Thursday, May 2#blacklivesmatter

Education

Innovative Initiatives: Tales by Moonlight
Education, Government, Innovative Initiatives, Media/Culture

Innovative Initiatives: Tales by Moonlight

The Bougie Aunt | Published 12:00 p.m. E.T. December 6, 2020 10 minute read *Innovative Initiatives is my project where I inform y’all of lesser-known enterprises that are positively contributing to an underrepresented field.* TWO YOUNG WOMEN, ONE CLEVER IDEA ‘Tales by moonlight’ is a common Nigerian designation given to stories told during the night hours. However, two young women, Tomisin Opaleye and Zara Akpan, chose to brand themselves with that name when they decided to merge forces. Their desire to collaborate stemmed from their mutual appreciation of poetry, but their intentions behind forming an enterprise incorporated other factors.  Before I explain Opaleye’s and Akpan’s objective guiding Tales by Moonlight, it is important to understand their passion for...
Debt Bondage Is Hidden in Plain Sight
Education, Human Trafficking

Debt Bondage Is Hidden in Plain Sight

The Bougie Aunt | Published 2:00 p.m. E.T. August 19, 2020 10 minute read SUPPORT DEBT BONDAGE WORKERS BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS!  WHAT IS DEBT BONDAGE? Debt bondage, also called bonded labor, is where a worker enters themselves into slavery through accepting a loan or falling heir to a debt. When a worker accepts a loan, it is usually through false promises by an employer that the worker can reimburse him/her. However, as time passes, and more debt acquires, workers find themselves in slavery - hidden in plain sight. If the worker was not able to reimburse their employer by their death, usually the employer will pass the debt onto a family member. Thus, making debt bondage generational.  HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS TO DEBT BONDAGE Involuntary servit...
Innovative Initiatives: Mason Education Initiative
Education, Innovative Initiatives

Innovative Initiatives: Mason Education Initiative

The Bougie Aunt | Published 12:00 p.m. E.T. August 17, 2020 10 minute read *Innovative Initiatives is my project where I inform y’all of lesser-known enterprises that are positively contributing to an underrepresented field.* THE TALE OF TWO CITIES New York is a great example of a state where the American Dream is romanticized, but it tends not to actualize itself for many. For example, New York City is the largest city in the nation, but is also one of the cities with the largest income inequalities. People in the top 90th percentile make seven times more than people in the 10th percentile. And, this income gap can be reflected in the majority of New York cities. For the purpose of relevancy and scope, I will be focusing on Queens, New York. Queens, New York was one of the...
The Untold Truth of Labor Trafficking
Education, Government, Human Trafficking

The Untold Truth of Labor Trafficking

The Bougie Aunt | Published 9:00 p.m. E.T. August 15, 2020 10 minute read SUPPORT LABOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS!  WHAT IS LABOR TRAFFICKING? Labor trafficking is a type of human trafficking where victims are instructed to perform activities through the usage of fraud, coercion, or force. Labor trafficking occurs in both the illegal and legal sectors of economies. The hot spot sectors are the following: agriculture, construction, electronics manufacturing, mining/fishing/forestry, textile and apparel manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing. The industries where labor trafficking is prevalent is alarming because most of them can be further categorized into private sectors. And, every single industry listed is vital f...
Innovative Initiatives: Voices of Voters
Education, Innovative Initiatives

Innovative Initiatives: Voices of Voters

The Bougie Aunt | Published 12:00 p.m. E.T. August 13, 2020 10 minute read *Innovative Initiatives is my project where I inform y’all of lesser-known enterprises that are positively contributing to an underrepresented field.* COVID-19 & VOTING COVID-19 has brought about many changes in our daily lives, but one of the unforeseen changes was its effect on voting. Such as, the absentee ballot becoming an encouraged form of voting to ensure the safety of others. Or, the voting process being extremely emphasized this year because of recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the upcoming presidential election. With all the sporadic adjustments and excitement currently surrounding voting, it has made the voting process more convoluted for some. In an effort to diminish the con...
Give Black Women Their Credit! : Their Influence in Gynecology
Education, Media/Culture

Give Black Women Their Credit! : Their Influence in Gynecology

The Bougie Aunt | Published 10:00 a.m. E.T. August 07, 2020 10 minute read SUPPORT BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES/WOMEN WHO ARE RELATED TO THIS ARTICLE *For this article, I will be referring to Africans, African Americans, Blacks, etc. all under the collective term of ‘Black’. Otherwise, it will be confusing trying to explain all the nuances in each. And, this is not the article for that discussion.* HOW THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT IS NEGLECTING BLACK WOMEN The Black Lives Matter Movement (BLMM) has contributed to an increased awareness of how Black lives are being negatively affected by their needs being not catered to or met. The movement was able to gain great traction within these past months because of the pandemic allowing more peop...
Sex Trafficking Is Not One-Dimensional
Education, Government, Human Trafficking

Sex Trafficking Is Not One-Dimensional

The Bougie Aunt | Published 9:00 a.m. E.T. August 01, 2020 10 minute read SUPPORT HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS! Human trafficking is a horrible, disturbing activity that disrupts and stains a victim for their entire life. The links (paid links) I posted support organizations that empower victims of human trafficking. It helps them take back the power they have lost over their own life. I searched for products that I will be buying as well to guarantee the authenticity of me promoting them. But either way, if you click on the links, you will be helping rid this world of human trafficking. Enjoy the rest of the article! WORLD HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY Two days ago, July 30, was World Human Trafficking Awareness Day. A...
Juneteenth: An Uncelebrated Holiday
Education, Eurocentrism, Government

Juneteenth: An Uncelebrated Holiday

The Bougie Aunt | Published 12:00 a.m. E.T. June 19, 2020 The year is 1863, you are an African-American slave, and President Abraham Lincoln just issued the Emancipation Proclamation. You are ecstatic because that automatically means you and your other slave companions are all released from the bonds of slavery, right? No, you are completely wrong. But I can reason why, as the Emancipation Proclamation is often misunderstood, and consequently, taught wrong in schools.  Since the Eurocentric narrative shapes the United States’s history of slavery to seem like a linear path where the starting point is the Transatlantic Slave Trade and cuts off immediately after Martin Luther King Jr. had his Kumbaya moment (that has increasingly become more whitewashed as the years pass), the...
Why Is College Board Attempting to Shorten History?
Education, Eurocentrism

Why Is College Board Attempting to Shorten History?

The Bougie Aunt | Published 12:00 p.m. E.T. June 15, 2020 The College Board has recently been under fire for continuing to host Advanced Placement (AP) exams online in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary complaints revolved around the College Board blatantly disregarding the technology gap high school students face, which only widened during the virus outbreak, and became apparent after a plethora of students could not submit their exams due to technological difficulties. However, this is not the first time the College Board has acted ignorantly. This past academic school year, 2019-2020, the College Board altered their AP World History class; they changed it to AP World History: Modern. As the name implies, the revised course deals only with history the College Boar...
Why Does Flint Still Not Have Clean Water?
Education, Eurocentrism, Government

Why Does Flint Still Not Have Clean Water?

The Bougie Aunt | Published 4:00 p.m. ET June 11, 2020 Post-structuralist geography, where the elite seek to control those below them through the means of conforming the physical space to ensure the elite’s power. I am just using my recollection of the definition, of course, but it does not make the term less true. Why? Well, let us reflect on America’s immoral history. During the 1960s, where the Civil Rights Movement really climaxed, legislation began to be passed so that everyone, regardless of race, creed, sex, etc. would have equal opportunities to certain fields. One such field was housing. Through the Fair Housing Act of 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised that the act would lead to a more integrated society. And was he right? No. President Johnson essentially w...