real practicing religion of too many Americans who call themselves white, with religious fervor.

The wise persons among us believe that “Truth Crushed to Earth, will Rise Again.” Our current challenge is to stand forth and face the last desperate wave of violent, and all-consuming rage of the doctrine of White supremacy.

This must be done, not only for the salvation of Black Americans, but in the name of the human family. The fortuitous turns of history have placed Black people, as a people, in the “proverbial belly of the whale.”

Our destiny is to “speak loud, tell the truth, shame the devil and get free!”

I think that Black Americans in the generality underate themselves both in terms of their will to struggle and their leadership qualities which the heavens have granted this

Dr Mary McLeod Bethune people. We hear all too often, people who call themselves “white,” brag endlessly about the greatness of America. Lest we forget that greatness, does not automatically mean good.

The dropping of bombs on Japanese cities was awesomely great, but was not good.

Now the main message: Mary McLeod Bethune ranks among the most creative and thoughtful leaders that the Black American has produced. It is my belief that her time has come. She left a living legacy of her life’s work such as Bethune-Cookman University (118 years-old) and the National Council of Negro Women (87 years-old). These two institutions have inspired and sharpened the lives of many thousands of Black women and has served our communities across the world. Let’s not forget that the most important things

that institutions do - They make human behavior predictable!

I am thoroughly convinced that in these turbulent times the life, work, courage and boundless wisdom of Dr. Bethune is an untapped resource that we desperately need. These characteristics are intangible, yet powerful, and can be used as a weapon in our struggle for freedom.

Curiously enough in the midst of America’s ongoing moral dilemma, African Americans are talking to one another on a scale, as never before. They are looking up with pride and not talking down to one another. This makes for a time to call on Mary McLeod Bethune’s Last Will and Testament to her beloved people.

In effect, it is a holy script that tells us who we are, and how we rise above the racial madness.

Her Testament is akin to Martin

Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, which some religious authorities suggest that his Letter should be added to St. Paul’s New Testament, because it belongs there!

Mrs. Bethune’s Testament is a transcendent message to us. It begins with love, of course, because in this society that is who we are. The Testament, in such a time as this is a resource.

Bethune’s Testament is humane, conciliatory, and yet proud. In effect, it requests that Black people remain the adults, that we are, in the societal room called America, full with ignorant, immature and disingenuous adolescents.

In efforts to raise our collective consciousness, every home, school and Black institution should have Dr. Bethune’s Last Will and Testament on their wall for

everyone to read and discuss.

Thus, it is printed in this issue of Insight News and is sponsored

by Solidarity - Twin Cities, the Stairstep Foundation, the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance and Insight News.

We are hereby asking Black households, businesses, social service agencies and educational institutions, to take this Testament and frame it and hang it on your walls so that our children can learn. Put this in your church, business and social service bulletin boards. Let this Testament not simply be a keepsake, but a minor monument and working document. The word “monument” from the Greek language means, “The thing that causes one to remember.” Mary McLeod Bethune would be proud of this collaborative effort - demonstrating unity.

This statue of Mary McLeod Bethune will soon make history at the U.S. Capitol

By Rachel Treisman Twitter October 14, 2021 -- Educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune will soon make history as the first Black person to have a statecommissioned statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, when her statue replaces that of a Confederate general.

It’s a milestone many years in the making. So what exactly will that groundbreaking statue look like?

Members of the public can now see for themselves, after the larger-than-life marble figure was unveiled in Bethune’s home state of Florida earlier this week. It will remain on display in Daytona Beach for several months before taking its place in the nation’s capital in early 2022, according to Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.

Bethune, the daughter of formerly enslaved people, was an influential educator and activist who — among her many accomplishments — founded the National Council of Negro Women, advised multiple U.S. presidents and created a boarding school for Black children that would later become Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach.

The 11-foot statue, which weighs more than 6,000 lbs., was sculpted out of the largest (and last) piece

of statuary marble from Michelangelo’s quarry in Italy.

It was created by artist Nilda Comas, who was chosen from a field of 1,600 applicants and is the first Hispanic master sculptor to create a statue for the National Statuary Hall State Collection.

“Dr. Bethune embodies the very best of the Sunshine State. Floridians and all Americans can take great pride in being represented by the great educator and civil rights icon,” Castor said. “I am glad that she is being rightfully recognized here in Florida before she travels to her place of honor and recognition by all of America in the U.S. Capitol.”

A symbolic statue for an American icon The Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Project has spent years raising private funds for a marble statue for the Capitol, as well as another statue for a local park, a featurelength documentary and a K-12 curriculum module.

Bob Lloyd, the fund’s board treasurer, told CNN that the nonprofit had raised about $800,000 in private donations.

That money went toward the marble statue and a bronze replica that’s been slated for a new riverfront park in Daytona Beach.

Before she started sculpting, Comas conducted intensive research at state and national archives, the State of Florida Archives and Bethune-

Nigel Cook/News-Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Co

Cutline Members of the public view the newly unveiled statue of Mary McLeod Bethune at the News-Journal Center in Daytona Beach on Oct. 12. It’s slated to move to the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall early next year.

Cookman University.

She called the fouryear process “a beautiful journey.”

“I just fell in love with Dr. Bethune and everything that she did,” Comas said, according to Orlando NBC affiliate WESH. The statue depicts Bethune wearing a cap and gown and a pearl necklace, holding a black rose in one hand and a walking stick in the other. She’s standing in front of a stack of books, with a warm smile and what one local reporter described as eyes that “capture wisdom [and] kindness.”

The base of the pedestal is inscribed with her

name, her home state, birth and death dates, as well as one of her most famous quotes: “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough.”

These symbols each speak to an element of Bethune’s life and legacy, the nonprofit explains.

The cap and gown represent her lifelong commitment to education, and the stack of books symbolizes her focus on expanding education for women and people of color specifically. The spines bear words from her one of her famous writings, her last will and testament: love, faith, racial dignity, courage, peace and “a thirst for education.”

Bethune collected walking sticks during her lifetime, reportedly seeing them as symbols of refinement and leadership. The walking stick depicted in the statue is modeled after a gift she received from President Franklin Roosevelt, with whom she worked closely. He appointed her to the National Youth Administration in 1936, became the organization’s director of Negro affairs and served as the only female member of Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet.”

The black rose represents Bethune’s work in education, as well as her belief that “loving thy neighbor” required interracial, interreligious and international brotherhood, according to the nonprofit.

“Although there is no species of flower called a ‘black rose,’ Dr. Bethune was captivated by beauty of a rose with a particular dark hue,” it explained. “These dark roses instantly became her favorite.

She thereafter referred to her pupils as her ‘black roses.’ “ History many years in the making The Capitol’s Statuary Hall collection features two statues from each of the 50 states.

Florida first moved to replace one of its statues, honoring Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, in 2016. It was removed from the

Capitol just last month.

State lawmakers unanimously approved Bethune as its replacement in 2018, after after a lengthy search process that included input from members of the public.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially requested in 2019 — on the 144th anniversary of Bethune’s birthday — that she represent Florida in the national statue collection.

“Dr. Bethune takes the place of an obscure Confederate general who has represented Florida in the state collection since 1922 and will be one of only a few women to represent a state in the 100-statue collection,” Castor said.

Florida is not the only state to make such a change.

Virginia is replacing its statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee with civil rights icon Barbara Johns, and there are ongoing efforts by some lawmakers to increase the number of women represented in the Capitol and remove Confederate statues from display.

There are just four other Black Americans represented in statues throughout the Capitol (and about a dozen others in paintings and murals): Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Insight News • January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022 • Page 5

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s Last Will & Testament

Bethune School

Bethune with students

Sometimes I ask myself if I have any other legacy to leave. Truly, my worldly possessions are few. Yet, my experiences have been rich. From them, I have distilled principles and policies in which I believe firmly, for they represent the meaning of my life’s work. They are the products of much sweat and sorrow.

Perhaps in them there is something of value. So, as my life draws to a close, I will pass them on to Negroes everywhere in the hope that an old woman’s philosophy may give them inspiration. Here, then is my legacy.

I LEAVE YOU LOVE. Love builds. It is positive and helpful. It is more beneficial than hate. Injuries quickly forgotten quickly pass away. Personally and racially, our enemies must be forgiven. Our aim must be to create a world of fellowship and justice where no man’s skin, color or religion, is held against him. “Love thy neighbor” is a precept which could transform the world if it were universally practiced.

It connotes brotherhood and, to me, brotherhood of man is the noblest concept in all human relations. Loving your neighbor means being interracial, interreligious and international.

I LEAVE YOU HOPE. The Negro’s growth will be great in the years to come.

Yesterday, our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they retained their dignity. Today, we direct our economic and political strength toward winning a more abundant and secure life. Tomorrow, a new Negro, unhindered by race taboos and shackles, will benefit from more than 330 years of ceaseless striving and struggle.

Theirs will be a better world. This I believe with all my heart.

I LEAVE YOU THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING CONFIDENCE IN ONE ANOTHER. As long as Negroes are hemmed into racial blocks by prejudice and pressure, it will be necessary for them to band together for economic betterment.

Negro banks, insurance companies and other businesses are examples of successful, racial economic enterprises. These institutions were made possible by vision and mutual aid. Confidence was vital in getting them started and keeping them going.

Negroes have got to demonstrate still more confidence in each other in business. This kind of confidence will aid the economic rise of the race by bringing together the pennies and dollars of our people and ploughing them into useful channels. Economic separatism cannot be tolerated in this enlightened age, and it is not practicable. We must spread out as far and as fast as we can, but we must also help each other as we go.

I LEAVE YOU A THIRST FOR EDUCATION. Knowledge is the prime need of the hour. More and more, Negroes are taking full advantage of hard-won opportunities for learning, and the educational level of the Negro population is at its highest point in history. We are making greater use of the privileges inherent in living in a democracy. If we continue in this trend, we will be able to rear increasing numbers of strong, purposeful men and women, equipped with vision, mental clarity, health and education.

I LEAVE YOU RESPECT FOR THE USES OF POWER. We live in a world which respects power above all things. Power, intelligently directed, can lead to more freedom. Unwisely directed, it can be a dreadful, destructive force. During my lifetime I have seen the power of the Negro grow enormously. It has always been my first concern that this power should be placed on the side of human justice.

Now that the barriers are crumbling everywhere, the Negro in America must be ever vigilant lest his forces be marshalled behind wrong causes and undemocratic movements. He must not lend his support to any group that seeks to subvert democracy.

That is why we must select leaders who are wise, courageous, and of great moral stature and ability. We have great leaders among us today: Ralph Bunche, Channing Tobias, Mordecai Johnson, Walter White, and Mary Church Terrell. We have had other great men and women in the past: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. We must produce more qualified people like them, who will work not for themselves, but for others.

I LEAVE YOU FAITH. Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service.

Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible. Faith in God is the greatest power, but great, too, is faith in oneself. In 50 years, the faith of the American Negro in himself has grown immensely and is still increasing. The measure of our progress as a race is in precise relation to the depth of the faith in our people held by our leaders. Frederick Douglass, genius though he was, was spurred by a deep conviction that his people would heed his counsel and follow him to freedom. Our greatest Negro figures have been imbued with faith. Our forefathers struggled for liberty in conditions far more onerous than those we now face, but they never lost the faith. Their perseverance paid rich dividends. We must never forget their sufferings and their sacrifices, for they were the foundations of the progress of our people.

I LEAVE YOU RACIAL DIGNITY. I want Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all costs. We, as Negroes, must recognize that we are the custodians as well as the heirs of a great civilization. We have given something to the world as a race and for this we are proud and fully conscious of our place in the total picture of mankind’s development. We must learn also to share and mix with all men. We must make an effort to be less race conscious and more conscious of individual and human values.

I have never been sensitive about my complexion. My color has never destroyed my self-respect nor has it ever caused me to conduct myself in such a manner as to merit the disrespect of any person. I have not let my color handicap me. Despite many crushing burdens and handicaps, I have risen from the cotton fields of South Carolina to found a college, administer it during its years of growth, become a public servant in the government of our country and a leader of women. I would not exchange my color for all the wealth in the world, for had I been born white I might not have been able to do all that I have done or yet hope to do.

I LEAVE YOU A DESIRE TO LIVE HARMONIOUSLY WITH YOUR FELLOW MEN. The problem of color is worldwide. It is found in Africa and Asia, Europe and South America. I appeal to American Negroes -- North, South, East and West -- to recognize their common problems and unite to solve them.

I pray that we will learn to live harmoniously with the white race. So often, our difficulties have made us hypersensitive and truculent. I want to see my people conduct themselves naturally in all relationships -- fully conscious of their manly responsibilities and deeply aware of their heritage. I want them to learn to understand whites and influence them for good, for it is advisable and sensible for us to do so. We are a minority of 15 million living side by side with a white majority. We must learn to deal with these people positively and on an individual basis.

I LEAVE YOU FINALLY A RESPONSIBILITY TO OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. The world around us really belongs to youth for youth will take over its future management. Our children must never lose their zeal for building a better world. They must not be discouraged from aspiring toward greatness, for they are to be the leaders of tomorrow. Nor must they forget that the masses of our people are still underprivileged, ill-housed, impoverished and victimized by discrimination. We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.

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Insight 2 Health

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Is my cloth mask good enough?

By Victoria Knight, Kaiser Health News The highly transmissible omicron variant is sweeping the U.S., causing a huge spike in covid-19 cases and overwhelming many hospital systems.

Besides urging Americans to get vaccinated and boosted, public health officials are recommending that people upgrade from their cloth masks to higherquality medical-grade masks.

But what does this even mean?

At a recent Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, top public health officials displayed different types of masking. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wore what appeared to be a surgical mask layered under a cloth mask, while Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president, wore what looked like a KN95 respirator.

Some local governments and other organizations are offering their own policies.

Los Angeles County, for instance, will require as of Jan. 17 that employers provide N95 or KN95 masks to employees. In late December, the Mayo Clinic began requiring all visitors and patients to wear surgical masks instead of cloth versions.

The University of Arizona has banned cloth masks and asked everyone on campus to wear higher-quality masks.

Questions about the level of protection against covid that masks provide — whether cloth, surgical or higher-end medical grade — have been a

photo/Christian Horz

Although cloth masks may appear to be more substantial than the paper surgical mask option, surgical masks as well as KN95 and N95 masks are infused with an electrostatic charge that helps filter out particles. subject of debate and discussion since the earliest days of the pandemic. We looked into the question last summer.

And as science changes and variants emerge with higher transmissibility, so do opinions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not updated its mask guidance since October, before the omicron variant emerged.

That guidance doesn’t recommend the use of an N95 respirator but states only that masks should be at least two layers, well-fitting and contain a nose wire.

Multiple experts we consulted said that the current CDC guidance does not go far enough. They also agreed on another point: Wearing a cloth mask is better than not wearing a mask at all, but if you can upgrade — or layer cloth with surgical — now is the time.

Although cloth masks may appear to be more substantial than the paper surgical mask option, surgical masks as well as KN95 and

N95 masks are infused with an electrostatic charge that helps filter out particles.

“From the perspective of knowing how covid is transmitted, and what we know about omicron, wearing a higher-quality mask is really critical to stopping the spread of omicron,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, academic dean for the School of Public Health at Brown University.

A large-scale realworld study conducted in Bangladesh and published in December showed that surgical masks are more effective at preventing covid transmission than cloth masks.

So, one easy strategy to improve protection is to layer a surgical mask underneath cloth. Surgical masks can be bought relatively cheaply online and reused for about a week.

Ranney said she advises people who opt for layering to put the betterquality mask, such as the surgical mask, closest to your face, and put the lesser-

quality mask on the outside.

If you’re really pressed for resources, Dr. Stephen Luby, a professor specializing in infectious diseases at Stanford University and one of the authors of the Bangladesh mask study, said surgical masks can be washed and reused, if finances are an issue. Nearly two years into the pandemic, such masks are cheap and plentiful in the U.S. and many retailers make them available free of charge to customers as they enter businesses.

“During the study, we told the participants they could wash the surgical masks with laundry detergent and water and reuse them,” Luby said.

“You lose some effect of the electrostatic charge, but they still outperformed cloth masks.”

Still, experts maintain that wearing either a KN95 or an N95 respirator is the best protection against omicron, since these masks are highly effective at filtering out viral particles. The “95” in the names refers to the masks’ 95%

Flame From 2 protected them from a repeat prosecution. This Jim Crow lynching of the young Chicago native sparked the first phase of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Another lynching happened 65 years later in here Minneapolis at the corner of 38th and Chicago. Murdered at the hands of a police officer, this brutal death also shocked the world and broke decent, compassionate, and passionate people’s hearts.

But this time, there was a different outcome surprisingly from the predominantly white jury. The world was introduced to an undeniable truth superbly presented by an astute Attorney General and a powerful team of lawyers. A conviction and a Federal Civil Rights trial still in preparation suggested days of reckoning ahead. It was a partially cloudy day, but believe it or not, the sun began to shine.

The recent CBS broadcast of Women of the Movement tells the story of Till’s mother, Mamie Till Moberly, and how she, to the very end, sought justice and accountability for the innocent life taken from her and from the world.

Conversations with Al McFarlane co-host, Dr. Bravada Garrett Akinsanya, founder and CEO of the African American Child Wellness Institute (AACWI), said, it wasn’t just one Black lynching or a single aberration. “It was true that for Black male youth especially, danger lurked in the shadows.

We know the truth, unearthed by a mother determined to keep alive in her child’s memory,

BLM From 2 tend to focus on programmes of inclusion, which are useful but avoid an honest confrontation with the past. A more organic programme aimed at putting an end to racism and promoting greater harmony in society would require an uncomfortable dialogue about past injustices.

After all, true reconciliation

filtration efficacy against certainsized particles. N95 masks are regulated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, while KN95s are regulated by the Chinese government and KF94s by the South Korean government.

Americans were initially urged not to buy either surgical or N95 masks early in the pandemic to ensure there would be a sufficient supply for health care workers. But now there are enough to go around.

So, if you have the resources to upgrade to an N95, a KN95 or a KF94 mask, you should absolutely do so, said Dr. Leana Wen, a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University.

Although these models are more expensive and can be more uncomfortable, they are worth the investment for the safety they provide, she said. “[Omicron is] a much more contagious virus, so there is a much lower margin of error in regards to the activities you were once able to do without getting infected,” Wen said.

“We have to increase our protection in every way, because everything is riskier now.”

Wen also said that though these masks are characterized as one-use, unless you are in a health care setting, KN95s and N95s can be worn more than once. She uses one of her personal KN95s for more than a week at a time.

Another important thing to note is there are many counterfeit N95 and KN95 masks being sold online, so consumers must be careful when ordering them and be sure to get them only from a legitimate, trusted vendor.

The CDC maintains a

list of NIOSH-approved N95 respirators. Wirecutter and The Strategist have both published guides to purchasing approved KN95 and KF94 masks. Ranney also recommends consulting the website Project N95 or engineer Aaron Collins’ “Mask Nerd” YouTube channel.

And remember, the risk of transmission depends not just on the mask you wear but also the masking practices of others in the room — so going into a meeting or restaurant where others are unmasked or wearing only cloth masks increases the odds of getting infected, no matter how careful you are. This chart demonstrates the huge differences.

Even with a mask upgrade, if you are still worried about omicron and, in particular, a serious case of covid, the No. 1 thing you can do to protect yourself is get vaccinated and boosted, said Dr. Neal Chaisson, an assistant professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.

“There’s been a lot of talk about people who have been vaccinated getting omicron,” said Chaisson.

“But I’ve been working in the ICU and probably 95% of the patients that we’re taking care of right now did not take the advice to get vaccinated.”

This article has been republished under Creative Commons license. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces indepth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

and by the televised execution of a man whose last word was “Mama”, she said. “Love, hope, and faith must remain our guides, no matter the forces against our people.”

“On the one hand, they evade accountability for the Transatlantic slave trade and the genocide of Native Americans and the stealing of their land,” McFarlane said. “Then they flaunt a certain brazenness, an arrogance, with intentional terrorizing of Black people into submission. a certain intention of putting it in front of black people therefore terrorizing us into a certain submission.”

Dr. Akinsanya said “Those of us who work in the field of mental health know that the abuse, control, and power model is prevalent. The literary genius and civil rights icon, James Baldwin wrote about how scary it was to live in Black America because we must face the reality of a prolonged state of anger. But before anger comes fear, shame, hurt, and disappointment. Often there is isolation, emotional abuse, feeling less than valued, gender discrimination, and intimidation.”

“These terrorizing and harmful attacks play out in our behaviors,” she said. “I grew up in a small town in Texas. I saw the KKK in their white robes.

I saw the burning crosses and was even pulled over by police officials,” she said.

Dr. B. explained that Till came from a place where he felt it was okay to be Black. “He came from a place where it was okay to just be a kid and have no fear. Sadly, Black parents and caretakers are required to have “The Talk”, explaining that for Black people, there are different rules and that we have to be hyper vigilant.”

A renown clinical

psychologist, Dr. B describes this daily grind as painful, often traumatizing, requiring self-preservation, and having to expend far too much energy that could be directed into more positive and fruitful endeavors.

Deborah Watts, the cousin of Emmett Till, works earnestly to keep the memory of this young man alive and that of his mother, Mamie, whose work had yet to be completed.

Watts created the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation to move the work forward. “It’s about Emmett Till’s Legacy and about sisterhood, keeping this mother’s iron-willed determination on course to effect change. We must continue concerted efforts expeditiously.”

Mamie Till Mobley’s courageous insistence on an open-casket funeral showed the world more than her son’s mutilated body. Her decision delivered a relentless focus on American systemic racism. It illuminated the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy.

George Floyd’s murder did the same and we’re at the same place where we’ve been for so long.

We face the same demons today.

What will we tell our children?

“We can no longer internalize our pains and suffer in silence. We must find ways to come together and support one another,” says Dr. Oliver Williams, a professor of social work, a mental health clinician, and a frequent participant in the Healing Circle. “We must find detours around the barriers they continue to erect. And as Dr. B. suggests, we must have ‘courageous conversations.’”

May the eternal flame of hope and the memory of Emmett Till forever burn.

requires the identification and admission of errors together with a future commitment to justice. This is what makes the controversy around history important in the Black Lives Matter debate. This debate is not primarily about statues, it is about how to position ourselves today given the common and unequal past we share.

about statues of human persons is that they aim to immortalize mortals. They do this by keeping the mortal alive through a legendary narrative.

When that memorializing runs into difficulty, the project of immortalization of the person also enters into difficulty. The person may be condemned to a second death, the death of a legend. Whether this second death requires the statue memorializing this person to

V. Concluding Remarks about Statues of Racists in Public Spaces A general comment

BLM 7

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Insight News • January 31, 2022 - February 6, 2022 • Page 7

The Art of Sucker Duckin

How to end toxic relationships, set healthy boundaries, and reach God’s purpose Sharing Our Stories

By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor

By Tierre Caldwell Growing up back in the day, I remember a saying: “You are judged by the company you keep.” Who are the people you surround yourself with?

Do they lift you up, or do they stifle your growth? These are the questions Tierre Caldwell addresses in his book The Art of Sucker Duckin: How to End Toxic Relationships, Set Healthy Boundaries and Reach God’s Purpose.

The term Sucker Duckin can seem like one meaning at first, until you realize that it is actually an acronym: Sucker stands for Someone Ultimately

BLM From 6 be removed from public space is a question that has to be agreed upon through dialogue, not through imposition or vandalism.

The public sphere should be a place in which all the members of the community can feel at home or at least represented. If the story told by public space is skewed, this story can be corrected

Breyer From 2 conduct while sitting silent when Biden did the same; thus, my sincere hope that the president rejects his predecessor’s ways by being civil in his dealings with the press. ***I shook my head this morning while reading that Covid has rocked the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to the tune of 2,500 personnel out sick or quarantining due to the coronavirus! I would LOVE to learn how many of those sick or in quarantine are fully vaccinated; my hunch is that many of these officers, being the right wing talk radio listeners that I know a great deal of them to be, are the non-vaxxed cavalier types that also refuse to mask up and wash their hands... ***Kudos to David “Big Papi” Ortiz, on being selected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot.

But I have major beef that neither Barry Bonds nor Roger Clemens were selected on their final try with the BWA; Bonds, arguably the greatest slugger of all time, and Clemens, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, have been dogged by allegations of using performance enhancing drugs.

My beef stems from the fact that former Commissioner Bud Selig is in the Hall and he presided during the so-called “steroids era” and did little to curtail the practice.

I also have beef that the BWA is acting like the Hall is a place

Conspiring to Kill Everything Righteous, while Duckin stands for Demonstrating an Understanding of Conscious Knowledge Immune to Nothingness. Have you known people who don’t have anything going for them, whose life is shallow, and they don’t want to see you have or achieve anything either, like the old phrase “crabs in a bucket”? That is one definition of a Sucker.

Caldwell makes the distinction between a hater and a Sucker early on. Haters hate you, but they do so from a distance. Suckers hate what you represent, and they will do whatever it takes to get close enough to you to sabotage your life because of the lack in their own lives.

In practicing the Art of Sucker Duckin (ASD), Caldwell takes us on his spiritual journey, revealing the tactics Suckers use such as provocation, deception, manipulation, and “necessary illusions” to bind you closer and keep you from growing, all the while caring nothing about you.

Most importantly, dealing with Suckers is spiritual warfare, and the biggest Sucker of all is the Devil.

The culture of Suckerizm is defined by the author as “the artificial principles you live by when you operate in the lower nature of yourself, or in a biblical sense, your fleshly nature. This is what keeps you blind to who you are, what you are, where you are, where you are from, and who God called you to be.” From his life, Caldwell illustrates what Suckerizm looks like and its traps and limitations to those who are, or have been, ensnared in it, as well as an action plan to become “Sucker free.”

This action plan puts God at the center of it—being real with who we are, self-care, knowing our purpose, mindful of who we surround ourselves with, setting boundaries, and replacing the wasted and negative energy of the Devil with the positive energy of God and God’s will for us. It is not the quick fix or instant

by complementing it with other stories, or by removing those elements that are in full contradiction with who we are or aspire to be as a society.

The task is to create the space needed for constructive engagement and dialogue. Black Lives Matter is an occasion, a kairos, to finally commit to engaging in that dialogue about racism and the residual effects of slavery that has been pending for centuries.

In the meantime, the statues may remain (many have been around for decades and a year or two longer would not make such a

difference). When a consensus has been reached, a statue can be de-commissioned or other monuments erected to give a more complete view of history.

When this happens, entire communities will hopefully emerge victorious as a people, not as a particular group gaining victory over another.

Harald Schmidt, Vaccine Rationing and the Urgency of Social Justice in the Covid-19 Response, in: Hastings Center Report 50, 2020, 46–49 (https://doi.

23 Number of black students in Oxford rises, but low numbers admitted to colleges, in: ITV News, 22 June 2020, https://

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Prof. Karen Lang for encouraging me to write this paper; Prof.

Catherine Conybeare for her insightful suggestions and comments; my Roman friends, Maru, Andreina, Ivana, Maria, Sara, Oreste for the useful conversations on this theme.

Caesar Alimsinya

for paragons of virtue, as players fraught with all sorts of personal failures, from racism, to alcohol abuse and the like, are enshrined in Cooperstown. If I had my druthers, not only would Bonds and Clemens be enshrined, but Pete Rose, too (as we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God).

penned the following Facebook post:”Brothers, it is ok to be ‘shook,’ ‘upset,’ ‘choked up,’ ‘sad,’ ‘despondent,’ ‘disconsolate,’ or even reduced to tears about the death of the great Kobe Bryant, his little girl Gianna, and seven other souls earlier today.

As I grow older, I finally understand why in the classic film Menace II Society, the character Pernell (Glenn Plummer), one who was serving life without parole, told his mentee Caine (Tyrin Turner) to look after his 5-year-old son, saying: ‘teach him better than I taught you...teach him the way we grew up was BS.’ Indeed, all of the

‘real men don’t cry,’ or ‘real men only express one emotion—anger’ was some BS. Process your pain the best that you can, Brothers, because for many of us, particularly involved fathers who love their

little girls like Kobe loved his, this tragedy hurts really bad...”

Lest we forget!

Thank you and please subscribe to the Hobbservation Point—have a great Wednesday!

In Memoriam Two years ago today, the great Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others perished in a helicopter crash in California.

I was traveling back from Atlanta that day when I got the news and, deeply saddened, pulled over at a rest stop and

21

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Tierre Caldwell gratification of Suckerizm; it is a process. Pride and EGO (Edging God Out) must fall away in the face of God, and we in turn can build a Circle of Elevation that lifts God up, as well as positive-minded people in it who encourage you to grow.

Thank you, Tierre, for teaching the discernment of recognizing Suckers in order to remove them from our lives, and to always keep God at the center. In your words, “To be aware is to be alive.”

org/10.1002/hast.1113).

22 Harald Schmidt, The Way We Ration Ventilators Is Biased, in: New York Times, 15 April 2020, h t t p s : / / w w w. n y t i m e s . com/2020/04/15/opinion/covidventilator-rationingblacks.html (18.08.2020).

w w w. i t v. c o m / n e w s / 2 0 2 0 06-23/number-of-blackstudents-in -oxford-risesbut-low-numbers-admittedto-colleges (12.08.2020). lugyjvfluyj

Atuire is a Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy and Classics Department at the University of Ghana, Legon. He is also a 2020 Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. Dr. Atuire’s work draws from African and European philosophical traditions to reflect on normative issues in bioethics, health, and intercultural relations. He is co-editor of the volume Bioethics in Africa: Theories and Praxis. He has also lectured and published on epistemic decolonization in academia.

Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

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