030: Speed dating experiences, the book industry, and influencer capital.
I hope this issue finds you in good spirits! Brew up a nice cup of coffee or a glass of wine (whatever your vice is) and dig into today’s interesting reads. Oh, and if you are curious, here’s how the Covid-19 Vaccine will get from the lab to you.
Visible Men: Black Fathers Talk About Losing Sons to Police Brutality
In this interview conversation with the fathers and father figures of Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Daniel Prude, Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake - they reflect on the violence that forever altered their families’ lives—and what it means to raise a Black man in America. Powerful!
Atlanta on becoming the new Influencer capital of America
As the rise of social media is taking over every airwave, physical space and creating its own economy (the influencer economy), Atlanta looks to become the next biggest influencer hub for Black culture aka American pop culture.
Just in case you’re not fascinated enough by the social media influencer culture, check this, TikTok mansions are now publicly traded on the stock market.
Read the full Atlanta article here.
Just How White Is the Book Industry?
The hashtag #Publishingpaidme which erupted this past June exposed the pay gap between what white authors were given versus what Black authors were paid. It also led The New York times to investigate just how many Black authors get published by one of the big five publishers. Here are some quick bits:
Of the 7,124 books for which NYT identified the author’s race, 95% were written by white people.
Of the 512 books published by Random House between 1984 and 1990, just two were written by Black authors.
The books that appeared on The NYT best-seller list for fiction, only 22 of the 220 books on the list this year were written by people of color.
A database helping to reconstruct and document the lives of the enslaved
For the most part, the history of slavery in the Americas has often been shared through general numbers - in that the trans-Atlantic slave trade forcibly took about 12.5 million Africans from their homes. However, we are never informed about the enslaved individuals, as most are perceived as lost to history. This recently launched massive, free, and open-source database is “helping to reconstruct and document the lives of the enslaved, and researchers are asking the public and others in academia to contribute to the ongoing project.”
The frenzied cacophony of speed dating
As dating apps have become the new form of speed dating, each swipe is a form of speed-screening, and each person met is a form of a sped-up interview to determine compatibility. this 4-minute animated video “overflows with exaggerated traits and tics that imaginatively externalize and skewer bourgeois personalities. A woman’s ego seems to inflate her body; another’s heartfelt emotions jump from her mouth in the form of some unintended lingerie; a man’s combative conversation style involves some aggressively literal ping pong.”
Although this pseudo-silent video is in French, you don’t need to understand French to understand the gist of these exchanges. Paradoxically, at the end of this video, the shy and silent couple lasted the longest.
New year, new boo … who ‘dis?
And to get you ready for ‘Dating Sunday’ (the first Sunday in January AKA the Super Bowl of online dating), which happens to be the highest active day of the year for swiping through profiles. Megan the Stallion has partnered with Tinder for the Put Yourself Out There Challenge (#PYOTChallenge), a campaign to push Tinder members to create or edit their profiles to show more of their true personalities. The top 100 members will each receive a prize of $10,000, judged in categories such as most personality, most creative, most original, most real, and so forth. The #PYOTChallenge runs until December 31; the winners will be announced on January 17, 2021. Here’s how YOU can participate in the challenge.
Don’t miss your blessing in 2021, either $10,000 or a new bae, or both 🤷🏾♂️
Podcasts I really enjoyed this week:
Captured By The Game: Nipsey Hussle by NPR’s Louder than a Riot. NPR has been investigating the story behind Nipsey's murder for more than a year now, to understand how the chance encounter of two men in South Central illustrates deep dysfunction and secrecy within the government entities tasked with keeping communities safe.
Jerry Seinfeld on the Tim Ferriss Show. This is a very fascinating conversation that gets into the mind of Jerry Seinfeld to explore the creative habits and practices that helps him to achieve success at the highest levels. Loved this!
Music albums to vibe to this week, influenced by sounds from the motherland:
Live in Detriot 1986 by Fela Kuti. Amazing 2.5 hours of beautiful afro-jazz vibes
For Broken Ears by Tems. Oooh loving her vocals!
Get Layd and What Have We Done EPs by Omar Lay
Original Copy by Cuppy
The Angel You Don’t Know by Amaarae
Grace by DJ Spinall
A random stream of thought . . . on travel:
As Airbnb went public and soared in its IPO debut, I’m increasingly thinking about what travel has been like for me (and others) in 2020, and what the travel experience could be in 2021. I’ve found myself wanting to travel to other cities and explore the city and the culture of its residents from a quieter perspective - which means, I don’t want to go to any place that feels like a traveler’s hotspot.
I came across these two travel-related tools this week I thought worth sharing:
Buy now, stay later - In some funky way, this tool lets you buy hotel bonds of say $100 today, for use on a future travel date. After 60 days, your hotel bond of $100 would become $150. You can check out the hotels participating in this on their site.
Travel safe abroad - This tool rates how safe cities across various countries are. It’s a helpful way of benchmarking your sense of safety in comparison to a place you’ve visited before.
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
Valentine.
For my parting tweet, check out these kids, WOW!! Seriously dope!
