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‘Thug Day’: Texas High School Students’ Theme-Day Attire Gets Called Out As Racially Offensive
Who approved this? A Texas high school is feeling the heat after a group of students arrived on campus dressed as “thugs”—in cornrows, fake tattoos, chains and the like—as part of Spirit Week or, as they renamed it, “Thug Day.” Photos of the students dressed as so-called thugs at Houston’s Memorial High School this year…
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Senate OKs Trump’s Latest Federal Judge Pick Despite Dem Fears About Where She Stands on Brown and Roe
The Senate Thursday confirmed Wendy Vitter, Donald Trump’s nominee to sit on the federal bench in New Orleans, despite strong objections from Democrats about her stance on Roe and Brown, respectively, the nation’s landmark pro-choice and school desegregation laws. By a virtual party-line vote of 52-45 (with just one Republican, Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins, joining…
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Unita Blackwell, Civil Rights Activist and the 1st Black Woman to Be Elected a Mayor in Mississippi, Dies at 86
Unita Blackwell, a veteran of the civil rights movement and winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant who was the first black woman to be elected a mayor in the state of Mississippi, has died. She was 86. Blackwell’s son confirmed that she died Monday, according to the Associated Press. Blackwell was born in the impoverished…
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Popular Move: Maine Senate Passes Bill to Give All of State’s Electoral Votes to the Winner of the Popular Vote in 2020
There’s a movement afoot in some quarters to get rid of the Electoral College, the institution that really elects the president of the United States. More often than not, the winner of the popular vote also wins enough electoral votes to gain the Oval Office. But in just the last 20 years, the Electoral College…
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Safaree Joins Black Pastors and Hasidic Jews to Rally Against Proposed NYC Ban on Sale of Fur
What do black pastors, Hasidic Jews and Safaree of Love & Hip Hop fame have in common? Apparently, a love of fur—and a determination to stop New York City lawmakers from banning fur sales in the Big Apple. As they say, in politics, there are no permanent friends, just permanent interests, and according to the…
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Transit Worker Put on Blast by DC Metro Snitch 'Humiliated' by the Attention, but Won't Face Disciplinary Action
The black Washington, D.C., transit worker who got put on blast by an irate commuter displeased by her decision to eat a little something before work was “embarrassed” and “humiliated” by the incident, but she won’t face disciplinary action. That’s what the worker’s union rep is telling reporters in the aftermath of last week’s tweetstorm…
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’Bama Senators Vote to Ban Virtually All Abortions in the State in Hopes of Setting Up a Supreme Court Fight Over Roe v. Wade [Updated]
Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 11:55 p.m. EDT: The GOP-majority Alabama Senate Tuesday passed the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban, outlawing the procedure in all cases, except in instances of a “serious” risk to the mother, the Associated Press reports. An amendment to add an exception to allow abortions in cases of rape or incest…
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Teaching the Bible in Public Schools Is on the Rise Across the Nation, Raising Alarm About the Separation of Church and State
An increasing number of states across the U.S., buoyed by a January post by tweeter in chief Donald Trump, are adding Bible study to public school curricula in a move critics see as an attack on the separation of church and state as outlined in the Constitution. As the Washington Post reports: Activists on the…
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Eric Garner Case: ‘Definition of a Choke Hold’
An NYPD trainer testified Tuesday that the maneuver used by police officer Daniel Pantaleo to force an unarmed black man to the ground was the “definition of a choke hold.” The testimony came during the departmental trial of Pantaleo regarding his role in the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, according to the New York…
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Tiger Woods Sued in Death of Drunken Driver
The parents of a drunken driver killed in a car crash last year are suing Tiger Woods, blaming him and his girlfriend for their son being intoxicated and then getting behind the wheel. In a lawsuit filed Monday, the parents of Nicolas F. Immesberger say their son, who worked as a bartender at the golfer’s…
