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Nike Releases Its Black Dollars’ Matter Campaign, and I Love It

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First of all, Nike ain’t new to this, they are absolutely true to this. Last year, around this time, I decided I needed to address the NikeID Custom Air Huarache that had been weighing on my spirit. As I was trying to fix it with some new shoes because I thought it would make me feel better, completely forgetting Solange’s warning, I pooched (shout out to King of Reads) over to Nike.com and immediately noticed the full array of Blackness prevalent on the site. Their homepage was so steeped in Black culture, I thought for sure Nike.com was tracking me and created this website for my personal consumption just to get me to buy two pair of sneakers. It worked.

This latest ad campaign featuring Serena Williams as the mythic tennis Goddess and Colin Kaepernick as the self-sacrificing Black King was not surprising at all. It would appear that the Nike marketing department took a look at the numbers and realized the one thing I wish more corporations would get – Black people love Nike’s shit and they decided to talk directly to us. And I bet these same statistics show that Black women are far more educated with more disposable income than cis-het men, and Nike decided to really pay attention to what we get excited about – Serena is definitely it. Serena’s ad, which is beautiful in the most beautiful way, is a thinly veiled manifestation of Black Girl Magic. Reflecting the community that keeps you fed in your advertisements is so simple that it makes me wonder why Waffle House and Papa John’s and Chick-Fil-A don’t get it. You would have thought Black Panther’s success would have been enough, Marvel got it. Rumor has it they are planning to refilm scenes of Infinity Wars 2 to show more Wakanda. And I’m buying all the tickets.

Lest we forget, it must be mentioned that Nike is a multi-million (billion maybe?) dollar, international corporation, and corporations cannot, by their very nature, have morals. Corporations exist purely for capitalistic reasons, and there are no morals or high-mindedness in capitalism. To those of you prepared to build an altar to Nike, simmer down (Listen, they allegedly still have those babies in workshops stitching up all this sh*t, so let’s not get it twisted). It’s purely a dollar and cents thing; and honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Really, that’s the only good thing about capitalism – my money (or lack thereof) has the potential to influence you to represent my needs. Nike gets it.

To those of you prepared to build an altar to Nike, simmer down (Listen, they allegedly still have those babies in workshops stitching up all this sh*t, so let’s not get it twisted). It’s purely a dollar and cents thing. Click To Tweet

In my lifetime, I have spent a small fortune on Nike products just like most of the people in my family, all my friends, my neighbors, too many of us for them to ignore. Kanye said it best, “We shine because they hate us, floss ’cause they degrade us. We tryna buy back our 40 acres.” And if Nike is going to keep doing this, they can keep getting my money.

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Rolling Ray Undergoes Surgery After Wig Catches On Fire

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Social media star Rolling Ray underwent surgery Tuesday morning to treat serious burns on his body after his terrible wig accident last week. 

In a series of IG stories, he let his audience follow along as he prepped for surgery.

Last week Rolling Ray announced he was hospitalized after his wig caught on fire! During a January 13 Instagram Live session hosted straight from his hospital bedside, he showed his severely burnt and damaged face telling viewers his “whole skin, legs, arms, feet, and everything” were burned.

In a more recent Live, Ray explained the incident that led to his whole wig catching on fire: an unfortunate smoking accident. “It just, like, lit on fire when I tried to light the cigarette,” he recounted. “So I get to trying to snatch the wig off. B***h, the fire goes to my f*****g shirt, to my feet, to my legs, to my back. It’s a fire everywhere, it’s a fire in the whole room.” 

Of course the internet trolled him in a disgusting display of ableism and heartlessness. Comments like “Rolling Ray should have stopped, dropped, and rolled” and “karma’s a b***h” had social media conflicted in its feelings about his accident. His sensation comes from his harsh and, often, below-the-belt reads (just last month he told Yung Miami to “dig (sic) up” her dead baby father. However, the criticism didn’t stop him from responding on Twitter. 

Rolling Ray might be problematic as all get-out, but we do not tolerate ableism here. We wish him well as he heals.

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Fantasia Reveals Gender of Baby On the Way!

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On Tuesday singer-songwriter and “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino took to social media to reveal that she is having a baby girl, her first child with husband Kendall Taylor.

In a series of Instagram stories, Fantasia showed pink fireworks being shot off during a gender reveal party, to her and her hubby’s excitement! She continued by sharing what her daughter-to-be’s name will be: Keziah London Taylor.

The news comes after the couple revealed they had struggled to conceive since their 2015 marriage. During a November episode of her IG Live show “Taylor Talks,” she described continuously praying for a child with her husband. Fantasia, a deeply devout Christian, was obviously elated when she shared the news.

“God I Want To Thank You!” she said in an Instagram caption. “You Gave Us A Seed even when the Doctor said that one of my Tubes [was] Closed you said Different. @salute1st I Love You King and I can’t wait to see who He or She acts Like.”

We can see Fantasia and family are all super excited to be welcoming a baby girl into their lives. All congratulations to her.

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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Are Getting Divorced, Report Says

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In a story published Tuesday evening, Page Six is reporting that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are getting divorced, with the two already in settlement talks. The news comes after the couple spent the holiday season separately – Kanye at his ranch outside Cody, Wyoming, Kim and the kids with her famous family in southern California. 

A source close to Kardashian was quoted saying, “Kim got Kanye to go up there so they could live separate lives and quietly get things sorted out to separate and divorce. She’s done.” Kardashian, 40, and West, 43, are said to be splitting because of marital problems directly related to Kanye’s very public mental health struggles.

For several years the rapper’s various antics have caused fans to worry. After coming out as a Trump supporter, West then announced his own 2020 presidential bid under a new political party: the Birthday Party. At a campaign rally in South Carolina, he was seen rambling, debating individual audience members, and at times, crying. In various interviews, he has rambled on almost incoherently, and his tweetstorms are now infamous.

For her part, Kim has always supported her husband and has openly discussed the difficulties of their marriage. Back in June, she shared on social media, “Anyone who has [bipolar disorder] or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand… People who are unaware or far removed from this experience can be judgmental and not understand that the individual (has) to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.”

It appears she has finally reached her limit in the union with the unnamed source saying, “She is serious about taking the bar exam and becoming a lawyer, she is serious about her prison reform campaign. Meanwhile Kanye is talking about running for president and saying other crazy s**t, and she’s just had enough of it.”

Separately, a source close to Kanye alleges the rapper is sick of his wife and her family, which might have some truth to it since he has tweeted some pretty nasty things about them in the past. “I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf [sic] for ‘prison reform,’” he said in a now-deleted July tweet. Recently, he hasn’t been featured on his wife’s Instagram and has largely remained out of the public eye.

With the news yet to be confirmed, the “divorce is imminent” reports are just rumors for now. We’ll be following the news as more information comes out.

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