Napa Valley Wine Train Apologizes For Kicking Off Black Group Black women’s book club group — including one 83-year-old woman — were harshly removed from a California vineyard tour after white patrons accused them of being too loud on their train ride. The Napa Valley Train company has now publicly apologized for the incident. Via CBS : Executives of the Napa Valley Wine Train have apologized to members of a book club that were kicked off its train recently for laughing too loudly. The group said they were kicked off because of their race. The 11-member book club, composed almost entirely of African-American women, was told to leave the train Saturday mid-trip after several passengers complained about how loud the women were being. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” club member Lisa Johnson, told KTVU Monday. “We still feel this is about race. We were singled out.” News of the incident spread quickly and drew harsh criticism of the company after Lisa Johnson, a leader of the Sistas on the Reading Edge Book Club, told her story on social media. Many tweeted about the incident using the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack Do you think the apology is enough??
Sincere Says Love & Hip Hop Hollywood Is Too Scripted Yet another Love & Hip Hop cast member is calling out the show as a work of total fiction . Sincere, cast member on Season 1 of Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood says he had such a big issue with the “character” producers were forcing him to portray that he actually bowed out of the second season of the show. Via RadarOnline : Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood has been dogged by claims of fakery ever since Joseline Hernandez said the show was faked during a deposition earlier this year. At the time, her costar Sincere defended the VH1 series, insisting it was “not fake,” but now he’s speaking out exclusively to RadarOnline.com to reveal that the show is getting to be too much like a “scripted” drama — and that’s why he secretly quit! Fan fave Sincere revealed to Radar that he quit the show after filming for just two months of the second season. “I actually got out of my contract,” he confirmed to Radar. “They have me cast in a different way.” “The way I was cast was different than how they portrayed me,” he claimed. “They had me be a shit-stirrer. I’m a businessman. They wanted me to be viewed a different way. I didn’t like what was going on.” Hinting at fakery behind the scenes, he said, “Who knows, I think scripted TV is coming back in a big way …” Wow…reality TV is scripted. We are so shocked right now… Oh, well. Was anyone actually checking for him like that though?
SMH! We’re not sure how staged this was…but if not, Shane definitely has some extra motivation to deliver that K.O. when he hits the ring with Mayorga.
Yelawolf Defends The Confederate Flag After getting relentlessly dragged for rocking Confederate Flag attire over a year ago on Instagram, one would think Alabama native white rapper Yelawolf would know that most people aren’t exactly on-board with the old Southern symbol — even more so now after the Confederate flag backlash that ensued after the Charleston church massacre . Even as such, the rapper went on a curse-laden, misspelled rant on Monday evening, defending the flag and what it represents to southern folks, even saying he won’t let any West Coast “f*ckboys” tear him away from his (racist) roots… Imagine if he could manage to get half this angry about the unnecessary loss of Black lives at the hands of officers of the law or racist mass murderers? But we guess an antiquated symbol of the Antebellum South and the Jim Crow era is far more important. SMH. Facebook
Caitlyn Jenner Halloween Costume Hits Retailers A new costume has hit stores, emulating Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out cover of Vanity Fair. Naturally, people are calling it both transphobic and hilarious. Via NBCnews : It’s nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015. Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete’s Vanity Fair cover earlier this year. While Jenner’s supporters condemned the costume as “transphobic” and “disgusting” on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup. “At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes,” said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. “We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that.” Despite the company’s stated intentions, transgender activists are lashing out. Those Halloween stores sure know how to ride a wave to make a buck off what’s trending! This one is pretty insensitive though. Would you dress up as Caitlyn Jenner for Halloween??
This isn’t awkward at all… Tyga Brags About Having Sex With Kylie Jenner In New Track Tyga is finally admitting to the obvious—that he’s smashing his barely legal girlfriend to smithereens. As previously reported Tyga announced plans to release his F** Wat They Talkin About” mixtape just days after Kylie Jenner turned 18. And now after vacationing with his corn row rocking boo thang in Mexico … the mixtape is out and includes a song called “Stimulated” where T-Raw brags about their barely legal sex life. “They say she young, I shoulda waited/ She a big girl, dawg/When she stimulated” Really??? Mind you this is the SECOND time Tyga’s been accused of rapping about smashing Kylie. He previously caught flack for the song “Pleazer” where he rapped; “I hit her, she backwards, lickin her a**hole. My d**k is the password T nasty, bout to catch a felony for it Va**na juice like orange juice in the mornin.” He later insisted that if he were to write a song about Kylie it’d be “way more special and classier.” Okay Tyga. What do YOU think about Tyga’s track about Kylie??? AKM/GSI
White Women Use Make Up To Imitate Winnie Harlow’s Vitiligo Canadian model Winnie Harlow has started an online debate about blackface after a group of white women thought it was necessary to use dark make up to imitate her skin disease… Via EOnline : Harlow—who competed in Cycle 21 of America’s Next Top Model under the name Chantelle Brown-Young—has a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes loss of color in blotches. After placing fifth in Tyra Banks’ reality competition series, Harlow, 21, booked campaigns with Desigual and Diesel. She currently appears on Ebony’s September cover with fellow America’s Next Top Model aluma Fatima Siad, plus Samantha Archibald, Milan Dixon, Diandra Forrest and Marquita Pring. As Harlow makes a name for herself in the fashion industry, some people have attempted to copy her skin condition in an effort to tribute to her. The fans, some of them Caucasian, have applied makeup to look more like Harlow. However, some critics have argued that what fans are really doing is putting on blackface. Amid controversy, Harlow released a statement via Instagram. “My response to this is probably not what a lot of people want but here it goes: every time someone wants fuller lips, or a bigger bum, or curly hair, or braids does Not mean our culture is being stolen. Have you ever stop to realize these things used to be ridiculed and now they’re loved and lusted over. No one wants to “steal” our look here. We’ve just stood so confidently in our own nappy hair and du-rags and big asses (or in this case, my skin) that now those who don’t have it love and lust after it. Just because a black girl wears blue contacts and long weave doesn’t mean she wants to be white and just because a white girl wears braids and gets lip injection doesn’t mean she wants to be black. The amount of mixed races in this world is living proof that we don’t want to be each other we’ve just gained a national love for each other,” the model told her followers. “Why can’t we embrace that feeling of love? Why do we have to make it a hate crime?” The tweet that started it all: Check out Winnie’s response below: My response to this is probably not what a lot of people want but here it goes: every time someone wants fuller lips, or a bigger bum, or curly hair, or braids does Not mean our culture is being stolen. Have you ever stop to realize these things used to be ridiculed and now they’re loved and lusted over. No one wants to “steal” our look here. We’ve just stood so confidently in our own nappy hair and du-rags and big asses (or in this case, my skin) that now those who don’t have it love and lust after it. Just because a black girl wears blue contacts and long weave doesn’t mean she wants to be white and just because a white girl wears braids and gets lip injection doesn’t mean she wants to be black. The amount of mixed races in this world is living proof that we don’t want to be each other we’ve just gained a national love for each other. Why can’t we embrace that feeling of love? Why do we have to make it a hate crime? In a time when so much negative is happening, please don’t accuse those who are showing love and appreciation, of being hateful. It is very clear to me when someone is showing love and I appreciate these people recreating, loving and broadcasting something to the world that once upon a time I cried myself to sleep over #1LOVE Why can’t white people just ever have a seat?? Hit the flip for more…
Via RawStory : In video captured by a bystander, a woman screamed “He wasn’t f*cking armed! You killed my husband” as Maryland State Police subdued her following an officer-involved shooting that left a 30-year-old man dead in a Walmart parking lot Friday night. The Cecil Daily reports that Charles S. Hall was shot and killed by Trooper Daryl K. Brackett, a three-year veteran of the force who claimed he recognized Hall and knew there was a warrant out for his arrest. According to State Police spokesperson Greg Shipley, Brackett attempted to arrest Hall but Hall allegedly resisted and fought with the trooper before getting into his vehicle and attempting to take off. YouTube/RawStory
