Will You Go Vegan with Beyoncé ?

| Equal Justice for SOME

The Carters, also known as  Beyoncé  and Jay-Z, have used their massive social media platforms to ask their fans to change their lifestyle by changing just one small factor in their life. That one small factor would be their diet.  The Carter family has gone vegan for the past few months and seem to love it. With the plant based eating, the Carters have seen positive results in their everyday life. The couple wrote the introduction to Marco Borges’, Beyonce’s very own personal trainer, book “The Greenprint: Plant-Based Diet, Best Body, Better World.” The book gives tips on how to live a healthier life as well as how to start and maintain healthy habits.

It is no secret that consuming meat can make you feel sluggish, and even has been linked to many critical diseases such as cancer. As the meat industry grows to meet the expectations of the food industry the quality of the meat is rapidly declining. According to Dummies.com, “Many are starved of the nutrients they require to be healthy because they’re fed an unnatural diet.” If the animals lack the nutrients that they did, then we will not get the nutrients that we need from their meat. If the risk of eating meat does not nearly give people a heart attack, the heinous actions that go on in slaughterhouses usually turns people off of meat and onto the path of being vegetarian or vegan.

Being vegetarian or vegan is thought to be a luxury because of the negative connotation around how much the lifestyle change costs. In the fast food industry, you can often get a burger off the $1 menu, but a salad is at least $5.  When preparing meals at home, it is much more economical. When researched, it was found that staple ingredients to be vegan like soybeans, corn, and rice are cheaper than meat like beef, pork and even chicken.

I can’t help but be curious about how this will go. Queen Bey is known to have hard ride or die fans that are well known as the “Beyhive” that will do anything to get close to her. So I can only wonder how many fans will convert to veganism in order to feel closer to their queen. Beyoncé  alone has 122 million followers on Instagram, with her challenge to her fans she could potentially start a huge movement known as the “Greenprint.”  

 

Happy New Years to All!

| Equal Justice for SOME

It is officially January 1, 2019, a fresh start, and  page 1 of a 365 page book. Typically everyone is joyous during the first of the year, and eager to make new goals and resolutions. However, it is not a secret that these are often forgotten by Easter. This year is your year, stick to those goals, fear NOTHING, and go after your dreams.

 

Some of my main goals are to:

-post every day

-gain 100 followers

-and to travel more than 3 times

 

Posting my goals and aspirations will allow me to stay on top of my commitments to myself. If you like post your goals in the comment section. HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!!!

Is It a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood?

| Equal Justice for SOME

The environment in which people grow up in is a major component of who they are, and who will grow up to be. A neighborhood may contribute to the way a person speaks, thinks and even their appearance. To give an example, a considerable amount of inner city residents are surrounded by drugs, violence, low funded public schools and rundown rental housing. Without access to a better environment, resident’s experience a sense of hopelessness that further puts urban-city communities at an extreme disadvantage. Some of these experiences that minorities deal with in urban areas often occur because they are not offered the same resources and living conditions

             Living in the inner city can change a person’s sensitivity to certain situations. According to the NCBI, “exposure to violence is especially ubiquitous in poor urban areas, whereas many as 80-90% of children and adolescents witness violence in their schools and communities (Mrug ).” Inglewood, California, the place I call home is not the best city in the world, but I am grateful because it is a far from the worst. Nonetheless, in my neighborhood I heard constant gunshots, car alarms, helicopters, ambulances, and roaring police sirens. It never occurred to me that this was not what people all over America heard until my mom moved me to a nicer area, about 70 miles from Los Angeles. Due to attempting to survive in my Inglewood neighborhood, where the noise were so common, I slowly lost sensitivity to death and violence. Even now, being out of the community I somehow still consider ferocious noises normal sounds of life.  

          Central cities are known for having a lower criteria for education versus people who live in the suburbs. Some urban schools do not prepare their students with the tools needed to prepare for success in college or to follow their dreams. Many urban public schools are filled with minorities but, are packed with white prosperous teachers who do not look like them or have the capability to relate to their students. I do not think many people understand what it does to a student to walk in a room and see a teacher who looks nothing like them. Neatoday.org stated that, “in the 2011–12 school year, 82 percent of public school teachers were white” (White Teachers in Urban Schools). This causes a disconnection between the teachers and students to a point where teachers are unable to relate to students and recognize environmental factors that contribute to a student’s poor performance, attitude, or appearance. In many instances the students do not have the opportunity to gain trust with the teachers, instead they are made to be the oppressors. How can someone speak up and ask for help if they feel demoralized and uncomfortable? If teachers are not properly trained for such strenuous positions to teach in an inner city, then they will not do their job effectively. An example of this is shown in various south central Los Angeles high schools with aged textbooks, overcrowded classrooms, and old computers. How can an educator teach without the utensils that they need to even begin? Some public schools are close and easy to access in urban communities, they do not cost a dime, and most provide free meals for students who qualify for the lunch programs. These benefits make it harder for parents to choose a better education for their kids because of the hassle.

               While some may argue, the environment that someone lives in has nothing to do with someone being successful or unsuccessful. This has been proven to be true, there seems to be many examples of people making it out of gangs, bad neighborhoods, and even being released from jail and go on to make something out of themselves. For instance, global rapper Kendrick Lamar grew up in Compton, California a city with limited resources but he beat the odds of the statistics set against him, followed his dreams, and is now worth 45 million dollars. I myself made a way out by going to college, which is something hounds in urban communities never have the chance to do. No one is saying that living in an inner city makes success impossible, but it is harder because they were not given the resources that they needed. However, some made it out but the point is they would not have to make it out if they were put in the same situation that suburban children were put into.

                 Being in a position to play safely outside is a luxury that central cities often do not have the privilege to enjoy. By nature kids are carefree; they usually want to run, play, bike and have fun without worry. In some urban neighborhoods, it is not always safe to go outside to run and play with your friends, it is not even safe to go to some parks if there is even one close by. The danger of gangs, drugs, violence and crime lurk around the corner making it harder to be active because the safest thing a child can do is sit inside the house often playing video games and snacking. This can bring about issues of obesity, poor health, and poor social skills because there is limited outside physical activity. Areas that have a shortage on yards, swimming pools, community centers and other places for recreation rob children of the opportunity to enjoy some of the carefree benefits of living in better neighborhoods. Comparatively, suburban areas may have a park or pool that requires a key, making it only available to residents. Pew Research Center stated that, “blacks have been denied home loans at higher rates than most other racial groups”, which makes it harder for African Americans to move into nicer areas (Bialik). This causes African Americans, and people of color not to live with the same security that white may have. According to New York Times, “ they fear when poor people move next door crime, drugs, blight, bad public schools and higher taxes inevitably follow”(Gonchar). To what degree can a person do better when society does not allow them to?

Work Cited

neatoday.org

ww.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/10/blacks-and-hispanics-face-extra-challenges-in-getting-home-loans/.

 learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/how-much-does-your-neighborhood-define-who-you-are/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539292/. 

Gynecology is about vaginas…but Dr. Sims, the “Father” of gynecology was a complete butt hole!

| Equal Justice for SOME

anarcha3-67b6293f378c18ebc2ce5215ba6dab6f9cf24a10-s1200For centuries American doctors have taken advantage of African Americans by doing monstrous experiments and research on their bodies leaving them with diseases, mental illnesses, and the absolute worst of all, death. Check out Henrietta Lacks, illegal sterilization , Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, and there are so many more examples. Throughout history doctors and the healthcare field have gone from being openly racist towards African American patients by experimenting on slaves, to going behind closed doors by raising the price of healthcare making it inaccessible to many minorities. 

Encyclopedia.com defines medical racism as,  “prejudice and discrimination in medicine and the medical/healthcare system based upon perceived race.” This racism dates back to slavery when white doctors did experiments or “projects” on innocent slaves.  Slaves never had a voice, so they could not speak up on the many injustices they endured in a hospital bed.  Since slaves were not seen as people, these experiments were not seen as inhuman, however they are some of the most inhuman acts in history.

Doctors such as Dr. Sims, known as the “father” of gynecology, participated in the atrocious acts that killed so many unfortunate African Americans in the 19th century. Dr. Sims took advantage of female slaves by performing practices and surgeries on their genitals although he was uneducated and inexperienced in this type of medical practice. In the 19th-century a common complication of childbirth was damage to the vesicovaginal fistula resulting in a tear between the uterus and bladder caused constant pain and urine leakage.”  Dr. Sims created the tools and techniques for surgery that repairs the vesicovaginal fistula.

The issue is not that he solved a major complication for pregnant women, but that he was perfected his practice by first performing these surgeries on African American women without a vital component in all major surgeries – anesthesia. Who does that? Dr. Sims, like plenty of Caucasians, believed that African Americans were not capable of feeling pain, which is a complete myth. This led the women suffering and crying out in pain for hours while he cut away at their bodies leaving them to bleed out for his own benefit and gain. He is now known as a hero for his contribution to gynecology when in actuality he was just a racist butt hole that butchered African American women for his own benefit.

 

Holland, B. (2018). The ‘Father of Modern Gynecology’ Performed Shocking Experiments on Slaves. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/the-father-of-modern-gynecology-performed-shocking-experiments-on-slaves [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].

Pray for San Fran

| Equal Justice for SOME

San Francisco, California has been in trouble since a campfire got out of control on November 16, 2018. The “campfire fire” as it has been named so far has scorched nearly 150,000 acres. The out of control burn has left a path of death and destruction. So far 76 people have been found dead and horrifically about 13,000 are still missing. Thousands of homes and businesses have burned to the ground leaving nothing but ashes and rubble behind. It will take a lot of patience, time and money to rebuild the Bay Area but it can be done. So far there is not an expected time that the rebuilding effort will begin. The San Francisco air quality is now considered unhealthy, and it is not expected to clear up until around Tuesday or Wednesday when the rain begins. Since clean oxygen is essential, it is vital for people to wear face masks to control the amount of the smoke, ashes and toxins that they are inhaling. The air quality can cause lung and heart disease if too much is inhaled. It is important for people to use their cars as least as possible for the next couple of days to help with the air quality.

Stacey Abrams Concession is not a Concession

| Equal Justice for SOME

Stacey Abrams, the democratic candidate for governor in Georgia shocked many when she announced that she did not win the election. This news was discouraging because she would have been the first African American governor in the state of Georgia. It is a shame that these barriers still have to be broken in 2018, but when we have officials suppressing voters by making it hard to cast a ballot if your address does not match their ID, it makes it even worse to witness. Stacey Abrams graduated from Spelman College, so being from the Atlanta Student Center it was inspirational to see someone come from the same college center as me doing what I want to do in the future.

Stacey stated in her speech that she was not giving a speech of concession because “concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper. And as a woman of conscience and faith I can not concede that.” Although she did not win the title of governor, she motivated thousands of college students to go out and vote to get their voice heard. There has not been a democratic governor in the state of Georgia since 1998, but this election showed me that is it possible and it would happen if there was no such thing as political crooks. Stacey Abrams came and showed out. She even had our President Barack Obama speak at Morehouse College on her behalf. Oprah Winfrey was going door to door encouraging Georgia residents to get out and vote for Stacey Abrams.

Stacey Abrams’ platform was simple; she stood for better public school education, prison reform, and better health coverage for all. These are the basic necessities of life that all Americans need to live quality lives and not have the education stunned due to lack of up to date books and resources. Ms. Abrams is more than qualified for the position of governor having received her J.D. from the Yale Law School. She also graduated from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin with a M.P.A in public policy. She earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Political Science, Economics and Sociology) from Spelman College, magna cum laude.  On the other hand we are now stuck with Brain Kemp, who graduated from the University of Georgia with a major in agriculture.

Kemp is not new to being called a fraud when it comes to politics. He blatantly suppresses others by any means and in any way possible. He has taken advantage of “Georgia’s “exact match” registration verification process which has resulted in the “mass cancellation of inactive voter registrations.” He is putting a political muzzle on African Americans voices and he must be stopped. No matter what happens we must keep voting and fighting to stop voter suppression. Our future depends on it.

https://apnews.com/fb011f39af3b40518b572c8cce6e906c

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/16/politics/stacey-abrams-concession/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/elections/georgia-governor-race-kemp-abrams.htmlstacey

Duty to Vote

| Equal Justice for SOME

           As a citizen of the United States of America, when a person turns 18, they have a civic duty to vote, so their voice will not be silenced. This year, as a fresh 18 year old that moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the illustrious Clark Atlanta University,  I voted for the first time. Originally from Los Angeles, California, I contemplated if I wanted to register to vote in another state and if it really was the best option for me. However, after being constantly asked at least 10 times a day to register to vote while walking to class, I registered.  Honestly, I did just be left alone and, thought nothing much of it. As the election was slowly but surely arriving my friend started to explain both candidates for governor to me. Immediately, it registered that my vote meant everything to the state of Georgia, and it astonishingly without initially relaxing it meant everything to me.

           On November 6, 2018, I missed two critical classes to stand in a line wrapped around a gym at Morehouse College to vote, but it was well worth the wait. I received a text message from the organization that I registered with telling me to vote at Morehouse College, however when I got to the front of the line, they told me that I was at the wrong location. Not wanting to miss even more class, I then filled out a provisional ballot. I had no idea what the back of the ballot looked like, I just knew who I wanted to vote for as governor. Although the ballot was completely foreign to me, I still felt satisfied I could have my voice heard.

         A day later I was told to call a number to make sure that my vote counted. As a minority, I now understood why voting can be discouraging.  You try to do your civic duty, yet your vote can still be thrown out. You can wait for hours in line to vote and then turned away because your address or signature does not match. With all of our technological advances, voter suppression is still a real factor in life in 2018. It’s also so hard to watch someone who is obviously more suitable than the other candidate not have the results that you hoped so hard for. As an African American it’s so important to get out there and vote no matter how discouraging it may seem because this is a part of our history. Our ancestors fought and died for us to get the chance to cast our ballot so we can be heard. Now more than ever, in the Age of Trump we must stand up and not be suppressed.