Download the app and get the day’s most important stories.
Download the app and get the day’s most important stories.
“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was attacked in the early morning hours on Tuesday in what Chicago police are calling a possible hate crime. Smollett was attacked by two people who were “yelling out racial and homophobic slurs” and “poured an unknown chemical substance on the victim,” police said. One of Smollett’s alleged attackers also put a rope around his neck, according to police. Both fled the scene.
The case against Harvard University for discriminating against Asian-Americans opened in Boston on Monday carrying implications for colleges across the US. Harvard denied discrimination in its opening statement, claiming race can only help candidates’ admission chances. Students for Fair Admissions accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian-Americans through its ‘personal rating’ score.
New information published in the 2017 book ‘The Blood of Emmett Till’ by Timothy Tyson prompted federal investigators to reopen the investigation into the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till in Missouri. Till was kidnapped and murdered at the age of 14 after being accused of making sexual advances toward a white woman.
Starbucks will shut down over 8,000 US stores for one day next month for ‘racial bias’ training to prevent discrimination. The development comes following the arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia store. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said he learned ‘what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it.’
The two black men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month reached a financial settlement with the city for $1 each and the contribution of $200,000 to a pilot program ‘for city public high school students with aspirations of becoming entrepreneurs.’ Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson reached a confidential settlement with Starbucks separately.
Starbucks issued an apology after two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia store while waiting for a friend, sparking accusations of racial profiling. Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson said the video footage was ‘very hard to watch.’ The men faced no charges because of ‘a lack of evidence that a crime was committed.’
Albert Einstein’s diaries from his tour of Asia and the Middle East in the 1920s have been published and they reveal his xenophobic and racist attitudes toward the people he met while traveling, particularly the Chinese. Einstein called the Chinese ‘industrious, filthy, obtuse people,’ despite later calling racism ‘a disease of white people.’
Starbucks closed thousands of cafes on Tuesday for employee anti-bias training following the backlash resulting from the arrest of two African-American men in a Philadelphia Starbucks last month to address systemic racism. Meanwhile, Roseanne Barr tweeted racist comments against former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, leading to the cancellation of ABC sitcom ‘Roseanne.’
On Tuesday, the NAACP has issued a travel advisory warning African Americans about their safety when flying with American Airlines. Warning is based on a monitored pattern of disturbing incidents reported by black passengers, specific to American Airlines. They have cited four incidents where black passengers were forced to give up their seats or removed from flights.
At a news conference, LeBron James spoke in reaction to having the gate of a home he owns sprayed with the N-word. Sadly what James is saying is true, with the reality of having to remind people to be tolerant of each other being enough to wonder why it isn’t just common practice. “No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough,” James said Wednesday. “And we got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African Americans until we feel equal in America.”