President Barack Obama, in a soaring commencement address on work, sacrifice and opportunity, told graduates of Morehouse College Sunday to seize the power of their example as black men graduating from college and use it to improve people’s lives.
Noting the Atlanta school’s mission to cultivate, not just educate, good men, Obama said graduates should not be so eager to join the chase for wealth and material things, but instead should remember where they came from and not “take your degree and get a fancy job and nice house and nice car and never look back.”
“So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless,” Obama declared. “Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business, we need black businesses out there. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood.”
“The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent on making money – rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed,” he said. For those headed to medical school, Obama said “make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too.” He asked those headed to law school to think about defending the poor.
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This is huge, potentially. Along with a flurry of other announcements made on Wednesday at Google I/O, Google’s annual developers’ conference, the company announced that it’s integrating Google Wallet with Gmail, meaning Gmail account holders will soon be able to send money via email.
The amazing thing about this is how easy it is. As you can see in the YouTube video below, all you do is hit a “$” symbol to attach money to an email — just like you would attach any other file.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8m0JOoNYQ&w=560&h=315]
Google Product Manager Travis Green wrote in a blog post that this feature will be rolled out “over the coming months to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old.” You can also get early access if a friend — perhaps who works at Google — already has the feature and sends money to you.
This could pose a threat to e-commerce startups like Venmo, which allows you to send someone payments through an app for iPhones or Android phones. “Holy startup killer,” said Artur Adib, a senior engineer at Twitter.
Jeff Peters, a new media and marketing consultant, wrote in a tweet about the news, “This could be big…if (when) people trust it.”
Tech executive Ray Nolan went even further, declaring, “eCommerce just changed.”
article by Craig Kanalley via huffingtonpost.com
The amazing thing about this is how easy it is. As you can see in the YouTube video below, all you do is hit a “$” symbol to attach money to an email — just like you would attach any other file.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8m0JOoNYQ&w=560&h=315]
Google Product Manager Travis Green wrote in a blog post that this feature will be rolled out “over the coming months to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old.” You can also get early access if a friend — perhaps who works at Google — already has the feature and sends money to you.
This could pose a threat to e-commerce startups like Venmo, which allows you to send someone payments through an app for iPhones or Android phones. “Holy startup killer,” said Artur Adib, a senior engineer at Twitter.
Jeff Peters, a new media and marketing consultant, wrote in a tweet about the news, “This could be big…if (when) people trust it.”
Tech executive Ray Nolan went even further, declaring, “eCommerce just changed.”
article by Craig Kanalley via huffingtonpost.com
ATLANTA — This weekend will be a busy one for Dorian Joyner, Sr. Sunday morning, he will watch his oldest son graduate from Morehouse College. Joyner will have a front row seat for commencement. After all, he will be a fellow graduate himself.
Joyner started his Morehouse journey back in 1984, but never finished. Three years ago, he decided it was time to come back. By then his son, Dorian Joyner, Jr. was already a freshman. When the younger Joyner heard his father was coming back to Morehouse, he admits, it was a shock at first.
“I said, ‘oh, you’re coming back to visit some of your friends?’” he remembered. “And [Dorian Senior] said ‘no, I’m coming back to be a student.’ I said – can you repeat that?” While most kids come to college to get away from their parents, Dorian Junior says he never felt like he was under his father’s thumb.
“We used to have a support system. Sometimes he would come to my room to ask about a problem or a class or a professor to take,” he said. Daddy Dorian, who allows his son to call him by his first name on campus, said the two have their own friends and schedules, so their paths rarely intersect. But after three years of learning from and pushing each other, the two have a bond that goes deeper that father and son.
article by Blayne Alexander via thegrio.com
Graduation season is under way and students and their families are joined by a few special guests as they celebrate their achievement. Among them: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who are addressing students at several of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities at graduation ceremonies this year.
On Sunday, the president will make his way to Atlanta, Georgia to address the graduating class at Morehouse College — a landmark all-male school that once enrolled civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King at the age of 15.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and senior adviser to the president Valerie Jarrett are also participating in commencement exercises at HBCUs. So far, Secretary Vilsack has addressed graduates at Tuskegee University, where he also received an honorary degree. Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama delivered a speech at Bowie State University on Friday.
Aside from President Obama’s highly-anticipated arrival at Morehouse College in the coming days, Jarrett and Secretary Duncanare were expected to participate in commencement services at Clark Atlanta University and Morgan State University this weekend.
article by Lilly Workneh via thegrio.com
Floyd Mayweather Jr. tops Sports Illustrated’s list of highest-earning American athletes for the second consecutive year, according to Sports Illustrated. The welterweight boxer is projected to make a minimum of $90 million this year, but could potentially earn as much as $128 million. The list, entitled “The Fortunate 50,” combines salary, endorsements, and winnings to determine an athlete’s yearly earnings. This year four out of the top five athletes on the list are African-American.
Number two on the list, LeBron James, is set to make roughly $56.5 million in 2013, and NFL quarterback Drew Brees is ranked at number three, with anticipated earnings of $47.8 million. Rounding out the top five are Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant, taking home an estimated $46.8 million, and professional golfer Tiger Woods, earning about $40.8 million.
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose broke into the top 10 this year for the first time. Despite sitting out the 2012-2013 NBA season, Rose lands at No. 7 on the list. With several major endorsement deals, including Adidas and Powerade, Rose is expected to make $33 million this year. Click here to view the whole Sport’s Illustrated “Fortunate 50″ list.
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting titled “Dustheads” sold for $48.8 million yesterday at Christie’s at a sale of postwar and contemporary art in New York, setting a new auction record for Basquiat. His “Untitled,” a painting of a black fisherman, held the previous record when it sold for $26.4 million last November. Also breaking world auction prices for artists were works by Roy Lichtenstein and Jackson Pollock.
Lichtenstein’s “Woman with Flowered Hat” fetched $56 million. A classic example of pop art, the 1963 painting is based on Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his lover Dora Maar. An important drip painting by Pollock, “Number 19,” realized a record $58.3 million. Christie’s says Wednesday’s auction brought in $495 million, the highest total at any art auction.
article via nbcnewyork.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, and music industry entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine have donated a combined $70 million to create a new institute at the University of Southern California, the school announced Tuesday night.
The huge gift from the two who have been music business partners in the past will be used to create the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
The academy will provide a special four-year program for undergraduates whose interests span several fields from marketing to computer science to visual design and other arts. It will include one-on-one faculty mentoring with professors from programs around the university and interaction with entertainment industry luminaries.
The huge gift from the two who have been music business partners in the past will be used to create the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
The academy will provide a special four-year program for undergraduates whose interests span several fields from marketing to computer science to visual design and other arts. It will include one-on-one faculty mentoring with professors from programs around the university and interaction with entertainment industry luminaries.
A 5-year-old Newark, NJ boy became a hero after he used quick thinking and A-B-C skills to save his father’s life last week.
The two were driving home from buying Nathaniel Dancy Jr. school shoes when Nathaniel Sr. suffered an aneurysm and stroke, making him violently ill, according to a report by New York’s NBC Channel 4 News. He was able to pull the car over, but then got out of the car, vomited, and became paralyzed by a seizure. That’s when Nathaniel Jr., who is in kindergarten, sprang into action, grabbing his dad’s phone and calling his grandmother.
“He said, ‘Come and help me and my daddy. We’re in trouble,’” Susan Hardy-Blackman told NBC New York. She asked him where they were, and, though her grandson was unable to read the sign on the store they were in front of, he spelled it for her: F-U-R-N-I-T-U-R-E. But she was still confused. And that prompted the young boy to be persistent well beyond his years.
“He said, ‘Grandma, use your active listening skills,’” she said. “‘Listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth.’” He gave her another clue, that they’d just gone through a tunnel, and Hardy-Blackman was able to go to them, where they were parked in front of a furniture store, and send an ambulance there, too.
Brett Baker, director of operations at Nathaniel’s North Star Academy, told Yahoo! Shine that young Nathaniel is “a very caring individual,” and that he was proud to know the school’s emphasis of core values “really helped him seize the moment, as it were.” Doctors say that Nathaniel Sr., who remains hospitalized, is lucky to be alive.
article by Beth Greenfield via shine.yahoo.com
From Clutch Magazine:
Wet Seal has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action discrimination case that originated when three African-American store workers from Delaware County filed a complaint last year claiming Wet Seal, Inc. fired them because they didn’t fit the store’s image. Of that total amount, $5.58 million will go to current and former managers who are African-American.
In 2009, Nicole Cogdell, a manager at Wet Seal’s King of Prussia store, pulled together her team to welcome visiting corporate staff. Cogdell said she overheard an executive vice president tell a district manager during the visit that Cogdell “wasn’t the right fit for the store” and that the vice president “wanted someone with blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Cogdell was fired days later and was told by her district manager that she was fired for being African-American. In one email, an executive wrote: “Store Teams – need diversification African American dominate – huge issue.” Cogdell issued a statement through the NACCP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Being targeted for termination from a job I loved because of my race was a nightmare,’ Cogdell said in the statement.
Read the rest of this story on Clutch Magazine.
NORWALK, Conn. — Autier Allen-Craft, the first African-American member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Connecticut, was inducted last week as regent of Norwalk-Village Green Chapter, according to a statement from the group.
“There are many African-American women who are not aware that they have Patriot ancestors,” Allen-Craft said. “An estimated 5,000 black soldiers fought on the patriot side during the Revolutionary War. Their female ancestors are entitled to become members of the CTDAR. My goal is to assist African-Americans, as well as any other resident of Norwalk who believes she is a descendant, become a member.”
As the new regent, Allen-Craft said she is looking forward to growing the chapter’s membership.
“Our registrar will help compile the research material and submit the required paperwork needed to become members of the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. We welcome all inquiries.”
Allen-Craft is the second African-American to become a regent in Connecticut. Also, at the 120th annual state conference in Hartford on March 23, she was elected to the position of the South Western District director for the state of Connecticut.
For the past two years, Allen-Craft has been vice regent for the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter, working with Pat Rubino, the outgoing regent.
The Norwalk-Village Green Chapter was organized on Dec. 16, 1892. The society is made up of women who can trace their lineage back to one or more of the Revolutionary patriots. In keeping with a focus on history, education and patriotism, the local chapter was responsible for erecting many of the historical markers and monuments commemorating the history of Norwalk.
Allen-Craft’s two children, Jaylen and Aren Craft, belong to the Captain Stephen Betts Society of the Children of the American Revolution. They are the first African-American members in the state of Connecticut.
As the new regent, Allen-Craft said she is looking forward to growing the chapter’s membership.
“Our registrar will help compile the research material and submit the required paperwork needed to become members of the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. We welcome all inquiries.”
Allen-Craft is the second African-American to become a regent in Connecticut. Also, at the 120th annual state conference in Hartford on March 23, she was elected to the position of the South Western District director for the state of Connecticut.
For the past two years, Allen-Craft has been vice regent for the Norwalk-Village Green Chapter, working with Pat Rubino, the outgoing regent.
The Norwalk-Village Green Chapter was organized on Dec. 16, 1892. The society is made up of women who can trace their lineage back to one or more of the Revolutionary patriots. In keeping with a focus on history, education and patriotism, the local chapter was responsible for erecting many of the historical markers and monuments commemorating the history of Norwalk.
Allen-Craft’s two children, Jaylen and Aren Craft, belong to the Captain Stephen Betts Society of the Children of the American Revolution. They are the first African-American members in the state of Connecticut.