Poll Reveals 25% of Women are Financially Worse Off From the Pandemic
by Andrea Blackstone

April 28, 2021

Poll Reveals 25% of Women are Financially Worse Off From the Pandemic

The pressure has increased for women who are juggling home and work-life in addition to the pandemic. According to a survey produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, women are being disproportionately impacted by these unprecedented times.

“Thirty-one percent of people with annual household incomes less than $50,000 report worse finances compared with pre-pandemic times, as do 30% of Hispanics, 27% of rural residents, 25% of women and 24% of those who don’t hold a college degree,” the poll found.

ABC News reported that this ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone between April 18–21, 2021. It was completed in both English and Spanish. The random national sample consisted of 1,007 adults.

Lines between home and work-life blur severely for women, due to roles that are often associated with motherhood. For many, constantly helping kids at home conflicted with typical schedules and work demands. A new normal partially arose out of required supervision of children and decreased childcare options.

The United States Census Bureau reported that the transition to online schooling and stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic required at least one adult in the home to focus on the children. Tasks such as helping students with schoolwork and supervising them all day impacted working mothers.

“While there was no immediate impact on detachment or unemployment, working mothers in states with early stay-at-home orders and school closures were 68.8% more likely to take leave from their jobs than working mothers in states where closures happened later, according to new research by the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve.”

The Census Bureau noted that women between ages 25-44 are almost three times as likely as men to not be working, because of childcare demands. In 2020, NPR reported that  865,000 women already left the U.S. workforce. Additionally, NPR said that exhaustion from child care and housework demands led many women to stop working.

Amount of Black Walmart Corporate Officers Increased Near 2015 Level
by Andrea Blackstone

April 27, 2021

Amount of Black Walmart Corporate Officers Increased Near 2015 Level

Walmart Inc. is taking steps to fulfill a commitment to make its leadership more inclusive. Bloomberg reported that the company recently increased Black corporate officers. Representation returned near to where it previously stood in 2015, according to Bloomberg.

“The nation’s biggest private employer said employees who identify as Black now account for 8.4% of corporate officers in the U.S., which includes vice presidents and above,” Bloomberg said. “That compares with 6.9% in a report released in the middle of last year, representing a sharp rise for such a massive workforce in a short period of time.”

Bloomberg added that the figure had previously been as high as 8.7% in 2015. However, it dissipated. Recent progress has been intentional. Walmart’s website identified Doug McMillon as the president and CEO of Walmart Inc.

“Doug is the chairman of Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America’s leading companies,” the website also stated.

McMillon is described as “a longtime champion of Walmart’s customers, its associates and the company’s culture.” He has been openly working toward achieving substantive goals by addressing racial inequities.

For example, in 2020 CNBC reported that McMillon partially said the country’s top CEOs would look for ways to advance racial equality and justice solution.

In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, McMillon stated that the death of George Floyd—who was an unarmed Black man pinned down by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck— prompted urgency beyond only a monetary donation.

“What we see is a moment here, a moment where we can make a bigger difference,” McMillon stated.

In an email to employees, CNBC said that McMillion added that Walmart would increase recruitment of and support for people of color, including African Americans. Walmart also stated that the company saw solid year-over-year growth in representation at the officer level with a +1.03% increase for women and +0.61% growth for people of color in 2020.

Ex-Cop Who Fatally Shot Rayshard Brooks Seeking Reinstatement
by Jeroslyn JoVonn

April 27, 2021

Ex-Cop Who Fatally Shot Rayshard Brooks Seeking Reinstatement

The former police officer who was fired after fatally shooting Rayshard Brooks last year is seeking reinstatement into the force.

An attorney for ex-cop Garrett Rolfe spoke with Atlanta’s civil service board on Thursday and claimed Rolfe’s rights were “grossly violated” when he was terminated for killing Brooks outside a downtown Wendy’s last June, AJC reports.

Rolfe’s lawyer Lance LoRusso claimed his client was dismissed “without a proper investigation” by the city the day after Brooks’ fatal shooting. At the time, LoRusso’s dismissal papers were signed by Assistant Chief Todd Coyt after Atlanta’s former police chief Erika Shields resigned. But while testifying last Thursday, Coyt claimed Rolfe and Officer Devin Brosnan — the first cop who approached Brooks during the fatal encounter — “acted accordingly and … were trying to show compassion and did everything they could to calm the situation down.”

LoRusso argued that Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms moved too swiftly in calling for Rolfe’s termination without allowing the officer to defend himself. “It is clear that we do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste,” Bottoms said last June.

 

Rayshard Brooks
Rayshard Brooks (Image: Video Screenshot)

Rolfe’s testimony last Thursday was the first time the former officer publicly addressed the fatal police shooting that happened amid heightened racial tension following the death of George Floyd. Atlanta Police Department Sgt. William Dean admitted that Rolfe’s 2020 hearing was scheduled to accommodate the Mayor’s 5:00 p.m. press conference announcing his termination.

However, Rolfe claimed he didn’t learn about the “employee response hearing” until 3:45 p.m. and was too far away from the city to make it on time. Rolfe also testified that he never authorized police union official Ken Allen to represent him at the hearing.

LoRusso defended Rolfe’s actions during the fatal encounter with Brooks. He asked Atlanta Police Department Sgt. William Dean, an internal affairs investigator, to assess the incident and the officers’ response. Dean testified: “I don’t know what else I would’ve done,” the lawyer claimed. “Everything was perfect. It was definitely a physical assault on the officers, and they attempted to use the Taser, which was less lethal.”

Fulton County filed felony murder charges against Rolfe last year. The case remains on hold after the new district attorney, Fani Willis, was brought in after her predecessor was accused of mishandling the investigation. After the shooting, 12 police misconduct complaints against Rolfe surfaced online.

Black Men Lagging Behind Black Women in Getting COVID-19 Vaccine, DMV Health Departments Report
by Andrea Blackstone

April 27, 2021

Black Men Lagging Behind Black Women in Getting COVID-19 Vaccine, DMV Health Departments Report

7News reported that local health departments in Maryland and Virginia say that Black men are lagging behind Black women when it comes to getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The story included suggestions from  Fernando Porter of Silver Spring. The physician said that what helps with hesitancy in his Black male patients feeling skeptical about getting the vaccine is sharing his personal vaccine experience with them. Porter explained his arm hurt, chills, body aches, and joint pain followed, but he later felt nothing else. N.C.-based meteorologist Vernon Turner is turning to social media to lead by example for others, too.

 

credit- Facebook- VernonTurner

 

“In Virginia alone, Black women are being vaccinated at nearly twice the rate of Black men,” 7News reported.

The Philadelphia Tribune provided comments from Elyn Garrett-Jones. The spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Department of Health remarked that men have not been singled out as a part of an effort to push for communities of color to get vaccinated. In the article, the Rev. Derrick DeWitt of First Mount Calvary Baptist Church in West Baltimore, Maryland, also mentioned his observations in some male congregants.

“You got the hesitancy, you got the inconvenience, you got the misinformation and you got the machismo,” DeWitt reportedly said.

According to him, an additional challenge is evident because some older Black men recall the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment. The secret study entailed allowing Black men to endure untreated syphilis so the disease could be studied.

The COVID Collaborative partially consists of the nation’s leading experts in public health and education– to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

“About six in 10 Black people age 65 or older would get vaccinated; that falls to four in 10 of those under 40. And 56 percent of Black men would get the vaccine, vs. four in 10 Black women,” The COVID Collaborative reported in research.

The study was conducted to evaluate Coronavirus Vaccination Hesitancy in Black and Latinx communities.

 

 

NY Politicians Introduce Bill Banning Terminated Police Officers From Rehire in the State
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

April 27, 2021

NY Politicians Introduce Bill Banning Terminated Police Officers From Rehire in the State

The state of New York is trying to pass a law that will not allow police officers who were terminated from their jobs to obtain another law enforcement job anywhere else in the state.

According to CBS News, New York State Senator Brian Benjamin, City Council member Francisco Moya, and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson have constructed a bill that will not allow police officers who’ve been terminated from their positions from getting hired by other departments in other jurisdictions in the state of New York.

“If you have the power and the privilege to enforce the law, you must be held to a higher standard,” Benjamin told CBS News. “That standard has to include making sure that cops know that they can’t just do whatever they want to do. Accountability is a must. It is the first step to justice.”

Rev. Al Sharpton was also in attendance to support the efforts of the trio.

“We’ve seen police officers fired from their posts for their actions, and then go work for the police force in another jurisdiction. This is not right,” Sharpton said Saturday in a press release. “The family of Eric Garner never even saw a courtroom. This family never got a chance to hear if their son’s killer was ruled guilty. In this moment, following the trial of George Floyd, New York needs to stand up and legislate, and that’s what these leaders are doing.”

According to The Hill, the bill would prevent any police officer who resigns while under investigation, while facing criminal charges, or while facing disciplinary action that could result in their firing from being hired by any other police department in the state of New York.

Last month, the New York City Council passed a series of reforms for the New York Police Department (NYPD), which included ending qualified immunity for police officers, which has protected them from being sued.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Admits That he ‘Felt a Little Bad’ for Derek Chauvin After the Guilty Verdict
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

April 27, 2021

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison Admits That he ‘Felt a Little Bad’ for Derek Chauvin After the Guilty Verdict

With the recent guilty verdict handed down to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for his role in the death of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, the country has breathed a sigh of relief because we all witnessed his last breath on video. From the standpoint of feeling sorry for the likes of Chauvin, there were very few who would publicly admit doing so. This is why it came as a complete shock when the Minnesota attorney general admitted in an interview that he ‘felt a little bad’ for Derek Chauvin after the murder conviction.

According to The Hill, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told 60 Minutes Scott Pelley during an interview over the weekend that after a jury found Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd, he “felt a little bad” for the defendant.

“I spent 16 years as a criminal defense lawyer, so I will say I felt a little bad for the defendant,” Ellison said during an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I think he deserved to be convicted, but he’s a human being.”

“I’m not in any way wavering from my responsibility,” Ellison said. “But I hope we never forget that people who are defendants in our criminal justice system … that they’re human beings, they’re people. I mean, George Floyd was a human being. So I’m not going to ever forget that everybody in this process is a person.”

Ellison also responded to critics who felt that Chauvin should have been charged with a hate crime due to the former police officer being white and Floyd being a Black man.

“I wouldn’t call it that because hate crimes are crimes where there’s an explicit motive and of bias,” he said. “We don’t have any evidence that Derek Chauvin factored in George Floyd’s race as he did what he did.”

Video Shows Colorado Officers Laughing At Violent Arrest of Elderly Woman With Dementia
by Jeroslyn JoVonn

April 27, 2021

Video Shows Colorado Officers Laughing At Violent Arrest of Elderly Woman With Dementia

Seventy-three-year-old Karen Garner suffered a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder after her June 2020 arrest. But recently released video revealed how funny the arresting officers found the incident.

Garner’s lawyer, Sarah Schielke, shared video footage on Monday that showed two Loveland police officers laughing and congratulating themselves for arresting the elderly woman who also has dementia, Denver Post reports. Garner’s family members said the violent arrest not only put her in the hospital but worsened her dementia symptoms and led to her barely speaking.

They put her in an assisted living facility last August over their fears of her living alone. “She hasn’t come back the way she was before,” her daughter-in-law Shannon Steward said. “It was too much.”

The disturbing video showed the arresting officers, Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali, in the precinct’s booking area laughing and applauding each other for the violent arrest while Garner sat handcuffed to a bench in a nearby cell.

“Ready for the pop?” Garner’s lawyer claimed Hopp said to other officers while re-watching the footage in the video. “What popped?” the other officer asked. “I think it was her shoulder,” Hopp said in response.

***TRIGGER WARNING***

“I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground,” Hopp is reportedly heard saying in the video. While watching the footage of the arrest for several minutes, Jalali is heard saying “I hate this.” But Hopp responded by expressing how “great” the gruesome arrest was. “I love this,” he added.

Garner’s family was sickened by the disturbing footage that showed how excited the officers appeared to be after fracturing the grandmother’s arm and dislocating her shoulder.

“To hear that tone in someone’s voice, to get that tone in your head, it just stirs you to more anger,” Steward said. The grandmother of nine has never been able to tell her family what happened to her that day. After picking her up from the hospital the only thing she asked was, “Why did they hurt me?”

Garner was arrested on June 26, 2020, after Walmart employees reported she had stolen $13 worth of products. Her family claims she just forgot to pay for the items. After violently arresting Garner, she reportedly didn’t receive any medical attention for over six hours after her arrest.

Bodycam footage of the incident wasn’t released until April 14 after Garner’s family filed a federal lawsuit. The Loveland Police Department has since placed Hopp on administrative leave while Jalali was reassigned to administrative duties pending an investigation. But the Garner family is confused over what needs to be investigated and wants the officers fired and charged for the crime.

“There are great police officers out there and there always will be,” Garner’s daughter Alissa Swartz said. “It’s the ones that do not do their job correctly. They want to feel that power.”

 

Black Enterprise CEO Earl ‘Butch’ Graves Jr. Talks Black Voting Access, Corporate America In Virtual Discussion
by Derek Major

April 27, 2021

Black Enterprise CEO Earl ‘Butch’ Graves Jr. Talks Black Voting Access, Corporate America In Virtual Discussion

Black Enterprise CEO Earl ‘Butch’ Graves Jr. discussed the fight for voting access for Black voters and corporate America as part of his From The Corner Office series hosted by Toyota.

Joining him Tuesday in a virtual discussion were Black business executives Charles Phillips and Kenneth Chenault. All three men were part of an effort by more than 70 Black executives who signed a letter calling on corporate America to fight a wave of voting-rights bills similar to the one recently passed in Georgia, which they say will make it harder for Black people to vote.

Chenault, who previously served as the CEO and chairman of American Express from 2001 until 2018, discussed how the effort came together.

“We recognized that the law that was passed in Georgia was not just an issue in Georgia, but an issue in 46 states and as Black Americans, we needed to do something that has never been done before and that is, have Black men and women in the corporate sector stand up and speak out,” Chenault said.

Chenault along with Phillips, the former CEO of Infor, Bill Lewis, Ken Frazier, and others knew they needed to do something and eventually came up with the idea to place an ad in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“The reality is the vote for Black Americans was not something that was a birthright, many people died for the right to vote,” Chenault said. What we want is for corporate America to take a position on a basic fundamental right, which strikes at the heart of democracy and that is the right to vote.”

The group also discussed how the effort to suppress the Black vote is happening even in Democratic states and how it came together so fast. Phillips, who spent more than a decade on the board of directors for ViacomCBS, told Graves the laws and how fast they were pushed after the election pointed to one thing.

“People who are used to having control see the demographics changing,” Phillips said. “They didn’t expect Trump to lose, or at least were hoping he didn’t and have decided to change the rules. Not every state is gonna pass the law but there’s certainly a Republican pocket in every state that’s going to try to change the rules.”

Phillips added that Republicans are well financed and animated, which is why the group pushed to do something right away. The group also emphasized that they are not partisan and the issue is not about who you vote for but your right to vote.

The group also discussed what they can do to hold corporate America accountable, the diversity pledges that corporations made last summer but may not have a plan to fulfill them, and why it is so hard for corporate America to understand what Black Americans want. The full video can be seen below.

Vaccinated People Can Host Small Outdoor Gatherings Without Masks, CDC Announces
by Jeroslyn JoVonn

April 27, 2021

Vaccinated People Can Host Small Outdoor Gatherings Without Masks, CDC Announces

More hope is on the horizon for those who have been fully vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that fully vaccinated people can exercise outdoors or host small outdoor gatherings without wearing a mask.

Amid America’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC eased more restrictions for the growing population of fully vaccinated people. The agency updated its public health guidance on Tuesday, allowing fully vaccinated people to engage in more outdoor activities without wearing a mask, CNBC reports.

In addition to outdoor workouts and small gatherings with others who are vaccinated, fully vaccinated people can now engage in small outdoor events with a mix of those who aren’t vaccinated, without face coverings. Fully vaccinated people can also dine without a mask at an outdoor restaurant with others from different households.

“In public spaces, the vaccination status of other people or whether they are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 is likely unknown,” the CDC’s guidance said. “Therefore, fully vaccinated people should continue to follow guidance to protect themselves and others, including wearing a well-fitted mask, when indoors or in an outdoor setting or venue where masks are required.”

The agency still urges fully vaccinated people to wear a mask while at outdoor events where the risk of COVID-19 is unclear, including concerts, sporting events, parades, and other crowded places.

“CDC cannot provide the specific risk level for every activity in every community, so it is important to consider your own personal situation and the risk to you, your family, and your community before venturing out without a mask,” the agency said.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky expressed hope that the new guidance would motivate more Americans to get fully vaccinated. “Today is another day we can take a step back to the normalcy of before,” she said. “If you are fully vaccinated, things are much safer for you than those who are not fully vaccinated.”

As of Monday, over 140 million Americans (42.5%) had received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 92.5 million Americans (28.9%) have been fully vaccinated, the CDC reports.

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

April 27, 2021

Beyoncé Awards Alabama Woman $20K Jewelry Industry Scholarship

A Montgomery, Alabama, native is elated after she was named the recipient of the Beyoncé Knowles-Carter x Lorraine Schwartz GIA Scholarship.

Audriana Osborne was one of three people who were personally selected by the Grammy Award-winning singer to receive the $20,000 scholarship, WSFA reports. The funds will help cover Osbourne’s tuition, fees, equipment, travel, and other expenses for on-campus lab classes at the Gemological Institute of America.

“I’m so full of gratitude. I’m honored, and I’m so excited for the opportunity,” Osborne said. “The hope for me is to absolutely learn all I possibly can and fuse the knowledge I have now and the career I have now with a career in the jewelry industry.”

Reputable jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz partnered with the superstar to create the scholarship that awards three members from the Black community with full tuition toward GIA’s Graduate Gemologist diploma. “Her work for the Black community is without limit and her efforts have inspired me and made me extremely proud to be her friend and partner on this initiative,” Schwartz said of Beyoncé.

During a video conference announcing the winners, Beyonce praised the recipients for their natural passion for gemology.  “I was impressed with their passion and the knowledge of gems that so many applicants displayed,” the Black Is King singer said. “I am praying that this is just the beginning of opening more doors to diversity and raw inspiration in the jewelry industry.”

Osbourne shared similar sentiments and expressed hope for other Black jewelry designers to apply for the jewelry scholarship. “To be able to reach back, show that we are in this field and to help the next person coming along to enter it and to be able to be blessed with an opportunity just like I was today; to be able to get into this industry and go even forward and carry the torch,” Osborne said.

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