Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, August 9, 2024…
- Five actors take the stage for a performance in Humboldt County. One of them is Black, the others are white. In this region, fewer than 25% of residents identify as people of color and they often find themselves victims of lifelong habits of the white majority. This production of The White Card aims to shake up those entrenched dynamics.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom helped clear a homeless encampment in the Los Angeles region on Thursday. Newsom vowed to start taking state funding away from cities and counties that are not doing enough to move people out of encampments and into shelters.
- Advocates are applauding changes to federal rules that had denied housing to many disabled veterans. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that service-related disability benefits will no longer count against veterans seeking housing.
Play Looks At Black Art And Representations Of Race
Claudia Rankine’s play “The White Card” focuses on an influential Manhattan couple — who are throwing a dinner party for an up-and-coming Black artist. Conversations between the characters expose their monolithic ideologies – like the white characters being dismissive of Black issues and minimizing Black suffering.
It’s in exploring these nuances of toxic allyship and other heavy topics found within the historical Black/white social dilemma that makes the play stand out.
The play is currently wrapping up its run at the Redwood Curtain Theatre in Eureka this weekend.
California Governor Vows To Take Away Funding From Cities, Counties For Not Clearing Encampments
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday had a message for local governments: clean up homeless encampments now or lose out on state funding next year.