Monday, September 16, 2019
Bob Hewitt: South Africa stops early release of rapist former tennis star
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6 Best Smartphones That Still Have a Headphone Jack (2019)
VIRAL VIDEO: Teens give back to student once harassed over clothing
A boy who was bullied for wearing the same clothes everyday got some help from two students at Martin Luther King College Prep in Memphis, Tenn., including one who actually teased him.
—Virginia school forfeits football game over racial slur post—
A video went viral of the two football team members handing Micheal Todd a bag full of clothing and a new pair of shoes after he became the butt of many jokes for his lack of apparel and wearing the same outfit each day.
Interesting enough, Kristopher Graham, one of the students giving Todd clothes had been one of the bullies who teased him. Now he’s working to make things right.
“When I saw people laugh and bully him, I felt like I needed to do something,” Graham told WHBQ-TV. “I got some brand-new shoes I can give him and a few items.”
Graham recruited his football teammate Antwain Garrett to help him get some items together to give to Todd. Together they put a box of brand-new apparel in a box and some from their closets and donated to Todd.
“He wasn’t smiling or anything, and I was like, ‘I think this is going to make you smile,’ ” Graham told the outlet.
“We’re in the same third period, and I apologize for laughing at you, and I want to give you something to make it up,” Graham said he told Todd.
A bystander filmed the exchange and it made its rounds on social media.
“I brought you some shorts,” one of the boys can be heard saying in the video.
Todd seemed appreciative: “You guys are the best guys of my entire life,” he told the gift-givers.
The viral video prompted school officials and others to donate to Todd.
“Antwain, Micheal and Kristopher are overwhelmed by the outpour of support from our community and people from across the country,” Frayser Community Schools spokeswoman Erica Williams told People. “Unfortunately, situations that show students in need are not unique within our school because we serve a demographic where the household income is well below the state and national average.”
Todd said it was “The best day of my entire life,” he told USA Today. “I was shocked, completely.”
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Supermodel Naomi Campbell takes spotlight at London Fashion Week
Model Naomi Campbell took center stage at London Fashion Week on Saturday night with a gala charity benefit at the impressive setting of the world famous British Museum.
The gala capped a warm day filled with shows and presentations, including runway offerings by Alexa Chung and House of Holland and millinery by master hatter Stephen Jones.
Big names are still coming up, with shows scheduled by Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane and Julien Macdonald as Fashion Week reaches its glittery climax.
NAOMI CAMPBELL’S ‘FASHION FOR RELIEF’
The Naomi Campbell hosted event was the latest “Fashion for Relief” fundraiser organized by the well-known model, whose efforts are supported by a wide array of friends and designers. The first charity show was in 2005 in support of victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
At the event, the British Museum’s steps and foyer became a red carpet staging area for fashionable elite who passed the time drinking chilled champagne and margaritas while last minute checks were made on the models’ makeup and outfits.
Campbell said this year’s benefit was to raise funds to protect vulnerable children throughout the world and help provide education and skills development. The black-tie event drew a huge and enthusiastic crowd, including many who stayed for a private dinner after the runway performance.
Actor Pierce Brosnan and actress Naomie Harris were among the star contingent, and the show was supported by a wide array of global fashion houses including Gucci, McQueen, Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood.
As an eclectic, gender-bending and fun night got underway, no single theme emerged. But the overall impact was impressive.
Some of the outfits were clearly meant to be over the top, including mens’ looks that seemed to bare all: Many outfits did not cover the chest (putting a premium on gym work), and most of the tops were sheer. Double-breasted suits were meant to be worn without shirts and costumes paired white vinyl shorts with clear tops.
Women were given more variety, including floral jumpsuits, beautiful black, tight-fitting dresses, one dramatic black pantsuit with puffy pink sleeves and shoulders, and “Conehead” style veils. There were also spiky overcoats, sexy kimono outfits, Russian-styled Rasputin outfits for men, and glittery silver elbow-length gloves.
Overall it was punky, with plenty of attitude and edge.
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Virginia school forfeits football game over racial slur post
A high school in Virginia has forfeited its upcoming football game against a rival after videos emerged of students making threats and racial slurs against their opponents.
The Virginian-Pilot reports the videos show students from Poquoson High School threatening to beat people up from York County, who was supposed to be Poquoson’s opponent Friday.
Superintendent Jennifer Parish confirmed some students in the videos are on the football team. She condemned the actions and said she decided Poquoson should forfeit the game for safety and to help students understand their behavior has consequences.
The videos appear to be made at an off-campus party, but Parish says students could still be disciplined.
The videos were posted Thursday to Snapchat, then quickly spread to Twitter and other online platforms.
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Joe Biden on racism: White people ‘can never fully understand’
Visiting a black church bombed by the Ku Klux Klan during the civil rights era, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden framed current racial tensions as part of an enduring struggle that is older than the nation.
“In a centuries long campaign of violence, fear, trauma, brought upon black people in this country, the domestic terrorism of white supremacy has been the antagonist of our highest ideals since before the founding of this country,” Biden told the 16th Street Baptist Church congregation in downtown Birmingham on Sunday as they commemorated the 56th anniversary of the bombing that killed four black girls in 1963.
“It’s in the wake of these before-and-after moments,” Biden added, “when the choice between good and evil is starkest.”
Biden’s appearance comes at an inflection point for Democrats’ 2020 leader in the polls. He is trying to capitalize on his strength among older black voters while navigating criticism from some African American and other nonwhite leaders, particularly younger ones, who take a skeptical view of the 76-year-old white man’s willingness and ability to address systemic racism.
During his 20 minutes at the pulpit, Biden condemned institutional racism as the direct legacy of slavery and lamented that the nation has “never lived up to” the ideals of equality written into its founding documents. But then he added a more personal note — perhaps the closest he would come to addressing his detractors. “Those who are white try,” Biden said, “but we can never fully understand.”
The former vice president called out the names of the bombing victims — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley — and he drew nods of affirmation as he warned that “the same poisonous ideology that lit the fuse on 16th Street” has yielded more recent tragedies, including in 2015 at a black church in South Carolina, in 2018 at a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh and in August at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart frequented by Latino immigrants.
The Birmingham church, Biden said, offers an example to those communities and a nation he said must recommit itself to “giving hate no safe harbor — demonizing no one, not the poor, the powerless, the immigrant or the ‘other.'”
From his long time in government, first as a senator and then vice president to Barack Obama, the first black president, Biden has deep ties in the black community. Though Biden didn’t mention President Donald Trump in his remarks, he has made withering critiques of the president’s rhetoric and policies on race and immigration a central feature of his candidacy.
Yet Biden sometimes draws searing appraisals from younger nonwhite activists who point to complexities in his record. That includes his references to working productively alongside segregationist senators in the 1970s to distrust over his lead role in a 1994 crime law that critics frame as partially responsible for mass incarceration, especially black men.
The dynamics flared up again Thursday after Biden, during a Democratic debate, offered a sometimes incoherent answer when asked how the nation should confront the legacy of slavery. At one point, Biden suggested nonwhite parents use a play a record player to help their children with verbal and cognitive development. That led to a social media firestorm and commentary that Biden takes a paternalistic view of black and brown America even as he hammers Trump for emboldening more obvious forms of racism.
Author Anand Giridharadas called Biden’s answer “appalling — and disqualifying” for “implying that black parents don’t know how to raise their own children.”
Biden’s audience Sunday seemed more to reflect his relative popularity with black voters.
Parishioners wielded their cellphones when he arrived with Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a white politician beloved in the church for his role as the lead prosecutor who secured convictions decades after the bombing occurred. The congregation gave Biden a standing ovation when he completed his remarks.
Alvin Lewis, a 67-year-old usher at 16th Street Baptist, said the welcome doesn’t necessarily translate to votes. But as Lewis and other congregants offered their assessment of race relations in the United States under Trump, they tracked almost flawlessly the arguments Biden has used to anchor his campaign.
“Racism has reared its head in a way that’s frightening for those of us who lived through it before,” Lewis said, recalling that he was at home, about “20 blocks from here” when the Klan bomb went off at 10:22 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963. “No matter what anyone says, what comes out of the president of the United States’ mouth means more than anything,” Lewis added, saying Trump “has brought out some nastier times in this country’s history.”
Antoinette Plump, a 60-year-old who took in the service alongside lifelong member Doris Coke, 92, said racism “was on the back burner” until Trump “brought out all the people who are so angry.”
Coke, who was at the church on that Sunday in 1963, said, “We’ve come a long way.” But she nodded her head as Plump denounced Trump.
Nearby sat Fay Gaines, a Birmingham resident who was in elementary school in 1963 — just a few years younger than the girls who died.
Gaines said she’s heard and read criticisms about Biden. Asked whether she’d seen his “record players” answer in the debate, she laughed and said she did. But he remains on her “short list” of preferred candidates.
“I think there may just be a generational divide,” she said of the reaction. “People who lived through all these struggles maybe can understand how to deal with the current situation a little better.”
That means, she said, recognizing a politician’s core values.
“I trust Joe Biden,” she said. “History matters. His history matters.”
The post Joe Biden on racism: White people ‘can never fully understand’ appeared first on theGrio.
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Sunday, September 15, 2019
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Body of transgender woman Bee Love Slater found burned beyond recognition in Florida
This year has been an especially deadly one for transgender women, particularly Black trans women and unfortunately, the disturbing trend shows no signs of stopping.
Last week, the body of Bee Love Slater, 23, was found in a torched car in Clewiston, Florida, making her the 18th known trans woman to lose her life under unnatural circumstances this year. CBS News reported that her body was burned beyond recognition.
Though investigators have yet to confirm if she was the victim of a hate crime, Slater’s best friend, Kenard Wade, told reporters that she could think of no other reason why someone would harm her.
”She had a really, really good heart,” Wade told WINK. “She would never harm anyone, never put anyone in harm’s way. How could someone go to that extreme to get rid of her?”
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According to CBS, Wade also mentioned that Slater had received threats the day of the fire and expressed that she wanted to leave town to avoid any trouble.
Since her death, many have taken to social media to share their support and express how great of a person Slater was.
“Bee love was kind to everyone she came in contact with and her presence touched me for just the four months that I shared with her was amazing!” Dezmond Bass wrote on Facebook.
It has become apparent to many that something needs to be done to protect these women as the American Medical Association has labeled these killings of trans women of color an “epidemic.”
“According to available tracking, fatal anti-transgender violence in the U.S. is on the rise and most victims were black transgender women,” said AMA Board Member S. Bobby Mukkamala, M.D. “The number of victims could be even higher due to underreporting and better data collection by law enforcement is needed to create strategies that will prevent anti-transgender violence.”
The same week Slater was killed, 17-year-old Bailey Reeves was shot and killed in Baltimore. According to CBS, the Trump administration has continued to roll back protections for the LGBTQ community, which has put countless individuals in danger.
“Our society needs to work to ensure transpeople can live without fear,” the ACLU of Florida said in a statement onThursday.
The investigation into Slater and Reeves’ deaths are ongoing.
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