The 44 Percent: Angela Bassett, Florida’s DEI laws, and Affordable Housing

Those who watched the 95th annual Academy Awards this past Sunday saw that first hand when Angela Bassett lost out on yet another Oscar win, this time to Jamie Lee Curtis. Bassett played Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; Curtis won for her role as Deirdre Beaubeirdre in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

The look on Bassett’s face was palpable: The curl of her smile slowly turned downward, her eyes giving an obvious I know y’all didn’t do that to me look. She sat in her seat and didn’t clap for Curtis. The loss came nearly 30 years after Bassett received a nomination for her portrayal of Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Then, she lost out on a Best Actress win to Holly Hunter.

Bassett’s reaction was criticized as being classless, with some calling her a sore loser and expecting her to put on a mask at that moment and support a colleague – something that’s typically asked of Black people in moments where they’re again overlooked.

But Bassett is allowed to feel how she feels and sit with it.

INSIDE THE 305:

DeSantis vs. diversity: Blacklists have universities playing defense as Republicans attack:

In the wake of potential state legislation regarding diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, some colleges and universities are being more cautious about how they navigate what they described as a hostile work environment.

In more than a dozen interviews with the Herald, faculty and staff described a quiet calculus happening behind the scenes on campuses as educators navigate an increasingly hostile work environment resulting from vague and ever-evolving directives coming from Tallahassee.

Trainings and events have been preemptively canceled pending proposed legislation. Fearful of becoming the next viral post on anti-DEI social media accounts, some professors said they are changing the way they teach. Others started recording their own lectures in order to defend themselves should someone take their comments out of context. Many are considering leaving the state.

The process of compiling lists and turning over emails to the government has Florida educators “completely spooked,” said Meera Sitharm, a professor of computer science and mathematics at UF and the chief negotiator for the faculty union. DeSantis’ legislative proposals would empower university boards of trustees to fire faculty, regardless of tenure status, “thus enabling these boards to dismiss faculty that may be pushing prohibited programs,” the governor’s office said in a statement to the Herald.

“People are feeling vulnerable. Certainly it has increased the faculty feeling that they are being watched,” Sitharm said. “It’s almost McCarthyist.”

Building finally starts on affordable apartments for seniors near Ludlam Trail:

An affordable apartment complex for seniors is coming to southwest Miami-Dade County. The $25 million complex will be at Coral Way and Southwest 69th Avenue.

Called Ludlam Trail Towers in suburban Coral Terrace, the project is part of the ambitious effort to redevelop along a six-mile stretch of abandoned Florida East Coast Railway track from Miami International Airport to the Dadeland Mall. The housing community consisting of two low-rise buildings with 64 apartments is a public-private partnership between MV Real Estate Holdings and Miami-Dade County.

OUTSIDE THE 305:

San Francisco board open to reparations with $5M payouts:

Earlier this week, San Francisco released a draft plan detailing what could be widespread reparations for its Black residents:

Payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for 250 years and homes in San Francisco for just $1 a family.

These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee tasked with the thorny question of how to atone for centuries of slavery and systemic racism. And the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing the report for the first time Tuesday voiced enthusiastic support for the ideas listed, with some saying money should not stop the city from doing the right thing.

Ruth E. Carter Becomes First Black Woman to Win Two Oscars:

Angela Bassett’s loss aside, costume designer Ruth E. Carter made history this past week when she became the first Black woman to win two Oscars.

Ruth E. Carter, tasked with crafting the Afrofuturist costumes in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” took home her second Oscar on Sunday night for costume design. Carter, who also won a statue for the 2018 film “Black Panther,” is not only the first Black woman to win two Academy Awards, but she is also the first person to win for both the original and the sequel of a movie.

Carter made history as the first Black woman to win an Oscar for costume design in 2019; she had received earlier nominations for Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad.” Denzel Washington was the first Black man to win two Oscars — one in 1990 for “Glory” and another in 2002 for “Training Day.”

Where does “The 44 Percent” name come from? Click here to find out how Miami history influenced the newsletter’s title.