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NEW YORK (AP) On the day after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a global pandemic, Joe Ferguson was given a batch of court-ordered evictions to carry out in his job as constable in Tucson, Arizona.

He knocked on doors in the majority Hispanic community of South Tucson, told residents to gather personal effects, clothing, medications and pets, and watched as some families became homeless.

Ferguson says he strongly opposed the evictions, with the Arizona court system still requiring him to toss people out of their homes even as the nation was going into a deeper state of lockdown and panic over the coronavirus.

To serve the best interests of the entire community, while were all facing a public health epidemic, we should allow people to stay in their homes, so that we dont stress our shelters, our hospitals and our first responders, Ferguson said.

Then on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a proposed $1.5 trillion package that he said includes immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending evictions and foreclosures for 60 days.

READ MORE:How cuts to food stamp program could increase poor outcomes for the food insecure

But, it turns out, the vast majority of renters will not be covered by the protections.

Thats because the Department of Housing and Urban Developments plan only covers single-family homes with loans through the Federal Housing Administration. That applies to roughly 8 million homeowners, most of whom are not under foreclosure, according to HUD.

That compares to the roughly 43 million households who rented in 2019, according to the U.S. Census. Roughly half rent their home from an individual investor, while the other half rent from a business or multi-unit property owner. The ones renting from a business will not receive any protections, according to HUDs proposal.

Renters tend to have lower incomes than their homeowner counterparts and cannot tap into the equity in their homes for a credit line it in case of an emergency. And a disproportionate number of renters are African American, Hispanic and other minorities.

While housing advocates praised the Trump administration package as an important first step, they said by excluding this economically vulnerable population, it does not go nearly far enough.

Susanna Blankley, coordinator of the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, said shes concerned for renters and others who wont be covered by Trumps moratorium.

It will help a lot of people but its a very limited subset, Blankley said. Its not nearly enough.

Andrea Shapiro with the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a New York-based housing advocacy organization, agreed. We need big-scale solutions, she said.

Housing advocates say the situation in the United States reveals a bigger crisis with affordable housing that goes beyond the current virus emergency. And they have grave fears about what happens next, when tenants and homeowners face back payments and are still broke from being jobless.

Officials in more than three dozen cities and states, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York state, have put in place their own policies to halt evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs out of concern that the economic fallout from massive job losses will push many people to the brink of homelessness, at a time when they need to stay in their houses and apartments.

The measures vary in scope, and have included a monthslong reprieve for renters and homeowners who can show that their inability to pay is related to the coronavirus upheaval.

But the majority of states and localities have yet to step in to stop people from losing their homes.

At this point, with so much uncertainty for so many people who have not thought of themselves at risk of homelessness, to have any type of relief is helpful, said Jeff Smythe, chief executive director of Hope Atlanta, a homelessness prevention organization in Georgia. The state had an eviction rate of 4.7% in 2016, more than double the U.S. average, according to data analysis by the Eviction Lab.

Behind all of this is the bigger crisis, Smythe said. Not having enough affordable housing, not having livable wages and the disparities around income are still with us.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an order on Tuesday meant to stop nonpayment evictions by the Atlanta metropolitan areas public housing authorities for 60 days. The moratorium is a key component of our collective community efforts to prevent further exposure and spread of this virus, Bottoms said in a statement.

And in Chicago on Thursday, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he was delaying enforcement of all eviction orders until April 30. During a televised address, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked property owners to show grace with tenants. No one needs the added stress of evictions, certainly not now, she said.

READ MORE: Low income explains poorer survival after a heart attack more than race, study finds

In Detroit, which has one of the nations largest African American majorities and has been particularly hard hit by foreclosures since the 2008 height of the mortgage crisis, homeowners will need relief beyond whats being offered in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, said Nicole Small, vice chair of the citys Charter Commission.

Foreclosures are stripping away the culture and fabric of the city of Detroit, Small said. Home ownership is something thats really important, especially to the black community, and now you have a lot of people who have owned homes for decades and theyre actually becoming renters because they dont have any other options.

The practices and the policies are so aggressive in order to displace people but the remedies and relief, they are so few and far between, Small said.

Housing advocates also said they were concerned with how at-risk individuals would prove that they qualify for the relief being offered by local governments.

Folks who are performers or play music, who pick up bartending shifts here and there, who do various kinds of gig work are not going to show loss of income because there isnt a steady stream to begin with, said Deepa Varma, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, a housing advocacy group.

We dont see how folks are going to catch up when theyre already barely making rent as it is, Varma said.

There are growing calls for a national rent holiday long enough to help those who have lost jobs regain or find a solid financial foundation.

People shouldnt have to ask, Do I use my last few dollars to get a bag of rice and beans, or do I hold onto that money to pay my rent?' said Shapiro, of the Metropolitan Council on Housing in New York. We shouldnt just bail out the airlines and the banks.

Thats why Black Lives Matter Houston co-founder Ashton Woods has launched a petition asking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to suspend rent, mortgage and utility payments.

For the most part, if youre black and brown, youre getting it a lot harder with the systemic racism and xenophobia, Woods said. Now, we have a pandemic where people are scared to go to the doctor, let alone miss work, because they still have to pay their rent.

Aaron Morrison and Kat Stafford are members of the APs Race and Ethnicity team. Morrison reported from New York and Stafford from Detroit. AP Business writer Ken Sweet in New York and AP writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

Read more from the original source:
As virus grips nation, advocates move to halt evictions - PBS NewsHour

Hotep (Peace)!!!

Take notes!!!!!!!

Brother Malcolm X (Omawele El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), the Black nationalist freedom fighter and human rights leader of the 1950s and 1960s, said that the oppression of Black people and people of color are due to a world-wide conspiracy of White supremacy. I have spent almost a year preparing to go back to college to finish my masters and PhD graduate studies in history. Because of Malcolm X's lucid critiques of the world's movement to dominate and subjugate Black people, and people of color, I want to compete my studies and research on the ideological creation of White supremacy in America and in the world. I will also centered my studies and research on Black people's reaction to White supremacy in America and in the world to fight against White hegemony. White supremacy is the idea that White people, and their culture, religion, language, philosophy, mores, norms,values, names, economic systems, and history, are inherently superior to all Black people and all people of color. The system of racism, a falsified concept of Whiteness, colorism, Europeanization of the Black mind, destabilization of Afrikan countries, the capitalist exploitation of Afrika and Black people, mass incarceration, the oppression of people of color, biological warfare, the neutralization of Black leaders, the disaccreditation of Black nationalism, and Black self- hatred have its foundations rooted in White supremacy. The philosophy of White supremacy was used to justify the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the holocaust of the enslavement of Black people (Maafa), the Arab Slave Trade, European colonialism in Afrika, US Cointelpro (the United States Counter intelligence program), racial violence toward Black people, police violence in the Black community, institutional racism, apartheid, the sexual exploitation of Black Women, the emasculation of Blackmen, the creation of the n-word, White cultural domination of Black people, and segregation.

Let me give you some example of Whites supremacist books and authors I have collected in my research.

One of the White intellectuals that contributed to the ideology of White supremacy is named Dr. George Botsford. He was a Oxford trained Professor at Columbia University. He wrote a book called-A History of the Ancient World. His book was published in 1914 by the McMillan Publishing Company. By the way, the McMillan Publishing Company is still in existence today. The McMillan Publishing Company has produced millions of books used in public schools across the United States of America for the decades.

Dr. Botsford writes, "From the point of view of color three groups may be distinguished. The FIRST is the Black or Negro race of Central and Southern Africa. THEY ARE THE LOWEST IN INTELLIGENCE, AND HAVE CONTRIBUTED PRACTICALLY NOTHING TO THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. THE SECOND IS THE YELLOW OR MONGOLIAN RACE OF ASIA. THEY INCLUDE THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE, WHO HAVE LONG BEEN CIVILIZED, AND THE NOMADS, OR WANDERING PEOPLE, OF CENTRAL ASIA. SOME EUROPEANS, AS THE TURKS, HUNGARIANS, AND FINNS, BELONG TO THE SAME RACE. THE AMERICAN INDIANS ARE GROUPED WITH THEM BY SOME SCHOLARS; BY OTHERS THEY ARE REGARDED AS A DISTINCT RACE. THE THIRD AND HISTORICALLY MOST IMPORTANT GROUP IS THE WHITE OR CAUCASIAN RACE. TO THE WHITE RACE ARE DUE PRACTICALLY ALL IMPROVEMENTS OF THE PAST SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS. THE WHITE RACE IS TERMED CAUCASIAN BECAUSE SCHOLARS ONCE BELIEVED THAT ITS HIGHEST PHYSICAL PERFECTION COULD BE FOUND AMONG THE MOUNTAINEERS OF CAUCAS. THEY COMPRISED OF THE EGYPTIANS AND LIBYANS. THEY WERE THE CREATORS OF THE FIRST CIVILIZATION."

However, on the same page of his book, he argues that Kemet (Egypt) was once the greatest and the most important civilization in the world. But he only sees Kemet primarily and totally as a White civilization. He does not accept the fact that Kemet was a Black autochthonous civilization in Afrika. Dr. Botsford writes, "so far as our knowledge goes the Egyptians were the first civilized people. They invented a system of writing as early as the fifth millennium (5000-4000 BC). We may say then, that the history of the world begins at this time."

Some of my research has brought me to some of the world's most famous leaders and thinkers of European descent. Unfortunately, they helped to create White supremacist ideology that will work to prevent the world from seeing Black people as human beings.

For instance, during his famous debates with incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas for the US Senator seat in Illinois. Candidate Abraham Lincoln, by 1860 he will become the sixteenth US President, explained to the crowd: "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be a position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

Legally, Black people had no protections of constitutional freedoms or rights in the courts of America. Roger B. Taney, a Chief Justice in the US Supreme Court ruled on the famous Dred Scott case of March 1857, saying "They [Black people] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the White race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics." Since Dred Scott was taken to two freed states (e.g. Wisconsin and Illinois), he sued for his freedom in the US Supreme Court. Unfortunately, he lost his case. The US Supreme Court ruled against him. Powerful White people on the benches of the US Supreme Court did see Black people as human beings. The case was dismissed and Dred Scott was returned to enslavement. Later in that same year, Scott's previous owners bought him and set him free.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, one of the founding fathers of America and US democracy, wrote that "all men are created equal," and yet enslaved more than six-hundred Black people over the course of his life. Although he made some legislative attempts against American slavery, and at times bemoaned its existence. He also profited greatly and directly from the institution of slavery. In fact, he helped to write the language of the US constitution that protected slavery until 1865. Reading his writings, Thomas Jefferson did not view Black people as equals. He wrote that Black people are inferior to white people in his book called-Notes on the State of Virginia. He writes, "Comparing them [Black people] by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid: and that in imagination they [Black people] are dull, tasteless, and anomalous."

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), German European philosopher and political theorist, wrote in his book called, Philosophy of History, "Africans have no conception of God or of a higher level of consciousness other than mere flesh."

Reverend Buchner H. Payne, an American theologian, said in the 1867, "God is light, and in him was no darkness at all.... And if God could not be the father of the Blacks, because he was White, how could our Savior, being the express image of God's person....carry such a demand of color into heaven, where all are White, much less to the throne." As quoted by John G. Jackson in his book called-Ages of Gold and Silver page 218.

Reverend Dr. Henri Junod, a Swiss Protestant missionary, wrote in 1931 that Black people, "are an inferior race, a race made to serve." As quoted by J.C. DeGraft-Johnson, in his book called-African Glory page 51-52.

Arnold Toynbee, Oxford trained historian, wrote in his book, A Study of History in 1947, "the Black races alone have not contributed positively to any civilization."

I must stop there folks. Unfortunately, there is more on the history of White supremacy. I plan to write and lecture extensively about this subject.

However, I must state as a side bar note, there are many White intellectuals and scientists that presented the real facts on Black people, Afrikan History, Afrikan culture, and Afrikan spirituality, European History, world history, and American History. White scholars such as Herodotus, Champollion, Basil Davidson, Count C.F. Volney, Charles Darwin, Dr. Louis S. B. Leaky, Dr. Donald Johanson, E. A. Wallis-Budge, Gerald Massey, and Leo Frobenius, to name a few. Unfortunately, their works are not presented in the main stream.

In conclusion, White supremacy did not come out of osmosis. White supremacist ideology was create by "credible" White intellectuals and leaders. White supremacy laid the foundation for today's system of racism, a falsified concept of Whiteness, colorism, the Europeanization of the Black mind, the destabilization of Afrikan countries, the neutralization of Afrikan centered Black leaders, the capitalist exploitation of Afrika and Black people, mass incarceration, the oppression of people of color, biological warfare the disaccreditation of Black nationalism, and Black self-hatred in entire countries, in human beings, in Universities, in Colleges, in Egyptologists, in anthropology, in public schools, in private schools, in theology, in philosophy, in history, in literature, in western religions, in politics, in the Democratic Party, in the Republican Party, in slavery, in US reconstruction, in segregation, in government, in medicine, in European colonialism, and in science. White supremacy has created social and economic disparities within the Black community, and within the world Afrikan community, for generations past and present. This is why in Afrikan History, Black people began to justifiable fight back through Afrikan centric scholarship, Afrikan centered organizations (i.e. the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Moorish Science Temples of America, the Nation of Islam, the Organization of Afrikan Unity, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the Us Organization, the Original Black Panther Party, the Republic of New Afrika, Congress of Afrikan People, the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, the New Black Panther Party, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, Black Lives Matter, etc) Pan-Afrikanism, Black nationalism, Civil Rights, and Black Power. White supremacy is why we as Black people are still locked into a struggle for freedom, justice, equality, reparations, and a Black agenda in America and in the world.

-Bashir Muhammad Akinyele is a History Teacher, Black Studies Teacher, Community Actvist, Chairperson of Weequahic High School's Black History Month Committee in Newark, NJ, commentary writer, and Co-Producer and Co-Host of the All Politics Are Local, the number #1 political Hip Hip radio show in America.

Note: Spelling Afrika with a k is not a typo. Using the k in Afrika is the Kiswahili way of writing Africa. Kiswahili is a Pan -Afrikan language. It is spoken in many countries in Afrika. Kiswahili is the language used in Kwanzaa. The holiday of Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January1.#Hotep#afrocentricity#nationofislam#kemet#blackthelogy#kwanzaa#blackstudies

See the original post:
The Creation of White Supremacist Ideology - Patch.com

NEW YORK On the day after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a global pandemic, Joe Ferguson was given a batch of court-ordered evictions to carry out in his job as constable in Tucson, Arizona.

He knocked on doors in the majority Hispanic community of South Tucson, told residents to gather personal effects, clothing, medications and pets, and watched as some families became homeless.

Ferguson says he strongly opposed the evictions, with the Arizona court system requiring him to toss people out of their homes even as the nation was going into a deeper state of lockdown and panic over the coronavirus.

To serve the best interests of the entire community, while were all facing a public health epidemic, we should allow people to stay in their homes, so that we dont stress our shelters, our hospitals and our first responders, Ferguson said.

Then last week, President Donald Trump announced a proposed $1.5 trillion package that he said includes immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending evictions and foreclosures for 60 days.

But, it turns out, the vast majority of renters will not be covered by the protections.

Thats because the Department of Housing and Urban Developments plan only covers single-family homes with loans through the Federal Housing Administration roughly 8 million homeowners, most of whom are not under foreclosure, according to HUD.

That compares to the roughly 43 million households who rented in 2019, according to the U.S. Census. Roughly half rent their home from an individual investor, while the other half rent from a business or multi-unit property owner. The ones renting from a business will not receive any protections, according to HUDs proposal.

While housing advocates praised the Trump administration package as an important first step, they said that by excluding renters, an often economically vulnerable population, it does not go nearly far enough.

Susanna Blankley, coordinator of the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, said shes concerned for renters and others who wont be covered by Trumps moratorium.

It will help a lot of people but ... its a very limited subset, Blankley said. Its not nearly enough.

We need big-scale solutions, said Andrea Shapiro with the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a New York-based advocacy organization.

The Morning Rundown

Get a head start on the morning's top stories.

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Renters tend to have lower incomes than their homeowner counterparts and cannot tap into the equity in their homes for a credit line it in case of an emergency. And a disproportionate number of renters are African American, Hispanic and other minorities.

Housing advocates say the situation in the United States reveals a bigger crisis with affordable housing that goes beyond the current virus emergency. And they have grave fears about what happens next, when tenants and homeowners face back payments and are still broke from being jobless.

Officials in more than three dozen cities and states, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York state, have put in place their own policies to halt evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs out of concern that the economic fallout from massive job losses will push many people to the brink of homelessness at a time when they need to stay in their houses and apartments.

The measures vary in scope, and have included a monthslong reprieve for renters and homeowners who can show that their inability to pay is related to the coronavirus upheaval.

But the majority of states and localities have yet to step in to stop people from losing their homes.

At this point, with so much uncertainty for so many people who have not thought of themselves at risk of homelessness, to have any type of relief is helpful, said Jeff Smythe, chief executive director of Hope Atlanta, a homelessness prevention organization in Georgia. The state had an eviction rate of 4.7% in 2016, more than double the U.S. average, according to data analysis by the Eviction Lab.

Behind all of this is the bigger crisis, Smythe said. Not having enough affordable housing, not having livable wages and the disparities around income are still with us.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an order last week meant to stop nonpayment evictions by the Atlanta metropolitan areas public housing authorities for 60 days. The moratorium is a key component of our collective community efforts to prevent further exposure and spread of this virus, Bottoms said in a statement.

In Chicago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he was delaying enforcement of all eviction orders until April 30. During a televised address, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked property owners to show grace with tenants. No one needs the added stress of evictions, certainly not now, she said.

And in Michigan on Friday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order halting eviction-related court proceedings until the states coronavirus emergency has passed. The order, which will remain in effect through April 17, allows tenants and mobile home owners to stay put even if they arent current on their rent.

In Detroit, which has one of the nations largest African American majorities and has been particularly hard hit by foreclosures since the 2008 height of the mortgage crisis, homeowners will need relief beyond whats being offered in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, said Nicole Small, vice chair of the citys Charter Commission.

Foreclosures are stripping away the culture and fabric of the city of Detroit, Small said. Home ownership is something thats really important, especially to the black community, and now you have a lot of people who have owned homes for decades and theyre actually becoming renters because they dont have any other options.

The practices and the policies are so aggressive in order to displace people but the remedies and relief, they are so few and far between, Small said.

Housing advocates also said they were concerned with how economically at-risk individuals would prove that they qualify for the relief being offered by local governments.

Folks who are performers or play music, who pick up bar-tending shifts here and there, who do various kinds of gig work are not going to show loss of income because there isnt a steady stream to begin with, said Deepa Varma, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, a housing advocacy group.

We dont see how folks are going to catch up when theyre already barely making rent as it is, Varma said.

There are growing calls for a national rent holiday long enough to help those who have lost jobs regain or find a solid financial foundation.

People shouldnt have to ask, Do I use my last few dollars to get a bag of rice and beans, or do I hold onto that money to pay my rent? said Shapiro, of the Metropolitan Council on Housing in New York. We shouldnt just bail out the airlines and the banks.

Thats why Black Lives Matter Houston co-founder Ashton Woods has launched a petition asking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to suspend rent, mortgage and utility payments. On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court halted state court eviction proceedings until after April 19, and paused evictions until after April 26.

For the most part, if youre black and brown, youre getting it a lot harder with the systemic racism and xenophobia, Woods said. Now, we have a pandemic where people are scared to go to the doctor, let alone miss work, because they still have to pay their rent.

Follow this link:
As virus grips nation, advocates move to halt evictions for people of color - NBCNews.com

Trailer: Get Out (2017), Written and Directed by Jordan Peele. | Video by Universal Pictures

GET OUT was a phenomenal piece of work, artist Kerry James Marshall said. Kenya Barris, the television writer and producer, is drawn to the neon work Double America 2 (2014) by Glenn Ligon. The simplicity of it is radical and confrontational, he said. For Mickalene Thomas, Jet magazine was a game changer: It shaped not only African-American people but also American culture through entertainment, through images, through music and fashion and storytelling.

Spanning visual art, film, television, literature, music, and the performing arts, a new feature published in the New York Times explores The African-American Art Shaping the 21st Century. The newspaper posits that black creatives have profoundly influenced the arts landscape in the 20 years since the turn of the new century. Projects from Jordan Peele, Ava DuVernay, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Kara Walker, for example, have redefined genres and shifted American culture.

Its the first time since the 1970s that black art, history and political life have come together in such a broad, profound and diverse way, Wesley Morris wrote in a brief introduction to the project. Back then, the Black Arts Movement was active. Today, elements of Black Lives Matter are reflected in Beyoncs performances. Kendrick Lamar raises issues surrounding mass incarceration in his work. Moonlight brought beautiful cinematography to the big screen and, at the same time, confronted challenging issues surrounding black male sexuality.

Its the first time since the 1970s that black art, history and political life have come together in such a broad, profound and diverse way.

The Times invited 35 leading African American creators from a variety of disciplines to talk about the artist or share the work that has inspired them the most over the past 20 years. Photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier said Flint water activists. Ava DuVernay named Los Angeles Poet Laureate Robin Coste Lewis. Margo Jefferson said experimental black literature. For choreographer Kyle Abraham it was DAngelos Black Messiah album. Lena Waithe went with the TV show Atlanta. Kerry Washington said Beyoncs Lemonade album. John Legend named Ta-Nehisi Coates. Broadway star Audra McDonald selected Lizzo. Harry Belafonte chose the song Glory, a collaboration between Legend and Common. Many pointed to visual artists and a few of them also weighed in:

GLENN LIGON, Double America, 2012 (Neon and paint, 36 x 120 inches). | National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Agnes Gund

Writer/Producer Kenya Barris on Double America 2 by Glenn LigonIt turns America on itself, abstracting it. That really struck me because I find that abstract art is something black people dont really get to do. Were not given the opportunity to do black art that way. And in this piece, Glenn turns that notion on its head. For me, the simplicity of it is radical and confrontational.

Artist Kerry James Marshall on Jordan Peeles film Get OutThat was a phenomenal piece of work. It did everything that I thought a film like that was supposed to do because it seemed like real cinema. It wasnt a movie; it was cinema. When you hear him talk about the film, you can see that hes a student of cinema.

Soprano Julia Bullock on Kara WalkerThe first time I saw her work was at the Broad museum in Los Angeles. When I entered into the space there were these really dynamic silhouettes that seemed quite playful. But the closer I got, I realized what she was depicting. To say it made me happy is maybe a weird statement, but when I encounter any work of art that is talking about racism or anything thats going on with blackness, Im looking for something that is quite explicit. When dealing with this subject matter, trying to treat it politely or quote unquote appropriately, theres just no time and space for that.

Director/Writer Dee Rees on Wangechi MutuIt really jolted my thinking and reminded me of whats possible when you let your imagination fly. It was a wake-up call to being more fantastical. I remember seeing her exhibition in Brooklyn and just being completely mesmerized.

Poet Tracy K. Smith on Kahlil Josephs BLKNWSIts this video essay that uses two screens to depict imagesfrom the news, from pop culture footage, from YouTube, from cinema, from the sciencesthat speak to or just show central moments from black life. I think I sat there for about almost an hour, taking this stuff in and each element speaks to you. What I feel its doing is creating this almost large-scale sense of black humanity and what resilience it has, what forces working within and sometimes against it have looked like. I found it to be one of the most coherent and compelling examinations of blackness and of America that Ive ever seen.

Eric V. Copage, a former Times reporter and author of several books on African American culture, also contributed. Copage wrote an essay titled For Future Generations, Its Time to Reflect on Black Art. He explained the intent of the project and its lasting legacy.

Shifts in politics, performance and protest have all altered our culture in a way not seen in years, Copage wrote. The beauty of this exercise in reflection is not only to celebrate black cultural contributions to art but also record a pivotal time for our countryindeed the world. CT

FIND MORE Kahlil Joseph covered Surface magazines Art Issue in December 2019

BOOKSHELFGlenn Ligon: AMERICA, accompanied the artists 25-year survey. Kara Walker: Hyundai Commission documents Kara Walkers monumental exhibition in Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London. Kerry James Marshall: Mastry was published to coincide with Kerry James Marshalls 35-year survey. Also consider Kerry James Marshall: History of Painting and Kerry James Marshall (Phaidon Contemporary Artist Series). Also Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey accompanied the artists first major solo museum exhibition. Several recent volumes explore the work of Mickalene Thomas, including Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires, Mickalene Thomas: I Cant See You Without Me, and Muse: Mickalene Thomas: Photographs. In addition, Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe was published to coincide with her first solo museum exhibition.

KARA WALKER, Installation view of Africant, 1996 (cut paper on wall, 144 x 792 inches / 365.76 x 2011.68 cm). | Kara Walker, The Broad

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Original post:
The New York Times Asked African American Creatives About the Black Art That Inspires Them. Here is What They Said - Culture Type

It could have been much worse. Ebola is highly contagious and has an average mortality rate of 50 per cent. (The average mortality rate for Covid-19 is about one per cent.) When the disease spread to Nigerias commercial capital Lagos, a densely populated city of 21million people often crowded in slums, public-health officials envisioned an urban apocalypse. Yet despite thousands of deaths, and the realistic potential of millions eventually contracting and dying of Ebola in West Africa, global markets hardly blinked.

Even this year, at the same time as Covid-19 has been spreading across the world, Nigeria, Africas most populous country, has been facing what is turning out to be the worlds largest outbreak of Lassa fever. This is a viral disease far deadlier than Covid-19, with an average mortality rate of 23 per cent. So far there have been 906 cases and 161 deaths spread across 27 of Nigerias 36 states. Few outside the country have noticed, just as few outside West Africa noticed the impact of Ebola.

Compare the response to the Ebola outbreak to the market meltdown we have been witnessing for weeks, even when Europes Coronavirus death toll was still in the low hundreds. Why the difference in reaction? It cannot be explained by the fact that the Ebola outbreak was mostly limited to a region. If a disease as deadly and contagious as Ebola had broken out in several Western European nations simultaneously, markets would still have plunged.

It raises the obvious question: why do African lives seem to matter less to the world? Some will say it is because of racism. But this is not about racism. The brutal reality is that this is about economic relevance. And, unfortunately, Africa is on the margins of the global economy.

Despite constituting 17 per cent of the worlds population, Africa accounts for just 2.5 per cent of global GDP. Its share of global manufacturing is just one per cent. Its share of global trade is two per cent. And just three per cent of foreign direct investment goes to the worlds second-most populous continent.

There are many historical reasons for why Africa came to be so far behind the rest of the world economically slavery, colonialism and so on. But historical explanations do not change current realities. And the current reality is that Africa is not considered significant in terms of the global economy today.

What happens in Africa has little economic consequence for the rest of the world. There is nothing the continent produces or consumes at the moment that cannot be easily offset elsewhere. This is why markets dont care what happens in Africa because it is economically irrelevant.

And this economic irrelevance in turn influences global media who follow market trends closely. Hence mass deaths and pandemics in Africa dont end up fazing or worrying the world the way they do when they happen in Europe, Asia or North America. Together, these continents account for 87 per cent of global GDP.

While racism is not the cause of Africas economic insignificance, that economic insignificance still has racial implications. Thats because, whether you like capitalism or not, we live in a capitalist world. And in a capitalist world, everything ultimately revolves around money. If I walk into a room with a billionaire, most people will be way more interested in what the billionaire has to say than in what I have to say. Because a billionaires actions can have real-life consequences for thousands of people. Mine cant. In the logic of capitalism, one billionaire is more relevant than 100 Remis. Annoying, yes, but thats the way it is.

As it works on the individual level, so too on the group level. White-majority nations remain the richest and most economically developed nations in the world, while black nations remain the poorest and least economically developed. The rest of the world is somewhere in between. It is no coincidence that the current racial hierarchy reflects the current economic hierarchy. What happens in white-majority nations and, increasingly, in Asian nations, is considered far more important than what happens in the worlds only majority-black continent. This has a psychological knock-on effect on perceptions of black people in general, including those of us in the diaspora. The continent we are associated with is considered pretty marginal in the larger scheme of things. By subconscious extension, so are we.

Imagine a world in which two out of the five largest economies were in Africa. A world in which when Africa sneezed, the rest of the globe caught a cold. A world in which markets breathlessly responded to developments in Nigeria or South Africas economy because that had global consequences. It would be a world in which Africa was unignorable. Because no one can ignore the relevant. Relevance today means economic relevance. That is why Africas focus this century must be on becoming rich by any means necessary. Anything else is a distraction.

Only then will black lives matter.

Read more here:
When a virus strikes Africa, we barely notice - Spiked