Tag: Black Voices

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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

“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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

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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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

A panel of federal judges in San Antonio ruled Friday that some of Texas’ congressional districts are unconstitutional or violate the Voting Rights Act.

A 2-1 majority in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas decided that the Texas legislature must redraw Texas’ 23rd, 27th and 35th Congressional Districts. The 23rd and 27th districts are represented by Republicans, while the 35th is represented by a Democrat.

“This Court finds that map-drawers acted with an impermissible intent to dilute minority voting strength or otherwise violated the Fourteenth Amendment,” judges Xavier Rodriguez and Orlando Garcia wrote in their opinion.

Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez praised the decision in a statement.

“The federal court further confirmed what we’ve known all along: Texas intentionally discriminated to disenfranchise Latino and African-American voters,” said Perez, who previously challenged states’ voting laws as head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division. “We need a robust program at the DNC that protects all voters and fights back against attempts to limit access to the ballot box.”

Texas can still challenge the decision at the Supreme Court, but the ruling gives Democrats hope that they can compete on a more favorable map in 2018.

Democrats have also had some success recently challenging Republican gerrymandering of legislative districts. That has consequences not just for state lawmaking, but the next round of congressional redistricting after 2020.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to reconsider whether the gerrymandering of the state’s legislative districts discriminated against African-Americans by attempting to dilute their political influence.

In January, a federal court ordered the Wisconsin legislatures to redraw their legislative districts so they do not favor Republicans as much. 

And a federal court ruled in January that 12 of Alabama’s legislative districts were unconstitutional due to their racial makeup as well.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has found herself at the center of a controversy over gender identity after comments she made about transgender women during an interview, which can be viewed in the clip above, recently went viral.

Speaking earlier this week with the U.K.’s Channel 4, Adichie, who is promoting her new book Dear Ijeawele Or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, said, “When people talk about, ‘Are trans women women?’ my feeling is trans women are trans women.” 

Her argument appears to stem from her idea that because many trans women have been assigned and raised male from birth until whatever point they decided to transition, she believes the male privilege they may have received fundamentally sets their experiences apart from those of cisgender women.

“I think the whole problem of gender in the world is about our experiences,” she said. “It’s not about how we wear our hair or whether we have a vagina or a penis. It’s about the way the world treats us, and I think if you’ve lived in the world as a man with the privileges that the world accords to men and then sort of change gender, it’s difficult for me to accept that then we can equate your experience with the experience of a woman who has lived from the beginning as a woman and who has not been accorded those privileges that men are.”

While she did also add that she supports transgender people’s existence, saying they should be “allowed to be,” she ultimately asserts that their experiences should not be “conflated” with women’s experiences. 

“I don’t think it’s a good thing to talk about women’s issues being exactly the same as the issues of trans women because I don’t think that’s true,” she said.

Adichie, who is perhaps best known for her critically and commercially acclaimed book Americanah and a guest spot on Beyoncé’s track “Flawless,” was almost immediately called out on Twitter for her comments.

Raquel Willis, a Black queer transgender activist and the communications associate for Transgender Law Center, offered an especially thoughtful and nuanced response to Adichie’s comments via a series of tweets she posted on Friday night:

Adichie did not immediately reply to a request from The Huffington Post regarding the comments she made during her Channel 4 interview.

Update: Adichie posted the following comments on her Facebook page on Saturday morning:

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Ciara assured fans she’s OK after being involved in a car accident Friday.

The star, who’s currently pregnant with her second child, was making a left turn in her Mercedes SUV while driving in Los Angeles when a gray Volvo SUV struck the vehicle’s passenger side, TMZ reported. Photos show Ciara walking around and using her cell phone after the incident.

A representative told TMZ, “The driver was illegally in the bus lane and hit the right side of her car.” According to E! News, neither Ciara nor the other driver sustained any injuries.

After the accident, both Ciara and husband Russell Wilson went on Twitter to assure fans the singer was uninjured and experienced no harm to her unborn child.

Ciara and Wilson first announced they were expecting their first child together in October 2016, just three months after their wedding. Ciara has one son, Future Zahir, with ex-fiancée Future. The mom recently posted a video in which her 2-year-old son and husband share a message in support of women’s equality.

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices

It looks like the wait for new Frank Ocean music wasn’t nearly as long as the gap between 2012’s “Channel Orange” and 2016’s “Blonde” and “Endless.”

The singer sent fans into the weekend with a smooth new track, “Chanel,” which he debuted Friday night on his Beats 1 show, “blonded RADIO.”

“My guy pretty like a girl / And he got fight stories to tell / I see on both sides like Chanel / See on both sides like Chanel,” he sings at the top of the track. The lyrics tackle intimacy with a lover, sexuality, fame and success.

The song played 18 times during the two-hour radio show — including a remixed version featuring A$AP Rocky, according to Rolling Stone.

The artist was also recently featured on Calvin Harris’ new song, “Slide,” alongside Migos.

Ocean shared two images on his Tumblr after the release.

His fans were, naturally, unprepared for a new song so soon after “Blonde” and “Endless.”

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Source: HuffPost Black Voices