A huge wealth gap has opened up between black and white people in the US over the past quarter of a century – a difference sufficient to put two children through university – because of racial discrimination and economic policies that favour the affluent.
A typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class, according to a report released today by Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
White families typically have assets worth $100,000 (£69,000), up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families' assets stand at just $5,000, up from around $2,000.
A quarter of black families have no assets at all. The study monitored more than 2,000 families since 1984.
"We walk that through essentially a generation and what we see is that the racial wealth gap has galloped, it's escalated to $95,000," said Tom Shapiro, one of the authors of the report by the university's Institute on Assets and Social Policy.
"That's primarily because the whites in the sample were able to accumulate financial assets from their $22,000 all the way to $100,000 and the African-Americans' wealth essentially flatlined."
The survey does not include housing equity, because it is not readily accessible and is rarely realised as cash. But if property were included it would further widen the wealth divide.
Shapiro says the gap remains wide even between blacks and whites of similar classes and with similar jobs and incomes.
"How do we explain the wealth gap among equally-achieving African-American and white families? The same ratio holds up even among low income groups. Finding ways to accumulate financial resources for all low and moderate income families in the United States has been a huge challenge and that challenge keeps getting steeper and steeper.
"But there are greater opportunities and less challenges for low and moderate income families if they're white in comparison to if they're African-American or Hispanic," he said.
America has long lived with vast inequality, although 40 years ago the disparity was lower than in Britain.
Today, the richest 1% of the US population owns close to 40% of its wealth. The top 25% of US households own 87%.
The rest is divided up among middle and low income Americans. In that competition white people come out far ahead.
Only one in 10 African-Americans owns any shares. A third do not have a pension plan, and among those who do the value is on average a fifth of plans held by whites.
Shapiro says one of the most disturbing aspects of the study is that wealth among the highest-income African-Americans has actually fallen in recent years, dropping from a peak of $25,000 to about $18,000, while among white counterparts of similar class and income it has surged to around $240,000.
In 1984, high-income black Americans had more assets than middle-income whites. That is no longer true.
"I'm a pretty jaded and cynical researcher in some way, but this was shocking, quite frankly, a really important dynamic," said Shapiro. "This represents a broken chain of achievement. In the United States context, when we are thinking about racial equality and the economy we have focused for a long time on equal opportunity.
"Equal opportunity assumes that some people who have that opportunity are going to have pretty high achievements in terms of their jobs, their work, their income, their home ownership.
"The assumption in a democracy is that merit and achievement are going to be rewarded and the rewards here are financial assets. We should see some rough parity and we don't."
The report attributes part of the cause to the "powerful role of persistent discrimination in housing, credit and labour markets. African-Americans and Hispanics were at least twice as likely to receive high-cost home mortgages as whites with similar incomes," the report says.
Although many black families have moved up to better-paying jobs, they begin with fewer assets, such as inheritance, on which to build wealth. They are also more likely to have gone into debt to pay for university loans.
"African-Americans, before the 1960s, first by law and then by custom, were not really allowed to own businesses. They had very little access to credit. There was a very low artificial ceiling on the wealth that could be accumulated. Hence there was very little, if anything, that could be passed along to help their children get to college, to help their children buy their first homes, or as an inheritance when they die," said Shapiro.
Since the 1980s, US administrations have also geared the tax system to the advantage of the better off. Taxes on unearned income, such as shares and inheritance, fell sharply and are much lower than taxes on pay.
"The more income and wealth people had, the less it was taxable," said Shapiro.
There were also social factors, the study found. "In African-American families there is a much larger extended network of kin as well as other obligations. From other work we've done we know that there's more call on the resources of relatively well-off African-American families; that they lend money that's not given back; they help cousins go to school. They help brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, with all kinds of legal and family problems," said Shapiro.
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DOMINICANS DO IT BETTER? HAIR THAT IS....
Delshawn Rollins once trusted only fellow African-Americans with the delicate task of styling and straightening her tightly curled brown hair.
But that meant enduring hours of salon gossip, ordered-in lunch (and sometimes dinner, too) and occasional mishaps, like the time the ends of her hair snapped off after she had it dyed.
Fed up, the 35-year-old respiratory therapist last fall pulled out a flier she had for a new salon that promised to "work magic" using "Dominican styling." She was in and out of The Hair Co. USA, which displays the Dominican flag in the front window, within two hours, sporting a straight, feathery "do" for $20 less than she had been paying her old stylist.
"My hair has this flow," she says. People ask where she has it done.
Armed with a blow dryer and brush, deft wrist action and shrewd promotional tactics, immigrants from the Dominican Republic are snipping away market share from African-American stylists whose mastery of black women's hair ensured for generations that their customers wouldn't, or couldn't, leave them. Promises of seemingly healthier hair, swifter service and far lower prices are wooing away a growing number of black women.
Ms. Rollins and most other African-American women require a chemical "relaxer" to straighten their hair and get touch-up treatments every six weeks or so. She and many other customers say another benefit of the Dominican technique is that it extends the life of straightening chemicals, thus reducing the frequency of application and potentially harmful effects.
The defections have infuriated African-American stylists who insist that their methods are safe and that they are more highly trained than the Dominicans are. "It's hard enough in these times, but they are undercutting our prices, even passing out fliers to our own clients," complains Atlanta hairdresser Jannifer Jackson, whose cancellations and no-shows began piling up once a Dominican salon opened about a mile away last summer.
Emily Martinez, a stylist at Sintia's Dominican Salon in Landover, Md., demonstrates the Dominican blowout.
Many traditional black stylists accuse Dominicans of misrepresenting their services as "natural" because nearly all Dominican salons perform relaxer touch-ups. Traditionalists say the "Dominican blowout" technique can cause severe hair breakage. Both sorts of stylists wash, set hair in rollers and seat customers under big dryers.
African-American stylists typically use a curling iron to unfurl the hair, while Dominicans use a two-handed method of unraveling the strands with a round brush, followed by a blow dryer in the other hand to smooth the curl to a straight finish. Dominicans do so by pulling from the hair root, often forcefully. That, along with applying the second round of intense heat, leads to breakage, say black stylists and some customers.
"Bad Boy" Romeo Crews, a prominent and outspoken black stylist in Atlanta, has no fear of the blowout. "Let me tell you," he says, "they are helping my business because people are coming to me after the Dominicans make their hair fall out."
Dominican stylists deny the accusations. The majority of Dominicans are themselves black, and like African-Americans, they developed their skills by styling their own hair. "We have stylists—black stylists—all the time calling and asking to come and train with us," boasts Alfredo Rhoden, co-owner of Dominican Hair Salon by Massiel in suburban Atlanta.
The financial impact of the Dominican incursion on black American salons is hard to gauge. Sales volume isn't tracked by the race or ethnicity of salon owners. But industry experts, salon owners and stylists say the impact is indisputable. A fixture in New York City since the 1980s, Dominicans now are rapidly expanding to other U.S. cities.
[HAIR]
U.S. salon services generated $50.3 billion in 2009 revenue, mostly from small, independently owned shops, according to industry research firm Professional Consultants & Resources. Most black salons are independently owned, with self-employed stylists who rent booths from shop owners. Black women overwhelmingly outnumber other consumers of "ethnic" hair products, which recorded a 3.2% sales increase in 2009, to $1.5 billion, despite a decline in sales of hair-care products overall, according to consumer research group Packaged Facts. U.S. sales of all hair-care products totaled $9.7 billion last year, says market research outfit Kline & Co.
New Jersey stylist and barber Gina Brydie formed the National Black Cosmetology Association last year to help salon owners strengthen their businesses against the recession and the increasing Dominican competition.
"We have Asians coming in with the beauty supplies and Dominicans coming in and taking over our industry," says Ms. Brydie, 39 years old and 20 years in the business. Salons and barber shops are a proud touchstone for blacks in part because they were among the earliest black-owned businesses, providing one of few paths to economic advancement after slavery. By the early 1900s, black entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker had become a self-made millionaire by making hair and beauty products for blacks.
Now, rather than trying to beat the Dominicans, some African-American business owners are joining them. Jennifer Drew started RoundBrushHair.com in 2007 to help Dominican salons market to blacks after she switched to the blowout and saw curiosity budding among black women.
The RoundBrushHair.com database has grown to include several hundred Dominican salons, from Sun Valley, Calif., to Chicago to Boston. Almost all opened in the past five years, Ms. Drew says. It includes 80 salons in metropolitan Washington, 95 in Georgia, 15 in Charlotte, N.C., and seven in Houston.
"Some black stylists hate on me, think I've crossed over to the other side," says Ms. Drew, who also sells hair products manufactured in the Dominican Republic to black-owned salons.
The salon to which Ms. Rollins defected is doing well. Owner Monica Clark, who is African-American, opened the shop in 2008 as a traditional black salon. But business was slow and when faced with closing a few months later, she replaced her stylists with Dominicans, brushed up on her Spanish, redecorated, reduced her prices by $10 and renamed her shop The Hair Company USA Dominican Hair Salon. She's playing merengue music now on the stereo. She says client volume has increased by 60% and sales have tripled.
But that meant enduring hours of salon gossip, ordered-in lunch (and sometimes dinner, too) and occasional mishaps, like the time the ends of her hair snapped off after she had it dyed.
Fed up, the 35-year-old respiratory therapist last fall pulled out a flier she had for a new salon that promised to "work magic" using "Dominican styling." She was in and out of The Hair Co. USA, which displays the Dominican flag in the front window, within two hours, sporting a straight, feathery "do" for $20 less than she had been paying her old stylist.
"My hair has this flow," she says. People ask where she has it done.
Armed with a blow dryer and brush, deft wrist action and shrewd promotional tactics, immigrants from the Dominican Republic are snipping away market share from African-American stylists whose mastery of black women's hair ensured for generations that their customers wouldn't, or couldn't, leave them. Promises of seemingly healthier hair, swifter service and far lower prices are wooing away a growing number of black women.
Ms. Rollins and most other African-American women require a chemical "relaxer" to straighten their hair and get touch-up treatments every six weeks or so. She and many other customers say another benefit of the Dominican technique is that it extends the life of straightening chemicals, thus reducing the frequency of application and potentially harmful effects.
The defections have infuriated African-American stylists who insist that their methods are safe and that they are more highly trained than the Dominicans are. "It's hard enough in these times, but they are undercutting our prices, even passing out fliers to our own clients," complains Atlanta hairdresser Jannifer Jackson, whose cancellations and no-shows began piling up once a Dominican salon opened about a mile away last summer.
Emily Martinez, a stylist at Sintia's Dominican Salon in Landover, Md., demonstrates the Dominican blowout.
Many traditional black stylists accuse Dominicans of misrepresenting their services as "natural" because nearly all Dominican salons perform relaxer touch-ups. Traditionalists say the "Dominican blowout" technique can cause severe hair breakage. Both sorts of stylists wash, set hair in rollers and seat customers under big dryers.
African-American stylists typically use a curling iron to unfurl the hair, while Dominicans use a two-handed method of unraveling the strands with a round brush, followed by a blow dryer in the other hand to smooth the curl to a straight finish. Dominicans do so by pulling from the hair root, often forcefully. That, along with applying the second round of intense heat, leads to breakage, say black stylists and some customers.
"Bad Boy" Romeo Crews, a prominent and outspoken black stylist in Atlanta, has no fear of the blowout. "Let me tell you," he says, "they are helping my business because people are coming to me after the Dominicans make their hair fall out."
Dominican stylists deny the accusations. The majority of Dominicans are themselves black, and like African-Americans, they developed their skills by styling their own hair. "We have stylists—black stylists—all the time calling and asking to come and train with us," boasts Alfredo Rhoden, co-owner of Dominican Hair Salon by Massiel in suburban Atlanta.
The financial impact of the Dominican incursion on black American salons is hard to gauge. Sales volume isn't tracked by the race or ethnicity of salon owners. But industry experts, salon owners and stylists say the impact is indisputable. A fixture in New York City since the 1980s, Dominicans now are rapidly expanding to other U.S. cities.
[HAIR]
U.S. salon services generated $50.3 billion in 2009 revenue, mostly from small, independently owned shops, according to industry research firm Professional Consultants & Resources. Most black salons are independently owned, with self-employed stylists who rent booths from shop owners. Black women overwhelmingly outnumber other consumers of "ethnic" hair products, which recorded a 3.2% sales increase in 2009, to $1.5 billion, despite a decline in sales of hair-care products overall, according to consumer research group Packaged Facts. U.S. sales of all hair-care products totaled $9.7 billion last year, says market research outfit Kline & Co.
New Jersey stylist and barber Gina Brydie formed the National Black Cosmetology Association last year to help salon owners strengthen their businesses against the recession and the increasing Dominican competition.
"We have Asians coming in with the beauty supplies and Dominicans coming in and taking over our industry," says Ms. Brydie, 39 years old and 20 years in the business. Salons and barber shops are a proud touchstone for blacks in part because they were among the earliest black-owned businesses, providing one of few paths to economic advancement after slavery. By the early 1900s, black entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker had become a self-made millionaire by making hair and beauty products for blacks.
Now, rather than trying to beat the Dominicans, some African-American business owners are joining them. Jennifer Drew started RoundBrushHair.com in 2007 to help Dominican salons market to blacks after she switched to the blowout and saw curiosity budding among black women.
The RoundBrushHair.com database has grown to include several hundred Dominican salons, from Sun Valley, Calif., to Chicago to Boston. Almost all opened in the past five years, Ms. Drew says. It includes 80 salons in metropolitan Washington, 95 in Georgia, 15 in Charlotte, N.C., and seven in Houston.
"Some black stylists hate on me, think I've crossed over to the other side," says Ms. Drew, who also sells hair products manufactured in the Dominican Republic to black-owned salons.
The salon to which Ms. Rollins defected is doing well. Owner Monica Clark, who is African-American, opened the shop in 2008 as a traditional black salon. But business was slow and when faced with closing a few months later, she replaced her stylists with Dominicans, brushed up on her Spanish, redecorated, reduced her prices by $10 and renamed her shop The Hair Company USA Dominican Hair Salon. She's playing merengue music now on the stereo. She says client volume has increased by 60% and sales have tripled.
PERFECT COMBINATION....THE RAPPER IS VERY INTELLIGENT AND STILL HOOD
Glossary of T.I’s Big Words
Acronym – Words formed from the initial letters of other words
Abbreviation – to shorten a word, phrase or text
Evolve – to develop gradually from a simple to a more complex form
Paranoia – unreasonably or excessively anxious (scared)
Jaded – tired, bored or lacking enthusiasm after accomplishing a lot
Fend – to look after and provide for oneself
Consideration – careful thought
Phenomenal – a remarkable person, thing or event
May 13, 2010
7 THINGS TO STOP DOING ON FACEBOOK IMMEDIATELY....
Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!
Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile
It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.
Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls
For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.
Posting Your Child's Name in a Caption
Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.
Mentioning That You'll Be Away From Home
That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.
Letting Search Engines Find You
To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.
Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings.
Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile
It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.
Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls
For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.
Posting Your Child's Name in a Caption
Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.
Mentioning That You'll Be Away From Home
That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.
Letting Search Engines Find You
To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.
Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings.
OPEN RELATIONSHIPS...DEFINED
I'm all for allowing people to define their romantic relationships however they see fit, but ummm can you really claim someone as yours if you're not together? Open relationships seem to be like playing Russian roulette; could be exciting but ultimately are extremely dangerous. Someone is always going to be the good cop (the faithful one) while the other is the bad cop; it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
If you have "mad love for each other," doesn't that love suggest wanting to take care of the other person's heart? I don't know how it is possible to protect someone's feelings when you're keeping the door open to possibly have those same feelings for someone else.
I've found that people who claim to be in open relationships most often are not doing so by their own choice. Most often, they are forced upon one party by the other. This got me to thinking,
What makes open relationships any different from just casually dating?
FROM: http://www.itsthelaurenshow.com/
If you have "mad love for each other," doesn't that love suggest wanting to take care of the other person's heart? I don't know how it is possible to protect someone's feelings when you're keeping the door open to possibly have those same feelings for someone else.
I've found that people who claim to be in open relationships most often are not doing so by their own choice. Most often, they are forced upon one party by the other. This got me to thinking,
What makes open relationships any different from just casually dating?
FROM: http://www.itsthelaurenshow.com/
A SIN AND SHAME...R.I.P. LEON WALKER
A Gary, Indiana man is facing murder charges after police say he bound, tortured and beat to death his 5-year-old son as punishment for taking a roll out of the oven.
Police have 28-year-old Leon DeNeal Burns in custody for the death of 5-year-old Leon Walker after the boy was taken to the hospital covered in welts and bruises and pronounced dead on arrival.
Burns and his live-in girlfriend Rochell Johnson have been charged with eight felonies for the death of the child including murder and neglect.
Johnson admitted to police that she was there while the boy's hands were tied with an extension cord and he was beaten and punched until his neck was broken causing instant death.
Police report that Burns told them he would often beat the boy for lying, calling him a “major liar” and saying that this time he beat him because he "lied about eating a roll from the stove."
When police first reported to the scene of the crime, the couple lied about the boy's whereabouts, saying the child was still with his mother Turquoise Walker.
Police have since disputed those claims saying Walker has been in a “closed rehabilitation center” for the past two weeks and did not have access to the child.
After his arrest Burns admitted his wrongdoing to police saying he probably “went too far.”
He appeared in court Tuesday and pled not guilty to the charges. He will appear in court again on June 18.
TOP 10 CITIES WITH BLACK PEOPLE...
1. New York
2. Atlanta
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. Philadelphia
6. Miami-MUST BE COUNTING THE WEST INDIANS AND AFRICANS
7. Detroit
8. Houston
9. Los Angeles
10. Dallas
Courtesy of: Brookings Institute
2. Atlanta
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. Philadelphia
6. Miami-MUST BE COUNTING THE WEST INDIANS AND AFRICANS
7. Detroit
8. Houston
9. Los Angeles
10. Dallas
Courtesy of: Brookings Institute
KARMA IS A BITCH....BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME PIRATES
It’s difficult to feel sorry for armed Somali pirates who routinely hijack ships in international waters, holding crew and cargo for ransom.
Some pirates get lucky and make off with millions in cash in return for the safe passage of the ship’s crew and cargo.
But these days most Somali pirates end up sleeping with the fishes.
The Somali pirates in the photo above are all deceased now according to a Somali pirate spokesman.
The “young men” had the misfortune of boarding a Russian oil tanker last week (the MV Moscow University carrying 86,000 tons of oil). The pirates held the tanker’s crew of 23, plus the oil, for ransom.
Obviously the Russians feel some kind of way about their oil. So the Russian troopers who stormed the ship decided not to take names, ranks or serial numbers. They simply lined the pirates up on the deck, shot them each point blank in the head and dumped their bodies over the railing — this, according to the pirate spokesman.
But the Russians have an entirely different version of the events that took place last week. The soldiers say the pirates were “released” on the open sea and they simply never made it back to shore.
But the pirate spokesman disputes the Russians:
“The Russians never released the young men. Instead they shot them point-blank range then loaded their lifeless bodies back on the boat,” he said.
May 11, 2010
May 10, 2010
May 3, 2010
ALPHA PHI ALPHA PROTESTS IMMIGRATION LAW IN ARIZONA...
The first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established by African Americans is speaking out against the controversial Arizona immigration law.
As previously reported, governor Jan Brewer signed a bill set to take effect this summer that permits law enforcement to question people's immigration status at their discretion. The controversial concept has sparked outrage particularly in the Hispanic community who fears it will prompt racial profiling.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated has decided to set an example to other organizations and has pulled plans to host their annual convention in the state's capitial of Phoenix. Instead of the Arizona location, fraternity members will meet in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaking out against the law in an email, the heads of the organization said,
“the Board of Directors of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity voted unanimously to rescind the location of Phoenix, Arizona, as our meeting location of the 104th Anniversary/90th General Convention in July, and to denounce the egregious immigration act signed recently by the governor of Arizona. It was the full opinion of the board that we could not host a meeting in a state that has sanctioned a law which we believe will lead to racial profiling and discrimination, and a law that could put the civil rights and the very dignity of our members at risk during their stay in Phoenix Arizona."
April 29, 2010
MEET BABY 1 IN A MILLION....
Beautiful eyes right?
According to recent Studies, the chances of an Afro-American baby with blue eyes being born are 1 in a million. There are “brown” people with light eyes, usually light brown, green or gray, but they also share the Anglo-Saxon characteristics such as pug nose and Light hair, but a baby with all the physical characteristics of the afro-American race with blue eyes was almost impossible. Seems like Globalization is working right? It will be more common to see mixes like this one day after day. This baby has 19 months now and since he was 12 months old got a full contract and a life insurance with Paramount Pictures; you will see him in movies, commercials and magazines very soon!
WHEN LOVE GOES TERRIBLY WRONG....R.I.P.
Tumi McCallum was a beautiful girl, her parents were NYU professors. She obviously had options. What on earth did she see in someone like Michael Cordero who ended up killing her in a jealous rage with his bare hands? Pop the hood.
Even the defense lawyer cried.
There wasn’t a dry eye in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday as two NYU professors spoke out against the jilted lover who killed their daughter.
“He smashed her beautiful face,” Teboho Moia, the mother of strangle victim Boitumelo (Tumi) McCallum, 20, wrote in a statement read by prosecutors.
“My beloved Tumi was silenced forever at a young age because she made a wrong choice about who to share her love with,” the grieving professor wrote.
“You barehandedly killed my child, your hands are stained forever with her blood.”
The victim’s angry father stood up to face killer Michael Cordero, who was sentenced to 25 years as part of a plea deal.
Robert McCallum claimed Cordero stalked his daughter before killing her in her mother’s Greenwich Village faculty apartment.
“Tumi was scared of you in the end,” he said. “I did everything I could to protect her, but you went behind my back to get to her one more time.
“You are a very dangerous person,” he said. “The fact that you stole from her tells me you were cold-hearted.”
The parents weren’t the only ones crying. A courtroom clerk wiped her eyes. Even Cordero’s defense lawyer wept.
So did Cordero as he turned to apologize to the family.
“I know what I did was wrong,” he said.
Yet he failed to offer an explanation for the brutal crime.
“It was just something that happened,” he shrugged, after declaring his undying love for the victim.
April 28, 2010
A CHILD'S PRAYER...CLASSIC
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for God my soul to keep;
Or if I die before I wake,
I pray for God my soul to take.
I pray for God my soul to keep;
Or if I die before I wake,
I pray for God my soul to take.
April 27, 2010
AND THE WINNER IS....
Congratulations to Tyra Sanchez for winning Season 2 of RuPaul's Drag Race last night.
THIS IS HOW NEGROS END UP BEING TRICKED
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