San Francisco Fed elevates a gay woman — its vice president — to the top job
Los Angeles Times noted that former USC Professor Raphael Bostic is the first African-American to lead a Federal Reserve Bank.
African-American
“You can hold someone accountable and hold them at the same time.”
Ashlee Marie Preston, civil rights activist, writer, speaker, and host of the excellent podcast SHOOK with Ashlee Marie Preston. Ashlee Marie has many talents, but she is, above all, a communicator. She conceived her podcast as a “platform that is intentional about unpacking the accurate narrative of not just LGBTQ people or trans people, but being intentional about creating the world in which you wish to live in.” Listen to her activism and how you can be an ally.
Stream the interview on this page, or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, or GooglePlay.
Debating Walmart’s move to lock up African-American targeted beauty products
KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk” interviewed Jody Armour of the USC Gould School about a suit alleging Walmart unfairly discriminates by imposing stricter security procedures for products targeted to black Americans.
The Underground Railroad
*Warning: Spoilers!*
In Colson Whitehead’s award winning novel The Underground Railroad, Cora, daughter and granddaughter of slaves, flees her plantation after a horrific punishment. She heads out with a fellow slave Caesar, who takes her to the underground railroad – in this novel, a real RR. She is passionately pursued by Ridgeway, a slave catcher while she experiences the horrors of American racism and the courage of the RR personnel. The book compares a mythological Southern narrative of slavery with Cora’s truths and Ridgeway’s version of the “American imperative.” Beautifully written, full of horrific incidents, the book reminds us of the power of racism, the government’s complicity in its implementation and persistence, and reminds us freed African Americans carried with them the legacy of violence, oppression, suppression, and more violence whether from the police, physicians, or any other institution.
To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club discussion of The Underground Railroad click the orange arrow in the Soundcloud player here – or you can download it and subscribe through iTunes, Soundcloud, or Google Play
Atlanta Fed Considering Raphael Bostic as Next President
The Wall Street Journal profiled Raphael Bostic, professor and Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise, who is a candidate to run the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Bostic would be “the first African-American president of one of the Fed’s 12 regional banks,” according to the Journal. A spokeswoman for the Atlanta Fed said the…
Wells Fargo commits $60 billion to increase African American homeownership
Wells Fargo announced a $60 billion lending commitment to create at least 250,000 African American homeowners by 2027, directly addressing the lower homeownership rates in the African American community. While Wells Fargo’s lending commitment is spread out over ten years, according to a recent interview with Raphael Bostic, a professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the…