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Black Digital Bank First Boulevard and Visa Partner to Bridge Racial Wealth Gap with Crypto

By Monica Melton | The PlugThe racial wealth gap has ballooned after 41% of small Black-owned businesses were forced to shutter because of the coronavirus pandemic. Since 2016, the average white American family has had a net worth of $171,000, ten times the net worth of $17,150 for the average Black family. The pandemic further aggravated systemic racism and financial hardships.Now, Visa and a new neobank First Boulevard are taking on the challenge, using crypto as […]

February 15, 2021

Coronavirus

FEMA could take over Philly Fighting COVID’s old mass vaccination site | Coronavirus Newsletter

By Ellie Silverman | Inquirer.comTL;DR: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in talks with Philadelphia to run a mass vaccination clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The city and FEMA have not finalized plans. Patients who succumbed or barely survived new coronavirus strains had certain conditions that made them the perfect hosts for the virus to mutate.Continue Reading at Inquirer.com THE WURD WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Black Talk Media sent straight to […]

February 12, 2021

Business & Technology

The Gaming Industry Isn’t Diverse. This Philadelphia Based Founder Is Trying To Change That

By Jewel Wicker | The PlugNicodemus Madehdou used video games to connect with a new culture and make friends when he moved from Monrovia, Liberia to Philadelphia at 9-years-old. Games like RuneScape, a multiplayer fantasy game, helped Madehdou bridge cultural differences. Now his video game production studio is hoping to help diversify the industry.“I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t have any friends and I didn’t know how to start that […]

February 12, 2021

News

Sara Lomax-Reese, CEO of WURD, Speaks on Her Station’s Legacy

Sara Lomax-Reese is the president and CEO of WURD, the only African-American owned talk radio station in Pennsylvania and one of only three of its kind in the nation. She speaks about the importance and evolution of her station. NBC10’s Jacqueline London has the story. THE WURD WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Black Talk Media sent straight to your inbox. BECOME A MEMBER The forWURD Movement is your way toprotect and preserve Independent […]

February 11, 2021

Coronavirus

Philly teachers protest return to classroom plan as officials wait for mediator decision

Miles Bryan and Emily Rizzo | WHYY.orgPhiladelphia teachers braved sub-freezing temperatures Monday to stage citywide protests against the school district’s attempt to bring them back to school buildings.District officials had been demanding some teachers return to school buildings Monday, ahead of a planned return of up to 9,000 young children on Feb. 22. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers had refused, citing grave concerns about the quality of ventilation in the […]

February 9, 2021

Commentary

The ‘twice as good’ rule for Black leaders brings unfair scrutiny to Danielle Outlaw

Solomon Jones | Inquirer.comIn homes that are even the least bit conscious about America’s long history of racial bias, one of many lessons Black parents teach their children is this one: You have to be twice as good to get half as much.That key verse from what I like to call “The Big Book of Black Home Trainin’” came to mind as I watched twin controversies grip the city over […]

February 4, 2021

Coronavirus

How the CARES Act Forgot America’s Most Vulnerable Hospitals

This story is part of the SoJo Exchange of COVID-19 stories from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems.Brianna Bailey | The FrontierA federal economic relief package passed by Congress in March promised to provide a lifeline for hospitals, particularly those in rural communities where many facilities struggled to survive even before the coronavirus pandemic.But over the past 10 months, the […]

February 4, 2021

Commentary

Did you miss a chance to say goodbye because of COVID?

WURD Radio is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on economic mobility. Read more at brokeinphilly.org or follow at @brokeinphilly.By Eugene Sonn | Resolve PhillyMonth after month, we hear report after report about how one of the more painful parts of losing a loved one to COVID is not having the chance to truly say goodbye. Sometimes the illness progresses too rapidly to even allow for a remote […]

February 3, 2021

Sports

Big Game: WURD Radio’s Football Trivia Contest

WURD Family, beginning Monday, February 1st thru February 5th, in the 9 o'clock hour, Wake Up With WURD's Solomon Jones will be hosting the Big Game Trivia Contest brought to you by Brown’s Family ShopRite and the family business collaborative partners, Amoroso’s Bakery, Dietz and Watson, and Herr’s Snacks. Winners of the Big Game Trivia Contest will receive a $20 gift card from Brown’s Family Shoprite. Tune into 900am or […]

January 29, 2021

Coronavirus

The Philly Fighting COVID disaster hurts Black communities

Solomon Jones | Inquirer.comThe Philly Fighting COVID debacle, where a group of self-described “college kids” with little-to-no medical experience was given a city partnership to run a mass vaccination program, is more than a national embarrassment. It could very well worsen the Black community’s mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine—a mistrust our community can’t afford.Having watched for months as Black people died from COVID-19 at nearly three times the rate of […]

January 28, 2021