Dartmouth University Fraternity and Sorority Throw "Bloods and Crips" Party

A fraternity and sorority at Dartmouth University threw a "Bloods and Crips" party.  Dartmouth's Alpha Delta fraternity and Delta Delta Delta (Tri-Delta) sorority decided to forgo the typical Greek toga party and encourage attendees to don the wardrobe of two notorious LA based gangs.

Members of the campus chapter of Alpha Delta claim there was no intent to promote racism, rather, they merely intended to throw a creative costume party.

This seems all to similar to Duke University's Racist Rager.

Read more here.

Bananas Thrown at Italian Minister

Cecile Kyenge, who became Italy's first Black minister in April, has faced more than a few racist remarks since taking office. Last Friday, a heckler in the audience threw bananas at her as she spoke. 

On other occasions, one senator linked Minister Kyenge to an orangutan and another councilor said she "should be raped so she understands how victims of crimes committed by immigrants feel." The senator later apologized and the councilor received suspended jail time. Minister Kyenge has been threatened and attacked with racial slurs on almost a daily basis so these antics are, unfortunately, nothing new for her. 

Kyenge said the bananas tossed at her were a waste of food. Sadly, these racist acts are still a part of the lives of women of color politicians who are trying to make a difference in the world.

Read more here.

 

'Angry Trayvon' App Removed From Google App Store

Google recently pulled its 'Angry Trayvon' app from the Google Play Store.

Yes, this game surrounded the slain teen, Trayvon Martin. The 'Angry Trayvon' character gathers weapons, wallets, and commits murder all while wearing his powerful hoodie. 

The game creators apologized, arguing that the game was "by no means a racist game." Right.

Tacky, stupid, and disgusting are just a few of the words that come to mind when we think about the people thought this was a good idea or even an acceptable creation. Granted, we all know that the quest for the almighty dollar can often override thought, reason, and tact but this is just wrong.

Shame, shame, Google. Read more here.

Today is Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth. If you don't know the importance of Juneteenth, learn about it here. 

Oprah Donates $12 Million To Smithsonian Black History Museum

Earlier this week, Oprah donated $12 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. She also gave $1 million in 2007 and is a member of the advisory council. Oprah's gift is the largest to be received by the museum and it will name the 350-seat theater after her. 

She said, "I am so proud of African American history and its contributions to our nation as a whole. I am deeply appreciative of those who paved the path for me and all who follow in their footsteps. By investing in this museum, I want to help ensure that we both honor and preserve our culture and history, so that the stories of who we are will live on for generations to come.”

Now, we love our Oprah. She is worth $2.8 billion and Oprah critics aside (pipe down please), we can all agree that this is a great use of her millions. 

The museum is set to open in late 2015. 

Read more here.

Today in History: Women in America Got The Right To Vote

Thanks to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who drafted what is now the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment prohibits any U.S. citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.

On June 4, 1919, the proposal to amend the Constitution was passed in House of Representatives 54-25.  The amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. The Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 19th Amendment in Leser v. Garnett. A second shout-out goes to Justice Brandeis for authoring that Supreme Court opinion.

The R-word is Like the N-Word, According to Some Members of Congress

Last week, ten members of Congress wrote to Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins.

Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Arizona), Zoe Lofgren (D-California), Michael M. Honda (D-California), Barbara Lee (D-California), Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Donna M. Christensen (D-Virginia), and Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) signed a letter urging him to change the team name. The effort was headed by Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) and Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus.

What did they say?  

Among other things, the authors said:  

"Native Americans throughout the country consider the R-word a racial, derogatory slur akin to the N-word among African Americans or the W-word among Latinos. Such offensive epithets would no doubt draw widespread disapproval among the NFL’s fan base. Yet the national coverage of Washington’s NFL football team profits from a term that is equally disparaging to Native Americans...The current Chairman and Chief of the Penobscot Nation, Chief Kirk Francis, recently stated in a joint statement that the [R-word] is ‘not just a racial slur or a derogatory term,’ but a painful ‘reminder of one of the most gruesome acts of . . . ethnic cleansing ever committed against the Penobscot people.’ The hunting and killing of Penobscot Indians like animals, as declared by Chief Francis, was ‘a most despicable and disgraceful act of genocide'... In this day and age, it is imperative that you uphold your moral responsibility to disavow the usage of racial slurs...We look forward to working with you to find a solution to this important matter."

(Preach.) 

Snyder's response? 

Snyder told USA Today, "We'll never change the name. It's that simple. NEVER - you can use caps." He continued, "As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it's all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season."

Too bad support for the team name went down from 89 percent to 79 percent over the past generation. And we're sure the lack of support is growing.

Furthermore, the Native American Finance Officers Association, the Tulsa Indian Coalition Against Racism, the American Indian Movement West, and the United South and Eastern Tribes oppose the use of the term as negative, hurtful, and past due for a name change. 

And so do we - duh! Why is there even a question as to whether this is offensive? It's 2013. (All one-eighths of my Blackfoot people are offended and will continue to be offended. And so are all seven-eighths of my Mestiza people.) 

Never say never, sir.

(Note to DMV/NOVA children of the 1990s: Remember when the Bullets became the Washington Wizards because of the violent undertones of the team name? Hey! Wasn't that a good idea?)

Shut it down, Snyder. 

Read more here.  

Are Barack Obama and Clarence Thomas the New Biggie and Tupac?

Objectively, President Obama and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are two of the "highest ranking" professional black men in the United States. They have much in common, but have barely spoken a word to one other.  The divide between them is puzzling.  This is not to say that all black men should be friends, or all black law school graduates should be friends, because the issue goes much deeper than that.

The question is why don't they get along? It can't be purely because of ideological differences.

Both men were raised by their grandparents and had absent fathers.

Both men went to Ivy League Law schools.  President Obama attended Harvard. Justice Thomas attended Yale.

Both men chose a life of public service  where their annual salaries are nothing compared to what they could have made as corporate attorneys following President Obama's time as Harvard Law Review Editor-in-Chief or Justice Thomas' time on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Remember in 2008 when then-Senator Obama said he never would have nominated Clarence Thomas. Except, the Senator expanded upon that statement to tell the world that he did not think Clarence Thomas was smart enough to be a Supreme Court Justice.

During a recent speech, Justice Thomas admitted that he and Obama have hardly spoken a word to each other. It seems their only contact was a handshake at one of the President's inaugurations.  Justice Thomas made another jab at the President, saying that knew the first black president would have to be approved by the liberal elites.

The back and forth comments are sophomoric (pretentious or juvenile). At this point in their careers, both men are essentially professional equals with one sitting in the highest elected office in the United States and the other holding one of the highest positions for a professional jurist. Because Justice Thomas is an Associate Justice, rather than the Chief Justice, he could arguably obtain one higher peg in the Supreme Court Justice ladder. That being said, there is no need for the in-fighting.

These men need to show each other respect.  By that, they don't need to become friends, but they need to be respectful to the offices they both hold. There are ways to respectively criticize and we don't often see examples of such good behavior. President Obama and Clarence Thomas have an opportunity to peacefully co-exist.

Read more here.

#Support4Wilmot - Free Kiera Wilmot!

This is what happened to me when I entered the science fair. I won the school fair. I won the regional fair. I was invited to a summer program with the Discovery Channel. I placed at the state fair. So, not a clean sweep but I won a $1000 scholarship for college. And I used it. 

I wasn't taken in to federal custody and charged with two felonies. Nor was I expelled from school and only allowed to graduate from an "expulsion program."

Kiera Wilmont, a 16-year-old student from Florida, mixed household chemicals together in a bottle before the school day started. Although, she only expected smoke, there was an explosion. She wasn't injured. None of her classmates or school property were injured. After the small explosion and the smoke, she didn't go to first period. She went into federal custody for Possession/discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device. To a so called "juvenile assessment center." She is being charged as an adult. 

We don't know what will happen to her but we can only hope these charges are dismissed and her story ends like mine. Because scientifically curious students should be rewarded, not punished. Free Kiera Wilmot.

Read more here and here and here. #Solidarity4Wilmot  #KieraWilmot

What exactly does it mean to "get ghetto in the bedroom"?

Well, as if the ghetto blaster purse were not enough, you can now buy the Hoodie Pillow Case, which "lets you get ghetto in the bedroom." It "offer(s) a degree of warmth while ensuring you have that rather mysterious look whenever your hoodie is up." For only $19.99, you can order the pillow from an online company and receive a heavy dose of ghettoness in the mail.

Yep, that's exactly what I want when I sleep. Warmth. Check. Mystery. Check. Ghettoness? We don't think so.

It even includes a pocket for your phone so you won't lose it while being stopped and frisked in your dreams. (Our commentary, not theirs.)

We are not posting the link because if you want to purchase the Hoodie Pillow and get ghetto in the bedroom, find it yourself.

Want to look fabulous like FLOTUS? There's an app for that

What did the First Lady wear on Monday? A floral print dress? Who makes it? Want to buy it?

Well, now you can know all of this and more. Released last week, the Michelle's Style List
app will show you where to buy FLOTUS' fashions. Whether you want the originals or similar pieces, the app tracks her every style move and keeps you connected with links to the designers' websites. 

So if you're interested, for only 99 cents on itunes.com, why not?

Read more here.

"Girl Rising" Movie Review

What prevented you from attending school? An arranged marriage? Child slavery?

"Girl Rising" is the story of nine girls in developing nations deprived of education just because of their gender. Each story is written by a writer from the girl's homeland and told through a mixed narrative that is slight fact and slight "made for tv" re-imagination. 

The story is narrated by 9 actresses. Narrators include Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, Chloe Grace Moretz, Liam Neeson, Freida Pinto, Meryl Streep, and Kerry Washington. The stories are so compelling that you won't even try to guess which celebrity is narrating.

One girl is a child of the dump. Another was sold into bonded labor while her brother was allowed to attend school. Then there is the girl whose parents sold her to buy a beaten-up car for her brother. But through determination and often intervention from others, they are taught to read, and have the opportunity for education.

The narrative is presented by 10x10. It's an organization advocating for female education across the world. Read more here.

There is No Such Thing as a Black Tax Credit

Since April 15th is just around the corner, we've decided to debunk a frivolous tax credit argument--the Black Tax Credit.


This is the kind of thing that gets passed along by email forwards, but this nonsense must stop. You might think that this is an old scam that nobody is falling for, except I recently overheard people talking about it.

In case your loved ones, friends, and neighbors have not fallen for the scam, and you're unaware of the back story, then keep reading.

Apparently, some folks believe that African Americans can claim a Black Tax Credit on their tax return as a reparation for slavery. It seems that the IRS actually gave fraudulent tax filers millions of dollars for this credit in 2002 and 2003. However, there is no provision in the tax code that allows such a credit. As people continue to claim this fraudulent credit, they become subject audits and will end up owing that money plus interest to the IRS.

Here's some advice - don't try to get something for nothing. If you weren't a slave, then don't try to get slavery reparations. It's not going to happen. Nobody's going get 40 acres and mule from the federal government. Move on. Try a new argument, and try to decrease your tax burden with legitimate tax credits. 


Read more here.

April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month (It's also National Grilled Cheese Month and we're celebrating that one as well.) Here's to celebrating the great African American poets and poems. 

'42' Jackie Robinson Biopic Trailer Premieres

So the television trailer for 42, a biopic about Jackie Robinson, premiered a few days ago. (Well, that's when we first saw it so please forgive us if we are a little slow when it comes to t.v.) At first glance, we wondered what in the heck Jay-Z has to do with Jackie Robinson. But we forgive the soundtrack because the trailer looked pretty good. The costumes and sets looked great and the storyline did not look to be sugar-coated. The cast includes Chadwick Boseman as Robinson, Harrison Ford, and Christopher Meloni. And of course, who didn't love Nicole Beharie in American Violet? She will star as Robinson's wife, Rachel. The film is directed by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland and hits theaters on April 12. We're excited.

President Obama to Designate Harriet Tubman National Monument

President Obama will soon designate The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Monument as a National Park. Among the four other designations will be Ohio's Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.

The White House reported: 

"The monument commemorates the life of the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad who was responsible for helping enslaved people escape from bondage to freedom.   The new national park, located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, includes large sections of landscapes that are significant to Tubman’s early life in Dorchester County and evocative of her life as a slave and conductor of the Underground Railroad.  The park includes Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by free and enslaved people between 1810 and the 1830s and where Tubman learned important outdoor skills when she worked in the nearby timbering operations with her father.  Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Refuge lands, although park of the new national park, will continue to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument also includes the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free black man who used coded letters to help Tubman communicate with family and others.  The monument will also partner with the State of Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Visitor Center when it opens in 2015."

Read more here.

FBI Released Updated Hate Crimes Training Manual

The FBI released its new Hate Crimes Training Manual. This manual provides the most extensive listing of hate crime targets, investigations, and reporting guidelines.

Read more here.

View the manual here.

Neither Redface Nor Blackface are Acceptable Fashion Choices

Michelle Williams is on the cover of AnOther Magazine in a stereotypical Native American depiction. She is dressed in plaid and jeans with thick dark braids and a feather. The Native American themed photo is the alternative cover of the bi-annual AnOther Magazine.

The cover has a tag line of "there's no place like home." It might be an ode to her upcoming movie, "Oz the Great and Powerful," but ironically serves to highlight the Native Americans who were unceremoniously kicked out of them homes.

Lexi Nisita wrote on Refinery29.com, that they should have dressed her like Dorothy. We agree.

Read more here.

Age Ain't Nothing But a Number as Tina Turner Lands the Cover of Vogue at 73

Tina Turner may have renounced her U.S. citizenship, but she is looking fabulous at 73 on the cover of the April issue of German Vogue. She is indeed the oldest person to grace the cover of the fashion magazine.

It would be remiss to ignore that many of Tina's biggest musical successes came as she battled physical abuse with former husband and partner Ike Turner; however, she certainly stood on her own two feet with her Grammy-award winning song "What's Love Got to Do with It."

We salute Tina for kicking that abusive Ike to the curb. It is hard to think of her life and not see the parallel with the younger and not nearly as talented Rihanna and Chris Brown. Hopefully, Rihanna will see the error of her ways and become her own "Proud Mary."

Read more here.

Not Buying It: 'Keep Calm and Rape' Shirts on Sale

Keep Calm and Rape a Lot.
Keep Calm and Knife Her.
Keep Calm and Grope a Lot.
Keep Calm and Hit Her.
Keep Calm and Choke Her.  
   
Yes, these shirts were available on Amazon.com and produced by a company called Solid Gold Bomb. (Founder Michael Fowler actually pretended not to know the company was even selling the shirts.)

Hey, Solid Gold Bomb, #NotBuyingIt. #TwoPersonBoycott.

Read more here at the Good Men Project.

In Honor of Women's History Month - 100 Black Women You Should Know, But Might Not

 

Fannie Lou Hamer

Daisy Bates

Mamie Till

Mary McLeod Bethune

Marjorie Lee Browne

Shirley Chisholm

Dorothy Height

bell hooks

Mae C. Jemison

Ntozake Shange

Sojourner Truth

Maggie Lena Walker

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Elizabeth Key

Ella Baker

Ruby Bridges

Septima Clark

Harriet Tubman

Zora Neale Hurston

Bessie Coleman

Audre Lourde

Anne Moody

Barbara Johns

Annie Easley

Mary Louise Baldwin

Cheryl Shavers

May Edward Chinn

Maya Angelou

Marjorie Stewart Joyner

Drusilla Dunjee Houston

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander

Ella Fitzgerald

Shirley Ann Jackson

Dr. Mamie Clark

Ellen Smith Craft

Pearl Bailey

Edith Sampson

Gwendolyn Brooks

Octavia Butler

Lorraine Hansberry

June Bacon-Bearcey

Marian Anderson

Cicely Tyson

Cathay Williams

Billie Holiday

Mamie 'Peanut' Johnson

Sarah S. Goode

Barbara Jordan

Rosa Parks

Dorothy E. Davis

Frances Harper

Cinque

Catherine Burks-Brooks

Autherine Lucy

Linda Brown Smith

Melba Pattillo Beals

Glenda Gaither Davis

Mae Francis Moultrie

Effa Manley

Elizabeth Eckford

Gloria Ray Karlmark

Ethel Louise Belton Brown

Diane Nash

Connie Morgan

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Ruby Doris Smith Robinson

Nina Simone

Carlotta Walls Lanier

Unita Blackwell

Prathia Hall

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Kathleen Neal Cleaver

Dorothy Cotton

Angela Davis

June Jordan

Dorothy Geraldine Counts

Elizabeth Keckly

Toni Stone

Myrlie Evers Williams

Claudette Colvin

Rita Dove

Alice Walker

Minnijean Brown

Margaret Burroughs

Elaine Brown

Thelma Mothershed

Patricia Bath

Janet Emerson Bashen

Condoleeza Rice

Toni Morrison

Mari Evans

Carol Moseley Braun

Patricia Roberts Harris

Dorothy Dandridge

Ruby Dee

Gertrude Koen

Joyce Bryant

Lena Horn

Josephine Baker 

Charlotte E. Ray

Idris Elba to Star in Nelson Mandela Biopic

The Weinstein Company will release Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, a biopic about Nelson Mandela starring Idris Elba. Bond Girl, Naomie Harris, will play his wife, Winnie Mandela.

It was filmed in Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape and was completed a few months ago. It will detail Mandela's "early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison."  The film was produced by Anant Singh, who began communicating with Mandela while he was in prison, and will be based on his 1996 autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom.  

Read more here. 

No Sir, A Car Full of Blacks And Hispanics Does Not Mean A Drug Deal Is About To Occur

Justice Sonia Sotomayor slammed a Texas prosecutor for a "racially charged" question.

The case comes from a drug arrest in Texas, when the defendant Bongani Charles Calhoun claimed he did not know the group of men that gave him a ride were going to commit a drug deal. 

The prosecutor asked the defendant, "You've got African Americans, you've got Hispanics, you've got a bag full of money. Does that tell you -- a light bulb doesn't go off in your head and say, 'This is a drug deal?"'

Justice Sotomayor along with Justice Stephen Breyer criticized the prosecutor and labeled his line of questioning as "pernicious in its attempt to substitute racial stereotypes for evidence, and racial prejudice for reason. It is deeply disappointing to see a representative of the United States resort to this base tactic more than a decade into the 21st century."

Although the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, Justice Sotomayor did not want the prosecutor's statement to go untouched.

Justice Sotomayor continued to state, "by suggesting that race should play a role in establishing a defendant's criminal intent, the prosecutor here tapped a deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice that has run through the history of criminal justice in our nation." 

Sotomayor concluded, "I hope never to see a case like this again." And this, among many other reasons, is why we love Justice Sotomayor.          

Read more here.

North Dakota High School Students Wear Klan Robes To Hockey Game

  
No, you are not seeing a picture from the 1950s. Yes, those are high school students dressed up as klansmen at a North Dakota hockey game. Athletic director of Fargo Public Schools Todd Olson said, "To be very honest, I think you're looking for something that is not there." Excuse me, sir? We all know what KKK robes look like and apparently, so do members of the Fargo student body. Read more about this mess here.

Snitches Get Stitches, Says The Rock's New Movie

The commercial for The Rock's new movie, Snitch, caught our eye recently.

Not because we love to look at The Rock or because we think he's a great actor but mostly because of the movie's title.

Snitch. But what is the movie about anyway?

It's more than one of The Rock's usual action packed shoot em' up film. It has a message? What? A message you say? 

"When a teenage boy is wrongfully arrested for distributing drugs and sentenced for a decade, the father makes a deal with the United States Attorney to become an undercover informant and infiltrate a drug cartel, risking his family and his life," the description says.

The writers and directors based the movie on a PBS Frontline documentary, which focused on how federal drug laws reward snitches with lighter prison sentences. Takepart.com and Participant Media are distributing the film. 

See this great infographic from the movie's website, which features statistics about mandatory minimum drug sentences and how the federal government uses informants in drug busts, sometimes leading to the death of American citizens. It also focuses on the disproportionate impact of these laws on racial minorities.

Snitch hit theaters yesterday. We're probably not going out to see it but someone let us know if it's any good. We appreciate the effort and the message. 

More here. 

Black History Month Photo of the Day: February 21

Whole Foods Removes Obama Chicken Ad

A Whole Foods in New York used a caricature of President Obama to advertise a one-day sale of whole organic chicken. Although the store removed the sign after receiving complaints that the advertisement was offensive, we still question their judgment.

Unfortunately, Whole Foods is not the first retailer to use a caricature of President Obama to sell chicken. 

A subsidiary of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in China, used the President's likeness to advertise "Obama's Fried Chicken."

Read more here.

Hospital Grants Father's Request For "No Black Nurses"

A Michigan hospital consented to a father's request that "no black nurses" care for his newborn child. After the father saw Tonya Battle, a Black nurse, holding his child in the neonatal intensive care unit, the "concerned" father rolled up his sleeve, showed the staff his Swastika tattoo, and told the supervisor that he "did not want any African Americans taking care of his child."

When Tonya Battle returned to work the next day, the child had been assigned to a new nurse and she found a note on the assignment clipboard: Please No African American Nurses To Care For Baby Per Dad's Request. Thank You.  No African American nurses were assigned to care for this child for the next month, until the hospital's lawyer informed management that the father's discriminatory request could no longer be granted.

Although your gut may tell you that this is a clear case of discrimination, the law is murky in this area where health law meets employment discrimination law. To put it simply, patients have the right to choose their type of health care including a choice of hospital or doctor. A patient can typically request a change in health care provider based on gender or religion. However, when Hurley Medical Center enforced the Swastika-wearing father's request and posted the sign about "no black nurses" it most likely violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race.

Not that we are in Michigan to participate in one of our Two Person Boycotts but really, Hurley Medical Center? Giving in to the wishes of a white supremacist? We will have none of it. 

Read more here.