ordinary thoughts: history repeats itself
Buen día, happy Wednesday. If the old cliché “History repeats itself,” were a person, they’d likely be shrugging their shoulders in an I-told-you-so type of manner, Michael Jordan style. The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers are both headed back to the Super Bowl, a rematch from their legendary faceoff back in 2020 when Pat Mahomes and company practically snatched the Vince Lombardi trophy from San Fran in the 4th quarter.
Interestingly enough, President Biden and former President Trump also faced off that same year in an incredibly intense presidential race that will likely go down as one of the more bizarre election periods in U.S. history.
Any preference on which event you’d rather see repeated? We’re organizing bets.
- Isaiah & Cybele
social media activism
Social media has transformed the landscape of activism by providing what global movements have always needed: instantaneous distribution of information, a tool for communicating, coordinating, and mobilizing, and transparency. Moreover, platforms provide these benefits at scale.
stories that have our attention
UN humanitarian committee calls on countries to reconsider funding suspension to UN aid agencies
The heads of the United Nations' various humanitarian agencies warned nations against withdrawing funding from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
"Withdrawing funds from UNRWA is perilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, with far-reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences in the occupied Palestinian territory and across the region. The world cannot abandon the people of Gaza." leaders of the UN's humanitarian coordination forum, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, said in a statement Tuesday. The UN officials cautioned that pausing funding to UNRWA would have "catastrophic" consequences. The committee also reiterated the need for further investigation and accountability for the alleged involvement of the UNRWA staff members.
How tens of thousands of Black U.S. doctors simply vanished
For centuries, white-only medical schools, with exclusionary policies and practices, made it virtually impossible for Black people to receive medical training. It was only after the Civil War, with thousands of injured veterans in desperate need of medical care, that a small handful of Black trainees began to be admitted to White medical schools in the North. And it wasn’t until Reconstruction that a number of Black medical schools sprang up in the South, enabling Black people to finally have access to medical training in greater numbers. Then, that promising legacy was abruptly extinguished. The reason was the publication of the Flexner Report — a landmark document in U.S. medical history that had a devastating effect on the number of Black physicians in this country.
In Dr. Uché Blackstock’s captivating new book, ‘Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine’, she uncovers her career in the medical field, along with the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system.
What a Jim Crow-era asylum can teach us about mental health today
Beginning in 1911, the Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland in Crownsville, looked like a farm from the outside, with patients harvesting tobacco, constructing gardens and working with cattle. But Peabody award-winning NBC journalist Antonia Hylton says the hospital's interior told a different story. Inside Crownsville Hospital were frigid concrete floors, small windows and seclusion cells in which patients were sometimes left for weeks at a time. The facility was filthy, with a distinctive, unpleasant odor.
In her new book, Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, Hylton pieces together the 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, chronicling the lives of several patients and their families. The facility was built by its own patients — some of whom would go on to spend their lives there.
in other news...
Politics
US government employees plan to fast for Gaza in protest against Biden policy
Trial set to begin for 2 accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay over 20 years ago
Brazil confronts calls for reparations, grapples with slavery's painful legacy
Markets
GM stock jumps 7.8% on Q4 sales and profit beat, bullish 2024 profit outlook
Nasdaq falls ahead of Big Tech earnings
The case against Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package
Tech
CEOs of TikTok, Meta, Snap, and X to testify at Senate online child safety hearing
Alphabet misses expectations on Google ad revenue, sending stock lower
AI companies lose $190 billion in market cap after Alphabet and Microsoft report
Sports
49ers vs. Chiefs preview: Predictions, odds, how to watch Super Bowl 2024
US figure skaters awarded Olympic gold, Canada snubbed from bronze after Russian skater disqualified
2024 NBA All-Star Weekend: Rising Stars rosters unveiled, spots still open in Dunk Contest, 3-point shootout
pa' la cultura
cultural trivia
This one’s for all of the R&B historians out there.
Question: Who is credited with discovering the following DMV music legends: Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and Ginuwine?
P. Diddy
DeVante Swing
Russell Simmons
Dame Dash
song of the week
Song of the Week is chosen from subscriber submissions, as we pay close attention to the latest exceptional output of music from artists who remain slightly under the radar.
Song of the Week:
Slow Burn - by Infinity Song, a sibling band and music collective formed in 2014, New York City.
words of wisdom
Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter based in New York City known for his naturalistic paintings of Black people that reference the work of Old Master paintings. In 2017, Wiley was commissioned to paint former President Barack Obama's portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Cultural Trivia Answer
The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is… *Drum roll please*
2. DeVante Swing
DeVante Swing was the main songwriter and leader of Jodeci. In 1991, he founded Da Bassment Cru out of his basement studio in Rochester, NY, where Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Ginuwine and others are said to have gotten their start. The group later became known as Swing Mob, then The Superfriends, and grew to include Aaliyah, Tweet, Pharrell, and more.