To the POINT DN

Editor’s Message

Keke, do you love me?

No, I’m not talking about the Drake song...I’m referring to the song Keke Palmer’s boyfriend is probably singing while in the shower these days. In case you haven’t heard, Keke went to see Usher in Vegas recently and Usher was ushering...which means he was serenading the ladies. In this case, lady. Tat’s right, he got up close and personal on Keke, who clad in lingerie, a sexy dress, appeared to be loving every minute of Usher’s sexy serenade. Her father, baby daddy decided that rather than talk to her in person, he should take to social media and shame her, telling her she shouldn’t be dancing on Usher, dressed like that because she was “a motha.” Well, he forgot, she’s also a boss. So while social media ignited with their two cents, Keke started a t-shirt line and dropped some music. No word on whether her relationship will survive the storm that ensued, but no doubt, Keke is landing on top. I usually mind the business that pays me, but I can’t help but give props to Keke on how she’s handled this whole debacle and made lemonade (with a side of tequila) out of lemons.

SCOTUS scandal

Te Supreme Court of yesterday is no more. Gone are ethics, standards, and answering to the American people. Te court has found itself embroiled in controversy. Whether it’s Justice Clarence Tomas sending his relative to school on a Republican megadonor’s dime or Justice Samuel Alito reportedly taking a lavish trip with a billionaire with cases before the court, the Supreme Court is rife with ethics scandals. And it’s not just the right-leaning Justices either. Sonia Sotomayer is under fre for requesting libraries order her books (as an author, I can’t help but wonder what’s wrong with that???)....But I feel like these justices do what they want to do.....and Clarence is saying “Who gon check me, Boo?” All I know is there needs to be a serious overhaul of ethics in the Supreme Court. But I won’t hold my breath.

New Threads

Are you on the new social media app, Threads? Well, 100 million folks are, including some employees of Twitter. Ever since Meta launched its competitor to Twitter, Elon Musk has been attempting to tear it down, denouncing Treads’ approach to content moderation and threatening to sue for the supposed thef of “trade secrets”. Some of his employees, however, are thoroughly enjoying the new app. I admit, I love it. It’s full of positivity and few ads, though I’m not holding out for that to last long. I do however, feel bad for the brothers who released Spill, days before Treads. Te problem is Spill required an invite, and simply wasn’t easy to sign up for. Treads, which merged your Instagram account, stole the thunder of Spill before they could even get of the ground. Word to the wise, don’t make stuf difcult for Black folks because we will quickly move on. Still wishing the brothers luck, though.

On the Web

• If you missed Best of Black Houston, check it out.

• Top 5 cosmetic surgeries.

• Sports reporter Terrance Harris has the latest on the Astros new picks.

Defender News Service

Houston has some work to do in order to become more equitable. Tat’s according to a new study announced during a recent press conference by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner–One Complete Houston, the city’s frst equity indicator study.

Te study, funded by Shell USA, Inc. and developed by the city of Houston in collaboration with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, measures data in 63 topical areas. It uses a methodology derived from the City University of New York for state and local governments.

Based on a score of 100, Houston’s overall equity score stands at 44.1.

“You may not like 44,” he said. “And if you don’t like it, then you need to improve it.”

When compared to cities that have also employed this methodology, it is higher than Dallas’ score of 38 in 2021 and Tulsa’s score of 42.63 in 2022.

Meanwhile, Houston’s score is behind St. Louis’ score of 45.47 in 2018 and Pittsburgh’s score of 55 in 2020.

During his speech, he said the Houston job market grew by 19% between 2008 and 2017 but the income inequality grew by 16% during the same time.

He addressed economic and health disparities among the communities of Houston, the gentrifcation of neighborhoods, food desertswhere quality grocery stores are absent, energy deserts, neighborhoods where the heat index is higher and those where banks are almost nonexistent.

“Houston is considered by many to be the land of opportunity, and in many ways it is,” Turner said during the press conference. “Unfortunately, that opportunity fows diferently to some Houstonians based on their zip codes, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.”

In terms of infrastructure, Houston’s public transport stands at 85.3. Connectivity, with regards to access to cars and roadways, is at 63, while drainage is at 98.

Daniel Potter, the senior director of research at the Kinder Institute explained that Houston scored a 98 on the equity indicator for drainage, and a 94 on air pollution because both fare poorly in the city.

Houston’s not-so-strong suits

According to this study, Houston’s homeownership and home afordability stand at 46, whereas housing quality got the low score of 24.7. A score of 53.3 was given to housing that is in the way of climate-related risks.

Te economic opportunity and employment score in Houston is at 21, while educational attainment received a score of 47, income and poverty got 35. On the other hand, it scored an 82 on high school graduation among all demographic factors in the Houston ISD.

“Tis is screaming out that there are diferent lived experiences here in Houston and I’m not telling you anything that you don’t already know,” said Potter.

Houston’s environmental and climate risks (EPA penalties), access and inclusion, housing, economic opportunity, health (maternal mortality, mental health and EMS transports), infrastructure, and public safety are indicators that received a score less than 20 out of 100.

In particular, around 318 in every 100,000 Black residents experience disparities in ambulance transports for mental health services, while the number is 174 for white Houstonians, 98 for Hispanic Houstinians and 31 for Asian Houstonians, per the report.

Te report also found that less than 1% of Black Houstonians are business owners. In comparison, 6% are Asian and 5% are white.

“Although I would love to stand before you and say we live in a colorblind society, that’s just not the reality when you take a look, even in the City of Houston,” Turner said. “We are highly diverse, but equity still very much eludes us. It is not something that can be addressed by one administration, it has to be addressed over multiple generations because the disparities that have occurred did not occur in one year’s time or ten years or twenty years. Tey have occurred over an extended period of time, and in order to address them, you have to talk about equity.”