Tyler Perry, Terri Vaughn Sued Over ‘She The People' Netflix Series
Source: Taylor Hill / Getty
A lawsuit alleges that Tyler Perry's new Netflix series 'She The People' infringes on the brand identity and goodwill of a nonprofit organization and political space of the same name. Aimee Allison, president and founder of the nonprofit She the People, filed suit shortly before the release.
Allison filed against Netflix, Perry, his company, Tyler Vision, LLC, and actress Terri Vaughn. According to her complaint, Allison previously contracted with Vaughn to develop a docuseries based on the 'She the People' concept. She further alleged that Vaughn and Perry's Netflix series pulls in many of the themes and frames from her work.
'The Series echoes many of the same themes regarding Black women's experiences in politics that Ms. Allison addresses through her activism under the SHE THE PEOPLE mark, albeit in a slightly different format,' reads the complaint. 'With a lighthearted and comedic touch, the Series trailer (the 'Trailer') shows the newly-elected lieutenant governor confronting a number of issues likely to resonate with women of color[.]'
While the scenarios themselves are not unique, coupled with the She the People brand, it could suggest the unfair usage of Allison's intellectual property. A quick trademark search shows that Perry applied for the She the People trademark through legal representation. The application was initially denied in part due to the likelihood of confusion with Allison's existing trademark.
Allison has not provided any public comment on the show, but she posted a video last week talking about the importance of defending your brand and creative ideas.
A seasoned political strategist, Allison was also a significant supporter of former Vice President Kamala Harris during both her 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns. Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, Allison launched a podcast under the She the People brand in partnership with Design Observer.
In her personal capacity, Allison supported several fierce state and federal candidates for office, including Stacey Abrams. Through She the People and related work, Allison has established a network of relationships and engagements designed to uplift Black and other women of color. Much of her work has involved breaking through stereotypes of who is considered electable and challenging barriers to entry to Black and other women of color into politics.
Founded in 2018, She the People has existed as a space of convening and conversation for Black and other women of color. Allison organized two convenings for Black and other women of color political leaders in 2018 and 2019. The 2019 event centered on a presidential forum that elevated the leadership and voices of Black and other women of color leaders and organizers, as well as several major presidential candidates.
Several media outlets covered the event and notable moments from several 2020 candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Vice President Kamala Harris. I attended both convenings first as a staffer with former Democracy for America in 2018 and then as a freelance journalist in 2019.
Across every moment, curated under the She the People brand, has been focused on shifting the cultural perception of who can be a leader. Allison has been in conversation with Congressional leaders like Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman and newly elected Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she was glad to sign on as an executive producer despite people in her inner circle warning her to stay away from the project. Despite her involvement in similar social circles, it's unclear whether Bottoms knew about the 'She the People' connection to Allison's work.
'The world is full of people who wish they had good ideas,' Allison said in an Instagram Reel. 'And too many who'll try to take yours when they see it catching fire. So, put your paperwork in place. And prepare to protect the soul of what you've built.'
SEE ALSO:
St. Louis Community Fills Relief Gaps Left by Federal Delay
Coalition Pushes New Media Code Of Ethics In Crime Reporting
SEE ALSO
Tyler Perry, Terri Vaughn Sued Over 'She The People' Netflix Series was originally published on newsone.com
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Pair who worked magic on ‘Stranger Things' house flipped this GA gem for sale
A Victorian home for sale in Savannah, Georgia, is brimming with Southern charm after a restoration done by a pair of well-known house flippers. The 3,777-square-foot home — listed for $2.49 million — took two years to renovate, a feat that was done by Shane Fatland and Bryan Schreier, a pair who famously restored the Creel house in Rome, Georgia, a house featured in season 4 of the hit Netflix series 'Stranger Things.' 'The renovation, completed over two years, involved extensive work on the exterior, including rebuilding porches and windows, and interior details like door and window casings,' a news release on the home says. The duo managed to capture the original roots of the five-bedroom, five-bathroom house, which was built in 1920, while updating the residence with modern sleekness. 'The home is bathed w/natural light through floor-to-ceiling oversized windows & historic doors. Elegant hardwood floors throughout. Details & surprises include custom built-ins & a wet bar,' the listing on Compass says. 'The chef's kitchen is truly a culinary enthusiast's dream: premium countertops an expansive 12-foot island over looking a private & secluded, lushly landscaped outdoor oasis features soaring palm trees, an in-ground saltwater pool & fire pit area.' Other details include a one-bedroom, one-bathroom guest apartment that sits above a workshop. There's also a private pool and attic space that was converted to another room. Fatland and Schreier 'left their home in Rome, Georgia, where, although their house was impressive, it gained notoriety after being featured on a television show, which made it difficult for them to live there,' the release says. The listing is held by Liza DiMarco of Compass Georgia.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - My challenge to Charlamagne tha God
I am not interested in pointing fingers. I am not looking to assign blame. I have no interest in diving into the sewer of partisan politics. I am simply trying to reach out to one person who I believe can make a real difference with regard to the greatest failure in American 'leadership' over the course of the last seven decades. I refer, of course, to the complete abandonment by both political parties of millions of innocent men, women and children in America's crumbling inner-cities. The vast majority of those abandoned are Black, with children paying the highest price of all. This is a national disgrace and an obscenity that should haunt our dreams. But it is largely ignored because it has become one of the electrified 'third rails' of politics that should never be acknowledged or addressed. Why? Because of blind allegiance to those who created the tragedy. Who truly cares about the most continuous and inhumane failure in modern American history? Honestly, next to no one. Why? Powerful forces from both political parties want and need to keep it that way. Some people will give me little credibility on this subject just because I am an older white guy. But I have a history in this dystopian urban world. As a child, I grew up in abject poverty and was homeless often. By the time I was 17, I had been evicted from 34 homes. A number of those evictions relocated me into housing projects and school classes where I was often the only white child. That experience was one of the greatest blessings of my life. At an early age, I got to witness that Black America was a great and caring America. I bonded with that community like none since. My earliest heroes became some of the single Black mothers I saw working two or three jobs at a time to support their children while sacrificing their own happiness — women who are my enduring role models to this day. All these years later, there is not a week that goes by when I don't think of the plight of those often trapped in our inner cities, existing in hope-crushing realities that would make most people run into the night screaming for help. Occasionally, I write about it. But again, who really cares? I'm just an older white guy. Although my voice and my pleas for help for those suffering in anonymity and abandonment in our inner cities may never register or count, I do believe there is one voice today above all which would. That is the voice of Charlamagne tha God (a.k.a. Lenard McKelvey) — co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show 'The Breakfast Club.' His voice and his massive platform have the power to move the needle, to open eyes, to shine a light into corners many would just as soon leave shrouded in darkness and ignorance. Earlier this week, Charlamagne made news by airing his concern that the war in Ukraine 'could get stupid real fast' because the clashing egos of President Trump and Vladimir Putin 'could be the end of civilization as we know it.' It is gratifying to see him focus on a conflict that could trigger World War III. That said, there are people hurting unimaginably in our inner cities who no doubt believe they have long been experiencing 'the end of civilization as we know it.' The horrors happening in Ukraine may soon dissipate via a coming ceasefire, but the horrors taking place in our inner cities will go on unchecked, as they have for decades. Preordained suffering for the convenience and self-interests of various powerbrokers. Who today can expose this literal crime against humanity? I truly do believe the voice and platform of Charlamagne could begin the upending of this travesty of justice. And just how bad is it? What follows are but two examples out of literally hundreds in various inner-cities which could be highlighted. As the Chicago Tribune reported several years ago, over the course of the last 60 years, more than 40,000 men, women and children have been murdered in the city. More than 100,000 have been wounded, most of them Black, thousands of them innocent bystanders, including hundreds of children. If you extrapolate that number and timeframe across other large American cities, you will discover — shockingly — that those killed in our nation's urban areas equals or exceeds all U.S. soldiers killed and wounded during World War II. Again, the vast majority being Black men, women and children. Why are we not screaming out in protest against such a preventable perversion of justice? Going back to Chicago and speaking of children, a shocking headline from the Chicago Sun-Times a few years ago stated, 'Violence in some Chicago neighborhoods puts young men at greater risk than U.S. troops faced in Iraq, Afghanistan war zones, study finds.' As the paper reported, 'The risk of a man 18 to 29 years old dying in a shooting in the most violent ZIP code in Chicago … was higher than the death rate for U.S. soldiers in the Afghanistan war or for soldiers in an Army combat brigade that fought in Iraq.' Think about that: Almost twice as deadly as a heavily-engaged combat brigade. And now here is a truth I would like to bring to the attention of Charlamagne: Children must cross those 'war zones' five days a week to get to and from school. Again, it is but one more truth political forces from both sides have decided must never be admitted or discussed. An obscene reality that again can — and must be — extrapolated across multiple inner cities. These are innocent young boys and girls, children whose futures are being robbed from them in broad daylight. Yet we are told to look the other way. I believe Charlamagne tha God knows the a true problem when he sees it. He has an outstanding record of casting aside partisanship to speak truth to power — most especially for the disadvantaged. I am hoping he will laser-focus on this subject at some point and address it on his program. This is not about politics or choosing a side. It is only about exposing a crime against humanity and finally telling the millions living in orchestrated misery, 'We see you.' Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New Orleans holds burial of repatriated African Americans whose skulls were used in racist research
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African American people whose skulls had been sent to Germany for racist research practices in the 19th century. On Saturday, a multifaith memorial service including a jazz funeral, one of the city's most distinct traditions, paid tribute to the humanity of those coming home to their final resting place at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. 'We ironically know these 19 because of the horrific thing that happened to them after their death, the desecration of their bodies,' said Monique Guillory, president of Dillard University, a historically Black private liberal arts college, which spearheaded the receipt of the remains on behalf of the city. 'This is actually an opportunity for us to recognize and commemorate the humanity of all of these individuals who would have been denied, you know, such a respectful send-off and final burial.' The 19 people are all believed to have passed away from natural causes between 1871 and 1872 at Charity Hospital, which served people of all races and classes in New Orleans during the height of white supremacist oppression in the 1800s. The hospital shuttered following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The remains sat in 19 wooden boxes in the university's chapel during a service Saturday that also included music from the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective. A New Orleans physician provided the skulls of the 19 people to a German researcher engaged phrenological studies — the debunked belief that a person's skull could determine innate racial characteristics. 'All kinds of experiments were done on Black bodies living and dead,' said Dr. Eva Baham, a historian who led Dillard University's efforts to repatriate the individuals' remains. 'People who had no agency over themselves.' In 2023, the University of Leipzig in Germany reached out to the City of New Orleans to find a way to return the remains, Guillory said. The University of Leipzig did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'It is a demonstration of our own morality here in New Orleans and in Leipzig with the professors there who wanted to do something to restore the dignity of these people,' Baham said. Dillard University researchers say more digging remains to be done, including to try and track down possible descendants. They believe it is likely that some of the people had been recently freed from slavery. 'These were really poor, indigent people in the end of the 19th century, but ... they had names, they had addresses, they walked the streets of the city that we love," Guillory said. 'We all deserve a recognition of our humanity and the value of our lives.'
