Tougaloo Alumnus And NAACP Prez Derrick Johnson Offers His Own Take On SOTU

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Derrick Johnson offered his own take of President Donald Trump and the State of the Union last night.

The Tougaloo College graduate and NAACP CEO and President gave his opinion in an email sent to those subscribed to the latest news regarding the NAACP.

Here’s the entire text below.

“As the Washington Post reported, we offered our own take on the State of the Union last night:

“Even before President Trump took to the lecturn to deliver his first State of the Union speech, the rebuttal was well underway at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington.”

Our event – The Real State of Our Union – gathered academics and activists for a frank assessment of President Trump’s impact on African-American and immigrant communities. Watch a live recording of the event here.

Leaders of different generations, political parties, and faiths called upon us to build a coalition that stands for unity and justice. They reminded us that no matter the half-truths that the administration tells, we must be steadfast in our resistance.

While Trump rallied for a wall on the Mexican border and took credit for a low Black unemployment rate, our panelists called attention to critical civil rights concerns in 2018: rampant voter suppression, a corrupt criminal justice system, and attacks on immigrant communities.

Our best weapon against Trump’s divisive words and deeds? The vote. In a democracy, our vote is our currency. We must protect it with everything we have and use it at every turn.

Join the thousands who are fighting every day to make democracy work for everyone.”

Report: Google Now Expanding Its #HowardWest Program To All HBCUs

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The Howard West program which is an intense summer residency program that trains and mentors Howard University STEM students at the Googleplex campus in Silicon Valley is now opening the program to all HBCUs across the nation, recently reported the Shade Room. “Google has committed themselves to diversifying their company and the IT industry. After a successful pilot of their Howard West program, they are now opening the program to all HBCUs,” wrote HBCU Grad on Instagram.

HBCU Grad added, “S/o to google for valuing HBCUs as the incomparable resources of diverse talent they are!”

In a blog post, Google engineer Howard Sueing wrote, “The pilot exceeded our expectations in many ways. Students and faculty noted both the rigor and immersion in life at Google as the program’s most compelling aspects, and the Googlers involved felt there was a true exchange of knowledge, culture and understanding.”

People were like “Howard paving the way”.

“Howard paving the way for others #HU,” one Instagram user commented.

Say It Ain’t So: 345,000 White Students Could Be Heading To HBCUs

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Despite serious effort to make progress, historically black colleges or universities, or HBCUs, won’t be able to survive today’s education financial culture without racial balance in these colleges recruitment process. Those harsh facts were highlighted in a new report, including why exactly HBCUs are focused on recruiting non-black students.

https://youtu.be/K-vGcqowMyg

Stillman Alumnus And Comedian Steve Brown Viciously Attacked On Stage

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Here’s Steve Brown, just being him. Father. Husband. Philanthropist and future billionaire. He’s also a proud alumnus of Stillman College. “Oh yeah, and I’m a humorist as well,” wrote Brown on Instagram.

And here’s the black college alum “doing a set at the Comedy House in Columbia, South Carolina when a guy in the audience jumped onstage and just went insane, first trying to viciously strike Steve with the mic stand and then a stool,” reported TMZ.com.

According to TMZ.com, “Steve ducked out of the way and, a good 30 seconds into the attack, a few people at the club had the presence of mind to subdue the guy, who was taken outside but then came back.”

Yikes. The disgruntled “fan” seemed to be gunning to kill him, according to TMZ.com. But it definitely didn’t make Steve angry. If anything, it seems astonishing to him. How this fan can deny himself a good time especially at Steve’s set at the Comedy House is just crazy talk.

The good thing is Steve escaped unharmed, but he’s been saying everywhere the club needs to be held accountable for the lack of security that night.

People were like “WHO’S MAN’S IS THIS?!??!”

“Where’s the security? Why did he stay on stage? Why is no one helping? What was the joke that set him off? Was there a refund? Did the show go on? WHO’S MAN’S IS THIS?!??!” wrote one Instagram user.

Denzel Washington Honored At HBCU Debate Awards On Wiley College Campus

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Several Wiley College students and faculty members took part in the first ever HBCU Debate Awards on campus at Wiley College to honor and recognize Denzel Washington for his efforts to raise awareness about the value of debate education.

“Denzel Washington was recognized at HBCU Debate Awards for raising awareness around the world about the value of debate education,” wrote Wiley College on Twitter over the weekend.

Some people gave their “Congrats” to the black college and Washington across social media.

“Congrats to Wiley College and Wiley College President Dr. Haywood L. Strickland for raising awareness on a topic central to the institution’s legacy,” wrote one Twitter user.

https://twitter.com/wileycollege/status/957639630396055552

Why Black College Students Should Boycott Sallie Mae

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Where is the lie? Because this is a serious matter.

Why should all black college students and in particular HBCU students join together to boycott Sallie Mae, a student loan company investing in the future of the nation’s students, developing programs to help families and students save, plan, and pay for college? Allegedly. There are definitely too many to list here. But here are a couple reasons why we should all join the fight in solidarity against Sallie Mae.

  • You might look back on your time (and money) spent on college like, “man, why exactly did I give this attention?” “I ask now that you stand with me and boycott Sallie Mallie,” Instagram comedian Lala shared on a video, “for debt collection and messing up my credit.” Agreed.
  • The time to act is always now. Period. So boycott Sallie Mae and share this story with your friends and family today. “I was offered a loan of $80,000 to which I completed my degree,” explained Lala. “My friends were offered $80,000 in loans but they were able to pay them off because they actually have a career in their field.” She continued, “I don’t.” Enough said.
  • Don’t waste time early on. Pick a side and take a stand now. “I asked Sallie Mae if there was any way that I can return back my degree,” stated Lala. However, they told her “no” and proclaimed that they don’t operate like that, according to Lala. This is a crime. What happens to one of us happens to all of us and therefore, black college students and HBCU students must fight the power and take back what’s rightfully ours: put some respect on our names. Flat! Watch the entire video below.

What do you think? Should HBCU students boycott Sallie Mae or is this reaching? Let us know and talk about it in the comments section! Just scroll down!

https://instagram.com/p/Bebhv0uhwWm/

Central State Grad Joshua I. Smith Donates $3K To Jazzy 88.9 WCSU FM

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Central State University alumnus Joshua I. Smith recently stopped by the Mass Communications Center on campus and donated $3,000 to Jazzy 88.9 WCSU FM.

“Central State University class of 1963 Alumnus Joshua I. Smith stopped by the Mass Communications Center and donated $3,009 to Jazzy 88.9 WCSU FM!” wrote CSU on Instagram Monday.

People on Instagram were like Smith is the “MAN!”

https://instagram.com/p/Beiaxj6j-UE/

Donate To HBCUs To Celebrate Black History Month 2018

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Black History Month is fast approaching, and there’s lots of things to learn and ways to celebrate Black History. It’s a long month. But Black History is definitely all year long. The folks over at Bustle has compiled a list of 11 ways to celebrate Black History, including donate to the 107 historically black colleges or universities, or HBCUs, in the nation. Go read more below.

Donate to black colleges

HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) have educated Black students for over a century. HBCUs are usually smaller than predominantly white institutions and have smaller endowments, according to the American Association of University Professors. A donation to an HBCU can ensure that more Black students receive an education on Black history — and go on to make it themselves.

Head over to Bustle to read more!

This Morehouse Grad Creates Bitcoin Alternative

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There are a lot of alternative cryptocurrency coins currently on the market. One, in particular, is called Storj, created by Morehouse grad Shawn Wilkinson. In short, the Storj platform is a distributed, encrypted, and blazing fast object storage, where only you have access to your data. In addition to that, the company has a cryptocurrency Storj token that you can invest in.

Wilkinson set down with blockchain founder and influencer Lamar Wilson, to discuss how he got started in crypto, his platform Storj, and how he launched his first token.

LW: How did you get started in cryptocurrency?

SW: I started out mining. I had a friend at Morehouse that was mining and said ‘Hey, I got a little computer here, electricity’s free. What do I have to lose?’ I started mining away making like half a bitcoin a day. I ended up turning it off because it was making my residence room a little too hot. Suddenly the bitcoin I was mining was worth a lot more so I looked into the technology further and just fell in love with it.

I saw that there was a real need and issue in cloud storage so I figured hey, let me start my own project to solve that exact thing.

LW: Let’s talk about Storj. Tell the people about it, what it does, what the coin allows, that whole thing.

SW: It’s solving that fundamental issue. Something that we all use is cloud storage but there’s a lot of issues with it. Privacy, security. You have all of these good old corporations kind of looking through your data, which isn’t the best thing.

When I created it, it was really focused a little bit more and continues to be on the developer side. I was looking to build out applications, store a bunch of data and I was playing around with the Twitter firehose. A lot of people thought we were focusing more on the Dropbox side of things but, what you find out when you actually dig into this ecosystem is, the developers are actually building cloud tools and us as users we benefit.

LW: Can you talk about how you launched your coin?

SW: We started in 2014 back when bitcoin was quite new. There was this idea that you could build other applications on top of bitcoin and the underlying technology. There are millions of people all over the world who have extra hard drive space, they can rent that hard drive space out and get paid for it (miners who generate tokens) and the other side of that is we can build a platform where people can securely store their data. That bridging portion is both the blockchain technology to keep it private and secure but, also just to facilitate the numerous amounts of payments that you have to do.

In the end, both sides are working in tandem.

What the full video below.

This story was written by Sequoia Blodgett, the Technology Editor at Black Enterprise, where it originally published. This story is published here with permission. 

CAU Grad Valeisha Butterfield Jones Makes Major Moves With New Appointment At Google

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Google executive Valeisha Butterfield Jones will continue to advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech but on a new level and with a new title. The award-winning community engagement, multicultural marketing, and communications strategist confirmed to Black Enterprise that she has been promoted to global head of women and black community engagement for Google. In this role, she will be responsible for driving systemic and measurable change to create an even more inclusive culture at the tech giant. She will also lead a worldwide effort to enhance equal opportunities for women and African Americans at the company through recruitment and retention.

The Impact

The 39-year-old joined Google back in 2016 as the head of black community engagement, where she focused on implementing diversity and inclusion practices and strategies. During her stint, she helped create initiatives to groom and elevate people of color for leadership roles, including the Decoding Leadership series, which teaches black Googlers how to navigate and climb the corporate ladder. Butterfield Jones also played an instrumental role in launching Howard West, an intense summer residency program that trains and mentors Howard University STEM students at the Googleplex campus in Silicon Valley. Additionally, she helped design the Decoding Race talk series to educate Googlers around the country on race, culture, and bias.

“I met one-on-one with Googlers and heard their stories and watched senior leaders experience an awakening as they learned some of the challenges young black professionals face in tech,” Butterfield Jones told BE.

The Road Ahead

Despite the progress made at Google, Butterfield Jones’ promotion comes at a time when the company is facing a lawsuit and under a federal investigation over unfair payment practices toward women. The announcement also comes just weeks after the lack of diversity in tech was magnified at CES, arguably the biggest tech conference in the world. Nevertheless, the strategist makes no qualms about the challenge that lies ahead. “Education and awareness is key and we made tremendous progress at Google over the last two years,” she said. “In my role, new programs will also be developed and scaled, so please stay tuned.”

Before Google

Prior to entering the tech industry, Butterfield Jones held a variety of high-profile positions in politics and entertainment. From 2011 to 2012, she served as the National Youth Vote Director for the Obama for America campaign. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce under then-President Barack Obama.

Early in her career, she served as the Executive Assistant to the president of HBO Sports after graduating from Clark Atlanta University in 2000. She also worked her way up from an intern for Russell Simmons to the Executive Director of his media firm, Rush Communications.

In addition to actively mentoring young women at Google, Butterfield Jones has served as the CEO of Women in Entertainment Empowerment Network (WEEN)—a nonprofit that uplifts and mentors women working in entertainment while striving to promote positive images of women in society—for the last 10 years.

Butterfield Jones, who is also a mother and the wife of NBA champ Dahntay Jones, is not the only black woman making boss moves this year. Last week, it was announced that Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth is parting ways with the magazine and reportedly has a deal with CAA, a prestigious talent agency based in L.A.

This story was written by writer Selena Hill at Black Enterprise, where it was originally published. This story is published here with permission. 

Bowie State Alum Toni Braxton Says She Isn’t Married ‘Yet’

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According to the Shade Room, Bowie State University alumna Toni Braxton isn’t quite married just yet.

More details on who she might get married to (rapper Birdman) to come! Keep scrolling down!

Anyway. The “Heart Away” singer recently explained that “I am not married, unlike my big mouth sister Tamar has been saying everywhere… I’m definitely not married yet,” reported the Shade Room.

“Hmm…it’s the “yet” part where things get interesting,” wrote Talio O. at the Shade Room.

Maybe there’s a better word than interesting to describe Braxton and Birman’s relationship, but that’s neither here nor there.

Last year, according to the Shade Room, Braxton’s so called “big mouth” sister Tamar appeared on the Wendy Williams show and basically spilled the beans on her sister and Birdman and their relationship, or partnership, or both. You can call Tamar what you want just don’t call her broke.

Ok?

The gag is is that Braxton has been spotted with a huge rock on her finger ever since Tamar gave that interview to Wendy.

Head over to the Shade Room to read more.

‘I Am Black History…’: Iota Phi Theta To Honor Their ‘Living History’

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Here is the full statement on “I Am Black History…” released by Brother David T. Boyd, the Director of Communications, of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

The statement by Director of Marketing Brother Gibbs Hightower IV states that the fraternity will honor and recognize their current brothers during Black History Month. The statement also want brothers to “submit a typewritten, edited description between 100-300 words about your achievement, along with a corresponding visual.” “We will attempt to share as many as we can every Sunday and Wednesday in February,” the statement reads.

“Black History Month is fast approaching, and we will certainly honor our pioneers who left behind a substantial legacy for us to follow; however, we feel there should be a heartfelt recognition of our living history that exists among us.  Therefore, during the month of February, the National Office would like to showcase the achievements of our brothers by asking you to share with us your personal accomplishments and/or contributions to your chapters, as well as your communities.  Some examples may include a scholarship you’ve started, a career milestone or promotion, or perhaps a community initiative that you have launched.

We would ask that you submit a typewritten, edited description between 100-300 words about your achievement, along with a corresponding visual.  We will attempt to share as many as we can every Sunday and Wednesday in February.

Also, all brothers with Facebook and Twitter accounts are encouraged to download and post the Brown and Gold “I Am Black History” graphic listed below as your profile picture next month.  Be sure to add #IAmBlackHistory1963 to your post.”

We look forward to learning more about our brothers during this important time of the year.”

Alcorn State Alum Duvalier Malone Hopes To Raise Funds For ASU

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Alcorn State University graduate Duvalier Malone shared on Friday that he will help to raise funds for the black college, accepting his Recognition of 50 Under 50 Alcornites.

“What a surprise? Thanks for the nomination! Look forward to applying and helping to raise funds for Alcorn State University,” Malone wrote on Twitter. He also shared a statement from ASU, stating that the black college has nominated Malone as a great ASU graduate. You can check out the photo below:

Malone is a public speaker, political consultant, community activist and thought leader and his work places him squarely on the front lines regarding the issues of equal rights and opportunities for all, according to his website.

Malone added hashtags like #hbcu, #hbcugrad, #hbcucheer, #alcornstateuniversity, #blackmagic #blackexecellence, and #motivationalspeaker:

https://twitter.com/duvaliermalone/status/956893884172431360

Howard Alum Sen. Kamala Harris Blasts President Trump In A Series Of Tweets

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Senator Kamala Harris blasted President Donald Trump and the White House on Friday due to the government shutdown, stating that this shutdown was avoidable.

Sen. Harris, who is a Howard University graduate, took to Twitter to react to this shutdown. “Due to the shutdown, I will not be able to attend the Women’s March LA,” she wrote on Twitter.

The black college grad continued, “Instead, I will be in Washington, D.C. to fight for a for a long-term funding bill that supports our military, community health centers, CHIP, disaster relief, and protects Dreamers from deportation.” Since posting a series of tweets, Sen. Harris has earned several thousand shares and likes already.

“There’s nothing more powerful than a group of determined people marching and standing up for our nation’s values and for what we know is right,” she proclaimed. “Standing in solidarity with those attending the #WomensMarch across the country.”

https://twitter.com/kamalaharris/status/954932066629685249