Disruption Now

Maxine Waters was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the fifth of 13 children reared by a single mother. She began working at age 13 in factories and segregated restaurants. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked in garment factories and at the telephone company. She attended California State University at Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She began her career in public service as a teacher and a volunteer coordinator in the Head Start program. She is married to Sidney Williams, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. She is the mother of two adult children, Edward and Karen, and has two grandchildren. Congresswoman Waters made history as the first woman and first African American Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. She has the gavel and knows how to use it.

Holley learned the ropes from Johnny Cochran during the Oj Simpson trail dubbed “the trial of the century.” In May 2018, Ms. Holley and Kim Kardashian West met with President Donald Trump at the White House to lobby for the release of Alice Marie Johnson, a first-time, non-violent drug offender who was serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Ms. Holley and Ms. West were successful in persuading Mr. Trump to commute Ms. Johnson’s sentence in her twenty-second year of imprisonment. Holley was raised in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her mother went to school at night working earning her M.B.A. Eventually, working her way up from legal secretary to the office manager at a large law firm. Holley was unimpressed and thought being an attorney was boring. Holley ended up as a waitress at the first ever California Pizza Kitchen when she met a “cool” lawyer who did work that excited her. She enrolled in Southwestern Law School in 1985. Shawn began her legal career in the Los Angeles pub

Does black male privilege exist? If you talk to most black men they will openly agree that privilege is a real thing among their white male counterparts. However, if you ask is their black male privilege there is a wide variety of reactions and opinions. What does black male privilege look like? Is it the same white male privilege? Are there any unique responsibilities or obligations black men have toward black women?

Privilege is a loaded word that invokes strong reactions; especially from white people. After a Jazz fan got into a heated argument with Russel Westbrook, it was later discovered the fan had made racially charged comments. As Kyle Korver detailed in his article on white privilege; dealing with overt racism is easy, the harder issue is dealing with subtle racism that has overt results from education, employment, and our criminal justice system.

Something that was overlooked by the mainstream media in the coverage of the Mueller Report was how Russia focused on fueling racial tensions to influence the election. The Internet Research Agency was an organization created by Russia that stoked white fears and connected with the black protest movement to increase the chances of a Trump victory.

According to Michelle Alexander, author of the New Jim Crow, more black men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began. The recent Kerry Lanthan incarceration demonstrates how our criminal justice system is applied in ways that is oppressive to black men without regard for whether it is making us safer or rehabilitating people. The most logical explanation may be that the ideal of a fair administration of justice by the criminal justice system is undermined by the scars from America never fully dealing with the issues of race and negative stereotypes around black men/women. Many know Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed but most don't know there were two others who were shot as well. Kerry Lathan was one of these people and he was arrested for violating his parole terms. His violation - simply meeting with Nipsey to look for opportunities to work (because of Nipsey’s historic gang affiliation). Nipsey had long ago left gang life and was in fact actively

Laura Ingraham’s coverage of Nipsey Hussle continues to demonstrate her lack of skills as a journalist and as a human being. She can’t understand why others would mourn Nipsey’s death. This is because Ingraham doesn’t care about what is good for this country or what is even accurate. It’s all about inflaming the base to make money for Fox. Ingraham didn’t actually talk to people on the ground, instead she laughed at them. A father, community member and leader was shot down. I guess it’s too much to ask for Laura Ingraham to have empathy.

Conspiracy theories popped up all over black Twitter and social media following the murder of Nipsey Hussle. Why did so many think his death was a conspiracy? Perhaps the answer is America has confirmed conspiracies against African Americans.

Nipsey Hussle was in many ways the personification of the American dream. He started off in the streets, joining the gang the 60s (Crips), going to prison but eventually turning his life around and having success as a rapper and entrepreneur. He went from hustling on the corner to owning the same corner he used to hustle on. When he became famous he didn’t move out or stop coming, instead, he came more became more accessible. He started STEM classes for kids, provided jobs for local youth and showed hustlers there is another path. He eventually gained the respect of all gangs; crips and bloods alike. Nonetheless, his life ended in senseless violence from a member of his same gang. His death sparked many questions:  Why are we so accepting or desensitized to violence?  Should Nipsey have stayed so close and accessible when he started to become famous? Was the more going on behind his death?

Andrew Gillum was not supposed to be the Democratic nominee for Florida governor. For the entire century nearly every gubernatorial candidate Democrat and Republican were millionaires. So when the political class, Democrats and Republicans saw he was running they all said he would lose. No way the son of a construction worker and bus driver will become the nominee.. He proved them wrong the nomination, along with the hearts and minds of millions. Though he lost the governor’s race by less than half a percentage point, his journey is not over. We explore his journey to this point and his path forward in the current political climate.

Governing is hard but leading a diverse nation is even harder. More homogeneous democracies often have greater levels of social welfare (e.g. Sweden, Switzerland)  Can anything be done about the discomfort some people will feel in diverse settings? Do  diverse societies invite or create divisions that lead to scapegoating, which prevents underlying problems from being acknowledged and/or solved? Or does division and scapegoating always exist?

Growth in urban communities has been accelerating in the last decade. Areas that were for years considered unattractive and crime ridden have become the areas of economic growth and activity. This has had the unintended consequence (or intended consequences depending on your perspective) of dislocating poorer black and brown communities who have been there for decades. Our Disruptor of the week Terry Booty discusses how his company, Urban Farmers tackles the issues. Urban Farmers seeks to successfully bridge the gap between corporate objectives and community needs by focusing on workforce housing and sustainable community development.

We are used to hearing scandals involving the recruitment of NCAA athletes. However, I have never heard of a scandal involving students posing as athletes. That is until actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with multiple wealthy parents, paid a middleman (through a fake non profit) over 25 million dollars to bribe admissions officers and coaches to admit their kids as student athletes. Colleges will often admit athletes and lower the standards providing often sub par educational opportunities while exploiting  the college athletes.

The human brain is wired to be bias. The science is clear, everyone is bias without exception. Our minds tend to default to what we think know or what makes sense to us versus exploring the facts of each situation. While more information is available to us than ever before, society’s focus on insta twitter and instagram news allows everyone to conclude they are right without exception. Exploration, investigation and due process become secondary and all the while social media through programming and artificial intelligence  continues to confirm our own biases. How do we break this cycle?

The fear of socialism is nothing new in America; But beyond the name what actually is socialism? How did the word socialism become such a tainted word? Now with Bernie Sanders and AOC socialism gaining in popularity. The ideas and the concepts around some so-claims have been around and are even part of the American fabric just as capitalism is. This current socialist scare isn't about socialism, it's about challenging the status quo.

How do accusations of racism and assault affect us all? From pics of black faces to threats from publications, this past week has been quite the show for politicians, actors, and billionaires alike.