All the Difference: A story of young black men in college

All the Difference is a documentary about two young black men in college. The film premieres on PBS Sept. 12, 2016. Learn more about the documentary and watch the trailer below.

Film Synopsis: The largely invisible and often crushing struggles of young African-American men come vividly — and heroically — to life in All the Difference, which traces the paths of two teens from the South Side of Chicago who dared to dream a seemingly impossible dream: to graduate from college. As this intimate film shows, Robert Henderson and Krishaun Branch’s determination started them on the road to success, but it was the support from people in their lives—parents, grandparents, teachers and mentors— that brought them to their destination.

A co-production of American Documentary | POV; Part of American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Filmmaker(s): Tod Lending, Joy Thomas Moore, and Wes Moore

Film website: http://www.pbs.org/pov/allthedifference/

ALL THE DIFFERENCE TRAILER

Airbnb makes changes to halt racist, discriminatory practices

Airbnb announced potentially far-reaching anti-discrimination policies Thursday in response to complaints about hosts' racism against black and other Airbnb guests that came to the fore in the spring, crystalizing around the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack.

One change automatically blocks out a host’s reservation calendar for dates they have told a would-be guest are not available. This is to deal with a problem African-Americans and others have described: after requesting a booking, they're told the listing is no longer available, only to find the booking is still available when someone with a profile photo that shows them to be white, or obscures their race, inquires about it.

The new features will be implemented in the first half of 2017, Airbnb said.

Read more: Airbnb makes changes to halt racist, discriminatory practices

Colin Powell did advise Hillary Clinton on how to skirt email rules

House Democrats late Wednesday released a full email exchange in which Colin Powell advised Hillary Clinton just after she was sworn in as secretary of state on the use of personal email and devices. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said that. “This email exchange shows that Secretary Powell advised Secretary Clinton with a detailed blueprint on how to skirt security rules and bypass requirements to preserve federal records, although Secretary Clinton has made clear that she did not rely on this advice,”. Watch more below:

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North Carolina early-voting cuts could dampen black vote

Election officials in nearly two dozen North Carolina counties have approved reductions in early-voting hours ahead of November’s elections, cuts that Democrats warn could disenfranchise many low-income voters.

County boards of elections have approved reducing early-voting hours in 23 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Another eight counties plan to end early voting on the Sunday before Election Day, when a huge number of African-American voters tend to go to the polls.

North Carolina is a critical swing state in the presidential race, one where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is counting on a heavy African-American voter turnout. President Obama won North Carolina in 2008 and narrowly lost the state in 2012.

Read more: North Carolina early-voting cuts could dampen black vote

Black voters sue over Alabama's method of electing judges

A civil rights group is challenging Alabama's practice of electing appellate judges by statewide vote, saying it has resulted in all-white courts in a state where one of every four people is African-American.

The NAACP's Alabama chapter and four black voters sued the state on Wednesday in Montgomery federal court, arguing that electing judges through at-large elections in Alabama violates the Voting Rights Act.

Alabama's appellate judges run statewide for election, just like the governor, attorney general and other top officials. The system has resulted in Republican-dominated courts — not a single Democrat is running for the appellate court seats open in November.

Alabama is one of about seven states that elect appellate judges in partisan elections, and racially polarized voting patterns in the deeply red state means elections are largely decided in the Republican primaries, resulting in a court that is not reflective of the state's population, said attorney James Blacksher, who is working the case.

Read more: Black voters sue over Alabama's method of electing judges

Judge Grants Partial Stop on North Dakota Pipeline Work

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe may not be African American but this blog stands with anyone fighting for their rights. The tribe has been fighting to stop a pipeline from being built on it's sacred burial grounds. To those who say this is much ado about nothing, think about how you would feel if you were told to dig up and rebury your loved ones. This blog also condemns the use of dogs on protesters, a move that reignites memories of the dark past of the United States. George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com

An American Indian tribe succeeded Tuesday in getting a federal judge to temporarily stop construction on some, but not all, of a $3.8 billion four-state oil pipeline, but its broader request still hangs in the balance.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Tuesday that work will temporarily stop between North Dakota's State Highway 1806 and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, but will continue west of the highway because he believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction on private land.

He also said he will rule by the end of Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's challenge of federal regulators' decision to grant permits to the Dallas, Texas-based operators of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

Read more: Judge Grants Partial Stop on North Dakota Pipeline Work

President Obama Nominates Muslim Judge

President Obama Nominates Abid Riaz Qureshi to Serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

“I am pleased to nominate Mr. Qureshi to serve on the United States District Court bench,” said President Obama. “I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.”

Abid Riaz Qureshi: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Abid Riaz Qureshi is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where he specializes in cases involving the False Claims Act, health care fraud, and securities violations. Qureshi has spent the entirety of his legal career at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he currently serves as the Global Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, a position he has held since 2012. From 2006 to 2011, he served as Co-Chair of the Litigation Department in the Washington, D.C. office. Qureshi has also served on the District of Columbia Bar Association’s Legal Ethics Committee since 2015. He received his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1997 and his B.A. summa cum laude from Cornell University in 1993.

Even Ben Carson believes Donald Trump should apologize for his "birther" involvment

During an interview with CNN"s Dan Tapper, Ben Carson agreed that it might be a good idea for Donald Trump to apologize for his role in the birther movement. No, you did not misread that it actually happened and you can watch the video below:

Grand Opening Schedule for the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Here is the schedule for the weekend long grand opening celebration for the National Museum of African American History and Culture beginning September 23, 2016.

On September 6th at 9:00 a.m. EDT, additional Timed Entry Passes for Grand Opening Weekend Saturday, September 24th and Sunday, September 25th, will be made available. The Museum will also offer Timed Passes for extended hours Monday, September 26th through Sunday, October 2nd. Timed Passes for the months of November and December will also be released Tuesday. Learn more about the timed passes and purchase them here: https://nmaahc.si.edu/visit/passes

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Grand Opening Schedule

Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration

Washington Monument Grounds

Friday, September 23, 2016, 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 24, 2016, 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, September 25, 2016, 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Beginning Friday, September 23, 2016, on the Washington Monument grounds, the National Museum of African American History and Culture presents Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration. Conceived and presented in festival fashion, Freedom Sounds programming will include musical performances, spoken word, oral history activities and evening concerts. A drum circle, storytelling, and interactive workshops provide opportunities for families and large groups of the public to explore and celebrate the museum’s rich content and stories. This three-day music festival presents artists who represent the numerous cultural threads encompassing our shared African diasporic histories and traditions. Two tented stages will offer local, national and international performers, contributing to NMAAHC’s Grand Opening Weekend. The Freedom Sounds festival continues on Saturday and closes the Grand Opening Weekend on Sunday evening, September 25, 2016. Designed to accommodate the crowds anticipated; the festival is free and open to the public.

Dedication Ceremony

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Saturday, September 24, 2016

9:00 a.m. Gathering and Musical Prelude

10:00 a.m. Dedication Ceremony Begins

On Saturday, September 24, 2016, the public witnesses the outdoor Dedication Ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the afternoon, the museum officially opens to the public. Tickets are not required for the public to view the outdoor Dedication Ceremony. Extensive large-screen viewing areas are well-positioned for crowds during the Dedication Ceremony.

Museum Opens to the Public

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Saturday, September 24, 2016, 1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, September 25, 2016, 7:00 a.m. – Midnight

The Museum officially opens to the public at 2pm, following the Dedication Ceremony on Saturday, September 24, 2016. The museum will keep its doors open for extended hours Sunday, September 25, from 10 a.m. to Midnight.

Obama: Kaepernick exercising his constitutional right

While on a diplomatic visit to China President Obama said that he thought San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was exercising his constitutional right to protest when he sat during the national anthem. Watch more of Pres. Obama stating his views on Kaepernick below.

Trump's new civil rights agenda that doesn't address 4 major civil rights issues

Here is Donald Trump's Civil Rights agenda that not surprisingly doesn't address four major civil rights issues. You could make the argument that it doesn't address any civil tights issues at all. The real question is how can a civil rights agenda not address voting rights, police brutality, environmental discrimination,  and pay equality? This is just another example of Donald Trump's smoke and mirrors approach to black issues.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com

[SOURCE:donaldjtrump.com]

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TRUMP OUTLINES NEW CIVIL RIGHTS AGENDA: A SAFE COMMUNITY, A GREAT EDUCATION, AND A SECURE JOB

“In his remarks today, Donald Trump called for a new civil rights agenda that includes the right to a safe community, the right to a great education and the right to a secure job. These civil rights are in addition to the fundamental, constitutional civil rights of our society and the absolute commitment to equal protection, ending discrimination and safeguarding the dignity of all citizens - and that includes their inviolable freedoms and liberties. Mr. Trump will also defend our religious freedoms, and the freedom of Americans from all communities to worship in peace.” – Pastor Darrell Scott

More detail will continue to be shared on these items in the coming days. Below is more detail on these points and links to previously-released policy papers and speeches on a number of the items. 

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THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN A SAFE COMMUNITY –

The first duty of our government is ensuring every citizen in America has the right to live and prosper in a safe community. We cannot solve poverty if we don’t also solve crime – security is the foundation of prosperity. Crime is a stealth tax on the poor, reducing their jobs, incomes, property values and undermining their schools. A top priority of a Trump Administration will be working with local communities, city and state police, federal law enforcement, and the Mexican government to combat crime. As a team we will dismantle gangs, remove violent offenders from the streets, and destroy the international drug cartels that thrive off the innocent victims in our cities robbing them of the future every citizen deserves. This will provide a foundation for other reforms to thrive – to education, trade and across the economy, along with social reforms and religious empowerment to strengthen families as the foundation of opportunity. This is all part of rescuing millions from poverty and fear that no American should have to experience.

THE RIGHT TO A GREAT EDUCATION OF YOUR CHOICE –

At the center piece of our agenda is the empowerment of parents and children in school choice. States should have flexibility to use federal dollars to help parents and students find educational opportunities that meet their needs – including charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, religious schools, and home schooling. A portion of existing education aid should be contingent on states developing school choice programs. The failed government education monopoly discriminates against students in the inner cities by denying them the choice they deserve.

We will end discrimination in all of its forms.

We will use federal resources to encourage states to provide choice, while also encouraging curriculums geared toward success in the workplace – not arbitrary standards – and programs that provide students with in-demand skills and matches them up with both college courses and career courses.

THE RIGHT TO HAVE YOUR JOB PROTECTED –

The current policy of economic globalism violates the civil rights of American citizens by failing to protect and prioritize their jobs and wages from foreign competition. The movement of jobs offshore, combined with the uncontrolled flow of workers onshore, has concentrated wealth at the top and put American workers at a disadvantage. Economic surrender to the mercantilist and predatory trade practices of foreign countries has steadily eroded the economic conditions of Americans, particularly in our inner cities.

At the same time, illegal immigration violates the rights of American citizens in general – and African-American citizens in particular – by stripping them of the equal protection of the laws, which include the laws passed to protect them from illegal competition. Illegal immigration, while enriching the owners of capital, has disproportionately harmed low-income African-American and Hispanic citizens. As Harvard Professor Dr. George Borjas documented: “The employment rate of African-American men—defined as the fraction of weeks worked during a calendar year by the typical black male—fell from 73.2 percent in 1960 to 64.3 percent in 2000… The data reveal a strong correlation between immigration and black wages [and] black employment rates… As immigrants disproportionately increased the supply of workers in a particular skill group, we find a reduction in the wage of black workers in that group [and] a reduction in the employment rate.”

Further crucial steps will need to be taken to do a top-down reform to add millions and millions of new great jobs – energy reform will add half a million new jobs a year, along with dramatic tax and regulatory reform to bring thousands of new companies to our shores and into our poorest communities. This, combined with repatriation of overseas profits, and a bold national infrastructure program, will create trillions in new wealth to invest into our communities and our workers. 

When will Donald Trump apologize for his role in the birther movement?

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com [EMAIL]

With Donald Trump's recent push to attract black voters many of his surrogates have claimed that Trump has done nothing to turn off black voters. We will not mention the housing discrimination lawsuits brought against him or his call for the execution of five innocent black/brown men in the Central Park Five case, but instead focus on his much more recent role in the Birther Movement.

Donald Trump and his surrogates would like everyone to forget his role in that racist movement because they can't defend it. Even after Pres. Obama's official birth certificate was presented Trump continued to lead the racist charge on this issue. The movement simply tried to delegitamize President Obama for no other reason than that he was African American and that his name sounded like a Muslim one. That was both racist and bigoted, things America is not supposed to be about. It played to the worst fears of American society who are afraid of whites no longer being the majority here in this great melting pot we call the United States.

Donald Trump was chief among the various wingnuts leading this movement as seen in the 2012 video below:

Now Donald Trump can not say this different happen or that he was misunderstood, or that some clone did that interview. He knows what he did. If he wants black votes he can start by apologizing for his role in the birther movement. This angered black voters to no end.

Until he does there is no reason to continue trying to garner black support. You can't support a racist movement and then expect black people to listen to you let alone vote for you.

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com [EMAIL]

Here's what Detroit's black pastors want Donald Trump to know

In an effort to flip the script and court African American voters, Republican nominee Donald Trump is trying to broaden his appeal by attending Saturday service at a black church in Detroit. While some welcome his presence, many prominent African American pastors in the community are less enthused and more skeptical of his intentions. Watch those pastors express their views below.

While in Philadelphia Donald Trump met with black republicans not black leaders

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com [EMAIL]

On Friday Republican presidential nominee met with several black Republicans in Philadelphia. What bothered me is that many headlines on this story made it seem as if Trump was meeting with black leaders. They made it look as if he were meeting with mainstream African-American leaders when in fact he was not.

Here are examples of a few of the headlines in the mainstream media.

Los Angeles Times: Donald Trump, courting black support, meets with leaders in Philadelphia

CBS News: Trump meets with black community leaders in Philadelphia

Boston Herald: The Latest: Trump meets with black leaders in Philadelphia

The reality is he was meeting with people with little or no sway in the black community. One doesn't arbitrarily get the title of leader because of a title they may hold, one earns it through the work that they have done.

If you walked in front of a predominantly black audience and tried to present these black Republicans as black leaders, you would think that you were in a room full of owls when you heard the word who being repeatedly said. I'm talking about people such as Daphne Goggins, a local Republican official or Calvin Tucker, the head of the Germantown Republican Club.

These are people who have not done any work in the Black community let alone be leaders. This whole thing was a dog, and pony show with black individuals who were voting for Trump anyway.

It was just another Trump reality show.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com

Santa Clara Police Union Threatens Boycott of 49ers Games Over Kaepernick Protest

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.Com

The Santa Clara Police Union has sent a letter to the San Francisco 49ers threatening that their members will no longer volunteer to provide security at home games unless Colin Kaepernick is disciplined. Now, of course, the first obvious question any rational human being would ask is discipline him for what? He has broken no team rules or policies but only exercised his rights as stated in the US constitution, so what is there to punish him for?

Here is another example of police officers acting like fragile little lilies who can't bare to have big mean bad words thrown at them. They want to pretend to be tough guys, but it hurts their feelings because some guy protest? They could have used this as an opportunity to open up a dialogue with Kaepernick and work with him to show a different side of the police that many minorities don't see, but no they want to fall on the ground and throw a tantrum. Watch video of the story below.

Dwyane Wade Full Interview After Cousin's Death

Dwyane Wade speaks exclusively with George Stephanopoulos about the murder of his cousin Nykea Aldridge who was gunned down in the streets of Chicago. Wade mentions how his sons are afraid of the police and how he felt about Donald Trump's tweet about his cousins death.

What many African Americans hear when Donald Trump speaks on black issues

George Cook of AfricanAmericanReports.Com introduces a brief video showing what African Americans hear when Donald Trump is talking about issues in the black community.

Bertha S. Dyer, Newark school principal reported missing

Police on Thursday asked for the public's help to find a woman who was reportedly last seen at the Newark school where she works as its principal.

Bertha S. Dyer, 68, of Franklin, was reported missing by her sister on Wednesday, according to the Franklin Township Police Department. Dyer's sister told officers she was last seen around 3 p.m. Tuesday at Newark's Mount Vernon Elementary School, where she is the principal.

Authorities described Dyer as 5-foot-4 inches tall and known to drive a white 2011 Toyota 4Runner with New Jersey license plate of U79GXM.

Anyone with information was asked to call Franklin police at 732-873-2300 or Detective Trevor Wilson at 732-873-5533, extension 3161.

[SOURCE: NJ.COM]

Georgetown to make up for past ties to slavery

Georgetown University is taking steps to atone for its historical ties to slavery. The plan includes giving the descendants of slaves the same admissions advantages that children of alumni receive. Watch more below:

Donald Trump to show up, but not speak out at Detroit church

Seems like someone doesn't want to take a chance at getting booed while he's attempting "out reach" to black voters. It seems that Donald Trump's much publicized visit to a black church in Detroit will not include Mr. Trump actually addressing the congregation itself.

When Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump comes to Detroit this weekend to try to strengthen his standing in the African-American community, he will be attending a service at a church and doing a one-on-one interview with the congregation's leader, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson.

That's about it.

Trump won't be speaking to the black congregation at Great Faith Ministries International during the 11 a.m. service. And his Saturday interview with Jackson on the church's Impact Network — which will not be open to the public or the news media — won't air for at least a week after the event.

Trump's first foray as a presidential candidate into a church of African Americans was initially billed as a speech to the congregation to lay out his policies that impact minorities, followed by the interview with Jackson.