Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
We’ve got Pride Month and Caribbean Heritage month starting today but I’m choosing to write about Dorothy West. She was someone from the Harlem Renaissance who I never learned about in school
Here’s her story:
Dorothy West born June 2, 1907 Dorothy West, born in Boston in 1907, moved to New York City in 1925 at the age of 18 and became the youngest among a group of artists and writers working in the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes nicknamed her “the kid.”
One Island Many Stories | Escaping | Dorothy West | Always Summer Here
Dorothy West in 6 Minutes: The Harlem Renaissance’s Quiet Powerhouse
Inspiring Quote Of The Day – Dorothy West
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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A new report confirms that a recent, conspicuously white and male promotion list was no accident. The New Republic: Hegseth Personally Nixed Black and Female Officers’ Promotions
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is continuing his discriminatory campaign to remake the U.S. military in his image. Last month, a list of nearly two dozen one-star promotions included no women and only two nonwhite officers. On Monday, The New York Times was able to reveal exactly how that happened.
Hegseth personally intervened to block the promotion of several senior Navy officers, including at least two female officers and two Black male officers, four current and former defense officials told the paper.
This is not the first time Hegseth has moved to block or delay the promotion of female and Black military officers. He did the same thing to Army officers in March, and has reportedly thwarted the advancements of more than one dozen female and Black officers across the Army, Air Force, Navy, and the Marines.
The result of Hegseth’s continued intervention is a military leadership that does not reflect its members: 21 percent of active-duty Navy officers are women, and 38 percent are minorities. Women and minorities currently account for less than 20 percent of all generals and admirals in the U.S. military.
Pentagon rules say that the secretary can only block promotions if there is an issue related to a service member’s fitness to lead—not their identities, or whatever other problem Hegseth seems to have with them.
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Louisiana is eliminating a majority-Black district and handing Republicans another seat in Congress. The New Republic: Louisiana Republicans Complete Their Racist Redrawing of Voting Map
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Louisiana Republicans passed a new congressional map Friday that eliminates the majority-Black district that was at the center of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the Voting Rights Act.
In a state where one in three residents are Black, the new map redraws the state’s 6th congressional district, which is currently represented by Black Democratic Representative Cleo Fields. Republicans are expected to gain an additional seat in the House, giving them control of five of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.
The state Senate passed the map on Friday afternoon with a vote of 28–10, sending the legislation to Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it.
“We are being asked to take one of two minority opportunity districts in this state—where Black Louisianians are nearly one-third of the population—and to reduce that minority opportunity representation to a single seat out of six, from 33 percent of the population to 16 percent of the representation members,” Democratic state Representative Kyle Green Jr. warned during debate on the legislation Thursday. “That’s not a map. That’s a math problem with the moral answer, and the answer is no.”
Louisiana’s House primary election was originally scheduled for May 16, but Landry delayed the election in order to give Republicans time to draw a new map following the Supreme Court ruling. An estimated 40,000 people had already cast their votes before his announcement.
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In 2006 police took revenge for deadly prison riots by killing more than 500 people in alleged shootouts that others call executions. A court is to rule on compensation for victims. The Guardian: The Mothers of May’s 20-year struggle for justice after Brazil police rampage
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When authorities in the Brazilian state of São Paulo transferred nearly 800 suspected gang members to maximum-security prisons in May 2006, the crime group launched a wave of prison riots and attacks on law enforcement officers. Fifty-nine police and prison officers were killed.
In the following nine days, police officers took their revenge, killing more than 500 people in what were described as shootouts with “criminals”, but which human rights organisations and forensic studies attribute, at least in large part, to executions, including of innocent people.
Twenty years later, the vast majority of those murders remain unresolved, and victims’ relatives are still demanding the truth from the Brazilian state.
Brazil’s superior court of justice is expected to finally rule soon on long-sought compensation for the victims.
“There is no amount of money that can pay for the life of a child,” said Débora Maria da Silva, founder of the Mothers of May Movement, the main organisation bringing together relatives of the victims.
Da Silva learned of the death of her eldest son, Edson, 29, when a radio presenter read out a list of those killed in what were described as “confrontations with police”.
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Voices & Soul
– Amanda Johnson
“Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, explain.”
by Black Kos Editor, Justice Putnam
The indignities of life seem to follow us everywhere. We live in a nation where no part of our existence is outside scrutiny. Banks for too long acknowledged they investigate our social media and friend lists to deny or approve credit, now the government digs deeper to throw us in a gulag. We are subjected to full body scans at the airport and facial recognition cameras while crossing the street. We have to urinate in a jar to flip a burger and pass an English test to drive a truck. We live in a nation where those who live on little are condemned, while those who steal millions in broad daylight are made king.
My black face fades,
hiding inside black smoke.
I knew they’d use it,
dammit: tear gas.
I’m grown. I’m fresh.
Their clouded assumption eyes me
like a runaway, guilty as night,
chasing morning. I run
this way—the street lets me go.
I turn that way—I’m inside
the back of a police van
again, depending on my attitude
to be the difference.
I run down the signs
half-expecting to find
my name protesting in ink.
I touch the name Freddie Gray;
I see the beat cop’s worn eyes.
Names stretch across the people’s banner
but when they walk away
the names fall from our lips.
Paparazzi flash. Call it riot.
The ground. A body on the ground.
A white cop’s image hovers
over us, then his blank gaze
looks through mine. I’m a broken window.
He’s raised his right arm
a gun in his hand. In the black smoke
a drone tracking targets:
No, a crow gasping for air.Amanda Johnston
“Facing US”
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