Tag: racism
‘Target Teresa’ caught on video harassing black customers
A white Target customer was caught on camera harassing a group of black shoppers in Tennessee, telling them they “don’t belong here” and accusing them of inappropriately talking about sex in public.
“You were talking about sex in public. Are you having sex in public because that’s what you screamed out loud,” the woman — quickly nicknamed “Target Teresa” and “Target Tammy” online — says in since-deleted footage posted to Facebook on Friday.
The women whom “Target Teresa” is accosting try to explain that they were just talking about jazz legend Eartha Kitt’s character in the 1992 comedy “Boomerang” and even turn around to try to disengage.
But the NASA sweatshirt-wearing accuser isn’t having it.
“I didn’t realize talking about sex in public was normal. I know you’re trained on lying. You’re perfect for the court system because you’re all trained liars,” she says.
During the approximately four minutes of the altercation caught on tape, “Target Teresa” also calls the women “abusive.”
One of the women in the group, who didn’t want to be identified, told Yahoo Lifestyle she was “confused” by the whole incident.
“My cousin and I were visiting my best friend from out of state and we stopped by Target to buy a phone charger,” she said. “I told my friend to try on a hat that looked like something Eartha Kitt’s character would wear in the film and she said no because her character had sex with a younger man.”
Then “Target Teresa” popped her head over the accessories display.
“She told us, ‘You shouldn’t be talking about sex,’” the woman told the outlet. “We were confused — then, she came around the corner with her shopping cart and started ranting, ‘You don’t belong here’ and calling our conversation inappropriate.”
Jada Pinkett Smith Admits to Struggling with Bias: ‘Blonde Hair on White Women Just Triggers Me’
Jada Pinkett Smith is revealing what “triggers” her about white women.
On Monday’s episode of Red Table Talk, the 47-year-old actress spoke about the relationship between white women and women of color, and revealed a surprising revelation of how she views the former.
“I think what crushes me, specifically in my relationship with white women, the thing that really breaks my heart is that white women understand what it feels to be oppressed,” Pinkett Smith said.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Willow, chimed in, “Because of their sex.”
“Exactly. Because of their sex,” the mother of two agreed. “What it feels like to be ostracized or not being treated as an equal.”
Pinkett Smith admitted to her own biases, saying, “I have to admit I’m guilty to that to a certain degree because I do have my own biases, specifically to blonde women.”
“Blonde hair on white women just triggers me,” the Girls Trip star said while snapping her fingers. “I’ve had to catch myself.”
“Do you have a specific incident with someone who had blonde hair?” her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, asked.
“Absolutely. All throughout my childhood. I do remember experiencing being teased by white women in regards to my hair, how I looked, feeling belittled,” Pinkett Smith said.
Pinkett Smith then invited Red Table Talk producer Annie Price to the table to share her opinion on the racial divide between white women and women of color.
“Any time I want to have a conversation [about race] I’m afraid I’m going to offend somebody just by starting to talk,” Price said. “I feel like I’m going to say the wrong thing.”
She continued, “I hear a lot of times that white women have privilege and they need to recognize they have privilege. I’m sure I do. I just haven’t had the experience to recognize that I have the privilege. I don’t understand the feeling of racism. I feel a lot of times trying to be friends or trying to reach out to women of color, sometimes I feel like they don’t want to be my friend.”
Pinkett Smith said she believed “there is something unique” about “why black women and white women have such a difficult time [talking to each other].”
“We, even as black women, have to be willing to look at our biases that keep us from being able to bridge the gap,” she added.
Red Table Talk airs Mondays on Facebook Watch.
Article via People
Principal: Students who spelled out racial slur admit they planned it
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. – Several Brookwood High School students involved in spelling out a racial slur during a marching band performance at halftime of a weekend football game have admitted to planning the whole thing, according to the school district.
According to a letter to parents and students from Brookwood High School Principal William Bo Ford Jr., the investigation into the Friday night incident found that three seniors planned and executed the stunt.
Ford said a fourth student, who carried one of the letters spelling out the racial slur, appears to have agreed to go along with it “at the last minute.”
“In our interviews, the students — two of whom are African American, one of whom is Asian, and one of whom is Hispanic — indicated that this was intended as a joke, one that they thought would be funny,” Ford said in the letter. “However, they acknowledged that they knew this racist term was not acceptable.”
Ford said two more students weren’t involved in the planning and execution, but gave “false information to school officials.”
All six of these students will receive discipline consequences commensurate with their involvement in this incident,” Ford said in the letter.
Read the entire letter below:
I am following up to you on my communication from over the weekend regarding the situation that occurred during our band’s halftime show on Friday night. As promised, we started an investigation into this matter, and I wanted to share with you our current findings and the steps we are taking with the students who were involved. After extensive interviews with many students, we have determined that three seniors intentionally planned and executed the use of the sousaphone covers to spell out a completely unacceptable, racist term. The fourth student, a junior, who carried one of the letters spelling out the word, appears to have gone along with the plan at the last minute. However, all four of the students knew what was going to happen and knew what they were spelling out during the halftime show. In our interviews, the students– two of whom are African American, one of whom is Asian, and one of whom is Hispanic – indicated that this was intended as a joke, one that they thought would be funny. However, they acknowledged that they knew this racist term was not acceptable. We have identified two other students who do not appear to be involved in the planning and execution but did provide false information to school officials. All six of these students will receive discipline consequences commensurate with their involvement in this incident.
I am hurt and disappointed in these students and their actions that have stunned our community. As you all know, this is not who we are. Brookwood is proud to be an inclusive and accepting school community. This is a teachable moment for all of us, and students need to be aware that their actions and words have consequences.
We are wrapping up our investigation; however, in an effort to be transparent and responsive to our community, I felt it was important to share our findings with you as quickly as possible. I have heard from many of you since my first communication, and, unfortunately, I have not been able to get back with all of you. As you would expect, our first priority was to conduct a thorough and fair investigation into this matter. That said, I appreciate your patience and support and will be reaching out to those who have contacted me. It is also important for us to unite in support of our program and student and staff leaders of our award-winning band. I have faith in our students and community that we will rise together and become stronger in this challenging time. I hope that our program, school, and community will not be judged based on the unfortunate decisions and actions of a few developing teenagers. As always, thank you for your support of our students and school.
© 2018 Cox Media Group
Article via WSB-TV
Black Harvard doctor accuses flight attendants of discrimination
A black doctor from Boston says she was racially profiled when flight attendants grilled her over her credentials while she assisted a sick passenger.
Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford was on a flight home from Indianapolis on Tuesday when she noticed the woman next to her was hyperventilating. Stanford – who is a physician at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital – was already aiding the passenger when a flight attendant stopped by and asked Stanford if she was a doctor, CNN reported.
Stanford told the flight attendant that she was a doctor, but a second flight attendant then came by and asked for Stanford’s medical license, which Stanford presented.
Stanford claims that both flight attendants came back a third time to ask her if her medical license truly belonged to her. Stanford believes the flight attendants questioned her credentials because she is a black woman.
“I don’t understand why there was a dialogue there,” Stanford told the Boston Globe. “I showed them my license twice, and they still didn’t believe it was mine. None of that was taken into account, and I thought that was quite frustrating.”
Stanford tweeted about the incident, prompting the airline to reach out to her by email on Wednesday morning.
“@delta I am very disappointed that your policies on #Diversity have not lead to any change. As a #blackwoman #doctor who showed my #medical license to help a passenger on DL5935 your #flightattendant still did not believe I was a #Physician. @DrSinhaEsq @DrKathyHughes,” Stanford tweeted.
“@Delta my experience last night when a fellow passenger needed help shows that being a @harvardmed @MassGeneralMDs does not shield from #racism #WhatADoctorLooksLike #ILookLikeADoctor #ILookLikeASurgeon #BiasInMedicine #implicitbias #BlackWomenDoctors do exist,” Stanford wrote in a second tweet.
Stanford said she’s still not convinced Delta made any changes to its policy following a conversation with the airline about the bizarre encounter. Delta reportedly told her the flight attendants mistook her for a therapist.
“So I spoke with @Delta and I left the conversation quite uncertain that any changes will be made. Summary: flight attendants thought I was a #therapist despite #MDlicense. They will make sure this is addressed. Thanks for being a #skymiles member. Really?!$ #iamadoctor,” she tweeted.
Delta apologized to Stanford in a statement and said it would conduct a full investigation.
“We thank Dr. Stanford for her medical assistance and are sorry for any misunderstanding that may have occurred during her exchange with the in-flight crew,” the airline said in a statement.
“According to the flight crew’s account, they initially misread the credentials offered by the doctor and went to reconfirm her specific medical discipline. We are following up with the crew to insure proper policy is followed.”
Delta’s request for medical credentials violates a policy implemented in 2016, after Dr. Tamika Cross, who is also black, was kept from helping a sick passenger on a Delta flight from Detroit to Minneapolis.
Delta no longer requires medical credential verification to secure help and simply requires the volunteer’s statement that he or she is a doctor, physician assistant, nurse, paramedic or EMT.
Delta spokesman Anthony L. Black told The Post that Stanford was actually on board a Republic flight, which is a Delta Connection carrier.
“We thank Dr. Stanford for her medical assistance onboard Republic flight 5935 IND-BOS, and are sorry for any misunderstanding that may have occurred during her exchange with the in-flight crew. Moving forward, we are following up with our connection carrier partner to ensure their employees understand and consistently apply the policy, ” Black said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
“Regardless of aircraft, all customers are Delta customers and we are committed to ensuring they enjoy a similar experience on every flight. Delta changed its policy for providing medical credentials in 2016, and we are working with all of our connection partners to ensure their changes and actions align with ours,” the statement continued.
Article via HotNewHipHop
Suspect in Kroger shooting tried to enter black church before attack
The gunman who fatally shot two people at a Kentucky Kroger supermarket this week may have intended to shoot up a predominately black church instead, according to a new report.
The new development supports the theory that the shooting may have been a racially motivated hate crime, WAVE 3 News reported.
Suspect Gregory Bush was captured on surveillance video trying to enter the First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown 15 minutes before the Kroger shooting, Jeffersontown Police Chief Sam Rogers told WAVE 3 News.
Had he arrived only an hour and 15 minutes earlier, he would have found 70 people getting ready to leave the church’s mid-week services, church administrator Billy Williams told the station.
Williams first spotted a man wearing similar clothing to Bush during a routine scan of the church’s security footage — and cops confirmed the attempted intruder was in fact Bush.
The FBI is investigating, though investigators would not speculate on a motive, according to the report.
But the son of a witness to the Kroger shooting told the outlet the suspect walked past his dad and said, “Whites don’t kill whites.”
The Louisville Urban League called for a hate crime investigation in a Facebook post.
“Because of the FB posts of the alleged perpetrator and the comments he made to a man in the parking lot of the grocery store, we thought it necessary to clearly state our desire and support for a hate crime investigation,” the statement said.
“We recognize that the alleged perpetrator may have had a mental inquest warrant filed previously, however his FB posts, his comments, and his visit to First Baptist Jeffersontown lead us to express our concern.”
The First Baptist congregation had been taking safety precautions after Dylann Roof opened fire, killing nine people — including a prominent pastor — at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.
“We have several members that are armed during our midweek service which is what we passed yesterday,” Williams told the station. “And we have people that are armed on Sunday as well.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/10/26/suspect-in-kroger-shooting-tried-to-enter-black-church-before-attack/
North Carolina Woman Tells Black Sisters Waiting For AAA ‘You Don’t Belong’
The woman also threatened to “bring out my concealed weapons too.”
A North Carolina woman has been dubbed “South Park Susan” after harassing two black sisters waiting for AAA outside an apartment complex in south Charlotte.
Videos of the incident, which were shared by Chele Garris on Facebook, show the woman repeatedly asking the sisters, “Do you live here?” before telling them “I’m white … and I make $125,000 a year and I want to make sure that you’re all up in here.”
The sisters, who were waiting for the vehicle roadside assistance service outside the Camden Fairview Apartments in SouthPark, are also told by the woman that she is “fucking fabulous,” before she threatens to “bring out my concealed weapons.”
“Is your boyfriend here? Is your baby daddy here? Nobody cares, I’m white and I’m hot,” she said. “You’re hanging around in a place you don’t belong.”
Though the incident occurred on Oct. 19, the videos have gone viral after being uploaded to social media on Friday.
The sisters told Fox 8 on Saturday that they were “so distraught and still very upset about what has taken place only because of the color of our skin.”
“It’s so upsetting to know that today we still have this over racism going on in 2018,” they said.
Social media users identified the woman, noting that she worked for Spectrum Enterprises, a company that is a part of Charter Communications. In a statement provided to local ABC affiliate WSOC-TV, the company said that she had been terminated, identifying her only by her last name.
“The incident recorded in Charlotte is a blatant violation of Charter’s code of conduct and clearly disregards the company’s commitment to inclusion and respectful behavior,” it said. “As such, Ms. Westwood’s employment with the company has been terminated, effective immediately.”
A spokesperson for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department told HuffPost that while they could not confirm the name of the suspect, “four criminal summons’ have been issued” including “two counts of communicating threats and two counts of simple assault.”
“Once the summons’ have been served the suspects [sic] name can be released,” a statement said.
Chele Garris did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Article via HuffingtonPost
Netflix angers black subscribers with targeted posters
Some subscribers see Chiwetel Ejiofor on the poster for ‘Love Actually’ despite the British actor only having a minor role in the film
Netflix has been accused of using “intrusive” advertising tactics to mislead subscribers based on their ethnicity.
When browsing content on Netflix, the streaming service will make suggestions on what to watch next based on your viewing habits.
However, black users have noticed that the images being used to promote certain films will include black actors, even if those actors only have minor roles.
One example is Love Actually. While the Richard Curtis film features an ensemble cast, with Hugh Grant as top billing, some viewers are seeing Chiwetel Ejiofor on the film’s Netflix thumbnail despite the British actor only having a minor role (he does not feature on the theatrical poster).
Similarly, the streaming service is promoting their original series The Good Cop, a murder mystery, with black characters front and centre on the thumbnail; the series’ principal cast are majority white.
On Twitter, writer Stacia L Brown pointed out how the poster for the Kelsey Grammer and Kristen Bell-starring Like Father was appearing with two black actors on the thumbnail.
“Other Black Netflix users: does your queue do this? Generate posters with the Black cast members on them to try to compel you to watch?” she wrote.
“This film stars Kristen Bell/Kelsey Grammer and these actors had maaaaybe a 10 cumulative minutes of screen time. 20 lines between them, tops.”
Tolani Shoneye, who hosts The Receipts Podcast, told The Guardian: “It’s intrusive. It’s the dark side of marketing. I noticed it a while ago with a Zac Efron film that I’d already seen, but Netflix kept showing me it as a Michael B Jordan movie.”
She continued: “There was 30 minutes of a romcom I ended up watching last week because I thought it was about the black couple I was shown on the poster. I want to see those stories. They know I want to see those stories. Why don’t they just make more of them?”
Netflix found that displaying certain images to people, depending on their viewing habits, they were more likely to watch a certain film or TV show. They introduced multiple images to promote a single film last December.
Tim Harrington, a senior broadcast research analyst, said: “Netflix’s recommendation engine is second to none, and works almost seamlessly in the background.
“But the algorithm for targeted artwork is shown as downright clunky when, say, [some] users are offered artwork for ITV’s Lewis with black actors despite both leads and almost the entire cast being white.
“Netflix knows a lot about you, perhaps even race, but their understanding of what to do with this information is currently rudimentary.”
Netflix responded to accusations of basing posters on a subscriber’s ethnicity by saying: “We don’t ask members for their race, gender or ethnicity so we cannot use this information to personalise their individual Netflix experience. The only information we use is a member’s viewing history.”
Article via Independent
Roseanne Tells Vice ABC Did ‘Worst Thing They Could’ In Firing Her As She Struggled With ‘Mental Health Issues’
ABC did “the worst thing they could have possibly done to me…to fire me from my own show,” Roseanne Barr complained to Vice in an interview it’s airing tonight right before ABC’s unveiling of The Conners.
In a pretaped interview airing on HBO, Barr paints herself as a victim, describing to Vice the “emotional and psychological impact of going from stratospheric stardom to being completely de-platformed,” as Vice put it.
“I don’t keep in touch with anyone on the show. I’ve been removed from the process of my life’s work. It’s like the worst thing they could have possibly done to me, was to fire me from my own show and let other people write my life story,” Barr complained.
This time, she is describing what happened thusly:
“I was a my moms’ house at Salt Lake and I was very happy and my show was No. 1 after 20 years — and not just be No. 1 but 28 million people watched it. So I was in happy place.”
She said she went to bed, woke up at 2:11 a.m., “tweeted that tweet” and went back to sleep.
“When I woke up in the morning it was all over the news and I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ And [the tweet] was characterized as racist, which made my stomach fall to my feet.”
ABC called, she said, and asked her, “What possible excuse can you have for something you’ve done which is unforgivable’ and some other word I can’t remember,” Roseanne described.
“I said, ‘I’ll be happy to go on all the ABC shows and explain it, and apologize’. They said, ‘No,’ I wasn’t allowed to do that.”
“Not too long after that, my mom was watching TV and saw that it was canceled. And that was just the beginning,” Roseanne added, dramatically.
The tweet that caused ABC to abruptly cancel Barr’s hit comedy series revival, came just days after the network made her the star of its Upfront presentation to advertisers.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Barr tweeted, calling former President Barack Obama adviser Valeria Jarrett an offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.”
In her initial tweet about Jarrett, Barr referred to her as “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” It was in response to a tweet referencing a Wikileaks claim that the CIA during Obama’s term in office spied on French presidential candidates.
In response to blowback calling the tweet racist, Barr tweeted, “Muslims r not a race.” Jarrett, an African-American, was born in Iran to American parents.
Later, when the situation began to impress itself upon her, Barr tweeted that the original tweet was “a bad joke about [Jarrett’s] politics and her looks” adding, “I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”
Except it wasn’t the first time Barr had called an African-American woman an “ape”. In 2013, she called Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice “a man with big swinging ape balls.”
After canceling Roseanne, ABC agreed in June to a spinoff called The Conners, starring same original cast members except Barr, after she agreed to have no financial or creative participation in the series. In a statement, Barr said she agreed to the settlement “in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”
These days, Barr told Vice, she’s spending time organizing photos, sleeping, smoking, and more.
“I’ve got a lot of time for real life, real-life stuff. Like, just going for a walk with my mom and having an ice cream cone. Stuff like that. Waiting in lines, I’ve really been sleeping a lot, like, probably 17 hours a day,” she described.
She said she started smoking,” adding, “I have struggled with mental health issues and I was struggling at that time as well. My whole life I’ve been under punches, not just my career. My life. Ya, I’ve been under punches forever.
Article via Yahoo News
Check out some Lovelyti videos:
Valerie Jarrett responds to Roseanne’s Twitter rant+ was this a humiliation ritual??
Mush Mouth Mo’Nique Stands By Her Support Of Roseanne Barr~ “My SISTER came on my BET show”?
‘I don’t forgive this woman, and she needs help’: Black child wrongly accused of grabbing ‘Cornerstore Caroline’
‘I don’t forgive this woman, and she needs help’: Black child wrongly accused of grabbing ‘Cornerstore Caroline’ originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
With tears streaming down his cheeks, a 9-year-old black child spoke out at a community meeting in New York about being wrongly accused of grabbing a white woman’s backside in a corner store — an incident disproved by security-camera footage.
With his mother standing beside him, Jeremiah Harvey delivered a simple message at the community meeting: “Friendship is really the key.”
Jeremiah’s emotional response came six days after Teresa Klein called the police and claimed the boy had grabbed her butt in a Brooklyn corner store Wednesday.
Klein issued an apology after viewing surveillance video of Jeremiah’s backpack brushing her backside as he passed her in the store. The video clearly shows Jeremiah’s hands were in front of him as he passed her.
Jeremiah and his sister, dressed in school uniforms and carrying shopping bags, could be seen and heard crying and calling for their mother as she and other customers and residents tried to address Klein’s accusations.
“‘Cornerstore Caroline,’ that’s what that is,” one person could be heard saying on the video. “Don’t cry, little man.”
Bellille also spoke at Monday’s meeting, telling the crowd, “What happened to us respecting one another, having unity and being neighborly?”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams organized the community meeting after the video of Klein calling 911 on Jeremiah went viral on social media, sparking outrage.
PHOTO: Crying children are pictured in an image made from video shot in Brooklyn, New York depicting a woman calling police alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by a young boy. (Jason Littlejohn)
Following the meeting, Jeremiah told ABC New York station WABC that he does not accept Klein’s apology.
“I don’t forgive this woman, and she needs help,” he said.
On Friday, Klein returned to the store, as residents and local media stood by, to finally watch the surveillance video that exonerated Jeremiah. Footage from inside the store showed the boy’s book bag grazing Klein’s butt. His hands, which did not touch her, were in plain sight on surveillance video.
The episode is the latest in a string of incidents in which white people have called the police on black people for seemingly innocuous behavior.
PHOTO: Surveillance video captures the moment 9-year-old Jeremiah Harvey passing by Teresa Klein in a bodega in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Oct. 16, 2018. (Obtained by ABC)
Klein also claimed that she called the police because the child’s mother was aggressive.
“I felt someone grab my a–. I said, ‘Don’t touch my a–.’ The woman flew at me, claimed she was a police officer, threatened to arrest me and I called 911,” Klein told WABC.
Article via Yahoo News
White woman fired after blocking black man from entering his building
A white woman was fired after getting caught on video blocking a black man from entering his own apartment building and then calling the cops on him, according to reports.
D’Arreion Toles returned to his downtown St. Louis, Mo., apartment building Friday night and found Hilary Brooke Mueller standing in the doorway with her dog on a leash. She refused to let him in unless he gave her proof he lived there.
“Please move, ma’am,” Toles, 24, asks in a video of the incident he posted to Facebook.
“I can. Do you live here?” responds Mueller, who became known as “Apartment Patty” as the video went viral. “I’m uncomfortable.”
“You can be uncomfortable, that’s fine,” Toles replies, declining to give his unit number. “That’s at your discretion. You’re uncomfortable because you’re you.”
The footage, which had been viewed over 6 million times as of Monday, shows the woman getting into the elevator with Toles and following him all the way to his apartment door in the Elder Shirt Lofts, asking for his name.
Mueller then called the cops, St. Louis police confirmed to local outlet KSDK.
“To be a black man in America & come home,” Toles captioned the video. “Never really thought this would happen to me, but it did! Then 30 mins later police knock on my door, because she called! I was shocked this is America in 2018!”
By Monday, Mueller’s employer, Tribeca STL, a luxury apartment company, said it decided to fire her after seeing the video.
“The Tribeca-STL family is a minority-owned company that consists of employees and residents from many racial backgrounds. We are proud of this fact and do not and never will stand for racism or racial profiling at our company,” the company said in a statement.
The incident is the latest in a long series of videos posted to social media showing white women — “BBQ Betty,” “Permit Patty,” “Cornerstore Caroline” — calling the cops on black people over seemingly mundane acts.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/10/15/white-woman-fired-after-blocking-black-man-from-entering-his-building/