+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy
More

This week in black women: a royal wedding and the best golfer you've never heard of.

This is the fifth edition of "This week in black women," a weekly column dedicated to signal-boosting the black women who make the world spin.

This week, we shout out a pioneering mayor, a cool-as-a-cucumber newscaster, a legendary golfer, and more. Celebrate them! Follow them! Support them! Let's do this.

"Go off, sis": Rhodes Scholars

The Rhodes Scholarship is one of the most distinguished academic awards for university students. Just 32 young people are selected to receive the prestigious award each year, which covers expenses for two or three years of graduate study at Oxford University.

This year, 10 African-American students earned the honor, including six women: Simone Askew, Jasmine Brown, Camille Borders, Tania Fabo, Chelsea Jackson, and Thamara Jean.

[rebelmouse-image 19530920 dam="1" original_size="480x261" caption="GIF from Tracee Ellis Ross/YouTube." expand=1]GIF from Tracee Ellis Ross/YouTube.

"Taking care of business": LaToya Cantrell

In a landslide victory, Cantrell was elected the next mayor of New Orleans. She will be first woman mayor in the city's 300-year history.

This is not Mayor-Elect Cantrell, but it IS the appropriate response to hearing about a city's first female mayor. Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images.

"Y'all play too much": Rahel Solomon

Solomon is a newscaster in Philadelphia who is going viral this week after completing the "one-chip challenge" with her colleague on air.

The challenge involves eating a single, albeit dangerously spicy, Paqui brand chip. Solomon ate the chip and barely flinched. Her colleague, however? Not so much.

The highlight of the video is Solomon calmly asking, "Can we get a medic in here for Jim?"

"If you don't know, now you know": Ann Gregory

Every week, I ask you to send me links to stories or people I should highlight. Reader Mark S. let me know about one of his favorite women in history:

"Not sure if there is a time limit on your series on black women but I think Ann Gregory deserves a shout out."

He's right. Gregory is a trailblazing athlete who doesn't get nearly enough props.

Born in 1912, Ann Gregory (née Moore) was the first and one of the best black women to play golf. Gregory didn't pick up the game until she was in her 30s, but her storied amateur career spanned more than four decades.

She played in United Golf Association tournaments for black players, where she earned the unofficial title "The Queen of Negro Women's Golf." She was not only a dynamo on the course, but an active community volunteer, military wife, and mother. She competed well into her 70s, winning gold at the U.S. Senior Olympics in 1989. She passed away in February 1990.

Athletes like Gregory paved the way for other golfers of color, including Tiger Woods, whose club is shown here. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images.

"Let the people know": Dee Rees

Dee Rees is the director behind the new film "Mudbound." The film follows two families — one black and one white — in the years immediately surrounding World War II.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rees revealed why focusing on stories from the Jim Crow era is vital.

"When a certain person says 'make America great again,' I think this period is the 'again' he’s referring to. And I’m trying to get behind this mythology of the 'greatest generation,' who we were, what we really did and what did it cost. The American educational system has a reductive, simplified view of history. But things didn’t end with [the abolishment of] slavery. This period is our link between our then and our now."

"Mudbound" is currently streaming on Netflix and in a handful of theaters. It's also generating some early Oscar buzz.

[rebelmouse-image 19530923 dam="1" original_size="750x500" caption="Director Dee Rees attends the MoMA's Contenders Screening of "Mudbound." Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film." expand=1]Director Dee Rees attends the MoMA's Contenders Screening of "Mudbound." Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film.

And of course, a bunch of happy tweets about Meghan Markle.

Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle announced their engagement this week. Markle is biracial and American, so needless to say, my Twitter timeline was very excited.

Final thoughts: Common

I, for one, support this idea 100%.

Badge
Ocean Wise
Be Ocean Wise
Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

True

The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul|YouTube

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
switched at dog daycare
Joy

Video of sisters trying to fix a DIY haircut perfectly captures the chaos of sisterhood

“This is THE sisters experience…you captured the whole thing."

@palmview956oficial/TikTok

Sisterhood in a nutshell

Ask any group of sisters what it was like growing up with each other, and they will undoubtedly use the word chaos. Girlhood in itself is a bit of a delightfully feral time. Add yet another wild child (or more) into the mix, and you never know what’s going to happen.

But there’s also a beautiful loyalty. Sure, sisters can turn from friends to enemies on a dime, but in those purer moments, you’ll see them stop at nothing to help one another.

And it’s all these aspects, and everywhere in between, that were captured in a hilarious TikTok as three sisters banded together to fix a DIY haircut gone wrong…the day before school picture day, no less.
Keep ReadingShow less
family
Pop Culture

Thousands of concertgoers in Poland randomly decided to sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and it was flawless

The music of Queen is a universal language.

Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
Keep ReadingShow less
celebrity
Joy

Mom tells wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a 'chocolate baby' while out grocery shopping

People have a sneaking suspicion that the little girl has seen 'Corina, Corina' one too many times.

Maranda Arbogast|TikTok

Mom shares wild story of how her daughter kidnapped a baby

Sometimes we hear a story that makes us collectively confused. Should we be offended? Laugh? Donate to a parents future bail fund for their children? It's really a toss up but the consensus on this mom's eyebrow raising story is that laughter and bail money are both appropriate responses.

Maranda Arbogast, a mom that runs the TikTok page, momma.chaos, shared a hilariously mortifying story of a time she took her three daughters grocery shopping and somehow wound up in a, "one of these things is not like the others" moment. The mom of three leads into the story by explaining that she is raising children that will likely have run ins with the law.

"Some families gotta save money for medical expenses or college funds. We gotta save money for bail because we are raising criminals, especially my middle daughter. It's always the middle child," Arbogast jokes. "She's gotta be frisked before we leave anywhere."

Keep ReadingShow less
funny parenting video
Joy

Dad-to-be straps watermelon to his belly to experience what his pregnant wife goes through

The viral watermelon challenge isn't for the faint of heart.

@hannahjeanrn/TikTok

What a unique bonding experience

Period simulators gave cis-gendered men a painful glimpse of what women go through on a monthly basis. But what about going through life with an actual human growing in their belly?

That’s where the watermelon challenge comes in.

TikTok’s watermelon challenge is a simple concept, where dads-to-be strap watermelons, weighing somewhere around 14 pounds, onto their bellies in order to simulate what it’s like for pregnant moms. Bonus point for taping mangos onto the chest because #lactation.

The results are both hilarious and illuminating.

Keep ReadingShow less
parenting
Education

'Batman' expert has the perfect explanation for saying 'gay' at a Georgia school assembly

After being censored by the school's principle, he quit.

Harper Collins and Jack Burnley/DC Comics

Author Mark Tyler Nobleman and Batman and Robin.

Over the past few years, "Don't Say Gay" bills have been introduced across the U.S., sparking widespread controversy about how LGBTQ issues should be addressed in schools. Supporters argue they protect children from inappropriate content by restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in educational settings.

Opponents believe these bills marginalize LGBTQ individuals by fostering stigma and potentially infringing on teachers' ability to openly address students' questions or experiences.

Currently, 11 states have banned LGBTQ discussion in public schools, and 5 require parental consent.

Author and comic book expert Marc Tyler Nobleman recently found himself at the center of the controversy, and his simple rationale for using the word “gay” in his school presentations presents an age-appropriate and inclusive way to approach at the issue.

Keep ReadingShow less
lgbtq
Trending Stories