Source: Sara D. Davis / Getty

Black women routinely comment on the way Sen. Kamala Harris is covered in the media since announcing her candidacy for president in 2019, but a study released by TIME’S UP Now highlights her treatment after securing the Democratic nomination for vice president.

Harris made history as the first Black woman and Asian woman to receive the nomination in American history. While she is not the first woman to hold this privilege thanks to Sarah Palin in 2008, Harris has been met with challenges presented by those who are unfairly categorized due to misogynoir: Black women.

In the data researchers observed Harris’ handling compared with two other vice presidential nominees, Sen. Tim Kaine and then Gov. Pence.

The study, released ahead of Wednesday’s debate between Harris and Vice President Mike Pence, revealed that a quarter of the media coverage around her announcement included harmful stereotypes and tropes. Two thirds or 61 percent of that coverage mentioned Harris’ race and gender, opposed to five percent for Kaine and Pence.

“When women, and especially women of color, run for office, they are subjected to a double standard that has nothing to do with their qualifications and everything to do with this country’s history of sexism and racism,” said Tina Tchen, president and CEO of TIME’S UP Now. “It’s time for women to be judged on their merits — and for the media to take a critical look at their biased coverage.”

TIMES’S UP Now also found that Trump waged harsher attacks against Sen. Harris than Sen. Kaine in 2016. His lashing out rooted in the which the harmful “Angry Black Woman’ trope and fueled by birther conspiracy theories also hurled towards former President Barack Obama.

“Adjectives to describe Sen. Harris skewed more negative than those used to describe then-Governor Pence and Sen. Kaine. While Sen. Harris was labeled with sexist and racist language, such as “nasty,” “extreme,” “phony,” and “mean,” then-Gov. Pence and Sen. Kaine were both portrayed as “safe” and “experienced” choices, if somewhat uninspiring,” the report reads.

And 36 percent of media coverage around Harris focused on her ancestry, ignoring her personal and professional achievements, compared to five percent for Pence and Sen. Kaine.

“This report demonstrates how our broken political discourse can derail the political ambitions of women, and particularly Black women,” said Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama and a member of the board of directors of TIME’S UP Now. “These harmful words and actions matter, and we’re holding the media accountable.”

Harris and Pence are set to square off University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. The debate will be moderated by USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page.

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It seems like every year or two, we have a community-wide debate about the tradition of “fixing plates.” For those of you who have never heard of this concept, fixing plates is something women often do for their male partners. Most of the time, it’s reserved for married couples. But there are quite a few men who like to see if girlfriends will fix their plates at family functions. It’s a bit of an antiquated—slightly sexist test to determine what “type of wife” a woman will be.

I say slightly sexist because rarely do I hear men talking about fixing their wives plates as an act of service to their loved ones. And the thought that an adult, able-bodied man can’t fix his own plate—especially after said woman may have been the one to cook it—is a problem.

Anyway, the topic came up again, when a man on Twitter shared a dilemma a friend of his found himself in during the holidays.

The series of tweets read:

“My homeboy called me…He never calls me… He asked me if he was wrong…Here’s what happened. A thread.

My homeboy said his wife’s family came over to his crib yesterday for Christmas. His wife cooked. He said when the food was done, his wife made her father the first plate…He had a problem with that. He voiced that it’s his house, he pays all of the bills & he should get the first plate & not only that, he had to eat with a spoon bc she gave the forks to all of the guests…

He told me he talked to his wife, she said ‘That’s my father & I can’t promise you’ll always get the first plate. And it’s not a big deal.’ He told me he left the house bc of the blatant disrespect…I told him he isn’t wrong & to stand his ground…Y’all agree or disagree?”

Now, we all know that people on the internet have a penchant for fabricating stories just to get attention. And that’s all together possible here. But for the sake of this article and any further argument, let’s pretend that this story is true so we can dissect.

I have to disagree with the original poster. No one is “wrong” for their feelings. What was wrong was the way he reacted to not getting a plate first and having to eat with a spoon. Why is that cause for you to leave the house—on Christmas, when you have guests in your home?!

Furthermore, the husband wanted to talk about being the man of the house, paying all the bills and providing  but he didn’t even have enough forks for people. There’s a chance homeboy might be slacking.

Someone on Twitter noted that the idea of feeding the man of the house first, came from a time when families were poor and food scarcity might have been an issue. So in that case, it was important that the person who needed the energy to go out in the world and work—often doing manual labor—get the most nutrients.

But that doesn’t appear to be the case in this family. The wife was attempting to honor her father as the eldest and instead of discussing this later or helping his wife to serve, when the two of them were hosting, the husband threw a fit and left…literally over a plate of food.

Maybe this type of childish behavior speaks to the reason why she served her father before her husband. Or perhaps she was taught that as an elder—someone who paved the way for the both of them to be there—that he be honored first.

And seeing as how she was the one who both cooked and served the food, I’d say the decision is her’s. If he wanted his own plate at a certain time, he could have been rude and fixed his before the rest of his guests had a chance to eat. Still, rude and not proper etiquette for a host; but it would have caused less of a scene than leaving the house altogether.

But that’s just me. I feel like in a loving and healthy relationship, we should both be in service to one another. I can make your plate. And you can make mine. It’s not a big deal. But I know some people are hellbent on holding up tradition.

For those of you who are, what do you make of the wife’s decision? Should she have served her husband before her father? And what do you make of the husband’s reaction to all of this?

Source: Paras Griffin / Getty

T.I. is up to no good again. In a clip from his ExpediTIously podcast, the rapper once again showed he completely doesn’t understand women or how they work

In the clip, which was just a featured portion of a longer video where the rapper chats to three Black women about more of his thoughts on “marriage, sex, and parental guidance,” T.I. says that women are only attracted to men because of their playa energy. According to his logic, “misogyny” is what draws women in.

“The women out there who say they want a man who ain’t got not b*tches, dem women ain’t really want a man who ain’t got no b*tches. Just think about a man who ain’t got no b*tches and that energy, and how that is, and how that feels, and what it looks like. That’s what attracts you to that n*gga, cause he have b*tches, that energy. That ‘misogyny,’ you speak so poorly of,” the rapper said with a mocking tone towards the end.

“That sh*t provides a vibe that you are obviously attracted to,” he continued. “It puts out pheromones, you understand me? And them pheromones cause you to be attracted. And I’m not saying that it’s right to be this way or that it’s wrong to be this way, I’m just saying the fact that it is this way. I’m not trying to excuse, merely explain.”

Obviously, it is “wrong” to think that way, in addition to being just plainly inaccurate. After the years and years of T.I. saying problematic things to and about women, we put together a short list of some of the rapper’s other noteworthy hot takes when it came to his life’s approach concerning the other sex.

Source: BET2020 / Getty

There’s a proverb that “charity begins at home.” And the same can be said for the dismantling of misogyny and sexism. Halle Berry, the mother of both a son and daughter, is making sure she instills those lessons into her 7-year-old Maceo, who she shares with ex-husband Olivier Martinez.

According to PEOPLE, during a virtual Sundance panel, Women Breaking Barriers: An Industry Shift?, Berry said, “I have a 7-year-old son, and I have realized what my job is in raising him. If we want to have a future that’s different, that is where it starts.”

Berry said in raising him, she’s learned that gender bias imprints itself on a child very early.

“You made me think of how many conversations I’ve had with him, say, since he’s turned 5 years old, about the differences in boys and girls, and I see how he’s taught to feel like he’s superior, at 5, than girls are. I’ve had to really break that down for him and give him a new perspective, and challenge those thoughts and ask him to identify where that comes from, and if he believes that or not and challenge what he’s subconsciously getting from somewhere,” she continued. “I can tell that because we’re having those conversations he is going to grow as a deep thinker on the subject. He’s going to be determined not to just accept it. I keep challenging him all the time, like ‘Well, why is that a ‘girl color?’”

Berry is optimistic that the type of education she’s providing her son at home will also be increasingly reflected in Hollywood.

Berry said that with movements like Black Lives Matter, Me Too and Times Up, women are more empowered than ever when it comes to speaking up. She said while women used to once accept less and unjust treatment as a part of the system, now they’re speaking up and out when things are not right.

“I think that we are individually finding our voice in a more powerful way—I know as a Black woman, I’ve never felt more empowered [than] in the last two years,” Berry added. “I’ve been in the industry almost 30 years; the last two or three years, I finally came into my own power…We have a voice. It needs to be heard.”

Source: EFFEN Vodka / Effen Vodka

If there’s one thing we can say about Ms. Rona, it’s that she exposed quite a few of the systematic issues that plague this country, with poor, Black, brown and marginalized groups being hit the absolute hardest. Whether it was racial injustice, lack of access to healthcare, or food scarcity the problems were glaring. And for one Florida-born, New York-based chef, Kia Damon, she couldn’t sit idly by and not do anything to help. 

Damon, a queer Black chef, decided to launch a non-profit initiative, Kia Feeds the People to address food scarcity specifically in the LGBTQIA community. 

We had a chance to speak to Kia recently. During our conversation, she shared how she broke into the male-dominated culinary world, giving with integrity, and her partnership with EFFEN Vodka. See what she had to say below. 

MadameNoire: What was your first foray into cooking?

Kia Damon: I come from a pretty cooking family. Which I think is a common story for a lot of young Black women. But my folks didn’t necessarily let me cook with them, growing up. I was given the task of making a pot of rice once. And I failed miserably and they never let me cook again.

But it wasn’t until I had gotten a little bit older, like pre-teen-ish and both of my parents were working. We were too old for daycare. So we had to figure out what to do. I started making meals for my brothers. And it was very experimental at first.

Being from Orlando, I live in a hospitality town so a lot of the jobs I picked up were a hostess at a restaurant, or a cashier at Universal or a cook at another place. It was a regular rite of passage for Central Florida kids.

But the most major part was when I got much older and was trying to foray into a vegetarian lifestyle. My mom was like, ‘That’s great but I’m not making a second vegetarian meal for you.’

At the time, I was like, ‘Wow, my mom is so cruel.’ But now that I’m older, there was no way in the world that my mom was about to come home from work, cook for my dad and my brothers and then make me vegetarian lasagna. I really had the game twisted.

So I started cooking and having to get groceries for myself. And I started to build a real sense of independence. And my family started to rely on me more to cook for anniversaries and mommy’s birthday, doing prep for Thanksgiving. And one day, it was like I’m really good at this.

The thought that I had to be a certain type of person with a certain type of background to do this—I was like, ‘Wait, these are things I learned watching my mom and grandma.’ I just don’t have the culinary language. So I’m just going to do it. I feel good about myself when I cook. I feel like I have a skill and a purpose that I can offer this world. So I grabbed onto to that and said I’m going to do it. And I did it.

MadameNoire: Once you become a professional chef, it’s such a male dominated field, even though women cook everywhere, all over the world. What was that like transitioning into that space?

Kia Damon: That was a big culture shock. I was not prepared for it, I will say. I definitely went out into the world very happy go lucky, nothing’s going to stop me. And I remember trying to get a prep position at a restaurant in Tallahassee. It was run by an alumni from the Culinary Institute of America. I couldn’t afford to go there but I thought I could study under this person. So I went there with my resume and I got shut down so quick. And I was like, ‘Oh! Interesting.’

He was not trying to see what I’m about. I didn’t grasp that at first until I found my way into other kitchens and I would go in for a back of house, prep position, willing to work my way up and they’re like, ‘We’re going to put you at the register.’ Then the pieces started to come together and the naïve-ness started to fade away. I realized, I’m going to have to work ten times as hard, even though everyone talks about how the women in their family taught them to cook.

But us actually going in when it’s time to do it for money, when it’s time to make a career out of it, people are like, ‘This is no place for you.’

So I had to work ten times as hard to prove myself even once I came into a position of leadership in New York and Manhattan. People who were supposed to be my employees weren’t even giving me the time of day. It was tough. It was really discouraging.

MadameNoire: You said even in leadership you had problems. So was it that people were not used to listening to women?

Kia Damon: It was definitely that. I don’t even have to guess because I was told at specific times, ‘These guys are a little older so they’re not used to having to listen to someone like you.’ I was like a Black woman?! What am I supposed to do with people not wanting to respect me or give me the time of day? Even in a position of leadership, I never felt like, ‘Well, I’m a boss by title, y’all treat me as such.’ I’m like no, I want to learn, get to know everybody, learn from each other. I came in very, very humble. Even though I know that people who are sous chefs or executive chefs don’t get the same kind of thought. So I humbled myself and still it was not enough.

That plus not having proper mentorship of other Black women around me—it was a bad mixture of a lot of things that left me feeling lost, unsupported, and angry.

Source: EFFEN Vodka / Effen Vodka

MadameNoire: Shifting gears, a little bit can you speak to me about your partnership with Effen and why you decided to work with them?

Kia Damon: Yes! I remember being approached by the filmmakers Erica Rose and Elina Street. And they had this wonderful idea of helping me tell my story as a Black, queer woman cooking food, doing what I love and supporting my community.

They showed me more about Effen Vodka and they’re doing their own part to support disenfranchised artists and really focusing on diversity in support of these artists. I’ve worked with a lot of people in my life and I’ve really felt like I was just points for a lot of people. And the support stops right at the surface. I don’t want to live that way. I want to partner with people who actually see the value in supporting queer, LGBTQIA, Black and brown artists through and through.

And I’m excited to work with Effen because they’re going all the way.

MadameNoire: Can you talk about food scarcity and why it’s a particular issue for LGBTQ+ youth?

Kia Damon: I could talk about food scarcity all day. COVID really blew the lid off of a lot of issues that I feel like we know exist and are privy to them. But if our own positions and resources in life aren’t affected, then you don’t think twice about it. But what people don’t realize is not only do Black and brown, working class, LGBTQ people face issues  with getting work or homelessness, there’s also a lack of access to food. None of these things are insular, they’re all connected.

And living in Brooklyn and working in the restaurant industry and the food industry, who relied on their work to provide food, I was just like, ‘Wait, what is actually going on here? This is a severe problem.’ Then here comes COVID. And a lot of these people don’t have work so now they definitely don’t have food.

The margin is so thin. All it takes it a little puff of air like The Three Little Pigs and everything you were surviving on is now gone. I think that was really heavy and exhausting to see.

And being in the food industry, I know that restaurants don’t exist in the same way they did before but I am still someone who dedicated their life to feeding people. So I find the best way to do that now, without those previous systems or resources. Even though those things are gone, my mission to my community has not changed. I just find a way to evolve to meet the needs of the people I care about, the people I see everyday.

Source: EFFEN Vodka / Effen Vodka

MadameNoire: How did “Kia Feeds the People” come about?

Kia Damon: I think if we’re going way back, the inspiration is definitely my mother. She’s a very resilient, kind, firm and giving person. Kindness and firmness aren’t allowed to exist together for women. But she was very kind, very giving but she also does not play. Growing up, whenever we showed we weren’t grateful for something or careless with something, my mom would say, ‘Let’s go through all those things that you do not wear, do not touch, don’t care about anymore and we’re going to give them away.’ Then she would go through them and find socks and shoes with holes in them and ask us, ‘Now, why would you give this to somebody?’ Just because it’s something you no longer need, ‘Do you think anybody wants this?’

Those are the first seeds she planted around having compassion for other people and giving with integrity and seeing people as people and not just a mysterious population we just pass stuff off to that no longer serves us.

Once I started seeing how a lot of restaurants and fast food places just throw food away, I’d say, ‘We work for a really big corporation. What’s it to us to give food to someone that’s hungry?’ Now that I’m in New York City and seeing how magnified food scarcity and food insecurity is, I had a moment last summer when my friends were out . and they were without jobs. And I thought these folks are hungry. They’re doing all this labor and they’re hungry.

One day, I was sitting with my partner and I was like, ‘I don’t know I just want to feed the people.’ And she said, ‘Just do it. Kia Feeds the People.’ And I was like, ‘Oh!’ It was a lightbulb moment for me.

Now, what I’m mostly focused on is the basics, how to get pantry goods and organic produce and meat to these families. How do we get hot food and chef staple things to homeless people and how do we do that with dignity and respect.

I see food distribution farmers will say, ‘Here’s this food and we’ll give it at a discount but you gotta cook this kale today because it will be mush tomorrow.’

Then I hear my mom, ‘Well, why would you give that to anybody?!’

Because this is the stuff you can’t make money off of, this is what you provide to the people? That doesn’t fly with me. We have more than enough in this world and more than enough people who have capital and money to be able to support those people who do not.

I don’t think I’m doing anything radical but even though in this world it is radical to get people food, which I think is shame. It should be normalized.

You can watch Kia’s story in the video below.

Queer Food: Kia Feeds the People, Presented by Effen Vodka from Time Turner Films on Vimeo.

Source: Tim Clayton – Corbis / Getty

Tennis is a white man’s world. And while Black women have been present and thriving in the sport for since the forties (shout out to Althea Gibson), in recent years we’ve seen even more Black women make waves.  See: Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, Sloane Stephens and Taylor Townsend.

As we’ve seen through the examples of Venus and Serena Williams, it’s not been an easy road to travel. There’s racism, sexism and according to a new article from Townsend fatphobia.

In a recent article for The Player’s Tribune, Townsend spoke about her journey to a professional tennis star, including the pushback she got from the United States Tennis Association who attempted to stunt her career because of her weight.

Townsend shared that the criticism of her weight began before she was even an adult. In fact, she was a 16-year-old child.

“I’m 16, I’m coming off some great results, and I’m only a few weeks from the U.S. Open.

And then…….. I get this phone call.

It was an official from the USTA. (That’s like being called to the principal’s office.) They said, “Taylor, you need to come to Florida — now. We’re putting you on an eight-week block of fitness training.”

Eight weeks of training at that time meant that Townsend would miss the U.S. Open. She shared that it hurt her to watch her friends and peers travel to New York without her.

In the midst of her fitness training hiatus, Townsend got a call from her doctor, telling her to get to the office immediately.

“My blood work came back showing that I was anemic. As in — I’d been under serious cardiovascular stress for who knows how long. I’d been playing sick, man. That’s what had been going on with me. Figuring that out was scary….. but in a way, it was also a relief at the same time??

Because it was kind of just like — okay, now we know. It’s not a fitness thing. It’s a health thing. And now we’re aware of it, and we’re about to take care of it, and….. yeah, I’ll say it: Now I can go to the Open. 

They send me to a hematologist, and I ask him straight up like, ‘What’s gonna make me feel good enough to play in 17 days?’ He then explains this process of liquid iron injections. He said, ‘You’re going to feel like superwoman.’ So I called up the folks at USTA and let them know what the hematologist said. Told them I was good to go for New York. Put me in the juniors draw, put me in the main draw, put me in doubles, singles, sign me up, the whole deal.”

Still, the USTA said no despite Townsend being the number one junior in the world, despite her anemia. Townsend said she was confused and hurt by the decision.

“Sixteen years old, and getting to No. 1 in juniors as a Black girl from the South Side? I was so proud of that. I was so proud of who I was, and what I’d achieved. And I think I had it in my head, like, alright — I know I might be an outsider in this sport. I know I might not be like all these other tennis kids. But once I got to No. 1?? Once I climbed that mountain?? Now they’ll be proud to have me. Now I’ll be treated like a part of American tennis. Now I’ll be one of them.”

But it didn’t work out like that.

“It worked the way things usually work in a country that hates fat Black women.

I don’t think that’s a controversial opinion, by the way. To me, America hating fat Black women — it’s just part of life. It’s in the culture. It’s in the health-care system. You see it in Hollywood, you see it in sports. You don’t have to look around very hard. It’s everywhere.

And it’s especially everywhere in the world of tennis. I mean, think about it: They didn’t just alienate me for not fitting the “mold” of what a tennis player should look like — they punished me. They took away something I’d earned.

I was fat, and I was Black, so they took away my dream.

Or at least they tried.”

Townsend said the USTA could prevent her from getting funding but they could not keep her from playing. Townsend did just that. She made it to quarter finals in singles and she won doubles with her partner.

And during her post-game interview, when asked why she wasn’t playing with the pros, Townsend decided to tell the truth.

“I decided I wasn’t gonna let myself be embarrassed anymore — I wasn’t gonna let myself be humiliated by this rich, white tennis world that I had spent my entire childhood scraping and crawling and bending over backwards to fit into.

I took a deep breath….. and aired everything out to the press. I gave them the real. Told them what actually happened.”

Townsend shared that she was punished as a result.

“But it turns out that 16-year-old Black girls can’t take public shots at the biggest organization in American tennis and then simply go back to their business. Reporters started coming around for interviews. USTA officials came out to “clear things up.” (Translation: They basically denied all of it.) Somehow they got my mom involved. It’s like stuff just kept spiraling out of control. Like it went from not a thing, to barely a thing, to a THING, to a situation, to almost this like National Incident, so damn fast.

And it sucks, man, because I wasn’t asking for a fight. Like, my God — I wasn’t looking for beef with the freaking USTA. People understand that, right?? I wasn’t trying to “grab the spotlight,” or “put the whole system on trial,” or represent this or that.

I was just trying to speak my truth.

That’s it.

All I wanted — pretty much all I ever wanted, my whole life — was to play tennis.

But I had clearly put some powerful people in a hot pile of fiery sh*t, and brought them scrutiny they didn’t want. And that decision came with painful consequences. I mean, it’s not like anyone could stop me from playing….. but they could slowly squeeze out every drop of what I loved about playing.

I left the USTA in 2013, then turned professional in 2014 — which should have been one of the happiest moments of my life. Not a lot of people ever get to go pro at tennis….. let alone people from where I’m from. But all I can really remember about that time now is sadness. All I can really remember is this feeling that tennis wasn’t tennis anymore. It was like it had turned into this Other Bullsh*t, that just kept on collecting more and more bullsh*t.

It was like — now, for me, tennis was the feeling of getting betrayed by a bunch of people who I thought were on my team. Tennis was the feeling of being stuck with a life where answering questions about my weight in public had literally become part of my job. Tennis was the feeling of having this permanent cloud hanging over my career… before my career had even gotten started.”

Townsend shared that the whole experience was tainted and she found that she slipped into a depression. She started worrying about the way she looked until the people who introduced her to the sport came back into her life with a timely reminder.

You can read the rest of Townsend’s article here.

Source: SOPA Images / Getty

Recently rap veteran Snoop Dogg appeared on “The Breakfast Club.” With his storied career and nearly 50 years on this earth, he had quite a bit to discuss. But there was one moment in particular that garnered a lot of attention.

“I’m giving it up for the Black representatives in the house. With the women…with the girls. I wrote this before Donald Trump started trippin’ on em and putting bans on em. My mind was always like I see what’s going on in there. Let me give them girls some love because that’s important. Because I’m tired of seeing girls shaking they booties and showing they r and feeling like they gotta show they ass. You can be something different. Use your mind, cover your body up. Let a man have some imagination and think and be like one of them women in the office up in there. Change something. Do that.”

Charlamagne acknowledged the hypocrisy. “That’s a lot coming from you since you Mr. B*tches ain’t sh*t but hoes and tricks.”

Snoop said, I do that too.

We consider Snoop an Uncle in this game but in reality, he’s more like a tired old grandpa who lived his life, acted a whole fool and then wants to sit in his rocking chair, telling the next generation about morality.

I could barely look at Snoop’s album covers. There were always scantily clad women in his music videos. There was his foray with “Girls Gone Wild” and the fact that he spent years moonlighting as a pimp.

Yes, women should know that there are additional options for them. But men shouldn’t be the ones shaming them for choosing showcasing their body as one of them, particularly when men are the ones who have perpetuated and promoted that type of behavior.

Maybe he’s just trying to put something new into the atmosphere after decades of doing the opposite. But I think it would have been better to hold the men to task because Snoop has showcased women who took their clothes off. Talk to the men.  But also, respect women enough to let them make their own decisions  about their own bodies.

See what people had to say about Snoop’s comments on the following pages.

Source: Gallo Images / Getty

A trip to the post office turned deadly for 19-year-old Uyinene Mrwetyana. On August 24 the University of Cape Town student was raped and murdered inside of the Clareinch Post Office in Claremont by Luyanda Botha, a 42-year-old employee.

Botha reportedly told Uyinene the credit card machine wasn’t working due to a power outage, a common occurrence in South Africa. He advised her to come back with a promise of helping her at a later time. When she returned after 2 p.m., the rest of the staff had left for the day.

But that afternoon, Uyinene would never return home.

Botha then locked the door and proceeded to raped her. When Uyinene wouldn’t stop screaming he beat her to death with post office scales. He then folded her body into the trunk of his car and set it on fire.

In response, the South African Post Office has suspended two senior officials, along with dismissing Botha from his position, according to Sowetan Live. An investigation by The Sunday Times revealed Botha’s name was included among a list of “300 employees who failed a vetting process last year as they were involved in crimes including theft, sexual harassment, domestic violence and assault.” Reportedly senior officials were aware of this, but ignored the designation.

An alleged former victim of Botha’s took to Facebook to detail a horrific experience she had with Botha at the same post office.

Botha has since then confessed to the crime Al Jazeera reports, but Uyinene’s death is all-too familiar. According to data released by the South African Police Service, of the 20,336 people who were murdered in the year 2017-2018, 2,930 of the victims were women. Statistics show that a woman is murdered every three hours in South Africa.

It was Uyinene’s murder that sparked the movement #AmINext—both a question and a safe haven nestled in a hashtag where women shared their experiences of sexual assault and rape.

On September 4, University of Cape Town students and femicide protestors turned their pain on Twitter into action and took to the streets of South Africa to express their frustration. They gathered outside the Cape Town International Conference Centre where President Cyril Ramaphosa attended the first day of the World Economic Forum. Through chants and signs, they demanded justice and protection for women and girls because of Uyinene and other women who had met similar fates.

During rush hour students blocked several major roads in the city and what started as a peaceful protest turned into a clash with the South African Police Service. The protesters, a majority being women, were met with water cannons and stun guns and at least 10 people were arrested.

But the outrage and fight for Uyinene didn’t let up.

On September 13, 4,000 protestors overwhelmed the streets of Johannesburg. Women from different towns and generations wore all black in solidarity, sang songs from the apartheid era and wore shirts that read, #AmINext.

Like many communities of color, the people of Cape Town and in this case specifically the women, have a strained relationship with their police enforcement. However, this resentment doesn’t stem from police brutality but neglect rooted in sexism. The lack of protection, dismissal and oversight officers have demonstrated has resulted in the deaths of many women. When Thandi Ndlovu, a celebrated businesswoman, tried to report domestic abuse, she was turned away by the officers and encouraged to go home and solve things with her husband. The news of her abusive marriage broke only after Forbes honored the entrepreneur who died in a car crash. Leighandre Jegels, a boxing champion, reported her cop boyfriend, Bulelani Manyakama, to the police but they never took any action. She was later shot and killed by Manyakama.

The post office Uyinene was murdered in was across the street from the police station. Many question how such a violent and loud murder had gone unnoticed with officers so close. Some reports claim that the South African Police Service wasn’t responsible for solving Uyinene’s murder. Some claim it was a private investigator hired by her family that solved the case. However, police officials have taken credit.

Our mothers have warned us about many things, but midday trips to the post office were never one of them. Uyinene’s murder is part of a long tale as old as sexism itself. However, it’s important stories like hers are uplifted and shared through the lens of womanism and vulnerability. The goal is that one day the question, #AmINext won’t exist.

Source: Richard Heathcote / Getty

In addition to being concerned about speed, form, and winning, female sprinters have to think about what type of images the cameras will capture.

According to The Daily Mail, several female athletes have complained about the close-up cameras at the World Athletics Championships. The woman claims the camera angles insure that the pictures reveal intimate angles of their bodies.

The women say the cameras make them uncomfortable because they have to climb over them before they begin the race.

A German sprinter, Gina Lückenkemper said she didn’t believe women were involved in developing the camera.

She continued, “I find it very uncomfortable climbing over this camera in skimpy running clothes to go to the starting block.”

Other German athletes have complained about the cameras. Subsequently, members of the German athletics federations have demanded that footage only be shown once runners are on the starting blocks. German authorities also want to ensure that the footage is deleted every day.

According to the the International Association of Athletics Federation, the new cameras were said to grant unprecedented access to audiences.

“Athletics fans around the globe will be closer to the action than ever before.” The IAAF felt audiences were missing a “crucial” moment of the drama of the race by not being able to see athletes faces at the start of the sprint race.

“The new cameras within the blocks will capture that intense moment just before a race.”

According to CNN, after the protests from German sprinters, the images from the cameras will be censored. Under the comprise, the only images that will be shown are the runners crouching over the blocks.

Source: izusek / Getty

I’m surprised at some of the behaviors I still witness from young men living in this world towards women. I think the revelation of the #MeToo movement was just the thing that pushed decades of female oppression over the edge. But, women have been letting it be known, in small bursts—and sometimes large leaps—for quite some time now that there are certain behaviors we are not okay with. And, I think since the information has come to light in such infrequent, sudden, and spontaneous bursts, men have opened their eyes at a similar awkward and delayed pace.

There seem to be different groups of progressive men—let’s say different levels of wokeness. There are the men who clearly and rather blatantly still do not respect women, and don’t have any issue hiding it. The ones who still suggest that women should “stick to their roles” as mothers and wives. Then there are the men who are coming around to the understanding that maybe they need to adjust their ways, but we still have to remind them not to call their female interns “doll” or suggest it’s a moody female coworker’s time of the month. We must explain to them why it’s not okay, but they’re open to admitting they are wrong.

But then, there is this difficult group of men. The ones who feel quite certain they are woke—the ones who even consider themselves allies—and who, perhaps because of their youth and generation, cannot possibly conceive of the fact that maybe they hold onto misogynistic tendencies. They think that being millennials perhaps protects them from accusations of misogyny. Because their peers are so progressive, they think it just rubs off on them, but not so. Here are things “woke” men still do to their female coworkers.

via GIPHY

Point out how woke they are

First, sometimes men my age will handle a situation with a female colleague well but then, they’ll ruin it by pointing out what a good job they did. They’ll handle an entire work-drinks meeting perfectly professionally, and at the very end, when I thank them for meeting with me, they’ll say, “See, and I didn’t even hit on you. Points for that, right?”

Gotham

NFL free agent Cam Newton has caused a stir on social media after his recent comments have gone viral about women needing the ability to be more than a “bad b–ch.”

The quarterback’s controversial remarks were made in an episode of Barstool Sports’ Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast that dropped on April 11.

The trending portion of his remarks came after the football player shared that he grew up in a “three-parent household” including his father, mother and grandmother.

“I knew what a woman was, not a bad b–ch,” the player said of his upbringing. 

“A bad b–ch is a person who’s just — ‘I look the part but I don’t act the part,'” he explained. “A woman for me is handling your own but knowing how to cater to a man’s needs. I think a lot of times, when you get that aesthetic of like, ‘I’m a boss b–ch, I’m a this, I’m a that,’ — no, baby — But you can’t cook.”

“You don’t know when to be quiet. You don’t know how to allow a man to lead,” he said on how bad b–ches differ from women, according to his logic.

Newton mentioned that he wasn’t trying to tear down any “queens” with his statements — and additionally suggested, “men to start being men, bro.”

“That sucka sh*t should not be rewarded,” he stated, before describing that behavior as “when a person carries themselves [in a certain way] social media wise — and it’s a fraud in real life.”

https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/1513556750657589254

The part of the @CameronNewton interview they don’t want you to see 🙃 pic.twitter.com/K7gmRqJLmU

— J Tuck (@jtuck151) April 12, 2022

RELATED CONTENT: “Subtle (And Not-So-Subtle) Signs You’re Dating A Misogynist”

Newton is entitled to his opinion, but that doesn’t mean his take on what a woman should be and invoke is valid.

While many on Twitter are floundering to defend the quarterback’s remarks, others are rightfully so deeming the football player’s recent comments as archaic, misogynistic and sexist. 

Also — for the record — women are individually multifaceted and can simultaneously be a “bad b–ch” who caters to her man, if she so chooses. 

See some of Twitter’s reactions down below.

Cam Newton: “Men need to act like men again.”

Also Cam Newton: pic.twitter.com/S5edbBrNSl

— Ced (@cedfunches) April 12, 2022

I’m trying like hell to not give oxygen to Cam Newton and his comments b/c they’re so blatantly ridiculous, but I keep coming back to the fact that they’re also dangerous b/c they contribute to a culture that believes it’s OK to demean and devalue women. Gotta do better, Cam.

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) April 12, 2022

the amount of men agreeing w cam newton is astounding & disappointing. women don’t live to serve men, we have our own lives, jobs & responsibilities just like men.

wake up, you’re thinking of the wrong century.

— matt olson stan acct (@ashleypriyanka) April 12, 2022

He doesnt know the 1st thing abt being a woman. He shouldnt assume he knows bcz hes a famous, but bad, QB. I dont act like I know what it's like to be a black man. But I DO try & empathize w them. AND STAND UP 4 THEM. Not criticism but support.

— #GenXHippie #IStandWithUkraine🇺🇦🇺🇲 (@krisikaye5) April 11, 2022

Not Cam Newton, a man who doesn’t know when to be quiet, ranting about women who “don’t know when to be quiet” https://t.co/6K5ib75Uv3

— j 🍀 (@whataa_jem) April 12, 2022

The part of the @CameronNewton interview they don’t want you to see 🙃 pic.twitter.com/K7gmRqJLmU

— J Tuck (@jtuck151) April 12, 2022

Cam Newton is free to articulate his thoughts. I am free to publicly state they are misogynistic and ignorant. https://t.co/UIVn9nAJU9

— Frederick "Pre-order Patriarchy Blues" Joseph (@FredTJoseph) April 12, 2022

I hope instead of canceling Cam Newton, we cancel the tendency for men to tell women how to be women, or women telling men how to be men. Stay in yo lane, mind ya business. It costs nothing.

— Brandon Scott (@brandonkscott) April 12, 2022

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