Here’s what we’re talking about as we sip our green tea this morning:
Actress Yaya DaCosta, star of Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic, will host the seventh season of AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, a PBS documentary series on contemporary art, life and culture in the African Diaspora. Season 7 premieres Monday, January 19 on The World Channel.
Last month, a defamation lawsuit was filed against Bill Cosby by a woman named Tamara Green, who claims the former TV dad drugged and assaulted her in the 1970’s. Now, two new women from have joined the defamation lawsuit against Cosby, claiming that he publicly labeled them as liars when they made claims of similar sexual assaults the 1970’s. Cosby’s lawyers have made no comments. [Huffington Post]
Kym Whitley, star of OWN’s Raising Whitley, says she is fearful of raising her three-year-old son in a world of police brutality. “What I will tell my son growing up through the years is that you just have to be careful,” she said in an interview with OWN. “When you see the police, don’t agitate them. My son, he’s going to come up with questions—I have to explain to him that things happen in life. There’s certain things you can stand up for and there’s certain things you can lay down for.” [The Grio]
Rapper-actor Common believes that racism is as present today as it was during the Civil Rights Movement. “Sometimes we say, ‘Oh, because we have an African-American president, and Black people are my friends,’ we act like we’ve gotten past some of the issues, but we haven’t,” he said in an interview. Common believes his role in the biopic Selma helped put his views on racism in perspective. “We all have racial issues where we have to come to a better understanding of each other. That’s what I really believe Selma showed me, to be honest.” [Huffington Post]
In case you didn’t already know, Jazmine Sullivan is here to remind you that she can SANGGG! Check out her rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” in the video clip below and let us know if you think she did Whitney justice.