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This Woman is Believed to be America's Last Slave
Aunt Sally Smith, also known as Redoshi, was kidnapped as a child from her hometown of Benin, Africa. 80 years later, in 1936, she spoke in her native language, Bantu, with a visiting African Academic in Dallas County, Alabama at the age of 90. Amelia Boynton Robinson, a prominent Civil Rights activist observed the conversation when visiting the former slave, according to her memoir âBridge Across Jordan.â
#youtube#This Woman is Believed to be America's Last Slave#Aunt Sally Smith#americans last Black Slave#Bridge Across Jordan
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"cleopatra faced oppression" the fuck she did oh my god i hate y'all so much
#personal#i thought we couldn't get any stupider than 'cleopatra was culturally black' because like....no#because a) someone's idea of 'culturally black' varies from country to country#and b) what an american for instance would consider 'culturally black' is based on idea that's at max a hundred years old#but no cleopatra the literal queen descended from an incestuous colonizer dynasty ruling one of the richest countries on the mediterranean#did not 'face oppression' where was she facing oppression she OWNED SLAVES#the closest that woman ever came to facing oppression was like maybe the last week of her life when octavian was in alexandria#but even then not really???#and they're so clearly not talking about any gender discrimination that she dealt with because this whole thing#is a defense of that stupid 'no cleopatra was black actually we promise'#god i'm getting anti cleopatra pilled by ahistorical bullshit i'm gonna end up hating her before the year is out at this point#also can we please focus on like any other egyptian queens ever#why's it always cleopatra's macedonian ass in the spotlight egypt has thousands of years of history#and a good chunk of those thousands of years did actually have female primary rulers#who were ethnically egyptian to boot#like goddamn there's more to egypt than just the cleopatra show and a lot of it is much more interesting
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"The story of 'John Doe 1' of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is tucked in a lawsuit filed five years ago against several U.S. tech companies, including Tesla, the worldâs largest electric vehicle producer. In a country where the earth hides its treasures beneath its surface, those who chip away at its bounty pay an unfair price. As a pre-teen, his family could no longer afford to pay his $6 monthly school fee, leaving him with one option: a life working underground in a tunnel, digging for cobalt rocks. But soon after he began working for roughly two U.S. dollars per day, the child was buried alive under the rubble of a collapsed mine tunnel. His body was never recovered.Â
The nation, fractured by war, disease, and famine, has seen more than 6 million people die since the mid-1990s, making the conflict the deadliest since World War II. But, in recent years, the death and destruction have been aided by the growing number of electric vehicles humming down American streets. In 2022, the U.S., the worldâs third-largest importer of cobalt, spent nearly $525 million on the mineral, much of which came from the Congo.
As Americaâs dependence on the Congo has grown, Black-led labor and environmental organizers here in the U.S. have worked to build a transnational solidarity movement. Activists also say that the inequities faced in the Congo relate to those that Black Americans experience. And thanks in part to social media, the desire to better understand whatâs happening in the Congo has grown in the past 10 years. In some ways, the Black Lives Matter movement first took root in the Congo after the uprising in Ferguson in 2014, advocates say. And since the murder of George Floyd and the outrage over the Gaza war, there has been an uptick in Congolese and Black American groups working on solidarity campaigns.
Throughout it all, the inequities faced by Congolese people and Black Americans show how the supply chain highlights similar patterns of exploitation and disenfranchisement. ... While the American South has picked up about two-thirds of the electric vehicle production jobs, Black workers there are more likely to work in non-unionized warehouses, receiving less pay and protections. The White House has also failed to share data that definitively proves whether Black workers are receiving these jobs, rather than them just being placed near Black communities. 'Automakers are moving their EV manufacturing and operations to the South in hopes of exploiting low labor costs and making higher profits,' explained Yterenickia Bell, an at-large council member in Clarkston, Georgia, last year. While Georgia has been targeted for investment by the Biden administration, workers are 'refusing to stand idly by and let them repeat a cycle that harms Black communities and working families.'
... Of the 255,000 Congolese mining for cobalt, 40,000 are children. They are not only exposed to physical threats but environmental ones. Cobalt mining pollutes critical water sources, plus the air and land. It is linked to respiratory illnesses, food insecurity, and violence. Still, in March, a U.S. court ruled on the case, finding that American companies could not be held liable for child labor in the Congo, even as they helped intensify the prevalence. ... Recently, the push for mining in the Congo has reached new heights because of a rift in China-U.S. relations regarding EV production. Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued a 100% tariff on Chinese-produced EVs to deter their purchase in the U.S. Currently, China owns about 80% of the legal mines in the Congo, but tens of thousands of Congolese work in 'artisanal' mines outside these facilities, where there are no rules or regulations, and where the U.S. gets much of its cobalt imports. 'Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected,' wrote Siddharth Kara last year in the award-winning investigative book Cobalt Red: How The Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. 'It is a system of absolute exploitation for absolute profit.' While it is the worldâs richest country in terms of wealth from natural resources, Congo is among the poorest in terms of life outcomes. Of the 201 countries recognized by the World Bank Group, it has the 191st lowest life expectancy."
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FATHER & SON: James Earl Jones with his Father Robert Earl Jones on Stage in the 1962 Production "Moon on a Rainbow Shawl."
Robert Earl Jones (February 3, 1910 â September 7, 2006), sometimes credited as Earl Jones, was an American actor and professional boxer. One of the first prominent Black film stars, Jones was a living link with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career.
Jones was best known for his leading roles in films such as Lying Lips (1939) and later in his career for supporting roles in films such as The Sting (1973), Trading Places (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and Witness (1985).
Jones was born in northwestern Mississippi; the specific location is unclear as some sources indicate Senatobia, while others suggest nearby Coldwater. He left school at an early age to work as a sharecropper to help his family. He later became a prizefighter. Under the name "Battling Bill Stovall", he was a sparring partner of Joe Louis.
Jones became interested in theater after he moved to Chicago, as one of the thousands leaving the South in the Great Migration. He moved on to New York by the 1930s. He worked with young people in the Works Progress Administration, the largest New Deal agency, through which he met Langston Hughes, a young poet and playwright. Hughes cast him in his 1938 play, Don't You Want to Be Free?.
Jones also entered the film business, appearing in more than twenty films. His film career started with the leading role of a detective in the 1939 race film Lying Lips, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux, and Jones made his next screen appearance in Micheaux's The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940). Jones acted mostly in crime movies and dramas after that, with such highlights as Wild River (1960) and One Potato, Two Potato (1964). In the Oscar-winning 1973 film The Sting, he played Luther Coleman, an aging grifter whose con is requited with murder leading to the eponymous "sting". In the later 20th century, Jones appeared in several other noted films: Trading Places (1983) and Witness (1985).
Toward the end of his life, Jones was noted for his stage portrayal of Creon in The Gospel at Colonus (1988), a black musical version of the Oedipus legend. He also appeared in episodes of the long-running TV shows Lou Grant and Kojak. One of his last stage roles was in a 1991 Broadway production of Mule Bone by Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, another important writer of the Harlem Renaissance. His last film was Rain Without Thunder (1993).
Although blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s due to involvement with leftist groups, Jones was ultimately honored with a lifetime achievement award by the U.S. National Black Theatre Festival.
Jones was married three times. As a young man, he married Ruth Connolly (died 1986) in 1929; they had a son, James Earl Jones. Jones and Connolly separated before James was born in 1931, and the couple divorced in 1933. Jones did not come to know his son until the mid-1950s. He adopted a second son, Matthew Earl Jones. Jones died on September 7, 2006, in Englewood, New Jersey, from natural causes at age 96.
THEATRE
1945 The Hasty Heart (Blossom) Hudson Theatre, Broadway
1945 Strange Fruit (Henry) McIntosh NY theater production
1948 Volpone (Commendatori) City Center
1948 Set My People Free (Ned Bennett) Hudson Theatre, Broadway
1949 Caesar and Cleopatra (Nubian Slave) National Theatre, Broadway
1952 Fancy Meeting You Again (Second Nubian) Royale Theatre, Broadway
1956 Mister Johnson (Moma) Martin Beck Theater, Broadway
1962 Infidel Caesar (Soldier) Music Box Theater, Broadway
1962 The Moon Besieged (Shields Green) Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
1962 Moon on a Rainbow Shawl (Charlie Adams) East 11th Street Theatre, New York
1968 More Stately Mansions (Cato) Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway
1975 All God's Chillun Got Wings (Street Person) Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway
1975 Death of a Salesman (Charley)
1977 Unexpected Guests (Man) Little Theatre, Broadway
1988 The Gospel at Colonus (Creon) Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway
1991 Mule Bone (Willie Lewis) Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
FILMS
1939 Lying Lips (Detective Wenzer )
1940 The Notorious Elinor Lee (Benny Blue)
1959 Odds Against Tomorrow (Club Employee uncredited)
1960 Wild River (Sam Johnson uncredited)
1960 The Secret of the Purple Reef (Tobias)
1964 Terror in the City (Farmer)
1964 One Potato, Two Potato (William Richards)
1968 Hang 'Em High
1971 Mississippi Summer (Performer)
1973 The Sting (Luther Coleman)
1974 Cockfighter (Buford)
1977 Proof of the Man (Wilshire Hayward )
1982 Cold River (The Trapper)
1983 Trading Places (Attendant)
1983 Sleepaway Camp (Ben)
1984 The Cotton Club (Stage Door Joe)
1984 Billions for Boris (Grandaddy)
1985 Witness (Custodian)
1988 Starlight: A Musical Movie (Joe)
1990 Maniac Cop 2 (Harry)
1993 Rain Without Thunder (Old Lawyer)
TELEVISION
1964 The Defenders (Joe Dean) Episode: The Brother Killers
1976 Kojak (Judge) Episode: Where to Go if you Have Nowhere to Go?
1977 The Displaced Person (Astor) Television movie
1978 Lou Grant (Earl Humphrey) Episode: Renewal
1979 Jennifer's Journey (Reuven )Television movie
1980 Oye Ollie (Performer) Television series
1981 The Sophisticated Gents (Big Ralph Joplin) 3 episodes
1982 One Life to Live
1985 Great Performances (Creon) Episode: The Gospel at Colonus
1990 True Blue (Performer) Episode: Blue Monday
#james earl jones#black tumblr#black literature#black community#black excellence#blackexcellence365#actor#robert earl jones#stage actor
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Juneteenth is a Black American holiday.Â
We call Juneteenth many things: Black Independence Day, Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day. We celebrate and honor our ancestors.Â
December 31 is recognized as Watch Night or Freedomâs Eve in Black American churches because it marks the day our enslaved ancestors were awaiting news of their freedom going into 1863. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But all of the ancestors wouldnât be freed until June 19, 1865 for those in Galveston, Texas and even January 23, 1866 for those in New Jersey (the last slave state). (Itâs also worth noting that our people under the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations wouldnât be freed until April 28, 1866 and June 14, 1866 for those under the Cherokee Nation by way of the Treaties.)
Since 1866, Black Americans in Texas have been commemorating the emancipation of our people by way of reading the Emancipation Proclamation and coming together to have parades, free festivities, and later on pageants. Thereafter, it spread to select states as an annual day of commemoration of our people in our homeland.Â
Hereâs a short silent video filmed during the 1925 Juneteenth celebration in Beaumont, Texas:
youtube
(Itâs also worth noting that the Mascogos tribe in Coahuila, Mexico celebrate Juneteenth over there as well. Quick history lesson: A total of 305,326 Africans were shipped to the US to be enslaved alongside of American Indians who were already or would become enslaved as prisoners of war, as well as those who stayed behind refusing to leave and walk the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. In the United States, you were either enslaved under the English territories, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, or under the Nations of what would called the Five âCivilizedâ Native American Tribes: Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminoles. Mascogos descend from the Seminoles who escaped slavery during the Seminole Wars, or the Gullah Wars that lasted for more than 100 years if you will, and then settled at El Nacimiento in 1852.)
We largely wave our red, white and blue flags on Juneteenth. These are the only colors that represent Juneteenth. But sometimes you may see others wave our Black American Heritage flag (red, black, and gold).
Juneteenth is a day of respect. It has nothing to do with Africa, diversity, inclusion, immigration, your Pan-African flag, your cashapps, nor your commerce businesses. It is not a day of âwhat aboutâ isms. It is not a day to tap into your inner colonizer and attempt to wipe out our existence. That is ethnocide and anti-Black American. If you canât attend a Black American (centered) event thatâs filled with education on the day, our music, our food and other centered activities because itâs not centered around yoursâŠthat is a you problem. Respect our day for what and whom it stands for in our homeland.Â
Juneteenth flag creator: âBoston Benâ HaithÂ
It was created in 1997. The red, white and blue colors represent the American flag. The five-point star represents the Lone State (Texas). The white burst around the star represents a nova, the beginning of a new star. The new beginning for Black Americans.Â
Black American Heritage Flag creators: Melvin Charles & Gleason T. Jackson
It was created in 1967, our Civil Rights era. The color black represents the ethnic pride for who we are. Red represents the blood shed for freedom, equality, justice and human dignity. Gold fig wreath represents intellect, prosperity, and peace. The sword represents the strength and authority exhibited by a Black culture that made many contributions to the world in mathematics, art, medicine, and physical science, heralding the contributions that Black Americans would make in these and other fields.Â
SN: While weâre talking about flags, I should note that Grace Wisher, a 13-year-old free Black girl from Baltimore helped stitched the Star Spangled flag, which would inspire the national anthem during her six years of service to Mary Pickersgill. I ainât even gon hold you. I never looked too far into it, but she prob sewed that whole American flag her damn self. They love lying about history here until you start unearthing them old documents.Â
In conclusion, Juneteenth is a Black American holiday. Respect us and our ancestors.
#juneteenth#juneteenth flag#black american history#black american culture#ben haith#black american heritage flag#melvin charles#gleason t jackson#grace wisher#american flag#mascogos#juneteenth 2023
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Watching the Pro Palestine movement implode in on itself the past couple of days on Twitter/TikTok after they went full racist against Black Americans (calling them racial slurs, colonizers, genociders, etc.) is so fucking cathartic. People have tried to warn everyone for months that this movement was just as racist as it was antisemitic, with the Pro Pals using watermelon imagery, the way Arab Palestinians call Black Palestinians "slaves," the history of Arab colonization in Africa and the slave trade, etc. But now it's all out in the open, all because whites and Arabs thought they could treat Kamala Harris the same way they treated Joe Biden and had the audacity to tell Black people they should throw away their hard-earned vote "for Palestine."
And today the Pro Pals have also started targeting their previous white LGBT allies. This one is a massive case of "leopards eating my face," so I'm not crying for Queers for Palestine here (they deserve it), but the whole movement - at least here in America - is falling apart at the seams.
Doesn't appear to have trickled down to Tumblr yet, but there's been a massive vibe shift on other social media.
PLEASE tell me more!
I am not even the slightest bit surprised, and remarked on the exploitative and abusive behavior of Palestiners towards African-Americans years ago:
As a Jew, Iâve seen my share of strained, socially-expected marriages being held up as an intended example For The Good Of The Community (tm). Â And Iâm telling you right now â this particular arranged, loveless, abusive coupling really doesnât look like itâs going to last. Â There are fewer and fewer attempts to even try to hide the recriminations and spite. Â And whoâs going to suffer? Â The kids. Â
Anti-Israel revengists will drain #BlackLivesMatter dry, use it up and move on to their next opportunistic spotlight-scenario â probably the killer whales at SeaWorld or something. Â Just like they did with one U.N. committee and conference after another, just like one film festival and book fair after another, just like Arafat himself did with first Gaza, then Jordan, then Lebanon, then Tunisia. Â When someone only cares about themselves, you cannot âallyâ with them â you just get used by them. Â
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Reading list for Afro-Herbalism:
A Healing Grove: African Tree Remedies and Rituals for the Body and Spirit by Stephanie Rose Bird
Affrilachia: Poems by Frank X Walker
African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era by Heather Butts
African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory by Gertrude Jacinta Fraser
African American Slave Medicine: Herbal and Non-Herbal Treatments by Herbert Covey
African Ethnobotany in the Americas edited by Robert Voeks and John Rashford
Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect by Lorenzo Dow Turner
Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples by Jack Forbes
African Medicine: A Complete Guide to Yoruba Healing Science and African Herbal Remedies by Dr. Tariq M. Sawandi, PhD
Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh, African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed by Bryant Terry
Barracoon: The Story of the Last âBlack Cargoâ by Zora Neale Hurston
Big Mamaâs Back in the Kitchen by Charlene Johnson
Big Mamaâs Old Black Pot by Ethel Dixon
Black Belief: Folk Beliefs of Blacks in America and West Africa by Henry H. Mitchell
Black Diamonds, Vol. 1 No. 1 and Vol. 1 Nos. 2â3 edited by Edward J. Cabbell
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney
Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. by Ashanté M. Reese
Black Indian Slave Narratives edited by Patrick Minges
Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition by Yvonne P. Chireau
Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry edited by Camille T. Dungy
Blacks in Appalachia edited by William Turner and Edward J. Cabbell
Caribbean Vegan: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion by Taymer Mason
Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America by Sylviane Diouf
Faith, Health, and Healing in African American Life by Emilie Townes and Stephanie Y. Mitchem
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farmâs Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman
Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit: John Lee â An African American Herbal Healer by John Lee and Arvilla Payne-Jackson
Four Seasons of Mojo: An Herbal Guide to Natural Living by Stephanie Rose Bird
Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica White
Fruits of the Harvest: Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa and Other Holidays by Eric Copage
George Washington Carver by Tonya Bolden
George Washington Carver: In His Own Words edited by Gary Kremer
God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia by Cornelia Bailey
Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia by Karida Brown
Ethno-Botany of the Black Americans by William Ed Grime
Gullah Cuisine: By Land and by Sea by Charlotte Jenkins and William Baldwin
Gullah Culture in America by Emory Shaw Campbell and Wilbur Cross
Gullah/Geechee: Africaâs Seeds in the Winds of the Diaspora-St. Helenaâs Serenity by Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Jessica Harris and Maya Angelou
Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers by Charlene Gilbert
Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Faith Mitchell
Jambalaya: The Natural Womanâs Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish
Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care by Dayna Bowen Matthew
Leaves of Green: A Handbook of Herbal Remedies by Maude E. Scott
Like a Weaving: References and Resources on Black Appalachians by Edward J. Cabbell
Listen to Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife by Margaret Charles Smith and Linda Janet Holmes
Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination by Melissa Cooper
Mandyâs Favorite Louisiana Recipes by Natalie V. Scott
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington
Mojo Workinâ: The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald
Motherwit: An Alabama Midwifeâs Story by Onnie Lee Logan as told to Katherine Clark
My Bag Was Always Packed: The Life and Times of a Virginia Midwife by Claudine Curry Smith and Mildred Hopkins Baker Roberson
My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations by Mary Frances Berry
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Bundles
Papa Jimâs Herbal Magic Workbook by Papa Jim
Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens by Vaughn Sills (Photographer), Hilton Als (Foreword), Lowry Pei (Introduction)
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy
Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage by Diane Glave
Rufus Estesâ Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef by Rufus Estes
Secret Doctors: Ethnomedicine of African Americans by Wonda Fontenot
Sex, Sickness, and Slavery: Illness in the Antebellum South by Marli Weiner with Mayzie Hough
Slaveryâs Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons by Sylviane Diouf
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time by Adrian Miller
Spirituality and the Black Helping Tradition in Social Work by Elmer P. Martin Jr. and Joanne Mitchell Martin
Sticks, Stones, Roots & Bones: Hoodoo, Mojo & Conjuring with Herbs by Stephanie Rose Bird
The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabamaâs Renowned Tuskegee Institute by Carolyn Quick Tillery
The Black Family Reunion Cookbook (Recipes and Food Memories from the National Council of Negro Women) edited by Libby Clark
The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Charles Chesnutt
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Manâs Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin
The Presidentâs Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas by Adrian Miller
The Taste of Country Cooking: The 30th Anniversary Edition of a Great Classic Southern Cookbook by Edna Lewis
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: An Insidersâ Account of the Shocking Medical Experiment Conducted by Government Doctors Against African American Men by Fred D. Gray
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret E. Savoy
Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine by Bryant Terry
Vibration Cooking: Or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
Voodoo and Hoodoo: The Craft as Revealed by Traditional Practitioners by Jim Haskins
When Roots Die: Endangered Traditions on the Sea Islands by Patricia Jones-Jackson
Working Conjure: A Guide to Hoodoo Folk Magic by Hoodoo Sen Moise
Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing by Michelle Lee
Wurkn Dem Rootz: Ancestral Hoodoo by Medicine Man
Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings: Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, Dust Tracks on a Road, Selected Articles by Zora Neale Hurston
The Ways of Herbalism in the African World with Olatokunboh Obasi MSc, RH (webinar via The American Herbalists Guild)
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Ways J.K Rowling did poc dirty in canon:
Making the last name of one of her most powerful black characters âShackleboltâ - a crude af reference to slavery and just in very poor taste.
Naming her only east Asian character âCho Changâ - a Korean surname as a first name for a Chinese character - proving she did no research whatsoever into Chinese naming traditions.
Choâs characterization also leans in to the trope of tragic Asian female characters being defined by their romantic connections to white men, as in âMiss Saigonâ or âA Quiet American.â Choâs storyline centers on her romantic involvement with Cedric, Harry and Roger Davies. She gets no meaningful arc of her own.
The sidekick-ification of Lee Jordan.
Michael Corner being referred to as âthe dark oneâ which is bad enough, and then him being whitewashed in the films.
Pansy Parkinsonâs comment about Angelina Johnsonâs braided hair looking like âwormsâ goes completely unpunished. Rowling treats this as standard bullying instead of a racially-charged comment. Rowling clearly didnât understand the serious implications of this comment and its rooting in deeply-ingrained discrimination against black hairstyles, or she would have written a similar reaction to this as she did to that of Hermione being called a âMudblood.â
House Elves as a metaphor for slaves is highly problematic because they are depicted as âlikingâ their enslavement and being complicit in it, much like the black slaves in âGone With The Wind.â Despite Dobby being a beloved character, he is also seen as an anomaly for desiring freedom, and many other House Elves are depicted as grotesque, fawning, ridiculous or sinister. Pretty garbage metaphor for black slaves.
In Goblet of Fire Rowling describes a group of âAfricanâ wizards wearing âlong white robesâ and âroasting what looked like a rabbit on a bright purple fire.â This is just⊠*sigh* The way this is worded is very clearly just token exoticism and includes no genuine detail about their clothing, cultural food or nationality. Itâs just âwow those zany rabbit-eating Africans and their purple fire.â Once again black characters are being used as examples of otherness rather than shown as human beings.
Rowling has openly admitted that she created a detailed backstory for Dean Thomas, one of the seriesâ few black characters, but did not include it in the books and included the backstory of Neville Longbottom, a white character, instead.
Approving the casting of a white actress in the role of Lavender Brown in the films, a character the majority of readers assumed was black.
The portrayal of Blaise Zabiniâs âfamously beautifulâ black mother who was known for offing her husbands and taking their money. Like. Come on. Tbh she sounds like a queen but violent woc gold digger is still a shit trope.
Just the entire treatment of the Patil twins at the Yule Ball, the way Harry and Ron treated them and Rowlingâs garbage attempt at describing their traditional clothing.
Padma Patilâs portrayal in Cursed Child as the stereotypical controlling Indian wife. The idea of ending up with her instead of Hermione being positioned as some kind of horrible alternate reality for Ron had very xenophobic undertones, and while Hermione is portrayed as black in the play, I donât believe that Rowling originally intended her to be a black character nor that casting directors deliberately set out to cast a black actress as Hermione in Cursed Child initially.
#feel free to add on#harry potter#anti jkr#jkr mention#tw jkr#harry potter books#canon#hp text posts#hp memes#hp marauders#marauders era#marauders#hermione granger#dean thomas#angelina johnson#lavender brown#cho chang#house elves#s.p.e.w#race in literature#poc#poc representation
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Have seen very little discussion on this website about the situation in Haiti and figured maybe Iâd try to start the conversation?
For those who arenât aware, Haiti is the only country that led a successful slave rebellion which led to the establishment of an independent country, and a day hasnât passed where they havenât been punished for it. The country never had a chance to flourish as the west made sure to suck it economically dry and then dip when nothing was left.
This has left the country horrifically unstable in every way possible. However, the last few years, it has been on the brink of collapse due to absolutely no political leadership and as of now, Haiti has completely collapsed. The country is mostly run by gangs all competing for power. There is no where for refugees to escape. The west has completely abandoned any meaningful intervention and it has mostly been South American, Middle Eastern, and African countries who only seem interested in trying to bring peace. But since 2024 has begun, it is a terrifying place to be full of completely innocent people being screwed over by the west for standing up for themselves.
Of course, this is heavily over simplified and I have no personal connection to Haiti. So under the cut, Iâm adding much more accurate and insightful information, as well as fundraisers, books, petitions, and Haitian run businesses and social media accounts. As someone who is studying history, it doesnât take long to realize most nations struggling today have been victimized for wanting autonomy and freedom. From Palestine to Sudan, to DRC to Ukraine, there is so much preventable tragedy. As someone from a country who has historically inflicted these conditions on a lot of these nations, itâs frustrating to feel powerless to the injustice. I truly find the only thing that puts my mind at peace is education and spreading awareness. Donât let their suffering be in vain.
*please correct me if any of this information is inaccurate*
Basic information:
Wikipedia
HAITI: A Brief History of a Complex Nation
Britannica: History of Haiti
How Haiti Was Forced To Pay Reparations For Freedom
[video] A Super Quick History of Haiti
The Root of Haiti's Misery: Reparations to Enslavers
Timeline: Haitiâs History and Current Crisis, Explained
[video] Why Haiti is in a Constant State of Emergency
A Brief History Of Haiti
The Haitian Revolution and the Hole in French High-School History
[video] How the World Destroyed Haiti
A Timeline of Haiti
Haiti: a history of intervention, occupation and resistance
[video] Fighting for Haiti
How Toussaint Lâouverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution
The Disappearing Land : Haiti, History, and the Hemisphere
History of Haiti
A History of United States Policy Towards Haiti
What is the history of foreign interventions in Haiti?
Haitian history and culture: A selection of online resources
Books:
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint l'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
The Haitian Revolution
Silencing the Past
Fault Lines: Views across Haiti's Divide
Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution
Haiti: The Tumultuous History
Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1971
The Haitians: A Decolonial History
Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola
Outrage for Outrage: A History of Colonialism in Haiti and Its Legacy
Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution
Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
The Black Republic: African Americans and the Fate of Haiti
The Farming of Bones
The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier
The Uses of Haiti
The Butterflyâs Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States
Charities:
*rating of 80+ on charitynavigator*
Hands Helping Haiti
Heartline Haiti
Hope for Haiti
Haiti Outreach
US Foundation for the Children of Haiti
Hands Together for Haitians
Haiti Empowered
Mission of Hope Haiti International
Haitian Health Foundation
Haiti Partners
Haiti Cardiac Alliance
New Life for Haiti
Locally Haiti
Clean Water for Haiti
Meds & Food for Kids
Haitian Roots
Project Medishare for Haiti
Friends of the Children of Haiti
Childrens Nutrition Program of Haiti
Fundraisers
Haiti Crisis Relief Fund
Haiti Emergency Fundraiser
Urgent Need to Complete Our Haitian Adoptions
Desperate Plea to Help Haitian Family
Haiti Food Emergency
Help a Deaf Haitian restore his life in Maryland
Help a friend get her sister & 3 kids out of Haiti
Daniel Jean - Haitian friend relocate to the US
Help Support My Family in Haiti
Support Young Haitian Artists!
Haitian Artists Need Your Help
PLEASE HELP and PRAY for OUR FAMILY IN HAITI
Help My Mother and Brother from HAITI PLEASE
Urgent Help for Marc Henry and his family in Haiti
Help Michaël in Humanitarian and Political Crisis in Haïti
Lycender Chery & Family
Trapped in Port au Prince, Haiti
Help Rosemica have surgery for her tumor!
Help My Family escape from ruthless gangs
Haitian Orphanage School: Classique Mixte du Rivag
Help Support a Hard Working Mother of Two
Haiti Emergency Relief of artist community
Help Save Gabe's Life and get him from Haiti to US
Aid for Haitian Artist Mario and his Granddaughter
Haitian-Owned Businesses
Kreyol Essence
LS Cream Liqueur
Creole Me Up
Caribbrew
Tisaksuk
Fanm Djanm
Makaya Chocolate
KĂČmsi Like
Créations Dorées
Aeva Beauty
Levie's Essential Care
Bel Ti Boujique
Itâs Seasonedâą
Cremas Absalon
Kreyol Pale Creole Konprann
VagEsteem
Bijou Lakay
V.BELLAN
#reblog if you want I think this is so interesting and important though#raeâs rambles#Haiti#haiti crisis#free haiti#signal boost#Sudan#Palestine#free palestine#free congo#free gaza#fundraiser#gofundme#information#politics#Congo#dr congo#ceasefire#fundraising#mutual aid#history#infographic#learning#art#artists on tumblr#all eyes on rafah#all eyes on palestine#all eyes on gaza#education#lol
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Hello! I've been enjoying your writing references and notes, thank you for sharing! I was wondering, do you have any for something set during the Civil War? I've been sitting on the idea of writing a short story inspired by Little Women and I want to do it some justice at least. I would be happy with whatever you can offer <3
Writing Notes: The American Civil War
A four-year war (1861â65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.
The two sides fought over the enslavement of African Americans and the rights of individual states.
The economy of the South relied on enslaving Black people to work on plantations of cotton and tobacco, while in the industrialized North, public opinion was in favor of ending slavery.
The war ended in 1865 with a Union victory.
THE UNION AND THE CONFEDERACY
By February 1861, 7 southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) had broken away from the rest of the US.
On 4 February, they agreed to form a separate government, the Confederate States of America.
The first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina on 12 April, and within 3 months, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee had joined the Confederates.
23 states remained in the Union, including the slave-owning âborder statesâ.
NEW TECHNOLOGY
The US Civil War was one of the first industrial wars in history, making use of modern technologies developed during the course of the 19th century. The war was fought across a wide area, so railways were critically important in carrying troops and supplies to where they were needed on the front lines. Generals were able to communicate with each other by telegraph.
Weapons. Fast-firing repeating rifles, such as the Spencer rifle, were used for the first time in the Civil War. The widely used âNapoleonâ field gun could hit a target up to 1,600 m (5,250 ft) away. Also developed at this time was the Gatling gun, an early machine gun.
Ironclad battleships. Steam-powered battleships protected by iron or steel plates were known as ironclads. The first-ever battle between ironclads was fought in the Civil War in 1862, on the James River estuary in Virginia.
Modern Communications. In the Civil War, railroads moved troops around, aerial balloons spied across enemy lines, and the telegraph (above) sent and received instant information. Its receiver machine recorded messages on paper tape in Morse code, which uses dots and dashes to represent numbers and letters of the alphabet.
WAR PHOTOGRAPHY
The Civil War was one of the first conflicts to be extensively photographed. Dozens of photographers toured the battlefields, and their stark images of soldiers, dead and alive, brought shocking scenes of the war to the public around the world.
A Continental War. Most of the fighting in the war took place in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in the east. There were also battles in Kentucky and Tennessee in the west and down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. In 1864, General William T. Sherman (above) conducted a major campaign in Georgia and the Carolinas.
TIMELINE
A nation divided. When 7 US states seceded (broke away) from the Union to form the Confederacy, President Lincoln refused to recognize the new government, and called on them to rejoin the Union. The Confederates refused, and tried to gain control of federal forts in the south. The stage was set for a bloody war that would last for the next 4 years.
12 April, 1861: Fort Sumter attacked. Confederate troops under Brigadier General Beauregard fired on Union soldiers who were guarding Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. These were the first shots to be fired in the Civil War.
17 September, 1862: Battle of Antietam. The bloodiest day of fighting in the entire war took place at the Battle of Antietam, in which nearly 23,000 soldiers were wounded or killed. The Union army suffered the most casualties, but managed to halt the advance of General Robert E. Leeâs Confederate forces into the Union state of Maryland. The next day Lee was allowed to lead his shattered army back to Virginia.
13 December, 1862: Confederate victory. Fortune swung back to the Confederate side at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in Virginia. General Burnside, newly appointed by Lincoln to command the Union army, led 120,000 troops to attack a Confederate force of 80,000 â by far the largest number of men to meet in any conflict of the Civil War. Burnside was decisively defeated â a victory that gave fresh hope to the Confederates and led to complaints that the Unionâs generals were doing a bad job.
1 January, 1863: All slaves to be free. President Lincoln gave new purpose and direction to the war by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. This was an order freeing all slaves in the Confederate states. Of course, this could not happen until the Union had won the war against the Confederates, but his words would eventually lead to the freeing of millions of African American slaves.
3 March, 1863: First African-American regiment. The first official regiment of African-American soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, was formed to fight in the Union army.
4 July, 1863: Vicksburg captured. Union troops captured the Confederate fortress of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, after a 2-month siege. It was a major turning point in the war, coming a day after the Union victory at Gettysburg. The Union now controlled the length of the Mississippi River, dividing Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas from the rest of the Confederate states, and cutting off supplies.
15 November, 1864: March to the Sea. The capture of Atlanta in Georgia by Union General William T. Sherman in September was a heavy blow to the Confederates. Although deep inside enemy territory, Sherman decided to march his army all the way from Atlanta to the coast at Savannah. He ordered his men to live off the land and destroy farms and factories on their way. This brutal âscorched earthâ policy inflicted lasting damage.
9 April, 1865: Lee surrenders to Grant. The Confederate capital of Richmond, in Virginia, fell on 3 April. The Virginian Confederate army was exhausted. To avoid further losses, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. By May, all the Confederate armies had stopped fighting. The war was finally over.
14 April, 1865: Assassination of Lincoln. President Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Fordâs Theatre in Washington, DC. He died the next morning. A funeral train took 14 days to transport his body back for burial in his hometown of Springfield, in Illinois.
The Battle of Gettysburg. The most famous battle of the Civil War was fought over three days, from 1 to 3 July 1863, around the small town of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The Confederates attacked, confident they would win, but the Union army did not give way and eventually won. The battle had the heaviest casualties in the war. An estimated 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or listed as missing. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln visited the site and delivered a famous speech known as the Gettysburg Address. In it, he said that the US was âdedicated to the proposition that all men are created equalâ.
The Abolition of Slavery. On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in the Confederacy from January 1, 1863. In 1865 Congress passed the 13th Amendment (law change) to the US Constitution, making slavery illegal across the soon-to-be reunited country.
RECONSTRUCTION
African Americans Voting in Richmond in Virginia, 1871
The slow process of rebuilding the economy of the south, left in ruins after the war, is known as Reconstruction. Before rejoining the US, each state of the Confederacy had to agree to amendments to the US Constitution â the supreme law of the nation â that ended slavery, granted citizenship to African Americans, and gave the vote to all male citizens.
Reconstruction ended in 1877, and many southern state governments immediately reversed the new rights given to African Americans, making it hard for them to vote, go to school, or find paid work. They introduced laws that legalized discrimination against Black people that remained in place for almost a century.
Below are objects that serve as evidence of the turmoil leading up to the election and the events that happened immediately after.
Below are objects that show how the Union and the Confederacy dealt with money problems, while also exploring what was considered money then and who produced it.
The objects below belonged to the men and boys who fought on the front lines for both Confederate and Union forces. They represent what soldiers wore, what they ate, how they coped, and what they held dear to them. These items, more often than not, were the only possessions soldiers kept while enlisted; on many are personal touches added by the owner.
Below are a few objects used as weapons by both Confederate and Union armies.
Below are a few objects used by or presented to the leaders of Union and Confederate forces.
For many Americans, both civilian and military, who lived through the conflict, the Civil War was the monumental event of their lifetime. They collected relics as they adjusted to the immediate consequences of the war. The nation grappled with the residual effects of the Civil War for more than a century. Below are objects that evoked different memories from the war.
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 â More: Notes & References
It's nice to hear this, thanks so much! <3 Hope these notes help as quick references. Further research might be needed if you're planning to write something more detailed.
#anonymous#writing reference#history#writeblr#dark academia#spilled ink#creative writing#writing inspiration#writing notes#writing prompt#light academia#lit#literature#writing#writing resources
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In this column, Charles Blow provides the historical context for Juneteenth, and the continuously "evolving" struggle for "freedom" for Black people in the U.S. This is a giftđlink, so anyone can read this entire column even if they don't subscribe to the NY Times. Below are some excerpts:
Last week at a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn of the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris said that on June 19, 1865, after Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, âThe enslaved people of Texas learned they were free.â On that day, she said, âthey claimed their freedom.â [...] Although itâs a mark of progress to commemorate the end of American slavery, itâs imperative that we continue to underscore the myriad ways in which Black freedom was restricted long after that first Juneteenth. [...] Most Black people couldnât claim their freedom on June 19, 1865, because their bodies (and their free will) were still being policed to nearly the same degree and with the same inveterate racism that Southern whites had aimed at them during slavery. The laws governing the formerly enslaved âwere very restrictive in terms of where they could go, what kind of jobs they could have, where they could live in certain communities,â said Daina Ramey Berry... the author of âThe Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation.â [...] Upon arrival in Galveston, the Union general Gordon Granger delivered General Order No. 3, which said âthe connection heretofore existingâ between âformer masters and slavesâ would become âthat between employer and hired laborâ and that âfreedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages.â The order also had a curious stipulation: that freedmen would ânot be supported in idleness.â [...] A notice from Granger published days later in The Galveston Daily News informed the public that âno persons formerly slaves will be permitted to travel on the public thoroughfares without passes or permits from their employers.â In other words, white people would still dictate where Black people could be. In 1866, a Texas state constitutional convention adopted the stateâs Black Codes, codifying suffocating limits on Black autonomy. As the Texas State Library and Archives Commission describes these laws:
In this way, the codes âoutlined a status for African Americans not too much removed from their earlier condition as slaves.â Beyond this, for Black people in the 1870s, being a convict in Texas essentially meant relegation to enslavement, because that was when the stateâs convict leasing program took off. [...] The question of labor is at the core of how we must understand emancipation and Reconstruction because American slavery, an entire capitalist system representing billions of dollars in wealth, was built on free Black labor, was brought to its knees and would have to be propped up; newly freed Black people were fed back to the machine to keep it running. [...] As Corey Walker, the director of the program in African American studies at Wake Forest University, emphasizes, the idea of freedom, particularly for Black people in this country, is continuously being negotiated and contested, so âJuneteenth marks a moment in the ever-evolving and expanding project of American democracy.â âIt is,â he said, âa project that is never complete. It is never fulfilled, even at the moment of Juneteenth. And itâs one that is ever evolving to this day.â [emphasis added]
#juneteenth#race in america#freedom came with strings attached#slavery#black americans#black history#charles blow#the new york times#gift link
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What do you do for the culture?
I donât do anything âfor the cultureâ and donât plan to.
Controversial opinion, but Iâm my own person; Iâve lived my own experiences, and Iâm not interested in defending or upholding a culture that puts black women and girls last. Thereâs a certain school of thought that leads people to believe that youâre not black if you donât live a certain way, do certain things, or struggle, but Iâm black because I was born that way. Black people are extremely diverse and not at all a monolith. I donât have to tolerate anything in order to fit into the box that people want to put me into, and I have the right to live my life however I choose. I refuse to break my back for a community that is not healed.
Iâm happy to volunteer, lend a hand to those in need, and serve underprivileged black children and children in foster care, but I donât think thatâs what you mean. My idea of truly serving a culture is uplifting underserved communities and living my own life in a way that pleases me. Black women have legitimately suffered since we were brought to America; weâve been forced to slave, weâre the most abused demographic, weâre belittled, sons are treated much better than daughters in the black community, and people do not take us seriously. I am learning to love myself in a wider American culture that sees me as subhuman, and I am learning to do what it takes for me to heal and thrive.
Black Americans have a lot of fear. I think we're an extremely intolerant group at times, we can be very inappropriate and insensitive with each other, there's a lot of competition and insecurity, and the generational trauma that we carry is immense. I have a hard time upholding a culture that I have so many issues with, and there are so many callouts and confrontations that need to happen before we get to a place where we can move on. There's so much healing that needs to happen, but people aren't ready for that conversation.
Anyway, the burden of "carrying on the culture" does not belong on the shoulders of young black girls. We deserve to be protected too.
#richarlotte x#black femininity#leveled up black woman#black women in leisure#black women in luxury#spoiled black women#hypergamy#hypergamous mindset#hypergamy advice#hypergamy tips#hypergamous woman#becoming an it girl#becoming her#becoming that girl
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From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black Americaâs shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledgeâa tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the governmentâs notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions. The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchersâand indeed the whole medical establishmentâwith such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.
#book: medical apartheid#author: harriet a. washington#genre: non fiction#genre: history#year: 2000s
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Quincy Jones, dies aged 91
Widely and wildly talented musician and industry mogul worked with Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Will Smith and others
Quincy Jones, a titan of American entertainment who worked with stars from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson and Will Smith, has died aged 91.
Jonesâ publicist, Arnold Robinson, said he died on Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.
âTonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jonesâ passing,â the family said in a statement. âAnd although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.â
Jones was arguably the most versatile pop cultural figure of the 20th century, perhaps best known for producing the albums Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad for Michael Jackson in the 1980s, which made the singer the biggest pop star of all time. Jones also produced music for Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Donna Summer and many others.
He was also a successful composer of dozens of film scores, and had numerous chart hits under his own name. Jones was a bandleader in big band jazz, an arranger for jazz stars including Count Basie, and a multi-instrumentalist, most proficiently on trumpet and piano. His TV and film production company, founded in 1990, had major success with the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and other shows, and he continued to innovate well into his 80s, launching Qwest TV in 2017, an on-demand music TV service. Jones is third only to BeyoncĂ© and Jay-Z for having the most Grammy award nominations of all time â 80 to their 88 each â and is the awardsâ third most-garlanded winner, with 28.
Among the tributes to Jones was one from actor Michael Caine, who was born on the same day as Jones: 14 March 1933. âMy celestial twin Quincy was a titan in the musical world,â Caine wrote. âHe was a wonderful and unique human being, lucky to have known him.â
Playwright and actor Jeremy O Harris paid tribute to Jonesâs âlimitlessâ contributions to US culture, writing: âWhat couldnât he do? Quincy Jones, literally born when the limits on how big a black boy could dream were unfathomably high, taught us that the limit does not exist.â
Jones was born in Chicago. His half-white father had been born to a Welsh slave owner and one of his female slaves, while his motherâs family were also descended from slave owners. His introduction to music came through the walls of his childhood home from a piano played by a neighbour, which he started learning aged seven, and via his motherâs singing.
His parents divorced and he moved with his father to Washington state, where Jones learned drums and a host of brass instruments in his high-school band. At 14, he started playing in a band with a 16-year-old Ray Charles in Seattle clubs, once, in 1948, backing Billie Holiday. He studied music at Seattle University, transferring east to continue in Boston, and then moved to New York after being rehired by the jazz bandleader Lionel Hampton, with whom he had toured as a high-schooler (a band for which Malcolm X was a heroin dealer when they played in Detroit).
In New York, one early gig was playing trumpet in Elvis Presleyâs band for his first TV appearances, and he met the stars of the flourishing bebop movement including Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. (Years later, in 1991, Jones conducted Davisâs last performance, two months before he died.)
Jones toured Europe with Hampton, and spent much time there in the 1950s, including a period furthering his studies in Paris, where he met luminaries including Pablo Picasso, James Baldwin and Josephine Baker. At the age of 23, he also toured South America and the Middle East as Dizzy Gillespieâs musical director and arranger. He convened a crack team for his own big band, touring Europe as a way to test Free and Easy, a jazz musical, but the disastrous run left Jones, by his own admission, close to suicide and with $100,000 of debt.
He secured a job at Mercury Records and slowly paid off the debt with plenty of work as a producer and arranger for artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and Sammy Davis Jr. He also began scoring films, his credits eventually including The Italian Job, In the Heat of the Night, The Getaway and The Color Purple. (He produced the last of these, which was nominated for 11 Oscars, three for Jones himself.) In 1968, he became the first African American to be nominated for best original song at the Oscars, for The Eyes of Love from the film Banning (alongside songwriter Bob Russell); he had seven nominations in total. For TV, he scored programmes such as The Bill Cosby Show, Ironside and Roots.
His work with Sinatra began in 1958 when he was hired to conduct and arrange for Sinatra and his band by Grace Kelly, princess consort of Monaco, for a charity event. Jones and Sinatra continued working on projects until Sinatraâs final album, LA Is My Lady, in 1984. Jonesâs solo musical career took off in the late 1950s, recording albums under his own name as bandleader for jazz ensembles that included luminaries such as Charles Mingus, Art Pepper and Freddie Hubbard.
Jones once said of his time in Seattle: âWhen people write about the music, jazz is in this box, R&B is in this box, pop is in this box, but we did everything,â and his catholic tastes served him well as modern pop mutated out of the swing era. He produced four million-selling hits for the New York singer Lesley Gore in the mid-60s, including the US No 1 Itâs My Party, and later embraced funk and disco, producing hit singles including George Bensonâs Give Me the Night and Patti Austin and James Ingramâs Baby Come to Me, along with records by the band Rufus and Chaka Khan, and the Brothers Johnson. Jones also released his own funk material, scoring US Top 10 albums with Body Heat (1974) and The Dude (1981).
His biggest success in this style was his work with Michael Jackson: Thriller remains the biggest selling album of all time, while Jonesâs versatility between Off the Wall and Bad allowed Jackson to metamorphose from lithe disco to ultra-synthetic funk-rock. He and Jackson (along with Lionel Richie and producer Michael Omartian) also helmed We Are the World, a successful charity single that raised funds for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1985. âIâve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him,â Jones said when Jackson died in 2009. In 2017, Jonesâs legal team successfully argued that he was owed $9.4m in unpaid Jackson royalties, though he lost on appeal in 2020 and had to return $6.8m.
After the success of The Color Purple in 1985, he formed the film and TV production company Quincy Jones Entertainment in 1990. His biggest screen hit was the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for 148 episodes and launched the career of Will Smith; other shows included the LL Cool J sitcom In the House and the long-running sketch comedy show MadTV.
He also created the media company Qwest Broadcasting and in 1993, the Black music magazine Vibe in partnership with Time Inc. Throughout his career he supported numerous charities and causes, including the , National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Jazz Foundation of America and others, and mentored young musicians including the British multiple Grammy winner Jacob Collier.
Jonesâ illustrious career was twice nearly cut short: he narrowly avoided being killed by Charles Mansonâs cult in 1969, having planned to go to Sharon Tateâs house on the night of the murders there, but Jones forgot the appointment. He also survived a brain aneurysm in 1974 that prevented him from playing the trumpet again in case the exertion caused further harm.
Jones was married three times, first to his high-school girlfriend Jeri Caldwell, for nine years until 1966, fathering his daughter Jolie. In 1967, he married Ulla Andersson and had a son and daughter, divorcing in 1974 to marry actor Peggy Lipton, best known for roles in The Mod Squad and Twin Peaks. They had two daughters, including the actor Rashida Jones, before divorcing in 1989. He had two further children: Rachel, with a dancer, Carol Reynolds, and Kenya, his daughter with actor Nastassja Kinski.
He never remarried, but continued to date a string of younger women, raising eyebrows with his year-long partnership with 19-year-old Egyptian designer Heba Elawadi when he was 73. He has also claimed to have dated Ivanka Trump and Juliette Gréco. He is survived by his seven children.
Other artists paying tribute included LL Cool J, who wrote: âYou were a father and example at a time when I truly needed a father and example. Mentor. Role model. King. You gave me opportunities and shared wisdom. Music would not be music without you.â Femi Koleoso, bandleader with Mercury prize-winning jazz group Ezra Collective, called Jones a âmasterful musician and beautiful soulâ.
Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books�
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OP, i'm sure that post was in good faith but 'women of color' do not have higher testosterone than white women . this is a lie not just because there's no proof whatsoever but because the scale of the women of color we are talking about (you only mentioned black women and women who already have PCOS in the notes of this post) is too large to measure even within the group that constitutes black american women . the people who are spreading the lie that khelif is a man already believe that black women's bodies are by default more masculine and have been making shit up about testosterone levels, pelvis shape, and pain tolerance for the entire history of the united states to preserve the femininity created to reinforce racial hierarchy , and if you parrot lies about black women's testosterone levels they'll be used to keep black female athletes from competing . the masculinity allegations affected black women and girls specifically as a part of misogynoir since the beginning of the slave trade and if you believe that masculinity is real or that someone can 'look masculine' that's not my problem , but leave black women out of it
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out and explaining what is wrong instead of:
It's been a lot - especially since I was trying to figure out 'how' I was being racist. I was in conversation with another user on replies and they were questioning the statement, but we didn't quite get into the things you mentioned (not yet).
Just to clarify, I never meant to spread any racist lies or misinformation. When I made that statement, I was mostly thinking about South Asian and Black women because that's what I was taught to believe.
But I see now how that kind of generalization can perpetuate harmful stereotypes. I appreciate the education on this and totally understand how my words could contribute to a negative narrative.
I must say I don't fully understand it yet, but I'm currently reading up more on it. Because it is my responsibility to better educate myself, not yours.
I've deleted the post since because the last thing I want to do is unintentionally reinforce harmful rhetoric. I'll definitely try to be more responsible moving forward.
#i really do wish people can be less hateful when they're correcting someone on tumblr#because telling someone to 'go kill yourself' is not gonna fix the problem the way you think it is
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Today In History
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an African American educator, author, and orator, who was born on this date April 5, 1856 in a hut in Franklin County, Virginia.
He was born into slavery and rose to become a leading African American intellectual of the 19 century, founding Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (Now Tuskegee University) in 1881 and the National Negro Business League two decades later.
Washington advised Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. He became the first African American to be invited to the White House in 1901, when President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to dine with him. It caused a huge uproar among white Americansâespecially in the Jim Crow Southâand in the press, and came on the heels of the publication of his autobiography, âUp From Slavery.â But Roosevelt saw Washington as a brilliant advisor on racial matters, a practice his successor, President William Howard Taft, continued.
Between 1890 and 1915, Booker T. Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary black elite. Washington was from the last generation of Black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants.
He was also the author of five books:
· âThe Story of My Life and Workâ (1900)
· âUp From Slaveryâ (1901)
· âThe Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slaveryâ (1909)
· âMy Larger Educationâ (1911)
· âThe Man Farthest Downâ (1912)
CARTERâąïž Magazine
#booker t washington#carter magazine#historyandhiphop365#carter#wherehistoryandhiphopmeet#history#cartermagazine#today in history#staywoke#blackhistory#blackhistorymonth
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