The comedian made himself vulnerable about his son’s death in an emotional Instagram post. In the 11-minute video, The Friday After Next actor shared his grief with his followers.
“I feel bad for my other kids,” he said. “My kids are confused. They don’t know what to do. I just never thought I would be a member of an organization where you have to bury your kids. It’s a terrible nightmare.”
Smiley also explained how he didn’t cry, due to “shock,” but he described the feeling as someone stomping on his chest non-stop.
“Tears are coming down your eyes but you ain’t crying,” Rickey said. “And then you crying and ain’t no tears coming down your eyes,” Smiley said. “I’m okay, but please pray for my son’s mother Brenda, his siblings and his daughter Storm.”
Smiley’s announcement came two years after his daughter, Aaryn Smiley, was shot multiple times in a road rage incident while waiting at a red light on her way to Whataburger.
“Today could have been different,” Smiley told his YouTube subscribers after the July 2020 shooting. “I’m lucky [my daughter] is still living.”
Later that same month, Aaryn spoke on her father’s show about surviving the random act of gun violence.
“I’m happy to be alive,” the Baylor University student said at the time. “I’m praying for those that have actually had to give their life to gun violence and died because of it.”
The then-19-year-old added that she was “thankful” for her boyfriend for quickly getting her to the hospital, where she received a blood transfusion and underwent surgery.
The shooting led to Aaryn experiencing panic attacks, with “loud noises or popping sounds making” her cry.
“The mental aspect of all this is really scary,” she wrote via Instagram Stories. “Hopefully my mental increases with my physical.”
Miami Police Department Reveals ‘Tone Deaf’ Police Cruiser to Celebrate Black History Month
There are so many creative ways for people to celebrate Black History Month, but some just get it wrong.
The Miami Police Department decided to decorate a police cruiser with Africa-themed imagery for the month of February. Revealed on Twitter on Feb. 1, Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, told Fox News it was “beautiful.” “This is a beautiful collaboration to commemorate Black history and Black History Month and the history of African Americans and our police department and our city,” Suarez said. “This is Black history.”
News 7 Miami reported the ceremony took place at the Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum along Northwest 11th Street. Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales was also present. Reporter Joshua Caballos tweeted that he spoke with Black police union president Stanley Jean-Poix, who said the union approved the car design before the unveiling. “It celebrates our African ancestry,” Jean-Poix told Caballos.
I just spoke to Black police union (@mcpba1946) president Stanley Jean-Poix. He said Mayor Suarez's office had nothing to do with the design of the car, and the design had the full approval of the union before it was unveiled.
Social media did not hold back on expressing how they felt regarding the design. Sherrilyn Ifill, former President & Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, used three words – “THIS CANNOT BE.”
MSNBC legal analyst, Charles Coleman, called the car “tone deaf” and said it showed that the Miami Police Department doesn’t have any diversity, equity, and inclusion experts on staff.
1. Because Florida 2. Tell me you don't have a D&I person without telling me you don't have a D&I person. 3. No, you don't get credit for just trying.
This type of tone deaf performative action is what provokes a "war on wokeness" when we are made to accept the unacceptable. https://t.co/IURT4MyT5E
— Charles Coleman Jr., Jedi Knight (@CFColemanJr) February 2, 2023
In the wake of the Tyre Nichols case and similar cases across the country, Twitter users posted memes and videos, showing that some police don’t really know how to respond.
“There’s been a lot of police brutality going on. What do you guys plan on doing about it?”
Unfortunately, other Twitter users took the opportunity to point out police cruisers are not created to celebrate everyone’s history, claiming if they did, it would be racist.
when do we get a "white" history police car ?….oh wait that would be "RACIST"
Other Twitter users took the opportunity to point out how wrong the police department was, from a historic place. “They’re the police dept where the notorious phrase ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ derives from,” one user tweeted.
NPR reported that the Miami police Chief Walter Headley used the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in 1967 after crimes erupted during the civil rights era.
Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame Announces its Black History Month Class of Inductees
The Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame (BMEWOF) is set to host its 4th Installation of the Crown Jewel of Excellence™ Black History Month Class of 2023 Induction Ceremony and Brunch Celebration.
The two-part celebration takes place in Atlanta on February 28th. This year’s BMEWOF celebration honors three luminary icons, Ambassador Andrew Young, Danny Glover, and Dr. Bobby Jones.
Ambassador Andrew Young is known as a leader in the Civil Rights movement; he has built a remarkable legacy as a civic activist, elected official, groundbreaking ambassador, social entrepreneur, and adviser to presidents. Today, he leads the Andrew J. Young Foundation’s efforts to develop and support new generations of visionary leaders who will create sustainable global approaches to economic development, poverty alleviation, and the challenge of hunger.
Danny Glover is an award-winning actor, producer, and humanitarian, with a performance career that spans more than 30 years. Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, focusing on issues of poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador. Dr. Bobby Jones is an acclaimed singer who has released 14 albums, toured internationally and won many honors, including Stellar Awards, Dove Awards, and a Grammy Award. He is often credited with giving gospel music its first national stage. Started in 1980, Bobby Jones Gospel is the longest continuously running show on cable and a Sunday morning staple of Black Entertainment Television.
The Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame Black History Month Induction Ceremony will take place February 28, 2023, from 11 AM EST to 12 PM EST at the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame at 443 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta, GA, 30313. Immediately following, The Black History Month Celebratory Brunch follows at the Thompson Buckhead Hotel from 1 PM EST to 4 PM EST. Tickets can be purchased at: https://blackmusicentertainmentwalkoffame.ticketlocity.com/events/35544.
As our esteemed media colleagues, we invite you to join us for this historic occasion as we share in the accomplishments of these legendary icons. For media inquiries & VIP credentials, contact: Sheoyki Jones at impact@socialxurrency.com.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Thanks ‘Angels of Mercy’ for Saving His Mom in LA Car Accident
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is thanking the angels above for protecting his mother in the Los Angeles car accident she recently survived.
The Black Adam star took to Instagram late Thursday to share a gruesome wreckage photo of the auto accident his mother survived on Wednesday. The photo showed the shell of the Escalade his mom was driving had been completely torn off and crumbled, with the airbag appearing to have been deployed on the driver’s side as a result of the collision.
“Thank you God 🙏🏾 she’s ok. Angels of mercy watched over my mom as she was in a car crash late last night,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson, 50, went on to give fans an update on his mom’s condition and recovery process, while also praising her resilience as a survivor of cancer, domestic abuse, car accidents, and personal struggles.
“She’ll survive and continue to get evaluated,” he wrote. “This woman has survived lung cancer, tough marriage, head on collision with a drunk driver and attempted suicide. She’s a survivor, in ways that make angels and miracles real.”
The Jumanji star thanked the LAPD and LAFD for rescuing his mom and staying on the phone with him, while also encouraging others to cherish their parents while they’re still here.
“I got one parent left, so if you still got your mom and dad make sure you hug ‘em hard, cos you never know when you’ll get that 3am call we never want to get,” he wrote.
The car accident comes two years after the passing of Johnson’s father, pro wrestler Rocky Johnson, in January 2020, WSB-TVreported. Johnson is a legacy professional wrestler whose late father retired from the ring in 1991. The Rock inducted his father into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008
Diversity Woman Magazine Announces Third Annual ‘Elite 100’ Issue Honoring Extraordinary Black Women Leaders Changing the Face of Corporate America
Diversity Woman Magazine announces its third annual ‘ELITE 100′ issue, a tribute to 100 extraordinary Black women leaders. Each year, more and more Black women are undeniably making historic gains in corporate America.
To celebrate these remarkable women and encourage those who will be featured in future lists, Diversity Woman presents the annual Elite 100Class of 2023 list of Black women leaders.
Diversity Woman Magazine is the essential business magazine and community for women professionals and executives, with an initiative to support leadership and executive development for all women of all races, cultures, and backgrounds. In celebration of Black History Month, the special issue is available for sale on www.diversitywoman.com beginning February 1 and on Barnes & Noble newsstands February 15, 2023.
Diversity Woman’s ELITE 100 Class of 2023 highlights Black women in the C-suite and executive leaders—including 10 CEOs— at Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, Fortune Global 500, S&P 500 companies, and nonprofits. These impressive women are leading complex transformations in their corporations by managing remote teams around the world, building morale through innovative programming, optimizing organizational culture through diversity, equity, and inclusion, and sustaining profitable bottom lines. In fields from finance and tech to entertainment and health care, these corporate superstars are making their mark.
“I am thrilled to celebrate the inspiring Black women featured in our Elite 100 Class of 2023 issue,” said Dr. Sheila Robinson, founder of Diversity Woman Media. “These impressive women are serving as the North Star for the rest of us. These women are not only worthy of honoring in their own right, they also represent something significant—for years, companies have been saying that they cannot find qualified Black women executives for the corner office and boardrooms. This list—along with the 100 other women in 2021 and 2022—proves otherwise. We are intentional in honoring a new group of Black women executive leaders every year.
“There is a very deep roster of high qualified, exceptional Black women leaders, and we are confident that companies will take notice and accelerate their efforts to recruit and promote many more Black women into executive leadership and board positions. We are dispelling the myth they do not exist.”
How the Elite 100 Were Chosen The Diversity Woman Elite 100, Class of 2023, highlights extraordinary Black women leaders in private and public sectors. Our roster comprises some of the most powerful women executives in the C-suite and in senior level roles at Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, Fortune Global 500, S&P 500, and S&P 400 companies, as well as other major business enterprises and national nonprofits. The criteria for honorees: She must hold a senior level or executive officer position; oversee a major global, national, and/or regional division, subsidiary, organization, or enterprise; and demonstrate a record of leadership success, achieving results on the bottom line and enhancing company culture.
Massey most recently served as the City of Memphis’ Director of Business Diversity & Compliance. In this role, she was responsible for counseling clients on business expansions, acquisitions, procurement opportunities and navigating community and government ecosystems. Massey is also the Founder & Principal of Lewis Massey Associates, LLC, a boutique consulting Firm, where she previously served in a consulting role to help build Operation HOPE’s Government Relations.
“Joann’s track record proves that she is committed to helping business owners and advocating for economic justice,” said Brian Betts, Operation HOPE President and Chief Financial Officer. “Joann is a familiar and trusted face within the HOPE family. We welcome her to the team and look forward to supporting her efforts to grow our 1MBB initiative, which provides much-needed resources to Black businesses nationwide.”
Massey is a recognized community leader with accolades such as the Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 and Leadership Memphis Executive, among others. She holds a certificate in Economic Development from Harvard University’s Executive Education Program and a Certified Compliance Administrator certification from Morgan State University.
She is also an MBA alumna of Benedictine University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a concentration in Finance. Massey holds a dual Bachelor of Business Administration and Finance degree from LeMoyne Owen College, a Historically Black College & University (HBCU).
Black Health Launches ‘Get Me Vaxxed’ for Black History Month
Those parents understand the wisdom of fully immunizing their children against measles, mumps, chicken pox and others on the list of contagions that can injure, maim and, yes, kill.
They know that getting a child vaccinated is an act of love and that the Black community, overall, long has ensured that our children are immunized against these preventable diseases.
There also are Black parents who’ve yet to embrace those ideals and the medical facts they’re based upon. Motivated by unchecked disinformation that’s plaguing our world right now, some of those parents have mistakenly asserted that COVID-19 vaccines don’t serve their children’s interests.
The Get Me Vaxxed campaign launched by Black Health, where I am president and CEO, is squarely aimed at debunking lingering myths about vaccines. Those myths endanger some Black children and, by extension, the rest of us. Get Me Vaxxed billboards, bus stop signs, barbershop flyers, social media blasts and assorted announcements are razor-focused on ensuring that the youngest members of our households are thoroughly vaccinated against COVID.
Black Health is waging this campaign as a November 2022 CDC report concluded that just 8.8 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds had at least one dose of the vaccine, a rate that researchers, pediatricians and others consider to be way too low.
Those vaccination rates trail a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis alarmingly showing that, in most states collecting the data, far fewer Black 5- to 11-year-olds than white kids in that age group had been vaccinated against COVID-19. (For Blacks and whites 12 years and older, the vaccination rates had been about the same.)
Those avoidable racial disparities persists for kids nationally, including in several cities that Get Me Vaxxed especially targets: Atlanta; Baton Rouge; Columbia, South Carolina; New York City; Syracuse, New York; and Tuskegee, Alabama. In those locales, Black Health has strong partnerships with major health institutions and Black advocates for community wellness who are showing parents a way forward on vaccines.
The Black physicians, grassroots activists, pastors, hair stylists, white-collar workers, blue-collar workers, friends, neighbors and other everyday folks who’ve helped shape and roll out Get Me Vaxxed are chipping away at misinformation. They’re providing clarity and relieving doubt. For example, at the height of COVID-19, Blacks who chose not to be vaccinated often tried to tie their reluctance to the infamous “Tuskegee Experiment” of the 1930s. It’s a faulty comparison. What’s officially labeled the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee actually involved intentionally withholding medical treatment from Black men who’d contracted syphilis. This, even though a vaccine against that sexually transmitted illness had been invented in 1910.
But there is a huge difference between then and now. More pointedly, there’s a huge difference between refusing to supply health care and encouraging the broad public to partake of available, accessible health care. The COVID vaccine is health care. As a former social worker squarely prioritizing Black wellness and as a longtime community advocate and activist, this is the vaccine gospel that I preach.
Scientists predict that other pandemics likely will follow COVID-19, which disproportionately claimed Black lives. We’ve got to be ready for what’s to come.
We’ve got to lean into the evidence about the overwhelming good that vaccines do — and raise a generation, our children, to accept that same science.
And what’s proven is this: One million 6-month-old through 5-year-old children took either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID vaccines between June 18, 2022 and August 21, 2022. Just 2,000 of those children had adverse reactions to those vaccines. Of those reactions, 98.1 percent were minor, including. Irritability, crying, fever, rashes and soreness in the area where the vaccine was injected.
With Get Me Vaxxed, we are centering our overriding determination that Black children will be protected against a disease that now is endemic, just like the flu is. Without giving it too much thought, many of us annually get vaccinated against the flu, which once had been pandemic.
Get Me Vaxxed itself is part of a broader endeavor to boost Black health at a time when Black health outcomes generally continue to be concerning and lag behind those of other groups.
Before we changed the name of our 35-year-old organization to Black Health, we’d begun our groundbreaking wellness work as the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, gaining attention, financial and other support from an array of large and small donors and federal health agencies. Through our innovative initiatives, we were able to win many battles in our fight against HIV. Recognizing the urgency to expand our territory and do other kinds of pioneering work in the health sphere, we also are addressing Black mental health, breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, sickle cell disease, disparities in health care delivery and resources and the sometimes troublesome encounters between Black patients and health care providers.
Get Me Vaxxed is our latest rallying cry on behalf of Black communities. Our kids don’t have big enough voices to speak for themselves. They cannot get themselves to vaccine sites without a grown-up leading them.
So, this is urgent work. We must do it. We must exercise the same diligence that Blacks, for decades, have shown in getting and keeping our kids vaccinated.
Before helming Black Health, longtime civil rights activist C. Virginia Fields served two terms as a New York City Councilwoman and, following that, two terms as Borough President of Manhattan in New York City.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this op/ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Black Enterprise.
Silk Comes Up With the Theory That a Bioweapon ‘Sprayed In The Air’ Killed Her Sister Diamond
Last month, Lynette Hardaway, better known as Diamond from the pro-Trump loving duo Diamond and Silk,unexpectedly passed away on Jan. 8.
Less than a month later, her sister, Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, claims that her sister, who reportedly died due to a heart condition caused by chronic high blood pressure, was killed by a “bioweapon” sprayed in the air.
On the latest episode of the podcast Diamond and Silk, the controversial right-winger stated that her sister was inflicted with a bioweapon sprayed in the air, causing her death.
According to The Huffington Post, she initially stated at Diamond’s memorial service in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that the vaccine for COVID-19 was the cause of her sister’s death. She purportedly theorized that Diamond had been killed by vaccine “shedding.”
But on her podcast that aired on Wednesday, she stated that she was “unable to say directly … if my sister was vaxxed or not” — because of “legal purposes.”
She then went on to say:
“But I can ask you a question: If you knew that the vaccine, the thing that they call a vaccine, was a bioweapon, would you take it?” She stated that it doesn’t “matter if we’re vaxxed or not, because when you’re talking about a bioweapon that’s engineered and created to affect all of us … it don’t matter,” she remarked.
“Are we being poisoned through our food … are we being poisoned through the air?”
She goes on to say that there was “something being sprayed in the air,” and she speculates that whatever it was killed her sister and not the heart condition listed on her death certificate.
“On the last show that Diamond was on, she was concerned about something being sprayed in the air. And I agreed with her; it was something being sprayed in the air, and now my sister is dead today.”
“Why are people falling dead, and why ain’t nobody talking about it?”
Meijer Brings Midwest Artists’ Works to Life in New Black History Month Collection Benefiting Urban Leagues
In celebration of Black History Month, Meijer launched a special collection of products featuring the art of three Black Midwestern artists – Dana Powell-Smith, Melina Brann and Shaunt’e Lewis – on products in every Meijer supercenter.
The retailer will ultimately donate 5 percent of sales from the collection to Urban League affiliates in the artists’ home states of Indiana and Michigan.
The collection includes a mix of paintings and digital art printed on decorative pillows, stationery, gift bags, canvas tote bags, key rings, kitchen towels and throw blankets, featuring the three winning pieces of art. The limited-edition products are available in all Meijer supercenters as supplies last now through Feb. 26.
The retailer selected the featured pieces from hundreds of submissions after putting out a call for culturally-inspired art in 2021 as part of its ongoing efforts to support underrepresented communities and ensure every customer sees themselves reflected on its shelves. The winning pieces were selected by Meijer merchants based on team member votes.
“What I love most about the art we’re highlighting is that while all three artists took inspiration from the same prompt of Black History Month, they each approached it from a totally different viewpoint with their own unique style,” said Carla Hendon, Director of Supplier Diversity and Indirect Procurement at Meijer. “It highlights the diversity we have within the Black community.”
For example, Lansing, Mich.-based social worker and artist Melina Brann purposefully uses a pastel color palette not typically associated with Black coloring to depict a “pyramid of faces” representing the building blocks of community.
“For this piece, I wanted to show how Black women and Black people in our community lift each other up,” Brann said. “I hope my art sends the message that we’re all in this together – no matter what we look like, no matter who we are – we can lift each other up and make anything happen.”
Indianapolis artist Dana Powell-Smith hopes to inspire viewers of her piece – which features bold “triangle people” that have become her calling card, against an abstract backdrop of names of important Black historical figures – to learn more about those who paved the way for the Black community. Among the names listed in the piece is Georgette Seabrooke Powell, a noted Harlem Renaissance muralist and illustrator, as well as Powell-Smith’s grandmother.
“To me, celebrating Black History Month means looking back. I hope that [customers] will take away a little history and really look into the names that are on [my art]… And maybe smile when they see my triangle people with their hairstyles,” Powell-Smith said. “I always want to make people smile with my art. It’s different, it’s a little quirky, but it’s relatable. That’s just really important to me – I want people to see themselves in it.”
In her piece, “Madam Queen,” Indianapolis artist Shaunt’e Lewis uses bold lines and colors to portray a powerful, empowered Black woman wearing a head covering, a common subject across her art. Lewis, who only began pursuing her art full-time in 2021, has already seen significant success in her community, painting a car live at the Indy500 and having art featured in the New York Times.
“It means quite a bit to me to know that this early on in my career, people believe in me enough to give me the opportunity to showcase my work in a major store like Meijer and that Meijer supports artists and local communities,” Lewis said. “It’s important for stores like Meijer to represent Black artists and all types of artists because we don’t always get to see ourselves in spaces like this.”
Meijer will donate 5 percent of the sales generated from the Black History Month art collection to Urban Leagues in the artists’ states – the Urban League of West Michigan and the Indianapolis Urban League.
This is the first of five local artist collections the retailer will unveil this year, with others tied to locally-inspired art, Women’s History Month, Pride Month and Hispanic Heritage Month to come. Customers can shop the Black History Month artist collection in stores or online at Meijer.com.
