BED TIME STORY FOR ANTI-RACISTS: HOW THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DESTROYED ITSELF FROM THE INSIDE

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, both, have been a lot bolder when speaking on race in his 

second term. He was even frank enough to use n-word when discussing race.

I think it's been obvious for quite a while that the president is not trying beg the republicans into bipartisanship anymore. President Obama, in my not so humble opinion, tried "negotiating" with the republicans way too long during the first term--even if it was to guarantee re-election. And I was quite aggravated after his first 6 - 9 months in office.

But what do I know?

I NEVAAAH thought he'd be elected twice)

Michelle? She even talked about the racism she and Barack endured on their way to the White House and while in the White House. And I didn't think I'd hear THAT story until she and Barack were out of office for a year or two.

(That speech was awesome, by the way. Listen to it here:  http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2015/05/michelle-obama-tells-truth-about-racism.html)


Last week, President Obama told the NAACP that he has bipartisan support for Criminal Justice Reform. Even the way he said the words "bipartisan support" was different from the way he used to say them. The President mentioned "bipartisan support" like the republicans will come along for the ride or they won't.  And he's been moving without them already. He's been using his presidential power to  grant clemency to non-violent drug offenders. He's released a total of 89 non-violent drug offenders so far. He's simply not Mr. Nice Guy begging for support like he was the first few months of his first term.

Apparently, he lived and he learned.

Some folk, even black folk, are extremely critical of what's happened with "race relations" for various conflicting reasons that make little or no sense to me.




Chris Rock is right, of course. 

It seems worse to white people because, post-Trayvon, we've had Black Lives Matter around to bring cases to the nation's attention.

Before Black Lives Matter, Freddie Gray might have died without anybody but a few scattered activists knowing his name. And before #SayHerName Sandra Bland would have been forgotten by Black Lives Matter.   So now, there can  be huge protests that lasts for days. Once those selling news figured out black death makes money, some news outlets seemed to start trying to get some outrage going on their own, reporting *the black, unarmed, and dead by white cop* every chance they got.

In other words, it seems worse to white people (and some black folk too) because black death used to be so local and relatively silent. 

Please note, from where I sit, the black internet leads the press. Now, we have more connection to one another through social media. And that has translated into the power, the power TO FORCE mainstream news to pay attention to black deaths.

In other words, we have Black Twitter.  The Los Angeles Times has even hired a Black Twitter Writer for their news paper.

Yes, because of fluctuating news coverage, it's hard to tell how much race relations have gotten worse. So much was going on in 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that wasn't reported unless white police officers just happened to go crazy on somebody black or brown in front of news camera in those pre-cell phone camera days. Even if the police officer did act up on camera in the late 20th century, the incident might only be reported in "Emerge" Magazine.

On the other hand, I was totally expecting white racism to go buck wild when our first black president was elected. Most black folk were. Black people in the white house without the Prez saying or doing  A N Y T H I N G was enough to guarantee the white racists would be jumping up and down like popcorn on an open skillet.


Most of us know it's no accident that the Tea Party went from some ignorant fringe group to a political movement strong enough to turn the previously, super organized republican party into a scrambled mess. (<---Didn't see that coming)

Honest to gaaawd, before and after the Clinton years I thought the democrats would be a disorganized mess forever. I thought the super-organized republicans would always be in control of the white house, congress, and the supreme court. After all, they got a rock head elected as president twice and let him break the "middle east."

And I thought I understood why the republicans were destined to always win too.

Democrats are the party of "yes" and "change" (at a glacial rate) And there are 100 ways to say "yes." So there's always a bit of a mess when there are 100 ideas about doing one thing and you try to move forward. Conservatives, the republicans? They always want to say "no" and keep the status quo.  "No" is narrow. Therefore, "no" was always organized and seeming to speak with one voice.

But then there was this economic downturn in 2007. People start shouting "recession" and whispering "depression"

Then BOOM!

All of a sudden it happened!!!

The white people got so scared of the coming depression that they'd vote for anybody who might save their houses, their banks, and free credit up again, even if the best guy for the job turned out to be black. My jaw dropped to ground and stayed there for months the day Barack Obama won the primary in Iowa.

Then, I blinked again and there was this black dude in the White House.  After a little while I understood why this came to pass:

Read More Tomorrow

PRESIDENT OBAMA TAKES NEW STEPS TO PROTECT TRANSGENDER HEALTHCARE

Transgender people must be provided transition-related services and cannot be denied health care by providers or professionals who receive federal funding, according to a final rule announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The rule specifically bans the denial of coverage or health care itself on the basis of gender identity.

The rule, which comprises several regulations, was formed under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which includes first-of-its-kind civil rights protections in health care for several classes of people — including a ban on discrimination on the basis of sex.

~Buzzfeed

Read More: 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/new-obamacare-rule-protects-transgender-patients?utm_term=.kq3943916#.bvZ3Xj3J4

MOVE ANNIVERSARY: 31 YEARS SINCE PHILLY BOMBED ITS OWN RESIDENTS

"The militarization of American police departments, on display during the Ferguson protests, has roots in numerous strategies for "dealing" with Black activist movements in the '60s and '70s. Few events symbolize the results of this warlike behavior more clearly—and scarily—than when, 31 years to this day, police bombed a West Philadelphia rowhouse occupied by the Black radical, back-to-nature group MOVE.

The police department had long considered MOVE the enemy. In the '70s, under the leadership of the notoriously racist police chief then mayor, Frank Rizzo, police regularly clashed with the group.

MOVE
from PBS archival footage

MOVE was a polarizing force in their freshly integrated, left-leaning Powelton Village neighborhood due to their expletive-laced interruptions of community meetings, their recycling method of throwing garbage into their backyard, and their refusal to kill vermin. While quality-of-life complaints factored into the law enforcement response to MOVE, the group's protests against police violence and the incarceration of members most rankled authorities."

From: Colorlines

Yeah. MOVE was problematic as hell as neighbors go.


But only when you are black will the dropping two C4 bombs on the homes of these latter day hippies seem like a reasonable solution. And only when the mayor is black can you get away with dropping bombs, telling the fire department to "let it burn" then not have the story rise high enough to re-ignite a serious race discussion in this country.

This story was big when it happened. Don't get me wrong. But it didn't get to be the race story it should have been. The decision making that led to bombing a black neighborhood was not discussed for months and months on end from coast to coast like it should have been. 


By the way, a black mayor, Wilson Goode, wouldn't have tried this on stereotypical white trailer park no matter what the white folks were doing---if only in consideration for the other white people in trailers nearby.

But this was seen as a reasonable response in a black neighborhood, even a black middle class neighborhood like Cobb's Creek.

61 black middle class homes were destroyed in this police action  





Read More: http://www.colorlines.com/articles/today-marks-31-years-philadelphia-police-bombed-its-own-residents?

WHITE POLICE OFFICER ABUSES BLACK TEEN RIDING HER BIKE

"Even though Monique Tillman, now 17, knew what had happened to her during an encounter with a Tacoma police officer in a mall parking lot two years ago, seeing the video for the first time was staggering.

“I was absolutely in shock, anger and disbelief,” said Tillman, who is black, about the video that shows the white officer pulling her around by her hair, throwing her to the ground, tasing and arresting her....

[Her attorney] De la Cruz said before the encounter with Williams, Tillman was a mostly-A student who had respect for authority figures."

Read More: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/teen-sues-tacoma-police-officer-others-over-brutalizing-her-in-mall-parking-lot/

Photo by De La Cruz

A judge saw the video and dismissed the case against a then 14 year old Tillman. And now her family has a lawsuit against the police department. But I want Officer Williams, the cop that abused his authority in jail.

While he was working part time as a mall officer, he wasn't actually in his policeman's role. But he used the policeman's role to arrest her -- for irritating him in some way, breathing while being black maybe.

Every state in the nation needs a charge called "Abuse Under Colors," a charge that is specifically for cops that arrest people because they're irritated or because they get a hard on just thinking about beating up and threatening a black person, even if that black person is only a 14 year old girl.

And if you abuse the authority you aren't supposed to be using -- as in you're off duty like Dante Servin was when he murdered Rekia or off duty being mall security, there should be an additional charge.




Firing  Officer Williams is not enough. And I haven't read, yet, that that is even happening for sure.

I'm glad the family sued the mall and security firm that hired him as well. We have to make everybody who hires bad cops afraid to do so.

We have to make sure everybody who hires cops to do security work does a damn good job checking a police officers record for citizen complaints etc. before they hire him to do a thing. If the cop has citizen complaints against him prior to the mall hiring a cop, the mall pays too. If the cop does NOT have citizen complaints against him, then they don't pay -- maybe. It depends on how off the charts the behavior is.  And in this case, everybody who has an ounce of responsibility for this man being in a position to abuse this girl needs to pay

We have to hit everybody we can in the pocket. We have to find to make wider and wider circles of people responsible.

RECOGNIZING STEVIE WONDER ON HIS 66th BIRTHDAY

DID YOU KNOW THAT STEVIE WONDER STOPPED HIS CAREER FOR 3 YEARS IN ORDER TO SPEARHEAD MAKING MARTIN LUTHER KING'S BIRTHDAY A HOLIDAY?

Feeling Rebloggy

"Stevie Wonder met Dr. King when he was 15 years old and briefly shook his hand. He was on a tour when he heard of Dr. King's assassination. 

[Some time after MLK's funeral,] Wonder put his career on hold, led rallies from coast to coast and galvanized millions of Americans with his passion and integrity.

But it took 15 years.

Wonder had kept in touch with Coretta Scott King, regularly performing at rallies to push for the holiday. He told a cheering crowd in Atlanta in the summer of 1979, “If we cannot celebrate a man who died for love, then how can we say we believe in it? It is up to me and you.” 

Years earlier, Wonder had composed “Happy Birthday,” a song celebrating King’s life, dedicating the song and his next album to the cause. 

Originally he was going to record himself singing the traditional song to King but Wonder didn’t know the music, so he “wrote the hook for a different ‘Happy Birthday.’” But Stevie held onto it until just the right time as the movement for Dr. King’s holiday got to it’s height and made it the centerpiece of his next album, Hotter Than July. 

The record’s sleeve design featured a large photograph of King with a passage urging fans to support the holiday bill: “We still have a long road to travel until we reach the world that was his dream. We in the United States must not forget either his supreme sacrifice or that dream.”

http://blackdoctor.org/477855/how-stevie-wonder-help-create-dr-king-holiday/

hear and see more 


On Stevie Wonder, the man himself
Due in part to his innate talent, but also because of his deep commitment to his craft, Stevie Wonder faced the difficulty of staying relevant as a musician as he grew from boy to man. In 1971, Wonder, who had begun writing his own music, negotiated a new contract with Motown that gave him almost total control over his records and greatly increased his royalty rate.
It was an unprecedented concession by Gordy, but, artistically, it was just what Wonder needed. As the 1970s unfolded, the musician went through an unrivaled period of production.

Over the course of four outstanding albums,TalkingBook (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976), Wonder created some of the most indelible songs in popular music history. The collection included a number of hugely popular singles, including "Living in the City," "Boogie on a Reggae Woman" and "Isn't She Lovely." In all, Wonder captured 15 Grammy Awards during the decade.

Read More

http://www.biography.com/people/stevie-wonder-9536078#acclaimed-musician


"AS" 

LACK OF AWARENESS AT WEST POINT: NO PUNISHMENT FOR BLACK WOMEN IN FAMOUS PHOTO

"The U.S. Military Academy announced [yesterday] that no punitive action will be taken after an inquiry concluded that 16 cadets who appeared in a photograph with raised fists did not violate Department of Defense or Army regulations.

The inquiry concluded that the photo was among several taken in the spur-of-the-moment. It was intended to demonstrate “unity” and “pride,” according to the findings of the inquiry

In addition to concluding there was no violation of DOD Directive 1344.10, the findings state, “that based upon available evidence none of the participants, through their actions, intended to show support for a political movement.”

“As members of the Profession of Arms, we are held to a high standard, where our actions are constantly observed and scrutinized in the public domain,” said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, Jr., academy superintendent, in a letter. “We all must understand that a symbol or gesture that one group of people may find harmless may offend others.  As Army officers, we are not afforded the luxury of a lack of awareness of how we are perceived.”

~Snopes 

http://www.snopes.com/2016/05/11/west-point-black-lives-matter/

I object to this standard on the basis that white people are habitually afraid of black people that stand for solidarity.


In fact there's a story out right now that indicates that white people are afraid of black people just going about their daily business.

This story, based on anecdotal evidence provided by police officers, is making the rounds right now. Police Officers are sounding off about how many times they've been called by white people afraid of black people doing things as mundane as jumping a dead car battery. 

see "BEING ALIVE WHILE BLACK"http://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2016/05/being-alive-while-black-reason-to-call.html

A black person adjusting their behavior
on the basis of how
1) white racists

and

2)"average white people" who absorb white supremacy daily, without being aware of it

PERCEIVE THEM
is unacceptable in 2016.

As black officers, these women are not afforded the luxury to forget they are black, to forget who it is they identify with....EVER.

It's time for the perceive-ers to change.

It's time for  those obsessed
with how politically incorrect 
they're allowed to sound (usually white),
those obsessed with
which racial stereotypes and epithets
they're allowed to say out loud
among racial others
to change.

It's time for white people to stop
being obsessed with how things sound
as they come out of their mouths
and be obsessed with who they are
based on what motivates them
to say the offensive things they say.


The military may have all sorts of rules against verbal and physical racism. But you can't stop racism and racist attitudes with rules. That's why this photo became an issue to begin with.

The women in this photograph KNOW that they are part of an oppressed group and that solidarity is absolutely necessary to survive living in the U.S. with your sanity intact.  It is 2016. We've had a black president. It's time for white people's fear of retribution for slavery, for official Jim Crow and unofficial Jim Crow, and today's racism to STOP being the basis of OUR "correct" and "professional" behavior.

File This Under: Willful Denial Of The Effects of Past and Present White Racism

Lieutenant General Robert L. Caslen, Jr. on their "lack of awareness"
Isn't that ironic?

http://www.westpoint.edu/news/Shared%20Documents/Supt%20Letter.pdf

GUN OF A BITCH: GEORGE ZIMMERMAN PUTS TRAYVON MARTIN MURDER WEAPON UP FOR AUCTION

On 5 12 16, an auction for the murder weapon was put up on one site, then taken down. Then it was put up on another site.

I am not sure what the status of any particular auction is now.

May Zimmerman and anybody who does his bidding (pun intended) go to hell and may they go there soon. 

Read More Below

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/george-zimmerman-gun-auction-shut-weapon-bidding-website-article-1.2634876


http://gawker.com/gunbroker-com-shuts-down-george-zimmermans-auction-1776314827

HOTEPS HOTEPPIN by RadhaMUSprime

Feeling Rebloggy

If you didn't know what a HOTEP is, 

you will after this.

"Created by Radha Blank, who goes by RadhaMUSprime, writes for Empire, and actually has things like “she’s a GhostFace-meets-Moms-Mabley mash up” and “You can expect forthcoming videos for her songs “African Cabbie” and “WMWBWB” (White Man With A Black Woman’s Butt)” in her bio."

From VerySmartBrothas

http://verysmartbrothas.com/theres-a-video-called-hoteps-hoteppin-and-you-should-watch-it-right-now/

MIKE BROWN'S MOM TO "TELL THE TRUTH AND SHAMES THE DEVIL" IN NEW BOOK

Feeling Rebloggy

“I wasn’t there when Mike Mike was shot. I didn’t see him fall or take his last breath, but as his mother, I do know one thing better than anyone, and that’s how to tell my son’s story, and the journey we shared together as mother and son.” 

—Lezley McSpadden

ClutchMagOnline.com 

Read More
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2016/05/mike-browns-mother-tells-truth-shames-devil-new-book/

BOTH 91: CICELY VERSUS BABS

Things that DON'T make you go 

hmmm?

A POST RACIAL RACISM LIST

Feeling Rebloggy

In post-racial 21st-century America, no one actually wants to admit to being racist.



They’ll do racist things, say racist words, think racist thoughts, support racist business, vote for racist politicians and even willingly benefit from racist policies and business practices, but the moment you actually bring up racism, they’re like, “Who, me? Never! I can’t be racist. Andre Iguodala is my favorite athlete, and my best friend almost had a black girlfriend in 2004!” And they do this because owning up to it and letting everyone know exactly who they are could be social suicide...

[Post-racial racism] is an evolved form of racism that allows people to exist ensconced within racism’s confines while never having to complete a registration form ...

I then listed 13 examples of this type of racism. But there are so many more that I decided to extend that list to 35:

Read The List Here
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/_35_types_of_post_racial_racism.html

PRESIDENT OBAMA AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY

"Even as we each embrace our own beautiful, unique and valid versions of our blackness

Remember the tie that does bind us as African Americans

And that is our particular awareness 
of injustice, 
and unfairness, 
and struggle.

That means we cannot sleepwalk through life

We cannot be ignorant of history

We can't meet the world with a sense of entitlement

We cannot walk by a homeless man without asking why 
a society as welath as ours allows that state affairs to occur

We can't just lock up a low level dealer without asking why 
this boy, barely out of childhood, felt he had no other options?

We have cousins 
and uncles 
and brothers 
and sisters
who we remember were just as smart and just as talented as we were but somehow got ground down by structures that are unfair and unjust...

That means we have to stand up for those who haven't been so lucky....
Yes, you've worked hard.
But you've also been lucky...

Blessed"

I'm glad he ran it down, the differences between now and 1983 when he graduated. Sometimes I don't think the younger generation realizes how far we've come in some areas. Some areas, like white law enforcement attitudes, have been stagnant since about the 1990s or so.

The internet and cell phone cameras? That technology has changed the ball game considerably --not as fast as I would have hoped, but the change for black people has been considerable and mostly for the better.

White racist murderers with badges are losing their jobs now; they are in danger of losing their pensions now. They aren't going to jail YET, for the most part, but we are a heck of a lot closer to that than we were in 1983.

I'm also glad he hit on, hit on, and hit on again how much progress black people have made over the last 3 decades. And it follows that I'm also glad he hit on black failure to vote in larger numbers in the last presidential election.

The failure to be grateful enough for the outcomes we have from so many black people that made sacrifices ahead of us leads to a failure to be hopeful. And a failure to be hopeful, leads to a failure want to hold onto what's ours, our piece of America. And when you don't feel like our piece of America is ours, you don't vote.

And the failure of black people to vote in larger numbers in 2012, much fewer numbers than in 2008, led to President Obama having a Congress that was more republican and more overtly racist than it had to be.

Listen to President Obama's speech and be encouraged to be grateful and activist in attitude. You don't have to be a college graduate to get something out of it. 

REMEMBERING REKIA BOYD BY VOTING A CHICAGO PROSECUTOR OUT OF A JOB

BLACK WOMEN
ROCKED THE VOTE IN CHICAGO

THEY DID NOT FORGET 

REKIA BOYD 

OR 

LAQUAN McDONALD

PROSECUTOR ANITA ALVAREZ 
TO BE GIVEN THE BOOT

Left: Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald
Right: The people that took down the prosecutor that failed Chicago

When a Chicago judge dismissed the charges against Police Officer Dante Servin for the death of Rekia Boyd when Servin...

- shot her over his shoulder
- killed her while off duty, 
- with an unregistered weapon, 
- over what began as a noise complaint

The judge stated that the reason for the dismissal was that the prosecutor, Anita Alvarez, presented murder evidence that did NOT match her manslaughter charge.  At the time of this judicial fiasco, Chicago hadn't prosecuted a police officer in at least 17 years.

Later, Alvarez would state that she struggled with whether Servin should be charged at all

  
This same prosecutor, Anita Alvarez did NOT charge Officer Jason Van Dyke with murder UNTIL AFTER Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama made the video of Laquan McDonald's murder public.


Obviously, Prosecutor Anita Alvarez's hadn't heard that
Black Live Matter. But NOW she knows that Black Votes Matter. She was voted right out of a job.

COUNT THIS AS ANOTHER
BLACK LIVES MATTER VICTORY!!

* * * * *
BLACK VOTES MATTER 
SO REGISTER TO VOTE TODAY!!!
http://www.voterparticipation.org/register-to-vote/?gclid=CLT4wPXwxssCFUVsfgod3tMFAg

BLACK WOMEN HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN REKIA BOYD'S MURDERER DANTE SERVIN

Photo Kelly Hayes via Twitter

‘Formation’-inspired protest blocks streets in Chicago

The most important demand coming from
ASSATA'S DAUGHTERS,
BLACK LIVES MATTER: Chicago, and F.L.Y.
is

FIRE

REKIA'S KILLER 

DANTE SERVIN 

WITHOUT A PENSION

Read More: 
http://rollingout.com/2016/04/30/women-protest-lake-shore-drive/


* * * * *

A  REVIEW OF THE REKIA BOYD CASE
Off duty officer, Dante Servin supposedly responded to a noise complaint(?), while off duty, with an unregistered gun, shot over his shoulder because he was scared and "accidentally" killed Rekia Body.

The judge in the case decided not to let a jury decide the case.

Before the jury could decide the judge essentially dismiss[ed] the case against Rekia Boyd's murderer, saying


the prosecution had evidence
for a first degree murder charge
but they couldn't prove
the recklessness associated with
the manslaughter charge they chose to
bring against Servin.

 
Defense Attorney's always ask to dismiss a case. It is part of the courtroom dance. But judges rarely ever grant this.

But this judge did. He did basically kick the case out.

Dante Servin walked.


Rumor has it that a cop had not been convicted in a Chicago courtroom for 17 years prior to Servin's arrival in the court. And now we know why.

Servin was off duty and in his personal car when he got in a shouting match with the group in March 2012. His lawyers say he drew his gun and fired when Antonio Cross pulled an object from his waistband and pointed it at Servin. Boyd was hit in the back of the head. She died two days later. She was 22.

After three days of testimony, [Judge] Porter abruptly ended Servin's bench trial. He said prosecutors had shown "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Servin killed Boyd, and that the officer fired the shots knowing they were likely to cause great bodily harm or death. Those elements would add up to first-degree murder, the judge said, unless Servin could prove he acted in self defense. But Servin never had to make that case.

Read More: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-cop-verdict-servin-edit-0423-20150422-story.html 

BLACK WOMEN ALSO DIDN'T FORGET
DANTE SERVIN'S PROSECUTOR
Read More Tomorrow

#ALLblackLIVESmatter

BLACK WOMEN ENABLED NASA TO WIN THE SPACE RACE: HIDDEN FIGURES

"Hidden Figures," based on a book of the same name that's due out next year, is about three unsung heroes,  a group of Black American Female math wizards who helped NASA win the space race.

The story follows Katherine Jackson, Mary Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughn, the three women who served as the brains behind NASA’s Friendship 7 mission, which saw astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962.

 Pop star Janelle Monae has landed the third lead alongside Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer ... Ted Melfi is directing the movie and producing with Chernin Entertainment and Donna Gigliotti of Levantine Films...

Read More 

  http://www.thewrap.com/janelle-monae-joins-taraji-p-henson-octavia-spencer-in-fox-2000s-hidden-figures-exclusive/

Henson stars as Katherine Johnson, Monáe as Mary Jackson, and Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan. 

I don't know whether to say "Yippee! I can't wait to see it!" or "How dare they not teach us about these women in school!"  Then again, I can't say I've read about these women in black history book either.

I'm so grateful that more black women like Margot Lee Shetterly are searching out and writing other black women down-- just like Alice Walker. Did you know that most of us might not know who Zora Neale Hurston is if it weren't for 1) Zora writing about herself. 2)Alice Walker researching her and bringing her back into the public eye.

I'm also grateful that black women back in the day had sense enough to write their own memoirs. I'm realizing more and more that this is where most of black female history is located.

I hope some of you can understand in 1962 THE MATHEMATICIANS WERE THE COMPUTERS. Their brains were the computers. I don't know what NASA had in 1962 but compared to now I'll bet they mechanical computers they had were glorified calculators. These women were called on to check to see if the computer was correct. If these women had failed to do their calculations correctly John Glenn would have been a crispy critter instead a famous astronaut.

I am absolutely proud and somewhat flabbergasted that NASA hired and trusted people that were both black and female to do this work for them. For me this just goes to show that a lot of white racism are lies to secure power and money. Most of white racism is rational decision making and not misunderstanding. If white people believed deeply in black inferiority, black bad morality etc., they wouldn't have trusted black women to nurse their children or send their white men into outer space.  

A LITTLE HISTORY ON EACH WOMAN

(and a video)

DOROTHY VAUGHN

Born in 1910, Dorothy Vaughan came to the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1943, during the height of World War II, leaving her position as the math teacher at Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, VA to take what she believed would be a temporary war job. 

Two years after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 into law, prohibiting racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in the country's defense industry, the laboratory began hiring black women to meet the skyrocketing demand for processing aeronautical research data. Urgency and twenty-four hour shifts prevailed-- as did Jim Crow laws which required newly-hired "colored" mathematicians to work separately from their white female counterparts. Dorothy Vaughan, [another HBCU graduate,] was assigned to the segregated "West Area Computing" unit, an all-black group of female mathematicians, who were originally required to use separate dining and bathroom facilities. Over time, both individually and as a group, the West Computers distinguished themselves with contributions to virtually every area of research at Langley.

http://thehumancomputerproject.com/women/dorothy-vaughan

MARY JACKSON
Born in 1921, Mary was a champion for her race, other minorities, and women. She suffered many indignities while holding steadfast to her personal attributes and compassion for others. Mary grew up in Hampton, Virginia, graduating with highest honors from high school and received her Bachelor of Science degrees from [another HBCU, Hampton Institute in Mathematics and Physical Science. After graduation from college, Mary was a school teacher in Maryland for awhile, then began her long career with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), later National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.  
Read More: http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/4/4a/MaryJackson.pdf


KATHERINE JOHNSON

Born in 1918 in the little town of White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, this HBCU graduate was a research mathematician, who by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman--a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those could indulge in that luxury.

Read More or watch the video. This movie should be awesomehttp://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count/

NO SIZE ABOVE 14 FOR BEYONCE'S IVY PARK LINE

One article I read says there's a  70 pound difference between the left and right photo.  I don't see that many pounds gone.  But she looks like she was pushing that size 14 on the right - camera adding pounds or not. 

So why in the heck would someone who has had her bootilicious days put out a clothing line for women without a plus size line.

From Lululemon to Givenchy, it’s about that “it” factor, that coolness, that status. And to the fashion industry, nothing says “status” like thinness. Which means that what it’s not doing is selling to the plus-size market—one of the largest-growing markets, at $17.5 billion, and the most underserved market—because to the fashion industry, fat people are like “the dead Macy’s in the dying mall” of clientele: Nobody in the industry wants to go there because selling clothes to the average woman is not cool.

“Nobody” now includes Beyoncé.

If “sales” were what mattered, the music superstar wouldn’t have taken her new “athleisure” line, Ivy Park, to Topshop, a U.K. retailer that doesn’t even bother to carry plus sizes. And Beyoncé is Beyoncé, so I doubt Topshop was her only option. (Nordstrom’s website lists Ivy Park among clothing size 16-18, or XXL, but when you click on the items, the largest size available is still a 12-14. A quick call to a Nordstrom representative clarified that 12-14, or XL, is, in fact, the largest size you can purchase.) Beyoncé could have taken Ivy Park to any retailer and acknowledged that some of her fans—the main people who would gladly pay whatever to be just a little bit closer to her—come in sizes larger than a 12 or 14, but she didn’t.

Read More

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/04/with_no_plus_sizes_can_fat_people_get_in_formation_with_beyonce_s_ivy_park.html 

I swear it's three steps forward with Beyonce and two steps back every single time with this woman.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STAND UP ROUTINE AND HIS FINAL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENCE DINNER

It appears our Prez was on a relaxed roll all the way to the end.

Feeling Rebloggy

Joke  #1. I was a little late tonight. I was running on CPT*, which stands for “jokes that white people should not make.”

Joke #5. “Someone jumped the White House fence last week. But I give the Secret Service credit. They fond Michelle and brought her back home. Just 9 more months, baby. Settle down.”

~from AwesomelyLuvvie.com

Read More:
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2016/05/15-jokes-president-obama-nerd-prom.html

President Obama's entire 32 minute stand up routine is here

NICHELLE NICHOLS: GLASS CEILING BREAKER EXTRAORDINAIRE

You DID know that Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura of Star Trek, didn't know her place in television history until Dr. Martin Luther King told her, right?

She was going to quit Star Trek until King spoke to her.

I never get tired of hear her tell her story of meeting King in the video below.

But did you also know that after the cancellation of Star Trek, Nichols volunteered her time in a special project with NASA?

In 1975, Nichols established Women in Motion, Inc., a company that produced educational materials using music as a teaching tool and was expanded to become an astronaut recruitment tool after Nichols won a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This resulted in thousands of women and minorities applying to NASA’s space program, such as Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Ellison Onizuka. In addition to her autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories (1994), Nichols is co-author of Saturn’s Child (1995), and a contributor to publications of the National Space Institute.

In October of 1984, Nichols was presented with NASA’s Public Service Award for her many efforts towards integrating the U.S. space program. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992, and became the first African American actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the Star Trek cast. Nichols was elected as an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; and, on June 8, 2010, she received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Los Angeles Mission College.

Jeannette Epps, Joan Higginbotham,
Beth Brown*, Mae Jemison, Stephanie Wilson
* Astro Physicists

A photo of 
some of the black women 
that went onto be astronauts
once Nichelle made sure that
glass ceiling was broken

Yvonne Cagle
missed the group photo

Read More About Nichelle 

(There's plenty to know about this amazing woman)

http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/nichelle-nichols

Nichelle Nichols meets Martin Luther King, Jr
Hearing her tell this story never ceases to move me. THIS is what Star Trek is all about.
Posted by Women of Star Trek on Monday, January 21, 2013