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Neil deGrasse Tyson wishes NASA a happy birthday in emotional reading

9Oct By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Neil deGrasse Tyson wishes NASA a happy birthday in emotional reading

As far as the internet is concerned, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has been having a weird time lately, getting ragged on here and there for some of his not-so-cosmic brain thoughts. But Tyson may be turning some folks back to his side after an emotional reading he did at New York Comic Con. At a NYCC panel, Tyson read a birthday letter he wrote to NASA, which just celebrated its 60th anniversary on Oct. 4. Tyson’s own birthday is Oct. 5th, close enough for the scientist to consider himself and the organization birthday buddies. Tyson recounted his youth watching astronauts like Buzz Aldrin land on the moon, but he also talked about how he felt conflicted watching NASA recruit military pilots at a time when war was becoming less and less popular. Tyson then turned to how racia...

Detroit cop fired for posting racist Snapchat selfie

26Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Detroit cop fired for posting racist Snapchat selfie

Never should law enforcement refer to the people they “protect and serve” as “zoo animals.” Especially, if they are playing into the centuries-old dehumanization of Black people. Thankfully, the Detroit police chief agrees and fired one of his rookie cops for doing such as a thing. “If you feel that way, you’re not welcome here and we’re not going to have any tolerance for this kind of behavior,” Chief James Craig said on Monday. According to Detroit News, 27-year-old officer Sean Bostwick, who is white, was fired on Monday after posting a Snapchat selfie the Saturday before, captioning the post that he was about to start “another night to rangel [sic] up these zoo animals.” In the Snapchat post, Bostwick is in uniform, sporting knitted eyebrows and a slightly duckface-ish lip pucker...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez congratulates ‘sister in service’ Ayanna Pressley on historic win

17Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez congratulates ‘sister in service’ Ayanna Pressley on historic win

With no Republicans running in Massachusetts’ 7th District and after beating out incumbent Rep. Michael E. Capuano in last night’s primary, Democratic candidate Ayanna Pressley is set to head to Congress—and be the first Black woman in the state to do so. Which can explain the overwhelming tears of joy she experienced after finding out she had won. In a video shared Tuesday evening, Pressley, 44, is seen fanning her hand over her heart, then taking a stand and asking “We won? We won?” before breaking into tears, crying, “Oh, my God,” and hugging people around the room. The video has been viewed more than 600,000 times and has received more than 35,000 likes, accruing comments from viewers such as, “Why am I cryin’ like I won too?!!” The moment when @AyannaPressley learned she won. No...

White man pulls gun on Black students waiting outside a friend’s apartment

13Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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White man pulls gun on Black students waiting outside a friend’s apartment

Tallahassee Police are investigating an incident in which four Black Florida A&M University students had a gun pulled on them by a white man at an apartment complex for off-campus student housing. The man, identified as Don Crandall, told the students they weren’t allowed to get into the apartment complex, nor ride the elevator with him, according to a video of the incident that has gone viral. Crandall has since been fired from his job as a hotel general manager. According to BuzzFeed News, Isaiah Butterfield and his three friends, Fitzroy Rhoden, Stephen Brooks, Joshua Cosby—all juniors at FAMU, a historically Black college—were going to a friend’s apartment at the Stadium Centre apartment complex on Saturday for a party. While in the parking garage, waiting for the friend, Z...

Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ showrunner leaves Twitter after racist backlash

13Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ showrunner leaves Twitter after racist backlash

For a show that doesn’t actually exist yet, Netflix‘s The Witcher is provoking a lot of strong opinions. Some because it’s based on a massively popular video game and book series, some because Henry Cavill just got cast in the lead role, and others because, well… they’re racist. This issue reared its head over the weekend, thanks to a casting call requesting non-white actresses to audition for the role of Ciri. The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich—who until now had been actively discussing the show on Twitter—announced she was taking a break from social media on Monday. “The hate is enlightening,” Hissrich wrote. It's time for a Twitter hiatus. The love here is amazing, and the hate is enlightening, like a real-life Trial of the Grasses, except I HAVE to read less and write m...

Louisiana math teacher ‘disciplined’ for lengthy, racist Facebook comment

11Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Louisiana math teacher ‘disciplined’ for lengthy, racist Facebook comment

In a racist Facebook rant, a Louisiana high school teacher minimized the history of slavery and said that Black people should “stop acting like animals,” angering parents who saw the post and who then reported it to the school. Slidell High School mathematics teacher Valerie Scogin made the now-deleted Facebook comment on a graduate’s post last week, according to the New Orleans Advocate, essentially taking a tour through basic racist talking points. Screenshots show Scogin seemed to think she has a solution for all Black people’s woes. Her first suggestion, “They don’t have to live in that country, they could go back,” essentially boils down to “go back to Africa.” The post continues to go downhill from there. Scogin blames Black people for slavery, saying “it was their own people s...

Top immigration hire loses job offer over Islamophobic Facebook posts

2Sep By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Top immigration hire loses job offer over Islamophobic Facebook posts

An Army director who was hired for a top post at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) won’t be filling the role after all. On Friday, it was discovered by BuzzFeed News that the former brigadier general had made of a string of anti-Muslim Facebook posts, and he has since been let go. Between 2015 and 2016, Guy Sands-Pingot, who had served in the Army for 28 years and was supposed to start his job as USCIS deputy director later this month, had reportedly posted (and since deleted) numerous Islamaphobic articles and memes. This included a photo of Jeff Foxworthy beside a Muslim caricature below the quote, “If you were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs, you may be a Muslim,” according to screenshots posted by BuzzFeed. In 2016,...

Trump’s first-ever tweet about Africa as president is about white people

23Aug By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

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Trump’s first-ever tweet about Africa as president is about white people

President Donald Trump made his first-ever tweet as president about Africa late Tuesday. It is about the white people being treated unfairly. I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018 Trump’s order to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on the words of cable news host Tucker Carlson, to investigate the seizing of farms from white people in South Africa was read online as an explicit overture to the president’s white nationalist supporters. From 1960-1983, 3,500,000 Non-White South Africans were removed from their homes and fo...

Bar blasted for offensive ‘Tuskegee Experiment’ cocktail

21Aug By viralzergnet.comNo Comments

WTF

Bar blasted for offensive ‘Tuskegee Experiment’ cocktail

A Connecticut restaurant is reworking its cocktail menu following complaints from customers about a drink named “the Tuskegee Experiment.” Last Wednesday Eric Armour posted a picture of the specialty cocktail menu at the 323 Restaurant in Westport, Connecticut, with a particular drink called “the Tuskegee Experiment” circled in pink. “Umm. This is ridiculously horrible,” he wrote on Facebook. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.1'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Umm. This is ridiculously horrible. H/t to Lea Posted by Eric A Armour on Wednesday, August 1...