2018

On the heels of New York’s most recent Men’s Fashion Week, we caught up with one of the male modeling industry’s top players, supermodel Wendell Lissimore, to get a realistic, behind-the-scenes glimpse of what the business is all about.  [brightcove id=5813796946001] During our exclusive chat, Lissimore gave us some in-depth insight on what it takes to become a top male model and why there’s such a lack of diversity in fashion. "In Hip-Hop [culture] we're so masculine that we've never been shown in light of being sexy and vulnerable," he says. [IMAGE-ID:1335989,3x4_lg,false]  "We're kind of conditioned and brought up to think that there's only three ways out: playing sports, doing music or being in the streets. If we see more people who work on Wall Street, more doctors and more lawyers of color, we won't run into a lot of the obstacles that we do run into now." [IMAGE-ID:1335992,3x4_lg,false]  Having worked for iconic brands such as Givenchy, Hermès, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Timberland and more, Lissimore certainly knows a thing or two about what's demanded of models and how the industry really treats people of color.  Check out our exclusive video above to hear more of Lissimore telling us his fashion story !  [IMAGE-ID:1335998,3x4_lg,false]   

Check out the music video for the latest collaborative effort between Faith Evans and Stevie J, "A Minute."

With the purpose of expanding internship opportunities for youths of color, and in an effort to help place more blacks and Hispanics on Capitol Hill, Walmart gave the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc., (CBCF) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) one $1M apiece.

According to a press release, the funds “will help provide career pathways on Capitol Hill for students and young professionals through education and hands-on experience in the nation’s capital.”

“The CBCF is committed to increasing diversity on Capitol Hill and in the public sector by creating a new generation of informed and engaged citizens and leaders,” said Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Chair, CBCF Board of Directors via the press release. “Internships are a critical component toward building a career in public policy. Through Walmart’s continued support and dedicated partnership, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has successfully increased the number of scholars who have access to the intern-to-staffer pipeline.”

“Walmart has led the way as the Founding Partner for CHCI’s Congressional Internship Program by significantly investing in our nation’s future leaders, “said Rep. Joaquín Castro, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in the same press release.” We value Walmart’s support of CHCI’s mission to address [the] underrepresentation of Latinos on Capitol Hill by providing transformative experiences and the critical skills needed to embark on careers in public service.”

Both the CBCF and CHCI offer fellowships and internships. The CBCF also awards more than 100 scholarships to students across the country, according to its website.

Back in April, the Walmart Foundation—the company’s philanthropic arm—announced it has awarded $4 million to 12 organizations including several that are committed to helping communities of color.

The organizations included Coalition for Queens, a group that teaches coding and professional skills to talented adults from diverse and low-income backgrounds; The Women’s Foundation of Greater Memphis, which is focused on advancing opportunities for young women of color; and The National Black Justice Coalition, which works to further inclusion of members of the LGBTQ community at HBCUs.

The post Congressional Black and Hispanic Organizations Receive $1 Million Each from Walmart appeared first on Black Enterprise.

In the wake of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn’s firing for old, resurfaced tweets, will it become standard practice for those in the spotlight to regularly purge their social media? The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson recently removed a huge number of tweets from his account.

As Comicbook.com reports:

Disney set a dangerous precedent last week by cutting ties with filmmaker James Gunn for offensive messages he posted online prior to his involvement with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These actions have put many members of Hollywood on the defensive, with The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson deleting all of his posts prior to January 25th of this year.

Johnson was an extremely active Twitter user and often used the platform to interact with fans and fellow creatives. He’s still actively tweeting, but with only 1,300+ tweets remaining on his account, to cut out 20,000 tweets is pretty massive. It’s unclear why Johnson took this action: perhaps prohibitively, wary of trolls posting things he’s said out of context, which is now all the rage. It’s also possible that Disney has issued some sort of directive to their talent about social media post-Gunn situation, suggesting caution or deletion. But that’s just me speculating.

I’m conflicted about this move. Obviously, it’s Johnson’s account and he can do whatever he wants, and on the Internet nothing truly dies and there are ways to resurrect this content—but it feels sad to me to lose so much of someone’s social media history, especially someone who had such a relevant pop culture place in it as Johnson. I hope mass deletion doesn’t become a “best practice” moving forward.

[UPDATE: Johnson himself has weighed in and confirmed that the deletion was a preemptive measure he personally decided to take out of an abundance of caution—though he doesn’t think he’s ever tweeted anything that would get him into trouble—against the wave of concern trolls digging up past tweets to weaponize them.]

(via Comicbook.com, image: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

• OK this is amazing but what about Nakia?
  

  Angela Bassett has confirmed that Queen Ramonda and Shuri survived the events of ‘AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR’. (Source: @ScreenRant) pic.twitter.com/HIJJfIXLhi

  — DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 24, 2018

• “Thngs Men Have Said While Auditioning For Me” (via Medium)
• Scientists believe they have spotted liquid water under Mars’ polar ice cap and that’s all I need to know, can we leave tomorrow? (via Gizmodo)

What else did you see today on these here Internets?

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