article by Greg Braxton via latimes.com
For years HBO has been criticized for its pattern of featuring shows spotlighting the stories of white women while ignoring the creative voices of women of color. While “Sex and the City,” “Girls” and “Veep” have been solid hits, they have also been blasted for sidelining ethnic characters. “Girls,” created by and starring Lena Dunham, has particularly come under fire for its focus on young white characters even though it is set in New York City.
Starting Oct. 9, the premium network will enter more diverse territory, courtesy of Issa Rae, a former YouTube sensation who is starring in and executive-producing “Insecure.”
The half-hour series explores the friendship between two African American women who deal with their sometimes stormy relationship while also grappling with conflicts inside and outside black culture. Much of the humor has a raw flavor, and does not hold back on sexually frank situations and dialogue.
For full article, go to: Issa Rae takes HBO from white ‘Girls’ to black women with ‘Insecure’ – LA Times
Good Black News
article by Yessenia Funes via colorlines.com
A cohort of racial justice and civil rights organizations delivered a petition advocating for major police reforms to the Department of Justice this afternoon. With more than 500,000 signatures, the petition urges the White House to defund police departments that reject community-based reforms. It also calls for justice in the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Color of Change, which led the effort, partnered with Advancement Project, BYP100, the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table, Black Lives Matter and the NAACP for a 2 p.m. press conference.
The petition reads:
Our criminal justice system is not properly holding police accountable. We must defund police departments that employ officers who are quick to kill and condone practices that do not value Black life. Our nation, politicians and many police are in agreement that police departments need reform, however, no one is ensuring this reform happens—and more and more Black people are getting killed because of it.
To read full article, go to: DOJ Petition Gains 500K Signatures, Heads to D.C. to Demand Police Reform | Colorlines
article via eurweb.com
Remember the Maryland boy who in 2015 became the first child in the world to receive a double hand transplant? Well, he just threw out the first pitch at an Orioles game.
Zion Harvey, who lost both hands and feet to a severe infection as a baby, was 8-years-old last summer when a surgical team of 40 at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia worked ten hours connecting bone, blood vessels, nerves, muscles, tendons and skin to give him two new hands.
Harvey has been working ever since to regain hand function through rigorous therapy sessions. On Tuesday, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch for his hometown Orioles. “Never give up on your dreams, it will come true,” Harvey told WJZ last year.
Outfielder Adam Jones had the honor of catching Harvey’s ball. The O’s went on to win their game against the Texas Rangers 5-1.
To watch video of the throw, go to: http://www.eurweb.com/2016/08/first-kid-receive-double-hand-transplant-throws-first-pitch-orioles-game-watch/
article via aalbc.com
1,826 readers cast votes back in 2001 for their favorite African-American authors. Here we share the 50 authors who received the most votes ranked in the order of the total number of votes received. Below are the top 15. To see the rest, go to: http://aalbc.com/authors/top50authors.php?
# 1 — (6.24%) Toni Morrison # 2 — (5.42%) Zora Neale Hurston # 3 — (4.82%) Maya Angelou # 4 — (4.71%) J. California Cooper # 5 — (4.33%) Alice Walker # 6 — (3.94%) Langston Hughes # 7 — (3.72%) E. Lynn Harris # 8 — (3.56%) James Baldwin # 9 — (3.23%) Terry McMillan # 10 — (3.18%) Bebe Moore Campbell # 11 — (2.74%) Richard Wright # 12 — (2.57%) Walter Mosley # 13 — (2.52%) Eric Jerome Dickey # 14 — (2.41%) Sheneska Jackson # 15 — (2.19%) Octavia Butler —Copyright AALBC.com.
Source: AALBC.com’s 50 Favorite African-American Authors of the 20th Century
article by Erickka Sy Savane via madamenoire.com
You’ve been thinking about starting a business and every time you come close to doing it your mind hits the brakes. If that’s you, keep reading and you’ll think again about hesitating. Take Nneka, a 27-year-old single mom fresh out of the military for example. She recently launched Innovative Supplies, a line of Black-themed school supplies with notebooks so dope you want to buy 20 for yourself and everyone you know.
Nneka took action and her products sold out. Talk about an entrepreneur’s dream! According to her website, Nneka is about making a positive change in the community and says that this line is her way to reach out to millennials who seek variety and want to be a part of a bigger cause.
The goals of Innovative Supplies, as stated on the site, are to:
- Open and deposit profits into an account with black owned Citizens Trust Bank.
- Donate 40 percent of all profits made from book bag sales to local charities.
- Provide quality products.
- Hire local minority youth.
- Support other small businesses.
- Use economically sourced materials.
- Use environmentally friendly packaging.
To read more, go to: This Mom Created A Line Of Black-Themed School Supplies And Everything Sold Out! | MadameNoire
article by Hadassah Egbedi via venturesafrica.com
Adepeju Jaiyeoba is the founder and CEO of Mother’s Delivery Kit (MDK), a Lagos-based social enterprise established to promote and enhance safe births, instigate behavioral change and economically empower women in Nigeria.
Her enterprise supplies birthing kits to health centres, hospitals, traditional birth attendants as well as maternal and child health organisations across the country. Prior to the establishment of MDK, the death of a friend from birthing complications in 2011, inspired Jaiyeoba to set up a non-governmental, non-profit organisation called the Brown Button Foundation.
“Her death put a face on every maternal and child death statistic I had heard,” Jaiyeoba said on the loss of her friend. “She was educated and brilliant, and she sought out health care services during her pregnancy. Yet she became one of the 13 women who die daily during childbirth in Nigeria. The health care system had failed her and her unborn baby.”
Maternal and child mortality has always been an issue in developing countries around the world. Many pregnant women are exposed to several risks and complications because they lack easy access to healthcare facilities, skilled doctors, or even an ambulance or vehicle to transport them when in labour. This is why each year, reducing infant and maternal mortality is a major part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many countries.
To read more, go to: This lifesaving delivery kit designed by a Nigerian woman was inspired by the death of a friend – Ventures Africa
article by Amber Mckynzie via essence.com
Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean only Black people think black lives matter. And New York’s Jewish community proved that last Thursday when Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) marched and rallied in the name of BLM in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
According to ParkSlopeStoop.com, JFREJ held a successful and peaceful rally “protest police violence against people of color, and demand police accountability through the passage of the City Council’s Right To Know Act.”
Beginning at Jay Z’s formerly-owned Barclay’s Center, Yehudah Webster, JFREJ member and leader of Jews of Color, began a call and response chant on his microphone. “Even though we are angry at the injustice of police brutality,” Webster said, and the crowd responded, “we gather here for love, for lost brothers and sisters, our communities and each other.”
JFREJ explained why they were marching by saying, “Jews say Black Lives Matter not only because we know what it is to be oppressed, but also because police violence against Black people is deeply personal for Black members of the Jewish community.”Take a look at the march moving from Brooklyn to New York’s Bond street below. ParkSlopeStoop.com also reports that while also rallying to let people know Black Jews Matter, protestors also “called for the fair passage of the Right to Know Act, which has two primary components: “Requiring NYPD officers to identify themselves” (Intro 182) and “Protecting New Yorkers against unconstitutional searches” (Intro 541).”
Source: Jewish Community Holds Black Lives Matter Rally in New York | Essence.com
article by Shenequa Golding via vibe.com
Four Georgia teens are receiving a virtual standing ovation from the Internet after Zsa Zsa Heard praised their tenacity on Facebook. The LaGrange Housing Authority CEO uploaded a photo of the young men after they walked into her office and asked for a job to avoid gangs.
Heard spoke with Fox 32 and recounted the entire story. After they walked into her office asking for a job Heard asked why they wanted to work for her. “We do not want to be in a gang!” they said. She then inquired if they had been approached by a gang and the teens replied with a resounding yes.
Determined not to allow these young men to fall peril to gang life, Heard hired them on the spot. Since Wednesday (July 27) the young men have been keeping busy by passing out mail, working in the community garden and helping out in the kitchen.
Source: Four Georgia Teens Ask For A Job To Avoid Gangs And Get Hired Immediately
article by Bruce Goodwin II via theurbandaily.com
Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest passed away this past March due to complications from diabetes. And now, after a series of powerful memorials, Phife’s getting a street named after him in his old Queens neighborhood.
OkayPlayer got confirmation from Phife’s manager that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign a bill to co-name a portion of Linden Boulevard at 192nd Street in St. Albans “Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Taylor Way.”
The signing is set to take place on Wednesday, August 3 at 10 a.m. inside City Hall.
The intersection of 192nd Street and Linden Blvd. is a huge nod to the group’s beginnings as Phife mentioned the location in tracks like “Steve Biko” and “Check the Rhime.” Alongside Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi, the group was formed in that neighborhood in 1985.
To read more, go to: http://theurbandaily.com/2016/08/01/phife-street-own-street-named-after-him/
article by Zachary Roth via nbcnews.com
A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the heart of a North Carolina voting law seen as the strictest in the nation, finding that Republican lawmakers intentionally discriminated against African-Americans when they passed it.
A divided 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the measure’s provisions “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”
The ruling is just the latest court win for voting rights advocates. A different federal appeals court ruled this month that Texas’s voter ID law is racially discriminatory and must be softened. And a district court softened Wisconsin’s ID law, too, though that decision is being appealed.
North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore said of the ruling, “we can only wonder if the intent is to reopen the door for voter fraud, potentially allowing fellow Democrat politicians like Hillary Clinton and Roy Cooper to steal the election. We will obviously be appealing this politically motivated decision to the Supreme Court.”
The voting law imposed a voter ID requirement, cut early voting opportunities, eliminated same-day voter registration and banned out-of-precinct voting, among other provisions.
The court found that by 2013, African-American registration and turnout rates had reached near parity with those of whites. But weeks after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, Republicans said they planned to enact an “omnibus” voting law.
The court’s ruling continued: “Before enacting that law, the legislature requested data on the use, by race, of a number of voting practices. Upon receipt of the race data, the General Assembly enacted legislation that restricted voting and registration in five different ways, all of which disproportionately affected African-Americans.”
Attorney General Loretta Lynch praised the appeals court’s decision.
“I am pleased that the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has struck down a law that the court described in its ruling as ‘one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history,'” she said. “The ability of Americans to have a voice in the direction of their country — to have a fair and free opportunity to help write the story of this nation – is fundamental to who we are and who we aspire to be.”
To read full article, go to: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/appeals-court-strikes-down-strict-north-carolina-voting-law-n619836