In spite of the ceilings, closed doors, and proverbial feet on our necks, black, female entrepreneurs are taking the leap against all odds. According to CNBC, African American women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in America today. This African American business woman and mom is once again proving that black women are shattering the glass and titanium ceilings across this country. She’s taking on a sport where you seldom see people of color participate, and she’s leading the charge on the race track. Melissa Harville-Lebron is the first black woman to own a NASCAR racecar team and she’s brought the first multi-cultural team to the sport.
In her interview with CBS she says, “I don’t look like everybody else, and we have some proving to do; but we’re just as good.” E2 Northeast Motor Sport is a developmental team in the Camping World Truck Series.
To be clear, Harville-Lebron and her two sons were not competing during the Truck Series race being run the day of the interview; and they hae never run a NASCAR race at hall. Harville-Lebron, in an interview with Yahoo cleared up the issue of having a team, but never running a race. She stated, “First of all, I got approved by NASCAR for my license. I didn’t just open a Crackerjack box and get it. I got approved for my license. And from there-my team is incorporated, my team has been incorporated. I purchased equipment. I started to put a team together with personnel. The only thing that has not occurred yet is for me to have an official race entry in under my name.”
In the interview, Harville-Lebron mentioned having issues with sponsorships; hopefully this recent media attention will send more money and sponsors her way.
Dayonn Davis Muscogee County, Ga., Sheriff’s Office
When a parent warns their kids about hanging with the wrong crowd, or letting friends influence them, or simply making bad choices – teens tend to not take parents seriously because it all starts sounding like the same ole rhetoric they’ve spent most of their lives hearing. Unfortunately, for some teens being a little mischievous can carry big consequences. For Dayonn Davis, who thought at the age of 15, we would simply run off with a pair of new sneakers, his bad judgment may have cost him the next five years of his life. Davis’ story is a cautionary tale of hanging with no crowd is better than hanging with the wrong one. Here are 10 warnings for your teen:
Dayonn was a first-time offender
Dayonn’s first and only charge, that will cost him 5 years of freedom was for stealing sneakers
Dayonn stole something valued at only $100
At the age of 15, Dayonn stole a pair of Nike Oreos, which are valued at approximately $100
What Dayonn thought was just a simple scam, ended up turning into a violent crime because of one of his friends
Dayonn contacted someone on Facebook to purchase the sneakers, and they arranged to meet in the park. Dayonn asked to try on the shoes with the intention of stealing them. It was Dayonn’s friend that pulled out a gun before everyone ran. The Nike Oreos that were stolen were found in Dayonn’s closet.
Simple theft, turned in to Robbery – carrying a more severe sentence
Because Dayonn’s friend pulled out a gun, this simple case of theft turned into a Strong Arm Robbery. Even though Dayonn wasn’t the one with the gun.
Dayonn wouldn’t snitch….at first
Dayonn was trying to be a gangster until he realized he would be facing serious time in jail. He refused to tell police who was the teen with the gun. Once he realized that this crime would cost him the rest of his teen years, he decided to tell on his friend. Unfortunately for Dayonn – he must have the worse luck ever, because the victim did not ID the correct suspect in a lineup
Dayonn’s mother pleaded with the judge
Dayonn’s mother told the judge that her son was, “with the wrong person‘. The judge was not willing to accept that Dayonn was the wrong person. He responded to his mother, “He’s the one with the shoes in his closet.” Another cautionary tale of claiming that you’re simply “hanging with the wrong crowd”. The judge explained that Dayonn may not have intended to pull a gun, but he definately intended on taking the shoes because he arranged the meeting.
He was tried as an Adult
Dayonn was charged as an adult for this crime, even though it happened when he was 15. He also had no previous juvenile record. Dayonn was an A and B student at Kendrick High School, his grades suffered after he was arrested for this crime.
Is the sentence fair?
In a day where we’ve witnessed the Standford rapist, Brock Turner, get 6 months for raping another student. Turner raped a female student that was unconscious, and witnesses actually found him on top of this young woman. In a day where we see stories like Brock Turner’sover and over again where young white men are given light sentences for violent crimes – is this sentence fair? Do sneakers hold more value than a woman’s body and mind? No it’s not fair – it’s some bullshit.
Dayonn’s Sentence for taking a pair of Nike’s worth $100
Dayonn is now 18 and the crime was committed when he was 15. Dayonn will have to serve 5 years in prison and 10 additional years on probation – for stealing Nike Oreos.
This is America
Dayonn’s sentence is not something that happened ‘back in the day’ – this is happening right now! This is the cry for help Black america has been screaming against when discussing the prison pipeline. This is the new Jim Crow – this is how they keep young black men and women enslaved. However, as a young, black teen in America – you have to be proactive, wiser, and smarter about the decisions you make; even if you’re only a kid.
Yesterday I walked into the Southern Discomfort: Tearing At the Seams forum with lots of hesitancy. The reason why was because the last Southern Discomfort discussion left me with a lot of concern. Guess that’s why they call it ‘Southern Discomfort’ – shrugs. The concern was coming from a place of listening to young, black creatives airing out their issues with white-owned bars, restaurants, and venues in downtown Charleston who were literally not returning phone calls when a hip-hop artist would call inquiring about booking their establishments for a gig. The bigger concern was if we know this is happening, why are we still supporting these establishments, why are we trying to force them to accept us, why should we spend our money with them? I left feeling like at some point the panel was begging for their acceptance, and it was disappointing.
However, last nights discussion hosted by Monachopsis Magazine and the creators of Southern Discomfort was refreshing. The panel was led by a group of power players in Charleston’s fashion scene, and I believe that the discussion lit a fire for everyone in the room. The panel included the creator of Charleston Fashion Week – Ayoka Lucas, Venita Aspen of the Aspen Agency , Jessie Parks – owner of Grease Kelly Vintage and Vice Chair of We Are Family, style blogger Ireana Nathan of Xoxo, I. Joelle, Sabrina Hyman of Ill Vibe The Tribe, fashion blogger Nikki of LookFabuless.com, and a host of others.
The conversation was birthed from an the Instagram account of @CharlestonShopCurator, Andrea Serrano and her Afro, 70’s inspired post ( I will not post the picture here simply because we already know what it is). In her post, which she took down and reposted, many people both black and white were attempting to explain to her why her post was no culturally appropriate, and could be deemed offensive. After reposting, probably after she received some courage and encouragement from her peers, she explained how she’s mixed, and how she never intended to offend anyone. She continued with, “I can respect other people’s opinions, but I think my opinion is equally as important.”Ayoka Lucas gave us the background of the exchanges on Instagram with this Serrano and others; Lucas even explained that Serrano requested a forum – unfortunately, she was not in attendance to discuss her position.
Luckily, we didn’t spend much time discussing Serrano, there were other gems and jewels that were dropped as we listened to the panel. We continued with Ayoka Lucas and her story of how she started Charleston Fashion Week. This is a dope story because many people in attendance didn’t know she was the curator of this event. Lucas gave us details that she hadn’t discussed prior to this forum as to the reasons why she decided to leave Charleston Magazine, and leave the thing that she calls her ‘baby’ – CFW. Her story is one we’ve all heard before – the employee with the dope, unique ideas that manifest. Then somewhere, somehow, and for some strange reason, instead of the company promoting the employee or partnering with the dope employee – they simply and slyly figure out ways to stifle them. Hopefully, Lucas will be able to put this story in a book because it is a fascinating testament of someone who took nothing and built something amazing, with the help of other Creatives.
We don’t want to continuously see our culture being celebrated, but not actual people of color being celebrated; because like someone said yesterday- WE ARE THE CULTURE!
Ayoka’s story inspired a plethora of questions and comments from the audience. Creatives in attendance were inspired by all of the bloggers on the panel including Venita Aspen, who was able to take her experience in Charleston and with Charleston Fashion Week, and turn it into a viable business.
One great aspect of this discussion was that there were many people there who didn’t realize that Charleston’s creative communities and Charleston’s fashion communities of color are bubbling! We write, we promote, we design, we sing, we blog, we curate, we own, we build, and we are here! We want to tell stories, we want to see our community shine. However, we also want to see people of color shine. We don’t want to continuously see our culture being celebrated, but not actual people of color being celebrate; because like someone said yesterday- WE ARE THE CULTURE! We want to see more shops owned by people of color; we want to see more people of color as gate-keepers to Charleston’s fashion and creative community. What I would love to see most is for young business owners, bloggers, and creatives to not feel like they need to cosign of the white community in order to make things happen.
Again, this was an great discussion and an awesome forum. The hope now is that we can continue having these types of gatherings, bringing people within the creative communities together, and breaking the glass boots that are continuously on our necks! Excited to see creatives building bridges and kicking down doors in Charleston, SC.
OK artists, we posted a few weeks ago that Issa Rae was accepting music submissions for the new season of Insecure. Now, Spike Lee has announced that he’s also accepting music from unsigned/independent artists for the new season of She’s Gotta Have It on Netflix. This is another great chance for artists to display their talents on the big screen, and get paid!
These shows, whether they’re on HBO or Netflix, are giving artists a gateway to residual income because many of these television series have soundtracks that are produced with each season. Artists are not only being recognized during the episodes, but many times they are getting an opportunity to be featured on the season’s soundtrack.
The deadline to send your music to Spike Lee for She’s Gotta Have It is June 30th. Remember, these need to be original songs, so there can’t be any sampling, no covers, and it must be a Soundcloud link ONLY. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC!
14yo Nakia Venant, of Miami Gardens livestreamed her own suicide on Facebook from the bathroom of her foster home - just three weeks after a 12-year-old also killed herself on camera
Suicide rates for black children ages 5 to 12 exceeded white children
For hundreds of years, this type of data has never been reported. Historically, Black people in the United States have survived the worse types of conditions known to mankind. From slavery to Jim Crow, we’ve come out bruised and scarred but never broken. Now, the latest report from the CDC is reporting an alarming trend among African American children in the U. S. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is reporting, from 2001-2015, black children took their own lives at twice the rate of their white counterparts.
Many African Americans in this country can sadly admit to knowing children and families who have suffered the loss of a child, by their own hands. Also, many African Americans have had discussions among ourselves as to what could be going on? In these discussions, we talk about how ‘kids these days’ have more than any other generation, how they have access to unlimited information, and how they have the opportunity to go anywhere, do anything, and be anything they want. Yet, this still doesn’t seem to be enough; these children are abusing themselves and taking their own lives at staggering rates. We also discuss the many times we were bullied at some point in our own childhoods and dealt with it, but the kids today can’t seem to handle things when they get tough. We believe that somewhere between our generation and their generation, kids have gotten soft – or perhaps more insecure. We honestly have no answers.
According to the JAMA report, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio found that suicide rates for black children ages 5 to 12 exceeded white children, and the results were seen in both girls and boys. Historically, despite the violent history of abuse and unfair treatement in this country, suicide has rarely been a factor for black people until the last two decades. Suicide rates in the U.S. have been higher for whites historically, in all age groups and it still remains this way for 13 to 17 year olds. White teens commit suicide at a 50 percent higher rate than blacks once they get into their later teen years.
One child 12 or younger dying by suicide every five days
The problem of teen suicide is no longer a “white issue”, and black parents along with white parents have to continue to understand why teenagers who should be enjoying their childhood, are taking their own lives. Jeffrey Bridge, an epidemiologist from the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research explains, “We can’t assume any longer that suicide rates are uniformly higher in white individuals than black. There is this age-related disparity, and now we have to understand the underlying reasons; Most of the previous reserach has largely concerned white suicide.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,300 kids from ages as low as five years old to twelve, took their own lives in the U.S. That’s one kid between ages five through twelve dying from suicide every five days from 1999 to 2015; and the rates are accelerating. Unfortunately, this data does not include the child’s location and/or socioeconomic status; the study also gave no context for the reasons for each suicide.
More research in 2017 by Jeffrey Bridge and his colleagues took a deeper dive into what may be going on with these children. In the age groups of 5 to 11 and 12 to 14 together, researchers found it was more likely for African American males who dealt with stressful home situations, along with relationships at home and with friends, to be a major cause of suicide. Also, many of the children who committed suicide had been diagnosed with mental health issues at their time of death. These children were also, at some point diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Many of the suicides of young, black adolescents were also kids who had relationship problems with a boyfriend or girlfriend; these children also had high rates of depression according to the study from the Journal for Pediatrics.
10 yo Ashawnty Davis Killed Herself After Video of Fight With Alleged Bully Was Posted Online
Samoon Ahmad, Psychiatrist and clinical associate professor at NYU School of Medicine, was not involved with the research, but was able to give some cultural incite to a growing problem. He stated:
“To me, the 5-12 age range is more related to developmental issues and the possible lack of a family network, social network and cultural activities. With the introduction of social media, there is more isolation with children, and not as much neighborhood play. Kids are more socially in their own vacuum.”
Unfortunately, the research being done has not given much direction on possible solutions or things we can do as a community to fix this problem. Hopefully, parents are working on paying more attention to a child who may have the potential to harm themselves. Also, the hope is if parents are allowing doctors to place their children on medication, then they should also be just as easily convinced to seek out mental health counseling for these children.
Prev
