Kamala Harris Spends 60th Birthday At Georgia Churches For Her ‘Souls To The Polls’ Initiative
Meanwhile, her competitor was scheduled to work at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.
Kamala Harris spent her 60th birthday at a Georgia church as she launched her “Souls to the Polls” initiative to rally religious voters.
Harris celebrated another year of life at New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Oct. 20. The Democratic presidential nominee attended a service at the church and spoke to the attendants. According to Reuters, Harris went to a Black church growing up and sang in the choir.
In her birthday speech, she touched on current divisive political climate within the U.S., which she suggested former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, sparked.
“At this point across our nation, what we do see are some trying to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” stated the politician. “At this moment, our country is at a crossroads and where we go is up to us.”
Harris was expected to speak later that at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, an Atlanta Suburb. Stevie Wonder was also scheduled to perform during the service. Harris will also sit down with civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton for an interview airing on MSNBC. Her running mate, Tim Walz, also went to a church service in Michigan, with his wife, Gwen, set to attend one in Las Vegas.
Their scheduled events are all part of the Harris-Walz campaign’s “Souls to The Polls” initiative which hopes to rally voters through gospel performances, and connecting with faith leaders alongside elected officials.
Meanhwhile, Trump traveled to Pennsylvania and planned to stop at a McDonald’s there to mock Harris’ claims that she once worked at the fast food chain. According to his adviser, Jason Miller, Trump will work at the restaurant. He was expected to host a town hall in Lancaster.
While polling continues to show the race in a dead heat, Georgia residents have already broken records for early voting. As Harris continues to make her rounds throughout the Peach state, more than 1 million Georgians have cast their ballot thus far.
Kansas Man Who Threatened Black Children With A Gun Sentenced To Prison
Austin D. Schoemann will spend 80 months in prison for his racist threats of violence.
A white man from Wichita, Kansas, will now go to prison for threatening to kill Black children after waving a gun at them.
Austin D. Schoemann, 31, will spend 80 months in prison. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas, he previously pleaded guilty to two counts of interference with federally protected activities, two counts of interstate threats, and one count of interference with housing.
According to his plea agreement, obtained by the Wichita Eagle, the racist incident occurred outside a QuikTrip in July 2022. The document notes that Schoemann has been drinking when he saw two Black children leave the Wichita location, and promptly exited his vehicle to start harassing them. According to a witness, Schoemann used the phrase “white power” and racial slurs.
After a Black woman tried to de-escalate the situation, Schoemann took out his gun and threatened to use it.
“He responded by threateningly brandishing a pistol and ejecting (not firing) a bullet from the chamber,” detailed the agreement. “Schoemann threatened (the children) because they are Black and because they were enjoying the services and facilities.”
However, Schoemann has a deeper history of racial harassment. In December 2021, he began harassing Black guests at his white ex-girlfriend’s house. Moreover, he sent “racially-threatening messages” to her family and friends.
Things escalated even further when Schoemann would stand outside the woman’s home and yell out these threats and racial slurs whenever Black people would arrive. He acted on his threats by destroying the mother of the woman’s car windshield, which he thought belonged to a Black person.
He also sent videos to her loved ones threatening to murder Black people. The statements included “one cap to the head, (racial slur dead)” and “put me in front of a welfare line; I will get rid of poverty.”
Following his arrest, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, Kate E. Brubacher encouraged the public to report those who inflict hate crimes and other racial violence.
“Perpetrators of hate crimes inflict pain upon victims in furtherance of a larger goal of breeding fear and divisiveness within our communities,” wrote Brubacher. “The Justice Department is standing against racial violence and threats of racial violence by prosecuting offenders, but we need the public’s help. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas encourages those who are victims of or witnesses to hate crimes to report these incidents to law enforcement.”
Kentucky Student Who Went Viral After Saying N-Word 200 Times And Assaulting A Black Woman Sentenced To Jail
Sophia Rosing will spend 12 months in jail for her misdemeanor charges.
A judge has sentenced a former University of Kentucky student, who went viral for saying the N-word 200 times and assaulting a Black woman on campus, to jail for a year.
The 2022 incident caught on video showed Sophia Rosing on a drunken rant while assaulting another student at the school, identified as Kylah Spring. The video showed Rosing’s heavy use of the N-word while enacting violence on Spring, who also said she was kicked in the stomach. While Spring detailed the assault, Rosing called her the slur and a “b-tch” in the background. She also allegedly bit and kicked a police officer who arrived to the scene.
The University of Kentucky banned Rosing from its premises. After her arrest, Rosing entered a plea deal to reduce her charges, which included assault of a police officer, to a misdemeanor.
She pleaded guilty to four counts of fourth-degree assault, one count of disorderly conduct, and one count of public intoxication. According to Lex 18, a Kentucky judge has ordered the banned student to spend 12 months in jail and perform 100 hours of community service.
After her plea hearing, Rosing’s attorney, Fred Peters, revealed how the former co-ed spoke with Spring. “A lot of things got said, apologies were made and we worked it out,” explained Peters. “She has had a lot of time to think about what she has done, and she wrote a nice letter of apology.”
However, Spring did not find Rosing’s apology authentic. Rosing also wrote an apology to the Black community for her racially-charged actions.
Despite her lighter stint in jail than what a felony could have induced, Rosing should not expect to continue any studies at the University of Kentucky. As of right now, she remains banned from the school grounds and is not allowed to re-enroll.
Christian Barmore Apologizes To Police After Accusation Of Racial Profiling
'I want everyone to know that I’m sorry and I take full accountability for my actions,' the NFL star stated.
After claiming that racism played a part in being arrested at a traffic stop, New England Patriots defensive lineman Christian Barmore has publicly apologized for making that statement and accepted “full accountability” for his actions leading to his arrest.
Barmore was issued a summons on Oct. 16 for operating an unregistered vehicle, display of plates penalties, and driving with an expired license. After being released, he took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and wrote, “I just experienced for the first time–-five Providence cops being very unprofessional racism at its finest.” He later deleted the post.
On Oct. 19, he returned to the social media platform to admit that his previous statement was untrue and apologize to the police officers, his Patriots teammates, and his family.
He stated that after reflecting on his actions, he had to take full accountability for what transpired. He cited that he should have known better, as his mother is a former police officer, and he understood the pressures of being in that profession. He stated that he met with the officers from the Providence Police Department to express his sentiments in person.
A few days have gone by since the incident with the Providence police and I have had a chance to deeply reflect on my behavior. I want everyone to know that I’m sorry and I take full accountability for my actions. I apologize to the Providence Police Department, my teammates,…
The incident took place on Oct. 16 before 1 a.m. A police report stated that the football player‘s Jeep Grand Cherokee windows were tinted. He also had a plate cover on the temporary registrations, which caused them issues while reading the information. A police officer stated he tried to pull the defensive lineman over but claimed that Barmore “slow rolled” the police, according to The Boston Globe.
After being stopped, Barmore “had an attitude towards police” and handed them his paperwork “in an aggressive manner.” They searched his vehicle and claimed to have found an ash cup with what they claimed to be a blunt and an unknown substance. They included that they found several tubes filled with marijuana.
The officers stated that Barmore’s Jeep registration had expired, leading to his arrest.
Black Conservative Radio Host Draws Outrage For Saying ‘Field African Americans Are Voting For Trump’
Shelley Wynter claims he was referencing a famous Malcolm X quote.
A Black conservative radio host is facing backlash for referring to Black supporters of Donald Trump as “field African Americans.”
Shelley Wynter made an appearance on CNN on Oct. 16 where he made “a bazooka blast” statement when he broke down the Black male electorate in the U.S. into “house African Americans and field African Americans.”
“Let me boil this election down in the African American community to a very simple — I’ll reference the great Malcolm X,” he said. “This race is between house African Americans and field African Americans, and field African Americans are voting for [Donald] Trump.”
The remarks referenced the “house slaves” who worked inside the slave house during enslavement in the U.S. and the “field slaves” who worked outdoors. While Wynter claims he was referencing a Malcolm X quote, his comments drew criticism from CNN News Central co-host Sarah Sidner, guest Michael Blake, and many who watched the clip back.
According to Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, Wynter’s comments “speak to a growing social class divide between the have and have-nots among Black Americans.”
“These are the types of comments that oftentimes occur behind closed doors within the Black community.”
Wynter claims that he was referencing part of Malcolm X’s famous 1963 speech, “The Race Problem in America,” where the revolutionary leader compared modern Black individuals who resisted separating from white societal power to house slaves. The “The Shelley Wynter Show” host is standing by his comments, saying anyone who has a problem with him invoking Malcolm X and slavery was “overanalyzing it.”
“There’s an argument to be made that we’re all technically slaves to this system, whether you’re Democrat or Republican,” he said. “No one’s being called a slave. It’s using an analogy in the context of what it was used, the same as when Malcolm was explaining something, and he wasn’t calling Black people slaves when he gave that speech.”
“He was saying that this was an attitudinal thing. There are people in the Black community who, when they’re close to power — i.e., master — they will take on the attributes and defend that power. And that’s what we’re seeing now with this race.”
NBA Star Jaylen Brown Reveals 10 Boston Entrepreneurs Selected For His Wealth-Building Incubator Program
The program aims to generate $5 billion in generational wealth within Boston’s communities of color.
The names of the recipients of NBA star Jaylen Brown’s inaugural Boston XChange (BXC) incubator program have been revealed.
Brown and his Boston Celtics teammate, Jrue Holiday, met with the 10 Boston-area entrepreneurs on Oct. 16, participating in the inaugural accelerator program launched through the Celtics star’s nonprofit initiative, introduced in August. The Boston Globe reports that the program aims to generate $5 billion in generational wealth within Boston’s communities of color.
BXC was inspired by Brown’s remarks last year, following his then-record $304 million NBA contract extension, where he expressed a desire to use part of his earnings to create a “Black Wall Street” in Boston. In collaboration with the JLH Fund, the incubator program will provide visionary creators from underrepresented communities with the business resources needed to successfully prototype, produce, and launch their projects. As part of the incubator, recipients will receive $100,000 in grant funding, access to work and creator spaces, and business services valued at over $150,000. In addition, creators will benefit from three years of coaching to help accelerate their ventures in design, arts, media, entertainment, fashion, and culinary arts.
In August, the NBA champion announced the incubator program in response to the drastic wealth disparity between Black and white families in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Living in Boston and playing in Boston, one thing that you notice are the differences. I came across an article that basically said that the median net worth of a Black household in Greater Boston is $8, while for white households, it’s six figures,” he said.
“My curiosity made me look further and I found out that Boston is in the top five for wealth disparity.”
Now, 10 creators have been selected to take part in Brown’s mission to combat Boston’s racial wealth gap. Among those include:
Pioneers Apparel/PYNRS Performance Streetwear: A Black-male-founded running apparel company focused on creating high-performance gear, specifically designed to offer enhanced fit and support for a broader range of runners.
Future Masters Chess Academy: A chess class service for kids founded by Black Chess Master Lawyer Times, the first Black player to become Massachusetts State Chess Champion.
“This is really a dream to be a part of this,” Times said. “Jaylen Brown is a master thinker. … When it comes to generating wealth and closing the gap, we both believe it starts with the mind.”
The Little Cocoa Bean Company is a health-conscious food company for babies that creates culturally diverse, ready-made, fresh, and nutritious meals for babies and toddlers, served in a stylish, baby-friendly café environment for parents. It was founded by Tracy Skelly, who was inspired by her struggle to find culturally diverse and nutritious foods for her daughter after giving birth in 2018.
Melanin Haircare: Founded by sisters Whitney and Taffeta White, whose natural and nontoxic haircare line is sold online at Target and Sephora.
“Boston doesn’t really have a lot of these opportunities,” Whitney White said. “I’m really thankful there was a focus on Boston creators and Boston, Black-owned businesses as well because we don’t get too much love over here.”
Anawan Studios: Anawan Studios is a full-service film production company dedicated to creating opportunities for Black and brown creatives to enter and thrive in Boston’s film industry.
Crown Legends: A boutique in Boston’s South End specializing in high-quality hats and exclusive, limited-edition baseball caps. While their focus is on baseball caps, one of the founders expressed excitement about getting support from an NBA star.
“I’m a die-hard Celtics fan,” co-founder Al Objio said. “We have an NBA champion to back us. It’s huge.”
Dorchester Art Project: A community arts organization that, for the past decade, has transitioned into a worker-owned cooperative with a mission to provide affordable studios, performance spaces, and educational resources for artists, creators, and organizers. DAP is focused on creating profitable opportunities for artists of color to build wealth, moving beyond reliance on donations.
“When this opportunity came about, trying to build wealth in Boston, we were like, ‘We’re doing the same thing. Let’s get together,’” said DAP co-founder Lina Cañon.
André Holland Restoring Old Movie Theater In Alabama Hometown To Provide More Access To The Arts
The actor and his mother will embark on reviving the Lincoln Theater through his nonprofit, The Holland Project.
Actor André Holland is taking on a personal project with his mother to bring the arts back to the South. The “Moonlight” actor will restore an old movie theater in his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama.
The mother-and-son duo will embark on reviving the Lincoln Theater through his nonprofit, The Holland Project. While also hosting screenings, the theater will become part of a greater area dedicated to the arts in Bessemer. Holland and his mother are also building a community center to host this specific programming.
“And then there’s a little community center that we’re building that’s right next door to it. [It’s] essentially a community space where we’re going to give kids and people in the community access to world-class arts programming,” explained the actor to People.
Holland also revealed that his mother is a big reason for his career and love of the arts. They aim to ensure the local youth have access to theater, just as his parents did for him.
“We had to drive really, really far to find any kind of arts programming at all,” he shared of his mother’s dedication to his craft. “And she was committed to doing that, she and my dad [Donald] both. So one of the passions that she has, and that I have, is to bring arts programming to my immediate community that I grew up in, in Bessemer, Alabama.”
Holland continued to gush about his “incredible” mother’s perseverance in bringing the theater back to life. He further stated that she is “spearheading” the whole effort to do so. They plan to make The Lincoln Theater a single-screen cinema. The renovations pay homage to its roots of playing films for Black audiences.
The actor is also on an entrepreneurial and spiritual journey. He owns a production company and is obtaining his master’s degree at Harvard Divinity School. Despite juggling multiple projects, he hopes to integrate his spiritual education with his creative goals.
“I’ve loved every second of it,” the 44-year-old remarked. “The program is called Master’s of Religion and Public Life, which is all about how to have our work, my work as an artist, have a greater impact in the world through the academic study of religion. It’s been an amazing experience.”
Moreover, Holland continues to make his mark in Hollywood. The actor recently starred in the independent drama “Exhibiting Forgiveness” opposite Audra Day, which was released to theaters on Oct. 18.
HBCU Pastor Goes Viral After Preaching ‘No Diddy’ In Sermon About Abstinence
Pastor Robert Edwards kept repeating 'No Diddy' in his sermon at Oakwood University.
A pastor at an HBCU has gone viral after using the phrase “No Diddy” while preaching about abstinence.
Pastor Robert Edwards had some choice words during his sermon at Oakwood Live service at Oakwood University, a Christian HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama. Edwards tried to connect to the youth with the controversial catchphrase as he attempted to promote staying abstinent until marriage. The Art of Dialogue reposted a short clip featuring Edwards’s speech.
A pastor says, 'No Diddy,' while encouraging students at a Christian college not to have sex before marriage.
“Speaking to the OU Live students now, I know you’re trying to make a decision. Even while you are here, you may have to say ‘No Diddy’ to an Oakwood student,” expressed Edwards, who also serves as the Vice President for Enrollment Services and Retention at the HBCU.
“I’m just being real. You’ll have to make an individual decision about your life and what you are going to do,” he continued. “At age 19, I said to the Lord… that I would never have sex with a woman until I am married. Now, when you utter those words, the Lord is not the only one that hears it. So the test came…”
Edwards kept repeating “No Diddy” in his testimony about abstaining from sex, as reported byVibe. The school, founded by the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1896, promotes a Biblically-based education in its curriculum.
Edwards added, “Joined this church [and] girls who were running out of time, because they got this clock, ‘I gotta be married by a certain time,’ and I had to say ‘No Diddy.’ The first time I had sex was the night I got married.”
The phrase has become a popular alternative to other colloquialisms such as “No homo” or “Pause,” typically used whenever someone says something deemed suggestive. “No Diddy” references Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was recently arrested for sex trafficking and racketeering. In addition, his unusual sexual escapades, known as “freak-offs,” have also captured media attention.
England’s Walker Gallery Opens Groundbreaking Exhibit Featuring Over 40 Black Female Artists
Before the 'Conversations' exhibit, the Walker Gallery only had two pieces created by Black women out of its over 13,000-piece collection.
Sumuyya Khader, a Liverpool-based artist and curator, spoke to The Guardian about a new exhibit in the Walker Gallery that opened on Oct. 18 and centers on the work of Black women.
“Conversations” is the Walker Gallery’s newest show, featuring over 40 different Black female and nonbinary artists. Prior to this show, Khader noted that the museum severely lacked diversity in its pieces.
“We are surrounded by deceased white males,” she described. The Gallery only had two artworks by Black women before launching “Conversations.”
“I was always told when I was younger to look up,” Khader continued. “But you get to the point where you look up and think these histories are so torrid. I want people to go in, hear the beat and the bass, and be like, ‘Oh!’”
The first part of the show greets patrons with sound rather than a physical traditional piece. Khader referenced a work by Zinzi Minott called “Bloodsound” as a perfect introduction to the “Conversations.” Minott’s piece features a wall of transparent speakers filled with a red sugar-based liquid -– an artistic reminder that the blasting reggae music that reaches over the exhibit hall isn’t just entertainment but comes from a history rooted in sugar plantations across the Caribbean.
The soundtrack consists of over 200 samples from Jamaican music legends like Marcia Griffiths. The recognizable samples are interspersed with field recordings from Notting Hill carnival, an interview with Minott’s grandmother conducted just a few weeks before her passing, and a speech by former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom Nye Bevan about the creation of the NHS.
Minott said of the piece, “I didn’t want it to feel like a party. There are bits where you recognize the song, but then it cuts … you can’t get too lost in it.”
“Conversations” were spearheaded after the Walker Gallery staffing and curators realized the gallery only had two pieces created by Black female artists out of its extensive 13,000-piece collection. The pieces by Edmonia Lewis and Lubaina Himid revealed a stark lack of diversity in its gallery across the British art world, even in places like Liverpool with historically settled Black populations. Now, the Walker Gallery showcases influential artists from the Black Arts Movement of the 1980s, including the “Conversations” show, featuring historic names like Maud Sulter, Claudette Johnson, and Himid. However, the Gallery also touts a newer generation of Black artists, including Joy Labinjo and Olivia Sterling.
Sharon Walters, one of the many artists whose work is in the gallery now, said, “I hope it inspires. There has been that feeling of taking up space, but this truly is taking up space.”
Khader told The Guardian that she hoped this new show would be just the beginning of a change of culture in the art world, which would be greater than just getting more paintings by Black artists on the walls of galleries.
She expressed, “I’m the only Black person on my team, and we’re talking about acquiring Black art, but you’re uncomfortable talking about Blackness? So, where does that leave what we acquire? That’s my fear.”
She added, “Those scales need to tip to the point where a show like this shouldn’t be seen as radical or different. It’s not -– it’s just a contemporary art show.”
“I can’t think of any spaces in London that have shown anything like this. It’s really important for Black women, both as artists and as human beings, because it just hasn’t been done before,” Khader continued. She hoped that “Conversations” in the Walker Gallery would also begin to expand Black art outside of just England’s capital so that it would be more accessible to all of those who wanted to see it.
“Why can’t people come to us? Because we have the calibre,” Khader said.
‘Love Island USA’ Winner Serena Page Moving Into Her ‘Businesswoman Era’; Teases Black Haircare Brand
'Love Island USA' winner Serena Page has her sights set on launching a haircare business.
“Love Island USA” winner Serena Page is loving the “influencer era” she’s in after winning the popular reality show. But the former hair braider is looking to return to her entrepreneurial roots.
Page was front-and-center for the Essence GU Disruptor Summit in Atlanta on Oct. 12, where she teased her plans to enter her “businesswoman era” in 2025.
“As someone who we watched advocate for herself in a space where we’re often sidelined or over-criticized, Serena Page let us know who she’s doing it for and a glimpse into her next era,” Essence wrote of the television star.
Running a business isn’t foreign to Page, as she shared about her side hustle of braiding hair to make ends meet while attending the University of Texas at San Antonio. With a natural interest in the haircare space, the reality star revealed her plans to launch her own haircare business that’s “easy and accessible” to Black women.
“I want something very easy and accessible for Black women, especially young Black women in college,” she explained. “I knew when I was in college I didn’t have no money to do my hair. Yes, I braided hair. I had a braiding business for four years. That’s how I was kind of making a little money. Outside of that, you kinda gotta do your own hair.”
As for what type of haircare products she hopes to release, they’ll be sure to assist Black women with their protective styling.
“Things to help with protective styles specifically as well,” Page said. “Maybe some mousse, maybe some edges, something that will make it easier on Black women to upkeep their hair.”
In the meantime, Page is getting busy securing endorsements within the haircare space. She recently teamed up with Beyoncé’s CÉCRED hairline for a campaign filmed at the brand’s salon.
“THAT GIRL! @serenaapagee graced the CÉCRED Salon for a little post-villa TLC. Au naturale and “what lace?!” both prepped with our full FOUNDATION COLLECTION,” the brand captioned the post.
