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Siren is coming to Freeform in three days. BGN has been following the show since last year’s NYCC and we’re excited that it’s almost here! This BGN Exclusive Featurette breaks down what this show is and why folks should watch it. From the gorgeously sweeping shots of Bristol Cove, a fictional northwestern town, to the […]

The post BGN EXCLUSIVE: Siren Featurette Lets Stars Share A New World appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

Social media can be a great way to share your life and interests with the world, but it also forces us into a competition over who has the best-looking, curated life. Even celebrities who are professionals at being looked at can fall prey to that feeling. In an interview on Dax Shepard’s podcast, Armchair Expert, Anna Faris reveals that she had mixed feelings about people referring to her relationship with Pratt as #goals:

“Chris and I did talk about…we got, like on the Twitter feed, ‘Love is dead’ and ‘Relationship goal.’ We obviously cultivated something and it was rewarding for a while. It was like ‘People seem to think we got all this shit all right.’ I had a little bit of a childish feeling of ‘Oh come on, fucking grow up’ — a little anger.”

However, she takes responsibility, saying that she definitely cultivated that image, but that ultimately social media is “a very hard forum to be genuine, and I think it does a disservice to people to not be.” (via Hello Giggles)

• Here’s a great essay from an Asian writer and Wes Anderson fan on some complicated feelings surrounding the portrayal of Japanese culture in Isle of Dogs. (via /Film)
• Linda Brown, who was the little girl at the center of the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case, which desegregated schools, passed away at the age of 76. (via Huffington Post)
• Amber Ruffin, who should really be hosting everything ever, will be hosting the Webby Awards on May 14th. (via Deadline Hollywood)
• Here is an example of why the UK’s The Sun is complete and total transphobic garbage. (via Twitter)
• Meet Calleigh Little, the trans woman who last year became the first woman to skateboard across the entire continental United States. (via Buzzfeed)
• An awesome piece making the case that Women’s History Month really needs to center black women, for once. (via Teen Vogue)

What have you seen today?

(image: screencap)

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A week after Sacramento, Calif. police officers fired 20 shots at 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his backyard, his grandmother is demanding answers. "They didn't have to kill him like that," said Clark's grandmother, Sequita Thompson at a news conference on Monday. "They didn't have to shoot him that many times." After responding to a call of a man allegedly breaking windows in a South Sacramento neighborhood, police claim they spotted Clark at a residence and demanded that he show his hands. According to a press release issued by the department, officers claim the father of two toddlers fled to the back of the house and “turned and advanced towards the officers while holding an object which was extended in front of him.” Officers say they believed Clark was holding a gun and fired 20 shots, striking him several times, before realizing he was actually clutching an iPhone. Thompson, who was home when her grandson was shot, recounted the horror of the night. After hearing the shots, she crawled to the living room with her 7-year-old grandchild in tow and told her husband to call 911. Police claimed they identified themselves before firing on Clark, but Thompson said she only heard gunshots. “The only thing that I heard was pow, pow, pow, pow, and I got to the ground,” Thompson recalled last week. “I opened that curtain and he was dead. I started screaming.” The fatal incident was documented on the officers’ body cameras and the footage was released to the public. The video shows officers gunning down Clark just seconds after arriving on the scene, and then muting their audio when backup arrives and they discuss what happened. To aid in the search for answers, Clark’s family has hired noted civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. “They feel that, at best, police have intentionally misled them, and at worst they flat-out lied to justify this execution of Stephon Clark in his backyard,” Crump said, also noting he plans to bring a lawsuit against the department. “[Police] said the first day after the execution that he had a weapon, that’s why they had to shoot him 20 times. Then the next day they changed it and said he had some kind of crowbar or toolbar, to justify why they had to shoot him 20 times. Then finally they came clean and said he didn’t have any weapon of any sort. All he had was a cell phone.” As investigators work to get to the bottom of what actually happened the night Clark lost his life, Thompson and her family say they want one thing: justice."Why didn't you shoot him in the arm? Shoot him in the legs? Send in dogs? Send in a Taser? Why?" the tearful grandmother asked. "Justice! I want justice for my baby! I want justice for Stephon Clark. Please give us justice!"

Today is the 502nd anniversary of the birth of Conrad Gessner, regarded as the father of modern bibliography, zoology, and botany, according to Wikipedia.