Happy (belated) Birthday, JB!
Hello my wonderful Troublemakers!
How y’all doing? I have family coming in to town this week, including my 90 year old grandmother! When I think about legends, she is at the tip-top of that list. She has traveled the world and held a sense of dignity for herself I have come to recognize as nothing short of miraculous.
Another legend amongst us would be celebrating his 97th birthday if he were alive today - Happy (one day late) Birthday, to the incomparable James Baldwin. I include Baldwin often in my list of influences - a person so truthful with his words that they have stood the test of time. Sometimes I read a quote of his and shake my head in awe of his ability to capture the nuance and absolutes of being Black in this country. I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes, but do yourself a favor and scroll through this post and watch I Am Not Your Negro and read “The Fire Next Time.”
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
“I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.”
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” 🔥🔥🔥
A FEW MORE THINGS FOR YOU THIS WEEK…
August’s Article of the Month Black Americans And The Racist Architecture Of Homeownership "The market is a reflection of that which we hold to be valuable — that which we see as desirable, that which we see as undesirable. And it's impossible to measure that without factoring in race in the United States," says writer Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.
Question Time - What is your own relationship to housing? How have you seen race factor in to your own decisions as to where to live? What do you see when you hear a neighborhood described as “desirable” and who dwells inside those communities?
YES to Black girls saying no. So proud of @Simone_Biles and @naomiosaka. We are way over due for prioritizing ourselves. Thank you for doing it so publicly. You’re leading the way.
August is #BlackBusinessMonth and I am here for it! Make sure to follow Luvvie and buy from the businesses she highlights over the next month. Her team’s goal is to infuse 💰1 MILLION DOLLARS 💰 into Black-owned businesses!
Women & Children First—a queer- and disabled-owned bookstore in Chicago, Illinois—curated a quiz to help you find audiobooks by authors with disabilities.
WEEKLY WISDOM
“To accept one’s past—one’s history—is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.” - Jame Baldwin
Stay wild and holy and free!
- Austin
PS Save the Date for my next Troublemaker’s Zoom Q + A next Tuesday, August 10 at 8:30pm EST. This is only available to the paid subscribers of the newsletter so if that’s not you and you would like to see me IRL on the zoom and more frequently in your email (weekly vs monthly) SIGN UP! It’s just $7/month and our monthly zoom has become one of my most favorite things. 💜
Happy Birthday James Baldwin! My parents bookshelf contained a variety of books that just seemed to appear from nowhere - GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN appeared one day and carved through me when I read it back in the 70's.
Housing on racial lines: for an amazing sprawling read check out THE SELLOUT by Paul Beatty. It's a highly satirical novel about a black man trying to introduce segregation and slavery into his neighbourhood when he discovers that his neighbourhood has disappeared of the Los Angeles district.
In Australia we have a housing crisis of price made harder by rich people buying for their grand children and investors. Public housing is usually marginal - outer suburbs with poor transport systems. These areas are often run down and sit side by side with housing estates with "McMansions" giant houses for families desperate to own the Australian dream. In the 1960's there was a term in country towns - "fringe dwellers" that remains to this day- aboriginal housing that was once "a mish" (govt reserve). These shacks were eventually replaced by outer area run down public housing. Deeply segregated. And way back in the day when Australia had a white Australia Policy- Chinese people were also only allowed to live on the outskirts on settlements- where market gardens sprang up. During the depression a remarkable suburb was created called Happy Valley out near a givernment mission called La Perouse. White people who couldn't pay rent set up tents in the area, alongside war refugees from Europe and the First Natiins peoples. For a moment all were equal in poverty but never equal in discrimination.
Thanks for the article on Sugar Hill. I hope you have a great family gathering.
For eyelashes, go BLINK, black owned business start up: on Facebook and ShopBlinkByKB.com
#lashes #lashescincinnati #blinkdifferently