Child Actress Amandla Stenberg Speaks Out Against Cultural Appropriation Amandla Stenberg, 16-year-old actress, most famous for her role in The Hunger Games is tackling the issue of cultural appropriation at a young age. In a clip titled “Don’t Cash Crop On My Cornrows,” the young starlet calls out stars like Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and the queen cultural approrpiator herself, Miley Cyrus for trying on Blackness for profit without truly understanding where the styles they’re taking are coming from or representative of. “The line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange is always going to be blurred…Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations but is deemed cool or funny when the privileged take it for themselves. It occurs when the appropriator is not aware of the deep significance of the culture they are partaking in.” “What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?” Do you agreee with her? YouTube
Judge Criticized For Telling Victims They Raised A Racist Daughter Jordan and Tommy Gray’s 3-year-old daughter was watching “SpongeBob” when two armed men broke into their home near Buechel on March 21, 2013, and robbed them at gunpoint. Via Courier Journal : Two years later, when one of the offenders was about to be sentenced, Jordan wrote in a victim impact statement that her daughter was still “in constant fear of black men.” Both robbers were African-American. “Whenever we are running errands, if we come across a black male, she holds me tight and begs me to leave,” the mother said. “It has affected her friendships at school and our relationships with African-American friends.” Tommy Gray also wrote that since the crime, his daughter had been terrified of black males and that probation was not sufficient punishment for Gregory Wallace, 27, who had pleaded guilty to robbery. “If holding a little girl at gunpoint gets you probation, then our system is flawed,” Gray said. But when Wallace was brought up for sentencing Feb. 4 in Jefferson Circuit Court, it was the parents, not Wallace, who suffered Judge Olu Stevens’ wrath. “I am offended. … I am deeply offended that they would be victimized by an individual and express some kind of fear of all black men,” he said. “This little girl certainly has been victimized, and she can’t help the way she feels,” he said. “My exception is more with her parents and their accepting that kind of mentality and fostering those type of stereotypes.” The Grays were not in court as Stevens denounced their statements and granted probation to Wallace, whom he said deserved the opportunity to redeem himself. Discuss…
Florida Man Cuts Off Dreadlocks So He Can Find Employment Dominick Davis, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., had not had a haircut in 10 years, preferring to wear his hair in dreadlocks . Davis recently cut them off because he believes that his hair might have preventing him from finding employment. Via The Root reports: “It’s time for a change, because enough is enough,” Davis, an ex-offender who served six years in prison, told Action News Jax. “People feel like everyone that has dreads are bad people or they’re criminals,” he added, noting that he’s hoping that the change in his appearance since his recent release may help him secure employment. Davis told the news station that the uptick in Jacksonville crime by those described as having “dreads” also hasn’t helped him. “You turn on the TV, and if they have a suspect, the description is a person with dreads,” said Davis, who told the news station that conforming to a professional look is part of seeking a job, and if dreads are attached to negativity, then he doesn’t want any part. “You absolutely have to dress. You can’t go on an interview with jeans, T-shirt. You’re basically selling yourself,” he said. Looks like Giuliana Rancic and other stereotyping haters win this round….
Feidin Santana, the eyewitness and cameraman who brought down South Carolina police officer Michael Slager in the shooting death of unarmed civilian Walter Scott, speaks on the events that led up to the fatal incident. Via NBCnews : The bystander who captured on video a white police officer shooting an apparently unarmed black man in the back in South Carolina thought about erasing the recording over fears of retaliation.
Officer Charged With Murder In Shooting Death Of Unarmed Black Man During Traffic Stop By now, you’ve likely seen the full graphic video turned in to South Carolina police just days after Officer Michael Slager shot and killed Walter Scott during a routine traffic stop. The video shows Slager not only shooting Scott in the back multiple times, but also planting evidence on his deceased body to justify the lies he told to justify his murder. Just hours after seeing the unarmed man being shot and killed while blatantly running for his life, North Charleston PD decided to arrest and charge one of their own for his actions. Via NBCnews : A police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, was charged with murder Tuesday after a cell-phone video was released of him fatally shooting an apparently unarmed man in the back following a traffic stop Saturday. Michael Slager, 33, was arrested by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and faces 30 years to life in prison or the death penalty, state officials said in a news release. In the video, which was obtained by The New York Times, Slager shoots at the suspect — later identified as 50-year-old Walter Scott — about eight times as he runs away in a vacant lot. The officer, who is white, said the suspect, who is black, took his Taser and that he feared for his life. The Justice Department is also reviewing the incident, which comes on the heels of other police-related shootings involving unarmed black men. Slager was arrested less than an hour after the video, taken by a bystander, was provided to city and police officials. At a Tuesday news conference, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the decision to charge the officer came after viewing the footage. Good thing the bystander was there to capture what REALLY happened…this cop had lies on deck to tell about what Walter Scott did to “deserve” being shot in the back 8 times. SMH. Take a listen to the 911 call full of falsehoods that Slager made just moments after ending Scott’s life: SMH! At least he was charged. We can only cross our fingers for a conviction in cases like these. NBCnews / Charleston Co Sherrif’s Office
Baker Gets Death Threats After Refusing To Make Anti-Gay Cake Ex-pastor Joshua Feuerstein wanted to test something out amid the controversy this week over religious freedom and business rights. He figured if business owners should be compelled not to discriminate against homosexuals, then businesses should also be compelled not to discriminate against anti-gay Christians. Via Mediaite reports: And so, on video, he recorded a phone conversation he had with Florida bakery Cut the Cake. He asked if they would make him a sheet cake saying “We do not support gay marriage.” The woman on the other end said they wouldn’t do that and hung up. After that, Feuerstein proceeded to identify the bakery in question and made his point about the religious freedom issue. At one point, he said, “Gay marriage isn’t even illegal. It’s called marriage. If you’re a gay man and you want to be married, guess what? Just go find a woman and get married.” Feuerstein encouraged viewers to call the bakery and and help “expose the hypocrisy” they’re supposedly engaging in. Well, in a parallel of what happened to Memories Pizza in Indiana, Cut the Cake ended up receiving quite a lot of angry messages, including death threats. Sharon Haller, who Feuerstein spoke to on the phone, said, “We started getting some hundreds of phone calls and making very nasty and negative gestures towards our business, towards us.” Feuerstein took down the video at their request, but Cut the Cake posted it online so people could see it, along with a GoFundMe page that has raised, as of this posting, over $2000. Some comments found on the baker’s Facebook page: Check out the video below: Do you think this is an example of hypocrisy?
Activist Rails Against Kendrick Lamar On Facebook Over His Light Skinned Fianceé The devil has been real busy this Easter weekend … While we expected nothing but well-wishes and happiness over the news that Kendrick Lamar is planning to wed his high school sweetheart Whitney Alford , it seems everyone can’t be happy. And why? Because she’s just not “black enough” apparently. Rashida Marie Strober, a self-professed “Dark Skinned Activist” who runs the “Dark Skin Is Beautiful” Campaign posted this on her Facebook page on Friday , stirring up a gang of controversy as many people found her message to be hateful and misguided. Hit the flip for some responses
Bucknell University Students Expelled Over Racist Remarks Three Pennsylvania college students were expelled from school after they made disgustingly racist remarks including “lynch ‘em” and “black people should be dead” over a radio broadcast. The Huffington Post reports: A private Pennsylvania college expelled three students over a campus radio broadcast in which they made racist comments and used a slur. Bucknell University president John Bravman met with about 1,000 students and staff about the matter on Tuesday, a day after sending a late-night email revealing the expulsions. “Their conduct is an affront to our values, damaging to our community and in clear violation of our community standards,” he wrote to students, faculty and staff on Monday. Bravman did not identify the students but shared their comments from a March 20 WVBU-FM broadcast in “the interest of transparency and candor.” He said one of the students used the N-word, a second said “black people should be dead” and the third said “lynch ‘em.” Bucknell spokesman Andy Hirsch said an inmate a nearby prison heard the comments and reported them to a prisoner advocacy group, the Lewisburg Prison Project. The group then contacted a university faculty member, who alerted the radio station’s adviser. Hirsch said the school’s senior staff investigated. The students were suspended and interviewed before the dean of students expelled them, he said. “I would emphasize that the context really doesn’t matter once you see what was said,” Hirsch said. Hirsch declined to say if alcohol was involved, noting the investigation is not complete. “I can tell you that there were other people at the station,” he said. “Whether or not they were there at the time when this happened, we’re still looking into all those details.” Bucknell, a liberal arts school with about 3,600 undergraduates, is located in Lewisburg, about 50 miles north of Harrisburg. The student body is 79 percent white, 5 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Asian and 3 percent African-American. The Lewisburg Prison Project said an inmate at the federal penitenary in Lewisburg wrote a letter about the comments. “He didn’t feel this is right and thought something should be done about it,” said David Sprout, a paralegal for the group. Sprout said he did not know what the inmate was serving time for.” You…big…dummies. If you’re going to be racist idiots, why do it on-air????
Why Did A Newspaper Use Mugshot Photos Of Black Criminals And Yearbook Photos Of White Ones? An Iowa newspaper recently got rightfully blasted for running stories on a group of white and black burglars with vastly different pictures. A group of black men were recently arrested for burglary and put into the paper with their mugshots. By contrast however three white men were also arrested for the same crime and their pictures were yearbook photos. Mind you searching for mugshots required extra work for the writer, so why the push to find mugshots for the black criminals and not the white ones? Via SoLetsTalkAbout: Why did this story get run with these criminals’ school photos, where on the same day, same situation, the article of another group of burglars featured their mug shots? Same day. Same channel. Same crime. Same author. So why weren’t mugshots good enough for the white guys who got arrested? Who already looks guilty before their trial? Which story plants the seed into a potential jury pool that this is a group of good kids versus this is a group of criminals? The Gazette’s weak explanation is that they can’t get mugshots without a formal request, so why didn’t anyone formally request them since they obviously requested the mugshots of the Black men? Because nobody wanted to. It didn’t even cross their minds to use a mugshot for these nice white boys accused of THE SAME CRIME, being written up by THE SAME REPORTER. I would have more respect for these people if they would just admit it. “Ooops. We made a mistake. Racism is so ingrained in our society we didn’t even realize we did it. We’ll make every effort to correct this behavior in the future.” Blah blah blah. But I haven’t seen a retraction or any acknowledgement of wrongdoing and that’s half the problem. Nobody wants to be called a racist even when they get caught being racist, whether intentionally or not. The worst part is, I’m almost positive the author didn’t consciously say “I’ll use mugshots for the Black men but not the others.” It was just an instinctual reaction, implicit bias, the result of being conditioned from birth to view Black men one way and white men another way. That’s what we have to overcome in our everyday lives. It’s not about you saying, “I’m not a racist because I try to treat everyone equally.” It’s the knowledge that YOU could have done this and not even realized it because no one pointed it out to you. This is clearly racial bias, if you’re going to write a story on criminals whether white or black then be fair.
The Walking Dead Producer Denies Killing Off Too Many Black Characters AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ has been one of the biggest shows in television history. The zombie driven show continues to draw fans in every week with the bad azz acting and incredible plot twists but there’s been controversy about some of the Black characters on the series. Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd sat down with Variety to chat about the season finale tonight and denies that the writers have purposely killed off many of the popular Black characters: Variety: There’s been some controversy this season over the deaths of three significant black male characters (Lawrence Gilliard Jr. as Bob, Chad L. Coleman as Tyreese and Tyler James Williams as Noah). Was there any debate about that in the writers room or after the reaction on social media? Gale: We have to go with the story. It’s really important to cast the best actors. Two of those characters were white in the comics. They could’ve been any ethnicity. Our casting calls are completely open and we always go with the best actor. Would African American actors want to be told, “We’re not casting you, because in the storyline we’re going to kill you off?” That’s how we have to look at it. We want the best actor and then we have to stick to the storyline that was crafted months before we even cast the roles. The season finale has been supersized to 90 minutes. How was that decision made? The story was not actually an incredibly long page count, but when the first cut came in it was clear that we were never going to be able to pare it down to the typical running time. It was actually the best way to tell the story, as opposed to any initial intent going in. AMC absolutely embraced it and agreed. Michael Cudlitz was quoted saying the finale will “piss people off.” Do you agree with that assessment or would you put it a little differently? I would say they’ll be pissed off they have to wait until October when the series starts up again, that would be the only thing. I don’t know that they’d be pissed off, I hope instead that there’s a great sense of longing for us to be back. Is Michonne next??!? AMC
