Actress Regina King Speaks Up on Racial Inequality in Hollywood

Since the Emmy ceremony, I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should compose this letter. I try hard in my daily life not to engage in uncomfortable situations regarding race. But sometimes it's very difficult to find other reasons that better explain why certain events play out the way they do. It is impossible for me to ignore the published statistics regarding the number of people of color mentioned, celebrated or honored in the history of the televised Emmys. Up to and including this year, there have been only 53 non-white actorsnominated for Emmys out of nearly 1,000 possible nominations in the top four acting categories for drama and comedy.

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Explaining Money to Kids – Why This is Very Important

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

Given that our children are likely our greatest expense and greatest love, perhaps it might be helpful to discuss how we teach them about money.  If you raise your kids to be financially responsible, they can be assets to you during retirement.  If they are taught about money in the wrong way, they become horrible economic liabilities that leave you riddled with guilt.  So, although I don’t claim to know everything about child rearing, I thought I’d share some guidelines you might want to consider when it comes to teaching your kids about money.

 

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What Fantasia Teaches Black America about Poor Educational Choices

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University, Scholarship in Action 

One of the most magnificent voices in all of music is owned by Fantasia Barrino, the singer out of North Carolina. Most of us know that Fantasia attempted suicide recently. Of course the suicide attempt led to instant national media attention, and she was all over the news telling her story. Her management team, understanding the value the incident could have for her brand, pushed out the Vh-1 special before you could say the words "publicity stunt."
Now, I'm not here to say that I know what happened to Fantasia or whether the suicide attempt was genuine. But one thing that remains fundamentally true is that she'd been highly upset over the decline of her career. Also, we know that the television specials and additional PR from the incident have put Fantasia in the limelight in a way that far exceeds what she had access to last month. The final thing we know is that Fantasia is working furiously in the studio to get an album out in order to profit from the re-establishment of her celebrity status. Unfortunately, her team may be looking to replicate the experience of Jennifer Hudson after her difficult experience last year.

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Spelman Ranked as the #1 HBCU in America

Short note from Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Spelman College was chosen as the #1 HBCU in the country in a recent ranking by U.S. News and World Report.  The title is well-deserved, since I don’t know of a single Spelman grad who isn’t doing quite well.  But some complain that the self-confidence of Spelman grads can sometimes breed arrogance - you know, the woman who wants to be CEO of the company on the first day.  In fact, I know employers who refuse to hire Spelman grads at all.

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Black Dating, Black Love and the Cost of Going Out

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Sometimes, I wish I could be a fly on the wall when women are having their most interesting conversations about men.  Well, as a gesture of good faith, I can let women become the fly listening in on what men might discuss when they aren’t around.  I can’t tell all the secrets, but I’ll let you in on one that has to do with money and dating.

I’ve heard more than one guy state that part of the reason he may choose not to date is because of the intense financial pressure of dating.  In the worst case scenario, there’s the woman who expects the man to be the out of control baller, yanking out $200 or $300 dollars for a trip to dinner or the nightclub with $10 drinks.  In many cases, he can’t be plainly dressed, so there is also the pressure of having to keep an expensive wardrobe or a fancy car.  It’s hard to pretend to be economically invincible in a tough economy that has always been hard on black men.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: Naomi Campbell Reminds Me of Why I will Never Buy Another Diamond Again

by dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

Naomi Campbell, the supermodel known for attacking her personal assistants, is involved in a different kind of controversy this week. She has been asked to testify at the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Perhaps being beautiful comes with benefits, since Campbell is being asked about some "dirty looking stones" she received at a party in 1997, brought to her room in the middle of the night.
The stones were allegedly "blood diamonds," and the court is attempting to determine if these diamonds were given to her by Charles Taylor. Blood diamonds are those that are mined in the middle of war zones, often used to finance insurgencies, leading to loss of life and enslavement. In other words, we shouldn't be buying them.

 

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Black Women Angry Over Essence Magazine Hiring a White Fashion Editor?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, TheLoop21.com

It seems that the world has grown irritated with Essence Magazine for hiring a new white fashion editor. Michaela Angela Davis, a former employee, has blasted the organization for effectively betraying its constituents with the non-traditional hire. She cites mass discrimination that has historically occurred within the fashion industry and seems disappointed that “our space” no longer belongs to us.

I certainly empathize with Davis’ point. Davis is a strong and direct black woman (I had her on my show), one who has very little tolerance for those who deviate from what she perceives as righteous ideology regarding women and minorities. Her passion for the issues that affect us seems to come from a genuine place, like a black woman who has seen enough and refuses to allow herself or anyone like her to be victimized by a clearly racist and sexist society. 

 

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Results of AOL Black Voices Poll about Black Women and Dating

This poll was taken in response to the article Does the black church keep women single and lonely? - The majority of black women believe that they should open their dating horizons in general and that in spite of what Deborah Cooper has to say, the church can be a good place to find a Godly man.  What do you think?

Black women need to open their dating horizons in general

50%
266

No -- It's a woman's right to seek a Godly man

22%
118

Yes -- It's a bad place to meet men

10%
51

No Comment / Not Sure

9%
49

Either way, I find her views judgemental

9%
47

Was Dorothy Height the Last Significant Black Woman to Have a Voice?

by Lola Adesioye, Huffington Post

Dr. Dorothy Height, the matriarch of the civil rights movement, died today at the age of 98. Dr. Height stood with Dr Martin Luther King during his "I have a dream speech" and worked tirelessly as an activist until her last days.

Her contribution was invaluable in the shaping of black America and American society as a whole. Dr. Height provided an example of ceaseless dedication to a cause greater than oneself, and was a living, breathing demonstration of the formidable power of female leadership, especially for black women.

President Obama referred to Dr. Height as the "godmother" of the movement, going on to say that she "served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way."

In the 60s, Heights had to overcome gender prejudice in order to do her work. She was cropped out of photos because she was female and she was less well known than her male counterparts. Yet despite the challenges, she recognized the importance of women in black leadership and continued to push for that.

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: Precious Little Stereotypes

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

I went to see the film "Precious" with a tremendous amount of anxiety. I'd heard the film received rave reviews from reviewers, award panelists and others in the media who love to see a good movie about dysfunctional black people. I knew the film was being analyzed by the same individuals more likely to notice Denzel Washington playing a sick, crooked cop in "Training Day" than to see him play a strong, intelligent black man in the film about the life of Malcolm X.

While reviewers might consider "Akeelah and the Bee" to be unrealistic, "Precious," or "Hustle and Flow" seem to be stunningly accurate reflections of their perception of life in Black America. Yes, we certainly have our share of pimps, prostitutes, and child molesters in the black community. But would hardly expect that we're any more problematically programmed than other ethnic groups.

I thought the performances in the film "Precious" were very good. I admit, however, that I found the film depressing. Not that the movie was entirely unrealistic. Rather, it seemed to feed itself off of one emotionally-draining scene after another. The star of the film was illiterate, poor, morbidly obese, physically abused, sexually abused, HIV positive, inclined to steal and suffering from low self-esteem. It was almost as if the directors said, "What else can we do to make people feel sorry for her? Oh yea! Let's let her mother be a welfare queen who beats her child and molests her when her sexually abusive father isn't home!" Yes, there are kids like this in the black community, but this film is not a representation of the prevailing experience for most black youth in America.

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Your Black News: Regina King Talks Boondocks

While promoting her upcoming comedy 'Our Family Wedding,' actress Regina Kingcouldn't contain her excitement for the return of the hit Cartoon Network series 'The Boondocks.'

She also talked about her frustration too.

After a more than two-year hiatus, post-production is underway for the third season of the beloved show, which should be airing in coming months.
Although the Cartoon Network has yet to send out an official announcement confirming a premiere date for the new season, 'Bonndocks' creator Aaron McGrudersaid via his social networking site that it should air March 28. The news coincides with his previous Twitter message on Christmas Day, in which he wrote, "Finally got an airdate for Season 3. Not sure if I'm allowed to put it out yet, so I'll just say you got about three months."

King, who voices two of the show's lead characters, brothers Huey and Riley Freeman, has been a little peeved about how the show's producers are handling the long-awaited return.

"I am so happy that it is coming back," King told BV Newswire, but added, "I wish there was some Web site that people could send [a message] to Sony [Television Entertainment] ... and say 'What are you doing?'" she charged.

"'Boondocks could be so bigger than what it is," the former '227' actress furthered. "If I had the money to buy 'The Boondocks' off Sony, I would because all of you would be wearing 'Boondocks' T-shirts and there would be Huey and Riley dolls. I would capitalize off of that, and I would be a very rich woman."

King cited Sony's lack of experience with animation as a reason for the show's delay and its failure to capitalize on 'Boondocks' merchandise.

The 38-year-old 'Ray' actress says her work on the show, based on McGruder's popular comic strip of the same name, is her most popular to date.

"Actually more than any other project that I have done, that's the one that I get asked about the most," King revealed. "For a show to take two and half year hiatuses and people still want it to come back, that's big," she said.

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Young Girl Beaten Badly As Security Watched the Fight

A 15-year-old girl who was badly beaten and robbed in a Seattle bus tunnel as three unarmed security guards looked on told investigators that she thought the men would protect her.

The statements were revealed in court papers filed Wednesday against the teen girl accused of attacking her and the three young men accused of stealing her purse, phone and iPod. The four were all charged with first-degree robbery.

The victim told a King County sheriff's detective that the group followed her from a nearby department store into the bus tunnel at Westlake Station on Jan. 28, and she deliberately stood next to the three guards.

The guards didn't intervene, though. They have standing orders to "observe and report," so they called police but did nothing else as another 15-year-old girl punched and repeatedly kicked the victim in the head.

 

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Your News: Vanity Fair Gets Criticism for Cover

Vanity Fair

One thing magazines love to do is call dibs on who will be the new "It" celebrities in the year to come. Sometimes they pick stars whose careers are destined to take off, occasionally they make incredible calls with near-nobodies who later become A-listers, and usually the majority of their picks fade into oblivion. While we'd like to think celeb bible Vanity Fair puts a great deal of thought and planning into its annual "New Hollywood" issue, this year the editors really limited their scope when it came to choosing the next big stars. (Or perhaps they overemphasized the "Fair"? ) Every woman on its new cover is extremely thin and very, very white. Unless Vanity Fair considers one redhead to be diversity, we feel the need to cry foul.

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Black News: Serena Wins Another One

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Serena Williams, surrounded by Grand Slam tennis title record holder Margaret Court and mentor Billie Jean King, made a bit of her own history yesterday with her fifth Australian Open title.

The defending champion beat Justine Henin in three sets at Melbourne Park to gain her 12th major in all, tying fellow American King in sixth place on the career list headed by Court’s 24 championships.

“I feel really special that I was able to tie Billie Jean King,” Williams told reporters. “Because in my heart of hearts, I’ve been going for it and I haven’t been able to quite achieve it. Billie Jean is a really big mentor of mine.”

King and Evonne Goologong Cawley were among the former champions at Rod Laver Arena to mark the 40th anniversary of Court’s Australian Open victory, which was the first step of a Grand Slam sweep in 1970. Williams, who was presented the trophy by the 67-year-old Australian, is now one title ahead of Court, Goologong Cawley, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles for the most Australian Open titles since professionals were first allowed to enter in 1969.

After catching King, who came into the locker room to wish her luck before her 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win over the unranked Henin, Williams’s next two targets on the Grand Slam title-leading list are Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova with 18 majors.

“I still think that when she plays her best, she’s the best ever,” King, 66, told reporters about Williams at Melbourne Park.

 

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Beyonce Signs on for Big Super Bowl Ads

 

It looks like Beyonce is going to have 3 Super Bowl spots with the company VIZIO, a manufacturer of HD TVs.   Super Bowl 44 is charging $3 - $6 Million dollars per ad.

Young Girls Rob a Bank – still on the run

Police in Ohio are searching for two brazen girls, believed to be as young as 12 and 14, who robbed a bank in a Cincinnati suburb and escaped a police dragnet that included a helicopter and dogs.

Ohio police are looking for two girls suspected of robbing a bank.

The baby faced bank robbers, one believed to be 12 years old and the other 14 or 15, entered the 1st National Bank in Symmes Township, "walked up to the bank teller, and gave the teller a note demanding money," Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sherriff's Office, said in a statement.

 

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Heather Ellis Claims She was Assaulted – There was blood in her Jacket Pocket

KENNETT, Mo. (AP) -- Closing arguments ended Friday and a jury took up the case of a black school teacher charged with assaulting white police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace at a Southeast Missouri store.

A jury of 10 white women, one black woman and one black man began deliberating Heather Ellis' case late Friday. One of the last to testify in the three-day trial, Ellis maintained Friday that white police officers had attacked and abused her.

Prosecutors said Ellis, a Louisiana school teacher, cut in line at the Kennett Walmart in January 2007, then became belligerent and attacked officers called in to quell the scuffle. The 24-year-old faces up to 15 years in prison if she is convicted of the felony charges against her.

The racial overtones of the case have drawn national interest. Prosecutor Morley Swingle said Friday the defense was trying to portray Kennett as "some racist Hooterville."

The customer who accused Ellis of pushing in line, the assistant store manager and arresting officers are all white.

Police said Ellis used obscene language and kicked and bit officers as they led her out of the store.

In nearly two hours of testimony, Ellis denied cursing or attacking anyone. Instead, she said, it was police who assaulted her in the parking lot after she was led outside.

 

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NNPA Discusses Heather Ellis and her Fight for Justice

By Pharoh Martin NNPA National Correspondent
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 8:53 AM CST

(NNPA) - Because of a trip to Walmart three years ago, Heather Ellis is now fighting for her life. The 24-year-old former college student is facing felony charges that could get her up to 15 years in prison after being arrested for an incident that stemmed from her cutting a line at a Walmart in Kennet, Missouri.

The case is garnering national attention because of the racial underpinnings and perceived multiple injustices involved. It goes to trial Nov. 18. On November 16, the Your Black World Coalition, NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union, National Action Network, and Southern Christian Leadership Conference plan to converge on the small town of Kennett to protest and heighten the publicity.
Here’s what happened: On Jan. 6, 2007, Ellis and her cousin were sent on a midnight run to Walmart by her parents to pick up some items. With her cousin already standing in line near the register, Ellis tried to join him at the front of the line. That's when the clerk accused Ellis of cutting in front of other customers.

Customers behind objected and verbally accosted the then 21-year-old, according to Ellis' father Rev. Nathanial Ellis in an interview with the NNPA News Service. One White customer physically pushed the former college student. Ellis tried to explain that she was joining her cousin who was already in line and told the lady not to push her again. She was subsequently pushed again. The cashier would later refuse to ring Ellis up even after everybody else in line went through.

“The cashier stalled my daughter long enough for the night manager to come up,” Rev. Ellis explained. “My daughter paid with cash but she asked my daughter for an I.D. [Heather] said that she didn't need an ID because she paid with cash.”

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News: More Media Coverage on the Heather Ellis Case

Racial injustice rears its ugly head again, this time in rural Missouri, where heavy-handed prosecutor Stephen Sokoloff is threatening to impose a lengthy prison sentence on a woman after an altercation at a local Wal-Mart almost three years ago.

In January 2007, 20-year-old Heather Ellis, then a student at Xavier University, and her cousin David went to a Wal-Mart in Kennett, Missouri, near the Tennessee border, in an area commonly known as the Missouri Bootheel.  Kennett, in rural and conservative Dunklin County, which boasts that it seceded from the Union during the Civil War, is overwhelmingly white.

At the check-out line, the pair split up in order to find the shortest line.  When Ellis left her line to join her cousin at a shorter line, customers complained and a store employee accused her of cutting, at which point an argument ensued and a manager notified a security guard, an off-duty Kennett Police officer.  The situation escalated from there:

In the Ellis version, she was shoved by another customer, had her items pushed aside by the clerk and then was short-changed when she finally was checked out. The police affidavit contends, at numerous times, Ellis became belligerent, loud, abusive and cursing when she was told to leave by the store's assistant manager. Summoned by a frantic phone call from her son, as the pair walked out to the parking lot, [Ellis' aunt] Blackmon says she arrived in time to witness her niece being brutalized by police during attempts to place her in a squad car.

[...]

Ellis was charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a police officer. Yet, curiously after being described in the police affidavit as "completely out of control" during her arrest, she was released to the custody of her parents to receive medical attention only 45 minutes after being jailed. However, her arrest triggered a whole series of problems. Although she returned to school in Louisiana, two months later, an attorney hired by the family tried to talk Heather into taking a plea deal offered by powerful Dunklin County Prosecutor, Stephen Sokoloff.

 

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Financial Lovemaking: Man Shoots Boy for Sleeping with His Daughter?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University, AOL Black Voices 

I have daughters and I love them all. They are all at "that age," between 16 and 20, where they tend to love the boys that you want to beat down the most. Every time I hear them express their undying love for Lil Wayne, I can only think about him having 3 women pregnant at the same time. When I see a Chris Brown poster in their room, I remind them that Chris was accused of having boxing practice on Rihanna's face.

But as a father, you can't protect your daughters from themselves. Some things they have to learn on their own. And if sleeping with a pants-saggin, "purple stuff dranking," gold grill wearing, 10,000 tattoo having buffoon is the way they need to learn their lessons, you just kinda have to deal with it.I empathize with Wade Edwards, the man accused of shooting a boy for sleeping with his step daughter. Wade shot the boy four times, aiming for the "relevant zone" with each bullet. But while I can understand Wade's anger, I do not, for one second, condone his actions.

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