Fair or too far? Via BusinessInsider : Nicki Minaj was blasted this week for her new “Only” lyric music video, which resembled cartoonish Nazi propaganda. On Tuesday, Minaj finally tweeted an apology of sorts after both her fans and the Anti-Defamation League noted the video’s insensitive similarities to Nazi imagery, including red swastika-like flags and armbands on soldiers. While Minaj tried to defend herself by saying “I didn’t come up w/the concept, but I’m very sorry & take full responsibility if it has offended anyone,” the music video’s director, Jeff Osborne, refuses to apologize. “I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question,” he wrote in a MySpace post late Tuesday. “The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism.” Osborne, who also worked with Minaj on her “Anaconda” lyric video, added, “If my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry.” “Before I start, be clear that these are my personal views and not the views of Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, or Young Money. First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism. But a majority of the recognizable models/symbols are American: MQ9 Reaper Drone, F22 Raptor, Sidewinder missile, security cameras, M60, SWAT uniform, General’s uniform, the Supreme court, and the Lincoln Memorial. What’s also American is the 1st Amendment, which I’ve unexpectedly succeeded in showing how we willfully squeeze ourselves out of that right every day. Despite the fact heavy religious and economic themes were glossed over, there’s also Russian T-90 tanks, Belgian FN FAL, German mp5 (not manufactured until 1966), an Italian Ferrari, and a Vatican Pope. As far as an explanation, I think its actually important to remind younger generations of atrocities that occurred in the past as a way to prevent them from happening in the future. And the most effective way of connecting with people today is through social media and pop culture. So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry. What else is trending?” And at the end of the day, somehow we doubt this guy, who completely stood up in his choice to depict Nazism and basically said “and what?” won’t face the same level of backlash from this that Nicki will…SMH.
Damn shame. A racist California man got into a verbal altercation with two African American men in a McDonald’s parking lot…which quickly spiraled into a physical altercation that ended with him chasing them each down with his pickup truck, killing one, while screaming expletives and racial slurs . And let him tell it, it’s all the president’s fault . Via RawStory : A California man claims he was defending himself last year when he ran over black man, killing him, following an altercation outside McDonalds. Joseph Paul Leonard Jr. burned rubber for 23 feet before crashing into 34-year-old Toussaint Harrison during the June 6, 2013, incident, reported the Sacramento Bee. Leonard, now 62, got out of his pickup and kicked Harrison several times in the head with his steel-toed work boots, authorities said. “Just because we got Obama for a president, these people think they are real special,” Leonard said after his arrest. He had been arguing with two men about 6 a.m. outside a Sacramento-area fast food restaurant, where prosecutors said Harrison and Justin Oliphant had been handing out food to homeless people. Defense attorneys claim the men had stolen the food from a nearby hotel. One of Leonard’s friends said the pair approached her outside McDonalds, and she said he “went crazy and lost his temper” when he came outside. Leonard grabbed a chain from his pickup and confronted the men, the friend said, and surveillance video shows him swinging it around like a lasso over his head. Oliphant said Leonard used racial slurs during the confrontation and stomped on Harrison’s bicycle. One of the men threw a knife and broken bottle at Leonard, investigators said, who suffered a cut on his cheek. The men fled on foot, and Leonard tried to run over Oliphant and rammed into Harrison outside a nearby auto repair shop. An employee grabbed a metal bar from the shop and told Leonard to sit down and wait for police to arrive, and he did. Leonard was quickly taken into custody, and he tried to justify his actions to sheriff’s deputies. “This could have happened to your son if you had one out there,” Leonard said. “This got too out of hand for me, man.” He claimed he feared for his life after one of the men cut him, although Leonard concedes he “became the aggressor.” “I think people are getting tired of being abused by the situation, the way people are being,” he said. “I myself am tired of it. I am victimized every time I turn around.” Leonard intends to testify during the trial, which resumes Nov. 17. His attorney said Leonard plans to explain to jurors that he has previously been seriously injured but no one was prosecuted. But prosecutors say Leonard has previously been a violent aggressor, although defense attorneys have asked a judge to exclude evidence from those cases. Oh sure. He’s such a victim that he couldn’t just get in his car and DRIVE AWAY — he simply HAD to run these black men down because…Obama. SMH. Hopefully he ends up underneath the jail. RawStory
Do you think Renisha’s killer got a fair shake in the courtroom? Defense Attorney Blames Trayvon Martin Verdict For Guilty Verdict In Renisha McBride Case Last month, justice was served in the shooting death of Renisha McBride . However, everyone doesn’t agree with the ruling . Apparently defendant Theodore Wafer’s attorney found the ruling so unfair that she has taken a year-long sabbatical from legal practice over her guilt of not being able to get him acquitted. Via Detroit News : The last time the country, if not the world, was watching attorney Cheryl Carpenter, she broke down weeping in court. In late August, Carpenter was arguing for leniency in the sentencing of her client, Theodore Wafer. Wafer, 55, was found guilty in the shooting death of Renisha McBride, 19, after she pounded on his front door in the middle of the night. Through tears, Carpenter pleaded Wafer “shows more remorse than any client I have ever seen.” Now, almost a year to the day of the Nov. 2 murder that thrust Carpenter into the spotlight, she cringes at the memory. “I’ve never cried like that in a courtroom,” she said, sitting cross-legged on her couch in her Birmingham home. “I was horrified by it. Society does not accept tears or emotion very well. Especially from attorneys.” Still, the 44-year-old will attest: The very passion that caused her to lose her composure is the same force that draws her to the most hopeless of cases. “The ones who are the most powerless, the ones who are the most hated and the ones who are the most prejudged are the ones I want to help the most,” she said. “It feels like my calling. I want to fight for the biggest underdog.” Wait…so she thinks Wafer was the underdog here? O….k. But here’s what she had to say about the racial climate during the trial that she feels was unbeatable — despite what she saw as evidence to the contrary: Still, the Wafer-McBride case came on the heels of the Trayvon Martin case in Florida which was intensely scrutinized and covered by worldwide media. “The pressure was different than any other case I’d ever had,” she said. “We had the ghost of Trayvon Martin in the courtroom.” In one breath, she insisted, “This case was not racial. I can say, with 100-percent confidence, that Ted did not know who was on his front porch when he saw a figure coming at him.” In the next, she said: “It didn’t help that after (George) Zimmerman was acquitted, he acted like an assaultive creep and they thought, probably, we can’t led Ted go free and maybe murder another woman.” Last week, attorneys from the state appellate defender’s office filed an appeal of Wafer’s second-degree murder conviction. Hmmm…what do you think Bossip fam? Was Wafer not given the same benefit of the doubt he would have been afforded pre-Trayvon??
Study Finds White People More In Support Of Voter Suppression Laws After Seeing Black People Vote via Kulture Kritic Researchers from the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication have released a new study suggesting that photographs of black Americans using voting machines affect white respondents’ support of voter-ID laws. According to the study (pdf), when white survey respondents saw an image of black Americans using ballot machines, they had stronger support for voter ID than those who did not see the image. Furthermore, seeing white Americans using ballot machines had no impact on respondents’ support of the controversial laws. “Our findings suggest that public opinion about voter-ID laws can be racialized by simply showing images of African-American people,” David C. Wilson, who helped supervise the nationwide study, said. For the survey, which was conducted online in 2012, respondents were divided into three groups, one of which saw an image of black voters, one that saw an image of white voters and one that saw no image at all. In the first group, which saw a picture of black voters, 73 percent of white respondents said that they favored voter-ID laws. This is in comparison with the white respondentsin the remaining two groups, who were 67 percent in favor. The 6-percentage-point difference is big enough to be statistically significant, researchers say. “Majorities in all three groups favored voter-ID laws, but the margin was wider when white respondents saw a black person using a voting machine,” Wilson said.
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