Monday Open Thread | Michael B. Jordan presents Central Park 5 with ACLU courage award

Posted on June 10, 2019 by SouthernGirl2

LOS ANGELES— Michael B. Jordan told the men known as the Central Park Five on Friday that he cannot watch footage of the new series “When They See Us” without getting emotional and feeling that as a young black man he too could have faced a similar ordeal.

“It’s dangerous in America when you’re living in a black body,” Jordan said.

Jordan praised the men — Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — for their perseverance and courage during a luncheon where the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California honored Netflix’s series about their case.

“The whole time that these men were incarcerated, they never changed their story,” he said. “They insisted of their innocence even as they did their time.”

Salaam cried as he accepted an award on behalf of series creator Ava DuVernay.

“I’m not ashamed to cry in front of you,” Salaam said after a moment of silence as he reflected on how he and the other men were “just boys” between the ages of 13 and 16 years old when they were wrongfully convicted.

“Our story is a story of an egregious miscarriage of justice,” he added.

Jordan hugged Salaam, who also spoke on behalf of the five men.

“That’s courage,” said Jordan, whose performances have ranged from his acclaimed portrayal of a young black man killed by a police officer in “Fruitvale Station” to the vengeful Erik Killmonger in “Black Panther.”

Salaam and the rest of the Central Park Five were exonerated in 2002 after being charged with the 1989 rape of a white woman in New York’s Central Park. They received a standing ovation while accepting the ACLU chapter’s inaugural Roger Baldwin Courage Award. Baldwin was one of the ACLU’s founders and its first executive director.

“When They See Us” isn’t Hollywood’s first attempt to recount the story of the Central Park Five’s wrongful conviction, but it has sparked a renewed interest in the details of the case.

Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, said DuVernay refocused the narrative on the humanity of the five men and it has shone a new light on a widely known case 30 years later.

The series has re-ignited outcry about how the case was handled. Linda Fairstein, the Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor who observed the teenagers’ interrogation, has faced backlash for her role in their conviction. Fairstein has already resigned from at least two nonprofit boards as backlash intensified and a #CancelLindaFairstein movement spread on social media.

Shortly before the men accepted their award, Fairstein was dropped by her book publisher in the face of the increasing criticism. Villagra said that he thinks it’s fair that Fairstein be judged for her actions, even decades later.

“It’s in many ways justice delayed,” Villagra said.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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108 Responses to Monday Open Thread | Michael B. Jordan presents Central Park 5 with ACLU courage award

  1. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 10, 2019 at 7:31 pm

    Check your email ladies

    Reply
  2. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:58 pm

    Can you say CHILD TRAFFICKING, ladies and gentlemen 😠😠😠😠

    https://twitter.com/kristinacooke/status/1138187051566796803

    Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 3:15 pm

    Was listening to the non-political Black women at the job..
    They aren’t pleased about Biden switching on the Hyde Amendment. Not that they are pro-life, just cause if that’s been his position all these years, he should have stuck with it.
    Yes, ‘Uncle Joe’ still has their votes.

    Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 2:57 pm

    Ken Cuccinelli Wanted to End Birthright Citizenship & Militarize Border—Now He’s Trump’s Immigration Chief
    The former Virginia attorney general officially started on Monday at DHS.
    Scott Bixby
    National Reporter
    Updated 06.10.19 3:30PM ET / Published 06.10.19 11:51AM ET

    Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli’s long-rumored role as a top coordinator of the Department of Homeland Security immigration policy finally has an official title. According to an email sent to staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday, the longtime border hawk has been named acting director of the agency, whose 19,000 employees orchestrate the country’s immigration and naturalization system.

    “We must work hand in hand with our colleagues within DHS, along with our other federal partners, to address challenges to our legal immigration system and enforce existing immigration law,” Cuccinelli wrote in an email to his new colleagues. “Together we will continue to work to stem the crisis at our southwest border.”

    The note also previews an escalation of Trump’s crackdown on the asylum system, with Cuccinelli vowing to “work to find long-term solutions to close asylum loopholes that encourage many to make the dangerous journey into the United States so that those who truly need humanitarian protections… receive them.”

    As Virginia’s top law enforcement official and in his years serving in the Virginia state senate, Cuccinelli laid a long track of aggressive anti-immigrant policies intended to restrict access to public services, employment, and even citizenship from migrants and their families. That record, combined with his vociferous defense of President Donald Trump on cable news and in conservative media outlets, puts Cuccinelli firmly in line with an administration that has made combating undocumented immigration its top domestic policy goal.

    Reply
  11. SouthernGirl2 says:
    June 10, 2019 at 2:46 pm

    https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1138161845309718529

    Come on wit it @JoyceWhiteVance! Do your thang!

    Reply
  13. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 2:37 pm

    Hot boxing! Inside Mike Tyson’s pot empire – from ‘premium cannabis’ to plans for a 420-acre marijuana holiday resort in the California desert with a ‘weed university’ and music festival venue

    Mike Tyson created Tyson Holistic in 2016 where he sells premium strains of cannabis and is developing the 418-acre Tyson Ranch near Desert Hot Springs
    The ranch will be a marijuana resort with a luxury hotel, glamping tents, the longest lazy river in the word, a music festival venue and a Tyson University
    Weed will be sold and visitors will be allowed to smoke anywhere in the park
    In February he threw the inaugural Kind Festival at the site of the future ranch where Miguel and A$AP Ferg performed
    The 52-year-old former world heavyweight champ doesn’t grow any of the weed himself, but works with local farmers and approves the high-grade cannabis
    He’s put his lucrative name on various strains of marijuana, expanded into CBD dog treats, and hemp-oil muscle rub
    His business is in negotiations to build another Tyson Ranch on the border of Florida and Georgia
    By MARLENE LENTHANG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 12:47 EDT, 10 June 2019 | UPDATED: 14:02 EDT, 10 June 2019

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Boston Red Sox star David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz was shot in a Dominican Republic bar by ‘two cops hired by a drug lord who believed the baseball hero was having an affair with his wife’

    David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz, 43, was shot in a club in his hometown of Santo Domingo on Sunday
    Police believe his shooters were hired by a reputed drug lord
    Eddy Feliz Garcia, a local man, was captured by crowds at the scene and was then taken into custody
    Ortiz, who lives part of the year in the Dominican Republic, is in stable condition after surgery
    His representative has denied that it had anything to do with a woman
    ‘Please don’t let me die, I’m a good man,’ Ortiz begged the ER doctor
    Ortiz is a three-time World Series champion during his career with the Red Sox
    He splits his time between Santo Domingo and Miami
    It is unclear if his wife and children were on the island when he was shot
    His father has been giving updates on his condition from the hospital
    Ortiz is adored both in Boston and in the Dominican Republic where he was born
    By MICHAELA FREDA IN BOSTON and JENNIFER SMITH and ADRY TORRES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 10:40 EDT, 10 June 2019 | UPDATED: 15:19 EDT, 10 June 2019

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 2:23 pm

    Schooley (@Rschooley) Tweeted:
    Let me be clear: I will be the ‘grim reaper’ in the Senate when it comes to socialist schemes that would destroy jobs, private health insurance, and the free enterprise system. -Mitch McConnell https://t.co/c2qn9507Cl https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/1137781686270169088?s=17

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 12:33 pm

    Happy Birthday 🎉🎂🎈💐😊🤗😍

    https://twitter.com/Essence/status/1138104937370542082

    Reply
  23. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 11:32 am

    Doctor with dubious past decided on unnecessary pelvic exam rule
    In Part 2 of a TRMS Special Report, Rachel Maddow reports on the Randall Williams, the Missouri state health official who decided that women seeking a legal abortion from the state’s last clinic offering abortion services must first submit to a vaginally invasive, medically unnecessary pelvic exam.

    Reply
  24. Liza says:
    June 10, 2019 at 11:30 am

    The beginning of the conflict. I daresay most Americans don’t know about this. But how would they? They don’t know their own history let alone that of others.
    https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1137872000414654465

    Reply
  25. Liza says:
    June 10, 2019 at 11:25 am

    I haven’t actually done this but I do believe I could eat half a dozen KK glazed donuts. I absolutely love them.
    https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1138116809473843200

    Reply
  26. Ametia says:
    June 10, 2019 at 10:54 am

    Word of the Day : June 10, 2019

    Ineffable: adjective in-EFF-uh-bul

    Definition
    1 a : incapable of being expressed in words : indescribable

    b : inexpressibly bad : unspeakable

    2 : not to be uttered : taboo

    Reply
  27. Ametia says:
    June 10, 2019 at 10:51 am
    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 9:56 am

    Ok….from where I am sitting….Gigi don’t know where he’s living….his shyt only works in a country like the USA. That man down in Brazil won’t think twice about phucking him up and getting him to ‘ disappear’.

    1/ EXCLUSIVE: We obtained one of the largest & most important archives of leaked material in years: containing the secret chats, audios, videos & documents of the prosecutors & Judge – now Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister, Sergio Moro – who imprisoned Lula. It shows vast wrongdoing. pic.twitter.com/opSgTrzQ77— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) 9 June 2019

    Reply
  58. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:48 am

    Showing them to be who we always knew who they were😠😠😠

    https://twitter.com/paulwaldman1/status/1137088437662691328

    Reply
  61. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:46 am

    Well…..answer the question 🤔🤔🤔

    https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1137026430741745669

    Reply
  62. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:45 am

    Looks like Kevin Kruse is schooling Dinesh AGAIN 😂😂😂😂

    https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1137710505571835909

    Reply
  66. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:42 am

    Barbara Slate (@BarbaraSlate) Tweeted:
    I’m so excited! I just can’t hide it. I’m about to lose control and I like it! The first unedited version of my Mueller Graphic Novel. https://t.co/cg9sYLW4Dk https://twitter.com/BarbaraSlate/status/1137162766450647040?s=17

    How to order one:

    https://minsky.com/muellerreportgraphicnovel.htm

    Reply
  80. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:35 am

    But, Adam is absolutely correct.

    Remember…
    ” He’s not hurting the right people.”

    Serwer is completely on point.👏👏

    https://twitter.com/VABVOX/status/1137862831800508416

    Reply
  83. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 6:29 am

    Prayers for Big Papi 🙏🙏🙏

    Reply
  84. rikyrah says:
    June 10, 2019 at 4:32 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄

    Reply

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