A bullet intended for someone else hit and killed 17-year-old Jamahri Syndor on August 10 in Washington D.C. while she was driving. Syndor was described as a wonderful young lady by all of her teachers. A recent graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in Northwest D.C., she was captain of her high school's cheerleading squad and sang in the choir. She was headed to Florida A&M University to start her freshman year of college within days of her death. Truly a tragic and heartbreaking story, NBC Washington reports that her killers are still on the loose. Despite the need for justice for this beautiful young lady, her family also told the news outlet that her organs have been able to save six lives. A vigil was held for Syndor this past Thursday near the area of the shooting, where hundreds gathered to honor her unexpected passing. Two officers from the Upper Darby Police Department in Pennsylvania were among those who came to honor her. Jamahri's donated liver saved the life of an Upper Darby officer. Five other lives were saved thanks to the teen's donated organs. Even in death, this beautiful young lady can be a blessing to the lives of others. Our deepest condolences to the family of Jamahri, and we hope that her killer is found and justice is served. She would have been an amazing...

Given the horrifying and incompetent nightmare of our current administration, we see ya'll out here flirting with nostalgia, throwing back to the days when a smart, unifying, and genuinely caring President and VP held executive power.If stalking the Instagram page of Obama photographer's Pete Souza isn't enough to keep the #Obiden bromance alive in your head, director and writer Adam Reid has upped the ante with a new pilot titled “Barry & Joe: The Animated Series." The adult animated sci-fi show reunites the justice fighting dynamic duo as they engage in a mission to save us all.                                                       In the pilot's trailer, Obama and Biden travel back in time after the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, to alter the course of history and save the future. Guided by present day astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, every episode will follow Barry and Joe as they trace their way through history fighting evil and righting wrongs.To produce the sitcom, Reid has launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $100,000. So far over $48,000 has been pledged with 8 days left to donate.Entertainment, escapism, and nostalgia? I'll put something on...

Yesterday, People reported about a story that Comedian Amy Schumer insisted she be paid more upon finding out how much Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle were paid for their Netflix specials. The news came from a story by Variety all about women and equal pay in the entertainment industry. While Chapelle and Rock were paid $20 million for their routines, Variety claims Schumer had been paid $11 million for her “The Leather Special” taping. Apparently, Schumer was able to raise her pay after negotiating with Netflix and bringing up the point of how much less she was being paid than Rock and Chappelle.Is this really a gender issue, or is this a talent and higher ranking issue? It's almost like if new employee demanded to be paid as much as the manager. How else can we put this?There's levels to this, girl. By the look of the Black Twitter feed, people are sharing the same sentiment. I'm all for wage equalty but 1) she's not funny2) would you ask for same pay as the VP (30yrs exp) when you're at coord level (5/10 exp)?— Lex (@lexee4_) August 22, 2017pic.twitter.com/a1J11RWL7l— L Boogie☔️ (@lb313) August 22, 2017pic.twitter.com/80wWG9wIFj— Justin Chase Daoey (@Jdaoey) August 22, 2017Amy, honey, chile.... 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/bIApTJaCWZ— 🌬 (@BlkCarmenSDiego) August 22, 2017This is not an "equal pay" issue. This is a "you're not funny like them" issue. https://t.co/2jR6nLgVod— Keely (@Keely_McCann) August 22, 2017This is literally the funniest thing she has done in years. You want to get paid the same as big name industry veterans?.. pic.twitter.com/d8OKkRAzTW— Tegbe (@Librocube) August 23, 2017They really should tell her that they've decided to go in another direction and give the coins to Tiffany Haddish & Margaret Cho pic.twitter.com/slr9jDBrKZ— Kiem (@Teamkiem) August 23, 2017Amy.. Chris Rock & Dave Chappelle have made it to legendary status, both have been in the game for over 20 years. Oh & they're funny! So.. pic.twitter.com/swf36BQIR5— 🌹Drea not Andrea🌹 (@ColdestHottie) August 23, 2017People can make the argument that the definition of funny is subjective, but let's be candid for a sec. Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock are veterans to the game with large followings who can bring in a large amount of revenue. Amy Schumer has the white feminist alliance, but she's not pulling the numbers Rock and Chappelle are. It just seems very convenient to pull the equal pay card here when in reality, it doesn't seem that deep.Maybe we're wrong. Is this an issue of equal pay, or is Amy Schumer just doing what she does best: the absolute most? Do you think she's right or wrong? Let us know in the comments...

Founded in 2008, Airbnb took off with the brilliant concept of creating an online marketplace connecting people looking to rent their homes with people in need of accommodations. With a community that includes over half a million hosts and upward of 3 million listings in 192 countries worldwide, the brokerage startup has been a resounding success. With that success, has come issues including reports of racial discrimination from both guests and hosts. In response, the organization has made significant adjustments, including a 32-page report written by ACLU Legislative Office director Laura Murphy. In it the company added a more robust nondiscrimination policy for users and assembled a team to identify and combat bias on the platform. As a result of this task force, Airbnb was able to quickly shut down accounts linked to the recent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville. In addition, the company implemented an an internal diversity policy, which mandates "that all candidate pools for senior-level positions include women and candidates from underrepresented backgrounds."In this ongoing effort to engage communities of color, the company announced today that Danny Glover will be joining the Airbnb team as an adviser. The renowned actor, director and activist will be focusing specifically on ensuring that communities of color are taking advantage of the economic opportunity to host on the platform. Glover released the following statement this morning:The history of housing in America is a history of discrimination. Even as people of color have made strides in countless other areas of American life, home ownership—and the intergenerational wealth that comes along with it—remains out of reach for far too many. Even Frederick Douglass, when buying his first home in 1892, noted the importance of home ownership in building community wealth for African Americans. While being committed to economic justice we must also rethink how we cultivate strong dynamic communities of inclusion and belonging.That is why I have started working with Airbnb and will be serving as an adviser for their efforts to engage communities of color, ensuring members of these communities are taking advantage of the economic opportunity of hosting on the Airbnb platform. I know Airbnb has had its own share of challenges in this arena—but working with them, I’ve seen first-hand how committed they are to getting it right. And I have been incredibly heartened to see the resources, desire, and drive they are directing towards ensuring that their service is used fairly and inclusively.Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity of meeting numerous African American and Latinx Airbnb hosts, each of whom has impacted me deeply. There are more stories than I could share, but I do want you to know about a couple of the hosts I met.In Brooklyn, I met Michelle—who has seen the cost of living in the rapidly gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood increase tremendously since she moved there twenty years ago. Ordinarily, Michelle would have had to move to another neighborhood. But by renting out her garden apartment on Airbnb, she could not only afford to stay in the neighborhood, but could also help pay her daughter’s way through college.Cia, a host I met in San Francisco, raised her children as a single mother—and is now raising a granddaughter as well. Today, Airbnb helps her make ends meet for her whole family, and in the years ahead, Cia says Airbnb will make it possible for her to retire.These are just a few of the many stories I have heard—with people from all different backgrounds using Airbnb as a bridge to financial stability and even homeownership. These stories are not the exception either. In the U.S., the typical Airbnb U.S. host earns $6,100 every year they share their home— supplemental income that can cover expenses like food, rent, caring for a sick relative, and education for their children.In many cases, Airbnb can even be the difference between hosts having to give up their homes and earning income from them. An estimated 62 percent of United States hosts report that home sharing has helped them afford to stay in their home, while 12 percent of North American hosts say that it actually saved them from eviction or foreclosure.Airbnb also allows communities traditionally underserved by the tourism industry to reap the financial rewards of travel, with the share of Airbnb bookings in communities of color in some major cities exceeding the share of local hotel rooms that can be found in them.Yet, Airbnb’s potential benefits also go beyond finances as the service can bring people of diverse origins and walks of life together in a context geared toward hospitality and sharing. The bonds that can form in these interactions are indispensable to the greater project of breaking down the social barriers that make all forms of discrimination so intractable in the first place. These spontaneous interpersonal relationships are the laboratories for transforming relationships among people; the sites at which we begin to implement our highest ideals in practical yet poignant ways.I recently met Ron, an Airbnb host in San Francisco. Ron and his wife, Renee, have hosted over 200 people in their home over the years through Airbnb. Among their many guests were a husband and wife from Germany. When Renee recently passed away, the German couple she and Ron had hosted were able to reach out online to express their heartfelt condolences. When the husband returned to San Francisco on a business trip, he and Ron went out for a drink and remain in contact.For hosts like Ron, hosting on Airbnb became a gateway to new passions and a sense of community that is simultaneously personal and global. By melding travel, housing, and the potential for meaningful personal exchanges, Airbnb represents a host of possibilities for marginalized communities, particularly those of color.African American, Latinx, and other communities of color are some of Airbnb’s fastest growing host communities in the U.S, which is a step in the right direction. But the underlying housing market is still fundamentally unfair—and, disappointingly, even as we have made progress in other areas, the Airbnb community can sometimes reflect the broader discriminatory realities of present-day American society.Working with the Airbnb community first-hand –which includes its executive leaders, employees, and hosts–has allowed me to witness just how committed they are to addressing these issues proactively. They have issued a report on building inclusion and engaged with civil rights leaders across the country. I see this as a continuation of the work I have done throughout my life, fighting for fairness and equality for working people, including hotel workers and supporting union workers, which both of my parents were.In March, Airbnb unveiled its Economic Empowerment Agenda—which established the goal of doubling the size of its U.S. host community in urban majority-minority districts and underserved areas within the next two years. This will be achieved through partnerships with national and local organizations and on-the-ground events and trainings to help more people understand the economic opportunity that home sharing can provide. This agenda also includes: The Friendly Buildings Program bringing landlords and their tenants to the table to jointly set home sharing and revenue sharing terms; and, the creation of a living wage pledge—which will enable hosts to designate that the people who clean their homes are paid at least $15 per hour.Airbnb and the NAACP have also established a partnership to increase the participation of hosts of color and increase tourism to neighborhoods of color, to diversify Airbnb’s workforce, and to commit a share of Airbnb’s revenue to supporting civil rights initiatives.Working with partners like the NAACP, we will host information sessions and run online and offline campaigns aimed at engaging the people who can benefit from home sharing the most. As an advisor, I will be on the ground doing whatever I can to promote these efforts—participating in trainings and events, working with local organizations and faith-based leaders, and getting to know more of the hosts who empower our communities.The fight for fairer housing won’t be easy—and it won’t be over anytime soon. But you can be part of making a difference right now. So I hope you’ll consider investing in your future, signing up to host on Airbnb, and helping us work towards housing equality—one listing at a time.And I’ll be working closely with everyone at Airbnb to help more people of color benefit from home...

Any productive conversations between the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Trump administration appear to be coming to a complete halt.Per McClatchy Washington Bureau, CBC chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., put a call out to HBCU leaders to cancel the upcoming much-anticipated meeting with the White House, citing that the administration doesn’t “understand [them] at all.” Additionally, he will be gathering the 49 members of the CBC in a couple of weeks to discuss joining Democratic efforts to impeach President Trump.The president’s official remarks following the Charlottesville rally appeared to be the last straw for Richmond who now claims that Trump is not committed to black schools or -- in a larger sense -- the community itself.“You can make an argument based on pure competency and fitness to serve, and that’s the conversation the caucus will have,” said Richmond via a conference call with reporters.“Am I concerned about high crimes and misdemeanors?” asked Richmond. “Absolutely. Am I concerned about this president’s fitness to serve? Absolutely.”“Not only do I think it should be postponed, it shouldn’t have been happening in the first place,” Richmond continued. “This White House isn’t serious about improving our HBCUs…They brought all those HBCU presidents to town, they took a picture in the Oval Office, and then they did nothing.”Richmond’s recommendation comes after other lawmakers suggested that the meeting be postponed, following Trump’s Charlottesville remarks.Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., the first of the lawmakers to recommend a postponing because there has been “zero progress on any of (the HBCUs’) priorities, it would be highly unproductive to ask HBCU presidents to come back to Washington.”Despite the strong urging from the lawmakers, the White House has confirmed that the meeting is still on, McClatchy reports. There has been no further comment from the White House since Richmond’s additional statements.“President Trump’s commitment to the HBCU community remains strong and unwavering,” said White House’s Office of Public Liaison director of communications Omarosa Manigault-Newman via a statement. “Registration is currently at capacity and we are looking forward to welcoming HBCU presidents, students and guests.” In addition to the meeting, Manigault-Newman has confirmed that a new executive director will be named under Trump’s HBCU initiative....

According to Newsweek, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is being sued by white farmers who are demanding compensation for the seizure of their lands.In 2000, Mugabe's government put a land reform program in place that saw militias seizing the land of white farmers by force. "We say no to whites owning our land, and they should go," Mugabe said, reflecting on the program years later. He recently has promised to get rid of the few white farmers who remain in the country.Mugabe, at a rally in Harare, Zimbabwe just a week ago, also made it very clear that he has no intention of prosecuting the people who killed white farmers during the government-sanctioned property seizure. “Yes, we have those who were killed when they resisted. We will never prosecute those who killed them. I ask, why should we arrest them?” Mugabe said.Critics of Mugabe's actions say that his purge has caused a deal of economic and agricultural issues to occur.Many Western donors have cut ties to Zimbabwe and foreign governments have imposed sanctions on Mugabe's government. And many of the black citizens who received land that once belonged to white farmers found their crops failing, as they tried to plant with limited to no agricultural training.The two of these things together have been blamed for the country's economic troubles, which led to a single loaf of bread being worth 10 million Zimbabwean dollars in 2009.That same year, in order to try to get the economy under control, the government replaced its money with bond notes. The problem with these is that they have no value outside of the country.All of this came to a head this weekend, when a group of white Zimbabwean farmers filed legal action against Mugabe's administration.A spokesman for the group and a former farmer whose property was burned down during the seizure, Ben Freeth, said that "dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers have been wronged.”Freeth added that the farmers want to take their fight to the president because he and members of his administration have been operating above the law for too long.“Unless the culture of impunity stops, no investment will take place in our country and the economic crisis will deepen. Without property rights and the rule of law, our negative trajectory as a failed state will accelerate."In order to ensure they receive an unbiased trial, the farmers have filed through the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a group made up of several African nations, including Zimbabwe. A 2008 SADC decision kept white farmer Mike Campbell on his land after the Mugabe government tried to evict him. The same decision ruled that Zimbabwe had to compensate farmers from whom it had seized land.The Mugabe administration rejected the SADC's decision; Campbell died a few years later. His widow claimed the farmer's death stemmed from injuries sustained after Campbell was beaten by Mugabe supporters upset about the SADC decision.David Conolly, a white farmer forced off of his land in 2015 hopes that this time things will end differently for those involved in the SADC case.“All I want to do is to be allowed to farm our family farm and live in my home,” Conolly said. “If the Zimbabwe government doesn’t want to allow me to do this then it must pay fair compensation for the loss of my farm and my life’s...

In the past week, a number of controversial monuments memorializing the Confederacy have been taken down, but now there is a new development in the movement to rid the nation of monuments idolizing white supremacy.On Saturday, Aug. 19, a group of young women from the activist group Black Youth Project 100 demonstrated in front of a statue of infamous 19th-century gynecologist J. Marion Sims in New York. The demonstrators wore hospital gowns stained with pink dye to symbolize blood to make a statement on the horror his victims faced. It is common knowledge that he used enslaved black women to perform his procedures and experiments so that white women ultimately could benefit.In a Facebook post from the group's page, their call to take down the statue dedicated to the man went viral. “J. Marion Sims was a gynecologist in the 1800s who purchased Black women slaves and used them as guinea pigs for his untested surgical experiments,” they wrote in the post. “He repeatedly performed genital surgery on Black women WITHOUT ANESTHESIA because according to him, ‘Black women don’t feel pain.’”  The statue stands outside of the New York Academy of Medicine almost excusing Sims' methodology. “We cannot get over our history of white supremacy until we acknowledge it,” the protest’s organizer Seshat Mack says in a Now This video of the protest. “When we say that this country and its institutions are literally built on the bodies of black people, we’re not exaggerating, and we’re not lying.”  J. Marion Sims, "father of modern gynecology", memorialized for performing genital surgery on Black woman slaves w/o anesthesia or consent pic.twitter.com/p5hE8S7uCv— BYP100 (@BYP_100) August 19, 2017This statue memorializes a gynecologist who experimented on slave women without anesthesia – but New York City won't take it down pic.twitter.com/5nOMfNrOUs— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 21, 2017Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a 90-day review of any “hate symbols." One of these is the Sims statue."Mayor de Blasio has stated that the J. Marion Sims statue will be one of the statues NYC will look at removing for being symbols of hate," Mack told Blavity. "This is a good step, but many of us feel that there doesn't need to be further discussion — the statue needs to come down ASAP."Black Youth Project 100 spokesperson Alexandra Quinn Anderson told Blavity that we can expect to see more actions like this one from the organization. "Our next steps involve supporting the work that has taken place over the past decade as well as continuing to confront symbols and systems that uphold white...