Rutgers Women’s Basketball Coach Offers Condolences to Family of Don Imus, Who Infamously Referred to Team as 'Nappy Headed Hos'

We are such a forgiving people, aren’t we?

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Meet Danielle Outlaw, Philadelphia’s First Black Female Commissioner

The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection has finally appointed a sister to run the show –— and she plans to bring some real law and order to the police department.

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Why New Year’s Day was no holiday for Black people during slavery

With the countless amounts of motivational 2020 memes, statuses and tweets, it is hard to remember that during this time of year less than 200 years ago, enslaved people were filled with dread.

READ MORE: Ancestry.com apologizes for romanticizing slavery in new commercial

According to TIME, New Year’s Day or Jan. 1 was often referred to as “Hiring Day” or “Heartbreak Day.” What does that mean? On that day, many enslaved Black people anxiously waited to see if they would be rented out to another family or household. This would, in turn, separate them from their families. This, as an alternative to selling a slave, was practice all too familiar during the time of chattel slavery. These transactions took place in town squares, on courthouse steps and on the side of country roads.

The enslaved would enter contracts for various amounts of time throughout the year, but there were many that began on New Years Day and lasted for up to a year. TIME reported that those who resisted would have faced whippings and/or jail time.

“‘Hiring Day’ was part of the larger economic cycle in which most debts were collected and settled on New Year’s Day,” Historian Alexis McCrossen said.

Many enslaved people documented the fear surrounding Jan. 1.

“On New Year’s Day, we went to the auctioneer’s block, to be hired to the highest bidder for one year,” Israel Campbell wrote in an 1861 memoir.

An enslaved man named Lewis Clarke said, “Of all days in the year, the slaves dread New Year’s Day the worst of any.”

While some were rented, many were still sold.

Harriet Jacobs, the first Black woman to write a “slave narrative,” wrote in her autobiography Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, of a woman who went to the auction block with all seven of her children.

“A mother leads seven children to the auction block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all,” Jacobs wrote.

Jacobs went on to explain that one by one, all of the woman’s children had been auctioned off, which caused her to yell in pain, “gone! All gone! Why don’t God kill me?”

A lot of the time, parents could not know where their children were being taken, which caused further pain.

Though the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade on Jan. 1, 1808 gave some enslaved people hope, there was so much longer to go to see any real change.

“Different slave-trade abolition commemorations took place between 1808 and 1831, but they died out because the domestic slave trade was so vigorous,” McCrossen said.

In spite of its dark history, New Year’s Day would eventually be associated with something that was a lot more promising: Freedom.

READ MORE: Back to Africa: New York politician experiences the ultimate homecoming during a life-changing visit to Senegal

On Jan.1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Hours prior to the announcement, enslaved people had been attending a prayer services at Black churches across the country when they received the news. This monumental event led to the tradition of New Years Eve prayer services, which continue to this day.

The post Why New Year’s Day was no holiday for Black people during slavery appeared first on theGrio.

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Alex Jones To Pay $100k Legal Fees Of Sandy Hook Victim He Slandered

Yesterday, CNN Business reported that conspiracy theorist and delusional blowhard, Alex Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of his website for fellow right-wing crazies InfoWars, has been ordered to pay around $100,000 in legal expenses related to a defamation lawsuit filed in April 2018 by Neil Heslin,…

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Michael Bloomberg double downs on claims he did not know his campaign was using prison labor to make calls to voters

Former New York Mayor, multi-billionaire, and 2020 presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg has landed himself in hot water over allegations that his campaign utilized prison labor; now he is denying any knowledge of the exploitation.

READ MORE: Michael Bloomberg severs ties with firm that hired prison laborers to make campaign calls

As reported by theGrio.com, on Christmas Eve news broke that Bloomberg, who recently put his hat in the already crowded 2020 Democratic race, exploited prison labor. The Intercept reported that his campaign inadvertently used this labor to make calls on behalf of his campaign. The campaign hired a third-party vendor to operate its call centers. Two of the call centers used by the New Jersey-based company, ProCom, were operated out of state prisons in Oklahoma. According to The Intercept, at least one of the call centers, incarcerated people were contracted to make the calls.

Though ProCom’s founder, John Scallan, said he pays inmates the Oklahoma minimum wage of $7.25/hr, the Department of Corrections website stated that inmates can only make a maximum of $20 a month.

Bloomberg went to Twitter for damage control, claiming he had no idea that ProCom utilized prison labor.

“Earlier today, a news outlet accurately reported that a subcontractor for one of our vendors was using prison workers to make phone calls on behalf of my campaign. After learning this, we immediately ended our relationship with that company.”

Earlier today, a news outlet accurately reported that a subcontractor for one of our vendors was using prison workers to make phone calls on behalf of my campaign. After learning this, we immediately ended our relationship with that company.

Full statement below: pic.twitter.com/0KJ8y8Iqxj

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 24, 2019

“We only learned about this when the reporter called us, but as soon as we discovered which vendor’s subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them.” Bloomberg submitted via a prepared statement. “We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors going forward.”

“We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had,” said Bloomberg spokesperson Julie Wood. “We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question.”

READ MORE: Cory Booker responds to Mike Bloomberg’s well-spoken comments, assures there is “no beef” between friends

According to The Intercept, Bloomberg was not the first politician to use prison labor for their campaigns. In 1994, the late Washington State Republican Congressman Jack Metcalf to make campaign calls. Metcalf was re-elected for three terms.

The post Michael Bloomberg double downs on claims he did not know his campaign was using prison labor to make calls to voters appeared first on theGrio.

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