Official White Privilege Thread

Lori Loughlin Didn't See 'How Serious This Is’ When She Rejected a Plea Deal
Lori Loughlin and husband face additional charge of money laundering in college admissions scheme

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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/lori-loughlin-wasnt-seeing-serious-111200229.html

People got some insight from a source familiar with their legal discussions, and it largely seemed because Loughlin and Giannulli wanted to avoid jail time for what they did.

Loughlin and Giannulli allegedly paid $500,000 to make it seem like their two daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella were rowing team recruits to guarantee the girls' admission to USC.

People's source explained that “they weren’t ready to accept that [a plea with jail time attached]. They’re really not seeing how serious this is.”"

“They were offered the carrot and the stick,” the source continued. “The carrot was that this can all go away and you can serve your time and put it behind you. Remember, they were facing 20 years, even before the latest charges. The stick was that [the prosecution] would and could pile on more serious charges.”

The couple is figuring out what they will do now, the source said. “They decided to roll the dice, and it may have been a bad gamble. Now they’re in worse shape than before.”
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3 New Studies That Will Make You Rethink Systemic Racism

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https://www.truthdig.com/articles/3-new-studies-that-will-make-you-rethink-systemic-racism/

Racism is like sewage. Whether we’re currently engaging in a national dialogue about it or not, it’s still there. It runs under our streets, our buildings, our society. Millions of tons of sh*t. A few months ago, a national dialogue about race bubbled up to the surfice in all its stinking, rancid glory. That dialogue flared up when we all found out that the governor of my home state of Virginia, Ralph Northam, appeared in his medical school yearbook photo wearing blackface beside someone in a Klan hood (or perhaps it was him in the Klan hood next to a guy in blackface—neither explanation really helps his case).

And in that moment, we could all see what racism looks like. It was tangible. It was real. We could point to it and cringe. That kind of racism is actually rare. More often, it trickles along beneath our collective consciousness, quietly infecting everything. Systemic racism is not as obvious, and a lot of people try to claim it no longer exists. “It’s gone. What systemic racism? ‘Black Panther’ was one of the most popular movies ever, therefore, racism is over,” they claim.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

Three recent studies prove just how many millions of gallons of fetid, systemic racism still fill our country.

Let’s start with education. A couple months ago, a new report found a $23 billion racial funding gap for schools. The report stated: “Overwhelmingly white school districts received $23 billion more than predominantly non-white school districts in state and local funding in 2016, despite serving roughly the same number of children.” Let me repeat that number so it echoes in your head: twenty-three billion dollars!

The following should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, because I’m kind of a d**k that way: Education is important. A kid’s entire life can rest on the type of early schooling he or she receives. A good education creates opportunities; a bad education shuts doors in a child’s future face. (I don’t mean she has a face from the future or even a futuristic face. I mean in the future, the door is shut in her face. You probably knew that.) In schools with the most funding, students are given laptop computers and trained how to succeed. In the least funded schools, teachers dole out antiquated textbooks that say dinosaurs were large frogs and slavery was just an early American internship program that got out of hand.

This is when the squishy liberals say, “Lee, that’s because we have a racist president who hates funding the education of people of color.” And while I agree that having a racist president doesn’t help matters, that $23 billion is from 2016, while President Obama was still in office. Squishy liberals then reply, “But that can’t be. I thought Obama ended all racial inequality and brought love and Tootsie Pops to the world.” No, not exactly. You’re only two words off, though. Obama ended all reporting on racial inequality. Fewer people mentioned the sewage under our society when he held the highest office. You see the difference? The cold truth is that systemic racism against black, Hispanic and indigenous people exists no matter who’s in the White House.

Let’s move on to climate change. There can’t possibly be racial disparity when it comes to weather, could there? Hurricanes don’t exactly hit only black neighborhoods. True. But racist policies often come into play after the storms or flood waters have subsided. A new NPR investigation “found that white communities nationwide have disproportionately received more federal buyouts after a disaster than communities of color.” One of FEMA’s services for disaster-ravaged towns is to purchase damaged properties when people don’t want to live there anymore.

And yet, according to the NPR report: Federal disaster aid is allocated based on a cost-benefit calculation meant to minimize taxpayer risk. That means money is not necessarily doled out to those who need it most but rather to those whose property is worth more — and to those who own property in the first place. This fact kind of blew me away.

We have created a Federal Emergency Management Agency designed to help the rich the most after a horrible disaster. Just off the top of your head, who do you think needs the most help after a natural disaster? I’ll give you a hint—it’s the poor. This whole thing would be sort of funny if you read it in a satirical novel about a dystopian future or something. But seeing as it’s written by our government, it’s about as funny as flesh-eating bacteria.

In this particular instance, systemic racism does not originate in race but instead in the way the rich have crafted our laws and our systems to favor the rich. So it’s a class issue, rather than a race issue. Unfortunately, other factors of systemic racism—such as hiring practices, and who gets promoted—ensure that white people are more likely to be extremely wealthy and less likely to be extremely poor. Therefore, our country has a racial wealth gap the size of the Grand Canyon (only that’s a much less fun tour).

Workplace racism would require an entirely separate column, so I won’t get into it here, other than to point out you’re 50% less likely to get the first interview for a job if you have a black-sounding name.

Back to the wealth gap. According to a Duke University paper titled “What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap”: Data from 2014 shows that black households hold less than 7 cents on the dollar compared to white households. The white household living near the poverty line typically has about $18,000, while black households in similar economic straits typically have a median wealth near zero. This means many black families have a negative net worth.

That gigantic wealth gap affects where people live, and that brings us to our third study, which finds a racial gap between who creates air pollution and who is forced to inhale it. If you’re like me, you’re now thinking, “Oh come on! I know white people can be d**ks, but I’ve never seen an angry white guy with petrochemicals shooting out his ***. What are these researchers talking about?”

Well, according to the report, they’re saying: While we tend to think of factories as the source of pollution, those polluters wouldn’t exist without consumer demand for the products. … Air pollution is disproportionately caused by white Americans’ consumption of goods and services, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans. Okay, I’ll begrudgingly grant them that. But has anyone stopped to ask why black and Hispanic Americans choose to breathe so much?! Slow it down. Skip every other breath (just like people do when they’re around Rush Limbaugh). Have some will power! This study shows that due to the wealth gap and population differences, white people create the majority of the pollution in our country.

Minorities then end up breathing it in their air or drinking it in their water because they more often live in corporate sacrifice zones—areas where the property value is lower and corporations feel free to destroy the landscape. And again, that comes back to the wealth gap. (If I’m honest, as a white person, I’m not surprised that white people create the most pollution by using and buying the most stuff. I have family members who own polish for the shoe tree that holds the shoes their pet rabbit wears. They own knitted cozies for remote controls that go to cordless devices that do things they don’t need done. They buy things to take care of things that go on things that attach to nothing! And making those meaningless things creates pollution, and then a nonwhite person has to breathe in goddamn rabbit shoes. You know how many micro-particles of bedazzled cellphone cases nonwhite people drank in their water last year?! It’s a f**ked-up system, to say the least.)

All told, much of our systemic racism problem comes down to class and wealth, not just race. But race, class and wealth are deeply, inexorably linked. And therefore, whether you choose to ignore it or not, we must acknowledge that systemic racism is a thing. It’s in our schools, our air, our water, and even our televisions. It impacts every area of our lives, and much like climate change, we need to start fixing it, rather than acting like it doesn’t exist.
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New Neighbors Keep Walking Their Dogs On Howard’s Campus. Students Say It’s Disrespectful
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The Yard on Howard’s campus.
IIP Photo Archive / Flickr

https://dcist.com/story/19/04/17/ne...owards-campus-students-say-its-disrespectful/

The Yard at Howard University looks like a typical college campus quad: a set of criss-crossing cement paths bisecting large grassy patches, flanked by nine academic buildings and—especially when it’s nice out—teeming with college students.

You might find students tossing a football, taking in the sun, jamming to music. But, for many of them, The Yard is more than just a space to hang out; it’s a place imbued with history and meaning.

“What I didn’t completely know until I got to Howard was just how much of a sacred space [The Yard] is to historically black universities,” says Amanda Bonam, who graduated from Howard in 2017. “It’s always a hub of activity.”

The Yard is where Yardfest, the school’s homecoming celebration, happens each year. It’s where the Divine Nine, the historically black sororities and fraternities, have trees planted in their honor. It’s where students go to congregate, to celebrate, to mourn.

And in recent years, The Yard has also increasingly become something else: a place where nearby residents exercise, go for a leisurely stroll, or lay out a picnic blanket with their family.

For many students, such activities at the very heart of their campus are not only unwelcome, they’re brazenly inconsiderate. And perhaps none so much as residents taking their dogs for a walk.

“You know this is a university. You know this is a historically black university. And you feel so entitled that you’re just going to walk your dog there?” says Briana Littlejohn, a graduating senior at Howard. “I find it very disrespectful.”

She’s not alone. Resentment about residents’ use of campus, particularly The Yard, for recreational activities has grown in recent years, as the surrounding neighborhoods—Shaw, Pleasant Plains, and LeDroit Park—have seen increasing numbers of wealthier, white residents.

For many students, the fight to preserve their space on campus mirrors a larger fight against cultural—and physical—displacement in the neighborhood. Many of them likened it to the recent silencing of go-go music playing at the Metro PCS store just down the street from campus. After 20 years of blasting the funky hometown tunes at the corner of 7th and Florida, the owner said he had to bring his speakers inside because a nearby resident threatened a lawsuit. After a major outcry, the music returned. But the underlying tensions remain.

“When I first started at Howard in 2014, there were still a lot of black faces [in the neighborhood],” says Julien Broomfield, a senior at Howard from Newark, a majority black city in New Jersey. “When I came to D.C., it wasn’t so much a culture shock to me because it reminded me of home. It doesn’t remind me of home anymore. It’s a very drastic change.”

The black population in Shaw, for example, fell from 78 percent in 1990 to 44 percent in 2010, the last year with available census data. It’s likely dropped even more precipitously in the years since then.

Broomfield says that, during her freshman year, she probably only saw three residents total walking their dogs on campus. Now, she sees at least one or two every day.

Darren Jones, a 60-year black resident of the neighborhood and president of the Pleasant Plains Civic Association, says that in all the years he’s lived in the neighborhood, he has never considered picnicking or walking a dog on Howard’s campus. But he’s increasingly noticed new neighbors doing so. “Younger people today just feel that it’s their neighborhood and they’re going to use it,” he says.

As the number of dog-walkers, joggers, and picnickers has grown, so too has the friction with students.

In 2015, students started the Twitter hashtag #wearenotapark, expressing distaste with residents using the campus as communal green space. “Dear White people, Howard University is not a park,” reads one tweet. “Howard is our safe space, not your play place,” reads another.

In the fall of 2018, Keneshia Grant, a political science professor at Howard University,tweeted “Howard University is an institution of higher learning, not a dog park … I wish I had time to write something longer about why many Howard folks loathe the sight of dogs pooping on our lawns, respect/reverence for black spaces, and our complicated history with dogs.”

And the issue popped up again this month on local blog Popville, when a reader shared a “bad experience” they had with their dog on campus. The person, who described themselves as a resident of the neighborhood for five years, wrote that “a group of students started screaming at us that dogs weren’t welcome on campus. One girl yelled, ‘This is a closed campus, I’m going to call the cops on you. The students continued to scream at us and follow us for around five minutes.” The letter goes on to ask: “Is there a policy against dogs at Howard?”

Alonda Thomas, a Howard University spokesperson, says there is no policy prohibiting dogs. Howard’s campus is open, meaning anyone is allowed to walk through it.

But beyond the issue of legality, the comment section blew up. Some expressed outrage at the students’ alleged behavior. “Nice that teenagers who’ve lived in DC all of a year and a half are telling decades long residents what quasi-public spaces they’re allowed in. Is it really gentrification that’s ruining Howard, or are they doing it to themselves?” wrote one commenter.

Others, many of them Howard students themselves, rallied to their defense.

“It’s not just about the dogs, but the fact that we go to an hbcu to surround ourselves with a safe community we can be ourselves around,” writes another. “Y’all continue to be in our bubble and it gets worse and worse everyday. You come here and think you can just insert yourself into a space we use to be confident in our identity without y’all stepping in.”

Several students who spoke with DCist complained that some dog owners don’t pick up after their pets when they go to the bathroom on Howard grass, but that’s not their main point of contention. Many (though certainly not all) say that allowing dogs to relieve themselves, or even walk through campus, in the first place is inherently disrespectful.

The students and Howard alumni said they don’t necessarily want to close the campus. Instead, they want outsiders to respect their wishes and the culture of their school. Several also mentioned that many neighbors who walk onto campus are reserved and unfriendly.

“I would like to see [residents] on campus. I would never want to say ‘no you’re not welcome here,’” says Broomfield. “I would just like to see more engagement with students … more of an understanding of what we use The Yard for and what it means to us. Then they’ll see like maybe coming onto The Yard and walking the dog isn’t cool, maybe coming onto campus and not talking to anybody comes off a certain way.”

Students also said that they see Howard as a sacred, safe space for them in a city (and country) where they often feel marginalized.

“There are limited spaces for young African American people in Northwest D.C. Many of my classmates talk about the challenges of going into stores and being followed, or going places and just not being comfortable,” says Allyson Carpenter, who graduated in 2017, and served as both the president of the Howard student body and as an ANC commissioner for the area. “Our campus should be a safe space for us. We work really hard to make it a safe space.”

On a historically black college campus, in an increasingly non-black neighborhood, questions of race underlie the tension between students and residents using the campus space. But it’s not the mere presence of a white or non-black person on campus that bothers them, several students told DCist.

“It’s not like we don’t have students who are not black on our campus, but it’s a different feeling,” says Littlejohn. “The students who are non-black who go here didn’t just choose to go to Howard on a whim. They know. There’s a respect for the culture, the people, and the area.”

Students argue that Howard’s context and history—and the particular reverence its students have for the space—make it different from other colleges in D.C. where students might see a resident walking a dog on campus and not bat an eye.

George Washington University and Catholic University both told DCist they are completely open campuses, and people are allowed to walk their pets outdoors. At Georgetown and American University, too, it’s common to see residents walking through with their dogs without incident or grumbling from students.

But Gallaudet University, a college for deaf and hard of hearing people in Northeast, is different. The campus is not open to just anyone—nearby residents have to become a member of the “Gallaudet Connection Program” to access the campus and its facilities, and they are never allowed to bring pets or guests on campus.

Some residents who live around Howard say they understand students’ discontent with people walking dogs on The Yard.

“I went to college in Vermont. If someone had walked their dog on the quad and was letting it go to the bathroom on the grass that would have annoyed me. It would strike me as kind of disrespectful,” says Luke Martin, a nearby resident who has lived near Howard for about two years. “The quad is usually like the crown jewel of a college, and it’s disrespectful to let your dog go to the bathroom there.”

Others are sympathetic to student concerns, but they can see both sides of the coin.

“Howard is a big place, it’s an open campus, it’s a long way for some people to go [to walk around campus]. If there are 20 dogs at Howard on one patch of grass, then that’s a problem. If there are five dogs going through a day and it happens to be the houses directly abutting the area, then you’re almost part of Howard too, right?” says Scott Maucione, a reporter at WTOP who has lived near Howard since November 2017.

But Maucione also says that he can see why students might be annoyed at the sight of people using their campus like a community amenity. “I love having them as a part of the community, and the culture they bring to the community as a historically black university. But they also deserve their space … and to not have a bunch of townies getting in their way all the time,” he says. “It’s a delicate balance between having an open campus and totally usurping their area.”

Jones, the president of the Pleasant Plains Civic Association, pins some of the blame on the more transient nature of the neighborhood, as more renters move in and longtime homeowners are displaced. “They don’t have the same sense of investment in the community,” he says.

Students say that comes across clearly when neighbors don’t seem to pick up that certain behaviors, like dogwalking, are viewed as disrespectful.

“The city isn’t enough? Now you have to come on campus and make your own home there?” says Littlejohn, the Howard senior. “It would be different if they were really trying to integrate with students, with Howard. But they’re not. They just live around campus and think they can go there … because it’s a space they can encroach on.”
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Couple Expecting First Baby Wants Free Meals, Therapy From Neighbors

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Meal Train

https://nypost.com/2019/04/19/couple-expecting-first-baby-wants-free-meals-therapy-from-neighbors/

This outrageous crowdsourcing request is leaving a bad taste in the mouth of Twitter readers.

Most people ask for meal donations out of need — but a Philadelphia man has taken to the Meal Train “giving” website asking for elaborate cuisine and “mental-health check-ins” — because he can’t seem to handle the impending birth of his first child.

“As the father-to-be, I’m teetering on a fence of emotions,” the man, Jim Burns, writes on Meal Train — adding that his wife, Alex, is due to give birth April 29. “One of the things I’m most afraid of is not getting a great deal of sleep and as a result not being in the best frame of mind to offer my wife the support she needs to recover from the child-birthing process.”

The expecting parents, who live in the Fishtown neighborhood, aren’t just asking for canned food. In the special instructions menu, Burns posted a lengthy list of favorite dishes — separated by breakfast, lunch and dinner — along with links to their recipes.

Breakfast, for instance, can be Paleo breakfast egg muffins with thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, pork breakfast sausage, and 3 tablespoons of melted and cooled ghee. Burns also posted no fewer than 11 dinner ideas, including a spiced lamb meatball and Swiss chard stew.

As for their favorite snacks, they list dry-roasted, unsalted almonds, homemade granola and chocolate peanut butter energy balls.

But don’t expect a thank you: Burns requests that people text him to ask what they need, but notes that it shouldn’t always require a visit inside his house.

“If we could use some food but prefer no distractions, I’ll put a big white cooler in our side yard,” he writes.

However, if the couple does welcome in their new cooks, then they may ask for the dishes to be washed, the dog to be walked or for the courtesy of small talk to get their minds off “the new routine” with their newborn.

Burns’ campaign made its way to Nextdoor, the private social network for neighborhoods, which caught the eye of a neighbor, 34-year-old Jack Jokinen, who posted screenshots from the campaign in a Twitter thread that’s since gone viral.



“Maybe … they’re in a bad financial situation or someone’s unhealthy,” Jokinen tells The Post of his initial impressions of seeing Burns’ ask. “You don’t know people’s lives.”

But Jokinen, a sports writer for the Yankees-focused website Bronx Pinstripes, soon decided it was far more.

“I think it’s way too much and completely out of touch,” he says. “Maybe there’s some bigger issue that we don’t know about, like a health issue, but in those situations you put that [information] in … it seems like the husband is unprepared and his primary concern is his sleep. There are a lot of ways to make meals very quickly.”

The social media response to Jokinen’s Twitter thread was fiery.



“They’re having a baby, not both dying of cancer,” tweeted an outraged Andrea Bachman. “Reality is hopefully going to slap these two in the face one day.”

When reached by The Post, the dad to be was shocked to find out he was blowing up online.

“I apologize if it was taken the wrong way — and I’m frankly just very surprised and a little disheartened by … the response,” Burns says. “If they are not interested, then they don’t have to check that site or do anything. This is the world we live in.”

His public plea was primarily aimed at “friends and family,” Burns says, but one neighbor, through Nextdoor, “has reached out and has kindly said they’d offer their support, so that was awfully nice”

Meanwhile, Jokinen jokes that the Burns’ Meal Train campaign could set a precedent.

“When my wife gets pregnant I may start one of these but we only eat food from suites at Yankee Stadium,” he says. “Leave the tickets in the mailbox.”
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Hailey Baldwin Slams Justin Bieber Fan Mocking Her For Enjoying ‘Little Things’ Despite Husband’s Wealth
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A Justin Bieber fan got a good telling off from Hailey (Picture: GC Images)

https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/20/hail...-despite-husbands-wealth-9278260/?ito=cbshare

Hailey Baldwin has criticised a Justin Bieber fan who attempted to troll her for enjoying the ‘small things’ despite her husband’s wealth. JB, whose net worth is $265 million (£203 million), married Hailey following a courthouse wedding in 2018 and the pair have been enjoying their newly wedded bliss. However, one fan wasn’t buying it when Hailey, 22, shared that she was happy doing ‘the little things’, like munching down on her food in the sun. Who wouldn’t?!?

Taking to her Instagram story, she wrote: ‘Taking time to really be grateful for the smallest things in life goes a very long way for your soul. Never hurts to remind yourself to have gratitude, even for the littlest of things. ‘Today I’m grateful to be sitting in the sunshine eating lunch may not seem like the biggest deal but reminding myself how wonderful it is made me smile. Thank you God for the little things. ‘The smallest things in life will make happy if you let them [sic]’

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A social media user responded to an Instagram fan page who reposted the story, writing: ‘My husband is worth 265 million but it’s the little things that make me happy ha ha ha.’

The sarcastic comment did not go down well after Hailey, whose net worth is reported to be $2 million, spotted it and replied: ‘money doesn’t = happiness. At all. You can be the wealthiest person in the planet and be miserable. ‘Not fair to judge people’s circumstances from the outside .. am I not allowed to be grateful to sit in the sunshine and enjoy my day like a regular person?’

You tell them, Hailey! The Biebs tied the knot with the model at the end of last year in a secret marriage, and has defended their relationship to fans who claimed he didn’t love her.

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And just last month Justin announced he’d be taking a break from his music career in order to spend time with his family. Telling his fans the news on Instagram, he said: ‘I have been looking, seeking, trial and error as most of us do, I am now very focused on repairing some of the deep rooted issues that I have as most of us have, so that I don’t fall apart, so that I can sustain my marriage and be the father I want to be. ‘Music is very important to me but Nothing comes before my family and my health.’

But don’t worry just yet, because he isn’t planning on staying out of the spotlight too long.
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Brawl Involving 300 Teenagers Breaks Out at Amusement Park, Right Next to Camp Snoopy
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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bra...park-right-next-to-camp-snoopy-004729405.html



Multiple law enforcement agencies were called to an amusement park in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday night after a brawl, involving 300 teenagers, broke out. The incident, which occurred at Worlds of Fun at 9:30 p.m. outside Camp Snoopy — a Peanuts-themed area of the park featuring children's rides — was partially captured on cell phone footage.

Kansas City Star [/a]that there were "at least 10 to 15 different fights" occurring at the same time. “They would take one kid and break up a fight and his friends, or her friends, would go after the cops,” Mcdaniel said.

Mcdaniel alleges that most of the teenagers involved were about 14 to 16 years old and that no one was badly hurt despite the number of punches that were thrown. She was able to capture some footage of the massive brawl on her cell phone and shared it on social media. "No one could leave because of how big [the fight] was," she wrote on Facebook, admitting she was afraid she and her party would also be sprayed with pepper spray.



Mcdaniel, a season ticket holder for the past three years, who visits frequently, said fights are not unusual at the park, but it has never been "this extreme." "Maybe a couple of little fights," she said. "Kids are kids."

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office reports a 17-year-old male was cited for "peace disturbance" and was released at the scene. There were no arrests made and no reported injuries.

World of Fun also issued a statement: "There was an altercation in the park last night. The altercation was broken up by local and park authorities and the guests were removed from the park. The safety and security of our guests and employees is at the core of what we do. The authorities responded quickly and handled the situation appropriately."
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Dawg, they are really releasing that terrorist?

It's really crazy if you think about it, the president took these dudes off the watch list.
 
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