Woman featured in Ivanka Trump’s new book reacts: ‘Don’t use my story’

Ivanka Trump released a self-help guide this week for working women, and it ignited mixed reactions from some of the role models featured in the book.

Will holiday filmgoers remember or care about Sony’s insulting e-mails?

Whether fans of the celebrities insulted in snarky, leaked e-mails will decide to punish Sony Pictures Entertainment by withholding box-office dollars might be the least of the beleaguered company’s problems. But it is a problem in our entertainment-hungry society, where competition for attention and audience is fierce.

In a police shooting case in Charlotte, fewer headlines but familiar call for justice

CHARLOTTE — Now it’s Charlotte’s turn in an unwanted spotlight. The story is familiar – white police officer, unarmed black man, a shooting and the one without the gun dead in the street. Loved ones grieve, a mother holds a Winnie the Pooh doll from a childhood not too many years past and protesters demand action.

Charlotte is not Ferguson, Mo., or New York City – not this time. Randall Kerrick, the 28-year-old officer who killed 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell in September 2013, was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter. And now the public waits for a resolution. Kerrick made his first, brief court appearance on Thursday. The next is scheduled for early next year – this will take a while.

When GOP staffer put Obama children ‘at a bar,’ it continued American tradition of trashing black females’ morality

In keeping with the Christian theme of her self-serving apology, Elizabeth Lauten has blessedly resigned from her post as the communications director for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (R-Tenn.). She had said prayer showed her the error of her ways, though one would think she would not need a higher power to tell her that trashing Malia and Sasha Obama for dress and demeanor at a turkey pardoning was not the best idea.

But tucked into the usual partisan sniping of her original Facebook comments and expected swipes at President Obama and Michelle Obama through their children was something deeply disturbing and unsettling. Her rant against the girls read, “Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar.” Let that sink in. She placed two children ages 13 and 16 in a bar, a very adult setting – a place where you can drink, flirt and, in some cities, smoke.

That’s not frivolous, but insidious. And it’s nothing new. Lauten’s mind traveled back to a disgusting place and time, when black women were disrespected, denied a spot on the pedestal of virtue white women occupied. Those views – apparently alive and well – excused the abuse and disregard of human beings judged not worthy of respect or consideration by people who prayed as hard as Lauten says she does.

Though others may judge, Janay Rice tells her story her way

Now the woman who has become a symbol, who inspired “Why I Stayed” and “Why I Left” hash tags, is telling her side of the story. It’s understandable.

Darren Wilson saw ‘a demon.’ What do you see?

“He looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face.” That’s how police officer Darren Wilsondescribed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. “The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon.”

Wilson’s testimony convinced the grand jurors and others that the officer was justified in shooting and killing Brown last summer in Ferguson, Mo. Yes, the citizens did a tough job admirably when confronted with mountains of material. But could they also have been affected by research that says black boys as young as 10 are seen as older and guiltier than their white peers?

In an August column “So, black teens who aren’t angels deserve whatever they get?” I wrote, “The shelf life for innocence is short when you are a black male — and there is no room for error.” You don’t get the second chance others might have after an incident of teenage rebellion, such as mouthing off to an authority figure or a more serious scrape. See any number of car-overturning, fire-burning melees after a big sports victory or loss for proof of a double standard.

The answer to the question I posed then has consequences for all Americans because Ferguson, Mo., is about more than one shooting in one town in Middle America. Whatever anyone thinks of the grand jury’s findings, “it” was not a “demon.” Michael Brown was a very human being.

 

As Bill Cosby’s accusers find their voices, Camille Cosby loses hers

Camille Cosby was always a strong presence in the life and work of Bill Cosby, even as she at times has struggled, she has admitted, to find her own voice. That sacrifice was a part of what it meant to be married to the “Cos.” Beautiful as ever, she has been seen — though not heard — a lot more than usual recently; she sits at the comedian’s side as he mostly refuses to answer questions about accusations of sexual assault. And she has been an off-stage prop when he brags about his five-decade marriage to applause from crowds at tour dates that have not yet been cancelled.

She deserves better.

Mia Love is black, Mormon, Republican and blowing people’s minds

Mia Love is already getting more attention than most of her newly elected congressional colleagues. She is Haitian American, a woman, daughter of immigrants, Mormon, Republican and from Utah, all things that she seems eager to boast about, except when she isn’t, as those who contrasted her post-election speech with a subsequent CNN interview noted. But her own confusion about when to tout her history-making achievement and when to downplay it is more than matched with the contortions of others who are trying to figure her out.

 

For Democrats, ‘war on women’ message fails to motivate enough voters

CHARLOTTE– What were midterm voters feeling? That would be concern about jobs and the economy and anxiety over Islamic terrorism and the Ebola virus creeping over American borders. A Democratic “war on women” message that helped Terry McAuliffe become Virginia’s governor in 2013 did not gain much traction with a 2014 electorate in a foul mood and ready to blame it on President Obama and a gridlocked Congress.

The gender gap was not wide enough to save Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado, Bruce Braley in Iowa or incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina. Astute and well-financed campaigns honed a Republican message that worked spectacularly. And women who did show up at the polls let it be known that they hardly walk in gender lockstep on issues of education, the economy and abortion and choice.

Are Democratic candidates who steer clear of Obama pushing away black voters?

The third in a list of five myths about black voters by The Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson is: Candidates who distance themselves from President Obama risk losing black voters. That may be a myth, because African Americans in the United States lived with compromise before they could even vote, much less vote for a black candidate for the top office in the country. But in this year’s midterm election, the loyal-for-the-most-part Democrats may mark their ballots with weary resignation and some dissatisfaction.