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Coffee Shop Exits Duke University’s Campus After Rap Music Incident Ends With Firing
Three Black Doctors Write Book To Inspire Black Boys
Drs. Joe Semien, Jr., Pierre Johnson and Maxime Madhere.
DURHAM, N.C. —- Duke University Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Mon- eta visited the Joe Van Gogh coffee shop on campus on May 4, as he frequently does.
But while in the shop, the baristas were playing music from Spotify over the speak- ers , as they often do, and the rap song he heard on the speakers bothered him.
“Get paid ... get paid,” Young Dolp raps in the song, using the n-word. “Whatever you do, just make sure you get paid.”
The baristas got fired.
The two baristas on duty, Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons, told Indy Week, that their contracts were ter- minated after Moneta com- plained to the director of dining services about the pro- fane song.
“Duke University has in- structed us to terminate the employees that were working that day,” the human re- sources worker said, offering them severance.
The owner of Joe Van Gogh
Young Dolph’s song ‘Get Paid’ led to Duke V.P., Larry Moneta complaining and the baristas, Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons being fired. However, the complaint led to student protest ant the coffee shop owner moving the business off the campus.
Pierre Johnson, Maxime Madhere and Joe Semien Jr. said they knew the odds were stacked against them when they entered Xavier Uni- versity of Louisiana in 1998 with hopes of becoming doc- tors.
According to a A.P. report, the trio say their early lives, college struggles, and victories are chronicled in "Pulse of Perseverance: Three Black Doctors on Their Journey to Success.” They said they wrote the book to show African- American boys that athletes and entertainers aren't the only examples of Black
achievement and success.
All three are board-certified doctors: Madhere, an anes- thesiologist in Baton Rouge; Semien, an obstetrician/gy- necologist in Lake Charles, and Johnson, an obstetri- cian/gynecologist working in
Chicago.
The men chose Xavier,
knowing that the nation's only HBCU Catholic institution consistently places Black stu- dents in medical school.
The three doctors decided to tell their stories in one proj- ect because they'd already proven they could work to- gether.
Coffee is closing his shop on the Duke University campus, he said a week later, to pre- serve the company’s “brand independence without condi- tions.”
Company owner Robbie Roberts said in a statement on the Joe Van Gogh web- site that the decision would be effective immediately and that all employees of the Duke shop would be offered jobs at other stores or in the produc- tion offices
That includes, he said, two baristas who were fired.
Brown said she felt it was “not fair” for the coffee shop
to fire Simmons, who had no control over the music that day. Brown is African Amer- ican, and Simmons is white.
Students at Duke protested the firings and even had boomboxes play Dolph’s lyri- cal hymnal. And something about the firing didn’t sit right with the owner.
When Young Dolph heard that his lyrical hiero- glyphics had caused two fans to lose their job he couldn’t stand it. He not only flew both employees out to his Rolling Loud performance but he blessed the former employees with $20,000.
Folks Throw Party At Spot Where White Woman Called Police On Black Barbecue
Unidentified white woman calls police on Black family.
N. C. Policeman Chokes Man At Waffle House After Incident With Waitstaff
WARSAW, N. C. —-Waffle House is facing more scrutiny after a string of incidents have shed light on disparaging treatment of black customers. In the latest video to go viral, an officer from the Warsaw Police Department is seen choking a Black customer out- side of a Waffle House in War- saw, North Carolina last Saturday (May 5).
The footage shows 22-year- old, Anthony Wall being vi- olently restrained and arrested after getting into an argument with several em- ployees, which resulted in po- lice being called to the location.
Wall stopped to grab food at the restaurant after taking his 16-year-old sister to prom earlier in the night. Though the details surrounding his ar- gument with the waitstaff are unclear, Wall took responsi- bility for his words with em- ployees inside the restaurant, and said that he shared the ar- rest video on social media Tuesday (May 8) to raise awareness.
The footage shows an offi- cer choking Wall, who’s dressed in a tuxedo, up against one of the restaurant’s windows before slamming
Screenshot from the video shows 22-year-old, Anthony Wall being violently re- strained.
him on the ground.
“I was pretty much trying
to scream for air to breathe because he was holding my throat,” Wall told North Car- olina’s ABC 11.
Police charged Wall with disorderly conduct for the ar- gument with employees, and resisting arrest. “Your hands should have never been around my neck like that if my hands were in the air,” Wall said of the officer involved.
The Warsaw Police De-
partment is investigating the “whole incident, interviewing witnesses and gathering addi- tional video.” The department also informed the local Dis- trict Attorney of the investiga- tion.
The mayor of the North Carolina town where a 22- year-old Black man’s violent arrest in a Waffle House has drawn wide scrutiny and prompted an internal investi- gation defended the police in a video he posted Friday.
“This is not a racially mo- tivated issue,” Warsaw Mayor A. J. Connors said in the video. “This was just a young man who had broken the law and a law enforcement officer arrested him.”
The Waffle House has yet to speak out on the incident with Wall, but the company defended police in a separate violent arrest of customer, Chikesia Clemons, in Ala- bama last month, eliciting calls for a boycott of the com- pany.
Another Black female cus- tomer was locked out of Waf- fle House in Pinson, Ala. the same day that a white gunman killed four Black and Latino victims inside a Tennessee lo- cation.
OAKLAND, CA —-A white woman called the police on a black family at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, last month while they were setting up for a day at the park.
Their crime, according to the unidentified woman, was grilling in one of the park’s designated barbecue zones using a charcoal grill, instead of a “non-charcoal” grill.
The April 29 incident was filmed by a witness named Michelle Snider, who con- fronted the woman for calling the police on the family.
In recent weeks, a number of incidents around the U.S. have involved white people calling the police on Black people and other people of
color.
Police responded to the in-
cident, but did not issue any ci- tations, according to Oakland Council member Lynette Gibson McElhaney, though the family was detained and questioned for one hour.
She added: “Police are not a private security for any white person that’s offended by the presence of Black folks in our public spaces.”
Snider’s video of the con- frontation went viral on Thurs- day after KRON4, a San Francisco news station, aired a segment on it.
The Black folk of Oakland descended on Lake Merritt Park in numbers on Saturday to throw a cookout.
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