#NNPA BlackPress
Bears 2023 Schedule: A New Rival Enters the Chat
For the first time in over 30 years, the Chicago Bears will not have to deal with a Green Bay Packers team led by a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback. Aaron Rodgers is a New York Jet, and Brett Favre is retired and still in hot water. For one lifelong Bears fan, Rodgers being gone is music […]
The post Bears 2023 Schedule: A New Rival Enters the Chat first appeared on BlackPressUSA.


For the first time in over 30 years, the Chicago Bears will not have to deal with a Green Bay Packers team led by a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback. Aaron Rodgers is a New York Jet, and Brett Favre is retired and still in hot water.
For one lifelong Bears fan, Rodgers being gone is music to his ears.
“The fact that Aaron Rodgers is out of the picture,” said Brandon Willis, “I think it’s now time to dominate the Packers first and foremost. It’s Justin Fields’ time to establish some dominance over that organization.”
Thanks to the NFL’s 2023 Schedule Release, we now know that Fields and the Bears will get their first crack at the Packers and starting quarterback Jordan Love to open the new NFL season on Sunday, September 10, at Soldier Field.
What’s odd is that the next time they’ll play Green Bay is Week 18, with the date to be determined. Yes, you read that right. It will be Bears-Packers to open the season and Bears-Packers to close it out.
Green Bay might be on a different quarterback by then.
The Bears are Must-See Primetime TV (Once Again)
The intrigue around Fields and the retooled squad have NFL schedule makers believing that the team will be ready for the national spotlight with four primetime games:
- Thursday Night Football at the Washington Commanders on October 5;
- Sunday Night Football at the Los Angeles Chargers on October 29;
- Thursday Night Football (again) hosting the Carolina Panthers on November 9
- and Monday Night Football at the Minnesota Vikings on November 27.
The Bears have 4 primetime games and 3 late-afternoon kicks.
Fun fact: This is the first Week 1 home game with a late-afternoon kick for the Bears since 1995!
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) May 12, 2023
New Division Rival?
The Bears will have no primetime games against the Detroit Lions. But when the teams clash on November 19 and December 10, those contests might decide who wins the NFC North.
These aren’t your granddad’s, dad’s or big brother’s Lions, perpetual NFC North bottomfeeders.
They won eight of their final ten games last year and have one of the most talented rosters in the division.
It’s why the Lions get to open the NFL season against the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, and it’s also why they have five primetime games.
The prevailing belief is that those boys will be for real, and the Bears will need to be ready. For Chicago to own the North, they have to declaw Detroit.
The last time the coronation of a British monarch took place, the Detroit Lions won the NFL championship.
Just saying.
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) May 6, 2023
As for the Vikings…
Ain’t nobody really worried about the Minnesota Vikings, said Willis.
At the End of The Day
Echoing the decree that Ryan Poles issued when he was introduced as the Bears GM, Willis said, “We’re going to take the north and not give it back.”
“By next year, we should be what the Packers were for the better part of 15 years — to be top 10 in the league moving forward.”
The Bears’ 2023 Season Schedule
What do you think will be their record?
Hot off the grill
pic.twitter.com/NRt0rxhPqR
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) May 12, 2023
Oh, and kudos to the social media team for its ode to “The Bear.” Well done — no pun intended.
The post Bears 2023 Schedule: A New Rival Enters the Chat appeared first on Chicago Defender.
The post Bears 2023 Schedule: A New Rival Enters the Chat first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
#NNPA BlackPress
Chavis and Bryant Lead Charge as Target Boycott Grows
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises.

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
Calling for continued economic action and community solidarity, Dr. Jamal H. Bryant launched the second phase of the national boycott against retail giant Target this week at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. Surrounded by civil rights leaders, economists, educators, and activists, Bryant declared the Black community’s power to hold corporations accountable for broken promises. “They said they were going to invest in Black communities. They said it — not us,” Bryant told the packed sanctuary. “Now they want to break those promises quietly. That ends tonight.” The town hall marked the conclusion of Bryant’s 40-day “Target fast,” initiated on March 3 after Target pulled back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) commitments. Among those was a public pledge to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025—a pledge Bryant said was made voluntarily in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.“No company would dare do to the Jewish or Asian communities what they’ve done to us,” Bryant said. “They think they can get away with it. But not this time.”
The evening featured voices from national movements, including civil rights icon and National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) President & CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., who reinforced the need for sustained consciousness and collective media engagement. The NNPA is the trade association of the 250 African American newspapers and media companies known as The Black Press of America. “On the front page of all of our papers this week will be the announcement that the boycott continues all over the United States,” said Chavis. “I would hope that everyone would subscribe to a Black newspaper, a Black-owned newspaper, subscribe to an economic development program — because the consciousness that we need has to be constantly fed.” Chavis warned against the bombardment of negativity and urged the community to stay engaged beyond single events. “You can come to an event and get that consciousness and then lose it tomorrow,” he said. “We’re bombarded with all of the disgust and hopelessness. But I believe that starting tonight, going forward, we should be more conscious about how we help one another.”
He added, “We can attain and gain a lot more ground even during this period if we turn to each other rather than turning on each other.” Other speakers included Tamika Mallory, Dr. David Johns, Dr. Rashad Richey, educator Dr. Karri Bryant, and U.S. Black Chambers President Ron Busby. Each speaker echoed Bryant’s demand that economic protests be paired with reinvestment in Black businesses and communities. “We are the moral consciousness of this country,” Bryant said. “When we move, the whole nation moves.” Sixteen-year-old William Moore Jr., the youngest attendee, captured the crowd with a challenge to reach younger generations through social media and direct engagement. “If we want to grow this movement, we have to push this narrative in a way that connects,” he said.
Dr. Johns stressed reclaiming cultural identity and resisting systems designed to keep communities uninformed and divided. “We don’t need validation from corporations. We need to teach our children who they are and support each other with love,” he said. Busby directed attendees to platforms like ByBlack.us, a digital directory of over 150,000 Black-owned businesses, encouraging them to shift their dollars from corporations like Target to Black enterprises. Bryant closed by urging the audience to register at targetfast.org, which will soon be renamed to reflect the expanding boycott movement. “They played on our sympathies in 2020. But now we know better,” Bryant said. “And now, we move.”
#NNPA BlackPress
The Department of Education is Collecting Delinquent Student Loan Debt
BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt.

By April Ryan
Trump Targets Wages for Forgiven Student Debt
The Department of Education, which the Trump administration is working to abolish, will now serve as the collection agency for delinquent student loan debt for 5.3 million people who the administration says are delinquent and owe at least a year’s worth of student loan payments. “It is a liability to taxpayers,” says White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at Tuesday’s White House Press briefing. She also emphasized the student loan federal government portfolio is “worth nearly $1.6 trillion.” The Trump administration says borrowers must repay their loans, and those in “default will face involuntary collections.” Next month, the Department of Education will withhold money from tax refunds and Social Security benefits, garnish federal employee wages, and withhold federal pensions from people who have defaulted on their student loan debt. Leavitt says “we can not “kick the can down the road” any longer.”
Much of this delinquent debt is said to have resulted from the grace period the Biden administration gave for student loan repayment. The grace period initially was set for 12 months but extended into three years, ending September 30, 2024. The Trump administration will begin collecting the delinquent payments starting May 5. Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Talladega College, told Black Press USA, “We can have that conversation about people paying their loans as long as we talk about the broader income inequality. Put everything on the table, put it on the table, and we can have a conversation.” Kimbrough asserts, “The big picture is that Black people have a fraction of wealth of white so you’re… already starting with a gap and then when you look at higher education, for example, no one talks about Black G.I.’s that didn’t get the G.I. Bill. A lot of people go to school and build wealth for their family…Black people have a fraction of wealth, so you already start with a wide gap.”
According to the Education Data Initiative, https://educationdata.org/average-time-to-repay-student-loans It takes the average borrower 20 years to pay their student loan debt. It also highlights how some professional graduates take over 45 years to repay student loans. A high-profile example of the timeline of student loan repayment is the former president and former First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who paid off their student loans by 2005 while in their 40s. On a related note, then-president Joe Biden spent much time haggling with progressives and Democratic leaders like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer on Capitol Hill about whether and how student loan forgiveness would even happen.
#NNPA BlackPress
VIDEO: The Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. at United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent
https://youtu.be/Uy_BMKVtRVQ Excellencies: With all protocol noted and respected, I am speaking today on behalf of the Black Press of America and on behalf of the Press of People of African Descent throughout the world. I thank the Proctor Conference that helped to ensure our presence here at the Fourth Session of the […]

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