Author: Skyler Carpenter

On Dec. 2, Johnathan Hart and two other homeless men entered a Walgreens, where the man who shot Hart, Donald Vincent Ciota II, claims the three were in the middle of robbing the store. When Hart attempted to turn and run out the store during the incident, Ciota shot him in the back of the neck and Hart would die later in the hospital. Ciota has been charged with murder and if found guilty, will face up to 50 years to life in prison. Now Ciota’s lawyer claims his client was just defending the store and it’s customers. Ok, let’s imagine the store was being robbed by the three men. Ciota claims one of the other men struck him in the face and then he shoots the guy trying to run away? that just doesn’t add up in my head. I could never seriously find a good reason for shooting someone above the waist with their back turned and they’re running away. This was a cowardly and malicious murder. What I wanted to ask from commentators is how do we solve a national issue like authority figures shooting unarmed black people when the shootings are on the fault of the individual? I guess what i’m trying to say is that clearly not all cops are going to fatally shoot a black person, so how do we find the people who have prejudice?

if someone were to ask me, “hey, did you hear about big corporation that wants to host this event uplifting the black community through scholarships and education on entrepreneurship?” I would never guessed McDonald’s was behind it.  Yes, the burger joint that’s been serving America greasy food wants to give back to the communities that they have been serving. Now obviously, there is no doubt that this is a good thing that the McDonald’s corporation is doing. Anyone willing to help those who are struggling by providing scholarships for colleges is good in my book. However, I do get a bit of an uneasy feeling whenever large, faceless corporations try to appeal to our kindness. I think a bit of skepticism is a bit healthy considering how i’m not even sure how much “real meat” is in their food. What I will say is that even if they’re doing this nice event for the black community with the only motivation being that the company wants to better their image, I say let them. In the end, even if their motivations are flawed, doing good things is still just that. Good.

In recent years, the online lodging arrangement company Airbnb has been hit with a number of lawsuits involving certain customers being denied service from home owners for being black. To prevent something like this happening in the future, both the NAACP and Airnbnb have teamed up to come up with a plan to combat the situation and then act out said plan. One idea that hasn’t been out in motion yet is to set rules protecting anyone from being denied Airbnb service based on how their name sounds, or the color of their skin. Another thought of solution was to encourage members of the black community to open their homes for Airbnb service to open up more opportunities.

Democratic candidate for the upcoming 2020 election, Kamala Harris recently voiced her opinions on reparations on the popular Breakfast Club podcast based in New York.  When asked where she stood on the idea of reparations, Harris responded by saying that incidents like the Shelby County v. Holder, have actually been a step back for the black community. She believes that there is a disparity in where blacks and whites start off in the working world. Sen. Harris, would want to give the disenfranchised, a step up in the game by putting money into areas where rent is high. Putting funds into the education could also give a much needed boost to those who want an education. Talk of reparations have gone on, yet nothing has been passed in congress yet. Kamala Harris may be the one to change that.