SDM Magazine Issue #25 Summer 2020

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SUMMER/FALL ISSUE 2020

ALONZO BLACK LIVES MATTER

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Culture

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HOW COVID-19 HAS DISRUPTED THE FOOD CHAIN

BEHIND THE LENS: SETH LONDON NYC

I KILL THEREFORE I AM: POLICE BRUTALITY

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It’s all about the content

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ON THE COVER

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Sweaty Face Mask?

5 Tips to Keep Cool while covered up

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Visual imagery created by independent artists to illuminate the current movement and protests, marches, speeches and mood in the country around systematic racsim.

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These 5 foods show how coronavirus has disrupted supply chains Even as demand soars at grocery stores and food banks, farmers are forced to dump milk and let vegetables rot.

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SDM Media is proud to create a fashion-forward brand for the modern day warrior that embodies men who have a desire for success, ambition, strength, motivation, and drive.

“I Kill Therefore I Am”By Emily McGowan— For two weeks, America has been in flames; for two weeks, police brutality has dominated our phone screens and television sets. We saw it in Lafayette Park. We saw it when a 75-year-old man was thrown to the ground in Buffalo, New York.

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Six charts show how Americans have been affected by COVID-19 At this rate, a second wave of infections — the one that’s long been forecast for flu season this fall — could arrive before the first wave ever ends. At this rate, a second wave of infections — the one that’s long been forecast for flu season this fall — could arrive before the first wave ever ends.

Westcoast Leather San Francisco

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Fashion

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Models: Red Models NYC

ALONE: BEHIND THE LENS SETH LONDON NYC

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Ar t

ART BY: RENALDO OSHEA OsheaArt

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Authenticity Gap by Karlton A. Laster, the past week had been overwhelming and frustrating with work, as I’m sure some of you have experienced. So it was only fitting that I cap my Monday off by reading the news.

AMERICANS HAVE BEEN INFECTED

BY COVID-19

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How 20,000 Blacks died through starvation and overwork in the ‘Devil’s Punchbowl’ labour camp in Mississippi...

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AOYNOM: ALL OF YOU NONE OF ME:We fit in by bringing a new perspective, coming from the hood and the suburbs and being relatable in fashion in our music. We have a Christian faith woven into the music we sing, perform and put out.—

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Why HBCUs could again become serious options for elite basketball prospects Historically Black colleges and universities are increasingly getting into the game for elite-level college basketball recruits. Does the trend have staying power?

"GOING TO AN HBCU wouldn't be too bad..."

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EDITOR’S NOTE This publication is dedicated to my mom whose courage, strength, tenacity and love has been a rock for me in the production of this magazine. There are so many people who are instrumental in the production of this publication, and I could not possibly name them all in this writing but I just want to thank all of you and you know who you are for assisting me with this issue. Many thanks to all of the wonderful and talented models, photographers, MUA’s, and Hair Stylists.

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These 5 foods show how coronavirus has disrupted supply chains Even as demand soars at grocery stores and food banks, farmers are forced to dump milk and let vegetables rot. Here's why.—

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ass euthanasia of livestock, millions of gallons of dumped milk, piles of fresh vegetables left to rot in the sun: Images of farmers dumping their products stand in stark contrast to those showing . Over 36 million Americans are now unemployed, and food insecurity—which affected before COVID-19—. Yet farmers say getting food into the hands of those who need it most is exceptionally difficult and often beyond their control. The estimates that only about eight percent of farms in the United States supply food locally.

The rest feed a complex network that ensures restaurants and grocery stores across the country have a steady supply of hundreds of different products. “What we have is a low-cost and efficient system that allows for huge variety and attention to individual tastes,” says Daniel Sumner, an economist at the University of California, Davis.The U.S. has two relatively distinct supply chains: one that supplies grocery stores and one that supplies the food service industry. As the latter was forced to close, it left an entire supply chain in limbo.That’s especially true for these five food staples, which illustrate how the food system became a victim of its own efficiency.

Beef Demand for beef in supermarkets has risen sharply; sales shot up 92 percent in late March, a data company that follows retail sales. But sit-down restaurants and other eateries are only just beginning to re-open after a long shutdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which robbed the beef industry of key meat buyers. According to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, cattle ranchers face upwards of in losses through 2021 as a result of the coronavirus. The hog industry, by comparison, is projected to lose. Ben Brown, an expert in agricultural risk management at Ohio State University, explains that different beef producers cater to different consumers, and it’s very difficult for them to switch markets on a dime. “We say ‘beef is beef, but beef is not beef,’” he says. Some growers supply export markets; others feed grocery stores, where consumers are more likely to buy cheaper products like ground beef; and some sell to restaurants, where diners are more likely to buy higher-quality cuts, like steak. Cattle begin their lives on ranches. Most are then bought by intensive animal farming operations called feedlots, where they’re fattened up before being sold to meatpacking plants to be slaughtered. Four large companies—Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef—process 80 percent of U.S. beef. It’s at these packing plants where the supply chain is being largely disrupted by COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. says that as of May 15, 15,744 workers across 213 U.S. plants have tested positive. “This is an industry that’s not used to social distancing,” says Brown. “When you start spreading [employees] out, you slow down the output.” Cattle raised for ground beef are typically leaner than fatter cattle, which usually fetch a higher price. As Daniel Vaughn reports, many of those fatter cattle are now being ground up in the face of dropping demand for steaks.Overall, increased demand at grocery stores hasn’t been enough to offset losses from closed restaurants and drops in exports. Brown estimates that for every $10 lost as a result of closed food service establishments, only three dollars is gained in more purchases at the retail level.

Milk An overall decline in demand for dairy products from schools and the restaurant industry—including cheese, butter, and ice cream—has saddled dairy farmers with more raw milk than they can sell, forcing millions of gallons of milk to be dumped every day.“On the dairy side, the number one consumer of milk is schools,” says Brown.

“It comes in the form of those little cartons. When schools shut down, we saw a strong decline in the consumption of fluid milk.”Some grocery stores have also limited the amount of milk a single customer is allowed to purchase, a move meant to discourage hoarding. Demand across the country has declined by 12 to 15 percent, “A dairy farm has milk coming out of the cow into a tank. That milk must be pasteurized and packaged, meeting lots of food safety standards,” says Sumner.Individual farms generally can’t afford the equipment necessary to process milk on site without raising prices significantly. “Nowhere is a dairy farm suited to send milk directly to a store,” Sumner says.

Having specialized processors and packagers keep prices down, but when a global pandemic shuts down large portions of the economy, this production method means dairy farmers who have contracts with one buyer— schools, for example—are still producing large quantities of milk every day while their once reliable buyers cancel contracts. Brown says bottlenecks happen at packaging centers after milk has been collected and pasteurized.

Processing centers that once packaged milk for food service establishments in schools don’t have consumer friendly jugs in stock. And at pack-

aging centers that do bottle grocery store jugs, many operations are already at capacity. Even if farmers are able to switch to retail supply chains, the time it takes to establish those new relationships is also enough

time for milk to go bad. Milk is also being dumped because restaurant demand for products like butter and cheese plummeted. However, the that as some states begin to reopen restaurants, demand for those is slowly ticking back up.

lifestyle Teplitski cites berries as an example of how food is grown with a specific end result in mind. “Those grown for the fresh market are the biggest, plumpest berries,” which can command top dollar. “The smaller ones get frozen,” he says. “Diverting berries from the fresh market to frozen or jam is a huge [financial] loss.” Many small-scale farms have successfully pivoted to delivering Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes to consumers on a weekly or monthly basis. Teplitski says this is harder to execute on larger farms that are used to meeting large orders. A CSA system simply wouldn’t be scalable, he says.

tracts to sell to food service establishmentsUnlike milk, eggs are more commonly , though some facilities separate production from packaging. At those packaging facilities, eggs are either sorted into the large flats shipped off to restaurants, packaged into 12-count cartons for grocery stores, or turned into a liquid. And about 30 percent of eggs produced in the U.S. are eventually sold off in liquid form, says Sumner. A single egg facility might specialize in producing eggs that are turned into liquid and distributed in bulk, but without that large demand, farmers are left with large containers of liquid egg and no way to sell them to grocery stores. In many cases, the decision to cut losses is made by the large corporations who contract farmers. contracted by Cargill had to euthanize 61,000 chickens because Cargill temporarily shut down its liquidizing plant, and the farm couldn’t just switch to whole-egg sales.“We had a limiting factor that wasn’t the product itself,” says Brown, meaning both eggs and demand for eggs is plentiful, but the logistical connective tissue was missing. Producers who sell large batches of regular eggs to food service establishments initially faced a shortage of 12-count cartons, notes Brown, but he adds that production has since increased to meet demand.

Potatoes Potatoes are the , thanks to all the ways it can be cut, sliced, sautéed, and fried. Like meat and dairy products, demand for potatoes from restaurants sharply declined when in-service dining was reduced.Some fast food vendors who purchased supplies from farmers before the outbreak have since cancelled their orders, according to Reuters, creating a potato glut in the U.S., with storage freezers stocked full of potatoes.Idaho supplies most of the market-ready potatoes in grocery stores, whereas are more likely to grow higher-starch potatoes destined for fryers because they puff up when cooked. began giving away potatoes for free to anyone who would take them, and other farms have followed suit or been forced to plow their fields under.

Leafy greens and other produce Recent demand for meat and dairy has increased, but leafy greens and other fresh produce haven’t been as popular at grocery stores, says Max Teplitski, the chief science officer at the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and a former . About 60 percent of fresh produce is sold retail; the other 40 percent was taken up by restaurants, he notes. “Leafy greens are significantly impacted items purchased by schools and hotels,” he says.

When schools, hotels, and restaurants closed, Teplitski says, farmers who had already harvested their crops lacked enough time to find new buyers before their perishable product rots. “Even if it takes three days to reorient, you’ve lost product,” says Teplitski. And since harvesting such crops is a huge cost to farmers—“almost as much as the cost of production,” Teplitski says, some farmers have opted to plow the vegetables under. When asked why farmers couldn’t potentially freeze their produce,

Preventing future food waste The USDA has created the to provide relief to farmers and ranchers, and a portion of that will send food to food banks, churches, and other nonprofits. While providing immediate relief, CFAP won’t make food supply chains less vulnerable to shortages and waste should another major disruption strike food markets. At Ohio State University, Brown and other agricultural economists are crafting contingency plans that they hope will help farmers be prepared for future disasters. This year farmers face a global pandemic, but in 2019, Brown notes, the spring growing season in the Midwest was stunted by historic rainfall, attributable in part to climate change. And in 2018, Midwestern farmers were caught in the trade war with China, with soybean producers hit hardest. The disasters might be different, says Brown, but “the process and how we think about resilience are the same.”William Masters, an agricultural economist at Tufts, says the best way to make the food supply chain resilient to a pandemic is to make the economy as a whole more resilient. That, in part, involves reopening food businesses carefully and safely. In other words, keep demand intact by not letting a virus become so devastating in the first place. By doing everything we can to keep such a virus in check, we’ll protect supply chains, he says. “It’s to ramp up testing, it’s to trace individuals, and support isolation of those who transmit the virus. It’s the way to have a food system and economy that’s resilient to infectious disease,” Masters says.

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Eggs spiked in mid-March when states were beginning to roll out stay-at-home orders. That led to grocery store egg shortages even as farmers with con-

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CULTURE

I Kill Therefore I Am

By Emily McGowan

I don't like e bla man, for he doesn't know his place. Take e ba of my hand or I'll spray you wi my mace. I'm as brave as any man can be. I find my courage rough emi ry I am e masculine American man kill erefore I am. — Phil O s For two weeks, America has been in flames; for two weeks, police brutality has dominated our phone screens and television sets. We saw it in Lafayette Park. We saw it when was thrown to the ground in Buffalo, New York.

We saw it in the dying eyes of George Floyd,, as he called for his mother one last time.

“I can’t breathe,” he cried. “Don’t kill me.”

As Floyd’s body went slack, Chauvin did not move.

A posse of three officers protected him (Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane), threatening bystanders with mace and ordering them to step away from the execution. I call it an execution, but perhaps lynching would be more appropriate. As a Southerner, Billie Holiday’s words worm

fresh through my mind: Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, she warbled. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. I believe that the roots of police brutality run deep. I believe that, in America, the police force has created an incubator and a shelter for angry, lost boys who want desperately to find an identity as a man, to resolve their insecurities and lack of existential purpose. I believe they snuff out black lives because they don’t know how. According to, the average age of a police officer is 39.6 years old, just old enough to make the cutoff for Generation X—or what I, amateur cultural critic that I am, call the Fight Club Generation. In Fight Club (the 1999 film directed by David Fincher), the unnamed protagonist teams up with soap salesman Tyler Durden (played Gen X sex icon Brad Pitt) to start an underground club where emasculated, white-collar men can tap into their primal side and beat the teeth out of each other for fun.

The only rule? You do not talk about Fight Club.

In a pivotal moment, Durden gives a speech to his fellow rabble-rousers, laying out the manifesto for their explicitly violent (and soon-to-be terrorist) lifestyle:

Police brutality, it seems, starts at home.

But it doesn’t stay there. When Generation Fight Club (Derek Chauvin is 44) goes on patrol, they drive away from the station with bigger and deadlier toys than ever before. Per the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon is to local police departments, including but not limited to bayonets, grenade launchers, and 18-ton MRAP vehicles. And you might not see them coming. In the United States, police conduct more than, and four times out of five, they are not there to resolve a violent situation. Many times, they create them. In 2019, 24% were black. In the Land of the Free, Project Mayhem comes with night vision goggles and armored vans, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood super-soldier.

Farewell to the gangsters, sang Phil Ochs, we don't need them anymore. We've got the police force, they're the ones who break the law. Learn more: Richmond County, Georgia, residents discovered just how far Officer Friendly would go to become an All-American Übermensch. In late 2014, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation launched a narcotics sting operation and. The business ultimately implicated fifteen officers in the county’s force.

Steroid use is, but for a former girlfriend of one of the accused (she prefers to remain unnamed), the consequences were too dire to ignore: "Everyone knew that Richmond County police used steroids.

You can tell when someone is on steroids. They kind of look like a balloon animal.” During their 2013 relationship, she never caught him in the act

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of using steroids, but later discovered that his ex-wife had. One night, his mood swings turned violent. “We were in the middle of that stupid Country Club bar. We got into an argument, not yelling or anything. I turned to walk away from him, and he grabbed me with both hands by the throat and said, ‘Don’t you f***ing walk away from me.’ I was shocked.”The officer in question is now employed by Burke County, the neighboring jurisdiction; the following year, the district attorney declined to prosecute any of the fifteen men involved in the steroid scandal. They walked free.

“You have to have that sense,” his ex-girlfriend recalls, “even if it’s subconscious, that you can do this because of who you are in the town.

Even if it means assaulting a woman in a bar who is nine years your junior. I definitely wish that he wasn’t still employed as a police officer, but I don’t think anybody gives a crap.”

Unauthorized access.

Maybe if someone in Minneapolis PD had, George Floyd would still be alive. In his eighteen years of service in the department, Derek Chauvin racked up. Of the meagre two cases that ended in discipline, Chauvin received nothing more than a letter of reprimand, a slap on the wrist for a man with more red flags than rounds in his service weapon — a weapon which, in 2011, placed him on three day’s leave for while on duty. There is little doubt that his superiors knew what he was capable of and even less doubt that they failed to act, but that is what it took to protect the integrity of the thin blue line.

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“We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression,” he says, throwing his unfinished cigarette to the sweat-drenched basement floor.

“We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.”

Unauthorized access: In the real world, a surprising number of police officers are very, very pissed off. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, experience domestic violence, and in those who do, many victims are afraid or unable to seek help because their abuser works inside law enforcement and knows the location of battered women’s shelters in the area. The Center cites additional data, claiming that — of those who are caught red-handed — police officers are 50% less likely to be prosecuted for domestic violence than their civilian counterparts.

They were the middle children of history, and this was their last shred of self-involved purpose. It was their way of being men. Ochs wrote: He's got a gun and he's a hater. He shoots first, he shoots later I am the masculine American man I kill therefore I am.

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and tenacity he landed his first gig and the THE PASSION AND rest is history. Once his mind set on an opportunity, his work horse mentality, grind, CONSISTENCY OF and hustle are non-stop until the gig has been actualized. In his final words to this inALONZO EASTER terview Alonzo would like to say to all lonzo Easter was born and raised inspiring models is to stay in shape, all year in Stockton, California. He says, "I long! Treat fitness like it's a lifestyle, and not just for the moment, stay ready. You'll came from humble beginnings." never know when or what the next gig, or Alonzo is an individual that is thankful for the struggles he had opportunity is waiting for you, as well as to endure in his early years. That who is watching and scouting you. struggle early in life is part of the Anything is possible, stay the course with persona he exudes today and your passion and consistency. continues to be his strength and prepares him for the coldest days ahead in life he may have to endure down the road. Growing up Alonzo had a dream and was determined to get a degree, get a job either in the NBA or some fallback, and have a family.

However, the road to those aspirations took a left turn. Suddenly Alonzo came to the realization that he needed a scholarship in sports to visualize his dreams.

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He achieved his scholarship, "through my journey in sports there was a hole in my heart that I knew I had to fill".

When thinking back to 2015 to now and revisiting all the pain, betrayals, and conversations with others about his life. Alonzo recalled, "that my life is supposed to be in entertainment". Through entertainment Alonzo has been able to make people smile, which he does oh so well! Touch hearts, look good and project positivity. Today, he firmly set on the road of modeling and more recently acting.

Through his persistence, charm, consistency

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Lifestyles

Sweaty Face Mask? 5 Tips to Keep Cool While Covered Up ith health authorities continuing to urge face-covering in public to curb the , we've become familiar with the minor irritants of wearing masks: chafed ears, snapped straps. The arrival of summer takes the potential discomfort up a notch, trapping sweat and heat under our facial sheaths. "As physicians, when we are wearing masks for long periods of time, for example in surgery or during a procedure, you'll notice we keep the rooms what patients call ‘uncomfortably cold,'” says Gregory Poland, a physician and vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic. “There's a reason for that."Keeping your face covered when venturing outside the home remains a crucial weapon in the fight against the coronavirus, and mandated by some. Fortunately, there are ways to stay cool or, at least, cooler while masked up. Here are five tips from experts for more comfortably keeping your respiratory droplets in check.

1. CHOOSE THE RIGHT FABRIC A light, breathable material like cotton will likely keep your face cooler than medical and N95 masks made from synthetic materials, and in the right configuration can be effective in preventing contagion, according to new research by Taher Saif, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at the. Saif's team tested 10 common fabrics, from 100 percent cotton to polyester and silk blends, to see which best balance comfort and droplet-blocking impermeability. The “sweet spot,” he says, is a two-layer mask made from a cotton T-shirt, which comes close to matching a surgical mask's efficiency in stopping potentially infectious droplets from coughs and sneezes and is about twice as breathable. All-cotton tested best, but up to 40 percent polyester will do the job, Saif says. “I'm not a cloth expert. I just buy things from Walmart and Target,” he adds with a laugh. “Our study showed that if you have these layers on top of your mouth and nose, you don't have to have an official mask where it goes with the elastic behind your ears. You can just wrap it around your nose and mouth, like a bandana.” Lighter, softer

cotton coverings can also help you avoid chafing, heat rash or inflaming a skin condition like eczema or dermatitis, says Carrie Kovarik, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Dermatology's COVID-19 task force. "They make masks out of a lot of different material, so you want to feel it and make sure it's something that feels soft against your skin,” she says. “A lot of people are making masks for fashion, they want it to look nice and pretty on the face, but make sure it feels good."

2. KEEP IT DRY Cotton traps less air and moisture than standard medical and industrial masks, and it's more absorbent, but if it gets damp due to breathing and sweating it can be less effective in filtering respiratory particles, not to mention uncomfortable and abrasive to the skin. "Try to stay in well-ventilated locations to keep air and

vapor mixing, which can help evaporate any extra water (and also keep the rest of your skin/body feeling cooler),” says Jennifer Vanos, a biometeorologist at Arizona State University who studies the effects of heat on health. Vanos also suggests trying masks made of especially absorbent materials like bamboo, which “can absorb up to three times the amount of water as cotton.” Hemp also wicks moisture well, and washable hemp-blend masks are widely available online, al-

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Staying safe and comfortable as temperatures rise

land says. “Turns out that things like that actually do help."

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4. SKIP THE MAKEUP Heat and perspiration mixed with makeup or oily skin

though like bamboo they tend to cost more than cotton face coverings.

3. TIME TRIPS TO BEAT THE HEAT Avoid going out at the hottest parts of the day and for extended periods. Stop at home between errands if you can, to cool off and doff your mask. When you do have to be out, stay well-hydrated and seek the shade. Being cognizant of the heat is about much more than keeping your mask fresh. “We have major issues every summer with heat exhaustion and heat stroke and heat-related deaths,” the Mayo Clinic's Poland says, and older adults are “definitely at increased risk."An ice pack or

damp cloth applied to the head or neck can help you cool off — just take care not to get your mask wet or touch your face. Poland notes other heat hacks he's observed traveling in parts of Asia where mask-wearing has long been routine. "They more often carry a hand-powered fan or small, battery-powered fan,” he says. That trick comes with a caveat — if you are “around a lot of people's exhalation, you're just fanning that air at yourself” — but with sufficient social distancing you may be able to use a fan to stay comfy while still protecting yourself. "The other thing you see a lot of people doing in Asian countries during the summer is shading themselves with an umbrella,” Po-

care products makes for a gunky mess under your mask. “You don't have the ability to have sweat evaporate when you have the mask on. It all sits there and collects,” says Kovarik, the dermatology professor.

That clogs pores and contributes to the lower-face skin eruptions that have been dubbed “maskne,” a combination of the words mask and acne. Kovarik recommends masking up with your face clean, save perhaps for a bit of moisturizer (preferably with some SPF, if you plan to be out long). “Creams that have dimethicone in them are a good moisturizer but also is a barrier cream, so it creates some protection between your skin and the mask,” she says. “It will actually create a barrier to the friction."Another change to make to your skin care regimen: Avoid products with retinoids or salicylic acid, which some older people use to or sun damage."Those can be very, very irritating if used under occlusion or under some kind of covering. We don't want to put them under the mask,” Kovarik says. “If [people] are using those products, it's better to put them on at night and then wash your face in the morning."

5. BRING A SPARE If you can't keep your mask from getting icky and sticky, there's no better remedy than swapping it for another. “I recommend people do that anyway,” whatever the weather, Poland says. “When you're outside with the mask on, that mask has a limited lifespan."On especially hot and humid days, pack multiple masks, recommends Vanos, the heat expert. Just make sure to follow the other CDC safety recommendations when changing masks, like avoiding crowds and washing or sanitizing your hands."If you really need to remove it to cool off, move away from people, cool off, maybe switch the mask to a new one, and then go back”.

hose were the words of high school basketball phenom in a June 2 tweet, just days after a weekend filled with protests and social unrest across the country. Williams' statement about potentially playing for a historically Black college or university garnered extensive social traction and national media attention, with the quote gaining further momentum after was asked about it on an Instagram Live session."All it takes is one person to change history," Anthony said. "I think it's a better chance of this new generation, this next generation, to go to a HBCU and be accepted and bring something different to a HBCU, as opposed to what was happening in 2002. Do I think that a kid like Mikey Williams should consider a HBCU? I think he should, based off of the power that he has within himself. If he [does] that, it changes college sports because you have a young black kid at the top of his game who decided to go to a black university. That's totally different."Since then, Division I HBCUs have become more assertive in their pursuit of five-star and highmajor prospects. Five-star rising senior landed three HBCU offers; five-star rising junior picked up at least four HBCU offers; top-tier junior college prospect El Ellis included North Carolina Central on his final list before choosing Louisville; and several other five-star prospects have begun to include HBCUs among their scholarship offers.Etop UdoEma, Williams' coach with the Compton Magic, said more than 20 HBCUs reached out to him after Williams' tweet and another of his players told him he wanted to look at HBCUs. Coaches in the MEAC and SWAC said they've noticed an uptick in parents and coaches of high-major prospects reaching out to them to express interest."I think it would change the culture forever," Huntley-Hatfield said. "It would change the game of basketball altogether, if one of us chose a different pathway to make our dream come true and help our community. It just opens up a whole new bridge of opportunity. I feel like it would be a domino effect."The conversation between HBCUs and high-major players is different now than it has been over the past couple of years. It's different than it was even a few weeks ago. The past month has seen a wave of protests and outrage over racial injustice, sparked by the

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killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died on May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police."When we look back 40 years from now, we'll realize this was a historical and monumental time," North Carolina Central coach LeVelle Moton said. "This will be in the history books -- this is the day the world changed. The movement feels different. ...

They're tired of the status quo and the 'in vogue' and what's happening. They want to reclaim their power. We need to care about us. It shouldn't be a crime that I want to go support my own."Any change in this country, it starts with young people. This isn't dying down."Elite players attending HBCUs was once a regular event. In the 1960s, Earl Monroe attended WinstonSalem State and came out of Grambling. The decade prior, Dick Barnett (Tennessee State) and Sam Jones (North Carolina Central) were HBCU stars.Unfortunately for HBCUs, that was decades ago.Moton points to two moments that changed the recruiting landscape for college sports.

One was USC running back Sam Cunningham rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns in a dominant win over Alabama in 1970, and the other was Texas Western and its all-Black starting five beating Kentucky and its allwhite starting five in the 1966 men's basketball national championship game. Alabama football coach Bear Bryant and Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp began integrating their programs around this era, while most bigtime college basketball programs integrated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Once power-conference programs -particularly in the South -- started recruiting the best players regardless of race, the paradigm shifted. Instead of having a free run at a Willis Reed or a Sam Jones, HBCUs were now competing against bigger programs with significantly more resources and exposure."That changed the face of college recruiting as we know it," Moton said. "The best

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See Eyewear

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ntroducing Renaldo Oshea “OsheaArt” Carter. I am a 36 year old pencil and ink artist from Toledo, Ohio. I have been drawing since I can remember and I progressed my talents more at the University of Cincinnati Fine Arts Department. I have been involved in a few art shows over the last few years and have grown my clientele to produce many commissioned art pieces throughout the country. I live for creativity and Artistic expression. I hope that my artwork one day be in every household in America and also be passed on to my three children one day. —

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W

e now are in the midst of acts of blatant racism, it has reared its ugly head once again. For most young people today, this is abhorrent and outrageous. People of color are being victimized by the government, police, economically, socially, affordable housing, and attacks on our healthcare opportunities, as well as educational opportunities by the Republicans and the President. Out of this struggle the slogan “Black Lives Matter” was created due to police brutality and outright murder under the auspices of protecting and serving the community which a rallying cry for policing in America. Let's talk about some of the slogans of protest over the years. In

in 1963, when millions marched on Washington against injustices, in an effort to enact social change and Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I have a Dream” speech.

Fast forward to 2017 to the Women's March which at-

tracted 3.2 and 5.2 million people. Recently protests sparked by the death of George Floyd have sent tens of thousands to march against the systemic racism and the killing of black people in America. What has overshadowed the protests is many have turned violent, and furor has grown over law enforcement heavy-handed crowd-control tactics, including police cruisers ramming into protesters in New York. There are countless mobile phone disturbing vithe 60s there was the Vietnam war, we had slogans saying, “Drop Acid not Bombs”, “Love Not War”, “Hungry? Eat the Rich”, “Gay Power, Black Power, Women Power, Student Power, All Power to The People. In the 70s the war with Vietnam was at its zenith and what's come to mind was the song by Marvin Gaye, entitled “What’s Going On”.

In the era of the Black Panthers there was “Power to the People”, “No Justice No Peace”. And we cannot forget one of the most famous protests in US history which took place

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Black Lives Matter

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color, it's religious, status, symbolisms, wealth and ethnic backgrounds. “Unaddressed systemic racism is the most important issue in the United States today. And it has been so since before the founding of this nation. Slavery was America’s “original sin.” It was not solved by the framers of the

deos documenting the police tactics. The genesis of “Black Lives Matter movement was on July 13, 2013 and began with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American Trayvon Martin in February 2012.”

The founders were Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.

Black Lives Matter is symbolic to Black people; however, we cannot leave out all people of color who suffer injustice and racism in this country and have been for quite some time and recently its systemic practices are in the spotlight once again. Racism itself isn't something new it's been part of the fabric of this world for thousands of years. It is not just

U.S. Constitution, nor was it resolved by the horrendous conflict that was known as the America Civil War. It simply changed its odious form and continued the generational enslavement of an entire strata of American society. In turn, the Civil Rights Movement struck a mighty blow against racism in America, and our souls soared when Dr. King told us he had a dream. But we were and still are far from the “promised land”. And even when America rose up to elect its first Black President, Barack Obama, we may in-

deed have lost ground as a collective nation along the way.

That is our legacy as Americans, and in many ways, the most hateful remnants of slavery persist in the US today in the form of systemic racism baked into nearly every aspect of our society and who we are as a people. Indeed, for those tracking their heritage to countries outside of Western Europe, or for those with a non-Christian belief system, that undeniable truth often impacts every aspect of who you are as a person, in one form or another. The reality of this history has been on a stark display in recent time. From the terrible killings of George Floyd and Ahmad Arbery, to

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the countless, untold acts of racism that take place every day across America, these are the issues that are defining the moment-just as our response will define who we are and will be in the 21st Century and beyond. Truly, the very nature of our “national soul� is at stake, and we all have a deep responsibility to be part of the solution.