The End of Ebony Magazine

 Ebony Magazine Cover from Spring 2019

Sad news for Black media. Johnson Company magazine, Ebony, is on life support. The once-iconic Black news and celebrity magazine, the Time magazine of Black America, abruptly fired all of its staff and writers with close to no notice.

I used to read both Ebony and Jet magazine and was looking forward to the next issue.  For decades, Ebony and Jet has been one of several Black-owned publications that gives us news that are not reported in mainstream media.  The writers and editors bring objective news information pertaining to Black America as well as entertainment and fashion.  It was that magazine that cover fashion and started Fashion Fair fashion events to various cities around the nation because Black women weren't allow to model fashion due to Jim Crow and general American racism.  Those shows were very popular among Black women and Black organizations.  The company also started Fashion Fair cosmetics that are still sold in department stores around the country. 

It's so sad to see the magazine I grew up as a child and teenager gone forever.  I hope someone buy the archives so we can read about historic milestones of Black America without distortions and lies so often offered in mainstream media.

With so few news outlets catering to Black America, this is the biggest blow to our collective history as well as getting accurate information without bias and distortion that often comes from mainstream media outlets. 

Rest in peace, Ebony and Jet!
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Here's the scoop from The Atlanta Voice:

Ebony and Jet magazines fire remainder of staff, may close

Legacy publications beset by financial issues by Miana Massey, Atlanta Voice Ebony magazine — along with its sister publication Jet — has potentially closed its doors for good. Former employees of the company took to Twitter last week using the hashtag #EbonyOwes to air out their frustrations with the company, as it has fired all of its employees with little to no notice. According to USA Today, members of Ebony magazine’s digital team say they’ve been fired and haven’t received their final paychecks in the latest controversy to hit the struggling publication that has chronicled black life in America for decades. Michael Gibson, co-chairman and founder of Austin, Texas-based Clear View Group, which owns Ebony, declined to comment to USA Today on the digital team’s dismissal, citing a “policy of not commenting on any employment practices or issues.” The Chicago Tribune previously reported how Ebony was being pressed by the National Writers Union to pay more than $200,000 it alleged the magazine owed to freelance writers who contributed stories back in 2017. The drama sparked the hashtag #EbonyOwes on Twitter. According to a report on Ebony.com, the magazine’s previous owner, Johnson Publishing Co., filed for bankruptcy liquidation in April, which Ebony said would not affect its operations. “EBONY Media Operations, LLC brands, which include EBONY magazine, EBONY.com, digital magazine JET and jetmag.com and its related businesses, have viably operated independently of Johnson Publishing Company dba/ Fashion Fair Cosmetics (JPC) since Black-owned Ebony Media Operations, LLC (EMO) purchased the media assets of JPC in 2016. Black-owned investment firm CVG Group LLC assisted in the formation of EMO,” a statement read. “EMO is unaffected by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy announcement regarding the dissolution of JPC. EMO is not able to comment further and is not familiar with the facts or events of the JPC business.” The first issue of the iconic magazine hit stands 74 years ago and took the industry by storm.  Founded by John H. Johnson in November 1945, the black-owned publication has striven always to address African-American issues, personalities and interests in a positive and self-affirming manner. Editions of Ebony featured some of the biggest stars in Black America, including issues covered by Diana Ross, Sidney Poitier, as well as President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama.

Black-ish Takes on #BlackLivesMatter, Police Brutality And Racial Profiling!

ABC's comedy black-ish takes on police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter

Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross star in the hit comedy black-ish. The show deals with a Black father who trying to bring his suburbanite children into the Black experience.

Tonight's episode is taking on police brutality, racial profiling and #BlackLivesMatter. 

I'm giving my honest opinion of the episode and revealing spoilers. 

Andre (Anderson) and Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) explain the experience of being profiled by law enforcement to their four children. Dre, Pops (played by Laurence Fishburne) and Ruby (played by Jennifer Lewis) are trying to let the children know that justice system failed Black America. 

Jack and Diane (played by Miles Brown and Marsai Martin) are concerned about how they're probably going to be killed by the police. 

They get into a huge argument into Bow's feelings towards police. 

They become preppers for a pending riot after a grand jury decided to not indict an officer who shot and killed an unarmed Black citizen. They get into an argument over the negative press coverage of the unarmed Black citizen. They also noted the feeling when Black America felt that electing Barack Obama was the beginning of a new era in race relations. Dre explains that even with a Black president, things aren't getting any better.

Dre explains to Bow when he sees Obama's opponents treat less than his title as President of the United States, he sees racism at its worst. 

There was a fight between Zoey (played by Yara Shahidi) and Andre, Jr. (played by Marcus Scribner). Junior wanted to join the protesters and Zoey warned him to not go because the rioters could end up hurting him. 

Dre explains the "gray zone" between what's good and what's bad in the country. Dre and Bow believe that there's a need for change and even though they don't agree on everything, they have hope and strength to change policy.

The characters make reference to the most recent deadly encounters of unarmed Black citizens.

Don Lemon of CNN and Black activist Ta-Nehisi Coates were featured guests on the show. 

It's a controversial episode and it's certainly going to attract conservative outrage and reaction from police unions. Some of the police unions threaten boycotting entertainers who criticize law enforcement.

Anderson along with his executive producers Kenya Burris and Yvette Lee Bower are expecting a backlash from conservatives and police unions.

Motor City Bound!

Michigan Avenue in Detroit.

Hey, this is Blue Light Buzz.

I want to say thank you to all of the readers of World News Today. I want to say a special thanks to S. Baldwin for allowing me to post on the blog. I appreciate all your support.

Right now, I am in the Detroit area. I am about to head to Canada for a little bit of rest and relaxation.

I'll be posting a few stories on World News Today while I'm away from Ohio. I have the laptop with me. Any event that occurs in the U.S. or even Canada, I'll post it.

I'll be back late Thursday morning.

Wish me well on my journey.

Conservative Outrage Over ________ Being Said By Obama!

President Barack Obama heads to the home of Marc Maron to do a podcast. He talks about gun control, the shooting in Charleston and America still dealing with racial issues. Conservatives are attacking him for uttering the N-word. 

P.S., Barack Obama is a Black man.

Finally he acknowledges that racism is alive and well.

It's not over until we actually talk about these issues and make everyone understand that we're human beings first. Crime doesn't discriminate. Everyone has a form of bigotry in their views of issues. Hate speech is as American as apple pie.

Conservative outrage over the president appearing on the Marc Maron WTF podcast in which he utters NIGGER to the host. The president was discussing the historical history of Black America.

Here's what Mediaite picked up on during the podcast.

“It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have changed,” the president told comedian and host Marc Maron. “That is a fact.”

“What is also true is the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on,” Obama continued. “We’re not cured of it.”

The biggest concern troll to ever exist in the media along with his Black friends. Two of them Deneen Borelli and Kevin Jackson have appeared on that annoying conservative agitator's program over the last few weeks to discuss racial issues.

“And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination,” he said.

So he says NIGGER in the podcast. He boldly says the racial slur towards a White guy. Cue the outrage meter by the racist right.

Okay, folks, no fire here. Let's move along. The president is Black.

Think what some of our friends on the right really think of him when the cameras aren't rolling and the microphones are off.

I am betting they're dying to call him a NIGGER to his face. Obviously, the racist right would rather troll behind the bandwidth to call him and First Lady Michelle Obama everything racially insensitive.

Racial progress hasn't changed in America. Even though we have the first Black president, interacial births overpass White (non-Hispnaic) births, and younger minds are adjusting to diversity, some of our friends are still stuck in the past.

The past is the ones who believe the president doesn't care about Black America. Or when he does, he's only focused on Black America. According to them, he's anti-whatever.

The Bonnie and Clyde of Black Extremism. Kevin Jackson and Deneen Borelli. Two Black conservatives who ignore their supposedly conservative friends uttering NIGGER to their faces.

Concern trolls would post to our blog about criminal acts committed by Black people against White people. They would find a story that isn't even racist and then they would it into a racial issue.

Concern trolls see crime through a racial lens. They don't see crime as an illegal act created by a person who wants to inflict some harm upon an individual or property.

The president is pissed. He's absolutely pissed that Congress failed to pass a reasonable gun control law. Since the Sandy Hook massacre, there's been numerous mass shootings in America.

The president doesn't regret saying NIGGER in the podcast. Matter of fact, he may have finally acknowledge the concerns that he's not Black enough.

Looks like the network who may have inspired that racist nut to kill nine people in a church has to pull out the deck its two favorite Black people when it comes to criticizing the president.

Enter Deneen Borelli and Kevin Jackson. The Bonnie and Clyde of Black Conservative Extremism.

I swear whenever there's a racial controversy, count on these Black concern trolls to pour more gasoline on an already burning fire.

Jesse Lee Peterson is the only Black guy in America to believe that Blacks America lacks morals. He actually believes that Blacks are crying racism. Peterson probably would go after Deneen Borelli and Kevin Jackson for not being conservative enough.

Kevin Jackson the founder of the Blacksphere has been on a lot of conservative agitator programs.

This clown is supposedly devoted to ending identity politics. He can't fathom the president saying such utterly angry words about his country. Unaware that the president faces daily racial attacks from his so called conservative buddies.

I haven't heard from Jackson on this controversy, but I know Borelli went into this.

I want you to understand that Deneen Borelli is a paid agitator. The very ones who claim that DeRay McKesson is a paid agitator allow this crazy ass Black woman to rant. This horrible Black woman had the audacity to call the president the "rapper-in-chief".

“He has really dragged in the gutter-speak of rap music,” Borelli said. “So now he’s the first President of rap, of street? I mean, come on, he has lowered the stature of the high office of the president of the United States.” Borelli, who herself is African-American, went to accuse Obama of using the “insane, crazy comment” as a “grand distraction to take away from the people uniting.”

Is there a problem here?

“The president-in-chief, the rapper-in-chief now, is now further dividing our country,” Borelli continued. “I find it outrageous.”

I forgot about our favorite Black extremist Jesse Lee Peterson. This nut is saying that the shooter's motives weren't about race. He believes that Blacks are overblown in their outrage. He actually believes White fears towards Black folks are legitimate.

"White Americans, speak up. Do not let anger stay inside of you.'Racism' and 'hate crimes' are used with a double standard against whites to intimidate and provoke whites and blacks to fear, anger, and division."

And yet, Barack Obama is the one who gets called out for outrageous statements.

Here's the podcast of Marc Maron.



Jesse Lee Peterson doing his "I'm a dummy" trick.



Deneen Boreli on that network that may have inspired that White terrorist to kill nine innocent people worshiping at a church.