Dear Dean Magazine: Issue 14

DEAR DEAN 

M A G A Z I N E 

BLACK HISTORY 

It's Time to Normalize Reparations 

by Maya Contreras 

V O L . 1 4 | F E B . 2 2 , 2 0 2 3 

Black Queer History Is Black 

and American History 

by Victoria A. Brownworth 

Plus! 

Spoutible - A New Experience 

That Feels Familiar 

Review by Myron J. Clifton 

Dominicans Do The Best Hair 

Poem by Vesta Cordero 

Myron's Hit or Miss List 

What I'm Streaming Right Now 

Hot Take, TOTM & 

My Daughter, Leah Dean's Birthday!

THE GOODS 

3 

Welcome From Myron 

4 

8 

My Daughter Leah Dean's Birthday! 

by Myron J. Clifton 

Spoutible - A Review 


17 Dominicans Do The Best Hair 

Poem by Vesta Cordero 

18 

24 

26 

35 

36 

38 

Black Queer History Is Black 

& American History 


Myron's HIT or MISS List 

It's Time To Normalize 

Reparations 


Thread of the Month 


Hot Take! "Haters, Trolls, Bots" 

My Favorite Things 

Streaming Right Now 

D E A R D E A N M A G A Z I N E , W E B S I T E , 

B L O G S A N D B O O K S A R E D E S I G N E D B Y 

K A T Y A J U L I E T L E R N E R

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH! 

Yes, it is Black History Month no matter what Ron 

DeSantis and other people say as they try to erase, 

restrict, or end the teaching of factual American 

history. We will always celebrate and acknowledge 

Black people’s contribution, success, and yes, struggle 

and pain, at the hands of this nation’s institutions. 

And yet, we do more than persist, we thrive, we 

celebrate, we express joy, and we live our best lives all 

across this land that our ancestors and recent 

ancestors built and died for. 

Plus, a brief birthday wish to my now 18-year-old 

daughter, Leah Dean. 

And of course all your favorites are here, What’s 

Streaming, Hot Take, Movie/TV reviews, and mustsee 

book ads by small independent authors. 

I think you will love what the writers have done. 

We are here and are not going anywhere because it is 

our home. 

Happy Black History Month, Year, Decade, and 

Century. 

Our shared home. 

Myron J. Clifton 

Enjoy this month’s outstanding articles that include a 

new social media site – Spoutible – that is the first 

Twitter competitor that is owned by a Black person – 

Christopher Bouzy. It launched on 2/1 to rousing 

reviews and is thriving and growing. 

This issue features Maya Contreras’ "It’s Time to 

Normalize Reparations," a gripping informative factbased 

look at the case for reparations. We also include 

a personal and heartfelt poem by Vesta Cordero 

“Dominicans Do the Best Hair” and “Black Queer History 

is Black History” by Victoria A. Brownsworth. 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.3

She sings Broadway tunes and pop songs, 

No longer a baby I sing asleep. 

She surfs the web and games online, 

I no longer push her on swings and bikes. 

I write books and I dedicate to her. 

She no longer asks me to read to her. 

No more parent-teacher conferences. 

Her classes and teachers are on Zoom. 

I’m nervous about college. 

She excited and not too nervous about 

the next phase. 

The next line is blank so she can write 

her future. 

Happy 18th Birthday, Leah Dean! 


Website | Bookshop | Twitter 

Myron J. Clifton is an author of novels Jamaal’s Incredible 

Adventures in the Black Church; Monuments: A Deadly 

Day at Jefferson Park; BLM-PD: Revenge was Inevitable; 

Her Legend Lives in You: The Untold Story Honoring the 

Goddess & Our Daughters; and short story collection, We 

Couldn’t Be Heroes, and Other Stories. Also check out his 

weekly podcast, Voice Memos, his FREE digital magazine, 

Dear Dean Magazine, and his weekly blog at both Medium 

and DearDean.com. Myron lives in Sacramento, California, 

and is an avid Bay Area sports fan. He likes comic books, 

telling stories about his late mom to his beloved daughter 

Leah, and talking to his friends. BOOKS ON AMAZON 

New! 

New! 

Loving Myron J. Clifton's Content? 

S H O W Y O U R S U P P O R T W I T H 

A C O N T R I B U T I O N T O D E A R D E A N ! 

Advertising / Contributions 

words@deardeanpublishing.com 


You’ll discover: 

How to have difficult conversations 

about white supremacy, racism, and 

white privilege 

How to listen to criticism without 

defensiveness 

Why it’s harmful to ignore race or 

claim to be colorblind 

How to expand your racial justice 

circle by joining groups led by Black 

women and cultivating a group of 

like-minded allies 

Racism can only be defeated if white 

people educate themselves and actively 

engage in antiracism work, especially in 

their inner circles. 

With this book, you’ll learn how to 

change from someone who defends and 

protects racism to someone who fights 

against it. And you’ll become an example 

to others that true allies are made, not 

born. 

LECIA MICHELLE 

Lecia Michelle has been a librarian for over 15 years, working in both universities and 

public libraries. She is also the founder and leader of “Real Talk: WOC and Allies for 

Racial Justice and Anti-Oppression.” Lecia is a writer w, an avid reader, and pursuer of all 

things related to anti-racist work and activism. 


A New experience that feels familiar 

MyronJ. Clifton dives into 

the latest social platform 

with a detailed review. 

FEATURED SPOTLIGHT

M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N 

D R . M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N 

I have been a Beta tester for Spoutible, the new social 

media site/app that went live for beta in January, 

limited-live on February 1st, and then released to the 

masses on February 9th, 2023. Christopher Bouzy’s 

Spoutible is the first Black-owned viable competitor to 

Twitter. 

And it can’t be missed that he is launching Spoutible on 

the first day of Black History Month. 

With 150,000+ pre-registrations, Bouzy hopes to make a 

big enough splash to quickly reach a million users — a 

milestone that he hopes puts Spoutible quickly on the 

road to accelerated growth and success that has so far 

eluded other Twitter competitors. He says Spoutible will 

be able to simultaneously handle one-million concurrent 

users at launch. 

Spoutible aims to compete with and replace Twitter as a 

go-to social media gathering place for users who instant 

information, follower engagement, trending pop stories 

and breaking news, and immediate access to the famous 

and infamous celebrities, athletes, and government 

officials. 

Spoutible is also for social media users who want better 

security, fewer bots and trolls, and less targeted hate. 

And because Mr. Bouzy is in charge, he has draped 

Spoutible with the same controls in his widely used and 

universally lauded Bot Sentinel program which provides 

numerous data that helps combat misinformation and 

disinformation. 

especially Black women — and women in general, Jewish 

people, and LGBTQI + communities. 

Bouzy has committed to preventing the app from being 

overrun by white supremacists, nazi-promoters, and 

single-purpose hate accounts like those who target Vice 

President Kamala Harris and Meghan Markle, and those 

who routinely produce offensive memes and gifs of 

former President and Flotus, Barack and Michelle Obama. 

Finally, accounts suspended will remain suspended. 

Bouzy has promised not to repeat the failures of Musk 

and Twitter, so Spoutible will not suspend then reinstate 

nefarious racists, election deniers, covid conspiracists, 

and white supremacists like the former president and his 

acolytes. 

Spoutible will thus be a platform that has safeguards 

against harmful conspiracy theories of that type that 

flooded Twitter in the lead up to the 2020 election and 

which contributed to covid denials and deaths. 

What is more, the platform will be a wall against all bots, 

including those that have long harassed Black people — 

Robust debate, differences of opinion, and typical 

disagreements will be as they should be — allowed. Users 

can feel free to disagree about politics, cats and dogs, 

pineapple on pizza, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, coconut 

donuts, sports teams, the importance washing feet and 

legs, the joy that is Kerry Gold Irish butter, and of course 

Marvel movies vs. DCU movies. 



I will be using my own Spouts as examples below and not 

other users since I do not want to assume they agree with 

my review. And I didn’t ask permission. 

There will be technical, financial, and big media reviews 

after Spoutible launches, I am certain, so if that’s your 

need, hold on for a few more days. 

I have included though a Q & A at bottom of this article. 

All answers are from Bouzy’s public Twitter feed. You can 

visit him there for more of the conversation on the 

included topics. His answers are in quotes. 

*I used a MAC (purchased in 2017) and IPhone 14. 

The above is from my desktop and you can see familiar 

features, layout, and functionality: 

SPOUT: Posting a Spout is simple. Simply click NEW 

SPOUT and type away. 

Here are my initial feedback about the service. *Please 

note that I have tested a Beta version so some of the bugs 

I point out may be addressed prior to release, according 

to Bouzy. 

Please also note this review is from a user, not a 

developer, a marketer, social media expert, or influencer. I 

am the end-user who the IT department dreads getting a 

call from because I know so little about technology that I 

am that guy who asks the same Help questions every 

week. And I use my teen for free IT support and pay 

bribes when I need immediate help. So, this review is for 

those of us who want ease of use and simplicity. 

CHARACTERS: 300 characters, and you can embed 

memes, gifs, and other user’s spouts. I have found myself 

at first limiting myself until realizing I had burst through 

280 and was living my best Spoutible life. You cannot 

Spout videos at launch. Per Bouzy: “You can Spout 

everything except videos, due to the storage and 

streaming costs. That functionality will come later after 

Spoutible begins generating revenue.” 

Bitmoji and Apple Enhance emojis: I could not Spout 

either Bitmoji or Apple’s enhanced. 

ENGAGEMENT: You can “Heart” “Echo” or “Quote Spout” 

other users Spouts. Users can also “Undo” an echo. 

EDITS: Editing is free and available to all users at launch. 



PROFILE PAGE will also look familiar: 

Users can edit a Spout up to 7 minutes after sending it. 

And the original Spout can be seen with a click. You pay 

nothing extra for the privilege of correcting your 

grammar or error. Or if you just want to change your mind 

about what you Spouted. 

MENU OPTIONS: There’s none of that FOR YOU or 

FOLLOWING nonsense. You see your followers Spouts in 

chronological order. You can refresh your TIMELINE, 

update your PROFILE, see your NOTIFICATIONS, see 

what is trending under MAKING WAVES, EXPLORE 

shows popular hashtags, feel confident your DM’s are 

secure, and of course BOOKMARKS. MORE takes you 

settings for DARK MODE and all the account settings, 

your downloadable data, and other security options, 

including deleting your account. 

THREADS: Writing a thread is basically the same, though 

I got lost in the thread and one Spout was out of order. 

This is something Bouzy said would be addressed with the 

launch. 

PHOTOS: Something I love, and I think other users will 

love is the ability to post up to 10 photos with a Spout. 

Here is what that looks like — (I got her permission) 



For a visual medium, allowing up to 10 photos is 

wonderful and enhances user experience by granting 

tools for storytelling, jokes, tragedy, and world events 

more concisely. And when combined with 300 characters, 

users will find a different and, in my opinion, better and 

more efficient and thorough experience. 

I think Spoutible will be a hit and capture enough initial 

users to generate a viral response that leads to 

accelerated growth that meets or beats Bouzy’s own 

expectation of a million users in the first month or so. 

and a host of other creative endeavors. And no matter 

how much traffic Black users generate — and revenue, 

there has never been a safe social media app that protects 

Black users from constant abuse and hate. 

Until now. 

Spoutible stands to be a game changer for Black social 

media users if it can meet its owner’s standards. And 

based on the history and success of Bot Sentinel, users 

can feel confident about the security and safety features. 

I have enjoyed using Spoutible and see myself migrating 

away from Twitter and the mess that it has become since 

Musk took over. He has made it clear he wants racists, 

white supremacists, covid deniers, misogynists, 

transphobic, and people who hate Jewish people to thrive 

on his app. Further he laughs at people’s pain, spreads 

harmful conspiracy theories, and refuses to listen to those 

who are harmed by his and his like-minded followers’ 

tweets. 

All users now have real choice and I look forward to 

seeing my friends and followers on the new social media 

site. 

-Myron 

If Spoutible can do what Bouzy predicts, and what his 

followers asked — he polled followers to crowdsource the 

name, features, functions, security rules, and more as he 

was building the people’s social media site, then social 

media will be changed for the good. 

And there would be something deeply satisfying for a 

social media site that is primarily Black-owned since Black 

Twitter — and Black Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok 

have long been known as super users who drive trends, 

viral content, and content that crosses over to real life in 

music, fashion, art, design, cooking, writing, dancing, 

The following Q&A are culled from Christopher Bouzy’s 

Twitter feed. Every answer are his own words, thus the first 

person “We” in the answers. You can see more of the 

discussion around each of these by visiting his twitter handle 

@Cbouzy. 

BlOCKING: If you comment and then immediately block 

me so that I can’t read what you spouted, all of your 

recent spouts to me are automatically removed. 



PINNED SPOUTS: You can pin your spouts and you can 

pin Spouts from other users, something not available on 

Twitter. 

TECHNICAL STUFF: We built Spoutible with scale in 

mind. When we launch, we will be able to handle 1 million 

concurrent users. We have 4 database clusters with 3 

nodes each, 3 Redis clusters with 3 nodes each, 4 front 

end servers, and 6 servers running Python scripts. 31 

servers and counting. 

VERIFICATION: We are still working on the verification 

policy and process, but I promise it will not be as strict as 

the former Twitter policy. However, blue check marks will 

be reserved for certain accounts. We saw what happened 

with the Canal Street blue checkmarks. 

DMs: When you send private DMs on 

http://Spoutible.com, they are encrypted at rest and 

transport. We use http://Detectify.com to scan and 

monitor our application for vulnerabilities and exploits. 

So far, no exploits or vulnerabilities have been discovered. 

We will be receiving weekly scans of our application.” 

SECURITY PROTOCOLS: Some of you want to know 

about Spoutible’s security protocols, and I am happy to 

share them. Personal data like email addresses and phone 

numbers are encrypted at rest and transport. Encrypted 

user data is stored on servers separate from the keys, and 

access is restricted. 

MODERATORS: Moderators will not have access to 

users’ personal data. They will only be able to see users’ 

handles and spouts. If the user has made their name 

public, they can obviously see that too. Although 

moderators don’t have access to personal data, they will 

still be highly vetted. 

VERIFYING USERS: When we start verifying users, we 

are using a 3rd party KYC (Know Your Customer) service. 

The data you provide for verification will be stored on 

their servers, not ours. We are currently in talks with two 

companies now. Lastly, we will NEVER sell users’ data. 

Period. 

FEATURES: We are not building just another Twitter 

alternative; http://Spoutible.com is much more than that. 

We are giving you the features you should’ve had from 

the beginning. On day one, you will be able to delete toxic 

replies to your spouts. We will not force you to endure 

abuse. 

LINKED ARTICLES: The one thing that has always 

annoyed me with Twitter is when I link to news articles, 

and the URL isn’t excluded from the total number of 

characters. We fixed that with Spoutible. Once the 

content is added to your spout, you can remove the URL 

to free up characters. 

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: I would never suspend 

journalists, even journalists who are critical of me. I 

believe journalists are essential to any Twitter alternative 

becoming successful. 

FEATURES AVAILABLE AT LAUNCH: Here are the 

http://Spoutible.com features we have already 

implemented: 

Bot Sentinel rating/score 

Verified notable accounts 

Chronological feed 

Edit button 

Dark mode 

Quoted Spouts 

Private DMs 

Block user 

Delete replies 

Enhanced anti-abuse tools 

Bookmarks 

Trending topics 


https://spoutible.com/cbouzy 


WHAT IS SPOUTBILE and WHAT IS SPOUTIBLE’S 

MISSION? 

WHAT IS SPOUTBILE and WHAT IS SPOUTIBLE’S 

MISSION? 

About Chris Bouzy 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.14

We Couldn't Be Heroes 

Short Story Collection: We Couldn't Be Heroes And Other Stories What if a Black 

man could control the weather, God called 911, or aliens took our souls? Would 

we notice? Would we care?... Enjoy the entire collection, seven stories in all, on 

earth and in space and in any order.

NEW! 

ON SALE 

NOW 

A cup of coffee or tea paired with interesting company is an unbeatable combination. We learn 

and share so much through this simple social ritual. Nuanced origin stories. Brow-raising 

secrets. Good news. Bad news. Hopes and dreams, insecurities and fears. Sip by sip, we do 

business, catch up, plan our lives, and discover common ground. 

To gain a better understanding of his friends, Myron went on a mission to try their favorite 

drinks. He was struck by the complex flavors and simple pleasures that characterized their 

personalities. Sweet. Spicy. Bold. Bewitching. Optimistic. Ostentatious. Practical. Perfectionist. 

In Coffee, Grounded, Myron reviews these drinks and brews up a perfect blend of culture and 

caffeine. He examines the history of various ingredients and coffee-growing regions, painting a 

vivid picture of faraway lands and hometown haunts. 

Pour yourself a cup and curl up with this tasty collection of stories steeped in friendship and fun. 

Order & Indulge! 


F E A T U R E D P O E M 

Vesta Cordero 

My mom took me to el salon 

What? I finally look like a decent human being? 

And you know, Dominicans do the best hair 

What was I before? 

 

 

They can whip the curl out of any lock 

At 18, these awkward words inspired me to 

Stronger than the chains of our ancestors 

Make my decision 

More straight than the compass 

To stop coaxing my hair into the missionary position 

Headed straight to the island we call home 

To stop slapping my distressed tresses 

 

With that creamy lye 

But, wait, did you see her face? 

of sodium hydroxide 

She took one look at my hair 

 

And said “Aye, dios mio, mira este regero.” 

To unleash a kinkier side of myself from where it hides 

Oh, yeah, she knew 

A prodigal daughter to my ancestors 

 

From the moment I stopped resisting my follicles 

The blood, sweat and tears to restrain this savage Emancipating myself from the decades of Trujillo 

The lady tugs angrily as my unbound hair turns away, 

 

coiling into knots and tangles 

And from under her breath my mother would go, 

 

“Erreglate el pelo, muchacha, que no parece gente.” 

The comb’s teeth fighting to rip the history from my tresses 

 

Twisting my hair into submission 

Fix my hair? 

El blower delved out its discipline 

No, what she means is stop being Negra. 

She pressed the hot iron to my kinky strands like former 

 

masters did to brand black skin 

So, I turn to her and in her eyes I stare. 

 

Fuck outta here! THIS is how Dominicans do 

Finally 

the best hair. 

Looking in the mirror 

 

Sigh 

 

 

 

There are no kinks 

 

There are no knots 

Vesta Cordero (she/her/hers) is a New York City-raised 

Straight, smooth hair hanging 

Afro-Dominicana. She is a poet, writer, screenwriter, 

 

director, and actor. She is currently working with 

Limp and lifeless like nooses from the mahogany trees VidaAfrolatina, an emerging international women’s fund 

And from the corner of the salon my mother would go that mobilizes resources and connects them with Black and 

“Mija, al fin parece gente.” 

Afro- descendant women-led organizations in Latin 

 

America that address sexual violence 


y Victoria A. Brownworth 

As Republican governor and presidential hopeful Ron 

DeSantis tries to excise Black history and books about 

LGBTQ lives from Florida classrooms and libraries, it 

becomes all the more imperative that we push back against 

those erasures with facts. 

Black gay men, lesbians and trans people have a long and 

integral place in American history. Yet that history has long 

been hidden or discounted. The queerness of significant 

political, literary and artistic voices in Black American 

history has been dismissed as irrelevant to that individual’s 

other characteristics and achievements. But as we say 

often, representation matters–and concomitant with that, 

authenticity matters. Within historically marginalized 

communities other marginalizations occur, nearly always as 

a factor of white supremacy and gender biases. 

The nascent Black Civil Rights movement in the 1950s was 

discomfited in acknowledging the primacy of Bayard 

Rustin (March 17, 1912-August 24, 1987) to that 

movement. He was pushed to the background because his 

gayness, which he did not hide, was complicating for the 

ascendancy of the movement among white politicians like 

John and Robert Kennedy. Accepting Blackness as 

(possibly) equal to whiteness was a difficult enough 

concept to engage. 

But a “homosexual” in a leadership role? And one who had 

been arrested for “moral lewdness” and jailed–albeit for a 

consensual sexual act with another gay man–that was 

considered at the time to be a bridge too far. The 

importance of Bayard Rustin to the CRM, Labor 

Movement and anti-war movements remained hidden 

from history for a long time–revived by gay historians. In 

2020 Rustin was granted a pardon for his arrest on that 

“morals charge” in 1953. But where would Rustin’s work 


V I C T O R I A A . B R O W N W O R T H 

have taken him both within the movement and beyond had 

the stigma of his gayness not attached so dramatically to 

him in those years? Now Rustin, awarded the Presidential 

Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Barack 

Obama, is recognized for his impact on the movement, his 

advisory role to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a seminal 

figure in LGBTQ history. 

Pauli Murray (November 20, 1910-July 1, 1985) was an 

iconoclastic socialist-leaning, gender-fluid feminist and Convention in 1976, and she was well-known for 

Black Civil Rights activist, Murray broke barriers in every 

aspect of her life — a life of firsts: First Black woman law 

school graduate at Howard University, first Black person to 

earn a JSD (Doctor of the Science of Law) degree from Yale 

delivering the opening statement at the House Judiciary 

Committee Hearings to impeach Richard Nixon. She also 

created legislation to broaden the 1965 Voting Rights Act 

to include and protect Latinx voters. 

Law School, first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal 

priest. 

As the first Black woman elected to Congress from the 

South and as a leader in the Civil Rights movement, 

Her legal writings were the predicate for Thurgood 

Marshall’s segregation-shattering 1954 U.S. Supreme Court 

case, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. And her name 

was also listed as co-author on the brief argued by Ruth 

Bader Ginsburg in 1971 in Reed v. Reed. Years later 

Jordan’s lesbianism was a worst-kept secret during her 

rise as a Democratic star: it was well-known among her 

friends and colleagues as they were introduced to her 

partner of more than 30 years, Nancy Earl, but it was never 

discussed publicly. 

Ginsburg referred to Murray when she said, “We knew 

when we wrote that brief that we were standing on her 

shoulders.” 

Jordan was also one of the few disabled members of 

Congress. Jordan had multiple sclerosis, and she used a 

wheelchair in her later years to remain ambulatory, 

At various times, Murray identified as a man and dressed in 

androgynous clothing. As the Pauli Murray Center details, 

“Murray actively used the phrase ‘he/she personality,’ 

including when she spoke at the 1992 Democratic 

National Convention. In 1994, President Bill Clinton 

awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

during the early years of her life. Later in journals, essays, 

letters and autobiographical works, Pauli employed There is perhaps no more important Black activist writer in 

‘she/her/hers’ pronouns.” 

U.S. history than James Baldwin. (August 2, 1924 – 

December 1, 1987) Quotes from Baldwin are endemic-- 

Murray believed that “true community is based upon 

equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of 

individual diversity as well as the common human ties that 

bind us together.” 

particularly now as liberal white America struggles to 

wake up yet again to Black oppression and systemic 

racism. But for many, Baldwin’s explosive language about 

racism and his unflinching discourse on the politics of race 

are as unsettling in 2023 as they were in the 1950s and 

Barbara Jordan (February 21, 1936-January 17, 1996)has 

long been an iconic political figure. She was the first woman 

to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National 

1960s, when Baldwin’s writing was first published for a 

wide audience in the U.S. Reading and reciting Baldwin’s 

quotes is less harsh than reading his excoriating essays on 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.19p.19

V I C T O R I A A . B R O W N W O R T H 

why he had to flee the U.S. for Paris and an expatriate life at 

the age of 24 in 1948. 

Baldwin socialized with the white literati at left-leaning 

publications like The Nation and Partisan Review, and it was 

then that Baldwin began to be published regularly. In his 

essay, “The Preservation of Innocence,” Baldwin 

deconstructs violence against homosexuals in American 

society as an element of American society’s failure to mature 

on issues of sexuality and masculinity — what he termed “the 

protracted adolescence of America as a society.” 

transform the world. And you have to do it all the 

time.” 

As Baldwin wrote: “Love takes off the masks we fear we 

cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” 

Davis came out formally as a lesbian in 1997 in an 

interview with Out magazine. Her life partner is fellow 

In “Notes of a Native Son” (1955), “Nobody Knows My Name” 

professor and scholar Gina Dent, with whom she has 

(1961), and “The Fire Next Time” (1963), Baldwin wrote 

collaborated on several projects, most recently 

about racism in the U.S. and Europe in ways that no one else 

had. Those essays are extraordinary for their incendiary 

“Abolition. Feminism. Now.,” published in January, 

2022. 

exploration of what it means to be Black in a fundamentally 

racist America built on the blood and sweat and tears of 

slaves. As Baldwin would later write in “No Name on the 

This is the mere surface of the intersection of Black 

history and LGBTQ history. The breadth of impact by 

Street,” “People who treat other people as less than human 

Black writers, historians, artists, performers is 

must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the 

waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.” 

dramatic and cannot be overstated. Imagine the world 

of modern dance without Alvin Ailey or choreography 

without Bill T. Jones or the theatre without Lorraine 

Angela Davis, (January 26, 1944-) is a philosopher, academic, 

scholar, writer and the author of over ten books on class, 

feminism, race, and the U.S. prison system, of which she is one 

of the staunchest critics. 

Hansberry or music without Bessie Smith and Queen 

Latifah or outsider art without Jean-Michel Basquiat 

or classical sculpture without Edmonia “Wildfire” 

Lewis or feminist theory without Audre Lorde or 

poetry without Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni? 

A radical political activist and theorist, a member of the 

Communist Party and the Black Panthers, Davis gained fame 

in the 1960s and 1970s as a leader in the Black Civil Rights, 

Black Power and Black and feminist liberation movements. 

The history of America is built on Black history–it’s 

inextricable. And within those histories are a myriad of 

unique queer Black voices–a history still evolving and 

still being revealed. 

Pivoting off the Serenity prayer, Davis’s most famous quote is 

the one that threads through all her activism: “I am no longer 

accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the 

things I cannot accept.” 

-Victoria A. Brownworth is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated 

award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The 

New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia 

Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, DAME, The Advocate, Bay Area 

She wrote, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically 

Reporter and Curve among other publications. More >> 


Vernon L. Andrews 

Policing Black Athletes 

Racial Disconnect in Sports 

O R D E R 

T O D A Y ! 


CLICK TO MEET 

THE HOSTS! 

MYRON 

JENN 

Two longtime friends have informative, yet 

brief discussions about multitudinous topics. 

NEW EPISODES ON FRIDAYS! 


MYRON J. CLIFTON & JENNIFER VANLAANEN'S PODCAST 

VOICE MEMOS REVIEWS 

Listen Now! 

Stay 

Shallow! 

Like listening to your BFFs 

June 2, 2022 

kjlerner

MYRON'S 

HIT OR MISS 

list 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.24 

HIT 

President Biden ordered the military to shoot down a spy balloon from China that was 

floating across the country. Then shooting down four more that China (or aliens) 

floated across the western hemisphere. China said the balloon was a weather balloon, 

lol. And now we find out they’ve been floating giant balloons over the western 

hemisphere for years.

HIT 

Beyonce won another Grammy giving her the most 

of all time, 32. Her last four albums represent one of 

the most creative explosions in music history, and 

her recognition is deserved. 

MISS 

Once again the Grammy’s decided to NOT award 

Beyonce for album of the year, preferring to keep her 

segregated in the “Urban” category. No Black woman 

has won album of the year since Lauren Hill in 1999 

– 24 years. It is a disgrace the Grammy’s won’t 

recognize Black excellence from Black artists outside 

of the outdated “Urban” category. 

MISS 

Republicans decided to hold hearings on the 

weaponization of government which was as dumb as 

it sounds. Luckily, they were unprepared as expected 

and the hearings went nowhere. The nation did get 

treated to “Trump is a pussy-ass bitch” entering the 

official records though, so there’s that. 

MISS 

James Gunn re-tooling the DCU and dumping Gal 

Gadot, various Batman actors, The Rock, and Henry 

Cavill. DC animated movies are so good, and they 

should be used as a template for the movies but… 

they won’t it looks like. Oh well. 

HIT 

James Gunn sharing 10-year movie plan that 

includes Blue Beetle, Swamp Thing, Booster Gold, a 

Green Lantern Team-up, and the wonderful Viola 

Davis as Amanda Waller, and cross-teaming with 

movies and television series for seamless world 

building and continuity. 

MISS 

Dozens of “Jesus gets us” ads that flooded airwaves 

including the Super Bowl. The ads are funded by rightwing 

Koch, Hobby-Lobby, and other evangelical 

organizations who spew racist, homophobic, and 

antisemitic garbage. 

HIT 

Rihanna’s Super Bowl was fabulous, and the global 

star delivered for her fans in ways that only she could. 

Her guest star was her new baby-bump. Fully using 

her 13 minutes while descending and ascending on a 

platform while hundreds of dancers moved in unison, 

Rihanna proved, again, why she stands alone as a 

global icon, businesswoman, and artist. 


y Maya Contreras 

On June 19, 2019, Senate Majority Leader Mitch 

McConnell, flanked by a few of his Senate Republican 

colleagues stated, “I don’t think reparations for something 

that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently 

living are responsible is a good idea.” Ta-Nehisi Coates 

effectively countered McConnell’s frigid dismissal in his 

Congressional testimony on Reparations later that day, 

“...well into this century, the United States was still paying 

out pensions to the heirs of Civil War soldiers.” 

We have continued, since the Civil War, to pay pensions 

and financial benefits that are supplemented by American 

tax dollars to those who serve in the U.S. military. The 

logic behind these benefits is – those who volunteered to 

help protect America’s interests by serving our country 

deserve recompense. These resources and wealthbuilding 

opportunities from the government to service 

members will also benefit the next generations of their 

families. 

By “well into this century,” the U.S. Department of 

Veterans' last pension payment to an heir of a Civil War 

confederate soldier, who later fought for the Union, 

What about the descendants of those who did not 

volunteer but were instead abducted, abused, and sold 

into chattel slavery? In other words, the “free” labor the 

occurred in May of 2020, a year after McConnell 

U.S. government kept ‘legalized’ until 1865 built 

denounced reparations. If you paid taxes in the last twenty 

years, you contributed to that pension fund even though, 

according to McConnell, “none of us” were “currently living” 

during “something that happened 150 years ago.” 

America’s and much of Europe's economic and political 

capital. What about those who descended from families 

who were the victims of land dispossession, forced 

migration, and genocide? 


M A Y A C O N T R E R A S 

This massive wealth and resource extraction from those 

indigenous communities was perpetrated by the U.S. 

government. What about those still living now who, along 

with their families, were both the descendants of such 

atrocities and who continued to suffer the effects of 

harmful U.S. government policies such as segregation, 

redlining, and the denial of wealth-building resources such 

as bank loans for housing or farming? This doesn’t even 

scratch the surface of the harm the U.S. government has 

perpetrated against Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and Asian 

Americans (remember U.S. government-sanctioned 

internment camps?), the disability and LGBTQ communities. 

One of the many results of generational harm from the U.S. 

government is, of course, financial. According to a 2021 

study done by the think tank CAP, “over the course of a 40- 

year career, Black women lose an estimated $964,400 to 

the wage gap, Native American women lose $986,240, 

Hispanic women lose $1,163,920, and AAPI women lose 

$400,000.” Black men earn 87 cents on the dollar compared 

to white me for similar jobs. The Human Rights Campaign 

reported this year that, “LGBTQ+ Latinx workers earn 90 

cents for every dollar cishet worker earns, LGBTQ+ Black 

workers 80 cents earn for every dollar cishet worker earns, 

and LGBTQ+ Native American workers, 70 cents.” The 

disability community earns only 74 cents for every dollar 

earned by non-disabled workers. All of this is the result of 

the historic and continuously discriminatory policies in the 

U.S. To quote William Faulkner — “The past is never dead. 

It's not even past.” 

discussion about harm perpetrated by the U.S. 

government, companies, and wealthy individuals shielded 

by U.S. policy, there will need to be deep and continuous 

investments in communities that have been marginalized 

by discriminatory policy to repair that harm and theft. 

Those investments to counter him could include free and 

affordable education and healthcare, affordable housing, 

living wages, and yes, giving land back to Black farmers and 

indigenous peoples. This would mean a massive wealth 

redistribution away from some of America’s wealthiest, 

many of whom are direct descendants of families that 

were the wealth beneficiaries due to the extraction of 

resources, chattel slavery, and land seizures. 

The etymology for “Reparations” comes from France, late 

14th century, reparacioun, to “repair, the act of mending” 

and also “amends, compensation, recompense, satisfaction 

for injury, what is done to repair a wrong.” This is at the 

crux of reparation, repairing a wrong. Where does one 

start at repairing the multiple wrongs perpetrated by our 

own U.S. government? 

This hesitation to have a robust discussion about Rep. John Conyers, who passed away just months after 

reparations is in large part twofold: One – it’s because there 

is a sense of confusion in the public and the media about 

reparations, what they are, how they would work, and why 

they are critically needed. Reparations have long been 

thought of in only one specific way, as a one-time financial 

payout to those of us who are direct descendants of 

Sen. McConnell rebuked the idea of reparations, believed 

we should start by introducing a bill. In 1989, Rep. Conyers 

introduced a Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for 

African Americans Act. The bill, “establishes the Commission 

to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African 

Americans. The commission shall examine slavery and 

enslavement, instead of what they are, long-term discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 

investments to repair generational harm and theft. Two – 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate 

Republicans know if we start to have an honest National remedies. The commission shall identify (1) 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.27.19

M A Y A C O N T R E R A S 

the role of the federal and state governments in supporting 

the institution of slavery, (2) forms of discrimination in the 

public and private sectors against freed slaves and their 

descendants, and (3) lingering negative effects of slavery on 

living African Americans and society.” 

It would take almost three decades of this bill being 

introduced each Congressional session to receive more than 

34 House Democrats' signatures. After George Floyd’s 

murder in May of 2020, the Commission to Study Reparation 

Proposals for African Americans Act finally captured an 

overwhelming majority among Democrats. While 

Republicans have outright said they would never support 

Reparations, it's clear many Democrats have continued to 

drag their heels on outwardly supporting a bill that would 

merely form a commission to study the effects of slavery and 

introduce options that would lead to repair. 

To implement reparations, the act of mending through 

acknowledgment of harm and theft, and to allocate funds and 

resources to repair the harm, would mean the U.S. 

government would have to actively work to eradicate harm 

at the local, state, and federal levels. Ending harm means not 

electing abusive bigots, like Ron DeSantis, to public office. 

Ending harm would mean elected officials and the press would 

not treat human rights, voting rights, and civil rights like an 

“opinion.” Ending harm would mean ending the practice of 

book banning, and ending discriminatory policies that harm 

Black, Latino, AAPI, Indigenous, LGBTQ, and disability 

communities. Ending harm would mean finally ratifying the 

Equal Rights Amendment and codifying abortion rights. 

Ending harm would mean centering Public Health. 

Just discussing the need for reparations is akin to opening the 

door to let fresh air into a room full of toxins where only the 

wealthy have access to respirator masks. 

Avoiding a discussion of reparations is a purposeful attempt 

to silence a history that has fought hard these past few 

decades to make itself known. This silencing of history, and 

the urgent need for repair, is exactly why we need to 

normalize a discussion around reparations, immediately. 

DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.28 

Maya Contreras is a political strategist, a narrative 

interpreter, and an advocate for anti-racist policy. 

As a lifelong advocate, Contreras’s focus has been on 

Voting Rights because all paths to policy begin with 

access to the ballot box. On the road to equity, 

dominant political narratives that stem from domestic 

policy inhibit civic participation. Contreras 

deconstructs these narratives exposing their origins 

and purpose in order to dismantle their power for her 

audiences..... Read more >> 

(She/Hers) 

mayacontreras.com 

twitter.com/mayatcontreras 

instagram.com/mayatcontreras 

For more on Reparations, see 

Dear Dean Magazine, Issue 12!


LIFE, LIBERTY, 

& SOMETHING 

LIKE HAPPINESS 

Rory Dexter looks for love in all 

the wrong places, will working on 

a Presidential campaign change 

his luck or is all fair in love and 

politics? 

GREG HOWARD JR 

Comedian, podcast presenter, author, actor, entrepreneur, and political commentator, 

Greg Howard Jr, is best known as the host and creator of the hit podcasts DON'T MAKE 

THIS WEIRD, THIS IS NOTANENDORSEMENT, 30 Questions With..., and Your Life the 

Mixtape. Greg's forays into the world of writing include the best-selling memoirs HI, I'M 

THE UGLY FRIEND and DON'T MAKE THIS WEIRD: A YEAR IN THE LIFE, and the 

recently released work of fiction: LIFE, LIBERTY, & SOMETHING LIKE HAPPINESS. 


FOOD + POLITICS 

BY CLAUDIA RENEE WALTERS 

This recipe journal is a short collection of dishes that helped Claudia cope with unbearable 

grief, American politics, and personal radical change during an unexpected pandemic. Each 

chapter features one recipe and personal story designed to warm the heart, provoke 

thought, and invite the reader to recall their special memories with food. 

Claudia Renee Walters is an independent consultant living in California. Before becoming selfemployed, 

she worked as an administrator within some of the nation's largest institutions. She 

holds a Bachelor's Degree in Theatre and a Master's Degree from NYU in Education & 

Theatre. 

Follow 

Renee 

Order Online

Jamaal's Incredible Adventures in the 

Black Church by Myron J. Clifton 

Before Jamaal's seventeenth birthday, he’s appointed as his preacher uncle’s 

designated driver and unwilling personal confidant. Behind the fine outfits and 

hats, behind the delicious cooking, Jamaal is exposed to crazy aunties, sexy church 

sisters, corrupt pastors, and predator deacons. A good kid who just wants time to 

finish his homework and kiss a girl his own age, Jamaal is dragged through the 

strange world of the Black church. You best pray for him. 


NEW! 

ON SALE 

NOW 

Sometimes, when you’re at a crossroads, a door will open and what enters will inspire you. Other 

times, what enters will make you gag. These stories by a ride-share short-timer might have the 

same effect on you. A man, recently laid off from his job and intrigued by the people he might 

meet (and the money he might make) decides to drive ride-share while looking for a new 

professional management position. 

Don’t want to drive drunk? Well, then, by all means, plug in your location and get your friendly 

neighborhood ride-share driver to ferry you to your next bar. Need to move but can’t afford 

movers? There’s an App for that! Tired of waiting for tricks on the corner? Wait—I’ve got an idea. . 

. 

The behavior and stories of folks who call on ride-share turned into a unique anthropological 

study for one man who decided to drive ride-share while looking for a new professional 

management position. Recently laid off from his job and intrigued by the people he might meet 

(and the money he might make), the author unwittingly became the anonymous confidant for 

men, women, nonbinary people, and children. Unfortunately for him, he also became the innocent 

target of people who couldn’t hold their liquor, others who couldn’t hold their temper, and at 

least one who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. 

Little did they know they were in the Prius of a writer, who would be able to look in the rear view 

and tell their stories. 

This collection of anecdotes is non-judgmental, full of irony and dry humor, and may help 

someone else decide: Is driving ride-share for you? 


Her Legend Lives In You: 

The Untold Creation Story Honoring The 

Goddess And Our Daughters. 


Available on

Going forward, this will Thread of the 

Month from Spoutible. Join today! 

TOTM 

THREAD OF THE MONTH 

The College Board finally responded to the national 

outcry from Black academia, scholars, and the rest of 

us regarding Florida’s decision to eliminate Black 

History from AP African American. 

They were stupid and trusted the Florida Department 

of Education and DeSantis and got played for fools. 

This is the clean-up which seems authentic if not 

unfortunate that they were so slow to act and react 

to correct the narrative. Their very late and lame 

statement reads: 

"Our commitment to AP African American Studies is 

unwavering. This will be the most rigorous, cohesive 

immersion that high school students have ever had in 

this discipline. Many more students than ever before 

will go on to deepen their knowledge in African 

American Studies... 

and practice questions that we assemble and make 

available to all AP teachers in the summer for free and 

easy assignment to their students. This error triggered 

a conversation about erasing or eliminating Black 

thinkers. 

The vitriol aimed at these scholars is repulsive and 

must stop.” 

Here is the shorter version: “We fucked up and got 

played because we have an almost all-white leadership 

team and Black issues are not important to us until we 

are in the news for again doing the wrong thing. Our 

bad. We will try better. Moving on.” 

We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the 

Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified 

by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent 

comments, that African American Studies “lacks 

educational value.” 

Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars 

everywhere and those who have long toiled to build 

this remarkable field. We should have made clear that 

the framework is only the outline of the course, still 

to be populated by the scholarly articles, video 

lectures, 


HOT TAKE 

Haters, trolls, bots, and other social 

platform owners suddenly 

interested and criticizing the newly 

launched Spoutible when they’ve 

allowed hate, antisemitism, 

misogyny, disinformation, 

homophobia, transphobia, and all 

the anti-Blackness we could stand. 

Now that there’s a fast-growing 

Black-owned social media platform 

that is a real threat to supplant 

Twitter and some of the others, 

their whining is like sweet melodies 

to historically targeted groups. 


BLM-PD 

BLM-PD 

BLM-PD 

BLM-PD. BLM-PD. BLM-PD. BLM-PD 

BLM-PD 

In the not too distant future, the US has been taken over by white nationalists, and 

the institutionalized racism that has underscored the country’s entire history has 

once again been codified. California has seceded from the US, and a band of strong 

women plan to start the next civil war following the death of their friend at the hands 

of the police. This is BLM-PD.

MY FAVORITE THINGS 

streaming right 

now...

S T R E A M I N G N O W 

Hulu - KINDRED 

From the acclaimed science-fiction novel by Octavia E. 

Butler, Kindred is riveting and easy to binge. The story 

follows Dana who inexplicably moves back and forth in 

time from the present to 1815. Dana is an African 

American woman who can’t help time-traveling to the 

past - to 1815 and on a plantation her ancestors lived on 

as they worked the fields and house for their enslavers. 

But all is not as it seems and Dana, who in the present is 

in an interracial relationship with a white man. And in the 

past, she has to navigate the house politics as a servant 

of a white family that is inextricably tied to her own. We 

follow Dana’s search for answers in the present and past 

while subtly and not so subtlety experience her terror, 

confusion, and purpose. 

Disney + - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 

This movie continues the story of the Black Panther 

following Chadwick Boseman’s passing. The story follows 

Shuri’s attempt to reconcile her anger with her duties to 

Wakanda and her family. Marvel introduces Namor, the 

Submariner, to the MCU and they nailed it with a richly 

and wonderfully imagined underwater kingdom that is 

equal to Wakanda and just as mercurial. Emotional, fun, 

exciting, and stressful for so many reasons. 

Read my full review in Issue 11, page 32 

HBO Max - The Great Soul Food Cookoff 

A cooking show about soul food and cooked exclusively 

by Black chefs is delightful and long overdue. The chefs 

push the limits and level up all the classic meals and 

foods, from gumbo and jambalaya, greens and grits, and 

all the proteins Black families have enjoyed for 

generations. Enjoy it and the history that accompanies 

the delightful dishes and treats. 


What are you 

watching? 

Let me know! 

HBO/Max – The Last of US. Season 1, Episodes 1-5 

The series is based on the popular game, and it delivers the world and stories fans long celebrated. Slow and involved, 

the episodes are like mini movies in theme, arcs, and flow, and should not be missed. Episodes 4 and 5 will compete 

for Emmy’s for the deft and delicate handling of post-apocalyptic survival by a middle-aged gay couple, and the 

challenges of medicine, collaboration, and survival for kids – and a child who is deaf and uses ASL – American Sign 

Language with his guardian. The treatment of marginalized characters in the series is noticeable in a genre that too 

often imagines a future without Black people.

Robin Martin, Editorial 

The Joyful Warrior 

Podcast Network 

Music App 

Mark Lerner Astrology 

Katya Juliet's Jewel Box 

Great Start Initiative

Dear Dean Magazine: Issue 14

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