A new film tackles San Francisco’s gentrification problem and what it means for a displaced community.
from Wired http://bit.ly/2ZbxaQo
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Thursday, June 6, 2019
Was Beyonce throwing epic shade at woman leaning over her to talk to Jay-Z during NBA Finals?
Beyonce and Jay-Z came out to enjoy Game 3 of the basketball battle between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors but it was the Queen Bee’s epic shade toward Becky with the long hair that took center stage at the Oracle Arena.
—Forbes: Jay-Z is not just rap royalty, he’s a billion-dollar business, man—
The Beehive had a field day on social media after a clip surfaced showing Bey sitting in between her hubby and the Golden State Warriors team owner Joe Lacob’s wife Nicole Curran who kept leaning over to chat with the newly minted billionaire as Beyonce appeared to look bothered.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé are courtside for Game 3 😎 pic.twitter.com/6mmJuN8Odn
— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2019
As Jay and the woman awkwardly engaged in conversation, Beyonce threw a perfect symphony of shade as she didn’t even look the woman in the eye to acknowledge her existence.
The cameras then panned Jay and Bey’s and the rockstar duo waved at their fans and it seemed as if all was well as they sat courtside. But Curran poked her neck out once again to chat with Jay-Z while his wife still refused to bat an eye, The NY Daily News reports.
Then Twitter got buzzing when Beyonce seemingly adjusted her seat so she could block Curran from sparking up a convo with her husband any longer.
Bow down b*tches!
Twitter of course had some epic reactions.
beyonce is so annoyed by this woman and hov gon’ hear about it on the jet pic.twitter.com/0na9BTL6C6
— Brandon Caldwell (@_brandoc) June 6, 2019
How dare her talk across Beyoncé pic.twitter.com/raVdi3OfyR
— Aries Mar (@lyricalmar) June 6, 2019
I would leave the earth if Beyonce looked this ready to smack me https://t.co/Yaf4JKeMhN
— KB (@KaraRBrown) June 6, 2019
Jay secured the bag as a billionaire
While Jay couldn’t buy his way out of that awkward situation at the NBA Finals, he can buy whatever he likes since he’s balling as the first rap billionaire, according to Forbes.
Nine years after Jay-Z sat down with billionaire Warren Buffet to discuss wealth and the art of giving for the Forbes 400, the iconic rapper has amassed a billion dollar fortune – becoming the first rapper to achieve this milestone, a new article in the business magazine says. His investments span numerous ventures, from real estate to liquor and from art to business holdings in Uber.
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Tayari Jones wins Women’s Prize for ‘An American Marriage’
Tayari Jones won the Women’s Prize for fiction on Wednesday with “An American Marriage,” her story of a family torn apart by the U.S. judicial system.
The American writer’s best-selling novel – selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club and praised by ex-president Barack Obama – centers on a successful African-American couple in Atlanta whose marriage is tested when the husband is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.
Historian Kate Williams, who chaired the judging panel, called the novel “a story of love, loss and intimacy that shines a light on today’s America.”
Founded in 1996, the 30,000-pound ($38,000) prize is open to female English-language writers from around the world.
Jones, a professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, beat five other finalists: Nigeria’s Oyinkan Braithwaite, U.S. author Madeline Miller and U.K. writers Pat Barker, Diana Evans and Anna Burns, winner of last year’s Booker Prize.
“An American Marriage” is Jones’ fourth novel, but the first to be published in Britain.
At the awards ceremony in London, Jones asked readers to remember “the millions of people who are incarcerated around the world.” Her book tackles the shadow cast by the judicial system over many African-American lives.
Jones said the novel had its origins in an exchange she overheard between a man and a woman at a shopping mall.
“They were so in love and they were in trouble,” she told The Associated Press “And she said, ‘Roy, you wouldn’t have waited on me for seven years.’ And he said, ‘This wouldn’t have happened to you in the first place.’
“I thought they were both right….When I have a situation where both characters are right yet they disagree, that’s a story I can spend some years wrestling with.”
Winfrey has bought the movie rights to “An American Marriage,” and Jones says she is due to see a screenplay “any second now.”
She expressed dismay at the presidency of Donald Trump, but said she remains an optimist.
“We’re in a really distressing moment, with setbacks, but I also think we’re in an exciting moment with literature,” Jones said.
“We are looking more to artists to help us find the way to help us figure out a way to a more progressive tomorrow.”
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from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2EV93h0
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Judge says Nipsey Hussle documents will stay sealed for now
A Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday that grand jury transcripts in a murder case over the killing of rapper Nipsey Hussle will remain sealed, for now.
Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry ordered that the documents, which would give the first glimpse of the prosecution’s evidence against defendant Eric Ronald Holder, will remain under wraps for at least three more weeks while Holder’s lawyer expands her argument that they should be kept secret in the interest of a fair trial.
Perry rejected a motion from the Los Angeles Times , which moved for the transcripts’ immediate release, saying the law here favors the public’s right to know.
The grand jury returned an indictment May 9 charging Holder with the murder, attempted murder, and other felonies . He has pleaded not guilty. Transcripts of the proceedings, under California law, would have become public May 31, and The Associated Press and other media outlets sought copies.
But Holder’s lawyer Lowynn Young filed a motion to keep them under seal until after trial, arguing that their release could unfairly prejudice the public against Holder and taint potential jurors.
Young, a public defender who took over Holder’s case when high-profile attorney Christopher Darden stepped down, said she has yet to have access to most of the evidence, and that the documents’ release would give the public as much knowledge as the defense has. Holder, who is jailed as he awaits trial, sat with his lawyer at the hearing.
LA Times attorney Rochelle L. Wilcox said there was no way the pool of potential jurors in LA County would be tainted by the information.
“I can’t imagine that the publicity is likely to be so pervasive that it would not be possible to find 12 unbiased jurors,” Wilcox said.
She argued that the defense would have to meet a high standard of precedent to keep the documents under wraps.
“I’m not persuaded by that,” the judge said, adding that three weeks of “breathing room” for all involved was perfectly acceptable.
He asked the defense for a more detailed motion before another hearing June 27.
The judge also raised the possibility that the unsealing could jeopardize public safety.
“I understand it was a near-riotous situation the day of the shooting,” said Perry, referring to a spontaneous memorial that temporarily turned into a stampede when gunshots were heard, leaving nearly 20 people injured.
Wilcox argued that the circumstances are nowhere near that volatile.
Hussle, 33, was shot and killed outside his clothing store on March 31. Two other men were shot and injured. Holder was arrested after a two-day manhunt.
The prosecution, which has not revealed why it used a secret grand jury instead of a public preliminary hearing, supports at least a partial release of the transcripts, and doesn’t believe it would bias a jury.
“There have to be at least hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles who haven’t heard of Nipsey Hussle,” Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said.
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Fighting Germans and Jim Crow: Role of Black troops on D-Day
It was the most massive amphibious invasion the world has ever seen, with tens of thousands of Allied troops spread out across the air and sea aiming to get a toehold in Normandy for the final assault on Nazi Germany. And while portrayals of D-Day often depict an all-white host of invaders, in fact it also included many African Americans.
Roughly 2,000 African American troops are believed to have hit the shores of Normandy in various capacities on June 6, 1944. Serving in a U.S. military still-segregated by race, they encountered discrimination both in the service and when they came home.
But on Normandy, they faced the same danger as everyone else.
The only African American combat unit that day was the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, whose job was to set up explosive-rigged balloons to deter German planes. Waverly Woodson Jr. was a corporal and a medic with the battalion. Although Woodson did not live to see this week’s 75th anniversary — he died in 2005 — he told The Associated Press in 1994 about how his landing craft hit a mine on the way to Omaha Beach.
“The tide brought us in, and that’s when the 88s hit us,” he said of the German 88mm guns. “They were murder. Of our 26 Navy personnel there was only one left. They raked the whole top of the ship and killed all the crew. Then they started with the mortar shells.”
Woodson was wounded in the back and groin while on the landing craft but went on to spend 30 hours on the beach tending to other wounded men before eventually collapsing, according to a letter from then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. Van Hollen, now a U.S. senator, is heading an effort to have Woodson posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day. But a lack of documentation — in part because of a 1973 fire that destroyed millions of military personnel files — has stymied the effort.
Another member of the unit, William Dabney described what they encountered on D-Day in a 2009 Associated Press interview during the invasion’s 65th anniversary.
“The firing was furious on the beach. I was picking up dead bodies and I was looking at the mines blowing up soldiers. … I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not,” said Dabney, then 84, who passed away last year.
Linda Hervieux detailed the exploits of the 320th in her book “Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, at Home and at War.” She said the military resisted efforts to desegregate as it ramped up for World War II. Instead they kept separate units and separate facilities for black and white troops.
“This was a very expensive and inefficient way to run an army. The Army … could have ordered its men to integrate and to treat black soldiers as fully equal partners in this war. The Army declined to do so,” she said. The Army wanted to focus on the war and didn’t want to become a social experiment, Hervieux said, but she notes that when African American soldiers were called on to fight side by side with whites, they did so without problems.
By the end of World War II, more than a million African Americans were in uniform including the famed Tuskegee Airmen and the 761st Tank Battalion. The Double V campaign launched by the Pittsburgh Courier, a prominent African American newspaper, called for a victory in the war as well as a victory at home over segregation, including in the military.
During World War II, it was unheard of for African American officers to lead white soldiers and they faced discrimination even while in the service. Black troops were often put in support units responsible for transporting supplies. But during the Normandy invasion that didn’t mean they were immune from danger.
Ninety-nine-year-old Johnnie Jones Sr., who joined the military in 1943 out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, was a warrant officer in a unit responsible for unloading equipment and supplies onto Normandy. He remembers wading ashore and coming under fire from a German sniper. He grabbed his weapon and returned fire along with the other soldiers. It’s something that still haunts his memories.
“I still see him, I see him every night,” he told the AP recently. In another incident, he remembers a soldier charging a pillbox, a selfless act that likely ended the soldier’s life. “I know he didn’t come back home. He didn’t come back home but he saved me and he saved many others.”
After defending their country in Europe, many African American troops were met with discrimination yet again at home. Jones remembers coming back the U.S. after the war’s end and having to move to the back of a bus as it crossed the Mason-Dixon line separating North from South. He recalls being harassed by police officers after returning to Louisiana.
“I couldn’t sit with the soldiers I had been on the battlefield with. I had to go to the back of the bus,” said Jones, who went on to become a lawyer and civil rights activist in Baton Rouge. “Those are the things that come back and haunt you.”
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from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2K2CZMe
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Chicago releases 911 calls from Smollett incident in January
The city of Chicago has released two 911 calls made after “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett claimed he was the victim of a racist, homophobic attack.
Recordings of the calls following the January 29 incident were obtained by The Associated Press and other outlets Wednesday evening. Both calls were made by an unidentified man who said he worked for “an artist” who he didn’t want to name.
During the first call, the man said the person went to a Subway restaurant and “some guys … they jumped him.” The caller said the person was initially reluctant to make the report but that he would speak to police.
The man expressed concern about a perceived delay in police response during the second call.
Smollett was later charged with lying to police. Prosecutors dropped the charges on March 26.
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from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2Z7SDcP
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R. Kelly to be arraigned on 11 new sex-assault charges
Singer R. Kelly is expected to plead not guilty to 11 new sex-related felonies at his Cook County arraignment.
Thursday’s hearing in Chicago comes a week after prosecutors announced the new counts, including four aggravated criminal sexual assault ones. Each carries a maximum prison term of 30 years.
Kelly pleaded not guilty in February to 10 related counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving three girls and one woman over roughly 10 years starting in the late 1990s.
The judge could revoke his bond and order him jailed pending trial. But legal experts say that’s highly unlikely.
Kelly’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg, has said the accuser in the new charges is one of the four accusers in the February charges. Even with more charges, he has said Kelly still expects to prevail at trial.
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Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Attacking The 2% Problem: Black Male Teacher Recruitment
Now that school is out, teacher recruitment is kicking in. We all know that you can’t teach all students the same right? Well, guess what? Not only can we not teach all students the same, but we also need to have the right teachers in front of our students in the classroom. We have powerful sisters in the classroom, but a scarcity of black male teachers.
So, what does this mean? What role models do we have for our students? Our African American student populations need powerful black male role models to lead by example and guide them to successful lives to shut down the pipeline to prison.
The current buzzword phrase is “diversity and inclusion.” But, how are schools or districts adhering to this goal without representation in the classroom? Fifty-one percent of the kids sitting in the seats in classrooms are minority students. Eighty-two percent of the teachers teaching them are Caucasian teachers.
Without black teachers in the classroom to teach black students, many negative factors come into play. Black students are less apt to see college graduation. They are less prone to enroll in Pre-AP, AP, or gifted courses. They are expected to do less from those that don’t look like them.
Only 2% of educators in the classroom are black males and 2% are Hispanic males. There is a racial gap that needs to be addressed here. Districts need to hire the population being served. Teachers need more culturally-relevant training and awareness. More males need to be hired as the industry is comprised of 23% males in a female-dominated field.
Recently, I worked with a student at a charter school in Dallas on Algebra. When the STARR results came out recently here in Texas, I advised this student that she passed. The entire time I was working with her, she thought she wouldn’t pass (and at times had an attitude when I was trying to help.) Upon the great news, she said, “Wow, I passed? I’m going to cry. You are kidding right?”
As a matter of fact, all the black students in Algebra 1 that I and the teacher worked with, passed the test. This particular young woman was the only black girl in her sixth grade and she struggled.
According to a report in The Chicago Tribune, the University of Illinois at Chicago will invest about $1 million in an initiative to recruit and train male elementary education majors of color, similar to how universities recruit and train star athletes.
There are about 575 black male public elementary school teachers in Illinois—roughly 1% of the total—and the number who are Hispanic and male is even smaller, at approximately 465. Black students with black teachers were suspended less often than black students with white or Hispanic teachers. Black students were three times more likely to be assigned to gifted programs when taught by a black teacher than a non-black teacher. In addition, having one black teacher in early elementary grades led to greater expression of interest in college by African American boys and raised the proportion of black students taking a college entrance exam by 10%.
Solutions for Recruiting More Black Male Teachers
- Hire male educators of color for elementary school education
- The Call Me MISTER program in Chicago, Clemson, and other schools (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models). Each person admitted to the program receives a full scholarship covering tuition and room and board for becoming an elementary education major
- Hire millennial black male educators who can relate to students.
- Increase teacher retention by ensuring teachers are heard by school administrators when addressing issues. Teachers are normally unhappy with school administration, teaching assignments and accountability/testing. Better relationships with administration, getting teachers in front of schools that make sense for them, and reducing the accountability/testing strain will increase retention immensely.
The journey may be long, but getting the right people on the right bus going the same direction is key to the success of our minority teachers and black and brown students.
The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author’s and not necessarily the opinion of Black Enterprise.
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