Hasta La Gadget!

Dear Mom,

From the Jerame Reid killing stretching back to the Michael Brown killing, multiracial, intergenerational communities have proudly proclaimed that Black lives matter. But within our contemporary context “Black lives matter” seems to be associated only with Black men, young and old. I want to tell you, Mom, that when I chant those three words, when I march, lie in the streets, or raise my hands symmetrically in the air, I do so to assert your humanity too. You are worthy.

Our Black foremothers in America always had to fight for humanity. In the early stages of the slave trade, Black women were economically less valuable than Black men. When Black women were seized from their homelands and forced aboard slave ships, they were branded with hot irons. When they resisted or expressed their agony through a scream or cry, they were deprived of clothing, and all parts of their bodies were beaten. When Black women were slaves, they were seen as reproducers of property, not of children, with no legal claims over the children they birthed.

When Black women fought for the rights of the children they bore, they still had to become the maid or the midwife to the white family, for pay and survival. Not only could they not take care of their own children, but they had to take care of other people’s children.

Even when Great-Grandma wasn’t given the right to vote, she helped Black men strategize. She told them how they should vote. She and her sisters filled political meetings. Black women coordinated slave revolts. They sued for freedom. They prayed.

Through the Black freedom struggle Grandma was there fighting for collective Black humanity. She demonstrated support. She organized. She led teach-ins. She facilitated literacy and citizenship workshops. She taught us to think beyond conventional models of leadership.

You refused to be moved from sitting in segregated public spaces. You withstood threats against your Black dignity and the currents of volatile white racism. You took a stand against white supremacy with calm and determination to change the moral compass of America. If our community forgot to thank you for your sacrifice, I didn’t. Thank you. You are worthy. You are loved.

You shared some sacred lessons with me. You told me to drink not from the well of hatred, immorality and dishonesty but from the fountain of love, justice and truth, and it nourishes my soul. You told me to seek opportunities just like my grandparents, who joined over 6 million other Black families in the Great Migration and relocated for better opportunities.

You taught me the ritual of saving our financial earnings. Even in 2015, when Black women make 64 cents to every dollar white men make, they still find a way to support their families. You were able to make meals with the few dollars you had. Not once were the lights, cable or water absent from daily use. And you wouldn’t let your financial worries wither a dream. You sought to help your child achieve his dream of graduating from college.

Mom, you taught me how to vote by taking me with you into the voting booth during every presidential election since I was 4, until I was able to participate in democracy myself by becoming a registered voter. You were among the 96 percent of Black women who helped elect our first Black president in 2008, and four years later you remained in this vast group, reelecting President Barack Obama. In fact, in every presidential election since 1984, Black women have voted in greater numbers than Black men, and in the last two elections the voter turnout rate was higher among Black women than among women or men of any racial group.

After all your sacrifices you still suffer the sting of racism and sexism. It seems that the only way you’re rendered visible is through the loss of a Black male, like when your sister lost her husband and had to take on the role of grieving widow, or when your aunt lost her son and had to take on the role of grieving mother. For months we witnessed them endure their misery.

We were left broken each time news came that another Black person had died at the hands of non-Black police officers. We were left damaged when we learned that two separate grand juries had decided not to indict the officers involved in such killings, yet again affirming that our Blackness is a crime. But there seems to be some hope, as we learned that the officer who killed a 28-year-old unarmed Black man who’d entered a dark stairwell was indicted on six counts.

So here we stand, amid turmoil and thoughts of our contemporary moment. Our nation may honor our race and your gender from time to time, but never both simultaneously, outwardly rejecting your dual identity, denying the real forces of racism and sexism and dismissing your heritage. Black women embody the struggle for recognition in America.

So I’m fighting for you, Grandma, my sisters and our ancestors. If the nation is unable to validate your existence, may this offering animate you. You and Black women everywhere matter. God need send no person to the burning bush to affirm your being, because you are made in the image and likeness of God. Just like when you told me that God is love and urged me to discover the God within, Mom, you are loved. You are worthy.

With insurmountable love,
Your son

Bill O’Reilly has already been compared to Brian Williams amid the controversy of alleged falsehoods in O’Reilly’s reporting, but Media Matters’ Joe Strupp went a step further on Wednesday, comparing O’Reilly to disgraced New York Times writer Jayson Blair during a HuffPost Live interview.

Strupp added to the firestorm surrounding O’Reilly on Tuesday, when he and two other writers published their own report claiming O’Reilly lied about overhearing the fatal gunshot in the 1977 suicide of George de Mohrenschildt, who was involved in the investigation of JFK’s assassination. In his HuffPost Live interview, Strupp drew parallels between O’Reilly and embattled reporters like Williams, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan and Blair.

When host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani called the Blair reference a “stark, harsh comparison,” Strupp argued “the level of reaction is what is important.”

“O’Reilly is the top face of Fox News, and even the other night he was bragging about how his latest ratings are higher than anyone else in his time slot. So for him to have a question of whether he’s accurate hurts the brand as much as Jayson Blair hurt The New York Times,” Strupp said. “Did he do things to the level of Jayson Blair and to the amount of Jayson Blair? Perhaps not — that we know of. But he’s also a bigger name, a bigger face of the franchise than Blair was at The New York Times.”

Interviews with two former colleagues who worked with O’Reilly in 1977 characterized him as more concerned with his own profile than the grind of reporting the news, according to Strupp.

“They knew him to be someone who would, in their own words, not only take stories that were broken elsewhere and claim them as his own, but didn’t seem to want to work with others in terms of finding news. He wanted to get press for himself, promote himself,” Strupp said.

Strupp said neither O’Reilly nor Fox has responded to Media Matters’ attempts to contact them. Mother Jones’ David Corn, who co-wrote the original report alleging O’Reilly’s fabrications about the Falklands War, also told HuffPost Live on Wednesday that O’Reilly “still has yet to refute a single fact” in Corn’s story.

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Media Matters’ Joe Strupp above.

Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live’s morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!

LONDON — Aqsa Mahmood’s family saw her as an intelligent and popular teenager who helped care for her three younger siblings and her grandparents at her home in Scotland. She listened to Coldplay, read Harry Potter novels and drank Irn Bru, a Scottish soft drink.

It is the most common question I get when speaking about email marketing, social media or small business in general… “What should I write about?”

In this world of short attention spans, mobile devices and text messages, engagement is the new word of mouth: that public yet meaningful back and forth you get with clients and customers by sending out a great email to your list or posting something insightful or shareable on social media.

So, what should you write about? The short answer is two-fold. You write about what you know that they don’t know. That just means you share your knowledge and experience for free. And, you write about what you have access to that they don’t have access to; and you have more access than you might think — early access to a special event or offer, backstage passes, autographed copies, white papers, an extra hour of your time. Give what you have to give and don’t charge for it. Charge for your services, yes. But on social and in emails you want to give it away for free, setting yourself up as the go-to in your industry. Share it and they will call. Or email. Or text when they are ready to have you do it for them.

Here are 25 quick content ideas you can use to build on your reputation as an expert or hub of information and access. Try one or two of them this week. Save the list for later so you can avoid that drawing-a-blank moment when it’s time to send out an email blast or post something interesting on social media. You’re not alone. Most people stop and stare at the screen when faced with a blank page or a social post to fill in. Even if you do nothing on this list, I hope it will spark your own ideas. This is just a start.

1. Q & A
Chances are that you have been getting calls or emails lately that ask the same question. Changes in weather, special holidays or events and other out-of-your-control factors will bring up a lot of the same questions for your customers. Think about the most common questions you get on a regular basis, just this week or even just this morning and write about it. Provide the answer. Anticipate the need and push out the information. Easy to do.

2. Ask for Feedback
Create a simple survey: 1, 2 or 3 questions and push it out. You’ll get a lot of great information, and this one should really count as two ideas because you can also push out the results of your survey along with your plans to address requests, needs or questions.

3. Talk About A Great Partner
Share the spotlight with one of your best strategic partners. Give them a shameless plug. Talk ’em up. It costs you nothing to tell the world how great they have been for your organization and chances are pretty good that they might return the favor one day – but don’t do it with that in mind. Say what is true, focus on the positive and be real.

4. Before & After Anything
Everyone loves to witness transformation. We are inspired by visible change. No matter what your business model, think about a way to visually show a before and after transformation. This is not just about helping a client lose weight or organizing a messy closet – although you cannot miss with either of those. But maybe it’s a graph showing the difference in your financial client’s Debt-To-income ratio. Maybe it’s a new menu design, fresh flowers in the lobby or seeing the difference in a neighborhood with satellite photos. Get creative and make it visual.

5. Write a Review
Talk about a great book you read or a class you attended. Share in your own words what made it so good, where you got the most impact. How you changed your own way of doing things as a result of the experience. This is a chance to really connect with your readers and to offer some free press to the writer or instructor that did something worth writing about.

6. Share Milestones
You can keep this very simple or get fancy with a nice infographic, but take a moment to reflect on some of the big milestones in your organization and share it. First employee hired, first hundred or million in sales, first office expansion, first coffee maker in the kitchen – celebrate the big stuff and the little stuff alike. Have some fun with this. And it can be ongoing, you don’t have to share everything at once. Do one a week or every month and make it a series.

7. Quick, Timely Tips
Keep these very, very simple. And show me, don’t just tell me. Example – if you’re a swimming pool or landscape maintenance service and you know there is a big freeze coming, remind people to wrap their outdoor pipes and SHOW them how to do it with a photo or video. Nothing high end or expensive, just a quick how to that might help them from needing to call you with a broken pipe. Help them save now and they’ll call you when a bigger issue comes up.

8. Choose One Thing
You may be doing a lot of great work with enormous impact for your clients or your community, but your readers don’t have time to take it all in at once, not on social media or in an email. Decide on one single, bite-sized piece of impact and share that. Just one at a time. Save the rest for another day and you will be able to see which types of story get more response. Truth be told, I got this idea from a great partner group in Dallas, CSW Corp. Their “One Idea Newsletter” is a huge hit – and it’s always short.

9. Offer A Choice
Set up a poll or just post a question with two options for an answer. You will pull in responses and get some good feedback as well as engagement. You’ll be surprised by how many people will take the time to respond when there is just one seemingly simple question. Example: I prefer to have 1. Dessert or 2. An Appetizer when I go out to eat. If you ask it on social media you’ll get more open ended answers – all responses are good engagement.

10. Give Away the Farm
Tell them what you know and why it matters. Well, not everything you know but refer to #8 and choose one. But don’t hold back. Tell them exactly how to make that famous coconut cake in your café or what paint brand and colors you used in that room makeover. Nothing you write in an email or on social media will eliminate the need for you and what you do. Tell them how to do it. Some will try. Most will call you. Or start, get to step 3 in your instructions and then call you. Set yourself up as the go-to in your field and they will call.

11. Showcase Your Team
With permission, share photos of your staff in the office, doing good deeds or working the tradeshow floor. Thank them, in public, for being who they are. Explain what they do for the company. Announce a change, an accomplishment or a birthday. You can do this all together as long as you don’t leave anyone out. Or, you can go one-by-one and get a lot more content out of the opportunity.

12. Pictures with Quotes Get Shared
This is just a fact. I cannot fully understand or explain this phenomenon but it is a fact. Photos with a famous or inspirational quote are some of the most shared content on the web. Especially if relevant to a holiday or big event. You may need to use an app like Pic Stitch or Word Swag on your phone to bring photo and text together into one image. It’s easy and it’s free. I know this seems really simple but if you put one out once a week among your other content, you’ll see what I mean. It will often get more shares and likes than other content. Pro tip: Make sure you add your Twitter handle or website address in text on the image as well so that as people share it, they are also sharing your information. You’re welcome.

13. Do A Simple Good Deed
This only works if you mean it. Don’t fake it – people will see through that. But wouldn’t it be nice to do a good deed? For a customer or for your own team – maybe even have a good deed of the week or month and just quietly share it. You don’t have to scream “look what I did!” but you can inspire others or challenge others to continue the good vibes. Example: Tell them you woke up in a generous mood and decided that any employees that came in early would get a surprise $5 Starbucks card just for being awesome. Share it and challenge other small businesses to do the same.

14. Highlight A Bad Review
You can link to all the good ones, don’t worry. But some of the best content can come from a bad review. It’s not your job to change it or try and reverse it. Embrace it and leverage it. Celebrate the menu item they hated. Proclaim that all feedback is a gift and tell your readers what you’re doing to make sure everyone has a great experience. The bad review and your acknowledgement of it will serve to validate all the great reviews you’re getting. And taking this tack with a good sense of humor without ignoring legitimate gripes will go a long way in diffusing the situation. I could write and entire article about this one idea.

15. Bust A Myth
Take a common misconception about your industry or profession and debunk it. Try to do it in a very short format. In fact, that applies to all of these ideas. Short and sweet.

16. Say It With Video
Whatever you want to say, add a video. Nothing high dollar is needed unless you are a video professional, and even then. Thanks to reality TV (the real and first culprit was MTV’s Real World) we are now willing as a society to watch poor quality video as long as we can understand what is being said and can generally see it on the screen. Unscripted is best. Or just make a PowerPoint and record your voice delivering it with software like Camtasia or Joomla. Videos get more play. Facebook will tell you how many people watched it. You can easily add video to an email blast too. Can’t hurt.

17. Play A Game
Post a trivia question, offer a reward for getting the answer right. This works with anyone. Take it as far as you like. Host a game of champions or shout out to participants. People like to play games. And they like to win.

18. Take A Moment To Really Be Yourself
Tell your audience who you really are, outside of the office. Do you play in a band? Have a killer vinyl collection? Speak more than one language? Share what makes you different/special/unique and just put it out there. You’ll be surprised by how many people will not just like but identify with you. Don’t over share. This is not the venue for your ugly divorce settlement or grandmother’s illness. Unless you are an attorney or a doctor. Then, maybe. OK, still no.

19. Remind Them Of Something They Already Know
Is there advice you give your clients and customers regularly but they forget or just ignore? Restate it once more. Especially if it’s something they know they should do – like their taxes or exercise or submitting a form on time. This is content. It feels like nagging but if you say it right it will nurture the relationship. Just like regular life.

20. Embrace Life Hacks
Not sure what I mean? A life hack is an extremely simple idea that makes something easier, more efficient or more fun. They usually involve items most people have around the house or office and by using it in a different way, you make some other activity easier or better.. Google “life hack” and you’ll find a lot of them. Once you get the concept, think of one for your own clients or share some you find when you do that Google search. Remember, it’s not your job to come up with all the content. Not all the time. Sometimes you can just serve as the hub of good content. That’s enough in most cases to keep the relationship going another day. Pro tip: add your product or industry to the Google search. So if you sell office supplies and have a surplus of rubber bands on hand, Google “rubber band life hacks” and then send out a link to the top 10 rubber-band life hacks you find with a discount to buy your rubber bands. Now you’re marketing.

21. Link to an Event you Will Attend
This can be an official work event like a conference or seminar but it can also be a great music concert or festival that lines up well with #18, pulling back the kimono and showing them who you really are. Encourage others to attend. Make sure the event host is able to see that you shared it if you can. (Example – on Twitter include the event hashtag or @handle with your tweet.) This is a public invitation to engage. Try it.

22. Carry The Flag for A Local Nonprofit
Choose an organization you care about, make a donation or sign up to volunteer and then share that out there with an invite for others to do the same. This is similar to the “Do a good deed” idea but this one is a little more official and involves an actual organization that you want to help. Have a canned food drive or celebrate back-to-school with a school supply drive. Send people to the org’s events or send your own team and post pictures. The more you carry the flag for others, the better you look (and feel). Again, this one only works if it’s genuine. Be real.

23. Share Your Music Playlist
Cliché? Maybe. Honestly, this one is just for fun but it ends up getting a lot of play in the work world too. If you use Spotify or Pandora or whatever, create a playlist of your favorite music to do taxes to, or to walk a dog or train for a 5k (that’s me right now) or for whatever you do for a living, make the list and then share access to it on social media and in an email. Music brings people together. You probably already have a playlist – send that one out. Nobody is going to judge you for secretly loving Olivia Newton John. They might point it out, but that’s the essence of true engagement. You’ll find out ONJ is on other people’s lists too. Have you never been mellow?

24. Ask For Recommendations
Taking a client out for dinner, need new flooring in your kitchen or looking for a resource for printer ink? Ask your friends and followers for their recommendations. Ask your clients. Maybe one of them is a great resource for you, right under your nose. Maybe two. Do you remember to ask what your clients do and what your customers have to offer? This is a fun way to give them a soap box and to build real relationships without having to write a lot of content.

25. Make A List With Helpful Advice or Ideas
Like this one. When ideas are in a list, people can absorb it faster and are more likely to read all the way to the end. Number it if it’s more than 7 items. Bullet lists are great too. If it’s long like this one, put the whole list on your website or in a blog and then just post one item from the list every few hours online. Or share a short blurb in an email and link to the rest. Lists are easy and get shared. Share this one on Facebook or Twitter and watch how many others share it.

Overall, my best advice for what to write is simple. Share your knowledge and be who you really are. Write in first person as much as possible. Avoid industry terms unless the only people reading your stuff are industry-related. Keep it short. Make it practical, actionable and easy to read on a cell phone. If you keep at it, your clients and followers will see you as a resource. That can only be good for business. #YouCanDoThis

Lady Gaga announced on Wednesday that she’ll star on the next season of “American Horror Story”: “American Horror Story: Hotel.” That’s all the official news we have at the moment, but since creator Ryan Murphy is known for sprinkling clues throughout “AHS,” it’s possible we already have an idea of what “Hotel” could be about.

Murphy already said the recurring top hat in “Freak Show” was an “arcane clue.” While we previously speculated that could connect to the popular Operation Top Hat theory, we’re not sure how the clue fits in with the hotel theme. (Maybe a bellhop-like hat?) But fortunately, Season 4 included another major hint that makes a lot of sense:

The Garden of Allah Hotel
In the penultimate episode of “Freak Show,” Elsa and her “freaks” attempt to kill Denis O’Hare’s Stanley for lying about his Hollywood connections. When he pleads for his life, he says, “I do know people in Los Angeles. My cousin works at the Garden of Allah.” Redditor Trailkeep picked up on this back in January with a post about its possible connection to Season 5.

As it turns out, the Garden of Allah was a famous hotel in Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Opening in 1927 and demolished in 1959, the hotel had celebrity residents and frequent guests that included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Errol Flynn, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Stuart and the Marx brothers, among others.

Another interesting “AHS” connection is to the 1936 Marlene Dietrich film “The Garden of Allah,” which was inspired by the Robert S. Hichens’ 1905 novel of the same name and gave the real-life hotel its moniker. In “Freak Show,” Jessica Lange’s Elsa, herself inspired by Dietrich, references the “Allah Hotel” in the first episode.

If the fifth season is set at this hotel that would also give Murphy ample opportunity to further connect the “AHS” universes. If set in Old Hollywood, he could make connections to the Season 1 Montgomery storyline which took place from 1922 to 1926 or even the Black Dahlia storyline in 1947.

We may also have an idea of who Gaga may play in “Hotel.” The blog Vixen Varsity claims to have received a casting call back in October seeking auditions for three characters for an upcoming “AHS” promo. One of them is named Carla, described as a “classy 20-35 year old” who is possessed by a ghost.

The only problem with all this speculation? Last month, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf told TVLine it was his “hope” that Season 5 would be set in the present day.

“American Horror Story” returns in October on FX.