Nick Cannon Delivers On Promise To Finish Nipsey’s Documentary On Legendary Healer

March 31 marked a year since the world lost iconic rapper and community builder Nipsey Hussle – and Nick Cannon is one of the many people making sure “The Marathon Continues.” In commemoration of Hussle’s death, Cannon dropped the trailer for “Strong Enemies: The Untold Case of Dr. Sebi” on Instagram – making good on his promise to finish the documentary Hussle had started.

The documentary trailer opens with Hussle’s voice, then cuts to a clip of the late Los Angeles legend speaking about the beloved natural healer and herbalist. It then shows footage of interviews with various artists and experts as well as follows Cannon on his search for answers.

Born Alfred Bowman in Honduras, Dr. Sebi believed in using food as medicine. He rose to prominence for claiming to have found a natural cure for AIDS, cancer and other infectious diseases.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by NICK CANNON (@nickcannon) on Mar 31, 2020 at 8:06pm PDT

Hussle (born Ermias Joseph Asghedom) revealed he was working on a documentary about Dr. Sebi’s court cases in the 1980s, which arose after he placed ads in a newspaper about his ability to cure AIDS.

“I’m working on doing a documentary on the trial in 1985 when Dr. Sebi went to trial against New York because he put in the newspaper that he cured AIDS,” Hussle said during an interview with The Breakfast Club in 2018. “He beat the case and he went to federal court the next day and beat that case, on record, and nobody talks about it.”

Though Sebi was acquitted in those cases, he was arrested March 28, 2016 at Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport in Honduras for money laundering when he was found carrying $37,000 in cash, according to The Source. He was held there until he died August 6, 2016. The official cause of death was listed as pneumonia, but Dr. Sebi’s followers believe his death was suspicious.

“Why do they kill all holistic doctors?” Hussle responded when Charlamagne Tha God asked him why he thought they killed Dr. Sebi. “You short-stopping they grind. Why do niggas get killed for hustling in front of a nigga spot? You short stopping the grind. And these niggas, they check is billions. You got niggas that get flipped for a couple hundred thousand; so you playin’ with some pharmaceutical money, you know.”

Hussle said he wanted to do the documentary because he thought the story was too significant not to be told.

“I think the story’s important. I think it’s a powerful narrative. … Imagine this, anybody in this room if I could say, ‘Hey somebody cured AIDS,’ y’all would be like yeah right,” Hussle said. And then I could show you an example of him going to trial and proving in a court to a jury that he cured AIDS, y’all would be interested in that and y’all would look into the way he did it.”

Cannon made the promise to complete the documentary after Hussle was killed. In an Instagram post paying tribute to Hussle the day after the Grammy-award winning rapper was gunned down in front of his Marathon Clothing Store, Cannon wrote:

“Where you left off, we gonna carry one! It’s a MARATHON, so I’m picking up the baton! Because they can’t kill us all! Spiritual Warfare is REAL and in full effect. … Now, Your message is my message! Your work is my work!” Cannon wrote in the caption of a photo of he and Hussle.

He followed it up with a post that included video footage of Dr. Sebi talking about how Black people should eat, adding the caption, “We have to take RESPONSIBILITY for our OWN!!”

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation.

 

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/3e8KjSy

How I found therapy in hair braiding while quarantined

If there is one thing for certain, from this point forward, people living in this age will forever describe their lives in terms of two distinct realities: life before coronavirus and life after coronavirus. Everything about our way of living has changed and life with social distancing has been hella challenging and hella different.

Our work lives have morphed. The university I teach for recently announced all face-to-face courses must be converted to online, leaving me with about a week’s time to transform the syllabi and assignments for the four courses I teach to a virtual learning environment.

READ MORE: 7 ways to protect your energy and mental health while ‘social distancing’

Our parenting skills are being tested. As the mother of two children—a rambunctious, two-year-old son and a precocious, 11-year-old daughter — my love and I are both stuck in the house splitting 12-hour shifts of cooking, changing pull-ups, and engaging in an endless loop of puzzles and board games because both our sons’ daycare and our daughter’s school are closed indefinitely.

(Photo: Courtesy of Queen Muse)

Our sense of time and the uniqueness of each day are completely lost. My birthday came and went without much fanfare because we weren’t allowed to have more than 10 people in a room at a time. And every day feels like a long weekend in summer. I’ve found myself asking more than once, is today Saturday or Thursday?

My story is not super unique. Millions of others are struggling to find their new normal. While we’re in this awkward place, this uncharted territory where none of us has ever been and no one knows what’s to come in the days ahead, we really only have two choices: cower in fear while we await the unknown OR look for the bright spots, reconnect with the center of our joy and have a little fun. 

READ MORE: How ‘the Rona’ specifically impacts the Black community

I’ve opted for the latter. To keep myself sane in a socially distanced reality that feels more like a quarantine, I’ve decided to embark on a project that I’ve been wanting to complete for years, ever since I saw my fellow Piscean, Erykah Badu a.k.a. Fat Belly Bella, rocking the microscopic beauties that trickled from her crown to her ankles: I’m giving myself a fresh set of atomic micro braids; braids so small each lock looks like a single strand of hair.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Mug Shot

A post shared by THE UNICORN (@erykahbadu) on Aug 31, 2016 at 9:59pm PDT

Braiding has always been my recipe for calm and connection. Long before we were sentenced to self-isolation, I found joy in braiding, a cultural legacy first discovered during my childhood. For years, I’d watched my mother run a successful hair-braiding business that attracted women from all over the city to her living room chair.

Beyond being amazed by how quickly my mother’s hands moved as she twisted strand after strand like a careful artist strokes away from completing a masterpiece, I was even more intrigued by the conversations.

READ MORE: Surgeon singing ‘Imagine’ heals amid coronavirus outbreak

The “hair chair” seemed almost equivalent to a therapist’s couch. I watched women transform in that chair. Something about the vision of a style coming to life; the comfort of hands touching the scalp, it made those women open up. They’d share everything from humorous tales from their workplace to worries about the future and secrets they’d never even told their own spouse. But when they left my mother’s living room, they seemed less burdened, more confident, more whole. 

(Photo: Adobe Stock)

I took up my mother’s mantel and started braiding my own hair when I was eight years old. Years later, when I began braiding my friends’ hair in high school and college, I discovered the same magic.

We’d begin with a blank canvas: a bushy afro, a comb, a few packs of hair, and silence. By the end of an eight-hour session of parting and twisting, open dialogue, laughter—and sometimes tears—we’d have created a beautiful work of art and forged a bond as strong as the strands of hair I’d carefully enmeshed.

In braiding, I found a sense of peace, something we’re all searching for during this anxiety-inducing time.

In my city, our lockdown went from 14 days to ‘until further notice.’ So, I won’t be able to connect with my sister-friends in the ‘hair chair’ anytime soon, but I’ve decided to connect in other ways: with my children, who get on my last nerve but whom also make me laugh and feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before; with my love, who feels just as caged and stressed as I do but has managed to make some of the best meals and ‘quarantine’ I’ve ever had; and with myself, by getting back to doing the things that bring me the most joy, writing and braiding hair.

Badu’s atomic braid installation took 30 days. I’m only two weeks in and I’m in no rush to finish. After all, I’ve got nothing but time.

---

Queen Muse is the lead writer for Philadelphia magazine’s latest digital platform, NextHealth PHL. Her stories and commentaries have been featured in various outlets including Huffington Post, WHYY, the Philadelphia Daily News, the Philadelphia Business Journal, and on NBC10.com. She holds an M.A. in Strategic Communication from La Salle University where she currently serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication, teaching courses in journalism and public relations. You can follow her on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and thequeenmuse.com

The post How I found therapy in hair braiding while quarantined appeared first on TheGrio.

from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2wmgjl4

Nick Cannon Delivers On Promise To Finish Nipsey’s Documentary On Legendary Healer

March 31 marked a year since the world lost iconic rapper and community builder Nipsey Hussle – and Nick Cannon is one of the many people making sure “The Marathon Continues.” In commemoration of Hussle’s death, Cannon dropped the trailer for “Strong Enemies: The Untold Case of Dr. Sebi” on Instagram – making good on his promise to finish the documentary Hussle had started.

The documentary trailer opens with Hussle’s voice, then cuts to a clip of the late Los Angeles legend speaking about the beloved natural healer and herbalist. It then shows footage of interviews with various artists and experts as well as follows Cannon on his search for answers.

Born Alfred Bowman in Honduras, Dr. Sebi believed in using food as medicine. He rose to prominence for claiming to have found a natural cure for AIDS, cancer and other infectious diseases.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by NICK CANNON (@nickcannon) on Mar 31, 2020 at 8:06pm PDT

Hussle (born Ermias Joseph Asghedom) revealed he was working on a documentary about Dr. Sebi’s court cases in the 1980s, which arose after he placed ads in a newspaper about his ability to cure AIDS.

“I’m working on doing a documentary on the trial in 1985 when Dr. Sebi went to trial against New York because he put in the newspaper that he cured AIDS,” Hussle said during an interview with The Breakfast Club in 2018. “He beat the case and he went to federal court the next day and beat that case, on record, and nobody talks about it.”

Though Sebi was acquitted in those cases, he was arrested March 28, 2016 at Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport in Honduras for money laundering when he was found carrying $37,000 in cash, according to The Source. He was held there until he died August 6, 2016. The official cause of death was listed as pneumonia, but Dr. Sebi’s followers believe his death was suspicious.

“Why do they kill all holistic doctors?” Hussle responded when Charlamagne Tha God asked him why he thought they killed Dr. Sebi. “You short-stopping they grind. Why do niggas get killed for hustling in front of a nigga spot? You short stopping the grind. And these niggas, they check is billions. You got niggas that get flipped for a couple hundred thousand; so you playin’ with some pharmaceutical money, you know.”

Hussle said he wanted to do the documentary because he thought the story was too significant not to be told.

“I think the story’s important. I think it’s a powerful narrative. … Imagine this, anybody in this room if I could say, ‘Hey somebody cured AIDS,’ y’all would be like yeah right,” Hussle said. And then I could show you an example of him going to trial and proving in a court to a jury that he cured AIDS, y’all would be interested in that and y’all would look into the way he did it.”

Cannon made the promise to complete the documentary after Hussle was killed. In an Instagram post paying tribute to Hussle the day after the Grammy-award winning rapper was gunned down in front of his Marathon Clothing Store, Cannon wrote:

“Where you left off, we gonna carry one! It’s a MARATHON, so I’m picking up the baton! Because they can’t kill us all! Spiritual Warfare is REAL and in full effect. … Now, Your message is my message! Your work is my work!” Cannon wrote in the caption of a photo of he and Hussle.

He followed it up with a post that included video footage of Dr. Sebi talking about how Black people should eat, adding the caption, “We have to take RESPONSIBILITY for our OWN!!”

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation.

 

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/3e8KjSy

White women say calling them ‘Karen’ is a slur, Black Twitter sounds off

Is it a slur to call white women “Karen”? If you ask some white women on Twitter, the answer is yes.

The hashtag #Karen became a Twitter trending topic on Sunday, opening up an online debate on racism and white privilege.

The origin of the topic appeared to stem from a tweet from journalist Julie Bindel who wrote, “Does anyone else think the ‘Karen’ slur is woman hating and based on class prejudice?”

Does anyone else think the ‘Karen’ slur is woman hating and based on class prejudice?

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 5, 2020

READ MORE: White woman hurls racist slur and tries to force Black teen to ‘get on knees’ on the sidewalk

The Sunday morning tweet led to over 100,000 #Karen tweet responses, with Twitter users mostly falling along racial lines in debating the topic. 

Bindel wasn’t alone in her thinking, evidenced by countless white women on Twitter who endorsed her tweet.

“Yes – it’s sexist, classist and ageist, in that order,” concurred author Hadley Freeman.

User @DanaWefer took it a step further: “Yes, I think race might play a role as well.”

Yes – it’s sexist, classist and ageist, in that order

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) April 5, 2020

Yes, I think race might play a role as well.

— Seed Of Fire (@DanaWefer) April 5, 2020

Black Twitter, however, couldn’t disagree more. Black women, in particular, took the “Karen” advocates to task for suggesting that they are victims of a term that came out of several news stories of white women calling the police on Black people doing normal and legal things.

“‘Karen’ was a term created *specifically by Black women* to talk about white women’s interpersonal + state violence against us and our communities: calling the police on us for getting coffee, threatening to have us fired, talking down to us at work (where we’re now “essential”),” tweeted Alicia Sanchez.

READ MORE: Bun B’s wife called n-word by white woman at Whataburger drive-thru

Twitter user @reallifeblkdoll wrote, “White people calling something a slur because it hurt their feelings, while simultaneously and systematically oppressing (knowing and unknowingly) people of color around them daily and weaponizing their privilege is peak Karen, Karen.”

“Karen” was a term created *specifically by Black women* to talk about white women’s interpersonal + state violence against us and our communities: calling the police on us for getting coffee, threatening to have us fired, talking down to us at work (where we’re now “essential”).

— alicia sanchez gill. (@aliciasanchez) April 5, 2020

White people calling something a slur because it hurt their feelings, while simultaneously and systematically oppressing (knowing and unknowingly) people of color around them daily and weaponizing their privilege is peak Karen, Karen.

— SHANIQUA is a name with seasoning, Karen (@reallifeblkdoll) April 5, 2020

“My understanding is that the Karen/Sally/Linda thing was started by Black women as a way to address racialised dynamics in the workplace – whether Karen is the racist manager or the middle class customer with nothing better to do than belittle people on minimum wage,” tweeted blogger Sister Outrider.

Bindel, whose original tweet sparked the debate, replied to the blogger tweeting, “It is certainly used by enough white men for it to be morphed into a misogynistic slur. Also, those names are classically working-class, and I do object to the classism within this narrative. The ageism too is a massive problem. I think countering racism with ageism is not great.”

It is certainly used by enough white men for it to be morphed into a misogynistic slur. Also, those names are classically working-class, and I do object to the classism within this narrative. The ageism too is a massive problem. I think countering racism with ageism is not great.

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 5, 2020

But not all white women were down for the cause. Some denounced the suggestion that the name was some kind of slur, standing in solidarity with Black people who scoffed at the Bindel’s tweets.

“#Karen is not a slur, it is a stereotype white women earned by raising monsters, voting for monsters, and behaving like monsters. Our behavior is so atrocious to everyone except us that our own children are making memes and videos mocking us,” tweeted @FleshmanKaren.

“Our behavior is so atrocious to everyone except us that our own children are making memes and videos mocking us.”

#Karen is not a slur, it is a stereotype white women earned by raising monsters, voting for monsters, and behaving like monsters.

Our behavior is so atrocious to everyone except us that our own children are making memes and videos mocking us. https://t.co/9lT0M5jTou

— Karen Fleshman, Esq. she/hers (@FleshmanKaren) April 5, 2020

Rather than debating the issue, however, others simply opted for humor. Thousands of #Karen memes soon flooded timelines.

“In case you’ve been lucky and haven’t encountered a karen, here’s what they’re like,” user @vxxxdhxxx tweeted along with a TikTok video of a fictitious video game character named, you guessed it, Karen.

Some of the traits of “Karen” included “Drives a Honda odyssey,” “vegan” and “7,200 yelp reviews.”

in case you’ve been lucky and haven’t encountered a karen, here’s what they’re like: pic.twitter.com/lAcTW0sjkp

— ♏︎ (@vxxxdhxxx) April 5, 2020

Check out some other reactions below:

It’s no longer girl bye it’s now #karen bye pic.twitter.com/adtRFhgCd7

— Thedevilisaliejones (@heydevilwhatsup) April 5, 2020

Somewhere there’s always a Karen asking you see a manager . #karen pic.twitter.com/z7r4TQaz3x

— shes whitty, shitty, and a little pretty (@deK8sam) April 5, 2020

#Karen pic.twitter.com/iIi3yWwwoy

— IKnowAllTheSecrets (@Grandmasecrets) April 6, 2020

Took me a second…but I got it! 😂 I’ma use it without the hard “n” as @lisashaheen1 mentioned in the comments! “Kare”. 😐…😆 #Karen pic.twitter.com/jzzkw3PHTC

— Optimus Tyne (@hey_valentyne) April 6, 2020

Karen when the consumer service of twitter says it nothing they can do about #Karen pic.twitter.com/UqoPnx4eCP

— kenn (@thekenneffect) April 5, 2020

The post White women say calling them ‘Karen’ is a slur, Black Twitter sounds off appeared first on TheGrio.

from TheGrio https://ift.tt/34d8dYm

The Five Best Seat Cushions (and One Chair) for Home Offices, According to Our Readers

Not to dismiss the very real struggles happening around the world right now, I must say, my butt hurts. In fact, this is the second time I’ve stressed this fact just this week. I’m sitting at home, working A LOT, and as a result, my butt hurts. So, of course, after turning to our readers for your recommendations of…

Read more...

from The Root https://ift.tt/2yydFt9