Month: March 2017

Actor Daniel Kaluuya doesn’t think he should have to prove his blackness.

In a new interview with GQ magazine, the “Get Out” star shared his thoughts on Samuel L. Jackson’s recent critique that black British actors may not be able to relate to black Americans. For Kaluuya, Jackson’s comments reflect his personal experiences of being ostracized in different settings for being dark-skinned. 

“When I’m around black people I’m made to feel ‘other’ because I’m dark-skinned,” he said. “I’ve had to wrestle with that, with people going ‘You’re too black.’ Then I come to America and they say, ‘You’re not black enough.’ I go to Uganda, I can’t speak the language. In India, I’m black. In the black community, I’m dark-skinned. In America, I’m British.”

The actor went on to add that similar to black Americans’ vast range of social issues, the London’s black community has confronted oppression, prejudice, and police brutality.

Since Jackson’s much-discussed statements ― which drew criticism from British actor John Boyega ― made headlines last week, Jackson later told the Associated Press that his comments were not necessarily  a “slam” towards the performers, but rather an assessment about how “Hollywood works in an interesting sort of way sometimes.”

Despite Jackson’s commentary, Kaluuya says it’s not his intent to be a “culture vulture “ of the black American experience, but rather focus on telling black stories.

“This is the frustrating thing, in order to prove that I can play this role, I have to open up about the trauma that I’ve experienced as a black person,” he said. “I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black. No matter that every single room I go to I’m usually the darkest person there…I kind of resent that mentality. I’m just an individual.”

Read more of Daniel Kaluuya’s GQ magazine interview here.

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You can practically see the stress written all over your wife’s face. Struggling to figure out what’s really bothering her? 

Below, couples therapists share the most common issues wives say they’re frustrated about in their marriages.

1. She’s tired from doing it all.

You lovingly call her superwoman but even superheroes have a breaking point. Far too many women with full-time careers and kids are married to spouses who fail to fully recognize how exhausting that balancing act can be, said Ryan Howes, a psychologist in Pasadena, California

“The conflict and stressors from these competing roles are evident on a daily basis and it usually appears in a pair of arguments: Either a mother works hard and feels guilty for not spending more time with her children or she doesn’t work and suffers the scrutiny of her peers for not doing enough. In either case, there is stress and plenty of it.” 

In other words, there’s a 100 percent chance that your wife could use your sympathy and support ― even if it just means finishing off a bottle of wine and listening to her rant about her coworkers or the catty clique on the playground. 

2. She needs time to herself. 

“Me time” becomes non-existent once you have kids. That’s why you both have to carve out time for yourselves. The kids will benefit from well-rested, emotionally and physically restored parents.

“Making time to take care of ourselves is extremely important,” said Talia Wagner, a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles, California. “Because there is so much on most modern women’s plates, many chose to forgo this time, not realizing how essential it is to their well being and that of their family.”

3. You aren’t doing your share of the childcare.

Who does the lion share of childcare in your house? Who picks the kids up from soccer practice? Who makes sure A Wrinkle In Time is read and reported on by the deadline? If the answer is “my wife,” it’s high time you stepped up, said Laurel Steinberg, a New York-based relationship therapist and adjunct professor of psychology at Columbia University

“Consider what you can do to help make her life easier, whether it’s helping to coordinate carpools, bulk-cooking on Sunday evenings or proactively caring for her and the kids on the weekends,” she said. “Take an active interest in what they are learning in school. Anything helps.”

4. The thrill is gone. 

Don’t think that just because you’re married you can short shrift romance. If you’ve put date night on the back burner, your wife has no doubt noticed, Wagner said.

“When women remember the courting phase of their relationship and how different their S.O. was then, it usually brings about disappointment and longing,” she said. “Many feel like their mate has stopped investing in this very important part of their intimacy.”

That’s your cue to call a babysitter and tell your wife about the super exciting plans you arranged for Friday night. 

5. She wants you to practice work-life balance. 

You both are concerned with your work-life balance  ― but there’s a high chance your wife wishes you’d put more thought into the life part of that equation, Howes said. 

“The men in my practice talk a lot about work, but their focus is typically on the deals, the strategy and the financial benefits ― not how it affects their relationships,” he told us. “The women tend to focus on the relational dynamics of their job and home life.”

To put it simply, “men need to understand that work choices aren’t just about the outcome, it’s about how it impacts relationships at home,” Howes explained. 

6. She feels like a project manager. 

Your home is a well-oiled machine and chances are, it’s due to your wife’s efforts. It may look perfect from the outside, but take a closer look and you’ll find a wife who’s fed up with being the unofficial project manager of her home, Wagner said. 

“The wife is frequently the one handing out instructions regarding the many moving parts of their joint life together: She knows where to find missing clothing, remembers the bills due today, and that next Wednesday it is pajama day at school,” Wagner explained. “Essentially, she is managing and troubleshooting the internal workings of their lives. Unsurprisingly, many wives feel burdened by this massive responsibility and wish their husbands would take some responsibility.”

7. Communication is lacking. 

Sorry, but “what do you want for dinner?” and “did you pick up Avery from gymnastics?” does not qualify as quality communication. Technology makes it easier to connect, but a few hastily sent texts throughout the day can’t stand in for quality conversation at the end of the night, Howes said. 

“Women are generally more collaborative and verbal than men, and texts don’t do a good enough job of allowing a woman to vent and feel heard while she problem solves,” he said. “Technology is good in a pinch, but it doesn’t take the place (yet) of face to face conversation, especially with your spouse!”

There you have it: Put down your smartphone and be a better spouse. Your de-stressed wife will thank you. 

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This month, someone made a donation to Planned Parenthood in Republican State Senator Steve Fitzgerald’s name ― and the Kansas lawmaker was not happy about it. 

On March 10, Planned Parenthood’s Great Plains clinic tweeted out a photo of a letter Sen. Fitzgerald wrote to the women’s health organization. “It is with great dismay that I received your letter that a donation was made in my ‘honor’ to your heinous organization,” Sen. Fitzgerald wrote.

The state senator went on to liken Planned Parenthood ― an international nonprofit organization that provides healthcare to millions of women and men ― to a Nazi concentration camp. 

“This is as bad ― or worse ― as having one’s name associated with Dachau,” Sen. Fitzgerald wrote, referring to the first Nazi concentration camp created in 1933. “Shame on your organization and shame on anyone that would attempt to blacken my name in this manner.”

In an interview with The Kansas City Star on Monday, Sen. Fitzgerald stood by his original comments.

“It was either send them that or ignore it,” Sen. Fitzgerald told The Star. “I figured, I don’t want my name associated as a donation to Planned Parenthood, in my name, to go on un-denounced by me.”

When asked if Sen. Fitzgerald was implying that Planned Parenthood is actually worse than the Nazis, the state senator replied: “Oh, yeah,” adding that the Nazis “ought to be incensed by the comparison.” 

Many Twitter users were understandably very upset with Sen. Fitzgerald’s comments. 

Spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Plains told The Star that they’ve see an uptick in donations in Sen. Fitzgerald’s name since they tweeted his letter. 

“It’s this kind of inflammatory language that adds to the shame and stigma of safe legal abortion,” Lee-Gilmore said. “The state of Kansas has much bigger issues to be dealing with, and this is just an unacceptable attack on women’s right to choose.”

Head over to The Kansas City Star to read the rest of Sen. Fitzgerald’s comments. 

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In the midst of another snow storm here on the East Coast (Winter Storm Stella), we must thank the tech gods for the internet. While many businesses, schools and activities are shut down for the day, the internet forged ahead.

So on this snow day, we at HuffPost Comedy celebrated with #SnowDayAMovie. Here are some of the very best tweets!

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Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor wrote a book in 2007 called The Shadow Speaker. The story followed its protagonist ― a Muslim girl named Ejii, who the author described as “black skinned” ― through Niger in 2070.

So Okorafor was understandably unhappy when her publisher suggested putting a white woman on the book’s cover.

Today, the author shared the anecdote as part of a Twitter conversation about whitewashing in fiction. She tweeted the cover suggested by the publisher and the revised cover, updated to feature the story’s black protagonist, per the author’s request.

“Cover on left was the proposed cover. Cover on the right was the finished cover after I threw a sh*t fit (tapered by my agent),” Okorafor wrote on Twitter.

“POC authors who see readers whitewashing our POC characters… consider how we feel about that. The layers of emotion,” she continued. “We feel erased.”

In 2016, Okorafor’s novella Binti earned both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; its cover features a close-up image of its black protagonist. She achieved this in spite of the efforts made by a vocal group called the Sad Puppies, which aimed, essentially, to Make Science Fiction Great Again, by boycotting Hugo Award categories in which women writers and writers of color had the possibility of winning.

After her win, Okorafor told The Huffington Post, “the issues swirling around the Hugos are merely manifestations of the growing pains this country is experiencing as a whole. Growing pains are painful, awkward, annoying, sometimes destructive in order to create.”

Readers have responded to Okorafor’s tweet with expressions of disbelief. The author ended her thread with the following statement:

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Ava DuVernay’s adaption of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time won’t be out until 2018. But after wrapping principal photography over the weekend, the director shared some photos of her cast that reminded us just how many famous people are gonna be in this movie. 

They include: Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, André Holland, Zach Galifianakis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Rowan Blanchard, Chris Pine and, playing Meg Murry, Storm Reid. 

Seems like they all had a good time together.

“A Wrinkle in Time” follows the story of Meg, who goes in search of her missing scientist father with help from her friend Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller) and a trio of supernatural beings, Mrs. Whatsit (Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Winfrey).

“She does it all. Happiness. Heartbreak. Action. Emotion,” DuVernay said of the 13-year-old Reid, who appeared in “12 Years a Slave,” over Twitter.

“Our hero. In the story. And on the set.”  

Meanwhile, Oprah claimed her on-set throne in the shape of a carved tree trunk.

Check out more behind-the-scenes photos below.

”A Wrinkle in Time” hits theaters April 6, 2018.

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U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has made no secret of how he views people who aren’t white, Christian or American-born. His latest public remark is being critically viewed as a paean to white nationalism by Democrats and Independents ― but not by his Republican colleagues in Congress.

On Sunday afternoon, King suggested that Muslim children were preventing “our civilization” from being restored. 

The tweet was in response to a cartoon tweeted out by an account that supports far-right European candidates and platforms. The cartoon depicts Geert Wilders, a candidate for Dutch Prime Minister, sticking his finger in a dam labeled “Western Civilization” to stop a flow of green ooze with stars and crescent moons ― a color and symbols widely associated with Islam. 

A representative for King did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

His remarks, however, align with ones made last September when he appeared with Wilders and Frauke Petry, chairwoman of the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party saying, “Cultural suicide by demographic transformation must end.”

In explainer on white nationalism last year, Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at Birkbeck University in London, told the New York Times the ideology centers around intertwining national identity with ethnicity and the belief that whites should preserve a demographic, social and political majority. 

Yet more than five hours after King issued his remarks, most of King’s Republican congressional colleagues were conspicuously quiet. Rep. Pat Garofalo of the Minnesota’s statehouse appeared to be the lone Republican to condemn King, whom he said was a “fake conservative” and a “fake Republican.” 

Democrats like Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Evan McMullin, the former Independent presidential candidate from Utah, called King out on his endorsement of white nationalism.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) was not so much outraged as he was dismissive of King, whom he called an “ignoramus” who nobody takes seriously.

The one person who did take King’s words to heart and applauded them was former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke ― a figure who’s arguably the strongest litmus test for whether a political position or worldview is on the wrong side of history. 

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A documentary filmmaker has obtained previously unreleased surveillance footage that he said disproves the police narrative of the events that led to the death of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot to death by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer in 2014.

Film director Jason Pollock debuted “Stranger Fruit,” a documentary that examines Brown’s story from his family’s perspective, at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin on Saturday. The film includes footage that Pollock said was suppressed by police ― a move that consequently fueled the characterization of Brown as a “thug.” 

Pollock’s video shows Brown trade what he says is marijuana for cigarillos with clerks at the Ferguson Market convenience store in the early morning hours before he was killed.

The video Pollock obtained, which was edited for the documentary, challenges the narrative police had long maintained: That Brown committed a strong-arm robbery of the store before the shooting and as a result, Ferguson officer Darren Wilson encountered Brown believing he was the robbery suspect.

The video specifically shows Brown giving the clerks a small bag, which they smell and inspect. Then, a clerk bags cigarillos and other items for Brown, but instead of leaving the store with the bag, Brown is seen handing the bag back to the clerk, who places it under the counter. 

The widely-seen second video, of the moments before the shooting, is Brown returning to collect his items, Pollock said. 

Lesley McSpadden, Brown’s mother, said in the film the allegations of a strong-arm robbery at the store were a “misunderstanding.”

“These people know each other well enough that this is the kind of relationship they have,” she says.

St. Louis County Police, which investigated the incident between Wilson and Brown, said via email Sunday they have not authenticated the video on their own. 

In the film, Pollock said he saw a passing reference to early-morning video while browsing through SLCPD’s account of the investigation and questioned why it was not released. Ferguson police only released video from right before the shooting. 

Jay Kanzler, a St. Louis attorney representing the convenience store and its employees, disputed the documentary’s version of events and suggested the video Pollock obtained only further implicates Brown rather than absolves him.

“It’s just nonsense. It’s patently false, it didn’t happen that way,” Kanzler said of the video Sunday on MSNBC. “The clerks don’t smoke marijuana. They didn’t take the marijuana…maybe Michael Brown thought they would trade him cigarillos, but they didn’t.” 

Kanzler clarified that he didn’t know what was in the baggie that the clerks took from Brown, but said the only reason he returned the bag to the clerks was because he hadn’t paid for items. 

Pollock’s video is “neither new nor news,” Kanzler added. He suggested the video was not publicly released because it was “irrelevant” and that people sympathetic to Brown would have accused the police of “piling on” with unfavorable evidence had they shared it. 

Brown’s relatives maintain that the Ferguson Market convenience store had a history of being involved with local drug deals. 

Brown’s death quickly became one of the most socially and politically polarizing incidents of the past few years and sparked intense public debate about racism, police brutality and protesting.  

A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Wilson, who resigned shortly after. The following year, a Justice Department investigation concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Wilson with a civil rights violation. 

Brown’s family is still pursuing a civil suit for wrongful death.

“We had to do this so that people understand what really happened,” Pollock said Sunday while talking to reporters at SXSW. “Because people think all these ridiculous things about him ― that he was a thug. And he was not a thug, he just graduated from high school in a place were there was only 62 percent graduation rate. That means he was a rock star, and he beat all the odds, and he was murdered eight days after his graduation.” 

“We want people to understand what happened, and they’re going to.”

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“Kong: Skull Island” stomped all over the box office this weekend, surpassing forecasts with an estimated $61 million North American debut. But it’s “Get Out” that we should be celebrating: Jordan Peele’s horror satire crossed the coveted $100 million threshold, the second non-franchise film to do so this year after M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split.” 

With a $21 million intake bringing its total grosses to $111.1 million, “Get Out” is a Hollywood success story through and through. Basking in near-universal acclaim, the thriller about a black photographer (Daniel Kaluuya) meeting his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) sinister family has coasted on organic hype. This is its third weekend in theaters, making it the fastest $100 million earner for Blumhouse, the horror-oriented production company that also funded “Split,” the “Paranormal Activity” franchise and the “Insidious” series. “Get Out” cost a modest $5 million to make, rendering the accomplishment particularly notable given original adult movies’ ongoing financial struggles. 

Grosses for the reboot “Kong: Skull Island” and the Wolverine threequel “Logan” also come with surprises. Warner Bros. expected “Kong,” which has seen generally favorable reviews, to open around $50 million, so its $61 million domestic total is a major victory. That sum is on par with the previous “King Kong” adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, which debuted at $62 million in 2005, when adjusted for inflation. As we wrote last week, King Kong remains one of Hollywood’s most reliable properties. 

Similarly, “Logan” still has claws at the box office. Most superhero flicks tend to see steep second-weekend declines because the fanboys and -girls rush to see them right away. But “Logan,” the restrained “X-Men” installment starring Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, made about $38 million, a decent coup. Its current totals sit at $152.7 million in domestic grosses and $437.7 million worldwide.

“The Shack” and “The Lego Batman Movie” round out the weekend’s Top 5. 

“Moonlight,” which enjoyed its loftiest grosses last weekend following a surprising best picture win at the Oscars, collected another $1 million. It has now made a collective $27 million, a remarkable figure for an independent film that cost $1.5 million to make.

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Joni Sledge, a founding member of the “We Are Family” disco quartet Sister Sledge, was found dead Friday at her home in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 60.

Publicist Biff Warren confirmed Sledge’s death, telling CNN that the cause is unclear. The singer’s family posted about her death on the group’s official Facebook account.

Born in Philadelphia, Joni was the second-oldest daughter of a Broadway tap dancer and an actress. She and her three sisters ― Debbie, Kim and Kathy ― performed in church before forming a touring group in 1971.

In 1979, working with masterminds of Chic, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, they hit the big time with the album “We Are Family,” whose title track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100 chart and spawned many cover versions.

Sister Sledge re-recorded the song with Patti LaBelle, Queen Latifah, Diana Ross and other artists as a Sept. 11 charity endeavor. Spike Lee directed the corresponding music video. Today, “We Are Family” is a staple of wedding playlists. In 2008, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

Nothing could match the success of “We Are Family,” but Sister Sledge found hits in “He’s the Greatest Dancer,” “Got to Love Somebody” and a cover of Mary Wells’ “My Guy.” The band performed a medley on a 1984 episode of “The Jeffersons,” including “We Are Family” and Stevie Wonder’s “As.”

Eldest sister Kathy left in 1989 to pursue a solo career, but joined her family for the Sept. 11 tribute and a 2015 performance at the World Meeting of Families festival, where Pope Francis was the guest of honor.

The group remained popular in the U.K. and had several concerts booked throughout 2017, including one as soon as March 18. 

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