C E L E B R AT I NG B L AC K AC H I E V E M E N T T H ROUG H OU T F LO R I DA
Volume 9 – Number 46 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
Dean Deidré Keller CASTING VISION FOR FAMU LAW
HALTED HOMECOMING “BLACK FAMILY REUNION” ON HOLD
BLACK WEALTH GAP BROTHERS
WEIGH IN ON CLOSING IT
FIRST OF FIRSTS BLACK WOMEN VYING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
VOTE! A PARTY SHIFT MAY DEPEND ON THE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK $3.50 onyxmagazine.com
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
contents 6 Publisher’s Column
Laura Dorsey, is the CEO of LLD Consulting, an associate editor of ONYX Magazine and author of the ONYX Magazine Money Matters series. Laura lives in Upper Marlboro, Md.
Mildred A. Graham is the director of Advancement and Alumni Affairs at the FAMU College of Law in Orlando.
7 ONYX Salutes Chadwick Boseman 8 First of Firsts – Black women who vied for the White House 10 Elevate – Elevating the warrior spirit in Black men 12 Travel – Flexcation, a new way to travel 14 Education – 4 ways to get ready for school no matter where you’re learning 15 SAGE – Circle of Love 16 Florida Scope/Beyond Florida 17 On the Quad
Reggie Grant is an associate professor of journalism at Tallahassee Community College and co-founder of Just Be Cool, an anti-hate campaign.
Zelda Jones is a writer in Orlando who was a librarian and teacher at the historic Jones High School.
18 Money Matters – The Black wealth gap (and how to close it) 20 On the Rise – Millennial votes matter 22 Technology – It’s time for diversity in STEM 24 Library Resources – Healthier at home 26 ONYX Reads – Books with grit 28 Feature – Dead Deidre’ Keller casts vision for FAMU Law 30 Sports – Halted Homecoming 32 Personal Finance – 5 common questions about life insurance
Rumaasha Maasha is an engineer based in Huntsville, Ala.
Quantavia McKay is a senior Broadcast Journalism student at Florida A&M University from Miami. She enjoys writing stories about women empowerment, community and news.
34 Real Estate – Can you buy a house entirely online? 35 Commentary – Good trouble, necessary trouble 36 Health & Wellness – 6 reasons your diet is not working 38 Entrepreneurship – Wine Down 41 Family – Don’t let COVID-19 affect your credit score 42 Medically Speaking – Signs of prostate cancer; early breast cancer screening ma save lives 44 Opinion – The color of credibility
Nancy Port Schwalb is the founder and president of Schwalb Public Relations in Orlando.
46 Food & Wine – Backyard girllin’
Trina Ryan is a freelance writer in Orlando and the grants manager of the Orlando Museum of Art.
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FEATURE
Dean Deidre’ Keller: Casting Vision for FAMU Law
Kevin Washington, Ph.D., is an academician and psychologist who leads the Department of Psychology at Grambling University in Baton Rouge, La. Kevin is the author of ONYX Magazine’s Elevate series.
4 ONYX MAGAZINE
Cover photo by Derrious Robinson, RTW Photography
OPINION
The
COLOR of Credibility
Do the falsehoods of one race override the truth of another? By Rumaasha Maasha
44 ONYX MAGAZINE
The killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others are each small manifestations of this ugly American truth that add up to a formidable mountain when taken together with past history. justice system, our society and so on. The credibility bar for a person of color to successfully make a case for the truth is ridiculously high whereas the credibility bar for a White person telling a lie in opposition is absurdly low. The end result is a warped reality that permeates our workspaces, our communities and our leadership, leading many of our citizenry individually and our nation collectively to make fateful decisions that substantially impede our success
and hobble our future as a nation. The killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others are each small manifestations of this ugly American truth that add up to a formidable mountain when taken together with past history. It took three White men less than 15 minutes after seeing a Black man jogging to become jury, judges and executioners. It took, however, three months with video evidence on hand for
PHOTO BY ORAH L. REED
A
s Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country, what remains obvious is that there are still far too many Americans who do not fully appreciate how consequential and enduring a threat racism is to this nation. More so than Russia, China, COVID-19, or any threat we currently spend billions to mitigate, racism is an existential threat because it attacks, corrodes and weakens basic objective truth critical to the function of a peaceful and equitable society. In the minds of far too many Americans, falsehoods from a White person “by default� trump the honest truths and reality of/ from a person of color. I am, of course, speaking in generalities, but the overall pattern is prominent in our history and observable present-day in our
A mural of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed by gunmen while taking a jog in Brunswick, Ga., is painted outside the upcoming Brunswick African American Cultural Center on Albany Ave.
the murderers to be taken into custody. Just imagine what the outcome would have been without the video. Several investigators and district attorneys saw the video of the murder while the family of Ahmaud Arbery clamored for justice for months, yet it took most of America seeing the video to finally get justice moving. It is not yet accomplished. It was no less than the president of the United States who, after seeing the horrific video, suggested, “You know, it could be something that we didn’t see on tape,” in essence, attempting to still somehow justify the shooting. It took a roughly eight minutes for Officer Derek Chauvin to choke the life out of George Floyd over a counterfeit $20 bill, yet even with video evidence, it took the better part of a week to “build the case”
to simply arrest Chauvin for murder. It was comfort in this ugly American truth that led Amy Cooper to call the police on bird-watching Christian Cooper in New York’s Central Park, even though she was the one breaking the law. Why? Because the Carolyn Bryants of our history and countless others like her never suffered any repercussions for falsely accusing Black people. She is alive today, 65 years later, whereas Emmett Till’s brutalized remains sit in a cold grave. Her lie was deemed far more credible than Emmett Till’s truth. I think of that line in the Gospel of John 20:29: “Jesus said to him (Thomas), “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Indeed, blessed are those who do not require a video to be convinced of unjust killings and brutality. Exploitation of this credibility gap is how businessmen have made billions off the backs of migrants of color all the while these same migrants doing back-breaking labor for a pittance are vilified. Their stories of exploitation are routinely ignored for the lie of “they’re taking American jobs.” Of course, certain American employers deliberately hire migrants at lower wages to make greater profits, American job loss being a consequence of this. And we Black folk know this all too well because before it was the Central American immigrant, it was US doing those jobs slaughtering chickens, working the fields, cleaning buildings and doing manual labor for a pittance. We were accused of taking good-paying jobs from Whites when we sought to do more than menial labor. The solution is not draconian policies to keep out Brown people, it should be harsh penalties for those who exploit them. This ugly American truth is also part and parcel of our political system. While this issue merits a much longer discussion, the following can be stated: We know that many Americans feel far more comfortable chalking up the increased social divide in our country to differences in politics (socialism!) rather than racism because rac-
ism is a much harder topic to talk about honestly. However, what gets missed is that our adversaries are very observant; they also see this weakness and a few have even made successful attempts at exploiting it. Our adversaries realize that America today will tolerate a thousand lies from a White political leader than one difficult truth from a Black one; that many are willing to be believe that Russia did not illegally interfere in our elections but a Black president’s administration did (deep state!); that many will howl about Black welfare recipients and Mexican immigrants bankrupting their country while completely ignoring the wealthy elite banking billions off their ignorance. And exploiting this weakness is the easiest and cheapest way to weaken America compared to any investment in weaponry. My wise momma would say, “The reason the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed wasn’t because he was fighting for equal rights for Black people. He was killed because he was getting poor Blacks and poor Whites to unite together to fight for equal rights.” In the context of this discussion, Dr. King was a threat because he sought, using arguments of faith and reason, to lower that ridiculous credibility standard for Black folks to the point that regular White folks would believe Black folks’ truths, the truths about the struggles and injustices they face, the truths about their desire to live peacefully, and not automatically accept the cheap lies of White segregationists. We have done much to lower that bar over the decades and while there is still a way to go, thankfully more Americans are now engaged than ever before. We must continue to speak out, share, be willing to listen, be willing to walk in another’s shoes and hear their truths, and be vocal advocates for lasting and effective change. That last part is important as silence means acquiescence to the status quo; we can no longer be quiet bystanders. People of color might bear the brunt of racism; however, racism ultimately ensnares and hobbles us all as a nation. ONYX MAGAZINE 45