The 44 Percent: Hispanic Heritage Month, Virginia Key & Kanye West
With Hispanic Heritage Month coming to a close, I decided to hand-off the intro to Herald real estate reporter Michael Butler. Enjoy:
You can learn a lot about someone from their favorite foods. When I think about Hispanic Heritage Month, I think about those foods and the other pieces of my Latin identity that feel normal to me that may be different to others.
My mother emigrated from Panama to the United States on Sept. 2, 1979. While the palm trees and tropical weather didn’t travel with her to Chicago, her culture did. Growing up we ate arroz con pollo, platanos maduros and pescado frito on a regular basis. At home, we were only allowed to speak Spanish. Wherever we lived in the States, my mother usually had the television tuned to Univision or Telemundo. I saw Walter Mercado as an icon because of his ornate outfits and ability to tell you about the cosmos Monday through Friday.
As I got older, I learned that many of my peers had similar experiences. Maybe their parents came from Honduras or Cuba. Maybe they spoke with a certain slang sprinkled in that you couldn’t learn in Spanish class. As Americanized as I was as a kid, I later became thankful that my mother built a connection for us to our roots and identity. Her immigration to the United States was a bold move that would change the trajectory of my life.
At a time when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is flying migrants up to Martha’s Vineyard to keep them from landing in Florida, it is important to celebrate Latin culture and to remember that Latin history is a part of American history even if its been left out of school textbooks.
INSIDE THE 305
Miami commission takes over Virginia Key Beach board, reducing number of Black members:
Miami commissioners voted Thursday to take over the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust board.
“It’s ridiculous,” said N. Patrick Range II, the outgoing chairman and grandson of Miami’s first Black commissioner, Athalie Range. “I don’t know what reasoning they could have for making this move.“
The change comes days after the city’s auditor released findings that suggested the trust’s leadership should implement financial controls and improve its accounting practices — recommendations some commissioners had characterized as “malfeasance” even though the audit made no mention of wrongdoing or financial impropriety.
Many Black Miamians were upset at the decision to even attempt to change the board’s composition. Most notably, a handful of prominent South Floridians, including OneUnited Bank President Teri Williams, Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce President G. Eric Knowles and former County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, penned a letter to County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava that called for the removal of the resolution from Thursday’s agenda.
“We see the current resolution as an attempted take-over by City Commissioners of this historic and sacred place in our community,” an excerpt of the letter read. “The resolution is inconsistent with equitable economic development, which respects or revitalizes, instead of replaces or erodes, Black culture.”
Opened in 1945, Virginia Key was once the only beach that Black Miamians could visit due to segregation.
‘This is hard history.’ New exhibit explores Black people’s fight for American citizenship:
“Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow” will debut Friday at HistoryMiami Museum. Combined with the supplemental “Stories of Resistance from Black Miami” project, the exhibit centers the Black experience, walking visitors through the end of the Civil War, the Reconstruction era and the start of the Civil Rights Movement.
“A lot of what we look at today was built by our hands,” said Anita Francois, the HistoryMiami assistant curator of Haitian and East African descent who put together the “Black Miami” project. “I think it’s important to talk about the stories that led us to where we are, to what exists today and the experiences that are still had because Jim Crow may have passed but the effects of it still linger.”
Even students of history will discover new important historical figures like Philip Payton Jr., the real estate mogul who transformed Harlem into the capital of Black America; Maggie Walker, the first woman to start a bank in America; and Henry O. Flipper, the U.S. Army’s first Black commissioned officer and leader of the Buffalo Soldiers. The exhibit is a must-see for anybody interested in American history.
OUTSIDE THE 305
Former NFL player pivoted to neurosurgery:
Meet Myron Rolle, a 35-year-old former NFL veteran who after three seasons in the league decided to pursue a career in neuroscience. With head injuries dominating much of the NFL conversation, the New York Times recently published an interview with Rolle where he discussed his transition. The piece was filled with many gems, however, the following graphs particularly stood out:
If you look at the outside, you will see my story as maybe something that is unattainable, right? I played in the N.F.L., Rhodes Scholar, now neurosurgery. But feeling doubts and uncertainty really permeated throughout my life. Feeling like an outcast. Handling issues with violence. Dealing with work-life balance issues or challenges in your workplace. And I just found ways to overcome or mitigate these challenges through the 2 percent process.
I don’t think success looks like any particular person. I do believe that every individual has something brilliant in them and has a responsibility and a purpose that they were placed here on this earth for such a time as this time.
Leaked audio containing racist comments leads Los Angeles City Council president to resign:
Nury Martinez, the former president of the Los Angeles City Council, resigned Wednesday from elected office. Martinez is one of three council members who attended a meeting in 2021 that was secretly taped. Martinez can be heard calling her colleague’s then-2-year-old Black son a “changuito,” Spanish for “little monkey.” The L.A. Times has more:
Then-council President Nury Martinez is heard making racist remarks while talking with fellow Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera about how the city’s council district boundaries should be redrawn. This conversation focused on how the group could maintain Latino political power while also ensuring they and their colleagues would have districts that help them win reelection.
Cedillo and de León have not resigned while Herrera recently stepped down from his post as head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. An investigation into the Los Angeles redistricting process is underway, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.
HIGH CULTURE
In short, I don’t know. His latest dive into anti-semitism — on top of the “White Lives Matter” shirt — earned him a temporary suspension from both Twitter and Instagram. It’s like, this can’t be the same man who said “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” Or maybe it is.
In Charles M. Blow’s latest piece “The Exploitative Anti-Blackness of Kanye West,” the New York Times opinion columnist writes that at this point, Ye is just “a purveyor of dangerous politics.”
Kanye is just a Black man who discovered Black conservatism and thinks it’s enlightenment. There is nothing complex or mysterious about it. He’s a Black man parroting white supremacy, while far too many brush it off, continue dancing to his music, and wear his clothes.
Where does “The 44 Percent” name come from? Click here to find out how Miami history influenced the newsletter’s title.
