Black Woman's Renaissance

In this special episode,  Black Women’s Renaissance honors the accomplishments and acknowledges the struggles of The Honorable, Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justice Brown will soon be the first African-American woman on the  Supreme Court.  The Designate Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States received Senate confirmation on April 7, 2022, with all 50 members of the Democratic caucus and three Republicans voting in favor of the nomination.  I note here that despite having unique experiences and being as qualified  as the conservative justices on the court, 47 Republicans voted against her. This issue will be discussed later in the show.

We dedicate this show to the mother of Crystal Kelly, Ms Mary Ellen Kelly.  This episode features a special woman! Black Woman Renaissance will honor Ms. Crystal Kelly.  Crystal, is among other things, an advocate of inspiration and change.  This multi talented woman as the founder of the I Am Beautiful Award that honors formerly abused women who are now victorious, she is A talented health and welfare consultant, a certified Life coach, a  licensed life and health insurance  agent, and is currently a licenced Realestate Agent.  Crystal directed the ‘Face-2-Face’ mentoring group for junior and high school seniors located in Norfolk, VA, a motivational speaker,  has written several articles for Huami magazine, published by Mykel  Media in North Carolina, and is the founder of Make-it-Happen Entertainment, where she launched her own recurring event, Floetic  Expressions Open Mic Night. This event opened the door for local musicians and poets to  positively express themselves through the arts.  She currently Resides in metro Atlanta, GA, has Recently written a entitled,  “I Am Purposely Made!”

Crystal Kelly, the woman with 2 first names,  is passionate about making a  difference in other’s lives.  She once said,  “I love to be involved and put action towards change – not just  speak on it – you have to move on it.”  Crystal’s Mantra is “Your current situation does not define your final destination” This is the philosophy Crystal lives by, And this is why we honor the talented, beautiful, and compassionate Crystal Kelly as our Black Woman of Renaissance!

Today’s special guest is Ms. Arvis Renee Jones Walker, who is running for Clayton County School Board, district 8.  Clayton County voters in School Board District 8 will have two candidates to choose from in the September 21 special election.

What is the foundation of this quote?

“Our children are our most valuable asset and I want to ensure that we continue on the right track with a balanced budget, adequate tools for our teachers/students and infrastructure updates.”

How can you ensure the following statement:

[I will] make sure that all schools in this district are adequate with the resources that they need for the nurturing environment that our students need to learn.”

KEEPING IT REAL:

Clayton County is the 5th largest school district in the state but ranks 172 out of 192 yet experienced a 25% growth. What is your vision for Clayton County Schools?

District Eight includes some of the lowest performing schools in the state. All are Title I

93% free and reduced lunch.  What are your ideas for improving their performance?

How have the people of district 8 received you?

What have been your biggest challenges in this race?

CCPS has experienced a nine-year growth in the percent of students graduating (2011-2020) reflecting a 25.1 percentage point increase in the district-wide rate.

Citizens do not vote in off elections. What can you say to encourage them to vote?

How do you reach the Large Hispanic population, less than 3%white

The takeaways

It takes a Village not only to raise our children but to also to support each other

The bigger the challenge, the better the growth

Don’t complain about the problem if you don’t do anything about it.  

In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on August, 6, 2021, Felix concluded her illustrious 17 year Olympic career by acquiring her 11th Olympic medal, after winning gold in the women's 4 × 400 meters final, overtaking the 10 medals of track phenom Carl Lewis.   Additionally, The 35-year-old, the oldest American female track and field athlete to win a gold medal.

In a New York Times op-ed, she accused Nike, her longtime sponsor and a kingmaker in her sport, of penalizing her and other pregnant athletes in contract negotiations. The move was fraught. Felix risked losing her primary source of income and could have been blacklisted from major meets. Felix soon left Nike and signed with Athleta, becoming the women-focused apparel brand’s first athlete sponsor, paving the way for Simone Biles to make a similar move to Athleta in April. On June 23, Felix announced the founding of her own footwear and apparel brand, Saysh. Far from following corporate expectations, Felix is now taking full agency over her career—and legacy. Earlier this year, Bianca Williams, a Nike-sponsored sprinter from Britain who had a baby in March 2020, reached out to Felix. After Felix called out the sportswear giant, Nike expanded payment protections for pregnant women and new mothers. The takeaways You write your own story. It’s not over until you give up. Never Give up! Be an advocate for yourself and other women in your circle. Research Ob-Gyns who are sensitive to the health needs of black women. Open your own doors. When they say no, create your own yes.

This is why World Champion Sprinter Allyson Felix is our Black Woman of Renaissance of the week. 

In June 2018, Allyson told Wes she was pregnant. Fearing that Nike could rescind the offer if it found she was starting a family, Allyson and Wes decided to hide her pregnancy. Olympic runner Kara Goucher left Nike in 2014, and has said the company stopped paying her when she got pregnant with her son in 2010. Another former Nike runner, Alysia Montaño, claimed the company also told her it would stop paying her when she was pregnant.

She is an active voice for women, and especially for mothers who too often hear what she heard when she got pregnant with her now 2-year-old daughter, Cammy: That once women start having babies, their best athletic days are behind them.

During pregnancy, Felix developed preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure and adverse childbirth outcomes that is more prevalent in African-American women, which contributed to Camryn’s dangerous early birth. Though everyone ended up fine, America’s vast racial disparities in maternal mortality could well have pointed to a different outcome: a CDC study published in 2019 found that a Black woman with at least a college degree was 5.2 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than her white counterpart. That year, Felix felt compelled to testify before Congress on the topic. “We need to provide women of color with more support during their pregnancies,” Felix told the House Ways and Means Committee. “Research shows that racial bias in our maternal health care system includes things like providers spending less time with Black mothers, underestimating the pain of their Black patients, ignoring symptoms and dismissing complaints.”

The takeaways

1. You write your own story.  It’s not over until you give up. Never Give up!

2. Be an advocate for yourself and other women in your circle.  Research Ob-Gyns who are sensitive to the health needs of black women.  

3. Open your own doors.  When they say no, create your own yes.  

Did you know a SISTA lead the team who created the Moderna, Covid Vaccine? Yessss! Do you still think it was created to hurt Black people?

Today we are honoring to accomplishments of Dr. Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Shanta Corbett. At 35 years old she is a leading American viral immunologist. Dr. Corbett is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and assistant professor of immunology and+ infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Corbett started working on a vaccine to protect people from coronavirus disease.[3] Recognizing that the virus was similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Corbett's team partnered with Moderna, to create their vaccine,

Corbett’s work has earned praise from luminaries in medicine and government alike, from Dr.  Anthony Fauci, and president of the National Medical Association Oliver Brooks, to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As a young, Black female scientist, Corbett has used her national platform to address lingering vaccine hesitancy, or as she calls it, “vaccine inquisitiveness,” in the Black community and reassure skeptics of its safety and efficacy by speaking virtually at churches and other community organizations. She hopes to continue these community outreach efforts in Boston.

A native of North Carolina, Corbett, 35, spent six years as a research fellow and the scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines Team at the Vaccine Research Center’s Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory. In 2008, she received a BS in biological sciences, with a secondary major in sociology, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she was a Robert and Jane Meyerhoff and NIH undergraduate scholar. She obtained her PhD in microbiology and immunology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014.

This is why Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is our Black Woman of Renaissance of the week.

KEEPING IT REAL!

Black Folk are still scared of the shot!

The CDC reports demographic characteristics, including race/ethnicity, of people receiving COVID-19 vaccinations at the national level.

As of July 19, 2021, CDC reported that nearly two thirds of people who received at least one shot were White (59%), 9% were Black, 16% were Hispanic, 6% were Asian, 1% were American Indian or Alaska Native, and <1% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, while 8% reported multiple or other race.

However, CDC data also show that recent vaccinations are reaching larger shares of Hispanic, Asian, and Black populations compared to overall vaccinations. Thirty percent of vaccines administered in the past 14 days have gone to Hispanic people, 6% to Asian people, and 14% to Black people (Figure 1). These recent patterns suggest a narrowing of racial gaps in vaccinations at the national level, particularly for Hispanic and Black people, who account for a larger share of recent vaccinations compared to their share of the total population (30% vs. 17% and 13% vs. 12%, respectively).  While these data provide helpful insights at a national level, to date, CDC is not publicly reporting state-level data on the racial/ethnic composition of people vaccinated.

Notably, Blacks have received a lower percentage of their share of the vaccination compared to their share of Covid cases and deaths in every state.  For example in Georgia

26%26% vacination

35%35% deaths

32%32% population

Today’s show will celebrate the accomplishments and discuss the challenges of 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde, winner of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Zalia made history on July 8th, 2021, as the first African-American to be the recognized winner of this prestigious award.  Over 230,000 people watch the competitive and highly coveted spelling bee live on ESPN2.   As a native of Harvey, La., Avant-garde just entered the world of competitive spelling two years ago.  Unbelievably, that short period of time prepared her to win and take home $50,000 for correctly spelling murraya (mu-ree-ya), a type of tropical tree. 

In this episode we explore why Zaila is our first African American Spelling Bee Winner. And, the fact that the absence of faces that look like hers in the world of competitive spelling isn’t because Black kids don’t want to spell. It takes resources to be competitive, and in a country where the median household incomes for Black and Hispanic families is tens of thousands of dollars lower than those for Asian and white families, some kids are at a disadvantage. Simply, Scribbs Spelling Bee is accessible to those in a certain class.

Also, we examine in Keeping it Real, the hidden stories that Zaila wasn’t the first Black to win the spelling bee.

Tune in to here a lively discussion on these topics.