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Black Homeowners Were Grievously Damaged by the Recession

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Black Homeowners Were Grievously Damaged by the Recession

New research from the ACLU is shedding light on just how badly black Americans were economically damaged by the Great Recession of 2008. The racial differences in loss are extremely stark.

The ACLU’s new study, out today, examines black and white homeowners, and how they fared during and after the recent financial downturn. In a nation in which white households boasted 20 times the average wealth of black households in 2009, the recession hit black homeowners—who tended to have a higher percentage of their wealth tied up in their home—particularly hard. Among the ACLU’s findings:

  • While median white household wealth stopped falling in 2009, median black household wealth continued to fall for two more years, costing black households an extra 13% of their wealth.
  • “By 2031, white wealth is forecast to be 31 percent below what it would have been without the Great Recession, while black wealth is down almost 40 percent. For a typical black family, median wealth in 2031 will be almost $98,000 lower than it would have been without the Great Recession.”

When we speak of civil rights and fighting racism, let’s not forget about enacting policies that push wealth down the economic ladder. That could end up being the single best way to make America a more equal place.

[The full report. Photo: AP]


Jennifer Aniston Is Like a Sweet Grandmother to Selena Gomez

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Jennifer Aniston Is Like a Sweet Grandmother to Selena Gomez

Jennifer Aniston—who is still engaged, yes, but not pregnant, no (thank you for asking; it’s fine)—has a lot of friends. Friends who get Oscar nominations; friends who are her hairstylists; friends who proposed to her over two years ago but don’t seem to want to set a date; friends who were on Friends; friends who are so much younger than her it’s insane. One of those friends recently spoke to a radio station about her relationship with Jen.

That friend was none other than former Disney star Selena Gomez, who was born on July 22, 1992. Selena gushed about Jen in the interview, insisting, “She’s amazing.” She added,

...[W]e met through my management—they manage her as well—so it was kind of like a friendly meeting and instantly she’s, like, inviting me to her house. She has a pizza oven. Like, we’ve made pizzas at her house. She’s very cool and very sweet. She kind of gives me a lot of, like, maternal advice.

She’s amazing. She has a pizza oven. She’s childless; it’s true. She’s like a mother to me. Well, at 46, she’s older than my mother, who is 39. But she’s like a grandmother to me.

Jennifer Aniston Is Like a Sweet Grandmother to Selena Gomez

This isn’t the first time Selena has made her love of Jen known. When Jen’s unfortunately not-Oscar-nominated (but it was fine) film Cake came out last year, Selena posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram with the following caption:

I have not only been following her career as a fan since I was 8 and now get to watch her completely transform in her new movie CAKE, I have gotten to have real conversations with such a real heart, made my entire year.

Since she was eight! In the year 2000!

That is so nice and fine, my dear. I love your neat tattoo!


Photos via Getty. Contact the author at allie@gawker.com.

Video Shows Cops Fist-Bumping After Arresting Dylann Roof

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This afternoon, Shelby, N.C., police released dashboard video of Dylann Roof’s arrest last Thursday. Two officers can be seen exchanging what appears to be a celebratory fist bump after Roof is handcuffed.

The night before his arrest, Roof allegedly shot nine people to death at a historic church in Charleston, S.C. The 21-year-old suspect has been charged with nine counts of murder and is being held without bail. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.


Contact the author at taylor@gawker.com.

Bill Kristol: Where’s Our Respect for Confederate Soldiers?

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Bill Kristol: Where’s Our Respect for Confederate Soldiers?

Conservative pundit and Weekly Standard editor-in-chief Bill Kristol has some thoughts about recent efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of South Carolina’s State House in Charleston (and other places). As you can see below, Kristol’s thoughts are truly remarkable:

Kristol published them shortly after appearing on his own magazine’s podcast, The Weekly Standard Podcast, where he discussed the same issue with host Michael Graham, who asked Kristol whether calling for the Confederate flag’s removal makes one “a liberal”:

Michael Graham: I wanted to ask you about the other story in the news that’s disturbing and not what you expect politics to be about today in 2015. That is, the Confederate flag, the way [unintelligible] chooses to act on it. And also, the argument that abandoning the Confederate flag or supporting taking it down, somehow makes you a liberal, or you have abandoned your conservative principles, which is an argument I’m hearing quite a bit from the right these days.

Bill Kristol: I mean, look, I hate the Left’s using of this tragedy to politicize and go after the Confederate flag, when it’s really an incidental part of the story, and to try to make broader points about the modern South, or the Republican Party, I dislike all of that intensely.

I think on the merits, the Confederate flag shouldn’t be flown on state capitols, or state capitol grounds. People can fly it in private arenas, or on appropriate memorial sites for soldiers. There you don’t need the flag, obviously, you can have a memorial site.

John McCain called for taking down the confederate flag in South Carolina in 2000, and I supported him. He’s backed off since then, but I’ve always thought it should be taken down, and if I were a South Carolina legislator, I would vote to do it. I’m a Union guy, I’m a Lincoln guy, I’m a Ulysses S. Grant guy, I’m even a Sherman guy, so I have pretty good credentials in being anti-Confederate.

Immediately thereafter, Kristol went on a tangent involving ISIS and Secretary of State John Kerry:

Having said that, the liberal posturing out of this is sort of nauseating. And the people who are posturing are precisely the people who don’t want to fight serious enemies when people are enslaved over in Iraq, Yazidis by ISIS—it’s the liberals who explain why we can’t do anything about it. And as a friend of mine pointed out the other day, all of these posturing, preening liberals would have been copperheads during the Civil War, and for accommodation and ending the war—‘it’s too much, it’s bloody and it’s terrible and can’t we negotiate, we can reach out and send John Kerry down to Richmond to work with Jefferson Davis’—that would have been the liberal position.

So, one can very disdainful of the Left while still thinking as a matter of actual policy and practice, there’s no need to have the Confederate flag flying on state capitol grounds.

Thank you, Bill, for this nuanced discussion.

Photo credit: MSNBC

Strong Storms Will Hit D.C., Baltimore, Philly During Today's Rush Hour

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Strong Storms Will Hit D.C., Baltimore, Philly During Today's Rush Hour

You can swim through the air on the East Coast this afternoon. It’s a typical hot, muggy summer afternoon, and an approaching cold front is allowing this soupy air to explode skyward and trigger some nasty thunderstorms. It looks like the storms will arrive in the megalopolis just in time for rush hour, of course.

Every major city on the East Coast from Washington to Boston is under either a severe thunderstorm or tornado watch this evening, as there’s enough instability and wind shear in the atmosphere to trigger thunderstorms that can produce damaging winds, large hail, and even a couple of tornadoes. The greatest risk for tornadoes is up in New England from Boston north through Maine, while the threat is mostly winds and hail farther south along I-95.

It looks like the strongest storms are on their way toward the Philadelphia area right now—that squall line in south-central Pennsylvania is pretty mean looking, and it’s likely producing very strong straight-line winds as it trucks generally off toward the east.

New York City is currently under a severe thunderstorm watch, but it looks like the strongest storms are breaking north and south of the Big Apple. Keep an eye on the radar, though—the atmosphere is soupy enough that storms can pop up and start raging with little notice.

Here’s a look at the watches as of 4:30 PM; counties shaded in blue are under a severe thunderstorm watch, while counties shaded in red are under a tornado watch. Each watch is in effect until the strongest storms (or at least the threat for them) pass through the area.

Strong Storms Will Hit D.C., Baltimore, Philly During Today's Rush Hour

If your location goes under a tornado warning, get to the lowest level of your home and put as many walls between you and the outdoors as possible. It provides more opportunities to stop the debris from lopping your head off. If you have a basement, that’s ideal, just make sure you’re not under anything heavy upstairs (like an entertainment stand or fridge) in case the tornado actually does hit and the floor above you collapses.

If you’re caught in a vehicle, get to the nearest business and take shelter there. Don’t take shelter in a box store, since those aren’t built to survive strong thunderstorms let alone a tornado. Hiding under a bridge is the best way to die in a tornado—the winds speed up as they press under the bridge, potentially pelting you with debris traveling at lethal speeds, not to mention the potential to suck you out. If you can’t drive away and have nowhere else safe to go, lie flat in a ditch. Even weak tornadoes can destroy vehicles and anyone in them, so you don’t want to be caught in one when a tornado is bearing down on you.http://thevane.gawker.com/dont-park-unde...

If you’re caught in a heavy thunderstorm while you’re on the road, pull over to a safe location when it’s possible to do so. Parking lots are your best option. Even if there’s no threat of a tornado, never park under a bridge or overpass during a severe thunderstorm—doing so can (and usually does) cause traffic jams, or worse, a pile-up accident.

Keep an eye on warnings issued by your local National Weather Service office—in addition to the countless smartphone apps that beep and ping during an alert, most AM and FM radio stations relay warnings as well, especially for larger population centers. If you’re looking for good radar data, Weather Underground’s website provides excellent radar imagery for you to watch storms as they draw closer to you.


You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

Where to Watch Outdoor Movies This Summer

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Where to Watch Outdoor Movies This Summer

It’s summer in the city and you know what that means: projections of Annie Hall, The Warriors, and Wall-E up on the big screen while you lay back on a blanket between your sweetheart and a stack of pizza boxes ;). Make sure to not miss out on all these wonderful outdoor spots to watch your favorite movies this season:

  • The parking lot of the Whole Foods in Gowanus
  • Dead Horse Bay
  • A turnip patch, if you can find one
  • That girl Bianca’s apartment in the Lower East Side who swore to you that she had a projector on her roof but turns out she only has a fire escape and a Macbook Air
  • The cemetery where your grandmother is buried
  • Old Ragstockings’ Hut
  • Outside the Cold Stone Creamery on Harkness Ave. (pack your own ice cream for extra rudeness)
  • Gas stations, but be safe—no lighters
  • Baseball diamonds after dark
  • Movie theater (inside)

Good luck watching movies.


Contact the author at dayna.evans@gawker.com.

Autopsy: Freddie Gray Suffered "High-Energy" Spine Injury in Police Van

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Autopsy: Freddie Gray Suffered "High-Energy" Spine Injury in Police Van

According to an autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun, Freddie Gray suffered single a “high-energy” spinal injury before his death—an injury that likely occurred while he was being carried in the back of a Baltimore Police Department transport van.

The report, which was completed April 30, ruled Gray’s death a homicide because, “through acts of omission,” the involved officers neglected to follow safety procedures like restraining Gray with a seatbelt. The medical examiner’s office wrote that Gray’s ankles and wrists were shackled, and that he was likely thrown into a wall at some point during the ride, according to the Sun. Gray tested positively for opiates and cannabinoids upon his arrival at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to the autopsy.

The facts in the autopsy as laid out by the Sun largely dovetail with an earlier report by local ABC affiliate WJLA, which cited law enforcement officials who claimed that a wound on Gray’s head matched a bolt from the back of the van. Both the medical examiner’s office and WJLA’s sources allege that no evidence suggests Gray sustained any injuries before or during his arrest; according to a timeline laid out by the Sun, he was likely injured between the second and fourth stops the van made between picking him up and arriving at a police precinct 45 minutes later. (The bolt is not specifically mentioned in the Sun’s report.)

The Baltimore Police Department has an ugly history of giving “rough rides”—deliberately jarring trips meant to shock and injure passengers—in its transport vans. In 2005, the relatives of a man who was rendered paraplegic after a ride in a BPD van were awarded $7.4 million in a lawsuit.

Caesar Goodson, the driver of the van that carried Gray, was indicted for second-degree depraved heart murder, and three other officers were indicted for involuntary manslaughter. The remaining two officers involved in Gray’s arrest were indicted on lesser charges. All six have pled not guilty.


Image via AP. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.

Honor the Disabilities Act by Enjoying a Showing of Edward Scissorhands

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Honor the Disabilities Act by Enjoying a Showing of Edward Scissorhands

Remember the old heartwarming classic about some handsome guy with scissors for hands, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands? The one that makes you cry and laugh and reminds you that judging others by their physical disabilities is morally reprehensible? Wouldn’t you like to watch that flick in the park of one of America’s finest cities?

The City of Chicago kicks off this summer’s Millennium Park Film Series this evening with the not-as-good but just-as-fun Back to the Future, the first of many other decent selections to continue through August. If you wait it out a few weeks, you will be rewarded with Johnny Depp’s soft, goth face in Edward Scissorhands. The movie will be shown on until July 14, which is also Bastille Day. Oui oui!

But did you know, as you take in this film about a man whose scissors for hands were his greatest disability and crutch in life, thus making him a point of ugly contention for his hateful neighbors, you will be celebrating and honoring the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Honor the Disabilities Act by Enjoying a Showing of Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands, whose hands were scissors, was not a real guy with disabilities. Sounds like a fun party though. Who’s going?


Screenshot via Edward Scissorhands. Contact the author at dayna.evans@gawker.com.


Suspicious DNA Tests Allegedly Prove Fried KFC Rat Was Just a Chicken

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Suspicious DNA Tests Allegedly Prove Fried KFC Rat Was Just a Chicken

The California man who claimed he’d discovered a deep-fried rat in his three-piece chicken last week finally agreed to turn the unknown-substance-tender over to the company, and the Col. Sanders administration released the results of a DNA test Monday. Result: the rat was—as KFC had asserted in an amateurish Chart Brutactually made of chicken.

Sure, like we’re just supposed to believe Kentucky Fried Chicken and science instead of our gut revulsion to any piece of food that looks like it has a tail? KFC has asked the customer, Devorise Dixon, to “apologize and cease making false claims about the KFC brand,” but why should he, when they haven’t even produced the so-called chicken’s longform birth certificate?

Harlan Sanders bleached his goatee to match his white hair. What else is his business deceiving us about? Is the fake rat just a false flag, set up so the company could order a high-profile genetic test to dispel pernicious rumors about the contents of its 100% White Meat Chicken?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that I’m running out of thumbtacks and string for my corkboard full of polaroids of half-eaten chicken tenders.

[h/t L.A. Times]

Gizmodo It Feels Like These CGI Skin Designers Are Just Trying To Scare Us Now | io9 The Power of Sy

Fire Don Lemon (Into The Sun)

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Fire Don Lemon (Into The Sun)

Last night, CNN host Don Lemon succeeded in doing what he sets out to do every night, garnering attention for the news network that vastly overpays him to pose the question, “But what if this indefensible position isn’t wrong—or at least isn’t as wrong as you think?” He held up a Confederate flag, and then a placard with the word “NIGGER” on it, and posed a question: “Does this offend you?”

Lots and lots of people took to Twitter to yell or laugh at Lemon, and that probably made him and his employers happy on some level; this is, after all, his schtick. Every time a white person commits an atrocity upon a black person or black people in a chain of events compelling enough to garner national attention, Lemon is there, emerging to ask a series of explosive, facile questions that don’t matter.

Whatever. As we’ve chronicled before in this very space, this dude is, explicitly, a joke with little ability outside of his superhuman inability to muster shame. And maybe more to the point, the segment that followed that suspect opening wasn’t even that bad. The “NIGGER” placard could probably be best interpreted as a bit of standard and even well-meant throat-clearing deployed in service of making an actual point, in this case that South Carolina governor Nikki Haley coming forward to say, “It’s time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds,” represented an opportunity to talk about what that flag really means, rhetorically.

That flag is, of course, the Confederate battle flag, the flag of slavery and treason. South Carolina is hardly unique in flying it above government property—Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee all have state flags inspired by the Confederate South—but this particular flag has been called into question since last Wednesday night, when a white supremacist named Dylann Roof walked into Charleston, S.C.’s all-black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, sat through and participated in about an hour of Bible study, shot nine black people to death, and then left.

After each mass shooting like this one, many of us try to make some sense not just of what happened, but why it happened, if only to imagine the unimaginable. We didn’t have to do that this time. That’s because Roof spared one churchgoer’s life specifically so that she could tell everyone what happened. That’s how he was quoted as saying, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

No one has to wonder why it happened because Roof’s roommate came forward after the massacre, saying that Roof was a white supremacist who’d been planning a massacre for months, hoping to start a race war. No one has to wonder why it happened because Roof’s cousin told reporters, “he kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked starting dating a black guy two years back,” drawing a logical line between Roof and the American tradition of denying white women agency to justify segregation and the public execution of black men. No one has to wonder why it happened because Roof himself told us in a 2,000-word manifesto.

The manifesto was batshit, yes, and poorly-written, but it was also the product of research. Roof examined the history of the state of South Carolina and the history of slavery in this country. He read about and visited places around South Carolina, many of them historic landmarks of slavery and violence against blacks. This is how he settled on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for his massacre. It wasn’t happenstance; it was a message.

Roof knows what the flag is. He rightly recognizes it as symbol of slavery and white supremacy, of whites convincing themselves that blacks were beasts by executing horrors upon blacks they would only enact upon beasts, and others they would not. The Confederate flag that right now flies above his home state’s seat of government is a battle flag, meant to instill heart in white Southerners and terror in black ones.

Many people who support this flag claim it represents Southern heritage, not hate, but as The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates chronicled so comprehensively yesterday, the sort of Southern heritage under discussion here and pure blood-based hatred are inextricable. This flag hasn’t been handed down through the generations simply as a way of honoring the morally neutral war dead. It was flown over armies massed in service of slavery; retired; and resurrected nearly a century later specifically as a way of asserting support for white supremacy.

As required by law, almost all of us have attended school, and so almost all of us have attended some number of basic American history classes and/or can read, and so almost all of us have learned and know this. Some of us didn’t learn this, or learned it and forgot, or whatever; that’s fine, but doesn’t mean there is a debate to be had. The message of the flag is clear, and therefore, it shouldn’t fly on public lands, over government buildings.

Just yesterday, Walmart announced it would be removing all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores—an example, really, of the market in action. This brings us back to Don Lemon, a clown every bit as babyfaced as he is soulless. Some minutes after he was wrongishly derided for how he opened the show, Lemon hosted a panel to discuss Walmart’s announcement that they would be deferring to capitalistic imperatives. As usual with these types of panels, Lemon had two black people—South Carolina state senator Marlon Kimpson and CNN pundit Sunny Hostin—and a loud white man named Pat Hines who serves as chairman of the South Carolina League of the South. They were there to debate the meaning of the pro-slavery flag, and more broadly, the fallout of a white man killing nine blacks in the name of white supremacy. After Kimpson explained why he supports removing the flag from the capitol, Lemon asked Hines whether Walmart should stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. Lo, hijinks:

“What I don’t understand,” asked Hines, “is why this state senator is moving to do cultural genocide on the Southern men and women. I don’t get that. Maybe he’s not from the South. I don’t really know him.”

Look at that quote! Hines tried to continue after throwing out the word “genocide” to protest removing a flag stitched and carried by men who fought for cultural and actual genocide, but of course, he was drowned out with consecutive burns from Hostin and Kimpson. As Hines showed, whether or not you personally support the waving of the Confederate flag is between you and your god, should you have one. But why the fuck was Hines even on TV? Where the fuck did homie even come from?

As this site has pointed out before, Don Lemon has more in common with Ricki Lake than any actual journalist. He is, nonetheless, and against everyone’s better judgment, presented as a legitimate reporter. CNN allowed him to cover the fallout of sensational white violence on black people in Ferguson, and Baltimore, and now Charleston, all in the role of an honest-to-god reporter. In this role, his job is, in theory, to illuminate, to educate his viewers on what’s going on. Instead, he’s hauling out random people no one has ever heard of, positioning them as the equals of elected representatives, and urging the public to listen as they explain that not flying a slaver’s flag over a state capitol is on par with the deliberate, systematic eradication of a people and a culture.

This is a feature of Lemon’s presentations. His goal is to spur debate at all costs, even or especially when there is no debate to be had. It’s a hallmark of cable news, but Lemon sucks the most. Instead of providing news or credible opinion, Lemon is more concerned with creating a game show, or at least a fight. It’s the Skip Bayless model of broadcast television, applied to the question of whether we do or don’t think that people of African descent should be (or at least deserve to be) property.

This matters because there is a real debate to be had as we move forward and become further removed from what happened last week. Following Walmart’s decision yesterday, Sears and, shockingly, eBay announced today that they, too will stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. These companies’ decisions are borne of capitalism. They’re pragmatic plays for more longterm profit, but they’re something else, too. It’s one thing for a state government not to fly the slaver’s flag on public property; another thing for a near-monolithic online concern to tell your friend’s harmless bigot uncle that he can’t buy or sell a souvenir because it expresses a horrible set of ideas that happens to be particularly unacceptable at the moment.

This latter is a debate that requires nuance and care, one in which no one’s especially right or wrong. It’s not about what state governments do; it’s about what we, as private citizens do, and, more important, what we’re allowed to do. It’s a debate in which Don Lemon has no place and about which we can safely presume he has nothing to say, and yet he’ll remain involved, giving a national audience to views that have nothing to do with the serious questions at hand. And it almost might make you wonder: With just so much to talk about, how is it that so many of us are talking about a man who, by design, has nothing to say to any of it at all?

[CNN]

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

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Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Imagine getting a text that reads, “Your ass in that photo is the perfect cum target.” Now imagine that text came from your boss. Now imagine your boss is notorious creep and founder of American Apparel Dov Charney. Now imagine this: dozens of women say they had to deal with that on a daily basis.

The lurid text messages were released Friday as part of a motion intended to prevent Charney from filing any more lawsuits against the company, which fired him for good last December.

And apparently for good reason: the company says Charney kept tons of explicit emails, texts, videos and photos stored on company servers. And they are downright disgusting.

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

And apparently it wasn’t all talk:

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

But he wasn’t a total idiot (yes he was): the suit notes there was evidence that “Mr. Charney attempted to destroy evidence of his sexual liaisons, sending emails to employees asking them to ‘delete naughty emails!’”

All in all, Charney’s dick ended up costing the company close to $10 million in litigation costs, only some of which was covered by insurance.

Further, Charney’s alleged vocal disdain for Jews, Mexicans, Filipinos, gay people, weak people, and, of course, women, also had somewhat of a negative effect on morale.

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

Here Are the Gross Horny Texts Dov "Bad Daddy" Charney Sent to Employees

And of course, there was the time this happened. Honestly, it’s incredible American Apparel hasn’t burned to the ground.


Image via AP. Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.

Shelby Police Release 911 Call That Led to Dylann Roof's Arrest

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Shelby Police Release 911 Call That Led to Dylann Roof's Arrest

In addition to dashcam footage of Dylann Roof’s arrest, authorities in Shelby, N.C. released a two-minute audio clip on Tuesday of the 911 call that led police to the alleged Charleston shooter last Thursday.

In the clip, Todd Frady, the owner of a flower shop in nearby Kings Mountain, tells a Shelby police dispatcher that one of his drivers believes to have spotted the Charleston shooter.

Frady is then transferred to an officer who is already aware of the situation and who asks for specifics on the suspected shooter’s location.

Finally, Frady offers the officer a description of the suspect and his vehicle.

“Black Hyundai, it has this weird circle tag on the front,” says Frady, “and the boy has a bowl-lookin’ haircut.”

[Image via Shelby Police Department//h/t Mashable]

The Power of Symbols: Why People Still Defend The Confederate Flag

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The Power of Symbols: Why People Still Defend The Confederate Flag

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham joined Governor Nikki Haley Monday in calling for the removal of the state capitol’s Confederate flag. They join the growing throng of voices demanding the flag be taken down in the wake of last week’s killings in Charleston. The cases that these voices have presented are compelling. One is left wondering how anyone could defend the preservation of a still potent symbol of American plunder, hatred, and treason.

Psychology may provide an explanation. Those who would see the flag hoisted high cling to it for the same reason anyone clings to the symbolic world: because it shields people from their existential fears and insecurities. This is not to say that protecting a symbol like the Confederate flag is justified. It is merely to illustrate the incredible power that symbols exert on the human psyche.

In 2010, social psychologist Clay Routledge wrote about the psychological power of symbols after Florida pastor Terry Jones announced his intentions to set fire to copies of the Quran. The events led Routledge to address why such threats can have such an impact. “In short,” he wrote in Psychology Today, “ we invest heavily in the symbolic cultural institutions and identifications, in part, because they help insulate us from basic fears about our mortal predicament.”

The concept Routledge is referring to is what social psychologists call Terror Management Theory, or TMT. University of Arizona psychologist Jeff Greenberg, who helped formalize TMT in the ’80s, described the theory to me in greater detail, via e-mail.

“The basic idea is that, from a scientific perspective, each of us humans is just an organism, an animal, that wants to continue to survive but ultimately is no more significant or enduring than any other living creature,” says Greenberg. But unlike other animals, we are burdened with the knowledge of our mortality. TMT maintains that we cope with this knowledge by viewing ourselves within the context of enduring symbolic systems like political, religious, regional, and national entities. This, says Greenberg, lets us feel like we’re special beings who exist in a world of meaning, significance, and permanence.

He uses himself as an example: “I am Jeff Greenberg, author, psychologist, American, New Yorker.” He says he identifies with these constructs because he can believe these symbolic identities will persist beyond his physical existence.


Hundreds of studies from the last three decades have lent TMT empirical weight. Two common observations from these investigations are especially relevant, in light of the Confederate flag’s inglorious history, and the unfolding situation in South Carolina. The first is that reminders of one’s mortal state (what pyschologists call “mortality salience”) tend to cause test subjects to cling to the symbolic world, often with prejudicial results. Mortality salience has been shown to increase Americans’ negativity towards Jews and Israel; young adults’ dislike for elderly people; heterosexual males’ dislike for gay men; and American Christian medical students’ inattentiveness to the medical needs of a Muslim patient.

“Perhaps the clearest implication of the entire TMT empirical literature,” Greenberg and his colleagues write in a chapter of the recently published Advances in Motivation Science, is that “concerns with mortality contribute to prejudice and intergroup conflict.”

The second salient finding is that the inverse of the first observation is also true: Evidence suggests threatening a symbol of somebody’s identity also threatens that person’s sense of lasting significance. In 2007, for example, psychologist Jeff Schimel and his colleagues at the University of Alberta observed that death-related thoughts among creationist test subjects increased after they read an article that presented evolutionary evidence against creationism. (Read more about the paradigm of Death-Thought Accessibility, or DTA, here.)

Similarly, when researchers led by psychologist Florette Cohen investigated American attitudes towards symbols of Islam—an experiment inspired by by the controversy over the proposed building of a mosque at Ground Zero—they found that thinking of a mosque, but not a church or synagogue, made death-related thoughts more accessible to the consciousness of non-Muslim American test subjects.

Greenberg suspects a similar tension is at work in the minds of those who would see the Confederate flag retain its position above the South Carolina statehouse, and the statehouses of several other Southern states. For anyone who relies on the notion that the South and what it stands for will live on, or rise again, any threat to a longstanding symbol of that region represents a direct threat to his or her own sense of significance. The flag isn’t just iconography; it’s an existential security blanket.

“Strip a proud Southerner of the symbols that represent their identity and they are just vulnerable, transient creatures, so they resist such changes,” says Greenberg. But the Confederate flag, as a symbol, as a totem of white superiority and state-sanctioned terrorism flown over government grounds, is a problem. “Of course we all need identities and symbols to feel protected and more than mere mortal creatures,” says Greenberg. But “the hope is people can invest in identities and symbols that don’t impinge on or undermine the claims of enduring significance of people with different identities who rely on different symbols.”


Examples of humans seeking security through symbols and social significance are not limited to Terror Management Theory. They exist everywhere, in the form of what sociologists and religion scholars call “totems.” French philosopher and social psychologist Émile Durkheim defined the totem not only as “the external and tangible form of what we have called the... god,” but as “the symbol of that particular society we call the clan. It is its flag; it is the sign by which each clan distinguishes itself, the visible mark of its personality.”

We can modify Durkheim’s definition endlessly by replacing “god” with other entities—be they brands, political institutions, or, as Michael Serazio convincingly argues in a 2013 essay at The Atlantic, pro sports teams:

In fandom, as in religious worship, our social connections are brought to life, in the stands as in the pews... as Durkheim long ago noticed, “Members of each clan try to give themselves the external appearance of their totem... When the totem is a bird, the individuals wear feathers on their heads.” Ravens fans surely understand this.

We know also from pro sports what happens when a totem is threatened. The Washington Redskins organization has fought to defend the use of a symbol steeped in unambiguous racism. It is no coincidence that their objections, like those proffered in defense of the Confederate flag, have foregrounded concepts like “pride,” “tradition,” and “heritage,” while ignoring the legacy of prejudice and discrimination inherent in the nickname.

We also know from this experience how challenging it can be to abandon a symbol and move forward. The Washington, D.C., team has fought for decades, foolishly and shamefully and with all the tact and sensitivity that god gave the common potato, to preserve the name and logo of its franchise—but it has, thus far, done so successfully. There’s little hope that doing away with the Confederate flag will be any easier.


In 1995, Greenberg and his colleagues devised a series of experiments in which test subjects were presented with problem-solving tasks, the successful completion of which necessitated the unsuitable use of a “cherished cultural symbol.” In one task, test subjects were asked to mount a crucifix on a wall, but were provided nothing with which to drive the nail besides the cross itself. The other task required test subjects to separate sand from a black dye using the American flag as a sieve. The hypothesis: reminding subjects of their mortality by having them write about death before the task would make it more difficult for them to use cultural icons in an inappropriate way.

In the end, mortality salience had no effect on the actual use of the objects. But among test subjects who were reminded of their mortality, “it did increase the amount of time required to solve the problems, the number of alternative solutions generated, and the extent to which subjects expressed reluctance to use the icons.” In this light, the test subjects’ reluctance mirrors the reluctance of those who have, for more than 150 years, delayed the removal of the Confederate flag. But the two scenarios differ in suitability and effect: Abandoning that hateful symbol will not solve the problems for which it stands, but it’s a big step in the right direction, and certainly appropriate.


Contact the author at rtgonzalez@io9.com and @rtg0nzalez. Top image: Confederate flag supporters demonstrate on the north steps of the capitol building in April 2000 in Columbia, South Carolina. Photo by Erik Perel, AFP/Getty Images.

Source: Prison Worker Hid Tools for Escaped Killers in Uncooked Meat

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Source: Prison Worker Hid Tools for Escaped Killers in Uncooked Meat

Citing an unnamed law enforcement official, CNN reported on Tuesday that Clinton Correctional Facility employee Joyce Mitchell hid hacksaw blades in frozen hamburger meat, tools that convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat later used to escape the prison.

According to the source, Mitchell would bring corrections officers baked goods to get special treatment for the prisoners and convinced guard Gene Palmer to give Matt the metal-laden meat. From CNN:

Palmer didn’t run the meat through a metal detector, a violation of prison policy, according to the source.

Palmer’s attorney, Andrew Brockway, says his client was unaware there was something in the meat and that he was conned by Mitchell.

Mitchell now faces up to seven years in prison for felony promoting first degree prison contraband, a charge that probably can’t be explained away with the ol’ “unaware there was something in the meat” defense.

[Image via AP Images]


800,000 Power Outages Reported After Fierce Storms Blast Mid-Atlantic

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800,000 Power Outages Reported After Fierce Storms Blast Mid-Atlantic

A line of intense thunderstorms rolled through the I-95 corridor this evening during the height of rush hour, stranding commuters, tearing down trees and power lines, damaging buildings, and even injuring a few people. After the rain wound down, more than 800,000 customers from D.C. to New Jersey were without power.

800,000 Power Outages Reported After Fierce Storms Blast Mid-Atlantic

The organized line of thunderstorms may have been the worst severe thunderstorm event in this region since the deadly derecho of June 29, 2012, which caused widespread damage in the Mid-Atlantic, knocking out power for millions of people at the peak of a brutal heat wave.

As of 8:00 PM EDT, power companies across the Mid-Atlantic reported more than 800,000 power outages as a result of the storm. More than 440,000 customers were without power in New Jersey, with 207,000 outages in southeastern Pennsylvania around Philadelphia, and nearly 172,000 outages in the D.C./Baltimore area (Dominion Virginia, PEPCO, BG&E) and the Delmarva Peninsula.

800,000 Power Outages Reported After Fierce Storms Blast Mid-Atlantic

Reports of damage are still filtering in to the National Weather Service as people and officials get out and survey the damage. As of 9:35 PM EDT, the agency received more than 150 reports of damaging winds or large hail from the storms in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Widespread tree and power line damage is commonplace anywhere that was on the receiving end of the winds from this line of storms, which often gusted well above 60 MPH in the strongest segments. The airport in Wilmington, Delaware, reported a wind gust to 67 MPH, and a WeatherBug station in Chester, Pennsylvania, reported a wind gust up to 78 MPH. The storm even caused a couple of injuries. Two people in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania—a western suburb of Philadelphia—are in the hospital tonight after a large tree fell on their home during the storm.

The storms struck at the height of rush hour, and in addition to major delays on highways, public transportation was also heavily affected. As the storms rolled through, Amtrak temporarily suspended service between D.C. and Philadelphia, and just about every line on SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) was delayed by at least two hours due to power outages and the sheer ferocity of the storms.

Meteorologists did an excellent job predicting this severe weather outbreak a couple of days in advance, targeting at least part of area with a slight risk for severe weather as early as Sunday, and upgrading the entire I-95 corridor from D.C. to Boston to an enhanced (three out of five) risk for severe weather early on Tuesday morning. Severe weather watches went up hours before the storms struck, and each of the storms had plenty of lead time between the severe thunderstorm warnings and the time the storms arrived.

The areas affected today should have a chance to catch a break on Wednesday before more strong to severe thunderstorms move in on Thursday.

[Images: AP, author | Updated the storm reports map at 9:35 PM to reflect a slug of new wind/hail reports.]


You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

Autopsy: Former White House Chef Died of Accidental Drowning

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Autopsy: Former White House Chef Died of Accidental Drowning

According to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, an autopsy has determined that Walter Scheib, the former White House chef whose body was discovered outside Taos this weekend, accidentally drowned.

“The New Mexico State Police conducted a standard investigation into the death of Mr. Scheib,” said the agency in a news release. “Responding officers did not observe any indication of suspicious circumstances or foul play.”

The release provided no other details about the circumstances of Schieb’s death.

The body of Scheib, who disappeared mysteriously earlier this month, was found on Sunday in a river near a Yerba Canyon trail he is believed to have hiked alone. From NBC News:

After an extensive search, rescue crews found him submerged in a mountain drainage that was flowing with runoff. He was wearing a windbreaker jacket, running pants and tennis shoes.

From 1994 until 2005, Scheib served as the White House executive chef, running the presidential kitchen under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

[Image via AP Images//h/t NBC News]

Film composer James Horner, who scored Oscar-winning films like Titanic and Apollo 13, died in a pla

Office Prankster Claims He Poisoned Co-Worker's Water to "Mess With Him"

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Office Prankster Claims He Poisoned Co-Worker's Water to "Mess With Him"

A Georgia man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly playing a criminally hilarious practical joke where he surreptitiously added weed killer to a co-worker’s water, the New York Daily News reports.

Authorities say 65-year-old Anthony Gerald Dunton “placed amounts of concentrated Roundup brand weed and grass killer” in his co-worker’s unattended water bottle four or five times. From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Dunton’s co-worker noticed his water tasted odd and that it foamed when shaken, he told police. The co-worker set up a a camera in his office and obtained two videos from two different days showing Dunton entering the office, removing the water bottle, and returning it moments later, according to police.

In one video, Dunton could be seen wiping the bottle remove fingerprints before returning it to his co-worker’s desk, police said.

According to police, Dunton admitted to putting weed killer in the victim’s water, but denied trying to kill him, saying he just wanted to “mess with him.”

The latter-day Ashton Kutcher reportedly now faces four counts of aggravated assault.

[Image via Cobb County Sheriff’s Office]

Rose McGowan on Directing, Gay Controversy, and How Fame Fucked Her Up

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Rose McGowan on Directing, Gay Controversy, and How Fame Fucked Her Up

“I have, obviously, shit to say,” said Rose McGowan earlier this week at a suite in New York’s Edition Hotel, where she was promoting her directorial debut, the short film, Dawn. “I’m not saying it’s good stuff, but I’m saying I’ve got stuff to say.” For almost 30 minutes, McGowan and I talked about Hollywood (McGowan is best known for her roles in things like Scream, Charmed, and The Doom Generation), fame at a young age (“It fucked me up”), and the controversial statements she made last year on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast regarding misogyny amongst gay men and the state of the struggle (“I see now people who have basically fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange Speedo and take molly”).

Having written about those statements, I couldn’t wait to talk to McGowan about that last point specifically, and she did not disappoint. She was quick, fiery, and poised to argue but seemingly happy to explain. We hurtled through a series of topics and I’m preserving much of our conversation in the transcript below (which has been lightly condensed and edited for clarification).

But first, here’s Dawn in its entirety:

And here’s Rose and me:

Gawker: Making this movie was sort of a political act for you, right?

Rose McGowan: That’s a really interesting way to couch it. You’re the first person who said so. I would agree with you. It is. I tried to make it a very layered piece. I wanted to say something about class disparity without saying it, and you can do that by just having perfect furniture and somebody who’s got dingy jeans sitting on it. And then the two men that she references in the movie are Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson, both gay. All that stuff is not on accident.

Why make a short instead of a feature? Are you dipping your toe in?

No, I was really inspired by the exercise Hemingway gave his writer friends, which was to see if they could write a full story in six words. His was “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.” That always resonated with me. I saw a lot of movies that couldn’t seem to tell a full story in two and a half hours. I wanted to see if I could do a full story in 18 minutes. It was actually just a personal challenge. I think a lot of shorts are made trying to get them made into features and I actually don’t want to make Dawn into a feature. It is what it is. It stands on its own.

In terms of content, it seems like there’s a pro-woman, if not feminist, guiding hand at work.

It’s just shining a light on something. I don’t know if that means feminist. I would hope that a man could have easily done this, too.

He wouldn’t have, though.

He wouldn’t have, that’s the thing. I mean, the sad part is that there are a lot of male writers and they’re told to write what they know and they write men. That’s how we come up with some not very complex characters.

But then the alternative is something like Top Five. Have you seen that?

Not yet.

In it is a gay character who’s ridiculed for being gay.

Literally he was a scapegoat? A punching bag?

Yeah. And it struck me: This is what happens when straight men write gay characters.

But what if I had made it? Would I have gotten reamed? Yes.

You think so?

Yes. I would never do that because my friends are men and women that happen to be gay. They’re not gay first. It’s just [about] people understanding that it’s humans first. To say Dawn is feminist, yes, but it’s because I’m a woman so it has to be, but I’m a humanist. But how you felt about seeing that gay character, imagine how I feel about seeing women in movies all the time. Or playing them.

Do you regret anything you’ve played?

Yes. (Laughs) I had a very big agent who basically did the mind-meld on me: “Do this movie about wrestling.” I threw the script in the garbage three times because that’s where it deserved to be. It was Ready to Rumble. It was a lot of money. She just didn’t care, and I mistook her for someone who was a strong woman. What she really was was a mercenary woman. And there’s a difference—and one who didn’t like me, either. A lot of agents aren’t supportive of their talent in any way. Nobody’s understood how to represent me, which is why, other than film publicists, I currently have no representation other than my lawyer. I don’t need it. She said, “If you do this movie for Warner Bros, they’ll stick you in the next Clint Eastwood movie.” OK, I do the stupid movie, I’m trying to have an out-of-body experience the whole time, like, “How is this happening to me? I can’t believe I agreed to do this.” And I did it, I brought it, ‘cause that’s what I do. And it was silly and, whatever, harmless. But not really—it was really harmful to me.

Psychically?

In my psyche, it was very harmful for me. And I was so deeply uncomfortable. And of course, I come to find out that the Clint Eastwood people didn’t know me from Adam. She just straight-up lied. And that was very common in my history.

I assume there’s no coincidence that you’re making your foray into filmmaking in your 40’s...

Not at all.

Really? Because 40 is when they say...

You don’t understand my life, first of all. I spent the last seven years dismantling...I have a very big life beyond what people see on the outside, including you. And that’s understandable because I never told anybody anything. I’m not one of those people that goes on TV and gives everybody updates on my current movements. I’m a businesswoman, I own a lot of businesses, a lot of real estate, I’m kind of a baller in many other worlds. This one I came back to a year and a half ago, like, “Oh wait, I’m an artist. Hey, OK, I got this.” Has nothing to do with my age, nothing to do with disappearing roles. I disappeared from the roles long before they disappeared from me ‘cause I didn’t care. There was no reason to care. I was bringing it and nobody else around me was. I worked with a lot of great directors, possibly on their lazier projects. Acting has nothing to do with what I’m directing.

But does your time in Hollywood have anything to do with it?

No.

There’s a dearth of female directors...

No. It’s completely coincidental.

Really?

It just happened to be that I was like, “Oh.” The problem for me was that I would get on set and I would be shocked at the house my character was in or shocked that these are the actors that are across from me, shocked that these are the clothes I’m wearing. “What is happening?” It was because I directed the whole thing in my head. I was just in the wrong job. It’s not really that dramatic. I was just in the wrong job.

A large part of it was I was discovered and within a year and a half, I was famous. And when you spend your life playing and being other people, it’s fucked up. You’re only you in your off time. And when I got stuck on a TV show, that was about 15 hours a day for five years straight, other than like a month and a half in the summer. I was so exhausted, there’s not a lot of time for personal development.

I don’t feel like sticking myself in a movie. If I had the motivation I believe you possibly felt I had, would I not be sticking myself in the movie? Creating a part for myself? I have not.

The stereotype is that there are no good roles...

But that doesn’t even matter to me. I don’t want to act, so it doesn’t matter.

You accepted the New York Film Critics Circle award for Jennifer Kent and talked about the lack of female directors, so I figured you were seeing a space and stepping up.

I’m stepping up because no one else is. There are some, they’re starting to get louder, but I realized as an artist you’re in an un-fireable position. And actually we all are. All of us humans cannot be fired from being ourselves. We can be fired from our jobs, we can not be hired for a job, but we can’t be fired. We’re us. And we’re legion. And it’s an amazing feeling and an amazing, empowered feeling.

Is it an amazing feeling being Rose McGowan?

Right now it is. I earned it. I fucking earned it. I had a very colorful life way before Hollywood. I spent my life surviving. And I’m not in survival mode right now and that’s an amazing thing.

You said if you’d done the gay character in Top Five, you would have been reamed for it. Do you think you were reamed last year [for your comments about gay male apathy]?

That was bullshit.

Why?

Why was that bullshit? Because I was actually speaking very specifically about a group of guys in West Hollywood that were mad at me. I was not speaking about all gays. That’s dumb. They can’t all fit on a float, I know this. That was hatcheted up, and I think it’s ‘cause I went after, honestly, some leaders in the gay community and so as payback they kind of hatcheted up what I said, and I was like, “Really? What’s what you’re going to do?” And the problem is now, there are so many people that are keyboard activists. “I feel pious because I don’t go to the Beverly Hills Hotel.” You know what, why don’t you feel pious by not going to a movie and not getting gas? Why don’t you feel pious about [Richard] Branson who’s like, “I’ll never let any of my Virgin employees stay there,” and then he just did a huge deal with Brunei? So, shut up. The reality is the Beverly Hills Hotel is a living history museum. We don’t have many of those in Los Angeles. My thing was about saving it, and also, duh: don’t protest it, take it over. It was pretty ballsy to have a party with 100 gay guys and women there and have them make out in the hallway. Those pictures I sent to the sultan.

[The Beverly Hills Hotel stuff] you’re referencing is part of the podcast that didn’t get passed around—the pull quotes [about gay misogyny, floats, and molly] were what caused the stir.

Of course. And the pull quotes were cut up, as they do. It was shocking at first. It’s very weird to have a phone where you can touch an app and all this hate or whatever comes through. And it’s like, “You’re not even understanding—I’m speaking about a very specific group of people who are very 1 percent.” How many people are really protesting the Beverly Hills Hotel? What percentage of the 99 versus the 1 percent is feeling pious because they’re not going and getting a $35 cheeseburger? I don’t care about the cheeseburger. I care about the employees and I care about the place itself. It’s living and breathing. There’s so much history there and I’m basically an amateur Hollywood historian. I’m on the board of the Film Noir Society. I also did a show on TCM. I’ve studied film since I was 4 with my father. The classic film stuff is in my blood. So for me, it was really just about that. And it was also about the gay community...maybe needs to be shook up a little. Why are there sacred cows? These are men first. So why would they be different? And in fact, they can put a lot of their lives together completely excluding women. I know they relate on the underdog part, but what happens when you’re no longer the underdog?

I think that gay people are still underdogs largely per the legislation of our country.

Largely. Of course.

But it’s like you were saying, your movie’s feminist because you’re a humanist...

Right, so there’s a gay struggle because it exists because you are. It will cease. It will come. It’s the fastest growing civil rights movement in United States history, and I’m fucking proud of how far you guys and women have come. I’m fucking proud of it, but you forget the women. Believe me, I hear the gays, and I’ll use the word slander... [from] my friends, my gay friends...I was a runaway taken in by three trans women and a stripper named Tina, and I grew up protecting the kids on the playground. I was an outsider. I was a weirdo. I was Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family, basically—the Addams Family of intellectuals and activists. We were the weirdos on every block everywhere, and that was fucking great because I didn’t bother fitting in. My mother asked me if I wanted to assimilate more and I said, “Look at their shoes. No.”

To have people that are not fully developed in their brains torture other people just because they challenge something, just by existing. That’s not fair and that’s not OK in my book, so I’ll fight for them. I was out there, believe me, the night of Prop 8, marching. And I thought that was mishandled. There’s so many things, but there is a pay-it-forward part of this that needs to be happening.

Did you like what Patricia Arquette said after the Oscars?

Of course I did. Because she’s right.

I thought she was right, too. A lot of people felt like she wasn’t being intersectional enough...

Why should she be? Are you guys?

Well...

Are you?

Yes.

You, maybe specifically.

I’m interviewing you...

I’m interviewing you.

No, I’m not saying, “I’M interviewing YOU.” I’m saying I’m interested in what women (and people of color) do. My job is not activist but it is to be aware, and I care...

And I appreciate that.

I do my small part.

Right. It’s a small part and it can be bigger.

I think that’s the bigger point, there’s this utter selfishness in contemporary American culture...

That’s the thing! That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I want: people to be 10 percent better. Ten percent better versions of themselves. That’s it. If people were just 10 percent better, including myself, in all areas, in heart, in soul, in design, in thought...like, go one step beyond the obvious. And then, you’ll have a lot more understanding of other people and I think the world will actually change. And it’s not that hard. And the paying it forward to me—I hate that term, but I don’t know what else to call it—is, for me when it hit a moment, was the vote. I was waiting for the NAACP, I was waiting for the gay rights leaders, I was waiting for them to denounce that vote on the senate floor voting down equal pay for women. I’m like, “Do you not represent women ostensibly? Do they not pay your dues as well?” Where are you? That’s not OK. So I was angry that day [of the podcast], but I was also angry about being misinterpreted by a group of people from West Hollywood primarily, so that’s who I was talking to. I’ve had some time to think about it and maybe I’m right. Not for everybody. Not with a huge, sweeping generalization. I have gay friends who donated to NARAL and Planned Parenthood on my behalf. Like I said, everyone can’t fit on a float. I wanna be a on a float, I’ve been on a float, I know how many people can fit on a float.

I haven’t been on a float in 10 years.

I’ve been on a float, and I’ll rock that shit.

I haven’t done molly in a year, either.

It doesn’t work on me. I’ve tried. It sucks. It’s so unfair. I think I was the only sober person at Coachella. I wanted to kill myself.

The older I get the more wary I am of doing a drug that’s going to fuck up my next day, my next two days, my next three days.

That’s the thing, in like 10 years or whatever, you have no idea. But my father...one of the things I champion is I’m on the board of the Daughters of Pulmonary Fibrosis. It’s a horrible disease that killed my dad. He was a vegan for 25 years, hiked two hours a day way before it was popular. He would put our cereal in brown paper bags. Never owned a microwave. And he got a horrible lung disease that is idiopathic, so it’s not caused by anything in specific, and it killed him. And he was a giant of a man. It was like watching the lion of the pride go behind the bush to die. It was intense.

That was part of the last seven years for me. Recovering from being paralyzed in my right arm. Recovering from a car accident. Basically, everything had to break in order for me to reform, to become myself not [only] in the off period. Imagine everyday you go to work, you’re saying something someone else wrote for you to say. You’re not even speaking for yourself. It’s very strange. I have, obviously, shit to say. (Laughs) I’m not saying it’s good stuff, but I’m saying I’ve got stuff to say.

How much did being a young famous person fuck you up?

It fucked me up. It didn’t fuck me up in terms of turning into a cliche. I was never arrested, I never did any of that stuff. I had always wanted to go dance on a table in a red dress but because of the environment at the time—the internet was crazy, it was the Lindsay Lohan era—I just left. I was like, “Peace out, losers. This is not my bag. I’m not playing this game. I will not be for sale.” I had a publicist that was like, “Why don’t you call me one day when you’re looking cute?” I was like, “Excuse me?” She said, “We’ll send our photographer down so we can get coverage, you know if you’re in a store and you look cute.” I was like, “What?” I thought about it for about two seconds and was like, “I absolutely cannot do that.” My father used to collect Edward S. Curtis prints and he did a lot of amazing prints of Native Americans and studied that culture. My father did as well. They say they feel the camera steals your soul. So I’m here to steal others.

But you’re not going to continue the cycle?

No. I never did, really. My thing was always like, “You want me to play on the red carpet? Let’s fucking play. Let’s go hard. You want me to play? You want me to be your show pony? I’ll be your fucking show pony.” Why not? Why is everything a sacred cow? I realized that all of these rules that are put down for us, they’re all illusions. They’re not there. I’m not saying, “Fuck you,” to the rules, the rules simply don’t exist.

That’s what irritates me when people complain about societal expectations. It’s like...

I don’t care! It’s like Madonna says: I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me. If this is how you want to approach marriage, do it. Don’t put it on me. If this is how you want to approach your religion, do it. Don’t put it on me. Whatever your deal is, do it. Keep your side of the street clean and leave mine alone, ‘cause your thought doesn’t count unless I invite you in and maybe we can exchange thoughts and be better and that’s amazing.

[Image via Getty]

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