Page 24 - 4-17-15 Friday's Edition

National
Bullied About Skintone,
Clorox Folks Apologize For Tweets
The brand folks for Clorox made a mess and offended some folks when they tweeted about the new multicultural emojis released for iPhones.
“New emojis are all right, but where’s the bleach?” Clorox tweeted. These new emojis of color include Black and Brown people’s faces.
Some folks called the tweet racially insensitive while oth- ers said folks were being too sensitive. Nevertheless, Clorox removed the tweet and issued an apology.
Former NFLer Suspected Of Killing Cellmate
LAWRENCE PHILLIPS
A former NFL first round draft pick out of Nebraska finds himself a suspect in the murder of his cellmate at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, CA.
Lawrence Phillips, 39, a running back who was drafted in 1995, is under investigation for possibly murdering Damion Soward, who died early Saturday morning.
Soward, 37, was in prison for murder and died at Delano Regional Medical Center.
Interestingly, prison offi- cials say there was another murder in the facility on the same day. That victim’s cell- mate is also the main suspect in that case. It’s unclear if the two murders are related.
Phillips’ legal problems continued after he left the NFL. He was arrested in 2005 for driving his car into three teens after playing against them in pickup football. At the time he was wanted by police in LA and San Diego for as- saulting a former girlfriend. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for felony assault with a deadly weapon (his car). All totaled, Phillips’ combined prison term adds up to 31 years.
Cancer Patient Turned Away From Restaurant Because Of Head Covering
Student Wins $10,000 Scholarship
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Rachel Bruno, a woman from Indiana who was cele- brating the end of a chemotherapy treatment, was recently turned away from a local restaurant called Lati- tude 360 because of what she was wearing.
33-year-old Rachel was reportedly meeting her family at the restaurant, and she was wearing a knitted cap to cover her bald head. Her hair had fallen out because of her treat- ments. But upon entering the restaurant, Bruno was told she was in violation of the company’s dress code that prohibits skullcaps, bandanas, brimless hats and stocking caps. She was then asked to
leave.
She was so
insulted that she posted her experi- ence on Face- book, which
RACHEL went viral BRUNO and led to coverage on the local news station. An ex- ecutive with Latitude 360 called Rachel to personally apologize about what he says was an “embarrassing mis- take”. He said while employ- ees were following policy, they got it wrong in this case. He then followed up with a public apology that aired on the local television new stations in In-
dianapolis.
“Burnt toast.” “Dark as night.’’ These were the kinds of racially charged comments that Nosa Akol walked into on her very first day of mid- dle school, which would mark the first time in her life she’d ever been subjected to bullying.
The results were damag- ing. Nosa admits that inse- curities started to take over. “I felt really insecure,” the 17- year-old student from Bing- hamton, N.Y., recalls.
Originally from South Sudan, Nosa, who has a rich, dark skin tone, came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 5 years old.
“Growing up in Sudan, everyone there has the same skin tone; no one points that out.”
But Nosa’s story is one of triumph and overcoming her insecurities. The Binghamton High School student, who joined Citizen U 4-H as a freshman, has been an- nounced as the 2015 recipi-
NOSA AKOL
ent of the 4-H Youth in Ac- tion Award, the highest honor in the organization.
She was chosen out of more than 80 other candi- dates because of her phe- nomenal story, in which she overcame her personal strug- gles while empowering her peers and facilitating positive change in her community. Nosa will be honored at the National 4-H Council’s sixth annual Legacy Awards on April 23 in Washington, D.C. The prize is a $10,000 Schol- arship.
Mom Is Arrested For Leaving Her Disabled Son In The Woods
Prosecutors Charge Oklahoma Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy For Death Of Black Man
Eric Harris was killed by Robert Bates.
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- A 41-year-old Philadelphia, Penn., woman is accused of abandoning her disabled son for five days in a park with only a blanket and a Bible.
Police on Saturday said that they’ve issued a warrant for the arrest of the victim’s mother, Nyia Parler, 41, writes the News. She is ac- cused of leaving her son on a pile of leaves in Cobbs Creek Park on last Monday morning before skipping town to see her boyfriend in Maryland, the report says.
Late Friday a passer-by discovered the 21-year-old man, a nonverbal quadriplegic who also has cerebral palsy, lying near an empty wheel- chair without any provisions.
The unidentified alleged victim is receiving treatment for a cut on his back, dehydra- tion, malnutrition and expo- sure and is in stable condition.
Parler was hospitalized for an undisclosed condition in Maryland and was arrested upon release.
Once she is extradited to Pennsylvania, she’ll be charged with aggravated as- sault, reckless endangerment and neglect of a dependent person.
Prosecutors charged a re- serve sheriff's deputy with manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who was fa- tally shot as he lay on the ground at the officer's feet — a shooting that was certain to raise questions about the use of volunteer officers to sup- plement full-time police.
The sheriff's office has said Robert Bates, a 73- year-old insurance executive who was volunteering on an undercover operation in Tulsa, mistakenly pulled out his handgun instead of his stun gun and shot the sus- pect as he struggled with deputies.
Bates, who is white, was charged with second-degree manslaughter involving "cul- pable negligence" for the April 2 death of Eric Har-
ris, a 44-year-old black man. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.
It was the latest fatal shooting by a police officer to draw national attention after months of investigations and protests of other deaths in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City, Los Angeles and other elsewhere.
A video of the incident shot by a deputy with a sun- glass camera and released Friday at the request of the victim's family, shows a deputy chase and tackle Harris, whom they said tried to sell an illegal gun to an undercover officer.
As the deputy subdues Harris on the ground, a gunshot rings out and a man says: "Oh, I shot him. I'm sorry."
BALTIMORE, MD --- Someone should have sent the manager at a Baltimore Hoot- ers photos of chocolate-com- plexioned natives in Australia with naturally blond hair, be- cause that might have saved the restaurant chain over $250,000.
That’s the amount of money Farryn Johnson, a former waitress, was awarded in a lawsuit she filed in 2013 after she said she was fired for wearing blond highlights in her hair.
In her lawsuit, Johnson explained that while her col- leagues were allowed to high- light their hair and wear blond streaks, she was told by her manager that she was not al- lowed to wear blond streaks because blond streaks don’t look natural on African-Amer- ican women.
"The manager at the time literally said, 'You can't have blond because black people
FARRYN JOHNSON
don't have blond hair,' " Johnson said.
Johnson wore her hair how she wanted anyway and said that little by little, she began to be punished for wear- ing her blond streaks. First her hours were cut, and then, eventually, she was let go.
An arbitrator last Thursday wrote that Hooters violated state and federal civil rights laws by implementing the hair policy in a manner that "ad- versely [affected] African- American women."
Hooters categorically de- nies firing Johnson because of the blond streaks in her hair.
Former Hooters Girl Wins $250,000 Suit Against Them
PAGE 12-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015