One month after Derrick Jaxn’s wife put a curse on those criticizing her marriage, the relationship guru announced his divorce.

Jaxn took to Instagram on Friday to announce his divorce from Da’Naia Jackson. His post came the same day that blogger Tasha K posted photos showing Jaxn in Miami with a mystery woman.

 

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Amid the shocking photos, Jaxn decided it was time to let the public know that he and Da’Naia have been separated since earlier this year.

“Over the past several months, my family and I have gone through many changes,” Jaxn captioned his post.

“Some of you have speculated while others of you have reached out to offer support as we privately established this new normal for ourselves and our beautiful children.” Jaxn continued:

“Earlier this year after much prayer, counseling, and deep consideration, we decided to go our separate ways and filed for divorce,” he revealed.

“Making the decision to file was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I’ve found peace knowing that our mission of raising healthy children, starting with healthy and whole parents is still being accomplished.”

 

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Jaxn went on to recall his high school love story with Da’Naia, which resulted in marriage and children.

“From falling in love as just teenagers, to becoming spouses and now co-parents, I’m grateful for the years we’ve spent together and wouldn’t trade them for anything,” he shared. “I was blessed to have such an amazing person in my life and will forever be thankful for all she’s meant to our family.”

The self-certified relationship guru ended his post asking for prayers and support as his family adjusts to the changes.

“We ask that if you pray, to please pray for us as we navigate this grieving process. If not, please respect our privacy,” he wrote.

Jaxn’s divorce announcement comes one month after Da’Naia took to social media to post a prayer-filled rant cursing anyone who spoke negatively about her marriage.

“Every person speaking against the names Da’Naia Jackson and Derrick Jaxn in mockery, accusations, slanders, and lies, may the mercies of God be withdrawn from you,” Jackson declared in the video.

“May your husbands and wives become widows. Let your children become fatherless.”

“Let your seed become vagabonds on the earth,” she continued. “Let the words of your mouth and the work of your hands be returned back to you. Let it go down your throat and choke you slowly until your days become few on the earth.”

• Health and Wellness

by Stacy Jackson

December 12, 2022

Atlanta Nurses Reportedly Removed After Sharing Their ‘Icks’ When It Comes to Maternity Patients

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These nurses chose the wrong way to poke fun at their job.

Four labor and delivery nurses at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta were criticized for participating in a video where they shared the things about mothers and their families that they find annoying.

According to Today, the nurses posted a now-deleted video to TikTok, sharing their version of the popular trend where users reveal their “icks,” or turnoffs, about someone or something.

“My ick is when you come in for your induction, talking about, ‘Can I take a shower and eat?’” one nurse said.

“My ick is when you ask me how much the baby weighs and it’s still in your hands,” a second nurse said.

In the video, another nurse shared that her “ick” is when the mother refuses pain medication “but you are at an eight out of 10 pain.”

“The dad comes outside and asks for a paternity test right outside the room door,” another nurse chimed in.

One of the Atlanta hospital’s nurses recalled how family members approach the nurse’s station “every five minutes.” The nurse also mentioned a father “going room to room between one baby mama” and the “other baby mama.”

Emory Healthcare deemed the video as disrespectful and unprofessional, saying it did not represent their “commitment to patient-family-centered care.”

“We are aware of a TikTok video that included disrespectful and unprofessional comments about maternity patients at Emory University Hospital Midtown,” the company said in an Instagram post.

 

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“Every patient at Emory Healthcare deserves to be cared for by a compassionate, experienced team in a comfortable and safe environment,” the company said.

The Washington Post reported that social media principles under the American Nurses Association recommend nurses to avoid heavy self-promotion and to always maintain a respectable presence.

“Patients who are well-supported…do much better and have better outcomes. These kind of comments make you worried if patients are being listened to,” Uma M. Reddy, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at Columbia University, told the outlet regarding the TikTok video.

According to Emory Healthcare, the situation has been investigated and appropriate actions have been taken against the now-former employees who participated in the video.

Some 26 Black people who either lived in or are descendants of people who lived in a predominantly Black neighborhood in the city of Portland, Ore., are suing the city, its economic and urban development agency, and Legacy Emanuel Hospital.

NBC News reports the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Portland accuses the city, the agency, and the hospital of forced displacement and the racist destruction of homes in the neighborhood of Albina. The suit exposes how urban improvement projects and the construction of U.S. highways came at the cost of Black and minority neighborhoods across the country.

“In many cases, city and state planners purposely built through Black neighborhoods to clear so-called slums and blighted areas,” states a 2020 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit public policy group.

One of the people suing is Bobby Fouther, whose two-story childhood home is now a parking lot after it was demolished in the 1970s along with many other properties in the Black neighborhood.

“Growing up there was just all about love,” Fouther told NBC News.

Fouther’s great-aunt and her husband bought a house in Albina in 1934, which Fouther and his sister visited almost daily, according to the suit. However, residents were pushed out in the 1950s and 1960s for the building of Interstate 5 and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the original home of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers. Then in the 1970s, a hospital expansion was announced.

According to the suit, between 1971 and 1973 the Portland Development Commission demolished an estimated 188 properties (including 158 residential homes inhabited by 88 families and another 83 individuals). Thirty-two businesses and four churches were also demolished. The suit adds that 74% of the homes demolished were Black-owned.

The suit states that during the first phase of the hospital expansion city officials secretly agreed to compensate the hospital for the full cost of the land and the demolition of the buildings. Homeowners were not fairly compensated and many were not compensated at all.

“I was taken out of my safe and loving community. I was moved into a neighborhood that saw me as a nuisance and to a school where I was one of three Black children,” Connie Mack, one of the plaintiffs, told NBC News.

Many of the residents, like many Black Americans across the U.S., were forced to live in those neighborhoods due to redlining and laws establishing all-white neighborhoods. Additionally, the displacement of many Black Americans across the country is partly responsible for the racial wealth gap.

Both Legacy Health, which owns Legacy Emanuel Medical Center and Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission, declined to comment on the suit.

The wife of Brittney Griner posted her first entry to Instagram since the WNBA player came home from a Russian prison.

In her post, Cherelle Griner acknowledged the many people, including politicians, family, friends, WNBA players, and several organizations, who were instrumental in helping get her wife back and being there for support.

“Yesterday my heart was made whole thanks to the collective efforts of MANY! I’m humbled by their hearts. To care for another, a stranger to some, a friend to some— is humanity in its purest form!

As BG and I start our journey to heal our minds, bodies, and spirits— I wanted to personally say thank you to some of the hands; seen and unseen, that helped make it possible for me to see my wife again!”

 

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In the detailed Instagram entry, she included a collage of photos of some of the individuals she mentioned in the post.

She thanked the Biden-Harris administration and SPEHA (Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs) for being responsible for the negotiation to bring Brittney home. Several members of Congress, Congressman Greg Stanton, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and Congressman Colin Allred. Some prominent media personalities such as Robin Roberts, Joy Reid, Rev. Al Sharpton, and The Women of The View.

She also listed the 44 civil and human rights organizations, the WNBA, the Phoenix Mercury, USAB, WNBPA, and Nike, along with an extended list of other people and companies.

“I appreciate each and every one of you! Let’s continue to use our hands, voices, platforms, and resources to bring Paul and all Americans home. All families deserve to be whole!

“Love, Cherelle Griner”

The WNBA star has returned home from Russia after being detained for the past 10 months for possessing vape canisters with cannabis oil. She was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February as Russia began its war with Ukraine.

Cherelle had been fighting for the release of Brittney since her arrest at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

Comedian Mark Curry was hanging out in the lobby of a Colorado hotel and recorded an experience he deemed as racist.

While in town for a comedy tour, the Hanging With Mr. Cooper star outlined an experience with an employee at the Mining Exchange, a Wyndham Grand Hotel & Spa, located in Colorado Springs, on Instagram Friday, Colorado Springs Indy reports.

Curry said the employee questioned him at length about staying at the hotel, asking if he was a guest and requesting to see his room key. He said there were “300” or so white guests hanging out in the lobby.

Curry hit back in the 26-minute video laying claim that he was only being questioned because he was a Black man.

“If you’re Black and you’re in Colorado Springs, you can’t be in the lobby,” Curry said. “Wow! This is crazy, isn’t it?”

The dust-up intensified when another employee joined in and stood guard as the employee continued to question Curry.

Cooper entered the hotel with the person who hired him for the performance, Eric Philips, who is the CEO of 3E’s Comedy Club. Philips stated that this isn’t the first time he placed a comedian at the hotel.

“I’ve never had a bit of trouble,” Philips said. “Black, Brown, Indian, Asian — no trouble at all.”

Philips stated that the woman at the front desk had already checked Curry in. Philips said that the comedian approached the front desk to inquire about The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

“The girl there, she said she wasn’t secure answering the question and another woman took that to mean she wasn’t secure with the Black man standing at the counter.”

Although he was already checked in, she asked him for his identification again.

“I was there when he checked in,” Phillips stated. “She just checked him in earlier. Why would she ask for his ID again?”

In the video that Curry posted, he is seen being questioned by two men. At one point as he got up, both men follow him. Curry keeps the camera rolling as it is obvious the two men will continue to follow him as he walks through the hotel lobby. The comic continues to film as he goes into the elevator to go to his room.

 

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Curry retreated to his hotel room and recorded another video, this time pledging to leave the facility for good and check into another hotel.

“Black man and a Hotel Lobby it’s impossible that he has a room here. No, I have a suite! He walks up to me with no badge on. I don’t know who this man is. And asked to see my hotel key Wyndham racism.719-323-2000 call them please Jhon Crab head of security and head of maintenance at the same time”

The hotel has since issued a statement to media outlets about the incident:

“We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive space for all guests and employees. We deeply regret this incident and have reached out to Mr. Curry to offer not only our sincere apologies but a full refund of his stay and an invitation to return, at no cost, anytime in the future. As a respected community partner, we are also using this opportunity to revisit training with our staff, helping to ensure all interactions are reflective of our company values. The Mining Exchange plays a special role in the Colorado Springs community and we will continue working each and every day to ensure that our hotel remains a space that is open and welcoming to all.”

Curry didn’t grant the paper an interview, instead opting to state that he has to speak to an attorney first to make his next move.

But his celebrity friends are already throwing their support behind him.

In fact, Holly Robinson Peete, who co-starred opposite Curry in the ’90s sitcom Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, took to Twitter to call the ordeal “unacceptable.”

Sending love out to my costar and friend @MARKCURRY… just finding out about this awful profiling harassment he was subjected to in Colorado Springs. I hope the Hotel has apologized to him at least🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ UNACCEPTABLE 😡
Have a call in Mark to get an update…This is us in June… pic.twitter.com/nSQVx7RWtO

— Holly Robinson Peete 💃🏾♍️ (@hollyrpeete) December 11, 2022

• News

by Atiya Jordan

December 12, 2022

Trailblazing Black Small Business Owner Dorothy Pitman Hughes Dies at 84

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Dorothy Pitman Hughes, who created empowering means to amplify children’s welfare, racial justice, and economic liberation, has died at age 84.

According to Associated Press, the Sconiers Funeral Home in Columbus, GA. confirmed that the trailblazing feminist “passed away peacefully” December 1 in Tampa, FL. She was at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Delethia and Jonas Malmsten. 

AP reported that Hughes died of natural causes.

Hughes, an activist, public speaker, author, and small business owner, was born October 2, 1938 in Lumpkin, GA. She devoted her life to activism at an early age and wanted nothing more but to improve people’s lives.

During the 1960s, Hughes lived in New York and worked as a salesperson, house cleaner, and nightclub singer. She also split her time attending community meetings and began raising bail money for civil rights protesters, according to her obituary.

In the late 1960s, Hughes organized a multiracial cooperative daycare center, the West 80th Street Community Childcare Center, which was profiled by New York magazine columnist, Gloria Steinem. The pair forged a relationship that encouraged Steinem to speak publicly about the Women’s Movement.

“My friend Dorothy Pitman Hughes ran a pioneering neighborhood childcare center on the west side of Manhattan,” Steinem told the ap.

“We met in the seventies when I wrote about that childcare center, and we became speaking partners and lifetime friends. She will be missed, but if we keep telling her story, she will keep inspiring us all.”

Hughes and Steinem went on to tour together across the country speaking about race, class, and gender throughout the 1970s. By then, the duo had already co-founded a female-operated media outlet, Ms. Magazine, and the Women’s Action Alliance, a national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children’s education.

“Dorothy Pitman Hughes’ time was too short,” Steinem wrote in a tribute on Instagram. “I have been lucky to call Dorothy a friend and lifelong co-conspirator. She encouraged me to speak in public, and we spent years traveling across the country.”

 

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With community-based action, Hughes organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development. She also co-founded the Charles Junction Historic Preservation Society in Jacksonville, FL, with the intention to combat poverty through community gardening and food production.

A pioneering entrepreneur, Hughes was the first African-American woman to own an office supply/copy center, Harlem Office Supply (HOS), Inc.

Dorothy is survived by three daughters, two grandsons, and five siblings.

How do we really know God cares when Black people are still getting killed? How long do we have to wait for God’s justice?

Hearing her son ask those questions and seeing Black Lives Matter protests erupt nationwide after George Floyd’s death led theologian Kelly Brown Douglas to write “Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter.” She won the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for the book’s ideas, said the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, who jointly give the prize, according to a press release.

Douglas, dean of Union Theological Seminary’s Episcopal Divinity School in New York City and a canon theologian at Washington Cathedral, is one of the first Black female Episcopal priests in the United States and the first Black person to head an Episcopal Church-affiliated educational institution.

In “Resurrection Hope,” she shows how a “white way of knowing” came to dominate America through an anti-Black narrative tracing back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle. She also cites examples of how the bias persists today, from the refusal to dismantle Confederate monuments to attempts to discredit The 1619 Project, an effort to reframe U.S. history starting from the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.

While recognizing the prolonged suffering of Black people raises deep questions about the credibility of Christianity, she argues that faith, not despair, is the best hope for assuring Black lives are valued in the future.

“Douglas takes us on a captivating, painful journey with personal and erudite reflections on America’s corrupted soul,” said Tyler Mayfield, religion award director.

“Her insights are lucid and disturbing. Her remedies are bold and constructive. May we find the courage to walk into the future she envisions for us all.”

Douglas, who has doctor of philosophy and master of divinity degrees, has been a faculty member at Edward Waters College, Howard University and Goucher College. She has written five books, including “Sexuality and the Black Church” in which she addresses homophobia from a womanist perspective.

Orbis Books published her Grawemeyer Award-winning book in 2021.

Recipients of next year’s Grawemeyer Awards were named this week pending formal approval by trustees. The $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology and education. Winners will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

Hampton University and Stackwell, the digital investment platform designed to eliminate the racial wealth gap, today announced the launch of a new student investment program that will provide funded investment accounts and financial investment education to every member of the university’s freshman class.

Hampton is donating a total of $25,000 to seed Stackwell investment accounts for each student in the Class of 2026, which will be coupled with a financial literacy program from the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development (SFEPD). SFEPD’s program will allow every student, faculty member, staff member, and parent access to an online financial literacy course valued at $3,000 – free of charge. The goal of the program is to empower students and their families’ financial futures and encourage wealth building throughout their lives.

Hampton and Stackwell hope to grow the size of the program in the future, and will provide the same program and seeded investment accounts for successive incoming classes of students, continuing with the class of 2027 and beyond. The addition of corporate partners and benefactors will be vital in expanding the program in the coming years.

“This new program is a key component to delivering the #1 student experience in America,” said University President Darrell K. Williams.

“Hampton University is committed to investing in the advancement of our students as future leaders and building generational wealth on a national scale. We are proud to partner with Stackwell to bring such a unique and important program to our campus.”

This is the first program in the country to provide financial education and funded investment accounts for an entire class of students. Eligible students will sign up for their own Stackwell investment account, which will be seeded with funds from the university’s donation. Each student will also participate in a financial literacy program as part of their core curriculum, receiving a certificate upon its completion. Stackwell will engage with students throughout their time on campus to encourage the development of long-term saving and investing behaviors, highlighting the importance and impact of a lifetime commitment to investing and wealth building. The university’s goal is to graduate students who will have the benefit of a world class education, a fundamental understanding of finance and investing, and an investment portfolio that they can take with them and continue to build throughout their lives.

The Hampton-Stackwell program takes a holistic approach to financial literacy and wellness, differentiating it from other financial education programs at colleges and universities. The partners believe it is crucial to establish good financial habits at a young age to prepare students for long-term financial stability. By normalizing wealth building and participation in the markets, the students will be empowered to stay engaged in the market, establishing generational wealth building not only for the students, but their families and communities as well.

“We are honored to launch this new program with Hampton University and support the entire Class of 2026 as they embark on the critical first steps of their long-term financial journey,” said Trevor Rozier-Byrd, Founder and CEO of Stackwell. “We share a vision and mission of investing in our community, and together, we have created a program that will have an outsize impact across the Black community. This program can set a new standard for financial wellness and wealth creation, and we look forward to extending its reach to benefit thousands of students for years to come.”

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the racial wealth gap is the largest of the economic disparities between Black and white Americans. Federal Reserve data show the racial wealth gap for the Black community grows larger with each passing generation: white households hold on average eight times more wealth than Black households, with that figure growing to 17-times for the Millennial population and Gen Z. This new program focuses on the youngest generation of Hampton students who are disproportionately affected by the wealth gap and have the greatest opportunity to eliminate it by starting wealth building at an early age.

Hampton students will be able to sign up for their investment accounts starting on Dec.19, 2022.

• News

by Derek Major

December 12, 2022

‘New York Times’ Staffers Stage Historic Walkout As Union Leaders Claim Racial Discrimination In Fight For Higher Wages

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Journalists at the New York Times conducted a one-day strike Thursday as the NewsGuild took to the streets claiming its employee evaluations discriminate against minorities.

According to CNN, journalists at the Times are also demanding pay increases and a salary floor as part of its one-day strike, the first strike in more than four decades at the paper. Times staffers held a rally outside the newspaper‘s office in midtown Manhattan and members of the NewsGuild wore red in solidarity and held up signs. Speakers at the rally included author of the Times‘ 1619 project, Nikole Hannah-Jones.

“The goal is to show our company that we’re serious, that we deserve to be treated respectfully at the bargaining table,” Hannah-Jones told Fox News before she addressed the crowd.

“It’s really important for me to come and show solidarity, particularly with our lower-wage workers,” Hannah-Jones added. “We haven’t seen raises in two years and some of our members are really struggling to make ends meet to work here and live in the city. So, we want to show how serious we are about getting a fair contract.”

The Newsguild and the Times have been working on a new contract for almost two years while staffers at the paer have been working under the previous contract. NewsGuild New York President Susan DeCarava said rising tensions finally forced the staff to hold a walk-out, adding employee reviews discriminate against Black workers at the Times after data reporters evaluated the results of internal evaluations.

“It turns out that they are weighted against employees of color at the New York Times. For example, no Black employee at the New York Times has ever received the highest rating possible. Nikole Hannah-Jones is in our unit. Tell me how she is not doing that caliber type of work,” DeCarava told Fox News.

DeCarava added that discretionary pay increases at the paper are dependent on internal evaluations and as a result, Black staffers aren’t getting the increases they deserve. The union president said the NewsGuild is pushing for a more regulated system in which “everyone is guaranteed a raise” on an annual basis, but doesn’t feel the Times is bargaining sincerely.

In August, the Times reported a gain of more than 180,000 digital subscribers. This year alone, the paper has purchased The Athletic, a subscription-based sports website, and the game Wordle, which rose to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.