photo credit: pexels

by Kandiss Edwards

January 30, 2025

New Orleans Artist Is The First Non-NFL Employee To Create Super Bowl Logo

Tahj’s willingness to halt the production of her Mardi Gras Indian costume underscores her commitment to "put on" for her city.

Queen Tahj, A Black woman and New Orleans native, created the new logo for this year’s 2025 Super Bowl LIX. It marks the first time the National Football League has collaborated with an artist outside its organization to bring the event to life.

A member of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indian Tribe, the artist took to Instagram to express her “extreme gratitude for [her] city” and explain the personal sacrifice she made to complete the project:

“There aren’t too many things in this world that can make me decide not to continue sewing on my new suit for 2024. With that being said, I present to you Super Bowl Logo LIX. This is the first time in history the NFL has collaborated with an artist outside of its organization for the Super Bowl logo design.”

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Tahj’s willingness to halt the production of her Mardi Gras Indian costume underscores her commitment to “put on” for her city.

New Orleans has a rich history of Black Masking Indian culture, a practice that honors the Native American tribes that helped shelter and assist enslaved Black people in their escape to freedom. There are over 40 documented tribes in New Orleans, according to NewOrleans.com. Tribe members hold positions of honor within their communities.

“Each tribe has positions among its members, such as Big Chief, Big Queen, Spy Boy, and Flag Boy. Each position carries individual responsibilities,” the outlet states.

The costumes are handmade and uniquely beaded, with many taking years to create. When the time spent on conceptualization and design is factored in, some costumes take more than a year to bring to life.

While the traditions, history, and rules governing each tribe of Black Masking Indians may differ, their intent is the same as Tahj’s: to honor and respect the city that nurtures their spirit and the people who made it possible.

Super Bowl LIX is taking place in New Orleans at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on Feb. 9. Tourists can also check out the Mardi Gras Indians at various parades held during the Carnival season, which ends Mar. 4.

project 2025 — Photo by SeventyFour/Getty Images, small image (c)

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

January 30, 2025

Black Ministers Call For Resistance Against ‘White Christian Nationalism’ Efforts Of Project 2025

Black church leaders are calling for unified resistance against Project 2025, which is "informed by white Christian Nationalism."

Black church leaders are banding together amid the return of Donald Trump to the White House and calling for Black resistance against “white Christian Nationalism,” aka Project 2025.

In a statement dated Jan. 1 and later published by Reel Urban News, over two dozen Black ministers issued “A Credo to Legatees of the Black Church Tradition.” The statement calls for Black church leaders and its members to resist white Christian nationalism through bold acts of defiance.

Among the suggested acts of resistance include investing in Black-owned banks, supporting Black businesses, and providing scholarships to help students attend vocational schools and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Taking these actions would be in direct response to Trump’s recent executive orders, which fall in line with Project 2025, an agenda Black church leaders say “is informed by white Christian Nationalism.”

“We believe Black people should return to the ecumenical Black Church tradition and renew fellowship with their brothers and sisters,” the statement read, “to help fight and resist hegemonic practices which continue to endorse under-resourced public and private funding to abolish human poverty.”

“We believe our Credo is inspired by the Spirit of the Lord: Therefore, our Credo is not a reaction to Project 2025,” it stated in conclusion. “Instead, it is an ethical response to white Christian Nationalism.”

Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a coordinator of Faiths United to Save Democracy and the onetime executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, stressed the importance of the Credo in light of ongoing attacks on DEI initiatives and the rollback of civil rights protections.

“I added my name to the Credo because it prophetically calls Black clergy back to the theology of moral resistance in the spirit of Frederick Douglass and many other righteous resisters to injustice and oppression like those inherent in Project 2025,” she said. “Project 2025 is an all-out attack on over 60 years of civil rights protection of African American people in the U.S.”

lawsuit, monkey lawsuit — photo credit: pexels

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

January 29, 2025

Pennsylvania High School Math Teacher Compared Monkey To Black Student, Lawsuit Says

A Pennsylvania school district is facing its second racial discrimination lawsuit in three months.

A new lawsuit is calling out a high school math teacher in a Pennsylvania school district with a history of alleged racial discrimination.

In a federal lawsuit filed on Jan. 24, two brothers who are students at Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, outline several incidents that they claim demonstrate the district’s racial discrimination, the Miami Herald reported. Among these incidents is an allegation that a math teacher held up a photo of a monkey in class and compared it to two Black students, including one of the brothers involved in the lawsuit.

“It was such an emotional reaction that he had to be compared to a picture of a monkey that that kind of … really started his reaction toward the school district,” the student’s attorney, Nicholas Miller, said.

Other incidents outlined in the lawsuit include the older brother allegedly being moved to the front of the bus on his first day of school so he, along with other Black students, could be monitored. Later in the school year, a bus driver allegedly told the student’s white girlfriend that she was “too good to be with someone like him” because of his race.

The student, who has a learning disability, was repeatedly singled out because of his race, causing his frustration with teachers, administrators, and fellow students to intensify. According to the lawsuit, the discrimination worsened to the point where his younger brother was also targeted.

The student’s frustrations escalated after he was unable to receive the necessary support for his learning disability in the classroom, according to the lawsuit. Instead of getting help, he was labeled an “angry Black youth,” while white students were provided the learning support they needed, the complaint states.

The lack of support forced the students to repeat classes while white students were able to advance.

“The fact that somebody can be labeled as that without looking at the environment, it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Miller said.

Other alleged incidents include the student being suspended after confronting a white student who threatened the boy in a text message that showed the white student holding a gun. The following year, the teen got into another dispute with a white student and was placed in an “illegal and criminal restraint hold,” the lawsuit said.

The student’s brother was also targeted and experienced his own instances of discrimination, according to the lawsuit. As a result of their treatment at the school, the two boys feel deprived of their right to free speech and fear retaliation, along with other emotional distress, the lawsuit claims.

This is the second racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the school district in under three months. In November, a lawsuit accused the district of fostering racial discrimination against a Black cheerleader, whose parents were allegedly chased and threatened by a school board member and a family member of the head cheerleading coach after raising the issue with the school board.

Staten Island, Former NYC School Superintendent, Education Department , Anti-White Discrimination Allegations, suicide, Black History — Photo by Stella/Getty Images

by Stacy Jackson

January 29, 2025

Woman At Lisha Kill Middle School In New York Sells Black History Tees To Support Students In Guyana

All proceeds from Almont’s “Black History Is American History” t-shirts support education for students in Guyana’s Hopetown village.

Jaqueline McAlmont’s Black History T-shirts send out one message: “Black History Is American History.”

Designed using Pan-African colors, McAlmont sells her T-shirts as an effort to do her part around Lisha Kill Middle School in Albany, New York, where she has been a support staff member for about five years. She told News 10 ABC about the statement on her graphic tees, a topic she noticed no one highlighted around the public school in Colonie. “Black History is American History,” said McAlmont. “Nobody understands…it’s intertwined, it’s there.” Literature published in 2021 in the National Institutes of Health from the University of Chicago’s Monica Peek, MD, supports Almont’s message that Black History is an integral part of America’s history. “It is the story of triumph over adversity, determination in the face of uncertainty, and courage and conviction standing down hate and violence,” Peek wrote.

For McAlmont, her T-shirt sales are not about personal profit. Instead, all proceeds are collected to support school children in Hopetown, a village in Berbice, Guyana, where her grandmother was born; and the project has introduced a creative learning experience for both students and teachers at Lisha Kill.

McAlmont said students in the village “have a desire to learn” and she has directly witnessed their hard work even without basic supplies like backpacks, lunches, or uniforms. Lisha Kill 7th grader Vreej Patel, said the mission of McAlmont’s project resonates with her. “This means a lot to me because I was from India, and there aren’t that many good schools that you can go to, and this is going to help kids in Guyana to go to good schools, so this is going to be very nice for them,” said Patel.

The middle school staffer noted that the late New York native Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for Congress, was of Caribbean descent. According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the civil rights activist was the daughter of immigrants from Barbados and Guyana.

Lisha Kill will be decorated for Black History Month, starting Jan. 31. Supporters of McAlmont’s mission and efforts to help students in Guyana can visit her Facebook page to inquire about purchasing the “Black History Is American History” t-shirts, which according to a post are priced at $20.

NYPD, Police, Queens, Wheelchair, NYC — Photo by Eduard Baehler/Getty Imaegs

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

January 29, 2025

NYPD’s Top-Ranking Officers Criticized for ‘Irresponsible And Unprofessional’ Social Media Posts

Top-ranking NYPD officials are accused of being unprofessional on social media.

The New York City Department of Investigation is calling out top NYPD officials whose social media posts reflect “irresponsible and unprofessional” behavior.

A 44-page report released on Jan. 28 revealed that NYPD executives’ social media accounts violated city policies concerning “courtesy and civility.” Notable offenders included NYPD Chief of Department John Chell and Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Gothamist reports.

Based on the findings, the DOI said some of the online behavior remains inconclusive but did “raise questions” about whether the social media posts “may be deemed prohibited engagement in political activity by city employees.”

“New York City deserves public officials who use social media responsibly, to communicate accurate information and to prompt respectful dialogue on issues of importance to the community, and not as a means to ridicule those with whom they disagree,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said in a statement.

“No aspect of the social media exchanges that DOI reviewed in this investigation served the public.”

The NYPD, the nation’s largest police department, employs nearly 50,000 personnel and aced scrutiny last year for representing a combative culture. Among the combative behaviors include tweets from the NYPD’s executive staff where posts on X targeted various individuals, including a Supreme Court judge, journalists, public members, and elected officials.

In 2024, Chell tweeted that sitting Councilmember Tiffany Cabán “hates our city.” He shared the tweet after Cabán critiqued the NYPD’s response to anti-Israel protests on college campuses. In a follow-up tweet, he told his followers to “vote the change you seek,” a statement that, according to the report, could potentially breach the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts political activities of government employees involved in federal programs.

There were multiple instances where Chell and Daughtry were accused of assigning mocking nicknames to journalists whom they accused of spreading false information about the administration’s accomplishments. Investigators have determined that the online attacks violated fundamental internal guidelines.

“They violated department policies related to being courteous and civil, and raise questions with respect to whether they may be deemed prohibited engagement in political activity by City employees,” the report reads.

The NYPD responded to the report through a spokesperson, stating that the department has implemented “significant changes to its social media practices” since the investigation began last year. However, no word has been given on whether any officials would face consequences for breaching department policy.

Dwight Howard, military service — (Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

January 29, 2025

You Can Now Purchase Dwight Howard’s Home For $11.3M

The home was purchased by the former NBA player in 2016 for $8.8 million.

If you have a little more than $12 million to spare and are looking for a new house, you can purchase a home owned by former NBA player Dwight Howard, located near Atlanta.

According to Robb Report, a real estate listing for a house in Suwanee for $11.25 million belongs to the former Orlando Magic player. It’s described as a European-style residence about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta. Howard has owned the property for over seven years.

The home was built in 2010 for about $40 million and was purchased by the center in 2016 for $8.8 million while Howard was playing for the Atlanta Hawks, according to Footboom.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the property is more than 32,000 square feet and spread across 14 acres. It has 10 bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms, nine half bathrooms, six full kitchens, a game room, a movie theater, and a private gym.

The main kitchen has a large adjacent scullery and a walk-in pantry with remote-controlled shelving. An oversized bedroom suite is located on the main floor of the house and has a private, covered balcony and dual custom closets. The property has six interior and exterior fireplaces, with a set of spiral stone staircases that lead to the backyard.

The property also includes a private lake, a half-court basketball court, and a heated saltwater swimming pool. A pool house and garage can accommodate more than 10 cars.

The house is listed by Kelly Anderson of Engel & Volkers Atlanta.

Howard is still looking to play in the NBA, hoping to land with a team heading for the playoffs and earning another ring. He has campaigned to rejoin LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Orlando Magic drafted him as the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NBA Draft and led the team to the 2009 NBA finals. He finally won an NBA championship when he played for the Lakers in 2020.

During his NBA career, he also played for the Houston Rockets, the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Washington Wizards, and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Trump, EEOC, DEI — (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

by Sharelle B. McNair

January 29, 2025

Trump’s Press Secretary: Administration ‘Intends’ To Celebrate Black History Month Amid Anti-Woke Efforts

Black History Month is right around the corner.....

Karoline Leavitt made her White House debut as the new press secretary and took on questions, including ways the new Trump Administration plans to celebrate Black History Month in February.

As the youngest press secretary to serve in the position at just 27, Leavitt took questions from members of the press on Jan. 28 on topics surrounding immigration and the team’s controversial decision to freeze federal funding on programs such as Medicaid. But author and White House correspondent April Ryan wanted answers on just how Trump and his team are planning to celebrate Black History Month amongst efforts to eliminate DEI and “woke” ideologies. “This administration is thinking about celebrating Black History Month. Have you got any word on that, anything you can offer to us?” Ryan asked.

Leavitt responded by saying the team “certainly still intends” to celebrate, failing to mention Black history specifically. Instead, she claims “American history” will be celebrated. “And we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion, or creed, have made to our great country,” she said.

“And America is back.”

As no official celebration plans have been announced, an email from the State Department seemingly downplayed Black History Month. The Independent reported that an email obtained by The Wall Street Journal gave minimal guidance on the celebration but asked officials to highlight “valuable contributions of individual Americans throughout U.S. history while ensuring our public communications maintain the spirit of the directive eliminating DEAI programs.” One official felt the notification meant no public events or messages about Black History Month, which has been celebrated since the 1970s.

During Trump’s first four-year term, the President recognized February as “National African-American Month.” “The diplomats I spoke to today, with decades of experience, couldn’t remember a time we failed” to mark Black History Month,” one official said.

Leavitt’s first appearance since transitioning from national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign did not go over so well with some critics on social media and television. The hosts of ABC’s The View ripped into the press secretary’s overuse of the word “wokeness” as Whoopi Goldberg reminded her that it was that term that got her where she is. “Because women were not invited to that table. Women were not invited to many tables in this nation. The reason we fought and busted our behinds to make sure that you didn’t have to worry about this, and now to hear you talk about it and to hear anybody talk about the wokeness, the wokeness was put in place for a reason because Black people couldn’t get into colleges, because women could not get into the colleges they wanted to go to,” Goldberg said, according to Fox News.

“This is all women. See, this is not Black, Asian women. This is all women. Women were not invited to this party. It was a man’s world, and we busted our a–es to make sure that this was a person’s world.”

After praising Trump for allegedly “doing more in less than 24 hours than his predecessor did in four years,” Leavitt was compared to foreign state media like North Korea. “Propaganda so blatant it would make the dictator of North Korea blush,” one commenter wrote on social media.

Mississippi Valley State University — Photo credit: Chillin662, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

January 29, 2025

Former Super Bowl Champ Terrell Buckley Hired As Football Head Coach At Mississippi Valley State

'I am Mississippi Made! I have dreamed of being a head coach in the state of Mississippi!'

Another former professional football player has been hired to take over the football program of another HBCU.

Mississippi Valley State University has announced that former NFL Pro Bowl cornerback Terrell Buckley has been brought on as the 19th head football coach of the Delta Devils. He is the latest former NFL player (Deion Sanders and Michael Vick come to mind) to be given the reins of a university’s football program.

“Why Valley for me? I am Mississippi Made! I have dreamed of being a head coach in the state of Mississippi!” said Buckley in a written statement. “This is a family thing. We are stronger together. Embracing change and hard work never ever fails.”

This is a homecoming for Buckley, who grew up in Mississippi, drawing parallels to Virginia’s Michael Vick going back to his hometown to coach Norfolk State University.

The former Miami Dolphin player grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and played his collegiate career at Florida State University. In 1991, he was awarded the Jim Thorpe Award to acknowledge being the nation’s top defensive back. By the time he left FSU, he had 21 interceptions, proving his athletic abilities as a defensive player on the field.

After leaving Florida State, he was selected at the No. 5 spot by the Green Bay Packers in the 1992 NFL Draft. The Mississippi man earned a Super Bowl title while playing for the New England Patriots in 2001. During his 14-year NFL career, he not only played for the Dolphins and Patriots, but he was a journeyman who also played with the Denver Broncos, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New York Jets. Terrell Buckley was then hired as a Football Coach At Mississippi Valley State.

“It is a beautiful day to be at Mississippi Valley State University,” said MVSU President Dr. Jerryl Briggs, Sr. “We are here to support our new football coach and his family 1000 percent. I am just excited to be here today as we look forward to an outstanding season. On behalf of our entire University family, we are going to stay in MOTION!”

NYC, high school — (Photo: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images)

by Sharelle B. McNair

January 29, 2025

Oklahoma Board Of Education Approves Citizenship Proof Requirement For Student Enrollment

Education and immigration advocates label the proposal as "unconstitutional."

The Oklahoma Board of Education voted 6-0 on Jan. 28 to approve a proposal that will require parents to prove their citizenship status when enrolling their children in school, The Hill reported.

Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters claimed the proposal idea was introduced to secure more data. Now in the hands of the state legislature, school districts would have to depend on the total number of students with undocumented parents in the state and would not give out personal information or names of parents. “Our rule around illegal immigration accounting is simply that,” Walters said.

“It is to account for how many students of illegal immigrants are in our schools.”

The proposal backs up claims stating “nothing in this Section shall be construed to prohibit, or inhibit, any child from receiving the education they are entitled to receive.”

However, the proposal received some backlash from education and immigration advocates, given Walters’ alliance to carry out President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. The superintendent opened the meeting with criticism of the media’s “lies” and “gaslighting,” according to CNN, surrounding the immigration hot topic. The vote comes just days after Trump signed a series of executive orders to give more power to immigration authorities, including a direct order permitting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest people in schools.

The National Immigration Law Center released a statement accusing the measure of being unconstitutional, given that “all children have a constitutional right to equal access to education regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.” “Requiring school districts to collect information about immigration status illegally chills access to this opportunity, interfering with their ability to focus on their core mission: to educate children and give all students the ability to grow, thrive, and participate fully in our democracy,” the statement read.

Student citizenship doesn’t have to be reported; however, the state education department will work with the school districts to determine where parents will upload their citizenship proof. “It would frankly be a pretty easy change because there’s already a lot of information that we require when a student enrolls in a district,” Walters said.

Walters is known for taking Trump’s agenda very seriously, with immigration as a focus. In early January 2025, he issued a $474 million lawsuit against ICE and leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, accusing them of failing to execute border policies within Oklahoma’s public schools.

Shortly after the proposal’s approval, Walters announced Oklahoma educators would be required to pass the U.S. naturalization test, “demonstrating “a strong understanding of U.S. history to ensure they’re equipped to inspire the next generation with the principles that make our country great.”

Atlanta Police Officer, Lyft Driver, Arrest, Minor, Folks — (Photo: Elvert Barnes/flickr)

by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman

January 29, 2025

Lyft Sued By A Detroit Rapper After Driver Denies Her A Ride Due To Weight

The woman, Dajua Blanding, called the experience a "slap in the face."

A Detroit rapper has sued Lyft after a driver denied her a ride due to her weight.

Dajua Blanding, also known as Dank Demoss, was on her way to a Detroit Lions watch party when she encountered what she considers weight discrimination. As her Lyft driver came to pick her up, he told her she could not get in because of her size.

She recorded the whole ordeal, with the footage reposted by The Neighborhood Talk.

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To Fox 2, she recounted him “making faces” at her as she approached the vehicle. Despite her assurances that she could fit in his Black Mercedes sedan, the driver refused to let her in to “not stress his tires.”

“Believe me, you can’t,” he said to her in the original video. “I’ve got no space because my car is small.”

He added, “You need to order a bigger car.”

He then apologized and offered to refund her ride, stating that she should call an Uber XL instead. The ride is typically for larger parties. She said the treatment felt like a “slap in the face.”

However, Blanding has now taken legal action for the alleged discrimination. Her lawyers argue that weight is a “protected characteristic” under Michigan law, and denying someone due to it could be considered illegal.

“I’ve been in cars smaller than that,” she told the news outlet. “I just want them to know that it hurt my feelings.”

Lyft has since responded to the matter, stating it “unequivocally condemns” discrimination. Its policy does state that drivers can deny a rider over potential security risks. However, Blanding’s lawyers claim that the driver violated the law by infringing upon a protected characteristic.

“Lyft unequivocally condemns all forms of discrimination—we believe in a community where everyone is treated with equal respect and mutual kindness,” Lyft wrote in a statement. “Our community guidelines and terms of service explicitly prohibit harassment or discrimination.”