SAN DIEGO MONITOR NEWS SDMNEWS The Life-Style & Business Journal
J U LY 2 3 r d 2 0 2 1
JAZZ HAMPTON, JD
ANDRE CREIGHTON, MBA
MYCHAL FRELIX, MBA
Preferred Cremation & Burial
G e t S o c i a l W i t h U s ! www.preferredcremation.org
MARQUIS TIPTON #marquistheman
THE
PROMO man
He’s Talkin
Who puts the “Pro” in promotion? Whosoever is willing to learn, apply and make magic; that be Marquis Tipton. Good luck trying to catch up with the marketing maven, you’ll work hard to get an appointment with him, but not as hard as he will promoting your brand. In San Diego its tough finding this kind of dedication. Your brand in his hands, quickly becomes operation come up!
“I see my impact and influence already in the communities of San Diego that need it the most.”
SDMNWS: At what age did the desire & importance of creative & economic ownership take hold within you? TM: I remember it like it was yesterday, it was March 13th, 2015, I just turned 23 (aka my Jordan Year) 2 months prior, so in March one of the most impactful and influential interviews of ALL TIME happened. The Dame Dash Breakfast Club interviewed dropped, 5.8 million views and still counting, I had already been studying Dame but for some reason this interview hit different. For multiple reasons but I think the main reason being because even though Dame had accomplished so much you could one see his love and passion for his people and two the chip on his shoulder as if he still had something to prove …not to The Breakfast Club but to Himself. SDMNEWS: What moment during your youth, do you believe truly led you down the path that your now on? MT: I think many moments & people led me to this exact path I’m on, but one of the moments that sticks out to me the most is when I was a young me, my uncle (my Dad’s little brother), and my cousin use to make up Choreographed dances to NSYNC & The Backstreet Boyz, on our own no lessons, and performed them for my parents and auntie all the time. I still look back at that moment as me being a young creative not even knowing it yet. SDMNEWS. In your opinion, with your skillsets & talents why do you believe you've taken root here within San Diego, to pursue financial success? MT: I’ve taken root here for a few reasons, one because I understand that I’m talented enough to where no matter where I’m at I will find my place and success wherever I go, two I know that people from all around the world in all industries migrate here at some point to do business. So I understand the value we have here, even though I’m born and raised here I don’t take it for granted like most San Dieagan’s do, and I want to give back to community most people will never see when they travel here.
SDMNEWS: Impact Investing, is the new wave within the world of entrepreneurship. How can you see yourself impacting particular communities with your future wealth you & your business partners are accruing today? MT: I see my impact and influence already in the communities of San Diego that need it the most. I have been someone who has been involved in multiple marches for black rights here in San Diego, one of them we had the SDPD block 5th Ave for us to walk down and protest which is the busiest street in downtown San Diego. Working with non-profits that serve the underrepresented student population and creating tech platforms for them to use in the classrooms all across San Diego County to LA County, is rewarding, from handling College students that are formerly incarcerated and helping them make an easy transition into college. This is before I obtain the wealth me and my partners an accruing today, just imagine what ill be able to do when the funding is there to make real change.
SDMNEWS: How can Afropreneurs such as ourselves, with strong interests in personal investing do so in a manner today that won't have ourselves breaking the bank?
MT: Two ways to best invest as a young Afroprenuers is to go on Google & YouTube and study as much as you can for free, time is really your best invest, also when you study the game before you play it helps you maneuver better within the industry, you want to be in and can give you motivation and inspiration. Two if you do have some money invest, invest it into YOURSELF, most people are trying to make a quick buck, but if you invest into yourself and start your own business in the long run you will be better off. SDMNEWS: Several companies within the NYSE, found their initial seed capital through the enslavement & indentured servitude of ethnic people within this country. Knowing this now, do you have any disdain to invest within the stock market within the future? MT: I have already stopped investing in stocks as much as I was because of that reason exactly. That is why in the last question I made sure to make it a point to invest in YOURSELF whether that’s time or money rather than invest in companies who really do not give two Sh*** about you.
BEYOND BLACK
Black Excellence
TM
THE PODCAST POWERED BY SDMNEWS LISTEN ON sandiegomonitornews.com
August 7th 10:AM
T H E N E W C R I T I C A L TA L K
~ Cheryl Morrow
Why an ACT of Assembly/Congress? Is this ACT a matter of protection under the law or is it a call to single out certain hair do’s which is a matter of choice of certain Black American women? Either way, dragging black culture into the statutory process of picking and choosing certain grooming choices is again, a loosing battle. For the life of me, I am lost and more than that, I am extremely agitated by the process of tight-roped cultural subjects getting into the hands of politicians and professors. Blackness with all of its quintessential dynamics can cannot be watered down into a tribal funnel and or segmented hierarchy when is comes to sharing space, like learning institutions. The fact that after the greatest suffrage of any human beings in the history of humanity, Black Americans having to select a certain style segment, that alleviates the need to conform while having a freedom from harassment in the work place is so bazaar, I can’t even imagine giving serious
thought. This is a classic case of having novice (Y2K natural hair providers) leading a movement with the least amount of intelligence to approach any serious dialog. The C.R.O.W.N. ACT is in my opinion the biggest joke of legislation in the history of this country. It is illogical for a human being to place in the hands of any governing body to controls their imagine, essence, cultural expressions as it cities try to enforce not their constitutional first amendment right, but act. Curly hair is not a choice! To codify it under policy is the argument here. However, Black people did the codifying under a huge ignorance, more importantly the ones that made this poor framework and argument should have never been given the task to do so in the first place. CROWN ACT Unplugged addresses this subject as to reject that state and federal powers the right to act outside its constitutions, allowing suffrage to prevail. Back handedly furnish a political environment to which by politicizing keratin that grows out of the genetic parental origin and say to them, “were going to manage your essence
and choices, while its up to you to enforce it though, no matter how much it interfere with you wellbeing. Its is incredibly clear to me, until Black people express in layman and law terms how by being in close proximity of white political structures, white beneficiaries, white corporate companies, learning institutions, workplaces, and or plantations and ALL close living spaces are harmful to the black people’s well-being. Until this is clear…ACTS of congress is idiocy.
Black EUROPE The styles brought to Europe was African Styling. In this photo, a European African woman, wearing a soft coif with a centralized braid, coiled in a loop, with hair parted in the middle to place her class status. Cont.
BRAID UP DO PROTECTIVE styling is nothing new. The so-called protective styling of the y2k natural hair care movement imitates European braid styles of the Victorian age, that in turn had been worn by the high ranking African women.
Natural Untwisted Updo The conversation that is needed in the space of constitutional first amendment expression, concerning the C.R.O.W.N ACT in conjunction with our cultural hair expression choices are very historically aligned with European hairstyle. Once governments, white power system and classist societies embrace the fact that hair of black people, like their complexion tones should never be subjected to privatized codes that unconstitutionally violates their expression and their overall well-being. Cont. Pg. 13
Conclusion: On the global stage of trends and trendsetters, it is clear to see these so-called natural hair styles or Protective Styling, don’t needs laws. The art of these styles that have been worn throughout the ages of time; and have been donned more in more broader sense than we think. So why would there be a different set of rules? These hairstyles have always been around, accepted and have been quite multi-culturally INTERGRATED into society.
“Its that drink when you are in the mood for just enough.” Cheryl Morrow/ Publisher
SAN DIEGO MONITOR NEWS SDMNEWS The Life-Style & Business Journal J U LY 9 TH 2 0 2 1
What happened to Hervis?
Texas man was arrested on charges that he voted in the 2020 Democratic primary while on parole. More than a year later, Rogers was arrested on charges that he voted in last year’s Democratic primary while on parole. Under Texas law, it is illegal for a felon to “knowingly” vote while still serving a sentence, including parole. Hervis Rogers was so intent on casting a ballot in last year’s presidential primary that he waited six hours to vote, catching the attention of a CNN news crew when he became the last person to do so at his Houston polling place. Rogers, now 62, debated leaving, he told CNN’s Ed Lavandera as he exited a polling center at Texas Southern University after midnight on March 4. “But I said to myself, ‘Nah. Don’t do that.’ It was set up for me to walk away, but I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ ” More than a year later, Rogers was arrested on charges that he voted in last year’s Democratic primary while on parole. Under Texas law, it is illegal for a felon to “knowingly” vote while still serving a sentence, including parole. Doing so is a second-degree felony, punishable with a minimum of two years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. In at least 20 states, Rogers’s alleged vote would not be a crime. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ordered the arrest, defended the charges on social media Friday night, tweeting, “Hervis is a felon rightly barred from voting under TX law . . . I prosecute voter fraud everywhere we find it!” But Rogers’s lawyers and civil rights advocates argue that Rogers was not aware that he was ineligible to vote, meaning he should not be charged with “knowingly” committing fraud. His willingness to stand in line for six hours and submit to a cable-news interview proves it, they said. “He’s really devastated,” said Andre Segura, the legal director for the ACLU of Texas and one of Rogers’s lawyers. “He does not want to go back to jail.” Critics also questioned the timing of Rogers’s arrest last Wednesday, a day before the Texas Legislature convened for a special session to consider new voting restrictions that Democrats blocked in May. The legislation — one of the most far-reaching election proposals in the country — would, among other things, enact new criminal penalties for mistakes such as errors on mail ballots. “What [Republicans] are doing is trying to signal to their primary voters that they are as far to the right wing of their party as they could possibly be,” said Chris Hollins, a former elections clerk in Harris county, home of Houston.
“And they’re doing this not because they care about people but because they care about themselves and their own political aspirations.” In Austin on Saturday, several Democratic lawmakers accused Republicans, including Paxton, of intentionally targeting minorities. “You know, this guy thought he could vote,” said state Sen. Borris Miles of Houston, who held up a printed photo of Rogers in a Senate committee hearing on the legislation. “He was under the belief in his mind that he really could. Served his time, got a nice job, nice family, now, thought he could vote, just thought he was doing his civic duty.” Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican sponsor of the Senate bill, denied that the measure would restrict voting. “We’re always refining and trying to improve the process,” he said. “Unfortunately, this one has become bitterly partisan.” Enacting voter restrictions in the name of improving election security has become a nationwide rallying cry for Republicans, who have pushed measures to limit voting in dozens of state legislatures. There is no evidence that widespread fraud tainted the 2020 election. Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment, but he has regularly championed his tough stance on voting fraud. Paxton is under investigation himself. Last month, the State Bar of Texas announced it would examine whether Paxton’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania amounted to “professional misconduct.” At issue is a lawsuit Paxton filed seeking to invalidate those states’ electoral college votes — which delivered President Biden his victory. The Supreme Court dismissed the case within hours of its filing in December. Paxton was unrepentant about the investigation, tweeting last month: “I will NEVER stop fighting to protect your votes.” The attorney general is also under state investigation, accused of felony securities fraud for allegedly persuading investors to buy technology stocks without disclosing his own financial interest. He has called the charges politically motivated. Some critics of Rogers’s arrest said Paxton intentionally targeted a Black voter to create a chilling effect for other Texans of color, who make up a disproportionate share of felons and might choose not to vote rather than risk arrest if they are unsure of their eligibility.
THE TURNSIGNL APPLICATION Minnesota-based TurnSignl is an on-demand, real-time app and service that facilitates and records law enforcement interactions with drivers during traffic stops and accidents. In the event that they are pulled over, a driver can access a live legal representative at the touch of a button or voice command. TurnSignl vetted attorneys meet stringent criteria and are trained in de-escalating police-citizen encounters. The service costs $9.99/month and this fee is all subscribers pay for on-demand use. Drivers may opt to hire the law firm directly for post-stop representation. We are initially launching in Minnesota and plan to expand to various cities throughout the United States in 2021 and 2022. It’s fitting that the birthplace of the TurnSignl brand is also the city where George Floyd was killed by a police officer. Now, there is hope. Now, more people will return home safe at the end of the day.
Late last year, Mychal Frelix, Andre Creighton and Jazz Hampton — co-founders of TurnSignl — left their corporate jobs to develop an idea around an app that protects both drivers and police officers during routine traffic stops by recording interactions that are guided by a lawyer on-call in real time. The app was developed in conjunction with both local Minnesota police chiefs and attorneys to help advise on the best way for this technology to exist. The premise of the app is to ultimately make these interactions less intense by giving all parties involved a level of safety and comfortability that puts everyone at ease. “After George Floyd, the nation had a different level of reckoning that we all saw and we were at the epicenter of it,” co-founder Hampton tells AfroTech. “As we came together with cofounders and some of our other advisors here in the Twin Cities [in Minnesota], we thought that putting an attorney in the car to help would be the best way to get people home safe while protecting their rights and that’s what we did.”
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BLAXCRYPTO ADVICE FOR THE month Isaiah Jackson, Author Bitcoin & Black America
Money, power, and racism in the US, author Isaiah Jackson looks in-depth at how digital divide and the development of digital currencies can provide a practical solution for the Black community to have leverage in a system and economy which has not existed for some time. Jackson discusses how historical Black-owned businesses (like Black Wall Street and Rosewood) cultivated prosperity within the Black community. African Americans could thrive as a middle class because they are uncontrolled by the dollar and used a currency that provided more value to our community. In this way, Jackson argues Bitcoin and other digital forms of currency can allow Black communities to flourish.
AFROFUTURE IS AGELESS
In 2020, the Corona Virus and the George Floyd Murder took center stage. Though Black History turned Fifty, We are officially renaming it Afrofuture Month
Happy 51st Birthday
February 28th, 1970 - 2021