Right as reports were swirling that Jay Z and Beyonce spent more than $1 million to buy out part of Lenox Hospital to give birth, and literally a day before Blue Ivy was born, the Jigga man’s company, Rocawear, laid off half of its staff.

“Economic reasons” were cited as the cause for letting go of 28 of the company’s 56 employees Jan. 6, according to the New York State Department of Labor. Could it be the investment in the flopped “Occupy All Streets” t-shirts they planned to sell for $22 a piece to remind people that “there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street,” dealt more than a blow to the company’s reputation? Critics were less than enthused when they found out Jay Z intended to keep 100 percent of the profits rather than donate them to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Ironically, the mogul who claimed to be down for the 99% ended up adding to their numbers in the end.

What do you think about this news in lieu of all Jay Z has spent on gifts, security, and preparations for Blue Ivy? Should his personal life be kept separate from his professional, or does this reflect poorly on him?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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The Occupy Wall Street protestors seem to be a little confused about just who the 99% are. Members of the movement occupied a vacant Brooklyn home they assumed was foreclosed on by the bank and offered it to a homeless family in December, but when the rightful owner of the home, Wise Ahadzi, explained that he has been renting a home in a nearby neighborhood while he works to pay off the mortgage on the home, the protestors had no sympathy.

“Occupy Wall Street, along with local neighbors and community groups, has pledged to stay with the family and defend them from eviction,” protestors wrote on their website, occupyourhomes.org.

When Wise asked why the protestors wouldn’t fight for him—a victim of the foreclosure crisis himself who lost his job in 2009 and has been struggling to keep up with mortgage payments on the $455,000 home he purchased in 2007, he was told he doesn’t qualify for their help because he isn’t part of “an organization” or homeless.

So who does qualify? Alfredo Carrasquillo, 27, a husband and father of two who was given Wise’s home. The criminal justice organizer works for a New York grassroots organization called the Voices of Community Activists and Leaders that collaborates with the occupy movement to find affordable housing. Since the group occupied the home on December 6, they have made a number of renovations which includes knocking down walls and moving Wise’s furniture around in preparation for the Carrasquillo family to move in. But six weeks later, the family is reported to only occasionally stay at the home, and the occupiers have since told Wise they have no plans to purchase the home from him.

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing protest that began September 17 2011 in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street financial district. The protest’s purpose is to take a stand against social and economic inequality, rising unemployment, corruption, high unemployment, greed, corruption, and the influence of large corporations, particularly from the financial services sector, on the government.  The demonstrators use the slogan: ‘We are the 99 per cent’, which refers to the growing difference in wealth between the wealthiest 1 per cent and the rest of the population.  However, some of the top millionaires and celebrities in the world are also taking stand, even though they tend to fit in with the 1%.  Check out who out of the 1% is fighting back and supporting the protests.

Did you know that in addition to Occupy Wall Street, there is a movement working along side it called Occupy the Hood? Meant to address the lack of diversity in the better known movement, Occupy the Hood seeks to focus on the economic devastation taking place in black communities. Learn more about the dynamic black mother who is leading this movement in her local community while organizing the national effort online in this piece from HuffPost Black Voices:

On Monday, Ife Johari Uhuru lifted the hood of one of her shop’s high-intensity hair dryers and asked her client to take a seat. As soon as the woman was comfortable, Uhuru grabbed the laptop computer sitting nearby. Uhuru, a Detroit hairstylist and burgeoning activist, had other work to do.

Uhuru, 35, is one of two core coordinators behindOccupy the Hood, a group that aims to bring the concerns of people of color to the global Occupy Wall Street movement. On Monday, she needed to add a few palliative posts to a debate raging on Occupy the Hood’s Facebook page about which issues the group should rally around. She needed to design and print a new flyer for Occupy the Hood’s ongoing food and clothing drive for Detroit’s poor. She needed to convince a few more businesses around town to serve as collection points for the goods. And, in about 20 minutes, Uhuru’s client’s hair would require her full attention. The woman was there to have her dreadlocks washed, deep conditioned and re-twisted.

“I’m a single mom, a small business owner, a daughter, a neighbor. I have a lot of obligations,” said Uhuru, who is black and lives in Novi, a community about 30 minutes northwest of downtown Detroit. “But trying to foster something where people who look like me, who have the same concerns as me are seen and heard? Doing that, I’ve discovered a whole new kind of busy.”

The Occupy Wall Street movement has swept the nation, with new factions popping up in new cities as we speak. Though specific agendas vary, there is one very clear purpose behind this leaderless coalition: spread the wealth. And, while some have found refuge in the movement, others have been inspired by their exclusion from the one-percent club. However, it is not the sort of inspiration that marches through the streets or chants in the cold rain. It is the reality-check that comes with self-made economic success stories, such as GOP presidential nominee Herman Cain, telling them, “If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, it’s your fault;” it is the inspiration that cultivates ideas, creates and innovates.

Rich is a subjective term, but perhaps, there is some truth to the aforementioned. Economic success rarely comes to the faint of heart and those resistant to sacrifice. Although many of us would like to be wealthy, few are willing to do what it takes to get there; and, for reasons such as those listed below, we are not part of the $350,000 (roughly the amount of income it takes to be among the nation’s wealthiest) and up crowd:

Sometimes the safest, secure ways to hide your cash is not in a personal bank account, but in the privacy of your own home! Yet, there maybe consequences for storing cash in areas where they might be wastefully spent or spotted by the naked eye. The dog could sniff it out or someone else may be lucky enough to find your stash and pocket it for themselves, which is why a clever hideout spot is warranted.

Here are some odd places you may want to keep your loot:

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Baz Kopecna

The Occupy Wall Street movement is certainly predominately white. But don’t let the images lead you to believe that there are no black people on the scene.

Hello Beautiful profiled the black women who are down on Wall Street protesting for economic change.

Check out the video of these women and their stories at Hello Beautiful.

Anti-Wall Street protesters filled a street with a late-night march Wednesday and Oakland’s police chief pledged a vigorous investigation into an earlier clash between police and protesters that left an Iraq War veteran in critical condition with a fractured skull. Police Chief Howard Jordan spoke as tensions grew over demonstration encampment in the Bay area. ”It’s unfortunate it happened. I wish that it didn’t happen. Our goal, obviously, isn’t to cause injury to anyone,” the chief said at an afternoon press conference.

Read more…

Gossipy news site Gawker has reported on two gorgeous black twin sisters who have chosen opposing sides in the Occupy Wall Street political movement. Jill and Nicole Carty, who are identical and both Ivy League educated, share matching genes but very different political view points. According to web site The Daily, Nicole has taken to the streets in support of Occupy Wall Street, while her sister works on Wall Street as a financial services consultant. The site goes on to note that:

“It started as soon as we first got back from college,” Nicole told The Daily. “Right from the start, it was a screaming match. Even when we try not to talk about politics, one of us will say something to set the other one off.”

The sisters both graduated last year. Nicole, who is five minutes older, has a sociology degree from Brown, and Jill has dual degrees in international studies and business from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nicole took a job as an online content manager but committed herself to Occupy Wall Street after seeing video of penned-in female protesters being pepper sprayed by police.

Now she spends countless hours on the protest’s facilitation committee, allocating resources — including $500,000 in donations — and helping to steer the leaderless movement.

“It’s misplaced passion,” said Jill of her sister’s devotion to the struggle. “She could be even more powerful if she worked in economics, using the tools of Wall Street to fight back.”

What is one of the hottest news stories being read right now in the U.S.? Anything and everything related to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Pew Research Center, a leading “fact tank” in U.S. just released information today that public interest in the Wall Street protests noticeably increased last week, ranking #2 in the News Interest Index at 18%, just behind the economy in general. Not only that, but the protests accounted for 9% of the overall “newshole” compared with 7% the previous week and only 2% the week before that. But even though these numbers are clearly expanding, it seems that much of the coverage as well as interest consists of belittlement and outright ridicule of the movement. Even political talk show host Jon Stewart has jumped on board not only criticizing the protesters as he and Rev. Al Sharpton discussed the phenomenon on Stewart’s recent show. The Daily Show also seemed to go out of its way to capture video pointing to “weirdos” at the site.

But the real question may be if such a dismissive attitude is wise in the long run?

Maybe you remember a little thing called the Tea Party movement; also highly criticized and/or downplayed during its infancy. In fact, early 2010, The Los Angeles Times seemed to also play down the Tea Party phenomenon saying, “The movement is far from a well-disciplined army. Its pivot from protesting to politics has been fraught with internal disputes, turf wars….(http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/25/nation/la-na-tea-parties25-2010jan25). Not only this, but the media also offered its fair share of oral sex jokes about tea bagging (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/04/14/msnbc-place-low-brow-teabag-humor ) (not unlike the “free love” angle that seems to hover around current media coverage of OWS). But the lack of early seriousness led to many being caught off guard when it came to the influential growth of force of the movement. In fact, well-respected media critic Howard Kurtz said in The Washington Post in 2010, “… CNN and MSNBC may have dropped the ball by all but ignoring the (Tea Party) protests.”

And now the Tea Party has caucuses in the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, and is very influential (2010 elections, anyone?)

But if analysts such as Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport have suggested that the Teap Party movement is not a new political group, but simply a rebranding of traditional Republican candidates and policies.; are we also witnessing such a “rebranding” of Democratic Party, dare we even say Democracy, with the advent of OWS (http://bit.ly/mOPNGP)? Just how can you tell when a movement – this movement – has legs, so to speak?

Respected political theorist Dr. Benjamin Barber cites three steps in criteria. He says, “There are several points to consider:

1) look to see if the media is continuing to report on it. If you keep seeing coverage, it means there is something there; though you don’t have to believe everything that is reported. Just note the fact that there is reporting

2) inspect photos and voices of the protesters. Upon close inspection of many photos of OWS we can see great diversity in race, age and even dress. There are people in suits as well as casual clothing. This tells more of the real story.

3) watch for the capacity for the movement itself to persist and endure. If you see something strong, but it disperses after a week or two, then it’s probably not too serious. We see now OWS moving into its second month. It’s moving into other cities and other countries so that tells me that it embodies issues which touch a lot of people. A cord is being struck, and that suggests persistence. It may not be cohesive at the moment, but it’s there.”

However, according to an opinion piece media theorist Douglas Rushkoff recently posted, this is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. He writes, “As the product of the decentralized (http://bit.ly/mOPNGP) networked-era culture, it is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus. It is not like a book; it is like the Internet. It models a new collectivism.”

Thus, it’s a new approach which may just call for wisdom in observation rather than quick judgment because, according to Dr. Barber, there is perhaps a worrisome side-effect to dismissing strong movement. He cautions, “There could be a danger in society not listening to loud and persistent voices of protest because the next sound one could her might be loud (verbal) fighting or loud violence. That could be the cost.”

Lauren DeLisa Coleman is a writer, speaker and thought-leader specializing in the diverse segment of the Gen X,Y demo, tech and its convergence with socio-economic concerns. Follow her@mediaempress