President Biden Signs Executive Order Targeting Police Reform on Anniversary of George Floyd Murder

Photo Credit: Twitter screengrab

Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd Jr., is presented with the pen President Joe Biden used to sign a police reform executive order inspired by her father in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, the second anniversary of his death.

Two years after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, killed George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds while three fellow officers looked on, President Joe Biden took executive action to reform how policing is done.

On Wednesday, the anniversary of the tragic death which sparked racial unrest and led to countrywide protest, Biden signed an order directing all federal agencies to revise their use-of-force policies.

It creates a national registry of officers fired for misconduct and will use grants to encourage state and local police to restrict the use of chokeholds and neck restraints. The order also restricts the use of no-knock entries to a limited set of circumstances, such as when an announced entry would pose an imminent threat of physical violence.

Happening Now: President Biden signs a historic Executive Order to advance effective, accountable policing and strengthen public safety. https://t.co/mQf2t5DGBt

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 25, 2022

Speaking the day after a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 dead, Biden blamed Congress' failure to write stronger gun laws in his opening remarks before getting to the issue at hand.

"To heal as a Nation, we must acknowledge that those fatal encounters have disparately impacted Black and Brown people and other people of color. The pain of the families of those who have been killed is magnified when expectations for accountability go unmet, and the echoes of their losses reverberate across generations," Biden, enumerating the reasons for his action, said. "More broadly, numerous aspects of our criminal justice system are still shaped by race or ethnicity. It is time that we acknowledge the legacy of systemic racism in our criminal justice system and work together to eliminate the racial disparities that endure to this day. Doing so serves all Americans."

He added, "It’s a measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation, to address the profound fear trauma, exhaustion particularly Black Americans have experienced for generations."

The family of Floyd, who was suspected of passing a counterfeit bill, when he was killed on May 25, 2020, joined Biden as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and several civil rights advocates and law enforcement officials.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison last year after his conviction on murder charges. While the officers —Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — who watched on as Floyd expired were found guilty of violating George Floyd's civil rights by a federal jury earlier this year and could face a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty under federal guidelines.

Grammy Award-Winning Rapper, Lupe Fiasco, to Teach at MIT

Photo Credit: Instagram @lupefiasco

Call him Professor Fiasco.

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, the Grammy Award-winning rapper better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco, will be teaching at one of higher education's most famed institutions next year.

The backpack rapper's backpack rapper, who rose to hip-hop prominence in 2006 behind the breakout success of his debut album "Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor," will be part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MLK Visiting Professor Program for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Fiasco broke the news himself Friday on social media.

“I been holding this for a while,” he tweeted. “I’ll put together something more sophisticated later that really captures the nuance and gravity but for now I’ll just say it straight and raw: I’m going to teach Rap at @MIT.”

I been holding this for a while. I’ll put together something more sophisticated later that really captures the nuance and gravity but for now I’ll just say it straight and raw:

I’m going to teach Rap at @MIT

🥲

— “DRILL MUSIC IN ZION” JUNE 24th (@LupeFiasco) May 20, 2022=

MIT confirmed the news that the Chicago rapper, who was previously a visiting artist from 2020-2021 and who also ran the “Code Cypher” programming competition — teaching rapping cyphers in a “computational way” alongside Professor of Digital Media Nick Montfort —at the school would be one of three new teachers provided by the program this year along with theater teacher Eunice Ferreira and documentary maker Louis Massiah.

Grammy-award winning rapper Lupe Fiasco and @mit_cmsw Prof. Nick Montfort join to engage the MIT community at the intersection of rap, computing, and activism. The MIT community is invited to register for CAST Visiting Artist Lupe Fiasco: SOSA: https://t.co/m4bUSFH0H3@LupeFiasco pic.twitter.com/hN3qtDH4Pq

— Arts at MIT (@ArtsatMIT) February 11, 2021

As for what he will be teaching at the school, Fiasco said his syllabus was not yet complete but offered a possible synopsis in a since-deleted tweet.

“Syllabus isn’t built yet but I’m thinking its fruit to be had in looking at neuromorphic computation through the lens of Rap as a lossless data compression model with a dash of energy efficiency via refining Landauer’s principle applied to cytoarchitectonics,” Fiasco wrote. “And some rapping…”

The announcement is the second time Fiasco has made headlines this month. The artist announced that his next album "Drill Music in Zion" will drop on June 24 just days before signaling his move to MIT. It is his first LP release since 2018's "Drogas Wave."

Bernard Wright, Jazz and R&B Musician and Godson of Roberta Flack, Dead at 58

Photo Credit: Instagram @nardynardd

Bernard Wright, the acclaimed funk, soul and jazz musician who rose to national prominence in the 1980s with the release of his trademark hit "Who Do You Love," is dead at 58.

A statement shared Friday (May 19) on Facebook on behalf of Wright's family by former Jamaica Boys bandleader Billy “Spaceman” Patterson confirmed the death.

“On behalf of the family of Bernard Wright (Nard), we are saddened to announce that yesterday Bernard has been called home to the Most High,” Patterson wrote. “Many thanks for everyone’s support, encouragement, and prayers for Nard throughout the years. Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers through this difficult time."

He ended the post with, "Our hearts are heavy and our faith is strong. To be absent from the body is to be present with The Lord! LOVE! Rest In Power, Nard.”

The cause of his death has yet to be disclosed, but Wright's impact on the music world is undeniable.

In addition to finding his own success on the charts with albums like 1985's "Mr. Wright," which reached No. 25 on Billboard's U.S. R&B Albums chart — helped in part by the aforementioned lead single "Who Do You Love," which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart, Wright's music was heavily sampled and inspired some of rap's biggest hits of the '80s and '90s.

LL Cool J's 1995 hit single, "Loungin'" prominently sampled "Who Do You Love." Skee-Lo’s 1995 hit “I Wish,” sampled Wright’s 1981 single “Spinnin'" from his debut album "'Nard." And Snoop Dogg and Tupac both borrowed from the track “Haboglabotribin',” off the same album, for their songs “Gz & Hustlas” and “Lie To Kick It" respectively.

Born in Queens, New York, in 1963 Wright was the godson of legendary R&B singer Roberta Flack. Wright, who attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York, was a music prodigy. He was offered a touring slot with legendary jazz drummer Lenny White at the age of 13, and when he was 16 he played with trumpet impresario Tom Browne.

"Nard," released in 1981 when Wright was 18-years-old, reached No. 53 on the Billboard U.S. R&B Album chart and No. 7 on Billboard's U.S. Jazz Album chart, setting the table for his success as both a solo musician and a featured contributor on the hits of other artists such as Miles Davis, Bobby Brown, Doug E. Fresh, and many others.

In the '90s Wright made the transition to gospel music after the release of his first three albums and matched his secular output with three releases in that genre, before eventually moving to Texas where he became a fixture in the Dallas music scene.

Playing keyboards at popular jazz and funk venues across the city, and regularly popping up to make cameos alongside the city's younger generation of jazz, hip-hop and R&B performers, Wright was known as a mentor as well.