• Women

by Derek Major

October 21, 2022

Former Black Planned Parenthood Employee Sues Organization Claiming Racial Discrimination

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A former senior employee at Planned Parenthood sued the organization Wednesday claiming it racially discriminated against her.

According to the New York Times, Nicole Moore, who spent 2020 and 2021 as Planned Parenthood’s director of multicultural brand engagement, said she was expected to take on more work than her white colleagues. Moore said she was denied opportunities to advance in the organization and was retaliated against when she raised concerns.

In her suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Moore described instances where she was humiliated in public and berated by a supervisor in front of co-workers. She said her work was geared toward reaching Black and Hispanic females and she said she was undervalued and understaffed.

Moore added that when she took her concerns to leaders at Planned Parenthood she was retaliated against and eventually fired.

“I feel that I am being discriminated against as a result of me speaking up and speaking out about biased practices and inequity,” Moore wrote in an email, according to the Times.

“For asking questions about what seems to be a lack of equity and inclusion, I am being unfairly punished and accused of undermining senior leadership.”

Moore’s suit is the latest racism allegations Planned Parenthood is facing.

According to BuzzFeed,  an internal survey revealed dozens of Black employees at the organization say they’ve faced racism while working there.

Additionally, Moore’s complaint says she was warned after she questioned why none of the Black employees in her 75-person department were promoted in 2021. Moore complained again when she realized she was expected to handle all of the Black events, including Black Maternal Health Week and she was assigned to handle Pride Month while white co-workers were given less work.

Moore added she was put on a performance improvement plan in Nov. 2020 and again in September 2021 before she was fired a month later.

Planned Parenthood denied the allegations through its Interim General Counsel Susan Manning.

“We strongly dispute the plaintiff’s allegations and categorically deny her claims of discrimination,” Manning said according to the Times. “Top priority for our dedicated staff is building a culture of diversity across the organization to fulfill our mission of reproductive health for all.”

The suit adds to the concerns for Planned Parenthood which has been in turmoil since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The organization has been forced to close clinics and discontinue abortion services in states that have outlawed abortion and is involved in legal actions in many of these states to prevent abortion bans from being enforced.

Another racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against Planned Parenthood earlier this year on behalf of Moore’s former supervisor  Ilana Gamza-Machado de Souza, who claims she was fired after complaining about instances of antisemitism.

Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant is teaming up with Los Angeles Laker, LeBron James, and Golden State Warrior, Draymond Green!

No, not as teammates.

Durant is the latest NBA player to invest in Major League Pickleball.

Along with his Thirty Five Ventures (35V) partner, Rich Kleiman, Durant, according to Major League Pickleball (MLP) , invested in the league by purchasing an expansion team. The team will be participating in the 2023 season.

“35V is committed to investing in the future of sports and emerging opportunities and Major League Pickleball is a league we are incredibly excited about,” said Kleiman in a written statement. “We can’t wait to build this team from the ground up as well as work to elevate the sport and the league to unprecedented heights. As an avid pickleball player and fan, the interest in the sport was a natural fit.”

Pickleball combines various elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong and is played indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court with a slightly modified tennis net.

“Kevin Durant, Rich Kleiman, and 35V are going to be game-changing partners for Major League Pickleball,” said MLP Founder and CEO Steve Kuhn. “They not only bring passion for the game, but also unrivaled expertise to help us to continue to grow. We’re especially excited about their plans to bring pickleball to underserved communities – something they have done with basketball for years.”

Last month, future Hall of Famer, James, connected with two other NBA champions, Green and Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, in a new ownership group when they joined Major League Pickleball.

Major League Pickleball has 16 teams in the United States. In 2023, there will be six tournaments across six cities for more than $2 million in prizes.

Durant and Kleiman have invested in several sports properties this year.

35V made an investment in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), which was reported earlier this year. Back in May, N.J./N.Y. Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) announced that Durant’s company had become a minority investor in the team.

• Sports

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

October 21, 2022

NBA Referee Tony Brown Dies at 55 of Pancreatic Cancer

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A well-liked NBA referee recently passed away after losing his battle with cancer.

The NBA announced that longtime NBA official Tony Brown passed away on Thursday after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 55 years of age. His family and friends were by his side when he died.

R.I.P. Tony man!! Great ref but greater dude! Loved when I ran on the court for warmups and he would be on the game that night! Your smile & laugh will be missed tremendously here in our sport! 🙏🏾🤎👑 https://t.co/JI23eZczTi

— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 21, 2022

“We are and have been sustained by the consistent outpouring of love and support through this journey in developing strength, acceptance and peace,” said Brown’s wife, Tina Brown, in a written statement.

“We ask that you join us in that spirit as we prepare to celebrate Tony’s life. Our biggest thank you to our village of family and friends, near and far, old and new. Your love is immeasurable. Thanks to the Lustgarten Foundation and PanCan. Keep striving for the cures. Many, many thanks to our NBRA and NBA family whose generosity is unmatched. And a very special thank you to the Emory/Bridgeway Hospice Unit. Your compassion and care went above and beyond. We are forever grateful!”

During his career as an NBA referee, Brown officiated 1,110 regular-season games and 35 playoff games over 20 seasons. He made his NBA Finals debut three years ago during the 2019-20 season. As an HBCU alumnus who graduated from Clark Atlanta University, Brown was a member of the officiating crew for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game that took place in Atlanta, which honored HBCUs.

The Associated Press reported that Brown was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer last April. Treatment went so well that he returned to work in the NBA Replay Center last season. His family said he had recently entered hospice care in Atlanta before he passed.

“Tony Brown was one of the most accomplished referees in the NBA and an inspiration to his colleagues,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “After his pancreatic cancer diagnosis early last year, Tony fought courageously through countless rounds of treatment to return to work this past season at the NBA Replay Center, demonstrating the dedication, determination and passion that made him such a highly respected official for 20 years. The entire NBA family mourns Tony’s passing and we send our deepest condolences to his wife, Tina; their children, Bailey, Basile and Baylen; and his fellow referees.”

R&B singer and philanthropist John Legend is known for romance and the love he sings about in his music. Yet the crooner admitted he “wasn’t a great partner” to wife Chrissy Teigen when they started dating.

According to Vanity Fair, in a recent podcast interview, Legend revealed that he wasn’t the man he portrayed in his songs. While appearing on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Legend said he wasn’t prepared to be as committed as he is now to Teigen.

“I think I was more selfish then,” he said. “I wasn’t a great partner at the beginning of our relationship. Even though I was very into her and very excited to be with her. I was still selfish. I was in my mid-20s, still not ready to fully be the committed partner that I am now.”

Legend and Teigen met in 2006 on the set of a music video. The couple married in 2013 and now have two children,6-year-old daughter, Luna, and 4-year-old son, Miles.

“When you stop being so selfish when you think about not only the joy you get from a situation and the pleasure you get from it, but also think about your responsibility and your commitment in that situation, you just grow and you mature,” Legend said. “Part of it is it’s just a matter of time. You need time to become that person you want to be.”

The couple is currently expecting their third child. Two years ago, Teigen suffered a miscarriage. Last month, Teigen admitted that it had actually been a life-saving abortion.

Teigen said she didn’t completely understand that she had an abortion until having a conversation with Legend. The model said she told Legend after Roe v. Wade was overturned that she felt sorry for the women who had to make tough decisions when Legend reminded her that she was describing herself.

A YouTube personality and rapper who is dating The Little Mermaid actress Halle Bailey is speaking out after a comedian/actress took aim at him.

Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr., a YouTube personality who goes by the moniker PontiacMadeDDG and/or DDG has responded to Insecure actor Amanda Seales‘ suggestion that Grown-ish actress Bailey should leave him.

In a Vlad TV interview, DDG was asked about Seales’ comment regarding Berry breaking up with him after he commented on the controversy of Bailey playing the title role of the upcoming feature film The Little Mermaid. DDG made headlines and received backlash after saying, “I didn’t know people was this racist. I didn’t know this was a thing, I thought this s**t was gone already. I thought Martin Luther King [Jr.] canceled that s**t out. This s**t is crazy.”

Seales wasn’t here for it and side-eyed that comment, suggesting Bailey distance herself from her boyfriend by breaking up with him.

“I thought that was lame,” DDG said about Seales’ comment. “I don’t even know who that is, and that’s not no disrespectful s**t, I genuinely do not know who that woman is.”

He did acknowledge how popular the social media post was.

“Hella engagement on that post though. I seen that b**ch. I’m like, ‘Ten thousand comments? F**k is this?’ How old is she? Why would you even be speaking on a young relationship like that?”

Still bewildered at her suggesting Bailey break up with him, he then asks, “How old is she? Why would you even be speaking on a young relationship like that?”

When the interviewer stated she was 41, he then quipped, “At your big age, that’s how you’re talking about a 24-year-old and 22-year-old dating?”

The whole thing started when the trailer for The Little Mermaid was released. Mostly white people complained publicly that, in essence, a white actress should be playing the fictional animated character. In response to the criticism, DDG responded with the Martin Luther King Jr. joke.

Based on that response, Seales responded, via her Instagram account by saying, “She might not get an STD, but she’s going to get STS- sexually transmitted stupidity.”

The Shade Room reposted the video clip.

 

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• Celebrity News

by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

October 21, 2022

Isaiah Washington Felt Aaliyah ‘Was In Control’ When Engaging With R. Kelly

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The relationship between troubled songwriter and R&B singer R. Kelly and the late Aaliyah has always been a controversial topic. Although the young singer died in a helicopter crash in 2001, their romance is still talked about.

Former Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington recently said something in an interview that caused heads to swirl.

Washington appeared on Vlad TV to discuss a variety of topics; Aaliyah was one of them. Controversy surrounded the romance between Kelly and Aaliyah because they were married when Kelly was 27 and the young songbird was only 15. Kelly met her at the age of 12 before working with her.

The actor claimed Aaliyah was “super smart” and “very in control.” Even at that young age, Washington felt she was mature.

“She was very complex. She was easy to love,” Washington told Vlad.

“I can’t judge the choices she made in her life. She was very in control of her being. But she was a businesswoman, too. She was super smart. I think she was in control of that situation even at her age. 100 percent.”

When Vlad reiterated that she was still a teenager at 15, Washington didn’t back down from the comment.

“Oh yeah, I say she was mature beyond her age. Like that song, “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.” She was 15 going on 30, so she was in control of that whole situation. I don’t judge her, but she was very smart and very mature and very in control of her situation. I don’t believe one minute that Aaliyah was made to do anything that Aaliyah didn’t want to do.”

Washington, who worked with the songstress when they both appeared in the movie Romeo Must Die, also admitted that he had a crush on her, although she was 21 at the time of the filming.

“I can see why people fall in love with her,” he said. “She was just a beautiful human being…We never got into an argument about anything.”

Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o was cast to play a central role in Viola Davis’s latest film, The Woman King. But it took a documentary Nyong’o did about the tribe portrayed in the movie to change her mind.

Nyong’o dropped out of the film back in 2020. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of her starring role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Nyong’o explained how she was booked to play an Agojie warrior in the historical epic Davis starred in and produced.

After being cast, Nyong’o ended up making a short documentary on the Agojie tribe called Warrior Women With Lupita Nyong’o. The film, which The Hollywood Reporter describes as N’yongo dealing “uncomfortably with the tribe’s legacy of violence,” led to her early exit from The Woman King.

“It was very amicable, the departure from it,” Nyong’o said. “But I felt it wasn’t the role for me to play.”

While the film centers on Davis’ character, General Nanisca, attempt to convince the king (John Boyega) to stop participating in the European slave trade, the Agojie tribe still has a scarred history for aiding the Kingdom of Dahomey in participating and profiting off the slave trade.

Following the film’s release, #BoycottWomanKing trended on Twitter as many expressed backlash over the tribe being glamorized in Hollywood despite their history, Indie Wire reported.

“It created all sorts of internal conflict, and we don’t hesitate in visiting that within the film,” producer Cathy Schulman said.

In addition to turning down The Woman King, Nyong’o also exited the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lady in the Lake.

“I’m desperate for small projects,” Nyong’o said.

“They’re harder to get off the ground, they’re harder to stay on track. Bigger movies elbow them out of the way. The pandemic and the fiscal stress on the industry has made it even harder for those movies to get made.”

• Lifestyle

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

October 21, 2022

50 Cent Responds to His Estranged Son’s Request for Father-Son Meet Up: ‘You Don’t Call TMZ’

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50 Cent is responding to his son Marquise Jackson’s social media call for a truce on their yearslong family feud and believes his eldest son “doesn’t” really want to reconnect.

The hip hop mogul appeared on The Breakfast Club on Wednesday to speak openly about ending his relationship with Starz, his new music and partnerships, and the trending attention on his scarred relationship with his son.

When Charlamagne asked 50 about sitting down with his son Marquise to squash their beef, the Power Universe producer said, “No he doesn’t.”

“See, Charlamagne, you would call me. You don’t call TMZ to say you want to sit down,” 50 explained.

“Think about it, man. You know, he wants some attention, and it’s okay he can have as much of that as he wants,” he added.

The Get Rich or Die Tryin rapper explained why he thinks Marquise has been “trained” by his mother to believe that 50 has been a poor father “for a long time.”

“You don’t just wake up and say, ‘Oh well I don’t believe what I’ve been believing forever,’” he continued.

“When I said that he’s entitled, really it’s his Mom’s entitlement but it’s been filtered.”

Referencing the child support 50 paid for his son that was decreased following a court battle with his ex Shaniqua Tompkins, the rapper explained why things went sour.

“I told you I was giving half a million dollars a year, they go through the paperwork they see half a million dollars a year,” he said. “At that point, she still was expecting more.”

“This is why I took out child support. You don’t usually sign up for child support, like, I took myself to child support,” 50 continued. “Because she wasn’t understanding that I’m already giving you more than you’re supposed to get.”

50 noted how he doesn’t feel the “pressure or resentment that men feel with child support,” because he enjoys taking care of his children “when the problems happen.”

The rapper/actor agreed with Angela Yee’s comparison between his son, who turned 26 this month, and that of Power Book III: Raising Kanan.

“It’s really like him, the kid has been sheltered,” 50 said of his son.

“If you mailed someone a million dollars, right, and [they] have zero respect for you, how much you think you got to give them before they have a little bit?”

50’s latest comments come after Marquise offered his father $6,700 to spend time with him. The amount was the same amount Marquise said wasn’t enough but was what his famous father paid in child support.

After 50 made a mockery of his son’s comments in a video, Marquise spoke with TMZ and said he wants to “restore the situation.”

• Politics

by Derek Major

October 21, 2022

Republicans In Louisiana Want Supreme Court To Change The Definition of a Black Person

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A Supreme Court battle over new congressional maps created by Republicans in Louisiana is questioning who is a Black voter.

NPR reports the maps, which were created after the 2020 Census, and the fate of the maps rests with the High Court’s decision in Merrill v. Milligan, which could set a precedent for future lawsuits concerning Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Lower courts in cases in both Alabama and Louisiana determined the maps were drawn in a way that discriminated against Black voters, a violation of Section 2 Voting Rights Act giving minority groups  “less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”

However, GOP officials in both states pushed back against the findings by questioning the definition of Blackness that has been the standard in cases focused on Black America’s voting power.

According to a 2003 Supreme Court ruling, the definition of “Black” includes every person who identifies as Black on census forms including people who identify as Black and any other race such as White, Asian or Latino.

Republican officials in Alabama are now calling for a narrower definition of what qualifies as a Black voter that does not include people who also identify with another race. They’ve argued in lower court filings that limiting the definition to those who just mark the “Black” on census forms and do not identify as Latino would be the “most defensible.”

In the Louisiana case, Ardoin v. Robinson, Republican officials argued for the definition to only include those who check just the Black box or both Black and White and do not identify as Latino.

Alabama dropped its push to redefine Blackness before appealing to the Supreme Court, but Republicans in the Louisiana including Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, have asked the High Court to weigh in on which definition should be used in future Section 2 cases.

The situation is reminiscent of other tactics Southern states have used, including Jim Crow laws and current election restriction bills to suppress Black voters.

If the High Court rules in Louisiana’s favor, it could make it nearly impossible to use Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to challenge district maps in the future.

Redistricting experts told NPR who counts as a Black voter in district maps has not been up for debate since the 2003 ruling.

“It was thought to be settled,” Morgan Kousser, professor emeritus of history and social science at the California Institute of Technology, told NPR.

In Louisiana, however, Republican state officials say the 2003 case heard by the Supreme Court, which deals with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, shouldn’t apply to Section 2 and that a narrower definition of who a Black voter is would “prevent state actors from artificially inflating the minority counts of their redistricting plans.”

Both arguments failed in lower courts.