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Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. | 485 Madison Ave
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,
Yesterday, I visited Jackson Park, the future home of the Obama
Presidential Center, and surprised some of the Center’s future
neighbors.
Take a look. |
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We can’t wait to bring this Center to the South Side. For Michelle and
me, this project is about more than building a gathering space and
museum—it’s an opportunity to bring jobs, investment, and economic
opportunity to a neighborhood that’s given us so much.
But we also know that to be successful, this project needs to not just
be for the community, it must be built in partnership with the
community.
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That’s why, this week, I spent time with local business owners at South
Shore Brew coffee shop and got to hear from them directly about their
hopes for the Center.
I also stopped by the Wolfpack youth football team’s practice and
talked to some of the kids who use Jackson Park every day. I came away
certain that by working together, we can build a space that will act as
an economic catalyst for the community, create new jobs in the
neighborhood, and serve as a gathering place for young people to learn,
play, and take action.
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We’re so excited to break ground on the Center this fall. When it’s
completed, we look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of
visitors to the South Side and introducing them to the community we
love.
I hope you’ll check out more of my visit to Chicago, then stay tuned for more news about groundbreaking this fall.
— Barack |
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Donate to bring the Obama Presidential Center to life. |
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ue, Suite 401, New York, NY 10022 | (212) 751-4691
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Sponsored by
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| Former police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison
for the murder of George Floyd last month. “Your skin color should not define who you are,” Floyd’s brother, Philonise, told reporters
shortly after the sentencing. “It should never be a weapon.” With
Chauvin now in prison we ask: What are the likely battlegrounds ahead?
Where are the opportunities for change? Join us for a look at
bold ideas to #ResetAmerica that are sparking debates nationwide, many
of them from OZY readers and guests of The Carlos Watson Show.
Please
respond to this email (or click the button below) to share what's on
your mind — hope, anger or anything in between — as you look to the
future. | | Email me
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|  | Carlos Watson
Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief
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IDEA 01 Byron Donalds
42 | Member of Congress | Florida | | |
| Freshman U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is
pro-Trump, Republican and Black.
He’s an advocate for viewing the Republican Party through different
eyes, especially when it comes to Black Lives Matter and police reform.
On The Carlos Watson Show,
Donalds acknowledges that while “we do have bad apples in all police
forces” and that we “need better training in a lot of departments,”
defunding the police and pulling officers off the street is the wrong
way to go. Instead, he thinks police violence is a problem that can be
solved “with proper training.” Watch Now |
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IDEA 02 Monique Lewis 41 | Publicist | New York |
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With
Juneteenth this year elevated to the status of a federal holiday,
activists are asking: What next? Some are calling on lawmakers to abolish forced prison labor
, a system that “employs” a disproportionate amount of people of color.
It’s an ugly legacy of slavery in the U.S. that many want removed,
including OZY reader Monique Lewis. “Take capitalism out of the prison
systems. Prison labor should not be used for commercial purposes. If the
commercialization incentive is gone, perhaps we will start to see
equitable and fair treatments,” she says. Of the around 2 million adults
incarcerated in American jails, nearly all able-bodied inmates are at work. |
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IDEA
03 Ben Arquit 23 | Legislative Fellow | Colorado | | |
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The much-debated, drawn-out compromise on President Joe Biden’s proposed
$1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill has laid bare the divisions in
Congress. On Thursday, House Democrats passed a $715 billion
transportation spending bill that
sets a baseline for the party’s negotiations with Republicans on the broader spending deal. For conservative-leaning OZY reader Ben Arquit, who works on Capitol Hill, the debate over the bill is a perfect example of the increasing polarization within both parties.
“Both parties don’t want to put forth a bill that their whole
constituency won’t vote for, the only stuff that hits the floor is
brought out when 100% of your party supports it.” For some progressives,
the bill isn’t ambitious enough,
and for others in the Democratic Party, it is far too ambitious. It’s a
familiar pattern for Arquit. He’s seen a “lot of really great bills,
that a majority of the party supports, but not the whole party, so it
never makes it to the floor or into law.” Arquit feels that the cause
for this funky phenomenon is that representatives, and Americans alike,
feel like they need to “check all the party boxes” if they are going to
claim to be a Democrat or a Republican. |
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IDEA
04 Lauren Boebert 34 | Member of Congress | | | |
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Critical race theory has been in the news a lot lately, and it’s shaping up to be an issue that could divide voters during the next election cycle.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has been a vocal opponent of critical race theory being taught in schools. In a June 8 news release,
she called the theory a mechanism to “teach children to hate each other.” Critical race theory is a 40-year-old
concept that correlates the experience of people of color in the U.S.
with their race, and the systematic factors which determine their
experience as a product of racism and white superiority. Boebert isn’t
its only critic, but she is one of its loudest, especially on Twitter.
Ultimately, she wants critical race theory to be banned from schools,
even though teaching the concept is not mandatory nationwide. |
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IDEA 05 Tony Shu
21 | Student | Massachusetts | | |
| Homelessness in the U.S. rose for the
fourth straight year in 2020 and has only increased since then due to the pandemic.
With the end of the eviction moratorium looming, it’s expected to get even worse, especially for young adults,
this summer. Could companies such as OZY Genius Award winner Tony Shu’s be the solution? Shu tells OZY he started Breaktime in Boston
to “break the cycle of young adult homelessness through transitional
employment.” Breaktime focuses on the most “critical factor to achieving
stable housing, by providing a living wage job for three to six
months.” His company also partners with organizations to create jobs
that are “purposeful and community facing, positively impacting the
confidence and sense of purpose within a young adult.” A sense of
confidence is something that young adults facing the intense stigma
around homelessness or joblessness sorely need.
Read more about his project |
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IDEA 06 Aari McDonald
22 | WNBA Player | Georgia | |
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Not many 22-year-olds are talented or driven enough to make it to the
WNBA. But Aari McDonald, following a stellar career at the University of
Arizona, is playing her first season with the Atlanta Dream. The team
played a major role in Georgia’s elections when they endorsed Dr. Raphael Warnock over the team's former owner, Kelly Loeffler, and spoke out in support of Black Lives Matter. McDonald describes to Carlos Watson
how her teammates adopted an open discussion policy about the issue.
“Hey, if you want to talk to us, we're here. If you need to know
anything, we're also here. We can talk. If you want to have a
challenging situation or conversation, we can have that . . . this is a
safe space, and we respect everyone's responses.” McDonald also points
out that as much as they deserve to be known for their activism, they
also deserve to be known for being the ballers that they are. For
McDonald, sports and activism go hand in hand.
Watch on OZY |
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IDEA
07 Navid Negahban 53 | Actor | California | |
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When
actor Navid Negahban arrived in Hollywood, he quickly realized how easy
it was for someone like him, a former refugee and non-native English
speaker, to be taken advantage of. Born in Iran, Negahban fled to
Germany in 1985 amid the Iran-Iraq War.
He arrived in the U.S. in 1993
and struggled to find his footing in Los Angeles. “Most of the time,
especially when I was in L.A., I was sleeping in my car,” he says on The Carlos Watson Show.
“And I was sleeping on the park benches, and the trunk of my car was my
office.” His experiences led him to start an artist collective in Los
Angeles dedicated to helping refugees like him find their way in the
City of Angels. “I’m trying to create a space like a support system,”
Negahban explains, reflecting his determination to help diversify
Hollywood and assist fellow refugees. Watch Now |
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IDEA 08 Fawzia Koofi 46 | Women’s Rights Activist | Afghanistan |
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America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has raised questions about the
ability of the Afghan government to deal with the Taliban. Those
concerns are shared by politician and activist Fawzia Koofi, who is part
of ongoing peace negotiations between Afghanistan's parliament and the
Taliban. “President Biden’s announcement . . . put the Taliban in a
position where they will win anyway: militarily or politically,” she
says, noting that the withdrawal announcement should have come after the
countries had reached a political settlement. Koofi believes that the
way forward for Americans is to reinvest in protecting Afgan women and
their right to education. “Americans were not in Afghanistan because
they wanted to protect women . . . but they were here, and women allied
with them. They should continue to financially support women’s
education, employment and institutions that help women.”
Read more on OZY |
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IDEA
09 Dan Eggers 19 | Student | Alabama | |
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Being
a trans student carries a host of challenges, including feeling like
you have to educate your teachers about your identity. OZY Genius Award winner Dan Eggers
is all too familiar with feeling like it’s his responsibility to inform
the people around him about his gender identity. This is why he created
a
training program to help educators
create safe spaces for trans students. Such understanding, he believes,
is more essential than ever. “If you don’t know us, of course we are
going to seem scary and unknown,” Eggers says. “I’ve seen that the
people proposing these bills against trans youth
have come out and admitted that they have never met a trans youth in
their life. So it’s a lack of knowledge that’s leading this
discrimination and hate.” |
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IDEA 10 Joel Baraka 23 | Student | Wisconsin |
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There is no better food for a child’s brain than games, according to OZY Genius Award winner
Joel Baraka. Baraka grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda after his
family fled civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, the
23-year-old attends the University of Wisconsin and is pursuing a degree
in civil engineering. Baraka was inspired by his experiences to create
the board game 5 STA-Z,
which he designed to help deliver an education alongside a slice of
fun. Board games are the perfect avenue for both because, according to
Baraka, “People [in refugee camps] don’t even have phones, don’t have
laptops, so online learning is almost impossible.” He tells OZY, “It’s
so amazing to know that I’m helping children from home.” Are board games
the future of learning? Read more on OZY |
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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE IDEA OF THE WEEK? TELL US NOW
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