George Floyd
ARMY, K-pop Fans Become an Unexpected Ally to American Protesters
As American protesters took to the streets to mourn the death of George Floyd, they found an unexpected ally: K-pop fans. Floyd died May 25 after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving. K-pop fans galvanized by police brutality and political disappointments swiftly mobilized, re-purposing their usual platforms and hashtags from boosting their favorite stars to backing the Black Lives Matter movement. They flooded right-wing hashtags and police apps with short video clips and memes of their K-pop stars. In a tweet Thursday to its 26 million fans, South Korean boy band BTS said it opposes racial discrimination and violence and announced a $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter. Fans quickly followed suit with the hashtag #MatchAMil...
Kendrick Lamar Joins DeMar DeRozan And Russell Westbrook In Compton Protest
Source: 31st Annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony – Press Room Featuring: Kendrick Lamar Where: New York, New York, United States When: 08 Apr 2016 Credit: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com While the streets continue to mobilize throughout the world in the name of social equality one name had been noticeably quiet. This past weekend the MC everyone was waiting on finally appeared. Several notable figures in Hip-Hop have stepped up and made it clear they stand with the people via public statements denouncing racism. We have also seen the likes of J. Cole, Kanye West, Wale, Redman, Mysonne, Slick Rick, Lil Baby and Tsu Surf joined protests adding even more muscle to the public demonstrations. Recently Kendrick Lamar was called out on social media for being surprisingly absent and it seem...
Beyoncé Delivers Powerful Speech For Class of 2020 Supporting Black Lives Matter & Denouncing Sexism in Music Industry
Source: YouTube / Youtube The high school graduating class of 2020 may have been excited to get words of wisdom from Beyoncé, but megastar also took the time to ahead light on the social injustices surrounding the protests, before speaking out about sexism in the music industry. On Saturday (Jun 6), as a part of YouTube’s “Dear Class of 2020” virtual graduation ceremony, Mrs. Carter took a moment to congratulate the class on the accomplishment, before noting that the challenge of being an adult is just beginning, adding that civil unrest and a pandemic may be stressful but their reaction and participation is making everyone proud. “Congratulations to the class of 2020, you have arrived here in the middle of a global crisis, a racial pandemic and worldwide expression of outrage at the sense...
Cancel Alert: CrossFit CEO Tweets Racist Remark, Reeboks Ends Partnership
Source: Reebok / Reebok When will brands learn that any slick talk concerning our people or plight will not be tolerated? One company got a swift reminder last week. As spotted on High Snobiety the CEO of CrossFit showed his true colors when he responded to a post from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation saying “Racism and discrimination are critical public health issues that demand an urgent response. #BlackLivesMatter”. To which Greg Glassman said “It’s FLOYD-19”. Naturally his response left a very sour taste in many people’s mouths; regardless of gender or race. So much so the tweet went viral causing some of the fitness league’s partners to act accordingly. It’s FLOYD-19. — Greg Glassman (@CrossFitCEO) June 6, 2020 According to The Morning Chalk Up Ree...
Tiger King’s Joe Exotic Says “I’ll Be Dead In 2-3 Months”
Hard times for Tiger King’s Joe Exotic. In a letter obtained by TMZ, dated June 1st, and addressed to “supporters, fans, and loved ones,” the imprisoned Netflix celebrity paints a pretty bleak portrait for himself. In fact, he predicts, “I’ll be dead in two to three months.” Before that, though, Exotic thanks everyone for their support, erroneously claiming the pandemic is over, and pleading for that sweet presidential pardon, writing: “I ask President Trump to keep his word and look into making this wrong a right and grant me a miracle.” It’s perhaps at this point that Exotic realizes everyone’s moved on from Tiger King mania because things take a dark turn. “My soul is dead,” he writes, “I struggle every day to hold on to what little hope I can find.” Reason being, he has no outside...
mau5trap Donates 100% of Label Earnings from Bandcamp Today to Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
deadmau5‘s mau5trap imprint took to social media this morning to align with the Black Lives Matter movement, announcing they will donate 100% of label earnings from Bandcamp today directly to the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund. The label will also match 100% of its net proceeds that are received today. The fund has been established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist Floyd’s family in the days to come as they continue to seek justice. Bandcamp recently announced that it would be donating 100% of its share of sales on June 19th to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a major legal organization who “seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate dispar...
Song of the Week: Run the Jewels’ “walking in the snow” Proves Tragically Prophetic
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify New Sounds playlist. After months of being cooped up inside and watching a so-called “invisible” enemy take the lives of thousands of our fellow Americans (and many more of our global brothers and sisters), the idea of returning to normalcy has been on many of our minds. Sadly, for some, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a deadly reminder that some things haven’t changed much. Poor communities, of course, are being hit hardest by the virus, challenging living conditions and less access to proper health care leading to a disproportionate number of deaths in many Black neighborhoods and other minority communities. And despite our country being devastated by...
GOAT Establishes $1 million Fund To Support Social Justice Efforts Over Time
Source: GOAT / GOAT In the wake of George Floyd’s death and protests taking place across the nation and around the globe, companies are stepping up in the fight against racial and social injustice. Online sneaker marketplace GOAT, is the latest company to announce it will become an ally in that fight. Yesterday (Jun.6), it announced it will be “establishing a $1 million fund to support social justice efforts and plan to contribute to this fund over time.” For its first donation, GOAT announced it would be donating “$100,000 donation has been made to The Underground Museum in Los Angeles to support Black artists and to The Bail Project to support protesters demanding change.” The company announced its epic move on Instagram stating in the caption: “Over the last week, we’ve taken a step bac...
Sony Music Launches $100M Fund to Support Social Justice & Anti-Racist Initiatives
The company has also pledged to expand mental health resources for employees and work with outside experts to advise the company on its inclusion and diversity commitments. Sony Music Group has launched a $100 million fund “to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives around the world,” the company announced Friday (June 5), noting it will immediately begin donating to “organizations that foster equal rights.” “Racial injustice is a global issue that affects our artists, songwriters, our people and of course society at large,” said Sony Music Group chairman Rob Stringer in a statement. “We stand against discrimination everywhere and we will take action accordingly with our community fully involved in effectively using these funds.” Sony Music earlier revealed it would be mat...
#HBCUs4BlackLives Protest Scheduled For Saturday In Atlanta
Source: HBCUS4BlackLives / HBCUS As we march into the eighth day of protests denouncing of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and police brutality, those committed to change show they aren’t giving up. According to published reports, on Saturday (June 6), #HBCUs4BlackLives: Centering Our Youth announced an HBCU protest will be taking place in Atlanta to give the youth a chance to share their thoughts on the current state of affairs in our country. [embedded content] In response to the incident that last weekend when two Atlanta students were drug out of their car and tazed by police, it’s clear both students and residents of the city have something to say. As previously reported, six Atlanta police officers are facing charges after reportedly pulling two colleg...
Beyoncé Urges Fans To “Remain Aligned & Focused” In The Continued Fight For Justice
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Beyoncé is urging fans to stay in formation as the fight for justice continues. Queen Bey hopped back on Instagram to address fans and, in her latest post, encouraged supporters to stay focus in the fight, telling them, “Let’s remain aligned and focused in our call for real justice.” In the post, the “Lemonade” crafter also points to the world coming together for George Floyd as well as Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. At the same time, she makes it clear that there is still a long road ahead of us to ensure that justice will be served. Just 5 days ago, Beyoncé used her Instagram platform and asked her followers to sign a petition asking for additional charges against the officers involved in the fatal arrest of Floyd. “If you want to demand more charg...
Forever President, Barack Obama Shows Support For Protestors & Calls For Nationwide Police Reform
Source: – / Getty Even though he is no longer in the White House, Barack Obama is still presidenting. Yesterday (Jun.3), as part of a virtual online roundtable moderated by Brittany Packnett Cunningham, former President Barack Obama joined his former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and activists from Minneapolis, and his nonprofit group My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. Lacking anything remotely resembling leadership coming from the White House, Obama gave a speech from his home in Washington DC echoing his statements from Medium post, How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change where he said he was extremely optimistic about the nation’s future despite the civil unrest going on. “For those who have been talking about protest, just remember that this country was fou...
