• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

September 4, 2020

105-Year-Old Black Woman Who Survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Leads Lawsuit Seeking Reparations

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A group of people in Oklahoma, led by a 105-year-old Black woman, have filed a lawsuit earlier this week demanding reparations for the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in which angry mobs of white people burned down a burgeoning black neighborhood and kill hundreds of people according to CNN.

Lessie Benningfield “Mother” Randle, a 105-year-old Black survivor of the 1921 race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is leading the charge in the lawsuit. Randle was just a little girl when an angry white mob rampaged through the Greenwood District, which was known as “Black Wall Street” as it was home to more than 300 black-owned businesses.

The lawsuit is demanding reparations for damage that it says has continued since the destruction of the city’s Black business district.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this week on Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court by Justice for Greenwood Advocates. Some of the plaintiffs include the Vernon A.M.E Church, which was the only black-owned building to survive the massacre, descendants of other victims, and the Tulsa African Ancestral Society.

“Greenwood and North Tulsa Community residents continue to face racially disparate treatment and City-created barriers to basic human needs, including jobs, financial security, education, housing, justice, and health,” it says.

According to the lawsuit, the white mob descended on the neighborhood, looted and destroyed Randle’s grandmother’s home, which caused her “emotional and physical distress that continues to this day.”

“She experiences flashbacks of Black bodies that were stacked up on the street as her neighborhood was burning, causing her to constantly relive the terror of May 31 and June 1, 1921,” the lawsuit states.

Randle is one of the last living survivors of the massacre, which occurred after a 19-year-old Black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white girl named Sarah Page in an elevator in a Tulsa building. Charges against Rowland were later dismissed.

The lawsuit also calls for the creation of a victim compensation fund, mental health, and education programs for residents of Greenwood and North Tulsa. It also seeks to build a college fund for descendants of massacre victims.

“Ms. Randle has been hurting all these years by what happened in Tulsa. It’s been a huge burden on her and she believes it’s about time for the city to pay what’s owed,” Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons said. “Ms. Randle wants respect, restoration, and repair from the City of Tulsa.”

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

September 4, 2020

Ben & Jerry’s Launching Podcast Discussing Systemic Racism and Racial Injustice

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Ben & Jerry’s has announced that they are entering the podcast business!

The podcast, which will be launched on September 15, 2020, is in partnership with Vox Media and The Who We Are Project. “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in AmericaOpens a new window” will be taking a deep look at our country’s history of racial injustice and systemic racism that has been the focus of the nation recently through protests. The podcast will also show how legally-enforced discrimination and state-sanctioned brutality has been a staple long after slavery ended. Which has profoundly affected Black Americans’ ability to gain access to jobs, housing, education, and health care, or to create and accumulate wealth.

“Economic and social justice has been a part of Ben & Jerry’s mission since our founding 42 years ago,” said Jabari Paul, Ben & Jerry’s US Activism Manager. “We now sit at a critical inflection point in our nation’s history. If we are to seize the opening that this moment presents, we must be willing to acknowledge the sins of our past so that we move together toward a future of justice and equity.”

New York Times bestselling author Carvell Wallace will be hosting the “Who We Are” podcast. Wallace is a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine, memoirist, and award-winning podcaster. He also covers race, art, and culture for a variety of news outlets. His podcast “Finding Fred,” about the magic and ministry of Mr. Rogers, was recently nominated for a Peabody.

The 6-episode podcast will be based on the acclaimed presentation of the same name by Jeffery Robinson, ACLU deputy legal director, and director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality. Robinson spent nine years researching his multi-media “Who We Are” presentation, which will soon be released as a documentary.

Each episode, 30 minutes in length, will focus on a different period in American history and its link to modern-day systemic racism. Listen to the trailer here.

Gregory Cherry, an African American father and his three sons — Greg Jr, Isaac, and Isaiah — are the inventors of new technology that allows business owners to virtually share a video version of their business cards to all social media platforms. The service is called VB Virtual Branding Solutions, and it’s already being used about almost 1,000 entrepreneurs across the country.

“Video business cards reveal so much more than a traditional business card,” says Gregory. “A video business card allows you to actually explain in full what you do, and even give a testimony that can make people want to do business with you.”

As the first such business to be owned and operated by a father and son team, their goal is to train young and older ones to become entrepreneurs and empower their local communities, educational institutions and small businesses to partner as one entity. VB Virtual Branding Solutions invites these entrepreneurs to come aboard for an opportunity to create residual earnings, as they help to promote the services and partner with other small business owners and education leaders.

Gregory, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 12, was raised going to church but had a tough time as a youug person when his older brother was murdered. He says that as a young man, he began drinking excessively, he started getting into fights at clubs, and he was arrested several times for DUI.

But when his youngest son was born, he decided to change his life, and now he is a successful entrepreneur working with his sons and other youth to turn what would have been a negative story back into a positive one.

Here’s how each of his sons are contributing to VB Virtual Branding Solutions:

Gregory Cherry, Jr. scored one of the highest scores ever by 18-years old for the Air Force veteran, one of the youngest Airman Mechanic Supervisors for the C-5 Galaxy strategic air lifter. He is now VB Virtual Branding Solutions’ app builder for small business wwners, as well as a videographer trainer for students.

Isaiah Cherry graduated from high school in 2018, and is a VBCard trainer, a Beacons app developer, and also a videographer trainer for students as young as 9-years old. He is also the company’s entertainment podcast host & spokesperson for Operation Blue Shield, a non-profit organization that connects communities with community officers for questions and answers with accountability. He is pushing for officers to be held each other accountable for their own within their units without a fear of retaliation, and removing those who are not ready to be community servants.

Isaac Cherry graduated from high school in 2019, and was one of the Dallas Maverick’s youngest youth journalists/hosts at the age 12. He also hosted a sports and edutainment program on BPENTV about arena football, and co-hosted on the Drew Pearson Sports Talk show where he interviewed top sports athletes and celebrities such as Ray Lewis, Dewayne Harris, The Mayweathers, TMT fighters, Angela Simmons, Greg Ellis, Vivica Fox and a host of others. Now, he is a podcast and media trainer for VB Virtual Branding Solutions.

An African American man who was in and out of prison, homeless in Michigan and addicted to crack for decades, is now the Chief Operating Officer of Nevada Help Desk – a company that manages Nevada’s leading technology workforce development program.

Known as “The Uncle Gary,” this man who had been separated from his family due to being adopted 65 years ago, was found by his oldest biological sister’s daughter 2 1/2 years ago. His niece, Duana Malone, who is also known as “The Tech Queen” was voted 2018 Technology Woman of the Year and serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the business. They discovered they had the same DNA not only in blood but extraordinary STEM skills. So, they teamed up to form the Nevada Help Desk project.

This dynamic uncle-niece duo has used their combined skills to change the trajectory of technology education & workforce development as a solution in meeting Nevada’s rising demand for skilled technologists.

High School and college students are taught and certified in front-end web development, digital marketing, graphic designs, game development, multimedia production, and Microsoft applications which convert to jobs at the end of this program.

Nevada Help Desk is working with a consortium of educational institutions and employer partners to create a statewide workforce talent pipeline. This project is partially funded with a grant provided by Nevada’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology.

The goal is to create a workforce development career pathway that can be modeled in other states where they:

1. get kids excited about tech careers (including camps/tech summits)
2. continue weekly training through graduation
3. certify students (guaranteed)
4. hire students for nevadahelpdesk.com or help them land a job (also guaranteed)

Virtual global technology training starts at age 7! Yes, seven.

Younger kids are taught basic coding, the core skills of vector-based animation techniques plus tools in developing characters and scenes (used in popular 3D games, like Halo).

Students from multiple locations (including Africa, Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean) gather together in a single virtual classroom on a daily basis to learn in-demand technology applications to prepare them for this rapidly growing economy filled with technological advances.

This article was originally published by BlackNews.com.

The hit parade of big companies making cash infusions into black-led financial entities keep growing. The latest one occurred Thursday after it was announced that Biogen Inc. is depositing $10 million into OneUnited Bank. The move will help support the #BankBlack Movement.

Boston-based Biogen is a global technology company, recently gaining some press for working on treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Also based in Boston, OneUnited Bank ranks first on the latest BE 100s Banks list.

The commitment comes after multiple recent actions by major corporations to invest with Black-owned banks largely serving African American communities in the wake of national protests and racial injustice following the police killing of George Floyd.

In June, Netflix made the largest private donation ever to historically black colleges and universities. That came after the company’s donation of $100 million dollars for COVID-19 relief. The streaming entertainment giant announced this summer that it will invest $100 million in Black-owned banks.

“OneUnited Bank actively supports social justice movements including #BlackLivesMatter, #TakeAKnee, the #1619Project and the incredibly successful #BlackOutDay2020,” Kevin Cohee, chairman and CEO of OneUnited Bank, said in a news release. “The Bank has consistently encouraged the Black community to use its considerable financial might more purposefully to send a message that is part protest, part progress.”

Mike Dambach, vice president of Treasury at Biogen, stated, “OneUnited has the important role of helping finance growth. We are proud to do our part to support families and businesses on their financial journey, especially during these difficult economic times.”

Chirfi Guindo, executive vice president of Global Product Strategy & Commercialization at Biogen, added, “For Biogen, this deposit is one of many ways we are delivering on our enhanced Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy. But for OneUnited’s customers, this deposit could mean allowing them to pursue their dreams or strengthening underrepresented minority businesses.”

Since the social unrest that broke out nationally, OneUnited’s “part progress, part protest” message has become a national call for Black America to focus on closing the racial wealth gap and creating generational wealth. Since May, interest in OneUnited has increased 100%, the banks reports. The bank claims it has drawn more than 50,000 new customers and over $50 million in deposits.

• News

by Derek Major

September 4, 2020

52 Black Ex-Franchisees File $1 Billion Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Against McDonald’s

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Fifty-two former McDonald’s franchisees who say they faced decades of discrimination at the fast-food chain are suing McDonald’s for more than $1 billion.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Tuesday, according to Yahoo. Franchisees say in the complaint that they faced “systematic and covert racial discrimination,” with McDonald’s denying them the same opportunities as their white counterparts.

The lawsuit also argues McDonald’s “systematically steered” Black franchisees to buy locations in Black neighborhoods that tend to have higher insurance and security costs while bringing in less revenue. One franchisee wrote in the complaint that Black franchisees were at such a significant disadvantage that acquiring a McDonald’s as a Black franchisee was “financial suicide.”

The franchisees say they lost more than 200 McDonald’s locations over the past decade because of misconduct by the company. Dozens of of other Black franchisees were forced out of the chain over the past two decades. According to the complaint, there are only 186 Black McDonald’s franchisees, down from 377 in 1998.

The complaint added the plaintiffs’ average annual sales of roughly $2 million were more than $700,000 lower than McDonald’s national average of $2.7 million from 2011 to 2016 and $2.9 million in 2019.

“These differences are statistically significant and are the result of Defendants’ racial bias and barriers within the McDonald’s franchise system,” the complaint states.

In a video message to employers and suppliers Tuesday, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski responded to the allegations.

“When allegations such as these occur, I want them investigated thoroughly and objectively,” Kempczinski said. “That’s been our approach to this situation. Based upon our review, we disagree with the claims in this lawsuit and we intend to strongly defend against it.”

In a statement to Business Insider, McDonald’s categorically denied the allegations, saying that they “fly in the face of everything we stand for as an organization and as a partner to communities and small business owners around the world.”

In July, the fast-food chain promised to improve diversity at all levels of its systems, including franchisees and suppliers.

We quickly associate stocks with white men in tailored suits power walking the eight blocks of New York’s financial district known as Wall Street. But the landscape of investing is rapidly changing as more Blacks are entering into the game. 24-year-old Aristotle Varner has become the founder of Aristotle Investments and is educating the next generation in options trading.

A self-taught investor, Varner’s background is in stark contrast to his career in investments today. In 2014 Varner joined the Army at the age of 18 and thought he would be a career military man, but this soon changed when the access to information arrived.

“I saw an opportunity on my post to earn extra income by cutting hair,” says Varner. “The military barbers did not know how to cut Black hair, so I soon became the barber on the post. I began to educate myself in investing and used my barber earnings to make my first investment in the options trading market.”

A departure from the traditional form of trading, Varner believes that options trading is an opportunity everyone should have access to. “Our community has largely been under-educated in financial literacy and investments,” declares Varner. “I truly believe that if we put the work in, learn, study, and apply the practices, we can be successful investors. It can be done. You do not need a specific level of education, or experience, just the will to learn.”

In just a few years, Aristotle Investments has grown to include a best-selling book (Aristotle’s Investing Guide), an options trading group chat (Aristotle Signals and Learning), and an online trading university (AMUU). With the support of his wife, who handles aspects of the business behind the scenes, Varner has accrued over 50,000 followers invested in his method.

“Aristotle Signals offers people the flexibility to trade on the go,” says Varner. “The group chat, which has generated positive returns for its members, provides detailed insight into a watch-list of stocks before the market opens. No matter where you are you can make informed decisions.”

Varner represents the new face of young successful traders who are finding new ways to enter into stock market investing. His transparency, genuine approach, and consistency with followers and students is what sets him apart.

“There are many that are skeptical, and initially believe that being a successful options trader is not possible. I tell everyone that this is not a get-rich-quick opportunity. This is an opportunity to become educated in options trading, apply your learnings, and invest in the market. You have to put in the time and work to become successful at this just like anything else.”

To learn more about Aristotle Varner’s Investment course offerings and insights, connect with him at @Aristotle_investments on social media.

• Lifestyle

by Selena Hill

September 3, 2020

Method Man and Michael Rainey, Jr. Open Up About Starring in ‘Power Book: Ghost II’ (Video)

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After six thrilling seasons and a gut-wrenching series finale in February, the groundbreaking Power series will premiere its offshoot Power Book II: Ghost on Sunday, Sept. 6. Not only does this mark a new era in the television franchise, but it also marks the first of four spinoff series that were greenlighted by Starz following the blockbuster success of the original Power.

The crime drama created by Courtney A. Kemp and executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson averaged 10 million viewers per episode in multiplatform viewing in its final two seasons, reports Variety. In comparison, the show averaged 4.7 million viewers per episode in its first season. It’s also the no. 1 series in premium cable for Black viewers and, according to Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch, the highest generator of subscriptions and retention for Starz on both linear and digital platforms. “It is definitely a huge driver of our business,” he told Variety. “Power and the Power universe is probably the most important franchise to the company. It’s one of the key foundations of our programming strategy, and it’s given us a lot of data on how to put other shows around it on the network.”

Thus, it’s no wonder why the Power universe is rapidly expanding — the series makes sense (and dollars) for its network.

Power Book II

Power Book II: Ghost welcomes a handful of members from the original cast, including Naturi Naughton as Tasha St. Patrick and Michael Rainey Jr. as Tariq St. Patrick. The new series finds Tariq trying to balance his life as a college student attending a prestigious university while engaging in illegal activity to generate income. The series picks up where the original left off: days after Tariq fatally shot his father James St. Patrick. Although he pulled the trigger, his mother Tasha was charged with the murder.

In an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Rainey opened up about taking on the leading role in Power Book.

“Honestly, I was a little bit nervous at first, but within the first week of filming, like all that was gone,” said the 19-year-old New York native. “The crew and the cast made it super easy for me to get like used to being no. 1 on the call sheet and really like having all the responsibility on me.”

Rainey added that although Jackson gives him career advice often, when it came to his starring role, he says there’s one piece of advice that stands out the most: “one thing you can never do is feel too entitled to something because that’s when you deprive yourself.”

Expanding the Franchise

The spinoff will introduce Power fans to new characters like Cliff “Method Man” Smith, who plays a high powered, high-priced defense attorney, and Mary J. Blige, who plays the matriarch of a vicious crime family. Smith told BE that he enjoyed portraying a Black lawyer on screen.

“He’s an attorney. I ain’t got to stick my gun in anybody’s face,” he joked.

“In the times that we’re in now, it’s great to see someone that looks like me — not literally — but you know, that looks like me that can put on that suit and do that job. It’s feasible. It’s like this can actually happen. And that’s the beauty of a show like Power where people tune in not just because it’s a great show — don’t get me wrong — but they tune in because they see people who look just like them,” he added. “The diversity is definitely there.”

Smith, who collaborated with Blige on the 1995 Grammy-winning hip hop love song “You’ll All I Need,” added that he enjoyed working with the “Queen of Hip Hop Soul” on this project.

“Mary is the OG of OG’s. Larger than life persona,” he said of the singer. “When she walks in the room, you feel her. But then when you actually speak to Mary, the humility is there. She’s humble. It’s like, yeah, this Auntie Mary right here.”

Power Book II: Ghost debuts Sept. 6 at 9/8c on Starz. The following week, the Power sequel moves to its regular time slot at 8/7c.

Watch Michael Rainey, Jr’s and Method Man’s full interviews below.

• The New Norm

by Selena Hill

September 3, 2020

Jermaine Dupri on the Benefits and Business Impact of Veganism (Video)

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Legendary hip-hop producer and songwriter Jermaine Dupri has left an immense imprint on the culture.

For the last three decades, he’s produced chart-topping hits for artists like Mariah Carey, TLC, and Usher. He has also discovered acts like Kris Kross, Xscape, and Da Brat, the first female solo rapper to go platinum while cultivating the careers of others like child rap phenomenon Bowwow.

The So So Def Recordings founder and owner further sealed his legacy as a hip-hop trailblazer in 2018 when he became the second hip-hop artist after Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Now, the 47-year-old entrepreneur is on to his next act: veganism.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jermaine Dupri (@jermainedupri) on Jul 30, 2020 at 7:33am PDT

JD’s Journey into Veganism

Dupri officially joined the plant-based-lifestyle platform The Beet as a creative advisor in July. Through his new role, he curates content about the benefits of veganism, which he stumbled into 15 years ago after doing a 25-day Master Cleanse.

“It was kind of accidental because I actually went on a fast for 25 days,” Dupri told BLACK ENTERPRISE.

Despite the challenge, the Atlanta-based hitmaker says he loved the results from the cleanse, like feeling lighter and waking up with more energy. To maintain his newfound level of energy, he inquired about nourishing foods that he should eat on an ongoing basis.

“I started asking questions,” he said. “I had a chef and I was asking him like ‘what can I do? What can I eat that’s gonna make my body stay like this because I don’t want to take myself back to where I was?’”

The majority of the people he spoke to advised Dupri to become a vegetarian. However, he did not like the side effects that diary had on his body, so he eventually adopted a vegan lifestyle.

“The difference between vegan and vegetarian that people don’t understand is the dairy. Vegetarians still eat cheese, they still drink milk, [which is] dairy,” he told BE.  “Dairy, for me, partially part of my heaviness [and] partially part of the drag that I had or whatever I had that was going on with me. Getting the dairy out of my system was like a relief.”

He added, “The chase for me wanting to continue to feel as good as I was feeling led me down this vegan road and this vegan path.”

Making The Beet

Although many may not know Dupri is a long-time vegan, the rapper says he partnered with The Beet to not only advocate for the plant-based lifestyle but also to be a resource for others considering it or who are practicing it.

“Once they came to me and once I realized what it was, I was just like, ‘You know what, this is something that’s needed.’” Through the partnership, he’s able to share the knowledge he did not have when he began his journey. “I need it just as much as anybody else needs this information. I needed to know where to go. I needed to know what to do in different circumstances when it comes to veganism.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

So every since I announced my partnership with @thebeet people keep hitting me up asking how do they start to become a vegan,here are my 3 very important tips

A post shared by Jermaine Dupri (@jermainedupri) on Jul 26, 2020 at 4:18pm PDT

The Veganism Boom

In addition, partnering with Lucy Danziger, The Beet’s editorial director, gives Dupri the opportunity to spread awareness about veganism as being both culturally and commercially viable.

“It’s one of the newest trends of business,” says the Grammy Award-winning record producer. “It’s a new business and the opportunities to grow are huge. Ain’t no telling what could possibly happen.”

According to research published by the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA) and the Good Food Institute, the sales of plant-based food in the U.S. went up by 8.1% from 2016 to 2017, topping $3.1 billion. Meanwhile, plant-based dairy alternatives are expected to represent 40% of the combined total of dairy and dairy alternative beverages by 2021, reports Forbes. Hence, Dupri says, business owners in the food industry like Pinky Cole, the owner of Slutty Vegan in Atlanta, have a promising outlook.

He points out that there are “no big vegan restaurants in the airports,” which would be a lucrative business or franchise opportunity once the COVID travel restrictions are completely relaxed.

“If Pinky puts a Slutty Vegan at Hartsfield airport, the line that she has [now that] she thinks is crazy–the line for that will be just as crazy!”

Watch Jermaine Dupri’s full interview on The New Norm with Selena Hill below.

Civil rights attorney and frequent Fox News contributor Leo Terrell believes President Donald Trump will receive the highest number of Black votes in GOP history in the upcoming election.

Terrell, a former outspoken critic of Trump, now supports the president and said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show Monday that many other Black voters will be doing the same.

“I brought over 300,000 Black Democrats to vote for Trump. I’m bringing more and more and more,” Terrell told Hannity.