National Signing Day is like a holiday for college football fans. All the incredible football players that college football have their wildest dreams happen when impact players decide to come to the school their root for. When it comes to Tennessee, there have not been many players to root for. In fact, the program has not given its fans much to root for the last five years honestly. Well, this offseason they finally addressed one place the fans and teams around them have been waiting for.
The Vols offensive line woes have been well-documented. Quarterback Jared Guarantano has been running for his life at times and the running game was one of the worst in the SEC. The offensive line has gotten no push at all and seemed to not have that mean streak good offensive lines are supposed to have. Well, this offseason they were able to get some blue-chip talents there, especially at the offensive tackle position. Wanya Morris was ranked the 6th in at his position and plenty of teams were after him. In the end, Tennessee was able to get him to come to Rocky Top and with that, they got one a physical offensive tackle they needed tremendously.
And along with Morris, the Vols were also able to get another blue-chip offensive tackle in Darnell Wright, who was the second-ranked offensive tackle in this year’s class. With Wright and Morris leading the way, the Vols have upgraded their offensive line talent and should be better in that area this season.
Along with improving up front offensively, the Vols were also lacking playmakers in their front seven. Last season, Coach Jeremy Pruitt had to make magic happen in order to get some stops out of their defense. In this class, however, Pruitt was able to bring in a linebacker that should be a playmaker from the start of his career. Henry To’oto’o was a highly coveted linebacker from the state of California. The four-star linebacker was wanted by many teams for his abilities to make plays at that position. And even though he was out on the West Coast, the Vols were able to reign him in. He immediately becomes a guy the Vols will look to next season to make plays for them in the front seven along with a guy that could be a staple of the program. If he is all that he is billed to be, then he will help upgrade that defense with his mere presence out on the field.
The Vols did a good job this offseason addressing needs and their class was ranked 12th this year, a nine-spot improvement from their 2018 class. If Pruitt can continue to pull players like To’oto’o, Morris and Wright, then the trajectory of the Vols can continue to trend upward. Surely all Vols fans are hoping this is only the beginning of things to come.
Last month, Mayor Briley signed into law Nashville’s first ever Equal Business Opportunity Program. The city’s program is set to increase the number of government contracts for women and minority-owned businesses. When Mayor Briley signed the legislation into law he was surrounded by three council members who co-sponsored the bill. Councilmember-at-Large Sharon Hurt was one of the co-sponsors. With the law officially in place, Hurt foresees this as an opportunity for the city to be more inclusive.
“I think its an opportunity for the city of Nashville to improve the playing ground and for minority and women-owned businesses to partake in some of the wealth that we see all over this city in recent years, said Hurt.” “I am excited that this has been provided to our community.”
“I was involved from the very beginning. In making sure that the city of Nashville recognizes the talents, skills and the commitment from small and minority businesses that are in the city of Nashville,” said Hurt. “It has been one of my major focuses since joining the council, so I think that I’ve been an advocate and a proponent of this legislation from the very day.”
The results of a 2017 Metro commissioned disparity study, were released last year. This study was conducted by Griffin and Strong, PC. The study exposed the lack of opportunities and obstacle that women and minority-owned businesses face to receive Metro contracts. The study sparked Hurt to act quickly in helping to make sure the playing field was leveled for women and minority-owned businesses moving forward.
“In terms of my role in the disparity study, part of my responsibility was to advocate for equity and inclusion and make sure that voices from my community were heard,” Hurt Said. “I am vice chair of the Minority Caucus which doesn’t automatically put you in all of those meetings, but for me, it’s a role I take seriously and I wanted to make sure my input was there. That’s also why I am a co-sponsor of the legislation.”
Now that the Equal Business Opportunity Program has been signed into law, minority and women business owners will not have to fear whether or not the city will start to slack on the support. Hurt wants to make sure that all women and minority business owners are aware of the city of Nashville will be held accountable.
“We are working on the process to make sure there is enforcement activity, and we will be looking,” said Hurt.” We are going to be watchdogs behind this legislation. We don’t want something that just looks good and sounds good. We need for it to feel good! That means tangible improvements in the way Nashville does business.”
Being Black at the Sundance Film Festival: In 2006, this would have been deemed a huge oxymoron. Back then, there were very few films directed by people of color and even fewer resources that represented diversity.
Fast forward to 2019, we are at a very different time. Sundance’s slate included a fair share of films that were directed or starred persons from communities of color.
And one of the biggest glass ceilings broke this year: Chinonye Chukwu made history as the first African-American woman to win the festival’s grand jury prize for her film “Clemency,” starring Alfre Woodard, Danielle Brooks, Wendell Pierce.
When I found out that Chukwu won Sundance’s top award, it confirmed the feeling that permeated the atmosphere: Sundance was going to be to a breakout year for us—yes, I am talking about Black people.
My suspicions were confirmed true. At this year’s festival, Black feature films were standout. From “Native Son,” based on a book by Richard Wright, about a young African American named Bigger Thomas and how working for a highly influential Chicago family changed his life to “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” a film that highlights the downfall of gentrification in his city, there was a variety of black film flavor to appeal to everyone’s taste.
Overall, there were a record-breaking twenty plus films that were official selections directed by black filmmakers or had a prominent role with a black star.
But let’s be honest, films are great, but to get black people to trek through the cold and snow, there might need to be a little more to do.
This is where The Blackhouse Foundation shines. The Blackhouse Foundationwas created in 2006 by a group of dedicated individuals interested in Black cinema and made their debut at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
What the Black House Foundation does is help bring diverse resources for black filmmakers to majority festivals such as Sundance.
Blackhouse 2019 was hosted at Sundance from Jan 25–28and was absolutely awesome. It featured four packed days of informative panels, brunches, film discussions, and parties.
The most exciting thing about Blackhouse is that all of these activities were free with RSVP, and that is because of the generous sponsorship from OWN, BET, UMC, and many others.
The panels that ranged from “The Power of Storytelling to Create Change” for directors, writers, and producers, to conversations with celebrities about their upcoming projects such as OWN’s “David Makes Man,” who hosted a panel featuring A-list actors Michael B. Jordan and Phylicia Rashad.
And the parties were off the chain! They were celebrity-filled, had great music, and were fun! Blackhouse knows how to bring it. And the networking connections made were priceless.
There was also the MACRO Lounge, which was an installation hosted by MACRO (Fences, Mudbound) CEO and Vanderbilt alumnus Charles King and his wife Stacy, hosted panels with industry influencers like Mara Brock Akil who spoke about being a Muslim in Hollywood and Jada Pinkett Smith who talked about her show Red Table Talk.
Even though the lounge was invite-only, if you can get in there, it is the hottest place to be if you are Black and at Sundance. It boasted a beautiful setup, a beautiful location, and hosted the best parties!
And as an independent, black female filmmaker, this year exceeded my expectations. I mean, I got an opportunity to meet Ava DuVernay. I also met Mara Brock Akil. I met with and enjoyed a great conversation with Charles King.
If that was all Sundance had to offer to me this year, that would have been enough in my world. But I also connected with many producers, distributors, network executives, and mingled with some amazing celebrities that I have adored over the years.
This year, by far, has been the best year yet. So, being Black at Sundance proved to be a great thing. I cannot wait until Sundance 2020!
Ralph Northam, the Democratic Governor of Virginia is facing intensifying pressure to step down after controversy erupted when the conservative media website, Big League Politics, published a racist photo from his page in Eastern Virginia Medical School’s 1984 yearbook. Northam has since stated that he is not depicted in the photo though he admitted wearing blackface during a separate instance that year.
Northam, 59, has served as the Governor of Virginia since January 13, 2018. Prior to that, he served as the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia for four years.
During a 40-minute news conference, Northam apologized en suite with “damage control” handbook as there seemed to be a reluctance to take responsibility for racist actions/behaviors. Rather, there was a downplaying:
“I only posed for pictures in blackface that one time”
It was a long time ago
How many times does he have to say “I’m sorry”
There’s not a racist bone in his body
It wasn’t that big of a deal, and everybody was doing it
Nobody’s perfect
It wasn’t me
Chicago Tribune columnist, Eric Zorn, is “inclined to chalk up Northam’s decision to obliviousness rather than racism, particularly in light of his public record on race in the intervening 35 years, which even most of his African-American critics concede has been exemplary.”
In stark contrast, Derrick Johnson, President, and CEO of the NAACP tweeted, “Blackface in any manner is always racist and never okay. No matter the party affiliation, we can not stand for such behavior, which is why the @NAACP is calling for the resignation of Virginia Governor.” Johnson’s sentiment is also shared by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, and other fellow Democrats including Virginia’s two Democratic U.S. senators and its senior member of Congress.
Does dressing up in blackface (35 years ago) disqualify you from a leadership position, today? Is there a statute of limitations for racist behavior? Should Gov. Ralph Northam have to be held accountable for his racist actions? What should accountability look like? Is there absolution?
What do you think, should Ralph Northam resign?
In closing, Whatever your opinion is, this provides further evidence that there is still an ongoing need for cultural-awareness initiatives, across the board.
P.S. #dearAmerica It absolutely NEVER okay, acceptable, funny, justifiable, etc., to wear blackface – not even on Halloween and definitely not during Black History Month – #PERIOD #dontbelikeralph
(CNN) — JCPenney is trying to reinvent itself again. It’s getting rid of appliances and most furniture to return its focus to clothing sales.
The company hasn’t turned a profit since 2010, and it forecast several more years of losses. New CEO Jill Soltau pledged “quick action” to put JCPenney on the path to profitability.
Going back to basics makes sense: Appliances were a pet project of former CEO Marvin Ellison, who had previously run Home Depot and left last year to take the helm at Lowe’s. Appliances are a low-margin business that requires high sales volume to make up for thin profits. But appliances were not a good fit for a company that never had an identity as a home equipment company.
JCPenney said it would stop selling major appliances on February 28 “to better meet customer expectations, improve financial performance and drive profitable growth.” It will continue to sell furniture online and in Puerto Rico stores — but not anywhere else.
The company also announced Wednesday it will redesign its stores. It said it will reduce its massive inventory, which has held JCPenney back from offering new fashion trends — and saddled the company with debt.
“Optimizing the allocation of store space will enable us to prioritize and focus on the company’s legacy strengths in apparel and soft home furnishings, which represent higher margin opportunities,” the company said in a statement.
Ellison brought JCPenney into the appliances business, because he believed the company could take advantage of Sears’ collapse. But customers shrugged: Washers, dryers, dishwashers, and fridges are not major traffic drivers because shoppers only buy them once in a while, and they’re expensive to make. Ellison abruptly left the company in May.
JCPenney’s stock fell 2% Wednesday. It has recovered this year after falling below $1 for the first time in the company’s 90-year existence in December.
The company is $4 billion in debt with a junk credit rating and a sinking cash hoard. Soltau said the company is considering closing some of JCPenney’s remaining 860 stores to cut costs.
Interracial couples, a guide dog, and a woman in a wheelchair are among the latest crop of emojis slated to be released this year.
The Unicode Consortium, the non-profit organization that manages the world’s emoji standards, announced the list of 59 new images this week, as well as 171 variants for gender and skin tone.
Inclusive characters dominated this year’s batch and users will soon be able to use characters that reflect couples’ different races and genders under the “people holding hands” emoji.
Dozens of other new accessibility themed icons — such as prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, and people moving a finger between their ear and their mouth in a nod to the deaf sign in American Sign Language — have also been added.
Another image has sparked an online debate about the uses of the “pinching hand symbol” — with many observers believing it will be used to reference a very small particular male body part.
Other icons include a waffle, a playful otter, a flamingo, a Hindu temple and a yawning face.
But these offerings won’t be on your keyboards until later this year. “The new emoji typically start showing up on mobile phones in September/October — some platforms may release them earlier,” the California-based Unicode Consortium announced on Wednesday.
Each company that uses emojis, such as Apple and Google, puts its own spin on the tiny cartoons and picks which options from the master list to include.
The interpretations can lead to controversies, such as Google’s misplacement of foam somehow hovering above a half-full glass of beer, and the jumbling of ingredients (with cheese on the bottom) on its hamburger emoji. Both have since been corrected.
On Friday morning of the past week, I started my daily routine: up at 5 a.m., drinking a cup of coffee, watching the morning news and reading The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper.
Carlton Lewis
To my disgust and dismay—but not to my surprise—there appeared a column written by James Smallwood, president of the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police, with the lead line that police aren’t criminals for doing their jobs.
Smallwood took issue with the prosecution of Officer Andrew Delke in the shooting death of Daniel Hambrick in July 2018, particularly criticizing District Attorney Glenn Funk’s decision to prosecute as possibly resulting in more police officers being hurt or killed in the line of duty.
My disgust and dismay were related to the decision of Smallwood to discredit an institution of government because he disagrees with a decision made by that institution, but my lack of surprise was based on the fact that the current president of the US has spent every day of his administration discrediting nearly every institution of government, including the US Constitution itself.
I vividly recalled candidate Trump at a political rally telling law enforcement officers to “rough up” suspects as they are being taken into custody.
According to Smallwood, Funk’s decision to prosecute Delke was politically motivated; but by not stating specifically what that motivation is, curious readers were left to imagine exactly what is motivating Smallwood.
Shortly after the police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, a community meeting was convened in Nashville, and members of the community and Metro Police leadership discussed the Brown shooting and the fact that such incidents had not occurred in Nashville.
Following that community meeting, Metro police continued to meet with members of the community and were supportive of several peaceful protests that occurred in the wake of the shooting.
After the 2014 shooting of Brown, which resulted in the prosecution and acquittal of the police officer, Freddie Gray—a black man—died while handcuffed in a police van in Baltimore. Six officers were charged in Gray’s death; three of whom were acquitted and charges against the other three were dropped.
Sandra Bland—a black woman—died in a Prairie View, Texas jail after being arrested for failing to give a turn signal and not putting her cigarette out upon the officer’s command. The arresting officer was charged with perjury, which was later dropped.
In Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Philando Castile—another black man—was shot to death by a police officer while riding in a car with his young daughter and girlfriend, while complying with the officer’s commands.
Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy, was shot and killed by Cleveland, Ohio police responding to a local park where an anonymous person called in a complaint about a black man was seen with a gun. Again, no conviction for this death.
Like Smallwood, I can list many, many cases of back citizens who have met their death at the hands of police.
I also believe in the institutions of government, including the US Supreme Court.
While I do not agree with every decision handed down by the court, as a lawyer and magistrate/judge, I know that disregard for, and discrediting, the Supreme Court is the first step on the journey to tyranny and anarchy.
One decision of the Supreme Court that established the law of the land is the 1985 opinion in the case of Garner vs. United States, which holds that under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, the officer may not use deadly force to prevent escape unless “the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”
It was found that the use of deadly force to prevent escape was an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment, in the absence of probable cause that the fleeing suspect posed a physical danger.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals was instructive on the issue of police pursuing fleeing individuals in the 2005 case of State of Tennessee v. James D. Nicholson.
The Court of Appeals, citing U.S. Supreme Court decisions, stated, while not wishing to encourage flight from officers, especially in areas of high crime, we realize from a practical standpoint that flight does not always amount to reasonable suspicion. In fact, innocent reasons for flight abound in high crime areas, including fear of retribution for speaking to officers, unwillingness to appear as witnesses, and fear of being wrongfully apprehended as a guilty party.
According to Smallwood’s column, while pursuing Daniel Hambrick and ordering him to stop, the real danger occurred. Hambrick “allegedly” looked over his shoulder, employing what self-defense experts call a “targeting glance.”
That is when Officer Delke did as he was trained: he fired his weapon to stop the deadly threat, shooting Daniel Hambrick twice in the back and once in the back of his head.
Where was this training, one must ask, in June 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina? It was in June, days after Dylann Roof entered Charleston’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where he shot and killed the pastor and eight worshippers following Bible study, that police arrested Roof—known to be armed, dangerous, and had already slain nine people in church—and the police generously took their suspect to Burger King and bought him breakfast.
Let me conclude by saying that I am not anti-police.
My first born proudly serves this country in the US Army Reserve as a military police officer and serves his community as a commissioned police officer in southwest Tennessee.
My prayer for my son and all law enforcement officers is that they always be kept safe from harm. My prayer for my city is that we have an honest, open conversation about police training and actions in our community before another life is lost.
Carlton Lewis serves as a Juvenile Court Magistrate in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee.
There’s a renewed effort to remove the bust of a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard from the state Capitol.
A group, mostly students, recently rallied at the Capitol, calling for removal of the Nathan Bedford Forrest bust, which has been on display at the Capitol since 1978. Calls for its removal have been renewed in recent years amid a national debate about Confederate monuments and flags.
In 2017, Tennessee made worldwide news when the city of Memphis engineered a way to remove a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest from a local park, along with a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
Forrest, who was a slave trader before the Civil War, led troops in the Fort Pillow massacre in West Tennessee. There, the Confederate army killed hundreds of surrendered Union soldiers, most of whom were black, in what became known as one of the most infamous events of the Civil War.
Forrest was also the first leader of the KKK.
On Jan. 31, the group in Nashville delivered a signed letter to newly elected Gov. Bill Lee asking him to remove the bust of Forrest from the Capitol and place it in the Tennessee State Museum.
A bust of former Ku Klu Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest in the Tennessee State Capitol building in downtown Nashville is at the center of controversy. A group of mostly students has called for the bust to be removed. (Lee Johnson / Nashville Voice)
Former Gov. Bill Haslam tried unsuccessfully to remove the bust two years ago. To remove monuments like the bust of Forrest take several steps of approval required by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act. Haslam’s efforts failed at the first step.
Even though Haslam did try to remove the bust, it does not seem like the new governor will. As a candidate, he said he opposed the removal, explaining that he believes it would be “a mistake to whitewash history.”
Jeneisha Harris was among those who gathered at the Capitol to call for the bust’s removal. She said a better place for it is the Tennessee State Museum, even though there, she said it will still likely conjure a horrific history of slaves being tortured and murdered.
“We think it should be put in a museum; we don’t think it should be erased,” said Harris, a senior at Tennessee State University. “But … it is a slap in the face to be reminded of such pain that the people before me had to endure.”
The following day, the group gathered at the War Memorial Plaza across from the Capitol and kicked off the first day of Black History Month by remembering those who risked their lives during slavery seeking freedom, and those who pushed for equality during the civil rights movement.
The group held hands and prayed around an empty casket, then carried it several blocks to a downtown church where they had a service of remembrance. The processional with the casket was reminiscent of the marches during the Civil Rights movement and drew the attention of onlookers.
“The casket represents all those that came before and that might not have had proper burial,” said Eric Holness, one of the organizers. “Those that were forgotten, buried in nameless tombs; those whose names the ages and history may have forgotten. And so, we symbolically remember them in these moments.”
Harris said the group’s actions have been nonviolent and will continue to be.
In the fiery aftermath of a grand jury’s decision to indict officer Andrew Delke for fatally shooting Daniel Hambrick three times in the back as he fled from police, the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police has continued in its adamant defense of the officer’s inexcusable actions.
In an anger-fueled op-ed published in The Tennessean (incidentally on the first day of Black History Month), FOP president James Smallwood embarked on a bitter attempt at firing back against District Attorney Glenn Funk’s critical analysis of Delke’s defense.
Smallwood boldly proclaimed, “Funk’s decision to charge Delke with a crime for doing precisely what he and every other police officer in Tennessee are trained to do is an attack on law enforcement itself.”
Smallwood extended Delke’s defense attorney David Raybin’s assertion that his client acted in compliance with his training when he executed Hambrick, even though Tennessee state law upholds that it is unconstitutional to use deadly force against a fleeing suspect who does not pose a threat to others.
We say that Hambrick’s decision to retreat, and run from Delke without firing a single shot hardly measured up to Smallwood’s characterization on Hambrick as a “deadly threat.”
Although both Raybin and Smallwood have clarified their interpretations of Metro Police Officer training and protocol, the people of Nashville continue in their wait for an official representative of the Metro Nashville Police Department to clarify whether or not shooting a man three times in the back as he runs away is in compliance with the training of Nashville officers.
If our officers are in fact trained to ignore the Supreme Court’s 1985 declaration that such a use of force is unconstitutional, then Nashvillians are justifiably in need of a new police force.
The FOP president also argued that the “targeted glance” Hambrick allegedly gave the officer justified his death.
In Smallwood’s own words, Hambrick “looked over his shoulder,” which prompted Delke to begin firing shots.
Did Hambrick’s brief over-the-shoulder glance make him a “deadly threat?” If so, then does looking at an officer the ‘wrong way’ give that officer license to justifiably shoot and kill any Nashville citizen?
In his commentary, Smallwood routinely expressed disregard for the inherent value of human life outside of a blue uniform.
Time and time again, he blindly overlooked the countless, unarmed victims of police brutality in exchange for the opportunity to gush over the value and importance of men and women in blue, and expound on his fear of “more police officers being hurt and killed in the line of duty.”
According to Smallwood, punishing an officer who is supposedly following their training can lead to a “disaster.”
In response, we ask Mr. Smallwood to also acknowledge the many disastrous encounters between law enforcement and unarmed civilians that plague the nation:
Wasn’t it also a disaster when 12-year old, unarmed Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a white police officer who feared for his life?
Wasn’t it a disaster when unarmed father of five Eric Garner was strangled to death on a street corner by a police officer?
Wasn’t it a disaster when a four-year-old child was forced to comfort her mother as Philando Castile bled to death in his car after being shot through the window by a scared police officer?
Smallwood’s habit of placing more value on the life of a man in uniform is extremely problematic. Such logic has placed the safety of the general public in jeopardy.
Hambrick’s life—although he did have a criminal history, as Smallwood was sure to point out—was just as valuable, and mattered just as much as officer Delke’s, regardless of his decision to “look over his shoulder.”
If the FOP and the Metro Nashville Police Department cannot recognize this fundamental truth, then the people must act to rectify this breach of the social contract that initially granted the police department its authority.
Cory Booker and Kamala Harris kicked off their 2020 campaigns like no other black presidential candidates ever have, including the only one who has won. Perhaps that’s a privilege only they have — afforded only after eight years of the first black US president.
There is a hilarious Key and Peele skit that sums up how President Barack Obama sometimes navigated his blackness.
Going through a receiving line of blacks and whites, he greets the whites with a stiff, “How are you? Nice to see you.” With the blacks, he is all hugs and hand pounds, his blaccent on fleek.
The point — Obama’s blackness was situational, reserved for black people who keenly understood that code-switching and both-siderism on matters of racism were the only path for the first black president.
As they vie to become the second black president, Booker and Harris are making a different calculation.
Booker strolls through Newark, backed by a drum line. He announced on the first day of Black History Month. His tag line — we rise up — borrows from one of Maya Angelou’s most famous poems.
Obama announced in Springfield and nodded to Lincoln and the less radical version of King. He praised Ronald Reagan. He had to give a race speech to distance himself from a black pastor who preached.
Obama ran as a racial healer, without acknowledging racial pain. In his first two years in office, he mentioned race less in speeches than any other Democratic president since 1961, according to political scientist Daniel Q. Gillion.
In front of black audiences, he became the scold, pointing to what he saw as pathologies in black behavior, urging black boys to pull up their pants, as if this would mean they would be treated better. He would studiously say, he wasn’t the president of black America, he was the president of all America.
But guess what? None of this prevented the birther lies or the racial animosity he and his family faced. The outrage that came when rappers (oh no — not rappers!!!) were invited to the White House or when he wanted to offer a back to school message to kids.
For some, his skin color automatically made him illegitimate and no amount of skirting race and blackness could counter that.
So Harris and Booker aren’t even trying it. They are saying the word racism, acknowledging that it is ever present and must be confronted.
Neither seem worried about being the “scary black man” or the “angry black woman,” stereotypes that the Obamas dealt and dispensed with.
This is progress. And couldn’t have happened without the Obamas. (Similarly, Hillary Clinton’s run has allowed Kristen Gillibrand to run with gender as a theme and for women lawmakers to say plainly — it’s time for a woman to be president).
Still, with Booker and Harris, there is a lingering and uncomfortable question that many black Americans will have amongst themselves.
Could Booker, if he looked like Kasim Reed, have been able to navigate the white political power structure as successfully? Same for Harris, if she looked like Stacy Abrams?
There is certainly more space for symbolic displays of black culture in a political context that so often pathologizes black culture. This is a good thing.
But there is a seeming demand that black people seeking power and entering into the homes of white America must look a certain way. Getting past that color line will take far more work.
