Celebs Out & About: Rick Ross Album Release Party
Rick Ross, aka Ricky Rozay, the biggest fraud in Hip Hop, celebrated his album release last night at King of Diamonds strip club in Miami, Florida. His Teflon Don album flew off the shelves when it dropped yesterday, giving Eminem a run at the top spot on the charts next week.
Black folks get so caught up in hype that we forget the fact that this man has lied about his past, his image and his entire career. Rapper Trina (the Baddest Bish) and DJ Khaled were the only celebs in the house.
Photo: Wireimage/Getty
Premiere: Nicki Minaj – Your Love
The music video for rapper Nicki Minaj’s infectious tune “Your Love” premiered early this morning.
I didn’t bother to watch it because something about walking cartoons who demand to be taken seriously irks me. Watch the vid and tell me what you think.
Vogue magazine says No to Vogue Africa
Continuing its racist ways, American Vogue publisher Conde Nast, which publishes Vogue in 18 countries, has declined a request to create a Vogue Africa magazine.
Conde Nast’s reason for not creating a magazine to pay homage to black women should be obvious.
Cameroonian photographer Mario Epanya went all out in his campaign to make Vogue Africa a reality. In order to get publisher Conde Nast to see the potential in the magazine–that would pay homage to African women–he created fictional covers, featuring gorgeous images, but it looks like it wasn’t enough.
Conde Nast has turned down Epanya’s bid for the magazine. “DEAR ALL. The Wait is over. Condé Nast said NO to an African license of VOGUE. So this is the last cover. Enjoy, but it’s a beginning of something,” he posted on his Facebook page.
Vogue is currently published in 18 countries and one region. Condé Nast has not officially commented on their decision. Ironically, Vogue Italia featured Epanya in a full feature.
Obviously, Vogue can still get away with a few editorials featuring Africans and African Americans sprinkled here and there. Although their “Black Issue” flew off the magazine racks in 2008, are you really surprised that Conde Nast rejected the idea?
Want to see more of the fictional covers that Epanya created? Click here.
Thanks to loyal reader Anthony A. for the tip!
NAACP, Twitter users rally to help reinstate Shirley Sherrod
Yesterday the NAACP posted the full video of former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod’s statements at a NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet on March 27, 2010.
The NAACP said in a statement Tuesday that it was “snookered by Fox News” and conservative website publisher Andrew Breitbart, who edited the video to portray Sherrod in the worst possible light. The NAACP had previously criticized Sherrod’s statements as “shameful.”
Yesterday, the blog aggregate Global Grind floated a petition on the microblogging website Twitter.com asking users to help send a message to Obama and the White House to reinstate Sherrod.
In the video, Sherrod recounted working with a white farmer to help him save his rural Georgia farm in 1986.
Sherrod described how racism influenced her decisions. In describing candidly (and honestly) how racism affected her personally, Sherrod explained how she reacted to the farmer’s strong sense of pride by withholding the full resources available to the farmer.
On Tuesday, Sherrod told CNN that her remarks were taken out of context and that the 1986 incident, which occurred before she started work for the USDA, helped her learn to move beyond race. She said she only tells the story to audiences to make that point.
Sherrod told CNN that immediately after Fox News aired the edited version of the March 27 video on Tuesday, she was “harassed” by the White House and forced to resign. The last call “asked me to pull to the side of the road and [resign],” she said.
This case is typical of the way U.S. president Barack Obama treats black people whom he considers inconsequential and disposable if they are not radical activists or Muslims.
Former USDA Employee Says White House Forced Her to Resign
A former USDA employee, who resigned after a video showed her making racist statements, insisted she went all out to help a white farmer.
The video was posted on a Conservative right wing blog and quickly picked up by Fox News. The video showed Shirley Sherrod, former USDA director of rural development in Plains, Georgia, speaking at a NAACP meeting.
The poor-quality video shows Sherrod telling her audience that the farmer she was working with “took a long time … trying to show me he was superior to me.” As a result, she said, she “didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough.”
To prove she had done her job, she said, she took him to a white lawyer. “I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him,” she said.
Sherrod told CNN that shortly after Fox News aired the video, the White House began harassing her to resign.
“They asked me to resign, and in fact they harassed me as I was driving back to the state office from West Point, Georgia, yesterday,” she told CNN. The last call “asked me to pull to the side of the road and do it [resign],” she said.
Meanwhile, the wife of the white farmer referenced in the video has come out in support of Sherrod. Eloise Spooner told CNN she credits Sherrod with helping her family save their farm.
It’s amazing how swiftly the White House turned their backs on this black woman without hearing all of the facts. Had she been a white woman (or someone who is highly favored by Obama), the White House would have defended her and claimed she “misspoke.”
Celeb Style: Justin Bieber in Louis Stewart!
Popular comedian (and now Louis Stewart spokesman) Alex Thomas writes:
Hey Sandra hope all is well, it’s Alex Thomas. Geat news!!!! Usher’s artist & Pop Superstar Justin Bieber Loves The Louis Stewart Collection!! Here he is backstage at his concert in LA rockin his custom Purple Suede Louis Stewart Jet pack! Sandra we appreciate you & all the people that Support The louis Stewart Collection……. We love the haters also!!! We actually found out that HATERS ARE THE GREATEST PROMOTERS!!!!!! So to all the haters……….. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!
ALEX THOMAS
Promotional consideration was provided by Louis Stewart Collections
FanMAIL: A 2-year update from Tyre LaJuan
The last time I wrote a post about loyal reader Tyre LaJuan, the thread was riddled with hateful comments towards the young designer. I expressed my disappointment in my SR family, who I thought were intelligent and mature.
Let’s see if my readers have matured any now that LaJuan is donating one of his unique Swarovski crystal shoes to one lucky SR reader (he doesn’t know this yet, but I don’t wear heels).
Peep LaJaun Tyre’s email after the break.
