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Possible major hurricane could hit the US Coast
Tropical Depression Nine has formed in the Caribbean Sea and confidence is growing that a potentially major hurricane could hit the US by late this weekend or early next week.
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Houston Blues & Jazz Festival presents two performances in one night
Eric Gales and Diunna Greenleaf
Houston Blues & Jazz Festival presents two performances in one night Eric Gales and Diunna Greenleaf Sunday, September 25, 2022 The Rustic Houston, Downtown
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Organ donations rise during major motorcycle rallies due to crashes, study says
Organ donations and transplantations increase during major US motorcycle rallies due to crashes, according to a new study, signaling a need for increased safety measures.
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Commentary: Joe Biden Needs to Go
If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. On July 30, 1864, more than 16,500 Union soldiers were aligned against only 9,500 Confederate seditionists in Petersburg, Virginia. In addition to its greater numbers, the Union had the element of surprise on its side.
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Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.® Contributes $1.6 Million to Black Colleges and Universities
First Black Sorority's Endowment Fund provides much-needed support to HBCUs
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, in partnership with the Educational Advancement Foundation (EAF), has presented its third round of endowment funds in the amount of $1.6 million to 35 additional HBCUs as part of a four-year fundraising campaign led by AKA International President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Glenda Glover to help secure fiscal sustainability and success across all HBCUs.
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MLK Day encourages service
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, although King was actually born on the 15th of January 1929, 94 years ago.
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What to expect when Harry heads back to London
Death brings the living together, they say. It was at their grandfather's funeral that we last saw William and Harry together and it will be at the unveiling next month of a memorial to their mother -- Diana, Princess of Wales -- that we see them reunite once more.
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Is There A Black Doctor in the House?
Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree.Where are all the Black doctors? They are hard to find. On average, about 5.7% of all the doctors in the US are Black according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Although enrollment of African Americans in medical school is on the rise, 5.7% is still low when considering that there are 66.1% of active physicians with a US Doctor of Medicine degree. Looking back at the history of Blacks in medicine, it's easy to see why the numbers are so low. However, new data suggests that more black doctors are needed now than ever, and for some, it could mean the difference between life and death. On average, when put in a crowd of a diverse population with no identifying connections, a person will gravitate toward those of their own race. It's a natural behavior because people are more at ease with who or what they know. Generally, being of the same race is an easy commonality to draw towards. This same kind of thinking works in medicine as well. According to studies, Black Americans who have black doctors have more trust in them, practice preventative care, and ultimately live longer lives. "I think we as blacks relate more to people who look like us. Often, we have unspoken similar backgrounds that bring us to a common place of understanding when we have difficulties in our quests for higher education," said Dr. Creaque Charles, Pharm. D. at an accredited HBCU school of pharmacy. How to Improve Representation of African Americans in Medicine? The answer to that question lies in the problems that Blacks have with medicine. To understand the concerns, one must go way back in history to when enslaved men and women were forcibly brought over on ships to America. Those men and women were treated less than humans and stacked on top of each other like property. On that journey, they had to exist in deplorable conditions that were filled with human fecal matter, urine, and other forms of human waste. This resulted in them becoming gravely ill, and some died. None received medical care. The feeling continued when slave owners subjected their Black female slaves to forced sterilization to stop reproduction. Women were also exploited for their bodies to produce more strong slave labor. These women did not also receive any medical care. When the truth about an unethical experiment with Tuskegee men and Syphilis (dubbed the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis) came to light in 1972, prejudices grew.vDuring the era of the Civil War, Blacks were "doomed to extinction" by the medical community of the time, which thought the mental, moral, and physical deterioration of Blacks would send them to an early grave. The distrust of the medical community continues to this day as some doctors of other races may have prior biological beliefs about Blacks that can result in doctors thinking Blacks have a high tolerance for pain, so they may undertreat them for pain. Incidents like the above led some Blacks to believe that they receive better treatment than their own because they know the point of view from which they are coming. They understand it. "When people look at me and they can see themselves in me, that commonality serves as the foundation for a bond of trust," said Dr. Robbyn Traylor, chief medical officer of an urgent medical care clinic, who knows that any doctor can be excellent no matter their race. "There is a level of comfort that is understood and that can remain unspoken when brown and Black patients are treated by brown and Black doctors." A CNN article dives further into the issue of why there is not a surge of Black doctors. Those reasons include factors like the race being excluded from medicine, systematic racism, institutional racism, not being exposed to STEM or STEM careers as a child, and a lack of Black doctors as mentors are among the top reasons. History supports this when looking at the first Black person to earn a medical degree. Dr. James McCune Smith had to go all the way to Scotland to receive his degree in 1837 from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Traylor was fortunate as a child to be heavily exposed to the life of a Black doctor as both of her parents worked in the medical field. She was often at their heels as a child while they worked at one of the best trauma centers in the Texas Medical Center. "I was lucky enough to grow up in a community of people who made me believe that I had the intellect and attitude for medicine." Diversity Matters Diversity Matters After Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington enacted bans on affirmative action, the diversity of the medical schools in those states dropped by a third. Before Black students were wholeheartedly welcomed at these schools in the 1800s and 1900s, they had a choice of seven medical schools, according to research by the Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives. Now only two remain: Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Black students are more likely to attend black medical schools to seek out those who look like them and have proven that their dreams are achievable. Future Black doctors want to attend schools where they don’t have to feel as if they don’t belong. They want to go to schools where they are encouraged to do well, and those who are instructors and mentors truly believe that THEY can do well. Dr. Tamiya Sam, who is a registered pharmacist and holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, knows that whether it is medical, pharmacy, dental, or nurse practitioner school, having a Black mentor matters. "The face of pharmacy is increasingly non-Black. I believe if there were more hands on and dedicated Black pharmacists who truly mentored Black pharmacy students, it would have a higher impact on their completion because they would serve as someone who has been there and genuinely wants to help them succeed." Rosa Terrance, DNP, APRN, GNP-C, agrees with Dr. Sam. "Mentorship absolutely matters and is influential in producing more providers of color. At all times, I make sure of two things: 1) I have a mentor who looks like me, and 2) I am acting as a mentor to someone else. There is a degree of comfort and trust that is birthed out of just being present with someone of your likeness in an otherwise underrepresented space." The Next Generation of Doctors African Americans have a responsibility to expose our children to all the world can offer them. African Americans have a responsibility as a race to step up and be mentors for brown and black children in all fields, not just the medical field. To improve race relations, Blacks must educate our non-Black counterparts. A change must come, and it must start now with each of us.
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41st Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival Announces Lineup for June 23-24
he 2018 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, slated for Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, features a roster of artists, ranging from jazz luminaries -- Jon Batiste, Chris Botti, Herbie Hancock, Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander, and gospel and R&B legend Mavis Staples, who will headline this year’s legendary festival -- to emerging artists making their Saratoga debuts such as José James, Lakecia Benjamin and SoulSquad, Scott Sharrard & The Brickyard Band, Jazzmeia Horn and Keyon Harrold. In addition, unique collaborations will take center stage including Saratoga debuts by the TEN Trio, which features Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding and Nicholas Payton; the newly formed all-star trio Mark Whitfield, Ben Allison and Billy Drummond; Alfredo Rodriguez & Pedrito Martinez Duo; and New Orleans @ 300 featuring Evan Christopher, Quiana Lynell, David Torkanowsky, Roland Guerin & Shannon Powell.
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Sheryl Crow Announces New Tour Dates Supporting Latest Album Be Myself
Sheryl Crow has announced additional dates on her tour in support of her latest album Be Myself. She is performing a series of headlining shows and appearing at several festivals, as well as taking part in Willie Nelson's Outlaw Tour. Crow will also perform at this year's Farm Aid.
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Villanova cruises, Michigan rallies to advance to national championship
Records were set. There was a comeback and a blowout. And there will be no Hollywood ending for Loyola-Chicago. No. 3 Michigan has advanced to the national championship game with a 69-57 win over the 11th-seeded Ramblers, ending their magical run at the NCAA men's Final Four in San Antonio on Saturday.
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'There's not enough Black people' in golf, says Lee Westwood
Former world No. 1 golfer Lee Westwood says golf has some work to do in addressing issues of diversity within the sport and that it's "dominated by White people."
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Back-to-School and Back to Excessively Punishing Black Students?
Fort Bend Independent School District (ISD) has a horrible record when it comes to failing and overly punishing our black students. According to a six-year study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR), black students in Fort Bend ISD were six times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than white students and four times as likely to be placed on in-school suspension.
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Trump's attacks on LeBron fit a disturbing pattern
There's no disputing that Donald Trump's pattern of attacking well-known African-Americans as having "low IQs" or being of low intelligence is parroting the white nationalist view that blacks are inherently less intelligent than whites. The only question is whether Trump was intentionally espousing the views of white supremacists.
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DACAMERA presents Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration, Nov. 2
DACAMERA of Houston continues its 2019–2020 jazz series with Blue Note Records 80th Birthday Celebration, an evening honoring the legendary jazz record label with performances by three outstanding artists on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. at the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. The first date in a nationwide anniversary tour, the concert lineup features Kandace Springs, James Francies and the James Carter Organ Trio, each performing a set of their own music, followed by a finale with all of the artists coming together to perform a classic Blue Note tune.
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Chronic fatigue syndrome may be due to an overactive immune system, study finds
Chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition that causes extreme tiredness, could be triggered by an overactive immune system, a study has found.
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Harry pays tribute to 'cheeky' grandpa Prince Philip as he arrives in UK for funeral
Britain's Prince Harry has paid tribute to his grandfather Prince Philip, describing him as "a man of service, honour and great humour," after flying back to the United Kingdom ahead of the funeral on Saturday.
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Undisputed 154-Pound Champion Jermell Charlo Faces No. 1 Contender Tim Tszyu Live on SHOWTIME® on Saturday, January 28 from Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas
Undisputed 154-Pound Champion Jermell Charlo Faces No. 1 Contender Tim Tszyu Live on SHOWTIME® on Saturday, January 28 from Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas
PRE-SALE BEGINS MONDAY, DECEMBER 12 AT 10 A.M. PT WITH CODE: BOXING Tickets Go on Sale Tuesday, December 13 at 10 a.m. PT!
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Seven new plays coming to Broadway this fall are by Black writers. Is this a turning point for theater?
Broadway is finally coming back, after going dark last year to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
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Europe rolled out 5G without hurting aviation. Here's how
Major international airlines are canceling flights to the United States over aviation industry fears that 5G technology could interfere with crucial onboard instruments.

