If you did not have the opportunity to visit the “What I Need Now In The Ninth Grade” (W.I.N.N.I.N.G) Summer School 7-week program led by Carl Cannon’s ELITE Game-changers team, held at Lincoln School, you missed a treat. Carl and…
Real Talk
Real Talk | Take Your Knee Off Our Necks
by Sherry Cannon • • 1 Comment
A metaphoric knee has been on the necks of Black people for over 400 years in this country. That knee was literally displayed on May 25, 2020 when police officer Derek Chauvin applied pressure to George Floyd’s neck with his…
Real Talk | When you are chosen
by Kamara Taylor • • 1 Comment
Eagerly from Seattle, Wash., I watched her first announcement to run for mayor, reading the Peoria Journal Star, visiting her website — all the time wondering what I could do to ensure that her run was successful and that the…
Real Talk | Protected Terror
by Sherry Cannon • • 0 Comments
What we thought was 8 minutes and 46 seconds of terror and torture was actually, 9 minutes and 29 seconds. We know now that was how long former police officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on the neck of George…
Real Talk | Miseducation about the vaccination –– why people of color mistrust medicine
by Kamara Taylor • • 1 Comment
As I write this article, I have spent the last year as most of us have –– isolated, socially distanced and careful often times in fear or thinking about the unknown such as where did this virus come dfrom? Why…
Real Talk | This is who we are
by Sherry Cannon • • 1 Comment
We watched in horror on Jan. 6, as the nation’s Capitol was breached by white terrorists on the behest of the president of the United States of America. These terrorists broke down doors, attacked Capitol Police, killing one officer by…
Real Talk | Linking a broken system to slavery and Jim Crow
by Kamara Taylor • • 0 Comments
What is justice in a country that considers its same justice to be blind? At 4 a.m., I lay awake thinking about the “20/20” episode I had viewed on television about Breonna Taylor who was shot to death by police…
Real Talk | Having our say
by Sherry Cannon • • 0 Comments
Tuesday, Nov. 3 was one of the most consequential elections for African Americans since 1876 when Democrat Rutherford Hayes was awarded the presidency in what is now called The Compromise of 1877 which ushered in the Jim Crow Era. As…
Real Talk | Love through the destruction
by Kamara Taylor • • 0 Comments
With the abundance of social chaos and the political and economic demise from multiple pandemics, there is no surprise that disparity continues to surround our society. These are trying times, and there remains real pain. However, I am constantly reminded…
Real Talk | Black Excellence
by Sherry Cannon • • 2 Comments
“As I was sitting at work on the verge of tears, just thinking that the color of my skin could literally decide on whether I would make it home to family and friends, I was at a loss. I am…