Trump-Supporting White Students Who Reenacted George Floyd’s Death Are Under Investigation
Two unidentified white students from Highland High School in Gilbert, Arizona, who thought it would be funny to reenact the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered while in Minneapolis Police Department custody, found out the school district does not think so.
On April 28, a viral video on Twitter shows the students, who are reportedly associated with the school’s MAGA club, taunting the only Black girl in the unsupervised classroom, Insider reported.
“They’re demonstrating …a Spanish word,” a fellow third student said.
It is not clear who filmed the six-second long video or how it ended up in the possession of the only Black student’s friend’s aunt, but the video serves as a demonstration of how racism is causal in Highland High, according to the Arizona Republican, as the school in the past has been labeled as “falling short of addressing racism.”
A spokesman for the Gilbert Public Schools District said the situation has been handled but has not specified details besides saying an investigation has been launched.
“All breaches of Gilbert Public Schools student code of conduct are investigated to their full extent and district policies and procedures are followed to deliver consequences,” a statement from the district said. “Gilbert Public Schools strives to create communities of inclusion and any act of racism is in direct opposition to the values that we hold as a school district.”
As the school begins its self-contained review, a senior at Highland High School and president of the school’s Black Student Union, Hanaan Abdulle, is calling the incident “a textbook hate crime.”
“I don’t want to make it seem that the student recreating the murder of George Floyd is just a silly act of racism,” Abdulle said. “These aren’t mistakes, these are premeditated. This is a hate crime. This is a textbook hate crime.”
Nipsy Hussle Marathon Clothing x PUMA Suede Collection to be Released This Week
The legacy of Ermias Joseph Asghedom continues to make an impact. Asghedom, the slain rapper better known as Nipsy Hussle, started a clothing line before his untimely death two years ago, partnering with sneaker giant PUMA to distribute his The Marathon Clothing line. After a very successful debut in 2019, PUMA is releasing the latest collection this week.
According to Hypebeast, The Marathon Clothing x PUMA Suede will feature suede sneakers and a matching t-shirt and will be released via the PUMA website this Friday. You can also purchase the latest line at the Puma NYC Flagship store and at select retailers, including The Marathon Clothing website. Shoes can be purchased for $80, while the t-shirt will be available for $45.
Previous collections were released in September 2019, February 2020, and September 2020.
On March 31, 2019, 33-year-old Hussle was murdered in front of his Marathon Clothing store, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. On Sept. 5, 2019, Puma initially released the collection the slain rapper was working on with the clothing company before his death. It sold out in a day on the Puma website.
Released less than six months after his death, the collection consisted of 19 pieces, including two different color combos of the brand’s iconic California sneaker, a Marathon-themed MCS tracksuit, as well as various types of graphic T-shirts and matching jackets and pants.
Hussle was appointed as a brand ambassador for Puma in January 2018. The proceeds from the initial sale of the PUMA x TMC Collection went toward the organization that his family has established, the Neighborhood Nip Foundation. The organization seeks to continue Hussle’s legacy by “empowering the South Los Angeles community and neighborhoods alike across the globe.”
Eric R. Holder Jr., Hussle’s acquaintance, was arrested for the murder. His bail was originally set at $6.5 million.
Georgia Has A Black-Owned Brewery, The First Ever In The State
Hippin Hop is the newest brewery in East Atlanta Village. However, the Black owners did not realize that they are the only Black-owned business of their kind in the state.
Somewhere down the line of Clarence Boston embarking to own his own beer brewery and seafood hub, he realized that he is the first Black-owned brewery operator in Atlanta, reports WGCL-TV.
Clarence bought the property of his new brewery on 1308 Glenwood Ave SE, a location, he told WGCL, that used to be a barbershop he used to frequently go to.
After seeing the property go up for sale, he seized the opportunity and turned it into a seafood bar.
“Back in the day, you could afford to buy a beer, so we just started making our own,” Clarence told WGCL.
Clarence, with 20 years of micro-brewing experience, opened his business last week, and so far on Yelp, reviews have been positive.
Lobster rolls, shrimp and grits, and of course oysters are present on the menu. However, what is surprising is the restaurant’s Louisana-inspired dishes like po’boys, a traditional Louisiana sandwich that usually has roast beef or fried seafood like shrimp, crawfish, fish, oysters, or crab on French bread.
There are also Cajun shrimp deviled eggs and gator bites.
Chef Donnica, Clarence’s wife, used her Baton Rouge roots to craft an authentic Louisiana flavor, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It is a Louisiana-inspired menu,” she said. “I love Cajun food, and all kinds of oysters and shellfish are big in Louisiana. That’s what I grew up on. And then beer just goes great with oysters, Clarence says. We didn’t want to do the traditional beer food like pretzels and pizza. We wanted people to come in and say, ‘I’m not a beer drinker but I heard your food is awesome.’”
Derek Chauvin’s Attorney Wants Retrial After Juror Wore a Black Lives Matter T-Shirt
Attorney Eric Nelson, representing former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, currently guilty for the murder of George Floyd, wants a “fair trial” after new details about a juror has emerged.
During the weeks he defended Chauvin, Nelson was cautious about the amount of influence social media and news media had on the case, in particular Black Lives Matter.
It turns out one of the jurors, Brandon Mitchell, a Black man, attended a “Get Off Our Necks” event in summer 2020 in Washington D.C., a protest aimed at Chauvin, The Hill reported.
Mitchell was photographed wearing a BLM t-Shirt during a protest; Nelson believes the court failed to isolate the jurors from the public and “admonish them to avoid all media,” as he puts it in the filing.
Chauvin’s attorney also cited that the “jury [faced] intimidation or potential fear of retribution,” NBC News reported.
Some believed that a riot would have ensued if the juror if Chauvin was found not guilty, a notion conservatives lean heavily on, especially when it was perceived that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was instigating tension.
Despite any legitimate concerns that one juror was biased or read the news beforehand, some legal experts have told the Star Tribune, CBS Minnesota and The Washington Post it would have not changed the outcome.
“The court has already rejected many of these arguments and the State will vigorously oppose them,” John Stiles, deputy chief of staff for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, said in a statement.
“[Mitchell being dishonest] could change the outcome of things; if there is anything that makes him seem that he was not forthcoming, it could be an avenue for the judge to reconsider the case,” jury consultant Alan Tuerkheimer told The Post.
Steven S. Rogers to Moderate at Small Business Summit Hosted By BLACK ENTERPRISE
With just one day away, former Harvard Business School professor Steven S. Rogers will moderate at the Small Business Summit hosted by BLACK ENTERPRISE. The complimentary event takes place on May 6, is virtual, and kicks off at noon EST with welcome remarks from BE President and CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr. This is not an event to miss out on.
At 3:45 p.m., speakers David Miree, head of Consumer & Small Business Banking Diverse Customer Segments for Wells Fargo, and Amanda E. Johnson, co-founder and COO of Mented Cosmetics take the main stage as panelists. The pair will discuss “How Your Business Can Profit from Diversity, Equity & Inclusion“ to enlighten Black companies on how they might benefit from the wave of corporations who made a commitment to invest in the advancement of Black businesses through growth and development.
Rogers joins them as the panel moderator. Rogers, who authoredA Letter To My White Friends And Colleagues: What You Can Do Right Now To Help The Black Community, is an expert in Black business and money. Read an excerpt from the upcoming book below.
The Importance of Black-Owned Businesses
Supporting Black business also means supporting Black communities because businesses are usually more than just places that offer goods and services. Black entrepreneurs are the largest private employers of Black people in the country. When you support Black entrepreneurs, you are helping to close the Black- White wealth gap.
Two people who are likely to gain wealth as a result of public support of Black entrepreneurs are Sergio Hudson and Christopher John Rogers. Both men own their own clothing design companies. Vice President Kamala Harris wore clothes they designed at the 2021 presidential inauguration. This was a very intentional choice made by the vice president. As Paul Cobler, the reporter for the Advocate, wrote, “she made it a point to wear clothes by Black designers.”4 The positive financial impact on their companies was best explained the day after the inauguration by Alison Bringe, the chief marketing officer of an analytics company:
“When Christopher John Rogers showed his spring collection at New York Fashion Week, the brand generated just over $1 million, while yesterday’s events accumulated upward of 8 times that – in less than 24 hours.”
Black entrepreneurship not only enriches the company’s owner but provides living wages to the employees. I travel the country giving speeches about Black entrepreneurs being my personal heroes and sheros because they create jobs. People with jobs are self-sufficient. And people who are self-sufficient tend to live in safer, healthier communities.
One indicator of a community’s health is measured by the amount of money, in terms of spending, that remains in the community. In contrast, money that leaves a community is called “leakage.”
Leakage, in its simplest definition, is money a resident spends outside of the resident’s neighborhood. In many cases, relevant goods and services are not available locally in Black communities. Based on analysis done by economists and economic development think tanks, a healthy community retains about 73 cents of every dollar. These economic and demographic facts help identify the necessity and benefits of Black-owned businesses in Black communities, and why we need to grow them.
A great example of money not “leaking” out of the Black community is demonstrated in the actions of one Black owner of Brown Sugar Bakery in Chicago. The money she earns from sales gets put right back into the 75th Street Boardwalk’s local economy. She buys her employees meals at Lem’s BBQ across the street. Next door to Lem’s is the dry cleaners she uses, and beside her bakery is a shop where she buys clothes.
Black-owned businesses also help to make Black communities safer. Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page reported that Black men ages 18 to 24 will commit four times as many crimes as White men the same age, but when the research was controlled for the factor of employment, the difference virtually disappeared! These facts suggest that unemployment and poverty, not race, are most likely factors that underlie and create crime.
Therefore, the relevant question is “Who are the likely employers of young Black men and Blacks generally?” Resoundingly, the answer is Black entrepreneurs. If we look to strengthen Black communities, we need more Black-owned businesses. And, given their contributions to the economic, social, and cultural health of Black communities, Black businesses presently in operation need entrepreneurial and financial support to grow so that they can create more jobs. The simplest way for you to help Black businesses grow is to become a regular customer, buy their products, or use their services.
The employment practices of Black-owned businesses compared to White businesses, as it pertains to Black people, is striking and best highlighted in the research of Dr. Timothy Bates. In his book Banking on Black Enterprise, Bates uses a table to highlight employment practices that are quite revealing (see Table 5.1). Bates’s research clearly shows that the race of a business’s owner matters as to who will be employed. Even White-owned companies in Black communities will employ far fewer Blacks than Black-owned companies located in White communities.
Table 5.1 Black employment practices
BUSINESS OWNER
LOCATION
% OF BLACK EMPLOYEES
Black-owned
Black community
85%
White-owned
Black community
32%
Black-owned
White community
75%
White-owned
White community
15%
An example of this phenomenon occurred in a predominantly Black Austin community in Chicago. At one time, there were over 3,000 small White-owned manufacturing firms in that community employing 100,000 workers. However, although over 90% of the residents were Black, only 8% of those local Black residents were employed in those firms.
My personal observation of this employment practice happened last year during a visit to New Haven, Connecticut. I patronized a restaurant for breakfast in a predominantly Black community. The place was packed with only Black customers, but something seemed odd to me. None of the waitresses, waiters, cashiers, cooks, or busboys were Black; all were White. This reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld where the character Elaine noticed that all of the waitresses had similar body types. She complained to the male owner that he was discriminating against women with other body physiques. His response was, “These are all my daughters!” With this in mind, I asked to speak to the owner, who was a White man. The first thing I asked was, “Are all of the employees your relatives?” He responded, “No, why do you ask?” I then asked, “Do you have any Black employees who are not working today?” He answered, “No. And I see what you are asking! Please leave my restaurant now!”In contrast, a predominantly White community that reflects an understanding of the productive relationship between Black business ownership and Black employment is Yellow Springs, Ohio. In December 2020, the city announced that it was selling the Miami Township Fire Station to comedian David Chappelle, who plans to convert the property into a 140-seat comedy club. Chappelle lives in the city. The city’s press announcement included the following statement: “We think this will bring a new class of jobs to town. We also considered that [Chappelle] is a minority business owner, he has a history of employing minorities and he is a person who has a clear commitment to amplifying voices of color.
Excerpted with permission from the publisher, Wiley, from A Letter to My White Friends and Colleagues by Steven S. Rogers. Copyright (c) 2021 by Steven S. Rogers. All rights reserved. This book is available wherever books and eBooks are sold.
Janet Jackson Auctioning Off Personal Items to Donate to Children in Need
Janet Jackson is celebrating her 55th birthday by giving back to those in need. The Rhythm Nation singer is set to auction off over 1,000 of her own personal items to donate the funds to children in need.
Fans of the five-time Grammy winner can currently see 20 pieces of exclusive, authentic memorabilia at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square for a limited time, Pix11 reports. The mini-exhibit coincides with a three-day auction where 1,500 pieces from Jackson’s personal wardrobe and costumes will be sold to the highest bidder.
Hosted by Julien’s Auctions, the bids can be made in person at the three-day Beverly Hills event or live online. Memorabilia included in the collection include concert costumes, authenticated gold records, and outfits from some of her music videos. Fans can get a chance to get their hands on some of the singer’s most memorable looks including the metallic silver coat she wore in the 1995 Scream music video with her brother Michael Jackson. Also included in the auction collection are Jackson’s custom-designed stage attire for her 1993-1995 Janet World Tour; the yellow two-piece suit she wore while performing Alright on The Jackson Family Honors TV special that aired in 1994, a tan bodysuit that she wore during the “Janet” Tour; and a floor-length black fur coat that Jackson wore while performing at the Essence Music Festival in 2010.
The auction is expected to bring in around $2 million, BET reports. Items will be on display in Hard Rock’s front window display in Times Square from Monday, May 3 through Thursday, May 6. The auction begins on Friday, May 14, and closes on May 16. It also will take place online.
A portion of the auction proceeds will go to Compassion International, a global child-advocacy ministry that partners with churches around the world to release children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty.
Obamacare Gave More Breast Cancer Survivors Access to Breast Reconstruction
A new study was presented at an online meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons on April 29 found that breast reconstruction disparities improved dramatically with Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Findings also revealed that there were significant increases in breast reconstruction among non-Hispanic Black women, sometimes even achieving higher rates than surgeries of non-Hispanic white women. According to the meeting, the study also found significant growth in reconstruction rates among women with lower income and education levels, during the same time period.
“The timeline for broadening Medicaid qualification criteria, providing coverage to those who had previously been uninsured, corresponded directly with the timeline for mitigation of breast reconstruction disparities in race, income and education,” Sharon Lum, MD, Loma Linda University Health, lead researcher of the study said in a news release.
Lum also stated that the rate of breast reconstruction following a mastectomy (breast removal), and interventions consistent with high-quality care, had been consistently lower among Black women than white women, in previous years. According to the study, 1,196,859 breast cancer patients, age 40 and older, in the National Cancer Database who underwent a mastectomy with or without reconstruction from 2010 to 2017 were examined. Lum noted that convergence of reconstruction utilization for the lowest education and income groups similarly coincided with Medicaid expansion in some states.
Health Day Newspointed out that research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until it is published in a peer-reviewed journal. Additionally, the American Cancer Society provides additional insight about breast reconstruction, beyond insurance coverage concerns.
Medical history and overall health, which could affect healing, were just two other mentioned factors. However, the size and location of the cancer, breast size, extent of the breast cancer surgery, treatment needs, tissue available of the breast cancer survivor, desired recovery time, and willingness to undergo more than one surgery are all variables when breast reconstruction is considered.
Montgomery’s First Black Female Police Captain Will Teach Race in Policing Through New Experience
Retired Montgomery County Police Captain Sonia Pruitt made history when she became the first Black woman police captain in the city. Now Pruitt plans to use her history in the field and experience as a Black woman to teach other officers about the history of racism in policing.
Pruitt founded The Black Police Experience to partner with law enforcement officials to help educate them on the connection between race and policing, WTOP reports. The Howard University alum recalled how challenging it was for her to rise up the ranks as a Black female police officer in Montgomery, Alabama.
“There was a lot of hypocrisy and double standards. It was very difficult for me to climb the ladder after I passed sergeant,” she said. Even after she was finally promoted to captain in 2019, Pruitt said, “surprise, surprise, I was sent to midnights.” A practice she says is common for Black women police officers.
Despite her tough experience and the current public scrutiny police are under due to issues of fatal shootings, Pruitt is still encouraging young people to join the force.
“Things are going to change despite what police officers who are reluctant to change feel,” she said. “We need young Black men, women, Asians, Latinos. We need people to enter the force and help become what the people really want.”
Pruitt also explained the public concern regarding the ongoing issue of fatal police shootings against Black people and how police can take more accountability to address the backlash.
“The community already knows that there are good officers. The community already knows that police have to make split-second decisions,” she said. “What the community wants to know is why Black people are dying at the hands and knees of police when we’re not seeing anyone else dying that way.”
Gates Scholar Akayla Brown Decides to Attend Howard University
Like many high school seniors who are heading to college in the fall, Akayla Brown recently had an impactful decision to make about where she would attend college. The Philadelphia Tribunereported that the highly sought-after Gates Scholar decided her official college pick would be Howard University. Among many requirements of the highly selective Gates Scholarship, applicants who are minority high school seniors must be in good academic standing with a minimum cumulative weighted GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. The Gates Scholarship website said that the scholarship is awarded to 300 student leaders yearly, with the intent of helping them realize their maximum potential. The ideal candidate is described as someone who is in the top 10% of his or her graduating class.
Covering college expenses was just one part of Brown’s equation. According to The Philadelphia Tribune, Brown applied to more than 25 universities, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Ivy League schools. More than 18 colleges sent acceptance letters to the Bodine High School senior. Brown narrowed her choices down while keeping her personal desires in mind.
“In my heart, I always knew that being at a HBCU was where I belonged,” Brown said in The Philadelphia Tribune interview.
KYW Newsradio reported that Brown mentioned her top three college choices were Villanova, Temple, and Howard universities. In the interview, she described Temple as ‘amazing.’ The student was leaning toward Villanova, but attending an HBCU was something she decided that she wanted to do since she was in the fourth grade.
“I know where I want to be, and Howard is the top HBCU for business,” Brown said in the KYW interview.
Even before attending college in Washington, D.C., the future Howard student has already begun exploring what it takes to lead a nonprofit organization. According to Dimplez 4 Dayz’s website, 13-year-old Brown founded the youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It is dedicated to empowering the youth voice and reducing youth violence in Philadelphia, by promoting the resources and programs enabling young people to build confidence and fulfill their potential. Brown is surely on her way to starting another exciting chapter in her life.
This Award-Winning Mac App Makes Novel-Writing A Breeze
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Long-form writing can be intimidating, especially if you’re just starting out. However, Scrivener eliminates your page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order. There are style features that let you perform unique formatting and intentions. Scrivenings mode helps you put together the pieces of your writing and edit them as part of a single document. Plus, while you’re working, the app automatically saves and backs up your projects whenever they are opened or closed.
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