The NFL has suspended another player over a domestic violence dispute– Jonathan Dwyer, a five year veteran and running back for the Arizona Cardinals. The 25 year-old is under fire after assaulting his wife, Kayla Dwyer, and throwing a shoe at his 18 month-old son Jonathan Dwyer Jr.

The incident, which occurred this past July, was reported when a neighbor heard fighting in the couple’s home. When the police arrived, Dwyer hid in the bathroom leaving his wife no choice to tell the cops of his whereabouts. No arrest was immediately made.

Dwyer’s wife suffered from a fracture after being assaulted. The following day Jonathan threw his wife’s cell phone out of the window to prevent her from calling the police.

Related: The NFL’s Long History with Cases of Domestic Violence

Shortly after, Kayla fled out of state with their son according to Sgt. Trent Crump. In a statement given to detectives, Dwyer denied physically assaulting Kayla or the child.

Dwyer was arrested yesterday and charged on three counts, including “aggravated assault causing a fracture.” He was released today on a $25,000 cash-only bond and has been mandated to wear an electronic monitoring device.

The NFL addressed the situation Wednesday afternoon. “We became aware of these allegations this afternoon when notified by Phoenix police and are cooperating fully,” the Cardinals said in a statement. “Given the serious nature of the allegations we have taken the immediate step to deactivate Jonathan from all team activities.”

Since the Ray Rice dispute, the organization has taken extreme caution with recent accusations surrounding such heinous acts. Greg Hardy was also removed from the Carolina Panthers’ active roster this week because of a domestic violence charge.

Jonathan Dwyer also sent his wife threatening text messages saying that he would harm himself if she told the cops any information. The more we hear of domestic violence in the NFL, the more we hope women who are in these situations come forward.

When I was about 19, my girlfriend at the time (in fact, my first girlfriend ever) invited me to a barbecue at her father’s house. I didn’t really know anyone but I did spark up a conversation with her uncle. He began explaining his career path from law-student to exterminator and  said something that left an indelible mark on my mind even up to today. When he got into law, he believed he would change the world one case at a time, but he realized that he was consistently more passionate about certain societal causes than anyone else, and often times he would find himself alone on the issue, while others who previously stated they cared, became disinterested. And then he said, “the great thing about extermination is that people don’t want you to get rid of SOME of the bugs, they want you to fix the entire problem. If that’s how society worked with important issues, I wouldn’t be crawling around people’s attics lookin’ for roaches.”

At the time, I was just a young man about to begin university who was hopeful about embarking on a successful career in writing where I would change the world, one article at a time. And although 19 seems like a lifetime ago, that talk still lingers in my mind. While I am not an activist like he was, I sometimes look at the fleeting rage we apply in select circumstances to important social issues. I realize that collectively, we have have incredibly shaky morals when it comes to fighting for issues we allegedly care about. In the past two weeks, no topic has exemplified that point more than our brief indignation of domestic abuse in the NFL.

Bashing Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald and now Jonathan Dwyer is easy.  In fact, it’s so simple that you can craft a snarky-ass tweet, send it out to all your followers and then pat yourself on the back for “doing your part” as an ally for abuse survivors. Writers are crafting this week’s think pieces, and we’re even calling for the NFL commissioner to lose his job over this situation to really “sock it to the man.”Hell, even Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has publicly shamed Rice and the NFL, which is awesome – well, until you realize/remember that he voted against the Violence Against Women Act in 2012, which provided grants to state and local governments for services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, including housing, legal assistance and law enforcement training.

But Rubio is not alone in being, well, a rube.

The House Judiciary Committee recently sent Roger Goodell a letter informing him of their disapproval of his (mis)handling of the Ray Rice incident. In the letter, there was a part I found particularly interesting:

“Given the important role the NFL and the other major professional sports leagues can play in shaping public perceptions concerning domestic violence, it would appear to be in the public interest to have the highest level of transparency associated with reviews of potential misconduct.”

Seeing how much negative attention a running back is rightfully getting for laying hands on his woman, one can only imagine how much hell someone would catch if they were indicted on similar charges but had a far more important job – like being a judge. Well, actually we don’t need to wonder, because Federal District Judge Mark Fuller beat the shit out of his wife at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Atlanta last month.

His punishment? A plea bargain that requires him to go to 6 months of counseling and a substance abuse evaluation which, upon completion, will lead to his record of arrest being expunged. No jail time, no public shaming, no trending on Twitter and no losing his job and livelihood which can only come at the hands of congress through impeachment proceedings. But they’re busy dealing with a football player, so actually coming together to punish a federal judge is clearly not important.

We scold Ray Rice while at the same time accepting other domestic abusers into our collective hearts. (R. Kelly, Chad Johnson, Floyd Mayweather ring a bell?)

Look at how the Baltimore Ravens, the Carolina Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers have been criticized for not taking their athletes off the field fast enough as they go through their abuse trials. Whether convicted or not, the general consensus amongst most anti-abuse advocates is that players should be taken off the field as soon as they commit an offense.

But where is the outrage at Hope Solo being allowed to start at goalie for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team amidst her domestic violence campaign? Is it because no one in America “cares” about women’s soccer, or is it because no one in America really cares about domestic violence caused by women?
Many of us (myself included) had tons of jokes after Solange laid hands on Jay-Z in that elevator, and many of us even went so far as to try and hypothesize what Jay did to PROVOKE Solange into hitting him while Beyonce sat back and watched.

Instead of using this as the “opportunist story of the week”, we need to follow the lead of the great men and women who doing their part to topple this bullshit. We need more men to be everyday advocates like Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback William Gay, a man who lost his mother to domestic violence after she was shot to death by his stepfather when he was only seven. And we need more women like Monique Coleman to continue to raise awareness.

Domestic abuse is not a game, a joke or an issue to be laughed at. It’s not an issue that should enact only temporary rage. By pretending we care so much about domestic violence, we forget how much more work needs to be done to even come close to eradicating this social ill. Since a woman is beaten every 9 seconds in the US, and three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends everyday in this country, then this is NOT an issue that should EVER be taken lightly by the crowd of people who actively believe they are staunch advocates of social change.

Every year, 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence in their households, and studies show that men who witness domestic violence as children are twice as likely to abuse their own wives. Regardless of one’s fame, career, age, or gender, if we’re serious about killing the vermin of domestic abuse, we need to REALLY care about exterminating it everywhere in our house.

LAB

Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.

Looks like there is one more to be added to the Knowles clan. After awaiting a paternity test of 4 year-old Koi, the results came back supporting the original claim. Back in July, a real estate agent named TaQoya Branscomb filed a lawsuit against Mathew Knowles alleging that he fathered her daughter in 2010.

The lawsuit requested Knowles to take a DNA test, child support, and financial coverage for the attorney fees. TMZ broke the news concluding that baby Koi is “99.998%” his with court documents verified through a source.

Since the paternity news broke, there has been speculation that Branscomb and Solange were friends after a picture of the two together surfaced.

[IMAGE: GETTY]

This is the second child Mathew Knowles has fathered within recent years. In 2010, Knowles conceived a son, Nixon, while still married to Tina Knowles. The two divorced shortly after, and Beyonce fired him as a manager, cutting his salary and ability to pay the original $12,000 per month for child support.

Image: NecoleBitchie

Home Depot said Thursday a data breach resulted in 56 million debit and credit cards being compromised in the U.S and Canada. The breach is the largest since Target’s holiday 2013 breach of 40 million cards and is suspected to have occurred between April and September. The bug that compromised the system has been eliminated, the company said in a press release.

The nation’s largest home improvement store also said the statement that customer’s pin numbers were not stolen and customers that shopped online or in Mexico have not been affected. They have since tightened their security systems with a major update to their networks.

Home Depot hasn’t listed the stores that have been affected by the breach but there’s evidence of a black market site is selling thousands of card numbers with expiration dates and identifying information such as names and addresses. The underground site is the same that contained card data from the Target data breach. Data thieves use the cards to make online purchases mainly for electronics and gift cards.

As of Thursday, the site reported that 100% of the cards found on the site were still active and not cancelled. “When they’re 100% valid, that’s an indicator that the merchant hasn’t fixed the problem yet,” said Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity reporter. “It’s a live breach.”

Home Depot reminded customers to closely monitor their bank statements and credit card reports for suspicious activity. Customers are not responsible for any fraudulent charges. As a means of educating and protecting consumers the company offered free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to anyone who shopped in their stores from April through October.tw

Microsoft handed out another 2,100 pink slips to employees on Thursday, as part of a previously announced staff reduction plan to cut 18,000 positions by the end of the year. The first wave of layoffs began in July with about 13,000 employees being let go, mainly Nokia’s devices and services employees. That leaves about 2,900 more job cuts by June 2015, but it’s not certain what positions will be eliminated or how the staff reductions will be relayed to those employees. The staff reduction plan of about 14 percent of the workforce will be the largest in Microsoft’s history once completed.

“The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units, and many different countries. We will continue to go through this process in the most thoughtful manner possible, with the deepest respect for affected individuals and recognition of their service to the company,” a spokeswoman for Microsoft said via email to PC World. All laid off employees will receive severance packages.

A number of employees laid off on Thursday expressed their disbelief on Twitter.

[Image: Shutterstock]

With 1 quick swoop, so ends the Microsoft Twin Cities Development Center and my career at Microsoft.

— jaredbro (@jaredbro) September 18, 2014

The entire Microsoft St. Paul office was laid off today. Farewell Microsoft. — Justin Chase (@justinmchase) September 18, 2014

And I’m looking for a new job! http://t.co/IcfZFmghJt

— Noah Kravitz (@noahkravitz) September 18, 2014

Microsoft is using the staff reduction plan to bounce back after purchasing Nokia for $7.2 billion in 2013. The company plans to transition from selling software to helping customers be more productive through a series of cloud-hosted services. There’s also speculation that Microsoft may cut the Nokia business completely.

A new dance workout is taking the nation by storm, getting women’s bodies moving to the hottest songs all while encouraging self-confidence.

The Vixen Workout, created by former Miami Heat dancer Janet Jones, mixes upbeat, workouts with sultry dances and even expletives and verbal self-affirmations.

Jones’ business grossed nearly $1.5 million in its first year, popularized through social media and word of mouth. The dance classes has expanded nationally with fitness concerts in Miami and New York, which host nearly 500 women each. The class sells out in hours.

The workout has a nightclub feel, complimented with low lighting, strobe lights, foggy mirrors. The beats of Beyonce, J.Lo, Busta Rhymes and other high-octane singers blast through the speakers.  The moves and music selected are meant to empower women, making them feel like stars, she says.

Jones teaches a variety of choreography to the newest hip-hop, R&B songs and house music. Attendees, better known as her Vixen Army, are encouraged to wear tights, funky T-shirts and sneaker wedges, with wild hair, and painted lips .

In Miami, classes costs $15 and in New York, $18, for hourlong sessions.

This week in celebrity quotes, Evelyn Lozada partly blames karma for her domestic assault at the hands of ex-husband Chad Johnson, Don Lemon divulges his experience with corporal punishment, and K. Michelle ain’t got no time for Soulja Boy‘s lies on the “hot pocket.” Plus, Kanye West slams handicapped fans for not standing during his concert. And Waka Flocka said what?! AND I QUOTE…

“CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, F-ck you! Y’all are sad for penalizing”

Rihanna venting to CBS after it pulled her song “Run This Town,” in light of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case, via Twitter.

Continue reading on UPTOWN

“I have to say that when I was a kid, I would have to go and get the switch off the tree. And if I brought back a switch that wasn’t big enough, then my grandmother or my dad or my mom would go get a bigger one.”

Don Lemon reveals his experience with corporal punishment, via “CNN Tonight.”

Source

“I had a drug and alcohol problem for the year and I didn’t do a sober interview so I don’t recall many things that I said..I didn’t do a single interview last year without being high on both.”

Robin Thicke exposes his drug problem during a deposition in the ongoing Marvin Gaye estate lawsuit.

Continue reading on UPTOWN

“I decided I can’t do the rest of this show until everybody stand up.Unless you got a handicap pass, and you get special parking and sh*t.”

Kanye West calls out disabled fans who were unable to stand at the start of his concert, during a tour stop in Sydney.

Source 

“I feel part of what happened was my karma for acting a fool! Thank God for life lessons & being able to grow…God made me sit my butt down & I did.”

Evelyn Lozada admitting that she feels ex-husband Chad Johnson’s physical abuse was karma, via Twitter. 

 “IM PAYING 50k A YEAR FOR A BLUNT ROLLER… HASHTAG #ICANROLL”

Waka Flocka is searching for a special employee to mange his extracurricular activities, via Instagram. 

 “It’s true I get a lot of posts from Grandmas. Hilarious now I know why — Respect Grandma and Grandpa. P.S. This is Hip Hop!”

Grandmaster Flash responds to being accidentally tagged by a bevy of grandmothers on Facebook, via his personal Facebook page.

“Let me tell you something Soulja Boy. Because I know you’re going to hear this. What you not going to do is lie on my hot pocket. When I do something, I say that I did it. So that giggling- we don’t want to giggle about that transgender in Atlanta. Giggle, giggle! So crank that!”

K. Michelle addresses Soulja Boy’s implication that he slept with her, on “The Breakfast Club.”

Source

A Florida grandfather killed himself after fatally shooting his daughter and her six children on Sept. 18, 2014.

Deputies were summoned to the home of Don Charles Spirit after he called 911 yesterday, saying he was considering harming himself and others. When officials arrived at the Bell, FL home they found eight people dead. Bell is a small town of 450 residents.

The murder-suicide victims include Spirit’s daughter, Sarah Spirit, and her six children, Kylie Kuhlmann, 9; Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11; Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8; Destiny Stewart, 5; Brandon Stewart, 4; and Alanna Stewart, born June 28 of this year.

This was not the first time Spirit, 51, harmed a child. Spirit, who has a criminal background for marijuana possession and gun charges, accidentally shot and killed his 8-year-old son, Kyle, during a hunting trip in Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area near Kenansville, Fla., in 2001.

[Image: Shutterstock]

During a walk through the woods, Spirit was cleaning the muzzle of a gun when it fired, hitting Kyle in the head. He was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Spirit plead guilty in exchange for a minimum sentence.

The public schools in Bell, 120 miles southeast of Tallahassee, are preparing a statement to the schools on Friday.

Source

A choreographer is suing the legendary Cher for racial discrimination, after she allegedly requested he not cast more dark-skinned black dancers.

According to the lawsuit filed by choreographer Kevin Wilson, the alleged incident occurred while they were auditioning dancers for Cher’s “Dressed to Kill” tour. The complaint alleges racial discrimination by the 68 year old, accusing her of hiring a white, blonde dancer over a more qualified African American. The lawsuit centers on California’s whistle-blower law that protects employees who are fired for reporting illegal activity. Three backup dancers were allegedly fired.

Wilson claims when he commented that he particularly liked “a minority female dancer,” and Cher replied, “We have too much color onstage.”

The suit, which was filed by attorney Perry Wander, alleges that Cher reportedly, then, told him to find a white, blonde dancer.

A representative for the “Believe” singer denies all claims, calling them “ridiculous” and “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The singer-actress had to postpone three weeks of shows due to a viral infection earlier this month. The tour has been ranked amongst the top-ten grossing tours of 2014.

Looks like Mr. Steal Your Girl is officially off the dating market.

Trey Songz has been seen cuddling up with music newcomer Mila J.

Songz, real name Tremaine Neverson, posted a picture of himself with Mila on his Instagram, with the cute caption, “She so fine,” on Saturday.

The Grammy-nominated star and his new beauty have tried to keep their relationship private, but showed heavy PDA during a date night at the Compound Foundation’s Fostering a Legacy benefit in New York last week. The pair was seen kissing and snuggling up with each other, throughout the night. A source revealed that the lovebirds have “so much in common.”

Mila, who is Jhene Aiko‘s sister, collaborated with Songz on his latest album, Trigga with the song “Disrespectful.”

Back in my financial planning days, one of the most hilarious misconceptions I frequently encountered was the idea that financial stability can be accurately judged based on one’s income. For some reason, many of us tend to believe that someone who makes good money is automatically in better financial shape than someone who makes less, and many times that is completely incorrect. Of course, every region has a certain income level that provides residents with a significant advantage in financial stability. However, it’s funny to see how many people desire a financially stable partner, yet have NO CLUE about what constitutes pecuniary security.

Whenever I do one of my Relationships & Bullsh*t shows or I’m asked to speak on a panel, the hope of finding someone who is doing well professionally and making money is a big concern for many single adults. As well it should be. Times are tough, and the phrase “love doesn’t pay the bills” has never been more truer than now. Single-income families are quickly becoming historical artifacts. If you are interested in being in a serious relationship, you better find someone who can make a significant addition to your household’s bottom line or else s/he will become an economic liability — regardless of how much you care about him or her.

But many of y’all out there in the dating scene are very aware of how important money is to dating. That’s why every two months, Black Twitter finds itself embroiled in another $200-date debate. This is why women flock to men with nice cars, who own their own place and have the ability to buy nice clothes. And this is also why men are so intent on finding an independently successful woman who has her own ends. Yet, whenever we have these conversations and arguments about how important money is and how it should be spent on dates, throughout the course of a relationship or even at a wedding, it’s appalling how little we talk about the concept of solvency.

[Image: Shutterstock]

Being solvent is about making sure that your current assets exceed your liabilities — and it might shock you to know how difficult that is to find. Just because a woman is driving a Benz, it doesn’t mean her vehicle (which is rapidly declining in value) is a sign of her incredible financial health. Just because a man can fly you out on his credit card isn’t a sign of a vast expendable income. A Bankrate.com study recently showed that 28 percent of Americans have more credit card debt than income in a savings fund. And only 51 percent of Americans have more emergency savings than credit card debt.

I have a homegirl who is a lawyer making a decent annual salary. From the outside looking in, she is doing well and she goes to great lengths to make it appear that way. As a new attorney, keeping up with the Joneses is important to her, so she’ll buy expensive outfits weekly and attend $250 a plate fundraisers with her colleagues. Yet, she has accrued almost a $250,000 in student loan debts, and her current spending habits, combined with her income, leaves her in no position to actually save. Not only is she a great example of how a salary can blind you to one’s individual solvency, but she is also a scary example of another topic we rarely talk about when it comes to dating and finances: Income insecurity.

Having an insecure income relates to something 76 percent of us are doing right now — living paycheck to paycheck. God forbid someone loses their job, gets seriously sick or injured and accrues hospital bills, or suffers any other economic shock, because that will equal financial ruin for that person and many others in a similar position. Living check to check is the antithesis of financial stability. Just because someone isn’t impoverished doesn’t mean they are economically healthy.

So if financial stability is important to you in deciding who you will date, please don’t let their income blind you to the reality of their financial situation. While this isn’t a first date topic, it’s definitely is something you want to discuss before deciding to move in with that person, open joint accounts, or take your relationship to a permanent level. If you are both serious about building a life together, think about solvency, savings, and security and go from there.

LAB

Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.

A New York Times television critic is learning the hard way not to send for Shonda Rhimes. Writer Alessandra Stanley called the television writer and producer an “angry black woman.”

While the piece published Friday, entitled “Wrought in Their Creator’s Image,” may have been meant as a compliment, Stanley could’ve have worded the opening paragraph with more tact.

The article read:

“When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.

On Thursday, Ms. Rhimes will introduce ‘How to Get Away With Murder,’ yet another network series from her production company to showcase a powerful, intimidating black woman.”

The “Scandal” writer took issue with Stanley’s lede, not surprisingly, and took to Twitter in response to the piece.

Wait. I’m” angry” AND a ROMANCE WRITER?!! I’m going to need to put down the internet and go dance this one out. Because ish is getting real.

— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) September 19, 2014

Final thing: (then I am gonna do some yoga): how come I am not “an angry black woman” the many times Meredith (or Addison!) rants? @nytimes — shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) September 19, 2014

Stanley failed to realize that Peter Nowalk (@petenowa) is the creator of the show and series writer.

Apparently we can be “angry black women” together, because I didn’t know I was one either! @petenowa #LearnSomethingNewEveryday

— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) September 19, 2014

Confused why @nytimes critic doesn’t know identity of CREATOR of show she’s reviewing. @petenowa did u know u were “an angry black woman”? — shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) September 19, 2014

Black women are so beautiful. Our culture, features, and physique are so amazing that people actually pay doctors to make them look like us. I live in Los Angeles and tanning is a huge business here as well. Here’s the thing — everyone wants to be us, but no one really wants to be us. Is wanting to be us an insult or a compliment? When a non-Black woman compliments me on my skin color or my hair, which I wear in a huge natural style, I feel, well, amazing! I love when I am asked about my hair and in all honesty, the most compliments I have received about my hair have been from white men. But, when does a compliment become something else?

French print of Sara Baartman on display, titled La Belle Hottentot

As a young woman sold into slavery, Baartman was literally entertainment as her “unusually large” buttocks were put on display. She was displayed in a cage, in London and Paris, and was literally ordered around like a circus animal. In 1815, Baartman was studied by French doctors, zoologists, and physiologists, who concluded that she was the missing link between animals and humans. She was shamed into believing that because of the shape of her body and color of her skin, she was ugly, deserving of a cage, and a freak show attraction. Baartman died at the age of 26 and one of the doctors that put her on display, dissected her body. Her remains were given to him by French police. The doctor made a plaster out of her skin and cut out her brain and genitals, which were displayed in jars, in a French museum until 1974. It was not until 2002, when Nelson Mandela was able to obtain her remains from the French government and bury her in peace.

It seems as if our natural beauty is not accepted as, beauty, until a non-Black person makes it beautiful. Having a “big butt” is popular again due to J.Lo, Kim K., and Iggy, because it seems less “aggressive” when it is coming from a non-Black source. Our sexuality is looked upon as a weapon, something that is not beautiful, but rather threatening and shameful. Nicky Minaj poses in a thong on the cover of the “Anaconda” single and it’s “obscene,” her big butt is seen an an aggressive attempt at shoving her sexuality into our faces, and her “Anaconda” video is deemed horrible and anti-feminist. Lopez seemingly copies the video in form and is praised for her beautiful booty and sexy shape at age 45. Rihanna wore a see through gown on the red carpet and was trashed by the media. Rose McGowan (an actress and the ex-wife of rocker Marilyn Manson) wore a chain-mail gown, if you can call it that, years ago to an MTV event and was called a fashion risk-taker.

We deserve to be valued and recognized for what we bring to — everything! Young Black girls growing up need to see us in film, television, and on the cover of magazines, being celebrated for our beauty and intelligence. This is what is most important. I don’t need my niece growing up thinking that what makes her unique is her big butt, what I need her to know is that she is not a fad, and that her beauty is timeless. From designers styling their (non-Black) models’ hair in cornrows and gelled down baby hair on the New York Fashion Week runways, to pop stars, magazine writers and well, everyone else, we are an anomaly. Our beauty is enviable, our hair can do things no one else’s can, and our bodies come in the most beautiful colors and sizes, so much so that they want to be us … until the cops come, then, no one wants to be us.

Another weekend has come and gone. And between the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the BET Hip Hop Awards and Bey & Jay’s On The Run Tour HBO special, it was quite a busy one. Now, it’s back to the weekday grind. But before your Monday afternoon staff meeting, see what your favorite celebs were up to.

Brandy teamed up with Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Yo-Yo at the Hip Hop Awards for an “I Wanna Be Down (Remix)” reunion.

Michael B. Jordan cleaned up nice to support a friend at the 8th Annual AdColor Awards.

Porsha Williams palled around at the Hip Hop Awards with show host Snoop Dogg.

K. Michelle preferred to spend the weekend cuddled up with a good book.

Kelly Rowland took a sun-drenched drive with her husband, Tim Witherspoon.

Alicia Keys took to Instagram to bare all–baby bump included–in the name of peace.

Nicki Minaj looked super sweet before taking the stage at the iHeartRadio Music Fest.

Bow Wow (or Shad Moss, as he’d like to be called) announced his engagement to LHHNY star Erica Mena.

Just last month, Jill Scott was amongst a slew of female celebrities whose privacy was hacked when nude photos were leaked to the world wide web. This weekend, other starlets were added to the list of victims of the leaked nudes scandal, including Gabrielle Union, Meagan Good, and allegedly Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. It seems as if no one is safe against creepy hackers who manage to tap into celebrities’ privacy settings and blast photos of them in their most vulnerable moments. Both Union and Good, who starred in Think Like a Man and Think Like a Man Too together, made known their frustration in the matter. According to TMZ, Union and her new hubby Dwyane Wade have involved the FBI to investigate and released the following statement:

“It has come to our attention that our private moments, that were shared and deleted solely between my husband and myself, have been leaked by some vultures.

I can’t help but to be reminded that since the dawn of time women and children, specifically women of color, have been victimized, and the power over their own bodies taken from them. These atrocities against women and children continue worldwide.

For anyone out there also being affected by these and other hacking and hate crimes — We send our love, support and prayers. We have done nothing wrong.”

Good took a less formal approach and simply posted this nice-nasty note to Instagram.

While we couldn’t agree more with Williams that all of the victims have amazing physiques, it’s still very unfortunate that they were subjected to such a crime. Hopefully something will soon be done to protect people’s privacy and to crack down on those who violate it.

I guess when you know, you just know. After a brief six-month courtship, “106th & Park” host Bow Wow and Erica Mena, of “Love and Hip Hop fame, are engaged. This weekend the two were spotted in Atlanta for the BET Hip-Hop Awards, and when ThisIs50.com reporter Jack Thriller asked Mena to confirm if Bow Wow, who prefers to go by his real name Shad Moss now, was indeed her beau, she responded, “Uh … he’s actually my fiancé,” according to “E! News.”

Moss let the cat out of the bag via an Instagram pic of Mena’s newly-adorned finger resting on his iced wrist.

This all looks a little familiar, right? Kissing on set seems to be a thing for Moss. Before Mena, he shared a sensual tongue down with supermodel/mogul Tyra Banks! I guess aiming high seems to work for the pint-sized star. He’s previously dated Ciara and Angela Simmons. And Mena’s relationships with both her former manager Rich Dollaz and girlfriend Cyn Santana were chronicled on “Love and Hip Hop.”

If you do not indulge in celebrity controversy, gossip or “tea”, then this article is not about you. If you close your ears anytime someone attempts to inform you of the latest starlet’s scandal, or you refuse to look at tabloids in the grocery checkout aisle, this does not refer to you. But, if you are someone who indulges in ANY celebrity slander, please understand this very important concept: The invasion of privacy does not start – or end – at posting, viewing or commenting on celebrity’s nude pictures – it begins when we invade any part of their personal lives.

This weekend alone, hackers leaked nude pictures of Meagan Good, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Vanessa Hudgens, Hope Solo and Gabrielle Union. A couple weekends before, we saw pictures released of Jennifer Lawrence, Amber Rose, Jill Scott and Kate Upton (and probably a few more that I’ve missed). Since then, the common argument is between the crowd of people who indulge in viewing and reposting the nudes, and the people who believe it’s a massive invasion of privacy. The latter believe that this nude picture scandal is a disgusting invasion of personal privacy and anyone who reposts or even looks at the pictures are just as bad as the person who hacked these celebrities’ private moments. While I’m inclined to agree that posting someone’s naked pictures IS a violation of their privacy, if you’ve been drawing entertainment from the sordid details of celebrities personal lives through blogs, radio and TV, you are standing waist-deep in hypocrisy. And with the explosion of interest in celebrities personal lives, there are many people guilty of this bullshit.

Photo: Shutterstock

About a year ago, I went to a blog conference and listened to many experienced bloggers give their somewhat-expert advice on many different topics. One woman gave a stirring and sobering speech on what new bloggers should expect once they startup their sites. She explained that all bloggers must set realistic expectations with how much notoriety and popularity they expect to receive from their young blogs, meaning that folks who write about gardening tool reviews should NOT expect to get the same traffic as blogs who write about celebrity gossip. She then went on a side-rant about how it seems everyone wants to start a celebrity blog these days, and how she fully understands it because the market is so large. If you want to go from typing on your couch in your underwear, to being featured on TV or even having your own show, get into celebrity gossip. As I sat back and listened to her speech, it dawned on me that we, the people, have created this market for the extensive intrusion into famous peoples lives, and it only gets worst year after year.

If you believe that the posting and viewing of nude pictures are an invasion of a celebrity’s privacy, then I implore you to apply that same logic to all the personal drama that these people go through on a daily basis. STOP viewing and reposting articles about celebrity marriages being broken up. If there are rumors about a celebrity being unfaithful in their relationship, STOP tweeting about it and making it trend on Twitter for an entire week. When a famous rapper gets assaulted by his famous wife’s sister-in-law, don’t craft theories on why it occurred – butt the hell out.

But here’s my guess: None of us will.

We will continue to gawk at personally embarrassing celeb moments posted all over gossip blogs. We will continue to talk about celebs’ personal lives and we won’t even take issue with viewing the paparazzi pictures they snap of famous parents taking their newborn children out of the hospital for the first time. But, we will turn on selective outrage over nude pictures as if that’s the only way we can significantly invade someone’s privacy.

The invasion of privacy does NOT start at Meagan Good’s boobs, it started when she couldn’t even walk out of the house without people wondering who she’s dating, what happened to Thomas Jones, if she’s actually chaste and what is her relationship with the seventh-day adventist church (all issues for which she’s requested privacy). Privacy invasion didn’t start at Gabrielle Union’s aureoles, it started when we couldn’t get enough of knowing why she divorced her ex-husband and the sordid details of D. Wade’s affair and subsequent love child (all incidents that resulted in her demanding privacy). The collective invasiveness didn’t begin with vulvae and ass-cracks, it began with our feeling of entitlement to their most personal and private moments.

So, as someone who has indulged in celebrity BS and continues to do so, you will have a hard time trying to make me feel bad just because I looked at the pictures, when I know I’ve been an unrepentant gossip monger. I refuse to be that guy who loves all of Princess Diana’s gossip, but then blames the paparazzi for her death like fueling MY interest wasn’t putting food on their tables. If we all are so content with reading the proverbial diaries of celebrities lives, does it really make us above reproach if we decide which pages we are going to read?

It sure as hell does not.

Photos: Shutterstock

LAB

Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.

Just when you thought you heard the worst of the worst social ills, along comes another one more disturbing and horrifying than the last. After faculty at Sparkman Middle School in Toney, AL were made aware of a boy student who had allegedly been luring his peers into the bathroom for sex, a teacher’s aide devised a plan to catch him once and for all. The aide, June Simpson, convinced a 14-year-old special needs student to pose as bait in the bathroom, assuring the student that she, the aide, would run into the bathroom before anything took place.

The plan, which initially happened in 2010, failed when the girl student met the boy in a different bathroom and no one was there to intervene before he compromised her. Allegedly, according to court documents, the victim reported the attack to Vice Principal Jeanne Dunaway, but Dunaway did nothing to address it. According to DailyMail.co.uk, one vice principal said that the female student was responsible for herself when she went into the bathroom, while another said they weren’t sure whether she consented to the alleged assault.

[Image: Shutterstock]

A week prior to the incident, Vice Principals Dunaway and Teresa Terrell were notified that the boy had touched a female student inappropriately, and he was assigned in-school suspension, according to federal attorneys. A few days after, Simpson also made complaints to Principal Ronnie Blair that the suspect had repeatedly attempted to have sex with other girl students in the bathroom on the special needs corridor. She made claims that he had even already had sex with one student.

The alleged victim’s attorney Eric Artrip said his client refused when the Simpson first suggested she pose as bait, but finally agreed. Artrip told CNN, “She stalled for time. She continually tried to fight him off but ultimately was anally raped by this young man.” According to CNN, the Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education filed an amicus brief on Wednesday in support of the alleged victim’s family’s lawsuit against the Madison County School Board.  The U.S. Court of Appeals in Alabama will decide whether to accept the argument.

The outcome of this case is still to be determined, but it is clear that both students, the alleged victim and sexual perpetrator, were failed by their school faculty. Measures beyond in-school suspension should have been taken as soon as teachers and principals were made aware of the alleged assaults. Since nothing was done, the male student’s obvious mental health issues are still unaddressed, and the victims are now left to cope with the aftermath of this traumatic experience.

[Images: Twitter/Madison County Schools]

Black thespians are on an all-time high right now! Grossing an estimated $24.5 million, No Good Deed, starring Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba, shut down the box office this past weekend and snatched the number one spot. Keeping up with the momentum, this week, and all season long, five Black actresses are dominating your fall TV screen, as leading ladies on major network series!

[Images: ABC/FOX]

Jada Pinkett Smith in “Gotham”

“Gotham” is a newbie to FOX’s lineup and premiered yesterday at 8/7c. The new show “is an origin story of the great DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told,” according to FOX.com. It chronicles Detective James Gordon’s (Ben McKenzie) journey as he balances good and evil in the very corrupt Gotham. Jada Pinkett Smith takes on the role of Fish Mooney, a fearless and fiery gang boss who’s on a mission to overtake the city. Not only is Pinkett Smith’s character the queen villain, but it was created specifically for this show. Prior to the series, there was no Fish Mooney in the tale of Gotham and Batman. Way to go, Jada!

Nicole Beharie in “Sleepy Hollow”

Season two of “Sleepy Hollow” returned to FOX on Mondays at 9/8c. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) is the show’s heroine and fights with partner Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) to destroy the forces of evil, in efforts to save their town and the world! “Picking up immediately after the spellbinding events of the Season One finale, Ichabod finds himself buried alive in a coffin; Abbie is trapped in purgatory; Ichabod’s wife, KATRINA (Katia Winter), has been kidnapped by the Headless Horseman; Capt. FRANK IRVING (Orlando Jones) is behind bars for a murder he did not commit; and Abbie’s sister, JENNY (Lyndie Greenwood), is among the wreckage of a horrific car crash,” as revealed on FOX.com.

Tracee Ellis Ross in “Black-ish”

Ellis Ross plays Rainbow Johnson, an anesthesiologist and the biracial wife to Dre (Anthony Anderson). Unlike Dre, Rainbow believes that they can raise their children, who go to a predominantly white school, to live in a “colorless world.” The new ABC comedy, premiering Sept. 24 at 9/8c, depicts Rainbow as a supporting wife excited about her husband’s feat as first Black VP at his ad firm … and she’s equally excited about the salary bump too!

After the “Scandal” teaser dropped, we all want to know one thing: #WhereOnEarthIsOliviaPope? The only thing that seems to have remained in Olivia Pope’s (Kerry Washington) world this season is a glass of red wine. It appears as if the lead Gladiator ditched her team and even her lover, the married-with-children POTUS, for sand, ocean waves, and, of course, a glass of vino. Before tuning into the ABC season four premiere this Thursday at 9/8c, you may want to review this crucial need-to-know list, so you don’t get lost on the scandalous journey!

Shonda Rhimes brews up another one and it premieres this Thursday, right after “Scandal,” at 10/9c. “How to Get Away with Murder” is all about the genius and sexy professor Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) who gets entangled with four of her law students. Much to the students’ surprise, they’ll be applying lessons from their master professor to real life. The show shines a new light on Davis. She recently told The New York Times, “I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish. A lot of lawyers or doctors who have names but absolutely no lives.” This new, thrilling role is a much welcomed one for her, and for us!

Poor Chris Brown. Things are everything but easy for Breezy these days. Trouble seems to be following the singer/dancer everywhere since his release from rehab and jail. Right after he finished performing at a Lil Wayne and Drake after party last night in Hollywood, a fight broke out and someone was stabbed.

Fortunately, the wound was not fatal and the victim is said to be okay. The incident happened at Supperclub. TMZ reports that LAPD blames Brown and his entourage for the stabbing because wherever they go, “someone ends up bleeding.”

LA police weren’t able to make any arrests because no witnesses would disclose any information, but they did go as far as to try and pressure club owners to ban Breezy and his crew–to no avail. The site reports that the club owners make a killing whenever Brown is in the building, so he is a welcomed guest and they won’t turn away their favorite money maker.

Chris Brown hasn’t released a statement regarding the incident or took to any social media to address it.

One of Brown’s reps made the following statement:

“Chris hosted an event in Los Angeles last night to celebrate the upcoming release of his album X, during which an incident occurred. This incident did not involve Chris; he was merely the host of the event. He has and will continue to cooperate with the investigation.”

Rewind a few weeks prior and Suge Knight was shot six times while partying at a Chris Brown VMA shindig at 1Oak on August 24th. It seems as though the singer is really trying to turn over a new leaf, but can’t win for losing. Hopefully this troubling spell will let up soon so Brown can get back to doing what he does best.