Latest news with #theGrio
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Marine Corps' new grooming policy slammed for targeting Black men
Kyle Bibby of Black Veterans Project tells theGrio that the new guidance represents 'another discriminatory policy enacted under a Secretary of Defense with a history of hostility to Black people.' A recently updated grooming policy issued by the United States Marine Corps is being slammed by advocates for negatively targeting Black male service members. The policy is a reversal of a decades-long waiver that allowed Black men with coarse or curly hair to electively wear their beards as a result of a skin condition. The waivers allowed Black service members to avoid the military's requirements for men to be clean-shaven. In March, the Marine Corps issued a new guidance on pseudofolliculitis, or PFB, which is a skin condition more commonly known as razor bumps or ingrown hairs. PFB disproportionately affects Black men (60%), according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology. Despite allowing waivers since the 1970s, the new guidance from the Marine Corps now states that the condition could lead to a service member being expelled from the military branch if the issue persists, reports NBC News. In January, the U.S. Air Force also updated its guidance on the skin condition, informing service members that waivers will expire 90 days after one's next annual health exam. The military branch did not indicate what the requirements would be to still qualify for a waiver. The Marine Corps says that its new guidance will best position the military branch for 'warfighting capability' and that service members with PFB will have to undergo a medical evaluation within 90 days. If their condition does not improve within a year under a four-part treatment plan, they could be separated from the branch at the discretion of their commanding officer, according to NBC. A Marine Corps policy in 2022 barred service members from being kicked out of service solely based on PFB, as it was determined that topical medication does not effectively treat the skin condition. Dermatologists, including a military dermatologist, told NBC the latest policy reversal on PFB waivers are unnecessary and has 'nothing to do with readiness.' 'The Marine Corps' new directive targeting medical shaving waivers for razor bumps — a well known condition in the Marine Corps that disproportionately affects Black men — represents another discriminatory policy enacted under a Secretary of Defense with a history of hostility to Black people,' Kyle Bibby, co-CEO and co-founder of Black Veterans Project, told theGrio. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has aggressively pushed President Donald Trump's agenda to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies, calling DEI and 'wokeness' a threat to military strength and preparedness. 'We're done with that sh–,' he said earlier this month. The Black Veterans Project notes that Black service members make up a larger proportion of the military compared to their overall representation in the civilian population. Therefore, the new policy on PFB creates 'unnecessary barriers to service for Black Marines and poses its own threat to military readiness that outweigh any concern around grooming standards,' said Bibby. 'These medical waivers have existed for decades without compromising mission effectiveness and the military routinely relaxes grooming standards for operational needs,' he added. 'Threatening administrative separation for Marines needing longer-term medical waivers reveals the true intent: forcing Black Marines out of service for conditions beyond their control.' More must-reads: Federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers law Alice Johnson, Trump's pardon czar, seen by some as Black political 'token' amid controversial pardons Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration after leading effort to slash federal government
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What inspired Tina Knowles to write ‘Matriarch'? Beyoncé and Solange's future grandbabies: ‘My kids never met my mom'
In an exclusive interview with theGrio, Tina Knowles discusses how working with a genealogist and helped her uncover her enslaved ancestors, how her grandchildren inspired her to tell her story, and why Black families must preserve their history in a time when it's under attack. Before Tina Knowles was Ms. Tina or Mama Tina to the world, she was Celestine Anne Beyoncé. The journey of transforming from that little girl with a beautifully complicated name, growing up in the segregated South of Galveston, Texas, to becoming a globally recognized entrepreneur, philanthropist, and mother of music legends Beyoncé and Solange, is what's documented in her New York Times bestselling book, Matriarch. The inspirational memoir has been flying off shelves and earning praise for being more than 'another celebrity memoir' because of how grounded it is in Ms. Tina's fascinating family history– a history that reflects the complexity and resilience of Black American families throughout time. Ms. Tina's original last name — Beyoncé — which would eventually become synonymous with a music icon, was actually spelled many different ways on various family records, including Buyince, Beyince, and Boyancé, due to racist nurses and officials who refused to document it correctly. Those differences only made Ms. Tina more curious as life went on. 'The first time I went on Ancestry[.com], which was many, many years ago, I saw my great grandfather's name on there, and I became emotional about it,' Ms. Tina tells theGrio during an exclusive interview on her Matriarch book tour in Brooklyn, NY. Dressed in a sleek black suit with feathered sleeves, donning her signature golden blonde waves, she recalls learning about her ancestors. 'I knew his first name was John, and I knew what year he was born, and that's all the information that I had, and to see it actually on a manifest [document], come over on that boat, it just made me feel connected, and it sent me down this journey of just trying to find out all the information I could find.' That journey of filling in the blanks on her family history would lead her to discover shocking stories — including how her great-great-grandmother, Celestine, had been resold on an auction block in the 1850s with her children after being at one estate, only to be purchased by the white father of her children, who was the nephew of the original estate owner. 'The reason why I got started writing is for me not to publish it, but just to leave it for my great-grandchildren, because I never met my grandparents and my kids never met my mom,' she tells theGrio. Ms. Tina's mother Agnes, was a seamstress like many women in her family before her– a gift that Ms. Tina would use as she handmade the costumes and outfits for Destiny's Child for years. While she inherited Agnes' talent for clothing creation, Ms. Tina often rebelled against her mother, who tried to keep her and her six siblings compliant and safe in segregated Galveston, Texas — going into white-only areas and giving her caregivers a headache. Based on Ms. Tina's own childhood experience, raising Black children to be brave may require some mental reprogramming. 'I think that it's really important that you teach your kids,' Ms. Tina tells theGrio. 'It has to be a deliberate thing. For some reason, you know, when we're parents, we just kind of think some things are gonna take care of themselves, and they don't.' 'My mother was a very great mother, but she was she was a little passive,' Ms. Tina recalls. 'She was always trying to protect us and warn us about everything, and it just made us want more to explore. Sometimes it has an opposite effect.' Matriarch retells the heartbreaking story of Ms. Tina being in her 20s when her mother died in the hospital after battling illness for years. Immediately afterward, Ms. Tina learned she was pregnant with her first child — Beyoncé — who would bear an uncanny resemblance to her mother. In light of recent attempts to erase Black American history, from attacks on the Blacksonian Museum in D.C. to the rewriting of school curriculum to downplay slavery's impact, Ms. Tina says tracing Black family genealogy is a powerful tool that Black Americans should use. 'It's absolutely important and vital,' she tells theGrio. 'Now more than ever that we're [being] erased, we have to take it upon ourselves and take the responsibility to write our history, to delve into it while we still can. Because it might be destroyed.' In spite of the struggles of growing up in a segregated America and seeing refreshed attempts at rewriting the past, Ms. Tina's joy in Black culture and Black womanhood is steadfast. 'I wouldn't have it any other way. It's just been the best experience for me. I love the way we walk, the way we talk, dress, the way we cry… I just love everything about it. I would not trade it for anything.' That strong will and determination to preserve Black culture and history is why Knowles hopes people see themselves in Matriarch. 'It brings you back to your roots,' she tells TheGrio. 'I think if you read this book, you'll want to go and find out who your people are and just have a sense of pride.'Natasha S. Alford is the Senior Vice President of TheGrio. A recognized journalist, filmmaker, and TV personality, Alford is also the author of the award-winning book, 'American Negra.' (HarperCollins, 2024) Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @natashasalford. More must-reads: President Trump signs Take It Down Act, addressing nonconsensual deepfakes. What is it? Denzel Washington receives surprise honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes premiere for 'Highest 2 Lowest' Salt-N-Pepa sue record label to reclaim rights to their recordings including 'Push It'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Keisha Lance Bottoms announces run for Georgia governor: ‘We are in a fight against chaos'
The former Atlanta mayor, who could make history if elected in 2026, says she is ready to stand up against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. After months of anticipation, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, has officially announced her run for governor of Georgia. Bottoms launched her gubernatorial campaign on Tuesday with the release of a video, aiming her political target directly at President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. 'Georgia families deserve far better than what Donald Trump and Republicans are giving us,' says Bottoms in the campaign video. 'Most Georgians are right to wonder who's looking out for us. Donald Trump is a disaster for our economy and our country, from his failure to address rising prices to giving an unelected billionaire the power to cut Medicare and Social Security.' The 55-year-old Democrat also evokes memories of growing up in Atlanta during the 70s and 80s, and her grandmother, whom she remembered would call her and other relatives every morning. 'We didn't need an alarm clock. We had grandmama,' Bottoms says in the opening of her campaign video. The fifth-generation Georgian, who served as Atlanta mayor from 2018-2022, told theGrio that her grandmother, as well as her grandfather, 'always looked out' for her family, 'even when they had very limited resources.' But unlike those days, when working-class Americans could achieve some level of prosperity, Bottoms said, today, most Georgians don't know whom to rely on amid concerns of economic downturn caused by Trump's global tariffs and little to no change in rising costs for everyday goods. 'Invoking my grandmother really is about saying to people I know what it's like to have somebody in your life who is looking out for you, someone who's thinking about you, and that's the type of governor that I will be for Georgia,' Bottoms told theGrio. Bottoms, who served as a White House senior advisor to President Joe Biden, described the road ahead under the Trump administration as a 'fight against chaos' that is creating a lot of 'uncertainty' and 'anxiety' for everyday Georgians and Americans across the country. The White House, led by billionaire Elon Musk, fired tens of thousands of federal employees and slashed billions of dollars in spending that Congress already approved. 'Whether you are a small business owner, whether you own stock, whether you have a retirement account, whether you're trying to figure out how to put food on the table, gas in the car, or pay off your student loans,' she told theGrio. 'There's one thing after another that's disruptive.' Bottoms pledged to make the expansion of Medicaid a priority if elected governor. She noted that Georgia remains one of the few states in the nation that has not taken advantage of the provision under Obamacare that allows states to ensure greater health care coverage for low-income residents. She said it is 'costing nearly 300,000 Georgians health care coverage and forcing nine rural hospitals to close.' Bottoms also pledges to eliminate state income taxes for teachers, better support small businesses, crack down on corporate landlords driving up rent and housing costs, and invest in more pathways to college or career training. If elected, Keisha Lance Bottoms would become the first Black woman to be elected governor of any state in U.S. history. However, she faces an uphill battle. Former Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams failed to clinch the governorship in Georgia twice, in 2018 and 2022. Similarly, former Vice President Kamala Harris saw a devastating loss to Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Pundits concluded that Abrams and Harris' campaigns were marred by both racism and sexism. Bottoms told theGrio she acknowledges those barriers but is prepared to earn every vote. 'No one ever said it would be easy,' she said. 'Politics, elections, those are full-contact sports. So you go in, you look at all the things that were done right, you build on that, and you look at what, if anything, you should do differently.' The gubernatorial hopeful said she is taking her message 'directly to the voters.' She added, 'I'm going to fight for them.' Bottoms reminded that Georgia went blue in 2020 when it elected Joe Biden for president–the first time for a Democrat in nearly 30 years–as well as Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. 'Even with the loss of Vice President Harris in the state, those numbers were still extremely close,' she added. 'So we know it can be done, and I'm looking forward to earning the support of people in Georgia to getting that done.' If elected in 2026, being a Democratic governor while Donald Trump is president will almost certainly present its challenges, and likely political clashes. Bottoms was an early target of Trump when he returned to the White House on Jan. 20. On his first day in office, the president announced that Bottoms had been 'fired' from her Biden-appointed role on the President's Export Council, a national advisory committee on international trade. However, she had already resigned from the position weeks prior. In her campaign video, the Georgia leader said she 'laughed' at Trump's attempt to terminate her from a position she no longer held. Bottoms recalled being one of several women leading cities across the country who were targeted by Trump during his first term in office. 'On a daily basis, he was coming for us, whether it was personal attacks or just being disruptive with his policies. So I know what it's like to lead under his chaos,' she told theGrio. Bottoms pointed to another Georgia native, the late civil rights activist and former Congressman John Lewis, for a sense of direction on how to move forward despite many feeling lost or even scared. '[He] told us our vote is the most powerful weapon that we have…We aren't the first generation that's faced uncertainty, who's faced someone in the White House who's not been on our side,' she said. Bottoms added, 'What generations before us did, they stood up, they mobilized, and they fought. And that's what I'm looking to do on behalf of the people of Georgia.' More must-reads: Rep. LaMonica McIver charged with assault after skirmish at ICE center, DOJ prosecutor says Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms 'heartbroken' over Biden's cancer diagnosis Trump Jr. implies 'cover-up' of Biden's cancer, suggests wife Dr. Jill Biden, who isn't a medical doctor, is to blame
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shiloh Hendrix raised over $600K after calling a Black child a racial slur. Kiandria Demone is working to make sure she never sees a cent
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways After Shiloh Hendrix raised over $600K after sharing a racist rant, activist Kiandria Demone is working to stop the payout and hold platforms accountable for upholding white supremacy. Kiandria Demone, an entrepreneur and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a growing online platform, has become known to, in her own words, 'bully racists' off the internet or to stop doing whatever it is they've done. So when followers across her platform began to share the story of Shiloh Hendrix—a white woman from Rochester, Minnesota, who has gone viral for launching a GiveSendGo campaign after footage of her targeting a young Black child with racial slurs on the playground surfaced—Demone looked into the matter. As she scrolled late into the wee hours, instead of seeing another potential opportunity to call someone out, she saw something much more sinister: a company profiting from hate speech. 'I was initially looking for things that were red flags as far as their compliance as a company,' she told theGrio during a recent phone interview. 'I started thinking like, this isn't going to be enough, because they're just going to fix it and they're going to keep operating.' That's when she remembered the fact that, 'there's a bank somewhere.' 'That's who has some accountability,' she continued. 'The bank can't just do whatever they want to do. A payment processor they cannot just do whatever they want to do. They have a policy and they have regulations, there are laws, there are people who monitor that, there are people that the payment processor has to answer to.' The 33-year-old social media disrupter has launched an effort to prevent Hendrix from receiving any money from her campaign on GiveSendGo, which has netted over $600,000. (The ask has since been increased to $1 million.) By directing her nearly 50k followers and all who want to help to put pressure on the fundraising platform and payment processor by making complaints, she hopes to hold them accountable for profiting off of hate. To determine who the payment processor was, Demone used her tech savvy to break down GiveSendGo's HTML code and found where the payment processor was listed, which she alleged was Square, though the company has denied being the payment processor. After she and many others began to reach out en masse to inquire, the company responded on their social media channels. 'This weekend, we received a significant number of inquiries across a variety of channels related to the fundraising platform GiveSendGo,' a post on Threads began. 'GiveSendGo is not a Square customer. We do not and have not processed payments for them.' In an email to theGrio the company reiterated their message from social media, writing: 'We do not and have not processed payments for them.' On April 30, the footage of Hendrix was leaked, and in the days since, she has alleged she's facing an onslaught of hate and widespread backlash. She launched the online fundraiser with GiveSendGo, who also hosted fundraisers for Kyle Rittenhouse and January 6 rioters, to raise enough funds to protect herself and potentially move. Demone noted that when people launch campaigns on GiveSendGo it's often because their campaign doesn't fit within the terms of other popular online fundraising platforms like GoFundMe. 'I believe that they know what they're doing in supporting certain causes, and a lot of those certain causes uphold white supremacy,' she said. For anyone who is curious about her thoughts on how Hendrix compares to situations like Karmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old Black boy in Texas, accused of murdering a white 17-year-old during a track meet, she doesn't see them as the same. Demone, who has a background in web development, said the idea to look into who the payment processor is came from her own personal experience. The activist also runs an online apparel shop selling t-shirts with quippy slogans on them, like 'F—the patriarchy,' which she said draws a certain kind of attention from trolls. These trolls have, at times, held up her orders by making complaints against her store to the point where payments are frozen from the online payment processor. 'Y'all don't tolerate [Demone's products]. That's suspicious, but this woman can profit off of calling a child the N word,' she said. Joining the discourse around Hendrix has also brought its share of hate the activist's way. She said since she began to post online about her initiative, she's received death threats, hateful comments, and emails demanding her to stop what she's doing. In a screencap of an email she shared online, someone told her she couldn't stop what was already in motion and warned her to 'stay safe.' None of it fazes her, however. 'I really don't give a damn about a troll harassing me on the internet. I just don't internalize that because I've already built, I guess, the stamina and the thick skin,' Demone explained, adding that she's developed that thick skin through a life marked by trauma. She realizes she could have just done what had been her usual approach and clowned Hendrix, but she said this situation was much more serious than that. 'This woman attacking a black child with a verbal assault for one, but bold enough to profit off of it, is crazy, so I didn't want to do that, you know? I didn't want it to turn this into a 'he, he, ha, ha' viral, social media moment. I wanted to actually figure out … a resolution.' While Square has denied being the payment processor for GiveSendGo, an update to the documentation Demone is using to provide guidance alleges that Stripe has taken over as the payment processor for the donation platform. Stripe has neither confirmed nor denied being the payment processor and for now, she has not heard back directly from GiveSendGo or Square. She's not deterred as she sees real momentum around this forming into movement to inspire change across the board with these online platforms by actively holding the platforms accountable through mass email and complaint campaigns. Momentum she said that has shocked her. 'This is not about me, this is not about any clout, and it's not about a viral moment,' Demone explained. 'I'm not even just focused on Shiloh Hendrix. I want these payment processors to know that we will hold them accountable.' More must-reads:
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump cuts to federal grants will make Black communities less safe and prosperous, experts warn
The second administration of President Donald Trump is being slammed for 'putting lives on the line' and 'destabilizing' already vulnerable communities. Black communities and leaders who are working to keep them safe and prosperous are reeling from a stream of funding cuts issued by the Trump administration in recent days. The cuts, part of President Donald Trump's aim to significantly reduce the size and scope of the federal government's more than $6 trillion spending budget, have included the elimination of billions of dollars in grant funding programs created to reduce community gun violence in Black and Brown communities, and even develop the next generation of Black and Brown leaders working to end societal harms like homelessness, hunger, and even close educational gaps. Over the past week, the Trump administration's Department of Justice canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in grants contracted to organizations working in communities to end community violence, including gun violence and domestic violence. The Department of Education similarly canceled $1 billion in school mental health grants, which were used to deploy intervention experts into schools, hospitals and other hotspots to prevent violent outcomes in communities. 'Those programs are especially effective in Black communities,' said Aneesa McMillan, a spokesperson for GIFFORDS, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. McMillan told theGrio that funding for community violence interventions, or CVI, paid professionals serving as peacemakers in targeted communities. 'These are people who were from the community [and] who knew the folks involved in a lot of the conflicts. That was critical, especially because that violence does not get the amount of coverage of, say, a school shooting,' she said. Amber Goodwin, founder of Community Violence Legal Network, told theGrio that the Trump administration is 'putting lives on the line' and 'destabilizing our communities across the board.' She told theGrio, 'Not just in the cities or the communities where these cuts happen, but the entire country is going to feel the effects of this.' When announcing the grant cuts to community violence interventions, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said it was part of the administration's goal to cut wasteful spending. However, advocates point out that data shows that the bipartisan investments (funded by President Joe Biden's 2022 Safer Communities Act) are actually working. In 2023 and 2024, gun homicide and gun violence rates fell. 'These decisions shouldn't be about politics. It's about the people who are actually impacted by gun violence on a daily and almost hourly basis … the cost of doing nothing to prevent gun violence far outweighs the cost of these programs,' said Goodwin, who also founded Community Justice Action Fund, a national gun violence prevention organization. In addition to grants targeting violence and mental health, the government's only agency focused on community service and volunteerism, AmeriCorps, saw 90% of its workforce funding slashed by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk. It's already resulted in a federal lawsuit filed by a coalition of dozens of states and Washington, D.C. The funding included grants awarded to longtime nonprofits like Public Allies, which trains and develops community youth leaders through apprenticeships to eventually work to address socioeconomic challenges–from disaster relief to environmental justice–impacting communities, particularly Black and Brown. 'When we have the clawback of funding to support our schools and communities that have the level of disinvestment in public education systems, particularly in neighborhoods and communities that have the least resources available, when we see the erosion of investment in things like housing and the development of new affordable housing, all of those things disproportionately impact us,' said Jenise Terrell, CEO of Public Allies. Terrell explained to theGrio that the organization's 10-month apprentice program through AmeriCorps (which existed for more than 30 years) not only trained young apprentices to do important, skillful community work and gave them a sense of purpose, but also a livelihood that has now been unexpectedly cut off. 'These are young people who, in many cases, are making less than $15 an hour, sometimes far less than that, who are literally surviving and thriving on paycheck to paycheck, just so that they can give their time and service,' said Terrell, who is an alum of the decades-old program. Despite losing their community jobs, the young leaders are most concerned about the members of the community who will no longer benefit from their work and engagement. 'They still come to the table concerned about the communities…they want to know who's going to be looking out for the young people in the after school program [for example],' said Terrell. The Trump administration has also simultaneously associated many of its spending cuts to being related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, which President Trump has made a major feature of his budget and policy framework. Rather than focusing on diversity or equity, the Trump administration has called for a 'merit-based' approach, particularly in hiring and contract procurement. 'Our take on merit is a little different than the current administration's take,' said Terrell. 'We believe that merit is, in addition to being defined by what you have achieved, is also inclusive of the experiences that you bring to the table. Experiences that provide insight that is often missing from the solutions.' Despite the White House's posture, advocates are still hoping that the administration can be persuaded into reversing course on their grant cuts. Some are actively engaging members of Congress, from both political parties, on the issue. Congress is also entering intense negotiations on Capitol Hill as they work to finalize the budget for fiscal year 2026. Trump's budget proposal calls for $163 billion in cuts from his $1.7 trillion discretionary budget on top of the billions of dollars that DOGE has already cut or frozen in the name of waste and fraud. U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, called Trump's new budget 'reckless' and argued he would rather make vital cuts to important federal agencies than work to 'improve the economy, lower the cost of living, and make everyday necessities more affordable.' 'This budget scheme imposes economic hardship on everyday Americans, makes our country less safe, and our communities more vulnerable,' said Clarke. 'We, the members of the CBC will not be a party to the destruction of our communities and the people we've been elected to represent.' More must-reads: Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn't know if he backs constitutional rights Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let DOGE access Social Security systems Wes Moore explains why he will not run for president in 2028
