BCN Monday Morning Brew
VOLUME 3 EDITION 23: Sept. 13, 2021
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Mayor Frank Scott urges citizens to vote for his Rebuild The Rock plan on Tuesday; gives tribute to Erma Hendrix |
BCN Executive Editor Wesley Brown – Sept. 12, 2021 – In this week’s edition of BCN Headlines on KABF 88.3 FM, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. (right) acknowledged the recent passing of former Little Rock City Director Erma Hendrix while also urging local residents go to the polls on Tuesday to support his “Rebuild the Rock” one percent sales tax initiative.
Scott was the special guest on the fast-growing weekly news talk show hosted BCN's Chief Creative Officer Angel Burt and guest co-host, Osyrus Bolly, the racial equity coordinator and community organizer for the Arkansas Public Policy Panel and Little Rock Freedom Fundactivist.
In a tribute to Hendrix, who died on Sept. 8, Scott called the former Ward 1 city director “a voice for the voiceless.” Last week, Scott issued an executive order for the Little Rock’s city flag to fly at half-staff on behalf of Hendrix.
“I also want to take time to continue to acknowledge and affirm the committed and consistent public servant and City Director Erma Hendrix — who was a voice for the voiceless and who was unapologetic in herself and always shared words of wisdom, words of action and we are grateful for her life and legacy,” Scott told the KABF listening audience.”
“She was like a grandma to me who I loved dearly,” Scott continued. “It truly is a grieving time and period for the entire city.”
In highlighting his post-pandemic vision for the Arkansas’ capital city first introduced in his virtual State-of-the-City address on March 25, Scott explained to KABF listeners that his proposal is an extension of an earlier decade-long sales tax under former Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola that will sunset on Dec. 31, 2021. That one penny sales tax included a permanent 5/8 cents “operations” tax hike and a 10-year temporary 3/8 cents “capital investment” tax levy that went into effect in January 2012. Annually, it generates over $45 million for the city, funding several mayoral priorities and capital improvement projects such as the Little Rock Technology Park and Twelfth Street Police Station.
“Technically, we are asking voters for 5/8 of a cent. Many times, it is hard to explain … so we decided to say hey, ‘it’s a penny’ to round it up,” said Little Rock’s first duly elected Black mayor. “What that means, on a hundred dollars it would be an additional 67 cents. So, if you went to the grocery store, when you add this increase, it would be one hundred dollars and an additional 67 cents.”
To listen to the full BCN interview with Mayor Scott, click here to go to BlackConsumerNews.com, or listen to the weekly Angel and Wesley podcast on Anchor/Spotify here. Besides the interview with the mayor, Burt and Bolly also discussed equitable city bidding for Black contractors in Little Rock, voter turnout for Tuesday’s election, and the impact of Mayor Scott’s Rebuild the Rock on the Black community.
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BCN Partners with Kaiser Health News |
Dear BCN Reader,
You may have noticed a new addition to BlackConsumerNews (BCN) – stories from Kaiser Health News (KHN). KHN is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. To learn more about KHN and its incredible news organization, go here.
As we continue to grow as a news organization, BCN's goal is to bring our readers and subscribers the best local, state and national news that impacts our community. As we grow and expand, we ask that you share BlackConsumerNews.com with others so
BCN Publisher and Executive Editor,
Wesley Brown
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BCN Headlines on KABF 88.3 FM - Interview with Little Rock City Director Antwan Philips |
In his pitch to build support for Tuesday's Rebuild the Rock special election, Little Rock City Director Antwan Phillips made a strong case for the one percent sales tax initiative in his Sept. 3 appearance on BCN Headlines on KAB 88.3 FM.
"I believe in a better Little Rock and to be a better Little Rock, we've got to invest in ourselves," Phillips told BlackConsumerNews.com's Chief Creative Officer Angel Burt and Executive Editor Wesley Brown.
Phillips, a regular guest on BCN Headlines, was elected to his first term in public office in November 2020, serving as the City of Little Rock’s newest at-large director.
A graduate of McClellan High School, Phillips is local practicing attorney who graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, and has practiced law for over a decade with Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm, where he is a partner. He specializes in trucking litigation, dental malpractice, and municipal governmental relations. To listen to the full interview with Phillips, go to the Angel and Wesley podcast at BCN or their Anchor/Spotify channel here and here.
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Kaiser Health News; ‘Just Make It Home’: The Unwritten Rules Blacks Learn To Navigate Racism In America |
Kaiser Health News
ST. LOUIS — Speak in short sentences. Be clear. Direct but not rude. Stay calm, even if you’re shaking inside. Never put your hands in your pockets. Make sure people can always see your hands. Try not to hunch your shoulders. Listen to their directions.
Darnell Hill (right) , a pastor and a mental health caseworker, offers black teenagers these emotional and physical coping strategies every time a black person is fatally shot by a police officer. That’s when parents’ worries about their sons and daughters intensify.
“They’re hurting,” Hill said. “They’re looking for answers.”
Hill, who is African American, learned “the rules” the hard way. When he was 12, he and a group of his friends jumped a fence to go for a swim in a lake. That’s when two officers approached them. One of the cops, a white man, threatened to shoot Hill and everyone else if he ever caught them there again.
“I was so afraid,” Hill, now 37, recalled. “He made all of us sit down in a line right by the lake.”
He still tells himself that the officer didn’t mean what he said that day. But Hill’s tone changes when he thinks about the second time white men threatened him with a gun.
Hill and his family moved to a small, mostly white town in Florida. He rarely left the house at night, but one day when he was a sophomore in high school, his grandmother, who wasn’t feeling well, asked him to take their car and drive to a convenience store for ginger ale.
He got lost along the way and asked two white men for directions. Instead of offering help, the men tormented him, Hill said. When he tried to drive away, the men followed him in their vehicle, chasing him around in the dark. He thought surely they would kill him if they caught him.
“They told me it was [N-word] season,” Hill recalled. “I was terrified.”
The traumatic event is hard to talk about, Hill said. His voice still shakes as he describes how the night unfolded. That’s one reason he’s helping teenagers unpack their trauma — and guard against experiencing more — as they try to cope with the mental health burden of other people’s racist assumptions.
His unofficial guide to what he calls “living while black” can be tough to remember under pressure. But Hill said the survival skills feel essential to many who grow up feeling that the color of their skin makes them vulnerable to becoming the next George Floyd, a black man killed in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25, an event that has prompted civil rights protests around the world. To read the full story, click here.
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Zillow, UNCF and Black Tech Ventures to host upcoming "hackathon" for HBCU students |
BCN Staff — Sept. 4. 2021 — Seattle data analytics firm Zillow Group Inc., in collaboration with United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Black Tech Ventures (BTV), will host the HBCU Housing Hackathon to help Black college students further develop their skills through workshops, hands-on enrichment, mentorship and teamwork.
Registration is now open for Zillow’s first hackathon for students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) around the country. Beginning Sept. 23, the seven-day virtual competition challenges students to develop and pitch creative and impactful tech solutions that align with Zillow’s goal to help consumers overcome obstacles on their journey to find a home. Nearly $90,000 in cash and prizes is up for grabs as students gain real-world experience in the technology industry.
To engage HBCU students who have various technical skill levels, Zillow’s HBCU hackathon is open to both students with advanced computer coding experience as well as those with little or no coding experience. Students will work closely with Zillow and BTV mentors. Teams can have as many as four members, and although registration is open to HBCU students in any degree program, each team must have at least one member enrolled in a computer science, computer engineering or related program.
At the end of the weeklong event, team finalists will pitch their solutions to a panel of judges. The first-place team will receive a $20,000 cash award, split among its members, and Zillow will donate $25,000 to its school’s computer science program. Second- and third-place teams will receive $12,000 and $6,000 cash awards, respectively. Students from the top three teams also will receive new laptops, textbook gift cards and AfroTech World 2021 conference tickets. All eligible hackathon participants interested in a role at Zillow will have an opportunity to interview for an internship.
“Zillow is proud to sponsor this hackathon because we best serve our customers when we can recruit and retain some of the best talent in the world — the kind of thinkers and doers incubated on the campuses of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities,” says Zillow Chief Technology Officer David Beitel. “Our goal is to strengthen our recruiting pipeline through engagement with HBCUs and encourage students to consider careers in the tech industry and, of course, at Zillow.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, HBCUs produce 27% of all Black STEM graduates. Graduates from these institutions make up 40% of all Black engineers in the U.S. Arkansas is home to four HBCUs, including the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and Shorter College, Arkansas Baptist College, and Philander Smith College in Little Rock. To read the full story, click here.
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Kaiser Health News: Searching For Safety; Where Children Hide When Gunfire Is All Too Common |
By Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News — ST. LOUIS — Champale Greene-Anderson keeps the volume up on her television when she watches 5-year-old granddaughter Amor Robinson while the girl’s mom is at work.
“So we won’t hear the gunshots,” Greene-Anderson said. “I have little bitty grandbabies, and I don’t want them to be afraid to be here.”
As a preschooler, Amor already knows and fears the sounds that occurred with regularity in their neighborhood before the pandemic — and continue even now as the rest of the world has slowed down.
“I don’t like the pop, pop noises,” Amor explained, swinging the beads in her hair. “I can’t hear my tablet when I watch something.”
And when the television or her hot-pink headphones and matching tablet can’t mask the noise of a shooting? “She usually stops everything,” said her mother, Satin White. “Sometimes she cries, sometimes she covers her ears.”
Her grandmother has even watched Amor hide inside a narrow gap between the couch and recliner.
In communities across the United States this spring, families are dealing with more than just the threat of the coronavirus outside their homes. In the midst of violence that does not stop even during a pandemic, children like Amor continually search for safety, peace and a quiet place. “Safer at Home” slogans don’t guarantee safety for them.
More than two dozen parents and caregivers who spoke with Kaiser Health News attested that the kids hide underneath beds, in basements and dry bathtubs, waiting for gunfire to stop while their parents pray that a bullet never finds them.
In St. Louis, which has the nation’s highest murder rate among cities with at least 100,000 people, the reasons are especially stark. More than 20 children in the St. Louis area were killed by gunfire last year, and this year at least 11 children have died already. To read the full story, click here.
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Black Consumer News of Arkansas' goal is to be the daily newsfeed for Black consumers seeking important national, state, and local stories, trends, and major issues that empowers our communities. Our mission to use all different media and digital platforms, including BlackConsumerNews.com, the BCN Arkansas newsletter, social media, our podcast, and BCN Headlines Newstalk show on KABF FM, to provide free and fresh news content for Black consumers and those interested in empowering news that affects our lives. Sign up to be a BlackConsumerNews.com subscriber here.
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Subscribe to Black Consumer News of Arkansas |
We invite you to be a part of the Black Consumer News and BCN Arkansas experience as a reader, advertiser, or sponsor. Sign up to be a subscriber today here. Do you have a story that needs to be told or know about a black business, event, entrepreneur, or corporate professional that is doing great things? Do you have a News Tip with your story or idea for us to consider? Do you want to advertise with BCN or be one of our newsletter or website sponsors, then send us a note here with the subject "BCN News Story" or "BCN Rates" to get information on how to advertise on our digital platforms. Remember, our goal is to look and report on Arkansas and the national economy through the lens of the black consumer. Learn more about BCN of Arkansas here.
Also, BlackConsumerNews is ramping up its video news coverage on YouTube through the rest of 2021. So, please click here and subscribe to our page to get the latest BCN video newsfeed.
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Do you feel President Biden's vaccine mandate is federal overreach?
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No, I agree with him. Everyone should be vaccinated.
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I disagree. It should be left up to me.
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