The bikini-clad teenage girl, Dajerria Becton who was forcibly restrained by a police officer responding to a disturbance at a pool party in a Dallas suburb over the weekend says she was an invited guest and was obeying his orders to leave when he grabbed her. She has now spoken out to a local Texas TV station. Watch that interview below.
The teen boy who recorded the now-infamous McKinney pool party take down by Cpl. Eric Casebolt video spoke to a local television station Monday. Watch that interview below.
[SOURCE] Basketball legend, Charles Barkley recently announced his intention to make a $1,000,000 gift to Morehouse College. In that same announcement he pledged similar support to Auburn University (his Alma Mater) and the Wounded Warrior project.
The gift to Morehouse will benefit the College’s burgeoning Journalism and Sports Program (JSP) that was initiated in 2007. Since its inception, this program has sent 31 of its students into the media workforce, while an additional 15 have earned master’s degrees in journalism or related fields, including six at Columbia University.
Currently, nearly 65% of professional football players and 80% of professional basketball players are black; yet only 6% of newspaper sports journalists are African American. In response to this phenomenon, JSP was conceived by veteran filmmaker and Morehouse alumnus Spike Lee and his friend, the late Ralph Wiley, one of the nation’s first African American sports columnists.
JSP’s Director, Ron Thomas, joyfully reacted to this surprise announcement. “We aim to produce the media’s next generation of image makers, from columnists to digital specialists, covering a wide variety of news and marketing positions,” said Thomas. “Charles Barkley has always been very generous to students in our Journalism and Sports Program on a personal level. I am thrilled that Charles has greatly extended his generosity by donating $1 million to address our growing needs.”
Morehouse President, John S. Wilson, Jr. offered a similar response. “We are profoundly grateful for this contribution, said Wilson. “ Beyond its immediate impact, we hope that it will catalyze additional strategic investments in this impressive program.”
Barkley made the announcement during a conference call for the American Century Championship’s celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe earlier this week. Full details of the gift are being still being worked out between Morehouse and Barkley.
Before laying my head to rest last night, Black Twitter blessed me with something magical. Scrolling through my timeline, I noticed the hashtag #unconventionalblackbeauty, featuring photos of beautiful black faces. Not much different from #blackoutday, an online movement that celebrated black beauty, right?
Wrong.
The difference here was this was an honest discourse about how we define beauty within the black community. And I was so here for it.
In less than 24 hours, the hashtag has received a cosign from artist Talib Kweli and timelines exploded with photos of women and men with full lips, broad noses and kinky hair posing with pride. Because truthfully and ironically, a lot of times when we praise black beauty, we celebrate the features closest to Eurocentric ones.
Read more at How #unconventionalblackbeauty celebrates people like me
The investigation into the shooting death of Tamir Rice by Cleveland police officers has been handed over to prosecutors, who expect to convene a grand jury soon.
A source confirmed the move to ABC News and said that the grand jury will decide whether either of the police officers should stand trial for the 12-year-old's death last November. Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney has since reiterated the transfer of the findings of their investigation to the prosecutor's office.
Read more: Tamir Rice Police Shooting Case Handed Over to Prosecutors
