IT’S NATIONAL DISABILITY AWARENESS MONTH & THE BLACK COMMUNITY SHOULD CARE

This month, March, marks Disability Awareness Month in the United States. A disability is defined as “the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society.” Disabilities can be visible (someone with down syndrome or a wheelchair user), invisible (dyslexia or diabetes), physical (an amputee), mental (PTSD) or a combination of all. According to the CDC, 1 in 4, or 26% of Americans identify as having a disability. As of 2021, that number included 5.5 million African Americans. Unfortunately, many black people are unwilling to disclose or have yet to have their disability diagnosed – and we, the black community, must change that!

Continue reading

Rap By The Gun, Die By The Gun

“I never ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan and I shouldn’t have to run from a Black man ‘cause that’s….”. If you grew up listening to hip-hop then you know the rest. This next lyric though, “Funky fresh dressed to impressed ready to party!” MC Lyte rapped rhetorical, “you not guarding the door so what you got a gun for?” Exactly. That part! Self-destruction. The hook to this hip-hop classic still waxes prophetic today. It begsthe question and crystallizes my thoughts […]

Transforming Education for Just and Sustainable Futures

On June 28th, the International Commission met to discuss the future of education and the need for educational transformation to make the system more sustainable and just. The IC was summoned in 2019 as an independent institution by UNESCO and is now led by the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde. […]

“Are We Still Talking About Redlining?”

In an era of city planning and zoning laws, most Americans fail to understand how much capital investment determines the viability of certain homes and neighborhoods. Money flowing into and out of neighborhoods determines how many amenities, public funding, and private interest they receive, and the futures of these places are affected by how much potential […]

Looking Back: The Black Panther Party

The 1960s were a time of upheaval in U.S. history. The decade seared the idea of freedom into the American psyche, with the hippies, feminist movement, and civil rights campaigns enjoying immense public attention. But many of these attempts to rectify the wrongs of the American condition failed to achieve their loftiest goals, and more […]