When it comes to a lot of female murder victims, there is the overarching stereotype of the “evil man in the bushes.” It, turns out, though, that the evil man you know is far more dangerous.A study conducted by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) found that over half of all female murder victims are killed by intimate partners.The study delved into specifics of over 10,000 murders from 2003-2014, and also looked at potential opportunities for prevention methods and racial breakdowns.The study found that 53 percent of all murders of women (during the years looked at) involved a domestic or intimate partner.Black women were found to suffer death at a partner's hands more often than women of any other race. 4.4 out of every 100,000 black women are killed by their partners, the study found. Native American women had the second highest incidence of murder, 4.3 per 100,000 population. White women were found to have a rate of 1.5 per 100,000.Black women were also found to be the most likely to be shot to death. 57.7 percent of the black women included in the study died of a gunshot wound. Study authors found that 98 percent of the homicidal partners, regardless of race or method used to kill, were men. This fits in to what criminologists know about murder. According to the FBI, men are far more likely to commit murder than women. A full 90 percent of known homicide offenders are male.The study also investigated ways to prevent the murders of women. Authors found that one in 10 of the murdered women experienced severe violence in the month before their deaths. The study urged law enforcement officials to use the incidents as avenues for interventions, and as opportunities to steer women towards services that can help them deal with abuse.While this report was full of sad news, let’s hope that these tragic numbers can lead to real...

On August 21, 2016, Aaryn W. Snyder of Fort Wayne, Indiana walked into Samuel Hardrix's yard and stabbed him multiple times. Hardrix, a black man, died of his wounds.According to the Associated Press, Snyder, while in jail for an unrelated offense, told a detective that he belonged to a "white organization," and said that he killed Hardrix for being black.This week, the 32-year-old white supremacist was sentenced for Hardrix's murder. He offered an apology for killing Hardrix, and blamed his malicious actions on drug use.Why was Synder in jail when he confessed to the murder? Well, in September 2016, he was jailed for failing to register as a sex offender. Snyder pleaded guilty to the murder in court, mentioning that he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.Snyder was receiving treatment at St. Joseph Hospital for this illness when he confessed to a nurse about killing Hardrix according to Journal Gazette.The exact circumstances surrounding Hardrix's death are still unclear.According to News Sentinel, Snyder told police that he began arguing with Hardrix on August 18, 2016 after Hardrix allegedly referred to Snyder as a child molester. Snyder claimed that Hardrix pulled out a pocketknife and threatened to use it on him. Days later, Hardrix's body was found by the authorities in the backyard of a woman's house on Schilling Avenue.Many inconsistencies were found in Snyder's story, however. Once, he claimed he stabbed Hardrix seven times, and then 17 times in another story. He also has claimed that Hardrix is not the only person he has killed.Witnesses and neighbors also were suspicious of Snyder's odd behavior leading up to and after the murder. Monica Stieglitz, one of Synder's neighbors, said, "He came to my house asking me what the police talked to me about." He came to her door posing as a local pastor, and told Stieglitz that he lived with his mother and worked with drug addicts and those without homes.For Hardrix's murder, Synder was sentenced to 65 years in prison, the maximum sentence for murder in the state of...

The New York Post recently shared a tragic video taken of a black disabled man, Jamel Dunn, as he was drowning in a retention pond in Cocoa, Florida.The saddest thing about the video is that it was recorded by five teenagers who mocked the man as he drowned instead of helping him.According to officials, the teens broke no laws by standing by and letting the 32-year-old die, and therefore will face no charges. Not only did the teens film the drowning, but they did not report the incident to 911. Dunn's body was found three days after he drowned per reports by Florida Today.Police questioned the teens after the event; they told officers that they'd warned the man not to get into the water. When he failed to do so, they thought it best to watch him sink to his death.Dunn can be seen struggling to swim and screaming for help in the pond in the video.Yvonne Martinez, a Cocoa Police Department spokesperson, said in a statement, “The kids were at the park that day smoking marijuana and apparently saw him walk into the water. He walked in on his own. They were watching him."The video makes it clear what happened next.“He started to struggle and scream for help and they just laughed,” Martinez said. “They didn’t call the police. They just laughed the whole time. He was just screaming … for someone to help him.”“There was no remorse, only a smirk,” Martinez said.One teen can be heard saying, "Oh, he just died" in the video when Dunn's body does not surface in the water. The remark elicited peals of laughter from the others.So how did the police find out about the incident?A family friend of Dunn saw the two-minute clip on social media and contacted the police. The Brevard-Seminole State Attorney’s Office said: “While the incident depicted on the recording does not give rise to sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution under Florida statutes, we can find no moral justification for either the behavior of persons heard on the recording or the deliberate decision not to render aid to Mr. Dunn."Friends and family of Dunn have created a GoFundMe campaign to raise pay for his funeral.Our condolences to Dunn's loved...

The stress of having to deal with a family member in prison is already significant.Add to that the unimaginable pain of having to hear your loved one has mysteriously died while in prison, and you take things to an entirely different level.One family of an Illinois inmate has to deal with just that.NBC Chicago reports that Michael Jefferson, a Chicago resident, was an inmate at maximum security prison Menard Correctional Center on a parole violation. Earlier this month, Jefferson, who had bipolar disorder, was found unresponsive in a cell and subsequently pronounced dead.Now, his family wants answers.In a graphic posting that went viral on social media, Jefferson’s family posted pictures of the man, wounds apparent.The family also posted side-by-side photos — one where he is alive and well next to the swollen face and body of the now-deceased inmate — on their GoFundMe page. The family is raising funds for Jefferson’s funeral to conduct an independent autopsy as the county autopsy found no signs of trauma.“When I got to the funeral home here in Chicago I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Jefferson’s mother Janel Charles, via the GoFundMe page. “My son’s face is swollen beyond recognition.”She continued, “He still has blood in his nose, cuts in his mouth, a knot on the side of his head.” She decided to share the graphic photos “because I want the world to know what happened to my son and maybe we can stop this from happening to another family.”The Illinois Department of Corrections stated that the swelling and wounds may have been a result of the body’s “rapid decomposition.” Results of the final autopsy including toxicology and histology findings are still pending.Charles is suspicious, and wants to know why she hasn’t received adequate answers in regards to the cause of his death. “Somebody needs to tell me something. My son was 27 and healthy,” she said to WGN News.“Whatever went on in there, he did not deserve to die that way. He was a human being,” she added. “He had people loved him. I loved my son. His brothers loved him. He died like an...

If you work at a large multinational, you’ve probably been invited to join a diversity group — maybe a group to support women in the company, or black men.These sort of programs have become standard at large companies, and can feel like life rafts to those struggling with a company culture that is (usually) dominated by straight white men.Deloitte, a business services multinational, has a ton of these groups. But now, according to Bloomberg, it is getting rid of them.Why is Deloitte canning these initiatives?Well, Deloitte is a fairly young company in terms of its workforce — a full 57 percent of its employees are milliennials.And Deloitte officials say that this group has eschewed the company’s diversity initiatives because they feel that they ignore intersectionality.Currently, there is a group for women, called WIN.There is also a group for LGBTQ employees, called Globe.There is a group for black employees, the Black Employee Network.But there is no group for gay black women.“Why go talk to a circle of people about something that feels like it’s tied to only one facet of your identity?” one 30-year-old Deloitte employee asked.And so, the head of WIN, Deepa Purushothaman, told Bloomberg, “We are turning it on its head for people.”It’s not just millennial discontent that’s driving the move, however.It was also motivated by a large group of people within the company that was feeling very left out: straight, cis white men. In order to include white men in its diversity groups, Deloitte is refashioning them into what they term “inclusion panels.”Having white men in the panels will help, Purushothaman said, because that way “you get more allies, advocates and sponsors.” And besides that, Purushothaman said that leadership can’t get woke without someone to wake them. “A lot of our leaders are still older white men, and they need to be part of the conversation and advocate for women. But they’re not going to do that as much if they don’t hear the stories and understand what that means.” While Deloitte is gung ho about reformatting its diversity groups, its colleagues in the business world aren’t so sure they’ve got the right idea.Jennifer Brown, who is a consultant that helps multinationals develop diversity programs, said that she thinks Deloitte’s jumped the gun a bit. “We need these groups until such a time as people of like identity don’t need to close the door and seek a safe space. We’re not there yet.”PwC, one of Deloitte’s chief rivals also told Bloomberg that it didn’t think “inclusion panels” were the way to go.“We believe there is tremendous value in also having individual ERGS [employee resource groups] to provide more leadership opportunities to their members.”But one of Deloitte’s top white men, Brent Bachus, who has been with the firm for 21 years and is now director for talent inclusion and engagement said PwC, Brown and the rest of the business services industry has it all wrong.He said that he and other white men need to be in diversity groups because under the current system, “I don’t know that I necessarily felt like I knew what role I was being expected to play, or if I even had a role.”Purushothaman said that it doesn’t matter if others understand why Deloitte is making the move, and that the company knows what is best. “For us, in order to really drive change, get everyone on board, and to really have a focus on the culture conversation that needs to happen, these things are...

Every year since 1984, tire manufacturer Pirelli has graced the world with a calendar featuring the year's top models in exotic tableaux.This year, black excellence and beauty are reigning supreme with Pirelli's first all black calendar.The 45th edition of the calendar features a gorgeous spectrum of black talent.All sorts of artists are represented, from models to music mogul Diddy to rapper Lil Yatchy to activist Adwoa Aboah!And of course, actress and supermodels make appearances as well. Naomi Campbell, Duckie Thot, Whoopi Goldberg, RuPaul, Lupita Nyong'o and many others stun all over the twelve months of the year!Often, Pirelli calendars have some sort of theme; sometimes it's loose. Other times, like this year, it's strong: the creative team decided that this year, they'd make a calendar inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.According to Pirelli, the shoot's creative team, led by stylist (and British Vogue's editor-in-chief) Edward Enninful and photographer Tim Walker endeavored to have their shots mimic the story's original illustrations by John Tenniel.The calendar will not be released until November. However, Billboard has drawn back the velvet curtain and granted us a glimpse into the shoot (with behind-the-scenes photography by Alessandro Scotti), and it is giving us life in the meantime.Walker explained to the Guardian why casting an all-black ensemble appealed to him when visualizing the masterpiece.“It’s never been done before. Alice has never been told like this," he said.“Any person with a different color should be able to see themselves in any way. So any girl, whether she is black or Chinese or Indian, they should be able to have their own fairytale," Walker told South African Thando Hopa, who plays the Princess of Hearts.“This is an important step in culture development – to push images that aren’t generic, that don’t conform to stereotypes,” Hopa said.And we couldn't agree more.Take a trip down the rabbit hole and stumble into a wonderland of black allure with us with even more behind the scenes photos:So who's playing who? Well, here's the full breakdown:Adut Akech as The Queen of DiamondsAdwoa Aboah as TweedledeeAlpha Dia as The 5 of Hearts Djimon Hounsou as The King of HeartsDuckie Thot as AliceKing Owusu as Tweedledum, 2 of Hearts Playing Card GardnerLil Yachty as The Queen's GuardLupita Nyong’o as The DormouseNaomi Campbell as The Royal BeheaderRuPaul, American as The Queen of HeartsSasha Lane as The Mad March HareSean “Diddy” Combs as The Royal BeheaderSlick Woods as The Mad HatterThando Hopa as The Princess of HeartsWilson Oryema as The 7 of Hearts Whoopi Goldberg as The Royal DuchessZoe Bedeaux as The Caterpillar Shimmered in jewels, blessed with melanin and crowns adorned upon their heads, this cast could make even real royal dynasties look...

On Wednesday, Spelman College officials announced a new scholarship opportunity. They have created scholarships for two self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer students as well as a companion lecture series to explore contemporary issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Titled the Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars Program, its purpose is a wake-up call in addition to a well-deserved accolade. It "will call attention to the importance of making visible the courageous and significant work of LGBTQ scholar activists within and beyond the academy, especially at HBCUs,” Spelman professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall stated about the program in a news release.The scholarship is named in honor of Guy-Sheftall’s cousin who was a member of the Women’s Research and Resource Center’s National Advisory Board from its establishment in 2008 until his death in 2015. He also implanted the first automatic heart defibrillator in a patient and was instrumental in recruiting minority students to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The students will be awarded renewable $25,000 scholarships. The recipients will be named this fall.Guy-Sheftall, who is the founder of the Spelman Women's Research and Resource Center, launched the scholar's program and lecture series in May with a pledge of $100,000.Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell believes that this gift "will present new opportunities for a critical conversation on race and sexuality with distinguished scholars and thought leaders, and provide a platform to recognize campus LGBTQ advocates and their scholarly achievements."This is huge, especially for an HBCU where subjects of sexuality can often time be taboo even though LGBTQ students are definitely there. This could mean a lot for the institution, HBCUs in general, and how they treat their LGBTQ students. For more information about the Levi Watkins Jr. Scholarship, visit here. What do you all think? Is Spelman paving the way for HBCUs with their scholarship program, or do you think it's unnecessary? Let us know in the comments...