Mediaboss Marketing

Since Nov. 20, 2021, Rev. Corey B. Brooks has been living on a roof on the South Side of Chicago. He wont come down until he gets $35 million in donations to build a new 84,000-square-foot community center across from his New Beginnings Church, which he established 20 years ago as a place of worship where local youths can get an education and train for jobs. A leader in the fight against violence on Chicagos South Side for almost three decades, Brooks, 53, had hoped that Black Lives Matter, which took in $66 million in donations following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, would help him with some funding. But though he reached out to the group, he said he never got a response. Here, Brooks tells The Posts Dana Kennedy his story

Im living up on the roof to bring attention and awareness to the violence that is so commonplace in Chicago. I want people to know what goes on here.

I stay up here 24/7. I make phone calls. I sleep in a tent, and I do pretty much everything by Zoom. I have a babys bathtub that I fill with water to clean myself. I use a five-gallon paint bucket with trash can liners to relieve myself. For food we either have restaurants who donate or we order from UberEats. I get by in the cold months by layering up but it feels like the Arctic up here in the winter.

Were fighting to change the mindset. We are about making people take responsibility for their actions and not blame others. I also hope to bring in some money so that we can build a community center here across the street from the church.

Were up against a lot in our immediate area. First of all, a bad education system. The elementary school has a 4% reading proficiency level, a 6% math proficiency level. So we get a lot of young men who are growing up but cant read and so when they get to ninth grade they drop out because theyre so frustrated. Secondly, we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country in our area, especially among young black males. Then when you add the fact that we have so many gangs from block to block those issues compound. Were dealing with the Gangster Disciples, the Black Disciples and the Black P Stones among others.

Ninety children have been shot this year alone in Chicago. Over 25 of them have been killed. Its tough for a lot of these mothers, especially the single mothers who are trying to do the best they can to raise their children in such a violent environment. The stress these families are experiencing is overwhelming.

I would never walk around here at night. You could be mistaken for a gang member and shot. But since weve been here, weve been able to get rid of a motel that had sex trafficking and drugs. Weve been able to get people hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

Back in 2000, we first found the building for our church and it was a torn-up skating rink called Route 66 that had been used for skating parties and raves. The building was pretty much demolished and was a big piece of junk. We bought it and renovated it and put $5 million into it. We started a church that was contemporary, credible and creative, in a community that had a lot of needs.

Now, we have a charter school for 16 to 21 year olds whove been kicked out of Chicago public schools. Weve got them engaged in education and we get them to graduate. We also have a trade school. We offer mentoring and counseling. We have a wellness component and we also have a violence prevention team of 15 full-time employees who work in our neighborhood.

We need another building because we have a construction program where we recruit men and women in gangs or who have been marginalized or are just re-entering society from prison. We train them and then we give them jobs. We have trained over 160 people so far with an 80% job placement rate. We just had our first all womens electrician class! So were doing a lot of great work. We just need more space.

This new building will house all our programs, including our trade, school and entrepreneurial programs. So far weve raised $12 million about 80 percent of which has come from small donors across America with the rest coming from Chicago and corporate donors. People can donate to the Get Pastor Brooks Off the Roof fund.

Thats a result of me living on the roof for 170 days. Ive only come down once to visit my mother, Evelyn Wyatt, in Indiana where she was dying of cancer. I stayed with her the last three weeks of her life and then came back up to the roof.

Weve had CEOs from around the country come to stay with us including the CEO of the McCormick Foundation. Weve invited the mayor of Chicago so hopefully, shes gonna be here. We invited Eric Adams when he came to town but his schedule didnt allow him to come over. There are no bathrooms up here but when people come to stay we tell them, were giving you a pot and a cot.

Ive always kept my politics to myself. For the first 14 years with my church I never even really thought about politics at all. And it wasnt until six years ago, that I finally told people I was a Republican. Ive been a Republican since I was 20.

(Then-Mayor) Rahm Emanuel was all for me until he found out I was a conservative. He tried to shut down everything we were trying to do. So we decided that we werent going to depend on the government for anything and stopped asking. Were out on our own trying to find people who arent worried about our political affiliation. But we definitely have been ostracized for our conservative views.

At the end of 2020, I emailed the director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for the first time on the website where it says you can apply for donations. I kept emailing and asking: How do you go about trying to get funds for your organization from Black Lives Matter? I kept waiting for a human response or any response at all. I tried again in the summer of 2021. I never heard anything back from anyone.

We were going to try a third time when we started hearing about all the problems they were having. My attorney and I looked into the possibility of taking over the organization but one of the biggest obstacles we encountered was that there was literally no one at the helm of it. There was no infrastructure.

Theres a Black Lives Matter chapter in Chicago but theyre like a secret. Nobody has seen them do any work for the community or has any data or has heard anything about them. So if they exist its only on paper.

It makes me angry honestly, that people who supported Black Lives Matter were abused by an organization who gave money to people or organizations that arent doing any of the work needed in our communities. Whenever people profit off black pain for their own gain that makes me angry. Ive been saying for a long time that Black Lives Matter doesnt benefit the black community in any way.

Whenever people profit off black pain for their own gain that makes me angry.

My goal was to stay here until we raised all the money needed to build the center. I still feel that way. But I must admit that it is starting to wear and tear on me physically. At least its almost summer and not so cold. So Im going to continue to stay as long as I possibly can. And hopefully that will not be much longer.

The block where our church is located is called O Block, after a young man who was shot and killed here. His name was Odee Perry. He was a member of the The Black Disciples gang, and the gang picked up the O in his name and started calling it O Block. Since I got here, I decided were going to keep the O, but were going to make it mean O for opportunity, the Opportunity Block.

See the rest here:
Chicago pastor: I live on a roof to raise cash for black youthsbut BLM wont help - New York Post

Vanessa Lowe is a member of the Unitarian Society and an organizer with POWER, the largest interfaith-based social justice organization in Pennsylvania.

Lowe will be participating in the vigils. She said she values the ability to collectively grieve, and not just process the ongoing news, alone.

When we hear these stories, its gut-wrenching and its hard. And me by myself, looking through the web or watching TV its just like the shock, said Lowe. You need a community to come together with, and cry with, and just put your heads together, and just be together.

Theres so much pain in the world and so much of it is about relations and how we see each other, or dont see each other. So, coming together, as humans, when things like this happen, is really critical, added Lowe.

Lowe is still hopeful that the moral arc of the universe will bend towards justice, hearkening back to the quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Shes looking forward to expanding multi-faith organizing in the Philly region, where different religions can come together based on their commonalities; the belief in the inherent worth of every being, and the wish for a healthy, happy world.

See original here:
Black Lives Matter vigils return to the Unitarian Society of Germantown - WHYY

Theres been a wall of silence, said one local campaigner I spoke to at a vigil dedicated to 28-year-old anti-racism campaigner Sasha Johnson. A year ago, on 23 May 2021, Johnson was brutally shot in the head. The vigil was held earlier this week in Londons Denmark Hill, a short walk from the hospital where Johnson continues to lie in a critical condition, with what have been described as catastrophic and permanent injuries to the head. She has two children under the age of 13.

The vigil was small, attended by about 30 people, mainly old-school black-power and black-nationalist groups, such as the Nation of Islam. One group was notably absent: Black Lives Matter.

Sasha Johnson is a black-rights campaigner, who rose to prominence in 2020 amid the eruption of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the murder of George Floyd in the US by a police officer. Johnson drew a great deal of attention for her Black Panther Party-inspired outfits, her passionately black-centric rhetoric, her sometimes strange political bedfellows and her willingness to debate her adversaries, including former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

Johnson spoke out against what she regarded as the unequal treatment and representation of black people in Britain. She joined and organised with a range of groups, including Black Lives Matter, Kill the Bill and Rhodes Must Fall. Just before the tragic incident, Johnson was actively involved in the Taking the Initiative Party, which notably gained more than 4,000 votes in the recent local elections in Croydon, south London. Despite her alignment with Black Lives Matter, with its identitarian demands for recognition and insistence on black racial victimhood, Johnson advocated for more traditional notions of black self-reliance and black power.

On 23 May 2021, Johnson was shot in the head at a party in Peckham in the early hours of the morning. Days after the shooting, five men under 30 were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. They were due to stand trial in March this year, but the case collapsed in February as the prosecutor said it could only offer circumstantial evidence to the court.

Following the collapse of the trial, both the police and Johnsons family noted the unwillingness of witnesses to cooperate with the police. Deputy chief inspector Nigel Penney, who is leading the ongoing investigation into the shooting, has said that, there were plenty of people there, yet many have not been willing to speak to us.

There is a grim and tragic irony to what transpired after Johnsons shooting. Immediately after the attack, there was a great deal of speculation about the motivation, and many were quick to assume it was racially or politically motivated. Labour MP Diane Abbott went as far as to say: Nobody should have to potentially pay with their life because they stood up for racial justice. The day after the shooting, while much still remained unknown, Black Lives Matter UK organised a vigil.

However, as more information came out about the circumstances of the shooting, as we learnt that the suspects were not white and that it was unlikely to have been a white-supremacist attack, the commentary started to dissipate.

Even after Johnsons family shared gruesome images of Johnson in hospital earlier this year, showing parts of her head missing, many of those who initially spoke out against the shooting had nothing more to say. There have been no black squares, no hashtags, no mass demonstrations of civil disobedience. Even the crowdfunder that was set up to support Johnson and her family after the shooting has only just surpassed half of its modest fundraising goal of 20,000.

There seems to be a double standard in societys response to black victims of violence. Police killings and police brutality, while relatively rare in the UK, draw enormous attention. Whereas there seems to be far less concern about the fact that black people are disproportionately impacted by violent crime. Young black men in Britain are 24 times more likely to die of homicide than their white counterparts. In London, violent knife and gun attacks are only becoming more common. This, I would argue, is the most potent example of how black lives are disregarded.

This indifference towards the nihilistic violence that plagues significant sections of Britains ethnic-minority communities is poisonous. It is a devastating indictment of our society. Whether we condemn or take action against such grotesque violence should not be contingent on whether it suits a particular political agenda.

We must not let the shooting of Sasha Johnson fade from public memory. We cannot let it become just another story of violent crime in inner-city London. If lives matter, black or otherwise, her shooting should implore us to grapple with the scourge of violence in our society.

Inaya Folarin Iman is a GB News presenter and founder of the Equiano Project.

More:
Sasha Johnson and the black lives that don't matter - Spiked

click to enlarge

Photo c/o St. Pete Pride

Tampa Leigh represents Blaque/OUT Magazin. a monthly digital publication that firmly centers Black and Brown Queer qulture worldwide.

Intersectionality became my life and was fated to also be my work. I am a native New Yorker, where LGBTQ+ laws and protections are groundbreaking on paper but not so profound in practice. Where just like the South or the West or anywhere in between, being Black as well as being Queer can get you killed.

I came to my new home armed with experience, passion and purpose. I was ready to take on my new Floridian world and to be entirely honest, St. Pete Pride. I had turned several other Prides and organizations. I, along with a team of dedicated staff and determined volunteers were able to change the look of entertainment, of staff, of the color of the people at the table. We had made the orgs we interacted with, for the most part, Blacker, broader, less cis and less male focused. I was determined that the same could happen in St. Pete. Each time we can make the big, queer world big enough to fit everyone, we make the world a better place.

Generally speaking, its easy when you are the big fish in the small pond to take up all the air, resources and recognition in the room. St. Pete Pride had intentionally or unintentionally done that for many years. But its often less malice and more lack of intentionality that causes such oversight and exclusion. I was actually told at one point last year that there were no people or programs that supported, represented or served the QTPOC community in this area. Over the last year I was honored and grateful to learn that wasnt true. As is everywhere, there are endless Black and Brown folks fearlessly doing the work to make that big queer world big enough to fit us all. Id like to introduce a few.

It matters. Who is at the table always matters.

It matters. Who is at the table always matters. Each of us carries blind-spots and without full representation in every space, something always goes unseen. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work must come with overwhelming humility, the ability to name and acknowledge what you havent done and a sincere, fearless willingness to make it right. That must come even in the face of opposition, misunderstanding and embarrassment. For those who step in first to integrate that school, to come out in a crowd, to fight that legislation.... to take that seat, must do so fearlessly and in our community and working to embody the principles of our ancestors with grit and grace. Look them up, support their visions and if your party, panel, presentation or event that centers Queerness doesnt include one or all of themyou didnt try hard enough.

The corner St. Pete Pride is turning is long overdue. The letting go of we dont see color" and the adopting of celebrating, commemorating and uplifting a profound, important and inherently unique Black Queer qulture is a new one. This year St. Pete Pride will feature Ballroom (think POSE), one of the pillars of Black Queer qulture. There will be the first-ever official Juneteenth celebration to highlight Black, Queer history and a party to celebrate and honor Black Queer Woman in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Black Lesbians group.

Im proud to have played even a small part in that and I look forward to a future where its a conversation we no longer even need to have because its just what St. Pete Pride is. But even the baby steps matter. There is too much fighting that needs to be done in this state to be living in division. No one is free, until we are all free. And I hope to hear Black Lives Matter being shouted just as loudly as We Say Gay this Pride parade. May St. Pete Pride one day be the organization leading both of those chants.

BlaQQueer Unity Council Orgs & Members

Rocky Butler 9 Colors InitiativeThe 9 Colors Initiative supports youth by empowering the community through unity. Currently operating as a referral agent and community advocate for the LGBTQ community we strive to ensure equality, wholeness, & community engagement.

DeAndre Yummy BrownYummy translated his joy of dance into a storied career that has stretched 15+ years. Browns mastery of Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Lyrical, Vogue, Hip-Hop and other forms of dance were cultivated as a student at institutions such as The University of the Arts. Cultural-based training in churches and organizations like Hype Elite, YCDT with Traci Young-Byron, Iconic House of Ninja and Iconic House of Prodigy only served to enrich his style, versatility and range. In the next ascension of DeAndres dance life, he stepped into his most recent form of artistry within the Black Queer Ballroom scene. Browns passion for showcasing his art and educating at a worldwide level just fuels his quest for bigger and more transformative stages.

Cadin Small, Choya Randolph, Dominique Euzebe, Quin Killiings, Brook Carter The Blunt Space Incorporated A nonprofit corporation and media hub for art, advocacy, and culture. We aim to be a safe haven and provide resources to marginalized voices within the arts! Writers, Poets, Advocates, Journalists, Dreamers, Creators and Revolutionaries. They see the Council as an opportunity to truly be unified on one front about the events and initiatives that advocate for the intersectional identities of being Black and Queer. It means organizing, supporting, and communicating with one another to better serve the community we hold close to all of our hearts! Tamara LeighBlaque/OUT Magazine, Blaque/OUT Consulting & Tampa Bay Black Lesbians Blaque/OUT Magazine is a monthly digital publication that firmly centers Black and Brown Queer qulture worldwide. Blaque/OUT Consulting provides workshops, trainings, process and procedure evaluation and education for schools, businesses and orgs around creating safe spaces and understanding intersectionality. Tampa Bay Black Lesbians is a safe community space to build relationships, create and attend events with other Black Queer women in TB, Pinellas County and surrounding areas. You can find the group on FB, IG and TikTok.

Antonio MilesEvolve Tampa BayA passionate educator and sexual health advocate. He is also the proud Executive Director of EVOLVE Tampa Bay; Tampas unique non-profit organization, that provides empowering monthly events that uplift Black and Brown same-gender loving men. His work also reaches into the field of sexual health care, as the Program Manager for Positively U, Inc, a non-profit the focuses reducing the rates of HIV and other STIs through education, advocacy and care. Antonio, is laser-focused on creating connections across the bay area that foster creative, safe and affirming spaces for queer people of color.

See original here:
At St. Pete Pride 2022, I hope to hear 'Black Lives Matter' being shouted just as loudly as 'We Say Gay' - Creative Loafing Tampa

DC Comics continues to circle not only the creative drain, but the moral drain as well with their latest Batman comic, Batman: Fortress #1, which sees Batman flee from an Antifa and Black Lives Matter style riot.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

The comic written by Gary Whitta with art work by The Boys Darick Robertson sees Batman investigating an alien interference that causes global blackouts.

As Batman attempts to figure out what is the cause of the blackouts, he is also called on to protect Gotham City after the entirety of the prisoners in Arkham Asylum are unleashed upon the innocent citizens.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

RELATED: Renowned Batman Writer Chuck Dixon Reveals How He Would End Batmans Story

Batmans first stop is to a rooftop overlooking an electronics store that is being looted with neighboring buildings, some of them appearing to be apartments, being set on fire. The rioters are even shown waving blunt objects in the air.

Batman rationalizes that he shouldnt put a stop to the rioters because there are more than likely bigger fish to catch out in Gotham City, despite having no knowledge of where these big fish might be, given the power and communication black outs.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

Whitta writes Batmans interior monologue, Havent seen a night like this in a while. Last time it was this bad was with that damn fear gas in the water supply. Only so much I can do. Need to prioritize. Hunt the big fish. Protect the little fish.

These places all have insurance. Not my job to protect their profit margins. In my fathers day, the American Dream used to mean something. An honest wage for honest work. Food on the table. Liberty and justice for all. Now its an illusion, a carrot on a stick, attainable by a few, dangled just out of reach for everyone else.

A bigger TV. A faster car. Shiny objects to keep the masses distracted, while the world burns. You want to blame them for grabbing the carrot when the lights go out? Go ahead. But dont look to me to stop them. Thats not why I do this, he concludes.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

While Batman leaves these looters and rioters to burn down the city, he does randomly track down a number of Joker thugs who are threatening to kill an innocent family.

He also randomly shows up at Gotham Harbor and stops Penguin from drowning a blonde woman.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

From there, he also stops Joker who has hijacked a school bus in the middle of the night. Batman stands directly in front of Joker on a bridge as Joker seeks to ram him with the bus.

As Joker closes in, Batman deploys a giant flash that blinds Joker and sends him and the bus nearly careening off the bridge, putting the childrens lives in danger. Joker, not wearing a seatbelt goes flying through the windshield.

While the children are saved, Joker dangles from the bumper of the bus about to fall into the water below. Batman grudgingly rescues him rationalizing that if he let Joker he wouldnt be able to explain his actions to the children who are watching him.

Its unfortunate there werent any children watching him allow the electronics store and the neighboring apartments, more than likely filled with innocent citizens, get burned to the ground.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

Nevertheless, Batman ends his night by heading to Crime Alley where he beats up a criminal who appears to have shot and killed a couple and has begun to loot their bodies.

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

While prioritizing certain crimes over another is practical, the way the story actually plays out, the rationale doesnt make any sense. Batman has no idea where these big fish are because of the power and communications black outs.

He might have one of his satellites up and operational, but he tasks Alfred with using it to scan for exoterrestrial activity. He does offer Jim Gordon a way to counteract interference disrupting the communications, but he makes it clear he will be using it to contact the GCPD so they can bring in the criminals he captures.

Source: Batman: Fortress #2

Batman chooses to ignore this mob in favor of seeking out other possible crimes. Instead of stepping in and stopping crime that he sees happening in front of him, he chooses to ignore it in the hopes he will find other more horrific crimes being committed.

On top of that, he actually sits and ponders the crimes being committed and justifies ignoring them when he could have actually been putting a stop to it.

Source: Batman: Fortress #3

However, the comic also depicts the crimes being committed by the Antifa and Black Lives Matter-like mob as worse or could be arguably worse than the crimes committed by Joker and Penguin. The mob isnt just looting an electronics store, it appears to be burning down apartment buildings too. Its also unclear if theres any staff in the building that have already been brutalized by the mob.

Penguin is attempting to murder one woman and Joker has a bus full of kids. How many women and kids are in these apartment buildings that the mob is burning down?

Source: Batman: Fortress #3

Not only can you look at Batmans rationalization for ignoring the crime, but his decision to not put a stop to these criminals also shows that hes a hypocrite. The beginning of the book actually opens with Bruce Wayne and Alfred beating down a bunch of thieves who attempt to loot his manor believing that hes not home.

If Batman actually believes the rationalization that Whitta gives him in his interior dialogue, why isnt he allowing these thieves to loot his home. After all, Bruce Wayne surely has insurance, right?

Source: Batman: Fortress #1

Nevertheless, the biggest crime of the book is the fact that Batman didnt find a way to not only stop the crimes being committed by the Antifa and Black Lives Matter-style mobs, but also round up Joker, Penguin, and other criminals attempting to take advantage of the black outs in Gotham City.

Batmans smart enough to figure out how to put a stop to the mob and move on to the next criminals. Instead, Whitta and Robertson sacrificed Batmans character in favor of lecturing readers about the American Dream and trying to paint a violent, angry mob as sympathetic.

This is just the latest piece of evidence that DC Comics no longer actually tells stories about heroes, and they go out of there way to disrespect their own characters.

Source: Batman: Fortress #4

What do you make of Batman ignoring and fleeing the scene of a crime without attempting to intervene?

NEXT: Ethan Van Sciver And Jon Del Arroz Rip to Shreds Tom King Batman Comic That Implies He Is a Scared Child

More here:
Batman Flees Antifa And Black Lives Matter Style Riots In New Comic: "These Places All Have Insurance, Not My Job To Protect Their Profit...