"I Do See Color" weekly newsletter: June 14, 2023
Weekly newsletter 37 (FINAL WEEKLY NEWSLETTER): Combination of race- and culture-related posts from "We Need to Talk," "I Do See Color," "BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales” and "Window Shopping"
Welcome to the final “I Do See Color” newsletter (with a bonus section of two first-person interviews called “Deuces”).
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Now let’s get into the final weekly newsletter!
Each week, eight carefully selected posts will be chosen, which focus on culture, politics, health and race from a black (wo)man’s perspective.
NEW! 1. The Kenya Barris hate needs to stop ~ Why Cancel Culture (and biracial gripers) may want to read more and talk less
What do the following 22 black women all have in common?
Christina Anthony
Chloe Bailey
Halle Bailey
Iman Benson
Eve Jihan Cooper
Ava Duvernay
Regina Hall
Tiffany Haddish
Leslie Jones
Jenifer Lewis
Nia Long
Marsai Martin
Dana “Queen Latifah” Owens
Issa Rae
Ilyasah Shabazz
Justin Skye
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Tika Sumpter
Teyana Taylor
Trinitee
Lena Waithe
Jessica Williams
They’re all unambiguously black women who have been in TV shows or movies courtesy of film writer/producer Kenya Barris. But you would swear from this Twitter thread and this user in the thread (who blocked me after naming a few of these women) that these projects and women are nonexistent. Another user even went as far as saying some weren’t dark-skinned enough to count.
NEW! 2. Clair Huxtable gets on Keke Palmer's nerves, and women who think like Keke get on mine ~ Reality TV depictions do not reflect all black women
I adore Keke Palmer! But what should’ve been a fun, light-hearted interview with the actress and KeyTV creator on “The Terrell Show” left me gritting my teeth and looking on in disappointment, once again feeling like some black women would have to give the same repetitive argument we’ve been giving for decades.
But this argument has been made over and over again. What more could I say that hasn’t already been said about the wife and mother on “The Cosby Show”? There have been enough GIFs that showed Clair Huxtable walking into her brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York, at 10 Stigwood Avenue. When Vanessa, Rudy, Sandra, Theo, Denise and even Elvin got outta pocket, she was quick to remind them that she moved like she walked on water but her tongue could be cold as ice.
3. When you've never experienced racism but are an expert ~ Courtesy of your college roommate and that one relative who dates hockey players
Lately, I’ve been considering taking Luke Richardson’s job. You may not know him by name, but he’s the head coach for the Chicago Blackhawks. If he makes a big fuss about it, maybe I’ll just apply for the assistant coach positions and take over for Kevin Dean, Derek King or Derek Plante. I’m sure they’ll understand.
You see, I only live 9.4 miles away from the front office for the Blackhawks. Therefore, I’m close. I can drive there easily. Living on the North Side of Chicago, I’ve encountered quite a few people who like hockey. Can I play? No. Have I ever played? No. Do I know the rules? No. Have I been to a game? No. Am I physically in the shape to be one? No. But I’ve been around people who like hockey at work, so I’m qualified to discuss it. Human Resources hired them anyway, so I may as well make the best use of their time at the coffee maker. They don’t quite understand why I keep bringing up hockey when they’re just looking for cream and sugar, but I’m not going to stop. I have to sharpen my expertise!
4. AMC, read the room and avoid ticket price changes ~ What movie theater companies did not figure out from social isolation
AMC is offering tickets for just $3 plus tax on Wednesdays and $5 plus tax on Saturdays for their Summer Movie Camp! And while that helps for kids on summer break, AMC also plans to organize its ticket prices based on seating location. This means seats closer to the screen will be cheaper while those seats further away will cost more. The ticket pricing initiative, called Sightline at AMC, will roll out at all of its roughly 1,000 movie theaters by the end of the year. And I’m left with one question: Why?
5. The dap I didn’t know I needed from a firefighter ~ Yet another time I wish I’d have listened to my dog
I’ve never been someone who embarrasses easily. Embarrassment doesn’t even enter my top 20 moods. But when my smoke detector went off after I put out the fire, I snapped into action to avoid waking up my neighbors. Then another smoke detector went off. While the firemen talked, I was trying to figure out where that noise was coming from. I realized the second smoke detector was in the common-area hallway, but they were not interested in taking it down. Meanwhile, I was determined to get that alarm down immediately.
6. MyOneOne alerts loved ones of police stops, danger ~ IDSC "BlackTechLogy": The unbiased passenger during a police altercation
Social media livestreams come in handy to allow users to see what’s happening as needed. They are your sounding board, your second pair of eyes, your digital eyewitness and harder to debate than a third-party human testimony. While there are two sides of every story (his side, her side and the truth), in the case of mobile technology, seeing actions in real time make it much more difficult to try to change the story later.
Although social media recording apps allow users to see what’s happening in real time, there’s one major downside. What if your followers (and local emergency contacts) are not checking your social media feed when it happens? Could the MyOneOne mobile app be a better alternative?
7. Fatherhood: My favorite hip-hop tales ~ Why black fatherhood stories are much-needed in hip-hop culture
Mahogany. Follow the Leader. Paid in Full. Juice. I Ain’t No Joke. When I cracked open the 2019 book “Sweat the Technique” by hip-hop legend Rakim, I expected to hear about these songs and his rise to stardom.
What I did not expect to do was listen to a Frank Sinatra song with a different ear*, and then skip around through pages to get to all of the entertaining tales about his father. A young Rakim repeatedly kept trying his dad’s patience. Notoriously private, I was fascinated to learn this info. For me, these father-son tales are the highlight of the entire book.
Although I still cannot picture Rakim running a hot dog stand, this was indeed an idea he got from his dad. The ultimatum about Job Corps? Yup, that one I could see. Just as he does in his lyrics, I can visualize the scene in which he described how his father caught him cutting class, and it sounded like something straight out of a TV script. And then there were less-funny moments — his father found a gun under Rakim’s pillow. (I was shocked by the hard lesson Rakim learned from that one but laughed at his father’s response.)
8. When black employees are accused of theft ~ If the customer is black and the employee is black, that doesn't mean they're in cahoots
When the two college basketball players walked into the store entrance, it was hard not to notice them—from height and build alone. But that’s not why I looked over from my cash register. I smiled because one of them was a guy I often talked to in one of my classes, and the other was a friend of his who I’d become chummy with by default. As soon as the classmate made eye contact with me, he rerouted from a store aisle and came over to talk to me. His friend continued on his way to the back of the store.
We chatted for a few minutes about nothing in particular. It was the night shift when the 24-hour retail store was pretty quiet and the pharmacy was closed. The conversation may have lasted a handful of minutes before the friend joined us, paid for a couple of items and both left. I thought nothing of it and went on about putting up stock inventory.
“Deuces” ~ “I Do See Color” newsletter’s bonus interviews:
1. Hacker-turned-cybersecurity-expert Gregory D. Evans on quest to make computers safe ~ IDSC "BlackTechlogy": FBI put him in their top 10 list for computer hackers in 1996
Gregory D. Evans claims the FBI put him in their top 10 list for computer hackers in 1996. And while this 40-year-old entrepreneur talks proudly of his self-taught adventures hacking into computers since seventh grade and changing peoples’ grades for money, breaking into law firm and phone company records, he made it into a business for 20 years that ended in him owing back millions of dollars. However, Evans is now working on computers the legal way.
He is the CEO and founder of LIGATT Security since 2003, after selling off another computer security company, The Cyber Group Network Corporation, that specialized in recovering stolen computers in 2002. He’s been featured on countless media outlets like Michael Baisden’s and Tom Joyner’s radio show and FOX News. In his quest to save people from worldwide computer security issues and identity theft, Evans took time out to speak with the Defender.
2. African-Americans could fare well with vegetarianism ~ Meatless Monday or everyday, here's why the health perks matter so much
“What (vegetarians) are integrating into their diet are the things we lack the most,” said Roniece Weaver, dietician and founding partner of Hebni Nutrition Consultants, Inc.; developer of the original Soul Food Pyramid; and co-author of four nutrition books “The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes,” “Slim Down Sister,” “Month of Meals” and “The Family Style Soul Food Diabetes Cookbook.”
Weaver continued, “Besides physical activity, we lack consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by a far stretch. We do eat collard greens. That’s the Black man’s vegetable, but by the time we put all the grease in it, we have ruined the validity of eating vegetables. There’s nothing wrong with soul food, it’s just how we prepare it. If we took an approach to eating more fruits and vegetables in African-Americans’ diets, we’d see a huge drop in weight and a huge improvement in diabetes.”
Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote,” “Tickled,” “We Need To Talk” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday.
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