(Photo by Mike Coppola/VF17/Getty Images for VF) Last week perpetual white guy, raging anti-semite and not-so-closeted racist Bill Maher casually referred to himself as a “house ni**a” on his “Real Time” show and was summarily raked through the coals for it. And of course, “raked through the coals” is a relative term because white men rarely face any real consequences for insulting other groups of people. So really, he was just slapped on the wrist by people on Twitter and met with a sternly worded letter by HBO. Other than that, he’s just fine. Maher tried to rectify the situation by inviting 75 percent of the black people he knows that he didn’t meet through Karrine Steffans onto his show. The results only made things worse. First Maher spoke to bestie Michael Eric Dyson about his upbringing by using the tried and true racist white guy trope: race wasn’t an issue where I grew up. Let’s get this straight. If you grew up in America, whether it’s Tupelo, Mississippi, Los Angeles, California or Newark, New Jersey, race was absolutely an issue where you grew up and it damn sure came up in conversation. If you feel differently, that’s because you’re privileged (see: white) enough to not have had to deal with it. Later in the show, Symone Sanders and Ice Cube came on the show to further check Maher on his use of the word. Of course, as usual, Cube and Sanders are on point. Oh yeah, Ice Cube gave @billmaher the talk he needed to hear pic.twitter.com/i7jYbCtm5P — Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) June 10, 2017 However they both leaned on a phrase that bothered me: this is a teachable moment. The phrase has been used ad nauseam as of late when white people say or do something blatantly racist, homophobic or antisemitic. “Teachable moment” implies that the culprit of said insensitivity did so unintentionally and they need to be educated about their wrongdoings. And it’s generally the subjugated people who have to do the educating. F*** that noise. Bill Maher is beyond teachable moments. He’s been espousing the idea that white people should be able to use the N-word since at least 2001 when he not only repeated the word a dozen times, he silenced Anne-Marie Johnson , a black woman, who tried to offer him a “teachable moment” and even questioned her blackness. That was Maher’s chance to be taught. And he ignored it, instead he lived with a mentality that he should be able to say the N-word and never relented, finally convincing himself he could say it again on TV in 2017, as well as perpetuating hateful comments about Islam and blackness. That’s why Bill Maher doesn’t get any teachable moments. He had his chance. He ignored it. F*** him. In a general sense, it’s time to bury the idea of teachable moments for good. Take the N-word for example. Anyone in the age of Google, Twitter and working WIFI should know by now why black people can use the word and white people can’t. It takes two seconds to find out the answer. That’s why it’s absurd for someone to feel informed enough to spout ignorance without taking time to get educated. I can do a quick Google and find a serviceable amount of information on a topic to speak on it without reciting hate speech or mimicking violent language. Therefore I don’t need any damn teachable moments. Anyone who does otherwise is being willfully ignorant and activating their privilege to say what they want without caring about who it impacts. Teachable moments and the desire to turn racism into easily-solved Family Matters segments is how people like Bill Maher get a pass for their racism. It’s how Tory Lanez feels like spending $35,000 at a store that treated him with racism is some sort of gotcha lesson. And it’s how Katy Perry thinking that suddenly admitting to her racism gives her a pass to go on with her life. Teachable moments are simply hall passes for white folks to sit in front of black people hat-in-hand and get forgiven for racism without having to face any real consequences for their actions. You know what’s a real teachable moment for Bill Maher? Strip him of his show and make him work his way back onto television. Then he can learn that his words have meaning and that he can’t live a life full of unending second chances. Because there’s no such thing as a teachable moment without real life consequences for the rest of us. Bill Maher and his peers don’t deserve teachable moments. Because he’s been taught. Repeatedly. It’s his own fault for not listening.
Rumors are flying around that Joseline is bouncing out off Love & Hip Hop ATL. Our boy FreddyO caught up to the couple after they hosted a party the other night. FreddyO
Getty Images Man Loads Up Flare Gun With Rice Krispies And Let It Go BLAM On Victim Police out of Eureka, California tell Fox 6 that they arrested a man who used breakfast cereal to shoot his victim in the hand. Northern California officers reported to the scene around 3 in the afternoon Wednesday, after receiving a “shot fired” phone call. The police tracked down the perpetrator, who tried to flee into a homeless encampment in the area. The shooter was 29-year-old Timothy Glass. Detectives investigated the weapon. They determined Glass used a flare gun to fire the shell, which had been reportedly stuffed with Rice Krispies. His victim, who had suffered a non-life threatening injury to the hand, was treated at a nearby hospital, police said. Glass was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for resisting arrest and probation violation.His victim, however, declined to press charges. WTH.
Teen Rapper In Legal Battle With Baby Mama Over Access To Toddler Son Kodak Black may have gotten out of jail this week, but he’s still not in the clear when it comes to his legal battles. Kodak, real name Dieuson Octave will be back in a South Florida courtroom next month when goes head to head with his son’s mother Jammiah Broomfield over child support, BOSSIP can reveal. And Broomfield’s lawyer, Sara Lawrence, told BOSSIP that both sides still aren’t seeing eye to eye about how much he should pay. “We’re still arguing about getting information on how much money he makes,” Lawrence told BOSSIP. “She’s not asking for ridiculous amounts of money, but it’s hard to get them to agree and us to agree, and we’re going to try.” The “Tunnel Vision” rapper was released from a Florida jail just earlier this week after serving a few weeks for a probation violation. Kodak Black sued Broomfield last year to establish paternity, gain partial custody and pay child support. Each side has filed motions to curtail the other’s access to the baby. Broomfield requested that a guardian is appointed to supervise Kodak Black’s visitations, while the “Skrt rapper has asked for joint custody of the tot. According to court papers, Broomfield managed to successfully sway the judge into appointing a guardian ad litem on the case, which is usually a lawyer or psychiatrist who observes both parents and makes recommendations on how they should split custody. “She doesn’t want to keep him away from his son,” Lawrence said. “She wants to make sure that he has a relationship with his son and not a game to play child support. This is a very active, cute little boy. He should know his father, but his father has to make sure he knows how to take care of him without endangering him.” The exes are due back in court July 11, where a judge will decide how much Kodak should pay.
Stepping into my purpose like… ✨ pic.twitter.com/yHZdmHjq0d — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 9, 2017 Dbleudazzled Designer Destiney Bleu Fights Back Against Khloe Kardashian’s Claims She Didn’t Copy Her Designs If Khloe Kardashian thought Dbleudazzled designer Destiney Bleu was just going to roll over and allow her Good American line to pass off bedazzled designs as “inspired” by Cher while pretending she never heard of or copied Dbleudazzled, she had another thing coming. While Destiney Bleu has been speaking out over the last week, showing how she designed the original version of a bodysuit that appears in a Good American promo ad (peep the :44 mark) … It's here! Watch what goes down with @khloekardashian and the #GOODSQUAD on set of a #GoodAmerican campaign pic.twitter.com/TUGh9AZ8Fw — GOOD AMERICAN (@goodamerican) June 1, 2017 Now Bleu is taking things a step further, providing multiple media outlets with emails and receipts exchanged between herself, Khloe’s assistant Alexis and Khloe’s former stylist Monica Rose. I released the copy of the Cease & Desist, several emails of KK saying she loved my items & #receipts showing she bought 1 of everything. ✨ — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 9, 2017 I felt disrespected and bullied, so in my mind I had no option but to speak the truth and fight the good fight. No pun. — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 9, 2017 Peep the timeline provided to People.com : According to Bleu the timeline of events goes as follows: 11/10/2016 – Alexa Okyle, Khloé Kardashian’s executive assistant, emails Destiney stating that Khloé discovered Destiney’s line and wanted to see a lookbook. 11/15/2016 – Khloé orders fishnet tights and a custom jersey. 12/05/2016 – Khloé orders an additional 12 items, for a total of $925, plus gives final details on the custom jersey ordered by Khloe on 11/15/2016. 12/09/2016 – Khloé’s assistant requests that the items all be sent directly to Khloé Kardashian’s house in Calabasas, provides Khloé’s address, and adds Destiney’s messenger to the gate list. 12/09/2016 – Khloé’s stylist, Monica Rose, emails Destiney asking to borrow black and nude body suits. [These are the same bodysuits as in the images above which Bleu alleges were later copied by Good American] 12/13/2016 – Khloé’s 11/15/2016 order messengered to Calabasas address. Soon after, Destiney receives an email stating that “Khloé loves it all.” 1/06/2017 – Destiney receives another email from Alexa, stating that “Khloé also loves these bras & panties, can we get these too.” The email was accompanied by photos from Destiney’s Instagram account, showing 16 more items that they wanted to purchase from Destiney for a total of $1560. 1/09/2017 – Destiney receives an email from Alexa, asking if they could keep the bodysuits that Monica Rose pulled because Khloé loves them. Destiney informs Alexa that she would loan the items if worn temporarily for appearances. If they were being kept, however, they needed to be paid for, as they are $700 items. 1/30/2017 – Destiney receives a request from Khloé to purchase a sample bra that Destiney had loaned them for custom sizing purposes. 3/27/2017 – Destiney sends Monica Rose an invoice for three body suits, two of which are those that were copied by Good American, for a total of $2100. 4/12/2017 – Destiney emails Khloé’s assistant regarding photographs Destiney saw of Khloé wearing a bodysuit extremely similar to on purchased from Destiney, at the video/photo shoot for the Good American campaign. Destiney received no reply. 5/18/2017 – Destiney receives an email from Jenna Baker, assistant designer at the “Kendall + Kylie” clothing line, wanting to purchase a nude body suit with nipple bursts. Ms. Baker attached a photo of one that Destiney had loaned her for a prior shoot. Bleu’s timeline is part of a 27 page legal response to the cease & desist letter she was served with on Thursday. That cease & desist letter followed a statement from Good American that read as follows: Under no circumstances did Good American or Khloe Kardashian infringe on another brand’s intellectual property and we are going through the proper legal channels to handle the situation. On social media Good American really TRIED it — posting references to Cher, Britney Spears and Diana Ross as inspiration. The cease and desist letter to Bleu claimed she was committing defamation of character, and demanded that she stop making “false statements,” “make an appropriate corrective statement” and “that [Destiney’s] trolls stop attacking [Khloé Kardashian’s] social media channels.” But Thursday night Bleu’s lawyers responded with documents to disprove Kardashian’s lawyers’ claims that she has “never heard [Destiney’s] name” and “never saw [her] samples.” The evidence? The timeline we posted above, listing Bleu’s interactions with Khloé’s assistant and then stylist Monica Rose as well as screenshots of all of their email exchanges back and forth along with invoices for the pieces Bleu ultimately sold her, including a pair of customized underwear bedazzled with the name, “Tristan Thompson.” Bleu’s lawyers also state that a cease and desist letter for defamation is completely inappropriate: “even if Destiney’s accusations of copying were incorrect (and they are not), it would still not be defamation because Khloé Kardashian is a public figure and the standard that must be met for defamation of a public figure is actual malice. See Kaelin v. Globe Comm. Corp., 162 F.3d 1036, 1039 (9th Cir. 1998) (“A public figure in a defamation case cannot recover unless he proves by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant published the defamatory statement with actual malice, i.e., with knowledge that it was false….”). There is obviously no actual malice here, which would require that Destiney knew her accusations were false when she made them.” The letter goes on to state, “Destiney has a Constitutionally-protected right to inform others that Khloé Kardashian has copied her designs. She will not silently abdicate that right in response to a frivolous, two-bit email from you threatening legal action. If Khloé wants to continue stealing designs from indie creators and mass produce them with no credit, then Khloé will rightly face judgment in the court of public opinion. The biggest gem in the response from Bleu’s lawyer’s is this little nugget rightchea: Also, we note that your public statement about this issue is carefully crafted to say that Khloé Kardashian did not ‘infringe on another brand’s intellectual property’. Of course, she didn’t – copying clothing and fashion is generally not intellectual property infringement. It is not illegal for Khloé to copy Destiney’s designs—it is just tacky, disrespectful, and in bad taste. There is also something deeply uncomfortable about someone with Khloé’s wealth and power appropriating designs and fashion directly from a black woman with a small business without crediting her, making cheap knockoffs, and then attempting to threaten her into silence. You should be ashamed.” But alas– as we already knew, SHAME is a moral characteristic that Kardashians are not familiar with. Khloe’s lawyers released ANOTHER statement to People sticking to their story: “Ms Bleu’s claim that Good American and Khloé Kardashian copied or stole her designs is flagrantly false and little more than a cheap publicity stunt and an attempt by Ms Bleu to get her 15 minutes of fame. Ms. Bleu did not create the concept or design of a bodysuit with crystals – a fashion style that has been around for decades as evidenced by the fact that Cher has been wearing these styles for over 25 years. The Good American design team designed a range of eleven bodysuits and had never heard of Ms. Bleu or seen her designs. The letter from her lawyer -sent to the press for no legitimate reason – is outrageous, defamatory and misleading in the extreme. Good American will absolutely not stand for anyone trying to damage its reputation and plans to deal with this through the proper legal channels.” this statement tho> > > > > pic.twitter.com/pQIQX6y7EO — ☾ (@FashioNYSEta) June 9, 2017 Bleu has been met with support on Instagram and Twitter and continues to stand her ground. There is a difference between a publicity stunt and telling the truth. Especially when it means protecting a brand you started from NOTHING. — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 9, 2017 I think it is an important discussion to have. Why are we supporting brands that we know unethically make millions off other's work? https://t.co/vLgdHufQJ9 — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 10, 2017 https://t.co/iUSuTjM3UJ x @dbleudazzled @PLUGGEDNYCSTORE — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 10, 2017 Unfortunately trolls will be trolls and she’s still having to deal with Khloe’s minions. pic.twitter.com/gSol08TcD1 — destiney bleu (@destineybleu) June 10, 2017 What do you think the final outcome will be with this issue? Do you think Khloe would EVER publicly admit to wrongdoing and pay Destiney like she owes her? Or will this case end up going to court?
We’re super proud to see another one of our New Black Kids On The Block moving up in the world. Priority Records newest signee Mauie The King Jr. just released his debut single and video on the label titled “Dear Summer.” He’s making a lot of noise in Atlanta, having performed with TI at Forbes Arena with OG Maco, Chuck Inglish and more. Follow him on social media @MauieTheKingJr
Getty Images SMH: Food Shoppers Find Arizona Baby Abandoned In Jonas Brother Backpack A pedestrian leaving a Food City store in Tempe, Arizona stumbled upon something peculiar in a shopping cart in the store’s parking lot. According to AZ Central , the good samaritan heard a baby screaming inside of it. Not only was the child abandoned in the cart, but it was stuffed inside of a Jonas brothers backpack. That’s when they immediately reported what they saw to the Food City manager in duty. The baby was taken to a local hospital and was found in good health according to reports. Spokes people for the food city store says they’re relieved that the baby was found in good health, despite having no idea who the newborn’s mother is. “This is a tragic situation but we’re thankful that the baby was found healthy,” said Ashley Shick, director of communications and public affairs for Bashas’, which owns Food City stores.
Getty Images Newly-adopted Pit Bull Attacks And Kills 90-year-old A Virginia Beach grandma was attacked by a pit bull she freshly adopted this week and died from her injuries according to WNCN . The daughter of the senior citizen says she was viciously attacked and it was unprovoked. The victim’s daughter says the 50 pound pet could not be stopped during the five minutes of rage. Reportedly, the old woman used a hammer to crack open a locked glass door that’s when the dog rushed her. Her daughter says he started to bite her neck and shoulders and then her stomach. Her daughter grabbed the hammer to hit the dog, to save her mom. But, her efforts were too late. Linda says her mom adopted the dog from Forever Home Rehabilitation Center after seeing a posting on Craigslist to adopt the dog for $20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caMtCuHLnXg A Trump supporter , supposedly identified as Charles Boucher, had hands put on him after spitting at a brother, punching a homeless man, and going on a racist tirade for coffee being spilled on his ugly white suite in Starbucks. Boucher was supposedly arrested and we have the full exchange on the next page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbTPP-iLHnQ
