NASHVILLE—Black-owned brands are suddenly in demand, and serial entrepreneur Jason Ridgel is in high spirits after sales of Guidance, a whiskey brand he owns, skyrocketed in recent months. Guidance is making a name for itself as one of the few black-owned premium craft small-batch whiskey brands available for purchase online and in stores in Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia and California. It’s part of a growing black-owned spirits movement. Since launching in 2018, Guidance Whiskey has made its product available for purchase online in 43 states. The company recently inked a deal with Kentucky-based distributor Legacy Wine and Spirits, which helped…
Author: Tn Tribune
Weigh-in day is a boxer’s second most demanding public ritual. Fighters slim down for a photographed stare-down, and then only have 24 hours to rehydrate and mentally prepare. Standing nose-to-nose with the undefeated fighter Steven Nelson, the last thing DeAndre Ware expected to do was save someone’s life. DeAndre Ware poses wearing his “FAITH” trunks. He previously fought under the nickname “The Axe Man.”Ware splits his time between training and working as a firefighter and paramedic. He shifted gears when Pete Susens hit the floor. Susens, a fight coordinator for Top Rank Promotions, had collapsed from what looked like a…
In her historic speech accepting the vice presidential nomination for the Democratic party, Sen. Kamala Harris introduced her family — among them her beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, “The Divine Nine” and others from historically Black colleges and universities. The California Democrat’s shout-out echoed worldwide. As the first HBCU graduate and the first member of a historically black greek letter organization named to a major party ticket, Harris’ nomination has created a groundswell of enthusiasm among black greek member organizations whose combined membership exceeds two million globally. Mannings is the chief business development officer at Partners for the Common Good.…
Nationally syndicated talk show host and author Wilmer Leon believes despite what most political polls are saying and making history at their convention, Democrats still face an uphill battle to defeat President Donald J. Trump in November’s election. The host of Sirius/XM’s “Inside The Issues” says there are flaws in Democrats’ political strategy and the prospects for voter suppression are real. He also believes many of the policies are already in place that are designed to deny and discourage minorities the chance to vote or not to have their votes counted. As the author of “Politics: Another Perspective,” the political…
Residents in Sen. Kamala Harris’ ancestral village haven’t seen her in years, but they are praying for her victory by sacrificing coconuts in Hindu temples. Others are pasting up posters or cheering the vice-presidential hopeful on social media. In Tamil Naidu, she would win overwhelmingly among her landsmen. Residents see her as America’s first Indian-American nominated for national office, not so much as the first African-American or the latest woman to be nominated for the vice presidency. “In India, people who put up posters for Harris are breaking coconuts in temples,” said Harris’s uncle, Balachandran Gopalan. A New Delhi-based…
As Hyundai North America’s first chief communications officer, Dana W. White knows what it is like to have two feet in two worlds. “Growing up I always knew about the power of communication, the power of words,” she said, talking about her childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia. “My grandfather, who was born in 1896, founded the oldest black newspaper in the state. I used to cut ad sheets every month and write copy and process black-and-white photos [at the paper]. The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in me and my family.” While the weekly black newspaper, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune, is gone, the…
Greg C’Dell Was a successful businessman and consultant who never thought he would work for the government. He didn’t want to deal with red tape and bureaucracy. But about a dozen years ago, Washington, D.C., officials talked him into going to work for the city. O’Dell still isn’t sure how then-Mayor Adrian Fenty got him to agree. “I tell people jokingly that I don’t know that I ever said yes,” said O’Dell. But apparently the officials were not trying to hear no. The Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. (Marcus DiPaola/Zenger)He sold his consulting company and went to…
Defunding or abolishing police departments has become a national debate in the wake of George Floyd’s death, but Minneapolis residents say abolishment isn’t necessarily a clear-cut answer. Some even view abolishment as punitive — a unilateral response to their speaking out against police brutality. The city approved its first budget cut to the police department late last month. Residents raised concerns regarding whether those most affected had been considered in the discussion of the broad-sweeping removal of the police department from the city’s charter. To change the police department, the city charter needs to change. On August 5, the Charter…
In America, one incident of police brutality captured on video in May sparked global protests and may have finally galvanized calls for police reform. In Kenya, things are very different. Young Kenyans lose their lives frequently, sometimes weekly, especially those from informal settlements, due to excessive force by the police. Unlike many countries, violence has heightened over the years due to nepotism, tribalism and ethnic politics. Thirteen-year-old Yassin Moyo was on his parents’ balcony March 30 when a “stray bullet” hit him. “It was about 7 p.m., and I was in the house,” said Hassan Motte, Yassin Moyo’s still-grieving father.…
ESPN national columnist and essay writer Robert “Scoop” Jackson began noticing how pro athletes—especially young NBA stars—started lifting their voices to address civil rights concern by using their platform in professional sports about four years ago, which was roughly the same time that NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began protesting police brutality against black men by taking a knee during the national anthem. However, it was a change in his responsibility at the high-profile worldwide leader of sports media which allowed him to venture deeply into the aggressive social activism from current and former pro athletes. Jackson’s new book, “The Game…