Mediaboss Marketing

"Why are you out here protesting?"

It's a question local videographerKyle Gordon asked over and over to protestors in the summer of 2020. After spending 30 days protesting alongside those same people,he picked up his camera to make a series of videos focusedon the Black Lives Matter movement in Louisville and the protests following the death of Breonna Taylor.

Itturned into "Voices of the Movement,"the first major videoproject Gordon produced by himself.

"I wanted to be out there for them and not exploit the movement. I didn't feel like it was my story to tell. I was supposed to be just a body on the ground," Gordon told the Courier Journal.

Last summer, protestors swept across America in response to the death of both Taylor and George Floyd and while amajor spotlight was placed on the protests, often they were portrayed in a negative light. Many people, like Gordon,countered that narrative with their own footage of the peacefulness they witnessed during the movement.

"I feel through personal stories and being able to have conversations with one another that we can understand each other more," Gordon said.

In the beginning,the project didn't have a direction and evolvedas Gordon interacted with people.

"I let the project take me where I want it to take me. I had no expectations, so I set little goals," Gordon said. The project now consists of 50 videos across a variety of social media platforms.

Louisville artist: 'Mogul of her own design': Louisville artist uses her music and experiences to help others

A father of mixed-race children, Gordon originally joined the protest movement in Louisville to help make the world a better, safer place for his twokids. He could often be spotted at the protests wearing his signature "Best Dad" hat,a reminder to himself to be the best dad and best version of himself he can be.

That hat, which he wears to gigs all around town, has become part of his brand.

"That kind of went into the business. I started getting tagged as the 'Best Dad' video guy. Like rappers, especially would tag me and say things like 'just go to work with the best dad' and things like that," Gordon said. "It kind of branded itself."

Gordon embraced the moniker andBest Dad Mediawas born.His family helps operate the business his children designed the logo and help him get things togetherand shoot videos. His partner also helps him with the back-end of the small business, which has fewer than five employees.

The mission of Best Dad Media is simple. "I would say, we really want to help people that don't get to tell their story," Gordon said.

Gordon has more than 10 years of video experience working alongsidemany Louisvillerecording artists such as The Real Young Prodigy's andMarc DiNero.His work can also be found in Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine and other major media outlets.

Hestarted his career path while working full-time at a local church. He was in charge of anything creative, fromgraphics and paintings tostage design and more. The pastor eventually asked him to create a video and he began to learn as much as he could about videography.

"I was in a unique place where I really got to know things. They invested in me and helped me learn the craft. Once I started picking it up, I kind of went down the route of church videography, kind of like documentary-style testimony videos," Gordon said.

He then transitionedinto wedding videography and in 2018, he went into full-time videography with an emphasis onentertainment, like music videos and commercials.

Louisville alternative medicine: Treating 'true disharmony.' Louisville herbalists explore benefits of alternative medicine

That's how he met Antonio Taylor and his wife, Nyree Clayton-Taylor. Theycreated a non-profit organization called Hip-Hop into Learningand hired Gordon to shoot a video for its social justice group,The Real Young Prodigy's. He helped film its first project called Raparations, which was about getting reparations,the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged, and is often part of the conversation surrounding the descendants of formerly enslaved Black people.

"He has worked on every project we have done since 2019. We love that Kyle has a passion for the kids, passion for the kid's voices and he has a real passion for the community as well," Taylor told the Courier Journal.

Gordon helped create The Real Young Prodigy'slatest video called Crown, a project that inspiredLouisville Metro Councilman, Jecorey Arthur (D-4),to file anordinance for the CROWN Actor 'Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair'in Louisville.

The ordinance, which was signed into law by Mayor Greg Fischer in mid-July,bansdiscrimination against a person based on their natural hair or hairstyles

"Kyle played a big role in that. He helped create a lot of concepts for the video. He was a big part of helping the kids reach their goal," Taylor said.

Gordon has been involved in many paid projects, but his passion projects, like the one at the recent protests, are what he enjoys the most.

"The projects that nobody was paying me to do. Nobody told me to do it. I wanted to do it," Gordon said of his work.

When COVID-19 and the death of Breonna Taylor overtook the city in 2020, Gordon took a step back to revaluate the path he wanted to take with videography.

"I was following the path of all these people before me, and they all kind of paved the path that I don't want to take," Gordon said."I don't want to shoot movies. I don't want to shoot commercials for Churchill Downs or Woodford Reserve. I just want to make videos that tell stories that matter."

Louisville skincare line: 'The SeQuel Experience.' Louisville woman creates inclusive, all-natural skincare line

He was looking for things to shootand came up with the idea for his Stories of COVID-19video series.

"In the beginning, I was just going out and documenting. I like to document, that's how I process things," said Gordon. The series kicksoff with local artist Jaylin Monet Stewart, doing sidewalk chalk art by Norton Women and Children's Hospital andNorton Children's Hospital of healthcare workers during COVID-19.The videos also highlight a group of skaters, social media influencers, a nurse and more.

To him, the project was a great way for people to see something positive during a dark time.

"... and that was during a time where there wasn't a lot of smiles on people's faces, so it's just beautiful to see humanity on display in different ways," Gordon said.

He also started doing more videosfor non-profit organizations, likeUnity Runners, whichwas created byGina Wickstead and Nicol Hodges on June 11 of last year.

The duo, each avid runners, began to run in downtown San Diego to spread awareness about Breonna Taylor and racial inequality. They eventuallycreated "Run for Breonna," where multiple runners come together to run and spread awareness about Taylor,wearing bibs that read #RunForBreonna Justice for Breonna Taylor. The run has been held in more than 45 places in the US, Canada and Brazil.

According to Wickstead, they have raised $15,000 for the Breonna Taylor foundation and helped raise $44,000 for Until Freedom,an intersectional social justice organization rooted in the leadership of diverse people of color to address systemic and racial injustice.

The mission of the Unity Runners is to help give a voice to Black women who don't have one. Much like Gordon's videos,the group wants to spread awareness in their own way about social justice issues.

"That was tremendous work (Gordon) did highlighting all the people who do the Louisville group. We are really thankful for him," Wickstead said of the videos he shot ofthe Louisville branch of Unity Runners. "It's so important to keep Breonna's name out there because she's another personthat people need to pay attention to."

Gordon says his work differs from other videographers because of his rawness. He doesn't like to control certain things, like telling people to look at the camera, talking with their hands or using giant microphones.

"I think sometimes things can be overproduced and you can lose some of the rawness," Gordon said.

To watch Stories of COVID-19 and Voices of the Movement, go tobestdadmedia.com/.

Reach Features Intern Gabby Bunton at gbunton@courier-journal.com.

See more here:
'Why are you protesting?' Videographer captures the changing voice of Louisville - Courier Journal

As a follow up to our previous special recorded in October 2019, we took another look at race issues within football last June, following the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the world.

We hear from Troy Townsend of Kick It Out, Jordan Jarrett Bryan of Its All Blakademik and Elliott Ross of The Correspondent, exploring the football worlds reaction and incidents of racism in the game since the last podcast tackling the subject.

We ask why the punishments from footballs governing bodies for racial abuse arent anywhere near tough enough, and why black representation in positions of football leadership is still so low.

Finally, we ask tough question about black representation in the sports media world including in this podcast.

Books and articles about race recommended by the panel:

Support The Guardian

The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.

See the rest here:
From the archive: Black Lives Matter and tackling racism Football Weekly - The Guardian

By Hope ORukevbe Eghagha

All lives matter. Black, white, brown, or yellow lives do matter. This means that life matters. It is not an abstraction. It is practical. If you witness life go out of somebody and you are not moved, it means that you are not a human being. No matter the colour of the skin, blood, red blood flows in the veins of everyone. There is nothing like blueblood in the real sense of the word. It is a social construct that is predicated on perception or social stratification. For, we are all children of God, created equal. We are all equal products of nature. We do not choose our skin colour. We do not choose where to originate from. No one life is more important than the other. All the major religions subscribe to this. Life is life. The life of a poor local farmer is equal to the life of a king! Life is life to a slave and life is life to a king. Life is life to a White-skinned person. Life is life to a black-skinned person. Life is life to a Christian. Life is life to a Muslim. It is ignorance to celebrate the death of a person because they practice a religion different from ours. Anyone with such a mentality should not go near the corridors of power.

The common denominator for humanity is not the colour of the skin. It is character. It is man in action, both in word and deed. It is his belief system, his culture and his regard for fellow human beings and the other creatures of nature. To protect animals from extinction and strive to eliminate the other race is convoluted thinking. To love dogs and hate black or brown people or Jews is a form of illness. Social illness. Prejudice. Stupidity. Ignorance. Why should an ignorant person preside over the affairs of the majority? My people perish because of lack of knowledge, the good book says! To have an ignorant or bigoted leader is the death of a clan or a country!

When we say black lives matter it is within a context. A socio-political context. And a historical context too! When we say all lives matter it is also within a context. In a white-privileged world, black lives matter both as a slogan and as an affirmation is fundamental. It is a reaction to oppressive policies, especially acts of injustice that are institutionalized. It is reminiscent of the Im Black and Proud Black Movement slogan of the 1960s, popularized by the singer James Brown. The song stood for black empowerment and self-reliance. The political climate in which he wrote the song couldnt have been more timely. If James Brown was the Godfather of Soul, he was also the musical expression of the black power movement. Say It Loud, Im Black and Im Proudis a landmark, groundbreaking song. The Western world is yet to rid itself of racism.

It was in this spirit that African-American poet Langston Hughes had written in his seminal poem titled I too Im America: I am the darker brother/They send me to eat in the kitchen/When company comes,/But I laugh,/And eat well,/And grow strong./Tomorrow,/Ill be at the table/When company comes./Nobodyll dare/Say to me,/Eat in the kitchen,/Then./Besides,/Theyll see how beautiful I am/And be ashamed/I, too, am America.

Black lives Matter! As a slogan and as a philosophical if activist reaction to racism it captures the imagination. It drives home the point especially against police brutality. Yet our history shows that black lives have never really mattered to us as black people. This accounts for our people being sold into slavery by our own people, our leaders and rulers. For two hundred years, writes Kevin Sieff, powerful kings in what is now the country of Benin captured and sold slaves to Portuguese, French and British merchants. Here in the territory that became Nigeria, Efunsetan Aniwura as Iyalode of Ibadan, made a name, now notorious, for being a slave dealer.To be sure she was not the only one. There were other merchants in most of Africa who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery.

In postcolonial Africa, the manner governments have treated their citizens does not subscribe to the fanciful notion of black lives matter! Apart from negative economic and political policies, there has been outright neglect of all that make life happy for the black man. If black lives matter to African leaders they would not make the continent inhospitable to their citizens. If Black lives mattered to rulers in Nigeria, they would not be so cavalier about the number of people who lose their lives daily to bandits or kidnappers. When former American President Donald Trump referred to some s..thole countries, the language and sentiment were considered unbecoming of a world leader. Yet in practical terms, we have created countries which cannot guarantee the survival of the black race. Europe and the Americas have become so attractive to our young men and women. Sadly, when they arrive in those well-structured countries, they are treated as second class citizens.

Too many Black lives have been lost to the belief that the death of a Black man does not really matter. Across the world and over the ages, the colour of the skin and the self-negation which some Black people subscribe to have contributed to promoting notions of inferiority. The point must be made that once any human being has a tinge of Black ancestry, no matter how light their skin colour, they are classified as Black. Black is a taint in this regard. This is the result of inferior thinking. So, our sisters who bleach their skin to look white or advertisers who promote fair-skinned ladies over Black ones are guilty of racism, of self-abnegation. Why is my skin so Black or so dark, they seem to say.

In the real sense of the words, no one has a white or black skin. Early Africans thought Caucasians were pale skinned. They thought that their coffee-skin was superior. They never aspired to be white. Black is not pejorative even if we associate black colour with things that are not pleasant or evil. It has nothing to do with the character of every black person. A time will come when African will sponsor a motion at the UN that they should be referred to as Africans and not Black. But before then, let African leaders and rulers prove to their people and people of the world that Black Lives Matter to them.

*Professor Eghagha can be reached on 08023220393

Go here to see the original:
Do Black lives really matter? - The News

Near the end of 2009, during the twilight months of a decade that saw the first Black man elected to the US presidency, Ashley Weatherspoon was chasing virality on a young app called Twitter. As the personal assistant for the singer Adrienne Bailon, a former member of the pop groups 3LW and the Cheetah Girls, Weatherspoon often worked on social media strategy. For weeks, she and Bailon had been testing out hashtags on both their feeds to see what would connect with fans. A mild success came with variations on #UKnowUrBoyfriendsCheatingWhen. Later, on a car ride around Manhattan, they began playing with #UKnowUrFromNewYorkWhen. We started going ham on it, Weatherspoon told me when we spoke over the phone in June. As the two women were laughing and joking, an even better idea popped into Weatherspoons head. Then I said, oh, You know youre Black when

It was the first Sunday in September, at exactly 4:25 pm, when Weatherspoon logged on to Twitter and wrote, #uknowurblackwhen u cancel plans when its raining. The hashtag spread like wildfire. Within two hours, 1.2 percent of all Twitter correspondence revolved around Weatherspoons hashtag, as Black users riffed on everything from car rims to tall tees. It was the viral hit she was afterand confirmation of a rich fabric being threaded together across the platform. Here, in all its melanated glory, was Black Twitter.

More than a decade later, Black Twitter has become the most dynamic subset not only of Twitter but of the wider social internet. Capable of creating, shaping, and remixing popular culture at light speed, it remains the incubator of nearly every meme (Crying Jordan, This you?), hashtag (#IfTheyGunnedMeDown, #OscarsSoWhite, #YouOKSis), and social justice cause (Me Too, Black Lives Matter) worth knowing about. It is both news and analysis, call and response, judge and jurya comedy showcase, therapy session, and family cookout all in one. Black Twitter is a multiverse, simultaneously an archive and an all-seeing lens into the future. As Weatherspoon puts it: Our experience is universal. Our experience is big. Our experience is relevant.

Though Twitter launched exactly 15 years ago today, with the goal of changing howand how quicklypeople communicate online, the ingenious use of the platform by Black users can be traced, in a way, much further back in time. In 1970, when the computer revolution was in its infancy, Amiri Baraka, the founder of the Black Arts Movement, published an essay called Technology & Ethos. How do you communicate with the great masses of Black people? he asked. What is our spirit, what will it project? What machines will it produce? What will they achieve?

For Black users today, Twitter is Barakas prophetic machine: voice and community, power and empowerment. To use his words, it has become a space to imagineto thinkto constructto energize!!! What follows is the first official chronicling of how it all came fantastically together. Like all histories, it is incomplete. But it is a beginning. An outline. Think of it as a kind of record of Blacknesshow it moves and thrives online, how it creates, how it communestold through the eyes of those who lived it.

Part I: Coming Together, 20082012

As early web forums like BlackVoices, Melanet, and NetNoir fizzled out in the mid-2000s, online spaces that catered to Black interests were scarce. BlackPlanet and MySpace failed to fill the void, and Facebook didnt quite capture the essence of real-time communication. Users were looking for the next thing.

Kozza Babumba, head of social at Genius: Pre-2007, we had never had a conversation about almost anything. As a community, we didnt all talk about what it was like when we sang the national anthem. Or what it was like when OJ was driving in that white Bronco. We just watched it on TV.

Read this article:
A Peoples History of Black Twitter, Part I - WIRED

"Arrest the cops. Charge the cops. Not just here in Minneapolis," social justice leader Tamika D. Mallory decried during her fiery speech last year following the murder of George Floyd, Jr. by Minneapolis police officers.

Flanked by a mix of community leaders, actors, entertainers and athletes, the activist called on prosecutors to "charge them in every city across America where our people are being murdered."

That speech later, having lit up the internet, inspired "State of Emergency: How We Win the Country." The exposure also kicked off a year catapulting the progressive even more into the two sides of fame.

Although "State of Emergency" provides an unadulterated perspective on race and justice in America - imploring readers to understand the pathways toward real change, it gets personal exploring how the 41-year-old Harlem native and mother of a son fits in the world of activism, where the spectrum of respectability politics is wide.

She's fully embracing celebrity, and the controversy that can come along with it - an opportunity seldom afforded Black women.

"If you're looking for the Tamika Mallory that's politically correct, and or only on one side of the track - whichever one that is that you may love - you're not going to find me there," she told Insider.

Kicking off that theme, the foreword veers from traditional one-person reflections to feature a conversation between two iconic Black women some consider opposite sides of that spectrum: activist and educator Dr. Angela Y. Davis, and hip hop superstar Cardi B.

The former exotic dancer-turned-reality-TV-sensation, now chart-topping rapper asks, "is there room for someone like me" before the famed civil rights activist welcomes her with open arms, assuring her she is needed in the movement.

It's Mallory's favorite highlight. Black Americans throughout 2020 have called out institutions for their racism, demanding not just seats at tables of performative inclusion, but convening rooms that work toward justice and equality.

She told Insider that with the leader she aspires to be, at the tables she'll "convene, Cardi would feel as comfortable standing next to Dr. Davis as any other scholar."

"A person who twerks is as relevant in this movement as a person who's the scholar," she told Insider. "The one who may be a janitor is not less relevant or more valuable to our work, than a pastor of a church, a doctor, a lawyer."

"Everybody is needed at the table."

But her outspoken style of activism does come at a cost, both personally and professionally. Long before co-founding the historic Women's March, Mallory had increasingly become the subject of scorn from critics.

The backlash bubbled over following her appearance on the 2021 Grammy Awards. The activist delivered a rendition of "State of Emergency '' during the interlude of rapper Lil Baby's performance.

Soon after, Samaria Rice the mother of Tamir Rice who was killed by Cleveland police officers while playing with a replica toy gun in 2012 - openly referred to her as a "clout chaser" and "a bitch," in a Facebook post calling out the performance.

Rice doubled down on her rebuke in a scathing official statement, criticizing prominent leaders, including Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt as well as Mallory - demanding they "step down, stand back, and stop monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for justice."

Mallory told Insider she was taken aback by the attack contending she has never worked with Samaria Rice nor used her son in any kind of campaigning. Instead, the activist said she is proud to have the blessings of other mothers of the movement, matriarchs whose offspring were also killed by law enforcement officials.

"The families that I've actually worked with and been close to support me and will tell you that I've never utilize the children and or exploited their children in any capacity, and also that they support me and would like for me to continue to do the work that I have been doing alongside them," she said.

She also defended her performance, rejecting accusations of "grifting" or profiteering from Black trauma, pain, and death, insisting "it wasn't a speech that was simply about police brutality, or about the loss of life, or for young Black men and women who've been killed."

"My speech was a result of racial justice," she argued. "For anyone to say that I don't have the right to speak on behalf of racial injustice in this nation is actually outrageous. I think all of us are obligated to use any space that we can to talk about racial injustice."

"All of us have the right to be experts, if you're Black in America, on all of those issues," she furthered.

Mallory who also recently drew condemnation for appearing in a Cadillac promotional campaign isn't' shy about attributing the backlash to another institution plaguing America: "misogynoir" - or the unique discrimination and mistreatment Black women face on account of racism and misogyny.

She contends that, in some parts, Black women are held to different standards. Criticism is therefore harsher when levied toward female activists on the front lines.

"To be a woman who is a leader, there is definitely always going to be even more scrutiny," she said.

Now that the book with its poetic prose is out in the world, the truth to power speaker is looking forward to further expanding her movement in a peculiar landscape.

The woman former president Barack Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett called a "leader of tomorrow," is committed to forging a new kind of activism, one responsive to the digital and celebrity-focused climate that propelled the unrest of 2020.

Reality TV is one frontier that she's immersed in thanks to Mona Scott Young's wildly popular "Love & Hip Hop" franchise. Young, engaged and internet savvy people are who she says are needed in the movement.

"Those groups like that are our actual audience," she detailed. "And I keep doing this work, because I'm looking at people who have less resources and less information, but they are the ones who are actually pushing for the most change."

The COVID-19 survivor, who also battled an addiction to prescription medications on the heels of breaking ties the Women's March organization, is working on an outline of her very own memoir more focused on the personal life experiences of the "girl from Harlem."

Not what's next, she told Insider the path she forges will center and celebrate Black women in all their complexities so long as there are barriers that limit them.

"I don't know what else is in the future, I do it," Mallory said, wrapping up the interview. "We still don't have justice so I will keep doing this work for the long haul, probably something that I would actually go to my grave with."

Read more:
Misogynoir holds Black women to higher standards. Why activist Tamika Mallory is unbothered by her critics - Insider