We’re approaching peak picnic/camping/beach trip season, and if you don’t own a cooler that you really like, some of our readers’ favorites are on sale right now on Amazon.
While the rest of the world was thoroughly amused at Rep. Steve Cohen’s decision to mock Attorney General William Barr’s no call, no show at the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Fox News hand puppets Diamond and Silk—professionally known as Shuck and Jive—took umbrage at Cohen’s methods in doing so.
With the crowning of Cheslie Kryst as Miss USA last night, a trio of black women have now claimed the crowns in three major beauty pageants, including Miss America and Miss Teen USA.
The Star Wars family reacts to the death of the man who played Chewbacca.
Source: Paul Archuleta / Getty
Last night, North Carolina’s Chelsie Kryst made history when she was announced as Miss USA. Not only was she the latest Black woman to wear the crown, she helped pull off a historic trifecta.
For the first time ever, three Black women are currently wearing crowns as the 2019 Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America.
Kryst joined pageant winners 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin (pictured) and recently crowned 2019 Miss Teen USA Kaliegh Garris.
Kryst is a civil litigation attorney who received her law degree and MBA from Wake Forest University. During the pageant, fans of Kryst noticed that she wore her natural hair and unlike prior contests, she joined Garris in bypassing the need to straighten their hair in favor of their natural look.
Garris spoke to Refinery21 about her decision saying, “There were a few naysayers saying, ‘You look better with straight hair,’ or ‘You should put in extensions and straighten your natural hair. As Miss Connecticut Teen USA, there are girls who would look at me in awe because they’ve always had the image of straight hair in pageants. Being able to spread the message of diversity, being yourself, and being confident in your curly, natural hair is something that I’m really looking forward to with my new national title.”
The closest Black women had to completing the trifecta before last night was in 2012 when Black women simultaneously wore crowns as Miss Teen USA and Miss USA.
Congrats ladies!
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A former manager for a Georgia criminal justice agency has filed a lawsuit alleging she was harassed and later fired because she’s an African-American woman.
According to reports, the former Division Director Nicole Jenkins was targeted by Jay Neal, the executive director for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
Jenkins’ lawsuit reportedly states she was falsely accused of exposing her staff to bullying, and she was compared to a domestic violence batterer.
Jenkins was later replaced in meetings with male employees, forced to submit paperwork that wasn’t required of her white colleagues and abruptly fired in June 2017, the lawsuit said.
Neal, a former Republican state legislator, didn’t return messages from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution seeking comment.
“It’s very clear there was a struggle and difficulty with having an African-American woman in that position of power,” said Jenkins’ attorney, Adian Miller. “She was treated differently, and there was no legitimate reason for it other than race or gender.”
Jenkins is seeking back pay and other monetary damages from a federal jury.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden will have his first chance this weekend to demonstrate whether he can attract the type of diverse coalition that twice sent Barack Obama to the White House.
The former vice president has opened his presidential campaign with explicit appeals to white, working class voters across the Midwest, pledging his allegiance to unions and promising to rebuild the middle class. His premier trip to South Carolina as a 2020 contender on Saturday will gauge whether his message will resonate among black voters whose support will be crucial in winning the nation’s first southern primary.
Proving that he can win over black voters would be an essential part of Biden’s argument that he is the most electable Democrat in the race. Obama was the last Democrat to win the White House, and his success was based in part on his ability to unite black and white voters against his Republican foes.
But Biden is facing plenty of competition in South Carolina. At least 15 Democratic candidates have held more than 100 events here so far this year. Two of his rivals — Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — are black and are making explicit appeals to African American voters. Biden is aiming to distinguish himself by relying on his decades-long ties to the state and the goodwill he generated during eight years as Obama’s deputy.
“He is a known quantity in this state,” state Sen. Gerald Malloy, a member of South Carolina’s Legislative Black Caucus and chairman of this year’s state Democratic convention, said of Biden. “I think that there’s a longing … for the service of President Obama, and Vice President Biden right at his side.”
Obama remains popular among Democrats in the state, where he soundly defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Much of that support came from minority voters, who comprise most of South Carolina’s Democratic primary voters.
Biden has maintained South Carolina ties dating back decades with his enduring friendships with fellow long-serving senators Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings, both of whom Biden has eulogized . He and his family have vacationed regularly in a resort area near Charleston, reportedly hunkering down there as he mulled — and ultimately chose not to pursue — a 2016 presidential campaign.
In 2018, Biden made several endorsements in South Carolina races, backing James Smith for governor, as well as longtime friend and adviser Dick Harpootlian’s successful legislative bid. He also supported Democrat Joe Cunningham’s campaign in South Carolina’s 1st District — the first in South Carolina to flip from red to blue in decades — and backed the state treasurer campaign of Democrat Rosalyn Glenn, who is now on-board as Biden’s state coalitions director.
He’s parlayed those ties into a strong team. Kendall Corley, Obama’s two-time South Carolina director and African American voter outreach specialist, is Biden’s state director. Deputy director Mariah Hill managed Cunningham’s campaign, and political director Scott Harriford was Smith’s deputy political director and has worked with Cunningham.
U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is the highest ranking African American in Congress, said Biden appears to be the candidate to beat in his home state.
“I was home for two weeks … and I saw that a lot of people told me that they were waiting to see what Biden was going to do,” Clyburn said in an interview. “I suspect that, outside of Delaware, Biden might spend more time in South Carolina than any place else.”
Publicly, at least, other Democratic presidential candidates aren’t fazed by the Biden effect.
Asked about Biden during a recent campaign stop in Columbia, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, “I will run my race.” In Manning, Booker told reporters he’s committed to a positive campaign.
Questioned in Orangeburg about the fact that Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the early front-runners, are white men in their 70s, Harris said, “Look, it’s early. … And I actually wouldn’t hang my hat on that, period.”
Russell Ott, a Democratic representative in South Carolina’s House, says that many voters here are balancing the appeal of a fresh face with someone experienced, like Biden, who could go one-on-one with President Donald Trump in a general election.
“That’s another plus for Biden — he’s been in that pressure cooker,” Ott said, referencing Biden’s national-level experience. “For some of these candidates, even ones we may like a lot, this is truly going to be auditions.”
Name recognition aside, state Sen. Marlon Kimpson said Biden could have the ability to seal his hold on South Carolina, as long as he remains authentic, and doesn’t tack to the left too much during a combative primary.
“He’s middle of the road, and that’s what we need. Quite frankly, he’s more Obama-like than many of the candidates in the field,” said Kimpson, also a Black Caucus member. “I don’t expect him to show up in a black church all of a sudden speaking in a southern accent, espousing ideas from New York City.”
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He has been hailed as a gamechanger in the fashion world, but is Virgil Abloh really changing the game for other black talents? That was the question raised by a now-deleted Instagram story published by Abloh on Tuesday, chronicling a dinner party thrown for his Milan, Italy-based staff.
Usually racist ass racists like Donald Trump or professional hate-monger Milo Yiannopoulos love to tout their imaginary black friends or actual black husbands as irrefutable proof they can’t be racist.
At the beginning of this year, I saw a meme on Facebook where a young man mentioned that over the past year, he had learned to stop “aspiring to sit at tables where he had to bring his own chair, squeeze in between folks and repeatedly convince people that he deserved to be there.”
If you missed out on all the Super Bowl TV sales, don’t fret. This 55" 4K Samsung is on sale for $400 and, if you want one that’s a little smaller, this 50" unit is $50 less at Walmart right now. To be clear, these are not Samsung’s best TVs, but both include smart apps, HDR, and even a clean cable routing solution…
The 18th Annual Tribeca Film Festival is wrapping up on May 5, and I’m happy to report that black history has been made.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A pair of Florida teens saw their prayers answered after becoming stranded about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from shore.
News outlets report that 17-year-olds Tyler Smith and Heather Brown were swimming at Vilano Beach near St. Augustine during a senior skip day last month when strong currents pulled them out to sea.
The Christ’s Church Academy students say they were holding onto each other and praying to God for help just before Captain Eric Wagner and his crew spotted them. The boat was called the Amen.
Crewmembers pulled the teens on board and contacted the U.S. Coast Guard.
Smith and Brown are set to graduate later this month.
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Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba are a force to be reckoned with – on the streets and in each other’s lives, in their upcoming buddy cop drama “L.A.’s Finest.”
EUR correspondent Fahnia Thomas interviewed the lady bosses about the historical plot routinely crafted only for the fellas.
FT/EUR: You have kids, careers, men and doing it all with style and grace…
Gabrielle Union: The last couple of weeks, I’ve been on this journey with my husband as he’s been finishing his career and at no point in the 16 years of a very successful NBA career did anyone say, ‘did you change your game or approach the game differently because you’re a father, because you’re a husband? Are you settling for jump shots because you’re a dad?’
You go to work and do the job you need to do because you love it and it allows you to provide for your family. I approach my life and my choices with the same likeness. I’m not going to be like ‘well, you’re a mom now are you opposed to certain sex scenes? Well, you’re a wife now how do you choose your co-stars?’…No I pick jobs I’m passionate about and with people I want to work with. As long as it does not affect my joy, peace and grace, I’m going to take the job – as long as the check clears. I approach my profession the same way my husband approaches his…with the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants to do. And as family members it’s our job to love, support, amplify, protect and encourage each other. Get into it!
FT/EUR: There’s a funny scene with John Salley’s character saying he’s got the plug for Lakers tickets and Gabrielle’s character saying naw she’s a Heat fan and has her own plug…How much liberty do you have to ad-lib?
Jessica Alba: We have a say in the edit, how the characters stories are being told and the development of our own individual characters. We’re in the driver’s seat.
Gabrielle Union: It’s a boss power move! At this point in our careers we’ve been there, done that. We’ve seen how Hollywood has been and we’re trying to create the Hollywood we’ve always dreamed of.
“L.A.’s Finest” debuts on Spectrum On Demand May 13. For more details click here.
Follow #LAsFinest
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Recent polling shows that despite the disastrous tax code, manufacturing plants like General Motors laying off thousands of people, the coal industry crashing and 45’s promises, uneducated white voters were still unwavering in their blind support of Donald Trump.
According to CNN, whites without a college degree support Trump in double digits over every other presidential candidate:
Trump +13% over Biden
Trump +15% over Buttigieg
Trump +16% over O’Rourke
Trump +17% over Sanders
Trump +28% over Harris
Trump +34% over Warren
Trump +37% over Clinton ’16
Well, as Trump said on the campaign trail, “I love the poorly educated!”
Of course, these numbers weren’t shocking. But this doesn’t not mean there isn’t any hope in 2022. Here is some perspective. In 2016, Trump garnered fewer votes than any Republican candidate in 16 years: 59.2 million people voted for Trump, 60.9 million voted for Mitt Romney, 60 million voted for John McCain, and 62 million voted for George W. Bush.
An increase in the number of eligible Black voters may set the stage for a Trump loss in 2020, according to The States Of Change report, which was authored by several groups including the Center for American Progress and the Bipartisan Policy Center. For example, voting blocs — including African-Americans, Latinos and Asians — will have more of a share of the total eligible vote by 2020. The groups will grow one percentage point, with Blacks going from 12 percent in 2016 to 13 in 2020, the report revealed.
As the voter segments expand, the percentage of eligible “White without a college degree” voters will drop by 2 points, from 46 percent to 44. Trump is largely reliant on that voting group in 2016.
Yes, there is still an overwhelmingly white majority of eligible voters, but changes in turnout and support among Black voters in 2020 could put Trump at a disadvantage.
Black turnout and the Democrats’ margin of support with African Americans have both dropped by a significant amount in 2016 when Trump was elected, NBC News reported. If more Black Americans voted, especially with the fight to restore voting rights to ex-felons, like in Florida, going on in states across the nation, the election results could be different.
All is not lost. Be an educated voter, encourage people in your community to vote and turn out in every election from now until November 2020.
Nancy Pelosi and her caucus are running out of options. The time to defend the republic is here and now.
