Hill Harper Said Pro-Israel Donor Offered Him $20M To Run Against Rep. Rashida Tlaib
Harper Hill said he won't be "bought" after rejecting the offer to mount a primary challenge against Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Hill Harper, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, rejected a donor’s $20 million offer to mount a primary challenge against Rep. Rashida Tlaib and ending his Senate bid.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, represents Michigan’s 12th Congressional District. Tlaib made history in 2008 by becoming the first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan Legislature.
The actor—now politician—known for his role as Dr. Sheldon Hawkes in CSI: NYissued a statement regarding the offer on social media platform X. He did not identify the donor. Although his campaign spokesperson, Karthik Ganapathy, name-dropped businessman Linden Nelson as the donor who offered the lump sum, according to CNN Politics.
It has been reported that Nelson has ties to the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The first-time candidate is turning a negative into a positive by using his slogan that he will not be “bossed, bullied, or bought,” to raise campaign funds. The page on ActBlue lists donation amounts between $5 and $500. There is also an option for people to write in any amount that they wish to donate. People wishing to donate must be U.S. citizens at least 18 years of age and cannot be federal contractors. Additionally, the funds must come directly from the person and cannot be from another individual or entity. This means the person making the donation must also use their own credit card and not one from a business or a card issued to someone else.
Harper’s campaign manager spoke to CNN after Hill refused to comment on the matter via a phone call on Nov. 22. Harper referred the news outlet to Ganapathy, who said that Nelson, a businessman in Michigan, contacted Harper on Oct. 16. CNN Politics reported that Nelson’s $20 million offer was broken down to a proposed $10 million in contributions and $10 million in independent expenditures, according to Ganapathy.
Under federal law, Harper, who is also known for his role as Dr. Marcus Andrews in The Good Doctor, is limited to the amount of monetary support he accepts. According to the Federal Election Commission, “the limit on contributions made by certain political party committees to Senate candidates (increased to $57,800 per campaign) (52 U.S.C. § 30116(h)).”
Bianca Censori’s Family Reportedly ‘Embarrased’ By Scandalous Image Influenced By Kanye West
Censori's loved ones have reportedly been trying to convince her to end her relationship with Ye for months.
Family members of Kanye West’s second wife, Bianca Censori, are not pleased with the public image the rapper has created for the 28-year-old Australian architect.
A source told The U.S. Sun that the revealing outfits have been a primary concern of the family as members advise Censori to reconsider the relationship with the 46-year-old rapper.
“There was a point some months ago when Ye and Bianca were supposed to meet up with her family, but they were not happy with his antics at all,” the source said. The family was reportedly uncomfortable with the revealing outfits West styles her in. “The meetup never happened and I heard it was because they were embarrassed by her extreme naked fashion and the drama surrounding her trip to Italy,” the source added.
Daily Mail reported that Censori reunited with friends who allegedly orchestrated an intervention in November, to encourage her to “wake the f**k up.” The Australian designer reportedly told her friends she was fully aware of her husband’s controlling behavior. The intervention came amid Censori’s frustration with her friends who she previously labeled as jealous and told one to “f**k off” when they expressed that her husband was trying to manipulate her into a radicalized version of his former wife Kim Kardashian.
In October, an insider revealed to Daily Mail that “Kanye has a set of rules for Bianca, which includes never speak and wear what he wants her to wear.” The “Gold Digger” rapper also allegedly controls what Censori eats and how much she works out, “even though Kanye doesn’t work out.”
Censori is allegedly uninterested in the concerns from her loved ones.
During the couple’s September getaway, Censori flaunted a nude stocking catsuit throughout the streets of Germany.
Kanye West bundles up in all-black ensemble while 'wife' Bianca Censori models another risqué body stocking as they visit art exhibition in Germany https://t.co/VNUq2A4HIA
Ye’s wife was photographed in Europe wearing a hosiery-inspired look in August. In May, Censori had the Internet’s attention when photos surfaced of her modeling for a new Yeezy promo.
Kanye West's Wife Bianca Censori Nearly Nude, Models New Yeezy Fashion Line https://t.co/YeHTYxL9a7
Social media users have also slammed Ye for the way he dresses his new wife. A user on Instagram commented under a post of the Italy photos, “Remember Kanye didn’t want KimK dressing in such seductive clothing she was wearing because he was a Christian man? What happened to that rule with his new wife???”
After Censori returned to Australia with friends and family during a brief “breakup,” Page Six reported the couple may have reconciled, according to videos that surfaced this week of the two dancing around with celebrities at the Royal Atlantis hotel in Dubai.
Cornel West Focuses Presidential Campaign On Michigan
Cornel West is focusing his campaign efforts in Michigan to garner support from communities disenchanted with President Joe Biden.
Independent presidential candidate Cornel West is focusing his campaign efforts in Michigan to garner support from communities disenchanted with President Joe Biden, according to Politico. West plans to engage with Arab American voters in Dearborn, environmental activists in Flint, and connect with college students and indigenous populations.
“By speaking to Michiganders, we will be speaking to pretty much the entire country at the same time,” said Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, West’s co-campaign manager. “This is a very critical state. Whoever wins that state is going to be the president.”
Rogers-Wright emphasized their strategy, saying, “We’re following the lead of young folk and Arab Americans in a pivotal state who themselves have said they wouldn’t be voting for President Biden if the election was tomorrow. The same can be said by people in the environmental justice community.”
West, running as an unaffiliated independent after previous bids with the People’s Party and Green Party, aims to address Biden’s challenges with minority voters. Recent polling indicates a decline in Biden’s support among non-white voters in key swing states, including Michigan, where 22% of Black voters reportedly back Trump, marking a notable shift.
“People are looking for not just leadership, but they’re looking for statespersons,” West said. “They’re tired of these garden variety politicians.”
Moreover, Biden faces criticism for his stance on Israel’s strikes on Gaza, with West positioning himself as a candidate bringing “sanity and sensitivity” to the issue.
“We’re the only major candidate, I think, who’s bringing any kind of sanity and sensitivity to the suffering in Gaza,” West said. “Just strikes me that all the other three major candidates are living in a Neolithic Age when it comes to dealing with what’s going on in the Middle East. They would take us back, and I’m the only one who would take us forward.”
Looks Like NFL Hall Of Famer Warren Sapp Will Join Deion Sanders’ Coaching Staff
The defensive specialist has already interacted with the CU players during the season.
In September, NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp stated that he had been so impressed with the way his fellow Hall of Famer Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders has been succeeding as a coach at the college level, that he wanted to join his staff. Now, Coach Prime is giving him his wish as he will be joining the team.
On his talk show recently, Sanders revealed that the former defensive player, who was feared when he played in the NFL, will be helping the college players at the University of Colorado Boulder. With only one football game left in the season, it is assumed that Sapp will be on staff for the next season, though no details on when Sapp will start were given.
“I’m excited about Coach Sapp. He’s a dear friend that I love to life, and he’s going to be invaluable to what he brings to the table. The kids are going to love him. As far as the recruits, as well, they’re going to love him.”
It’s been reported that the former defensive tackle has been at several Buffaloes games this season and has already been interacting with the players at the school.
In September, he appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and expressed excitement about being admired by the college students.
“Them kids, you know what, for the first time in my life, I was loved on by some defensive linemen, and they wanted to know, like, the keys to the vault,” Sapp told Eisen. “I had five, six young men around me, Rich, that was basically ready to strip search me like ‘I know that there’s a key in there, somewhere, that you’re gonna give me.’”
He added that he was making the preparations to make sure he would be there for the young players for the upcoming season.
“I want to be there next year. I’m going to get everything, the paperwork, and I’m going to go to work. Because sitting on my couch watching tape, making ‘Sapp in the Lab.’ I’m gonna go Sapp into class. I’m gonna go Sapp online. I’m finna go get this degree. Then we’re gonna go out and teach these kids these five steps to the quarterback,” he said.
From the announcement that Sanders gave, it looks like the former Tamba Bay Buccaneer completed what was needed to become official.
The Buffaloes will play their last game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 25 at Salt Lake City. Even though the team has a losing record of 4-7, win or lose, they still posted a better record than last season when they were 1-11.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Faces Third Sexual Assault Lawsuit; R&B Star Aaron Hall Named in Suit
Jane Doe alleges that Combs and R&B star Aaron Hall took turns raping her and a friend in 1990 or 1991.
Another woman has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs and a fellow artist of sexual assault and rape in a lawsuit filed Nov. 23 under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, according to Deadline.
The latest anonymous plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, alleges that Combs and R&B star Aaron Hall took turns raping her and a friend in 1990 or 1991, further claiming that Combs physically assaulted her again just days later, The Daily Beast reported.
In a New York Supreme Court filing obtained by Rolling Stone, an anonymous woman recounted her encounter with Diddy and Hall, which began at an MCA Records event in New York City. The lawsuit also named MCA and Geffen Records as additional defendants for their alleged role in enabling the assaults.
According to the legal documents, during the event, “Combs and Hall were very flirtatious and handsy with Jane Doe and her friend, offering them drinks throughout the night.” Subsequently, the group retired to Hall’s apartment, where “Jane Doe was offered more drinks and was coerced into having sex with Combs.”
Afterward, the lawsuit claims “Jane Doe laid in bed, shocked and traumatized. As she was in the process of getting dressed, Hall barged into the room, pinned her down, and forced Jane Doe to have sex with him.” Hall, a member of the R&B group Guy, known for pioneering the “New Jack Swing” sound, is implicated in the lawsuit.
These allegations come amidst a flurry of legal actions against high-profile figures, including Jamie Foxx, Axl Rose, and Cuba Gooding Jr., made possible by the one-year window provided by the Adult Survivors Act, allowing sexual assault plaintiffs to file civil claims irrespective of the statute of limitations. This window closed on Nov. 23.
Another lawsuit against Diddy was filed by Joi Dickerson-Neal on Nov. 22. Dickerson-Neal, then a Syracuse University student during the alleged 1991 assault, contended that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her, later engaging in “revenge porn,” resulting in what she claims are “substantial and lifetime injuries.”
“This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head,” said a spokesperson for Combs, who denied the allegations.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams Faces Sexual Assault Allegations
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is now confronting accusations of sexual assault from 1993, filed under the Adult Survivors Act.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing accusations of sexual assault, from an incident that allegedly occurred in 1993, in a lawsuit filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, just days before the statute of limitations is set to expire, reported CNN. According to a summons submitted in New York County Supreme Court, the plaintiff alleges that Adams sexually assaulted her in New York City while both were employed by the City of New York.
The filing encompasses charges of sexual assault, battery, employment discrimination, retaliation, a hostile work environment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A City Hall spokesperson responded to the allegations, stating, “The mayor does not know who this person is. If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it. But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim.”
The three-page document lists the City of New York, the New York Police Department’s Transit Bureau, and the New York City Police Department Guardians Association as additional defendants. While the summons outlines the claims, no detailed complaint has been provided.
These allegations are brought under the Adult Survivors Act, which, six months after its signing in May 2022, established a one-year look-back window for adult survivors of sexual offenses to sue their alleged abusers, even if the statute of limitations had expired. The look-back provision aims to provide victims of sexual abuse with an opportunity to pursue legal action, recognizing the often lengthy time it takes survivors to speak publicly about their experiences.
“The claims brought here allege intentional and negligent acts and omissions for physical, psychological, and other injuries suffered as a result of conduct that would constitute sexual offenses,” stated the summons. The unnamed plaintiff is seeking at least $5 million in damages.
As the legal process unfolds, the city’s legal department and the NYPD referred inquiries to City Hall, emphasizing the high-stakes nature of the accusations leveled against Mayor Adams.
Tiffany Haddish Arrested For Second DUI In Less Than 2 Years
The "Girls Trip" actress was charged with DUI in Beverly Hills after performing at The Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.
Stand-up comedian Tiffany Haddish has been arrested on charges of driving under the influence, just hours after performing at a Thanksgiving evening event.
According to TMZ, the Girls Trip actress was charged with DUI in Beverly Hills after doing a show at The Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Nov. 23. She was there for the venue’s 43rd annual free Thanksgiving feast. She allegedly was found sleeping at the wheel of her car.
The Beverly Hills Police Department stated that they received a phone call about someone slumped over their steering wheel with the car still running in the middle of the street at around 5:45 a.m. When officers arrived at the scene on Beverly Drive, they found Haddish there, placed her in handcuffs, and then arrested her.
This is not the first time she was involved in a scene similar to the morning of Nov. 24. In January 2022, the comedian was arrested for DUI when she was in Atlanta. The Peachtree City Police Department also received a phone call about someone sleeping behind the wheel of their vehicle. When they responded to the call and went to the area, they discovered Haddish going into a neighborhood. The police officers arrested her and charged her with DUI and improper stopping on a roadway.
In regard to the latest incident, she is slated to go to trial for that charge on Dec. 4.
This news takes place several days after she was handed a small victory in the lawsuit that her former friend, Trizah Morris, filed against her. Haddish requested that the lawsuit be heard in arbitration since Morris signed a non-disclosure agreement, and the judge granted Haddish her request.
Morris is suing Haddish for defamation. She claims that Aries Spears and Haddish defamed her publicly after her children successfully settled a sexual abuse case against them last September. After doing so, both comedians claim that Morris was trying to extort them. In February, Morris contacted their attorneys and requested they release a statement clearing her from the extortion claims. When they didn’t, she filed the current lawsuit.
Here is a Christmas present idea that you did not know you needed.
Hip-hop recording artist, Ice Spice can be in your home, well, sorta. The New York City-bred rapper has teamed up with Living Product to present her version of a Chia Pet, according to Complex.
“THE ICE SPICE CHIA PET BY LIVING PRODUCT
“LIMITED RUN AVAILABLE NOW ON LIVINGPRODUCT.WORLD AND AMAZON
The Chia Pet is available right now for $34.99 as the company has put out a call to all “munchkins.”
On the website, it states: “The superstar rapper’s iconic style is on full display as a terra cotta home planter, complete with pink jacket and her signature diamond chain. Just spread the seeds, water, and watch her grow leafy green hair!”
Complex reported that on the Ice Spice chia pet, the famous chia sprouts from the figurine will turn into her recognizable curly Afro. It is also embedded with the rapper’s iced-out chain and a pink hoodie.
“Like my lyrics say, ‘I’m breakin’ records and I’m breakin’ news,’” the 23-year-old said in a written statement. “I’m not sure who stole whose look, but I’m into it and am very excited about this fun partnership. Chia Pet is an iconic brand with a dope jingle—so we have that in common.”
The Ice Spice Chia Pet can also be purchased on Amazon.com and www.chia.com. Fans can also get the figurine on icespicemusic.com.
In September, the Bronx rapper collaborated with Dunkin Donuts to release the “Ice Spice Munchkin” drink. The signature drink was a blend of their frozen coffee with pumpkin munchkin donut hole treats infused with caramel drizzle and topped with whipped cream.
Tech’s Top Black Female Experts To Discuss Artificial Intelligence At Brookings Institute Panel
Some of the tech industry’s leading Black female AI experts will share their thoughts on the rise of AI.
This December, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings Institute is hosting a panel called “Black women in AI: Building a More Inclusive and Equitable Future,” centering on increasing diversity in artificial intelligence.
On Dec. 4, some of the tech industry’s leading Black female AI experts will convene to share their thoughts on the rise of artificial intelligence and how to build a more equitable system.
The panel discussion, which will be moderated by Brookings Senior Fellow and CTI Director Nicol Turner Lee, will cover how to incorporate inclusivity into AI design. It will also discuss why vulnerable communities need to remain at the forefront of the conversation as the technology continues to advance.
The power of AI has only grown in recent years, prompting new guidelines and regulations in hopes of protecting consumer interests. On Oct. 30, President Joe Biden issued an executive implementing new standards of security with hopes of ensuring Americans’ right to privacy and protection. While the technology comes with its own risks for all parties, Black people are especially vulnerable.
Majority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently touched on this vulnerability in a Black Media Artificial Intelligence Pen and Pad session on Nov. 15, on the tail-end of his six-part AI Insight Forum. In the session, he expressed plans to expand protections for Black Americans as artificial intelligence progresses. “We are working on building guardrails to ensure transparency, to give workers a voice, and to ensure that the AI systems not only don’t increase the inequities in society but decrease them. It’s an opportunity as well as a challenge, and I want to take advantage of the opportunity,” he said. “We’ve seen lots of deep fakes, political ads, chat boxes. Black voters are among those who have been most targeted by this, so that’s something we’re particularly aware of.”
Still, artificial intelligence presents an unmatched opportunity for entrepreneurship and evolution. This panel will outline how diversity and equitable deployment of AI is vital to making that happen.
‘One Blood’ Is The Most Black And Beautiful Adoption Story You’ll Ever Read
Denene Millner is a veteran author who has written and collaborated on 31 critically acclaimed and bestselling books
New York Times Bestselling author Denene Millner is a consummate professional. It is evident in the 31 books she’s written to date, and the many books she’s published under her children’s imprint Denene Millner books. However, her latest work, One Blood is personal—and timely, with November being National Adoption Month.
One Blood, a tale of Black life, lineage, and love is loosely related to Millner’s real-life experience as an adoptee which she discovered when she was 12 years old. Though Millner grew up wrapped in the safety and security of her parents and never wanted for a thing—curiosity around her identity and origin grew. Millner had questions:
“One Blood was born of my dreams, of things that I always wanted to ask my mother that I couldn’t because she’s no longer with me in the physical realm,” told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“I was just asking myself questions like, what is it that I wanted to know about Grace? Who is a teenage girl who gets pregnant and has her baby taken away? Like, what is it that I want to know about this woman? What is it that I want to know about Dolores? Who is the mother who adopts the baby that’s taken away from Grace? What are the questions that I have for this woman? Not just about raising this child, but what it’s like to kind of raise yourself in society that just grossly undervalues you or devalues you or doesn’t value you at all? And what is it like?”
Millner continued: “What was it that I wished I knew when I was a young reporter in the kind of pouring that into Ray, who is the child of Grace and Dolores, who becomes a mother in her own right. So, it was a lot of sitting around and just thinking and dreaming, literally dreaming and having these thoughts and these ideas come to me and jotting them down on notebooks and pieces of paper and back to envelopes and taking those notes and those thoughts and those questions and really kind of running them through the paces of me.”
For Millner, her own adoption story and who both her mothers were is directly tied to who she is as a Black woman, mother, daughter and partner. And out of that curiosity grew deeply complex characters and a riveting story that became the most important novel of her career.
BE obtained an excerpt that won’t disappoint:
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY OF DENENE MILLNER
Chapter 28
“You smell it?” Rae asked. “It’s been a while since he came, but he’s here again. For you and the baby. Maybe for me.”
“You used Daddy’s aftershave?” LoLo asked, completely misunderstanding what, precisely, was happening.
“No, Mommy,” Rae said gently. “That’s Daddy’s scent.” Rae looked into her mother’s eyes, her pupils piercing—her pupils saying exactly what LoLo needed to understand.
“He comes to you? Like this?”
“Sometimes it’s his scent I smell—the aftershave,” Rae said. “Some- times he comes to me in dreams. Once I woke up on a Sunday morning and smelled calf liver, plain as day. I jumped out of bed and raced into the kitchen and it was quiet and empty, everything in place. But it smelled like he was standing right there over the stove, cooking liver with that gravy I like, and rice. His favorite.
“I didn’t tell you,” Rae added, “because I thought . . . I thought you would think it was something evil.”
“You know I don’t believe in that hoodoo stuff. It’s not in the Bible and God’s word tells us not to worship false idols.”
“Mommy, I don’t have any control over this. I see things in my dreams all the time—have since I was little. I just never told you. I thought maybe I was evil or sinning against God because that’s what you raised us to believe. But you smell him, too. How can Daddy’s presence be evil?”
“Let me finish, Rae,” LoLo said, raising her hand to shush her daugh- ter. “I have something I need to show you. I’ll be right back,” she said.
LoLo disappeared back down the hall and reappeared just as quickly, with a small white pouch in her palm. She ran her thumbs over it slowly and stood there, her feet stuck to the linoleum Tommy had laid with his own hands when Rae was just a kid, dancing around on the other side of the kitchen threshold, regaling her father with a recap of her favorite book,
The Little Princess.
“This is yours,” LoLo said simply. She pressed it into Rae’s hands.
Rae looked quizzically at the pouch, then pulled it open. Her fingers touched the lock of hair first. She pulled out the bundle and her body tingled, like some electrical current gently shocking her system awake. She laid it on the table, and then the rabbit’s foot next to it, and then the pipe. She gasped when she pulled out the handkerchief and saw the blood-stained material between her fingertips. That, she dropped on the table, this time involuntarily, her hands shaking as she cocked her head to one side and then the other, washing over it with her watery eyes.
“There’s one more thing in there,” LoLo said quietly.
Rae hesitantly reached back into the pouch and pulled out the folded brown paper bag square. She slowly unfolded the paper and read its contents.
“What . . . what is this?” she asked, finally looking up.
LoLo searched for the words that fear—of what Tommy would think of this thing, of what God would think of this thing—had kept her from uttering over the past thirty-three years. Standing there, her daughter’s heart open wide, LoLo found the courage to pour in. “Your daddy didn’t want me to show this to you, but . . .” LoLo paused.
“Mommy. What is this?” Rae asked again, her heart racing as she rubbed the paper between her fingers and stared at the letters.
This baby This baby This baby a sweet, protected, prosperous life
“That was in the bag they found you in at that orphanage.” LoLo’s words, which she’d swallowed whole almost three and a half decades earlier, gushed from her throat. “I think your birth mother left it for you. See what this is?” she said, pointing to the circle of words on the paper. “It’s a wish, like a prayer. But the way they used to write them down in the old days, back in the South, when they believed in haints and roots and such. It’s a petition.”
“A . . . a what?”
“A petition. A prayer—for you, Rae. I think from your mother, asking for your protection,” LoLo said. “I think she wanted this to be with you. I think that’s what she hoped for you. Protection.
“Your daddy, he was your protector. He was my protector,” LoLo said. She rubbed Rae’s shoulders as she talked. “That’s all I required of him and he did that. He protected us. He found you in that basement and he is the one who made sure you were okay, even when it was me who was hurting you. He didn’t want me to give you this, because as far as he was concerned, we are your family and you were born the day we brought you home. We are your parents. Nothing else before that mattered to him. But this paper, this petition, he did what it asked of him. His presence here, right now, tells me he still is.”
Rae, overwhelmed by the idea that her birth mother wished the best for her, that she was holding her hair and blood in her hand, that her dead father was taking up space in the room in which she and her mother stood, just down the hall from where her baby was laying her head, took off running— out the kitchen, down the hall, to the bathroom, the scent following her as she moved. Rae slammed the door and slid down onto the bathmat, still wet with the water she’d just bathed her daughter in not an hour earlier.
Over the years, Rae had used her imagination to fill in her birth story with color and light and grace: Maybe my birth mother was young and scared and couldn’t fathom raising a baby on her own, was the first of her thoughts. Sometimes, the story had villains: Maybe she was forced to leave me on that stoop by a family that refused to support her and her child or Maybe she was in an abusive relationship and feared her baby would get swooped into the violence. The stories, they would be as varied as the books she’d tucked on the top shelf in her childhood closet. Always, though, Rae’s birth mom was the hero. Afterall, there were so many ways that life as a little, defenseless baby could have ended badly for her. But this woman, she earned her place on the pedestal Rae had tucked away in her heart and forever stood there, still, immovable, innocent, like the tiny ceramic angels LoLo kept on her glass étagère.
Now, her mother’s blood between her fingertips, her own baby just down the hallway, Rae regarded this woman as so much more than an inanimate object or some made-up fairy tale gathering dust on a shelf. Rae understood her humanity. Her decision, as far as Rae was concerned, was beautiful, selfless, steeped in pain, heartbreak, and yes, love—a love that she could now understand because she, too, was a mother who had carried her own baby in her womb and couldn’t fathom the strength and courage and resolve it must have taken for her birth mother to leave her child, her blood, the very beat of her heart, on a stoop for someone else—LoLo and Tommy, who loved her deeply—to have. To Rae, it was the ultimate sacrifice. A miracle, no different from the miracle of conception—what it took for sperm to meet egg and egg to attach to womb and for womb to maintain the absolute perfect conditions for new life and for new life to find its way to loving arms. The pouch was proof to Rae that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
Rae held the paper to her heart and inhaled her father’s scent. “Daddy, I miss you. I love you. I love you. I love you and I miss you and I love you,” she said.
And then, for her mother, the one whose blood ran through her veins, she wailed …
According to Youth.Gov, the adoption theme for 2023 is “Empowering Youth: Finding Points of Connection.” In 400 words, One Bloodmanages to do this—and then some—with her young characters, as well as the adults.
Based on a 2020 study, roughly 100,000 children are adopted annually. Twenty-five percent of those children placed in permanent homes are Black. One of the biggest adoption myths is that birth mothers are young, misguided women. That is furtherest from the truth. According to Lifelong Adoptions, women well into their forties place children in adoption for myriad of reasons. The organization states that “almost all expectant mothers who are pursuing adoption are doing so because they want to give their baby a better opportunity for a life they deserve.”
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Denene Millner is a highly respected and sought-after writer, whose captivating books, columns, and essays have secured her place in the entertainment, parenting, book publishing, and social media worlds. Denene was chosen by Black Voices website as one of 40 Influential Black Female Writers in 2011 for good reason: she has had huge reach with dozens of novels, non-fiction titles, celebrity memoirs, and children’s books to her credit. A veteran author who has written and collaborated on 31 critically acclaimed and bestselling books, Millner is a prolific author whose work is in high demand. She is best known for co-authoring Steve Harvey’s two #1 New York Times bestsellers: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, named the bestselling book of 2009 by Nielson, and Straight Talk, No Chaser. Both books became hit feature films—Think Like a Man and Think Like a Man Too. The original Lifetime movie With This Ring, based on Millner’s co-authored book, The Vow, debuted in January 2015. She is the co-author of Charlie Wilson’s memoir, I Am Charlie Wilson (2015), and Jessye Norman’s memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing (2014). Memoirs she wrote with Cookie Johnson, Believing in Magic, and Taraji P. Henson, Around the Way Girl, appeared on the New York Times bestseller’s list simultaneously when they were released in fall 2016. In 2019, Millner penned Fresh Princess, a children’s picture book written with Will Smith and inspired by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
