Tag Archives: obama

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

GoFundMe

01/20/2015 Nativegrl77

It’s been a few months since we sent you an update about our GoFundMe-Darren Wilson campaign. In that time we’ve been in dialogue with the company and its lawyers, and here’s where we’re at:

In October, GoFundMe donated its profits from the hateful Darren Wilson fundraisers to the Ferguson-Florissant school district. This was one of our top-line asks: for GoFundMe to stop profiting from racially-motivated donors. This donation was an important step and would not have happened without the actions of 130,000 ColorOfChange members. Collectively, we spoke up and put pressure on the crowdfunding company that they could not ignore, including this billboard right outside their offices:

Moving forward, tech companies like GoFundMe know what the ColorOfChange community is capable of. And they know we’ll remain vigilant. Since the launch of our campaign, we haven’t seen anything like the Darren Wilson fundraisers on GoFundMe’s platform. If a similar fundraising drive does show up, the company knows that it will have to answer to us.

Our campaign targeting GoFundMe began when people started giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to Michael Brown’s killer, celebrating his death. We were disgusted and outraged. We know that these types of fundraising drives lower the social and financial costs of taking Black lives. They send the message that shooters will be supported in the aftermath of killing Black men and boys.

In 2015, we’ll continue our work combating the culture of hostility against Black folks that’s present across our country. Thank you for being part of it every step along the way.

Onwards!

—Arisha, Rashad, Matt, Bhavik, and the ColorOfChange team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org

01/20/2015 Nativegrl77

President Obama has the power — and responsibility — to help end the nationwide crisis of police violence and its unjust consequences.

Urge Pres. Obama to issue an executive order directing the Department of Justice to rigorously enforce and expand civil rights law and federal bans on violent and discriminatory policing:

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell the Senate: Pass the bill to reverse the Supreme Court’s attack on Black women’s healthcare

01/12/2015 Nativegrl77

Arisha Michelle Hatch, ColorOfChange.org

The Supreme Court gutted Obamacare’s contraception coverage. We have a plan to fix it.

Last week, the Supreme Court sided with the far-right and gutted a key part of Obamacare’s protections for women’s health.

Black women are getting caught in the middle as the right-wing tries to chip away at the Affordable Care Act. Affordable access to contraception is a matter of life and death for Black women who are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women. Many of us regularly use contraception to treat endometriosis, manage uterine fibroids and alleviate PMS symptoms.¹ The far-right is more concerned with tarnishing President Obama’s legacy than ensuring we have access to affordable healthcare.

But, we have a way to fight back!

The Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act was just introduced in Congress to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision gutting a woman’s right to birth control coverage. The bill states that federal laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act used by Hobby Lobby’s right-wing lawyers, do not allow employers to refuse to cover health care — including birth control — guaranteed by Obamacare. It would ensure women at corporations like Hobby Lobby could make important health decisions with their doctors, not their bosses.

Tell the Senate: Pass the bill to reverse the Supreme Court’s attack on Black women’s healthcare.

Black women overall are at a higher risk for unintended pregnancy but have less access to insurance and preventative care.² The contraception mandate in Obamacare would go a long way towards reducing cost barriers for our access to birth control and help close the gap in contraceptive use between Black women and our white and Latina peers — but we need Congress to reverse the Supreme Court’s damage. Politicians with an eye on November elections need to know that if they count on Black people to vote for them at the polls, they need to vote for the needs of Black women in Congress and pass this bill.

That’s why we’re teaming up with our friends at UltraViolet. If we shine a spotlight on this bill and bring it to a vote, we’ll know which members of Congress support Black women’s healthcare — and which side with 5 men on the Supreme Court. Will you sign?

Tell the your Senators: Reverse the Supreme Court’s attack our healthcare.

Thanks and Peace,

–Arisha, Rashad, Matt, Aimée, Johnny and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
July 10, 2014

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References

1. “How the Hobby Lobby Decision Impacts Black Women,” EBONY, 6-30-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3645?t=7&akid=3473.1174326.0t4Dbp

2. “Hobby Lobby Ruling Opens the Door to ‘Method Discrimination’ for Black Women,” The Root, 7-3-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3646?t=9&akid=3473.1174326.0t4Dbp

~ my 2cents ..., ~ pop culture

SWAY …

12/23/2014 Nativegrl77

SWAY: A dance Trilogy ends …

Reports are that this Production was hot, even better than the first SWAY which was a hit that led to SWAY2.0 and definitely a show they would love to see come back, with some adjustments to the Meet & Greet. The breakdown is that Tony …was beyond elegant, so smooth it brought back that classic club dance feeling with some skill sets that we just do not get to see that often when we watch Dancing With The Stars … We see you Tony. What I heard: The man can dance lest we talk about those insane lifts of his SWAY dance partner and dwts’s beauty Sharna Burgess. The group dances were fun, kitschy with a whole lot of amazing dancing and word is Henry, Serge & Artem have people wanting more. Well, all the dancers impressed and like dwts Season16, Zendaya & Val’s SWAY did not disappoint. We all know dance has evolved, this couple added some of their own texture with some urban splashed on it … those that went said their dancing seemed better than last time and made folks want to move, maybe take some classes. Honestly, who doesn’t want to try to SWAY like these fabulous dancers, but the main chatter was about Maks and Meryl. Yes, many fans watched Maks & Meryl’s SWAY videos and thought omg did she just say she never danced in a theatre setting. Well, they did not disappoint either. I have to say, after watching their video’s from SWDOI (Shall We Dance On Ice) and their SWAY, we can all agree that it was once again magical, breath taking, beautiful and passionate, but seemed way too short. The fans loved seeing Meryl in her dwts costumes, yet there was a new flavor, or feeling to their dances unlike their time on dwts Season18 … was it more passion? If they SWAY again, some hope to see them do a Paso, maybe some up-tempo stuff next time … the word from those who were able to go … amazing!

So, if you want SWAY 3.0 say so! http://dancewithmeusa.com/sway/

Folks had things to say …

Shout out to Alex for all he does for DWM

Please be a next time

Hey, when you see two people SWAY as they did … you do not want it to end

*******************************

hmmm …could we get a Maks Meryl / Val Zendaya dance piece …

*********************

Maksim, Tony & Val = SWAY

Do you want more SWAY … let DWM know !

LIVE ~~ (Westbury NY) ~~ LIVE

Maksim and Meryl’s SWAY was beyond words …

(http://dancewithmeusa.com/sway/)

Tony & Sharna were great

LIVE ~~ (Westbury NY) ~~ LIVE

and

Zendaya & Val were back and great !

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Don’t miss the final story in our Product of Mexico series: Children work the fields

12/19/2014 Nativegrl77

Dear Readers:Meet Alejandrina. She was 11 when Los Angeles Times journalists first began reporting her story. Alejandrina, a little girl who likes lip gloss and longs to go to back to school, works 14 hours a day picking chile peppers for a farm that supplies a U.S. distributor.

Mexican law requires workers to be at least 15, but Alejandrina is among an estimated 100,000 children younger than that who work the fields. As she told The Times: “I work because we don’t have any money and we need money to eat things.”

Times reporter Richard Marosi and photographer Don Bartletti tracked Alejandrina’s nomadic existence for a year. Read her story, which is also the story of so many others: Children harvest crops and sacrifice dreams in Mexico’s fields

This marks the fourth and final piece in our Product of Mexico series, an investigation into conditions on Mexican farms that supply Americans with much of our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other produce.

We’ve told readers about unbearable conditions at labor camps and taken them into Bioparques, a supplier to Wal-Mart and one of Mexico’s biggest tomato exporters, where Mexican officials found workers held captive. We’ve examined company stores, where a lack of price tags and big mark-ups leave many farmworkers trapped in a cycle of debt.

I want to thank all of you for reading this important series and sharing it with others. Here’s a sneak peek at a video coming Monday that features Marosi and Bartletti talking about the reporting behind this eye-opening series.

Davan Maharaj, Editor

P.S. We’ve created some extra content available only to our subscribers. Bartletti, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist whose interest in photography dates back to his service in Vietnam, has covered Mexico for decades. He shares some of his best photos and memories of what it took to capture the images.