Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has withstood a monumentally difficult task with fortitude this week. Thoroughly qualified for the role of Supreme Court Justice, she has had both her intellect and integrity challenged on a national stage by sitting US Senators whose competence and incorruption are on record as questionable at best. We are proud to support Judge Brown Jackson as senate confirmation hearings proceed, expectant that she will be confirmed.

In other news this week, Essence celebrated Black Women in Hollywood for the 15th year, we connected with E’lla Aimee Webber—a tremendous oil painter based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wendy Williams logged into Instagram and informed the public she’s waged in a unfair fight for control of her money, a gospel great passed on, and a Detroit man has credits the initial success of his business to the marketing genius of his mom.

TGIF,

-The Team at BLAC

Best of the Rest is a roundup of things you may not have known that you needed to know. Yet here we are. To get the Best of the Rest in your inbox every Friday. Subscribe to BLAC Friday’s. Your inbox will thank you. 

THE BEST OF REST for March 25, 2022

Beaming with pride for Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson

Black women are bubbled over with pride at the mastery and grace with which Kentanji Brown Jackson has endured confirmation hearings before her appointment to the US Supreme Court. Speaking to TheGrio, Bishop Vashti McKenzie—a history maker in her own right—said, “Judge Brown showed us that she is a legal iron fist in a velvet glove. Her intellect is cloaked in her faith and her humanity. This has served her well at every level, from being a public defender to a judge on the Federal Court of Appeals. She will serve America well as a Supreme Court judge.” We heartily agree. (TheGrio)

15th anniversary of the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards

“When we first started it was definitely about the sisterhood,” Essence deputy editor Cori Murray told Andscape of the first event held in 2008. Every year, the publication has managed to elevate the event which was held again, for the fifteenth time, last night in Los Angeles. The event honors longtime stars, those having breakout years, and women finding success behind the scenes. (Essence, Andscape)

Detroit man opens successful car detailing business after his mother helps him go viral on TikTok

Since April 2020, Daviant “Dae” Palmer, 27, has runs Dae’s Detail, a car detailing business on Detroit’s near east side. He told the Detroit Free Pressthat he cleans with the goal to have every client marvel after final inspection and say, “it looks better than when I bought it.” While he leads the cleaning technique, much of his initial business success is credited to his mother, Typhany Jones, 45, a marketing professional who began posting videos of his work online. Viewers responded to his ability to remove slinkys from car ceilings and dried sauce from the car seats. In just a few weeks, Palmer had to decide when to leave his day job and start looking for a building to purchase for his exploding car detailing business. Two years later, business is still booming and he’s even secured a sponsorship deal with Palmer also gained a sponsorship with Turtle  Wax, a car care company based in Illinois. (Detroit Free Press)

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LaShun Pace dies at age 60

Gospel great, LaShun Pace, died earlier this week of organ failure. She was 60 years old. Best known as a solo gospel star, the soprano was also a recurring member of The Anointed Pace Sisters, a legendary Atlanta-based gospel group comprised of she and her 8 sisters. Perhaps best known for the song, I Know I’ve Been Changed, which was featured on her debut solo album titled He Lives, Pace recently gained a new audience and popularity on TikTok with her hit Act Like You Know. (Black Enterprise)

Wendy Williams demands access to her bank accounts

Wendy Williams is still walking through the valley. Her talk show was recently canceled amid her health struggles, and earlier this week, she took to Instagram to publicly state that her former financial adviser Lori Schiller and former manager Bernie Young have colluded to petition the New York state court to place her under conservatorship, stripping her of access to and control of her money. In the video, Williams said, “My thing is that I’ve been asking questions about my money and suddenly Lori Schiller has got no response regarding my money..This is not fair, and Lori Schiller and Wells Fargo have this guardianship petition about keeping me away from my money. This is not right!” We’re certainly wishing the media mogul the best in this new fight. (The Root)

How important are social guardrails to personal mental health?

“It’s okay to not be okay” has its limits, according to Bassey Ikpi, author of “I’m Telling the Truth but I’m Lying,” a memoir about her bipolar disorder. In a conversation with Damon Young for his Washington Post column, Ikpi told the culture writer: “There is a respectability politic with mental health. You’re only allowed to have a mental illness in public if it makes you sad or makes people feel bad for you. You’re only allowed to have a mental illness in public if people already like you.”

But what happens when you’re billionaire megastar Kanye West, and your mental illness is bipolar disorder, untreated and “ugly,” and you’re so wealthy that no one is going to hold you accountable? When you’re so rich that the world is happy to live-tweet episodes of your untreated mental illness as it spins you closer and closer to self-destruction? Young, who has written often about having a more acceptable condition – social anxiety disorder – poses the question wearily. Having to work for a living, or supporting a family, he argues, can act as guardrails keeping one accountable to their health and well-being. But what’s the hope for someone like Kanye West, who has little chance of losing all of his resources and no apparent concern with losing family or friends? The prospect of that seems to trigger Young, too. “I think I have a handle on what’s happening in my brain,” he writes near the end of his column. “But what if I don’t?” (The Washington Post)

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