For incarcerated parents, staying connected to their children on the outside can be very challenging. Families with loved ones in prison often suffer from the collateral consequences that come with the prison industrial complex. Communication can become very expensive for families who want to keep in contact with their family members in prison. After dealing with her own challenges to talk with her father, a teenager developed an app designed to keep incarcerated parents connected to their children.

Jay’Aine “Jay Jay” Patton can recall the struggles to communicate with her father, Antoine, an ex-prisoner, while he was serving time. The bright teenager developed Photo Patch, a program and mobile app that connects imprisoned parents to their children. Teen Vogue reported that her father learned to code during his prison sentence. After being released in 2014, he started the Photo Patch Foundation, a website where kids of imprisoned parents can write and send a letter and upload photos without incurring unreasonable charges and avoid sending materials through snail mail. His daughter created a mobile app version.

Since its launch, the app has gained nearly 2,000 users and has been downloaded over 10,000 times. The new app has been proven to be very useful during new lockdown restrictions due to COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus. There has been between 75-100 communications daily since the lockdown started.

“Everybody’s on their phone. It’s way easier for them to take a picture and type a letter right there. My dad said I should try it.” Patton told Teen Vogue. “No matter where the child or parent is, they should always have a bond, a connection, and be able to talk to each other,” she said. “We know that being able to talk to each other helped our bond a lot. So why not give that same thing for [other] kids and parents?”

• News

by Derek Major

May 19, 2020

Research Shows Low-Wage Workers Make More On Unemployment Than At Former Jobs

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A study shows low-wage workers receiving unemployment benefits are making more than when they had jobs.

According to CBS News, University of Chicago economists Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel, and Joseph Vavra found 68% of unemployed workers who can collect unemployment will get benefits that top what they previously earned at work.

A pattern of unemployed workers getting paid more through federal and state benefits can be seen nationwide, according to the study. However, the trend is occurring the most in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Montana.

State unemployment benefits are based on what a worker earned at their last position and can vary depending on the state. Unemployment payments range from $144 per week in Tennessee to $515 in Massachusetts. However, the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES Act, offers all workers an additional $600 per week on top of the state aid they receive.

The expanded benefits are set to expire in July, but Democrats want the additional payments to continue and have expanded them in the second coronavirus response bill that passed the House last week.

Economists said expanded unemployment aid has benefited the “lowest-income workers, who might otherwise be especially hurt by this recession,” including janitors, food delivery workers, and other workers deemed essential during the pandemic.

Republican senators believe that the expanded payments will keep many low-wage workers at home because unemployment is a better option. On the other hand, Democrats have used the Republican line as an indication that wages need to go up.

Additionally, millions of unemployed workers are still trying to file for and receive benefits, but are struggling to do so because many states have outdated and underfunded unemployment sites.

Florida’s unemployment system was so bad that the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director, Ken Lawson, was forced to apologize when he announced the state would revert to paper applications.

The New York Daily News reported Monday that New York’s State’s Department of Labor is still dealing with a backlog of 23,000 applications for unemployment benefits still waiting to be processed.

Things aren’t expected to get better anytime soon. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told 60 Minutes Sunday the nation’s unemployment rate, now 14.7%, could rise to upwards of 25%.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

May 19, 2020

Surveillance Videos Shows Multiple Trespassers at House Ahmaud Arbery Visited

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Video clips of multiple people trespassing in the house that Ahmaud Arbery entered have been released by the owner of the house, according to CNN.

Homeowner Larry English made a confirmation through the release of surveillance videos that multiple people have trespassed at the house he owns, which is under construction. Arbery was the only one killed.

CNN obtained 11 different surveillance clips from Oct. 25 to Feb. 23 from Attorney J. Elizabeth Graddy, who is representing English, over the weekend. Two of the videos were obtained by CNN prior to this week.

Three new videos show a man and woman entering the property, children entering the property, and an unidentified male entering the property on separate occasions.

“I have chosen to stop questioning the grieving family of Ahmaud Arbery about images from the cameras mounted at the construction site of Larry English as Mr. English himself has said no criminal activity ever took place there and it is clear that Ahmaud was on the premises in the past along with many other people,” S. Lee Merritt, attorney for the Arbery family said in a written statement the lawyer emailed to CNN.

“We do not know who any of the individuals in the nighttime videos are and never have,” Attorney J. Elizabeth Graddy, said in an email. “The reason that Larry English sent the videos to his neighbor … in the first place was to ask, ‘Do you know any of these people?'”

Retired district attorney investigator Greg McMichael said he saw Arbery, 25, sprinting past his home in February in Brunswick, Georgia. He stated that he believed that Arbery was a robbery suspect, and he alerted his adult son, Travis McMichael, and both men grabbed their guns and followed Arbery in a truck.

After a struggle over a shotgun the son was carrying, Arbery was shot at least twice and killed.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis McMichael, 34, were arrested in May for the February shooting. The father and son face charges of murder and aggravated assault.

• News

by Dana Givens

May 19, 2020

Black Man Says He was Brutally Beaten by 3 White Men in Iowa

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Over the weekend, police in Des Moines, Iowa, reported they are investigating a potential hate crime after a 22-year old man named DarQuan Jones was found beaten on Saturday morning. The Des Moines Register is reported that police are on the lookout for the culprits described by witnesses as three white men.

According to the Des Moines Register, Jones told the police he was walking to his girlfriend’s house nearby around 3:25 am in the early morning when he suddenly heard a group of men yelling racist insults before they began physically attacking him. The local police reported to the scene after witnesses called in an attack after finding a badly injured Jones on the ground before being transported to a nearby hospital.

This past Sunday, the local NAACP chapter held a press conference to address the alleged hate crime with Jones’ father in attendance where he told reporters that his son’s jaw was broken in five places. The local chapter is now pressuring officials to further investigate the attack and classify it as a hate crime.

“After speaking with Quan, his family and the witnesses that have come forward, if the story is as they state it is, then what occurred yesterday should be nothing less than a hate crime,” Kameron Middlebrooks, the president of the Des Moines NAACP, told reporters according to the Des Moines Register. “(DarQuan Jones) nearly had his life taken. If it wasn’t for two witnesses that came to his aid, we could have been working with the family on funeral arrangements.”

Despite the alleged racist comments reported by Jones, the Des Moines police stated that further investigation needs to be conducted before labeling it as a hate crime.

“Our detectives are continuing to investigate this case,” a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department, Sgt. Paul Parizek, said. “We do not want to compromise the integrity of the case or tip potential suspects to our progress. “Bottom line for us is that he was hurt bad, and we want to find the people responsible. We need to find them before we can determine a motive.”

When We All Vote, a national nonpartisan organization, has announced that 20 high schools have won the 2020 Prom Challenge and a national virtual prom. Co-Chair Michelle Obama surprised members of the Class of 2020 during a Zoom meeting to share that they won the challenge. She also announced that When We All Vote and MTV would partner to host a Prom-athon on May 22.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the cancellation of proms around the nation, this virtual event will celebrate the Class of 2020 and continue to shine a light on the high schools and students who helped organize the most creative nonpartisan voter registration efforts in the country as part of When We All Vote’s My School Votes Program and the 2020 Prom Challenge.

The Prom-athon will start with an all-day takeover that will broadcast live on MTV, featuring prom-themed throwback movies that will also include short-form original content that will highlight the winning schools and students. The virtual prom party will follow as it will live stream digitally at 9 PM ET on MTV’s YouTube. There will be surprise celebrity guests and live performances from some of the world’s biggest artists.

Earlier this year in January, When We All Vote’s My School Votes program and MTV launched the 2020 Prom Challenge as a grant competition to challenge and recognize high schools that committed to boosting voter registration in their communities. Schools from Riverside, CA to Philadelphia, PA all the way to Miami, FL, submitted applications for the 2020 Prom Challenge.

The 2020 Prom Challenge Winners include the Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona, which invited celebrities like Natalie Portman to visit its school and help bolster registration rates; and the Western School of Science & Technology in Phoenix, Arizona, which registered 84% of seniors to vote. Other winners include the Compton Early College High School in Compton, California, which pre-registered and registered nearly 100% of seniors ages 16 through 18 years old, while the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School in Washington, DC, registered 100% of the senior class.

• Career

by Lydia Blanco

May 19, 2020

Diversity and Inclusion Strategist Randi B. Shares How to Stay Motivated as You Work From Home

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Working from home can come with great reward—and frustration for many. Especially those who prefer working with others in a workplace environment. Amid the global pandemic, many people thought that working from home would be fairly easy and temporary. But contrary to popular belief, many people have found it hard to stay motivated while working from home. With the uncertainty of these times, it is hard to predict what the workforce will look like in the future. So, for now, people have to find ways to stay encouraged and positive while working and leading from home.

Diversity and Inclusion Strategist Randi Bryant, affectionately known as Randi B., says that now is the time for people to take control over the way that they show up for themselves as employees and leaders for those who work hard for them around the clock.

In a sit-down interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, Bryant shares the importance of creating and implementing daily routines that work for you as you work at home, ways to stay encouraged, and advice for leaders as they manage teams.

Related: How to Get Your Home—and Your Home Office—Ready for Working From Home

With more people working from home now than ever, it is important to remain adaptable and realistic about expectations and what can be delivered as people are consumed with the many challenges and stressors associated with the new normal.

Randi B. On Staying Motivated

Related: How to Get Your Home—and Your Home Office—Ready for Working From Home

In need of more tips on how to stay motivated during the pandemic and while working from home? Here are a few:

1. Socialize with your team members. – Out of sight doesn’t have to mean out of mind. As everyone practices social distancing it is important to stay connected and not operate in isolation.
2. Communicate your needs. – No one can help you if they don’t know what you need help with.
3. Take a break. – Being confined to one space for long periods of time can take a toll on your body and mind. Build breaks into your day to keep yourself moving.

To learn more about how COVID-19 is impacting the community, click here.

• News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

May 19, 2020

White I.T. Executive Fired After Posting Photo of President Obama in Noose

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Racism is alive and well in the United States. 

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that a Tennessee executive was fired from his job after posting a lynching meme of former President Barack Obama to one of his social media accounts.

The executive, Gary Casper, was terminated after an image of the first and only black U.S. president with a noose around his neck was posted on his Facebook page. The meme posted was accompanied with the caption #PayPerView.

Casper was the vice president of information technology at a software company, Transcard. In response to the controversy, Transcard President Chris Fuller sent the Chattanooga Times Free Press an email stating that the company does not allow its employees to make political statements on social media.

“As soon as Transcard realized that an employee was utilizing social media to engage in political speech, it took immediate action to terminate its relationship with such person,” Fuller wrote in the email. On its Facebook page, the company said that “views reflected in posts made by individuals do not reflect the views or values of Transcard.”

Threatening to harm or kill a former or current president is considered a felony with a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Transcard has posted a statement on its Facebook page:

“You may have seen or been made aware of some disturbing media images over the weekend that were posted by a now-former employee of Transcard on his personal social media channels. Please understand that these images and the messages they may have implied do not reflect Transcard’s views or its values in any way. Transcard does not permit any of its employees to make any political statements on social media platforms that are affiliated in any way with Transcard. Transcard understands the incendiary nature of the recently posted images and took immediate action to terminate the originator of the post.”

The Alabama NAACP is skeptical that Transcard has fired Casper as they demanded proof from the company.

“We demand a public explanation and formal apology from Transcard as well as confirmation that Casper’s employment has been terminated and that a full investigation is underway.

“Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States and with that title must come a level of decorum and respect.

“The Alabama NAACP is calling on everyone to contact Transcard and express their outrage.”

• COVID-19

by Dana Givens

May 19, 2020

St. Lucia Is Set To Reopen Their Borders In Early June

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Caribbean nations have been facing unique challenges when it comes to combatting the spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, pandemic. Many islands have seen high recovery rates with very low death rates. The island country of St. Lucia was one of the first to announced a 100% recovery rate from the patients that contracted the virus. Now, the island has announced it plans to reopen for leisure travel starting in early June.

The government of St. Lucia unveiled its phased approach to reopening the island’s tourism sector beginning June 4, 2020. Minister of Tourism Dominic Fedee announced the new plan today and has emphasized that his ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of nationals and visitors from the threat of the public health crisis. The strategy was created after consulting island stakeholders and the national COVID-19 task force.

Visitors to St. Lucia will be expected to present certified proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of boarding their flight and will be subject to screening and temperature checks by port health authorities.

In Phase One of the reopening strategy, travelers will be advised to check with airlines regarding flight schedules and rules prior to booking. Traditional tourist experiences and tours will be available only in a limited capacity. In anticipation of its first visitors, almost 1,500 hotels on the island are being prepared to open in early June pending completion of a new COVID-19 certification process all hotels must go through to ensure they are up to quality standards. Phase Two is scheduled to start on Aug. 1, 2020.

“Our new protocols have been carefully crafted and will build confidence among travelers and our citizens,” said Fedee in a press statement. He went on to explain that “the Government of St. Lucia remains resolved to protect both lives and livelihoods as it jumpstarts its economy.”

• Lifestyle

by Lydia Blanco

May 19, 2020

Unilever Is on a Mission to Feed America’s Vulnerable Communities During the Pandemic

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Many Americans were in crisis before the COVID-19 pandemic. From health disparities to hunger, people around the nation are in need of basic essentials. According to Feeding America, more than 41 million people face food insecurity in the United States. And households with children are more likely to experience food insecurity. Currently, more than 11 million children live in food-insecure households. For those reasons, Unilever, parent company to many of the beauty brands people love and support, is launching the United for America to feed people living in vulnerable communities in partnership with Feeding America and Direct Relief.

Through United for America, various organizations will unite to deliver food to individuals and families as well as medical supplies, hygiene and cleaning products, and other critical supplies to our nation’s aid organizations on the front line.

In a statement released by Unilever, the company stated, “We are making a long-term commitment to serve both the essential organizations on the front lines and the individuals, families and vulnerable populations affected most. But it’s more than just a commitment. It’s a promise to remain United for America.”

Related: This Social Entrepreneur Uses Blockchain to Power a Successful Business and Feed the Hungry at the Same Time

As a part of their commitment to serve the community, Unilever is donating $20 million worth of food, soap, personal hygiene, and cleaning products to those impacted in the U.S. as part of its global efforts; 200,000 masks donated to New Jersey hospitals and $2 million donated by Dove and Vaseline to Direct Relief for PPE, ventilators, and medicines; $540 million to support small businesses globally with cash flow relief and extended credit; and more than $100 million worth of soap, sanitizer, bleach and food to support those impacted by the pandemic.

In addition to the monetary and in-kind donations, as part of this initiative, Unilever is organizing a first annual Day of Service on May 21, 2020. On this day, Unilever will donate the equivalent of one day’s worth of the products produced at its US factories to Feeding America and Direct Relief.

Related: Meet The Woman Behind The Startup Aimed To Fight World Hunger and Climate Change

Unilever’s corporate employees will spend time virtually volunteering with one of its partner organizations. And in celebration of the 11,000-plus essential food bank employees, Unilever is asking people to join them in sending letters of gratitude to those working at food banks across the country who are doing their part in making sure that families have food on their tables during the pandemic.

To learn more about the initiative or to get involved, click here.

The headline is not a typo. Timi Adelakun has become the first black valedictorian of South Broward High School in Hollywood, Florida, and has the highest GPA ever recorded at the school.

According to Yahoo News, Timi Adelakun, whose parents were born in Nigeria, finished his high school career with a 5.604 GPA. Adelakun said school officials alerted him of his potentially history-making grades long before his senior year, which kept him driven.

Adelakun added that his accomplishment means more when he thinks about where he came from.

“Coming from a low-income community, it means a lot in general because of the way I was brought up,” he told ABC News.

Adelakun, was accepted to nearly a dozen colleges, including Columbia University, the Juilliard School, and the University of Southern California. However, he will attend Pomona College, a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California.

Adelakun says Pomona not only offered him a full scholarship but also provides everything he’s looking for in an overall college experience. Adelakun will deliver a speech during South Broward High School’s virtual ceremony in June but said his speech isn’t quite finished. He did say his speech will provide “some positive reinforcement” for the class of 2020 in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

One person who Adelakun will miss dearly at his ceremony is his father. Adelakun did not reveal his father’s name but did say he lived in the U.S. for roughly 28 years after coming to the country as a student in 1981. Adelakun’s father was deported more than 10 years ago when he was just starting his educational career.

“He left when I was in the first grade. … I miss his physical presence and involvement,” Adelakun told Yahoo. “He’s missed out and it’s not his fault. It’s not any of our fault.”

Adelakun is not the only one celebrating finishing high school on top. Identical twins, Arianna and Airelle Williams broke the internet last week when both sisters were accepted into 38 colleges each while raking in more than $1 million in scholarship funding. Nick Cannon, the host of Wild’ N Out graduated from Howard University with a degree in criminology.