Cornbread Fed⏤Vol 15
Cornbread Fed⏤Vol 15
Thrifting, teen chat lines, and prosperity.
Happy Monday Friend! We are pushing through this year already. Can you believe we are on Month 3 of 2021? When it feels like we should be in month 15 of 2020.
I still hope you and your loved ones (even those you are not too fond of) are healthy and thriving.
Today for lunch we are having the most delicious cornbread I have ever had in my entire life. I mean damn, this cornbread is delicious.
Cotton Creations is a Black-Female owned brand and not only does sis make this delicious cornbread, but she also is the inventor of the ponytail sleeve. Check out her IG and keep your hair laid and eat. Listen, we do it ALL.
Major shoutout to TheBlackBox for hooking a sister up with this gem in the winter delivery.
Ok, so BOOM. Who worked on quieting their mind? Anyone? Anyone?
The art of doing nothing is so beautiful. When you have no agenda, sit back and release heavy energy from the day. I don't care what type of lifestyle you live, we all have heavy energy days. They may not be often (or maybe they are) but we all got them.
Quieting your mind, taking a few moments for yourself, uninterrupted, will help you release heaviness and prepare you for whatever is next.
If you haven't practiced yet, give your body some extra love and put it first.
Let's get into today's topics
Good Morning
Women's History Month
The Loop
Corporate and Black
Billy Che Brooks
Good Morning
How do you start your mornings? What is your routine?
I love waking up before 8a and making coffee. If I am not lazy the night before I will prepare the auto-brew setting. While the coffee is brewing, I'll open up the blinds letting in the morning light. It's quiet. My husband is still asleep. I head into my office, aka HQ, to sit on the couch for a morning read. I'll turn on my Sonos and play a Jazz station, check my Twitter, and send a tweet or two.
By 8:30a I am ready to start my day.
This gets my energy ready for a busy or lazy day.
I love this routine, it makes me happy. When I don’t get to follow this routine at least 3-4 times a week I can tell a difference in my energy. Sometimes this is the only time I able to sit in a meaningful quiet moment.
We are busy. I am busy. Between home life, work, projects, hobbies, friends, and family we are searching for time to dedicate to ourselves.
After years of what felt like a rat race, working in a corporate setting, I finally regained power over my time. Could I have done that while working my previous job? Maybe. But with the amount of "required" social gatherings companies require nowadays, it’s almost impossible.
Tell me how you start your mornings! Is there a morning routine you want to start doing? Reply and share. I love to hear from you.
Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month. I love everything about the essence of a woman. Just like Black History Month, I celebrate women all the damn time. We are the most beautiful beings on this entire earth.
In Vol 12, I shared a graphic of 25 Black women who inspire me every day to show up and be myself. I knew all of these women, some since I was 16 and some since last year. I get inspired watching women, Black women walk in what matters most to them. Whether it’s family or their business, I get inspired every time I see a joyful smile, determined mind, and an open heart.
Today, I would like to share four Black women that I do not know, but who I admire from afar. You know, we all have social media besties, who we don't know, but we kinda know. You might know some of these women, and if you don't you are in for a treat!
@goodgirlsthrift - Sis will make a $2.50 shirt from Goodwill look like a $497 purchase
@Glographics - graphics paired with heavy topics centered around the Black experience
@melissakimble - creator of @blkcreatives and a writer I learn a ton from
@annamaegroves - a dope home and life DIYer. I discovered her in a Good Housekeeping magazine.
The Loop
Somewhere in the late 90s/early 00s, there was this thing in Arizona called The Loop. Basically, it was Clubhouse, but from your house phone.
This is how it worked.
You dial the phone number, listen to the chatroom options available, press the corresponding code for the room you want, and enter into a chatroom full of strangers or people who end up becoming your chatline friend.
When the poppin’ chatrooms were full, you could get on the "waiting list" to be automatically added to the room when someone dropped off. One time I waited, on hold, for 30 min to get into my favorite room. I felt like all the right people were always in there, so I had to be in there.
I would sit up all night on this chatline talking to teens, mainly boys, from all over the city. Asking if they had AIM to take the conversation offline, and if I really liked you I would give up the house number (I had my own line at the house, did anyone else have this growing up?).
The Loop also had private rooms. If you really wanted to talk to someone you could ask them to go into a private room to basically have a phone conversation.
I feel like this is where Clubhouse got its inspiration, the teen chat lines of the 90s & 00s.
Looking back on it all, this was another unsafe as hell form of communication that I engaged in as an early teen, thinking I was invincible. Pretending to be 15 or 16 when I was 13/14.
Anyone else remember chat lines? Did you partake in this early form of social media?
Corporate and Black
Storytime.
I am a diversity & inclusion consultant for an amazing firm out of Chicago. I love consulting within D&I because I no longer have to deal with the politics of corporate nor do I actually have to implement or follow through (or up) on any of the strategic plans I create for clients.
It's really beautiful to hand over a bomb-ass plan of action and move on to the next client.
I am on a project with a tech company and I want to tell all five of the Black people (out of 500+ fucking employees) to quit and run away.
The CEO and C-Suite executives just don't get it. There is zero hope. I feel bad for their Black and Brown employees, they will never succeed while working there. I could not imagine working at a place where a company decision-maker could not understand why culture fit hiring breeds whiteness, even after sharing verbatim quotes from their employees. Well, actually, I did work at a place like this. *blank stare*
Or the BBQ client that has a franchisee owner who paid off a Black woman to take the Black Lives Matter stickers off her car when she came to work. He made it sound good to her by saying, "I'll donate to any charity of your choice, only if you take BLM off your car every time you come to work". WTF!
Oh and let's not forget the media company whose learning and development team questioned the hell out of data stating that diverse teams perform better. Asking questions like "what were the qualifications to be included in this study" and "can we get any additional information on how folks were selected to be included in this research". I wanted to respond with "Ok sure, let me just call up McKinsey & Company and let them know you, a white man, are questioning their data on their women in the workforce study".
“Sitting” in rooms like this, trying to help people who say they want to understand led me to fire off a tweet.
Not all of our clients are problematic. But the ones that are, there is only so much I (we) can do. But I'll take my check in the interim, thank you!
Another one that hit right on time.
Billy Che Brooks
Billy Che Brooks is a Chicago native and a community organizer. He also is a founding member of The Rainbow Coalition and worked alongside Chairman Fred Hampton.
Hopefully, by now you have seen Daniel Kaluuya's outstanding performance in Judas and the Black Messiah. Last night he won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Fred Hampton.
When the firm I consult with sent a calendar invite for a BHM virtual event and it was an intimate conversation with Billy Che Brooks, my mouth hit the floor. I was going to be in a room with less than 20 people and a man who was an active part of history, standing right next to a man who fought for people who look like me. GEEKED!!!
We were able to ask Billy any question we wanted, but he made it clear that the relationship between Fred Hampton and Deborah Johnson was off-limits. He wouldn't comment on that.
I asked Fred, "From your experience and perspective, why is it so hard for this country to accept Black people and give us the same respect and dignity as it does others?". His response was simple but very detailed, they are imitated and jealous of us.
He also told us that the majority of the scenes in Judas and the Black Messiah were untrue. I'm not going to spoil it for those who didn't watch it yet, but I was rather surprised at how many scenes or storylines were not accurate. Billy also told the production company that they were not allowed to use his name or storyline or he will sue them. He said he did not want to be associated with something that did not tell the truth.
If you haven't watched the movie yet, I still encourage you to. It's an acting work of art done by this phenomenal cast, just know it’s not as truthful as you might think it is. I was able to learn this first hand from the man who lived it.
Jems 💎
#vibez - Bring Back the Remix V.2 - a playlist of straight 🔥
#buy - the cornbread - it's damn delicious
#inspiration - what is your theme for the month? Mine is prosperity!
#justbecause - please tell me you saw Solange’s latest picture drop. My goodness.
We've had a full lunch friend; I enjoyed it. What was your favorite part? Respond or comment below. I love hearing from you. Until next time. See you on March 15!