Kanye West compared himself to Emmett Till tonight, leaving me stunned.

Spending a Sunday evening with friends, of course we were talking politics. It was at the end of the evening in which I was in a fabulous mood — in spite of the dinner table conversation — that I learned that Kanye West had the hubris to compare himself to Emmett Till.

How dare you!!!! How could you steal his movie and make yourself the center of the headlines. How calculating of you, Kanye. How egotistical. How pathetic. You have been on an arrogant, self-destructive bender for weeks now, and with your back up against the wall, you have the nerve to compare yourself with the brutal lynching of Emmett Till.

We want to make Kanye insane. But this is a rational, vicious man who co-opts God to condone his actions. Kanye West is very dangerous.

Emmett Till and I share a birthday, and he lives VERY close to me, always in my psyche.

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Ulla Johnson Fall 2020 Campaign by Yelena Yemchuk | Ulla's Tears for Jacob Blake

The spirits of female nomads permeate Ulla Johnson’s Fall 2020 collection, filmed in this new campaign video , shot in the unfamiliar terrain of Long Island’s North Fork and starring Indira Scott and Jordan Daniels. April Hughes styles the shoot with images by Yelena Yemchuk.

AOC is not surprised to visit Ulla Johnson’s Instagram and immediately discover a tribute to Jacob Blake. Any designer who works with artisans in Peru and Kenya, while living in Ft. Green, Brooklyn is probably committed to the Black Lives Matter movement. Ulla writes:

“This is Jacob Blake. He was shot seven times in the back in front of his children. The cycle of violence in our country must come to an end. The moment is now for us to join our voices in unison to demand change at the local, state, and federal level, to cast out the current regime, to retrain our police officers, to fund our social workers, to unite our actions against a system that perpetuates racist violence.”

At this moment, Anne hears activists in Washington, DC gathered on this important day in America’s racial history. Jacob Blake’s sister is speaking, as he lies in a hospital bed paralyzed— BUT SHACKLED !!! — to his bed.

August 28: Anne’s Annual Day of Reflection

Today is the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, held in Washington, DC on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. It’s also the anniversary of the brutal murder of the young, 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.

It’s also my birthday, and so the day of August 28, — one that should be spent in quiet celebration — is always a day of deep reflection for me about America’s original sin of slavery. Even more painful is the reality that decades later systemic racism is worse than ever in our country — best exemplified by the presidency of Donald Trump.