A Red Lobster waitress, who said a customer left her a receipt with a racist slur, has received the tip of a lifetime, thanks to a fundraising from online supporters.
Toni Christina Jenkins of Franklin, Tenn., said she was shocked when she saw a receipt on the table with “none” on the “Tip” line and the N-word on the “Total” line.
“I was just stunned that it happened,” Jenkins, 19, said. “It’s not something that you think in our generation would actually take place, so I was just blown away by it.”
After posting a picture of the receipt to Facebook Sept. 10, her story sparked outrage online, prompting a California man to take action. Matthew Hanson, founder of AddictingInfo.org, heard Jenkins’ story and started an online fundraiser called “Tips for Toni” that collected $10,749 in place of Jenkins’ non-tip on the bill for $44.53.
“It was about sending a message to racists that Americans aren’t going to tolerate that,” Hanson said. “We raised $10,000 within seventy-two hours. It was really amazing.” Hanson presented the check September 30th to Jenkins, who was unaware of the fundraiser. “I literally screamed. I was so confused,” Jenkins said. “I was just so thankful. I felt so blessed and so honored that so many people came together on my behalf to give this to me.”
Good Black News
According to Variety.com, FX’s drama American Horror Story returned Wednesday night with the franchise’s largest-ever audience, surging about 40% above its opener a year ago. American Horror Story: Coven averaged a 3.0 rating/9 share in adults 18-49 and 5.54 million viewers overall in the Nielsen Ratings, easily beating competing broadcast dramas CSI, Nashville and Ironside.
And among all broadcast programs on the night, only ABC’s Modern Family performed better. Counting two quickie repeats of its premiere (at 11:12 p.m. and then 1:25 a.m.), Coven collected 7.78 million total viewers. FX said Wednesday’s telecast could emerge as the most-watched program in network history when Live+7 DVR data becomes available.
AHS premiered in October 2011 with a 1.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.18 million viewers overall, and then returned a year ago to a series-best 2.2 demo rating and 3.85 million total viewers. American Horror Story: Asylum closed with a 1.3 and 2.29 million in January of this year.
Academy Award nominees and winners Angela Bassett, Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates and are among the cast for this season of American Horror Story.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
ABC has greenlit a half-hour comedy pilot based on Kevin Hart‘s stand-up act. The sitcom will focus on a recently divorced couple who is trying to work on maintaining a friendship for the sake of their children.
Hart is not set to star in the show, but he will likely play a recurring role if it’s picked up. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, of “Community” fame, will pen the script, and Hart will be one of the executive producers.
Hart’s star just continues to rise at a breakneck pace. It seems like the comedian can do no wrong. He already has “Real Husbands of Hollywood” on BET, countless films, successful stand-up tours, hosting credits, and endorsement deals.
article by Natali Rivers via uptownmagazine.com
Marquis Taylor, 29, is a man making a difference. Once a working professional on Wall Street, Taylor left his job in real estate finance and dedicated his time to helping youth in low-income communities through his grassroots organization, Coaching4Change.
As the founder and executive director of the program, Taylor mentors the youth by teaching them the fundamental lessons provided through sports. His mentoring guidelines are designed to stimulate the educational environment of kids in urban areas and they have proven to bring positive change to these impoverished communities. Taylor’s mentorship program has directly affected one student in particular who grew up in a single home with eight siblings, according to a story reported by The Huffington Post.
The student was frequently in trouble and failing most of his classes but with Taylor’s guidance, he was able to raise his GPA almost two full points and he became inspired to launch an after-school program where he taught younger students the basics of basketball. For Taylor, many of the lives of students he has helped reflect on some of the same hardships he faced as a child.
Jason Stamper (pictured), the principal of technology at the New Schools at Carver in southeast Atlanta, told WSB-TV 2 that it’s his job to protect students and that’s what he did when he saved one of his students from a dog attack. After hearing from other students that someone was being attacked by dogs on campus, Stamper sprung to action.
At first he jumped into his car and used it in his first attempt to scare off the dogs. “Didn’t work and actually I had some tennis rackets in my car and I actually was able to get them off with some tennis rackets,” he explained. His daring actions saved 16-year-old Carver student, Azarius Lowe. But Stamper did not want to take all of the credit, saying that cops and other school staff helped too. The dogs are still on the lose. Animal control has set up traps to catch them, but they caught a dog not connected to the attack.
The boy’s father, Arthur Steverson, was thankful that Stamper helped his boy and treated him as his own son. He said he wasn’t afraid for himself when he fought off the dogs, but was afraid for Azarius after seeing his injuries. The boy is recovering from the attack and will be OK.
article via newsone.com
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs may have come from humble Harlem roots, but that did not stand in the way of his growing an estimated personal fortune of $580 million, according to Forbes magazine. Now giving back to inner city youths with similar entrepreneurial dreams, the media mogul has donated $250,000 to an organization that helps low income children learn the brass tacks of business. Last Thursday at the Times Center in New York City, Combs presented a $250,000 check to the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an international non-profit dedicated to teaching underprivileged young people to think like entrepreneurs.
“I’m definitely proud that I could do something positive,” the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment told theGrio. “Being able to have a certain amount of economic power, to me, gives you the opportunity to help people and support great causes. NFTE is a great cause.”
Combs did not merely stop by and drop off some cash. Before the gala where his gift was announced, the rapper and clothing impresario spoke in depth with NFTE finalists in a national business competition. The 2013 NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge included 39 students representing 35 different businesses. Winners Toheeb Okenla and Jesus Fernandez won the $25,000 first prize for their idea, T&J Soccer, which produces a special sports sock containing pockets for shin protectors.
The music producer and branding expert was on hand to personally mentor NFTE participants and nurture their business ideas at the benefit. “I wish I had a NFTE when I started. That could really have showed me the importance of combining what I learned in school, and then applying that to my street smarts,” Combs said of working with the group.
Business advice for tomorrow’s leaders
What is Combs’ best advice for young business leaders of the future?
“Don’t be afraid to close your eyes and dream, then open your eyes and see,” the entrepreneur affirmed. “It’s a quote I came up with when I was 19. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with something that doesn’t already exist. That’s really being in the darkness. A lot of people get scared in the dark.”
Florida Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that made some changes to the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. The bill, which was passed by a vote of 7-2, has been strongly supported by the family of Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old was shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and was acquitted by a Florida jury in July.
“Tracy and I have said from the beginning that our hope is that the tragedy of Trayvon’s death can be turned into real change so that other parents don’t have to experience the grief we have endured” Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, said following the announcement of the bill’s advancement.
“The work here is not done, and we fear an uphill battle going forward to achieve real change in our son’s name.” Stand Your Ground allows citizens to use deadly force if they feel their life is in danger. New changes to the bill would include providing proper training for neighborhood watch programs, ensuring a proper investigation is conducted after Stand Your Ground is claimed, allowing lawsuits against people acting in self-defense if they negligently injure or kill an innocent bystander and limit the use of the law when aggressors claim it.
“I see this as an important first step in making sure that Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law properly protects victims and applaud the committee for taking this first step,” said Martin family attorney Ben Crump in a press release. “In light of current events in Washington D.C., It is refreshing to see legislators compromising and working together so that Florida’s citizens are protected.”
article by Carrie Healey via thegrio.com
Fortune‘s list of the 50 most powerful women in business includes a few women of color, among them Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox at number 13; Rosalind Brewer, the CEO and president of Sam’s Club, a Wal-Mart company, at number 15; and Shonda Rhimes “Scandal” and Grey’s Anatomy” executive producer at number 50.
The list notes that Burns’ Xerox makes more than half of its $22 billion in revenue from business services other than copying. Madame Noire spoke with Burns, the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, this summer before she received the Prism Award for Graphic Communications Management and Technology. “At all levels of leadership, we’re starting to see more and more women and African-American males. We’re just at the start. It’s evolutionary, not revolutionary,” she told us.
Brewer is head of a $56.4 billion company, one of three companies in the Wal-Mart behemoth. Not only is she driving up the numbers for Sam’s Club, which would be a Fortune 500 company on its own, she’s also a board member for Lockheed Martin, a company that also appears on this list of powerful women a couple of times. (Marillyn Hewson, the defense contractor’s CEO and president, is number four on the list.)
And of course we know who Shonda Rhimes is. One of the few women in the entertainment business to appear on the list, Rhimes is also among the youngest at 43 years old. (Marissa Mayer, 38, Yahoo’s CEO at number eight and Marianne Lake, JPMorgan’s 44-year-old CFO at number 49, are a couple of the others.) Not only are Rhimes’ shows – Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy — generating dollars for Disney’s ABC network, Fortune cites her impact on pop culture. In a related story, Rhimes says that the secret sauce for a show like Scandal is hard work. “You’re forced to innovate. There’s no resting on laurels,” she says.
Total aside, but when a fan asked whether Mellie will be given a love interest so that Fitz can see how he would react “to the table being turned,” Rhimes says, “Fitz is Mellie’s love interest.” Gah!
Number one on the list is IBM’s chairman, president and CEO Ginny Rometty who’s been leading the century-old computer company for two years.
article by Tonya Garcia via madamenoire.com
Philanthropists Laura and John Arnold have offered up to $10 million in emergency funding to the National Head Start Association in an effort to keep them open during the government shutdown. The personal donation will help keep Head Start and Early Head Start programs, who were forced to close or are facing closure, open. The programs service more than 1 million low-income children each year, providing them with meals and health care and getting them ready for elementary school.
On October 1st, 23 programs in 11 states, servicing over 19,000 children were to be funded and are expected to lose that money. “For nearly fifty years, Head Start has been the window of opportunity for more than 27 million of our nation’s poorest children as they embark on their journey to achieve the American Dream,” said Yasmina Vinci, Executive Director of the National Head Start Association. “The Arnolds’ most generous act epitomizes what it means to be an angel investor; they have selflessly stepped up for Head Start children to ensure their path toward kindergarten readiness is not interrupted by the inability of government to get the nation’s fiscal house in order.”
According to an NHSA press release, the Arnolds offered assistance after learning about the government shutdown’s paralyzing impact on Head Start programs. Following the government shutdown, if Head Start programs receive funding for a 52-week period, Head Start programs will begin to repay the funds from NHSA at no interest through the Arnolds.
The NAACP and TV One network have inked a five-year agreement for the NAACP Image Awards, beginning with the live airing of the 45th NAACP Image Awards in February 2014. The Image Awards had long been a staple on broadcast TV. They aired on NBC for nine years before moving to Fox. NBC took over as a network home for the last two editions of the awards show, which honors “the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film and also honors individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.”
TV One said it will air live broadcasts of the Image Awards and red carpet arrivals in 2014. In addition, the network will provide promotional support on TV One, Radio One and Reach Media, Interactive One, and via a multi-platform marketing campaign.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com