Cornel West

• Esteemed philosopher social justice activist, and 2024 presidential candidate, Dr. Cornell West, will deliver the keynote address, alongside various guest speakers, including elected officials, religious leaders, and social media influencers.
• This is not a campaign event, nor does the event imply any kind of endorsement of Dr. West's campaign by the organizers and sponsors.
• Palestinians face severe shortages of clean water, food, and medical supplies, marking a dire situation demanding global attention.
• "Gaza Endures" will take place at Greenfield Manor, 4770 Greenfield Rd, Dearborn, MI 48126, starting at 6:00 pm.

• While booking tickets for new horror flick, The Blackening, I began to worry.
• The Blackening revolves around a group of African American friends reuniting in a cabin in the woods for the US public holiday Juneteenth.
• As the evening progresses, the group find themselves assaulted by game-playing murderers who are, weirdly, armed with crossbows.
• The Blackening excels at subverting the very stereotypes it plays upon for its humour.

Meet the crew

• King (Melvin Gregg) is a reformed thug (the “badman” or “gangsta”), though he still secretly carries a gun.
• Shanika (X Mayo) is a large, loud, aggressive woman (the “sapphire”), who fusses at the killers, screaming: “Are you shooting arrows at me?
• No, stop it.” Allison (Grace Byers) is a biracial woman (the “tragic/devious mulatta”), determined to prove herself by decrying her white parentage.
• While we may laugh at them on the screen, embracing them as reality bolsters the subjugation of and violation against black people.

Questioning and performing ‘blackness’

• In another challenge, the friends must list five black actors who appeared on the TV series Friends.
• I watched Living Single’.” The exchange points to the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” nature of performing blackness.
• While characters engage in stereotypical behaviours, they often follow it with profound, introspective observations which effectively counter their racialised performance.
• As the film acknowledges early on, African-American culture is neither stable, nor monolithic, but ever-changing and intensely diverse.

Reflection on stereotypes

• The Blackening also prompts reflection on hypocritical stereotypes about black drug culture.
• When Allison mistakenly takes Adderall from Lisa’s bag of drugs, her intoxication is presented as if she were a turbo-boosted character in a video game.
• Adderall may seem a strange choice as it’s not a drug typically associated with African Americans but with white college students.
• It also alludes to the racial bias that influences prison-sentencing for drug use, where black people are sentenced more harshly.

• In response, The People's Forum an educational space and movement incubator for grassroots organizations and allied groups wrote an urgent and public appeal to President Biden.
• The letter was drafted because of the urgency of the situation and the immediate need to lift U.S. sanctions to allow international aid into the country.
• This fire, the largest in Cuban history, comes when Cuba is undergoing an energy crisis due to soaring global fuel costs and aging infrastructure.
• Due to the sanctions, there are long, complex processes to get licenses to send aid, usually taking months for approval.

• Each bio entry links to further details including influence rankings, published works, and affiliated schools.
• "If you don't know these Black scholars already, you've got a fantastic opportunity in this series.
• AcademicInfluence.comis the preeminent, technology-driven, academic rankings site dedicated to students, researchers, and inquirers from high school through college and beyond.
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67072902
  Angela Davis, By Columbia GSAPP - Enclosures: Quotidian Carceralities in the US and Occupied Palestine (Angela Davis), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75601775