PoC News in America

We have another video heavy article this week. Let’s get to it!

AlterNet has a great article as a part of their Fear in America series titled “10 Things Black People Fear that White People Don’t.”

In racist law enforcement news we have some cops in San Francisco sending terrible texts, and a 20-year old UVA student brutally arrested and assaulted by campus police.

NPR asks if the NYPD can ever gain the trust of residents of public housing following the death of Akai Gurley, and continued practices of policies criminalizing those populations.

You may have heard about the FBI investigating the death of Otis Byrd in Mississippi; many fear that it wasn’t a suicide but a lynching instead. After some investigation, the FBI doesn’t seem to think there was foul play.

Twitter has hit back at the CNN coverage of Otis Byrd’s death. Instead of speaking with family or friends about Otis Byrd, CNN released his rap sheet. Check out the trending topic #CNNBeLike for examples.

#BlackLivesMatter cofounders ask for other people of color to stop co-opting their hashtag. Note to fellow non-black PoC’s: using their language is not solidarity.

The Economist did a special report on Latinos. Here’s why that was a terrible idea.

Google launched Code2040, a project aiming to bring more black and Latino people into tech.

A new report from the Working Poor Families Project indicates that people of color comprise the majority of the working poor. Similarly, a record number of children made up New York City’s homeless population this past year.

Last week PBS aired a documentary on school choice focusing on the rural South called 180 Days: Hartsville. Check out a clip of the documentary below.

Berkeley students want a hall renamed after Assata Shakur.

Over at Feministing, Juliana Britto Schwartz discusses the complexities of travel and being a woman of color.

How are those Starbucks #RaceTogether conversations going?

That seems about right.

It seems that Montana is finding a way to integrate Native American history into their everyday lessons as a way to possibly promote tolerance.

Last week, we brought you news that Rihanna was the first black Dior girl. The Daily Beast looks at how that is emblematic of fashion’s terrible history with race. Case in point: calling model Winnie Harlow’s vitiligo a must-have trend for 2015. On the bright side, Vogue’s April cover leaked, featuring tennis icon Serena Williams.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Tituss Burgess thinks that the claims of racism in the show are “outrageous.” You know what’s outrageous… those goddamn flutes every time Dong is on screen.

Speaking of diversity on screen, Shonda Rhimes, who continues to be groundbreaking in her normalizing of racial diversity, says writing saved her life.

Did you miss Selma when it was out? Well Paramount Pictures re-released the movie on Friday in honor of the anniversary of the March On Washington.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night director Ana Lily Amirpour’s new project is starting to take shape, with a title, The Bad Batch, and the addition of Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey to her cast.

M. Night Shyamalan is back with Wayward Pines, a new FOX TV show, so your guesses about the big twist should be added to the comments asap.

Snoop Dogg will be executive producing a new show for HBO about an L.A. family in the ’80s.

Ruth Negga has been cast in the anticipated Preacher TV series, which is sure to cause a stir among some pockets of the internet, as her character was originally envisioned as blond and white, which the Ethiopian-Irish actress is most certainly not.

Speaking of racism and sexism in Comics, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore had a panel discussion on just that.

In other casting news, Eddie Murphy is joining the Richard Pryor biopic, as Richard’s father.

Empire smashes TV viewing records weekly, and as it wrapped its first season, let’s look at the conversations about race around the show, as NPR looks at how the show complicates stereotypes, while the stars debate the use of the N-word on the show.

The internet’s favorite scientist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is hosting a new StarTalk series, which is, you guessed it, a celebrity talk show focused on technology and science.

Over on Huffington Post, Karin Chenowith writes about what students at a predominantly African-American high school experience when they talk about their high achievement. (Fellow P-Mag writer Karishma and I graduated from that high school and can attest to outsider’s perceptions about the school.)

Janelle Monáe talks about her Wondaland Records and her new music revolution.

Also, here’s a gif of her because she’s perfect.

Meet Emelin, a 15-year-old indigenous girl from Guatemala, who spoke before the United Nations to get support for other girls like herself in rural Guatemala. She wants to change the mindset that girls dropping out of school is normal.

As if Mo’ne Davis couldn’t be more amazing, she’s teaming up with M4D3 to design sneakers whose proceeds will help underprivileged girls around the world. She is the definition of #BlackGirlExcellence

In more amazing Mo’ne Davis, Disney is set to make a movie about her called Throw Like Mo.

Unfortunately racists and misogynists aren’t happy about this. One Bloomsburg University baseball player has gotten kicked off his team for an offensive tweet regarding this news.

MGM has acquired the rights to Michaela DePrince’s children’s novel Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina. It will be turned into a feature length film about the ballerina. I can’t wait! The New York Times recently published an article about what being in the Dutch National Ballet means to her.

Kerry Washington was honored as the 2015 GLAAD Media Awards Vanguard winner.

Speaking of amazing black women that help out their community, here’s the story of Charlotte Tidwell, a retired nurse who is using her retirement pension to run a food pantry that feeds up to 7,000 people in her hometown.

And in a chance to objectify some men for a change, Buzzfeed brings us a video showing male beauty standards around the world. It seems the trend towards idealizing white skin and Western features isn’t a pressure only women face.

Broad City standout Hannibal Buress played drums with Speedy Ortiz (which is apparently a band… youths!) at SXSW.

We leave you with this adorable find, the Joyous String Quartet, rocking out to “Smooth Criminal.”