Brown University

Rockets getting more than Silas name

Some might think Stephen Silas is just another coach with the right last name and lineage. But the Rockets’ new head coach is much more than the son of one of the best coaches the NBA has known.

How to Be an Anti-Racist, According to Ibram X. Kendi

“A combination of memoir and extension of towering Stamped from the Beginning… Never wavering… Kendi methodically examines racism through numerous lenses: power, biology, ethnicity, body, culture, and so forth… This unsparing honesty helps readers, both white and people of color, navigate this difficult intellectual territory… Essential.”

Confronting Academia’s Ties to Slavery and Reparations

Reparations for the descendants of African slaves has been talked about ad infinitum, yet there has been virtually no legislative action taken to make this happen.    (Congressman John Conyers could not even to get a reparations bill out of committee for more than twenty years—to simply do a study on reparations.)  Today’s column summarizes a “major” conference at Harvard University about slavery, universities and reparations.  A New York Times article by Jennifer Schussler, Confronting Academia’s Ties to Slavery, recaps the conference.

Black Entertainment Trailblazer: The Legacy of Debra Lee

BET’s evolution also included the launch of its website, BET.com, and the launch of the network’s sister channel, BET Her, the first network designed to target African-American women. Lee acquired the television rights to the annual award show Black Girls Rock! and continued to elevate the prominence and prestige of the BET Awards. Lee recently launched Leading Women Defined, an annual gathering of thought leaders that convenes notable African-American woman, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Venus Williams and Issa Rae, to discuss issues that have a direct impact on the Black community.