AISHA HINDS AS HARRIETT TUBMAN GIVES AWARD WINNING PERFORMANCE ON UNDERGROUND

I've seen a few one woman acts on stage. And I may have seen a few in documentaries. But I've never seen anything like the mesmerizing performance I just saw given by Aisha Hinds on television as Harriett Tubman.

In this Wednesday Night episode of WGN's UNDERGROUND, Tubman is giving a speech to white abolitionists in Philadelphia.

Tubman doesn't just tell about her life as she's been asked. Furthermore she doesn't just tell of the beatings and horrors. She tells about what happened in her life and what some specific episodes in her life taught her about what freedom means. In the second half of speech, she talks about the immediate future, about courage, about her faith in God leading her forward She also talks about the willingness to give up her life, if God would have it be so, while also planning to live a long life.   

As I've said before, one of my favorite things about slave stories written by black people lately is that they do not leave the white women out. Miss Anne's, or this case Miss Susan's, hand is reported as having been on the whip repeatedly and for sport. 

Fictionalized account or not, this should be required watching in every school and every church in America --especially white churches in America.

By the time Hinds as Harriett is done, she has even reached forward out of history to take a swipe at Donald Trump and his "Make America Great Again" slogan.

Aisha Hinds gave an incredible performance, an award winning performance. I'm certain she'll win awards for this episode of UNDERGROUND. It's just a matter of how many. As the show ended, I couldn't help but think of Viola Davis' Oscar Speech, the one where she said all black woman lacked in Hollywood was opportunity.

On Opportunity 

If a black man named John Legend hadn't taken his relatively new found power and used it to tell our own black story of slavery, hadn't put his power and money into UNDERGROUND, we never would have gotten to see the performance.

And if John Legend wasn't a feminist, you bet your bottom dollar that there wouldn't have been a push to have Harriet Tubman, a black woman, telling us who she was an entire episode and what attitude one should always have when an enemy is coming for you.

This episode of UNDERGROUND was so outstanding, it got it's own article in the New York Times. Aisha Hinds was interviewed for the article. I giggled a little bit when I read the episode was called HARRIET TUBMAN'S TED TALK before the episode was even written.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/arts/television/underground-harriet-tubman-aisha-hinds-interview.html

Even if you've never seen UNDERGROUND before, this was a stand alone performance. You can buy this episode on Amazon and probably iTunes too. Have your children watch it. This is another one of those cheap and easy history lessons. 

Here's a link to Season 1 of UNDERGROUND on DVD. The story of the MACON 7 begins here. From this point, if you're not interested in starting UNDERGROUND, you should be able search and find and buy the individual HARRIET TUBMAN episode called MINTY (SEASON 2, EPISODE 6) for $2 to $3. 
http://amzn.to/2ovIIyh

* * * * *

BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM

How Did Judge Sheila Adbus-Salaam Wind Up Dead In The Hudson River?

Feeling Rebloggy

The body of the United States’ first ever female Muslim judge was found Wednesday afternoon in the Hudson River near Manhattan, according to a Wednesday New York Post report.

Sheila Abdus-Salaam served as an associate judge of the Court of Appeals. She was the first African-American woman to serve on New York's top court. She was 65.

She had been reported missing earlier in the day, the newspaper reports.

Sources tell the Post that there were no visible signs of trauma or physical injuries suggesting foul play."

~THE HILL 

Read Morehttp://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/328591-report-body-of-countrys-first-female-muslim-judge-found-in 


IN TRUMP'S AMERICA,
IN THE MIDDLE OF
THWARTED MUSLIM BAN #2,
WHERE THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS 
ARE EMBOLDENED BY
TRUMP'S CHOICE OF 
ALT-RIGHT WHITE NATIONALIST 
STEVE BANNON 
AS AN ADVISER

IF THERE'S NO SUICIDE NOTE,

THE POLICE BETTER BE INVESTIGATING THIS LIKE THIS IS A MURDER.

ASIAN CUSTOMER BLOODIED AS HE IS FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT

"Passengers on a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., were horrified when a man was forcibly removed — violently wrenched from his seat and physically dragged down the aisle — apparently to clear a seat for airline staff. Videos of the scene have prompted calls to boycott United Airlines.

On Twitter, a representative of the United said the flight in question was "overbooked" and that "one customer refused to leave."  "

 NPR reports there that United wanted to put United crew members in the passenger seats so they could staff another plane at the destination.  United Reportedly offered $800 to get people to voluntarily switch planes -- which I'm finding hard to believe. Nobody wanted to stay in Chicago for $800? Even if you spend $300 on a room and going to and from the airport, you clear $500. And what percentage of passengers could possibly a connecting flight in Kentucky?  

Some of the details are missing from this story.  I'm sure of it. But this callous response from United (read it below) supports the circumstantial evidence that this wouldn't have happened to a white customer...no matter what.

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," company CEO Oscar Munoz later said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers."

 Um...no that's not cutting it.  And this is the second incident involving United and inappropriate behavior of staff -- but that situation a little borderline.

Apparently two girls were wearing leggings instead of business attire required for PASS members (fly for almost nothing as relatives/friends of United Employees. But the requirement may be sexist depending on WHO does the interpreting of what's "appropriate")  

In this case, United doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Having police (?) drag someone off a plane because you want the seat for an employee? No.  The video below is nothing short of incredible.  I just cannot imagine this happening to a white person. I can barely imagine it happening to a person of color....yet it happened.

Read More

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/10/523275494/passenger-forcibly-removed-from-united-flight-prompting-outcry

The other question is this:  Did the cops over react?

Making money is the bottom line. But if United overbooked the flight and screwed up the plan to get their staff to their next flight in Kentucky, then they should have upped the anty to $1000 or $1200 until they got a taker. Anything...but drag a passenger off the plane.

I don't care what the fine print says. If I'm in my seat already, I fully expect to get to my destination because I've paid for the service already.  I'd ticked off if I got bumped BEFORE I got on the plane. If they demanded I get off a plane I was already on? I'd be too afraid I'd get shot as a black person to resist the way this man did. But I'd be hot.

In other words, unprofessional behavior by United is the source of this mess. Using fine print to refuse to honor your contract is b.s. And my paying for a ticket to go from A to B at time X is a contract. This is why that overbooking crap ought to be illegal anyway -- though this really didn't have anything to do with overbooking.  

Furthermore, airlines should be required to figure out who is supposed to be on the plane BEFORE they get on the plane for security reasons alone.

Again, I wonder how much this man's race had to do with

1) his selection despite saying he is a doctor that has patients to get back to

2) how he was physically manhandled. 

United to answer for this. 

The city of Chicago should answer for this too because I'm hearing the police --not some sort of security company -- were involved in this. 

Why are police, paid by state tax dollars, acting like bouncers for a private company?  Police are supposed to policing people for being violent or impacting safety in a negative way --- not to protect United's financial bottom line.

• Again, this passenger was being bumped so another United Crew could be transported to the plane they were supposed to be flying out of the destination airport. So this entire ordeal should be seen as being about United's profit margin.

So why were actual policemen involved in this? 

I need more information. Because this does not make sense -- not even from a "money making is everything" perspective.  Then again, once you involve the police, the potential for violence increases geometrically...because they're not even going to jail when they murder people.

Hey!  I'm Moving To:  BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM

UNSTABLE ABLE v UNSTABLE MABLE AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

a repost

ON BOMBING SYRIA

In theory, almost nobody would have a problem with taking it to Assad...if we lived in a vacuum where no other countries exist. In reality, we've already seen the consequences of executing an entrance strategy while having no exit strategy; Iraq was/ is/ always-will-be a U.S. foreign policy disaster.

And I don't care what anybody says, breaking Iraq helped break Syria.

Arab Spring or no Arab Spring ISIS is made up of the Iraqi soldiers left Iraq unemployed after the U.S attempted regime change in Iraq. Saddam Hussein may have been an evil dictator, but he was holding Iraq together. If Iraqis were ready and willing to kill and die to throw Hussein off their backs, they would have set it off themselves. We shouldn't have done it on their behalf (<-- a="" font="" lie="" was="" which=""> 

Bush Jr. was capitalize on the panic of 9/11 and get white people to actually believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11...so we could get to the second largest oil reserves in the world a little more easily.

Iraq wound up being a

You Break It, You Bought It

Scenario

Syria could wind up being a

"You Break It Some More. You're Gonna Wind Up Buying It

Cause

You're The One That Got Caught Holding The Bag

Scenario

But, regardless of what was right and what was wrong in this particular action, what scares me is that Mean Tangerine is more than a little stupid. ("Nobody knew healthcare could be" soooo "complicated.") It scares me that Trump is capable of seeing dead children in Syria at 4:02 PM and ordering a military strike at 4:05 PM. Think about it. Trump saw some half-baked story on Obama and wiretapping, and he's tweeting it x-minutes later. More than one news outlet has linked what he's watching on television and what he says he believes in a tweet the next day.

This time, instead of just tweeting after he saw dead children in Syria on television, he ordered 59 bombs dropped on an airbase halfway around the world

...as if have never been children dying horribly in every war the U.S. has ever had a hand in.

It actually scares me that we aren't really talking about the decision making behind a huge, SUDDEN flipflop that involved bombing another country -- regardless of what "the right move" actually was in the moment with Syria. Mean Tangerine might have gotten lucky THIS TIME. But the next television info-tainment quasi-news show might prompt him to bomb something that gets us into something we can't back out of.

And I'm actually having a problem being confident the intelligence is accurate this fast.

* * * *

LET US VISIT THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

WHERE HILLARY WON JUST FOR A MOMENT

Imagine, for a moment, that Hillary's stance on foreign policy was isolationist all through her presidential campaign-- like Trump's actually was. Imagine she said Syria's internal problems were Syria's. Too bad, so sad for them. To be more specific, imagine that she did not want to bomb multiple military targets in Syria --as she did in reality-- and instead wanted to put "America First" just like Donald Trump said during his campaign and repeated not three days before bombing Syria.

Pretend Hillary said, just three days before dropping bombs in somebody else's civil war, "I'm not and I don't want to be president of the world. I'm president of the United States, and from now on its going to be America First"

By any stretch of your imagination can you envision Hillary Clinton NOT being called unstable and emotional if she did an about face based on a picture of a man holding two infant sons that just died of a chemical attack?

Can you, instead, imagine the unstable memes and genuine worry on the faces of white men on news shows everywhere?

I can.

All we're getting from the white, mostly male, talking heads right now is "What an about face for Trump? Is this an actual policy change? Is this a one-off?"

And I'm not talking about sexism in regards to being "fair" here. I'm talking about the male dominated press complete failure to even discuss Mean Tangerine's emotional and mental fitness to be president. If someone without a penis had done this, every news outlet you can name would whispering about women and emotional responses compromising logic.

And in my opinion, this is actually a legit concern in his case. Trump's complete turn around based on a photograph of children dying and deciding to bomb Syria makes him about as stable as a teenage boy who just found his girlfriend kissing another guy --a whole four weeks after he became captain of the high school football team.

• Did he actually think about how Russia and Iran would respond?

• Did he care about any responses anywhere?

• Did somebody do that part of the thinking for him?

• Did this man just up and decide he wanted to look like a bad ass while the president of China was sitting next to him?

* * * * *

There may be some upside to this bombing. There really may be. But if there is, Trump isn't the one who thought it out. He's not capable. So if the military is the one pumping him up, we need to be worried. Because when you're a hammer (the military) everything looks like a nail (bomb the crap out of X)

A leader who can't think and lead on his own is something to worry about.

I've been damn glad to hear that some are seeing smoke signals over D.C. that seem to saying that the White Nationalist Bannon, lost his seat on the National Security Counsel and is losing favor after having embarrassed Trump twice with the Muslim Ban and Healthcare. But who's the main puppet master of the "leader of the free world" right now? His son-in-law? (<---i ask="" believe="" can="" font="" have="" i="" t="" that.="" to="">

There's also the possibility that Trump is thinking, that he's thinking about polishing his image same as always.

ME, MYSELF, and MINE is all he really thinks about consistently. So this time, let's assume that this has NOT changed. That would mean the bombing is communication and self-promotion of some kind.

Attacking Syria puts an easy victory in his cap during his first 100 days -- that's otherwise been dismal. His NSA choice had to resign, FBI director called him a liar to congress, his Muslim Bans have been stopped twice, and Repeal and Replace flamed out spectacularly.

Making himself look good while not doing much may be all he has left. Making himself look good while sending a few messages might be even better.

POSSIBLY SYRIA BOMBING MESSAGES:

I. TO CHINA (with the Chinese President sitting right there)

"Take care of North Korea or we will"

"See this is what we'll do in your backyard if you don't lean on North Korea as hard as you can."

(That bombing in Syria happening during the meeting with China's President must have seemed sent directly from hyper-masculinity heaven.)

II. TO N. KOREA

"This is what might happen to you. Keep it up with the missile testing."

C. TO S. KOREA

"Shaking in your boots aren't ya? Don't worry. I'm your friend. You need to act like you're more grateful though. You better pay your fair share of .....something." (wink wink)

D. TO RUSSIA With Love

"I hit a practically valueless target except for the optics. Let's just cool this bro-mance off a little. We can play kissy-face again after the FBI and CIA probes are over."

E. TO ISRAEL

"See, I'm on your side."

F. TO IRAN

"Bring it b*tches."

G. TO UNITED STATES VOTERS

"See, I'm not in Russia's pocket. See! No reason to investigate me.

H. TO IRAQ

"I'm just over here rattling your cage. Don't worry, I'm sending more troops into Iraq again."

SYRIA BOMBING OUTCOME

If only 6 or 7 Syrian army personnel were killed, and planes were still taking off from the airfield today, what was the bombing other than a message?

Only time will tell if the action is going to be worth the reaction that we have yet to see.

But one thing seems certain: Trump can't do this again in Syria without serious consequences. 1) He's made Putin look stupid

Russia signed agreements with president Obama that were supposed to reduce/elminate aggression. Trump violated that (after Russia already did in my opinion)  

Russia also told the United Nations(?) there weren't chemical weapons and Russian troops were SUPPOSEDLY sitting on a base where the chemical weapons were launched from -- if our intelligence is correct. Trump's United Nations Ambassador called the Russians incompetent or "played for fools"

2) Russia's reaction may be to refuse to communicate and coordinate where their troops will be in Syria at any given moment...which kept Russia and U.S. Troops from accidentally blowing each other up in Syria for months.

This agreement/ open line of communication to coordinate military aircraft movement was the method by which Trump was able to tell Russia about bombing the airbase before it began. Russia was able to move their personnel out of the way

So now the U.S. cannot bomb Syria again without the risk of hitting Russian troops, right?

All this for 6 or 7 dead at a bombed Syrian Airport that can still launch planes?

Sooo...um...How many of our troops are over there right now? I don't know. But I know it's a number a hell of a lot larger than 6 or 7.

I think bombs as messages is a reckless maneuver . I think making a move sans any big picture or a plan is stupid (Republican Marco Rubio, while cheering Trump on admitted there's no overall plan.) I think you should only drop bombs when you're going to war to win.

However, I also wonder if Trump looking unstable might give our enemies pause.

His being seen as Unstable Able might not be the worst strategy in the world ...if whoever is holding the puppet strings right now actually knows what he's* doing

OBAMA APPOINTED JUDGE DENIES DOJ JEFF SESSIONS REQUEST TO DELAY CHANGES TO BALTIMORE POLICE

Feeling Rebloggy

A REPOST

"The time for negotiating the agreement is over," [Judge] Bredar wrote. "The only question now is whether the Court needs more time to consider the proposed decree. It does not."

The order is effective immediately, and Bredar gave the parties two weeks to deliver a new timeline for implementing the deal....

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The consent decree calls for significant new restrictions on officers, including limits on when and how they can engage individuals suspected of criminal activity. It orders more training for police on de-escalation tactics and interactions with youths, those with mental illness and protesters, as well as more supervision for officers.

The deal also requires the city to invest in better technology and equipment, and for the Police Department to enhance civilian oversight and transparency...

~BALTIMORE SUN 

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
Read More: 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-consent-decree-approved-20170407-story.html


Mayor Pugh Video: 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/93000266-132.html

UNCLE SAM, ISIS, and SYRIA: THE RELATIONSHIP IN A SINGLE CARTOON

Paramount Admits GHOST IN THE SHELL Tanked Due To Whitewashing

A repost
People of Color standing together makes a difference. 

For three years, Asians and other people of color wrote and wrote and wrote articles and blog posts protesting the latest white washing of a POC-story-made-movie, GHOST IN THE SHELL Voice sound off about the hurt and disappointment over e-race-sure. made a difference...Again. 

I'm a movie buff and I didn't even consider going to see it. Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way. 

File this under protest works.

Paramount even had to admit it was the white washing controversy that did the movie in....and did the movie in big time. 

 

“Ghost in the Shell” was expected to be a box office hit, considering the fact that it’s based on Masamune Shirow’s popular Japanese manga series of the same name and stars A-lister Scarlett Johansson. However, the big-budget film completely bombed on its opening weekend.

The film, which cost about US$110 million to make, only earned a measly $19 million in North American box offices over the weekend, Variety reports.

And what’s even more shocking is that the film was beat out by the debut of “The Boss Baby,” an animated feature about a talking infant, and “Beauty and the Beast,” which was first released three weeks ago. The films earned US$49 million and US$48 million, respectively.

So what went wrong? According to Paramount’s domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies, it had to do with the film’s casting controversy. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/04/03/ghost-in-the-shell-box-office_n_15782680.html

I hope everybody involved lost WHOLE BUNCHES-A MONEY. I hope the white GHOST IN THE SHELL crew are calling up the WHITE GODS OF EGYPT white boys to commiserate. 
Laughing in black girl petty over here. 

Laughing loud.  

BWAAAAAAA ha ha ha haaaaaaa!

THIS WEEK IN WHITE MEN: THE ADVERTISERS

A repost
Two companies revealed that there's nothing but white men or white-men-wanna-be-s in upper management at their companies, as well as the companies they hire to do their advertising. 

That's the only excuse I can think of for what happened at Nivea and Pepsi this week.

1. Nivea had pull an ad after massive protest

This company produced an ad called "Whiteness Is Purity" Rumor has it that one of the main markets they were using this in was in the Middle East somewhere. 

Wherever Nivea planned to have this ad playing most often...um....uh???? WTH. 

I mean...how freaking cut off and white and into yourself do you have to be not see the KKK-ers and the Bannon-loving white nationalists are going to be the ONLY ones loving this ad?

* * * * *

2. Pepsi had to pull an ad after massive protest


The story about Pepsi is slightly more complicated than the Nivea story...on the surface. 

Clearly, Pepsi wanted to be all edgy and now. So somebody had the bright idea to center an ad on social protest. However, Pepsi also wanted to be non-committal. (Yeah. These two things make sense together) So they made this ad where the protests sign were seriously generic in the "Can't We All Just Get Along" ala Rodney King manner. 

Then this advertisement went one step further: They belittled every protest ever -- especially Black Lives Matter, in my mind-- by having the actress give a Pepsi to a cop which made everything ALL better. 

However, mistake number one in my black feminist mind was Pepsi using one of Kardashian/Jenner-Surgery-Sisters as the actor from the jump. You know surgeries I'm talking about, right? The surgeries gotten so as to acquire the black female features that sooo many white folk --and a certain strain of brain-dead-black men-- adore only when they are on non-black women? 

Talk about adding insult to injury.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/kendall-jenner-pepsi-ad.html?_r=0

CONCLUSION 1: Protest Works

CONCLUSION 2:  Daaaayum. Ya'll people of color won't let white folks e-race nuthin no more. Took all that money out of white folks hands by refusing to go see GHOST IN THE SHELL. Now the white boys at Nivea and the white boys at Pepsi, both, lost a lot of money on an ad they can't use too.

Shame on ya'll


Laughing in black girl petty

Laughin' LOUD

BWAAAAAAA ha ha ha. 

FOX NEWS FINALLY GOES TOO FAR...BEHIND THE SCENES

The three women behind a lawsuit alleging “appalling discrimination” at the hands of a former executive at Fox News on Wednesday opened up about the alleged racial harassment they faced at the news network.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday — an amended version of a complaint filed last week — Tichaona Brown, Tabrese Wright and Monica Douglas alleged Fox News Senior Vice President of Accounting Judith Slater [an employee of 17 years] habitually mocked black employees.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fox-new-employees-accusing-network-discrimination-speak-article-1.3020032

According to one of the women I saw interviewed, someone affiliated Fox's Human Resources would not take action against Slater when she was originally reported (pre-lawsuit, up to two years ago) because Slater knew too much.

Welp...um...one of the things that I learned during a Good Morning America Broadcast was that Fox News has paid off 13 million dollars in sexual harassment type lawsuits due to accusations leveled against Bill O'Reilly of the O'Reilly Factor ...one of many white "news" anchors at Fox News that love racist and racial charged statements that conservative white racists adore.

A sampling of Fox News

In case you forgot, O'Reilly just recently mocked Maxine Waters' hair, saying she was wearing a "James Brown Wig." 

Well, I guess Maxine is the one laughing today.  

As the sexual harassment suits multiple and become more public, many advertisers have started pulling their advertising from Fox and Bill O'Reilly -- advertising worth more than 200 million dollars per year.

  
In even better news, it looks like there's a pile on effect going on. May the lawsuits multiply until those racists at Fox News goes under. I hope each and every one of the anchors there goes broke.

Read More, See More, Hear More:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fox-new-employees-accusing-network-discrimination-speak-article-1.3020032

WAGE GAP BY GENDER AND RACE FOR EQUAL PAY DAY

Feeling Rebloggy

The gender pay gap may be narrowing, but those pay increases aren’t happening equally for everyone. White women are making a lot more progress than their black and Hispanic peers, according to data on media hourly wages.

Advocates are taking notice of such disparities on Equal Pay Day — Tuesday, April 4 — which represents how far into the year women have to work to catch up to the amount men earned in the previous year. Although women have been steadily catching up to men’s pay for decades, median wages still fall short of white men’s, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute.

FROM VOX.COM

Read More:http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/4/4/15179156/equal-pay-day-race-gender-wage-gap