Noted civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said recently it’s “open season” on Black people’s civil rights. The former lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s family said the $20 billion lawsuit filed by Black media mogul Byron Allen on behalf of his company, Entertainment Studios, against TV network giants Comcast and Charter Communications for racial discrimination could have huge implications for the Black community. Crump said if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Allen’s suit, it will effectively do away with the Civil Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination in business contracts. It would eliminate safeguards ensuring Americans’ rights to equal protection under the law.
The Trump’s Department of Justice recently filed an amicus brief, declaring the law should be read differently than Allen’s lawyers interpreted it, wanting Allen’s company to prove racial discrimination is the only reason they’re denied business opportunities. Comcast denies racial discrimination, pointing to its Black themed programing as an example of its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Singer and fashion mogul Rihanna has joined other celebrities to offer support to the Bahamas after the country was rocked by “catastrophic damage” from Hurricane Dorian. Her Charity, the Clara Lionel Foundation, is currently trying to figure out how best to help the Caribbean nation that was pummeled by a Category 5 hurricane. According to the Red Cross, more than 13,000 houses, or 45% of the homes in Grand Bahama and Abaco, are believed to be severely damaged or destroyed. Bahamian officials reportedly received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes. One radio station said it received more than 2,000 distress messages. On Instagram, Rihanna, who is from Barbados, said “it truly breaks my heart to see the complete devastation that #HurricaneDorian is having on the Bahamas!”
Federal prosecutors in the R. Kelly case are arguing his marriage to a then 15-year-old Aaliyah is proof the singer can’t be trusted around kids and must remain behind bars. Kelly reportedly married the late R&B singer when he was 27. The government produced in discovery to the defendant the official marriage application, marriage certificate, and annulment records for the marriage. They note in the discovery brief, it was far from a one-time mistake, charging Kelly’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific. The singer is currently confined to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago pending trail. He faces 18 counts in federal indictments on various sex crimes in Chicago and Brooklyn. Kelly faces 195 years for the Chicago case alone. His two girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage, 23, and Azriel Clary, 21, are reportedly trying to raise funds to hire Tom Mesereau, the attorney who got Michael Jackson acquitted in his 2005 child molestation trial.
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