Black Gymnast Turns Down University of Arkansas to Join First HBCU Women’s Gymnastics Team
An elite Black gymnast in Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas turned down a commitment to the University of Arkansas to join the first-ever women’s gymnastics team at a historically Black college/university (HBCU).
Morgan Price, 16, had already committed to the University of Arkansas last November and was set to attend the school after graduating from Coppell High School, NBC DFW reports. But Pierce had a change of heart and decided to make history instead.
Price is now set to attend Fisk University in Nashville and will be a part of the first women’s gymnastics team at an HBCU. It was a trailblazing decision made to inspire future Black athletes.
“When that opportunity came up for me you know the only thing on my mind was to support it because they did it for young people just like me,” Price said.
The skilled gymnast has excelled in the sport since she was a toddler. After getting started at the age of two, Price continued to perfect her craft until becoming one of the best in her area.
“Gymnastics is not an easy sport, so I love the feeling of success,” she said.
In February, Fisk announced their plans to launch the first-ever women’s gymnastics team at an HBCU.
“Woman’s gymnastics exemplifies the values of Fisk University: determination, excellence, and a commitment to a more just and equitable future,” the school said in an Instagram announcement.
“These values have consistently been at the forefront of women’s gymnastics, and Fisk could not be more excited to welcome these remarkable student-athletes to the campus starting this coming fall.”
Once Price committed to Fisk, the school shared its excitement on Twitter.
“We have our 5th signing. Congratulations to morgan price @morgan_gym2022 for committing to the fisk university gymnastics program. We can’t wait to see u in 2023,” they tweeted.
We have our 5th signing. Congratulations to morgan price @morgan_gym2022 for committing to the fisk university gymnastics program. We can't wait to see u in 2023 pic.twitter.com/ss1UP1Fs0v
‘Celebrating All Week’: Actress Yara Shahidi Becomes An Ivy League Graduate
Grown-ish actress Yara Shahidi is celebrating as an official Harvard graduate all week long!
The 22-year-old graduated from the Ivy League university on Thursday, and she brought her 1.7 million Instagram followers along with her as she counted down to the momentous day.
On Wednesday, Shahidi prepared for her big day, sharing photos and videos of herself and her mother, Keri Shahidi, “celebrating all week” on Instagram. The images were taken during the baccalaureate — which, per the institution’s website, was held in person on Wednesday and Thursday.
“T MINUS ☝️ DAY AWAY FROM GRADUATION 👩🏾🎓,” she wrote in the caption.
The new grad also posted a photo with her brothers, Sayeed and Ehsan, on the steps of the university campus. “T-Minus 1 day to GRADUATION🔥 so here I am, sharing this special moment with my most special day one’s,” she wrote alongside the post.
On Thursday, Yara’s father, Afshin Shahidi, commemorated the special occasion by sharing a selfie of the pair at Harvard. The actress wore her black cap and gown with a stole draped over her shoulders in the shot.
“Beautifully surreal moment seeing our delicate petal in full bloom,” the proud dad captioned his photo.
Shahidi began her Harvard journey in 2017 after taking a gap year to focus on other projects in her career. BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported that Shahidi was double majoring in sociology and African American studies. Graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, her studies focused on “Black political thought under a neocolonial landscape,” she told Vogue.
In March, the Ivy League grad celebrated the completion of her 136-page thesis, which was a requirement for graduation.
“It’s surreal to have finally hit this major milestone,” she told the magazine. “I’ve known I wanted to go to college since I was four. By 17, I knew exactly what I wanted to study, so to see that come to fruition is a goal fulfilled.”
FOX Soul Partners with Black Women Talk Tech for the 6th Annual ‘Roadmap to Billions’ Conference
Black Women Talk Techannounces that FOX Soul, the Black community’s premiere free streaming platform, will serve as an official media partner for their 6th Annual Roadmap to Billions hybrid conference, taking place June 15-17 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The program aims to celebrate Black culture and deal with real topics that impact the everyday lives of the Black community through frank and insightful dialogue with local and national influencers. The conference event will be hybrid, offering virtual activations and livestream content for the online audience.
Black Women Talk Tech is a collective of Black women tech founders identifying, supporting and encouraging Black women to build the next billion-dollar business. This is the largest tech gathering for Black women in the world. A total of 2,000 founders will be in attendance for the only annual tech conference created exclusively by Black women tech founders for Black female and non-binary founders and allies. Black Women Talk Tech tapped the streaming platform as thought leaders and partners to configure a traditionally live event and transform it into a hybrid in-person and virtual experience, while still maintaining the integrity and intent of the conference.
“We’re pleased to partner with an organization whose mission is to empower and educate Black women to reach their brilliance in the tech world and beyond,” said James DuBose, general manager and head of programming at FOX Soul.
“Everyone wants to have a voice and we believe the culture is better served when those voices can be heard and appreciated beyond the privacy of our homes. This conference is just the beginning of what can come about when we work together to uplift the culture and community.”
The conference is built from the perspective of women and the goal is to showcase the brilliance of Black women in tech, create a stage for their experiences, foster deep connections and create real funding opportunities. Attendees will gain actionable insight and essential guidance to inspire and lead them on their entrepreneurial and professional journey through the tech landscape. There are four programming tracks this year: culture and marketing, finance and operations, leadership, and product and technology, targeting founders and aspiring founders, investors and aspiring investors/fund managers, and professionals.
“We love the passion and vision that FOX Soul wants to bring to our conference,” said Esosa Ighodaro-Johnson, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Black Women Talk Tech.
“Their mission has been clear since inception on celebrating and uplifting Black culture. Their partnership with the conference will help bring valuable resources to audiences who might otherwise never know the potential that exists for tech entrepreneurs.”
The keynote speakers for the two-day hybrid event will be Jewel Burks, Tanya Van Court and more to be announced.
Additional confirmed speakers include Carla Harris, vice chairman and managing director at Morgan Stanley; Dee Tuck, chief technology officer at ARRAY; Janis Bowdler, counselor for Racial Equity at the U.S. Department of Treasury; Kelly Ifill, founder and chief executive officer at Guava; David Williams, assistant vice president of Automation at AT&T; and Kenneth Ebie, executive director and chief development officer, Black Entrepreneurs NYC.
Activations this year include an opening night pajama jammy jam, live crowdfunding and an NFT and crypto corner. Tickets for this year’s Roadmap to Billions conference are available at the following link: https://bit.ly/PPLAfox.
Lil’ Kim Confirms Biopic to Follow Her Upcoming Memoir
Lil Kim is finally going to tell her story her way in the form of a memoir and official biopic.
The rapper was front and center for the 50th birthday party held for the late Notorious B.I.G. on Friday and teased her plans for a film about her life.
“Absolutely,” Lil Kim told the NY Post when asked if she would bless her fans with a movie detailing her rags to riches story. The Grammy award-winning rapper confirmed that the movie would follow her memoir expected to release later this year.
The book will give fans Kim’s side of the story on her past affair with Biggie Smalls while he was married to singer Faith Evans. It’ll capture her thoughts, feelings, and emotions on her journey from going from a Macy’s store clerk to a trendsetting international rap superstar.
“Oh my God,” Kim said of the upcoming tell-all. “Everyone’s gonna know things that they’ve never known.”
She’s still not dishing on which actress she’ll tap to play her.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to see,” Kim said when asked.
The Brooklyn native has expressed her dislike for Naturi Naughton being selected to portray her in the 2009 film Notorious due to claims of the singer/actress not having anything in common with her.
The pre-sales for Kim’s memoir The Queen Bee say it’s scheduled to hit shelves in March 2024. It’s already been pushed back from its initial scheduled release date in November 2021.
“I’m excited to finally get to tell my story after all this time,” Lil’ Kim told People in April 2021.
“Many people have thought they knew the story of Lil’ Kim, but they have no idea.”
The book, written with Kathy Iandoli, tells Kim’s story of being tapped to join Biggie’s Junior M.A.F.I.A. rap group as the only female in the rap collective. She soon made a name for herself as a solo artist in wake of Biggie’s murder in 1997.
Since then, Kim has gone on to sell millions of records, win Grammys, and become a cultural hip-hop icon.
Rev. Jackson Invited to Cleveland to Address with Black Leaders Black Participation from the Top to the Bottom on the Construction of Sherwin-Williams’ New Global Headquarters
Civil rights icon Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, one of the world’s leading civil rights organizations, said today that he has received an invitation from influential ministers in Cleveland to visit the northeast Ohio city within the next week to meet with ministers and leaders of Black organizations who are advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion surrounding the construction of The Sherwin-Williams Company’s new global headquarters.
Rev. Jackson, who is 80 and the most senior of the leaders heading large, traditional civil rights organizations in the U.S., has been conferencing with leaders in Cleveland and across the nation over the past two weeks since he announced his support for the campaign for economic parity in Cleveland, which is being led by the Black Contractors Group (BCG) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) Cleveland chapter.
His announcement follows support from other global social justice leaders—Dr. Charles Steele, Jr., president of the national SCLC, the Atlanta-based organization co-founded and first led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late Dr. King, former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young, who was a top aide to Dr. King, and Rev. Al Sharpton, who heads the National Action Network in New York City.
The campaign calls for the 155-year-old Sherwin-Williams, ranked 162 on the Fortune list of companies, to name a Black-owned firm as a key partner on the $600 million-plus project.
But the need for his appearance in Cleveland has intensified over the past week following a joint press release by Sherwin-Williams and the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, which hints at a split amongst the Black leadership in terms of the approach to achieving the overall goals for Blacks surrounding the project.
The Urban League and Sherwin Williams have partnered to develop and launch an innovative new Construction Accelerator Program with the goal of driving long-term growth and success for minority-owned businesses in Northeast Ohio. Companies that enter and complete the program will be eligible for a working capital loan.
But the BCG and the SCLC say the program, while promising, does not achieve the immediate goal of economic parity with a Black firm at the top.
In September 2020, Sherwin-Williams named nine White partners to build its new corporate tower in downtown Cleveland. The BCG and the SCLC say it is unacceptable that Sherwin-Williams failed to name a Black-owned firm as a key partner with major managerial responsibility when $300 million in tax breaks and incentives are being used to support the development. They called for a meeting with Sherwin-Williams to address their concerns. The global paint and coating giant met with the leaders and both sides agreed on a Black-owned firm to serve as a partner. But talks broke off and Sherwin-Williams has refused to return to the negotiating table. As a result, the BCG and the SCLC have launched protests that have led to Sherwin-Williams awarding some contracts to minority-owned firms, but the SCLC and BCG said their protests will continue until Sherwin-Williams’ meets with them and names a Black-owned firm as a key partner.
“Cleveland is the nation’s poorest big city, and it is 51 percent Black, and it is very important that our leadership collectively keeps their eyes on the prize, which is to make sure we have representation from the very top to the bottom,” Rev. Jackson said.
“It is clear from the invitation that our leaders have similar goals, but they have different approaches to achieving the goals. There is a willingness, however, to come together for the benefit of all of Cleveland. No construction companies or community organizations should be left behind. When we work together, we all win. My role is to support the pastors, The SCLC, the Urban League and others by helping us to reach the finish line. We will achieve Dr. King’s dream this time in Cleveland.”
Dr. Charles Steele, Jr., who has been leading the campaign for economic parity in Cleveland, said he welcomes Rev. Jackson’s wisdom and counsel in addressing this delicate matter.
“This is a watershed moment in the civil rights movement,” Dr. Steele said.
“We are accustomed to meeting annually in Selma to protect voting rights, but Cleveland will become the epicenter for economic parity. We will be victorious in Cleveland, and we can thank Rev. Jackson and all the great leaders who have joined the campaign for bringing us all together.”
The Creator of MentalHappy Wants to Bridge the Gap Between Tech and Mental Health
Millions at home or in the office are drained and see no light at the end of the tunnel. Workers, including those in the tech industry, are burnt out for a number of reasons.
Tamar Blue created MentalHappy to help individuals overcome life-altering events through professionally-led peer support groups. Blue believes mental health and technology go hand-in-hand. She knows—for people of color—mental health issues are not often dealt with or talked about.
“We started MentalHappy six years ago and it doesn’t sound like a long time, but I feel like the progress [the field of] mental health has made feels like 20 years within the six years because it just wasn’t a thing,” Blue told Afrotech.
“And it definitely wasn’t a thing to talk about amongst people of color.”
According to Blue, a burnout crisis has hit the tech industry and a study backs that up. Tech workers and chief executive officers saw a huge boom during the initial days of the pandemic as Americans stayed home and used apps to get everything from food to toilet paper delivered straight to their residences.
Two years later, tech stocks are falling and a study of more than 36,000 IT workers in 33 countries found two in five workers are at high risk of burnout due to longer hours, more demanding workloads, and work-life balance issues. According to the study, 42 percent of IT workers facing burnout are considering quitting within the next six months.
According to Blue, world events are one of the reasons mental health has become such a hot topic. Events like the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, mass shootings, and rising inflation on food, gas, and rent are affecting people’s lives.
“I think, now, the reason why it’s becoming such a hot topic is because I think people are just worn out. We’re just fed up with everything that’s happening in society,” Blue said.
“You have work stressors, life stressors, you have really horrific things that are seen and experienced collectively through social media and online, and I think we’re just as a society at our absolute breaking point physically, mentally, and emotionally.”
Blue is using tech to bring people together to open up about their struggles and experiences at work and at home with MentalHappy. The platform is safe and secure for people to openly discuss their mental health challenges at work and in daily life.
MentalHappy’s team of professionals teaches users practical steps to help reduce stress, silence, and ignore negative thoughts, increase self-awareness, grow confidence, and positively respond to challenges in everyday life.
MentalHappy is also growing. Last year, the platform raised more than $1 million in a funding round led by Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures.
Meghan Markle Criticized for Paying Respects at Uvalde Memorial Site
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, visited the memorial site for the victims killed in a Texas elementary school shooting massacre.
On Thursday, Chron News reported that the Los Angeles-born philanthropist was photographed laying a bouquet at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse. This week, families and community members gathered to honor the 19 students and two teachers who lost their lives at Robb Elementary School.
In the photograph, Markle bowed her head, honoring the cross bearing the name of one of the students killed in a single classroom at Robb Elementary School by suspected shooter Salvador Ramos. She reportedly continued to walk around the site to pay her respects.
Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, left the royal life to start a new one in California. They have two children. According to her spokesperson, the mother decided to take a personal trip to Texas to show support to a “community experiencing unimaginable grief,” as per the Associated Press.
Newsweekreported that the 40-year-old Duchess also donated blood and food. But her appearance has caused mixed feelings across social media, some calling it a PR stunt.
“Sorry, this was a tragic event & she has used it as a photo opportunity. #MeganMarkle she be visiting her seriously incapacitated father instead. Always seeking self-publicity,” wrote an angry Twitter user.
“This appears motivated by self serving attention seeking for #MeghanMarkle, her “humanitarian “gesture is devoid of empathy and sincerity,” another user wrote.
— Evans Einstein (all pronouns) – LGBTQ+, Black, Fem (@einstein_evans) May 26, 2022
Others came to her defense, calling her kind and caring.
Thinking how very kind & caring it was of Megan Markle to go & show love & support & donate blood & crates of food & beverages for this grieving Texas community, & do so in a low profile manner to not create any attention for her! This was a act of pure kindness by her! 🌻
“I’m so disgusted at the fact that people are so comfortable bullying Meghan Markle for simply donating to survivors of the school shooting and families of the victims. How is giving back to the community an offense to you? Why do people insist on being so evil?” another Twitter user wrote, per Newsweek.
According to the news outlet, Markle spoke to the volunteers at the blood drive, and no one knew it was her until she left. She had conversations with them as if she was a neighbor.
“We were just talking about, you know, the situation and what happened what we were doing here. I told her about us giving out water to the people and feeding them,” said volunteer Gloria Contreras, per Buzzfeed News.
Black Veteran Organizations to Hold the First Black Veterans Empowerment Council in Washington
Black men and women have served in the U.S. military since the Civil War but haven’t had a community or a space to join together to celebrate, rejoice, and discuss important issues. That has changed with the announcement of the Black Veterans Empowerment Council (BVEC).
The Council is a non-partisan coalition of national, state, and local Black veterans’ organizations seeking to shift long-standing racial inequities suffered by Black veterans in the U.S.
The Council is having a national convening of Black veteran organizations on June 23 in Washington D.C. Black veterans, service members, affiliated organizations, and agencies from across the U.S. will come together and share best practices in a spirit of collaboration to eliminate the walls blocking economic opportunity and increase access to veterans benefits and utilization.
“We have a member organization that’s a collective of Black Special Forces alumni,” said Richard Brookshire, the Black Veterans Project chair.
“We have groups of Black women veteran organizations, the Black military fraternity and sorority are also part of our coalition, and so it’s really an opportunity for us to push a legislative agenda.”
The two-day event is free and will feature discussions and workshops to continue fortifying BVEC’s Black veterans’ policy framework.
The coalition will also discuss its legislative agenda, including the GI Bill Repair Act, which extends GI Bill benefits to some of the descendants of Black veterans of WWII who didn’t get access to the GI Bill.
The bill was presented by Sen. Raphael Warnock and Congressman Jim Clyburn on Veterans Day of last year, and “so we’re kind of gathering support for that.”
The Awards Commission will also discuss its push for a re-evaluation of military awards and honors because Black soldiers are significantly underrepresented in the kinds of recognition the military awards to soldiers. Other items on the agenda include advocating for the passage of the Veterans Burn Pits Exposure Recognition Act to address that Black veterans disproportionately occupy service-oriented roles resulting in a higher rate of exposure to burn pits and toxic chemicals associated with several cancers and respiratory diseases.
“I think it was abundantly clear kind of early that one of the challenges that Black veterans encountered was the lack of connectivity, the lack of community within our community [and] the inability to learn from one another’s experiences, achievements, and challenges,” Victor LaGroon, chairman of the BVEC told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“As we started bringing more organizations under the coalition’s umbrella, we also recognized that there was this wealth of intellectual equity, and we had all these Black veterans returning home from the military looking to find a way to leverage their military skills to impact their community and be their own solutions, so we quickly realize we needed to galvanize the community, come together and also set an agenda, what do we want to achieve? How do we go about achieving that? How does everybody play a role in that process?”
Beginning with the Civil War, Black soldiers have missed out on benefits they were promised and manipulated so they would not receive them post-combat. That includes being denied pensions after the Civil War, healthcare benefits after World War I, and GI Bill education and housing benefits after World War II.
Derek Lewis has Spent 35 Years at PepsiCo and Diversity has been Part of Its Mission the Entire Time
There isn’t much that has been at PepsiCo longer than Derek Lewis, but one thing that has is diversity. Lewis knows this first-hand because it’s a significant part of his job.
Today, Lewis is the president of PepsiCo’s Multicultural Business and Equity Development. During his 34 years with Pepsi, he’s had so many positions that it can be challenging for him to keep them straight.
“From the very beginning, diversity has been a core value of PepsiCo, and our dedication to diversity efforts has paved the way for the creation of our newly established business unit to go even further to continue to bring change to our communities and employees,” Lewis told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
Lewis is coming off the Strength Of A Woman Festival and Summit held in Atlanta on Mother’s Day weekend with Grammy Award-winning artist Mary J. Blige. The two-day event was a tribute to Black women and Black female entrepreneurs.
“Mary J. Blige and Pepsi’s Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit was an incredible and powerful weekend, and we were honored to be part of it,” Lewis said.
“Our goal was to elevate, entertain, and educate the community as we also celebrated local Black female entrepreneurs.”
The weekend featured music from up-and-coming artists and food and drinks from Black woman-owned restaurants in Atlanta. Pepsi also donated $25,000 to City of Refuge, an organization that provides services to families and individuals in crisis, including housing for women and single mothers, youth development, and job training.
In addition, a clothing donation was made to restock the City of Refuge’s closet for new residents. PepsiCo’s Stronger Together campaign also provided a $20,000 grant to support the organization’s important work further.
“It’s a beautiful thing when you can take a major pop cultural event and use it as a platform for good too, by giving back to the community in a way that’s meaningful to the people that live in Atlanta,” Lewis added.
Lewis admits he’s worn many hats at Pepsi, including account representative, market manager, regional sales manager, and now, president of Multicultural Business and Equity Development—a title he takes pride in.
“I am responsible for working with my team to address business inequalities in order to drive better results and positive impact internally and externally,” Lewis said.
“I’m proud to take this next important step for PepsiCo and ensure that we are bringing meaningful change to our employees, business, and communities.”
One thing Lewis has seen a lot of during his time at PepsiCo is change and not just at his job but in our culture and nation, especially during the pandemic, which led to Pepsi’s Stronger Together campaign.
“The pandemic led us to create our community-based initiative, Pepsi Stronger Together, to give back to people who were on the frontlines, including healthcare and essential workers,” Lewis told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“From there, we heard about additional issues our communities were facing, and Pepsi Stronger Together evolved to work with partners on solutions including education opportunities, de-escalation training, shelter renovations, meals for the community, and more.”
Lewis is excited about the next chapter of his story with PepsiCo, including increasing its diversity and continuing the efforts of its Pepsi Stronger Together campaign.
“We want to build a better workplace for our employees and really a better world for our consumers by helping to transform our communities. We have a lot of energy and excitement for what’s to come and to extend these efforts to help bring change.”
R&B Singer Brandy Drops Hip-Hop Freestyle Over Jack Harlow’s ‘First Class’ Song Since He Had No Clue Ray J Is Her Brother
There’s an interesting “battle” going on that no one saw coming. R&B singer Brandy has released a “diss” track going after none other than…Jack Harlow.
It’s true. The battle, or whatever you want to call it, started two weeks ago on the Hot 97 morning radio show, Ebro, Nessa, and Rosenberg asked Harlow to identify the singer in “Angel in Disguise,” who of course was Brandy. As the song continued to play, 24-year-old Harlow looked confused. The hosts offered hints. He asked if it was Aaliyah. They informed him that he was wrong.
Then, they told Harlow that she had her own television show. There was no response. So, they gave Harlow what most would have thought would be the biggest clue. They told Harlow she is Ray J‘s sister. Rosenberg even mentioned Ray J’s infamous sex tape. Still, Harlow said nothing. Finally, mercifully, they told him the singer in the background was Brandy.
Harlow was in complete shock because, he said, no one had ever told him Ray J and Brandy were related.
A Twitter post by Brandy Legion reveals the moment when Harlow found out this widely-known piece of hip-hop knowledge.
