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Vol. 49 No. 30• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
REVEL SPIRITS Photos courtesy of REVEL
Micah McFarlane (left) CEO and founder of Revel Spirits, Inc., introduces his business partner/investor Justin Hartley to Twin Cities audiences over the next couple of weeks in a series of advance and in person promotions to build brand awareness and sales for the the company’s award-winning Revel Avila, and for new weber blue agave products the company is bringing to market. Micah was featured guest on Conversations with Al McFarlane’s Tuesday broadcast on KFAI FM 90.3, a broadcast that is streamed nationwide via insight news and blackpressusa.com on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter,and LinkedIn. Tuesday, July 25, Hartley is a featured guest on Conversations, inviting Twin Cities to Thursday July 28th: 12-2pm -Surdyk’s (Northeast Minneapolis) Bottle signing event, and to the 5pm Friday, July 29 Revel sponsored Gary Clark, Jr. concert at the Hilde, in Plymouth, MN.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised in Morelos, Mexico By Al McFarlane, Editor It has a homecoming kind of feeling. Micah McFarlane and his business partner, television superstar Justin Hartley, are in town this week to spike the buzz around their agave spirits beverage, Revel Avila. In a KFAI 90.3 FM The Conversation with Al McFarlane radio and social media interview with me last week Micah McFarlane recounted the steps that led to his emergence as a trailblazing innovator in the liquor industry. He looks back to friendships that go back to grade school, in Worthington, a rural Minnesota town in the southwest corner of the state. McFarlane said he was at home stressed by an overbooking conflict. He’d made a commitment to have dinner and hang out with his best grade-school buddy, Blas Gonzales, when a meeting that he could not afford to miss opened up. The business meeting was with Hector Ruiz, celebrated chef and creator operator of several trend-setting restaurants in Twin Cities including Rincon 38, Enya, and Costa Blanco. He wasn’t sure what the meeting would yield, but it had to do with a new career focus he had been exploring. Backstory: McFarlane had been developing markets and potential investors for a startup in the Mezcal agave spirits line. He had approached some of his childhood friends with the idea of investing in a new venture and was told, “Micah, I like the idea and the product, but I would only consider investing if you owned the company.”
Lightbulb. Friend Blas shows up for their planned meeting and hears Micah describe the dilemma: honoring the commitment to his friend, recognizing that Blas had traveled over 200 miles to hang out and remember being kids and best friends in grade school. But…there was this business pressing against the moment. “I’ll go with you to your meeting,” Blas said. “Let’s go!” It was a first meeting for Micah and Hector. Micah recalled walking into Enya, on Grand in South Minneapolis and taking a seat with Ruiz’ lawyer guys on the other side of the table. “Blas and I are sitting out there and Hector comes up to the table. He looks at Blas. He looks at me and he goes, to Blas in Spanish, ‘How do you know this guy?’ And then Blas, in Spanish ‘We’re best friends from Worthington, Minnesota. There was one Black family and one Mexican family in Worthington. And we became best friends” Hector just smiled and started laughing and then spoke in perfect English, “How are you doing?” “And that was the intro. That was the seal of approval. My best friend from grade school, Blas Gonzalez opened a door and created a bridge of trust and possibility, that give birth to the Revel Avila phenomenon,” McFarlane said. Reflecting on their childhood friendship, McFarlane said, “As a kid in Worthington, I got the good books, good schools, small classrooms, opportunity was there, but I did the same thing every little farm kid did. I walked the soybeans, I tasseled the corn. I did my snow and ice skating and playing hockey and football and baseball. We went spear
fishing with bows and arrows. And we had wrist rockets as kids, these high powered, sling shots. We learned how to do Polish cannons, where you take a bunch of lighter fluid and you tape a bunch of cans together and put a tennis ball in there and we’d have these fights as eight year olds.” McFarlane said, “I treasure my childhood. I talk about it. I loved it. I love Worthington. And I treasure my relationships. Five or six of my first investors in Revel are all from Worthington, Minnesota. We all were from six to eight years old when we met.” On meeting Justin Hartley, award-winning star of This Is Us “Justin is an investor and a partner in Revel. I met him accidentally,” McFarlane said. “I went up to him and just started talking and he just kind of went along with me. And then I went back to my friends and said, ‘Hey, I had the strangest conversation with this guy named Conrad or with Conrad.’ And then my friend goes, ‘Micah, Conrad’s not here.’ And I said, ‘Well, who’s that?’ ‘That’s Justin Hartley from This Is Us.” “Then it all clicked. I went over to him and I said, ‘Man, thank you for being gracious.’ He goes, ‘That was funny, wasn’t it?’ I said, yeah and we just started laughing. I said, ‘Hey, do you like Agave spirits?’ He goes, ‘I love Agave spirits.’ And I said, ‘Well, I own this company called Revel. And I’d love to just send you some product.” “I wasn’t thinking about him as an investor or anything. I was just embarrassed because of what I just did. And then he said, ‘give me your card.’ I didn’t bring any
Justin Hartley cards with me. He says, ‘let me see your phone.’ And he plugs his number into my phone. And then after a couple weeks I text him: ‘Hey, I’m a man of my word. I want to make sure you get this product.’ And he says, ‘Can you come by tonight?’ I said, ‘No, I’m in New York.’ And he said, ‘oh, when do you get back?’ I said, ‘Tomorrow.” He goes, ‘Let’s meet up tomorrow,’” McFarlane said. “We sat and talked for about three and a half hours. And it was just amazing. I am like blown
away by just how cool he is. I’ve been around in the entertainment business for a long time and I could go stories on stories, but this guy walks the walk and talks the talk. I mean, he’s just down. He’s a kid from Chicago. I don’t think he came from a lot. He bar tendered, bussed tables, he’s done all of that. We just hit it off. We talk about a lot of stuff besides the liquor business, and become real genuine friends,” McFarlane said. “So what Justin brings to the table is that he’s using his
platform to help amplify what we are doing in getting liquid to the lips and telling the story. He’s gone down to Morelos Mexico to meet with Hector’s family of growers and distillers, and the authenticity is amazing. And so what we’re doing here is that we’re a sponsor for Live at the Hildy, a music festival in Plymouth, Minnesota, on the 28th. Therewill be all sorts of Revel product out there, tasting tables and everything.” For the full interview: www. insightnews.com
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Resmaa Menakem In Conversation with Lissa Jones
Talk of the stacks
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Major Dawanna Witt on campaign trail.
Running for Hennepin County Sherriff
Major Dawanna Witt: Bringing lived experience to leadership Columnist
By Brenda Lyle-Gray Major Dawanna Witt wants to be the next Hennepin County Sheriff. She describes herself as a mother, a wife, a grandmother, and a granddaughter with 22- yearsexperience in law enforcement. A graduate of Minneapolis South High School. Witt earned degrees in chemical dependency and family therapy from St. Catherine, a B.S. degree in police science and dual Master’s degrees in public safety administration and management from St. Mary’s. In February of this year, she was one of
eight recipients of the national Black History Month in Law Enforcement Award from the Police Studies Institute at St. Elizabeth University in New Jersey. She discussed her vision and her point of view, in last week’s Monday edition of The Conversation with Al McFarlane, livestreamed locally and nationally at Insight News and Black Press USA Facebook and YouTube channels, and on Twitter and Linkedin.The Monday series of the 1pm daily webcast is entitled, Governance at the Neighborhood Level, and is a collaboration with Hawthorne Neighborhood Council and other neighborhood organizations. Witt said her grandmother owned and lived in a townhome in North Minneapolis for over 30 years. Her grandmother lived on the third floor of the townhome because it was too unsafe to
live on the ground level or second floor. “She had a bullet go through her walls,” Witt said, explaining how violence in the community has touched her family, personally. “She used to work for Hennepin Healthcare, formerly known as HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center) but took early retirement after being mugged while waiting on a bus in front of her home. She never drove a car.” Witt says she comes from a large family, deeply embedded in South and North Minneapolis. “Some have been on different sides of the law, but they are still family and manage to work things out,” she said. She said she never saw herself getting into law enforcement. “It was an accident that became my purpose.” “I am a person who knows what it feels like to be afraid and not trusting of law enforcement. That was my
childhood. Those were my lived experiences. Through a late 20-year-old’s lens, I saw law enforcement and restorative justice far differently than my predominantly white colleagues. I also knew what it took for me to release some of the barriers from past and present that were holding me back,” she said. “My passion is being the person I needed to see growing up as a child, who suffered trauma and abuses no child should ever experience,” she said. “I am a candidate for Hennepin County Sheriff because of those lived experiences,” she said. “It’s important that the leader makes sure to talk to residents and officers about the impact of their lived experiences, too,” she said. Witt, who began her career in corrections as a detention intake
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Allen Media Group buys Black News Channel By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia National News Briefs Updates from National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) – The Black Press of America Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group is buying the Black News Channel, with plans to revive the bankrupt cable news outlet and significantly grow its distribution footprint. Allen’s company is acquiring “substantially all” of BNC’s assets for $11 million, with a bankruptcy court in Tallahassee, Florida, formally signing off on the sale. BNC is available in about 45 million homes through companies like Comcast, Charter and DirecTV, and Allen says his company can grow that distribution to about 80 million homes in the next six months. It’s not immediately clear, however, what Allen has in store for BNC’s lineup or programming. BNC had just rebooted its primetime lineup last year with hopes of turning things around.
BNC’s previous owner, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, had invested over $100 million in BNC since its 2020 launch, before shutting it down in March. Allen says that his company “will deliver a bestin-class network to serve the underserved African American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience. “Also, we appreciate the opportunity to provide cable operators, satellite companies, telcos and digital platforms diversity of ownership, voices and viewpoints on their programming lineups by having a 100 percent AfricanAmerican-owned network,” he added. Allen, a comedian turned media mogul, has become one of Hollywood’s most aggressive players, opportunistically acquiring digital media brands, cable networks and local TV stations to grow his company. AMG owns The Weather Channel, 27 local TV stations in 21 markets, and digital brands like The Grio and Comedy.TV. And Allen has long expressed interest in the TV
New York Times Bestselling Author Resmaa Menakem is a healer, a longtime therapist, and a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in the healing of racialized trauma. He is also the founder of the Cultural Somatics Institute, a cultural trauma navigator, and a communal provocateur and coach. Resmaa is best known as the author of the New York Times bestseller My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, and as the originator and key advocate of Somatic Abolitionism, an embodied antiracist practice of living and culture building. For ten years, Resmaa co-hosted a radio show with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on KMOJ-FM in Minneapolis. He also hosted his own show, “Resmaa in the Morning,” on KMOJ, and made appearances on both The Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil. He has served as the director of counseling services for Tubman Family Alliance; the behavioral health director for African American Family Services in Minneapolis; a domestic violence counselor for Wilder Foundation; and, from 2011 to 2013, as a community
Resmaa Menakem care counselor for civilian contractors in Afghanistan. The author’s latest book is The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning. In the new handbook, Resmaa shares somatic practices that address the growing threat of white-supremacist political violence. His preparations focus on mental and emotional practices that can center the body, maintain safety and sanity, and help readers turn toward each other rather than on one another. Of the new volume, Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility) raved, “This is a book that will wake you up, excite, and terrify you. Resmaa Menakem is a visionary, and his work is absolutely essential for antiracist practice.”
photo/Dmitry Serebryakov
A policeman removes the handcuffs from WNBA star and twotime Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner in a courtroom prior to a hearing in the Khimki district court, just outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 15, 2022. Griner was arrested in February at the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She has been jailed since then, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Griner lawyer: WNBA star had doctor’s note for cannabis use By Jim Heintz Associated Press
allenmediabroadcasting
Byron Allen news space. White Daily Newspaper launches anti-racism challenge The Louisville Courier-Journal, the newspaper in the town where Breonna Taylor was slain by area police in a botched raid, launched a four-week anti-racism challenge on July 1 as a call to action in the ongoing fight against bigotry and xenophobia. The publication claims it is “committed to learning from
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the Black community, speaking out against racism and ending white silence.” To do so, per their report, “we partnered with the Earth and Spirit Center and longtime justice warrior Reverend Joe Phelps to cofacilitate anti-racism courses.” As part of its monthlong Anti-Racism Challenge, The Courier-Journal has been publishing a list of 10 to 12 anti-racism activities each week since July 1. They encourage participants to complete at
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KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — A lawyer for WNBA star Brittney Griner at her drug possession trial in Russia on Friday gave the court a U.S. doctor’s letter recommending she use medical cannabis to treat pain. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and standout for the Phoenix Mercury, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February after customs officials said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of transporting drugs. In court last week, Griner pleaded guilty and acknowledged possessing the canisters but said she had no criminal intent and said they were in her luggage because she packed hastily in her return to Russia to play for the UMMC
Ekaterinburg basketball team during the WNBA’s offseason. In Russia’s judicial system, admitting guilt doesn’t automatically end a trial. Since that plea, her court sessions have focused on in-person and written testimony to her good character and athletic prowess. “The attending physician gave Brittney recommendations for the use of medical cannabis,” said her lawyer, Maria Blagovolina. “The permission was issued on behalf of the Arizona Department of Health.” The defense on Friday also submitted tests she underwent as part of an anti-doping check, which didn’t detect any prohibited substances in her system. The next hearing of Griner’s case was scheduled for July 26. U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said they
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U.S. House passes Bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages Hobb servation Point
By Chuck Hobbs Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), while protecting both same-sex and interracial marriages if it passes in the Senate. That’s a big “if” based upon the current 50/50 split among Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, which is occasionally 52-48 when considering that West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Synema (D), vote with Republicans more than most Democrats would care
Witt From 3 officer, has always been a teacher. She claims that as her purpose. She is an adjunct professor teaching Juvenile Justice and American Corrections at Inver Hills Community College. It’s about being a leader and able to be vulnerable in using lived experiences as real-life examples. The last three years have been challenging for everyone, but the murder of George Floyd and others and subsequent high-profile trials put the Twin Cities on the map, she said. She said strong and trusted leadership and dedicated partnerships and resources will be key components in a plan to curb teen violence and community crime. “Our agency was there during
Allen From 3 least three of the following every week: Watch a film made by Black artists, support a Black-owned business or a Black-led nonprofit by making a purchase or donation, or document personal experiences or observations of racism in a journal. Participants are not required to report their progress to anyone. The goal is to educate, raise awareness and create more allies and advocates for the Black community. For the first week of the
Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Culture and Education Editor Dr. Irma McClaurin, PhD. Associate Editors Afrodescendientes Jesús Chucho Garcia Mestre Yoji Senna DaBahia Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray
Distribution/Facilities Manager Charles Royston Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Intern Naomi Thomson Photography Uchechukwu Iroegbu
we held a resource fair for four days. But our challenges lie in the fact that we are a large facility and have had to limit the size of our classes. We never know how long individuals will be in custody, and with our classification system in place, there are certain people who cannot be mixed. And let’s not forget, we’re still not completely out of the pandemic.” Witt said. Witt champions re-casting and elevating the education and training of law enforcement professionals as well, so that those who want to pursue of law and public safety careers will understand the mission before they make a decision. Witt sees her job not only as restraint and detainment but as a community conduit educating individuals, both residents and officers, about the law, describing what proper behavior looks like, and underscoring the importance of having a department that is equitable, non-partisan, friendly, and carries out required duties in
a friendly and organized manner. Witt operates with the certainty that the wrong thing to do is nothing. She says people cannot thrive in communities where people are afraid and isolated. Reform is definitely needed so people can feel safe when stopped or apprehended by those charged to serve and protect. But then there are some that just need to be incarcerated until they can fight themselves in mind and soul for a better way to live; she says, and there are some in law enforcement who should decide on a different profession. Witt says people can learn from their mistakes and our young people need to see that grown-ups have been through some of the same mistakes they have. As a result, they need to also see that there is a way out. She says she knows what it feels like to think like her life had no meaning or honestly not know what a good life looks like. “We’re asking what’s wrong with our kids,” she said, “and I will tell you
there’s a population of kids that we’re forgetting about. Those are the kids too afraid to say ‘no’ to their peers and they end up getting caught up in all these violent activities. They don’t understand accountability and end up in danger or incarcerated. We need to act now to start caring for our babies and our senior citizens. How about bringing meaningful activities back to the Boys and Girls Clubs or the YMCA! How about knowing who your neighbors are and asking them if they have needs. We are all in this together, and we can accomplish great feats with a common goal of quality living for all citizens,” Witt said. For further information: Witt for Hennepin County Sheriff, PO Box 15225, Minneapolis, MN 55415, Tel: 612-567-6514 or email: contact@wittforsheriff. com
during the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The list also urges participants to write about the history and demographics of their own neighborhood, plus learn about and act on the 1955 arrest warrant never served on Carolyn Bryant Donham that charges her for her participation in the murder of Emmett Till. For the following week, July 1521, the publication recommends the films “Citizen Ashe” and “Greenbook,” and calls for donations to Black Market KY, a Black-owned grocery and community garden in West Louisville that was vandalized last month. Additionally, the list asks that locals support the Louisville Story Program and the Muhammad Ali Center.
South Side in 1955 to visit relatives in Mississippi, where the Black teenager was abducted and brutally slain for reportedly whistling at a white woman. A cultural preservation organization announced Tuesday that the house will receive a share of $3 million in grants being distributed to 33 sites and organizations nationwide that are important pieces of African American history. Some of the grant money from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund will go to rehabilitate buildings, such as a bank in Mississippi founded by businessman Charles Banks, who won praise from Booker T. Washington; the first Black masonic lodge in North Carolina; and a school in rural Florida for the children of Black farm workers and laborers. The money will also help restore the Virginia home where tennis coach Dr. Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson helped turn Black
athletes such as Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson into champions, rehabilitate the Blue Bird Inn in Detroit that is considered the birthplace of bebop jazz, and protect and preserve African American cemeteries in Pennsylvania and a tiny island off the coast of South Carolina. Brent Leggs, executive director of the organization that is in its fifth year of awarding the grants, said the effort is intended to fill “some gaps in the nation’s understanding of the civil rights movement.” Till’s brutal slaying helped galvanize the civil rights movement. The Chicago home where Mamie Till Mobley and her son lived will receive funding for a project director to oversee restoration efforts, including renovating the second floor to what it looked like when the Tills lived there. “This house is a sacred treasure from our perspective and our goal is to restore it and reinvent it as an international heritage
pilgrimage destination,” said Naomi Davis, executive director of Blacks in Green, a local nonprofit group that bought the house in 2020. She said the plan is to time the 2025 opening with that of the Obama Presidential Library a few miles away. Leggs said it is is particularly important to do something that shines a light on Mamie Till Mobley. After her 14-year-old son’s lynching, Till Mobley insisted that his body be displayed in an open casket as it looked when it was pulled from a river, to show the world what racism looked like. It was a display that influenced thousands of mourners who filed by the casket and the millions more who saw the photographs in Jet Magazine — one of whom was Rosa Parks whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man about three months later remains one of the pivotal acts of defiance in American history.
“wrongly detained” by Russia, including former Marine Paul Whelan who is serving 16 years on an espionage conviction. Washington may have little leverage with Moscow, though, because of strong animosity over its
military operation in Ukraine. “In the hearings yesterday and today what became very clear is the tremendous amount of respect and admiration both in the United States and here in Russia where Miss Griner has been playing basketball for seven years, not only for her professional achievements but for her character and integrity,” U.S. Embassy charge d’affaires Elizabeth Rood said outside the courthouse in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, where the airport is located. The director and team captain of UMMC Ektaerinburg testified on her behalf on Thursday. Russian media have speculated that Griner could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization. Russia has agitated for Bout’s release for years. But the wide discrepancy in the seriousness of their cases could make such a trade unpalatable to Washington. Others have suggested that Griner could be traded along with Whelan, who
is serving 16 years in Russia on an espionage conviction that the U.S. has described as a setup. The State Department’s designation of Griner as wrongfully detained moves her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator. The classification has irritated Russia. Asked about the possibility of Griner being swapped for a Russian jailed in the U.S., Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the senior Russian diplomat, has noted that until her trial is over “there are no formal or procedural reasons to talk about any further steps.” Ryabkov warned that U.S. criticism, including the description of Griner as wrongfully detained and dismissive comments about the Russian judicial system, “makes it difficult to engage in detailed discussion of any possible exchanges.” Griner’s detention has been authorized through Dec. 20, suggesting the trial could last months. Griner’s lawyers, however, said they expect it to conclude around the beginning of August.
challenge, from July 1 through July 7, participants were encouraged to watch the “Get On Up” biopic, starring the late actor Chadwick Boseman as James Brown. The ARC list also recommended reading the 2014 National Association of Independent Schools article “What White Children Need to Know About Race,” as well as visiting and donating to Roots 101 African-American Museum in Louisville, where a virtual exhibit of Breonna Taylor is on display. From July 8-14, its second week, people were asked to watch the speech that Nikole HannahJones, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of “The 1619 Project,” made before the United Nations General Assembly
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County, the largest jail in the state, are here on felonies. Interchangeably between the first and the third, our top three reasons for holding people are weapons, murders, and domestic violence with criminal sexual misconduct not far behind,” she said “We’re not the ones to decide when someone leaves our jail and goes through the court system. But I have never believed in ‘dead time’,” she said, “so we do what we can with the time we have with them. We have their attention, so we should be identifying resources and programming. giving people positive and constructive things to think about, skills to master, and useful knowledge to learn. Some are in custody because of child abuse, so why not teach parenting classes? Some barely made it through junior high school. Where are the educational and skill-oriented programs? The county is now offering some programming. I am proud to say that recently
the riots and demonstrations, and I was there talking to the people who I understood were angry and in pain. I talked to inmates inside the facility a lot, having known some in high school and in the neighborhood. I was comfortable talking to them and listening, and they felt the connection. I didn’t stay behind the barriers. I led by example. But my methods of healing and reaching that soul spot did fare well with some of my white counterparts. They thought I was too comfortable. But I’ve learned over the years that ‘trust’ and ‘respect’ are big, important words for those who have been harmed mentally and/or physically by those charged to protect and serve. There was no question in the majority of citizens’ minds that most of the uniformed officers were concerned about their community, but we also had a job to do amidst all the chaos,” she said. “83% of the people in our custody in Hennepin
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and the LGBTQ community was deep in the proverbial closet to avoid ostracism? Such is why I push back with all of the rhetorical muster that I can because if conservatives can remove a constitutional right to an abortion today, then the constitutional right to samesex marriage could be gone tomorrow and other precedents, like the Brown case and school desegregation, and yes, Uncle Clarence Thomas, the Loving case and interracial marriages, could be rendered nullities by the Supreme Court really soon… Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Florida became the 36th state to allow same-sex unions, I stood in awe at the Duval County Courthouse as many same-sex couples emerged from having the unions that they felt in their hearts fully recognized by law. I remember asking myself, “who are we as heterosexuals, with our high divorce rates and whatnot, to tell same-sex couples that they should no have the same legal
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rights to wed, share insurance and pension benefits, devise wealth, and all of the trappings of heterosexual marriages?” But I also realized, then and even now, that my views on same-sex marriage are not universally shared even among Democrats, particularly Black Bible thumpin’ Democrats who cannot divorce their own interpretations of
God’s will regarding marriage, from the secular Constitution and various codes that comprise our system of laws. Now, I admit that I was rather surprised today to read that 47 Republican members of the House voted “yes” on the Respect for Marriage Act, especially when considering that social conservatives have worked for four decades to wed church and state into a modern American Christian fundamentalist theocracy. Maybe it was Justice Clarence Thomas’s frightening concurrence in the Dobbs decision, the one that overturned abortion rights per Roe vs. Wade last month, that has awakened some Republicans, Independents, and even some center-right Democrats to realize that these conservatives mean to roll back the clock to an era that they long for—one in which women were subservient to their husbands, Blacks were second class citizens with few recognized rights,
to remember. Plus, even if the Senate Democratic caucus holds the party line, it is difficult to tell whether 10 Republicans would join with Democrats to ensure the bill’s final passage into law. Stay tuned… I was a first year law student back in 1996 when DOMA, a bill that recongized marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife,” was passed. The measure was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton due to his own push to the right after Republicans, led by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga), began working to fulfill their “’Contract with America” ideals that frowned upon many progressive platform planks, like same-sex marriage. In the 25 years since DOMA became law, the social winds have largely changed across the country, in part, due to wider acceptance of LGBTQ communities in pop culture and even among some church denominations. By 2015, when
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Emmett Till’s Chicago residence get Cultural Heritage Fund grant Emmett Till left his mother’s house on Chicago’s
Griner From 3 are doing all they could to win her release, as well as that of other Americans the U.S. considers
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AfroColombianos AfroColombians Entre la violencia y el desplazamiento Por Jesús Chucho Garcia (Especial desde Bogota) Mas de un million de muertos y desaparecidos El Gobierno de Gustavo Petro y la vicepresidenta afrodescendientes Francia Marquez tienen un gran reto: frenar el desplazamiento de sus territorios de las y los afrodescendientes colombianos, reactualizar las leyes para la proteccion juridica de las y los afrodescendientes, suplantar los cultivos de coca por cultivos de productos alimenticios en los territorios afro, profundizar las políticas contra la violencia de la mujer afrocolombiana y profundizar en los derechos politicos, económicos, salud, culturales y educativos. La Guerra interna en Colombia, la cual ha perdurado por mas de medio siglo (19582022), y aun continua, ha dejado casi un millón de muertos. En el año 2016 se realiza un acuerdo de Paz en la Habana Cuba entre los grupos armados colombianos y el gobierno para ese momento presidido por José Manuel Santo (2010-2018). Sin embargo este mismo año, 2022, se calculan mas de diez mil asesinados, incluyendo niños y niñas, según las estadísticas de las organización sociales como el Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja y los organismo del Estado, coincidiendo todos en la llamada Comisión de la Verdad, integrado por afrodescendientes, indígenas, campesinos e instituciones del Estado, Iglesia y Organizaciones No Gubernamentales que presentaron la semana pasada (28 de junio) un informe contundente con testimonios de víctimas y familiares, entregado al recién electo presidente Gustavo Petro. Esta Comisión de la Verdad trabajó sistemáticamente recogiendo testimonios de los afectados, así como los familiares de las victimas tanto en Colombia como en el exilio. Por otro lado la violencia desde mediados del siglo pasado hasta nuestros días produjo un desplazamiento masivo de los pueblos indígenas y afrodescendientes con la intención de despojarlos de sus tierras e implantar cultivos ilícitos de Coca, para transformarla en Cocaína para el consumo masivo a nivel mundial. Colombia hasta ahora es el mayor productor de Cocaina en el planeta tierra. Desplazamiento interno de Afrocolombianos, pueblos negros, palenqueros y raizales.
Baj estos autoconceptos: Afrocolombianos, Pueblos negros, Palanqueros y Raizales es que se auto denominan los y las afrodescendientes en Colombia. La población afrodescendiente en Colombia esta ubicada en territorios estratégicos de las costas del océano Pacifico y del Océano Atlantico, así como en zonas como Antioquia, y Raizales, Isla de San Andres y centros urbanos como Buena ventura y Cali, la ciudad con mas alta población afrodescendiente en Colombia. Los y las afrodescendientes constituyen casi el 20% de los desplazados en Colombia. Los territorios ocupados por las y los afrodescendientes en el pacifico poseen tierras de alta calidad, aguas en abundancia y recursos agrícolas y etnobotanicos, sin embargo ha sido unas las regiones colombianas que durante mas de medio siglo de conflicto armado han tenido que desplazarse hacia centros urbanos por efecto de la violencia armada lo mismo paso con la zona del Atlantico debido a su ubicacion estratégica petrolera y su cara al mar Caribe. Hace mas de una década tuve la oportunidad de recopilar información sobre la violencia de la guerrilla y los paramilitares en algunas de estas comunidades que sufrieron masacres, violaciones a mujeres y reclutamiento forzados para la confrontación armada de jovenes, niños y niñas afrodescendientes. A ello se le suman las masacres, fosas comunes (muchas de ellas implementadas por el expresidente Alvaro Uribe Velez), entre otros actos horribles. Las y los afrodescendientes colombianos han tenido que migrar a ciudades como Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, Barranquilla,Buenaventura (principal puertos del país y mayor lugar de asesinatos y luego picaderos de seres humanos). Las y los afrodesplazados colombianos tanto en sus territorios como en las zonas urbanos están ubicados en la linea de la pobreza absoluta, que en estos momentos con la inflacion, la devaluación del peso colombiano, están en pobreza absoluta. El racismo, la discriminacion y la injusticia racial que sufre la población afrodescendiente en Colombia pese a las leyes como la Ley 70 de comunidades Negras, pese haber firmado el Decenio de los pueblos afrodescendientes e implementar muchas leyes, aun sigue vigente.
Between violence and displacement
By Jesús Chucho Garcia (Special from Bogota) Translated to English by Al McFarlane More than one million dead and disappeared The government of Gustavo Petro and Afrodescendant Vice President Francia Marquez will have a great challenge: stop the displacement of Colombian Afro-descendants from their territories, update laws for the legal protection of Afrodescendants, replace coca crops with food crops in AfroColombian regions, deepen policies to curb violence against Afro-Colombian women and deepen political, economic, health, cultural and educational rights. The internal war in Colombia, which has lasted for more than half a century (19582022), and is still ongoing, has left almost a million dead. In 2016, a peace agreement was made in Havana, Cuba, between the Colombian armed groups and the government, chaired by José Manuel Santos (20102018). However, since 2020, more than ten thousand murders are estimated, including children, according to statistics from social organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and state agencies, all agreeing with the so-called Commission of Truth, made up of Afro-descendants, indigenous people, peasants and institutions of state, church and non-governmental organizations, that presented last month (June 28) a forceful report with testimonies from victims and relatives, delivered to the newly elected president Gustavo Petro. This Truth Commission worked systematically collecting testimonies from those affected, as well as the relatives of the victims both in Colombia and in exile. On the other hand, the violence from the middle of the last century to the present day produced a massive displacement of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples to dispossess them of their lands and plant illicit Coca crops to transform them into cocaine for mass consumption worldwide. Colombia, so far, is the largest producer of cocaine on planet earth.
Internal displacement of Afro-Colombians, Black people, Palenqueros, and Raizales Afro-descendants in Colombia call themselves AfroColombians, Black people, Palanqueros, and Raizales. The Afro-descendant population in Colombia is located in strategic territories on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, as well as in areas such as Antioquia, Raizales, San Andres Island, and urban centers such as Buenaventura and Cali, the city with the highest population. Afro-descendant in Colombia. Afro-descendants make up almost 20% of the displaced in Colombia. The territories occupied by Afro-descendants in the Pacific have high-quality land, abundant water, and agricultural and ethnobotanical resources. However, it has been one of the Colombian regions that, during more than a halfcentury of armed conflict, has had to move to urban centers. Due to the effect of armed violence, the same thing happened with the Atlantic zone due to its strategic oil location and its face to the Caribbean Sea. More than a decade ago, I had the opportunity to collect information on the violence of the guerrillas and the paramilitaries in some of these communities that suffered massacres, rapes of women, and the forced recruitment of young people, boys and girls of African descent for the armed conflicts. Added to this are the massacres, and mass graves (many of them implemented by former President Alvaro Uribe Velez), among other horrible acts. Colombian Afrodescendants have had to migrate to cities such as Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Buenaventura, the main ports in the country and the most significant place of murders and, later, dumping sites for human beings. Displaced afro Colombians, both in their territories and urban areas, live in poverty, which at this moment, with inflation, and the devaluation of the Colombian peso, means absolute poverty. The racism, discrimination, and racial injustice suffered by the Afro-descendant population in Colombia, despite laws such as Law 70 of Black Communities, despite having signed the Decade for Afro-descendant Peoples is still in force.
AfroColombianos ENTRE VIOLÊNCIA E DESLOCAMENTO Por Jesús Chucho Garcia (Especial de Bogotá) Translated to Portuguese by Mestre Senna DaBahia MAIS DE UM MILHÃO DE MORTOS E DESAPARECIDOS O governo de Gustavo Petro e da vicepresidente afrodescendente Francia Marquez têm um grande desafio: impedir o deslocamento de afrodescendentes colombianos de seus territórios, atualizar as leis de proteção legal dos afrodescendentes, substituir plantações de coca por plantações de alimentos nos territórios afro-colombianos, aprofundar as políticas contra a violência que sofrem as mulheres afro-colombianas e aprofundar os direitos políticos, econômicos, sanitários, culturais e educacionais. A guerra interna na Colômbia, que já dura mais de meio século (1958-2022), e ainda continua, deixou quase um milhão de mortos. Em 2016, foi firmado um acordo de paz em Havana, Cuba, entre os grupos armados colombianos e o governo então presidido por José Manuel Santo (20102018). No entanto, neste mesmo ano, 2022, estimam-se mais de dez mil assassinatos, incluindo crianças, segundo estatísticas de organizações sociais como o Comitê Internacional da Cruz Vermelha e órgãos do Estado, todos concordando na chamada Comissão da Verdade, composto por afrodescendentes, indígenas, camponeses e instituições do Estado, Igreja e Organizações Não Governamentais que apresentaram na semana passada (28 de junho) um contundente relatório com depoimentos de vítimas e familiares, entregue ao recémeleito presidente Gustavo Petro. Esta Comissão da Verdade trabalhou sistematicamente coletando depoimentos dos atingidos, bem como dos familiares das vítimas tanto na Colômbia como no exílio. Por outro lado, a violência de meados do século passado até os dias atuais produziu um deslocamento em massa de povos indígenas e afrodescendentes com a intenção de desapropriar suas terras e plantar coca ilícita, para transformá-la em cocaína para consumo de massa em todo o mundo. A Colômbia é até agora o maior produtor de cocaína do planeta Terra.
DESLOCAMENTO INTERNO DE AFROCOLOMBIANOS, NEGROS, PALENQUEROS E RAIZALES. Sob esses autoconceitos: Afrocolombianos, Povos Negros, Palanqueros e Raizales é como os afrodescendentes se autodenominam na Colômbia. A população afrodescendente na Colômbia está localizada em territórios estratégicos nas costas do Oceano Pacífico e do Oceano Atlântico, bem como em áreas como Antioquia e Raizales, Ilha de San Andrés e centros urbanos como Buenaventura e Cali, o cidade com maior população Afrodescendente na Colômbia. Os afrodescendentes representam quase 20% dos deslocados na Colômbia. Os territórios ocupados por afrodescendentes no Pacífico possuem terras de alta qualidade, água abundante e recursos agrícolas e etnobotânicos, mas foi uma das regiões colombianas que, durante mais de meio século de conflito armado, tiveram que mudar para os centros urbanos Devido ao efeito da violência armada, o mesmo aconteceu com a zona atlântica devido à sua localização estratégica petrolifica e por estar frente ao mar do Caribe. Há mais de uma década tive a oportunidade de coletar informações sobre a violência da guerrilha e dos paramilitares em algumas dessas comunidades que sofreram massacres, estupros de mulheres e o recrutamento forçado para o confronto armado,de jovens, meninos e meninas de Descendência africana. Somam-se a isso os massacres, valas comuns (muitas delas implementadas pelo ex-presidente Álvaro Uribe Velez), entre outros atos horríveis. Os afrodescendentes colombianos tiveram que migrar para cidades como Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, Cartagena, Barranquilla e Buenaventura (os principais portos do país e o maior local de assassinatos e, posteriormente, lugares de desova para seres humanos). Os colombianos afro deslocados tanto dos seus territórios, assim como em áreas urbanas, estão localizados na linha da pobreza absoluta, que no momento atual, com a inflação, a desvalorização do peso colombiano, estão em pobreza absoluta. O racismo, discriminação e injustiça racial sofridos pela população afrodescendente na Colômbia, apesar de leis como a Lei 70 das Comunidades Negras, que apesar de ter assinado a Década dos Povos Afrodescendentes e implementado muitas leis, ainda está em vigor.
Page 6 • July 25, 2022 - July 31, 2022 • Insight News
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Manage heart health for stronger brain health (Family Features) The same risk factors that contribute to making heart disease the leading
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from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is increasing even more than the rate of heart disease death, according to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2022 Update. Globally, more than 54 million people had Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in 2020, a 37% increase since 2010 and 144% increase over the past 30 years (1990-2020). Additionally, more than 1.89 million deaths were attributed to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias worldwide in 2020, compared to nearly 9 million deaths from heart disease. “The global rate of brain disease is quickly outpacing heart disease,” said Mitchell S.V. Elkind, M.D. M.S., FAHA, the past president of the American Heart Association (2020-21), a professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and attending neurologist at New York-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “We are learning more about how some types of dementia are related to aging, and how some types
are due to poor vascular health. It’s becoming more evident that reducing vascular disease risk factors can make a real difference in helping people live longer, healthier lives, free of heart disease and brain disease.” According to the statistics update, people with midlife hypertension were five times more likely to experience impairment on global cognition and about twice as likely to experience reduced executive function, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The risk for dementia associated with heart failure was nearly two-fold. Experts recommend maintaining a healthy weight, managing your blood pressure and following other hearthealthy lifestyle behaviors that can also support good brain health while studies show maintaining good vascular health is associated with healthy aging and retained cognitive function. Optimal brain health includes the ability to perform tasks like movement, perception, learning and memory, communication, problem solving, judgment, decision making and emotion. Cognitive decline and dementia are often seen following stroke
or cerebrovascular disease and indicate a decline in brain health. Consider these steps to live a healthier lifestyle and protect your heart and brain health: Don’t smoke; avoid secondhand smoke. Reach and maintain a healthy weight. Be mindful of your eating habits; eat foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and added sugars. Be physically active. Start slowly and build up to at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity (such as brisk walking) each week. As an alternative, you can do 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of the two, to improve overall cardiovascular health. Get your blood pressure checked regularly and work with your health care team to manage it if it’s high. Have regular medical checkups and take your medicine as directed. Decrease your stress level and seek emotional support when needed. Learn more about the relationship between heart health and brain health at heart. org.
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Insight News • July 25, 2022 - July 31, 2022 • Page 7
Poems and Prayers for Graduates by Joe Davis certain age call a Renaissance Man: artist, speaker, educator, facilitator, holding a Master’s degree in Theology of the Arts. Davis heads a multimedia production company, a soul funk band, and a racial justice
Sharing Our Stories
By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor We Rise Higher By Joe Davis There is something about poetry, the spoken word, that speaks to both the poet and the reader/hearer in its cadence, its rhythms, its energy. Indeed, there is nothing like a poet sharing his/her/their work at a Spoken Word event, with fingers snapping. When I wrote poetry, it was usually about something immediate that hit me in the moment. Anyone, anything, any mood, can be the subject of a poem. For Joe Davis, his poetry collection We Rise Higher was written with graduates in mind. In remembrance of his own days in high school, Davis reaches back to exhort, encourage, and empower today’s graduates. His gratitude to God and the community that nurtured him to make it through school is evident from the beginning, starting with the first line of the first poem in his collection: “You are enough.” Davis’ poems come
Joe Davis
under four sections—Praise and
Affirmation, Joy and Celebration, Heavy Emotions, and Growth and New Beginnings. What makes them transformative is the added touch after each poem in the form of an invitation. The invitation is always relevant to the poem, inviting readers to examine themselves through certain exercises and activities, be they mental, physical, or spiritual. From there, one considers the next phase of life. Having had the opportunity to hear this gifted poet share his work, I was moved by his energy and passion. In following his passion, his gifts have truly made room for him. He is what those of us of a
Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson Chantal Johnson’s debut novel, Post-Traumatic, confronts the emotional toll of sexual assault, a real-life survivor narrative, with the prickly residue of mental demons. Her main character, Vivian is a lawyer who advocates for those deemed deranged at a New York City psychiatric facility. This confidant, smart attorney, a hip 30-something, believes the state is the enemy of the people, convinced that profit and power are designed to keep patients off-balanced and helpless.
Also, she believes the doctors and nurses want to keep the ill inside the institution and her job is to get them out, to provide expertise for them to avoid the iron grip of the hospital. Usually, the tough issue of rape is a staple of crime fiction or memoir, but this is the rare work of fiction that tackles sexual violence in the African American community, beyond the gritty streets of the ghetto. Black women are often the forgotten survivors of rape.
education program. We Rise available through Barnes and Noble, House Publishing. For your our graduates and
Higher is Amazon, and Spark support of community
through your amazing blend of poetry, music, theater, and dance, I tip my hat to you, Renaissance Man Joe Davis. When we change the narrative, we change the perception.
Page 8 • July 25, 2022 - July 31, 2022 • Insight News
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