T he voter suppression outcries heard during Stacey Abram ’s historic run to become the nation’s first Black woman governor all but disappeared in Georgia’s runoff election—now that Brian Kemp is no longer in charge of the state’s voting process. Last month, Georgia Secretary of State Kemp oversaw his own race for governor, which was close but ended in defeat for Abrams. There was damning evidence that pointed to Kemp using a variety of voter suppression tactics to target Black voters. Kemp resigned under pressure on Nov. 8–after he had declared victory over Abrams. SEE ALSO: Georgia Isn’t Even Trying To Hide Its Racist Voter Suppression Efforts With This Video Georgia elected Republican state Rep. Brad Raffensperger as its new secretary of state in Tuesday’s runoff contest against Democrat John Barrow , a former congressman. The Trump-backed candidate won 52 percent to 48 percent . “There was a significant drop in enthusiasm after the general election. That was true on both sides, but it was greater for Democrats,” state Rep. Scott Holcomb told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . BREAKING: Republican Brad Raffensperger elected Georgia's new elections chief amid debate over access to the polls and election security. https://t.co/C6tCHzaZuD — The Associated Press (@AP) December 5, 2018 Kemp found himself in the middle of a firestorm before Election Day after the Associated Press reported his office had placed more than 53,000 voter registration applications on hold—about 70 percent of them from African-Americans. He also faced multiple lawsuits, including one from a group of voting rights organizations accusing him of using a racially-biased method to purge the names of about 700,000 voters from the rolls. Additionally, voters in predominantly African-American urban districts encountered lots of problems at the polls on Election Day—from faulty electronic machines that switched votes from Abrams to Kemp to excessively long lines because of missing power cords for voting machines. With Tuesday’s election results, Georgia Republicans retained control of all statewide offices. SEE ALSO: Meet Tammy Kemp, The Black Judge Assigned To Amber Guyger Murder Trial For Killing Botham Jean After Bracing For Lawsuit, Hoover Officials Finally ‘Publicly Extend Sympathy’ To EJ Bradford’s Family [ione_media_gallery src=”https://newsone.com” id=”3839191″ overlay=”true”]
T he voter suppression outcries heard during Stacey Abram ’s historic run to become the nation’s first Black woman governor all but disappeared in Georgia’s runoff election—now that Brian Kemp is no longer in charge of the state’s voting process. Last month, Georgia Secretary of State Kemp oversaw his own race for governor, which was close but ended in defeat for Abrams. There was damning evidence that pointed to Kemp using a variety of voter suppression tactics to target Black voters. Kemp resigned under pressure on Nov. 8–after he had declared victory over Abrams. SEE ALSO: Georgia Isn’t Even Trying To Hide Its Racist Voter Suppression Efforts With This Video Georgia elected Republican state Rep. Brad Raffensperger as its new secretary of state in Tuesday’s runoff contest against Democrat John Barrow , a former congressman. The Trump-backed candidate won 52 percent to 48 percent . “There was a significant drop in enthusiasm after the general election. That was true on both sides, but it was greater for Democrats,” state Rep. Scott Holcomb told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . BREAKING: Republican Brad Raffensperger elected Georgia's new elections chief amid debate over access to the polls and election security. https://t.co/C6tCHzaZuD — The Associated Press (@AP) December 5, 2018 Kemp found himself in the middle of a firestorm before Election Day after the Associated Press reported his office had placed more than 53,000 voter registration applications on hold—about 70 percent of them from African-Americans. He also faced multiple lawsuits, including one from a group of voting rights organizations accusing him of using a racially-biased method to purge the names of about 700,000 voters from the rolls. Additionally, voters in predominantly African-American urban districts encountered lots of problems at the polls on Election Day—from faulty electronic machines that switched votes from Abrams to Kemp to excessively long lines because of missing power cords for voting machines. With Tuesday’s election results, Georgia Republicans retained control of all statewide offices. SEE ALSO: Meet Tammy Kemp, The Black Judge Assigned To Amber Guyger Murder Trial For Killing Botham Jean After Bracing For Lawsuit, Hoover Officials Finally ‘Publicly Extend Sympathy’ To EJ Bradford’s Family [ione_media_gallery src=”https://newsone.com” id=”3839191″ overlay=”true”]
Source: BEVERLY HILLS, CA – NOVEMBER 22: Rapper Jayceon Terrell Taylor, a.k.a. The Game, attends Associates for Breast and Prostate Cancer Studios 25th Annual Talk of The Town Black Tie Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 22, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) Meek Mill is currently on his goodwill tour promoting his new album, Championships, and one particular rapper is feeling the spirit. The Game took to Twitter big up the Philly MC’s new album and officially squash their beef. Reports TMZ : We got Game Sunday night leaving L.A. hotspot The Argyle, where he was celebrating his 39th birthday, and asked him about Meek tweeting he’d be down to collab with Game again. If you don’t remember … Game and Meek had major beef dating back to 2016. It eventually died down — especially once Meek got locked up — but it was never squashed. Well, the rappers are on the same page now … ’cause Game had nothing but glowing reviews for Meek’s new album, “Championships.” Not too long after, the Game took to Instagram to big up Meek Mill and let everyone know they were bosom buddies. How long til Nicki Minaj and Cardi B follow suit? — Photo: Getty
On the 14th floor of HBO’s office I am instantly greeted by Sandra Bland’s face when I walk into the conference room. Source: Sandra Bland’s sisters Shante Needham (L), Sharon Cooper (R) / Charise Frazier I see two women, Sharon Cooper and Shante Needham, who if given a brief glance, would pass for their deceased sister. They are warm and very welcoming. The spirit of Sandra Bland is definitely in the room. On any other occasion, it might’ve felt like we were gathered to talk about something less heavy. As we greet one another and prepare to dive into the discussion, the imagery of Sandra’s face embedded onto Needham’s shirt won’t let me forget. We are here to talk about HBO’s latest documentary, Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, which documents the events leading up to the death of their beloved sister, who was found hanged in a Texas jail (Waller County) three days after being pulled over by former officer, Brian Encinia. The completed project shows never before seen footage and details what transpired from Sandra’s arrest on July 10, 2015, to her death on July 13, 2015. The film also touches on Sandra’s impact and how her death became a literal representation of the undocumented state-sanctioned violence that many Black women in America face, birthing the rallying call, #SayHerName. “I think what we have managed to do is fully document what families go through in the aftermath of this,” Cooper said. “It really all comes down to I think historically, people who don’t have the proper or appropriate intel or access, have been telling our stories, and they tell our stories to the exclusion of us.” For the past three years Sandra Bland’s family undertook an unthinkable task. They have repeatedly witnessed the events leading up to their loved one’s death in watching dash cam footage of her arrest. They’ve read and negated online commentary written by people who never knew Sandra. They’ve sat through a long legal battle advocating for some form of justice. And all the while, they’ve had to process the stages of grief. “As you can only imagine, this was very, very, very raw. And to have to relieve it over and over and over again, it put a lot of emotional stress on a person,” Needham said. Just two weeks after Sandra’s death, HBO contacted Sandra’s family to begin documenting. HBO enlisted award-winning filmmakers, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, to tell the story, who followed the events as they unfolded on social media and in the news. In total, from start to completion, the film took about two and a half years. For the filmmakers who’s life work is based in civil rights and activism, Sandra’s case enlisted a series of challenges and mystique which made her specific story unique. “We were also drawn to the story because it was one more situation where a person of color died at the hands of cops–at the hands of police, whether literally or not. She was in custody in this case, all too often it was happening on the streets,” Davis said. “Editing this film was doing a really complicated braiding. It’s a mystery. It’s a death in custody. It’s also a portrait of a woman as she becomes woke and empowered. It’s also a political parable of race in America,” said Heilbronner. As white filmmakers, Davis and Heilbronner are in complete alignment with what it means to tell a Black woman’s story, putting their own biases and privilege into examination during and after filming as they forged a tight bond with Sandra’s family during the process. “I’m just gonna note the elephant in the room. No Kate and Dave don’t look like the broader part of this community that’s being impacted, but they’re truth tellers,” said Cooper. “They just seemed so genuine, they cared,” Needham said. As filmmakers, Helbronner and Davis did their best to use all of the voices involved in the case, conducting on camera interviews with Sandra’s family and Waller County authorities. According to Davis, Brian Encinia was the only person who declined to participate in the film. Remarkably, Sandra’s voice narrates the documentary using snippets from her video blog, “Sandy Speaks.” “Sandy utilized a very free platform to speak her truth and to express herself, and so it was this digital memorialization of her that I don’t even think she realized that she was making at the time,” said Cooper. “And to be able to leverage that throughout the film and have her appear as the voice narrating her own documentary, that’s powerful and I don’t think that we take a step back and are just in awe of that and how powerful that is and how social media, because it does give us the power to connect and build community, we connected and built so much community through the duration of that case,” Cooper said. Social media and the news media played a large role in Sandra’s case, setting a tone for public perception in regards to the narrative. It presented rewarding but oftentimes difficult challanges for all involved; the family, filmmakers and the family’s legal counsel, Cannon Lambert. Lambert helped the family secure a $1.9 million in a civil settlement and also assisting the family in navigating a difficult and painful legal terrain. Encinia was fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety in March 2016 after a grand jury indicted Encina over falsifying Sandra’s arrest report. The Sandra Bland Act was signed into law in June 2017 offering an investment in de-escalation tactics for officers and awareness surrounding mental health. But a few days after the Sandra Bland Act was signed, the perjury charge was dropped against Encinia. Sandra’s case begs the question surrounding the definition of justice. “Justice is evasive,” said Lambert. “I don’t think you ever go into it believing that you as a lawyer have the ability to bring about justice. What you have the ability to do though is to shepard families through a very difficult terrain so that they can come away feeling like they were heard,” he said. Forgiveness is also an idea which Sandra’s family does not feel committed to take up. Needham and Cooper both expressed that the first step to forgiveness is an apology, which they believe has not been issued on behalf of Waller County authorities. But through their pain, the family has found time to heal using therapy, journaling and by supporting other families who have experienced the same difficulties. “We will never be the same. Holidays, birthdays, marriages, kids, grandkids. She’s gonna miss all of that. And why?” Needham said. “Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland” premieres Monday, December 3 at 10 p.m. (EST) on HBO.
A fter her election defeat, the only Black Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives Mia Love lashed out at the President Trump -dominated GOP for its hostility toward minorities and women. SEE ALSO: Black Republican Mia Love Loses After Playing The Race Card “So why do they stay with Democrats? I think it’s because they feel like they have a home — or Democrats make them feel like they have a home. I’ve said this to my colleagues, we need to do a better job than just talking about how great our policies are, we need to actually let people know that we care. They need to like Republicans,” the Utah representative told the Washington Examiner recently. Love was defeated in her bid for a third term in Congress by Democrat Ben McAdams in a close race. It’s unclear what the political future holds for Love, who made history as the first and only Black Republican woman in Congress. Many in the GOP hoped that her political success would help to bring racial diversity to the party. Black Republican Mia Love played the race card in a desperate move to retain her congressional seat. But it didn't work so well for her… https://t.co/uR52AoWRzK #RepresentTheVote pic.twitter.com/iJRN2ibqJ1 — NewsOne (@newsone) November 21, 2018 Republicans remained silent while Trump defended white supremacist violence in Charlottesville and labeled Haiti and nations in Africa “ shithole countries, ” in his long racist history that he brought to the White House. Love, the 42-year-old daughter of Haitian immigrants, said she was offended by Trump’s racist rhetoric. Yet, like many of her Republican colleagues, Love went along with Trump’s agenda. Trump publicly showed his contempt for Love on the day after the midterms . “Mia Love gave me no love and she lost,” Trump said mocking the congresswoman, naming her among incumbent House members who didn’t shower him with praise and were defeated. “Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.” She said it will be challenging for the GOP to achieve racial and gender diversity while Trump is still in office. The Democrats, on the other hand, gained 40 House seats in the midterm election, fueled in part by African-American women candidates. SEE ALSO: Cops Spark Outrage With ‘Racist’ Christmas Tree Decorations In Precinct With Poor Community Relations Meet Tammy Kemp, The Black Judge Assigned To Amber Guyger Murder Trial For Killing Botham Jean [ione_media_gallery src=”https://newsone.com” id=”3838917″ overlay=”true”]
Source: Mike Coppola / Getty Kodak Black Ended The Night In Handcuffs On Friday Kodak Black ended up being detained outside of a Hollywood nightclub on Friday night and a fan captured some footage of the rapper in handcuffs from across the street. Luckily for the rapper–who is still on probation, and already went to jail for a probation violation earlier this year–no arrests were made. “Got my man Kodak and them shook down over there, bro. It went down in the club now they got Kodak chained up, baby,” the fan said in his video. “He can’t be f**king up with the law. They got into a brawl in the club and [the police] shook them down.” According to reports from the people over at TMZ , the Florida rapper was cuffed after police responded to a fight at the Playhouse nightclub. The site’s sources claim that a small scuffle happened a little after midnight and police were able to quickly defuse the situation. Kodak was only handcuffed in the process of the police figuring out how the fight happened, and they made sure to add that Black was let go fairly quickly with no one pressing any charges. Before being let off in this incident, the rapper was on a hot streak music-wise and even better, he’s actually been seen in a bunch of positive headlines throughout the news recently. This includes the heart-warming news that he planned to open a school in his parent’s home of Haiti and his $10K donation to a children’s center in his home state of Florida.
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Jay-Z Wins Court Battle Over Lack Of Black Arbitrators In Legal System Jay-Z is currently riding a wave of public adulation after the release of Meek Mill’s new album Championships on which the soon-to-be 49-year-old (his birth is in three days on December 4) spit some of his most poignant lyrics ever in a prolific list of on-the-nose verses over the years. One with a penchant for puns might call Jay’s verse — a victory. We say that to say, that the win that Shawn Corey Carter got in rap is nothing compared to the “historic” win that he got in court this week. According to Rolling Stone , on Wednesday Jay-Z won a battle in court that is seemingly unheard of. He argued that a lack of African-American arbitrators left him potentially exposed to unconscious racial bias. Jay is being sued by Iconix, the company that he sold is clothing brand Rocawear to back in 2007 and in that agreement, there must have been a clause about future clothing brands. Iconix argues that Roc Nations paper plane hats violate those terms. Jay countersued Iconix arguing that clause applied to Rocawear, not Roc Nation. Arbitration ensues. All parties involved are to eliminate names from a list of 12 in order to choose one. Problem is, when looking at the list Jay couldn’t readily identify a single African-American name. When he brought his concern to the American Arbitration Association who chose the original list of 12, they went through a list of 200 eligible arbitrators and guess how many African-Americans they found… Three, and one of those three had a conflict of interest and was thus rendered ineligible. Here’s what Jay’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, argued to the court: “…deprives litigants of color of a meaningful opportunity to have their claims heard by a panel of arbitrators reflecting their backgrounds and life experience,” putting Jay-Z at risk of unconscious bias by white arbitrators toward black defendants. If unresolved, the issue would “deprive black litigants like Mr. Carter and his companies of the equal protection of the laws,” he said.” Apparently, this is a thing that doesn’t happen very often where the legal system is forced to look at the disparities in the process it claims to uphold. We love this song.
T he U.S. Senate’s only Black Republican, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, finally woke up to the fact that supporting President Trump ’s racist judicial nominee is a bad idea. See Also: Senate’s Only Black Republican Tim Scott Sells Out In Vote On Trump’s Racist Judge Nominee Scott said Thursday he planned to oppose the nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal district court in North Carolina, The State newspaper reported. On Wednesday, the senator reportedly hid in the Senate cloakroom for at least 45 minutes before coming forward to give his approval of Farr in a procedural vote—in fact, the deciding vote—that allowed the nomination to move forward. Scott’s new vow to oppose the nomination in the final confirmation vote, which was expected happen by Friday, assures that Farr will not be confirmed. Farr has a long, well-known record as an architect of North Carolina’s efforts to suppress the Black vote. VICTORY! Thomas Farr nomination collapses as Senator Tim Scott announces his opposition. This outcome is one secured by The People — speaking up, resisting and remaining steadfast in our opposition. https://t.co/kcFzmYBQIf — Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) November 29, 2018 “I am ready and willing to support strong candidates for our judicial vacancies that do not have lingering concerns about issues that could affect their decision-making process as a federal judge. This week, a Department of Justice memo written under President George H.W. Bush was released that shed new light on Mr. Farr’s activities. This, in turn, created more concerns. Weighing these important factors, this afternoon I concluded that I could not support Mr. Farr’s nomination,” Scott explained in a statement. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus had urged him to vote against Farr for the final confirmation, McClatchy News reported. There are good reasons for concern about Farr becoming a federal judge. He helped North Carolina create the state’s election law that was so blatantly racist that the Fourth Circuit struck it down . The court saw clearly that new rules in the law targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision.” Farr was also part of the team that signed a consent decree with the Justice Department in 1992 to settle a DOJ complaint that former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms ’ 1990 re-election campaign intimidated Black voters. Helms ran against Harvey Gantt, the Black former mayor of Charlotte. Helms’ campaign sent postcards to 125,000 mostly Black eligible voters suggesting that they were ineligible to cast a ballot. It also warned that they could be prosecuted for voter fraud. SEE ALSO: Diamond And Silk’s Minstrel Show Will Now Be On Fox News — For A Fee Man Accusing ‘Ex Boyfriend NBA Player Dwight Howard’ Has A History Of Slander [ione_media_gallery src=”https://newsone.com” id=”3838595″ overlay=”true”]
We’ve partnered up with DAVINCI VAPORIZERS ….. they are premium dry herb vaporizers …who in this world of vaping, are one of the best companies out there according to me, which may or may not have any validity or truth, but they look cool….and so do the people using them….. Vapes, that shit is just like candy, so any hooker I recruit for sex, I encourage to be a chronic vape smoker….so discreet….even though weed is legal in Canada…and who the fuck wants their hookers to be rolling joints before rolling my balls in their mouth…. That’s my relationship with vapes, this shit is discreet, no one will smell you coming through….but you may have your own, maybe you use your vapes to get high, maybe you like standing on the street corner like that asshole telemarketer who wouldn’t get out of my damn way, for an afternoon vape…using what looked like a fucking brick as a vape…while he should be fucking with the people at DAVINCI VAPORIZERS BLACK FRIDAY DEALS …their vapes have style… I don’t have the answer..but I have vape deals for you MEDICINAL MARIJUANA users…. They have a small one called the MIQRO, and another one and a bunch of deals so get you INSANE VAPORIZER DEALS AT DAVINCI CLICK HERE IT IS BLACK FRIDAY FUCKERS….why wait in line, wrestle or get shot at the retail level…order from your fucking HOME…. So whether you vape or not, you can get someone you like a vaporizer….it’s Christmas and they are less harmful that actual cigarettes…while being a fun way to get high…the people have decided…. Get All Kinds of DEALS DEALS DEALS! CLICK HERE There are cyber Monday deals….that are opening up soon. I know you’re excited about it…I believe you are excited about it….be excited about it…. CLICK HERE . The post Davinci’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals Brings Girls Vaping of the Day appeared first on DrunkenStepFather.com .
*having a potluck at work* Manager: you should bring that sweet potato pie you made last time. Me: No problem pic.twitter.com/3LU6uhNVwG — Lo (@laurynjaneee_) November 21, 2018 Hilarious Tweets/Memes From Thanksgiving 2018 Big mama, we made it through another magical Thanksgiving day bursting with deliciously hilarious Black Twitter shenanigans that shattered the internet YET AGAIN and set the table for very very merry (and petty) LITmas. Me: “Aye, where’s that plate that was on the counter?” Cousin: “Oh somebody took that cuz.” Me: #ThanksgivingWithBlackFamilies pic.twitter.com/zYWm8axTmZ — LD (@penspiffy) November 22, 2018 Peep all the best (and funniest) tweets from Thanksgiving 2018 on the flip.
