The Hottest Movie This Year Isn't Without Controversy
December 05, 2019
The hottest movie in Black America right now is Lena Waithe’s “Queen & Slim.” Detailing a first date that goes way left when a white police officer gets involved, it’s been called “[s]tylish, provocative, and powerful,” and has great reviews.
But not everybody’s happy.
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Twitter unearthed the original casting call for the role of Queen, and it’s not a good look:
“She’s brown-skinned, if she were a slave she would’ve worked in the fields,” it says. And a massive debate popped off on Twitter.
Some appreciate they were prioritizing dark-skin women for the role. Others resent the slavery connection, noting that skin color was NOT always related to whether an enslaved person worked in the house or the field.
If she wanted to, she could have said athletic, dark-skinned, and “tough exterior,” WITHOUT the slave comparisons.
This isn’t the first time Waithe has received criticism. Queen & Slim was criticized for casting two Black British actors to play Americans. She also got heat for struggling to deal with sexual harassment accusations on her TV show, The Chi.
And Waithe upset some when she seemed to disregard the importance of Black filmmakers with a recent comment about her influences.
Regardless, the film is making plenty of money, and some viewers feel the controversy is overblown and we’re too critical of Black artists.
Are you going to see it?
Time and again, studies prove that children perform exceptionally well when they connect to the educator leading their lessons.
This knowledge, coupled with a teacher shortage AND a diversity problem, caused the Pennsylvania state school district and other officials to panic.
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In a bold move, the Pennsylvania Department of Education announced it is backing a pilot program called Aspire To Educate, whose mission is to recruit, train and retain talented Black professionals for appointments at the head of the state’s classrooms.
If they’re aiming to flood the hallways with more Black educators, these strong incentives could help.
Most would-be instructors face challenges such as a lack of financial assistance, mentorship, and job availability when seeking to enter the profession or make a mid-career change.
Aspire To Educate addresses these issues head on by offering potential educators free or reduced tuition costs through partnerships with community colleges and private universities like Temple, Drexel, and West Chester.
Other supports include after-school, summer, and early college courses for the 20 soon-to-be selected high school juniors and seniors interested in education careers. Preferential hiring consideration upon graduation is even on the table!
All this in hopes of securing more inspiring role models for Black children to connect with when the school bell rings. The outcomes look promising if this stellar initiative catches on across the nation.
When Rosie Phillips arrived at Northwood High School to pick up her autistic son, she found him with a blank face sitting in a pool of his own urine.
He had been tasered - and the prongs were still stuck in his body! Now, this horrified mother is working to discover the truth about what happened to her child that day.
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As the story goes, Rosie’s son J.H. was under stress and left his classroom. He began to drink water repeatedly and cover his ears, an action he takes when stressed.
But teachers - not his usual teacher - saw his coping mechanism as resisting and tried to restrain him.
When they called for backup, things took a turn for the worse.
A school officer came up ready to tase J.H. and did so without hesitation.
The shocking bolt of electricity led to the boy urinating himself. He was left in that state until his mom arrived.
Rightfully, she’s suing - because nothing about the way J.H. was treated was acceptable. He deserved better from a school.
A Huffpost investigation found the “number of electroshock weapons in schools has risen in recent decades with the number of cops in schools.” And kids like J.H. who have special needs are especially vulnerable when it comes to being assaulted and put in harm's way.
J.H. is a Black student with special needs who is non-verbal. He has to communicate his needs in a different way. Nothing about being violent with a kid like him makes sense.
This is the reality of over policing children in schools - to protect our children, something has to be done! 
The electronics we buy, planes and trains we ride, and other consumption habits we practice hold an important key to a devastating problem, affecting families all across impoverished “red zones” in Madagascar.
Forced to survive lawless conditions perpetuated by poverty, children as young as 4 are sent to dig through the earth to make ends meet... for one controversial mineral.
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Mica, a strong, flexible, and ultra-conductive mineral, keeps our devices powered without overheating.
But once it leaves the stockpiles - which takes an entire family months to unearth (sold for barely 2 CENTS per pound) - more troubling cover-ups follow.
Since African exporters sell mica in competition with Indian markets, China (the country with the greatest demand) can buy cheap and sell at high profits.
NBC News reports that culprits across the global supply chain are hard to track. Some companies even insist that the existence (yet low-to-no enforcement) of anti-child labor policies is enough reason to believe their hands are clean.
Madagascar’s 46,000 tons in mica exports in 2018 alone proves otherwise. Yet we can still demand change!
Human rights advocates encourage the purchase of responsibly-sourced goods and sending a donation to a vetted organization that helps provide food, education, childcare, and job training to the unregulated global mica mining hotspots.
Through small actions like this, change and connection will ripple through our diaspora.
Marian Scott bounced into her Paragon Charter Academy classroom in Jackson, Michigan one October morning.
Her adorable (and harmless) red hair extensions were ready for their close up. Until her teacher pulled her out of the Picture Day lineup...
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According to the school dress code, little Marian’s hair was a violation and she was forced to wait outside as all her peers smiled for the cameras.
Feeling isolated, ashamed, and misunderstood, all Marian could do was cry. Luckily, her parents shared this injustice among their network.
By the time the family appeared on the Today show, the story had reached one sympathetic parent and Chicago-based photographer Jermaine Horton.
He contacted the Scott family with the sweetest plan to turn their babygirl’s frown upside down.
Decked out in a donated wardrobe courtesy of Joy Entertainment and Event Management and Rich Girl Candy CEO Mieka Joi, Marian - and her now-signature red hair - were treated to an EXCLUSIVE Jermaine Horton Photography shoot!
What did Marian think of the whole experience?
She loved it! We’re so glad a community of supportive pros stepped in to restore this beautiful little girl’s confident spirit.
It’s still unbelievable that in 2019, schools and even employers feel the need to police Black hair and our harmless expressions of cultural identity. 
According to this interesting news from Pew Research Center, “The number of majority black counties in the U.S. grew from 65 to 72 between 2000 and 2018.” This change is particularly important because of one big event coming up - and our participation means everything.
The census is IMPORTANT. The changes in county numbers mean our people are migrating around the country. It’s not about increases in overall numbers, it’s more about where our people live now.
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And as our people relocate, the census will impact our quality of life and the federal funds available to us.
$675 billion in annual federal spending will be affected by the 2020 census and if Black people are undercounted, our communities will be impacted for the worse.
An undercount may mean that resources like hospitals, social security, and political representation will be harmed or neglected.
As the census counts Black people, our willingness and our participation mean EVERYTHING.
For example, Black people are primarily the majority in the South, and that’s a place where we should make sure our people are getting everything they deserve. Taking the census will help.
Let’s make sure our friends and family know the importance of the census so our numbers are correctly counted. Let’s keep talking about how America’s landscape is changing and how our communities need to be recognized as we move and grow.
It’s that time again!
The census is coming up and Black people NEED to be counted. It’s why multiple Black leaders are spreading through the community to remind our people why we must participate.
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Because if we don’t get counted correctly, the consequences could be more dire than imaginable.
According to Black Voice News, “During the last census in 2010, field reps undercounted African-Americans across the United States by more than an estimated 800,000 people.” This is why “leaders around the country convened a ‘Tele-Townhall’ titled ‘Make Black Count.’”
Since the census determines how federal dollars are allocated, Black civil rights and activist organizations have come together to let the community know the losses we could experience if we’re undercounted.
For example, BILLIONS in federal funds for resources like hospitals, social security, and political representation could be affected by a miscount.
This is just one reason that people are coming together to avoid what some have feared could be an even worse undercount than 2010. The census is an opportunity we LITERALLY can’t afford to miss.
As we head into 2020, there will be A LOT happening politically - there’s potential for big changes that will impact us in ways we can’t foresee.
Let’s make sure we take control of what we can do for ourselves and each other by taking the census!