According to Ron Lesko, spokesman for the Albany City School District, Meaders unexpectedly joined some dancing onstage students and was left alone – at first – even though she was not part of the performance celebrating Black History Month. Lesko says when she suddenly removed her clothing from the waist up, school employees moved her away from the front of the stage so to keep her out of view of people in the room. He says a “crisis team” was called to help some students who were in tears after witnessing something Lesko calls “disturbing.” Meaders, 24, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and public lewdness. She was still being held at the Albany County jail Friday night. Friends told CBS6 News her sons were with their grandmother. ilp cbs6
Today in Chicago, Illinois, President Barack Obama will travel to Hyde Park Academy to discuss proposals unveiled in his State of the Union address (SOTU)…
The Transportation Security Administration don’t play that Kim Kardashian And Kanye West Involved In TSA Security Investigation According to TMZ reports : Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are at the center of a TSA investigation following a major security violation at JFK yesterday … but the TSA tells TMZ Kimye is NOT to blame. We’ve learned … K&K had taken a flight from Brazil to JFK on Tuesday, where the plan was to catch a connecting flight to Los Angeles. But once they landed in NY, the couple met up with an airline greeter … who, according to the TSA, allowed them to bypass a key security checkpoint to get them to their next flight as quickly as possible. After Kim and Kanye took their seats on the L.A.-bound plane … a TSA agent yanked them off the flight … and made K&K go through another layer of security. We’re told the plane was delayed for roughly an hour while the couple was screened by TSA agents. TSA claims that KimYe was not at fault for the security breach. “An airline employee escorted the two travelers through a non-public area in order to provide expedited access to their domestic flight.” “In doing so, the airline employee violated security protocols by permitting the travelers to by-pass the TSA security checkpoint. TSA officials learned of the violation and conducted a private screening of the two passengers in the area of the jetway.” “The passengers were cleared to board their flight, which departed after a delay of approximately 50 minutes. TSA is actively investigating the incident.” The couple ultimately touched down in L.A. … where they were greeted by a gaggle of paparazzi … but seemed incredibly calm considering all they had been through. This airline employee is going to lose his job and possibly catch a charge behind being a KimYe stan. The least Kim and Kanye could do is try to get homie a gig for his effort. Image via Splash
Gay White Student Examines Similarities Between Struggles With Racism And Homophobia A gay white male student recently shared his thoughts on the similarities between being a black person dealing with racism and being a gay white person dealing with homophobia. via Huffington Post Mainstream gay culture privileges the white narrative, and it does so at the expense of its own legitimacy. As Baldwin understands and so eloquently states, the fight against homophobia and racism are undoubtedly entwined through their shared struggle for human dignity. However, conflating the two does discernible harm, both to those persons of color who are repeatedly forgotten in progressive social movements, and to white LGBTQ persons who tarnish their own humanity by forgetting the humanity of others. In one of the most interesting excerpts from the piece, the student examines Baldwin’s point that white gay citizens often feel slighted because society teaches them that they are entitled to ‘white privelege’ and therefore supposed to be protected from bias and hatred. Baldwin explains that white LGBTQ men and women feel slighted precisely because they know that had they been straight, they would have been heirs to incomparable privilege. In a 1984 interview with Richard Goldstein, then the editor of the Village Voice, Baldwin said, “I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly.” He went on to say: Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to their sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There’s an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint. Now that may sound very harsh, but the gay world as such is no more prepared to accept black people than anywhere else in society. He concludes the write up with the thought that although strides are being made with gay rights, they will never be the same as the struggles with racism. As we celebrate Black History Month this February, and as we await the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality, we must remember that the struggle to restore dignity to people is not finished. The work to ensure that all people have access to fair and equitable employment, health care and proper medical attention and aren’t targets for violence by the police or their fellow community members must continue even after gays and lesbians are granted the right to marry the persons they love. This is not a new civil rights movement as some have said but a different one. Baldwin’s legacy teaches me, as a white person and an LGBTQ activist, that gay will never be the new black, and that the fight for racial equality is far from over.
