Woman removes Confederate flag in front of South Carolina statehouse

 

Police arrest unidentified woman after she climbed up the 30ft steel flagpole and removed the flag before returning to the ground

The Confederate flag was temporarily removed from in front of the South Carolina Statehouse on Saturday.

An unidentified black woman was about halfway up the more than 30ft steel flagpole just after dawn on Saturday when State Capitol police told her to come down. Instead, she continued up and removed the flag before returning to the ground.

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Woman removes Confederate flag in front of South Carolina statehouse
Associated Press in Columbia, South Carolina
Sat, 27 Jun 2015 12:17:24 GMT

Documents To Be Made Public To Help African Americans Trace Ancestry Before Civil War

 

Genealogists just released records that could help millions of African-Americans trace their family history for the first time. The collection of government documents being released is from the post Civil War Freedman’s Bureau and could help people with slave ancestry find out where they come from. “We will now be able to research our own… Read More »

The post Documents To Be Made Public To Help African Americans Trace Ancestry Before Civil War appeared first on Black Politics on the Web.

Documents To Be Made Public To Help African Americans Trace Ancestry Before Civil War
The Admin
Sat, 20 Jun 2015 03:32:21 GMT

Black Native Americans beginning to assert identity

 

Morgan James Peters wears dreadlocks and directs the African and African-American Studies program at the UMass Dartmouth. The single name he prefers to use, Mwalim, is similar to the Swahili word for teacher. But Mwalim traces his ancestry not only to Africa, but also to North America — the Mashpee Wampanoag. He says he embraces [...]

The post Black Native Americans beginning to assert identity appeared first on Black Politics on the Web.

Black Native Americans beginning to assert identity
The Admin
Wed, 31 Dec 2014 13:39:44 GMT

Eric Garner: grand jury declines to indict NYPD officer over chokehold death

 

Lawyer ‘astonished’ as New York police officer will not face charges over death of Eric Garner in chokehold that was caught on camera

• Follow all the latest reaction in our live blog

More than four months after an unarmed black man died in a chokehold during an arrest by a New York police officer, the criminal case against the officers involved in his death has collapsed with a special grand jury decision not bring charges, according to an attorney for the victim’s family.

The Associated Press quoted Jonathon Moore, who represents Eric Garner’s family, saying he was “astonished by the decision”.

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Eric Garner: grand jury declines to indict NYPD officer over chokehold death
Lauren Gambino
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:43:50 GMT

Ferguson cop Darren Wilson feared for his life during Michael Brown shooting: report

 

The cop who fatally shot unarmed teen Michael Brown — setting off a wave of protests in Ferguson, Mo.— told investigators he feared for his life when he pulled the trigger, it was reported Friday.

Ferguson cop Darren Wilson feared for his life during Michael Brown shooting: report
Ginger Adams Otis
Sat, 18 Oct 2014 05:51:09 GMT

Civil Rights Hero?? Racist Lyndon B. Johnson Was A Connoisseur The Word “N****r” Who Helped Pass The “N****r Bill”

 

Civil Rights Hero Lyndon Johnson Was Racist And Used The N-Word

The Civil Rights Act was called the “N****r Bill” by your boy LBJ.

According to MSNBC:

Lyndon Johnson said the word “n**ger” a lot. In Senate cloakrooms and staff meetings, Johnson was practically a connoisseur of the word. According to Johnson biographer Robert Caro, Johnson would calibrate his pronunciations by region, using “nigra” with some southern legislators and “negra” with others. Discussing civil rights legislation with men like Mississippi Democrat James Eastland, who committed most of his life to defending white supremacy, he’d simply call it “the n**ger bill.”

Then in 1957, Johnson would help get the “n**ger bill” passed, known to most as the Civil Rights Act of 1957. With the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the segregationists would go to their graves knowing the cause they’d given their lives to had been betrayed, Frank Underwood style, by a man they believed to be one of their own. When Caro asked segregationist Georgia Democrat Herman Talmadge how he felt when Johnson, signing the Civil Rights Act, said ”we shall overcome,” Talmadge said “sick.”

The Civil Rights Act made it possible for Johnson to smash Jim Crow. The Voting Rights Act made the U.S. government accountable to its black citizens and a true democracy for the first time. Johnson lifted racist immigration restrictions designed to preserve a white majority – and by extension white supremacy. He forced FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, then more concerned with “communists” and civil rights activists, to turn his attention to crushing the Ku Klux Klan. Though the Fair Housing Act never fulfilled its promise to end residential segregation, it was another part of a massive effort to live up to the ideals America’s founders only halfheartedly believed in – a record surpassed only by Abraham Lincoln.

So it would be tempting, on the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, as Johnson is being celebrated by no less than four living presidents, to dismiss Johnson’s racism as mere code-switching – a clever ploy from an uncompromising racial egalitarian whose idealism was matched only by his political ruthlessness. Nor was it the kind of immature, frat-boy racism that Johnson eventually jettisoned. Even as president, Johnson’s interpersonal relationships with blacks were marred by his prejudice. As longtime Jet correspondent Simeon Booker wrote in his memoirShocks the Conscience, early in his presidency, Johnson once lectured Booker after he authored a critical article for Jet Magazine, telling Booker he should “thank” Johnson for all he’d done for black people. In Flawed Giant, Johnson biographer Robert Dallek writes that Johnson explained his decision to nominate Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court rather than a less famous black judge by saying, “when I appoint a n**ger to the bench, I want everybody to know he’s a n**ger.”

According to Caro, Robert Parker, Johnson’s sometime chauffer, described in his memoir Capitol Hill in Black and White a moment when Johnson asked Parker whether he’d prefer to be referred to by his name rather than “boy,” “n**ger” or “chief.” When Parker said he would, Johnson grew angry and said, “As long as you are black, and you’re gonna be black till the day you die, no one’s gonna call you by your goddamn name. So no matter what you are called, n**ger, you just let it roll off your back like water, and you’ll make it. Just pretend you’re a goddamn piece of furniture.” But we shouldn’t forget Johnson’s racism, either. After Johnson’s death, Parker would reflect on the Johnson who championed the landmark civil rights bills that formally ended American apartheid, and write, “I loved that Lyndon Johnson.” Then he remembered the president who called him a n**ger, and he wrote, “I hated that Lyndon Johnson.”

Surprised??? Discuss…

Read the article in its entirety HERE.

Civil Rights Hero?? Racist Lyndon B. Johnson Was A Connoisseur The Word “N****r” Who Helped Pass The “N****r Bill”
Bossip Staff
Sun, 13 Apr 2014 14:17:29 GMT

New ‘Black Jesus’ Live-Action Comedy Series To Air On Adult Swim Channel

New ‘Black Jesus’ Live-Action Comedy Series To Air On Adult Swim Channel

Aaron McGruder, creator of “The Boondocks,” poses for photos before taking part in the New York Times’ TimesTalks: Special Edition conversations, at the 5th Annual New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend, Saturday, January 7, 2006 in New York. (Henny Ray Abrams/AP Photos)

“Black Jesus,”a new half-hour live-action comedy series, has been greenlighted to air on the Adult Swim cable channel later this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The channel picked up the series from Aaron McGruder (pictured), creator of ” The Boondocks.”

“Black Jesus” which producers expect to be controversial, is expected to star Gerald “Slink” Johnson  as Jesus living in present-day Compton, Calif. Do-gooder Johnson’s everyday mission is to do the right thing by spreading love, along with his oppressed group of very loyal ride-or-die homies.  John Witherspoon, Kali Hawk and Charlie Murphy will also be part of the cast.

McGruder will executive produce the series through his 5 Mutts Productions company, along with writer/director Mike Clattenberg, Norman Aladjem and John Bravakis.

The cult animated Boondocks series, which satirized African-American culture and U.S. politics, ran for three seasons on Adult Swim up until 2010. The show is reportedly slated to return in April for a fourth season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While the “Black Jesus” announcement has been publicized, Adult Swim has not said when the show will actually air.

New ‘Black Jesus’ Live-Action Comedy Series To Air On Adult Swim Channel
Ruth Manuel-Logan
Wed, 12 Mar 2014 22:05:13 GMT

How to use slavery for art and profit

How to use slavery for art and profit

Crouch: Gordon Parks was a fine photographer, the first black person hired by Vogue and Life magazines and the first black director hired by a major Hollywood studio. Like so many in show business, he is mostly forgotten now.

How to use slavery for art and profit
Stanley Crouch
Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:00:42 GMT

For Discussion: Almost 50 Percent Of Black Men Have Been Arrested By The Age Of 23

For Discussion: Almost 50 Percent Of Black Men Have Been Arrested By The Age Of 23

Almost 50 Percent Of Black Men Have Been Arrested By 23

44% for Hispanics and 38% for whites…and we already know who gets popped the most for marijuana possession.

According to The Atlantic:

Up until now, the most shocking statistic about the American criminal justice system was this: we house 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.

Here’s a stat that’s even more troublesome: By age 23, nearly 50 percent of America’s black males, 44 percent of Hispanic males, and 38 percent of white males have been arrested.

These numbers come from a new study (paywalled) in the journal Crime & Delinquency. In it, University of South Carolina criminologist Robert Brame and his team examine self-reported arrest histories collected through the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. The survey started in 1997, when the 9,000 participants were between the ages of 12 and 16. The participants have been interviewed annually every year since. Brame’s study uses data from 1997-2008.

Thanks to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, we’ve known the rate at which whites and blacks are arrested, but Brame’s study is the first to look at cumulative arrests for blacks and whites, and to break that data down by gender. The former number measures how many more times a black person is arrested than a white person; Brame’s research tells us the number of black people arrested versus the number of white people arrested. These stark numbers put America’s tendency to over-criminalize, well, everything. Today, police can place you in handcuffs for using a camera on public property, or littering. The slow expansion of activities deemed to be criminal began in the late 1980s, and today it manifests itself in harsh penalties for nonviolent, victimless behavior, the school-to-prison pipeline, and our engorged prison system.

Peep the chart below and discuss…

By the tender age of 23….how many of you had to deal with this?

Shutterstock

For Discussion: Almost 50 Percent Of Black Men Have Been Arrested By The Age Of 23
Bossip Staff
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 13:18:33 GMT

Variety Of Acts Continue Kwanzaa Celebrations At American Museum Of Natural History

Variety Of Acts Continue Kwanzaa Celebrations At American Museum Of Natural History

Kwanzaa celebrations continued Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History, as there were a variety of acts commemorating the holiday at the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life on Central Park West.

Variety Of Acts Continue Kwanzaa Celebrations At American Museum Of Natural History
Sun, 29 Dec 2013 16:15:56 GMT

New Yorkers Celebrate First Day Of Kwanzaa

New Yorkers Celebrate First Day Of Kwanzaa

Seven traditional Kinara candles will be lit over the next week at the African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan, which will host Kwanzaa ceremonies, events and activities this week.

New Yorkers Celebrate First Day Of Kwanzaa
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 15:23:56 GMT

Prada Cast A Black Campaign Model For The First Time In 19 Years

Prada Cast A Black Campaign Model For The First Time In 19 Years

Christy Turlington's inclusion in this fall's Prada campaign is the main focus of Women's Wear Daily's story on the new ads — but forgive us if we think the venerable trade is guilty in this instance of burying the lede. The real news here is that, for the first time since the fall of 1994, there's a black face of Prada.

The black model in the campaign, one of seven models who appear in the new ads, goes unnamed in WWD's story. She is Malaika Firth, a Kenyan-born, U.K.-raised, biracial 19-year-old who has been modeling since 2011. Firth was a newborn in diapers the last time a black woman was a face of Prada. Prada's fall ads also include the Chinese model Fei Fei Sun.

Read More...
More on Fashion & Beauty

Prada Cast A Black Campaign Model For The First Time In 19 Years
The Huffington Post News Editors
Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:00:28 GMT

Blame Drizzy Drake: Moscato Drinkers Classified By Wine Experts As “Much More African-American, Much Lower-Income”

Blame Drizzy Drake: Moscato Drinkers Classified By Wine Experts As “Much More African-American, Much Lower-Income”

Black People Are 3 Times More Likely To Drink Moscato Than Other Wine

Do you love drinking moscato?????

According to NPR:

The wine of the moment — well, the past few years, actually — has been moscato. And its rise has been astronomical. “I’ve been following the wine category for over 10 years,” says Danny Brager, the senior vice president of beverage/alcohol practice at Nielsen. “Frankly, I haven’t seen anything like it at all.” Nielsen doesn’t just track TV; Brager’s group follows retail wine sales. According to Brager, the number of moscato brands has doubled in the past three years — and it’s not over yet. Sales of moscato will keep growing, he says, at about 25 percent a year.

But almost all of the big press about moscato and its newfound fame seem to forget one thing about the wine and its consumers: race. Brager says one would typically describe the average wine drinker as older, white and upper-income, and they are equally split by gender. Not so with moscato drinkers. “Much more African-American,” says Brager. “Much more Hispanic, much younger, much lower-income, much more female.”

Brager says African-Americans are three times more likely to drink moscato than some other table wine. That’s believable, especially if you listen to hip-hop. As long I can remember, some rapper has been name-dropping some type of alcohol in his or her song. For a while it was the champagne Cristal. I distinctly remember the liqueur Hypnotiq being big when I was in college, and ciroc vodka is trending a bit right now. But moscato has trumped them all.

Lil’ Kim is believed to have first rapped about it in 2005: “Still over in Brazil sippin’ moscato, ya must have forgot though, so I’mma take you back to the block yo.” But Drake gets most of the credit for putting moscato on the map, in a song from a 2009 mixtape. The lyrics include the line: “It’s a celebration — clap clap bravo. Lobster and shrimp and a glass of moscato.”

After that, it became a hip-hop staple, name-dropped everywhere. Most recently, the wine was featured prominently in the chorus of a Waka Flocka Flame song (“I’mma sip moscato, and you gon’ lose them pants”), as well as in one featuring Kendrick Lamar. Moscato even found its way into the world of reality TV. For a while, NeNe Leakes of the Real Housewives of Atlanta was pushing her own brand, Miss Moscato. It’s unclear how moscato got so big with hip-hop — and black people — so quickly.

At the San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles one sunny Sunday afternoon, I found dozens of these moscato wine converts, like Quintasha Scorza. Scorza first sampled moscato while she was working at an Olive Garden restaurant. After that, she was hooked. She was at the winery with a group of girlfriends — all black — celebrating one of their birthdays. All of the women in the group — and many of the people in the winery — were drinking wines like moscato. The wine drinkers are young; they’re Latino, or black or Asian. And a lot of them are pretty new to this: Moscato is their gateway wine.

But people who like moscato really don’t care. Moscato drinkers are loyal to their brand — so loyal that beverage makers are flooding the market with various moscato spin-offs. Beer and moscato-mixed drink recipes. Nicki Minaj-endorsed coconut moscato. Moscato-infused vodka? Yeah. That exists. Riboli may be on to something: There is nothing wrong with sweet potato pie. Soon, there’ll be a slice of it for everyone.

Wow. Very interesting. Thoughts on this??

Blame Drizzy Drake: Moscato Drinkers Classified By Wine Experts As “Much More African-American, Much Lower-Income”
Bossip Staff
Fri, 28 Jun 2013 12:24:38 GMT