Blog Archives - 2 BLACK Girls

Apple will Recycle All!

3/30/2015

Apple announced that starting today, they will now accept all smartphone trade-in for their recycling program. The recycling program gives Apple Credit back to all customers who recycle their phones and handsets. Apple will send a gift card based on the value of the phone. If there is no value they can recycle you phone for no charge.

What remains unclear is how Apple will choose to evaluate and how much store credit handsets are to receive. This recycling push is an overall goal to switch users over to Apple products and save the world a little bit at a time

Written By: Lauren Beal I @laurenbeal

At Least 21 Injured When Metro Train Derailed

3/28/2015

A Metro train derailed and crashed into two vehicles near USC this morning injuring at least 21 people, according to officials from the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

The crash was reported at about 10:50 a.m. near the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.

Ten people were transported to nearby hospitals. The most serious of injuries included a driver in grave condition that needed to be extricated from a vehicle and the train operator who was in critical condition. The eight other transports were for minor injuries. Many people were also treated at the scene of the collision.

Metro officials informed commuters to expect great delays on the Expo (light blue) Line. Bus shuttles were requested between Jefferson Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The line is expected to reopen by 8 p.m., Jose Ubaldo said, a Metro spokesman.

Photo and caption from NBC.com

WRITTEN BY: VIOLA CONSTANCE | @Voila_its_Viola

Elementary School Student Expelled For Pimping Female Classmates

3/28/2015

The school principal says “He was running this business of exploiting his young female classmates for nearly 3 months before getting caught. We became suspicious that something was going on, when lunch attendance began to dwindle. We have had 27 boys and 5 girls come forward admitting they were paying this “wanna be pimp” $3 for a 10 second make out session and $2 for a 15 second hug which included unnecessary groping. The 8 female children he recruited, never got a red cent.”

An 11-year-old 5th grade elementary student has been expelled from school for doing the unthinkable. The young boy was said to be running “quite a business” while at school.

Authorities say the young man comes from a family facing many financial issues. His parents were reportedly on welfare and about to get evicted from their trailer in Elk City, Oklahoma. The young boy managed to convince eight female classmates to kiss and hug boys for money.

Authorities approximate that the young boy made nearly $500 in three months, with many of the other children being “repeat customers.” The young man claims to have given most of the money to his parents and was able to help them save the trailer.

Authorities have questioned the parents, but they deny any involvement in their son’s actions.

However, police were not so convinced. The Sheriff’s Department is seeking to press charges on the young man’s parents. Those charges include 32 counts of solicitation of a minor, child endangerment and child neglect.

Fresno Deputy Chief Arrested for Drug Charges

3/27/2015

On Thursday a Deputy Police Chief, Keith Foster, 51, was arrested on drug charges. Arrested in Fresno, CA, the charges included possession and the intent to distribute heroin, oxycodone, and marijuana.

Credit: Roger Hornback/Getty Images News

"This is a very, very sad day for the Fresno Police Department, the citizens of Fresno and the law enforcement profession," Dyer said. "I really am at a loss for words, quite frankly, other than to say that as the police chief, I'm extremely shocked."

The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives charged Foster along with four other people. Foster is now on paid administration leave.

With stories like this more and more we must ask the questions of who polices the Police.

Written By: Lauren Beal I @laurenbeal

Indiana's 'Religious Freedom' Bill Op-Ed

3/27/2015

Credit: Michael Conroy/AP

You know, with this Religious Freedom act I have been awfully quiet but the ignorance I have seen on Facebook as a result has finally broken me away from it.

Listen here. This bill isn't about religious freedom- but rather prejudice masked in law. I do not agree with it being called an "Anti-Gay" law (while I acknowledge it was probably the key root of it's inspiration) because it is all encompassing. Religion can be vague and interpretive. All someone has to do is interpret their religion in a way that allows them to discriminate against gays, Muslims, Buddhists, blacks, Asians- people named Joe.

The bill is also dangerously vague. What constitutes freedom of religion? Denying "services?" What's a "service?" This goes beyond making a cake or taking pictures for someone- this affects hospital care (mostly run on religion), this affects peoples' abilities to buy a home, and can definitely affect one's right to live.

To sit there and say this wasn't gay-inspired is ignorance. How convenient that shortly after Indiana legalizes Gay Marriage we see this bill be born? Same with Michigan. All it is is a last stand against changing times and they were willing to take down any other minority and religious group to do it.

The point is that God nor Jesus practiced discrimination- he practiced acceptance and treating even your enemies as equals (depending on your interpretation of the bible). I have heard religious people refer to Gays and non-believers as "diseased and sick." Jesus kissed the leper did he not? I don't remember the bible saying Jesus said unto the leper "Bye Felicia."

When you start a business you are opening a public service. If you are not willing to serve the public then tell me why you are running a public service? Why are you starting a business when clearly you don't care about maximizing profit? Why are you agreeing to enter medical fields to help people when you don't want to help everyone?

To say the goal of this bill wasn't meant to target anyone but rather to protect business and freedom is pure ignorance. If a company wants to deny service to people based on religious freedom then fine. I don't care. Do it. However the bill needs to be reworded and made more specific. Primarily to exclude medical fields from its umbrella of prejudice. This law is as open to interpretation as, well, the bible.

You shouldn't have to put together a weekend study group to interpret law and what it means. The problem with our system is we have countless "implied rights." Rights that we have that are not actually written anywhere. For example- freedom of privacy? Doesn't exist, not in the constitution- it's simply implied. I can see them pulling this sort of stuff when it comes to this bill.

Ugh.

Written By: Benji Leon I Guest Contributor

Petition to Disbar Lawyer Who Wants to Legalize the Murder of LGBT Community Members

3/25/2015

“People in the LGBT community are our family members, neighbors, and co-workers. They are people like Apple CEO Tim Cook who have changed the way we live. Imagine a law that would make it legal to kill them all.” - From petition on change.org

Angelina Jolie has Ovaries and Fallopian Tubes Removed to Decrease Cancer Risk

3/25/2015

Two years ago Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy in hopes of cutting her cancer risk. Recently Jolie had surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes for the same reason. On Tuesday, she wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times discussing her surgery and why she went through with it.

"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt," she wrote. "I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren."
– Angelina Jolie

Jolie, 39, carried a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which increases her risk developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. She has a family history of which she has lost her grandmother, aunt and mother.

Anti-Gay Execution Proposal in CA

3/24/2015

Matthew Gregory McLaughlin, an Orange County attorney and “Huntington Beach” resident, filed a proposal for a statewide ballot initiative that would ban gays and lesbians from holding public office as well as "put to death by bullets to the head."

Darren Sharper Pleads Guilty in Sexual Assault Cases

3/24/2015

Credit: Mark Boster / contributor

Former Pro-Footballer Darren Sharper,39, has struck a "global plea deal" in his sexual assault cases. In California, Nevada, and Arizona Sharper pleaded no contest to sexual assault and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crimes in all three states. Louisiana is the last state that has not sentenced Sharper in this "global plea deal".

A "global plea deal" is significant because it will allow Sharper to plead no contest in multiple cases and allow him to serve his sentences concurrently. On average, individuals will be sentenced to 11 years in prison for charges of rape. In Sharper's cases, he instead of facing the maximum amount for each woman in each state, Sharper will be allowed to serve one sentence to cover a multitude of rape crimes.

Sharper's legal team has either worked a miracle or this is the type of justice having access to money gets. Sharper has now pleaded no contest to being a serial rapist who slips pills in the drinks of women in four states.

Scarily enough because of this global plea deal, he will be out of prison by 2024, will face three years on parole, a lifetime on probation, and register as a sex offender.

Written By: Lauren B. I @laurenbeal

Fresno Vice Principal who said, "I just don't like black kids," put on leave

3/24/2015

An 18-sec clip shows Fresno Middle School Vice Principal, Joe DiFilippo, saying "I just don't like black kids".
A family member of the student at Scandinavian Middle School posted the video to YouTube under the heading: “Scandinavian Vice Principal caught on camera by my nephew talking to black students and telling them he does not like black kids.”

Vice-Principal, DiFilippo has worked at Fresno Unified for 18 years and has been at Scandinavian Middle School — where 11% of students are black — since August 2010. District officials were made aware of the video after a parent tipped off administrators at the middle school.

“Fresno Unified is among the most diverse school districts in the nation and takes great pride in celebrating its diversity while providing a positive learning environment for all students and staff,” the district said

“It is never appropriate for school staff who are tasked with educating our youth to say they do not like kids of a particular race,” ACLU of Northern California staff attorney Novella Coleman told the Fresno Bee adding, “School administrators and teachers’ attitude toward students of a particular race inevitably affects their expectations of students’ educational achievement and students’ access to equal educational opportunities.”

What will become of this Vice Principal is unknown at this moment. But this represents a larger issue in not only our school system but in larger American Society. Students come to school to learn not be faced with discriminatory feelings and most likely actions resulting from it when they attend school.

Let's keep the conversations flowing: Can an official hold discriminatory and racist feelings but fail to act on them? What are your feelings on the students and the Vice Principal in this story.

Written By: Lauren B I @laurenbeal