We Got A Lot To Be Mad About
VOL 16 - THURSDAY, JUNE 4
Hey Notees! We hope you are well, healthy, and safe. We are appreciative of you being here and present with us. We are feeling tired, drained, frustrated, angry, upset, helpless, hopeless and scared - all in the course of the day.
Every once in a while, Solange's "Weary" from her 2016 album, A Seat at the Table pops into our heads. While the melody is beautiful, the track serves as a constant lullaby that things are not changing for the better. Similarly, we resonate with her even more profound song,"Mad."
"I ran into this girl, I said 'I'm tired explaining'
Man this shit is draining
But I'm not allowed to be mad."
Like the song says, "I got a lot to be mad about."
To my black sisters, we love you, we are here for you, we see you and we share your pain. As Black women, we bear a lot for our community and often we have to be strong because of the many roles we serve; we are caregivers, caretakers, providers, supporters, and so much more. We encourage you feel what you need to feel today, tomorrow, or whenever. In addition, if Notedd can be of any resource to you, please let us know how we can continue to support you in anyway. We hope the following resources that we added to our repertoire can bring you solace:
Tedx Speaker Dena Crowder Offers 6-Minute Guide on Transforming Trauma (WATCH)
These Virtual Mental Health Resources For Black Women Can Make All of the Difference
Enjoy this complimentary meditation session from Black Girl Om
To our allies, we thank you for your support and choice to stand with us. There is a great deal of resources and tools that can help you with your understanding pf the challenges people of color face on a daily basis. However, we at Notedd charge you to:
Acknowledge what the black community is facing and be a listening ear.
Recognize that your background, your experiences, and your privilege have contributed to oppressive systems and you should do the work to transfer the benefits of your privilege to this who lack it.
Understand that black community members may need space.
Realize that the solution to a 400 year old systemic problem and the changing of laws that has disproportionately affected the black community can't be fixed overnight. However, you should make efforts every day in small and large acts to get a more just community.
Appreciate there are some who are willing to provide their services to share what can be done, but not every black person wants to be the google for all.
Here is also a list of resources that we hope you can learn and apply in your journey as we also need your support:
Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They're Okay - Chances Are They're Not
11 Things to Do Besides Say "This Has To Stop" In the Wake of Police Brutality
This is all at an interesting time as we are in the midst of Pride month, supporting and celebrating our LGBTQIA allies! Pride month is a time to commemorate the Stonewall uprising that lasted for six days in New York in June 1969. As we reach the sixth night of protests for Black people who were killed at the hands of police, we must continue to shed light on the Black trans people who were also killed senselessly by the police: Nina Pop, Monika Diamond and Tony McDade.
It's been a heavy week filled with constant unsettling reports across media platforms, but we hope you enjoy this issue with the things that you missed over the last week, the big news we caught, a few honorable mentions to check out and a quote from Tarana Burke.
Enjoy and always: Stay Notedd!
After noticing that the peach crayon was referred to as the only "skin-color" crayon, nine-year-old Bellen Woodard created the "More Than Peach" project which donates kits to classrooms and children with Crayola's older line of multicultural crayons to students who may not be able to afford art supplies, but are also frustrated with the lack of skin color choices available to them. Coincidentally, Crayola also saw an issue with the lack of representation in its current crayons and decided to create "Colors of the Worlds" crayons with 24 formulated crayons representing 40 global skin tones - set to release this July.
Anifa Mvuemba killed her 3D Hanifa virtual fashion show of her Congo-inspired Pink Label Capsule Collection. If you haven't checked it out, be amazed at this greatness with this clip!
Sophomore Danielle Geathers was recently elected as the first Black woman to serve as the student body president at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to her new leadership role, Danielle created "The Talented Ten" program. "The Talented Ten" works to increase applications and enrollment among Black women at MIT by pairing high school juniors with current students. She will continue her work with The Talented Ten and push MIT to become a place where all students can receive the institutional support they need to thrive at the elite institute.
The Air Force removed its minimum height requirement for prospective pilots to be more inclusive, now pilots between 5-foot-4 and 6-foot-5, with a sitting height of 34 to 40 inches can be considered. This previous restriction effectively eliminated about 44 percent of American women between the ages of 20 and 29.
Museums including the National Women's History Museum are inviting and accepting submissions of personal experiences to document the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
What do we say to the children? To watch the video of the white officer forcing his knee into George Floyd is terrifying and often leads to a feeling of discomfort. Now, imagine being there, watching it in person and at the age of nine. This open letter to Judeah Reynolds is heartbreaking, but yet so powerful. This little girl witnessed the death and loss of one's life in a matter of minutes, trauma that no one should burden at such a young age. David Dennis Jr.'s words are powerful and can be a resource to those who are unable to put to words to their little brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins and mentees. We leave you with this one passage:
But. I want you to know that no matter how those bad men in those uniforms treated George and how their treatment of George made you feel, you hold more power and value than those men will ever have. Those bad men can never make you less than the wonderful Black girl you are. No man can.
The state of Black Journalism: As journalist Patrice Peck points out in her recent op-ed article in The New York Times, it's a peculiar time to be a Black journalist, especially during the pandemic. Layoffs have hit hard in the journalism industry, newer outlets have risen that are churning out articles that can take a toll on their mental and emotional health, and yet black writers, journalists, illustrators, editors, designers are outnumbered by their white peers. In addition, we witnessed the arrest of Omar Jimenez and the horrific experiences journalists are facing while covering protests. Despite the circumstances, Black journalists such as Camille Augustin, Desire Thompson and Bianca Gracie are thinking through their pivot plans and helping those coming after them with advice on how to navigate the long term effects that could come to the Black journalism industry. Kari Cobham and Patrice are speaking to fellow journalists on similar beats and encouraging mental health breaks. Patrice shared that she finds her mental health breaks strengthen her work and journalistic passion for the long term. It's important to recognize those on the field, especially our Black and Brown journalist. We must continue supporting them!
Re-Living The Memories: A recent National Geographic article explores the human memory and how we make, remake and forget memories. The article shares that: "There's no one place within the brain that holds all of your memories; different areas of the brain form and store different kinds of memories, and different processes may be at play for each." In order for a short-term memory to become a long-term memory, the brain goes through several processes including memory consolidation. In this process, "Individual nerves modify themselves to grow and talk to their neighboring nerves differently. That remodeling alters the nerves' connections in the long term, which stabilizes the memory." To be upset and frustrated is a living long-term memory stored and bonded in the brain for the black community.
The Root chronologically lists out the 400 year timeline of systematic racism "to contextualize the anger, frustration and desperation that forced protesters to recreate the lawlessness and chaos that black people experience on a daily basis." NewsOne highlights the deaths of Black women who were gunned down by police. Additionally, it is the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre which historians believe as many as 300 black people were killed and more than 10,000 were left homeless, after their businesses and homes were burned to the ground in over 48 hours. Re-living our history is a constant long-term memory playing itself over and over with each new death and new law or restriction that disproportionately impacts the Black community. We hope with the context above there can be more understanding and compassion for those on the front-line protesting.
Check out these honorable mentions, and drop us a note on your thoughts if you are able to check them out this weekend or next! Also let us know if you had a chance to watch Season 1 and/or Season 2 of Homecoming and if so, what are your thoughts? We binge watched in a week and were amazed with A LOT of questions.
Tennis Superstar and Entrepreneur Venus Williams's clothing brand, EleVen, and beauty brand Credo teamed up to release a sunscreen collection which consists of the On-The-Defense Sunscreen SPF 30, a semi-matte mineral sunscreen, and the Unrivaled Sun Serum SPF 30, a product for daily use. We are strong believers in adding sunscreen to our skincare routine but have often struggled finding one that doesn't leave a white residue or leave our skin with an "ashy" appearance.
The Credo X EleVen line seeks to solve this dilemma as Venus shares that, "No matter what skin tone you are, you want your skin to look like your skin, and you don’t want any layers on top. This [line] leaves no white cast and, of course, it’s universal for every skin tone and complexion.” We're adding this product to our cart, and hope you give an interest too!
If you are interested in supporting and providing a donation, Ashley Nicole Williams gathered a list of bail funds that you can support right now. The Verge also shared a great article of what you should keep in mind when you are ready to donate as there are often people who try to take advantage of those who are trying to help.
As we offer you new products, services and other things to try, we are holding ourselves to be more accountable by trying them as well. We mentioned that we would be taking on bullet journaling as a new project. We're excited to share a photo of our bullet journal thus far. We applied methods from the below resources: adding in a key, index and a 6 month future log. We also added monthly, weekly and daily trackers with a goals, tasks and deadlines tracker to help boost our productivity. Thus far, we've been enjoying creating the color schemes and using stencils to help format our journal. Check out the links below to help you get started:
Articles
Bullet Journaling for Beginners (and Impatient, Unartistic people like Me)
How To Start A Bullet Journal (& Finally Get Your Life Together)
Products to try
Be True to Yourself & Stay Notedd ✌🏾
1. Please share your thoughts on what you enjoyed and how we can improve here at Notedd.
2. Share with your friends who want to stay in the know and join the “Stay Notedd” community.
3. Content ideas? Launching a product or service? Major accomplishments to share with the group? Reach out to us and we'll add it to our next issue.