The seemingly eternal vigil for the death of a man who had profoundly changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans was over — finally.
“I'm not celebrating the death of a human being, I'm celebrating the end of an oppressive era in my native country. I hope real change will finally come to the island.”
— Yisel Cabrera, via Facebook
“A beacon of light not just for Latin Americans but for victims of apartheid around the globe.”
— Julia Garcia, via Facebook
“The only legacy that Fidel Castro left was the legacy of death, hunger, pain and absolute misery.”
— Lizandro Rubin, via Facebook
“Whether you like him or not, Mr. Castro, a leader of a small country, was one of the most influential and recognizable leaders in the world.”
— Title Holder, Florida
“Fidel may have passed on, but the ideal of liberation from the horrors of capitalism will never die. Working men and women of the world will have victory one day.”
— Joseph
“There's not much to say about Castro that hasn't been said. He was a 20th century dictator wrapped in vanity, ego, and intolerance of dissent.”
— Mike Thompson, New York
“A truly revolutionary and inspirational figure of the 20th century. His commitment to education, health care and social justice will not be forgotten. ”
— Zack Kazafra Doyle, via Facebook
“Survived numerous assassination attempts, introduced free healthcare and education for his people and didn't comply with the Americans. The guy's a hero!”
— Vinnie Smith, via Facebook
“At least he was given a peaceful end. That's more than his brutal regime gave countless lawyers, doctors, and business owners in the name of 'equality.' ”
— Alexis Boldea, via Facebook
“I was not a huge admirer of the man, but his very presence and consistent rule over Cuba gave me, as I realize now, a certain sense of stability in an unstable world.”
— SDaley, Northern California
“Farewell, Comandante. You, like every leader, did good and bad things. Still, the balance is positive. ”
— Antonio, Millbrae
“He suppressed all opposition, did not support freedom of speech and left a terrible legacy of human rights violations. Let's not associate his name with the word 'hero.'”
Donald John Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on Tuesday in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and long-held ideals of American democracy.
The surprise outcome, defying late polls that showed Hillary Clinton with a modest but persistent edge, threatened convulsions throughout the country and the world, where skeptics had watched with alarm as Mr. Trump’s unvarnished overtures to disillusioned voters took hold.
The triumph for Mr. Trump, 70, a real estate developer-turned-reality television star with no government experience, was a powerful rejection of the establishment forces that had assembled against him, from the world of business to government, and the consensus they had forged on everything from trade to immigration.
The results amounted to a repudiation, not only of Mrs. Clinton, but of President Obama, whose legacy is suddenly imperiled. And it was a decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters who felt that the promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of globalization and multiculturalism.
In Mr. Trump, a thrice-married Manhattanite who lives in a marble-wrapped three-story penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue, they found an improbable champion.
“The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Mr. Trump told supporters around 3 a.m. on Wednesday at a rally in New York City, just after Mrs. Clinton called to concede.
In a departure from a blistering campaign in which he repeatedly stoked division, Mr. Trump sought to do something he had conspicuously avoided as a candidate: Appeal for unity.
“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” he said. “It is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.”
Veteran cinematographer Elliot Davis should be nominated and win several awards this season for his stunning visuals in Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation.”
Shot over 27 fast-moving days on location, in Savannah, Ga., edited by Steven Rosenblum (“Braveheart”) and with composition by Henry Jackman (“Captain Phillips”), this cinematography could help land a Best Picture nomination come Oscar season.
“The Birth of a Nation” is based on historical events, set against the antebellum South. It’s about the life of Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) accepts an offer to use Turner’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses many atrocities—against himself, his wife Cherry (Aja Naomi King) and fellow slaves—Turner orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.
That uprising and the cry for freedom was bloody on both sides, and the ever present Christian Bible is held close by those beating hearts.
In many ways “The Birth of a Nation,” which opens wide Oct. 7, is a Christian film that is pulsating with the faithful values that have marked the history of the religion. The Christian faith was spread using violence and intimation, and sure, the word “love” was tossed about, but after the butchery of those who opposed this new road to salvation.
“An eye for an eye,” which comes from Matthew 5:38, has been used to incite revenge, which is usually painted with more violence. Political candidate and poor money manager Donald Trump, who filed for bankruptcy four times, recently used an “eye for an eye” in an April 14, 2016, interview.
The full verse in the King James version states, “You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, that you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue you at the law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not away.”
Nate Parker, the film’s director, writer, producer and star, in press materials, suggested that the audience should leave theaters asking, “When injustice knocks at our own front door, are we going to counter it with everything we have?”
Notice the imagery from Fox Searchlight that is peppered throughout the city. Nat Turner/Nate Parker’s head is in a noose, made from an American flag, which rings with truth but has a double whammy in the imagery. From the P.O.V. of a white supremacist that image is fetching.
“The Birth of a Nation” will open in approximately 2,000 theaters, just when a world is watching the killing of unarmed Black people by police and every time an execution is viewed, the powers are saying, “We do what we want and
There have been a lot of protests. Places where residents tire of seeing police only when teams of officers sweep in to make arrests, and remember well other blacks killed by police officers who did not face punishment.
Their anger at Scott's death made its way downtown. Rioting in Charlotte's center killed one protester, shattered windows and rattled finance executives whose salaries boost the city's median income to $10,000 above the national average. They told their workers in the skyscrapers to stay home. Charlotte police to release Keith Lamont Scott videos
To the protesters, home is a world away from those skyscrapers.
"For the people we serve, the Queen City is only the Queen City if you get on the train and ride into the glimmering, crystal core," said the Rev. Peter Wherry of Mayfield Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, about 5 miles from downtown.
Police officers face off with protestors on the I-85 (Interstate 85) during protests.
(Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Nearly all of Charlotte lies in Mecklenburg County, which the U.S. Census Bureau estimated had the largest increase in the country in the percentage of people living in distressed neighborhoods during the first 15 years of this century — an index that combines unemployment, poverty rates and other items, like how many businesses close.
Those pockets of poverty aren't immediately evident. Charlotte doesn't have many stereotypical slums. Instead, lower-rent housing is in apartment complexes or condominiums nestled behind tree-lined roads or off the main thoroughfares. Sharpton says cops who called Crutcher 'bad' should be charged
That's the kind of place where Scott lived. Tracy McLean lived in the condominium complex just down the road; she said teams of police frequently come to the neighborhoods full of black and Latino families in a show of force, looking for suspects they often don't find, instead of talking to residents and getting to know them.
"The fear needs to be dispelled," Tracy McLean said. "It's fear, and it's ridiculous fear."
In the mid-1990s, as Charlotte pushed to become a world-class city, its leaders cracked down on crime with a heavy-handed police force. Longtime African-American residents remember James Cooper, a 19-year-old black man killed by a white officer in 1996 as he reached back in his car window during a traffic stop to check on his 4-year-old daughter. The officer said he thought he had a gun.
Bill Nunn, Who Played Radio Raheem in ‘Do the Right Thing,’ Dies at 63
Photo
Bill Nunn at a 25th anniversary screening of the movie “Do the Right Thing” in 2014.Credit Craig Barritt/Getty Images
Bill Nunn, a versatile actor best known for playing the role of Radio Raheem, the boombox-toting neighborhood philosopher killed by police officers in Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do the Right Thing,” died on Saturday in Pittsburgh. He was 63.
His death was announced on social media by Mr. Lee. His wife, Donna, told The Associated Press that Mr. Nunn had cancer.
The first major acting role for Mr. Nunn, the son of a well-known professional football scout, was in the 1988 film “School Daze,” also written and directed by Mr. Lee. The next year brought the critically acclaimed “Do the Right Thing,” in which he played the iconic Radio Raheem, who carries a boombox blaring Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” through the streets of the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn on the hottest day of summer.
Radio Raheem sits at the moral heart of the film, delivering a soliloquy directly to the camera on the ceaseless contest between love and hate, symbolized by the four-finger rings he wears on each hand. The character’s choking death at the hands of police officers in front of a crowd of his neighbors incites the film’s wrenching final scenes.
Do the Right Thing (6/10) Movie CLIP - LOVE and HATE (1989) HDVideo by Movieclips
Mr. Nunn became a popular character actor after “Do the Right Thing” and appeared in a variety of films, including “New Jack City,” “Sister Act” and the “Spider-Man” trilogy by the director Sam Raimi. In 2004 he appeared in a Broadway revival of “Raisin in the Sun” as Bobo, alongside Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad and Sean Combs.
But it was his performance as Radio Raheem that allowed him to make his greatest mark, Mr. Nunn said in an interview with ABC News to mark the 25th anniversary of the film’s release.
He was a frequent collaborator of Mr. Lee and also appeared in his films “Mo’ Better Blues” and “He Got Game.” Mr. Lee referred to him on Saturday as "my dear friend, my dear Morehouse brother.” They both attended Morehouse College in Atlanta.
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William Goldwyn Nunn III was born in 1953 in Pittsburgh. His father was Bill Nunn, a scout for the Pittsburgh Steelers who helped build a football powerhouse in the 1970s by recruiting from the often-overlooked football programs at historically black colleges and universities. He died in 2014.
Mr. Lee memorialized Mr. Nunn in a series of social media posts on Saturday, sharing the text of his “Do the Right Thing” soliloquy as well as pictures of him as Radio Raheem.
Sharpton says he was troubled by Giuliani's recent remarks.
(MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS)
Following last week’s tragedies in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas, New York City’s former Mayor Rudy Giuliani made some shocking comments, including stating that black children have a 99% chance of killing each other.
The reality is, blacks are killed by other black people a majority of the time, just as whites are killed by whites a majority of the time.
But what his words show is an appalling lack of understanding of the notion that the issue of fighting crime in black and brown neighborhoods must include the fact that police crime embellishes the chaos in those communities and must be dealt with as well. It is that repeated and documented pattern of profiling, excessive force and shootings by police that we see in our communities and not in others. If we are to ever solve the issue of crime, we must tackle all crime — including crime committed by those who wear a badge.
My organization, National Action Network, has dedicated over 25 years toward fighting for social justice and equality across the board. That struggle includes reducing crime and uplifting our communities on every level. In addition to holding gun buyback events, we’ve coordinated programs like “Occupy The Corner” in cities like Chicago in order to help diffuse shootings. The residents of that community, and others around the nation, fully understand the challenges facing them, which includes the manner in which law enforcement sometimes interacts with them. Rudy Giuliani calls Black Lives Matter ‘inherently racist’
We cannot have neighborhoods under siege by both those that may be doing criminal acts and by those that are supposed to be protecting citizens from danger. Society can no longer ignore the fact that policing in white communities is starkly different than it is in communities of color.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani doesn't understand the impact that police crime has on neighborhoods of color, Sharpton says.
A clear example of this disparity is when the stop-and-frisk program was heavily touted and implemented in places like New York City. According to the NYCLU, a weapon was found only in 1.8% of blacks and Latinos who were frisked, but was found in 3.8% of whites who were frisked.
Despite stats like this, the number of stops of young black men exceeded the entire population of young black men in the city itself. That is just outrageous. When things like profiling, pulling people over disproportionately, searching people walking down the street excessively, locking people up unreasonably and shooting people unnecessarily are all realities, then we have a severe problem in this country.
We must have a sincere commitment to address crime not only on one side (while excusing crimes on your own side), but as it takes place whether at the hands of a citizen or someone in uniform. Blacks don’t make excuses about their communities, therefore police, officials and ex-officials shouldn’t make excuses for those officers that cross the line and abuse their power. Mo. cop kills Black Lives Matter supporter after break-in
According to The Guardian’s data tracker, “The Counted,” 136 Black people have been killed by police in 2016 alone. Ask yourself, how many cops have gone to jail or even been remotely held accountable?
Philando Castile's death helped fuel rage throughout the nation.
(Lavish Reynolds via Facebook)
Rather than choosing which crimes we want to focus on, there should be a total commitment to all crimes. To exclude alleged police abuse and misconduct is not the answer — it only adds to the problem. This isn’t about taking sides, but rather it is about having a society that’s crime free from both bad officers and bad citizens. Police should enforce the law, but they are not above it.
I have never been one that justifies black-on-black crime. I’ve preached at many funerals, including that of a 4-year-old who was shot and killed by a stray bullet. I have seen the anguish and pain in a parent’s eyes firsthand after such a tragedy. But I have also seen the same pain when a parent loses a loved one at the hands of those who were supposed to serve and protect them. I have stood alongside grieving mothers, fathers and grandparents who cannot comprehend how their child was shot and killed for reaching for a wallet, for simply walking down the street, for just driving home or a slew of other unfathomable and unjustifiable reasons. Just like we arrest and charge criminals, we must arrest and charge the bad cops so that there is accountability and fairness under the law.
Anytime someone says that you shouldn’t question police or the system, then the nation loses. We fight and march when there is an anti-gay killing in Orlando, when there is a black-on-black killing, when nine Church members are shot and killed in a hate crime and when police break the law or are alleged to have broken the law. Castile’s fiancée calls into service honoring slain Dallas cops
If we genuinely want to improve relations between law enforcement and the communities they serve, then we must have the consistency to hold everyone responsible for his or her actions in order to heal society. Otherwise, we’re simply shifting blame and that is a delay tactic none of us can afford. Sharpton is founder of the National Action Network.
