This Tweet About Pet Names Could Change Your Relationship For The Better

Most couples come up with pet names for each other fairly early into a relationship: Baby, babe, boo, sweetheart ― we all have our faves.

While those are all classics, there’s nothing wrong with switching things up every now and then. Last week, Twitter user @cybersygh suggested doing just that and it really caught on: 

Things escalated quickly after that, when Bela Garces (@djbbga on Twitter) showed the tweet to her boyfriend Isaac and posted his reaction:

Isaac loved the idea:

He got a little carried away but it was adorable:

Garces’ hilarious tweet quickly went viral, with over 87K reshares and 241K “likes.”

The 19-year-old told The Huffington Post she couldn’t stop laughing at the nicknames and that Isaac hasn’t stopped since. 

“It just makes me laugh every time, it’s so silly,” she said. “He calls me food names in person too, and I try to call him food names back but he’s a lot funnier. My favorite is when he calls me Colombian snacks since we’re both Colombian!”

Here are the two adorable soft tacos together, with one of their favorite foods:

After Garces’ tweet went viral, people kept the momentum going, sharing the food-related terms of endearment they’d texted their girlfriends and boyfriends:

Does it get any more romantic than “you’re more than a snack, you’re a meal?” Nope, not as far as we’re concerned.

Share your favorite snack-related pet name in the comments. 

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Really? CNN Commentator Can't Tell April Ryan And Ana Navarro Apart

Former Republican congressman Jack Kingston appeared on CNN this week and couldn’t tell the difference between two prominent women of color featured on the panel alongside him. 

The flub happened during a segment hosted by Don Lemon discussing White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s cringeworthy comments Monday. Spicer made tone-deaf and false remarks about Hitler’s use of chemical weapons and called concentration camps “Holocaust centers.” 

During the segment Tuesday, April Ryan, who was recently hired as a CNN commentator and did a double take when Spicer initially made his comment, said that his remarks were especially upsetting not as a matter of politics but because they were made during Passover. She said his words diminished the horrors of the Holocaust. 

Kingston immediately interrupted to argue against Ryan’s claim that the outrage wasn’t political ― but nothing he said mattered after he confused Ryan for commentator Ana Navarro in his rebuttal and called her “Ana.” 

Lemon jumped in to correct Kingston’s blunder and told him, “That’s not Ana, that’s April,” before Ryan reminded him: “I’m April, this is April, I’m sorry.” 

Kingston attempted to play damage control and claimed, “I can’t see who’s talking, I apologize,” to which Navarro said: “Not all colored girls are the same, Jack.” 

But it didn’t stop there. Kingston went on to say to Ryan: “You might not be criticizing him because you’re a Democrat; you’re criticizing him because you don’t like Trump.”

Ryan reminded him that she never specified whether she was Democrat or Republican. “You don’t know my politics,” she said, before asking: “So I’m a Democrat because I’m black?” 

Navarro even came with the facts, reminding Kingston that Ryan is an objective journalist and that the real issue is that Kingston apparently thinks all women of color look the same. “He thinks you’re me, that’s the problem,” Navarro said to Ryan before she turned her attention to Kingston, saying: “Jack, do me a favor: Quit while you’re behind.”

Lemon could be seen shaking his head throughout the segment, which was just one of several memorable moments on TV this week with the CNN host.

On Thursday, Lemon moderated a discussion in which CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord referred to President Donald Trump as the “Martin Luther King of health care” and was promptly shut down by commentator Symone Sanders (and by many others on the internet). Lemon spoke with Lord during a separate segment later that evening that also went viral, in which Lord refused to apologize for his offensive remarks. And, well, let’s just say Lemon wasn’t here for that either.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Queen Latifah And Jill Scott Reunite For New Film Examining Flint's Water Crisis

The Lifetime network has announced new details for its developing original film examining Flint’s water crisis.  

On Thursday, the cable network revealed that Queen Latifah, Jill Scott, Betsy Brandt and Marin Ireland will star in the Craig Zadan and Neil Meron-produced film, which is inspired by writer Josh Sanburn’s 2016 Time magazine cover story “The Toxic Tap.”

“Flint” will depict the true story of three activists from the city ― portrayed by Scott, Brandt and Ireland, with Latifah playing a fourth resident ― who are fighting to expose and bring justice to the events surrounding their lead-tainted water supply, according to a press release.

Since details surrounding the quality of Flint’s water supply emerged in 2014, many have expressed their frustrations with the lack of prevention efforts and referred to the disaster as environmental racism

The humanitarian disaster later prompted former President Barack Obama to issue a state of emergency to the area in 2016, and drew a slew of donations from the likes of Beyonce, Mark Wahlberg, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Eminem and Cher ― who recently withdrew from her role in the Lifetime film due to a “serious family issue.”

Previously, Scott and Latifah co-starred in Lifetime’s 2012 remake of the 1989 film “Steel Magnolias.”

Production for “Flint” begins next week.

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TLC Drops New Song Because The '90s Will Never Die

If you’re like us and haven’t stopped chasing waterfalls since TLC dominated the charts in the ‘90s, then prepare to creep on their new jam.

After the iconic girl band successfully crowd-funded a new album two years ago, we’ve been anxiously awaiting some new tunes from T-Boz and Chilli (R.I.P. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes) to scream-sing in the shower.

Their latest single is called “Way Back.”

The song abides by all the ‘90s tropes we know and love and features Snoop Dogg

TLC’s album is currently untitled and slated for release on June 30. They’re calling it their “final album,” dedicating it to fans “that have stuck with us, always challenging us to do our best.”

As per the Kickstarter, they are open to “your suggestions for the album title” and need inspiration. So, send over your suggestions!

Who knows? You could be responsible for naming the next “CrazySexyCool.”

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Little Girl Stops Crying When She Hears Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On'

A classic Marvin Gaye song helps turn a 1-year-old girl’s frown upside down in a new viral video.

Little Brilynn hears the opening bars to the soul singer’s 1973 track “Let’s Get It On” and immediately stops crying. Even more adorably, she then begins bopping away to the tune:

The youngster’s mom, Katherine Dees, shared the clip to Facebook on Tuesday. The footage shows her elder daughter, 11-year-old Kayden, comforting her little sister before the music comes on.

Dees, from Highlands in Texas, said Brilynn first indicated she was a fan of the song after hearing it on a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial. It just happened to catch her attention a few times, and the more it came on the TV the more she loved it,” Dees told TODAY.

Dees said she wasn’t sure why the song struck such a chord with her daughter, but revealed it was sometimes even enough to raise her from a deep sleep.

“She loves music in general and will twirl around to any music,” the mom told The Huffington Post via email on Friday. “But this one is definitely her favorite. We always have music playing in the house so I’m sure that has contributed to her love for the art.”

Dees was “surprised and a little overwhelmed” at how popular the video had become ― but said she was “so glad” her girl had brought “so many smiles” to people worldwide.

“It’s nice to see a ‘feel good’ story sometimes with all of the crazy scary bad things going on in the world,” Dees said. “But it’s definitely even cooler that it’s my baby’s video that is bringing smiles to people’s faces.”

Check out Brilynn’s reaction to the song above, and remember Gaye’s musical genius below:

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Little Miss Flint Blasts Donald Trump Over Broken Water Crisis Promise

A 9-year-old girl from Flint, Michigan, has sent a powerful message to President Donald Trump about her community’s water crisis.

Amariyanna Copeny, who goes by the name Mari, blasted Trump for breaking his campaign promise to “fix Flint” in a speech at a rally outside the White House on Thursday.

The “Little Miss Flint” title-holder skewered Trump at the “We Belong Together” protest for prioritizing immigration policies over solving the lead poisoning of her city’s water supply. 

His failure to act on the issue was “one promise that he failed to keep, just like his promise to make America great again,” she said.

“One promise he made sure to keep was to build his wall,” Copeny added.

She also compared Trump unfavorably with his predecessor, former President Barack Obama ― with whom she met in Flint last May, after writing him a letter about the dangerous levels of lead in the area’s drinking water.

A later meeting with Trump didn’t go as well.

He was not so very nice to me at all,”Copeny said. “He didn’t even let me ask one question.” 

In January, officials announced that drinking water in the city complied with federal health standards ― some three years after it was found to be contaminated with lead.

Some residents have still been warned not to drink it, however, until the city’s lead pipes are replaced. In the meantime, they continue to use bottled water for drinking and cooking.

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Democrats In Illinois Just Unseated A Whole Bunch Of Republicans

WASHINGTON ― In a spate of local elections last week in Illinois, Democrats picked up seats in places they’ve never won before.

The city of Kankakee elected its first African-American, Democratic mayor. West Deerfield Township will be led entirely by Democrats for the first time. Elgin Township voted for “a complete changeover,” flipping to an all-Democratic board. Normal Township elected Democratic supervisors and trustees to run its board ― the first time in more than 100 years that a single Democrat has held a seat.

“We had a pretty good day,” said Dan Kovats, executive director of the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association. “We won in areas we normally would win, but we also won in areas Republicans never expected us to be competitive in. They were caught flat-footed.”

These may seem like relatively small victories ― we’re talking about municipal races in towns with tens of thousands of people ― but they fit with a broader pattern that should have Republicans on edge ahead of the 2018 elections: Progressive grassroots activism, exploding with energy since President Donald Trump’s win in November, is fueling Democratic gains in GOP strongholds.

This week, a Democratic congressional candidate in Kansas nearly pulled off a shocking win in a heavily Republican district. In Georgia, 30-year-old Democratic newcomer Jon Ossoff is outpacing his GOP rivals in a race to replace former Rep. Tom Price. The seat has long been Republican and was once held by former Speaker Newt Gingrich. These races come after a Democratic state Senate candidate in Delaware, buoyed by anti-Trump activism, annihilated her GOP challenger in an election that’s traditionally been close.

In the case of Illinois, a number of Democrats who just won got a boost from a program launched by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) called Build The Bench. It’s an all-day boot camp that offers nuts-and-bolts details for running a successful campaign. Bustos came up with the idea last year when she noticed a dearth of new Democratic candidates for Congress, and decided the best way to help build up her party’s ranks was at the local level.

She’s held two boot camps in her district so far ― The Huffington Post attended one of them in March ― and she’s already seeing tremendous payoff. Twelve Build The Bench alumni ran for local seats in this election cycle, and eight of them won. A ninth alum, Rita Ali, is currently down by one vote in her race for Peoria City Council.

“I am incredibly proud that the majority of our graduates who were on the ballot in April municipal elections won their races,” said Bustos. “If we want to be successful in the heartland, we need to connect Democratic candidates for office at all levels with the best practices, skills and expertise needed to run winning campaigns.”

We won in areas we normally would win, but we also won in areas Republicans never expected us to be competitive in. They were caught flat-footed.
Dan Kovats, executive director of the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association

Chemberly Cummings and Arlene Hosea are among the Build The Bench alumni who recently won races. They both made history by becoming the first black members of Normal Town Council and Normal Township Trustee, respectively. That is no small feat in a predominately white, Republican region of the state.

“There’s this concept in Bloomington-Normal that everybody is conservative,” said Cummings, a 34-year-old State Farm employee. “But we are a group of people who are actually concerned about the issues in our community. I also think … when you have the representative of a party who is negative, I think you’ll start to see some things change. Nobody wants to be associated with something negative. They want to be associated with the positive.”

Hosea, a 57-year-old former Illinois State University employee, came out of retirement to run for her seat. She hadn’t planned on going into politics, but was deeply affected by Trump’s divisive tone all last year. 

“I am a descendent of slavery,” she said. “I saw and heard on the campaign trail so much awful rhetoric. My mom is still alive, she’s 90, and she faced racism through all of her childhood. I thought, ‘Arlene, you have to do more. You have to be the change that you want to see.’”

As someone born and raised in the area, Hosea said she takes pride in being able to give back to her town’s next generation. She got choked up thinking about how far she and her family have come, recalling how her mom lived through Jim Crow in the South and once watched the Ku Klux Klan drag her uncle out of the house and “almost beat him to death” in front of her when she was a child.

“Even if it’s just my seat at the table, they get to see me at that table. I have a voice,” Hosea said, her voice cracking. “In this community, no one has done it. So, it’s time.”

Of course, not everyone can win their first campaign. Jodie Slothower, a Build The Bench attendee who HuffPost met in March, lost her race for Normal Township clerk. She is disappointed, of course, but she’s already onto her next project: fueling the progressive momentum to oust more Republicans, like Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.). She started a grassroots mobilization group in November, Voices of Reason, and it’s up to 2,000 members.

“We have events planned all the way through August,” Slothower said. “We’re going to keep up the pressure on the congressman. We’re figuring out how to take what we’ve learned here and bring it to other communities. We have a lot of work to do.”

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

These Are The 7 Men Scheduled To Be Executed In Arkansas This Month

Officials in Arkansas plan to execute seven death row prisoners over 11 days this month.

The rush to the gurney has been blamed on the state’s supply of the lethal injection drug midazolam, which is set to expire this month. The state does not have a replacement, and controversy over the drug has made it more difficult to obtain as companies refuse to sell it. Midazolam has been linked to botched executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma.

The Department of Corrections has scheduled the executions to take place between April 17 and April 27. The deadly marathon will mark the first time in more than a decade that anyone has been put to death in the state.

These are the men facing execution.

David Lohr covers crime and missing persons. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow him on Twitter.  

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The United Incident Wasn't Racism, But The Reaction From Asians Points To A Truth

David Dao being violently dragged off a United Airlines flight was plainly reprehensible. But despite the temptation to neatly attribute the incident to racism, it probably wasn’t an example of “flying while Asian.” (And let’s all agree he is not the “Asian Rosa Parks.”)

United has taken responsibility after it required passengers to de-plane and give their seats to four crew members who needed to board. But the airline said its system for selecting David Dao and the three others is an IT algorithm that takes into account issues like disabilities and connecting flights. This means there’s no real evidence of racial bias.

So why were Asians quick to label the United incident discriminatory? It’s probably because we could conceive of a reality in which this could happen ― and it’s a different reality than that of those who see Asians only as “model minorities.”

It could be that Asians and Asian-Americans assumed Dao was the target of xenophobia, given that anti-Asian hates crimes have been on the rise since President Trump deemed China an economic enemy. Or it could be that Asians assumed he was targeted because of the way Asian men are constantly emasculated and turned into racist punchlines. And it could be that Asians and Asian-Americans assumed Dao was discriminated against for his name, given that Asian names receive fewer job callbacks than Anglo-sounding names

Following the incident, Asians and Asian-Americans cut up their United Airlines cards, sounded off on social media and wrote about how the dragging of David Dao must have been racially motivated.

And Dao himself concluded as much. A passenger told The Washington Post that the doctor from Kentucky said, “I’m being selected because I’m Chinese,” though reports have stated he is both Chinese and Vietnamese.  

That hit Asians and Asian-Americans where it hurts. And the fact that the incident set our community off to the extent that it did speaks volumes. 

The reaction also comes from a complicated place in which many Asians feel the push-and-pull of latent discrimination, and an inability to sound off about it. That’s enough to amount to jumping at the chance to speak out because we typically feel we can’t, or we don’t, or both. 

Asian-American advocacy groups told HuffPost that the outcry among the community over the United Airlines incident indicates that we have strong feelings about discrimination bubbling beneath the surface that we feel we have to suppress.

We’ve seen more and more Asian Americans coalesce around individual cases involving AAPI folks because many of our own unjust experiences have been silenced or shrugged off.

“I think we’ve seen more and more Asian-Americans coalesce around individual cases involving AAPI folks because many of our own unjust experiences have been silenced or shrugged off,” Kham S. Moua, Senior Policy and Communications Manager of OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, told HuffPost. 

The reality is that we Asian-Americans will complain about a lot of prosaic things — the sun, perceived price gauging, a freaking dirty floor. But we rarely complain openly about overt racism. So when we do, it’s safe to assume our feelings about it are a big deal.

Each Asian nationality experiences racial discrimination to varying degrees, but it happens to all of us. Historically speaking, a commonly held belief is that the lack of outcry about racism is, in part, a result of mainstream society labeling Asians the “model minority,” and granting us somewhat of a white privilege card following the Chinese Exclusion Act. A hesitancy to speak out might also be attributed to the fact that immigrants are made to feel their survival is dependent on appeasing mainstream society, so they don’t want to complain.

The acquiescent Asian stereotype is becoming increasingly disavowed in the U.S. as a result of Asian-Americans speaking out.

But we live in a different time ― one in which there is greater galvanization of Asian-Americans and identity-specific activism than ever before. The acquiescent Asian stereotype is becoming increasingly disavowed in the U.S. as a result of Asian-Americans speaking out more loudly and in greater numbers.  

So it makes sense that we all might have seen something of ourselves in the Asian man who was expected to be a pushover and then refused to leave his seat — only to suffer a broken nose and missing teeth as a result. 

Tung Nguyen, chair of The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization, explained to HuffPost why he believes that people might have attributed the incident to race-based bullying.  

“Because we have been bullied,” he said. “Asian American kids are frequently bullied — the White House Initiative on AAPIs under President Obama even created a campaign Act to Change to address this.”

He pointed to other examples of Asian discrimination including the “bamboo ceiling” in corporate America, or the disparity in Asian leadership, as well a lack of representation in mainstream media. Nguyen also cited a legacy of institutional anti-Asian racism in the U.S., such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment.

Another reason Asians may have been quick to label the United incident racism is because we rarely feel entitled to do so. And part of that feeling is that other Asians might hold the belief that we don’t experience real discrimination, or that “Asians are basically white,” advocates say.

Why do Asians believe we don’t experience racism? It’s most likely privilege and disparate backgrounds, experts say.

Neither of these assertions is true, of course, but the belief that they are might be attributed to diverse background. Why do Asians believe we don’t experience racism? It’s most likely privilege and disparate backgrounds, with Asians maintaining an even larger wealth gap than whites

Of course, Asians are not homogenous, and a Korean-American with a privileged upbringing would not experience the same discrimination a Chinese-American with an accent might. And a Japanese-American might have a different experience than the Southeast Asian-American population, who have the highest high school dropout rates in the country. 

“Many Asian Americans who are highly acculturated or privileged will say that they have not experienced discrimination,” Nguyen said. “This may be true because they are privileged. Even if a person has never faced discrimination, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen to other people. If an Asian American is fortunate enough to have never faced discrimination, I think that person should help those who have.”

Nguyen also pointed to a “If you don’t speak of it, it doesn’t exist” phenomenon.

“Many Asian Americans have experienced racism directly, but have felt uncomfortable talking about it,” he said. “It may also be a psychological trick—pretending that discrimination does not exist may be necessary to give a person the belief that the only thing that matters for success is one’s own merit and hard work. I am old enough that I have seen many Asian Americans change their position on this—as they rise, they begin to see how their background is used against them, subtly or otherwise, and how their own efforts are not enough.”

And in a climate in which anti-Asian hates crimes are on the rise, Nguyen said a positive upshot is that more Asians are speaking out. 

[Dao’s] action and our responses will go a long way toward removing the stereotype that we are docile, and that’s a good thing.”

“Others may not have experienced racism until now, with the current mood and environment since Trump’s election,” he said. “What is new is that many of us are no longer afraid to speak out. We do not know whether Dr. Dao was picked because he was Asian, but if they did because they thought he would go quietly, his action and our responses will go a long way toward removing the stereotype that we are docile, and that’s a good thing.”

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Jennifer Hudson Says Her New Netflix Comedy Reflects Her Real-Life Career

Jennifer Hudson says her love for Whitney Houston’s “The Bodyguard” was a factor in agreeing to her latest film, “Sandy Wexler.”

The ‘90s-themed Netflix original film ― directed by and starring Adam Sandler, along with Terry Crews, Lamorne Morris, Nick Swardson, Rob Schneider, Jane Seymour and Hudson ― follows hapless Hollywood talent manager Sandy Wexler (played by Sandler) as his work-life balance is tested when he sparks a romance with his client and aspiring singer Courtney Clarke (played by Hudson).

The film marks Hudson’s debut in a comedy film, and she told The Huffington Post that starring alongside Sandler was one of her best career experiences. 

“I’ve always wanted to do a comedy. And so, when I got that call from Adam to come meet with him to talk about me playing Courtney, I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Of course I would want to do this,’” Hudson said.

“Then he said, ‘It’s like a comedic version of “The Bodyguard,”’ and right there I was sold,” she continued. “Like, ‘OK, that’s one of my absolute favorite films with one of my absolute favorite artists, which is Whitney.’ And so I was all in, and it was one of the absolute best experiences I’ve ever had on a project.”

From her humble beginnings performing on a Disney cruise ship, the Chicago native rose to fame in 2004 as a finalist on “American Idol.” Hudson would go on to earn chart-topping success as a recording artist and score an Oscar win for her breakout role in the 2006 motion picture adaptation of “Dreamgirls.”

Hudson said that her “Sandy Wexler” character’s dream of attaining success in entertainment is similar to her own journey of breaking into the industry.

“For me, it was just finding a way into it,” she recalled. “I remember sitting back like, ‘This is what I wanna do, but how? There’s no formula, there’s no shortcut, there’s no strategy.’ And the only thing I could do is say, keep singing and hopefully my talent makes room for me.”

“And thankfully it did,” she continued. “But there is no certain formula for it, so it’s hard to crack that code and say, ‘OK, this is what I’m gonna do and then this is what’s gonna happen.’”

With a comedy now on her growing acting resume, Hudson has her eyes set on other career interests, including a role in a silent film. She also would like to get into directing, which was inspired by working with Sandler. 

“That’s what I loved about this project, I felt more like I was not just an actor,” she said. “[Adam] would say, ‘Put your influence in there and approach it more like a partner, more so than you’re an actor. Do this.’ So it forced me and taught me how to be able to walk into those directing shoes one day.”

“Sandy Wexler” hits Netflix on April 14.

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