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From left, Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, Cedric Richmond, D-La., G.K. Butterfield, chairman of the CBC, John Lewis, D-Ga., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., Donald Payne, Jr., D-N.J., and Terri Sewell, D-Ala., conduct a news conference at the DNC where members of the CBC PAC endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, February 11, 2016. Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
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Daily Dose: 2/17/16

Do you know anyone in the Congressional Black Caucus?

Clinton Yates @clintonyates
Topics:
April Ryan United States Congress Daily Dose

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    10:11 AMI’ve been in Miami for the last couple of days because I’ll be hosting Highly Questionable at 4 p.m. with my radio co-host Mina Kimes on ESPN. Thursday, though, I dropped by Bomani Jones’ The Right Time to chop it up.

    One thing intrigues me about the White House press corps: Why don’t they simplify things? Policy questions are pointless. Just go basic. If I were in that room, I’d meet the president on his level. Why do you care about the media so much? What do you think the purpose of the press is? Why do you watch television and tweet? When do you plan on ending your comments about the election? It would all be fair at this point, judging from how Thursday went. And, oh, yeah. April Ryan is a hero for dealing with that Congressional Black Caucus reply.

    If you’re an undocumented immigrant in this country, right now is a fearful time. No matter how many public officials deny it, raids are certainly being carried out and many of them are rather craven. There are some truly sickening stories circulating about how this crackdown is going. Snatching people up coming from work, picking their kids up from school, or leaving church? All of it just seems so extra. To top it all off, quite a few of these arrests are breaking up families, which is really sad.

    You know what the funny thing is about black folks? Our stories are interesting. For more than one reason. No. 1, because most of them are not necessarily well-known in mainstream storytelling lanes. No. 2, because, ahem, we are humans, who deserve to have our stories told like everyone else. So, shocker, when we actually get to tell them as we choose, guess what? People like them. As in, everybody. And, unsurprisingly, the numbers show that it’s true. No one should be shocked.

    One thing that working in the sports industry does is humanize you. When you cover the people who play the games that so many people watch on television, you get to see their actual personalities behind those numbers and jerseys. This seems obvious, but every once a while you get a story from an athlete that truly breaks your heart. This tale of the former Chicago Bears’ defensive tackle Tommie Harris and how he lost his wife is the kind of thing that no one should have to deal with.

    Free Food

    Coffee Break: The Golden State Warriors need to learn to stop doing group photo shoots in anything other than their sports uniforms. The whole squad always ends up looking like models in some stock photo situation, which of course opens the door for supreme roasting. Actually, the jokes are too good. Dubs, please never end this tradition.

    Snack Time: Eric Andre is a pretty eccentric guy. His television show is a series of explosions, anatomy jokes and other absurd high jinks, but, he’s now dating Rosario Dawson. No one wants to believe this is real, but it is, folks.

    Dessert: There’s nothing like a good love song. Here’s one to help out your weekend.

     

    Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.