Our beautiful first lady Michelle Obama has been subjected to racist criticism yet again but this time at the hands of two Virginia officials who are now under fire and facing calls for their termination.  

The mayor of Clay West Virginia, Beverly Whaling has resigned after only writing “made my day Pam” on a post made by county director Pamela Ramsey Taylor.

​What made Whaling’s response so obscene was that this post was no inspirational quote or well-wishing of good fortune, but instead a racist and hateful comment that she chose to agree with. Ramsey posted a comment directed at our first lady to her many friends on her Facebook account that read:

Pam made this comment following the election of Donald Trump.

​These women and their taste in character only gave them the attention that they wanted and the termination that they deserved.

Who can forget the social media campaign that went global #BringBackOurGirls. This movement went viral back in April 2014 when nearly 300 Chibok school girls were kidnapped at the hands of militant group Boko Haram.

According to CNN.com, militants handed over 21 Chibok schoolgirls to authorities Thursday morning (along with a 20-month-old boy born to one of the girls in captivity) after a series of negotiations. This was the first mass release of any of the nearly 300 school girls that were held captive.

The government and the International Committee of the Red Cross helped to negotiate the release of the girls. It was stated by New York Times that militants gathered the girls that they were releasing  and drove them through the forest until their vehicle broke down, forcing the girls to walk for two days until they arrived in a border town where they were able to contact officials.

The Nigerian government plans to continue negotiating with the militant group in exchange of the remaining schoolgirls who are still held captive.

It is still unclear of the lively hood of the other captive school girls but the Nigerian government is taking action to see to it that more than the 21 returned will be reunited with their families.

​After one teenager’s freedom years were stripped away for a crime he did not commit, he is having his three year unjust prison sentence story produced by one of the biggest names in music.  

Hip-hop mogul Jay Z is using his platform to bring awareness to the unjust ‘justice’ system as well as the psychological damage caused by the criminal justice system. He is teaming up with the Weinstein Company to bring a six-part series set to air on Spike TV in January 2017 titled 'TIME: The Kalief Browder Story'.

Arrested at the age of 16, Kalief Browder was charged with second degree robbery, on false accusations of allegedly stealing a backpack. Browder refused to take a plea admitting to a crime that he did not commit so was sent to Riker’s Island to await trial (that never came).
​Of his three year imprisonment, he endured two years (almost 800 days) in solitary confinement where he attempted to end his life on numerous occasions as well as being brutally attacked and beaten by inmates and prison guards. After three years his case was eventually dismissed, Browder was released in 2013 but later took his own life in 2015.

According to Huffington post.com Jay Z stated, “Kalief’s [story] is a kind of story you can’t ignore”.

His story caught the attention of many celebrities and activist’s as well sparking attention on a national level causing President Barack Obama to announce an executive order by choosing to eliminate solitary confinement for minors in the prison system. Jay Z credited Browder’s experience with helping to make that difference.

It is believed that this documentary is set to provide a better look into Browder’s traumatic ordeal through a first-person account. The documentary will revolve around people that were directly connected to his story, as well as eye-opening archival footage.

​Browder’s mother took the stage as part of the panel along with Jay Z to discuss the vision and the importance of his story that will hopefully continue to spur change in our justice system. 

Ben and Jerry’s stands behind black lives matter and we are loving them for it!

​For those a little unfamiliar with the movement:

#BlackLivesMatter is known as a global activist movement that campaigns against violence and universal racism towards black people.

YET, there are countless spectators against this campaign. Calling it a hate group (un-like the KKK we assume) or anti-cop which just so happens to be a large portion of the people that are setting out to boycotting the ice cream brand.

According to vox.com, “Blue Lives Matter, a group of active and retired law enforcement officials, issued a statement on Monday demanding all Americans boycott Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream maker announced its public support of Black Lives Matter last week.”

Yes, blue lives do matter but does that imply that black lives don’t? How is it that wanting the same rights and respect in the criminal justice system and wanting a black life to be valued deemed as a crime or a terrorist organization…?

Well wait.
 
“All lives do matter. But all lives will not matter until Black lives matter,” Ben & Jerry’s said.

Thanks Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (the founders obviously) for showing the world that being silent about violence and threats to the lives and well-beings of Black people is to be complicit.

Check out some of the cool names that black twitter came up with after the Ben and Jerry Announcement: 

Meet Annie Dookhan a government chemist who is responsible for creating positive drug test results for black people which sent over 40,000 innocent people to prison.

40,000 INNOCENT PEOPLE…

She is a large part in what is wrong with our justice system. Cases such as these against black men and women go on every day but go undetected.

​Black people are constantly thrown under the bus and slapped with crimes because of an ‘easy target’ since people always suspect that blacks are automatically guilty (innocent until proven guilty does not apply). 

​Dookhan worked in a Boston state police lab for over 9 years. Over this time period she falsified positive results, mixed samples, forged signatures, testified in court and resulting in the prison sentence of multiple innocent lives. 

​She did all of this in order to further her career along with many prosecutors who she had close relationships with.

These prosecutors ran to Dookhan so she could ‘help’ their case be a winner which is why they referred to her as being a part of their “dream team”.

According to anonhq.com Dookhan sent an email to Papachristos (a prosecutor whom she was close to) that stated how she needed a man “to love me and make me laugh.” In other words, some of her victims went to prison because she had a crush on their prosecutor!

(WHAT ON EARTH….) What kind of people are working in these facilities?

​So even after sending countless victims to prison, many of which have been behind bars for years, she was only given a three to five year sentence. As sad and as frustrating as this sentence makes those with a heart…It’s kind of expected considering America’s track record with giving those working in government and law enforcement jobs the sentencing that they deserve. 

Known for large iconic afros, activist turned professor Angela Davis shared the stage with a fellow fro-girl and young activist Zulaikha Patel.

​Patel is known as the 13-year-old South African student for making headlines in a viral video alongside her friends as the group of South African students who spoke out in a heated stand-off against teachers who told students that their hair was “exotic” and their afros needed to be tamed. 

Angela Davis, who was being honored with a portrait at the 17th Annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, was set to be presented by Zulaikha. Despite the honor for Davis, she was the one left applauding for young activist Zulaikha for not only her bravery and activism but for equally sharing the spotlight with her peers despite her she is the face of the movement.  She refused to enter to stage alone and motioned for her peers to join in on giving Davis the honor leaving Davis captivated.

​This was a beautiful moment in the ‘passing of the torch’ so to speak of one activist to another. 

Terrance Crutcher, an unarmed black man was fatally shot by white police officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma after his car broke down in the road.

Crutcher was standing near his broken down SUV in the middle of the street with his hands in the air as officers began to approach him.

With weapons raised, police slowly approached the father of four before the officers assumed Crutcher was reaching into the car’s side window to reach for a weapon. 

According to USAtoday, "The officers at the scene found no weapons on or near Mr. Crutcher and no weapons were found near, inside, or in the vicinity of the vehicle," according to the document. "Officer Shelby made statements that she was in fear of her life and thought that Mr. Crutcher was going to kill her. When she began following Mr. Crutcher to the vehicle with her duty weapon drawn, she was yelling for him to stop and get on his knees repeatedly."

Crutcher’s family attorney Melvin Hall pointed out that the family legal team had blown up a photo of the scene that they say shows the driver's side window is up and has blood on it, which they say disputes Shelby's claim Crutcher reached into the vehicle before she fired.

​Aside from the dash cam footage showing Crutcher complying with the officers by having his hands in the air, video was also recorded from the helicopter up ahead where audio was released between the pilots of the chopper.

Moments later, Mr. Crutcher was shot and the helicopter camera was able to capture that footage. ​A womens voice can then be heard yelling "shots fired". 

Shelby has been charged with felony manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty to the murder of unarmed Terence Crutcher. 

A hero in her own form, Renita Smith a Maryland school bus driver is dubbed superwoman after saving 20 elementary school students from a horrific bus fire.

​On her route of dropping the children to their designated locations, the bus brake light came on, giving Smith the indication of a mechanical problem.

She thought she would be able to make it to her next stop which was only a block or two away but by the time Smith reached the stop sign, a loud beeping sound went off.  

According to today.com Smith stated, “We didn’t see the smoke but we could smell it ... and the smell, I can’t explain it, was horrible, and the kids were saying, 'Ms. Bus Driver, the bus is smoking.'”

Knowing that she had to act fast her motherly instincts (as she called it) kicked in and she sprang into action to get all of her children to safety.

​Not only did Reneita take each one of the 20 kids from the bus one by one, but she also went back inside the burning bus to double check that all of the kids were out.

'I am a mom of two kids. It’s my job to save them' she stated.

Her quick actions prevented what would have been terrible tragedy. 

The family of the late Sandra Bland has agreed to a $1.9 million settlement for a wrongful death lawsuit.

Bland, 28, died while in police custody in July of 2015 days after an arrest was made for a traffic stop. She was pulled over by Texas state trooper Brian Encinia for changing lanes without signaling. She was then ordered from the car and forced to the ground. 

According to LATimes, a video from the traffic stop shows Encinia drawing his stun gun and telling Bland, "I will light you up!" She can later be heard screaming off-camera that the trooper was about to break her wrists and complaining that he knocked her head into the ground. After the release of the video there was public outrage for the death and mistreatment of another minority while in the hands of a white officer.

She was taken into custody on a charge of assaulting a public servant but could not immediately come up with the $500 bail, according to investigators.

A medical examiner, as well as the FBI, said she committed suicide by suffocating herself with a plastic garbage bag behind bars.

Bland’s family believes that she may have been murdered and would not have killed herself.

After an investigation, Encinia was moved to administrative duties, and later fired following an indictment on perjury charges. He pleaded not guilty.

No one was indicted for Bland’s death.

Gabby Douglas has made headlines not only for her second gold medal win in the Olympics, but for her NOT putting her right hand over her heart during the National Anthem. 

She received an out pour of twitter backlash and released this response:

​​Could it be a political stance? Or is it an act of defiance since she was unable to compete in the all around competition to really help bring in the gold for team USA. 

It seems as though the spotlight has been pulled from above her and shed on Simone Biles who according to Mary Lou Retton is, "The top gymnast in history".
​
Hopefully this act does not take away from Gabby's great accomplishment in the 2016 Rio Olympics.