Tag: authority
13-YEAR-OLD BOY CREATES FACE-MASKS TO PROTECT PEOPLE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS
13-YEAR-OLD BOY CREATES FACE-MASKS TO PROTECT PEOPLE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS
By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
Charles Randolph, a 13-year-old boy decided to use his time-off from school to something extremely productive, that he believes could possibly save the lives of many people in his community.
When the youth was at his Falls Church, Virginia, home, he came-up with the idea to use his parents’ 3D printer to make face-masks. According to the Atlanta Black Star, Randolph Said: he figured the DIY masks could provide protection to his ailing uncle and others as the highly transmissible virus continues to spread.
“I saw in the news that high-risk patients, people with existing diseases like heart problems and asthma — I thought this would help him.”
He said of his relative, who’s in Atlanta awaiting a heart transplant.
When he is not in school or inventing something for the public good, Randolph says:
“My mom has me on a super strict schedule,” he told local station WJLA. “It’s not the best thing in the world, but two hours of homework every day, don’t enjoy that often, but you know.”
Even though the masks are not perfect, in fact the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the only masks it reccomends to use to prevent Coronavirus is the N95 masks. The young inventor still believes his masks can help many people stay healthy in the global pandemic.
It may not be 100 percent of a filtration system, but it works.”
The teen said.
BLACK HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: BIDDY MASON
Black History Spotlight:Biddy Mason
By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
Early Life
Biddy Mason was born into the brutal system of slavery on August 15, 1818.Her exact birthplace is unknown, some scholars believe was born in Hancock County, Georgia, and others believe her birthplace was Hancock County, Mississippi. As a youth she spent most of her time on the plantation of Robert Smithson. In her teenage-years she learned how to perform domestic work and agricultural work,she also learned midwife and herbal medicine making skills from elder slaves, who shared their knowledge that was passed-down to them from their African ancestors. In the 1940s, Mason is believed to of have been given to Rebecca Dorn and Robert Mayes Smith as a wedding gift. While on the Smith’s plantation, Mason had three children, all girls: Ellen in 1838, Ann in 1844 and Harrier in 1847. The father or fathers is unknown, but some historical researchers believe that Robert Smith was the father of a least one of her children.
Biddy’s Road to Freedom
In the late 1940s Mormon missionaries from the Church of Latter-Day Saints passed through Mississippi and proselytized the locals. Some of the locals included Biddy Mason’s slave owner Robert Smith, his wife and their children. There is currently no information on whether Mason or her fellow slaves were baptized in the Mormon faith. In 1947, the Smith household joined with a group of Mormon churchgoers from Mississippi to unite with the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,Illinois. The group of religious travelers ventured to Pueblo, Colorado, there they would join with a group of very-ill disciples from a Mormon battalion. On the trip further westward, Mason use her healing-skills as a midwife and herbalist to help heal the sick, feed the hungry and to care for the children of the religious pilgrims, she also helped herd the cattle. In 1851, Brigham Young the leader of the Mormon church sent a group of his followers to Southern California, which was a free state at the time. Smith ignored that fact and refused to free hia slaves, once they arrived in the San Bernadino settlement. In 1856, Smith planned to move to the slave state of Texas, where he intended to sell his slaves. Smith would lie to his slaves (he told them he intended to give them their freedom in Texas)to motivate them to make the long and harsh journey to the slave state. Mason of course knew he was lying, and not wanting to be separated from her children, she with the help of some kind-hearted locals, petitioned a Los Angeles court for her freedom and the freedom of her children. On January 21, 1856 Biddy Mason and her children were given their freedom by Judge Benjamin Ignatius Hayes, after Smith failed to show-up to challenge the petition.
The Free Woman, Healer and Entrepreneur
After she gained her freedom, Mason and her daughters moved in with a man named Robert Owens,who was the father of the locally famous Los Angeles businessman Charles Owens. Mason’s daughter Ellen would eventually marry Charles Owens. While in Los Angeles, California, Mason worked as a nurse and midwife and delivered hundreds of babies, she also risked her life to use her traditional-African herbalist healing skills to care for these people with smallpox, during a smallpox epidemic that was ravaging L.A. at the time. Mason saved much of the money she earned as midwife and nurse to become a financially successful real estate Investor, in fact she became one of the first African-American women to own land in Los Angeles. Mason also used the money she earned to become a philanthropist: she gave money to the poor, fed the hungry and was part of a group that founded day care center and school for black children. In 1872, Mason and her son-in-law Charles Owens became founding members of the first African Methodist Episcopal church of Los Angeles, which was also the city’s first black church. The church would be built on land that was donated by Mason herself. Mason died on January 15,1891, a park and plaque is dedicated to her in Los Angeles, California.
“Engineering A “Crisis.” Why The Shelves Are Still Empty”
“Tariq Nasheed: Return of the Yellow Peril”
“Tariq Nasheed: Return of the Yellow Peril”
Rampant Racism Throughout SFPD
Rampant Racism Throughout SFPD
San Francisco Employee Calls out Department’s Racism
By: Leon Kwasi Kuntuo-Asare
A San Francisco city employee, who was teaching anti-bias classes for two-years, recently came forward with frustration with the rampant anti-black racism that is widespread in the department.The now ex-Department of Human Resources manager said to his superiors in a farewell email:
The degree of anti-black sentiment throughout SFPD is extreme.
Dante King wrote in the email to DHR Director Micki Callahan, (San Francisco) Examiner obtained the email through a public records request past week.
King later said:
While there are some SFPD who possess somewhat of a balanced view of racism and anti-blackness, there are an equal number (if not more)-who possess and exude deeply anti-black sentiment.
The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the SFPD in October of 2016, and discovered the department had:
numerous indicators of implicit and institutionalized bias against minority groups.
As of this writing the SFPD has only completed 16% of the 272 recommendations for reform that were issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
