While shopping in a series of convenience stores, Vine user Rashid Polo realized that something was up: the store employees around him were ostensibly hard at work, bending to rearrange products for sale, busying themselves with drink machines, but they kept popping up wherever he went. This phenomenon was not a new experience for Polo, and no matter where he was or what he was doing, it seemed he was guilty of only one crime: shopping while black. So he came up with the brilliant idea to catch the clerks on camera and uploaded the resulting videos to Vine. Watch more of Rashid Polo’s videos here.
Angela Davis on Palestine and the Prison Industrial Complex
Late last year, Angela Davis was honored by the anti-poverty organization War on Want in Great Britain and gave a speech in which she called for the boycotting of the transnational security agency G4S because of its presence in Gaza. She quoted Nelson Mandela, who’d recently died, in saying, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” If you’ve got an extra half hour to spare, it’s worth listening to Davis as she makes the connections between the violence in Gaza and the struggle for racial justice. Read more.
July 25 Is National African American Hepatitis C Action Day
Hepatitis C infection is a major public health concern for people of all races, and it has become one of the leading causes of death associated with liver cancer in the United States. Hepatitis C is more prevalent in the African American population than in any other racial group in the United States. An estimated 3.2 million Americans, more than 75 percent of whom are “Baby Boomers” born between 1945 and 1965, are infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). Read more.
Temple University Successfully Eliminated HIV Virus From Human Cells
Temple University researchers announced Monday that they have successfully eliminated the HIV virus from cultured human cells. The research team is lead by Kamel Khalili, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Temple and Wenhui Hu, MD, PHD, the Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Temple, according to NBC Philadelphia. Read more.
NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony Is Now a Venture Capitalist
NBA forward Carmelo Anthony is already rich. The seven time All-Star just signed a five-year contract with the New York Knicks worth a reported $122 to 129 million. But Anthony wants to gamble with his wealth like everyone else, and is putting part of his fortune into Silicon Valley’s startup scene. Anthony’s new venture capital firm, M7 Tech, is a partnership with Stuart Goldfarb—an executive who made his money running the Columbia House and Book of the Month Club mail order companies. According to TechCrunch, Anthony is “hoping to leverage a social media presence of over 5 million followers and his Melo brand into success in tech investment.” Read more.
