“It is too bad that his name is Barack Obama”
Commentary by Chitown Kev
The news nowadays can be summed up in one acronym: FUBAR.
All of it.
Everywhere you turn, everything seen, everything that is heard.
And like a lot a people, I need distraction. To laugh.
A couple of nights ago, I got the best of both worlds.
Sometimes, I watch something or another on youtube as I fall asleep and I happened to wake up in the middle of former MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid describing the one time that she was in the same room with former president Barack Obama at a Harvard Law School something or another.
“Man, it is too bad that his name is Barack Obama ‘cause he could have been the first Black President.”
I hope that the first Black President of the United States got a laugh out of that because I sure did!
Reid’s memory was a tiny portion of a nearly three-hour extravaganza of an interview for the One 54 podcast with hosts Akbar Gbajabiamila and Godfrey Danchimah.
Here’s the entire episode.
Ms. Reid and the hosts even tried their own Barack Obama impressions.
Reid was able to sound off on just about everything from her childhood to the rest of her time at Harvard, her beginnings in the news business, marriage, distinctions in her own ethnicity and others…everything.
And while on the air, they were all even treated to some great news!
I will confess to infrequently watching Reid’s show on YouTube.
And I had never heard of the One 54 show or its hosts.
But the three-hour interview is worth the time both for the talk and the laughs.
And Joy Ann Reid can be forgiven— I guess, lol— for her early attempts at punditry.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Behind Max Robinson’s tailored suits and deep voice, the first Black anchor was an intellect being bled dry by the very industry that called him a pioneer. The Root: Max Robinson: The First Black Anchor Who Told the Truth for a Living, But Couldn’t Tell His Own
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To the millions of viewers tuning into “ABC World News Tonight” in 1978, Max Robinson was a pioneering picture of poised authority. Despite being the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the United States, he steadily fought a war against a media machine that often viewed his presence as a box to be checked rather than a voice to be heard.
To understand Max Robinson is to understand the cost of being a masterpiece in a room full of people who only see the frame. Robinson, a journalist’s journalist, moved with the grace of a man who knew he was making history, yet he worked in newsrooms that wanted his voice, but not the color of his skin.
When the cameras finally dimmed, they didn’t just lose an anchor; they lost an intellect who had been bled dry by a world that was never quite worthy of his truth.
Just over two months before what would’ve been his 87th birthday, we’re taking a look back on Maxie Cleveland Robinson Jr.’s journey through journalism and ceiling-breaking before, and after the cameras stopped rolling.
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Alexia Moore (A Black woman) was reported by a hospital security guard after emergency room staff discovered she had taken an abortion pill when she came to the hospital with abdominal pain. Georgia Recorder: Woman charged with attempted murder under Georgia abortion law
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A 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Kingsland has been charged with attempted murder, the first time that a mother has been charged under Georgia’s restrictive abortion law.
The arrest comes two months after Alexia Moore was rushed to the emergency room in Camden County, pregnant and in extreme pain. Doctors at the Southeast Georgia Health System hospital delivered a severely premature baby girl who lived for approximately two hours, according to police.
On March 4, Kingsland Police charged the mother with attempted murder and possession of a controlled substance and dangerous drug for what they allege was an attempted illegal abortion.
Moore, who is in Camden County jail awaiting arraignment, could not be reached for comment. Her mother, Edith Moore, who is a local pastor, described her daughter as a patriot and excellent mother, adding that the situation has created fear and anxiety for Moore’s six-year-old and nine-year-old children, who don’t understand why their mother is in jail.
“As a mother, and me talking as a grandma, she’s an excellent mother. I believe her children are her life. She has been a good provider for her children,” Edith Moore said.
The arrest illustrates the complex and fraught nature of Georgia’s controversial law, known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, which makes abortion illegal after cardiac activity is detected in a fetus, normally at about six weeks.
A security guard at Southeast Georgia Health System’s St. Marys hospital called local law enforcement to investigate Moore “after ER staff discovered that Moore had attempted to abort the child,” according to the arrest report. Moore’s friend, who came to the hospital on Dec. 30, told a responding police officer that Moore had used the abortion medication Misoprostol and had taken pain medication, according to the report.
Kingsland Police cited Moore’s health records and blood work, as well as the deceased infant’s blood work, as among the evidence used to charge her. The report also cited information obtained from Moore while she was recovering in the ER and from Moore’s friend, who was in the hospital waiting room.
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Founded by formerly enslaved people, East Towson residents say a new housing project threatens not just land, but generations of history, environmental stability, and community preservation. The Grio: A historic Black community in Maryland is fighting to protect its last wetlands from development
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In East Towson, Maryland, the fight over land is about more than zoning or development. It’s about protecting one of the region’s oldest historically Black communities, and the fragile ecosystem that has sustained it for generations. According to AFRO News, construction on the site has already been halted due to state permit violations.
Founded in the 1850s by formerly enslaved people from the Ridgely Estate, East Towson has long stood as a testament to Black resilience and self-determination. Now, residents say that legacy is once again under threat as development pressures close in on the neighborhood’s last remaining forest and wetlands.
Construction on a proposed 56-unit affordable housing project known as Red Maple Place has been temporarily halted after the Maryland Department of the Environment found the site in violation of state permits. But for many residents, the pause is only a small victory in a much longer battle.
“This is the last of what we have,” one resident shared, echoing a sentiment that has been building for nearly a decade as neighbors have pushed back against what they describe as unchecked development.
The project, planned for 407 E. Joppa Road, would sit on just 2.5 acres, but its impact, residents argue, could be far-reaching. Community advocates say the development would significantly reduce the required forest buffer, from 100 feet to just 25 feet, increasing the risk of flooding and environmental degradation in an area already vulnerable to stormwater runoff.
And some say those impacts are already being felt.
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