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Where to begin this sunny Monday morning? Trump returned from a contentious G20 summit where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than two hours. Lord knows what actually went down in there, but the bottom line is that the president took Vlady’s word over his own intelligence agencies on Russia's interference with the 2016 elections. He even proposed forming an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit” WITH Russia. And just like that, #TrumpCommittees was born. You’re welcome. Ivanka Trump briefly took over as head of state during a G20 meeting when the topic shifted to this session: “Partnership With Africa, Migration and Health.” Apparently at this point, the Don had to leave the room for additional meetings. A video recapping Trump’s time on the world stage went viral, earning hundreds of thousands of shares and views across all social media platforms. Check it out here. Ivanka isn’t the only Trump kid making headlines. Junior got in on the action as well, contradicting a whole bunch of White House denials of Russian contacts. Get that story here. Congress is back in DC this week and the Senate GOP is licking its wounds after blistering events back home and plummeting support for their healthcare bill. Those who chose to hold events got an earful and protesters made their presence known, even if it wasn’t welcome, as was the case in Ohio where police arrested disabled protesters and even dumped one out of their wheelchair outside of Senator Rob Portman’s (R-OH) office. We’ve got a lot to get to … let’s get started:- Don’t call it a comeback. He’s been here for years. Barack Obama joins Eric Holder for a fundraiser.
- Trump appointee leaves State Department and heads to the Peace Corps.
- The story of the Fox and the Hound just got racy.
- Univisión picks up Very Smart Brothas.
- Linda Sarsour addresses Jihad comments.
- Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) sound the alarm on a huge conflict of interest.
- Trump voter commission member Ken Blackwell made a big uh-oh back in the day.
- Meet the New Chief at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
- Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY) defends Hawaii 5-0 actors.
- About that wall...you know who still thinks Mexico is going to pay. How Sway??
- The WSJ’s in-depth look at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and its failure to serve the Native American population.
- The plight of Black Cubans and how American policy impacts the community.
- Benedict College names a new president. And she's a history maker!
- The March on Washington Film Festival kicks off in DC this week. Want to attend? See FOMO for ticket info.
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Congressman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) chatting with a constituent during his “Job for a Day” tour stop at Gerrard’s Market in Redlands, CA on Friday. Credit: Rachel Luna, The Sun/SCNG | |  |
California gubernatorial candidate John Chiang with California Housing Consortium's James Silverwood on Saturday. | |
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Obama Headlines Holder’s NDRC Event on Thursday
On Thursday, former President Barack Obama will headline a closed-door fundraiser in DC on behalf of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). The NDRC aims to influence how state and federal legislative districts are drawn and hopes to create a centralized, strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy. The group’s chairman, former AG Eric H. Holder Jr. will also be at the event as well as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). DNC Chair Tom Pérez said in an interview Sunday that while some Democrats have urged Obama recently, “You’ve got to get out front on issue X or issue Y,” the former president wants instead to “build the bench” for the party. More here.
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Ashley Bell Heads to the Peace Corps
Donald Trump has named Ashley Bell the Associate Director for External Affairs of the Peace Corps. Bell had been working in the State Department since February as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Bell, a former lawyer, made his way to Foggy Bottom after working on Trump’s transition team. Before that he worked for the Republican National Committee as a Senior Strategist for Communications. Helping to lead External Affairs for the Peace Corps, Bell will manage the organization’s public and congressional relations, as well as donations, grants management, strategic partnerships and intergovernmental affairs. “My goal right now is to put together the best team possible to help make all of my departments maximize the talents of the people there,” Bell said. More here.
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WaPo's Abby Phillip stopped to smell the flowers at a lovely French restaurant in Warsaw last week as she covered the president's international trip. | |  |
Pollster Cornell Belcher goes gobal. The Dem strategist was caught relaxing in Paris last week. | |
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Michelle Obama Heads to the Mile High City this Month
Former First Lady Michelle Obama will join the Women's Foundation of Colorado at the end of this month. The group's upcoming Together event is scheduled for Tuesday, July 25th at Denver’s Pepsi Center. The event will raise funds for the organization to conduct research, public policy advocacy, and grantmaking that they say propel Colorado's women and girls from promise to prosperity. Through her own advocacy, Michelle Obama has encouraged women and girls to overcome adversity, pursue higher education and job training, and give back by uplifting others, as well as leading four key initiatives: Let’s Move!, to address the challenge of childhood obesity; Joining Forces, to support veterans, service members, and their families; Reach Higher, to inspire young people to seek higher education; and Let Girls Learn, to help adolescent girls around the world go to school. Learn more about the event here
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Latinas of the White House
HuffPost profiles these five Latinas in the White House by saying that “party politics aside, the accomplishments of women, especially minorities, ought to be elevated and celebrated.” They profile Helen Aguirre Ferré, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Media Affairs; Jennifer Sevilla Korn, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for the White House Office of Public Liaison; Jovita Carranza, the 44th Treasurer of the United States and has direct oversight over the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Fort Knox, and is a key liaison with the Federal Reserve; Andeliz Castillo, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and a key emissary to a variety of groups representing people of different races, creeds and political viewpoints for the Vice President; and Estephania Gongora, who serves as a member of Second Lady Karen Pence’s office as the Director of Scheduling. See the full profile here.
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Women’s March Organizer Linda Sarsour Addresses “Jihad” Comments
Women’s March Organizer Linda Sarsour became the focus of the conservative right last week when she delivered a speech to the largest gathering of Muslims in America where she asked the audience to speak truth to power and commit to the struggle for racial and economic justice. She says conservative media outlets took her comments out of context and alleged that she called for a violent “jihad” against the president. She did not. She says outlets focused on demonizing the legitimate yet widely misunderstood Islamic term, “jihad,” which to a majority of Muslims -- and according to religious scholars -- means “struggle” or “to strive for.” This term has been hijacked by Muslim extremists and right-wing extremists alike, leaving ordinary Muslims to defend their faith and in some cases silenced. The Palestinian American and Brooklyn-born Muslim Sarsour says that since the Women’s March on Washington, she and her family have received countless threats of physical violence from people who spout anti-Muslim, xenophobic and white-supremacist beliefs. She details her experience and perspective here in an op-ed for the WaPo.
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Symone Sanders cruising down the Nile in Ethiopia on Saturday. | |  |
Commentator Bakari Sellers delivered NCU’s commencement address on Saturday. | |
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Cummings and Jeffries Want Answers from Trump About Potential Housing Conflict of Interest
According to a 10-page letter written by Congressmen Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Trump stands to make millions from his 4% stake in Starrett City, a sprawling affordable housing complex in Brooklyn. The letter was sent on Friday to the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, who oversees a trust that holds the president’s business assets; HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson; and Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the chairman of the Oversight Committee. “Many real estate companies receive government subsidies to support affordable housing, but unique conflicts exist with regard to Starrett City because the president is on both sides of the negotiations,” the letter said. “He oversees the government entity providing taxpayer funds and he pockets some of that money himself.” Adding another layer to the mix, Cummings and Jeffries also expressed concerns about the appointment of Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump family associate, to lead the department’s New York and New Jersey office, saying, “We have serious concerns that her self-described loyalty to the president and his family could influence HUD’s discretion on issues related to Starrett City.” More here from NYT's Yamiche Alcindor.
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Meet the New Chief at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Today, the Senate is expected to approve Neomi Rao’s nomination to lead an obscure but powerful White House agency called the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs -- placing her at the heart of Donald Trump’s politically contentious agenda to overhaul government rules and regulations. Rao, 44, who has served in all three branches of the federal government, is an Indian American with scholarly credentials from the ideologically charged field of regulatory study. The NYT reports that she is the founder of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason, which is affiliated with its law school, and has been a beneficiary of the donation from the Charles Koch Foundation. She has been known to work across party lines and is a staunch fighter of what she views as government overreach. Learn more about her and the vision she will bring to the position here.
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Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards Reveals Diagnosis While Asking Congress to Protect Her Healthcare
Former Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards reveals she has multiple sclerosis, in an open letter to her former colleagues published in the WaPo. “It’s likely that I have had the disease for the past decade, undiagnosed. I’ve learned that more than 400,000 Americans have MS, that it’s not fatal and that it affects different people in different ways,” writes Edwards. But she says she’s still frightened. Not by the disease but by the uncertainty of the future of her healthcare. “I am not employed, and I pay $800 a month for my COBRA coverage, which ends in June 2018. I’m not sure what I’ll do then. My medication, which has thankfully halted the progression of my MS, costs roughly $73,000 a year. I’ve had three sets of MRI scans and will require one each year to check my progress; that’s roughly $7,000 each.” She closes the letter by saying, “I pray that as you finish doing whatever it is that you are doing with health care, you remember that I was one of your colleagues, that I worked hard and that I don’t have a preexisting condition because I was a bad person who led an unhealthy life. I have a preexisting condition simply because I do; and I, like millions of other Americans in the same situation, deserve quality, affordable health care.” Read the entire piece here.
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While in a waiting area for private flights at Anchorage International Airport last Monday, 44, who was on his way home, spotted 6-month-old Giselle and her mother, Jolene Jackinsky, of Anchorage. The baby's face says it all. | |  |
The HACR team ready for the NCLR National Latino Family Expo Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony in Phoenix on Saturday. | |
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The Fox and the Hound
Conservative activist Scottie Nell Hughes dropped a bombshell accusation Friday against Fox Business and one of its star hosts, Charles Payne. She alleged in a statement to the LA Times that she was “coerced into a sexual relationship with Payne under threat of reprisals.” However, reports have surfaced that cast doubt on Hughes’ allegations. In one email to the Fox Business host, Hughes described a sexual fantasy of hers about what they would do together. In the exchange on September 3, 2013, near the beginning of their relationship, Hughes sent Payne a graphic email in which she discussed a recent sex dream she had involving the two of them in a swimming pool. Hughes told Payne in a second email on that day that he would have to save all of his energy if they ever were “given the chance of lots of time and no commitments.” Another email shows Hughes describing them interacting in the morning as “the ideal way to start a Saturday or any day for that matter.” This is an age-old storyline. We don’t know how all this will play out. But someone should tell Payne that when faux news meets alternative facts, it’s time to #GetOut. More here.
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Very Smart Brothas Joins Univisión
In 2008, Damon Young, Panama Jackson, and Liz Burr founded Very Smart Brothas. The online outlet served as a hub of "culture" and eventually became a digital magazine in 2014. Now, VSB has been acquired by Univisión under Gizmodo Media Group. It will join the Gizmodo family as a vertical of The Root. “Over the past year and a half, we’ve been approached by several different entities interested in some sort of partnership,” said Young. “Some wanted to merge us with already existing platforms. Others were interested in creating something new. Univision was one of those entities, and we believed that joining them was the best opportunity for us.” In other news, Univisión also announced that Fusion, the undefinable culture news site owned by Univisión, is rebranding as Splinter. Read more about the VSB acquisition here.
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Meng Defends Hawaii Five-0 Actors Decision to Leave Show
Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY) is standing with Asian American actors Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park on their decision to leave the CBS show Hawaii Five-0 after reportedly being offered 10 to 15 percent less in salary than their co-stars. “Asian Americans already face many issues in Hollywood, including typecasting and whitewashing. The entertainment industry continues to struggle with accurately portraying Asian American stories and including diverse characters. Not paying artists fairly further increases these problems by putting up barriers for Asian American performers to break through in the industry. I call upon Hollywood studios and producers to address pay inequity, offensive stereotypes, and lack of Asian American representation on and off screen.” Read her full statement here.
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Journalist Tamron Hall last week celebrating Lena Horne’s would-be100th birthday, wearing the coat Horne once owned. | |  |
Van Jones joined ABC's Kelly Ripa last week with Justine Ezarik. | |
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CNN WH Correspondent Acosta’s Balancing Act
The WaPo has a piece focusing on CNN’s senior White House reporter, Jim Acosta, and his outspoken frustration with the curtailment of live broadcasts of the press secretary’s daily briefings; the lack of substantive answers from the administration; the alleged “blackballing” of CNN (or maybe just of Acosta), by all of the president’s spokespeople, among others. Other reporters share some of Acosta’s irritation; the difference is, Acosta has been outspoken about his. At a time when CNN is under attack by Trump and his supporters, Acosta has been fighting back. Acosta’s remarks aren’t just blunt; they’re unusual. Reporters are supposed to report, not opine. Yet Acosta’s disdain has flowed openly, raising a question about how far a reporter -- supposedly a neutral arbiter of facts, not a commenter on them -- can and should go. The full piece is an insightful look at the role and responsibilities of the media during troubling times. Read it here.
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Polish Nigerian One of Four Journalists of Color Covering Trump’s Time in Poland
At least three American journalists of color -- the AP’s Darlene Superville, the WaPo’s Abby Phillip, and Toluse Olorunnipa of Bloomberg News, accompanied Donald Trump on his trip to Europe for the G20 summit last week. But The Root reports that no journalist quite had the perspective of Remi Adekoya, who writes for Britain’s Guardian newspaper and is former political editor of the Warsaw Business Journal. Adekoya’s father is Nigerian and his mother is Polish. He grew up in Nigeria but worked in Poland, where Black people are scarce, and still shuttles between the UK and Poland. “Poland is one of the main countries which refused to take in any migrants during the 2015, 2016 migrant crisis in Europe, when suddenly a million refugees found themselves in Europe,” Adekoya said. “So, this -- so, the fact Trump made this speech in Poland is significant.” He talks about working in Poland and having repeated racial insults hurled at him. Check it out here.
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FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn talking on Saturday with Code CEO Hadi Partovi. | |  |
CA congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar enjoying a cup of covfefe last week. | |
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Booker and Tri-Caucus Urge DeVos to Commit to Protecting Students’ Civil Rights
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), in coordination with Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA) and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and the Congressional Black Caucus, and Congresswoman Michelle Luján Grisham (D-NM) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, sent a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos voicing serious concerns about the Trump administration’s lack of commitment to protecting the civil rights of the nation’s students. In the letter, the group of 64 lawmakers wrote: “This Administration’s proposed budget and staffing cuts for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the repeal of important civil rights policy guidance, signals, at best, a troubling hands off approach to protecting the civil rights of students across the country and, at worse, a complete undermining of the equal protections guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Specifically, the lawmakers cited reduced funding for the Office for Civil Rights in Trump’s budget request, the rollback of guidance clarifying protections for transgender students, and noncommittal answers offered to members of Congress, as evidence that DeVos is failing to protect students and fulfill the mission of the agency she leads. More here.
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Trump Still Wants Mexico To Pay For Wall
In case anyone thought the president had forgotten about the border wall and moved on to other issues like Russia and tweeting about “psycho” Joe Scarborough and “crazy” Mika Brzezinski, the issue is still fresh in his mind and so is the idea that Mexico is going to pay for it. At least that’s what he said while sitting next to none other than Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at the Group of 20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany on Friday. Responding to a question by an AP reporter asking Trump if he still wanted Mexico to pay for the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, he answered “absolutely,” to laughter from several U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Mexico has repeatedly said that paying for a wall is just not going to happen, and Mexican officials said the issue didn’t come up in discussions between the two leaders later that day in Hamburg. More here from The Hill.
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Haley Breaks with Admin: “Everybody Knows That Russia Meddled In Our Elections”
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said everyone knows that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections, as well as other elections around the world, despite Trump's refusal to say they did. "Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections," Haley told CNN's Dana Bash. Haley's comments come after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump brought up the issue of election hacking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday at the G20 summit in Hamburg ... where Trump and Putin reportedly agreed Russia did not mess with our elections. More here.
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Congresswoman Val Demings (D-FL) spending National Fried Chicken Day at Chef Eddies in Orlando last week. | |  |
Obama alumni Deon Jones in Miami on Saturday. | |
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Indian Health Service Facilities Sanctioned for Dangerous, Faulty Care
The WSJ had an in-depth look at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and its failure to serve the Native American population. IHS facilities have been sanctioned for dangerous, faulty care, leaving often-impoverished patients on remote reservations without services required by law, and even turning way gravely ill patients and caused unnecessary deaths. The IHS, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, operates a network of hospitals and clinics, much like the Veterans Health Administration. Under U.S. treaties that date back generations, the service is legally responsible for providing medical care to about 2.2 million tribal members. “We’ve lost faith in the IHS, but we have no alternatives to go anywhere else,” said Lisa White Pipe, a tribal council member for the Rosebud Sioux, whose father died last year after a delay in cancer treatment that she blames on the agency. The full piece is a must read.
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Grijalva: The Bernie-Hillary Debate Is Destroying the Democratic Party
In an op-ed for Time Magazine, Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) decries how many on the left are busy fortifying themselves into mutually exclusive camps that can’t agree on what the right message was in the last election, let alone the next one. Democrats “are rapidly losing our ability to cohere around a formula that everyone -- whatever his or her feelings about Clinton, Sanders, James Comey or any other public figure -- can reproduce to regain a governing majority,” he writes. Grijalva -- who was the first member to endorse Sanders -- says it is past time to move on from the Bernie-Hillary debate and instead coalesce around building a forward-looking economic agenda. Read his full piece here.
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Kate’s Family Does Not Support Kate’s Law
The family of Kate Steinle is speaking out following the passage of a prominent bill targeting undocumented immigrants. “I don’t know who coined ‘Kate’s Law,’” Jim Steinle told The San Francisco Chronicle editorial page editor John Díaz. “It certainly wasn’t us." The House recently passed a bill known as "Kate's Law," which increases maximum penalties for undocumented immigrants who illegally enter the country multiple times after they have been deported. Díaz writes that the Steinles’ views on immigration policy are far more nuanced than the debates that dominate the screamfests on cable news. As they explained in an interview with Díaz in September 2015, the Steinles are not opposed to sanctuary cities. More here.
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Reverend Al Sharpton celebrating former NYC Mayor David Dinkins who turned 90 on Saturday. | |  |
Congressman Rubén Gallego (D-AZ) surrounded at the NCLR Action Fund opening reception on Saturday in Phoenix. | |
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Benedict College Names Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis its First Female President
Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis is making history as the first woman to lead the HBCU Benedict College in Columbia, SC. This isn’t the first time that Artis has shattered a glass ceiling. In 2014, she was named the first female president of Florida Memorial University in Miami after spending a year as its interim leader. Prior to her arrival at FMU, Artis was provost of Mountain State University and had an established legal career before joining academia. A graduate of West Virginia State University and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Artis earned a law degree from West Virginia University College of Law and a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University. More here.
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Terrapins Name New Diversity Officer
After complaints from students about a hostile racial climate on campus, and after a Black student visiting from a nearby college was stabbed on campus, the University of Maryland has named a new Chief Diversity Officer. Roger Worthington, who is Latino, is a well-known leader in multicultural education and has served as Chief Diversity Officer and Assistant Deputy Chancellor at the University of Missouri. Worthington is also an editor of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Richard Collins III, a student at Bowie State University was recently stabbed to death on the UM campus in College Park and a white student has been charged, and white supremacist posters were posted around campus earlier in the year. The university’s inaugural diversity officer, Kumea Shorter-Gooden, resigned in January after five years in the position. More here from The Baltimore Sun.
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Henry Louis Gates Aims to Solve Education Challenges with These Two Ideas
Harvard professor and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. says that the shrinking middle class stems from the failing American education system that hasn’t adapted to the 21st century’s highly globalized, highly technological economy. He says Black Americans, in particular, tend to attend under-funded schools and struggle to build middle-class economic security. To better equip people of any race, “We have to have a massive revolution in public education in the United States,” Gates said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic. Gates discussed two of the ways the U.S. could get there. His first: Move dollars, not people. “Bus the dollars from the rich school districts to the poor districts,” he said. “We need to allocate the same amount of money per student per school.” His second idea suggests hardship pay for talented, motivated teachers to work in the worst-performing school districts. Read more about his thoughts here.
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Jeff Johnson fishing on the Chesapeake Bay with CEO of Robin Hood NYC Wes Moore and Johnson's son Malcolm last week. | |  |
ABC commentator Tara Setmayer enjoying the sun with her husband on the Jersey shore on Saturday. | |
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Ohio Official Who Posted Social Security Numbers is Tapped for Voter Commission
That controversial presidential voter commission looking for non-existent evidence of non-existent rampant voter fraud has a member who inadvertently distributed lists of nearly six million Ohio voters with their Social Security numbers conveniently attached while serving as Ohio Secretary of State in 2006. And not only that. Ken Blackwell’s office also accidentally posted the Social Security number of 1.2 million Ohio voters on the Secretary of State’s website. YCMTSU. Apparently saying bygones will be bygones, Blackwell (pictured) has been tapped to serve on the commission, the same one that has gotten intense bipartisan pushback from states that say no way on the commission’s request for voters’ personal information, including partial Social Security numbers. The commission also faces a lawsuit from a watchdog group that says what they’re asking for is illegal. Blackwell, who has said he is concerned about voter fraud while offering no proof, has been criticized for trying to suppress the vote in Ohio, which coincidentally also happens to be a key electoral state. The commission holds its first meeting July 19th in DC. More here from the LA Times.
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Marc Morial at the NY Stock Exchange with NY1 anchor/reporter Diane Hall on Friday. | |  |
NCLR President Janet Murguía with Renata Sono and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton at the Affiliate Luncheon in Phoenix on Saturday. | |
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Native Americans Fight Big Oil in New Jersey
Native Americans across the country are continuing their fight against big oil. This time, it’s led by Ramapough Lenape Nation, a tribe from the highlands near Mahwah, New Jersey. According to Fusion, they’re trying to stop a proposed pipeline project that cuts through their ancestral land and some of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the highlands. Environmental activists and members of the tribe say the project poses a risk of a spill that could destroy sources of drinking water in New York and New Jersey.“My tribe, the Ramapough Lenape Nation, we’ve always been the guardians of this land. Now with what’s going on we have to stand up again,” said Niish’wahkohmakwak, a member of the indigenous community that has set up a prayer camp against the pipeline since 2016. More here.
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HHS Sends $15 Million to Flint
The Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that it was sending approximately $15 million in funding to help the Genesee County Healthy Start program provide health and social services to mothers and families that have or are at-risk for lead exposure in Flint and surrounding communities. The grant will be used by the county’s Healthy Start program to help minimize the effects of lead exposure among pregnant women, infants and young children in Flint and the surrounding area. More here.
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Jonathan Solórzano, January Contreras, Larry Sandigo, Belen Sisa, Mina Méndez and Estuardo Rodríguez at a judiciary panel at NCLR in Phoenix on Friday. | |  |
Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA) in the MSNBC Green Room ready go to live last week. | |
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Scholar Says Cuba Policy Under Trump Will Leave Black Cubans Behind
Alejandro De La Fuente is Director of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute at Harvard University. In an op-ed for The Miami Herald he says that under Trump’s revised policy, Black Cubans will get left behind, again. The timid economic reforms implemented by the Cuban government in the past two decades have resulted in a growing gap between those with access to capital and those without it. This gap is not color blind. “Because access to capital depends on monetary flows from the overwhelmingly white Cuban-American community, Black Cubans lack the resources to participate on equal grounds in the expanding private sector, De La Fuente says. He says a growing Afrodescendant movement has emerged in the midst of the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, led by Hip-Hop musicians, visual artists, writers, and filmmakers critical of racial discrimination. Now he says it includes community activists, organizations, bloggers and more. All of whom, he says, have promoted a debate on the persistence of racism in Cuban society. But he says there is little activists can do to counteract the effects of the new policies of the Trump administration. Read the entire piece here.
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| FOMO
Today, 6P: Fundraiser for Randall Woodfin, Candidate for Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama at Smith Commons (1245 H Street NE, WDC). Click here for more info.
Tuesday, July 11th, 4P: The swearing-in ceremony for Congressman-elect Jimmy Gómez (D-CA). 1226 Longworth HOB.
Wednesday, July 12th - 16th: The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will host their 94th convention in Baltimore, MD. The convention theme is "The Urgency of Now." Click here for more information.
Thursday, July 13th, 5:30P: The Congressional Hispanic Staff Association co-hosts the Hispanic Employee Council for Foreign Affairs Agencies' (HECFAA) State Department and USAID Chapters Happy Hour. Mackey's Pub, 1306 G Street, N.W.
Tuesday, July 18th, 9A: The launch of the National Association of Diverse Consultants,
NADC is the largest association of diverse political and public affairs professionals. National Press Club, 529 14th Street, N.W. 13th floor.
Tuesday, July 18th, 7P: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sponsors the fifth annual Hip Hop on the Hill. Toro Toro, 1300 I Street, N.W. Click here to purchase tickets.
Wednesday, July 19th, 6P: The Washington Government Relations Group and the Embassy of Canada host the 8th Annual Tin Cup Awards. 501 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Click here for more information.
Wednesday, July 26th - Friday, July 28th: ColorComm, Women of Color in Communications, holds its 2017 conference in Miami, FL, featuring keynote speaker Whoopi Goldberg. Click here to register.
Saturday, August 5th, 3P: The Congressional Hispanic Staff Association hosts a tailgate before the DC United v. Toronto FC game. For more info, email James Hauser at iph86@georgetown.edu
Wednesday, August 9th - 13th: The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) holds its annual convention and career fair in New Orleans. Click here for more information and to register.
Friday, August 18th: The deadline to apply for the Poynter Institute and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) 2017 Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media, to be held Dec. 3rd - 8th in St. Petersburg, FL. The tuition-free program trains journalists of color to work in digital media. Click here for more information and to apply.
Monday, August 28th, 9A: The 2017 Black Political Power Summit, to illustrate the possibilities, challenges and plans to capitalize on both the historic political opportunities and dire economic and civil rights challenges the Black community faces during the 2018 and 2020 political cycles. Hosted by The Collective. For more information, contact Quentin James: quentin@collectivepac.org
Thursday, September 7th - 9th: The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the Native American Journalists Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) sponsor the Excellence in Journalism 2017 conference in Anaheim, CA. Click here for more details and to register.
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