Aja Brown, the mayor of Compton Mayor since 2013 has announced she is running for Congress. Brown said she decided to jump in the race after actress and conservative commentator Stacey Dash announced she is running for the 44th District seat (California).
BALTIMORE (March 8, 2018) – The NAACP is deeply concerned by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson’s move to dilute the agency’s long-standing mission.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development Act which established HUD as a cabinet-level agency declared a purpose: “[T]o provide for full and appropriate consideration, at the national level, of the needs and interests of the Nation’s communities and of the people who live and work in them.” This purpose is sustained through the agency’s mission to “build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination.” Secretary Carson’s action not only threatens HUD’s founding purpose but also reveals plans of regression.
“Dr. Carson’s attempt to diminish HUD’s mission comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report which affirmed that discrimination and segregation had long permeated much of American Life and continues to threaten the future of every American; and at a time when the Trump administration seeks to cut billions of dollars in housing aid for low-income families,” said NAACP’s Sr. Director of Economic Programs, Marvin J. Owens, Jr.
Despite these attempts, the promise of discrimination-free practices lives on in the Fair Housing Act which has the central objective of prohibiting race discrimination in sales and rentals of housing. The hope of continued progress in America rests in the hands of communities across the country that continue to push their elected leaders to preserve programs designed to help disadvantaged communities and promote policies that make economic inclusion a reality.
The NAACP recognizes the importance of an inclusive economy and economic policies that address the challenging realities facing our country including poverty, lack of jobs and disproportionate high unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and foreclosures. The NAACP Economic Department’s work enhances the capacity of African Americans and other under-served groups through financial economic education; individual and community asset building initiatives; diversity and inclusion in business hiring, career advancement and procurement; and monitoring financial banking practices.
Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade met with students Wednesday for the first full day back at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Wade's visit was a surprise to the students, and a Heat spokesman said the shooting guard arranged the visit on his own.
Parker Curry, 2, went from standing in awe before a painting of Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery to having a Taylor Swift dance party with the former first lady in her living room.
Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)! Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you! pic.twitter.com/faUVTsYWun
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) March 6, 2018
At the portrait's unveiling last month, Obama said she was thinking of girls who "will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution." When Curry went to the gallery last week, another visitor took a photo of her staring intently at the modernist painting of Obama, and it went viral. Her mother, Jessica, took Parker and her infant sister, Ava, specifically to see the portraits of the Obamas, and told BuzzFeed News she "was trying to get her to turn around so I could take a picture, but she wouldn't cooperate. She just wanted to stare at it. She was fascinated."
On Tuesday, Obama tweeted that she just had just met Curry at her house for one incredible play date, and shared a video of the pair dancing. "Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)!" Obama said. "Keep on dreaming big for yourself...and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you!"
[SOURCE]
(RNS) — Xavier Cooper went straight from his shift as a cook at a fast-food restaurant to an early showing of the “Black Panther” movie — sponsored by his church.
As his elders at Jonahville African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Huntersville, N.C., had hoped, the film had a profound effect on the young man, a leader in the church’s youth group.
Cooper exited the theater with a buoyed confidence about his dreams after spending two hours watching the futuristic kingdom of powerful black people in Wakanda.
“Being an African-American, it shows you that you can do anything you want to,” said Cooper, 17, who wants to own his own record label and production studio.
Across the country — from California to Chicago to Virginia — members of black churches have bought out theaters for screenings and dressed in their favorite African attire to see a superhero who looks like them. And others, from a New York multicultural congregation to a Detroit Muslim professor, are also tapping into the movie’s messages they hope will be particularly affirming to young people of a range of races and religions.
The Rev. Latasha Gary, Cooper’s youth minister, said 67 people attended the Feb. 16 showing organized by their church near Charlotte, and dozens had to be turned away when they ran out of seats.
Black youth get tired of seeing negative depictions of people of their own race in movies, said Gary, who wore a yellow and brown African dress to the movie showing. “When we found out that this was going to be an epic tale that actually was written by black writers, costumes designed by black costume designers, we were just, like, ‘We have to go see it.'”
While the movie tells a fictional story, some religious leaders said its lessons about generosity and brotherhood and sisterhood promote their values. Some also saw specific ties to their faith.
“It’s not a perfect movie but it has so many affirming messages,” said the Rev. Warren H. Stewart Sr., pastor of Phoenix’s First Institutional Baptist Church, which organized an outing to see the movie. Among them, he said, were “mutual respect and affection toward one another, being made in God’s image and likeness. Even with the death of the star … I saw immediately the concept of death and resurrection, the fact that he came back to life.”
Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago hosted screenings of the movie and created a “Black Panther Study Guide” that calls the historical Ethiopian Empire the home of the biblical Garden of Eden and “the real Wakanda.” It reminds that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church “has her own pope.” The movie’s lead character T’Challa is “a king, a leader, a mentor, and a reflective spiritual individual,” the guide says.
The Rev. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of the church, told Auburn Seminary’s Voices: “T’Challa, if you take away his suit, he gets his real power from the spirit, the spirit of the panther. In other words, he gets his power from the Holy Ghost.”
The Rev. Hodari Williams, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in College Park, Ga., planned a sermon series related to the movie after attending a Feb. 15 screening organized by his predominantly black church. Among his themes is not keeping your gifts to yourself. As Wakandans learned in the movie, he hopes his church will “make our resources the resources of the community.”
Williams, who wore a blue and white dashiki from Ghana when he saw the movie, said he also wanted young people to gain a sense of the beauty of the African continent.
“In our history books, it’s been taught that it’s a land of savages and people who have no regard for humanity or God,” said the pastor, whose church is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). “This movie conveyed a deep connection to spirituality and the ancestors and how one cannot lead without that kind of spirituality and a superhero himself is very in tune with the ancestors and the creator of the universe.”
Leaders of predominantly black churches were not the only people of faith who wanted to get young people into the theaters for the popular movie.
The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, the African-American pastor of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, said her congregation’s white youth director took a multicultural group of teens to see “Black Panther” on Feb. 15 and they have since used Trinity United Church of Christ’s study guide.
“You know how teenagers are all about the superheroes, the kind of projection of the good we hope is in ourselves out on the screen,” said Lewis. “For that to be larger-than-life black folk was moving to our white children as well as our black children.”
Khaled Beydoun, an associate law professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, treated a group of 17 Muslim students to the movie on Friday (Feb. 23). The Muslim educator said “they were totally enthralled by the film.”
Given the significant percentage of Muslims in this country who are black, his goal was to help young nonblack Muslims bridge divides in a diverse city where schools are often segregated.
“If these young Arab, Muslim kids begin to see black people as members of their own, I think that can do a lot to erode racism in places like Detroit, but also nationally,” said Beydoun, author of the forthcoming “American Islamophobia.”
Cooper, of the AME Zion church in North Carolina, also noticed the movie’s universal themes of common humanity, which he said reminded him of the bond he has between “my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ” in his youth group.
“In my youth group, we loved the movie,” said Cooper, who planned to see it again. “It was the best movie I’ve seen.”
Jordan Peele’s horror film “Get Out” has won the Academy Award for best original screenplay, making Peele the first African-American to win the award.
“Get Out” topped Greta Gerwig for “Lady Bird,” Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for “The Shape of Water,” Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for “The Big Sick,” and Martin McDonagh for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
“I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible,” Peele said in his acceptance speech. “But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it.”
Peele thanked Universal, Jason Blum, the cast and crew, and his wife and mother.
“To everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket — thank you!” Peele said.
Backstage, Peele was jubilant as he shared his journey to his first Oscar. “I almost never became a director,” he said. “There was such a shortage of role models.”
He added, “I’m so proud to be a part of a time at the beginning of a movement where I feel like the best films in every genre are being brought to me by my fellow black directors.”
In a repeat of 2017, Candice Lewis-Carter of Katy, Texas won the Figure International by besting second-place Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga. Lewis-Carter received the champion’s trophy from Arnold Schwarzenegger and $16,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jackets and congratulations from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Europa Sports.
The remainder of the Figure International top six:
2nd place: Cydney Gillon of Douglasville, Ga.
3rd place:., Heather Dees of Lehi, Utah.
4th place: Michele Silva of Brasil.
5th place: Bojana Vasiljevic of Palm Desert, California.
6th place: Maria Luisa Baeza Diaz of Melrose, Mass.
[SOURCE: Arnold Sports Festival]
William “The Conqueror” Bonac, a Ghana native now living in the Netherlands, dominated all three rounds of judging in cruising to his first major professional victory. It was the fourth career win for Bonac, who was third at the 2017 Mr. Olympia.
Bonac won the 30th Anniversary Arnold Classic in his first professional appearance on the famed Arnold Classic stage.
Five-time Arnold Classic champion Dexter Jackson of Jacksonville, Fla., the winningest bodybuilder in history with 28 career wins, finished second and defending champion Cedric McMillan of Heath Springs, South Carolina was third.
Bonac received congratulations from Arnold Schwarzenegger, a check for $130,000, a Tony Nowak Official Champions Jacket and the champion’s trophy from Catherine Colle of Midway Labs USA and Eric Hillman of Optimum Nutrition.
Third Place: Cedric McMillan Fourth Place: Roelly Winklaar Fifth Place: Steve Kuclo
Two years after he was fatally shot by a police officer in Minnesota, Philando Castile is still helping students afford lunch.
A charity created in Castile’s honor has paid off the lunch debt for every student in the 56 schools in the St. Paul Public School District, including the school where Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor.
“That means no parent of the 37,000 kids who eat meals at school need worry about how to pay that overdue debt,” a charity organizer wrote on the “Philando Feeds the Children” fundraising page.
Castile had worked as a cafeteria supervisor at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in St. Paul for two years at the time he was killed.
Pam Fergus, an educator who launched the charity, told CNN she delivered a $35,000 check to the St. Paul Public School District this week. The charity, which had an original goal of raising $5,000, now has more than $117,000 in donations, according to the YouCaring page. The funds will continue to pay for student lunches “for years to come,” Fergus wrote in a fundraising update.
Read more: Philando Castile Charity Covers Entire School District's Lunch Debt
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) are sponsoring legislation to put a statue of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, in the U.S. Capitol.
Multiple Democratic senators are already co-sponsoring the measure, including Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Tim Kaine (Va.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is also on board. The bill would direct the Joint Committee on the Library to enter into an agreement to obtain a statue within five years of the bill’s passage.
On the heels of Black History Month and at the beginning of Women’s History Month, Chisholm is perhaps the perfect candidate for the honor. Over her groundbreaking political career, she became the first black candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s nomination. She served seven terms in the House from 1969 to 1983.
Now the question is whether a Republican-controlled Congress will honor this “unbought and unbossed” black woman.
Many of you have seen the blockbuster movie The Black Panther, now check out the first novel to feature T'Challa and his home Wakanda by author Jesse J. Holland.
He's known as the Black Panther. His home is Wakanda. Welcome to T'Challa's world. During the last ten centuries, as European colonial powers spread their guns and armies throughout the continent, the African nation of Wakanda stood alone as an unconquerable land inhabited by undefeatable warriors and filled with incredible technological advancements. T'Challa - the latest in a lineage of warrior-kings - is Wakanda's Black Panther, a hero endowed with enhanced speed, strength and agility - along with a suit made of the metal that secured his country's future: the indestructible Vibranium. Now, outsiders have returned to plunder Wakanda's riches, including its store of the rare metal. Leading this brutal assault is Klaw, an assassin with the blood of T'Challa's father on his hands. Klaw brings with him a powerful army of super-powered mercenaries, all hell-bent on raining death and destruction on this pristine land. Even with Wakanda's might and his own superhuman skills, can the Black Panther prevail against such a massive invading force?
Kindle ----- Paperback
"Clueless" star and former Fox commentator Stacey Dash is running for Congress in California.
The actress and outspoken Republican filed paperwork Monday to run in California's 44th district, which is currently represented by Democrat Nanette Barragán.
The district, which includes Compton, Watts, San Pedro and North Long Beach, has long been represented by a Democrat. It overwhelmingly voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, 83%-12%.
Representatives for Dash did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment. Dash has not publicly issued a statement. However, she did tease a potential run earlier this month.
The LeBron 15 ‘Equality’ PE is getting a release. James took to Instagram Monday morning to announce that the ‘Equality’ PE is getting a wide release with Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture receiving all of the proceeds:
Great morning to all! Basketball is our vehicle but equality is our mission – stand for something positive and do what you can to make a difference!! Proud to announce we’re dropping the “Equality” PE. There’s always a personal connection with a drop - this one goes beyond basketball. Proceeds go to the Smithsonian Natl Museum of African American History & Culture. #Equality✊ #StriveForGreatness #IWillNotShutUpAndDribble,”
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who has been a leading opponent of President Trump on Capitol Hill, told thousands of Democratic activists and officials to "get ready for impeachment.”
Speaking at the California Democratic Party’s annual convention in San Diego, Waters said that she believes special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s been at the helm of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is “getter closer” to figuring out who colluded with Russia.
"I say it is time to get ready for impeachment," Waters said to roaring applause. “I cannot wait and I’m counting on special counsel Mueller to connect the dots.”
“I believe he’s getting closer to discovering what Americans were and are involved in collusion with the Russians.”
Mueller’s probe has had several recent developments that rocked the political world. He brought charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups for U.S. election interference. And former Trump campaign adviser Richard Gates pleaded guilty on Friday as part of a deal with the special counsel.
“It’s absolutely appalling to learn ... your many allies are all connected to the oligarchs of Russia, the Kremlin and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Waters said.
Waters ended her nearly 20-minute speech to several standing ovations, loud cheers and an “Impeach 45” chant.
The NBA champion Golden State Warriors will spend next week's trip to Washington, D.C., visiting local children after the team was disinvited (although the team had said they weren't going???) from the White House by President Trump.
The team told ESPN that the players plan to attend a small event closed to media with local D.C. children during their visit to the nation's capital, though details of the event were not readily available.
"It's their championship. They got disinvited to the White House, so it's up to them what they wanted to do. So they made their plans," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. "I want the players to have a good day and to do something positive and to enjoy what they're doing."
The event was decided on after the team received invitations from Democrats such as Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) to visit the U.S. Capitol. But the Warriors decided not to politicize their visit to Washington.
"At the end of the day, it's about us celebrating a championship, so there's no point in getting into the political stuff and all that," forward Draymond Green told ESPN. "It's about something we did great. Why make it about [politics]?"
As survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting capture the nation’s attention with their persistent and powerful calls for sensible gun laws, former first lady Michelle Obama has expressed “total awe” and support for the young activists.
I’m in total awe of the extraordinary students in Florida. Like every movement for progress in our history, gun reform will take unyielding courage and endurance. But @barackobama and I believe in you, we’re proud of you, and we’re behind you every step of the way.
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) February 22, 2018
Days after the premiere of "Black Panther," lines are still out the door at theaters across New York City.
Now activists are using the Marvel super hero movie starring a nearly all black cast and set in the fictional East African nation of Wakanda as a chance to increase African American voter registration.
Celebrities are putting their financial might behind a march on Washington being organized by students who survived last week’s mass shooting that left 17 dead at a Parkland, Florida high school.
Earlier on Tuesday, George and Amal Clooney announced they are donating $500,000 to the upcoming “March For Our Lives” — and now talk show titan Oprah Winfrey has said she will match their donation:
George and Amal, I couldn’t agree with you more. I am joining forces with you and will match your $500,000 donation to ‘March For Our Lives.’ These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard.
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) February 20, 2018
Trump is falsely trying to make the claim that if the FBI spent less time on Russia and more time on following up the tips on the shooter in Parkland Florida that maybe they could have stopped that shooting. Trump leaves out the fact that over 35,000 men and women serve in the FBI and that they can probably handle more than one investigation at a time. He also ignores the fact that tips about the shooter would have been dealt with by the local field office, not by those handling the Russia investigation.
Even fellow republicans such as Sen. Tim Scott have stepped in to say that the two investigations are two separate issues.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, says the reality is that they are "two separate issues." "I think we have to separate the issue, without any question," Scott told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
We, the system, have not done the right job," said Scott, pointing to shortcomings in law enforcement's ability to prevent the Charleston and Texas church shootings.
"What we've seen in three major atrocities is that the system that was in place simply was not followed. So my focus is not on having or not having a gun debate. We're going to have that," said Scott. "But the reality of it is that three incidents could have been avoided, prevented, if the system itself had worked."
Scott noted, however, that he was hopeful Congress would "get something done this year" with regard to bringing bipartisan gun legislation to the Senate floor.
"The reality of it is that we have a sense of urgency about getting this done. And I'm very hopeful that this is the time that we see this nation's leadership united to solve a problem that could've prevented atrocities," said Scott. [SOURCE]
NBA star and activist Lebron James said that Trump doesn't "Give a f*ck about the people" in an interview with the ESPN website Uninterrupted. So, of course, someone at Fox News had to leap to the so-called President's defense. Conservative talking head Laura Ingraham said that Lebron James should "shut up and dribble" when commenting on James comments. That offended many African Americans and athletes, with some thinking that her comments were racist because they were.
James responded to Ingraham ignorant comments:
“I will not just shut up and dribble,” James said after All-Star practice. “So, thank you, whatever her name is. … I get to sit up here and talk about what’s really important and how I can help change kids. “It lets me know that everything I’ve been saying is correct for her to have that type of reaction. But we will definitely not shut up and dribble. I will definitely not do that. I mean too much to society, I mean too much to the youth, I mean too much to so many kids that feel like they don’t have a way out and they need someone to help lead them out of the situation they’re in.”
“We know it’s bigger than us. It’s not about us,” James said. “I’m going to continue to do what I have to do to play this game that I love to play, but this is bigger than me playing the game of basketball.”
Watch James entire response below:
