Folding Chair

13/12/2021

FC Edition 136: So Long For Now - https://mailchi.mp/b6c778853d13/edition125-11219958

Insecure: For the First Time, Every Single Costume Was Designed by a Black Woman & The Legacy of HBO's 'Insecure' Will Be Its Centering of Black Women

06/12/2021

FC Edition 135: Calling For Abortion Justice - https://mailchi.mp/d3a836f66504/edition125-11219018

In 1973, the Supreme Court decided in Roe v. Wade that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. Last week, that ruling seemed closer than ever to being overturned by the six conservative justices after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's....

22/11/2021

FC Edition 134: Happy Thanksgiving! - https://mailchi.mp/f55da82c2ece/edition125-11216454

Designing Opportunity: Nike Design Alum D’Wayne Edwards Is Creating Equity For The Next Generation of Black Footwear Designers

15/11/2021

FC Edition 133: Thanksgiving Is Near - https://mailchi.mp/6cb7b507d356/edition125-11184230

The climate change summit ended last week and with it final conversations centered on how to protect the world from the worst effects of global warming. Reuters explains that “the latest draft of the conference agreement attempted to balance the demands of climate-vulnerable nations, big industria...

08/11/2021

FC Edition 132: Vote the Change You Wish to See - https://mailchi.mp/457680088f67/edition125-8287290

Just One Black Person Is On The Jury In Ahmaud Arbery’s Killing Even Though A Judge Agreed It Appeared To Be "Intentional Discrimination"

01/11/2021

FC Edition 131: Wake up, Wake up, Wake up - https://mailchi.mp/79827a9453fc/edition125-8286334

New York attorney general Letitia James announced her run for governor of New York last week. If elected, James, who was the first woman of color to be elected to statewide office in New York, would also become the first black female governor in the United States. Her announcement comes at a time wh...

25/10/2021

FC Edition 130: We’re All a Little Insecure - https://mailchi.mp/ce285148dafd/edition125-8285350

In two long form pieces, Al Jazeera and The Guardian dive deep to explore Europe’s troubled history with the African continent. In an excerpt from Howard W. French’s upcoming book, “Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War,” The Gu...

18/10/2021

FC Edition 129: Happy Homecoming! - https://mailchi.mp/40370669099a/edition125-8284470

It’s a heartbreaking story. In Rutherford County, Tennessee, the juvenile justice system has a long history of jailing black children. Judge Donna Scott Davenport has overseen the process since 2000 and sometimes even calls herself the “mother of the county.” She sets up rules and presides ove...

11/10/2021

FC Edition 128: Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day - https://mailchi.mp/45843ea93de0/edition125-8283486

Ozy Media was started by Carlos Watson, a former news anchor and black entrepreneur. The digital media company attracted important investors. According to The New York Times, the data service PitchBook reports that Ozy had raised more than $83 million by April 2020 and valued itself at $159 million....

04/10/2021

FC Edition 127: Breaking Ground - https://mailchi.mp/973569e93ddc/edition125-8282674

Shanetta Little fell victim to “paper terrorism” when a member of the Moorish sovereign citizen movement broke into her home while she was away, changed the locks and hung a red and green flag in her window. This was after he sent letters “Bearing a golden seal, in aureate legalistic language,...

27/09/2021

FC Edition 126: Bringing In Autumn - https://mailchi.mp/3298d2209fd5/edition125-8281722

Late journalist Gwen Ifill coined the term “missing white woman syndrome” almost 20 years ago. If recent media coverage of the disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito is any indication, the media is still suffering from this syndrome and you’ve no doubt been inundated with her story. While t...

20/09/2021

FC Edition 125: It’s Hispanic Heritage Month! - https://mailchi.mp/91ad785e0f82/edition125

Gabrielle Union is back with her second book of essays, “You Got Anything Stronger,” and if this excerpt from TIME is any indication, the book is a must read.  In the essay, “The Hard Truth About My Surrogacy Journey,” Union gets really real about her decision to have daughter Kaavia James ...

13/09/2021

FC Edition 124: We're Back! - https://mailchi.mp/a212c4af2255/edition124

The former government in Guinea is no more. Last week, a coup rocked the country after the military rushed the presidential palace taking 83-year-old Alpha Conde and other officials into custody as their vehicles were seized. Conde had been in power for more than a decade. Heavy gunfire broke out ne...

26/07/2021

FC Edition 123: Going for Gold! - https://mailchi.mp/d5b6b8c28515/edition121-8274410

19/07/2021

FC Edition 122: It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here - https://mailchi.mp/68fae7e3e11d/edition121-8273562

If you’re like us, you have probably never heard of geocaching, so let us catch you up. As NPR explains, it “is essentially a high tech treasure hunt. It's a volunteer-run game: some people hide the caches, other people find them.” There are more than 1.6 million active geocachers in the Unite...

12/07/2021

FC Edition 121: The Word is “Murraya” - https://mailchi.mp/631b90d958a9/edition121

When Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open a few weeks ago to prioritize her mental health and wellbeing, she was the catalyst for a much bigger conversation not only about the relationship of athletes with the press, but about the treatment of black women in sports. In a new cover essay for TIM...

28/06/2021

FC Edition 120: Rooting for Team USA! - https://mailchi.mp/48c8756b8d2b/edition120

Prior to a unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court last week, NCAA rules prohibited student athletes from receiving any form of compensation, even for educational benefits. The rules are changing and could continue to shift in the athletes’ favor. As ESPN reports, the Court “upheld a district co...

21/06/2021

FC Edition 119: How Did You Celebrate Juneteenth? - https://mailchi.mp/93e344ff5cfa/edition119

The memes that have been making the rounds this week say it all: “Happy Juneteenth! The first U.S. holiday that’s illegal to teach about in 15 states.” (Thanks for that one, Trevor Noah.) The hypocrisy of this is lost on no one - except maybe the conservatives who are pushing to ban critical r...

14/06/2021

FC Edition 118: Blazing Trails - https://mailchi.mp/dc625020bda4/edition118

While 43% of the American population is fully vaccinated, in Africa it’s a different story. The continent is desperate for the vaccine. In South Africa, only .08% of the population is vaccinated. According to the Associated Press, with a population of 200 million, only .01% in Nigeria are vaccinat...

07/06/2021

FC Edition 117: Kicking Off Pride Month! - https://mailchi.mp/7b0c0a9c9762/edition117

The biggest news in the sports world last week (sorry, NBA playoffs), came when tennis sports star Naomi Osaka, the second-ranked woman in international tennis and the highest-paid female athlete in the world, withdrew from the French Open. Initially, Osaka shared that she would not be participating...

31/05/2021

FC Edition 116: Our Identity is Our Superpower - https://mailchi.mp/c7bcbbda0acb/edition116

In an article for Medium, writer Jeff Yang explains that “There’s an active effort being made to direct Asian American anger at the Black community, and it’s rooted in White establishment anxiety over emerging coalitions among the rising Black and Brown majority in the United States.” With t...

24/05/2021

FC Edition 115: Calling For a Cease-Fire - https://mailchi.mp/b0257647d54d/edition115

In ‘Boyz n the Void,’ A ‘malcontent with an allergy to authority’ Finds Freedom — and Confusion — in the Punk Rock Scene

17/05/2021

FC Edition 114: Vaccinated? CDC Says No Masks Required - https://mailchi.mp/e3daffe79f7c/edition114

For many, owning a home is a key to building intergenerational wealth, but last week, NPR reported that “over the last 15 years, black homeownership has declined more dramatically than for any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. In 2019, the Black homeownership rate was about as low...

10/05/2021

FC Edition 113: Federal Charges for Violating Floyd’s Civil Rights - https://mailchi.mp/ae738fa30a8f/edition106-8264790

Lesotho, the small landlocked country surrounded by South Africa, is home to a thriving garment industry, the country’s second-largest employer. Its many factories, which supply brands like Walmart, Levi Strauss and JCPenney, date back to the 1980s when Taiwan and South Africa were attracted to th...

03/05/2021

FC Edition 112: Bring on the May Flowers - https://mailchi.mp/ce07929df711/edition106-8263698

Protests swept social media and streets when news that 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio, while she was holding a knife and swinging it at another girl. According to The Cut, Bryant is one of several Black and brown youth who have been harmed or k...

26/04/2021

FC Edition 111: Surviving While Black - https://mailchi.mp/4c07490a3b16/edition106-8262718

Last week marked the infamous “holiday” 4/20 and as recreational ma*****na use is becoming legal in more and more states, we were reminded that “Black people are especially underrepresented among owners of cannabis companies, even though Black people are disproportionately arrested for marijua...

19/04/2021

FC Edition 110: A Police Reckoning - https://mailchi.mp/2528e222eb4d/edition106-8261782

Black Americans want to close the wealth gap and some of them think stocks and Bitcoin is the way to do it. Bloomberg reports that these financial enthusiasts say big moves need to be made to make up for lost time. Bloomberg details that, “For over a century after emancipation, institutional polic...

12/04/2021

FC Edition 109: Leaning on Hope - https://mailchi.mp/ba5bea9e6c8a/edition106-8260746

If you’re looking for a new podcast to binge, you may want to broaden your search and look towards the Motherland. As VICE reports, “Over the past few years, there has been a rise in the number of podcasts coming out of the African continent and the diaspora. Africans of all ages have launched p...

05/04/2021

FC Edition 108: We’re Ready for April Showers - https://mailchi.mp/b43f8cc7940d/edition106-8259710

New York has legalized recreational ma*****na, becoming the 15th state to do so and some advocates say it’s about time! Local politicians have been pushing for legalization for years but according to The New York Times, measures were often stalled after disagreements over how the tax revenue from ...

29/03/2021

FC Edition 107: We Celebrate Powerhouse Women - https://mailchi.mp/07a22cb0aa7d/edition106-8258466

Georgia was the center of conversation earlier this year when the state turned blue, helping President Joe Biden win the election. At the end of last week, the state’s Governor, Brian Kemp, signed into law Republican-crafted voting measures that are expected to have a disproportionate impact on bl...