On The Vine: It’s a new-ish day in America, folks
Well, it’s a new-ish day in America. I hesitate, however, to go so far as to say it’s morning — Donald Trump may not occupy the White House, but his rhetoric is not gone. White supremacy in America is not gone, and the white nationalists who peddle it have not simply packed their things and moved on. That said, watching Kamala Harris take the oath of office to be sworn in as America’s first woman, first Asian-American and first Black vice president in spite of the events on Jan. 6, I maybe got a little emotional.
I initially missed 22-year-old youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman’s performance (the NBC broadcasters talked through the entire thing!) but my cracked and shattered phone blew up with messages from several friends: “I’m in tears.”
“We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it/Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy/And this effort very nearly succeeded/But while democracy can be periodically delayed/It can never be permanently defeated,” she said.
Joe Biden, in speaking after being sworn in as our nation’s 46th president, spoke of unity during his address, though not in the way calls for Americans to simply set aside differences and see eye-to-eye. No, it was, rather, a call to weed out white supremacy, bigotry. From the steps of the Capitol building, the very steps rioters stormed and attempted a coup just two weeks ago, President Joe Biden admonished the rise of white supremacy, political extremism, and domestic terrorism we’ve seen over the last four years. He called for unity in defeating such ideals.
That gave me just a little shimmer of hope.
Around the block
How did Patrick Mahomes end up with that hairstyle? Meet his Johnson County barber
I have some thoughts on Patrick Mahomes *everyone holds their breath.*
First and foremost, if it’s not clear by the time this newsletter hits your inbox, I hope the guy is OK. He didn’t look good after that tackle and to be honest, whether he’s playing in Sunday’s game or not isn’t what matters. Get your mind and body right, Patrick. The second thing I’ll keep real short: I’m a Bills fan; dad was from Buffalo. Don’t come for me.
But third, I love this story from The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez. There’s not much that’s more special than the relationship between a Black man and his barber, speaking as someone who has yet to find a barber since moving back to Kansas City in the midst of a pandemic.
DeJuan Bonds is the man Mahomes trusts.
“The longtime Kansas City-area barber is known as the go-to guy among some of the biggest names in local professional sports. He’s the man who took the meh-mohawk that Mahomes wore at Texas Tech and whipped it into shape for the NFL spotlight his rookie year. He has groomed it ever since. The look is iconic, among two-legged and four-legged fans alike.
Across the country, little boys and middle-aged men, black and white, curly haired dudes and ones with stick-straight hair, want that look, some going to unusual lengths to get it. Grade-schoolers are letting their moms curl their hair — one let his mom give him a chemical perm — to get that Mahomes ’do.”
That’s huge. Patrick Mahomes is a lot of things to a lot of people. To me — other than the man who could decide whether the Bills make the Super Bowl for the first time since... better we don’t talk about it — he is a Black quarterback. Yeah, yeah, I already know what some of y’all are thinking: Patrick Mahomes is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL, why does it matter if he’s Black. Well, I heard fans boo that first game of the season during the moment of silence. Mahomes led that gesture, after leading the team to its first Super Bowl in 50 years. I could continue making my point, but let’s move on.
In case you missed it...
- Whatever happened to renaming a Kansas City street for MLK? Officials have a plan
- Young Kansas Citians carry on spirit of activism following year of protests, upheaval
Kansas City to look for outside lawyers to remedy fire department discrimination
Kansas bill ‘good first step’ to address epidemic of crimes against Indigenous people
Public housing project in KCK on verge of closing, leaving residents in limbo
Juniper Gardens is the oldest and largest public housing project in Kansas. When it was built in 1962, the 390 rent-subsidized units were occupied by tenants who, before moving into the project, were living in squalor — shacks mostly. Two-thirds or more of the structures were without even a flushing toilet, according to newspaper articles at the time.
For decades, however, Juniper Gardens has been all but ignored, suffering from a lack of investment. The Kansas City, Kansas, Housing Authority has, since the ‘90s, received on-again, off-again pressure from the federal government to shut down the housing project. Now it’s reached its breaking point. Juniper Garden’s residents are currently in limbo, forced to look for new housing as the housing authority preps to shut the place down. And no one yet knows what’ll happen to the land.
The housing authority in KCK has already hired a relocation company to find residents new affordable housing, but their future is still uncertain.
Parts of KCK, particularly areas in and around downtown, have experienced “growth” in recent years. As areas including downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the Crossroads — a short drive from KCK — deal with high costs, development (and gentrification) moves to areas such as downtown KCK. According to the Wyandotte Economic Development Council, business expansion and retention across the county led to $381 million in economic development investments in 2019. Meanwhile, a little more than 20% of people in Wyandotte County lived below the poverty line.
Don’t miss it...
As part of The Star’s recent examination of our past coverage (and lack thereof) around race and KanCity’s Black community over the paper’s 140-year history, The Star is hosting a discussion at 6:30 p.m. January 27 focused on the newspaper’s actions, the impact and the path forward.
The event is in conjunction with the Kansas City Public Library. And as a recent letter writer to the editor admonished: “Apologies are a good first step. However, truth and atonement will not be judged by words, but actions.”
The Star’s president and editor, Mike Fannin, will be joined by:
Education reporter Mará Rose Williams, whose concerns initiated the project. She contributed to the series’ research and writing.
Michele Watley, the founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, a political advocacy nonprofit focusing on issues of importance to Black women and families in Kansas City.
Nicole Sussner Rodgers, the founder and executive director of Family Story, a New York City-based think tank working to broaden perspective on family arrangements and models.
And Toriano Porter, a member of The Star’s Editorial Board who writes about race and racism, will moderate the discussion.
You can sign up for the virtual event here.
Beyond the block
Biden’s flurry of first-day executive actions
Biden has big plans for immigration reform.
On his first day in the Oval Office, President Biden sent his U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 bill to Congress. The bill would, among other things, create an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The legislation, if it’s successful, could be the most sweeping move toward granting legal status since 1986, when President Ronald Reagan granted amnesty for nearly 3 million people.
In addition to paving a pathway to citizenship, Biden’s proposed bill would bolster border security, deliver aid to Central America and a host of other actions, including reversing Trump’s travel ban and reinforcing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which has provided legal protections to the children of undocumented immigrants. Oh, and that border wall Mexico was supposed to pay for?... yeah, he’ll move to stop construction on that.
That’s just the beginning of Biden’s day-one actions, He also signed an executive order on “advancing racial equity and support for under served communities through the federal government...
“Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human coasts of systemic racism,” the White House site reads. “Our nation deserves an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the opportunities and challenges that we face.”
Biden selects transgender doctor Rachel Levine as assistant health secretary
Biden, earlier this week, nominated Pennsylvania’s top health official, Rachel Levine, as his assistant secretary of health. Levine, a pediatrician, would become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The president has made a clear push for better inclusion of transgender and LGBTQ people. He named Shawn Skelly to his transition team, and appointed Pete Buttigieg to lead the Transportation Department, making him the first openly LGBTQ person nominated to a permanent Cabinet position.
It honestly feels like such a small innocuous thing, but of course it’s monumental. I mean, why should Levine not be considered and nominated to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services’ primary advisor on matters involving the nation’s public health.
She’s is a graduate of Harvard University and Tulane Medical School. She’s worked as the chief resident at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where she also taught, and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), in 2015, appointed Levine as physician general, the state’s top doctor. As The Washington Post reported, the state Senate, impressed with her background in behavioral and mental health, voted unanimously to approve her, paying little attention to her gender identity during the confirmation process.
So not only is she beyond qualified — as Pennsylvania’s top doctor during the pandemic she instituted aggressive social distancing rules, raising her profile and making her a target — she’s had to work toward all that and do her job while repelling transphobia and bigotry, which she’s seemingly done with remarkable grace.
During a pandemic briefing in July Levine took the opportunity to directly respond to the transphobic attacks.
“While these individuals may think that they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are, in fact hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment,” she said. “We have not made progress unless we have all made progress. As for me, I have no room in my heart for hatred, and frankly I do not have time for intolerance. My heart is full with a burning desire to help people and my time is full with working toward protecting the public health of everyone in Pennsylvania. I will stay laser-focused on that goal.”
Tribal Elders Are Dying From the Pandemic, Causing a Cultural Crisis for American Indians
For communities of Native Americans, in which connections to the past; knowledge and traditions are invaluable, the deadly toll that COVID-19 has had on the elders there is incalculable; unimaginable.
“It’s like we’re having a cultural book-burning,” Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in eastern Oklahoma, told The New York Times. “We’re losing a historical record, encyclopedias. One day soon, there won’t be anybody to pass this knowledge down.”
As New York Times corespondent Jack Healy writes in this moving, devastating piece, the pandemic has killed American Indians and Alaska Natives at nearly twice the rate of white people. And, much like I wrote about here last week, there is a deep and reasonable mistrust of the government. This is a generation of Native Americans who were subjected to medical testing and shipped off to boarding schools where they suffered under forced assimilation.
For the culture
“... A skinny Black girl, descended from slaves”
I mentioned Biden’s inaugural poet (the youngest in history) at the top, but the world seemingly fell in love with Amanda Gorman on Jan. 20, so seemed fitting we revisit this brilliant 22-year-old sister.
You can read her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” here.
The first ever national youth poet laureate, Gorman on Wednesday was often compared to a supernova, but she didn’t just burst on the scene on the steps of the Capitol.
She became a youth poet laureate in 2017, when she was still a sophomore at Harvard, and she published her book of poetry “The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough” in 2015. She’s opened the literary season for the Library of Congress, (virtually) met Oprah, worked with Nike, and had appearances on all kinds of shows, including “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” where I was first introduced to her.
For someone so young, yeah, Gorman’s been around a while. And with her plan to run for president in 2036 (fingers crossed), we’ll be seeing a lot more of her, hearing more.
Still Jenny From the Block
J. Lo performed a rendition of “This Land is Your Land,” transitioning into “America the Beautiful,” during the inauguration on Wednesday. I, for one, was rapt. But then she addressed the nation in Spanish, from the steps of the Capitol building and I about lost it.
“Una nación, bajo Dios, indivisible, con libertad y justicia para todos,” she said, reciting a part of the Pledge of Allegiance: “One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
However, it was when she yelled out “Let’s get loud” — referencing 2009 banger — that I, and the rest of the internet, fell out of our chairs.
Hottest fashion show of the season
DID Y’ALL SEE MICHELLE?! Yo, America’s dignitaries and relatives of such did not come to play during the inauguration. Who knows when fashion shows will be a thing again, but the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will suffice.
Michelle looked great. the Biden granddaughters looked great. Kamala’s nephew-in-law, Nikolas Ajagu, showed up wearing a pair of Dior Jordan 1s — more then $2,000 at retail. And Bernie Sanders, the fit and mood God, nearly broke the internet with his mittens and his, uh... laissez faire attitude.
See ya next week!
Maybe... depends on how the Bills do in Kansas City Sunday. But that’s it for my report from the inauguration, from my couch. Deuces ✌️.
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This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 10:30 AM.
