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Sure, sometimes you get on each other’s nerves, but no one knows you better than your brother or sister. That might be why no one is better suited to be your bestie than your sibling.
Below, 27 things that will just make sense if your brother or sister is your ride-or-die.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) publicly denounced Republicans’ silence on recent “racist remarks” made by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
Gutiérrez spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday morning, standing in front of a poster featuring tweets and quotes from King, as well as words of support for him from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
The representative first addressed King’s tweet Sunday applauding the anti-Islam stance of Geert Wilders, a former prime minister candidate in the Netherlands.
Gutiérrez broke down why King’s words were so offensive to Americans who aren’t white.
“In context, what it means is A) Steve King believes Western civilization is under attack by ‘outsiders,’ and B) those outsiders can never be assimilated or be considered part of ‘our civilization,’” he said of the tweet.
The Illinois congressman used his grandson as proof of why he feels King is wrong.
“God knows what Rep. King would think of my grandson, who likes to tell me that in this arm he’s Puerto Rican, in this one he’s Mexican, but he says, Grandpa [in my heart], I am 100 percent American,” Gutiérrez said.
A day after the tweet, King said during a radio interview with Iowa’s 1040 WHO that “Hispanics and the blacks will be fighting each other” before these two populations overtake white people in the U.S. Gutiérrez criticized Republicans for not denouncing both the tweet and the comments.
“If he traveled somewhere without getting permission or he accepted a gift like tickets to a game without the prior approval of the Congress, he would be punished. He might get censured or called out in some way,” Gutiérrez said. “But for making racist comments, for supporting a racist candidate in someone else’s election, or for saying things that receive high praise from David Duke and the KKK, nothing is going to happen.”
“I have not heard leaders in the Republican Party scrambling to say that Steve King does not represent their views on race, religion, diversity, and the threat that ‘somebody else’s babies’ pose to American civilization,” he continued.
The congressman went on to say people like King say “hurtful, xenophobic” things because they feel empowered by the presence of White House advisers Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a president “who wants us all to fear Muslims, to fear Mexicans and frankly, to fear all Latinos, even my American-born grandson.”
Gutiérrez warned about the consequences of normalizing rhetoric like King’s.
“This is what happens when good American men and women remain silent,” he said. “When we do not stand up to the bully, the racist, and the nationalist, they get more and more empowered and their actions become more and more normal.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate, similarly called King’s tweet “offensive.” She also echoed Gutiérrez’s concerns about the impact of King’s remarks.
“Whether it’s the rhetoric coming out from the Trump administration, or people affiliated with that administration, or members of Congress who are continuing down this path of this racist rhetoric, it is having consequences,” Cortez Masto told a small group of Hispanic reporters on Tuesday. “And anybody hearing it should step up and call it for what it is and hold it accountable so that people know that we’re not going to stand for it. And we are going to protect those who will be at the receiving end of that discriminatory racist rhetoric.”
Watch Gutiérrez’s full remarks in the video above.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Today, 20 women and girls were added to a lawsuit against former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar, bringing the total number of women suing the physician to 78. Eighty-one women and girls have come forward with allegations of abuse against Nassarsince two gymnasts publicly accused him of sexual abuse in September.
As of Thursday afternoon, 78 of the 81 alleged victims are suing Nassar, MSU and USA Gymnastics in six separate lawsuits spanning both federal and state courts. The lawsuits allege that Nassar sexually abused the young women during medical appointments, dating as far back as 1997. According to the Detroit Free Press, Nassar assaulted girls as young as 12 on MSU’s campus, a gymnastics club in Dimondale, MI, as well as places he traveled during his time with USA Gymnastics.
USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny resigned on Thursday afternoon in the wake of the allegations. “It has been heartbreaking to learn of instances of abuse and it sickens me that young athletes would be exploited in such a manner,” Penny wrote in a statement announcing his resignation.
Most of the women who have come forward against Nassar are athletes or former athletes, many of whom were top-tier gymnasts. In a September interview with the Indianapolis Star, the first two women to publicly accuse Nassar alleged that when they were minors, the physician fondled and penetrated them with his fingers ― all under the guise of medical care. Both said Nassar penetrated them vaginally and anally without gloves or lubricant.
“I was very confused, trying to reconcile what was happening with the person he was supposed to be,” former gymnast Rachael Denhollander told IndyStar in September. “He’s this famous doctor. He’s trusted by my friends. He’s trusted by these other gymnasts. How could he reach this position in the medical profession, how could he reach this kind of prominence and stature if this is who he is?”
I was very confused, trying to reconcile what was happening with the person he was supposed to be.
Rachel Denhollander, Former Gymnast
Nassar, a 53-year-old Michigan-native, was a highly-renowned doctor in the gymnastics world for years. He worked as the USA Gymnastics’ team doctor during four Olympic games and was a faculty member at Michigan State’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. In September 2015, Nassar quietly resigned from his position on the USA Gymnastics team, and in 2016 was fired from MSU after the allegations went public.
In December, Nassar was arrested on federal child pornography charges and now faces 28 criminal charges between state and federal courts. He pleaded not guilty.
Out of the 78 claims of sexual abuse against Nassar, almost all the victims allege that the physician penetrated them with his fingers while they were minors. More than 20 of the women and girls said there was a parent in the room during the medical exam.
According to court documents filed on Thursday obtained by the Detroit Free Press, one mother asked what Nassar was doing while he was examining her daughter. He “gave an explanation she did not understand” and “did not explain that he was using vaginal or anal penetration,” an attorney wrote. Attorneys also wrote that the same mother stood up in an attempt to see what Nassar was doing to her child and the physician moved to block her view.
Nassar gave gifts to the young athletes, made sexual comments while abusing them and one woman said she suffered “bleeding and soreness” from him penetrating her with his fingers, according to court documents.
In an essay published on Wednesday for The New York Times, former U.S. rhythmic gymnast Jessica Howard claimed she was 15 years old when Nassar began sexually abusing her.
“Coming off of a difficult year of training, Dr. Nassar reached out as the good guy, supporting me emotionally and promising me relief from the pain,” Howard wrote. “Now I know that in actuality he expertly abused me under the guise of ‘treatment.’”
Just last week, five more people ― four with ties to MSU and one Dinondale, MI gymnastics club owner ― were added to one of the civil lawsuits. According to The Detroit News, the lawsuit claims that the five people knew about the alleged abuse and could have stopped it.
After reading the accounts of many of Nassar’s survivors, one theme resonates: They all trusted Nassar; their coaches trusted Nassar; their parents trusted Nassar.
As the first woman to accuse Nassar of abuse, known only as Jane Doe, told IndyStar in September: “It felt like a privilege to be seen by him. I trusted him.”
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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Colleges across the U.S. continue to be plagued with fliers promoting racism.
On Monday, multiple fliers posted by members of Vanguard America ― a white supremacy group ― were found on the University of Maryland Campus.
“A notice to all white Americans,” one flier read. “It is your civic duty to report any and all illegal aliens. …They are criminals. America is a white nation.”
“Carry the torch of your people,” another said. It was the third time in three months that fliers were found on the campus, according to The Washington Post.
Similar fliers were found the same day at George Washington University in D.C.
“I cannot believe this is taking place today in the U.S., let alone on a college campus in a liberal city like D.C.,” Corey Garlick, a law student, told The Washington Post.
“America is, by right and history, a White nation,” Vanguard America says on its website. “It deserves to stay that way, and it deserves a political system that realizes and preserves the essence of its unique people in all forms.”
In a statement to The Post, Vanguard America said they were hoping to “raise awareness” of white supremacy.
Since President Donald Trump’s election, hate-filled fliers have been found on college campuses in states including Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma. At the University of Hartford, Connecticut, an email was sent to members of the school community in February saying that “White America is under attack.”
The Anti-Defamation League has catalogued more than 100 incidents of racist fliers being found on more than 60 campuses across 25 states. The ADL said they have seen a surge in fliers since January.
Rosanne Hoaas, a spokeswoman for the University of Maryland Police Department, told The Washington Post they will review security cameras to find those responsible for the most recent fliers.
“We are concerned and are investigating these acts as hate/bias incidents,” she told the publication.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: HuffPost Black Voices
News of an Oprah Winfrey-led cast for the movie “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” has been circulating for some time now, and there’s finally a trailer and a release date.
HBO on Wednesday uploaded a trailer for the movie, inspired by the true story of Henrietta Lacks, a cancer patient whose cells were used by doctors ― without her consent ― for research that would lead to life-saving advancements in the medical field like the polio vaccine and gene mapping.
The movie, directed by George C. Wolfe, follows the Lacks family as they seek acknowledgement and remediation for the unauthorized use of their mother’s cells, known as HeLa cells.
The movie is based on the 2010 best-selling book of the same name by journalist Rebecca Skloot.
Winfrey plays Lack’s daughter Deborah, who works closely with Skloot, played by Rose Byrne, to seek justice for her mother.
The movie will premiere on HBO on Saturday, April 22, at 8 pm.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Afro-Dominicana artist Zahira Kelly went so many years without seeing images that acknowledged her ethnic identity, she felt she hardly existed.
When she finally “gave birth” to herself, as she puts it, she documented the start of her evolution in a 2011 blog post titled “If I don’t exist in your historic & present consciousness or books or media, do I really exist?”
But the most standout work to come from the 34-year-old Bronx native, who now resides in Georgia, would be her art. Kelly’s illustrations, paintings and digital prints capture the patterns of objectification, ostracism and oppression that countless black women have experienced.
From images that praise the art of twerking to women finding their self-worth in the wake of toxic romantic relationships, Kelly unapologetically places the glories, woes and ironies of black womanhood front and center in her work.
Warning: the following images contain nudity and graphic content.
In her latest collection, the Nude Series, she created three works of art (one of which is above) that are a combination of drawing, watercolor, graphic illustration and photography. They not only illustrate the beauty of black women, but also contain proclamations of self-love, something we often have to fight to maintain.
Kelly ― who also created the 2016 hashtag #MaybeHeDoesn’tHitYou to emphasize the insidious nature of emotional partner abuse ― said the above painting, titled “I’m Too Good For You,” was inspired by the frequent mistreatment she’s seen women around her endure.
“I just know so many black women who are dealing with so much dehumanization at every level of life, romantically, at work, just in general. Society doesn’t really value black women,” Kelly told The Huffington Post earlier this week.
“We’re sort of internalizing it,” she said. “But the point of the [painting] is … we’re just all too f**king good for it.”
One of Kelly’s earlier works illustrates the burden of constantly being devalued by external forces. The painting, titled “Inconvenient,” was a visual manifestation of a graphic dream that Kelly had a couple of years ago.
“I was watching [this woman] and I could tell that she was used to feeling pain and at some point, she sort of felt it was her position in life,” Kelly said of the dream. “So she just started gutting herself.”
She said the vividness of the dream stuck with her, partly because it was symbolic of her tendency at the time to stifle her own self-worth to “comply with the rest of the world.”
“We are used to cutting ourselves down for everyone else and then we just start doing it even if no one else is around,” she said.
While Kelly has said that her art is simply a reflection of her experiences, for a number of black women, it’s a mirror into our own.
More of her artwork can be seen below:
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Between 6:55 a.m and 8:14 a.m ET on Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump sent out five tweets.
Four of the tweets dealt with the typical stuff, like tax returns, the auto industry, CEOs, “FAKE NEWS” and the like. But one tweet stood out among the rest. That tweet was about Snoop Dogg.
He sent a few more tweets out afterward. Like this:
And like that:
And like this:
And, uh ― then it went silent for a while.
But exactly 40 minutes after the president posted his final tweet, the official POTUS Twitter account literally copied, pasted and published the same exact Snoop Dogg tweet.
For those wondering, exactly 1 hour and 52 minutes passed between the time of the two Snoop Dogg tweets in question. That means that the president ― nay, the leader of the free world! ― likely spent almost two hours of his day thinking about the rapper, instead of, say, the millions of people who stand to lose their health care under a newly proposed Republican plan.
What did Snoop Dogg do to warrant such antipathy? He released a music video in which he shoots a prop gun with a flag that says “BANG” at a clown who looks a whole lot like President Trump.
Uh, yeah, believe it or not, that’s it. That’s the whole story, and that’s why the president believes Snoop Dogg might be headed to jail in an alternative world in which the president is still Barack Obama.
This is not the rap beef we want. Is it the rap beef we deserve? No. No one deserves this.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices
These days #CoupleGoals gets thrown around when Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend barely lift a finger (see: John helping drunk Chrissy remove her jewelry after the Grammys), but this time the two are more than deserving of the hashtag.
Earlier this month, the supermodel opened up about her struggle with postpartum depression after welcoming daughter Luna in an essay for Glamour magazine. Now, Legend is speaking out about supporting his wife day by day through the difficult time.
“For me as a husband, it was my job to do the best I could to support her and understand what she was going through and do whatever I could do to help her. I feel like that’s the least I could do,” Legend told People.
The Grammy winner also gave advice on understanding postpartum depression to other husbands or boyfriends who might find themselves in his position.
“[As a man] you don’t know internally what it feels like. You should read about it and understand what it is and really just be there to help,” he continued. “You need to be present and you need to be compassionate. And we’re all learning and trying to figure it out as we go. At least do that and try to figure it out together.”
In her essay, Teigen describes how her husband stood by her side through some of her lowest moments. When she couldn’t even leave the couch for days, Legend would made things a little better by “bringing me my medicine and watching horrible reality TV with me.”
“John has been incredible over the last nine months,” she wrote. “He wants me to be happy, silly, and energetic again, but he’s not making me feel bad when I’m not in that place.”
Despite the sometimes maddening attention that comes with being open about parenting and their relationship, Legend couldn’t be prouder of Teigen for sharing her story, one that many women around the world can relate to.
“I’m glad she wrote about it,” he told People. “I think it was powerful for her to let a lot of women know they’re not alone, and no matter how much money you have or fame, anybody can feel that. And it’s hard for anybody no matter how successful you are and how many resources you have.”
Now, once more with feeling: #CoupleGoals.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Seth Meyers pulled no punches Tuesday when it came to discussing Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) recent tweet lauding white nationalism.
The “Late Night” host noted how the post ― in which King stated that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies” ― had earned a “shout-out” from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to explain why people were calling it “overtly racist.”
“As a general rule of thumb, when the former grand wizard of the K.K.K. chimes in to say he agrees with you, it’s time to re-examine your stance,” Meyers said.
The late night host retorted that Beyoncé’s unborn twins may actually save civilization. He also suggested that King may have now surpassed “the guy who wrote Cujo” as now being the world’s “scariest Stephen King.”
Check out the full segment above.
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Source: HuffPost Black Voices
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is holding off on commenting on President Donald Trump’s administration. At least, for now.
On Tuesday, the scientist told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert that “lately people are just talking” about the government’s scientific policies and that he couldn’t “chase what people say because it flutters with the breeze.”
Tyson examined Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s claim that carbon dioxide emissions are not to blame for global warming ― a theory that goes against the vast majority of scientific thinking. Then he shared his future plan of action.
“I will act when they actually try to put legislation into place,” he told Colbert. ”If he puts down some legislation that requires that everyone think that, ooof, hold me back, oh, because then…”
Check out the full interview above.
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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Source: HuffPost Black Voices