This week I was in New York for L’ATTITUDE meetings with CNBC and American Express. I also had the chance to meet up with Claudia Romo Edelman, a career diplomat with the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. Claudia is a force of nature and recently launched an organization and campaign called “We Are All Human” with a focus on advancing the Hispanic brand. She has a lot of stuff going on, but one of the more interesting ideas she has is to create a logo for U.S. Hispanics that she calls the Hispanic Star. It’s a bold idea inspired by the rainbow flag that became such a powerful image for the LGBQT community. I find the idea intriguing. A few months ago, I wrote about how the term Latinx was starting to grow on me, primarily because the way it has seemed to galvanize young people. Perhaps the same can happen with Claudia’s logo. Symbols can be powerful, but they are not easy to gain adoption so she certainly has an uphill battle. It will be interesting to see how this develops. The We Are All Human campaign officially kicks off in April, in Chicago and hosts annual events in Paris and Switzerland at the United Nations.
The usual solutions will not solve the current housing affordability crisis. Any solution that does not begin and end with a sustainable plan to radically increase housing supply is just noise. The barriers to increasing housing supply are complex and require the crucial cooperation of both public and private sectors, and more education.
“Boomerang” was a different kind of film. It was a movie about friendship, loyalty, and romance set in NYC at a medium-sized Black-led company that sold beauty products. Boomerang had an all-black cast and a plot that had nothing to do with being Black. While that was unheard of at the time, Murphy was such a big star that it didn’t seem like a big deal.
Terms like “great, genius,” and “world-class” are overused, perhaps because they mean something different to everyone. Greatness is subjective. Some might say you must be great just to be employed in the film business or to play professional sports, but I don’t think Will Smith or LeBron James think that way. The concept of being great also requires context. You could be a great high school athlete but only an average college player.