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Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett Explains Why Tuesday’s Debate Is So Important for Black Voters, Says Trump Wants to ‘Take Us Back to Jim Crow’ – Essence

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 19: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) speaks on stage through the first day of the Democratic National Convention on the United Center on August 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates, politicians and supporters of the Democratic Party are in Chicago for the convention, which culminates with current Vice President Kamala Harris accepting her party’s presidential nomination. The DNC takes place from August 19 to 22. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas thirtieth District) is making clear what’s at stake on this election — especially for Black voters. Recently named national co-chair of the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign, Crockett is using her platform to draw attention to the stark contrasts between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, particularly when it comes to the impact of their policies on Black communities.

“Tuesday’s debate will provide Americans, and especially Black voters, another opportunity to see the tough choices in this election,” Crockett said. “On one side, we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who has delivered historic progress for hard-working people across this country in the form of millions of new jobs, record-high Black unemployment, millions in student debt forgiven, working directly to close the racial wealth gap, and more Black Americans with health insurance than ever before,” she told ESSENCE. “And you’ll also hear from her a vision for the future of our country: where Black small businesses thrive, where we focus on lowering costs for families, and where all of our rights are respected and protected,” she added.

“Then we’ll see Donald Trump,” Crockett said. “A failed conman parading himself as a businessman who always cared only about himself.” Her most devastating critique focuses on the 2025 Project, a policy agenda run by conservative think tanks that she says would have disastrous consequences for black Americans. “If given the chance, he will do more harm than good by trying to take us back to the days of Jim Crow,” she warned.

As ESSENCE previously reported, Project 2025 is an in depth plan led by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation to reshape the federal government under the following Republican administration. Overall, the 922-page document would expand executive power and roll back several protections for minorities and marginalized groups, including Black people. The plan would eliminate tens of hundreds of federal jobs, abolish the Department of Education, and deport undocumented immigrants en masse, amongst other policies.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, saying he knows nothing about it and had nothing to do with it. Yet many key Trump allies and former administration officials are authors of Project 2025.

“He won’t be able to hide his Project 2025 agenda, which is specifically aimed at the black community,” Crockett said.

Her recent appointment as national co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign puts her on the forefront of their fight to block Trump from returning to the White House, where she said Trump’s lack of accountability and blatant disregard for the struggles of Black Americans stand in stark contrast to Harris’ grounded, community-oriented leadership.

“One of the candidates worked at McDonald’s while she was at an HBCU,” Crockett said recently as she addressed DNC delegates, drawing sharp comparisons between Harris and Trump. “The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and helped his father in the family business: housing discrimination. She became a career prosecutor, and he became a career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and a porn star to prove it.”

Crockett is encouraging Black voters to tune in and see the stark differences between the 2 candidates as the controversy approaches. “We’ll see who’s the adult on stage,” she joked, referring to Trump’s history of unpredictable debate behavior. Crockett believes the reality will come out and Project 2025 shall be the ultimate nail in Trump’s coffin for Black voters.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Politics and Current

8 times Kamala Harris gave us beauty inspiration – the essence

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Preparing for work in an office can seem very limiting. We need to be sweet and never be considered over the top. Still, we shouldn’t surrender on our well-being simply because we’re up to this point. But for inspiration, we will turn to Kamala Harris, who seems to have all of it discovered in the beauty department. Her elegant sense of fashion, makeup and hairstyle never appear to wane. No matter how intense things get in the office, Harris will at all times be visible.

In the spirit of supporting our VP, below are our favourite office-ready looks from Harris.

No makeup Makeup

We’re used to Harris doing every part in her power to look glamorous. However, he often keeps every part to a minimum. The vice chairman’s face is nearly fresh, with some eyeliner and mascara.

Lip gloss

Who said lip gloss is just too much for the office? Harris gives us a unique perspective by rocking mocha gloss. The makeup stands out beautifully, but Harris’ smile will at all times be the better part of this makeup look.

Vintage Glam

Harris proves that she has at all times cared about her beauty. For example, her graduation look embodied ’80s chic with daring pink lipstick and blush.

Glam Pride

Harris made a loud and colourful appearance at the pride ceremony. She applied a peach blush to the tops of her cheeks, which is a rare occurrence as she often sticks to a neutral makeup palette. The updo with side-swept bangs also caught attention.

Explosion Queen

Can we take a moment to understand this explosion? Yes, beauty is all about makeup, but what brings all of it together is an incredible hairstyle. Highlights, layers and reflections are *chef’s kiss.*

Eyeliner goals

Eyeliner is at all times a key ingredient in Harris’ makeup. She often uses a skinny pencil to emphasise the shape of her eyes.

Signing in style

The vice chairman announced her run for president during the class. In addition to the all-black suit and fresh makeup, she also opted for neutral makeup with a touch of eye shadow. This is her signature makeup that might be remembered for a lifetime.

Mocha makeup

As Harris gazed out at the crowd of hundreds of Americans, she wore classic mocha makeup. The TikTok trend combines browns and neutral tones to create a balanced glow.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Politics and Current

Stephen A. Smith fumes at Oprah and Michelle Obama, accusing them of making voters feel like they don’t ‘necessary’

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Stephen A. Smith Blames Oprah, Michelle Obama for Kamala Harris Loss; Did Celeb Endorsements Actually Hurt the Democrat?

Let the electoral blame game begin.

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has he solid his vote within the post-election ritual of pointing to someone or something as the explanation a candidate lost, pointing to Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

On Wednesday on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith said the media mogul and former first lady set an exclusionary tone that turned off men (Trump’s most credible voting bloc).

Stephen A. Smith blames Oprah and Michelle Obama for the loss of Kamala Harris; Have celebrity endorsements actually hurt Democrats?
Left: Stephen A. Smith; Bottom right: Oprah Winfrey; Top right: Michelle Obama

“If we don’t agree with you, are we against you?” Smith said, referencing the media mogul and former first lady’s speeches. “What do you think the men thought about this? So we must do what you tell us; otherwise we are against you? Did you think it worked? Do you know anything about most men? Do you think this will work?”

Oprah and Michelle O. are among the many long list of celebrities who’ve endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris. She had on her side the most well-liked artists within the country (Beyonce and Taylor Swift), essentially the most famous athlete (LeBron James) and two of essentially the most famous actors (George Clooney and Harrison Ford). Stars from the past (Madonna and Bruce Springsteen) and current (Charli xcx and Lizzo) declared their support for Harris.

But together they were all fair sermon for the choirsaid Seth Abramovitch, senior author at the Hollywood Reporter.

“Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande – these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already willing to vote for Kamala,” he told The Guardian.

Swift, popular with each country and pop fans, appears to be an outlier, Abramovich said, but her influence was negligible amongst two demographic groups which have shifted significantly toward Trump.

Of course, the identical may be said about famous Trump supporters. Women of color, part of the demographic most proof against the previous and future commander-in-chief, weren’t about to be influenced by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

Left or right, famously, they rarely, if ever, move the counter together with voters.

“In the academic literature,” said Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, who has studied Swift’s cultural impact, “research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven to have a direct impact on the way people make voting decisions.”

When Swift endorsed Harris, she directed followers to this page voting.gov. The website was visited by 405,999 people in 24 hours. However, not everyone was convinced to vote for the previous prosecutor and current vice chairman.

In fact, Swift can have hurt Harris greater than helped. A poll conducted by YouGov shortly after her endorsement found that only 8 percent of voters can be “somewhat” or “much more” more likely to vote for Harris, well below the 20 percent of respondents who said supporting Swift would make them less more likely to vote for a Democrat.

Ashley Spillane of Harvard, who writer a study titled “Celebrities Strengthen Our Culture of Democracy” found that it’s unattainable to quantify whether a celeb endorsement translates into more votes for a candidate.

This is a change from the past. A 2008 poll conducted by Northwestern University found that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama added roughly a million votes to his final tally.

But that was in less divisive times.

Smith argued that it was Oprah’s message, not Oprah herself, that turned off male voters. Her warning on the eve of the election was that a second Trump term would herald an antidemocratic takeover of the United States

“This is something that alienates the electorate, alienates the voter,” Smith said. “Because the freedom you tell them you have, you’re trying to morally confiscate it by letting them know you’re worth nothing if you don’t vote the way we think you should vote.”

“Who will decide on this in the general election?” Smith asked. “In an economy full of inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?”

The high-power recommendations also served to substantiate Republicans’ findings that Democrats were an elite party.

“Ultimately, stars price lots of of tens of millions, if not billions, who most American residents imagine are incredibly out of touch with their lifestyle and the standard of it, weren’t going to run away and blame them for doing something different than what their experience says and what they should do with it do,” Smith said.

The people almost certainly to learn from a celeb’s endorsement are the celebrity themselves, says Laurence F. Maslon, an art professor at New York University.

“I think sometimes it’s a way of tying your star to someone who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s some kind of reflected glory in that,” Maslon said.

British comedian Ricky Gervais probably said it best video – he posted in June wherein he ridiculed overly serious stars who imagine that their political beliefs really matter.

“As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who you should vote for,” Gervais said. “If you don’t vote the right way it will be like a hate crime and it makes me sad and angry so I will leave the country and you don’t want that.”


This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Monique Worrell, one of two Democratic prosecutors ousted by DeSantis in Florida, gets her old job back

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Monique Worrell, Florida, theGrio.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of two Democratic state attorneys in Florida who’re Republicans Governor Ron DeSantis removed from office in what opponents said was a political move and won him his old job back from voters.

In the Orlando area, Democrat Monique Worrell on Tuesday defeated Andrew Bain, the candidate DeSantis replaced Worrell with last 12 months and who ran without party affiliation. In the Tampa area, Andrew Warren, who was ousted by DeSantis in 2022, gave approach to Suzy Lopez, a Republican DeSantis selected to exchange a Democrat.

DeSantis said Worrell didn’t prosecute crimes committed by minors and didn’t seek mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, putting the general public in her Central Florida district in danger. She disputed his claims as false and politically motivated.

Speaking before fans Tuesday night, Worrell dedicated the win to her father, who died unexpectedly last June. “Before he took his last breath, he told me, ‘Go back to your seat,’” she said.

“I want to thank the voters for standing with me and saying, ‘We don’t believe you, Ron DeSantis,’” Worrell said.

DeSantis removed Warren over his signing of the guarantees that it is going to not bring criminal charges against individuals in search of abortion or gender reassignment services or individuals providing abortion or sex reassignment therapy services, and its policy of not prosecuting certain minor offenses.

“I am proud of the race we ran,” Warren said in an announcement Tuesday night. “The best candidate doesn’t always win, especially when the other side cheats by illegally suspending you and then spending millions of dollars lying about you.”

The governor’s office didn’t immediately reply to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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