Welcome to Notedd!
VOL 1 - TUESDAY, APRIL 9
Thrilled to officially kick off the first issue of Notedd - the go to source for the most relevant news and cultural highlights for women of color, created by black women.
Weekly, we'll share what we've Notedd over the last week, an honorable mention and lastly a moment of reflection.
Once you've read this week's issue, please complete this short survey. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Interested in banking black with style? Check out the largest owned black owned bank OneUnited back Visa Debit Cards celebrating black queens.
Check out this photo library of women to combat the lack of representation of women and defeating beauty stereotypes in media and advertising - launched by Dove, Getty Images and Girlgaze.
A California bill is under consideration called Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair or the CROWN Act to prohibit employers from discriminating against people's hairstyles and grooming. We are hopeful this bill will pass, and can be an example for a nationwide initiative because we should wear our hair any way we like.
Really Facebook?
Now we all have been a witness in this soap opera called Facebook, and now the saga continues. Last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook for providing personal data of its users to advertisers, allowing them to target or discriminate people based on their race and other characteristics.
Violating the Fair Housing Act protects people from being discriminated against when renting or buying a home, and other housing-related activities. Allegedly, landlords and home sellers were able to use Facebook's data to exclude their ads from reaching feeds of minority groups. Earlier this month, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the DATA Privacy Act that would empower the Federal Trade Commission to withheld discriminatory behavior with targeted ads. Senator Masto is hopeful this lawsuit will help move this bill forward.
The week before, Facebook agreed to settle several lawsuits in regards to discrimination in housing, employment and credit cards ads in efforts to cooperate with HUD, but the department is continuing to pressure this social media giant and others to assert better practices. No further news have developed since then, but Notedd will continue to be on the lookout on how this Facebook saga will unfold.
No Diversity = No Beyonce:
Adidas and Beyonce have announced a major partnership! In her fellow queeness with Adidas, Beyonce will be a creative partner while relaunching and expanding her Ivy Park clothing line with Adidas. If you remember, Beyonce launched Ivy Park with Topshop Founder Phillip, but with the racial and sexual harassment accusations against the executive, Beyonce bought out Green. She is now the full owner of Ivy Park and the only black woman owner of an altheisusre brand. The announcement of the partnership comes right after Adidas launches their "She Breaks Barriers" initiative - a campaign that is highlighting the lack of equal media coverage for women in sports.
Beyonce was offered a number of deals from athletic brands including Nike and Under Armour. An interest meeting with Reebok led to an alleged walk out from the grammy award singer that many are citing were due to her notice of the lack of diversity with the brand. However, Reebok is citing this to be false. Either way, it's great to see that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion remain as hot topics and reasons for prominent figures to take their business elsewhere. The only hope here now is if this is true Reebok can take matters in their own hands and make a change before matters become worse.
This will only encourage large brands and others to think again, but the fight doesn't stop here. We all must use our platforms - both big and small - to take a stand where these three principles aren't championed. No debut timing just yet, but we can't wait to get our Ivy City gear!
Stacey Abrams Wants to Make Every Vote Count:
Former Georgia gubernational candidate Stacey Abrams founded a non-profit organization called Fair Count to ensure that Georgian minorities who are often skipped are correctly counted in the 2020 census that could impact everything from the allocation of federal resources to the number of Georgia representatives in Congress. Proper voter counting is an important issue for Abrams, as she didn't concede to ensure that every Georgian vote was counted for in her election with now Governor Brain Kemp. Groups such as non-English speakers, low-income residents and people experiencing homelessness will be many focus groups for this organization.
SHE was the Last Survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade:
While conducting other research, Newcastle Lecturer Dr. Hannah Durkin pieced together multiple sources and references to Redoshi who is identified as the last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. Redoshi who was also known as Oluale Kossola and Cudjo Lewis was first identified in an article written by author Nora Zeale Hurston and in an memoir by civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson. These materials allowed Dr. Durkin, who is a Lecturer in Literature and Film at Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, to piece together and provide a snapshot of Redoshi's life - dating back to the estimated time of when she was enslaved to her arrival in the south to her death. It is said that Redoshi was influential in culminating the Selma to Montgomery marches, and was a land owner in Alabama. Despite this only being a fragmentation of Redoshi's life, it's powerful to hear that despite the odds this woman was instrumental in breaking barriers and establishing the history we know today.
This week we are featuring our favorite new lipgloss called Ms. Independent from The Lip Bar. A vegan and cruelty free brand launched by Melissa Butler in 2012 offers all of the nudes and pops of colors you would ever want with their lip mattes, lip glosses and lipsticks. We absolutely love the Ms. Independent gloss - it's the perfect nude and made with organic ingredients such as Sesame Seed Oil, Castor Oil and Tea Tree Extract. If you are in the Detroit area, Melissa just opened her first store in the West Village, but you can also catch her products nationwide on her website and at select Target locations.
What Launching Notedd Taught Me
By Lauren S.
Starting off this first issue of Notedd with gratitude and thankfulness for everyone particularly the women who have helped and encouraged me to finally launch Notedd.
Notedd started as a small idea with my best friend, after our frustration with the media choices available to us. The research and conversations from one-on-one interviews, focus groups and surveys has led to this first iteration of Notedd.
Two of the reasons that held Notedd from launching were trying to add it to the balancing act with the many other tasks, and the fear to take Notedd out of my head.
What is balance? Defined as placing different elements equally or in correct proportions. This definition is what I've been seeking and thought I mastered, but prioritizing school, work and life has been a daily struggle where often I believe I need a personal assistant - whether human or machine. Yes there are apps, yes I have a huge monthly and daily planner, yes there are tools and resources to help you achieve balance, but yet so unrealistic.
In life, or maybe in my life, balance isn't an essential course taught in school or an orientation meeting for the workplace. So how can we achieve this one syllable word? It wasn't until my Personal Branding professor shared the simple suggestion: take it one task at a time. As cliche as it may sound, balance isn't an act, it's taking the time to assess and complete one task at a time and then taking on the next one. I've challenged myself to do just that and have seen major improvements. I don't look at a to-do list, but rather one task to complete in this moment and this moment only. If I complete it, yay! I can now move forward to the next level. It's just like a game - you must challenge yourself to complete that one round in order to make it to the next one. It's a challenge to think and complete one task versus trying to think of how you are going to tackle thirty things on your list.
The other reason why Notedd didn't launch sooner is because it's been living in my head for the past year. I've held this idea in because of the fear that it wouldn't be good enough or wouldn't be just the way that I want it to be. However I had to find the beauty that these are the exact reasons to launch it. After having several conversations with women who have launched side hustles and passion projects they all shared an enlightening tip: the only way for Notedd to become anything is letting it out and understanding the key learnings and opportunities for growth. It can only become better when you let it be.
I lead you all this week by encouraging you to not look at your entire to-do list, but try to 1) accomplish one task at a time with your absolute best, and 2) start living outside of your head to advance that passion project you've been holding back. If you are like me who needs some accountability, join me and take the #100DayProject challenge. Choose a project, commit to it for 100 days and track the results - that's it! Officially I'll be taking each of these 100 days to commit a little something to Notedd, and I encourage you to do the same!
Until we again next week, Notedd ✌🏾
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