politics

Former President Barack Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday to talk about his new memoir, A Promised Land, but stole the show with his quips about the 2020 election, Trump’s tenure in office and hilarious family dynamics. “Why did you leave us with him,” Kimmel opened.“I had to follow the Constitution and Michelle’s mandate,” Obama joked. Obama's recent memoir sold 890,000 copies within 24 hours of its release in the U.S. and Canada according to 6ABC. Kimmel asked if he outpaced his wife Michelle in sales."It's a tad more but I'm not rubbing it in over dinner," the Harvard alumnus said. "Michelle's attitude is 'boy, you go out and sell some books that's fine because that will pay for some of my shoes." When discussing his family's extremely mild interest in his book, Obama quipped, "You are never a profit in your own land."He said his daughters took about a decade to read his first book and he's expecting the same for A Promised Land.Kimmel then got into the Obamas' family dynamics. "Your wife told me you're afraid of Sasha, is it true," Kimmel asked. "Yes," the 44th president said assuredly. "And the reason is because Sasha is a mini-Michelle. And I'm afraid of Michelle." "Malia is more like me temperamentally," he said after saying Sasha and Michelle share the same facial expressions and attitudes. "And we call ourselves the long faces because her face is more shaped like mine. The round faces are Michelle and Sasha and the round faces are a fiercer tribe."When Kimmel asked if there are any secret spots someone could take advantage of if they were hiding in the White House in fear they might be removed from office, Obama joked, “Well, I think we can always send the Navy SEALS in there to dig him out.” With the banter aside, the former president shed light on his true feelings regarding the state of the country post-election. “I wish the transition was going better, because we lose time during these crises,” Obama said. “When I came in, we were in the middle of a big crisis, the financial crisis. George W. Bush, he and I had obviously big policy differences, but he’s a good man, he’s a patriot. And he ordered everybody on his team to work seamlessly with us on the transition. Could not have been more gracious, could not have been more helpful. And that actually helped us be able to get a head start on trying to stem what could have been a great depression instead of a great recession.” Later, Obama told the talk show host that he believes Biden is better equipped to handle the crises facing the country because of his experiences working through the recession. "He knows the job. He understands the gravity of it. He will hit the ground running, most importantly with respect on how to deal with this pandemic," he said. "We set up an entire pandemic playbook and task force inside the White House in the eventuality that something like this would happen. It got disbanded by the current president, but it will be resurrected." As Blavity previously reported, former First Lady Michelle Obama criticized the sitting president in a now viral social media post made earlier this month, for his scrutiny of the election process. “This isn’t a game. Our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election even when we don’t like them or wish it had gone differently — the presidency doesn’t belong to any one individual or any one party,” Michelle wrote. “To pretend that it does, to play along with these groundless conspiracy theories — whether for personal or political gain — is to put our country’s health and security in danger.” Michelle said that in spite of any disagreements the Obama family had with the Trumps, she and her husband honored the transition of power in...

President of the intersectional civil rights organization People for the American Way, Ben Jealous, joined on Election Day to discuss the Black male vote, Black civic engagement and more.Jealous, a venture capitalist, former candidate for Governor of Maryland, became the youngest person to serve as NAACP president when elected in 2008.Having stepped down from the NAACP in 2013, he now helps to elevate up-and-coming politicians through People For The American Way. The org boasts notable alumni including Stacey Abrams, Pete Buttigieg, Joaquin and Julian Castro, Andrew Gillum, and Ilhan Omar. Under Jealous’ leadership, People For The American Way has been conducting a Defend the Black Vote campaign to mobilize and inform Black men in particular.“Young Black men are targeted more intensely,” the California native told Blavity, adding that disinformation campaigns intend to flummox voters of color. In terms of keeping Black men engaged in politics, Jealous said that “we have to make real change happen in real time." "We have to feel like we’re winning," he added. Jealous reflected on becoming president of the NAACP at a time of stagnant membership and donations, and attracting new members and supporters by advocating for Black people in High profile justice cases.“We got a lot of folks out of prison," he said.He highlighted the case of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who with the help of the NAACP and other organizations had their life sentences suspended in 2011 after being convicted of an armed robbery in which no more than $200, and possibly as little as $11, was stolen.Driven by these successes and sustained organizing efforts, the NAACP under Jealous was able to gather hundreds of thousands of activists' cell phone numbers and millions of email addresses, and the organization steadily increased membership and received record-setting donations. Using these examples, he urged the Democratic Party and civil rights groups to “focus on winning real victories in real time that transform Black men’s lives” in public safety and the economy. The key to achieving victories in police reform, he argued, was to focus activism and political organizing on the city and county level.Jealous went on to say that “Black men are like the canary in the coal mine” in the American economy, and tend to suffer first and more severely from economic downturns that impact working class people. Addressing high levels of joblessness among Black men, a situation that “crushes souls,” would be key to demonstrating long-term that the political system could work for Black men.As the conversation moved to felony voting restrictions and other forms of disenfranchisement, Jealous gave some context and history to these laws.“The whitest states don’t ban inmates from voting -- inmates get to vote in Vermont and Maine," the 47-year-old said.In both states, those incarcerated are overwhelmingly white and often Republican voters. By contrast, in states like Virginia where there's a large Black population, restrictions on voting for formerly incarcerated people has a long history of targeted disenfranchisement of Black voters dating back to Jim Crow era laws passed to reverse the political gains made by Black politicians and voters during Reconstruction. This system is now referred to as prison gerrymandering. The efforts have historically been part of a system that also deprived women and poor white men from voting. Then, as now, Jealous reminded that false concerns over voter fraud were used to justify widespread disenfranchisement.In terms of defending the Black vote before and after the election, Jealous cited long-term goals like passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, statehood for Washington D.C. and more.“Before Election Day, the best way to defend the Black vote is to vote,” regardless of opposition, as activists such as Lewis or Jealous’ own 104-year-old grandmother did in the years of legal voter suppression who wouldn't let anything stop her from voting.“They used to charge us money and we paid it and voted; whatever the obstacle is, you just go vote," Jealous said of past forms of voter suppression. Jealous said he looked forward to seeing his "old friends" Joe Biden and Kamala Harris taking over the executive office but added that we should not let up on putting political pressure on the government even with them in charge.“We will be pushing them mercilessly because the corporations and everyone else is pushing them from the other side,” Jealous pledged. “If you actually want to see politicians, even politicians that you respect listening to their better angels, it means that you’ve got to amplify the voice of the angels, and that’s what activists do when we’re at our...

If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on any cultural, political or personal topic, create an account here and check out our how-to post to learn more.____All of a sudden in America, Black votes really matter. As a Black man and native of Atlanta, Georgia, who’s lived through the 2020 election, I should know.Over the years, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard Black friends tell me they feel their votes, their voice or their values didn’t matter. But in Georgia, people who look like me, my aunties and my parents have just remade presidential politics for generations to come.We’ve countered decades of voter suppression — from poll taxes during the Jim Crow eras to purging voters from the rolls two years ago — which has long led lawmakers to presume the state will go red in the presidential race. And come January 5, 2021, when two U.S. Senate run-off races will decide which party controls the world’s “greatest deliberative body,” a wave of newly engaged voters in the Peach State will hold the balance of power in our hands.Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have made it clear that their plans for the next four years depend on the outcome of the run-off. It’s thanks to 800,000 new voters in the state since the 2018 election that we are where we are. And two thirds of those are people of color. Georgia also led the country with the highest jump in youth voter registration since 2016, and they accounted for a full 21% of Georgia’s votes, compared with 17% across the country.Georgia shows what is possible when under-mobilized citizens are engaged and brought to the table. Especially Black citizens. One Black community organizer in Atlanta was going door-to-door before the election wearing a “Black Panther” t-shirt and saying “Wakanda Forever” to all the voters he signed up. His enthusiasm was infectious, and a fitting tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther actor whose final tweet challenged everyone to head to the polls.Georgia is  also positioned to teach the country as a whole that there’s value in a civics education. It’s not solely about Black or youth votes. True civic learning and engagement begins far earlier than when we can cast our first votes. Yet, in America, we still do not provide high school students with universal access to a comprehensive, experiential civics education that prepares them for meaningful participation in our democracy.In many instances, students  who took to the streets this year as part of the racial justice protests across the country were not hearing about them in their classrooms. There was a disconnect. It was a missed opportunity. A 50-state study of civics education underscores this point, highlighting an under-emphasis on the participation element of civics, includings things like protest, in state social studies standards.We might be teaching “civics” in our schools, but we have not been teaching students how to take action on issues they care about, or how to participate in the political process in an informed way.Across the country, we should be teaching students how to take part in meaningful discourse and discuss controversial issues as part of experiential civics. And we should be teaching students the real history of democracy in this country, including police brutality, the lasting ramifications of slavery, events like the Tulsa Race Massacre and the citizenship education drives of Black Southern women like Septima Clark.The whole idea of civic education and engagement, too frequently, has been normalized as white. But prioritizing experiential civics education means helping all people — especially those who have been historically excluded from the process — participate as reflective, engaged citizens. rather than viewing some folks as objects.There are simple, clear things we can do to get civics education back on track in our schools. We need culturally responsive teaching. We need social studies education, a field which is predominantly white, to both become more diverse and more adept in openly discussing contentious public issues, especially structural racism. We need to teach our students how to recognize, understand and evaluate different belief systems. How to engage the public policy process to create systemic change.We need to show students how digital engagement is now central to politics. And we need to build democratic school cultures of empathy, deep teacher-student collaboration in the learning process and consensus-building.Without this kind of holistic, hands-on civics education, our democracy erodes. And you can see it in the state of our current discourse. But we have the opportunity to reimagine our education system to empower students to improve their communities.By funding civics education across the country, and with equity at the heart of it, we can create generations of informed, active citizens who value and fight for our democracy.When I took my advanced placement government course in high school, I had to process a few emblems of civic exclusion along the way. From the mural of Stone Mountain, which some describe as the Mount Rushmore of the confederacy, and the largest shrine to white supremacy in the history of the world, to seeing the occasional Confederate flag at my predominantly white, private high school in College Park? Our civics course was of no help.I think it would have been different if I’d been given a more comprehensive democracy education. I may have learned that history is not always destiny. That in Georgia, we could get rid of the Confederacy. We could get rid of Jim Crow segregation. And now? Georgia’s young and Black voters can be the deciding vote on the leadership of our Senate and the future of American democracy. That’s a very different picture. And a much more hopeful...

Keiajah Brooks had us all buzzing when she unloaded on members of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners during a meeting last month, dragging board members with tactical precision.  Her opening statement that she was "not nice" and doesn't "seek to be respectable" set the perfect tone as Brooks would go on to verbally eviscerate several figures in the room and demand accountability. "You age like trash when you're racist and subject others to violence," she said before speaking directly to those she would condemn.  In an interview with Blavity, the 20-year-old activist and community leader said she personalized her remarks to board members because they have been able to dodge accountability as members of the faceless Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners."I just wanted to call the individuals out. More often than not, we refer to these oppressive systems rather generally than individually. These systems are made up of individuals," she said. "And we need to start holding the individuals accountable for maintaining white supremacy."The video was viewed millions of times and drew plaudits from across the internet."I believe I’ve made the Black community very proud," she said of her viralcy. "Mainly black people recognize me but they always tell me how proud they are of me and to keep fighting, so I do. I was mainly awestruck that it went viral as calling people out is a main hobby of mine."But she said it's also put a target on her back. Brooks said she was forced to hire security after getting death threats and sharing videos of police officers repeatedly tailing her. Despite the backlash, Brooks brought a national spotlight onto the problems facing the Black community in Kansas City. Police Chief Rick Smith has refused to resign from his position despite facing months of withering criticism for the violence his officers perpetrate against the city's Black community, according to The Kansas City Star. Dozens of horrific incidents in the area have led to widespread protests but the one that has caused the most outrage is the violent arrest of a pregnant Black woman. A white officer kneeled on the woman's back as he arrested her in October, sparking citywide demonstrations. Kansas City also has one of the country's highest rates of police killings, according to Mapping Police Violence, and has been reeling from the recent police killings of Terrance Bridges, Ryan Stokes, Donnie Sanders and others. Brooks told Blavity that she hoped people were becoming more politically active in light of recent events and that their political activism extended to all Black people. "Politically educate and prepare yourself to show up for ALL black people— queer, disabled, sex workers, etc. We are ALL in danger and you shouldn’t cherry-pick who you care about," she said. Brooks is also co-founder of Tha Chingona Collective, an inclusive and intersectional organization founded by Black, Indigenous and Latinx women."We are steeped in activism, political education, community organizing, and social events with specialization in issues that plague our communities in KC directly," the group said in a now-deleted Facebook post. Allow us to re-introduce ourselves. We are THA Chingona Collective of KC. The word “chingona” is spanish slang for a...Posted by Tha Chingona Collective on Wednesday, November 18, 2020Brooks explained that the group is aiming to "drive systemic changes and liberate Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people, specifically female-identifying and non-binary people in our communities.""We will launch our ‘Chingona Cop Watch’ programme shortly. A lot of people in Kansas City recognize me from 'cop stops,' where I watch and record the interactions of police and Black Kansas Citians when I have the chance to," she said. "We are hoping to raise enough funds to be able to pay BIPOC people to monitor traffic stops while also in cute neon pink vests."The 20-year-old was an active part of the city's protests this summer as global protests over the killing of George Floyd erupted in cities across the world. She received a Civil and Human Rights Award from the Urban League, SCLC, NAACP, and other organizations for her activism in Kansas City."I believe I’ve made the black community very proud. Mainly black people recognize me but they always tell me how proud they are of me and to keep fighting, so I do. I was mainly awestruck that it went viral as calling people out is a main hobby of mine," Brooks said."I never say never because you never know what could happen but I could see myself going into politics," she continued. "If the powers that control it, don’t shut me...

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will make history when they enter the White House. Biden will be the second-ever Catholic president, while Harris will be the first woman, the first Black person and the first Indian American to hold the VP slot. Winning on the strength of an extremely diverse voting coalition, Biden and Harris supporters expect that the new administration will reflect that diversity.Biden’s recent appointments to his coronavirus task force, transition team and White House senior staff, as well as speculation about his upcoming cabinet picks, all suggest that the Biden administration may be one of the most diverse in American history. With that in mind, here are 10 Black leaders and politicians who may end up serving important roles during the Biden presidency, and the jobs that they are rumored to be in the running to...

Failed Georgia Republican candidate Angela Stanton King can't stop taking losses. The vitriolic former congressional candidate lost her November 3 race in a landslide, garnering just 15% of the vote, according to CBS46. Clearly sour after her devastating loss to Nikema Williams, the Trump-supporting reality TV star seemingly projected her pain into the cybersphere when she went after rapper and singer, Lil Nas X. The "Old Town Road" rapper recently released his latest single and has been promoting the song with a series of photo shoots. On Friday, he posted a comical photo on his Twitter page of himself making out with himself.i might bottom on the low but i top shit! pic.twitter.com/aBJ5Zo0cO4— nope (@LilNasX) November 14, 2020 Fans loved the photo and it has racked up more than 200,000 likes on Twitter. But King took issue with the photo and bashed it online.  She wrote, "So this is what black culture is pushing to our youth now? Sex with everything and everyone including yourself? Is lil nas x tonguing himself down?" So this is what black culture is pushing to our youth now? Sex with everything and everyone including yourself? Is lil nas x tonguing himself down? #BlackCulture #MerryChristmas pic.twitter.com/E9ZCuQPuEt— Angela Stanton King 🇺🇸 (@theangiestanton) November 16,...

When it comes to the importance of Black lives, Missouri Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush is done entertaining arguments that suggest otherwise.In a CNN segment Bush shared Tuesday, she said as long as Black people are dying at the hands of police and are victims of institutional racism, she doesn’t care if Black Lives Matter or her support of the movement is offensive to anyone.She doesn't like Black death. “The point is there is still police brutality in this country,” Bush said. “And so, I understand that people don’t like the slogan, I get that. But I don’t like death. I don’t like Black death. I don’t like to keep seeing my people die at the hands of the police and nothing is happening.”On Twitter, she wrote that the conversation was always about the degradation of Black lives particularly prevalent in the law enforcement community.“The problem isn’t any particular slogan, it’s police brutality. Let’s talk about that,” she tweeted.Supporters of the 44-year-old St. Louis native took to social media and remarked at how real, yet eloquent the eminent congresswoman-elect was in expressing...

This feature is part of Blavity’s African Spotlight series which highlights heads of state, as well as other politicians and societal leaders, who are currently in power or influencing change on the continent. African leaders are making significant impact both in their own countries and internationally. Growing diasporas and increasing interconnectivity make developments on the continent more relevant to Black America and people everywhere than ever before.Yoweri Museveni became President of Uganda in January of 1986 when his National Resistance Army seized power after a civil war. He now has a reputed challenger in Afrobeat artist Bobi Wine.In January, Museveni will celebrate 35 years in power. That’s longer than 75% of Uganda's citizens have been alive.In recent years, the 76-year-old Museveni, who’s been a rebel leader and one of the world’s longest-serving presidents, has added another unlikely item to his resume: hip-hop star. Ten years ago, during a re-election campaign, the then 65-year-old president released a song that became a surprise hit.“U Want Another Rap?” is a sung/spoken rap song in a mix of English and Runyankore -- a language spoken by the Nkore people of southwestern Uganda -- and it's kind of catchy. Museveni won that election with over two-thirds of the vote. He also used pop music to help him win his 2016 election. That time, he assembled an all-star group of Ugandan musicians to record “Tubonga Nawe Sevo,” which roughly translates to “We Are With You.” As Blavity previously reported, Kanye West, while working on a new album, visited Uganda in 2018 and gave Museveni a pair of Yeezys. Museveni, in turn, offered musical assistance, informing West, “I am also a rapper. If you want help on your album, I am always here to help.” Should Museveni ever decide to retire, he perhaps has a musical career to fall back on.But retirement seems to be the last thing on Museveni’s mind, and his long rule has a dark side. Museveni was legally supposed to retire years ago, but pushed through a constitutional amendment in 2005 to get rid of presidential term limits, followed by another amendment in 2017 that eliminated the age limit of 75 for presidents.Along the way, Museveni has also used shady methods to maintain his decades-long grip on power. The government banned political parties until 2005. Museveni’s own National Resistance Movement didn’t count as a party under the law and was allowed to operate freely. The government has often arrested, harassed and intimidated Museveni’s political opponents and even poets, as Blavity previously reported. A frequent target has been opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who has run and lost against Museveni in the last four elections, dating back to 2001. Many videos exist online of Besigye being arrested, often roughly, by government forces.In addition to intimidating his opposition, Museveni’s government has been accused of rigging elections. In that context, Museveni’s unexpected ventures in pop music can be seen, not so much as an older man trying to appeal to young voters, but as a president trying to soften his image as he holds onto power with an iron fist.Ironically, however, these musical endeavors may have created the biggest challenge yet to Museveni’s rule. Besigye announced earlier this year that he will not run in Uganda’s next presidential election, scheduled for 2021. This decision was largely the result of being replaced as Museveni's lead opposition by a young rookie politician, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, a popular musician known as Bobi Wine.Wine, whose musical style is described by Rolling Stone magazine as “a sunny blend of Jamaican dancehall and a local Afrobeat style,” has long called himself the "Ghetto President.” His family has been involved in politics for years, sometimes being targeted with violence and arrest for their efforts. Wine's political turning point came in 2016 with the “Tubonga Nawe Sevo” song. According to Rolling Stone, Wine was one of the few major artists to turn down the government’s offer to appear on the record, reportedly rejecting a large sum of money being offered for the appearance.Instead, Wine publicly beefed with Bebe Cool, one of the artists featured on the record. Wine also put out various songs, such as “Dembe” (“Peace”) and "Uganda Zukuka" (“Uganda Wake Up”), both critical of Musveni’s long rule.In 2017, Wine decided to step into politics himself, running for parliament and winning against several other candidates, including the one backed by Museveni. He and his supporters started a political movement called People Power, which successfully got other candidates elected to office. Last June, Wine announced that he would run for president in 2021.Wine is 38 years old, making him exactly half as old as Museveni and too young to remember anyone else as president. Challenging the long-time ruler of Uganda won’t be easy. Wine has seen his supporters attacked and even killed. Wine himself survived an attack that he said he sees as an assassination attempt. He has been arrested and tortured, and had to fly to the U.S. for medical treatment for his injuries.  Criminal charges were filled against Wine last year for attempting to “alarm, annoy or ridicule” the president. This year, he was additionally charged with falsifying documents, as authorities allege that he claimed to be older than he really is in order to qualify for the parliamentary seat he won in 2017. Wine has rejected what he calls “trumped up” charges, and said he remains confident he can win in 2021. Just last month, People Power’s offices were raided and its campaign material was seized by police and military forces.After yesterday's raid on our offices, the military & police spent today dismantling all banners & billboards bearing my image from towns. Anyone found selling #PeoplePower merchandise is arrested. The dictator is in total panic. This only increases our resolve to resist! pic.twitter.com/Y2d8TCyc2L— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) October 15, 2020Even with these challenges, Wine has built a popular campaign. He took over an existing political party, the National Unity Party (NUP), to facilitate his campaign. After a legal fight over the party, Wine was recently declared its rightful presidential candidate. With a popular movement and now an official party backing him, Wine has traveled Uganda spreading a message of political change mixed with populist appeals that promise new jobs and revitalizing jobs.The NUP recently published its manifesto, promising pay increases and economic support for teachers, security forces and farmers. This is a message that Wine tailors to individual communities. In the region of Busoga, for instance, Wine recently spoke to an enthusiastic crowd as he promised to revive the local sugarcane industry that had seen decline in recent years.Museveni, meanwhile, has launched his own reelection campaign, which has been highlighting the president's age and "stamina" while criticizing his opponents as "young...but confused." The government has also been harassing Wine and his campaign. Earlier this month, after Wine was officially confirmed as a candidate in next year's election, police arrested him again, beating and pepper-spraying him in the process. As an article in African Arguments pointed out, the Museveni government faces a dilemma. If the government eases its attempts to suppress Bobi Wine and People Power, the movement will continue to grow stronger ahead of the election. If the government cracks down too hard, however, it runs the risk of sparking a revolution. And Museveni, who himself came to power as the leader of a revolutionary movement, knows the risk of a group of people becoming fed up with the current authorities and taking control for themselves.Uganda’s elections are scheduled for next February, so the next few months will determine whether the seat will remain held by the unlikely president turned hip-hop star or go to the even more unlikely Afrobeat artist turned...

After winning Florida’s primary election in August, Michele Rayner-Goolsby has been elected as the first openly queer Black woman to hold any political office in the state. The congresswoman will represent Florida House District 70, the Tampa Bay Times reported.Rayner-Goolsby told Blavity the pride she feels in her historic win represents the potential of what is possible for an America courageous enough to work together. "I am proud to be the first Black woman to hold this seat and to be the first openly-queer Black woman to hold political office in this state,” the congresswoman-elect told Blavity last week. “But the pride I feel isn’t just about me, it’s about us. This win represents a new day; one where anything is possible when we stand with one another for what is right, no matter how big the challenge. You’ve elected me to fight for you and with you and that’s exactly what I am going to do as your representative.”Rayner-Goolsby, a civil rights attorney in the state, has worked for the office of noted lawyer Ben Crump. She ran against three other Florida candidates over the summer, without a challenge from the Republican Party, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Then-candidate Rayner-Goolsby’s winning platform focused on equity in housing, healthcare and education, as well as environmentalism and criminal justice reform.Earlier this year, she told Blavity it was her work as a civil rights attorney that drew her to the legislature. Rayner-Goolsby listed the 2018 killing of an unarmed Markeis McGlockton among her growing discontent with politics as usual. McGlockton’s killer was initially protected by Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, and only later arrested and charged with manslaughter.“Markeis McGlockton’s father said 'I knew about Stand Your Ground, I knew it was a law, but I never knew it would affect me in such a personal way,'" then-candidate Rayner-Goolsby told Blavity. “This is what’s happening in Tallahassee, D.C., and in other cities across the nation. We must understand how these laws are personally impacting people of color.”Rayner-Goolsby who campaigned for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, said she feels honored to have her voice included in the historic win.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Michele Rayner Goolsby, Esq. (@yourlawyerslawyer) “It was an honor to have a small part in this moment- especially in portions of my district. We even helped flip Pinellas BLUE 💙💙, ” Rayner-Goolsby wrote of her hometown in an Instagram post. “Thank you for centering this Black, Queer woman’s voice and giving me opportunity when others overlooked me." Shevrin Jones also made history in the state by becoming the first out LGBTQ+ legislator to sit in Florida's state senate, according to Pink...

It looks like President-elect Joe Biden will be putting the racial wealth gap in his crosshairs once he takes office, thanks to new additions to his transition team. Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Biden was adding racial wealth gap experts like Michigan State University economist Lisa Cook, University of California professor Mehrsa Baradaran, among many others to the "landing team" that will be involved with the Federal Reserve and banking and securities regulators. Both Cook and Baradaran are well known for longstanding work on economic inequality and will join a group of nearly 500 experts who will look into how the country can address the massive gap in wealth between Black and white households. Others who will be joining the team include former Obama administration official Don Graves, Hope Credit Union chief executive Bill Bynum and Tene Dolphin, the first executive director for the Greater Washington Black Chamber of Commerce.On Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau released alarming data that showed in 2017, white households had a median household wealth of $171,700, while for Black households it was $9,567.The Census released new figures on the wealth gap today. The general trend remains the same, but seeing the numbers always staggers me: White households had a median household wealth of $171,700, compared with $25,000 for Hispanics and $9,567 for Blacks. https://t.co/AS1xXJwHT2— Rachel Swarns (@rachelswarns) November 16, 2020 Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, co-founder of the Sadie Collective, a nonprofit that strives to bring more Black women into economics, lauded the appointments in an interview with Bloomberg. “It’s an incredible signal to the Black community. This administration is going to be focused on thinking about: ‘How do we build up Black wealth? How do we close this racial wealth gap?’" Opoku-Agyeman said. "Having these individuals who are representative of their community in the actual room where they can voice their perspective and have their perspective actually translate to policy — it matters more than you think.”The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated racial wealth disparities in a number of ways. Black communities have been disproportionately affected by the virus in terms of deaths, infections and economic impact. As Blavity previously reported, Black business owners have said they were shut out of the federal programs designed to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic, with some financial experts telling news outlets that it was possible upwards of 95% of Black-owned businesses were being shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program in April.  "Based on how the program is structured, we estimate that upwards of 90% of businesses owned by people of color have been, or will likely be, shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program," said Ashley Harrington, director of federal advocacy and senior council for the Center for Responsible Lending."Roughly 95% of Black-owned businesses, 91% of Latino-owned businesses, 91% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander-owned businesses, and 75% of Asian-owned businesses stand close to no chance of receiving a PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union," a report done by the Center for Responsible Lending showed.Due to the lack of help, 41% of Black businesses in the country closed permanently between February and April, and many more have since shut their doors. The 500 experts that Biden is bringing on board have collectively said that they will focus on ways to address problems like healthcare, small business lending and housing as part of their work.Both Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have made diversity a key part of their transition team building, making sure that half of all employees are women and about 40% are of other minority groups, as Blavity previously...