Browsing: National News

    Now, as he awaits an appellate court’s ruling that could grant him a new trial or freedom, Cosby’s support base appears more significant than at any point since charges were filed against him nearly four years ago.

     Former Governor Patrick’s late entry onto the presidential stage means that for the first time in history, three African Americans are running for President from one of the two major political parties. They are Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and now Patrick. The late arrivals have reignited a debate about “electability” and who can actually win in 2020. Biden’s poll numbers falling in Iowa started the debate.

Brown was supposed to spend 51 years in prison before she could even be considered for parole but her precarious case caught the attention of criminal justice reform activists, A-List celebrities and eventually Bill Haslam, the Governor of Tennessee. Upon learning of the details surrounding Brown’s case and calling on a higher power, the former governor granted Cyntoia Brown full clemency August 7, 2019, releasing the 31-year-old from the Tennessee Women’s prison. Brown who once had given up hope after losing all of her appeals, had been granted “mercy” in a socio-political climate that readily demonstrates anything but mercy or empathy towards Black women.

     One relatively unsung product of its liberal sway is the founder of the annual AfroComicCon, Oakland’s Michael James. Now in its third iteration, AfroComicCon is a three-day event showcasing comic books and pop culture related to (but assuredly not limited to) the African Diaspora.

While paying homage to the elders in the Rondo community, Rhodes also used the film as an opportunity to teach the youth about the history of Rondo. She partnered with the High School for Recording Arts to get a group of students who wanted to learn about filmmaking and their local communities. Rhodes taught the youth – many who conducted interviews and operated the cameras – about the history of the community, and after learning about what the construction did to the once thriving community, she said they were eager to get to work.

Meet Vanessa Braxton, best known as the founder of Black Momma Vodka. But now she has another venture brewing up. She just took over three storefronts in a New York shopping plaza to open Black Momma Tea & Cafe, a restaurant that will serve 160 different blends of tea, three flavored agaves and other vegan and organic food items such as muffins and wraps.

   “Higher education had not done a good job of looking at our past, or the sociodynamics of the country, the cultural dynamics, in an honest and diverse way,” Millner told The Skanner. “It had been committed to a very Eurocentric view of both the past and the present, and the assumption that it would be the same in the future. And so, what even a small Black Studies department was able to do was to begin to change the intellectual and academic environment on a university campus in ways that were pretty remarkable and unpredictable.”

Ahead of the first day of oral arguments in the Supreme Court case Comcast Corp. V. National Association of African American-Owned Media (NAAOM), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) led her colleagues in introducing a resolution that affirms the vital role that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 – particularly Section 1981 of the Act – has played in prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity when making and enforcing business contracts.

“This world of work is most effective when the individuals contributing to and leading this evolution represent the diversity of our communities and the richness of multiple perspectives. We are excited to work with our anchor partners to intentionally focus on girls and students of color, as we move to provide equity and access and de-mystify STEM,” she stated.

Black girls, and other girls of color, experience discriminatory, disparate, punitive, and unfair treatment in school, including suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement and arrests on school campuses, at rates that exceed the public-school population in aggregate — and far exceed those experienced by their White female peers.