“What’s Going On” is a song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye, released in 1971 on the Motown subsidiary, Tamla. Originally inspired by a police brutality incident witnessed by Renaldo “Obie” Benson, the song was composed by Benson, Al Cleveland and Gaye and produced by Gaye himself. The song, which focused on major seventh and minor seventh chords,[2] and was oriented in sounds by jazz, gospel and classical music orchestration, was mainly viewed as a meditation on the troubles and problems of the world, proving to be a timely and relatable release, and marked Gaye’s departure from the Motown Sound towards more personal material. Later topping the Hot Soul Singles chart for five weeks and crossing over to number-two on the Billboard Hot 100, it would sell over two million copies, becoming Gaye’s second most successful Motown song to date.[3]
The song topped Detroit’s Metro Times list of the 100 Greatest Detroit Songs of All Time,[4] and in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the fourth greatest song of all time, in its updated 2011 list, the song remained at that position.[5] It is also included in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, along with two other songs by the singer.[6] It was also listed at number fourteen on VH-1’s 100 Greatest Rock Songs.[7]
https://twitter.com/HistoryHeroes/status/633811290255835136/photo/1
https://twitter.com/theroot/status/633787368705773569
https://twitter.com/MsScottHarris/status/633797049289281536
In ad, black Republican uses N-word, draws criticism
MARSHA SHULER| MSHULER@THEADVOCATE.COM
The two black candidates in the lieutenant governor’s race are warring over the use of a racial epithet in a commercial that has run in the New Orleans area and is expected to go statewide.
Republican state Sen. Elbert Guillory said he’s using the “N-word” in a television spot in an attempt to get the attention of black voters who routinely vote for Democrats. The end game, he said, is to pull votes off Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, the Democrat in the race, and point out that the black community has not fared well sticking with Democrats.
“That line has stirred some controversy,” Guillory, of Opelousas, said Monday. He said he’s not backing away from its use. “This is education.”
Holden took Guillory to task for using the “divisive” word in an attempt to “justify a party.”
“He should be trying to educate people about coming together more instead of using language that puts a dividing line between us,” Holden said.
http://theadvocate.com/news/13204357-123/in-ad-black-republican-uses
Black Women in the Rural South Are Still Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired
A new report find that too many suffer from rampant poverty and limited access to healthcare.
By
Dani McClain
In August 1964, a Mississippi sharecropper and civil-rights organizer named Fannie Lou Hamer famously told a gathering at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City that she was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Her televised testimony about conditions in the rural South packed such a punch that LBJ reportedly announced an impromptu press conference in the middle of it in an effort to divert attention.
Southern politicians have no less reason to be embarrassed 51 years later. As anew report that focuses on Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia shows, the lives of black women and girls in the rural South are still too often marked by illness and exhaustion. A quarter of residents in the areas studied reported being in poor or fair health, compared to a tenth of residents in each of the states’ major metropolitan counties. One Alabama county had a black infant mortality rate of 29 deaths per 1,000 births, nearly five times the national rate of 6.2 per 1,000. In two Mississippi counties studied, the teen birth rates were 89 and 95 births per 1,000 young women between the ages of 15 and 19. Compare this to state’s teen birth rate of 59 births per 1,000 and the national rate of 26.5 births per 1,000.
http://www.thenation.com/article/black-women-in-the-rural-south-are-still-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired/
she should be a household name
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Did You Know the Most Powerful Woman on Wall Street is a Trillion Dollar Black Woman?
When most people think of Wall Street titans, they think of rich, white men who garner very little interest from our young people. This may be true, but it isn’t completely accurate because swimming with the sharks is a Queen our young people should know about.
Last year, Suzanne Shank became one of, if not the first, black woman to head a publicly traded financial services institution. Shank was promoted to CEO of Siebert Financial Corporation (a broker/deal institutional investment bank founded by Muriel Seibert). A monumental feat indeed, but no where near defines the career and future of this extraordinary woman.
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Since the start of her firm, they have acted as managing underwriter for municipal bond transactions exceeding a whopping $1.2 trillion dollars and ranks among the top 10 in seven key infrastructure categories for underwriting municipal bonds in the world.
This powerful, black woman is one to remember as her trailblazing ways will continue to inspire, develop, nurture and create more and more great minds in our community.
http://urbanintellectuals.com/2015/08/17/did-you-know-the-most-powerful-woman-on-wall-street-is-a-trillion-dollar-black-woman/
https://twitter.com/Jidenna/status/633375790336483329
https://twitter.com/hochman/status/633442925607698434
https://twitter.com/micnews/status/633439972914253824
https://twitter.com/marabout40/status/633759995872571392
John V. Moore @johnvmoore
.@janellemonae was in Chicago with #sandrabland’s mom today & this happened at the Bean #BlackLivesMatter
Colorlines.com @Colorlines
70% of White Residents Say New Orleans Is Better Post #Katrina, Only 44% of Blacks Say Same http://ow.ly/R0YaO
https://twitter.com/staceyNYCDC/status/633730777436549120/photo/1
Morris Chestnut Chocolateness+ Michael Ealy’s psycho bad boy=Me being at the theater when this opens.
http://youtu.be/riQDCdLlhmM
Birthers Say These 4 GOP Candidates May Be Ineligible To Be President
ByCatherine Thompson
Published August 17, 2015, 6:00 AM EDT
The birther movement has come home to roost as the Republican presidential primary heats up.
In a column published last week on the conspiracy theory website WND, author Jack Cashill noted that questions had been raised about whether four of the 17 candidates in the GOP field were really “natural born citizens” and therefore eligible to run for President.
Ted Cruz has already dealt with those questions publicly — the Canadian-born senator from Texas renounced his citizenship with that country last summer in anticipation of a 2016 bid — but Cashill also listed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) among those who were suspect.
He even mentioned that Jindal’s preferring to go by the name Bobby — inspired by “The Brady Bunch” — instead of his given name, Piyush, would make for interesting evidence in a court case focused on his eligibility to run for commander-in-chief.
But who, exactly, was suspicious of these candidates? On what grounds could these four politicians’ eligibility to be President be challenged? And why was Santorum, whose background as an Italian-American doesn’t get mentioned nearly as frequently as Rubio’s Cuban heritage or Jindal’s Indian heritage, suspect?
TPM called up Cashill to find out. Cashill notably co-wrote the 2012 book “Officer’s Oath” with former Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, who was dismissed from the U.S. Army in 2010 and sentenced to six months in prison for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan amid his questions about President Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as commander-in-chief.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/rubio-jindal-cruz-santorum-birthers
From the TIMES about discrimination towards Blacks on juries.
SHREVEPORT, La. — Here are some reasons prosecutors have offered for excluding blacks from juries: They were young or old, single or divorced, religious or not, failed to make eye contact, lived in a poor part of town, had served in the military, had a hyphenated last name, displayed bad posture, were sullen, disrespectful or talkative, had long hair, wore a beard.
They were black.
we say this all the time. There are so many stories from our community that need telling.
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Consider the Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire for Your Next Film
Photo of Tambay A. Obenson
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
August 17, 2015 at 12:06PM
As I told a friend over the weekend after I learned of this gentleman – there are so many stories from black history that we either don’t know about, or that just don’t get talked about much (if at all), that I think would make for riveting cinema, for any enterprising producers willing to tackle them on screen. We’ve shared a few over the years here on S&A, and whenever I come across any piece of our history that I wasn’t previously aware of – especially something as remarkable as this – it’s exciting, and my creative mind wanders…
Jeremiah G. Hamilton, whose origins are said to have been lowly, possibly born a slave, was reportedly the richest black man in the United States in the 19th century, possessing a fortune of over $2 million (which would be in excess of $250 million in today’s currency).
His larger than life story of a man who defied every convention of his time, boldly navigating the lily white financial world, marrying a white woman, owning mansions as well as stock in companies that wouldn’t do business with him (for example, he owned stock in railroad companies he was not legally allowed to ride, because he was black), and generally set his white contemporaries on edge when he wasn’ outsmarting them, is told in author/historian Shane White’s book “Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire,” which is described as a groundbreaking and vivid account, and an important contribution to American history.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/consider-the-untold-story-of-jeremiah-g-hamilton-wall-streets-first-black-millionaire-for-your-next-film-20150817
Maryland gov won’t fire controversial housing chief
08/18/15 10:41 AM
By Steve Benen
State housing officials don’t usually generate national news, but the story out Maryland is a doozy. The Baltimore Sun reported the other day:
Gov. Larry Hogan’s top housing official said Friday that he wants to look at loosening state lead paint poisoning laws, saying they could motivate a mother to deliberately poison her child to obtain free housing.
Kenneth C. Holt, secretary of Housing, Community and Development, told an audience at the Maryland Association of Counties summer convention here that a mother could just put a lead fishing weight in her child’s mouth, then take the child in for testing and a landlord would be liable for providing the child with housing until the age of 18.
Holt, who’s served in this post for less than a year, hasn’t cited any instances in which this has actually happened, but he suggested to the Sun that it’s a plausible scenario. “This is an anecdotal story that was described to me as something that could possibly happen,” Holt said.
That possibility has apparently led the Maryland Housing chief to begin work on draft legislation to “limit the liability of landlords in lead paint cases.”
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maryland-gov-wont-fire-controversial-housing-chief
http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/17dhcd/images/1198-1-06935b.jpg
Here’s your guy. Any wonder then..? This face has clearly been covered by many a white hood over the years…
Breaking News ✔ @BreakingNews
Rosie O’Donnell’s 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, reported missing; last seen on Aug. 11 in Rockland Co., NY – @Rosie http://bit.ly/1WCpjWg
some folks have got NO DAMN SENSE
who DA PHUQ has a TIGER AS A PET?!?!?!?
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“I got a call from a friend who asked me to help them get this tiger out of a staircase,” said Andy Didorosi, 28, of Detroit. “He asked me if I had a leafblower, and I said I had a weedwhacker, so he told me to bring that. … I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my tools and hopped in my truck, because, you know, tiger. …
“I don’t know much about tiger logistics, but we were told to be this huge blue tarp monster with the weedwhacker and try to be scary and make loud noises. That just made him angry. You could say he got tiger rage, so we retreated.”
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/08/17/yes-s-tiger-packard-plant-detroit/31850139/
Mapping Brutality: How Last Year’s ‘Belle’ Perfectly Explains White America’s Response to Racism
Shadow and Act
Last year, Ava DuVernay’s film “Selma” was the award-winning picture that seemed to most aptly highlight the similarities between 1965 America and the country’s climate in 2014. The violence leading up to the official march from Selma to Montgomery was easily contrasted with the violence subjected upon protesters in Ferguson, Missouri and, moving into this year, Baltimore, Cleveland and Ferguson again. Black and white images of police in riot gear were shared and, often, it was unclear what decade the images were from. But another film from a black woman director (Amma Asante) offered some powerful insight into the relationship between race, empathy and the judicial system, even as it presented a psychological portrait of white privilege and this complex notion of “proof” of racism. “Belle” was released in the UK in 2013 and in the U.S. in 2014, but given that names like Sam DuBose, Christian Taylor, Sandra Bland and Natasha McKenna are still fresh on our lips (or should be), this is a good time to revisit one of the film’s most powerful—and often overlooked—messages.
What activists (and many others suffering from racial discussion fatigue syndrome) have learned in the past year or so is that our definitions of “proof” of racism and racist institutions differ vastly from much of white America’s. It’s often not enough for white America to hear that a person of color has been killed by a police officer, and it’s often not enough for white America to hear that a small child was killed by a police officer, nor is it enough to read a headline about a man whose spine was severed in a police van. Instead, these murders are often interpreted as isolated incidents, some of which are indeed tragic, but ultimately do not prove that the killings are supported or encouraged by a racist system that’s as American as the stars and stripes.
For this reason, one of the most thrilling moments of television this year came when Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby stood at a podium in front of a group of reporters and pointedly explained why six officers were being charged with the murder of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. On news stations across the country, her explanation was accompanied by an all-important visual image: a map detailing the several points at which the accused officers each broke the law and gave Gray the rough ride that broke his spinal cord, causing him to fall into a coma and eventually die.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/mapping-brutality-how-last-years-belle-perfectly-explains-white-americas-response-to-racism-20150817
GOP presidential candidate Scott Walker offers health plan with tax credits, Medicaid overhaul
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker’s plan for replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law would extend refundable tax credits to help pay for private health insurance based on age instead of income, restructure Medicaid and allow people to shop for insurance across state lines.
The Wisconsin governor provided details of his proposal to The Associated Press in advance of a Tuesday speech in suburban Minneapolis where he was to outline his first major policy initiative of the presidential campaign.
Walker’s plan does not include cost figures or an estimate of the number of people who would be covered, making it nearly impossible to compare with current law. For the period from April to June of this year, 11.4 percent of U.S. adults were uninsured, which translates to about 16 million people gaining coverage since the rollout of Obama’s health care law in 2013.
Walker’s campaign said the plan would be paid for by eliminating $1 trillion in taxes that are levied under the current law and by making other changes to Medicaid and how health insurance is taxed.
The Supreme Court in June upheld a key portion of the Affordable Care Act allowing for federal subsidies to defray the cost of coverage, a major defeat for opponents of the law.
Walker and other Republican candidates have insisted they would repeal the law, starting on the first day of a GOP presidency. The biggest hurdle Walker, and any opponent of the law, faces is getting it repealed. That would take 60 votes in the Senate, and Walker’s plan does not address how he would undo the law in any other way.
http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/08/18/gop-hopeful-scott-walker-offers-health-plan-with-tax-credits
https://twitter.com/SELFmagazine/status/633650868106227712/photo/1
https://twitter.com/leftyjennyc/status/633615047001010176
https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/633262137272496128
Bobby boy knows the self-hate is necessary for him to hang with the good ole white boy’s club. They’re coming after you too, Bobby, and you’re too self-hating and stupid to realize it.
https://twitter.com/BLM_Boston/status/633453631401029632
https://twitter.com/ByronYork/status/633607299534295040
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/633643293247561728
In the race to the bottom on immigration, Walker makes his move
By Steve Benen
Over the weekend, Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to unveil an actual immigration plan. It wasn’t quite what reform proponents were hoping for – Trump’s vision includes mass deportations for roughly 11 million people, a Mexican-built wall, ignoring provisions of the 14th Amendment, and quite possibly deporting U.S. citizens.
If there’s a race to the bottom underway among Republicans battling for anti-immigrant voters, it was a fairly bold move. As Bloomberg Politics reported yesterday, it left one of Trump’s top rivals scrambling to tell conservatives how similar his plan is to the leading GOP candidate.
Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker said Monday his immigration plan is “very similar” to the policy blueprint released Sunday by Donald Trump which amounts to a comprehensive attack on legal and illegal immigration.
“I haven’t looked at all the details of his but the things I’ve heard are very similar to the things I’ve mentioned,” the Wisconsin governor said on Fox & Friends.
Yes, we’ve reached the curious stage of the 2016 cycle at which prominent Republicans boast about how in sync they are with Donald Trump. Last week, it was Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Yesterday, it was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
As viewers of last night’s show know, the degree to which Trump is actually influencing the direction of Republican politics is increasingly difficult to ignore. Sure, that’s to be expected by a White House candidate who’s dominating the race, but given Trump’s clownish reputation, it’s nevertheless striking to see the dynamic unfold before our eyes.
As for the far-right governor, as the day progressed, Walker’s approach to immigration came into sharper focus. He still doesn’t have a detailed plan, per se, but he’s offering more than just “I’m like Trump” on this key issue.
For example, Walker is now the latest national Republican candidate to oppose birthright citizenship – more on this point later today – and he’s on board with mass deportations. So how is this different from Trump? BuzzFeed noted that the Wisconsin governor is eyeing a very different model as a source for inspiration.
Walker repeated his call for a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico on Monday similar to the one separating Israel from Palestinian territories in the West Bank. […]
“I was in Israel earlier this year, they built a 500-mile fence and they have it stacked and it’s lowered terrorist attacks in that region by about 90-plus percent. We need to do the same along our border, we’ve obviously got a bigger border, about four times that, but we’re a country that should be able to hold that,” Walker said while speaking on the Des Moines Register soapbox at the Iowa State Fair.
Let’s not brush past Walker’s point of comparison too quickly. Who looks at the barriers separating Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and thinks, “You know, the United States needs more of this”?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-race-the-bottom-immigration-walker-makes-his-move
They continue to want us to entertain them. Buy a ticket to a Beyoncé concert if you want to be entertained.
Folks have a PhD and think somebody should entertain them.
get da phuq outta here.
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Black academics expected to ‘entertain’ when presenting, new study says
by Joan Brasher | Aug. 17, 2015, 2:21 PM
Black faculty members are expected to be “entertaining” when presenting academic research to mostly white peers, according to a new Vanderbilt study.
Thirty-three African American faculty members from institutions across the country were surveyed on their personal experiences, providing a unique perspective on “presenting while black.”
Ebony O. McGee, assistant professor of education, diversity and urban schooling at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development co-directed the study.
Interviews with the scholars revealed that an overwhelming majority were advised regularly by white peers to be “more entertaining” when making research presentations, as well as to “lighten up” and “tell more jokes
Black females additionally noted being subject to their colleagues’ preoccupation with their clothing choices and hairstyle, and reported being admonished to play down their “passion” and “smile more.” In addition, nearly all reported overt racist remarks in regards to their academic presentations.
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2015/08/black-academics-expected-to-entertain-when-presenting-new-study-says/
not surprising.
THIS RIGHT HERE: Black females additionally noted being subject to their colleagues’ preoccupation with their clothing choices and hairstyle. I get this all the time, even outside the workplace. It’s Objectification, as if nothing else is going on behind the nice clothes. These fools don’t want to acknowledge our HUMANESS. Period.
Folks, the birthright citizenship thing is a smokescreen. The Republicans have been after the 14th Amendment ever since Brown v. Board. Please understand – every advancement that this society has made since then is couched in the 14th Amendment.
See the forest for the trees, people. .
https://twitter.com/LOLGOP/status/633612213039812608
SG2, Please tweet this
And still, the estate is back in the Black (pun intended), making money hand over fist.
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Michael Jackson Kids Cost $4.3 Million: Court Documents Reveal Jackson’s Kids Living Expenses
Michael Jackson’s kids cost $4.3 million a year between housing and other living expenses according to court documents. AZCentral reports that Michael Jackson’s three kids, Prince, 18, Paris, 16, and 13-year-old Bigi (formerly known as Blanket), have quite the set-up, and don’t seem to need a thing based on the detailed documents.
Aside from $450,000 a year for a house in Calabasas, California, the kids also have their school paid for, as well as staff, workers, vacation expenses, and more.
“A total of $75,000 in fees for Buckley School was also spent for Prince and Paris, before the latter dropped out, with $30,000 also being spent on a separate school for ‘young performers.’ Other expenses included chartering a private plane for $140,000, $470,000 on staff at their properties as well as $47,000 on other workers, $935 on Bigi’s 11th birthday bash and $428,000 for a trip to Hawaii with Prince and Paris’ biological mother, Debbie Rowe.”
Michael Jackson’s kids’ $4.3 million a year in living expenses is shocking to some people who couldn’t imagine spending one million a year on their whole family (some people don’t even see that kind of money over a lifetime). The bottom line is that Michael Jackson made sure that his kids would be well taken care of in the event that something happened to him.
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2345559/michael-jackson-kids-4-3-million/#sTOhxz2ZBXCEEJ6V.99
UH HUH
Janelle Monae’s Police Brutality Speech Cut Off on ‘Today’ Show
Janelle Monae wanted to use her performance on The Today Show last week as a way to communicate her views on police brutality and systemic racism — but the producers were less interested in giving the telecast a social justice bent.
During her live performance Friday morning (Aug. 14), Monae gave “Hell You Talmbout,” her label Wondaland Records’ latest single, its onstage debut. The song is a musical tribute to some of the recent victims of racially motivated violence, and accordingly Monae concluded the performance with a similarly-themed speech.
“Yes Lord! God bless America!” she told the crowd. “God bless all the lost lives to police brutality. We want white America to know that we stand tall today. We want black America to know we stand tall today. We will not be silenced…” Then, the camera suddenly panned to one of the show’s anchors. See the clip below:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/janelle-monaes-police-brutality-speech-cut-off-on-today-show/ar-BBlOsSb?ocid=ansmsnent11
THE BALLS ON THIS CLOWN
https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/633457591755087872
Yeah, this is so funny. NOT.
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The joke about Beyonce’s daughter that went way too far
8:00 PM Tuesday Aug 18, 2015
Comedian Amy Poehler is under fire after a joke about Beyonce’s three-year-old daughter bombed on her new web series Difficult People.
The joke in question – “I can’t wait for Blue Ivy to be 18 years old so R Kelly can piss on her” – has been largely condemned on social media.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11498938&ref=NZH_Tw
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, I have never warmed to either of them, be not deceived. When all is said and done, they will defend their WHITENESS at all costs.
Really?!
Just absolutely DESPICABLE isn’t she? Poehler would never say this about her child or Tina Fey’s child. But hey, BlackLives and all…
I’m not nieve or clueless but I am always surprised by the things that come out those racism idiots mouths.
Good Morning,Everyone :)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone! Rik check your email, please. Thanks