Kofi Siriboe’s short film “Jump” Identifies Mental Health

Kofi Siriboe released his short film “Jump” yesterday and it has already been getting buzz. The film follows Ziggy, a African American male that is detached from reality. Ziggy continues to see a young girl that is telling him to follow her, but every time he finds her, no one is ACTUALLY there. He repeats the words, “I don’t wanna live, I don’t wanna die”, directly signifying his complex with living a life of depression and actually not wanting to ending the life he know (with friends) but doesn’t enjoy. His friend tries to reach out to him but he’s not interested in hanging out or talking. It ends with Ziggy on the bridge considering what to do next…

I’m proud of Kofi Siriboe for this wonderful film. Keep up the good work! OnPoint!

Check out the short film below:

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Kofi Siriboe Brings Awareness To Mental Health in Black Communities

Actor Kofi Siriboe from the film Girls Trip and TV Series Queen Sugar has created a documentary called What the Fuck Is Mental Health? Tackling the unrecognized issues of mental illness in black communities. In the short documentary, a group of young Black speak on their personal experience with mental health and how they have overcome.

Siriboe expressed to the Huffington Post about being inspired to make a documentary dealing with mental health:

Making WTF Is Mental Health? Has been a part of the healing process for me, one I’m still exploring. It’s the combination piece to Jump, a short film I made after a mentor and a big brother figure died by suicide, just before I got the call that I’d then cast in Queen Sugar. I started working on this beautiful, emotional show and felt how liberating it was to channel my fears into art. As I began to mold Jump, I realize the true conversation I was craving centered on young black people who are figuring out this mental health thing, too.

He also explains that he wants Black people to express themselves:

Everybody doesn’t have that language and doesn’t understand that there is a community or world out there of people dealing with similar things, so I want to explore what it is and what it means to us. A lot of our project is just asking questions, and I think with the questions, they’re able to give us answers and able to define these definitions for ourselves rather than what we are accustomed to being told.

It is no secret that Black people have a hard time expressing themselves. It is however difficult for many people to understand WHY Black people have such a hard time expressing themselves. This documentary is just the beginning of a well-needed discussion on mental health in black communities.

NEW VIDEO: Childish Gambino – This Is America

Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino hosted and performed on Saturday Night Live and dropped his new song and music video.

“This Is America” is the first song and video Childish Gambino has released since his 2016 Grammy-nominated album Awaken, My Love! Fans took to social media in the hours after the video’s release, praising Childish Gambino for his social commentary and artistry.(STEMM)

BET Founder Credits The President For Lowering Black Unemployment Rate

Robert Johnson, the founder of BET and the nation’s first Black billionaire, gave Trump supporters something to crow about after he incorrectly credited the president for improving the job outlook for African Americans.

“When you look at African American unemployment, in over 50 years since the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been keeping the numbers, you’ve never had two things: African American unemployment this low and the spread between unemployment among whites and African Americans narrowing,” Johnson said Friday on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

That comment pleased President Donald Trump. Watching a Black man of Johnson’s influence praise Trump also warmed the hearts of right-wing conservative media. Outlets like Breitbart joyfully shared the Johnson’s remarks.

The BET founder, however, failed to note that the Black unemployment rate had declined steadily during President Barack Obama’s presidency. Indeed, economists have credited Obama’s financial recovery initiative from the historic recession for the declining unemployment.

In 2010 during the recession, the Black unemployment rate hit 16.8 percent, but it has continued to decrease falling to 7.8 percent when Trump took office. Johnson cited the December jobs report showing that unemployment among Black workers was at its lowest since the Labor Department began tracking the data in 1972. It fell to 6.9 percent, but it remains nearly double the white unemployment rate of 3.6 percent.

Johnson met with Trump in the weeks after the 2016 election when he was parading high-profile individuals under consideration for cabinet posts in front the media at his golf club in New Jersey. After that meeting, he urged African Americans to have an open mind about Trump.

Bill Cosby unable to defend himself because of his Eyesight

Bill Cosby’s eyesight became the focus of a court hearing Wednesday, with defense lawyers arguing he is too blind to recognize his accusers — and prosecutors saying his vision report looks like it came from “a LensCrafters at the mall.”
Cosby’s attorneys submitted a report that says he has glaucoma in both eyes to the Pennsylvania judge presiding over his sexual abuse case. Prosecutors said it was meaningless.
“You take a look at that report,” Montgomery County Deputy District Attorney Robert Fallin said during the hearing. “It’s really just a print out. It looks like something you’d get walking out of a LensCrafters at the mall.
“I don’t mean to slight LensCrafters,” he added. “They’re great.”
Cosby’s vision is an issue because the defense claims that in the 11 years it took for prosecutors to bring charges against him, his eyesight deteriorated so much that he can’t assist in his defense.
“In the materials the prosecution has turned over…there are photographs. Mr. Cosby cannot look at a photograph,” defense lawyer Angela Agrusa said in court. “He can’t tell you what is in that picture.”
That argument was picked apart by Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neil, who suggested that Cosby doesn’t need to see anything to remember what happened in the past.
“There is no evidence in this case that Mr. Cosby doesn’t have the ability to recollect events,” O’Neil said. “You’re taking the leap to say sight equals the inability to recollect events because you wouldn’t be able to see things that trigger memories.
“That’s a big leap.”
Agrusa countered that Cosby’s problems may not end with his failing eyesight.
“He is physically impaired,” Agrusa said. “I do not have the skills to be able to explain to him how to see. We can’t test his memory because he can’t see. He’s 79 years old. He may very well have memory issues.”
Cosby is charged in Pennsylvania with drugging and molesting Andrea Constand during an encounter in his home in 2004. It’s the only criminal case stemming from accusations by nearly 60 women.
The star has denied all allegations and the statute of limitations has run out on most of the cases, but prosecutors want to bring 13 of his accusers to the witness stand to show a pattern of behavior.
In court papers, Cosby defense argued that some of the accusers may be too old to remember the events accurately.
Gloria Allred, the attorney who represents some of the women, scoffed at that outside court on Tuesday.
“I’m in my senior years, older than most of those women, and I think I can still recollect quite a bit. That’s preposterous, and if that’s all they have then they’re in big trouble,” she said.
The defense is pushing for a dismissal on several other fronts, too. They argue that a prosecutor’s decision not to charge Cosby in 2005 shouldn’t have been reversed by a successor, and that racial bias is fueling the move to put him on trial now.
“My client is not a meme. He’s a human being. And his rights have been trampled. By ego and ambition. I think the discussion stops there,” Agrusa said.
Meanwhile, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele lambasted the defense for publishing the names of accusers who had not come forward publicly.
In motions filed on the eve of the first pre-trial hearing, Cosby’s defense team named all 13 potential witnesses, including one who accused Cosby publicly but under a pseudonym, and two who had not identified themselves.
“It’s another attempt to intimidate witnesses,” Steele charged. 

Via NBC

Ben J and Shakari Briggs Respond To Question about African American Leaders

It is now Black History Month and we have dedicated ourselves to asking our celebz about African American/Black people. We want to address the questions that people of color have been asking, but haven’t gotten legit responses. Although we know not many people will response we will be updating about the ones that do respond. We are in for an interesting month.

Hope that you enjoy our questions and the celeb responses. Don’t forget to comment to keep the conversations going.

Todays Question is “Who are the leaders for our young black men/women today?”

Ben J & @KekePalmer https://t.co/6pqy4KYK8J

— Ben J of New Boyz (@ImBenJBro) February 2, 2016

I couldn't possibly name them all in 140 characters, but @AVAETC @deray & the #BLM founders just to name a few https://t.co/QZbC6rEPmQ

— ShakariSBriggs (@ShakariSBriggs) February 2, 2016