DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! How about some pre-weekend links?

Gray urges hiring of D.C. unemployed “D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray implored major universities and other area employers Thursday to fill their job vacancies with unemployed city residents as part of the District’s nascent ‘One City-One Hire’ program. ‘We are asking you to help us fill vacancies,’ said Mr. Gray, a Democrat. ‘We’re not asking you to create jobs. We’re not asking you for a handout. We’re not asking you for charity.’” (Washington Times)

Redskins roll out Hispanic version of fight song “The Washington Redskins’ beloved fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” will be replaced on Sunday by a Spanish-language version of the song. ‘Viva Los Redskins,’ written and produced by three fans, will be introduced during the Redskins’ game against the Arizona Cardinals as part of Redskins Hispanic Heritage Week. The new fight song is a loosely translated, upbeat Hispanic version of the original tune written by Corinne Griffith, the wife of former Redskins owner George Preston Marshall.” (Washington Examiner )
Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! Happy Thursday. Let’s celebrate with some links:

D.C.’s H Street friendly to deaf community “Shortly after it opened, the H Street Country Club bar switched from black napkins to white. It seems like a small change, but it has had a big impact for one group of customers. ‘We recognize the majority of the people in our bar are hearing-impaired,’ said owner Ricardo Vergara…And the napkin color? Deaf customers now have a simple way of communicating their orders by writing them on the white paper.” (Washington Times)

Study dismisses poverty, but try telling that to the poor “As the Heritage researchers see it, however, that sense of deprivation is not the same as poverty, nor is it even widespread. ‘Poor families certainly struggle to make ends meet, but in most cases, they are struggling to pay for air conditioning and the cable TV bill as well as to put food on the table.’ So fret not, poor folks. To join, or rejoin, the middle class, apparently all you have to do is drop Comcast or Fios and turn off the thermostat.” (The Washington Post)

Delayed MLK Dedication Could Draw Smaller Crowd “The King Memorial foundation has applied for a permit to accommodate 50,000 people on Oct. 16. Organizers had expected 250,000 attendees for the dedication’s initial date of Aug. 28, but Hurricane Irene forced a delay.” (myfoxdc.com)
Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! And now for some links:

Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause “I passed five fast-food and family restaurants in one long block, including one that advertised a ‘Texas-size breakfast’ of three scrambled eggs, two fried potato cakes, a buttered croissant and a choice of three sausage links, three ounces of ham or four strips of bacon — enough to produce a Texas-size heart attack, and for $1.99. Americans are not known for resisting such temptations, especially if money is tight.” (The New York Times)

Unemployment Math – Ta-Nehisi Coates “The black population in DC covers a huge swath of economic life, from the 25% unemployed in almost entirely black Ward 8 to the President sitting in the oval office. The demographic profile of the white population, on the other hand, is much more skewed, and reflects–as you said–the substantial educational, social, and other differences between the median white person in DC and the median white person elsewhere.” (The Atlantic)

Sentencing in McDonalds Transgender Beating “Teonna Brown pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime. Prosecutors have said they plan to ask for a prison term of five years at her sentencing Tuesday. The beating at the McDonald’s in Rosedale in April attracted national attention after a video of it was posted online.
people.” (NBC Washington)

Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

Metro workers to receive 3 percent raise this week "Wednesday will be a special payday for thousands of Metro workers. Most of the transit agency's employees will be seeing a 3 percent boost in their paychecks as the first step in the resolution to an epic wage fight with the transit agency. Then next month, they will get even bigger checks as they are slated to receive lump sum payments for retroactive raises from the past two years." (Washington Examiner )

Go easy on the soul food "Soul food is a romantic part of black life that should be revered and remembered. It’s a treasured heritage that can be traced back through the heyday of the Black Belt to the Great Migration to our time of bondage. But for too long, that heritage has been a crutch, an excuse to deny we are suffering an obesity crisis. It’s not our fault we are overweight, we say. It’s the food we grew up with. It’s 'cultural.' Good eatin’ is good livin’. Livin’ good, but not for long." (suntimes.com)

How Personhood Mississippi Perverts Black History to Fight Abortion "Personhood Mississippi is using the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 to convince Mississippi voters to outlaw abortion in the state via a November 9th ballot initiative called Amendment 26. As we all (hopefully) know, Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American who sued his so-called master for his freedom. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Scott and every other black person in this country had no right to sue in federal court because his blackness made him a non-citizen." (colorlines.com)

Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! And now, for some links:

Transgender person shot in D.C.; 3rd such attack this summer “Police are investigating the shooting of a transgender person Monday, the third in a string of similar attacks in the District this summer…The two earlier attacks on transgender people — one of which was fatal — occurred one block and 11 days apart in Northeast Washington.” (The Washington Post)

No Blacks Pictured in 9/11 Commemorative “Time magazine this week published “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience,” a photo-rich commemorative edition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. No identifiable African Americans are pictured in its 64 pages…The issue is published at a time in its history when the magazine apparently has no African American editors.” (The Root)

Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! Here’s what we’re reading, right now:

Life Is (Relatively) Sweet In Washington, DC For Members Of All Racial And Ethnic Groups “I think that much as claims about the economic vibrancy of the DC area are rightly tempered by the observations that conditions are much worse for the city’s working class residents than for affluent professionals, claims about the city being “a city divided” need to be tempered by the reality that these divisions exist all over the place.” (Think Progress)

Saul Solorzano touched thousands of lives in D.C.’s Central American community “Among the struggling immigrants who benefited from Carecen’s help over the years, the tearful testimonies at several crowded memorial services last month and the painstakingly penned messages in a condolence book at the Carecen office spoke eloquently of his impact. ‘You will live in the heart of every immigrant,’ one woman wrote in broken Spanish.” (The Washington Post)

Obama: ‘Obviously’ black Americans have ‘suffered more’ “And what I think about every single day is how we can make sure more folks are going to work. And obviously the African-American community has suffered even more. There’s that old saying when American gets a cold, African-Americans get pneumonia. And the jobless rate across the board, and particularly in communities like inner-city Chicago, this has been a devastating blow.” (thegrio.com)
Continue reading →