50 years ago, brave people marched across a bridge to demand equal rights for Black people in the USA. This weekend we honor their action gratefully. See President Obama speak in Selma, Alabama.
▶ Selma to mark 50th anniversary of historic civil rights march, ‘Bloody Sunday’ – YouTube.
A man who was mocked for dancing, with his picture uploaded online, will be the center of a VIP dance party with nearly 2,000 women – thanks to the internet.
Someone posted a split-screen image to an online forum, with one side showing a picture of the man dancing, the other with him standing there looking down at the ground. The poster captioned it “Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing.”
That’s when an online group of women in LA decided they wanted to reach out to the so-called “Dancing Man.” One of the women, known as Cassandra, tweeted out the picture asking for help identifying the man, saying the group of women wanted to throw him a special dance party.
Several hours later, someone tweeted them a picture of what appeared to be Dancing Man. Cassandra wrote she was able to get a message to him online, and he sent a photo to confirm his identity and his real name, Sean. He also said he’d gladly accept their invitation to a dance party.
“My conversation with Sean has restored my faith in humanity,” Cassandra wrote. “Despite this cruel attempt to shame an innocent man, at the end of our talk, he said ‘Big-hearted people far outweight the small minded, every day of the week.”
The search for Dancing Man quickly went viral online, with many people joining the effort to help fund the party or offer services. Musician Moby tweeted he would DJ the party for free. And even pop star Pharell tweeted him and said he would attempt the party.
New York City mayor Bill De Blasio annouces that, as promised, New York public schools will now have 2 Muslim holidays added to their calendar, starting next school year.
New York Public Schools Add Two Muslim Holidays in Their Calender: Mayor Bill de Blasio – YouTube.
This is what Michelle Obama has to say about this program:
“Right now, 62 million girls across the globe are not in school. These girls are our future doctors, teachers, and entrepreneurs – they are the dreamers and visionaries who could change the world as we know it if they just had the chance to get the education they need.
This issue is personal for me, because I see myself in these girls. I see my daughters in these girls. And I refuse to just sit back and accept the barriers that keep them from realizing their boundless promise.
That is why I am thrilled to announce that we’re expanding our efforts to “Let Girls Learn” with a new, community-focused girls’ education initiative across the globe. Through this new effort, we’ll be collaborating with the Peace Corps to support hundreds of new community projects – from building school libraries to creating girls’ technology camps – to help girls go to school and stay in school.”
After being fitted with a “bionic eye,” a blind man has been able to see his wife again for the first time in a decade, and they are both pretty overwhelmed…
The device needs further adjustment alongside some physical therapy. However, Mr Zderad can already see things like human forms and outlines of objects in intermittent flashes, and is even able to see his own reflection as a silhouette. He will probably never be able to see the details of faces, but he will be able to navigate his way around without a cane, which is a big boost to his quality of life.
“What an exciting, emotional thing to say: ‘Yes, that is my wife,’” Zderad said. “I am grateful they made this as much about the person as the technology.”
via Mayo Clinic patient’s first impressions with bionic eye – YouTube.
Many women are attacked, harmed or killed in Turkey. A 17-year-old and a 20-yer-old were recently raped and killed. Some brave men wanted to show support and demand protection for their sisters, daughters, mothers and friends. They wore skirts in a big march in Istambul to show there should be no difference in the way women and men are treated in their country. They want Turkey to be a safer place for the women in their lives.
▶ Men In Skirts Protest Violence Against Women In Turkey – YouTube.
▶ Hey Academy, I’m a Woman. – YouTube.
The Oscars Academy is 93% white and 76% male… In the Directing, Writing and Cinematography sections, nominees were 26 men to… 0 women! Isn’t it time they included some diversity?
Three actresses got fed up with the Academy for excluding women and wrote a song about it. Go girls!
This great lady will be visiting our school on Monday March 9th 2015.
This brave mother lost her son when Mohamed Merah killed him a few years ago. Instead of collapsing she took action and becale an activist against radicalisation.
Now she visits middle schools and high schools in France to talk to young people about integration, brotherhood, religion, family, and the need to integrate to play a part in society.
Here is a video explaining her story and showing her action:
Grieving mother turned activist against radicalization – The National – CBC Player.
▶ Yusor Abu-Salha Blessed To Be American – YouTube.
This young girl, her husband and her sister were killed recently by a neighbor. The inquest is not over so we don’t know yet if this was a hate crime against Muslims or a neighborhood killing. Either way, their deaths are a sad blow to the community of Chappel Hill they belonged to.
Yusor Abu-Salha had spoken in an interview of what being an American women felt like for her. Here are extracts of this interview:
At the Grammy Awards ceremony, several artists paid tribute to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which honours the memory of young Black men who were killed in the past months or year. Here is a short mashup of these tributes :
Black Lives Matter Movement at the Grammys | Billboard.
Pharrell Williams’s song “Happy”, which won three awards, was sung to a background of young Black men wearing hoodies, like 17-year-old Trayvon Martin who was killed as he was peacefully walking near his sister’s home after buying candy and soda. Trayvon’s killer was not convicted. A “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” demonstration was done during his performance. Williams thus payed homage to late 18-year old, unarmed Michael Brown who was shot by the police in August 2014.
Beyonce sang the gospel song “Precious Lord Take My Hand” to a backing choir of Black men in white suits, their hands up in the same homage gesture.
Prince made a statement, saying “albums matter, like books and Black lives matter”, refering to the Black Lives Matter movement.
During the Grammy awards ceremony yesterday, President Obama had a message to ask artists to help fight against the violence so many women suffer from.
▶ President Obama’s Message at the 2015 GRAMMY Awards – YouTube.
Here is what famous athlete Kasey Studdard has to say about being in Special Education for Learning Disabilities as a child:
“I was teased, ridiculed, and isolated.”
“It wasn’t for a lack of intelligence, but I simply couldn’t comprehend things in the same ways the other kids did.”
“Though I often nodded my head to signal that I understood, I did not.”
“Kids can be very mean…” ““Ha-ha, you’re in the RETARD class now!,” they mocked. “Kasey’s so stupid, they had to kick him out of our class,” they teased.”
“In my early teens, to my surprise, I found that I could do things on the court and on the field that other kids could not. Sports became my salvation.”
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t live solely on sports fields. That meant years and years of remedial coursework, time spent before and after school, and countless late nights just to keep up. My mother always made sure the work got done — and for that I will be eternally grateful.”
“it wasn’t the hard work that impacted me most growing up. It was the other students, my special education classmates — the ones with severe mental and physical disabilities who had it far worse than I did — who taught me more about life than any lesson plan ever could. For them, the struggle wasn’t just about self-esteem or fitting in or being “normal,” it was about survival itself.”
“That’s why I have always stood up for the less-fortunate.”
“Whenever I saw a disabled or disadvantaged child at one of our training camps, I would always take time to greet them with a smile and a hug, and to ask how they were doing .”
“I was one of the lucky ones — with sports providing salvation just in time — but everyone deserves an opportunity to shine.”
Here is a video showing how the R-word (“retarded”) can be as offensive as any other insult against minorities.
You can take the pledge to stop using this mean word!
Whereas swimsuits models are usually very slim, this size 14-16 model, Ashley Graham, shows that curvy women can look great in bikinis too. This ad was accepted in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated Magazine. It’s good to see that women can be allowed to show some curves and that all sizes can be beautiful!
▶ Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition features ad with plus-sized model for first time – YouTube.
Hello, we are a class of French students from Dreux (one hour from Paris) and we are studying stereotypes and how people from various countries really live.
Could you help us by stating where you live, then answering our questions? That would be awesome! 🙂
First answer three simple questions so we know where you are from:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/7QHQ3P3
Then answer a few questions about food and drink:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/7RGJVKY
More questions, about sports:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/7L3K2BT
Questions about personality:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/79HT96H
Questions about clothes and fashion:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/72MR659
Questions about the weather:
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/7JY5DGP
Questions about personal hygiene (nothing embarrassing! 😉 ):
https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/7QD5LJY
Thank you so much for completing our survey, it means a lot!
If you want to help us even more, ask your friends to take it too.
