Federal Agents Clash With More Than 2,000 Protesters at Portland Courthouse
by Derek Major

July 22, 2020

Federal Agents Clash With More Than 2,000 Protesters at Portland Courthouse

A crowd of more than 2,000 protesters in Portland, Oregon clashed with federal agents near a federal courthouse early Tuesday morning.

According to NBC News , the standoff between federal agents and protesters hit a fever pitch as protesters tried to take down a wooden barricade meant to protect the courthouse while federal agents shot tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed three of its specially trained units have deployed officers to Portland, a CBP official told Reuters on Monday. However, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was not happy with the troops’ presence.

“What’s happening here is, we have dozens, if not hundreds of federal troops descending upon our city. And what they’re doing is, they are sharply escalating the situation,” Wheeler said last weekend.

Critics of President Donald Trump believe he is testing out his heavy-handed approach in Portland, a largely white city, before moving on to more diverse cities. Critics also accused Trump of adding gas to the fire of ongoing national protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

“My sense is they chose Portland because if they had rolled this out in, say, Minneapolis, it would mean to come in direct confrontation with many more Black activists,” Joe Lowndes, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon told USA Today. “With Portland, it’s a whiter city and they can demonize Antifa or the idea of anarchist looters and kind of take race out of it in a direct way, and make it seem more sympathetic.’’

Black Content Creator Leads Her Team to Victory in Netflix’s Gaming Tournament
by Dana Givens

July 22, 2020

Black Content Creator Leads Her Team to Victory in Netflix’s Gaming Tournament

Netflix recently announced that they would be hosting a gaming tournament for the new film, The Old Guard, to celebrate its release. According to Engadget, the streaming giant hosted the competition July 17 – 19, offering lifetime subscriptions to the platform to the winner. Content creator and Twitch partner Jayla led her team to victory earning permanent bragging rights in the gamer world to accompany her new 83-year Netflix subscription.

Jayla says that victory is important as sexism is a huge issue within the industry and she hopes that her win shows that women can also dominate in the field. “It makes us feel like we’re kind of like capable of anything,” Jayla shared, according to Afro Tech. “To be in a tournament that has all females where we all get to be highlighted and have our strengths be highlighted is really important to me because that’s something that we don’t see a lot of in the gaming community.”

“I would say not to listen to anything that people tell you and to grind as hard as you can. You can be just as good as the guys because I know some guys will try to make you feel like you can’t do what they can do, but I say we can do what they can do and more. Don’t stop trying because someone has something negative to say to you.”

The superhero film starring Charlize Theron is now available to watch on the streaming platform.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 22, 2020

Serena Williams and her Daughter Join Natalie Portman as Investors in New Los Angeles Soccer Team

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced that the city of Los Angeles has been awarded an expansion team that is a majority woman-founded group that has formally coined itself “Angel City” in honor of its planned home in Los Angeles, according to a press release.

The group, led by Academy Award-winning actress and activist Natalie Portman, technology venture capitalist Kara Nortman, media and gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian, enlisted the help of tennis great Serena Williams and her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr., along with the likes of Hollywood heavyweights, America Ferrera, Jennifer Garner, and Eva Longoria.

“Today we take an exciting step by announcing the first women majority-owned and led ownership group,” Founder Natalie Portman said. “I am thrilled by the opportunity to partner with this incredible group of people to bring a professional women’s soccer team to Los Angeles. Together, we aim to build not only a winning team on the field, but also to develop a passionately loyal fan base. We also hope to make a substantive impact on our community, committing to extending access to sports for young people in Los Angeles through our relationship with the LA84 Foundation. Sports are such a joyful way to bring people together, and this has the power to make tangible change for female athletes both in our community and in the professional sphere.”

The group has secured the exclusive right to bring a professional women’s soccer team to Los Angeles to kick off in Spring 2022.

Led by consortium President Julie Uhrman, the founding investor group includes Serena Williams and daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr., actors Uzo Aduba, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera, Jennifer Garner, and Eva Longoria, late-night talk show host Lilly Singh, former US Women’s National Team players including 12 representing Southern California including Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, Rachel Buehler, Shannon Boxx, Amanda Cromwell, Lorrie Fair Allen, Ronnie Fair Sullins, Joy Fawcett, Angela Hucles, Shannon MacMillan, Tisha Venturini Hoch, and Saskia Webber, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and FIFA World Cup Champions Lauren Cheney Holiday and Abby Wambach, author and activist Glennon Doyle, Netflix VP Original Content Cindy Holland, tech entrepreneur and filmmaker Casey Neistat, Founding Board Member of Baby2Baby, Sabina Nathanson, Media Executive David Nathanson, Baby2Baby Co-President Norah Weinstein, and Bad Robot President and COO Brian Weinstein.

ABC News Terminates Exec Barbara Fedida Due to ‘Unacceptable Racially Insensitive Comments’
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 22, 2020

ABC News Terminates Exec Barbara Fedida Due to ‘Unacceptable Racially Insensitive Comments’

ABC News executive Barbara Fedida, who was placed on administrative leave amid accusations of racial prejudice, will not return to the news network.

Disney, ABC’s parent company, launched an investigation last month into Fedida, ABC News’ senior vice president of talent and business affairs, over allegations that she made racially insensitive comments. According to an exclusive Huffington Post report, in a 2018 meeting about renewing Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts’s contract, Fedida “asked what more Roberts could want?” and said it wasn’t as if the network was asking Roberts to “pick cotton.” She also reportedly referred to The View co-host Sunny Hostin as “low rent.”


“There are deeply disturbing allegations in this story that we need to investigate, and we have placed Barbara Fedida on administrative leave while we conduct a thorough and complete investigation,” ABC News management said in a statement. “These allegations do not represent the values and culture of ABC News, where we strive to make everyone feel respected in a thriving, diverse and inclusive workplace.”

A memo was sent to the staff at ABC News earlier this week from Peter Rice, chairman of Walt Disney Television.

“The investigation substantiated that Ms. Fedida did make some of the unacceptable racially insensitive comments attributed to her. It also substantiated that Ms. Fedida managed in a rough manner and, on occasion, used crass and inappropriate language,” Rice said. “Lastly, the investigation found no basis for the claims that Ms. Fedida was the subject of dozens of HR complaints and that ABC News spent millions of dollars in confidential settlements related to Ms. Fedida, as alleged in some press accounts.

“Although Ms. Fedida made contributions to the organization over the 20-year span of her career, in light of the overall findings, we have determined that she can no longer serve in a leadership role and will not be returning to ABC News,” Rice stated.

The Debut of Joy Reid’s ‘The ReidOut’ on MSNBC Attracts 2.6 Million Viewers
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 22, 2020

The Debut of Joy Reid’s ‘The ReidOut’ on MSNBC Attracts 2.6 Million Viewers

MSNBC host Joy Reid kicked off her new primetime show, The ReidOut, with big ratings Monday night.

According to The Hill, the series premiere attracted 2.6 million viewers, making it the second-highest rated program in the 7 p.m. time slot in MSNBC’s 24-year history based on data from Nielsen Media Research.

The debut featured an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At the end of Biden’s interview, Reid asked the former Vice President if he’s committed to naming a Black woman as his vice-presidential running mate.

“Most African-Americans that I’ve talked to on a daily basis are very concerned that Black women, in particular, have been the heartbeat of the Democratic Party for a long time, really shored you up in places like South Carolina,” Reid said. “Are you committed to naming a Black woman as your vice presidential running mate?”

“I am not committed to naming any but the people I’ve named, and among them are four Black women,” Biden responded. “So that decision is underway now.”

The launch of The ReidOut made Reid the first Black woman to host a primetime news show on a cable network. In an exclusive interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, she stated, “One of the things that I want to definitely impact is the way that the guest structure looks,” she said. “I need to keep finding and keep looking for diverse voices, authentic activists, new journalists,” she added. “We’re out there looking for all of the smartest and new diverse voices in this country. And we’re going to find them and we’re going to amplify them and make sure that they do have a place in primetime.”

The best-selling author and Harvard grad added that viewers can expect her to channel her “hold-them-accountable-spirit” while presenting the news in a manner that’s true to her identity as a mother, the daughter of immigrants, and as a Black woman.

“We’re going to be the first Washington-based show on the schedule, five nights a week. And so I feel like we’re going to have a unique opportunity to really hold D.C. and the leaders in this country accountable for the demands that we’re really seeing in the streets right now. That is translating very quickly into demands for actual change, for redistribution of power in this country, and we’re going to have an opportunity to have those conversations.”

Watch Reid’s full interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE below:


by Dana Givens

July 22, 2020

The First Black-Owned Stock Exchange in U.S. History Is Opening Soon

Investing in stocks and bonds has always been one of the core principles of wealth building within the finance industry. For one former lawyer, it was imperative to give people within the Black community the opportunity to invest and create that generational wealth so he created the first majority Black and minority-owned stock exchange in the country.

The Dream Exchange founded by Joe Cecala in partnership with Cadiz Capital Holding L.L.C., a black and minority-owned private equity firm, led by William H. Ellison, who holds majority ownership of the exchange, created the platform to provide a space to match small and emerging businesses at an early stage with investors to generate more wealth creation for underserved communities. Cecala credits his legal career for learning more about investing and driving him on a path to create his company.


“Early in my legal career, I learned how stock exchanges “hunt” for liquidity because I was the lawyer for the founders of Archipelago, one of the first and the biggest electronic stock exchanges in the world. Archipelago grew into what the world has come to know today as the New York Stock Exchange….Because of my experience in understanding the formation of the world’s greatest electronic stock exchange, I learned how a stock exchange creates and controls liquidity in the markets,” said Cecala in an email interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE. 

“After years of research, I discovered that the structure of the US capital markets and the current stock exchanges favor only the largest transactions with celebrity companies. My research showed that, prior to Archipelago, the overwhelming majority of IPO’s were $50.0 million and under! By 2004, small capital IPO’s had all but disappeared. After years of working with minority businesses, I realized as well that minority businesses were nearly absent from all IPO and public company listings.”

Cecala hopes the new stock exchange will allow more in his community to go into investing in addition to promoting new businesses to potential investors. “The importance of a Black-owned stock exchange cannot be understated. Research from the SEC’s  IPO task force shows that 92% of all jobs are created after a company goes public,” he explained.

“In the 230-year history of stock exchanges in America only one Black-owned firm has made it to the New York Stock Exchange and there has never been a Black-owned stock exchange. Without access to public markets, any sector of society absent will most certainly suffer economically. This is the importance of having a channel for access to the public markets in America.”

Walmart To Close On Thanksgiving and Give Summer Cash Bonuses to Reward Employees
by Derek Major

July 22, 2020

Walmart To Close On Thanksgiving and Give Summer Cash Bonuses to Reward Employees

Walmart has announced it will close all of its locations on Thanksgiving Day and will give special cash bonuses to its employees this summer as a way to say thank you.

According to Yahoo Finance, the retailer sent a memo to store associates Tuesday saying it was considering ways to compensate employees for a holiday shopping season that will be “different.” The coronavirus pandemic has left millions unemployed and separated Americans in this time of social distancing.

“Throughout all of this, Walmart associates have continued to help their fellow Americans get the food, medicine, supplies, and support they’ve needed,” U.S. CEO John Furner wrote.

Like other retailers including Target and Amazon, Walmart opens up on Thanksgiving for customers to get a jump on Black Friday sales, the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season. For the past two years, the nation’s biggest employer has kicked off its Black Friday in-store shopping bonanza on Thanksgiving Day at 6 p.m. local time.

In the letter, Furner said an associate from a store in Round Rock, Texas, wrote to the nation’s largest retailer suggesting they “close for Thanksgiving during this unusual year so that our associates could spend the day with their families.”

“Our best ideas come from our associates, and this year we have decided to close our stores on Thanksgiving Day — November 26. We know it’s been a tiring year, and you’ve stepped up. We want you to enjoy the day at home with your loved ones,” Furner wrote.

Sam’s Club, the membership warehouse owned by Walmart, will also close its nearly 500 locations on the holiday again this year. Meaning this will be the first time that every Walmart and Sam’s Club store will be closed since the late 1980s, a company spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

Additionally, the retail giant will give employees another round of special cash bonuses to Walmart’s nearly 1.5 million U.S. employees for their work this summer.

“You’ve been working at an incredible pace, you’ve solved problems, and you’ve set an amazing example for others,” Furner wrote.

Associates employed with the company as of July 31 and full-time workers, excluding salaried office staff, will receive $300. Part-time or temporary workers will get $150. The bonuses will hit paychecks on Aug. 20.

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 22, 2020

San Francisco Giants Manager and Players Kneel at Major League Baseball Game

As the nation awaits the sports world to resemble some sense of normalcy following the coronavirus outbreak, Major League Baseball has already returned and is making waves.

The practice of players kneeling at games was often seen at NFL games years ago, but, now it has happened on a baseball field. According to ESPN, as the rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner was being played, San Francisco Giants’ manager and several players kneeled in solidarity with the fight against racial injustice at the Oakland Coliseum on Monday night. It is believed that Giants’ manager Gabe Kapler is the first manager to kneel along with his players.

“I wanted them to know that I wasn’t pleased with the way our country has handled police brutality, and I told them I wanted to amplify their voices and I wanted to amplify the voice of the Black community and marginalized communities as well,” Kapler said. “So I told them that I wanted to use my platform to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with the way we’ve handled racism in our country. I wanted to demonstrate my dissatisfaction with our clear systemic racism in our country, and I wanted them to know that they got to make their own decisions, and we would respect and support those decisions. I wanted them to feel safe in speaking up.”

Giants president Farhan Zaidi said in a written statement that the entire organization is “proud of our players and staff for continuing to participate in the national conversation about racial injustice.”

“We support those who knelt to peacefully protest racial injustice and those who stood to express love of country,” the statement continued. “We do not see these as mutually exclusive sentiments and believe the freedom to express both is what our country is about.”

Kapler also stated, “We’ve had a lot of conversations about the anthem over the course of the last 72 hours, and when I say we, I mean our coaching staff and our players. We connected with small groups of players. We connected with players individually and had meaningful conversations about this topic.”

President Donald Trump wasn’t thrilled.

Kanye West: ‘Kim Was Trying to Fly to Wyoming With a Doctor to Lock me Up’
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

July 22, 2020

Kanye West: ‘Kim Was Trying to Fly to Wyoming With a Doctor to Lock me Up’

Kanye West says his wife, Kim Kardashian West, tried to have him committed to a mental institution in a series of since-deleted Tweets.

Sources say Kardashian West was upset at West for recently revealing that they almost aborted their first child at a presidential campaign rally over the weekend. During the rally, the hip-hop billionaire also had an emotional breakdown when he revealed that he, too, was almost aborted by his father. At another point, West claimed that abolitionist Harriet Tubman did not free slaves.

According to People magazine, West accused his wife of  “trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out because I cried about saving my daughter’s life yesterday” on Twitter Monday night, before deleting the tweets.

“Kriss don’t play with me you and that calmye are not allowed around my children Ya’ll tried to lock me up,” West wrote in another tweet. A few minutes later, he also wrote, “Kim tried to bring a doctor to lock me up with a doctor.”

Kanye West Deleted Tweets
(Image: Screenshot)

“If I get locked up like Mandela Ya’ll will know why,” West wrote in another tweet.

“Everybody knows the movie get out is about me,’ he also wrote.

Kanye ended his Twitter rant by stating that he is now just focusing on the music with a planned album release this upcoming Friday.

 

This Black-Owned Food Delivery Service App is Planning to Expand to Atlanta
by Dana Givens

July 22, 2020

This Black-Owned Food Delivery Service App is Planning to Expand to Atlanta

Previously, BLACK ENTERPRISE reported the launch of Philadelphia-based food delivery service Black and Mobile, which connects Black-owned restaurants with consumers outside of mainstream apps like UberEats and DoorDash. This week, the company announced that it is expanding coverage to the city of Atlanta.

Founder David Cabello always had aspirations to start his own business and saw an opportunity to help Black-owned restaurants connect to more consumers using his platform.

“I was going to college for business. After dropping out in 2016, I was delivering food for services like Postmates and Caviar. One day, I made $1,100 in about 30 hours delivering food on a bike and wondered how much money I could make if I owned my own company,” Cabello told Eater. “I went home and researched how to start my own delivery business because what I really wanted to do was help Black-owned restaurants and businesses in my community.”

Black and Mobile, which is Black-owned, was preparing to debut its new Atlanta hub this week but was forced postpone its launch due to Atlanta’s new surge in COVID-19 cases. The company started its Detroit hub earlier this year.

“I love the vibe in Atlanta. I’ve always wanted to expand to this city. I like how the Black community really thrives here, and there are so many Black-owned restaurants,” Cabello said. “We hire and deliver to everyone, but we just deliver food from Black-owned restaurants because those are the restaurants that are overlooked, underrepresented, and need our help. That’s our mission.”

 

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