Saint Louis et la justice sociale

Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell, RIP

First Black model, Ophelia DeVore

Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell, a former model, agent, charm-school director and newspaper publisher who almost single-handedly opened the modeling profession to African-Americans, and in so doing expanded public understanding of what American beauty looks like, died on Feb. 28 in Manhattan. She was 91.

Her death was announced on March 6 on the floor of the House of Representatives by Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Democrat of Georgia. At her death, Mrs. DeVore-Mitchell was the publisher emeritus ofThe Columbus Times, a black newspaper in Columbus, Ga., which she ran from the 1970s until her retirement about five years ago.

Long before the phrase “Black is beautiful” gained currency in the 1960s, Mrs. DeVore-Mitchell was preaching that ethos by example.

In New York in the 1940s — an age when modeling schools, and modeling jobs, were overwhelmingly closed to blacks — she helped start the Grace del Marco Modeling Agency and later founded the Ophelia DeVore School of Self-Development and Modeling. The enterprises, which served minorities, endured for six decades.

Ms. DeVore's modeling career have paved the way for Black and Women of Color supermodels, Donyale Luna, Naomi Sims, Beverly Johnson, Iman, Tyra Banks, Halle Berry, Grace Jones, etc.

Rest in peace, Ophelia!

The Racist Right's War With Jay And Bey!

The right can't stand them. 

Since President Barack Obama was reelected on the power of the hip-hop community, the racist right has turned to those entertainers as the vile menace towards American values.

The folks over at Loserville, Bill-O (known as O'Loofus), King Hippo, That Guy Who Helped Obama Win, and That Guy Who Throw Shit To The Wall are prime examples of the divisive nonsense that fuels attacks upon the Black community.

Each of these agitators have found some way to attack the Carters for being, well entertainers and business moguls.

I've listened to the racist right outrage over their Grammy's duet.

I've listened to them talk about Jay-Z and his past days. The racist right not even considering that despite his troubled past, he managed to become one of the richest entertainers in history.

I've listened to them complain about Beyonce telling her fans to be "bold" and "bow down".

I've heard even three Republican lawmakers called upon an investigation into the couple going to Cuba.

They just don't like them.

A real power couple, Jay-Z and Beyonce.

The Black community has more support for the president/ The racist right can't understand why with all the economic woes troubling the Black community, they can't win "us" over. They can't figure out that even with a Black president, unemployment is high and "us Black folk" ignoring Republicans at the ballot box.

Could we be the prime examples of a screwed up generation?

Most conservatives believe that "us Black folk" bemoan about the president's race contributing to his low job approval. Obviously many Black Americans have this notion to believe that all the attacks on the president and the entertainers in the hip-hop community is solely on race.

No.

Caution an angry O'Loofus is a coming!

We rally around the fact that for all the accomplishments by [the president and those in the Black community],  those in the racist right still look at us as NIGGERS!

The conservatives attack on Black celebrities for corrupting their innocent children. These entertainers open their children to progress. And the right can't stand it.

That's probably why you hear more name drops from the likes of King Hippo, O'Loofus or That Guy Who Helped Obama Win. They're jealous of their success.

Drizzy And RiRi: Are They An Item?

Drake and Rihanna are an item.

It appears that RiRi and Drizzy are together again. Robyn Fentry and Aubrey Graham, professionally known as Rihanna and Drake are an item.


What sparked a huge hip-hop feud with rival entertainer Chris Brown was the rumors of Drake and Rihanna seeing each other.

Apparently the junk food media is really seeing chemistry between the two.

The media is telling that the two entertainers are hinting at marriage.

Of course we'll see how this goes!

Many Americans thought that being a domestic violence victim was going to change her to become more productive to the cause of victim's rights. Alas, that's not the case.

Every so often, I hear stories about Rihanna's boyfriends and lifestyle. The more I hear, the less I like about her personally.

The controversial pop singer and rapper have both been on a fling for quite sometime.

Even though RiRi and Drake have been going on romantic dates since October, neither ever gave an inch about their relationship, often leaving clubs and restaurants separately in an attempt to hide the love that was blossoming between them. So the fact that Drake didn’t hesitate to introduce Rihanna as his girlfriend to a stranger is huge! It really shows how serious he and Rihanna are now.

Chris Brown WILL LIKELY Go To The Iron College!

Could he be facing time in the iron college for his continuous antics?

The Huffington Post and Associated Press report that the troubled entertainer is back in the custody of law enforcement on breach of warrant.

Authorities say the pop singer Chris Brown is back in the county lockup..

Sheriff's Deputy Amber Smith says Brown was taken into custody on Friday on the warrant but that no other details were immediately available.

The 25-year-old remains on probation for his 2009 attack on then-girlfriend Rihanna and had been ordered by a judge to remain in rehab since November. He was arrested in Washington, D.C., in October after a man accused the singer of hitting him outside a hotel.

An email message sent to his attorney, Mark Geragos, was not immediately returned.

An email message sent to probation officials was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.

Spokeswomen for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and Superior Court said they had not been informed of Brown's arrest.

Lupita Fetish..Pt3

Listen, then weep!

Dems Might Attack Greg Abbot's Disability!

Greg Abbott is a Tea Party endorsed Republican nominee for Texas governor. He is in a wheelchair and fights against those who are disabled. He will face Democratic nominee Wendy Davis.

Somehow, it may be a first for the Republicans. A Republican candidate for governor could be the first disabled Texan to be elected to the office.

Greg Abbot, the state attorney general and Tea Party endorsed candidate will be facing Wendy Davis, the state representative who gained national headlines for a filibuster over a Texas law that restricted abortion in the state.

What you didn't know about the two. Davis is a polarizing woman. She is already under attack by the racist right for her "lies" about being a part of the struggle.

What you didn't know about Abbott is the very fact that despite him being disabled, in his mind, the disabled, the poor, the needy and the unemployed better get their asses back to work. Sure he's a supporter of the American with Disabilities Act. But he believes that those who sue on behalf of ADA are whiny liberal activists who can't use their abilities like he (a privileged Republican).

The Dallas News reports that in a series of legal cases in his three terms, Abbott’s office has fought a blind pharmacy professor in Amarillo who wanted reflective tape on the stairs to her office; two deaf defendants in Laredo who asked for a qualified sign language interpreter in their courtroom; and a woman with an amputated leg. In that case, the state argued she was not disabled because she had a prosthetic limb.

Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him while he was jogging and crushed his spine almost 30 years ago, applauds the 1990 federal law. It has helped provide the ramps, wide doors and access that allow him to give speeches and meet with constituents.

While Abbott, the leading Republican contender for governor, benefits from the ADA mandates that guide businesses, builders and cities, he believes it is unconstitutional to force the state to comply. He has argued that his duty is to protect the state’s autonomy and its taxpayers by using all legal tools available to him — including the argument that the state is immune from disability lawsuits brought under the ADA.

“It’s the attorney general’s duty to zealously represent the interests of the state of Texas, and in these cases that meant raising all applicable legal arguments in litigation where Texas was sued in court,” said Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland.

Abbott’s office has been aggressive on the issue. The state has frequently lost, even before conservative courts such as the Texas Supreme Court. And yet when there has been a trial, it has won several of the cases, with arguments that beat back the charges of discrimination.

Advocates for the disabled say Abbott’s office has worked to deny ADA protections by repeatedly and falsely claiming that impaired Texans don’t have the right to sue the state for discrimination. Abbott declined several requests from The Dallas Morning News to discuss the matter.

It touches on two key elements of Abbott’s campaign to succeed Gov. Rick Perry. He is touting his record of defending conservative legal principles. But Abbott also is highlighting his disability as evidence of his toughness. In campaign speeches and videos, he notes that he has “literally, a spine of steel” as a result of the accident.

And his likely Democratic opponent, Wendy Davis, is already raising questions about his performance as attorney general on issues such as school finance.

In most disability cases, Abbott’s office has claimed sovereign immunity for Texas. Such immunity, granted in the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, says a state can’t be sued without its consent.

It’s an argument that stops a case dead in its tracks and asks the court to toss the suit. If the state wins, the suit is over before a trial can be held to examine the merits of the case.

On ADA claims, federal appellate courts have established exceptions to a state’s claim of immunity. For instance, if a state agency accepts federal funding, it implicitly accepts federal rules and waives its immunity, the courts have said.

Critics say Abbott has shown himself to be obstinate in claiming sovereign immunity on ADA issues, even though federal courts have shot down the argument numerous times in the past nine years.

“The law is the law is the law,” said James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit group that has fought the state on several sovereign immunity claims in disability cases and won. “And the law is not ambiguous.”

Strickland said sovereign immunity as applied to disability claims is complex, and each case raises distinct legal and fact issues.

He cited a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case, which exhorted courts to look at ADA cases and sovereign immunity “on a claim-by-claim basis.” That is what the state is doing, he said.
In the past, Abbott has suggested, though, that lawsuits are an appropriate way for the disabled to secure accommodations under the ADA.

When Gov. George W. Bush appointed Abbott to the Texas Supreme Court in 1995, the state quickly settled an ADA lawsuit over making the court building accessible to wheelchairs. Ramps and other renovations were made just before Abbott was sworn in.

At the time, Abbott said it was “ironic” that the Supreme Court, “the gatekeeper of the law,” had to be sued to comply.

NC Forward Together / Saving OurSelves Voting Rights Rally

March 11th, 2014 - Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and the Forward Together Movement welcomes the S.O.S. Coalition in Raleigh as its Caravan for Democracy makes its way from Selma, Ala. to Washington DC, leaving 49 years almost to the day after civil rights leaders were beaten for daring to organize for voting rights in the Jim Crow South. Many of the assembled carry signs that memorialize the efforts and sacrifices made at Bloody Sunday in March 1965, sacrifices that spurred Congress to act on the mass disenfranchisement of African Americans by passing the Voting Rights Act later that summer.

ABC Sitcom May Offend The Asian-American Community!

Actor Hudson Yang plays a mock version of celebrity chef Eddie Huang in the upcoming ABC sitcom Far East Orlando. The sitcom is based off the book Fresh Off The Boat.

Since the days of actress/comedian Margaret Cho with her hit sitcom All-American Girl, the American Broadcasting Company decides to rehash another sitcom based off the life of an Asian American.

Celebrity hip-hop cook Eddie Huang's book Fresh Off The Boat is being spun into a 2014 sitcom.

Mediaite reports that ABC has called the show Far East Orlando.

The sitcom has pissed off Eddie Huang and many others in the Asian American community.

Huang born in Washington, DC but grew up in Orlando wrote Fresh Off The Boat to share his experiences growing up there.

Eddie Huang, hip-hop chef.

The tittle itself "FAR EAST" is pretty offensive to say at least.

The show isn't being taped in the gun crazy state of Florida.

It's being written by people who have no clue about the life of Eddie Huang.

ABC so far has no comment about the title but could we be hopeful that they change the tittle?

Huang went to Twitter to express outrage over the sitcom.

ABC Titles Asian-American Sitcom Far East Orlando; No One's Happy About It http://t.co/9e5dfbrGMd via @mediaite
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) March 13, 2014

Hudson Yang To ABC Comedy Pilot 'Far East Orlando' http://t.co/az0G94Xh2F @deadline TELL ABC YOU WANT IT TO BE CALLED FRESH OFF THE BOAT!
— RICH HOMIE HUANG (@MrEddieHuang) March 12, 2014

@MrEddieHuang @ABCNetwork "Far East Orlando" is straight corny.
— Francis Lam (@Francis_Lam) March 12, 2014

C'mon @ABCNetwork, call it Fresh Off the Boat!!! Don't be ridiculous. Cc: @MrEddieHuang
— i2uthanne (@i2uthanne) March 12, 2014

Any thoughts to this sitcom?

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Paul Ryan Is Racist...Pt2

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Paul Ryan Is Racist..

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Big Boom In Harlem!

A gas line rupture caused a major explosion in Harlem.

We here at Journal de la Reyna send our condolences to those lost in today's tragedy.

New York's Harlem experienced a major explosion. A five story building has exploded and it collapsed killing three individuals.

CNN reports that at least three people were killed in the massive explosion and fire Wednesday that leveled Patterson's building and the one beside it.

Nine people remained missing hours after the blast, city officials said. Firefighters were still frantically picking through rubble in search of survivors.

Authorities say they think a gas leak was to blame, but they haven't determined an official cause yet.

The massive explosion and fire leveled two five-story apartment buildings. At least 63 people were reported injured.

More fatalities appeared likely. Fire officials reported that two survivors suffered life-threatening injuries.

Near 116th Street and Park Avenue, once the heart of New York's large Puerto Rican community, about a dozen firefighters tore at two-story-high mounds of bricks in a search for survivors from the two buildings, which housed a piano store and an evangelical church in addition to apartments.

As gas and electric utility workers tore up pavement in an effort to shut gas lines, people gathered in the streets, many crying.

"This is a tragedy of the worst kind," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "because there was no indication in time to save people."