Exclusive: Black-Led SPAC Raises Colossal $126.5 Million, Set To Acquire Black, Minority-Owned Firms
Armed with $126.5 million, Minority Equality Opportunities Acquisition Inc. (MEOA) is equipped to help minority businesses and enterprises—including black-owned companies—grow, gain new capital, and flourish through mergers and acquisitions.
The money was raised after MEOA completed an initial public offering in late August. The business reports the transaction makes it the first Black-led special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listed on Nasdaq, trading under the ticker symbol “MEOAU.”
The deal is groundbreaking as MEOA will specifically target historically undercapitalized MBEs and black businesses in various industry sectors nationwide. That is pivotal as many of those firms often suffer from insufficient capital and not enough capacity to become major players in their business.
In general, a SPAC is a so-called a “blank check” company with no commercial operations geared to take companies public without going through the traditional IPO process. After raising capital through an IPO, their main purpose is acquiring an existing company. SPACs typically have two years to complete an acquisition or they must return their funds to investors.
The new SPAC is led by Shawn Rochester, MEOA’s chairman and CEO, and Robin Watkins, its chief financial officer and secretary. Rochester, also author of The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America, listed several reasons why there is a need now for his company.
Its IPO was strongly received by institutional investors; MEOA initially intended to raise $100 million and then raised that target to $110 million. But the offering was oversubscribed, allowing the firm to raise $126.5 million. “We were happy about that because it’s a significant indication from the marketplace of them seeing what we are trying to do,” he says. (BLACK ENTERPRISE connected with Rochester by email and phone.)
He says there is tremendous demand for diverse suppliers from Fortune 1,000 companies and due to the coming trillions in government spending on critical initiatives like infrastructure, climate change, and affordable housing. While the demand for diverse suppliers is unprecedented, minority businesses— specifically and Black and Hispanic businesses—don’t have the resources to scale to meet this demand.
“That’s where MEOA, and the decades of combined experience that our team has in operations, strategy, business development, and acquisitions enter the picture for the right business, to help accelerate growth,” Rochester says. Headquartered in Waxahachie, TX, MEOA also has an office in Washington, D.C.
MEOA, Rochester says, seeks companies with enterprise values between $250 million and $500 million. So, what criteria must Black- or minority-owned companies meet before MEOA pursues them for acquisition? Rochester says they can generate desirable returns on capital and have a need for capital to achieve their growth strategy. They need to have recurring, predictable revenues and the history of, or the near-term potential to, generate stable and sustainable free-cash flow.
MEOA indicated early research has shown that there are more than 1,000 minority businesses enterprises (MBEs) that employ over 500 people. Within that group are around 300 African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American companies that would be ideal targets for mergers and acquisitions. Some candidates could include firms listed on the BLACK ENTERPRISE Top 100 list.
Further, MEOA is filling a void and carving a niche to differentiate itself from banks or other financial providers not providing capital to Black- or minority-owned firms. Rochester says the SPAC market has largely ignored MBEs. For example, of the roughly 500 SPACs looking to acquire companies, he says MEOA is only aware of one other SPAC that has a stated interest in MBEs.
He says MEOA will likely execute one acquisition, possibly two, over the next year The firm’s goal is to keep companies it purchases minority-owned after the acquisition?
“Our team has decades of combined experience in acquisitions, operations, and growing minorities businesses so we will be able to assist with refining strategy, optimizing capital, and accelerating growth to the extent needed, Rochester says. After the acquisition, the newly acquired company will be publicly traded and thus will have access to capital from the public markets as well as the capital in MEOA.”
On the obstacle front, Rochester says the biggest risk the company faces as it pursues acquisition targets is dealing with macroeconomic and regulatory issues beyond its control.
MEOA reported the firm was initially conceptualized in January 2021 by Peter Tassiopolus, CEO of Sphere 3D and the company’s corporate directors. “I have long been a believer in MBEs and their untapped potential,” he stated. “MBEs not only fortify economic diversity across various industries but given the opportunity, will strengthen the social fabric of America.” Tassiopolus sought the advice of Jarvis Stewart, the CEO and chairman of HP Global Advisors, a Black-owned corporate development and investor strategy firm. Those talks discussions led to MEOA’s formation.
Along with Rochester and Watkins, MEOA directors are primarily Black. They include Dr. Julianne Malveaux, MIT economist and dean, College of Ethnic Studies, Cal State Los Angeles; Ronald Busby, Sr., president and CEO, US Black Chamber Inc.; and Patrick Linehan, partner, Steptoe & Johnson.
William Michael Cunningham, an economist who runs Washington, D.C.-based Creative Investment Research, says MEOA’s offering could prompt other investors to create new SPACs and venture capital funds to invest in Black companies.
“This is relevant because it may represent a new and significant source of capital that has not previously been available to Black and minority firms. If it works as intended, you could see billions in new startup and operational capital going to Black firms,” he says.
He says the offering’s timing was perfect because of the increased attention on Back economic empowerment. That is fueled, he says, by the increased requirement corporations and investors are showing toward their commitment to doing =business with Black firms.
Simultaneously, it was recently reported that the SPAC business has stumbled as regulators have raised questions related to erratic disclosures and anemic protections for investors.
Cunningham says the issue is whether or not the Securities and Exchange Commission will consider all SPACs as investment companies because that could potentially increase compliance costs.
“At this point we are not concerned,” Rochester says. “We are excited about the MBE market segment and look forward to driving value for our shareholders and our target company.”
Black Students at Rhodes College Want Answers After Banana is Taped to Door of Two Black Students
Black students and alumni want Rhodes College to investigate an alleged racist incident that took place on campus.
Last week, a banana was taped to the dormitory doors of two Black male students.
Students are now questioning if the administration is taking the incident seriously.
“We, as Men of Distinction, want action to be taken,” said Kofi Whitehead, Rhodes College Men of Distinction President, a multicultural organization.
“When racial instances happen publicly, the apology and the action should be done just as publicly,” said Whitehead.
According to Whitehead, the administration has not handled the incident properly. He calls the Rhodes administration’s lack of response “underwhelming” and says it took being pushed for several days for a vague statement to be released by the university.
The statement released by the interim president doesn’t directly address the incident but does say, “they have received reports about incidents that have contributed to our campus community feeling unsafe, particularly for Black and Jewish students.” It says they are taking them seriously, and investigations are underway.
The Men of Distinction released a statement. It reads in part:
“We have heard too many times that the acts that occurred over the weekend were simply jokes that went too far. To this we ask the following question: how is playing on racial stereotypes comical? How is making the conscious choice to racially target black and brown students funny?”
In addition to the Men of Distinction releasing a statement, the Rhodes College Black alumni said they want whoever did this to be held accountable.
Below is the statement by Rhodes College:
Rhodes Community,
As we gather for another academic year and welcome new members into our midst, we take part in the act of creating our community anew. Being together among difference is an essential part of our residential liberal arts community and it is an opportunity to affirm our community values of mutual respect, compassion, and inclusion.
We have received both Bias Education Reporting System (BERS) and Standards of Conduct reports about incidents that have contributed to our campus community feeling unsafe, particularly for Black and Jewish students. Thank you to those who alerted us to these incidents. Know that we are taking them very seriously and that both BERS processes and Standards of Conduct investigations are underway.
Both words and actions contribute to campus climate and our sense of belonging. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, and other harms have no place in our community. The Bias Education Reporting System (BERS) and Standards of Conduct are in place so that we can address such incidents and take the necessary educational or, when warranted, disciplinary action.
Whatever the intentions when actions or words make members of our community feel unsafe or unwelcome, they do not align with our values as a college community. It is incumbent on every member of our community to learn not only how to avoid inflicting these harms but also to intervene actively when we witness them within our community.
We will continue to investigate such matters and meaningfully and fairly address any incident of racism, anti-Semitism, or discrimination. If you have experienced or witnessed such actions or words on our campus, please submit a BERS report here. If you would prefer to share your experience in person, please reach out directly to any of the following:
Dr. Justin Rose, Academic Affairs, Dean for Faculty Recruitment, Development, and Diversity
Dr. Sherry Turner, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
Creating a culture of compassion and belonging within a community is a challenge but a worthy one. Rhodes’ culture will only change for the better if each of us embodies the values we want to see: inclusion, antiracism, and a commitment to a healthy and meaningful campus experience where every member feels safe and valued. We are a community of neighbors, and the task at hand requires full participation. It will take all of us.
NYC Man Murdered and Abused Girlfriend’s Baby Boy, Says Baby’s Crying Was ‘Irking’ Him
Police have arrested a New York City man after he killed his girlfriend’s baby boy, telling police that the baby was “irking” him.
Keishawn Gordon, 23 is being charged with murder after he admitted to “mushing” his girlfriend’s baby and sexually assaulting him because he would not stop crying.
According to a report from TheNew York Times, officers with the New York City Police Department responded to a 911 call about an unresponsive baby at the Webster House, located at 420 E. 169th Street in the Bronx, at approximately 3 p.m. last Thursday.
First-responders reportedly found the child, 1-year-old Legacy Beauford, unconscious in a bedroom inside the home. Responders attempted to bring the baby back to life but were unsuccessful. He was rushed to the nearby Bronx Care Health System, where he was pronounced dead.
The apartment was apparently shared by Legacy’s mother, Jessica Melendez, and Gordon, her boyfriend.
According to police, Gordon was babysitting the child overnight. Gordon did not instantly reveal what took place but eventually admitted to investigators that he punched the crying baby and sexually assaulted him.
“I was frustrated he wouldn’t stop crying. He kept throwing up,” Gordon said, according to the complaint. “I mushed him. He was irking me.”
A New York City medical examiner told police that Legacy’s cause of death was a lacerated liver that caused the baby to internally bleed to death. Legacy, who was born in August 2020, also had bruises covering his body and face as well as multiple broken ribs.
Gordon was taken into custody on Friday on charges of murder and manslaughter. Several outlets also reported that Gordon has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse.
The New York Postreported that Gordon had previously been arrested 18 times, seven of which were for felonies, including being charged with criminal obstruction of breathing in 2018 after allegedly putting his hands around a woman’s neck and then slamming her to the floor, according to sources. That victim said she did not lose consciousness, sources said.
Facebook Intends To Buy Up To $100 Million Worth of Invoices From 30,000 Small Minority And Women-Owned Businesses
In what could be a game-changing event for businesses owned by minorities and women, tech giant Facebook is coming to the rescue.
CNBC reported that the social networking powerhouse plans to buy up to $100 million in unpaid outstanding invoices from roughly 30,000 small businesses via its Facebook Invoice Fast Track program.
The commitment is a big deal as it means diverse firms that potentially would have had to put gaining such funds from customers on hold for an extended period can get paid.
The pledge comes after Facebook initially launched a smaller form of the program last year. The company reportedly took action after discovering that many suppliers that use its site to boost exposure and reach targeted customers were facing challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to CNBC, firms can submit outstanding invoices of at least $1,000. If they are approved, the invoice will be bought from the small business by Facebook within days. Customers then pay Facebook the outstanding invoices at the same terms they had agreed to with the small business. Racking up nearly $86 billion in 2020 revenue, waiting for payments is not as extreme for Facebook as for small businesses.
Rich Rao, Facebook’s vice president of small business, reflected on the effort to CNBC.
“We just heard first-hand the financial hardships that these suppliers were facing, and it was created really quickly and brought up as an idea and pitched to our CFO to say, ‘Hey, would we be able to help our suppliers with this? It was a very small pilot, but we did see that be very successful.”
The effort is among the most recent by Facebook to build relationships and with small businesses. Ironically, the move comes after the social network apologized for the “unacceptable error” from its artificial intelligence software that labeled Black men as “primates.”
American businesses owned by women and minorities, including members of supplier organizations that serve underrepresented groups, can apply for the new program. That includes the National Minority Supplier Development Council and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, among others. Facebook also reported it is examining adding more partner groups for the program.
Nikki Minaj Dragged for Story About Her Cousin’s Friend’s Swollen Private Parts Due to COVID-19 Vaccine
Rapper Nicki Minaj is being criticized for her stance on the COVID-19 vaccine.
The “Yikes” rapper revealed she contracted COVID-19 earlier this year. In a tweet, Minaj explains why she pulled out of the VMAs.
Minaj tweeted, “Love u babe. I was prepping for vmas then i shot a video & guess who got COVID? Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama?”
Love u babe. I was prepping for vmas then i shot a video & guess who got COVID? Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama? “get vaccinated” Drake had just told me he got covid w|THE VACCINE tho so chile https://t.co/wInXoJcHBn
Minaj, whose son will turn one later this month, then made a comment that had the internet going.
“My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.”
My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied
By Monday evening, “Minaj” became a trending topic on Twitter, with 60,000 tweets made about the rapper.
However, despite her views, Minaj said that she would likely get vaccinated, not because she wants to but because companies are requiring employees to get the shot.
“A lot of countries won’t let ppl work w/o the vaccine. I’d def recommend they get the vaccine. They have to feed their families. I’m sure I’ll b vaccinated as well cuz I have to go on tour, etc,” she wrote.
But people on Twitter kept issuing a collective side-eye to the Anaconda rapper’s reasoning.
Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend tripping over his swollen balls at the Met Gala pic.twitter.com/uR7gH4nv6i
Imagine telling your friend your flimsy alibi for your STD, saying “wait promise me you won’t tell Nicki Minaj about this” then waking up one day and doctors and the international media is fact-checking your humongous testicles and floppy peen pic.twitter.com/yn4UrKKpk5
“I got an STD before my wedding day causing my balls to expand exponentially. Luckily for me, my friend’s cousin is Nicki Minaj and he got her to tell the world it was actually a vaccine side-effect, thus sparing my blushes” pic.twitter.com/M7gL01hh9h
Meanwhile, President Biden spent last week criticizing people for refusing to get vaccinated. Some 80 million Americans are currently unvaccinated. However, President Biden announced his administration’s new approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. He plans to create mandates for millions of American workers to either get the coronavirus vaccine, get tested at least weekly, or face disciplinary action.
Gabrielle Union Talks Vulnerability, the Asterisk Beside Her Mom Title, and Raising Her Girls to Fly
Gabrielle Union is mom to an adorable toddler girl who has her facial expressions and her husband, Dwyane Wade’s, entire face. Still, the actress questions the long-term impact her surrogacy journey to motherhood will have on her daughter and husband, an NBA legend.
“Kaavia James was never in my body. I could not nourish her, and she could not find safety there,” Union shares in her second memoir, You Got Anything Stronger? which hits bookshelves today. “We met as strangers, the sound of my voice and my heartbeat foreign to her. It’s a pain that has dimmed but remains present in my fears that I was not, and never will be, enough.”
Union says she views her inability to carry Kaavia as an asterisk next to her title as mom, and she wonders if it “put a ceiling on the love my husband has for me.”
In a recent, on-camera Zoom interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Union says she embraces “radical transparency” as the path to heal from heart wrenching and traumatic experiences, and wrote her book to pass along lessons she’s gained from being vulnerable, which she calls her “super power.”
Like a good girlfriend, Union dishes truthfully because she doesn’t want other women to feel alone, whether they are going through their own difficult journey to motherhood, fighting for equal treatment on the job, respect at home, or striving to achieve balance, the very notion she dispels as a “mirage,” arguing that the system is “rigged against women.”
In this book, women will feel seen. And men will learn.
BE: I was a pool of tears when you went through your journey with In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) because I saw some of my story in what you shared (although I went another route). You permitted me to release some of that. It can be a painful journey and one (as an African American woman) that we oftentimes just deal with by ourselves. And so to me it was very brave and courageous of you to put all of that on the line. Why did you want to share your personal story?
Union: I’ve found that throughout my career and anytime I’ve had the opportunity to have microphones in my face, when I choose to use that time in front of the media, in front of the public to share all of my truths, it creates community and people feel seen and less alone. Specifically when it comes to fertility. Women in general don’t talk about it. But Black women specifically we really don’t talk about it.
And when I needed help and resources and people to connect me with doctors and specialists … none of them were Black. And that hurt. It hurt not having more Black women, or Black families as resources, as examples.
I just felt like if I can heal enough and I can go through enough therapy so I can speak about this journey with full transparency and complete honesty, hopefully … it builds more community and people can start asking each other more questions. So I try to be as thorough and as transparent about the whole thing—the medical part, the emotional part, the physical part—so people just have an idea of what the hell is out there, what the options are, what those options actually look like in a real-world kind of way.
There are so many of us … who just feel like we’re drowning in plain sight, and people are just walking by us, looking at us, and they’re just holding the life jacket. They’re not throwing it to us. I don’t ever want to feel that, and I don’t ever want to be so imprisoned by shame or embarrassment or humiliation … that I’m one of those people who has a life jacket, but I don’t feel comfortable enough to toss it to somebody.
That comes with an obscene amount of therapy (laughing) and a lot of healing but it started with ‘ma’am, stop lying to your damn self’ …this fear of being judged, of being open and of being completely vulnerable. But once I finally got over myself, I started really leaning into radical transparency, that’s when the major shifts started happening, and my world didn’t come to an end. It got bigger and better.
Hopefully, through this book, it opens up more conversations … with each other, with our doctors, with educators, with our spouses, with our significant others, with our family members/friends about what this sh*t really feels like and what’s really happening. Generally speaking, we don’t.
Gabrielle Union on Motherhood
BE:You wrote in your book that you feel like you’re a mother with an asterisk beside your name because of your path to motherhood (surrogacy) as opposed to actually carrying a child. Do you still feel like there’s an asterisk there, in terms of how you view it or how other people look at you, or both?
Union: Both, because you don’t really know. People aren’t that evil where someone is going to share with you —certainly not someone that you love, hopefully—that … it’s just the same. It’s all about making sure the child is here and loved and healthy and happy, blah, blah, blah.
I for sure know there’s an asterisk because people like to leave evil comments but yeah, it’s something that’s in the back of your mind that we rarely give words to or time for or space for. And getting to the place of realizing that, articulating that, doesn’t make me a bad person. It certainly doesn’t make me a bad mother for being honest.
On the Challenges of Producing Book Number Two
BE: Was this book always planned as this progression in your memoir from the first one, four years ago, to where you’re at now?
Union: No, hell no. The first one was terrifying and I left out a lot of chapters when it came time to deciding which ones were going to make the book. I had to be honest with myself that if I’m not ready to speak about everything that I include in this book, with the press and on this book tour, than I’m not ready to include it.
Over the course of the last four years and going through the surrogacy journey, you know the whole fertility journey and all of the things that have happened to me in the last four years, and a lot of therapy, I felt ready. I gained a lot of perspective. So those chapters that I had written that I just didn’t include (in the first book), I revisited and (asked myself) what do I want to say today—four years later—as I’m either on the other side of it or figuring out how to actively and effectively deal with it. What do I want to say?
And yeah, I guess that throughout the pandemic … we’re so isolated, and some of our challenges, especially the internal ones—the mental health challenges—the fears, just got exacerbated in isolation. I wanted to be able to throw some more lifelines and make a big impact, so that’s what I was hoping for.
But no, it was absolutely not the plan (laughing). I had to just see how I felt after the first one with the things I did share and the response. The book tour for the first book felt like a revival. At every stop, there would be some chapter that somebody really related to and it would just take us in a different direction and the joy and the release and the healing that you could feel at each venue, at every stop, I was like OK, this is something and if this is all coming about because I’m honest … I’m not even healed enough to share my whole thing, this is just the chapters that I felt comfortable with, and this is the response?
Um, OK, now I have to commit to doing the emotional work and the therapeutic work so I can be radically transparent because truth leads to community. Lies lead to isolation.
BE: That’s deep and so true. It takes a lot to get there, though.
Union: Yeah, well if someone says, ‘How are you doing?” and you say “Oh, I’m fine” and you’re not, the person who asked may have been going through something. Now that’s a missed opportunity because they don’t want to respond with ‘well let me tell you…’ It just kind of closed a door. But if we get to a place of what’s the worst that’s going to happen to me if I tell the truth? And if the worst thing is it builds community and it opens doors for people to feel like they are safe with you and you are safe with them, that’s a win.
On Black Women Moving the Needle Forward
BE:What steps can Black women, in particular, take to get to where you are?
Union: First, understand that we are not the worst things that have ever happened to us. We are worthy. We are deserving. Pain is not our birthright. We were not put here to be trauma mules for anybody. And that being transparent can be salvation. And that asking for help does not make us weak. Asking for help or acknowledging that, OK, maybe this is a challenge that I need to call in some reinforcement (from people) that are trained in this doesn’t make me weak, doesn’t make you stupid, doesn’t make you less deserving of, it just makes you human in need of some help, which we all need.
And then, we’ve got to deal with our feelings about telling a complete stranger all of our tea because most of us are raised you don’t talk out of school about anything. But part of that is because we’re talking to people who don’t value our privacy and don’t respect our boundaries versus a therapist who has to take a vow, who is committed to protecting your privacy, and who is trying to give you a plan of action so you can start combatting some of these challenges.
And it’s safe. But it’s also like dating, and that’s OK. If you want a Black woman therapist in your area, there are resources and references in every major city where you can find a Black woman that you can vibe with, that can truly, truly help you get to the light on the other side. But, if at first try you don’t really feel like it’s a great connection … it’s like dating, swipe right or swipe left. They’re OK. They’ve been rejected before. They’ve been broken up with by a client. It’s OK, try the next one but don’t give up.
You don’t have to be everything to all people and certainly not to your therapist. And that’s the difference between talking to a trained professional versus a family member or a friend or even clergy, who may or may not be trained in dealing with all of the kind of trauma and harm and challenges that we face as Black women.
And, I know in the pandemic, a lot of free and local therapists made themselves available and continue to do so. So, if cost is a challenge, there are solutions. If you physically don’t have an hour plus with traffic to get to a therapist, Zoom or Facetime. You don’t have to leave your house. How often do you get to just talk and somebody listens to you and they ask you probing, great questions and you’re not being interrupted? It’s a gift. Give that gift to yourself because you’ll feel a lot better.
On Embracing Zaya and Being a Supportive Bonus Mom
Gabrielle Union and family (Instagram)
BE: How did you evolve into this bonus mom who was immediately ready to embrace Zaya’s full truth? Some people never get there, or it takes them a very long time. In the book, it just seemed like from the jump, you were there.
Union: I had to be for my child. I don’t ever feel like I have the luxury of the kind of ignorance that could lead to harm, certainly when it comes to children. So I had to figure it out fast.
(We) came up with a village that is large enough and adequate enough to help her on her journey because in reality, no one in this household has done the same walk. There’s a gag of Black women in this village, but none of us would have had the same walk that Zaya has, so you don’t want to talk outside your mouth either. It’s like, ‘I’m a Black woman, you’re a Black woman, this is how it goes.’ We needed to … unlearn a lot of the things that we just accepted as just the way life is … a lot of the toxic masculinity. What is gender norms and roles, gender expression, what makes a good woman? All of those things we had to unlearn because it’s just a different journey into womanhood. And we didn’t have the time to fight it, you know?
And also, we don’t want to fight her identity and who she is. She’s beautiful and glorious and amazing and smart, and why would I ever do something that puts shackles on her and stops her from flying?
So, I had to figure out how to give her more wings … even bigger wings than the ones that she has, but in the same way that a lot of white parents have to approach or should approach transracial adoption. Am I doing things that are going to benefit my comfort, where we live, what schools, who we socialize with, or are we doing the right things for this child and making sure this child’s needs are met?
BE: It just seems like from the very beginning, you gave her the wings to fly. And this has just been a beautiful thing to watch. So I applaud you for that. You and Dwyane because I think for a Black man even kind of more so, or just as much, to be as open and accepting, it was really a great thing to see.
Union: A lot of parents of children in the LGBTQI community literally say, ‘I don’t know how to love them.’ But especially in minority communities, we are so conditioned that you have to assimilate in order to be OK and safe. You’ve got to do all these things to survive the white gaze and to make sure white people are not uncomfortable and that they’re validating you so you can move up and you can be successful but you’ve got to do all of these things.
You’ve got to shift shape constantly for their comfort, and then that carries over into how we parent. And the rejection of anything that we feel makes us run afoul of complete assimilation where we might be rejected or we might find ourselves in harm’s way and we project all of that onto our children thinking it will keep them safe. If you’re just like me, you’ll be safe. But even when we dive deeper into colorism, this notion of ‘oh I’m so dark, ain’t no way I’d be with someone else this dark. You know I gotta lighten up the bloodline.’ For what? And it’s because I feel like the lighter you are, the lighter my children are, the more opportunities they’re going to have.
BE:And the safer they’ll be.
Union: And the safer they’ll be. And they’ll be out of harm’s way because they’ll be closer to, you know, Eurocentric ideals of whatever. But when you start to really disinvest from those notions, it creates more freedom and you can start to be like, who am I? And who could I have been if I hadn’t centered the white gaze, white comfort, white validation? What could I have been? And now that I see it, who can I be, and what kind of parent do I want to be? If I do subscribe to these things and I don’t center them in all of my decision-making.
And yeah, it’s been a challenge to get everyone in our village on board. We have a large village from the midwest. D’s family is from the South Side of Chicago; I’m from the North Side of Omaha. His mom’s a pastor. My mom teaches catechism, so we come from religious families and reimagining who we can all be and that we can all be loved, seen, and nurtured, and cared for, and protected. We’re all deserving of these things because we’re here, and you don’t have to force anyone to be something that they’re not.
On Shady Baby and Keeping Dad at Bay From Social Media Posts
Kaavia James (Instagram)
BE:Kaavia James is a joy. I’m curious about Shady Baby, how she was birthed, and do you write her social media posts?
Union: I do all of it. D had exactly one chance, and he did a tribute post to himself, and it is not what her Instagram is for. If you go back to the beginning, the second or third post, and it’s like ‘my dad scored …’ whatever it was. And I’m like, OK, never again. We’re not doing this. So yeah, I’ve been doing her captions.
BE:I read her IG to laugh, to get away. Her pictures are adorable, her expressions are hilarious, but I just think you seem to really tap in and capture all of it brilliantly.
Union: That’s exactly who she is. And she came out that way. It’s nothing that we shaped. We don’t mess with her to get her to make weird expressions; that’s just who she is and has been very consistent, literally since she arrived.
She arrived to us via gestational carrier, and she is truly the best parts of both of us. While she has his whole face, I will admit, all of her facial expressions and how she speaks and some of the phrases that she says, it’s all me I like to think.
BE:Her independence is you.
Union: I’d like to think, yes. My husband would probably say—no, that’s me too. She’s literally, she’s just a joy. It’s weird. I’m sure every parent would say they’re all joys, but they’re really all not. It’s a lot about parenting that is just monotonous, and it’s like, all hell has broken loose just as soon as I’ve gotten used to the monotony, but she’s just a legit joy whether she’s in a good mood or bad mood, it’s just kind of all funny. She’s just funny. Like she could do standup.
And throughout the pandemic, we moved my mom—and my mom at 60 adopted three children and she’s 74 now—we brought her to L.A. and my niece to help her. And we brought D’s mom and a lot of our village into L.A., so it’s just a lot of us every day, all day, just laughing and cracking up, you know and learning from her. Just being tickled by her.
She is a child of the village. People always ask if she is a momma’s girl, daddy’s girl. I think she’s more of a momma’s girl than a daddy’s girl, but she’s very much a child of the village. Like she has great relationships with everybody, and like separate relationships … they’re all very different.
BE: What is the biggest takeaway you want people to grasp from this book, and do you know if there will be another? Is this going to be a three-part memoir?
Union: We’ll see what happens over the next few years. I didn’t really leave anything out … but I have to experience more life and see if in a few years if I have more I want to say. We’ll see where life takes me.
(There’ll be) more children’s books for sure in the Shady Baby universe. There’s a thousand stories we could explore with Shady Baby and we have picture books that are coming out for welcome to the party, accompanying materials for those books.
Maybe I’ll try my novel. We’ll see.
BE:Do you have any great takeaways? What I took away was your honesty and willingness to be vulnerable. Even the stories; one story where you didn’t speak to Dwyane for several days because one of his friends, whom you don’t like, came over. You tackled the situation when you two were separated and the child that was born out of that. I’m wondering what you hope people grasp from this book?
Union: Radical transparency won’t kill you, and sharing your truth can lead to salvation. And you don’t have to hold all of it, especially the things you didn’t create yourself. You are not the worst thing that has ever happened to you. Being vulnerable isn’t an invitation for harm.
Vulnerability is your superpower, and in talking about the journey of our relationship and my fertility journey, they all go together. So to leave out that part, which, as painful as it may be – 98% of it I don’t talk about because it involves too many other people other than myself, and that’s not fair. So I included the emotional impact of that on my fertility journey and the emotional impact of that on my decisions. The fertility decisions that I made. Because as we’re all faced with challenges, we all have a past, we all have those secrets, those things that we don’t want to talk about, but that truly color our decision-making processes and how we move in the world. And so for someone to know me—and my hope for this book is for people to truly understand me better—hopefully, they can see themselves reflected.
I would be lying to myself and to everyone else if that wasn’t included because that was for sure part of my journey. And it impacted my decision-making. And I owe it to myself to let that go, you know, and not feel like it’s some big thing that has the ability to take me out because it doesn’t.
Dawn Onley is a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
NYC Schools COVID Screener Crashes On First Day Amid Surge Of Children
The New York City Schools COVID-19 website crashed Monday, the first day the country’s largest public education system returned to in-person instruction.
Widespread reports, including from parents on Twitter and confirmed by NBC News, indicated the website was extremely slow to open and crashed around 8am as thousands of parents tried to log-on. Teachers and officials across the city were forced to use paper forms in order to clear students upon their arrival.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter told reporters the city expected issues with the website on the first day. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his morning press conference that the site was back online and the causes of the crash are under investigation.
“I think overload is the obvious answer,” De Blasio said.
More than 1 million children returned to in-person instruction Monday after 18 months of virtual learning.
The 2020-’21 school year was a tumultuous one. Many parents pulled and kept their kids out throughout the year. Additionally, De Blasio’s leadership frustrated and angered parents when he stopped in-school instruction when the city’s COVID-19 positivity rate hit 3%, only to reopen in late November when the city’s rate was closer to 5%.
Many parents are also upset that De Blasio did not include a remote option for this year forcing all students to return in-person instruction. More than 600,000 parents, most of them Black and Latino, pulled their children out of schools and into virtual learning last year.
While parents seem much more receptive to in-person learning, many parents have also told education officials they will not bring their students for a few days or even a month.
Smaller school districts, especially in the south, have had significant COVID-19 outbreaks in recent weeks. In Mississippi alone, more than 18,000 students have caught COVID in the first month of the school year. In Florida, several school districts in the state have defied Gov. Ron DeSantis and instituted mask mandates. However an appeals court ruling reinstated the governor’s mask ban in schools.
Simone Biles and Other Olympic Gymnasts Will Testify Before Congress About FBI’s Mishandling of Investigation Into Larry Nassar Sexual Abuse Claims
Simone Biles, and other Olympic gymnasts will stand before Congress to testify at a hearing on the FBI’s mishandling of the investigation into the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case.
According to the Senate Judiciary Committee, there will be testimonies from Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman– all who came out and said they were abused by Nassar.
Gymnast Maggie Nichols, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, and FBI Director Christopher Wray will also testify.
In July, Horowitz released a 119-page report that explained in detail how the FBI’s Indianapolis field office “failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required.”
The report concluded there the FBI investigators responsible investigating the incidents violated the agency’s policies by making false statements and failing to properly document complaints by the accusers, resulting in a delay in the probe into the claims.
Biles, Maroney, Raisman, and Nichols are among hundreds of women who say they were sexually abused by Nassar during his “routine medical exams.”
The FBI said in a statement following the release of the report that the “actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization,”
Nassar, who previously served as a doctor for USA Gymnastics, was sentenced in 2018 to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing multiple girls and women under the claim that he was offering medical treatment. Even after his sentencing, Nassar said that his “treatment” was “done for a medical purpose, not for his own pleasure,” according to a report from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
Biles opened up about the abuse she faced from Nassar in 2018. This year, she said it “could have” impacted her performance in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Now that I think about it, maybe in the back of my head, probably, yes, because there are certain triggers you don’t even know, and I think it could have,” she told “TODAY.”
Nation’s Oldest Living World War II Veteran Celebrates 112th Birthday
The nation’s oldest living World War II veteran was honored on a very special day.
Lawrence Brooks, a veteran and native of Louisiana, celebrated his 112th birthday on Sunday. To mark the day, he was given his very own parade outside his home in Central City.
Residents gathered in cars to wish him a happy birthday as a part of the drive-by party. The National World War II Museum hosted the event.
“If you ask Mr. Brooks, ‘Why have you lived so long?’ He says his motto is, be good to people,” Peter Crean, vice president of Education and Access at the National WWII Museum, told Fox 61.
But the parade was far from dull. It featured Jeeps, a live performance from the museum’s vocal trio, and entertainment from New Orleans musicians. The city also recognized Brooks’ birthday with an official proclamation.
Brooks’ dedication and sacrifice have previously been celebrated at the National World War II Museum. However, the coronavirus pandemic caused organizers to shift to a drive-by celebration for the last two years.
Lawrence was celebrated by many, including Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who tweeted, “Mr. Brooks, the entire state of Louisiana thanks you for your service and we all wish you a joyous birthday.”
Brooks grew up in Norwood, Louisiana, and served in the Army between 1940 and 1945 with the predominately Black 91st Engineering Battalion, a unit stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines. They built infrastructures such as bridges, roads, and airstrips.
Brooks was never directly involved in combat, but in a recorded oral history for the National World War II museum, he recalled a dangerous moment when his C-47 cargo plane’s engine failed while transporting wire from Australia to New Guinea.
“There was the pilot, the co-pilot, and me and just two parachutes. I told them, ‘If we have to jump, I’m going to grab one of them,’ ” he said.
Brooks is a father of five children and five stepchildren. He has 13 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Study Finds Black Children Twice As Likely To Die By Suicide Than White Children
A study conducted by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital showed Black children are twice as likely to die by suicide as white children.
The study, published in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found between 2003 and 2017, just over 1,800 Black male and female teens died by suicide. Additionally, the annual percentage of Black children between 15 and 17 who died by suicide rose nearly 5%. The percentage for Black girls was even higher at 6.6%.
Nearly 40% of Black girls who died by suicide in that time were between 12 and 14 years old. Dr. Arielle Sheftall, the lead author of the study, called the increasing trend concerning.
“We found that the annual percent increase among Black girls was twice that of Black boys, which was very surprising because this finding goes against what we usually see in the literature wherein more males die by suicide than females,” Sheftall told WBNS 10. “This is quite concerning and signals that something is happening among our Black girls.”
Sheftall added there is limited research in Black youth suicide statistics. One of the reasons the study was conducted was to identify risk factors causing the increase in Black youth suicide rates and use the findings for prevention tactics.
Suicide rates of U.S. teenagers and young adults show it remains highest in young boys, particularly white, Native American, and Alaskan Natives.
Sheftall toldThe New York Times that suicide is not typically an issue discussed in the Black community, but that may have to change if trends continue.
“I think in the past suicide—or suicidal behavior—was just thought of as a white thing,” said Sheftall. “And that’s not the case.”
Another study, published in May, showed that the suicide rate of Black men between 15 and 24 rose by 47% between 2003 and 2019, and 59% for Black women the same age. However, the rate for white men and women of the same age decreased.
