BEWARE...SOME DAYS ARE NOT VERY PRETTY. I GET CRABBY LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE DO. AND I DO SPEAK MY MIND.
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO TRUE, REAL, EVERYDAY FEELINGS LIKE MINE.(But I think you would enjoy it)
DON'T FORGET...FREEDOM OF SPEECH !
Principal refuses to allow first black valedictorian to give speech, so Rochester mayor intervenes
Jaissaan Lovett says he was denied a chance to give
his speech as his high school's first black valedictorian, so his city's
mayor invited him to give it at City Hall.
Youtube/City of Rochester, N.Y. Mayor's Office
When
Jaissaan Lovett graduated last month as his high school's first black
valedictorian, he prepared a speech — but he says his principal wouldn't
let him give it. So someone else stepped in who wanted to hear what he
had to say: the mayor of Rochester, New York, Lovely Warren. Not only
that, she gave him a much wider audience for his message.
Lovett
said he was never asked to give a graduation speech, though past
valedictorians had gotten to, according to the newspaper. When he asked
to speak anyway, he said the principal, Joseph Munno, said no.
"He
didn't want to see the speech or what it said, nothing," Lovett told
the Democrat and Chronicle. "He just said no." The paper said Munno
declined to comment.
Mayor Warren invited Lovett, who works in her
office as an intern, to deliver the speech at City Hall. She then
posted it on her YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Jaisaan Lovett's Valedictorian Speech by
City of Rochester, NY .Mayor's Office on
YouTube"Unfortunately, Jaisaan's school did not
allow him to give his valedictorian speech," Warren said in the video.
"For some reason, his school – in a country where freedom of speech is a
constitution right, and the city of Frederick Douglass – turned his
moment of triumph into a time of sorrow and pain.
"Jaisaan will
never graduate from high school again. He will never get that moment
back. This is not the time to punish a child because you may not like
what he has to say."
Lovett had his own message for his principal, too.
"I'm
here as the UPrep 2018 valedictorian to tell you that you couldn't
break me. I'm still here, and I'm still here strong," Lovett said in the
video. "And after all these years, all this anger I've had toward you
and UPrep as a whole, I realized I had to let that go in order to better
myself."
The school's board of trustees responded to the
controversy in a Facebook post, saying they're "aware of the concern"
and will be "reviewing the circumstances regarding what happened." They
wished Lovett "much success as he continues his education at Clark
Atlanta University, which he will attend on full scholarship, according
to the Democrat and Chronicle.
UPrep, an all-male school serving grades 7-12, is one of
Rochester's best regarded charter schools, according to the Democrat and
Chronicle, with annual graduation rates well above 90 percent.
On her Netflix show The Break this week, Wolf, 33, said she agreed with Rep. Maxine Waters’ recent
suggestion that Trump officials should be publicly confronted. And the
comedian shared some very specific ideas for critics who may come
face-to-face with President Trump‘s elder daughter and adviser.
“You can’t just casually harass these people, you have to insult them
specifically,” Wolf said. “ ‘You’re a c–t’ doesn’t hurt them. It’s on
their vision board.”
Pretending to address Ivanka, 36, Wolf said: “Is your nickname
herpes? Because you’re not necessarily the most dangerous person in the
administration but you’re very unpleasant, totally incurable and you
always show up when we’re about to get f–ked.”
Wolf also compared Ivanka to the birth control pill Yaz, saying, “At
first it seemed like it’d be really cool and helpful, but you need to be
immediately recalled.”
The comedian then suggested calling Ivanka “Tiffany,” the name of her younger and less publicly visible half-sister.
“If you see Ivanka on the street, first call her Tiffany. This will
devastate her,” Wolf said. “Then, talk to her in terms she will
understand. Say, ‘Ivanka, you’re like vaginal mesh. You were supposed to
support women, but now you have blood all over you and you’re the
center of a thousand lawsuits.’ ”
In an article on Monday, Fox News condemned Wolf’s comments as a “vulgar attack” against the first daughter.
Some people on Twitter agreed that Wolf’s remarks were out of line, while others applauded the comedian for “not backing down.
Wolf’s comments come amid an internal debate among Democrats about
how aggressively to confront the president and members of his
administration.
After White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was recently asked to leave
the Lexington, Virginia, restaurant the Red Hen because she works for
Trump, Rep. Waters urged attendees at a rally to keep “push[ing] back”
against members of the Trump administration with similar confrontations.
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a
department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a
crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome
anymore, anywhere,” she said.
Some Democrats reacted by seeking to distance themselves from Waters’
remarks, while Trump and other conservatives strongly condemned her
comments and made calls for “civility.” But those calls were quickly
criticized as hypocritical in light of the president’s own habit of
verbally attacking his enemies.
Wolf faced some backlash in April after she mocked Sanders at the
White House Correspondents’ dinner, saying “she burns facts, and then
she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye.” New York Times
White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski
and others faulted Wolf for what they perceived to be cracks about
Sanders’ appearance.
But Wolf refused to apologize, and insisted her remarks had nothing to do with Sanders’ looks.
“All these jokes were about her despicable behavior,” Wolf said at the time.
In 1979, the legendary writer James Baldwin began work on a manuscript examining his relationships with Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and
Martin Luther King Jr. He never finished it. In 2017, filmmaker Raoul
Peck used Baldwin’s words as the foundation for his riveting masterpiece
“I Am Not Your Negro.”
Peck’s
entire film is captivating, but one segment in particular ceaselessly
haunts me. The meditative voice of narrator Samuel L. Jackson
deliberately carries us through one of Baldwin’s most damning
reflections on a good percentage of white Americans, “I’m terrified at
the moral apathy – the death of the heart which is happening in my
country. These people have deluded themselves for so long that they
really don’t think I’m human. I base this on their conduct, not on what
they say. And this means that they have become, in themselves, moral
monsters.”
As
he did throughout his life, Baldwin raises difficult but necessary
questions with which we must wrestle. Why are so many white Americans so
brutally mean and inhumane? Why do so many others feel comfortable
justifying or excusing it? Why do others still, who claim “not to think
that way,” find it acceptable to say little and do even less? Make no
mistake, there are certainly whites who stand in the tradition of
William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown and others. However, reasonable
people must admit they are the exceptions, not the rules.
To
be sure, no matter how sensibly and dispassionately one approaches the
subject, many whites immediately paint them as angry black people,
[reverse] racists, or maniacs. Despite that, while far too many cower
and equivocate, other brave Americans continue to raise the issue in the
public sphere. A small sample of important work over the last few years
includes Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The First White President” in the Atlantic,
Charles Blow’s “The Lowest White Man” in the New York Times, Rose Marie
Berger’s rumination “Why are white people so mean?” and Michael
Harriot’s recent sledgehammer piece, “White people are cowards” in The
Root.
All
of these writers along with stalwart academics like Duke University’s
William “Sandy” Darrity, Emory University’s Carol Anderson and others
contextualize the subject and push back against the emerging narrative
that white American mean-spiritedness appeared and apexed with the
ascension of Donald Trump.
That is a lie. The truth is none of this is new. Its genesis is
actually rooted in times long before America’s current anti-black and
brown immigrant president’s family immigrated to the country.
Voter
fraud is a canard. Voter suppression, however, is real and is not new.
It has been around since the limiting of the franchise to
property-holding white men at the beginning of the country’s political
story. Forcing the extension of it to others has always been a
struggle.
Traumatizing families and children of
color is not new. White Americans enslaved blacks, raped black women,
demonized black men, ripped black children from their parents, sold them
all when profitable, visited any number of other inexcusable atrocities
upon them ... and justified it all. Those who resisted were threatened,
punished or killed. Once slavery ended, whites continued to glorify
slavery and the Confederacy with flags, statues, monuments and political
candidates who reaffirmed all the nastiness and death. They still do.
The
Supreme Court’s support of such indecency is not new. Remember Dred
Scott and many other legal blows to decency and democracy.
That
only scratches the surface. Native American genocide, black codes,
grandfather clauses, poll taxes, intimidation, disproportionate
incarceration, convict leasing, Jim Crow, Japanese American internment,
police murder of black men, women and children often without
consequence. None of it is new. It is the continuation of a
long-standing pattern and, as Congresswoman Maxine Waters advised,
resistance needs to be fomented.
Medgar Evers was
slain in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King in 1968. James
Baldwin passed in 1987. None of them ever experienced Donald Trump, but
all witnessed omnipresent American white supremacy and meanness. Maybe
Baldwin was right when he said we are dealing with “moral monsters.” It
is hard to say at this point. If that is the case, we need to be clear
about it. Such an acknowledgment would lower the expectation that many
of our white brothers and sisters will be inclined to make decisions
based on human decency rather than economic and political calculations
or privilege maintenance. At least that honesty would eradicate the lies
and pretense.
If
America continues on this path (and there is no historical or
contemporary evidence that it will not), maybe Emma Lazarus’ words
famously associated with the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired,
your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” should be
replaced with a paraphrasing of Dante, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter
here ... unless ye be white.”
."Ask me, 'Should we be reuniting 2,000 kids with their families?' Ask me
that," he shot back. "Yes, we should. I don't care about fucking Sarah
Sanders. Reunite the fucking kids with their families, and then we'll
talk about Sarah Sanders and her fucking dinners."
This is NOT the way to get your point across. Why can't you speak like a man with manors? We were all embarrassed FOR YOU. No class at all. Wow, just wow.
Read the story below
John Legend Minces No Words When Asked About Sympathy For Sarah Huckabee Sanders
'Boys will be boys' sweatshirt pulled from stores after being accused of sending a 'sexist' message
Scroll back up to restore default view.
Australian sleepwear brand Peter Alexander has pulled a “boys
will be boys” children’s sweatshirt from its stores following backlash
from parents saying the slogan had sexist connotations.
Melbourne mother Bridie Harris noticed the boys’ gray pajama top
while out shopping last week and took to social media to complain.
“Boy won’t be boys,” she wrote on the
Peter Alexander Sleepwear Facebook page. “Boys will be held accountable for their actions.
“I
hate to see an Australian store, who makes such great PJs, put such a
sexist statement on a T-shirt intended for young boys. Excusing boys of
their behavior is not a step in the right direction. It’s 2018.”
Peter Alexander’s “boys will be boys” sweatshirt was met with criticism. (Photo: Bridie Harris via Facebook)
She said the slogan promoted a culture that allows men “to get away with stuff” because of their gender.
“It gives them an excuse for inappropriate behavior,” Harris said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. “If a girl hurts someone or does something, you never hear someone that says girls will be girls.
“As kids, I get it’s little tiny things, like rough play, but it
sets [them] up for a culture where they can get way with anything. I
thought it was a long-resolved discussion.”
Harris’s views were echoed by many other people on social media who
agreed the children’s sweatshirt also struck them as offensive.
One woman called the top “cringe
worthy,” while another said she was “so disappointed that this is something that [the brand] would promote for children.”
A Melbourne mother complained about the top, saying the slogan was sexist. (Photo: via Facebook)
However, many accused Harris of being overly sensitive and did not see a problem with the top.
“Omg why get rid of it!” one commenter wrote. “There is nothing wrong with a old saying. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.”
Another mother said she was disappointed she could not buy the top for her boys.
“I would like to buy the ‘boys will be boys’ PJs,” she wrote. “I have
two boys and would like them to know that’s it’s OK to be boys.”
“The
pajamas don’t say, ‘I’m a boy, I’ll go punch another boy or harass
someone and that is okay because I am a boy,’” read another comment.
The tops have been removed from Peter Alexander Sleepwear stores. (Photo: Courtesy Peter Alexander Sleepwear)
“Boys WILL be boys!” one man wrote.
“Making boys feel like they can’t be boys anymore because apparently
it’s part of rape culture and they all turn into murderers and rapists
anyway.”
A Peter Alexander Sleepwear spokesperson responded to
the thread, confirming the brand’s decision to remove the item from its
stores.
“Hi Bridie. I just wanted to update you and
again thank you for taking the time to get in touch with us and
bringing this to our attention,” the post began. “We do
not tolerate the behavior that is being associated with this slogan. In
light of your feedback, we have decided to withdraw this item from
sale.”
Peter Alexander Sleepwear has been contacted for comment.
Yep....NOTHING bad happened to ANYONE. There, I did it...... it is all gone !!! Now everyone shut the hell up and start over. Sick and tired of whining but people who don't even know the facts. History is gone.... now act like an adult.
